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separate divided and dismembered from the parish and
parishrs of St. Margarett and that they and every one
of them soe dwelling from henceforth be ordained, deputed
decreed lymetted and taken for parishionrs of St Martin's
and there to head all other devine services and to receive
all their Sacraments and Sacramentalls as well Bnriall and
others. And that at St. Martin's they do pay all their thythes,
Eights and oblations, offerings, as other the parishionrs of St.
Martin's now there doth perpetually demanding Also all such
your composition, decree and sentence in this behalfe to be made
to be put in execution. And commanding the same in our name
to be published in both those churches and invoalately to be
observed by the inhabitants aforesaid wthout any contradiction
from henceforth not failing hereof with diligent expedition, as
you intend our pleasure, and do beare good zeale towards us and
others in these prmises.
Given at our Mannor at Westmr the 12th day of November,
in the 26th yeare of our Raigne.
Half a century after the Letters of James I. saw the
formation of St. Paul's Covent Garden as an independent
parish (1660); in 1678 the area of St. Margaret's and
St. Martin's-in-the-Fields was further reduced by the assignment
of a specified limit to the parish of St. Anne, Soho;
the constitution of the parish of St. James quickly
followed (1685), and in 1725 the two parishes of St.
Margaret and St. Martin were further diminished by the
creation of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square.
By these means the parish of Westminster, including the
Hamlet of Knightsbridge, became reduced from 2,547 acres
in extent to 815 acres. The constitution of the parish of
St. John the Evangelist in 1728, hereafter more particularly
noticed, still further decreased the area by 211 acres, leaving
604 acres as the compass of St. Margaret's parish, of which
the Hamlet of Knightsbridge covered 384 acres.
The severance of the parish of St. John the Evangelist,
though complete for ecclesiastical objects, was only partial
for civil purposes. The circumstances attending the
separation are reviewed towards the conclusion of Part II.