Gravestone of Mary Molteno

Gravestone of Mary Molteno

1810

Stone

This is the gravestone of Mary Molteno. Mary was the wife of Anthony Molteno of Pall Mall, and she died 12 February 1810 aged 52 years. This engraved stone tablet with a curved top edge likely came from one of the churchyards that used to surround St Martin-in-the-Fields. It is now set into the floor of the church's crypt.

Engraved on the gravestone: In Memory of Mrs Mary MOLTENO Wife of MR ANTHONY MOLTENO of Pall Mall who Died Feb 12. 1810 aged 52 Years

The 1810 gravestone of one Mary Molteno (née Lewis), wife of Anthony Molteno, is in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Herein lies a curious story. Mary and Anthony were married in St. Martin’s on the 7th of April 1782. Anthony was a prosperous print-seller, originally of Milan in Italy. He had a shop on Pall Mall and lived over the shop. In 1788 he went into partnership with Paul Colnaghi, a fellow Italian, whose family gravestone is also set into the crypt floor of St Martins. So why is the story so curious? Anthony was Roman Catholic. This was not long after the vicious Gordon Riots, a spasm of anti-Catholic violence. The only permitted Roman Catholic places of worship were chapels part of various embassies under diplomatic immunity, such as the Sardinian Chapel and the Bavarian Chapel. London’s Catholics could attend mass and have their children baptised in such chapels. Some Catholic priests operated clandestinely. But marriage was problematic. The Marriage Act of 1753 meant that everyone other than Jews or Quakers had to get married in Anglican churches in England. This placed Catholics in a tight spot. They could have a wedding ceremony with a Catholic priest, but it was not considered legal. The situation did not change until the Marriage Act of 1836. Anthony and Mary got married at St Martin’s under these provisions, thus allowing their children to be legitimate in the eyes of the law. Thousands of such “Romish” weddings were recorded in London during this era, and many Church of England priests and churches would not do them. But St Martin in the Fields married many such people. They ended up having ten children, eight of whom lived into adulthood. Anthony outlived Mary, and was also buried in St. Martin’s. The auction catalogue (https://archive.org/details/frick-31072002571075/page/n5/mode/2up) of his shop’s goods, sold after his death, lists 116 pages of artworks, clearly the sign of a prosperous art dealer.

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