St Mary Mounthaw or Mounthaut was a parish church in Old Fish Street Hill in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. Of medieval origin, it was destroyed in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

in 1666 and not rebuilt.

History

The church stood on the west side of Old Fish Street Hill in Queenhithe Ward. It was originally built as a chapel for the house of the Mounthaunt family, from Norfolk, from whom the church took its name. In around 1234 the house and the patronage of the church were bought by Ralph de Maydenstone, Bishop of Hereford. He left it to his successors as bishop, who used the house as their London residence. One of them,

John Skypp John Skypp (1552) was the Bishop of Hereford from 1539 until 1552, and the almoner of Queen Anne Boleyn. Born in Irstead, Norfolk of humble parents, Edmund and Alice Skyppe who both died in 1507, he graduated from Gonville Hall, Cambridge in ...

, personal chaplain to (and champion of)

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

, was buried in the church. The church was enlarged and partly rebuilt in 1609, partly at the cost of Robert Bennet, Bishop of Hereford. The next year new glass was installed, at the cost of Thomas Tyler and Richard Tichburne. St Mary Mounthaw monument

Destruction

Along with the majority of the 97 parish churches in the

, St Mary Mounthaw was destroyed by the Great Fire in September 1666. In 1670 a Rebuilding Act was passed and a committee set up under Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

to decide which would be rebuilt."Wren" Whinney,M London Thames & Hudson, 1971 St Mary Mounthaw was not one of those chosen; instead the parish was united with that of

St Mary Somerset St. Mary Somerset was a church in the City of London first recorded in the twelfth century. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, it was one of the 51 churches rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The tower is located in Upper Thames ...

, and the site retained as a graveyard.

References

External links

1666 disestablishments in England Churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London and not rebuilt Churches in the City of London Former buildings and structures in the City of London {{London-Anglican-church-stub