The land on which the church is built ("Ploughyard") was bought for £1,000 from Lady Russell, widow of the Whig rebel Lord John Russell who had been executed in 1683. This was a substantial sum and its expenditure on a narrow and rectangular plot of land on a north–south axis, hemmed in by buildings on all sides, seemed to fly in the face of the commissioners' 1711 stipulation that "no site ought to be pitched upon for the erecting a new church where the same will not admit the church to be placed East and West". Perhaps the orientation of the site was deemed a surmountable obstacle, especially since the site met the needs of the commissioners in that it was situated "amongst the… better sort ... [and on the larger and more open streets, not in obscure lanes, nor where coaches will be much obstructed in the passage."