Details of Sculptor

Surname

Strong

Alternative Surname

First Name

Edward II

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

1676

Flourished

Year of Death

1741

Biographical Details

The eldest son of Edward Strong I, he was apprenticed to his father on 30 July 1691 and became free of the Masons’ Company on 18 October 1698. He was twice a warden of the Company, in 1712 and 1715, and became master in 1718. Strong married Susanna, the daughter of Joseph Roberts, serjeant plumber, in 1699, by whom he had four daughters and one son, Edward, who died of smallpox at the age of 20. His eldest daughter married Sir John Strange, Master of the Rolls. Strong lived at Greenwich for many years. Shortly after gaining his freedom of the Masons’ Company he went abroad, travelling through France, Italy and Holland with Christopher Wren, the son of the architect.
In 1702 Strong provided a model and won the contract to build the north gate of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Smithfield. He assisted his father at Greenwich Hospital and at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1706-8, where together they built the lantern. The younger Strong laid the marble pavement beneath the dome and transepts. He also built the ‘lanterns’ or spires of several City churches including Christchurch, Newgate Street; St Vedast, Foster Lane; St Stephen Walbrook; St Michael, College Hill and St James Garlickhythe, and the steeple of St Michael, Cornhill.
He worked in partnership with Edward Tufnell at St Alphege, Greenwich, 1712-1714 (3) and at St George, Wapping, 17l5-1723 (5). The pair also collaborated on five of the new churches erected between 1712 and 1733 by the Commissioners for Building Fifty New Churches, for which they received a total of £5,000. These were St John, Westminster (4); St Paul, Deptford (1); St George in the East; St Anne, Limehouse and St George, Bloomsbury, which was begun by both men in 1717 and carried on by Strong after Tufnell’s death in 1719. At St George, Bloomsbury they were responsible for a considerable amount of decorative carving including an eleven foot high statue of King George I, which surmounts the spire and for which they were paid £90 (8).
Strong went into partnership for a time with Christopher Cass I and Andrews Jelfe. After the death of Edward Shepherd in October 1727, Strong and Cass were paid £2,997 for finishing St Luke, Old Street, London, largely built by Shepherd. The association with Cass was terminated on 31 December 1728.
Strong took on a number of contracts to build private houses, including Addiscombe, Surrey, for William Draper, 1702-3, Marlborough House, London, 1712, and the north front of Canons, Middx, in 1715. He was master-mason at the Queen’s House, Greenwich, where he worked on the west colonnade and provided a doorcase.
He died on 10 October 1741, leaving property in Hertfordshire to be divided among his daughters. Other family members continued as masons at Stanford, Berks, throughout the 18th century. As late as 1866 it was remembered that some of the best tombstones in the churchyard were ‘the workmanship of a family of the name of Strong, who for many years were masons at Stanford, and who were famous in the country round’ (LG Maine, A Berkshire Village, its History and Antiquities, 1866, 54, quoted by Colvin 1995, 937). An Edward Strong became an assistant of the Masons’ Company ‘at Greenwhich Street’ c1740.
IR
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 376-7; RG/JP 8, 1390; Colvin 1995, 935-8; Friedman 2004, 36-8
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Apprentice binding book (1), 1691; Freemen, fol 66 18 October 1698; Assistants fol 1, c1740; Court Book, 1695-1722 (1718); TNA ADM 68/874, 68/875 (masonry work and repairs, Queen’s House, Greenwich)
Additional Manuscript Sources: Strong and Tufnell’s Book of Entry for Masons’ Work, (Five New Churches) RIBA Library; BL Stowe MS, 412, no 77 (termination of agreement with Cass and Jelfe)
Will : PCC 184 Spurway (proved October 1741)
Portraits of the Sculptor: Charles Philips, group portrait of Strong and family, s&d 1732, Met NY