St Georges Chapel, Mayfair

Can anyone tell me if St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, and St. George's Church,
Hanover Square are the same?

Eve McLaughlin...

No - the chapel was a classy marriage shop, operated by Alexander Keith,
who married anyone to anyone, providing extra services like refreshment
(twa bawbees the piece) and, it is hinted, withdrawing chambers for
those in a hurry. These marriages were frowned on but legal enough for
most purposes. This all came to an end on 24 March 1754 with a marathon
mass wedding for 100+, stopped by the Hardwicke Act 'for the =better
prevention of clandestine marriage.'
St Geo's Hanover Square cashed in on the ready made opportuntiy and
carried on the tradition of marrying anyone to anyone, regardless of
proper banns and where the folk came from. It is a great place to find
missing marriages from miles away.

ian.westergaard...

It appears that St. George's, Hanover Square was a "fashionable" church, did
it have a regular congregation from the surrounding area?

I am trying to work out my best course of action to find the marriage of
James and Elizabeth WINDMILL, the parents of my fourth great grandmother,
Susannah Hannah WINDMILL, who was baptised at St. George's, Hanover Square,
19 Jan. 1766 and was married there 31 May 1784.

A search of Boyd's Marriage Index between 1700 and 1800 lists five other
WINDMILL marriages between 1778 and 1800 at St. George's, Hanover Square.
Boyd's Marriage Index does not list any matching marriage during the same
period for James and Elizabeth WINDMILL.

How comprehensive is a search of Boyd's Marriage Index compared to a search
of London Marriage Licences, which I understand are not indexed?

Would it be worth my while to have a search done of the baptismal register
of St, George's, Hanover Square, to see if any of these WINDMILL marriages
were siblings of Susannah and from them try and determine a likely date for
the parent's marriage and thus narrow down a subsequent search of London
Marriage Licences? So far I have had a search of the London Marriage
Licences from April 1765 to Jan. 1766 without success.

Norrette...

Hi Ian,

This may or may not be relevant. I used to work around the corner from
St George's, Hanover Sq. and our favourite watering hole in the '90s
was a pub called the Windmill on Mill St which is next door to the
church.

Windmill, 6 Mill Street, Mayfair W1S 2AT. This quiet and pleasant
Young's pub, tucked away in Mill Street on the edge of Mayfair, is well
worth a visit, partially for its atmosphere and partly for its
award-winning food.

Now I can't see that there was ever a windmill in that part of London so
I wonder where the name came from?

Perhaps it's just a co-incidence.

Graeme Wall...

Quite possibly was a windmill there a few hundred years ago. In Tudor times
that area was open fields and the site, as the name suggests, of the May
fair.

Or is there another way? It is rather difficult trying to organise this
research from New Zealand so any suggestions would be very welcome

Ian Westergaard
In Cloudy & Cool Central Otago
New Zealand

Ian Westergaard
In Cloudy & Cool Central Otago
New Zealand