Chelsea – College – Hospital – Royal Hospital Chelsea

Stow, John (1525-1605)/ Strype, John (1643–1737): Chelsey Colledge

W.Innys and J.Richardson [et al] London 1754-55

copper engraved print; overall 42 x 41 cm, plate 25 x 34 cm. fold as issued; some foxing, staining and off-set; paper imperfections; split to top centrefold, repaired; small marginal hole; o/w vg cond.

First published in 1720, Strype’s re-issue appears as a much larger and expanded, 2 volume publication of Stow’s ‘Survey’ which, originally, was published in 1598. Strype added to Stow’s original account numerous information about customs, institutions, monuments, charities, events like the Great Fire of London, the guilds and wards as well as detailed descriptions of the parish churches, and the city itself, and used a lot of Stow’s original 17th century material that was excluded by Stow himself.

An attractive birds eye view of the Temple from Strype’s ‘A Survey of the Cities of Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark. Containing The Original, Antiquity, Increase, present State and Government of those cities. Written in the Year 1698….[corrected to 1598 in Vol II] Corrected, Improved, and very much Enlarged, in the year 1720, By John Strype….’. – The College was founded in 1609 by James I as a theological college. It has been known as the Royal Hospital Chelsea since 1682 when it was founded by King Charles II as a retreat for veterans. It is now a retirement and nursing home for circa 300 ex-servicemen and women.

John Strype was the son of Huguenot immigrants from Brabant who was educated at St. Paul’s School and later at Jesus College,Cambridge. After completing his studies in 1669, he became curate of Theydon Bois and afterwards in Leyton.Though never being inducted, he was licensed by the Bishop of London ‘to preach and expound the word of God, and to perform the office of priest and curate while it was vacant’. In 1711, he obtained the sinecure of West Tarring, Sussex. He died in Hackney where he held a position as lecturer until 1689, at the age of 94. – The Survey is one of his major works.