NORTON FOLGATE

An extra-parochial liberty, probably at one time part of St. Botolph Bishopsgate outside the City, and transferred to London in 1889.

The Priory of St. Mary Spital was founded in 1197 by Walter Brown and Rose, his wife, on the east side of Bishopsgate. In early records it appears as the New Hospital Without Bishopsgate and was run by Austin canons with the help of lay brothers and sisters. In the churchyard was an outdoor pulpit called the Spital Cross where sermons were preached at Easter to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and others. The sermans continued after the suppression of the hospital and was attended in 1559 by Elizabeth I.

Spital Square was devolped on the site in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Occupied by the silk merchants and master weavers, it retained its seclusion by having obstacles erected to prevent through traffic. Only a tiny part survives today.

Greenwood's Maps 1827:

Norton Folgate and surrounding area

Church Records:

• St. Mary, Spital Sq.
  Baptisms 1734-1911,
  Marriages 1720-1752, 1845-1911 : LMA

St. Mary Spital Square and curtilage lay just outside and adjoining the eastern boundary of the Liberty of Norton Folgate, in the parish of Christ Church Spitalfields, previously part of Stepney.

The church (in Church Passage) was originally the Wheler Chapel, or Sir
Goeorge Wheler's Chapel, built by the Revd.Sir George Wheler in 1670 or 1680 when he inherited the Wheler estates, and served not only the people of Norton Folgate but also the growing development of Spitalfieldas and Mile End New Town until the parish Christchurch Spitalfields was created in 1729.

In 1845 The Wheler Chapel became the parish church of the new parish of St. Mary Spital, which apart from its curtlage, comprised the  Liberties of both Norton Folgate and the Old Artillery Ground. When the parish was closed in 1911 it went into Christ Church, Spitalfields
[Note from John Henley Jul 2001]