Tombs at Old St Mary’s Church

Stoke Newington, Hackney.

Grade II, c.1820s.

Old St. Mary’s is an Elizabethan church on the south side of Clissold Park. The graveyard surrounding the old church is relatively small, but contains a number of tombs of interesting historical figures, including those of the poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1748 – 1825) and abolitionist James Stephen (1758 – 1832). Both tombs have been badly weathered and suffered damage from vegetation. James Stephen (his tomb, pictured right, centre) became an opponent to slavery after witnessing many horrifying events while living on St. Kitts in the 1780s and early 90s. After practicing law in St. Kitts, he returned to London in 1794 where he met William Wilberforce and other abolitionists – he later married Wilberforce’s sister as his second wife. He helped to draft the 1807 Abolition Act and as a member of parliament from 1808 to 1815 he advocated the registration of all slaves. Anna Laetitia Barbauld was also an abolitionist and wrote a pamphlet ‘Epistle to William Wilberforce Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade’ (1791). However she is best remembered as a poet and children’s author. Her first book of poems was published in 1773 and she later ran a school from her home in Suffolk. She moved to Stoke Newington in 1802 when her husband Rochemont Barbauld became pastor at Newington Green. The cost of repairing these two tombs is estimated at £5,500 +VAT and the Trust have offered £2,000 towards this restoration.