Hackney / Central Hackney

No individual entry for Hackney found in the Domesday survey. Lysons (1795) quotes a text on a monument erected in 1750 in this church to the memory of John Sotheby, Esq. This inscription reads: "In this church, under a stone near the font, lyes interred James Sotheby, of Sewardstone" and a reference to the time of king James I, which would indicate that a font was in place inside this church in the early 17th century, thus dating the font to that or an earlier date. A font in St. John's church in central Hackney [or Hackney proper] is noted in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 in the newly-built church, but it is not clear whether or not this font came with the new building or was brought over from the earlier church it replaced. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Middlesex, vol. 10, 1995) notes: "The parish church of Hackney was a sinecure rectory, [...] presumably by 1275 when it had a vicar [...] and until 1821 when the incumbent vicar became rector and the rectory and vicarage were merged [...] From the former dedication of the church to St. Augustine, [...] a connexion has been assumed with the Knights Hospitallers or Knights Templars [...] The church of ST. JOHN, which stood east of Church Street, [...] was called St. Augustine's from the 14th to the 17th century. [...] From c. 1660 it was known as St. John of Jerusalem, [...] St. John the Baptist, [...] or simply as St. John at Hackney. [...] Only the 16th-century tower survives from what may have been a complete rebuilding [...] The body of the church was pulled down in 1798 [...] The tower was spared lest its eight bells should be too heavy for the new church, although in 1854 they were moved there after it had been underpinned. [...] The new church of St. John was begun in 1791, in a field north-east of the old church, and consecrated [...] in 1797"; no font mentioned in the VCH entry. The present font in use in this church is modern [cf. ImagesArea].