STEPNEY, a parish in the Tower division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 2 miles (E.) from London, comprising the hamlets of Mile-End New Town, Mile-End Old Town, and Ratcliff, and containing, according to the last census, 36,940 inhabitants, which number has since been progressively increasing, and at present may be estimated at nearly 80,000. This parish, called in various ancient records Stebunhithe and Stebenhythe, occurs in Domesday-book under the name Stibenhede, from which its present appellation is obviously deduced. It anciently included a widely extended district, comprising, in addition to its present parochial limits, the hamlets of Stratford le Bow, Limehouse, Poplar and cBlackwall, Shadwell, St. George's in the East, Wapping, Spitalfields, Whitechapel, and Bethnal-Green, which, owing to their increased extent and importance, have been successively separated from it, and erected into distinct parishes, at present constituting some of the most populous districts in the vicinity of the metropolis. The present parish of St. Paul, Shadwell, was separated from Stepney in 1666; St. Mary's, Whitechapel, in 1673; St. John's, Wapping, in 1694; St. Mary's, Stratford le Bow, in 1717; the parishes of Christchurch (Spitalfields) and St. George in the East, in 1729; St. Anne's, Limehouse, in 1730; St. Matthew's, Bethnal-Green, in 1743; and the parish of All Saints', Poplar, including Blackwall, in 1817. According to Stowe, Edward I. held a parliament at Stepney, in the mansion of Henry Walleis, mayor of London, in which he conferred several valuable privileges on the citizens. The manor was, in 1380, annexed to the see of London, and the bishops had a palace, called Bishop hall, now included in the parish of Bethnal-Green, in which they continued to reside till 1550, when it was alienated from the see by Bishop Ridley, who gave it to Edward VI. In the rebellion under Jack Cade, in the reign of Henry VI., the insurgents who attacked the metropolis, encamped for some time at the hamlet of Mile-End; and, in 1642, at the commencement of the parliamentary war, fortifications were constructed in this parish for the defence of the city. From the then pleasantness of its situation, and the beauty of its scenery, which are noticed in a letter from Sir Thomas More to Dean Colet, Stepney was formerly the favourite residence of many persons of distinction. Isabel, Countess of Rutland, had a seat here in the latter part of the sixteenth century, at which time Sir Thomas Lake, secretary of state in the reign of James I., was also a resident; but there are no vestiges of the houses which they occupied. Henry, the first Marquis of Worcester, had a mansion near the parsonage-house, of which the gateway, handsomely built of brick, with a turret at one of the angles, is still remaining, and forms part of a house wherein Dr. Richard Mead was born, and where he resided for many years; the site of the ancient mansion is now occupied by an academy for the education of young men intended for ministers of the Baptist denomination. Sir Henry Colet, father of Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's school, lived in a spacious residence to the west of the church, called the Great Place, the site being now partly occupied by a place of public entertainment, called Spring Gardens; on two sides of the pleasure grounds, traces are still discernible of the moat that surrounded the ancient mansion. During part of the seventeenth century, Stepney suffered severely from the ravages of the plague, of which two thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight persons died in the year 1625; and in the year 1665, not less than six thousand five hundred and eighty-three. In the course of the latter year, one hundred and sixteen sextons and grave-diggers, belonging to this parish, died of the plague, and so greatly was the parish, then principally inhabited by sea-faring men, depopulated, that it is recorded, in the Life of Lord Clarendon, that " there seemed an impossibility to procure seamen to fit out the fleet." In 1794, a most calamitous and destructive fire, occasioned by the boiling over of a pitch kettle in a barge-builder's yard, broke out, and consumed more than half of the hamlet of Ratcliff, communicated to the shipping in the river, and destroyed several ranges of warehouses, among which was one belonging to the East India Company, containing more than two hundred tons of saltpetre. Of one thousand two hundred houses then in that hamlet, only five hundred and seventy escaped the conflagration, and thirty-six warehouses, chiefly stored with articles of combustion, were totally consumed. By this dreadful calamity several hundred families were reduced to the utmost distress, deprived of shelter, and made dependent for subsistence on the public benevolence. One hundred and fifty tents, furnished by government from the Tower, were pitched for their reception in an enclosed piece of ground near the churchyard, and provisions were daily supplied to them from the vestry-room of the church. A public subscription was opened at Lloyd's coffee-house, by which, together with the contributions of thousands who came to visit the extensive ruins caused by this desolating conflagration, more than £16,000 was collected for the relief of the sufferers. The parish is situated on the northern bank of the Thames, and is chiefly inhabited by persons connected with the shipping; it extends for a considerable distance from the river to the principal road leading into Essex, and comprises many handsome ranges of building, among which are Tredegar-square on the north, and Beaumont-square on the south, side of the Mile-End road, together with numerous handsome houses in detached situations. The commercial-road, leading from Whitechapel to the East and West India docks, passes through the parish: this road, which is seventy feet wide, with a pavement on each side eightfeet in width, was begun in 1802, and towards the fund for> making it and keeping it in repair, all houses within the distance of one hundred feet on each side pay a contribution of two shillings and ninepence in the pound. On the south side of this road, a tram-road has beenlaid down within the last year, at a very great expense. The basin, or dock, at the junction of the Re-, gent's canal with the Thames, capable of containing one hundred ships, occupies a portion of the east side, of the hamlet of Ratcliff. The ancient house in which Dean Colet resided, after his resignation of the vicarage of Stepney, and which he gave to the head-master of St. Paul's school, as a place of retirement, has been con, verted into two handsome houses, now called " Collet Place," the front of which is ornamented with a bustof the dean; the greater portion of the buildings in. this part of the parish are of modern date, having beenerected subsequently to the fire in 1794. The parish is paved, and lighted with gas, under the superintendence of commissioners appointed by act of parliament, and supplied with water by the East London Company, from their works at Old Ford, about two miles distant, the reservoir of which, excavated in 1827, and covering ten acres of ground, is situated to the north of the high road. On the banks of the Regent's canal, which crosses the Mile-End road under a stone bridge, are several coal and timber wharfs; in the hamlets of Mile-End Old Town and Mile-End New Town are some extensive breweries, a large distillery, an extensive floor-cloth manufactory, a manufactory for tobacco-pipes, and a very spacious nursery-ground j in the hamlet of Ratcliff there are extensive manufactories for sail-cloth, sails, chain-cables, and mooringchains, steam-engines, and machinery connected with the docks and shipping, and large establishments belonging to coopers for the West India trade, timber and hoop merchants, ship-chandlers, sugar-bakers, ropemakers, and various other trades, for which its situation renders it peculiarly favourable. The market, granted by Charles II., in 1664, is now held at Whitechapel; and the fair, granted at the same time, and originally held on Mile-End green, was afterwards removed to Stratford le Bow, and subsequently suppressed. Stepney is within the jurisdiction of the county, magistrates, who sit at the police-office in Lambethstreet, Whitechapel, for the despatch of business relating to the hamlets of Mile-End Old and New Towns; and at the Thames police office, Wapping, for the hamlet of Ratcliff: its local affairs are under, the superintendence of twelve trustees, who, pursuant to the provisions of an act passed in 1810, are annually elected by the inhabitants, at the town hall, White Horse-street, on Easter-Monday; where also, at the same time, the churchwardens, two overseers, a constable, and fourteen headboroughs, are chosen, is within the limits of the new police establishment, and under the jurisdiction of the court of requests for, the " Tower Hamlets," held in Osborne-street, Whitechapel, for the recovery of debts under 40s. A notion has for many years been very generally entertained, that all persons born at sea are, from that circumstance alone, parishioners of Stepney; to counteract the influence of this error, which has subjected the; parish to serious expense, the overseers, in 1813, applied for a criminal information against a magistrate of the county of Chester, for having removed a vagrant, who stated that he was born at sea, from the parish of Stockport to Stepney. On this occasion Lord Ellenborough observed, that " this was a great blunder on the part of the magistrate;" and in the hope that the promulgation of his lordship's decision, that " certainly it must be understood, that all these sea-born persons are not to be marched off, at the pleasure of the magistrate, to the parish of Stepney," would produce the desired effect, the overseers forbore to press further proceedings. The church of Stepney, together with the manor, was appropriated to the see of London, in 1380, and the bishops of that diocese appointed to the rectory, which was a sinecure, the rectors being patrons of the,vicarage; in 1544, the great tithes were impropriated, and the impropriator presented both to the rectory and to the vicarage; in 1708, they were purchased by the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford, which purchase was afterwards confirmed by act of parliament, and they were annexed to the vicarage, subject to an annual payment of £,40 to the college, and divided into moieties, of which the incumbents were styled portionists of Church-Stepney and Spitalfields-Stepney. After the separation of the several parishes, and the consequent diminution of the value of the benefice, the arrangement was altered, and the living became vested in one person. It is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Commissary of London, concurrently with the Consistorial Court of the Bishop, rated in the king's books at £73. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Dunstan and All Saints, is a spacious structure of flint and stone, principally in the later style' of English architecture, with a low broad tower, strengthened with buttresses, and surmounted by a turret crowned with a small dome. Near the western entrance is a bas-relief, indifferently executed and much decayed, representing the Virgin and Child, with a female figure in the attitude of supplication and over the south door is a rudely-sculptured representation of the Crucifixion, in tolerable preservation. The nave is separated from the aisles by clustered columns and pointed arches; and on the south side of the chancel are two arched recesses. There are many ancient monuments in the church; on the north side of the chancel is the altar-tomb of Sir Henry Colet, Knt., under an arched canopy, finely groined, and near it a monument to Benjamin Kenton, Esq., on which is a finely sculptured representation of the Good Samaritan by Westmacott: this benevolent individual, who died in 1800, at the advanced age of eighty-three, bequeathed to different charitable institutions the sum of £63,550. On the east wall is a monument to Lady Dethic, and on the south, a tablet to Sir Thomas Spert, Knt., founder and first master of the corporation of the Trinity; the church was thoroughly repaired and beautified in 1828. The churchyard is spacious, and the various walks are shaded with double rows of elm-trees; there are numerous monuments to distinguished persons who have been buried here, among whom were, the Rev. Matthew Mead, who was ejected from the living of Shadwell for nonconformity; Admiral Sir John Leake, Knt., a distinguished officer in the reign of Queen Anne j and various others. A church in the later style of English architecture, containing one thousand three hundred and thirty- eight sittings, of which nine hundred and thirty are free, was erected in 1822, towards the expense of which, the parliamentary commissioners granted the sum of £3500. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, those in the connexion of the late Countess of Huntingdon, Calvinistic Methodists, and three for Independents; of one of which, near the church, founded by the lecturer, the Rev. Wm. Greenhill, and built in 1674, the Rev. Matthew Mead became the first minister. The charity schools at Ratcliff were established in 1710, and the school-house was erected in 1719; the endowment of this institution, originally for the clothing and instruction of thirty boys and twenty girls, consists of an estate at Edmonton, given to the school by Mr. Wakeling; a legacy of £500, by Edward Turner, Esq., and other benefactions, amounting in the whole to £2000: the school was enlarged in 1814, and adapted to the instruction, on the National system, of two hundred additional boys and one hundred and twenty girls, of whom forty boys and twenty-five girls are annually clothed in green, and apprenticed. The charity school at Mile-End Old Town was established by subscription in 1714, and has been subsequently endowed with various benefactions, producing £143. 16. per annum: one hundred and sixty boys, and one hundred and five girls, are instructed on the National plan; a school-room for the girls, and other apartments, were erected at Stepney Green, in 1786, behind which is a school for the boys. The Stepney Meeting charity school, in which one hundred and thirty boys and sixty girls are instructed, partly on the National and partly on the Lancasterian plan, was founded in 1783, and the present building erected in 1828: it has an endowment of £188 per annum, arising from various benefactions, and is further supported by subscription. The charity school for Mile-End New Town was established by subscription, in 1785, for the instruction of thirty boys and thirty girls; the permanent income arises from £715, vested in the four per cents., the deficiency being supplied by subscription. There are also Sunday schools in connexion with the established church and the dissenting congregations. In School-house-lane, Ratcliff, are the almshouses of the Coopers' Company, founded in 1538, by Toby Wood, Esq., and Mr. Cloker, members of that company, for fourteen aged persons of both sexes, who were to receive £1. 6. 8. each per annum. Adjoining them is a free grammar school, largely endowed by Nicholas Gibson, Esq., master of the company, and sheriff of London, in the reign of Henry VIII., for the instruction of thirty boys; in this school Bishop Andrews, and several other distinguished persons, received the rudiments of their education. These premises were destroyed by the fire of 1794, but were rebuilt in 1796, and the almshouses more liberally endowed by the company; they now. afford an asylum to sixteen men and six women, who receive each £ 15, and a chaldron and a half of coal yearly: in the school there are at present fifty boys, who are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, by a master whose salary is £73. 10. per annum, with a house and an allowance of coal, and the privilege of receiving private pupils; the buildings occupy three sides of a quadrangle, with a chapel in the central range. The almshouses belonging to the Vintners' Company, originally founded in Thames-street, in 1358, were destroyed in the great fire of London, in 1666, and were afterwards rebuilt at Mile-End; they were taken down and rebuilt in 1802, upon a larger scale, in appropriation of a bequest of £2250 by Mr. Benjamin Kenton of Stepney; they consist of twelve separate tenements and a chapel, and are endowed for twelve widows of freemen of the Vintners' Company, who receive £36 per annum each; a chaplain performs divine service weekly, and has a stipend of £52. 10. per annum. Almshouses, erected by the Brethren of the Trinity House, comprise twelve sets of apartments, with a handsome chapel in the centre, in the front windows of which are some armorial bearings in stained glass. Francis Bancroft, in 1727, bequeathed in trust to the Drapers' Company, property then worth £28,000, for. the erection and endowment of twenty-four almshouses for aged men, members of that company, and a school for one hundred boys; the present income, arising from £40,800 three per cent, consols., £33,400 three per cent, reduced annuities, and from landed property, exceeds £4000 per annum; the almsmen receive each £20 per annum, and a chaldron and a half of coal, with a gown every third year. The head-master of the school receives a salary of £120 per annum, and the second master one of £90, with houses free of rent, taxes, and repairs, and four chaldrons of coal annually; the boys are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and on leaving school receive an apprentice fee, or a sum of £2. 10. to fit them out for service. The buildings, in the Mile-End-road, consist of two ranges of houses occupying two sides of a quadrangular area, of which the school-room, chapel, and other apartments form the third side. A chaplain, who is appointed by the Master and Wardens of the Drapers' Company, has an annual stipend of £31. 10., and performs divine service in the chapel every Sunday morning, and on Christmas-day and Good Friday. Mr. John Fuller, in 1592, founded twelve almshouses, which he endowed with £50 per annum, for twelve aged and unmarried men. Near the churchyard are the Mercers' almshouses, founded in 1691, by Dame Jane Mico, relict of Sir Samuel Mico, which she endowed for ten aged widows, who receive each £30 per annum. Mrs. Bowry, in 1715, bequeathed a leasehold estate and a sum of money in the South Sea annuities, amounting to £2636. 13., for the erection and endowment of eight almshouses between Mile-End and Stratford le Bow, for decayed seamen and their widows, of this parish. Cap. James Cook, and his widow, Dame Alice Row, founded four almshouses in the Grove-road, Mile-End, for widows of seamen of Stepney, to which the hamlet of Mile-End exclusively presents, on condition of keeping them in repair. Eight almshouses were erected in Mile-End Old Town, in 1698, by Mr. John Pennell, who endowed them for aged widows, of whom four are to be widows of seamen belonging to the Hon. East India Company's service each of the inmates receives an allowance of six shillings and eightpence per month, seven sacks of coal yearly, and a gown every alternate year. The East London Institution for lying-in women, established by subscription, is well supported and judiciously lated. At Mile-End Old Town is the Jews' hospital for aged poor, and for the education and employment of children, founded in 1806, and enlarged in 1818: the building, which is on the south side of the road, is spacious, and ornamented in front with a central pediment and Ionic pilasters. Nearly opposite is the hospital for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, established in 1747 for the reception of sick poor and lying-in women, and intended also as an asylum for the aged and infirm. On the north side of the high road are two spacious cemeteries belonging to the Portuguese Jews, and a third for German or Dutch Jews, in which several of the Rabbins, and other eminent individuals of that class are interred.