England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Botolph Billingsgate

The Parish

The parish of St Botolph Billingsgate sat on the city of London's Thames frontage a few hundred yards west of the Tower of London. The reference to a "gate" in its title refers not to one on a physical wall rather a reference to a wharf or sea-gate. The parish covered just a few blocks of the city of London squeezed between the larger parishes of St Mary at Hill and St Magnus. At the time of this transcript this would have been a bustling wharf-side area with a mixture of premises dedicated to handling goods and to stolid residential areas packed with narrow alleys and garrets. The area suffered badly during the Great Fire of London with most of its properties consumed. Today, like much of the city it is the site of commercial premises with little night-time residents. St Botolph Billingsgate was one of the smaller parishes of the city and would only have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. Following the Great Fire and in 1670 the parish was merged with St George Botolph Lane to its north.

The Church

St Botolph Billingsgate church sat at the junction of Botolph Lane with Monument Street where all that remains above ground is its former small churchyard, it lacks even the traditional blue plaque making its history. Little is known of its architecture, an archaeological dig when the site was redeveloped uncovered a stretch of chequerboard flint construction but this was reburied. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire and despite plans to do so was never rebuilt, there were also plans for this stretch of waterfront which conflicted with their being a church. Naturally as no physical building existed at the time of these marriages they would physically have taken place at St George Botolph Lane.