Page "Christopher Wren" Paragraph 3

Wren was born at East Knoyle in Wiltshire, the only surviving son of Christopher Wren Sr. ( 1589 – 1658 ) and Mary Cox, the only child of the Wiltshire squire Robert Cox from Fonthill Bishop.

Christopher Sr. was at that time the rector of East Knoyle and later Dean of Windsor.

It was while they were living at East Knoyle that all their children were born ; Mary, Catherine, and Susan were all born by 1628 but then several children were born who died within a few weeks of their birth.

Their son Christopher was born in 1632 then, two years later, another daughter named Elizabeth was born.

Mary must have died shortly after the birth of Elizabeth, although there does not appear to be any surviving record of the date.

Through Mary, however, the family became well off financially for, as the only heir, she had inherited her father's estate.

A previous son of Dr. Wren, also named Christopher, was born on 22 November 1631 and died the same day.

John Aubrey's confusion of the two persisted occasionally into late twentieth-century literature.