(St.) Mary Whitechapel

   On the south side of Whitechapel Road at No. 1 (P.O Directory). Not within the City boundary.

   Mentioned in records as early as 1280 (See below). New church erected on the old site 1675. Rebuilt 1875 and 1882. Modern edifice.

   Formerly called "St. Mary Matfellon," the various forms of the name being as follows : "St. Mary Mantefelune," 1280 (Ct. H.W. I. 48). "St. Mary de Mattefelon," 1282 (ib. p. 59). "St. Mary Matrefelun" (ib.). "St. Mary Matfelun," 1285-6 (ib. 76), and 4 Ed. II. (Anc. Deeds, A. 2610). "St. Mary Matefeloun," 27 Ed. III. (1353) (Cal. L. Bk. G. p. 11).

   It does not appear to be referred to by the name of "Whitechapel" until the reign. of Edward III., when the following forms occur : "Blessed Mary de Whitchapelle," 32 Ed. III. (Cal. L. and M. F. of Fines, I. 136). "St. Mary of Brambeley and Whitechapel," 43 Ed. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 1758). "le Whitchapell," 49 Ed. III. (ib. 2559).

   It is referred to in later records by both names as : "Parish of St. Mary Matfellon called 'Whyte Chapell parysshe.' " 34 H. VIII. (Cal. L. and M. Ft. of Fines, II. 57).

   A Rectory. Patron : the Bishop of London.

   Various suggestions as to the derivation of the name "Matfellon" have been made, but none of them seem to be entirely satisfactory.

   The story related by Stow (p. 426) as to its derivation having reference to a murder committed in the neighbourhood in 1428 is obviously too late in date to be regarded seriously.

   Strype puts forward the view of Mr. Wells, a former vicar of Hornchurch, in Essex, that the word was derived from the Hebrew expression signifying "She that hath lately brought forth a Son," as an epithet of the Blessed Virgin, and that the church might well have been built by some one who had been in the Holy Land on a crusade or pilgrimage and had become acquainted with the Hebrew word in this way. (Strype, ed. 1755, II. p. 44).

   Povah, in his Annals of St. Olave Hart Street, p. 303, suggests that fullers resided in the neighbourhood and that the name was derived from the fullers' teasel, "Matfellon," growing in the neighbouring fields.

   Skeat says that "matfellon" is the old French word for the weed called "centaury" in English. In Haliwell "matfelon" = the herb "knap-weed."