The earliest surviving reference to the church is to "the parish of St. Stephen colemanstrate" during the reign of King John. At a date between 1292 and 1303 the advowson was acquired by Butley Priory in Suffolk, without licence: Butley challenged a royal appointment made c.1438, and its rights were acknowledged in 1449. The Dean and Chapter of St Paul's put in counter-claims, but the matter was resolved in Butley's favour in 1452.J.N.L. Myres, W.D. Caröe and J.B. Ward Perkins, 'Butley Priory, Suffolk,' Archaeological Journal XC (1933), pp. 177–281, at p. 196 (archaeology data service pdf, p. 20). In around 1400 the church is recorded as a chapel of ease to St. Olave Old Jewry. It regained parochial status in the middle of the 15th century.
