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together that this Steeple with soe bad a bottome and ill
workemanshipp cannot be able long to resist those violent
motions, but that there must be a continuall fear and consternation
of some great misfortune to be-fall, to remove which
wee are of opinion that the spire ought to be taken off and
not sett on any more, or that the steeple should be taken
downe and rebuilt and then to sett the Spire up againe, and
finished—wch. will be a great ornament to the end of the
Citty. All which we doe certify to be the true state and condition
of the Steeple of St. James Westminster according to
the best of our Judgments."
At this meeting, Edward Willcox, the carpenter, was
directed "to begin to take downe the said spire on Munday
morning," to remove it to his yard, and "make a shed over
it, and to take care that noe part thereof shall be wanting
when it shall be to bee sette up againe." On the 13th April,
1687, Sir Christopher Wren and the Churchwardens reported
that there were "new cracks, but very inconsiderable, and
that the steeple might stand as it now was without any danger
to the church, but that it was convenient to have it covered
with deal boards, and to have no bells put into it but the bell
now there." The steeple has remained without substantial
alteration to the present time.
A font and "all things agreeable to the same" were presented
to the church by "an unknowne person piously
inclin'd" to give them, but after the font had been placed in
position, Sir Thomas Clarges, thinking himself "much injured
by the top of the font, it being to high and hindred his sight,
it was order'd that the churchwardens should advise with
Winckles and the other Workemen and alter it to the satisfaction
of Sr. Thomas." The old font was presented to St.
Anne's Church.
The present font is one of the few examples of Gibbons' art
in marble, and is said on good authority to be comparable for