St Gabriel Fenchurch
Encyclopedia
St Gabriel Fenchurch was a parish church in the Langbourn Ward
Langbourn
Langbourn is one of the 25 ancient wards in the City of London. It reputably is named after a supposed buried stream in the vicinity.It is a small ward; a long thin area, in shape similar to a left pointing arrow...

  of the City of London, destroyed in the Great Fire of London and not rebuilt.

History

The church stood between Rood Lane and Mincing Lane. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, John Stow
John Stow
John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...

 wrote in his description of Fenchurch Street: "In the midst of this street standeth a small parish church called St Gabriel Fen Church, corruptly Fan church".

It was dedicated to St Mary until 1517, when it became All Saints, and finally. St Gabriel’s. The church was lengthened by nine feet in 1631. This and other improvements were done at a cost of £587 10s.. Thomas Clark, a glazier, gave the church an east window, with the Royal Arms and the motto “Touch Not Mine Anointed”.

St Gabriel's was, with most of the other parish churches in the City, destroyed in the great Fire of 1666. By 1670 a Rebuilding Act had been passed and a committee set up under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...

 to decide which would be rebuilt. Fifty-one were chosen, but St Gabriel's was not among them.Instead the parish was united to that of St Margaret Pattens
St Margaret Pattens
St Margaret Pattens is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on Eastcheap near the Monument. The dedication is to St. Margaret of Antioch.-History:...

 although its land holding was not finally resolved until 13 years later. and charitable bequests continued to be made using the old name The land on which the church had stood was incorporated into the roadway, but part of the churchyard survived in Fen Court.

Notable tombs in the church included that of Benedict Spinola
Benedict Spinola
Benedict Spinola , also called Benedick Spinola, and in Italian Benedetto Spinola, was a 16th century Genoese merchant of the Spinola family who lived his whole adult life in the City of London, then the principal seaport of the Kingdom of England...

, the Elizabethan banker.
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