St Mary Abbots Pulpit

(Illustration on the left by Joyce Johnston)
 

The Pulpit comes out of the earlier St Mary Abbots Church, built in 1696. Made of oak, it is hexagonal with an inlaid panel on each facet. These have monograms, letters and crowns which are hard to identify: we can see he letters WMR and figures 1697, making it just over 300 years old.

We believe it to have been the work of a local joiner Jasper Orchard and given to the Church by King William III in 1697. His wife, Queen Mary had died three years earlier, and residents in Kensington Palace, finding the Palace Chapel too small reserved seats in St Mary Abbots. The Palace records make no reference to our pulpit.

It is also possible to identify the monogram of Princess Anne, later Queen Anne. At the King’s invitation, she moved into the Palace with her husband Prince George of Denmark. She did not ascend the throne until five years later, but she was already known for ‘her zeal for religious duties and the prosperity of the Church...’