ST. MARY OVERIE

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1675, 16 May 1874, Page 2

ST. MARY OVERIE

This Old Moll was, according to Stow, Mary, the daughter of a ferryman at this parfc of the river, who left all her money to build a house of sisters, where the east part of St. Mary Overie's now stand«. In time, the nunnery became a house of priests, who erected the first wooden bridge over the Thames. There is still existing at the Church of Bt. Mary Overie's a skeleton effigy, which some declare to be that of the Audery, the ferryman, father of the immortal Moll. The legend was that this John Overy or Audery, was a rich and covetous man, penurious, and insanely fond of hoarding his hard-earned fees. He had a pious and beautiful daughter, who, though kept in seclusion by her father, was loved by a young gallant, who secretly wooed and* won her. One day the old hunks, to say/T 1 a day's food* resolved to feign himself dead for twenty-four hours, vainly expecting that this servants, ffrom common decency, would fast till his funeral. With his daughter's help he therefore laid himself out, wrapped in a sheet, with one taper burning at his feet, and another at his head. The lean, half-starved gervanl'a however, instead of lamenting their master's decease, leaped up overjoyed, danced round the body, broke open the larder, and fell to feasting. ■■■ The old ferryman bore all this as long as flesh and blood could bear it, but at last he scrambled up in his sheet, and a candle in each hand, to scold and chase the rascals from the house; when one of the boldest of them, thinking it was the devil himself, snatched up the butt-end of a broken oar, and struck out his master's brains. On hearing of this unintentional homicide, the lover came Jposting up to London §o fast that his horse stumbled, and the eager lover, alas! broke his neck. On this second misfortune, Mary Overy, shrouding her beauty in a cowl, retired into a cloister life—Old and New London.