Holy Trinity Minories

• Holy Trinity, Minories was a church outside the eastern boundaries of the City; but within the Liberties of the Tower of London. The liberty was incorporated in the Borough of Stepney in 1899, and today is within the Borough of Tower Hamlets.

• The district lay within the precincts of the Abbey of the Order of St Clare, founded by Edmund Crouchback, in 1293, for the Spanish Order of Poor Ladies, nuns who arrived with his wife. The nuns were also known as the Minoresses – which came to be adopted as the name for the district, Minories. The convent was surrendered in 1539, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the buildings were used as an armoury for the Tower of London and later, as a workhouse.

• In the sixteenth century, the parish was a Puritan stronghold, where both John Field and Thomas Wilcox preached.

• The chapel reverted to a parish church, known as St Clare without Aldgate. It escaped the Great Fire but fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1706, known as Holy Trinity, Minories – this dedication may derive from the cemetery chapel of the Holy Trinity Priory, which was nearby.

• Until 1730, the church claimed the rights of a royal peculiar– including freedom from the authority of the Bishop of London; and the right to perform marriages 'without licence'

• In 1899, the parish was closed under the provisions of the Union of Benefices Act 1860 and united with the parish of St Botolph Aldgate.

• The remains of the church were destroyed by during the Blitz in 1940.

• The ancestors of George Washington were buried here.