Greenwich – Royal Naval College

Stow, John (1525-1605)/ Strype, John (1643–1737): The Hospitall at Greenwich

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; 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….’. – Greenwich Hospital was a permanent home for retired sailors of the Royal Navy, which operated from 1692 to 1869. Its buildings were later used by the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and the University of Greenwich, and are now known as the Old Royal Naval College.

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.