Editing Stepney (section)

===Stepney Feasts===
The 1600s and 1700s saw a long annual tradition known as the '''Cockney's Feast''', later also known as the '''Stepney Feast'''. The event, managed by the Stepney Society was a way of raising money to apprentice Stepney boys into the maritime trades, for instance as sailors. The area was regarded as producing exceptional seamen, as the historian [[John Strype]] noted:

{{Blockquote|"It is further to be remarked that the Parish of Stepney, on the Southern Parts of it especially, that it is one of the greatest Nurseries of Navigation and Breeders of Seamen in England, the most serviceable Men in the Nation; without which England could not be England for they are its Strength and Wealth."|[[John Strype]]<ref>Extracts from Tower Hamlets' Local History Library and Archives https://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/stepney1.html</ref>}}

The event was typically held on a convenient Saturday on or around 19 May, the feast day of [[St Dunstan]], the patron saint of Stepney.<ref>Rules and Orders of the Stepney Society https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_rules_and_orders_of_the_Stepney_soci/-hIIAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Stepney+Feast%22&pg=PA56&printsec=frontcover</ref> The meal was preceded by a service at [[St Dunstan's, Stepney|St Dunstan's church]].

In his 'A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster' of 1720, the historian and clergyman [[John Strype]] described the course of the event in his day. Eight Stewards would be chosen each year, sometimes men who as a boy had benefitted from the charity. At the initial church service, a sermon would be given by a locally born clergyman – Strype said that he had had the honour on several occasions.

There was then a procession led by beneficiaries of the scheme and "the eight Stewards and the rest of the Natives commonly take a Walk with Officers and Musick playing before them, through [[Limehouse]] and [[Ratcliff]], and so return back to the King's Head overagainst the Church; and there dine plentifully and friendly together"<ref name="auto">John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster 1720, https://www.dhi.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=app1_101</ref> Strype thought that Stepney was an unusually charitable place with more alms houses than any parish he knew of.<ref name="auto"/>

The event was discontinued in 1784 after the fundraising was taken on by the [[Marine Society]], a charity which had the resources to apprentice boys beyond the East End.<ref>Notes and Queris 1871 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Notes_and_Queries/f9gEAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Cockneys+Feast%22&pg=PA511&printsec=frontcover</ref>

An annual [[Barbados]] equivalent of the Feast was also held, with invitations limited to those born within the sound of [[Bow Bells]].<ref>West Indies Quarterly https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/West_Indian_Quarterly/EpwyAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Cockneys+Feast%22&pg=PA431&printsec=frontcover</ref>