Marriage

Henry Burling & Mary Worsley

Marriage

Henry Burling and Mary Worsley married at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London on 27 January 1839.

At the time, they were living in Chapel Street – a four-minute walk from the church. Chapel Street was located where Elder Gardens is today.

Henry Describes his Wedding

In 1909 Henry was visited by the Minister of Education, the Hon. George Fowlds, and local Otaki MP William Field and his wife. Henry told them the story of his wedding, and this was reported in The New Zealand Times newspaper.

He told how his wife became dreadfully afraid that the clergyman would mix up the ladies – he was marrying couples in batches at a time. "I wasn’t afraid; I didn’t mind – at least, that’s what I told her," chuckled the old gentleman
- The New Zealand Times

To them, it must have seemed like the clergyman was marrying people in batches. In fact, only two other couples were married in the church that day.

The church is located in what, for over 250 years, has been considered a poorer area of London. Spitalfields was home to many low-income and foreign workers, who were largely employed working for the various silk weavers in Spitalfields. There was also a lot of homelessness in the area.

Christ Church, Spitalfields was designed by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Construction began in 1714 and was completed 15 years later.

It was one of 50 churches that the UK parliament built around London to dominate the city with Church of England churches. They were built larger and more imposing than those of other religions in the area. The idea was that, through encouraging people to join and respect the Church of England, they would be able to apply a degree of social conditioning, teaching the values they considered acceptable in British society.

In those days churches served many important roles, including providing education, and social welfare; acting as a registry of baptisms, marriages, and burials for the Government; and educating parishioners in good social behaviours.

This marble plaque, at the entrance to Christ Church Spitalfields, describes a fire that destroyed parts of the church just three years before Henry and Mary married in it.

An interesting fact: Some of the Whitechapel Murders [Jack the Ripper] in the late 1880s and early 1890s occurred near the church. The body of Annie Chapman, Jack the Ripper’s canonical second victim, was found just a few minutes’ walk away. Two of the victims were living in boarding houses very close to the church, including one diagonally opposite and just around the corner; and some of his victims were known to frequent a pub just along the road from the church.