ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL [Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and John Webb (1611-1672). Architects.]
Important document relating to works on the old cathedral, 3 pages folio in an italic hand (cover-page dust-stained, some wear), no date but ca 1633.
Original documentation relating to the medieval cathedral which preceded that of Christopher Wren and was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 is of the greatest historical and architectural interest.

Draft document in an Italic hand, with deletions and autograph corrections by Inigo Jones's pupil, assistant and kinsman John Webb, endorsement in the same hand as the text. Describing the duties of the Officers of the Works responsible for the remodelling of the old Cathedral, with Webb's annotations clarifying both his own and Jones's role.

An important source of information about Webb's role as Inigo Jones's assistant. It begins with a list of the officers in charge of the restoration of the cathedral, both Commissioners and otherwise, namely a surveyor [Inigo Jones, who acted in an honorary capacity], two comptrollers and a paymaster [Michael Grigg], a 'Clark of the Check and ingrosser of the accompts' [John Webb], a 'Clark of the Store and measurer of materialls' [Robert Cooke] and a purveyor [John Williams]. The 'Articens' are also listed: mason, carpenter, plumber, smith and glazier.

The remaining two pages describe the duties of each officer, including those of Webb as clerk engrosser: '... to call the workmen and labourers fower times every daie at the least by his booke and to check them in their wages if they be absent or idle hee is to bringe the booke unto the Surveior and Comptrollers with the stile speacifyinge at large what hathe bene done that moneth ...'

Webb's autograph corrections state twice that there were actually no comptrollers ('... but all was managed by ye Surveyor Mr Inigo Jones'). His other notes betray a sense of rivalry between him and Jones's substitute, Edward Carter, whose role in the restoration is somewhat downplayed. Webb's own job as Jones's assistant included preparing clean drawings and plans from Jones's sketches:

'... Mr Webbe copied all ye designes from ye Surveyors Invention, made all ye traceryes in great for ye worke, & all ye mouldings by ye Surveyors direction so yt what the Surveyor invented & Mr Webbe made, ye substitute [Edward Carter] saw putt in worke & nothing else ...'

Edward Carter's charge, however, according to Webb, was 'only to see that these things be sett in hand accordingly, and was or ought to have been at the worke twice everie daie to see that the Clark and Articens doe their dueties ... [Webb's corrections in italics]'.

Webb's comments may be read as an attempt to deflate Carter's own claims as to his responsibilities. The most likely date for them, therefore, is 1643, when rivalry between the two was at its peak: Carter was to replace Inigo Jones as Surveyor and oust Webb from the Office of Works, where he had been deputy Surveyor.

The main text of the document itself is undated but was probably drafted in 1633, when Archbishop William Laud's fund-raising campaign for the cathedral was well under way and the work of refacing could begin. The work continued until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the cathedral's revenues and the unused building materials were seized by Parliament and the site was abandoned. Most of the rebuilding had been completed by then, namely the refacing of the whole exterior (except the central tower) and the addition of the great west portico for which, according to Webb, Jones 'contracted the envy of all Christendom upon our Nation, for a Piece of Architecture, not to be parallell'd in these last Ages of the World' (Webb, A Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored, 1665, p. 48). During the Civil War the cathedral was used for quartering horses and the columns of the portico were broken up to accommodate makeshift shops and lofts. Although the portico was to survive the Great Fire, it was eventually demolished in April 1687.

As clerk engrosser, Webb kept fifteen volumes of detailed accounts for the works at Street Paul's; these are now in the Cathedral's library, W.A.1-15 (vol. 12 is in Lambeth Palace Library, F.P. 321), and are the main primary source for the day-to-day progress and cost of the old cathedral's remodelling.

This document was printed in the London Topographical Record, xviii, 1942, pages 41-46 under the title 'Inigo Jones and Street Paul's Cathedral'. It has since been cited by various architectural historians, including: H.M. Colvin (gen. ed.), History of the King's Works, III, 150 (1975); J. Orrell, The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb (Cambridge, 1985), p.15; J. Bold, John Webb (Oxford, 1989); and Vaughan Hart, 'Inigo Jones's Site Organization at Street Paul's Cathedral: "Ponderous Masses Beheld Hanging in the Air"', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 53, no. 4, December 1994, pages 414-427. The present document is not mentioned, even obliquely, by John Schofield in St Paul's Cathedral Before Wren, English Heritage, x+386 pages, 2011.

Provenance: Sotheby's 14 December 1976, lot 148 (Other Properties); collection of the late Jeanne Heal.
[No: 25339]