York No. 3, St. Martin Coney / Martin Domesday? / Eboracum / Eburacum / Eburākon / Eoforwic / Everwic / Jórvík

There are twelve entries for York in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE6052/york/] [accessed 8 August 2019] eight of which mentions a church in it [cf. infra]. Parker (1847) notes both font and cover in this church: "The font is plain Perpendicular, with a richly carved oak cover of the Italian fashion, with the date of 1717." Cox & Harvey (1907) relate the inscription [cf. Inscription area below] on the "handsome cover" dated 1717, but do not list the font itself. Only the basin and underbowl of the octagonal mounted baptismal font at St. Martin-le-Grand's are original, and even these have probably been recut to the plain look they have today (some areas of the basin sides show traces of what may have been carving on it). The pedestal and the lower base are both modern. The octagonal cover has a brilliantly gilded upper part: a set of eight decorated ribs supporting a central shaft with a dove finial; the lower "box-like" part has vertical sides with an inscription all around it; the RCHM (York, 1962- ) mentions this cover and notes its similarity with the one at Bolton Percy. The RCHM (ibid.) describes the font as a medieval basin on a modern base, though it notes that the church itself can be documented to the 12th century. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York, 1961) notes: "The church of ST. MARTIN, Coney Street, has usually been identified as the St. Martin's of Domesday; it then belonged to Erneis de Burun. [...] The church was appropriated at an unknown date to the chapter and was confirmed to them in 1194. [...] The church remained in the hands of the chapter and was untouched by the 16th-century reorganization of the York churches. The benefice of St. Helen's, Stonegate, was united with St. Martin's in 1910 and it was then arranged that the chapter should have two turns and the archbishop one in every three presentations. [...] The church was almost wholly destroyed by enemy action on 29 April 1942 and thereafter the vicar exercised his cure in St. Helen's. [...] The parishes—St. Martin's lay round the church and contiguous to St. Helen's—were united in 1954. [...] The church, [...] of which only the shell survived bombing in 1942, was a fine example of 15th-century work, probably constructed between 1437 and 1449, and was perhaps externally the handsomest parish church in the city [...] It comprised clerestoried nave with north and south aisles, western tower, and south porch. The church was wholly restored in 1862". The font is noted and illustrated by David Ross in Britain Express Ltd [www.britainexpress.com/cities/york/st-martins.htm] [accessed 19 August 2019]: "At the west end is the medieval font where St Margaret Clitheroe was baptised in 1553. In 1571 she married John Clitheroe, a butcher with premises in The Shambles. Clitheroe (nee Middleton) converted to Catholicism, and was put to death for hiding a priest in 1586." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE6016251856] notes; "Parish church, and attached gates to garden. Early C15 tower and west end, incorporating vestiges of C11 church; south side rebuilt and porch added in restorations of 1853-54; nave, north side and east end remodelled and reconstructed 1961-68 following bomb damage sustained in 1942. [...] medieval octagonal font on C20 base, with octagonal cover of open volutes crowned with a dove, the rim inscribed: ANO DOM 1717 RICHARD SPEIGHT RICHARD MANCHLIN CHURCH WARDENS." [NB: early masonry in this church as been dated to the late-11th century; the main building, though, dated from the 15th century but was badly damaged in WWII, in 1942, except for the west tower; we have no information on the earlier medieval font]