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9
the local Vestries, setting forth the grounds of objection entertained
by this Board to the proposal, and which were as under:—
The St. Saviour's portion of the Borough of Southwark is of very
great antiquity and comprises the ancient Priory Church of St. Mary
Overie, the Parishes of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret-onthe-hill,
and the Clink or Bishop of Winchester's Liberty. The Priory
Church, which, at the time of the dissolution of the Monasteries in the
reign of King Henry the VIII., had been valued at the sum of
£624 6s. 6d. (a), was surrendered to that monarch on the 21th
October, 1539. Shortly afterwards a sum of money was subscribed
by the inhabitants of the Borough, Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester,
"putting to his helping hand," (b) and it was purchased back from
the King; and, by Act of Parliament, the 32nd, Ilenry the VIII.
cap. 15, the two Parishes of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret
were constituted one Parish under the name of St. Saviour, Southwark.
Thus the existing Parish may be said to have been founded and
established at the expense of the inhabitants of the Borough.
By the constitution of the new Boroughs as proposed its connection
with the ancient Borough will cease; it will be subordinated to an
outlying Parish with which it has no connection whatever, and the
name "Southwark" will be applied to the neighbouring Parishes of
Christchurch and St. George-the-Martyr only.
An injustice will thereby be done to St. Saviour's, and its historical
associations and traditions wholly disregarded.
The Parish of Christchurch, until the latter part of the seventeenth
century, formed part of St. Saviour's, and is still united with it for
the purposes of the District Board of Works under the Metropolis
Local Management Act, the interests of the two Parishes being largely
identified.
The Parish of Rotherhithe, which will assume the title, is distant
more than a mile from the nearest part of St. Saviour's, and is wholly
separated from it and the other portion of the proposed Borough by
the northern extremity of the Parish of Bermondsey (c) which
intervenes to the depth of half a mile.
(а) Stow, confirmed by Dugdale. Speed cites the amount at £656 10s., a large sum in those
days.
(b) Ibid. (Survay.)
(c) Known as Bermondsey Ward, No. 4. Bermondsey and Rotherhithe formed no part of
the Borough of Southwark until the passing of the Reform Act of 1832,
B