Parish of St Mary, Stoke Newington , Church of England

The origins of the parish of Stoke Newington are uncertain. Although the manor of 'Neutone' is mentioned in Domesday Book as belonging to the canons of Saint Paul's, it is not known whether there was a church there at that time. The parish now has two churches, the older of which is the result of the rebuilding in 1563 of an earlier church of unknown date; it now serves as a chapel of ease, having been superseded with the consecration in 1858 of a new parish church, built to accommodate an expanding congregation.

The manor of Stoke Newington, including the glebe and the patronage of the rectory, was a prebend of Saint Paul's Cathedral in the gift of the Bishop of London. Until the mid-sixteenth century, the lordship of the manor was held directly by the prebendary; thereafter, it was held by laymen as lessees of the prebendary. Legislation early in the nineteenth century allowed the granting of building leases and sub-leases, and the enfranchisement of copyhold property. Subsequently, as a result of an act of 1840 (3 &4 Vict. cap.113), the interest in the prebendal manor became vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the patronage of the rectory passed from the prebendary to the Bishop of London. At about this time, the Bishop also became ordinary of the parish, as the peculiar jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of Saint Paul's over it came to an end.