St Peter's Church is the parish church of the village of Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is part of the Diocese of Southwark in the Church of England. The main body of the church building dates from the 16th century, although parts of the chancel date from the 13th century, and evidence in Domesday Book suggests that there may have been a church on the site in Saxon times. Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry describe it as a "church of uncommon charm... [whose] interior is well preserved in its pre-Victorian state".[1] The church, which is Grade II* listed,[2] includes Georgian box pews, a two-decker pulpit made in 1796,[1] and a display of the royal arms of the House of Hanover, installed in 1810.[3] Its classical organ was installed at the south end in late 2009 by the Swiss builders Manufacture d'Orgues St Martin of Neuchâtel, and a separate parish room was added in 2018. Many notable people are buried in the churchyard,[4] which includes some Grade II-listed tombs.
Marriages at St Peter's
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles II, is said to have married, at Petersham in 1664, Lady Francesca Bard, mother of his son Dudley Bard (born c. 1666).[5]
Sir George Cole (d. 1624)[11] and his family are commemorated in the monument in the chancel erected in 1624. He was called to the bar in 1597 and was a member of the Middle Temple.[11] He married his wife Frances at St Peter's in 1585. The family vault is under the chancel.[5]
There is a plaque inside St Peter's to Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale (1626–1698), who became Countess of Dysart on the death of her father, William Murray, the owner of Ham House. She is buried with other Dysart family members in a vault under the chancel.[5]
On one of the walls inside the church there is a memorial tablet, erected by the Hudson's Bay Company, to the explorer George Vancouver (1757–1798). There is also a memorial to Rear-Admiral Sir George Scott KCB (1770–1841).[12][13]
There is a memorial inside the church to the Petersham Boy Scouts who died in the First World War, moved from the deconsecrated All Saints' Church, now a house, in 2007.[14]
Lodowick Carlell (1602–1675), playwright, and his wife Joan Carlile (c. 1606–1679), portrait painter, who had lived at Petersham Lodge in Richmond Park, are buried together in the churchyard, but the location of their grave is not known.[15]
The oldest headstone in the churchyard is that of Mary Karze (d. 1686).[5][16] It is Grade II listed.[17]
18th century
Mary Burdekin (d. 1772), believed to be the first baker of Maids of Honour pastries, who had a shop in Hill Street, Richmond,[5] was described as a "[p]astry cook who by her diligence industry and anxyous care to please acquired many friends and much esteem".[4]
William Duckett MP (1685–1749) was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1741.[18]
Henry Lidgbird Ball (1756–1818), a Royal Navy officer best known for discovering and exploring Lord Howe Island (in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand), is buried in the family vault of his wife, Anne Georgianna Henrietta Johnston.[24] A plaque commemorating Ball was added to the Johnston tomb on 20 October 2013, at a service attended by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.[25]
Mary Berry (1763–1852), author and editor, and her sister Agnes Berry (1764–1852).[5][19]
Edward James Mortimer Collins (1827–1876) was an English novelist, journalist and poet. He died at the Nightingale Hotel while visiting his son-in-law.[26][27] There is no memorial stone.[28]
Theodora Jane Cowper (d. 1824), cousin of the poet William Cowper.[5]
General Gordon Forbes (1738–1828), a senior officer in the British Army,[31] died in a house on Ham Common that was later known as Gordon House.[32]
Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751–1830), an orientalist and philologist, is buried in the family tomb in the churchyard. The family monument was erected by his half-brother, William Halhed.[29][33]
Albert Henry Scott (1844–1865), photographer and third son of the architect George Gilbert Scott, who designed his tomb. It is Grade II listed.[37][38]
Maggie Black (1921–1999), author and food historian, published No Room for Tourists (1965), a semi-biographical account of life under apartheid, and went on to write several books on food history, such as The Medieval Cookbook (1992), as well as children's books.[44]
Jonathan Cape (1879–1960), publisher, who founded the eponymous London publishing firm.[45]
Major Edward Croft-Murray (1907–1980), antiquarian, expert on British art, and Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum from 1954 to 1973.
A pink granite tomb marks the grave of painter and sculptor Glyn Philpot (1884–1937).[48]
Dorothy Grenfell Williams Powell (1934–1994), radio producer and broadcaster, Head of the BBC African Service 1988–94.[49] She is buried with her husband, Geoffry Powell (1920–1999), an architect with Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.[50]
Businessman Anthony Rampton (1915–1993) and his wife Joan, both philanthropists, who lived at Gort Lodge.[51][52]
The local war memorial, in the form of a stone cross, is in the churchyard and is Grade II listed.[54] The cemetery also contains the graves of four local men who died in the First World War: Sergeant G. Farren, Private M. Farren, Private F. C. Liddle, and Brevet Major the Rt. Hon. Algernon Henry C. Hanbury-Tracy.[55]
21st century
Chris Brasher (1928–2003), athlete, sports journalist, co-founder of the London Marathon, and Chairman of the Petersham Trust 1999–2003.
^Hasler, Charles (1980). The Royal Arms — Its Graphic And Decorative Development. Jupiter Books. p. 236. ISBN 978-0904041200.
^ a b cCrisp, Frederick Arthur (1901). Fragmenta Genealogica. Vol. 6. Printed at the private press of F.A. Crisp. pp. 45–148.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l"St Peter's Church, Petersham" (PDF). Local History Notes. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
^"Death of Vice-Admiral Sir G Scott, K.C.B." The Times. 27 December 1841. p. 5. Retrieved 21 October 2022 – via The Times Digital Archive.
^"The Late Vice Admiral Sir George Scott, K.C.B." Standard. 25 December 1841. p. 1. Retrieved 21 October 2022 – via British Library Newspapers.
^"Names on the Scouts' Memorial Tablet". Petersham Remembers. 3 November 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
^Burnette, Arianne (2004). "Joan Carlile". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4681. Retrieved 3 December 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ a bBowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peter's Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 5. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Lysons, Daniel. "'Petersham', in The Environs of London: Volume 1, County of Surrey (London, 1792), pp. 399–403". British History Online. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
^ a bBowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peter's Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 3. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Vancouver, George (1798). Vancouver, John (ed.). A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World: In which the Coast of North-west America Has Been Carefully Examined and Accurately Surveyed: Undertaken by His Majesty's Command, Principally with a View to Ascertain the Existence of Any Navigable Communication Between the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, and Performed in the Years 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795, in the Discovery Sloop of War, and Armed Tender Chatham, Under the Command of Captain George Vancouver: in Three Volumes. G G and J Robinson and J Edwards.
^ a bBowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peter's Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 7. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Parsons, Vivienne (29 May 2017). "Henry Lidgbird Ball (1756–1818)". "Ball, Henry Lidgbird (1756–1818)" in Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
^Boyes, Valerie; Wintersinger, Natascha (2014). Encountering the Unchartered and Back – three explorers: Ball, Vancouver and Burton. Museum of Richmond. pp. 9–10.
^"Death of Mr Mortimer Collins". Edinburgh Evening News. 31 July 1876. p. 2. Retrieved 15 August 2023 – via British Library Newspapers.
^Warren, Charles D (1978). History of St Peter's Church, Petersham, Surrey. Richmond: The Manor House Press. p. 63. ISBN 0904311058.
^ a bBowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peters Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 4. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^"The Late General Sir William Moore". The Times. 29 October 1862. p. 9. Retrieved 22 February 2022 – via The Times Digital Archive.
^Dod, Charles Roger Phipps (1858). The Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes: Eighth Year. Whittaker And Company. p. 404 – via Google Books.
^Bowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peter's Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 6. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Poems by the late Hon, William R Spencer. London: James Cochrane and Co. 1835. p. 65.
^Burke, John Bernard (1848). "The tombs of Petersham and Twickenham". The Patrician. 6: 39–40 – via Google Books.
^"Sir Charles Stuart". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Brock, W (2004). "Taylor, Richard (1781–1858), printer and naturalist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27074. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 27 May 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^"Obituary. Mr Robert Beloe". The Times. 30 April 1984. p. 14 – via The Times Digital Archive.
^Davidson, Alan (18 August 1999). "Obituary: Maggie Black". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
^Cabinet Member Report (PDF) (Report). London: City of Westminster. 21 June 2018. p. 2. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^"Charles G Harper: journalist, artist, sexist". JSBlog – Journal of a Southern Bookreader. 26 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
^Bowdler, Roger (25 August 1999). "St Peter's Church, Petersham, London Borough of Richmond: Survey of Churchyard Monuments". Historic England. p. 2. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^Dodd, Mark (29 August 1994). "Obituary: Dorothy Grenfell Williams". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^"Plarr's Lives of the Fellows: Sloggett, Sir Arthur Thomas (1857 – 1929)". Royal College of Surgeons of England. 31 January 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
Dunbar, Janet (1979). A Prospect of Richmond (second ed.). Michael Joseph. ASIN B001KRT18E.
Mills, R. S. (1949). Petersham People and Stories: three talks reprinted from the Richmond Herald. Reprinted in paperback 1977. ISBN 978-0904311020
Warren, Charles D. (1938). History of St. Peter's Church, Petersham, Surrey. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. OCLC 8742653.
"St Peter's Church, Petersham – Local History Notes: Richmond Libraries' Local Studies Collection" (PDF). London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. 21 June 2005. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Peter's Church, Petersham.
Photographs and brief details at Ham Photos
A Church Near You: Petersham, St Peter
West Gallery Churches: Petersham, St Peter
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Petersham (St. Peter) Churchyard