# Box pew

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{{Short description|Type of church pew}}[[File:KingsNortonInterior.jpg|thumb|right|Box pews in [King's Norton Church](/source/King's_Norton%2C_Leicestershire), Leicestershire]]
A '''box pew''' is a type of [church](/source/church_(building)) [pew](/source/pew) that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries.

==History in England==
Before the rise of [Protestantism](/source/Protestantism), seating was not customary in churches and only accorded to the [lord of the manor](/source/lord_of_the_manor), civic dignitaries and finally churchwardens. After 1569 stools and seating were installed in [Protestant](/source/Protestant) churches primarily because the congregation were expected to listen to sermons, and various types of seating were introduced including the box pew. There are records of box pews being installed in [Ludlow](/source/Ludlow) parish church before 1577.<ref>Margaret P. Hannay (1990) ''Philip's Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke'' Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-505779-1}}.</ref> Box pews provided privacy and allowed the family to sit together. In the 17th century they could include windows, curtains, tables and even fireplaces, and were treated as personal property that could be willed to legatees. Sometimes the panelling was so high it was difficult to see out, and the privacy was used as a cover for non-devotional activity. [William Hogarth](/source/William_Hogarth) satirized the trend in his paintings and sketches. By the eighteenth century it became normal to install formal box pews instead of random personal constructions. This provided a more classic line to the church, although [Sir Christopher Wren](/source/Christopher_Wren) objected to pews in his churches. With the mid-19th century church reforms,{{Where|date=August 2020}} box pews were generally swept away and replaced by bench pews. However a number of examples still remain in various churches throughout the United Kingdom.<ref>''Nelson Encyclopaedia'', Thomas Nelson and Son, 1911</ref>

==New England==
In [colonial](/source/American_colonial_architecture) [New England](/source/New_England), it was common for the [colonial meeting house](/source/colonial_meeting_house) to have box pews. Families would typically sit together in a box pew, and it is theorized that the concept of the box pew resulted from the fact that the early [meeting house](/source/meeting_house)s were not heated, and the walls of the box pews would minimize drafts, thus keeping the occupants relatively warmer in the winter. It was common for families to bring foot warmers (wooden boxes filled with hot stones gathered from the home or local tavern hearth) and crickets (foot stools) and blankets to meeting, huddling together with their feet held above the foot warmer on a cricket, using the blankets as a tent over their shoulders down to their feet.  Another advantage to the box pew was that family elders would sit facing the [pulpit](/source/pulpit) while children sat facing the elders and with their backs towards the pulpit.  Thus elders could keep an eye on the minister in the pulpit while also keeping an eye on their children.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Box pews with pulpit Holy Trinity York.JPG|Box pews with pulpit, [Holy Trinity, York](/source/Holy_Trinity_Church%2C_Goodramgate%2C_York)
File:Bethesda, Stoke-on-Trent 12, Interior overview from Balcony.jpg|Box pews in [Bethesda Methodist Chapel, Stoke-on-Trent](/source/Bethesda_Methodist_Chapel%2C_Hanley), England
File:Box pews Alna ME.jpg|Colonial Meeting House in Alna, Maine, US
File:Trinity Church Nave on the Green New Haven just after dawn, October 20, 2012.jpg|Trinity Church on the Green New Haven, Connecticut, 1814–1816 pulpit facing rectangular box pews
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{commons|Category:Box pews|Box pews}}
*Speare, Eva A.: ''Colonial Meeting-Houses of New Hampshire'' Self-published, Reginald M. Colby, Agent, Littleton, NH, 	1938, revised 1955.
*Sinnott, Edmund W.: ''Meetinghouse and Church in Early New England'' Bonanza Books, New York, 1963.

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{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=August 2018}}

Category:Church architecture
Category:Seats

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Box pew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_pew) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_pew?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.