I will do a short series on St. Mary’s German Lutheran Church in London, which is important in the history of the Second Colony. My source of information about St. Mary’s is a book of history pertaining to the Church which was found by Andreas Mielke and Sandra Yelton.
For there to be a German Lutheran Church in London, there must have been some German Lutherans in London. The surprising thing is the number of them as merchants and craftsmen who sought a better chance in London than they could find in Germany. It has been said that 50,000 Germans came in the 1400s. Very early in the Reformation, the Germans brought Reformation thought to England. In the first years, there was a lot of opposition because England was still Catholic. Many printed tracts appeared and the English sought to seize these and to apprehend the people who were bringing the literature into England. This situation changed when Henry VIII broke with Rome and steered a course more favorable to the Reformation.
In 1550, foreign Protestant refugees in London received a charter from King Edward VI which guaranteed them the former Augustian church of Austin Friars in the City, and allowed them to conduct their services in their own language and according to their own orders. This "Strangers’ Church", as it was known then, had no specific national character; it became a haven for French, Walloons, Flemings, and Low Germans who came together by their common faith.
Three years later, this community was disbanded under Mary Tudor (1553-1558), who tried to re-Catholicise England. Many parishioners fled, but returned when Elizabeth I (1558-1603) came to the throne.
More than another hundred years had to go by before the first genuine German Lutheran congregation was founded. A help in this was the tragic circumstance of the Great Fire of 1666, which reduced large parts of the City of London to ashes, including the Church Allhallows the Great, in which members of the Steelyard used to attend services. Most of these economically influential merchants were Lutherans, and with the help of the Swedish ambassador, Johann B. Leyonberg, they asked Charles II (1660-1685) for permission to build their own Church in Trinity Lane, which later became known by the name Hamburg Lutheran Church.
Why did Charles II do this? He rather favored Catholicism, and Parliament had enacted laws against conducting nonconformist services. The only valid communion was Anglican; however, Charles II needed money and therefore could not afford to do without the lucrative trade of the Hanseatic merchants. And, at the time, England and Sweden were allies.
(04 Mar 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.