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St Margaret's Church, Barking
St Margaret's Church, Barking
	51°32′7.89″N 0°4′33.6504″E / 51.5355250°N 0.076014000°E
Location	Barking, Barking and Dagenham
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic & open evangelical
Website	Church website
History
Status	Active
Dedication	Margaret the Virgin
Events	1215: Foundation ; 1762: Marriage of Captain James Cook to Elizabeth Batts
Architecture
Functional status	Parish church
Heritage designation	Grade I listed
Specifications
Length	134 feet (41 m)
Width	64 feet (20 m)
Height	75 feet (23 m)
Bells	8
Tenor bell weight	23 long cwt (2,600 lb or 1,200 kg) (heaviest)
Administration
Province	Province of Canterbury
Diocese	Diocese of Chelmsford
Episcopal area	Barking Episcopal Area
Archdeaconry	Archdeaconry of Barking
Deanery	Barking
Parish	Barking
Clergy
Rector	The Revd Mark Adams
NSM(s)	The Revd Elwon John
Laity
Reader(s)	Canon Pat Nappin

St Margaret's Church or the Church of St Margaret of Antioch is a Church of England parish church in Barking, East London. The church is a Grade I listed building, on a site dating back to the 13th century, within the grounds of the Roman Catholic Barking Abbey, the ruins of a former royal monastery that was originally established in the 7th century. The building is dedicated to Margaret the Virgin, also known as Margaret of Antioch.

History

Medieval

The church originated as a Roman Catholic chapel for local people within the grounds of Barking Abbey, to the south of the Abbey church. Its oldest part is the chancel, built early in the 13th century during the reign of King John. The building is said to have been made into a parish church in 1300 by Anne de Vere, abbess of the Abbey.^[2] Until the 1390s Barking formed a rectory, held by the Abbey and divided into two vicarages known as 'Northstrete' (probably funded by income from the Ilford area) and 'Southstrete' (serving the Abbey church). The area suffered severe flooding in the late 14th century, leading to financial difficulties and a merger of the two vicarages from 1398 onwards.^[3] A chaplain from the Abbey led worship.^[4] The present bell tower was added late in the 15th century.

Reformation

It remained a parish church when the Abbey was dissolved and the rectory and advowson devolved to the Crown, who initially leased it to the widow Mary Blackenhall for 21 years in 1540. In 1557 these were bought by Robert Thomas and Andrew Salter using money from the estate of William Pownsett of nearby Loxford, and granted to All Souls College, Oxford, in return for the vicar praying for the souls of Pownsett, his parents and benefactors every Sunday, giving 6 shillings and 8 pence amongst twenty poor people annually on the anniversary of Pownsett's death, paying the College an annual sum to maintain two poor scholars and only being absent from the parish 80 or fewer days a year. The College presented when the next vacancy occurred in 1560, but at the following one the Crown contested its right, though this was overturned via a lawsuit. Sir John Petre reconfirmed the 1557 grant in 1594, but dropped the requirement to pray for the dead. The right is now shared between All Souls College, Oxford, the Bishop of Chelmsford (in whose diocese it now falls) and the church's churchwardens.

17th century to 20th century

The church contains several memorials, including one to the 17th-century politician Charles Montagu. The explorer Captain James Cook married Elizabeth Batts in the church on 21 December 1762.^[5] Ten years later the nave, chancel and sanctuary all had their ceilings plastered, though this was removed from the nave ceiling in 1842.

Charles Winmill and George Jack were involved in a restoration of the interior between 1929 and 1936.^[6]^[7] The building was Grade I listed in 1954.^[8] An extension was added along the south side late in the 20th century to provide an office, bookshop and refectory.

Present day

In the late 1970s the parish became part of a team parish covering Barking with Christ Church and St Patrick's. On 1 January 2017, St Patrick's and Christchurch each gained their own parishes, taken from the team Parish area, leaving St Margaret's with a smaller Parish.

St Margaret's parish is unusual in having three churchwardens rather than two.^[9]

In 2007, two small stones from remains of the old medieval London Bridge^[10] were joined together in a sculpture in front of St Margaret's church facing the Barking Abbey ruins as part of several public artworks placed in Barking Town Centre by artist Joost Van Santen.^[11]

The church is both Anglo-Catholic and open evangelical in tradition.^[12]

Notable clergy

Many vicars of Barking have gone on to become bishops. Hugh Jermyn was Bishop of Colombo 1871–1875, Bishop of Brechin 1875–1903 and Primus of Scotland 1886–1901. Robin Smith, a curate from 1962, was Bishop of Hertford 1990–2001.

Vicars of North Barking

1315-????: Martinus
1328-????: ???? De Ansi
1335-???: ???? De Borton
1373-????: Hugo Smith
1385-????: Thomas Bene
1395-????: John Sacombe

Vicars of South Barking

1331-????: ??? De Cishampton
1335-????: ??? De Hochetote
1373-????: ??? ?Deautine/?Beautine

Vicars of Barking

1398-????: John Makewye
1403-????: Stephen Chamberlayne
1438-????: John Willoghby
1439-????: John Greening
1462-????: Robert Walesis
1486-????: Galf King
1505-????: John Frothingham
1511-????: John Long
1524-1560: John Gregyll
1560-????: Richard Tirwitt
1584-????: Edward Edworth
1587-????: Richard Wignall
1620-????: Richard Hall
c. 1649–1653: William Amys
until 1654: Jonathan Bowles
until 1660: Benjamin Way
1660-1689: Thomas Cartwright; also Bishop of Chester from 1686.
1689 - ??: Leopold Finch
1697 - ??: John Chisenhale
?-?: Thomas Macken Fiddes
????-????: Lewis Owen
????-????: William Stephens
before 1748: Peter Walkden
1748 - ??: Francis Morice
1751-??: Savage Tyndal
1782- ???? Christopher Musgrave
????-????: Edmund Isham
c. 1785: Peter Rashleigh
1836-????: Robert Lidell
c 1850 - ????: Henry Jeremiah Dyson
c 1860 - ????: Henry Fortescue Seymour
1870-1871: Hugh Willoughby Jermyn
1871-1882: Alfred Blomfield
1882-1888: John Richardson
1888–1895: Hensley Henson; later Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of Durham
1895-1903: Percy Montague Wathen
1904-?1915: John Warmington Eisdell
1925–1930: Leslie Hunter; later Bishop of Sheffield
1947–1959: William Chadwick; later Bishop of Barking
1959–1965: Denis Wakeling; later Bishop of Southwell
1965–1977: James Roxburgh; later Bishop of Barking
Patrick Allen Blair^[13]
Paul Richard Thomas
John Parsons
Gordon Tarry
2013–2019: Trevor Mwamba; previously Bishop of Botswana
2021 – date: Mark Adams

Christenings, weddings and burials

Marriages

At the church on 21 December 1762, the maritime explorer, cartographer and naval officer Captain James Cook married Elizabeth Batts. Her father, Samuel Batts, was keeper of the Bell Inn in Wapping^[14] and one of Cook's mentors.^[15]

Burials

Daniel Day (1682–1767), founder of the Fairlop Fair, was buried in a coffin made from a bough which fell from the Fairlop Oak.^[16] Fairlop was, at that time, part of the ancient parish of Barking.
Henry Fanshawe (1506–1568), a Member of the English Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth I. He also served as Queen's Remembrancer from 1565 until his death in 1568.^[17]
Sir Charles Montagu (c.1564–1625) of Cranbrook Hall in the parish of Barking, Essex, a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1614 to 1625. He was buried in the church where a mural monument survives, depicting a small effigy of Sir Charles fully armed, sitting in a military tent during a campaign.^[18]^[19] Its inscription reads:

Heere lieth the body of ye worthy knight S^r Charles Montagu who died at his house at Cranbrook in Essex in the parish of Barking the 11th of September in ye yeere of our Lorde God 1625 being of ye age of 61 yeares who gave to ye poore of Barking forty pounds^[20]