Theatre parochial, Islington

Satirical Play Bill: ‘The Smugglers of St Mary’, 1831
This satirical play bill relates to an intense local argument in Islington over the powers and practices of St Mary’s vestry. The vestry had proposed a new church rate to fund the running costs of three new district churches recently built by the evangelical vicar, Daniel Wilson. Many rate-payers objected and legal challenges were brought.
In this play bill ‘The Ghost of Saint Cloudesley’ and his trustees or feoffees (the ‘Fee Fo Fums’) are accused of being part of the farce: praising the practice ‘of being liberal out of other people’s property’. The phrase about the ghost balancing the accounts to the tune of £12,000 ‘by means of £150 laid out on a few pieces of coloured glass’ refers to to the stained-glass window installed in 1828 by the feoffees in Holy Trinity Church, Cloudesley Square. The window, by Thomas Willement, celebrated Richard Cloudesley’s bequest.
The dispute about church rates was eventually settled by using the income from the Cloudesley estate to subsidise church running costs. This solution was enshrined in an Act of Parliament passed in 1832 but this led to further local disputes around 1850 when reformers challenged the idea that the income from the Stonefield Estate should go to the Church rather than the poor.