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the privileges and immunities claimed by the citizens of
London, and were, therefore, rather disposed to encourage
what might be considered an opposing element. With this
object, possibly, the wool staple was established at Westminster
by Edward III. in 1353, in preference to London.
On the suppression of the religious houses in the year 1539,
the Abbey was converted into a college of secular canons,
under the government of a Dean, and two years subsequently
was formed into a Bishopric, Westminster being thus raised to
the dignity of a city, a title which it still retains. Episcopal
honours, however, were not long enjoyed, for the first bishop,
Thomas Thurleby, was translated by Edward "VI. in 1550 to
the See of Norwich. Westminster was then reduced to a
Deanery, and, in 1553, Queen Mary restored it to its original
monastic character. The accession of Elizabeth, however,
brought further changes, and in 1558 the monks were again
displaced, and the Abbey once more converted to a Collegiate
Church, with a Dean and twelve Canons or Prebendaries, in
which form it has continued to the present time. The Dean
and Chapter, who are appointed by the Crown, derive their
authority and inherit their possessions from the Abbots, the
ancient owners of the Manor.
The City of Westminster is merely titular, and has no
territorial significance. If the bounds of the " City extend
beyond the precincts of the Abbey, they at most comprise the
two parishes of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist, the
latter having been constituted a separate parish in 1725. The
"Liberties" are two in number, and, it will be seen, of far
greater extent than what is commonly called the City, even
assuming the City to extend to the two parishes named ; one
Liberty includes the parishes of St. Anne (formed 1678), St.
George, Hanover Square (formed 1725), St. James (formed
1685, St. Martin-in-the-Fields (formed 1356), and St. Paul,
(Jovent Garden (formed 1660) ; the other, known as the