Bow Church the people of Bow promised to acknowledge themselves as parishioners of Stepney and agreed to pay 24 shillings annually for repairs of the mother church, and to dispense with their attendance there, except on the feast of Saint Dunstan, and on the Wednesday in Whitsunweek, when they were to accompany the rest of the parishioners in procession to Saint Paul's Cathedral. In 1556 at Bow, during the reign of Mary I of England, and under the authority of Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, many people were brought by cart from Newgate and burned at the stake in front of Bow
Bow, London Priory and immortalized in Chaucer's description of the Nun Prioress in the General Prologue to his "Canterbury Tales". However, Bow itself was still an isolated village by the early 14th century, often cut off from its parish church of St Dunstan's, Stepney by flood. In 1311 permission was granted to build St Mary's Church, Bow as a chapel of ease to allow the residents a local place of worship. The land was granted by Edward III, on the King's highway, thus beginning a tradition of "island" church building. Bow was made an Anglican parish of its own in 1719, with