Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney | Page 4

for the use of Anne Cleeve and her heirs.
She aliened it to Mr. Ferne in 1700. The house was greatly modernized
by Mr. Ferne, Receiver-General of the Customs, who added some
rooms to the north-east, "much admired," says Lysons, "for their
architectural beauty."
He intended this part of the house for Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, but she
never inhabited it. One of Mr. Ferne's daughters married a Mr. Turner,
who in 1736 sold the house to Elijah Impey, father of Sir Elijah Impey,
Chief Justice of Bengal. He divided the modern part built by Mr. Ferne
from the older building, and called it Bradmore House, and under this
name it was used as a school for more than a century. It was again
divided into two parts, and the western portion, which fronts the church,
is of dark brick with red-brick facings, which glow through the
overhanging creepers.
The older part was sold by the Impey family in 1821, and fifteen years
later was pulled down. Some small houses, which still stand on the
south side, with irregular tiled roofs and walls covered with heavy
green ivy, were built on the site. St. Paul's Church, the foundation-stone
of which was laid July, 1882, by the late Duke of Albany, is opposite.
The square pinnacled tower rises to a considerable height. The original
structure was much more ancient. Bowack says: "The limits of this
chapel was divided from Fulham before the year 1622, as appears in a
benefaction to the poor of Fulham."
The chapel of ease to the parish of Fulham was founded in 1628, and
opened in 1631. The whole cost was about £2,000, of which Sir
Nicholas Crispe gave £700. This church was the last consecrated by
Archbishop Laud. The old monumental tablets have been carefully
preserved, and hang on the walls of the present building. The most
important object in the church is a bronze bust of Charles I. on a
pedestal 8 or 9 feet high, of black and white marble. Beneath the bust is

the inscription:
"This effigies was erected by special appointment of Sir Nicholas
Crispe, knight and Baronet, as a grateful commemoration of that
glorious Martyr Kinge Charles I. of blessed Memory."
Below, on a pedestal of black marble, is an urn containing the heart of
the loyal subject, and on the pedestal beneath is written:
"Within this Urne is entombed the heart of Sir Nicholas Crispe, knight
and Baronet, a Loyall sharer in yhe sufferings of his Late and Present
Majesty. Hee first setled the Trade of Gould from Guyny, and there
built the Castle of Cormantine. Died 25 Feb. 1665 aged 67 years."
Sir Nicholas Crispe's name is closely identified with Hammersmith. He
was born in 1598, the son of a London merchant, and, though inheriting
a considerable fortune, he was bred up to business. He was
subsequently knighted by King Charles I., and made one of the farmers
of the King's Customs. During the whole of the Civil War he never
faltered from his allegiance, but raised money and carried supplies to
the King constantly. He had built Brandenburg House (p. 39), on which
he is said to have spent £23,000. This was confiscated by Cromwell
and used by his troops during the rebellion, but at the Restoration Sir
Nicholas was reinstated and rewarded by a baronetcy. His body was not
buried at Hammersmith, but in the church of St. Mildred in Bread
Street with his ancestors. There is a portrait of him given in Lysons'
"Environs of London." He is "said to have been the inventor of the art
of making bricks as now practised" (Lysons). He left £100 for the poor
of Hammersmith, to be distributed as his trustees and executors should
think fit. This amount, being expended in land and buildings, has
enormously increased in value, and at the present day brings in a yearly
income of £52 15s. 5d., which is spent on blankets for the poor
inhabitants of the parish. The only other monuments worthy of notice
in the church are those of Edmund, Lord Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave
and Baron of Butterwick, who died 1646; one of the Impey monuments,
which hangs over the north door, which contains no less than nine
names, and another on the wall close by, to the memory of Sir Elijah
Impey and his wife, who are both buried in the family vault beneath the

church. These are plain white marble slabs surmounted by coats of
arms.
There is a monument to W. Tierney Clarke, C.E., F.R.S., who designed
the suspension-bridge at Hammersmith and executed many other great
engineering designs; also a monument to Sophia Charlotte, widow of
Lord Robert Fitzgerald, son of James, Duke of Leinster.
These are all on the north wall, and are very much alike.
On