St James's Church, Piccadilly

Present

Concerts

Outdoor art space

Market

History

Rectors of St James's

• 1685–1692 Thomas Tenison
• 1692–1695 Peter Birch
• 1693–1706 William Wake
• 1706–1709 Charles Trimnell
• 1709–1729† Samuel Clarke
• 1729–1733 Robert Tyrwhitt
• 1733–1750 Thomas Secker
• 1750–1759 Charles Moss
• 1759–1763† Samuel Nicolls
• 1763–1802† William Parker
• 1802–1825† Gerrard Andrewes
• 1825–1845 John Giffard Ward
• 1846–1853 John Jackson
• 1853–1895 John Edward Kempe
• 1895–1900 Alfred Barry
• 1900–1914† Joseph McCormick
• 1914–1918 William Temple
• 1918–1922 Herbert Priestley Cronshaw
• 1922–1954† Charles Lambert
• 1954–1967 John Brewis
• 1967–1980 Bill Baddeley
• 1980–1998 Donald Reeves
• ——
• 2010– Lucy Winkett

  Other staff

• Leopold Stokowski was choirmaster from 1902 until 1905 when he left for a similar position in New York.

  Notable baptisms

• Sir Joseph Banks, baptised 13 Feb 1743.
• William Blake, baptised 1757.
• George Thomas Smart, baptised 2 Jun 1776.
• Lord Chesterfield
• Lord Chatham

Notable weddings

• John Ross and Alicia Arnold were married.
• The Scottish composer James Oswald married Mary Ann Melvill on 12 February 1744.
• Ince and Mayhew, founding partners of the furniture makers, married sisters in a double wedding here in 1762.
• Frederick de Horn and Angelica Kauffman, 1767. Horn was an imposter who was already married and Kauffman was a successful artist.
• George Bass, explorer of Australia and the Bass Strait, married Elizabeth Waterhouse in 1800.
• Georges-Alexis, marquis d'Amboise y épouse Louisa Barwell, fille de Richard Barwell, membre du Parlement, en 1815.
• Philip Hardwick, the architect, married Julia Shaw in 1819.
• General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, KCB, married Harriet Smith in 1826.
• Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Hanau, eldest son of Frederik William, Elector of Hesse-Kassel, married actress Auguste Birnbaum in 1856.
• Also in 1856, George Augustus Hopley, the Belgian Consul to Charleston South Carolina, in the US, married the French-born Felicité Claudine Rancine on 26 July.
• On 5 November 1865, Samuel Baker, explorer of Africa, married Florence Barbara Maria von Sass, a woman he had rescued from the white slave trade when she was a girl. He was twenty years her senior.
• In 1873 the actor and dancer Fred Vokes married the actress Martha Isabella 'Bella' Moore.
• John Cyril Porte, an aviation pioneer and air racer, married Minnie Miller on 16 August 1916. The ceremony was conducted by John E. T. Evitt, Curate.
• Robert Graves, an author and poet, married Nancy Nicholson in the church in 1918. The best man was George Mallory.
• James Arbuthnot MP, married Emma Broadbent, daughter of Michael Broadbent, in 1984.
• John Seward Johnson I, the American heir and son of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson, married Ruth Dill, the sister of Diana Dill, in 1924.

  Notable burials

• John Arbuthnot, buried 1735
• Sir Charles Asgill, 2nd Baronet, equerry to Frederick, Duke of York
• Sir George Baker, 1st Baronet, FRS, FSA, physician to King George III
• Mary Beale, one of the first professional women artists, buried 1699
• Robert Anning Bell, artist and designer
• Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell, KCB, British Army officer and colonial governor
• Charles Cotton, poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler and for the influential The Compleat Gamester
• Sir Richard Croft, 6th Baronet, physician to the British Royal Family and obstetrician to Princess Charlotte of Wales. He became famous due to his role in 'the triple obstetrical tragedy' of 1817.
• William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry
• William Elliot of Wells, equerry to King George II, buried 1764
• James Gillray, notable caricaturist
• Lieutenant General Hugh Mackay Gordon, British Army officer who became Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
• The Earl of Grantham, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Caroline of Ansbach
• Lord Anne Hamilton, younger son of James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton
• Field Marshal Studholme Hodgson, British Army officer who served throughout the 18th century
• William Hunter, anatomist
• Pedro Vicente Maldonado, Ecuadorian scientist
• William McGillivray and his wife, Magdalen MacDonald
• Stephen Peter Rigaud, mathematical historian and astronomer.
• Bartholomew Ruspini, 18th century surgeon-dentist and philanthropist, remembered for founding the Royal Masonic School for Girls
• Benjamin Stillingfleet, botanist, the first bluestocking
• Thomas Sydenham
• Samuel Turner, early British visitor to Tibet, interred 1802
• Willem van de Velde, the elder, marine painter
• Willem van de Velde, the younger, marine painter
• Frances Deering Wentworth, wife of Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet

  Notable memorials

• William Blake, poet, painter and printmaker, now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
• Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet, surgeon, histologist and anatomist, best known for his research using microscopes to study various human organs.
• Richard Bright, physician and early pioneer in the research of kidney disease, particularly known for his description of Bright's disease.
• Mary Delany, artist and Bluestocking, equally famous for her "paper mosaicks" and her lively correspondence.
• William Curtis Green, architect.
• General John Studholme Hodgson, British Army officer who served as Colonel of the 4th Regiment of Foot.
• Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton, watercolour and oil painter, predominantly of landscapes.
• Francis Ernest Jackson, painter, draughtsman, poster designer and lithographer.
• Sir George Johnson, eminent physician, who became recognized as an authority on cholera and kidney diseases.
• Joseph McCormick, cricketer, Canon of York and Chaplain to Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V.
• Frederick William Pomeroy, prolific sculptor of architectural and monumental works.
• Sir Henry Rushbury, painter and etcher.
• Sir James Jebusa Shannon, Anglo-American artist.
• Air Vice Marshal Sir Arthur Vyell Vyvyan, KCB, DSO, officer in the Royal Navy in the early 20th century and later a senior officer in the newly created Royal Air Force.
• George Spencer Watson, portrait artist of the late romantic school who sometimes worked in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
• William Yarrell, zoologist, writer, bookseller and naturalist, admired by his contemporaries for his precise scientific work.

  Detached burial ground

• James Christie, naval officer and auctioneer
• Matthew Flinders, naval officer and explorer, whose burial was re-located in January 2019.
• Lord George Gordon, politician
• Bill Richmond, boxer
• John Charles Felix Rossi RA, English sculptor