St Matthias Old Church - History

History

In 1627 the East India Company (EIC) purchased a house in Poplar High Street to be used as a hospital for disabled seamen. In 1618 a corrupt jeweller, Hugh Greete, had been sent back from India for stealing stones. He died in prison in 1619,and directed that a school or hospital be founded from his estate. The Company had set up a shipyard in Blackwall in 1614, so neighbouring Poplar was the obvious choice for location. In 1633 the inhabitants of Poplar and Blackwall - largely employees of the EIC - requested that a chapel be built there as St Dunstan's, Stepney was too far away for them. When Gilbert Dethick, the Lord of the Manor of Poplar, died in 1639 he left a further £100 towards the building of the chapel, on the condition that work started within three years of his death.

The beginning of the work coincided with the outbreak of the English Civil War. William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was executed in 1645 after being prominently involved in debates about church architecture and internal décor. With a further bequest from Sir John Gayer, a director of the EIC, and money direct from the Company, work got properly underway in 1652 - The first payment was made to John Tanner, Master of the Bricklayers' Company in 1654, who became the principal builder. St Matthias Old Church is one of the very few extant churches built under the Commonwealth( others include those at Berwick-on-Tweed, Staunton Harold, Ninekirks and Brougham.) St Matthias is a brick building enhanced with stone quoins at the corners. It combines Classical and Gothic elements, similar to St Katherine Cree in the City of London consecrated in 1631. The burial ground was allotted to the chapel in 1657.