Historic Events
The Black Death visited Derby in 1349. A third of the population died including sixty clergy one of which was St Peters vicar.
In 1530 Robert Liversage established a chapel for divine service. Each Friday thirteen poor men and women were paid a silver penny for attending. People fought to be amongst those thirteen. The Liversage Almshouses are nearby on London Road, the vicar and churchwardens being ex-officio trustees because Robert Liversage’s 1531 will bequeathing most of his property to the benefit of the poor of the parish.
Joan Waste, a St Peter's ward parishioner and a blind rope maker, was tried for heresy at what is now Derby Cathedral in 1556. She refused to deny her faith and was burned at the stake at Windmill Pit near Burton Road.
The plague again broke out in Derby in 1586 starting in St Peter's parish.
Around 1650, Oliver Cromwell stole an Elizabethan chair that had been presented to St Peter’s in 1593. Amazingly, in 1960, the chair was discovered at an auction and one of the churchwardens of the time negotiated its return to the church.
Robert Bakewell, the British metalsmith, died in 1752 and is buried in the churchyard.
William Cowper is said to have written, in 1768, the hymn Hark my Soul it is the Lord in the upper vestry at St Peter's.
Read more about this topic: St Peter's Church, Derby
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