HISTORICAL RAMBLES SOUTH LONDON: XV.
BY B. W. D.
MITCHAM.

The architect of the new church was G. Smith, Esq. The church, says Allen, “is a large structure, erected in the pointed style architecture, but not in the most correct taste.” There are but few objects in the building to interest an ordinary visitor. In the north aisle there a tablet to G. Tate, Esq., who died at the age of seventy-seven. Close to this is a monument, to memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Tate. It is the work of the celebrated Westmacott, and represents a female with cup. This lady also lived to a good old age, dying in her eighty-fifth year. At the west end is a tablet, with an urn, and a bassorelievo bust, to the memory of J. Hyde, Esq., who died Jan. 11, 1810, aged seventy. On the north side the entrance, there is a marble slab, to the Rev. S. D. .Myers, A.M., who filled the office of Wear for thirty-five years. He lived three years beyond ” three score years and ten,” and went the way of all flesh on September 17,1824.

On the outside of the church, beneath the great window, is arched recess, in which is a monument to Sir Ambrose Crowley, alderman of London (who appears in the Tatler, under the name of Humphrey Greenhat.) The monument consists of a bust (in basso-relievo) the deceased and his lady and boys. Besides the charities before mentioned, there are the following bequests, which were inscribed on tho front of the gallery in the old church :

donations to this parish.

Henry Smith, Esq., of London, by his declaration of charitable uses, dated Jan. 26, 1726, gave to the parish of Mitcham £4 per annum, payable out of the rent of estate at Bexhill in Sussex, which is laid out in great coats, and given every Christmas by the churchwardens to six pour house-keepers who not receive alms of the parish. ”

Thomas Plummer, Esq., by his last will, proved Jan. 25, 1639, gave to the parish of Mitcham £4 per annum, payable out of the rent of an estate in Basinghall-line, London, which is laid out bread, and given the church every Sunday morning by the churchwardens to the poor the parish. “Mrs EllenFisher, of Hammersmith, by his last will, dated April, 1709,gave to the parish of Mitcham £200, to be laid out in lands of inheritance, the rent thereof, being £14 per annum, payable from an estate at Lingfield in Surrey, is given every Whit Monday by the minister, churchwardens, and trustees, to 24 poor housekeepers who do not receive alms of the parish.

Mrs Rosamond Oxtoby, by her will, proved 1792, gave to the parish of Mitcham £2 12s. per annnum, payable from estate at Mitcham, to be laid out in bread, and distributed at the church every Sunday morning by the churchwardens to the poor of the parish.

The following sketch of one of the vicars of Mitcham Church, will found interesting, and is given in a foot note by Mr. Bray, in his history of the county : ” Anthony Sadler, son of Thomas” Sadler, of Chilton, in Wiltshire, was born in that county, entered St. Edmond’s Hall in the condition of a batler, in Lent term, 1627; admitted Bachelor of Arts, and in orders, An 1631, being then twenty-one years of age. Soon after became chaplain to an esquire of his name in Hertfordshire: and in„the beginning of the Civil Wars curate of Bishopstoke in Hampshire; afterwards chaplain to the Lady Letitia Paget, dowager; and at length being presented to living of Compton Hayway, in Dorsetshire wasrefused to pass by the Triers an. 1654; and thereupon no small trouble passed between him and them. Soon after he was made Vicar of Mitcham, in Surrey, where I find him in much trouble, anno 1664, (occasioned by Robert Cranmer, of London, merchant, an inhabitant of that place) and afterwards to be Doctor of Divinity, and Chaplain Extraordinary to his Majesty.He hath written and published ‘Inquisition Anglicana’, or the Disguise Discovered, showing the Proceedings of the Commissioners at Whitehall for theApprobation Ministers, &c., London, 1654, in three sheets in quarts. Several Sermons; as 1 Benedicti Valedictio; or the Remembrance of thy Friend ; being a farewell sermon preached at the house of Letitia Lady Paget, Dowager, deceased, on 2 Cor. xiii, 11. London, 1655, S vo. 2. Merey in a Miracle, showing the Deliverance and Duty of the King and People, on Matth. viii. 25, London 1661 4vo. It was preached at Mitcham in Surrey 28 June 1660, in a solemn congregation, for the restoration of his Majesty to his royal throne, This is preceded by the loyall Mourner, in an Elegy written in 1648; printed and presented and dedicate in two dedications, the King on his restoration, 1660. A Divine Masque, London, 1660, 4to, dedicated to the Lord General Monke. In 1664 he published ‘Strange News indeed, from Mitcham in Surrey of the Treacherous and Barbarous Proceedings of the Robert Cranmer, merchant of London, against Anthony Sadler, Vicar of Mitcham, &c. London 1664′ in one sheet in 4 to. In this pamphlet Mr. Cranmer is accused of many cruel and unjust persecutions of the vicar, particularly of throwing him into prison, and inducing him, under false pretences, give a bond for £500. An answer soon appeared, intituled ‘The Saddler Saddled;’ being vindication of Mrs. Cranmer, who had presented Saddler to the vicarage then worth only £10 per annum. He had not been long settled before he instituted a suit against his patron for dilapidations and sacrilege, and his behaviour rendered himself odious to his parishioners. At length terms were settled, one of which was that Saddler should resign the vicarage, and gave a bond for that purpose. He died 1680 or thereabouts, leaving then behind him the character of a man of a rambling head and a turbulent spirit.” For these notes, Mr. Bray proclaims his indebtedness to the late. John Brand, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries.