The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sir Christopher Wren, by Lucy Phillimore

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Title: Sir Christopher Wren

His Family and His Times

Author: Lucy Phillimore

Release Date: February 4, 2013 [eBook #42007]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN***

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CHRISTOPHER WREN, D.D. DEAN OF WINDSOR.
MATTHEW WREN, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF ELY.
S^r. Chris. Wren K^t

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN

HIS FAMILY AND HIS TIMES.

WITH ORIGINAL LETTERS AND A DISCOURSE ON
ARCHITECTURE HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.

1585–1723.

BY

LUCY PHILLIMORE,

AUTHOR OF ‘BISHOP WILBERFORCE, A SKETCH FOR CHILDREN’ ETC.

‘The modest man built the city, and the modest man’s skill was unknown.’—The Tatler, No. 52.

WITH TWO ENGRAVINGS.

LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1881.

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved)

TO
CATHERINE PIGOTT,
THE LAST DIRECT DESCENDANT OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN,
THESE MEMOIRS OF HER ANCESTORS
ARE GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The materials necessary for writing a life of Sir Christopher Wren are so difficult of access as possibly to explain the unsatisfactory character of such biographies as do exist. Mr. James Elmes, who venerated Wren’s genius, published in 1823, a Life which contained a careful if a dry account of Wren’s architectural works and of some of his scientific discoveries. He also published a smaller work, ‘Sir C. Wren and his Times,’ intended perhaps to give a flavour of personal interest to the other volume. Neither book succeeds in doing this, and both have suffered from the circumstance that Mr. Elmes’ failing eyesight did not permit him to correct the proofs of either work, and accordingly many serious errors as to names and dates stand unaltered in them. There is a sketch of Wren in the British Family Library, one published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and one in the ‘Biographica Britannica,’ but in them all it is with some of the works of the great architect that we become acquainted, not with himself.

The chief authority to which any biographer of Wren must perforce turn is, the ‘Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens: viz., of Matthew, Bishop of Ely; Christopher, Dean of Windsor and Registrar of the Garter; but chiefly of Sir Christopher Wren.’ This work, a folio, with portraits[1] of the three whose lives it records, was published in London in 1750, dedicated to Mr. Speaker Onslow. It was chiefly written by Christopher, the eldest surviving son of Sir Christopher Wren, finished and finally published by Stephen Wren, M.D., the second and favourite, son of the Mr. C. Wren above mentioned, ‘with care of Joseph Ames,’ a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Several copies were presented to the University of Oxford.

The ‘Parentalia,’ of which but a small edition was published, is now scarce and little known. It is put together, not quite at hap-hazard, but with no real method or order: digression ensues upon digression until all clue to the original date or subject is lost. Nor is the very imperfect ‘index of names’ of any real assistance in the labyrinth thus created. Yet, with all its faults, the book is of great interest, and bears amidst all errors and omissions an unmistakably genuine stamp.

‘Bishop Wren’s Diary,’ reference to which will be frequently found in the following pages, was kept by him in the blank leaves of ‘Pond’s Almanack,’ after this fashion:

‘August 30.—Per vim hostilem eripior domo meâ.1642.’

These entries cease with the death of his wife in 1646; even his own release from prison is not mentioned.

The old heirloom copy of the ‘Parentalia’ intrusted to the writer of these pages contains a large additional number of prints and wood engravings by Virtue, Vandergucht, Loggan, and others, some printed accounts of the City Churches, and several letters, rough drafts of treatises, Garter records, and other MSS. in the handwritings of the Bishop, the Dean, Sir Christopher himself, and of some of their correspondents. Among the curious omissions of the ‘Parentalia’ are the maiden name of Bishop Wren’s wife, the date of the death of Sir Christopher’s mother, Mrs. Mary Wren, and the places and the dates at which either of Sir Christopher’s two weddings took place. Some of these and other gaps I have, by the aid of ‘Notes and Queries,’ been able to supply. Wren’s son and grandson are both alike silent on all political matters subsequent to the Restoration. The Popish Plot, the Trial of the Seven Bishops, King James’s Abdication, the Landing of William of Orange are all passed by in perfect silence. The traditional politics of the Wrens were certainly those of the loyal Cavalier party, and they were in favour at the Court of the Stuarts.

It is curious how all political colouring disappears from the record after the period of the Restoration. Yet Sir Christopher, his cousins, and the very Mr. Wren who writes the book were all in Parliament, and that in more or less critical times. Such accidental hints as there are point, I think, to Sir Christopher as adhering, though very quietly, to the politics of his ancestors; and assuredly neither he nor his descendants had any cause to love the house of Hanover!

Wren was a steady Churchman, bred up in that school of Andrewes, of Laud, and of Matthew Wren, which, if it was anti-Puritan, was equally and emphatically anti-Roman. For this reason, if for no other,