Books & Manuscripts, including Americana

One page, 14 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (362 x 235 mm), countersigned by John Churchill ("Jno. Churchill"), spotting, folds, corner creases, very minor marginal soiling. Framed and matted, overall, 21 3/4 x 14 3/4 in. Unexamined out of frame. Provenance: Maggs Bros., Ltd., 1954, 1957.

In full: "To the most honb'le the Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain. May it please your Lord - We humbly crave leave to acquaint your Lordship that the Charge of Repairing the Severall defects in the Leads over the Severall Record Rooms in Westminster will amount to about Eighty pounds and is humbly laid before your Lordship for further Directions."

Sir Christopher Wren was an English architect, astronomer, and physicist who was tasked with rebuilding 52 churches destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666, with St. Paul's Cathedral on Ludgate Hill considered to be his greatest work. In 1698, he was appointed the first Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, his primary responsibility being the maintenance of one of the most important buildings in London. Working with Wren was John Churchill (1666-1715), a master carpenter who worked for King William III, Queen Anne, and King George I and was tasked with the upkeep of the record rooms at Westminster. Following his death in 1715, he was interred at Westminster and a plaque erected in his honor with a coat of arms depicting a "sable, a lion rampant argent, debruised with a bendlet gules impaling sable, on a cross or, four pellets between four fleurs de lys argent."

Today, St. Paul's Cathedral, along with Greenwich Hospital and the Wren Library, is considered one of his greatest architectural achievements.