Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 15 - Crespion

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Crespion.

Stephen Crespion, born in 1649, was the son of Germain Crespion, of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Middlesex, gentleman, by Cornelia, eldest daughter of Stephen and Cornelia Nau. He was sent to Westminster School in the year 1663, and was elected Captain of the school. He was elected to Oxford University in 1666, where he matriculated on 13th July 1666 as an undergraduate of Christ Church. He recited a lyrical poem at the opening of the new Theatre, or Great Hall, of the University in 1668; he took his degree of B.A. on 17th May 1670, and proceeded to M.A. 22d March 1673 (n.s.). His fine voice, and, probably, his musical accomplishments, marked him out for the King’s Chapel at Whitehall, “the most ancient choir in England, served on the same grand scale as the cathedrals.” This choir were designated the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal.^[1] Mr. Stephen Crispin, student of Christ Church, Oxford, was sworn into the place of a Gentleman of His Majesty’s “Chappell Royall,” the 13th day of May 1673. “And upon the first day of November 1675, the said Mr. Stephen Crespion was sworn Confessor to his Majesty’s household.” His name appears in the lists of the “Gentlemen of the Chappell” present at the coronation of James II. on 23d April 1685, and of William and Mary on 11th April 1689. Other honours had been bestowed on him; he became a prebendary of Bristol, 3d August 1683; and he had a patent as a sacrist of Westminster Abbey, dated 25th July 1683; and on 16th January 1684 (n.s.) he appears as Chaunter of that Abbey. His sympathy, learned at Oxford, with the party of the Non-Jurors, had been restrained at the Revolution; but it burst forth in 1697, when the Jacobites refused to sign the bond of association in defence of William III. Accordingly, we read, “1697. April 1st, Mr. Daniel Williams was sworn Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in ordinary, and admitted into the full pay of £73 per annum in the place of Mr. Stephen Crespion, whose place became vacant upon his refusal to sign the association.”^[2] On the occasion of the first vacancy in the reign of Queen Anne, he was again a Gentleman of the Chapel, by a verbal order from the Bishop of London (Compton), and was sworn into a full place on 8th May 1702. Mr. Crespion did not live to imperil his interests with Anti-Hanoverian scruples; for he died at the age of sixty-two, on the 25th November 1711, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on December 2. He had been twice married.

1. See the Old Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal, printed for the Camden Society in 1872, under the editorship of Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D. In plain English, the gentlemen were chaplains.
2. William III. was most tolerant, and did not disturb Crespion in his privileges in Bristol or in Westminster Abbey.