In Tudor times, many members of the court used the church, including Ralph Sadleir (Bryck Place), Thomas Sutton (The Tan House), Thomas Cromwell and the Earl of Northumberland (Brooke House). Lady Lucy Neville (d.1583), daughter-in-law of Queen Catherine Parr, was buried there. Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 1550 – 24 June 1604) was probably buried here. Samuel Pepys visited the church in 1667, after resting at the local Mermaid Inn. He remarked on the fine organ but confessed in his diary that "that which we went chiefly to see was the young ladies of the schools, whereof this is great store, very pretty" – Hackney being renowned for its girls' schools at the time.