Contents:
Idlers, Boors, dunces & dullards
Archbishop Pecham [122592] after his failure to persuade the rich monks of Stoke to donate to his own University of Oxford instead of Cambridge to which they were closely related
This is an attempt to list, from notes made mainly on the Stoke Charters on 17 February 1995 , all the clerics who appear in the years before Robert de Redeswell. I shall classify them into National figures, persons identified nearby & those probably or certainly attached to ourselves. Some of the deeds of Queens College supply XV & XVIc curates.
Early Clerics
I have put all this info in table form to make it more readable. I can remove the cell borders if desired, so it looks closer to the original. AFE 06/08/03
Date National figures Nearby persons Stambourne clerics
All the early references are to the monks in free alms; in Ch 310 they are the Monks of S Peter. A perpetual vicarage was created by Charter 116; it can be precisely dated to between April 1196 and September 1198
1090 Theo Abp Cant
Everard Bp Norwich
113664 Alberico de Capellis
Nigello Presbitero de Essiae Probably one of our monks
Possibly here as well as at
Ashen
Charter 144 is a grant of land to our monks; it does not specifically say that either of these two clerics is one of them.
1150 Nigello Capellano NOS Sturmer &/or Stn as well ?
Charter 308 is another grant to our monks; Nigello is a witness; it implies he was of Essia or us.
1160 Nigello Presbiter de Essia
Simon Presbiter de Stok’
Charter 521 is a grant I have copied because it mentions Brito, who appears in the Becket narrative, as being involved nearby.
116383 John the Chaplain of Stn
[Iohannis Capellani]
Johannes Testibus
Charter 301 is another grant; it specifies ‘saving the life interest’ of this John; he is our first certain cleric; he was perhaps a lay rector beforehand who already owned rights to some of this land; in Ch 301, as well as being of the substance of the text, he is also a witness.. He is not specified as being one of the ‘de Stanburn’ family though, this geographical association is probably how the usage came to be a proper name. [see history of the family in Chapter 3]
1174 Pope Alex III
118087 Gilbert Folio(t?)Ep Lond
Gilbert Archdeacon Middx
Ricardo Magistro Scolarum Lond
11968 Ric FitzNeal Ep Lond
Abbatt Radulfo de St Osite
Alando Archdeacon Lond
Wm de Ely
Mgr Rogero this Magistro Rogero is probably the first vicar but he appears in this charter only as a witness
Charter 116 sets up a perpetual vicarage with the monks having the duty of making an appointment
11891206 Gilbert Dec de Gelham
1218 Domino Johan de London Wm Vicar de Stok’
Gregory Capellano(where) Robert Capellano de Stn
[v 1251; cant be same one]
Charter 581 is another grant to the monks which is witnessed by our Robert.
1225 Wm of All Saints
Domino Radulfo de Cameis Wm Clericis de Stn
Charter 310 is a grant to our William by a different William; it does not say where his Church of All Saints was situated [see analysis in file Stoke3]; the likely sites were Belchamp Otten or Barnardiston, nearby, or Springfield, which was a very important benefice at this time. Clearly this is not just an alternative dedication for our own church.
Pevsner lists one Saxon, 16 Norman & 2 of the XIIc in Suffolk; 6 Norman & 2 ‘early’ in Essex.
122060 Domino H filio Walteris
[probably some where local, not national]
Possibly Stambourne
Charter 307 is one of several confirmations of our attachment to Stoke by a De Greinville; Master H appears as a witness and may well have been our Vicar appointed as in Charter 116.
1227 Eustace de Fauconberg
Gilbert
Ricardo
Wm [these 4 are Eps Lond]
Wm de Lichefeld Philip A/dn Hunts
Mr Reg de Radenor
12512 Robert de Stanburn
Roberto Capellano
Charter 623 says this member of the family owns landin Suggebrigge; he becomes Capellano in 624
159 5/8 Robert de Redeswell is the first of our Rectors listed by Hennessy, who quotes the de Banco Roll No 13 M 50: I have attributed it, curiously, to 1272 Edward I (properly 5 Edw I ?)
143538 (Sir) John Thurstoun, chaplain of Stoke & probably Stn Q11,13,14
1500 John Ryppplyngham, clerk
1509 Thos Wikynom, clerk [Q47]
A Stn landowner
Bartholomew ?Thilan? Vicar Great Sampford
?ex Morant
So we have 7 or perhaps 8 additions to our list of incumbents [as well as some curates q.v.]
Nigello Capellano here in 1150
John the Chaplain active 1163 83 (the dates are activities, not tenures)
Our first certain cleric there is no evidence of the vicarage being in existence yet
Magistro Rogero active 1196 1205
Probably our first beneficed Vicar
Robert the Chaplain before 1218
William the Clerk about 1225
Robert the Chaplain & landowner 122060; may be he of 1218 or his son
He may be the first Rector; perhaps a Lay holder before ordination
Domino H(sic)[? Henrico], filio Walteri about 1240
Robert de Redeswell 1277/8 v.s.
He begins our certain list; Hennesy quotes the de Banco Roll No 13 M 50.
( I have suggested in a Note sent to Rector J M S on 22 July 1997 at his request that for the purpose of revising the list to be posted on view in the church that he condense the two Roberto Capellani lines into :
Robert the Chaplain 1218 & 122060
he has decided to keep these admittedly rather shadowy figures separate from the main list I prepared well over a decade ago
The Becket association
Pencilled note at top of page: Move all this to Becket Vol 2. (I have found some of it in the Chronology in Chapter 2 but not all. Ne’ertheless I think this whole side is redundant. AFE 06/08/03
I now list three coincidences that add some flimsy weight to the Becket association, for lack of any where better at present to record them.
The great Earl Geoffrey de Mandeville had already been appointed by Henry II to bring Becket to Winchester for trial some time before the murder was perpetrated. He was the 3rd Earl of Essex of and about HyII’s age. Stephen had removed the Earldom from his father, together with his estates, but HyII had restored it. These lands were principally at Walden but included Stambourne manor; He inherited 1167, went on a crusade in 1177 and died 1190.
Caveat it is however relevant that he did have several dozen other manors.
Richard Brito [de Brito; Bret etc] probably was the actual killer. One, William Brito, at about or just after the murder, gave lands probably in Yeldham to the monks of Stoke
Caveats little is known of Wm but it is suggested he had lands in Somerset
the name is said to be common & signify merely a Breton origin
The first site of the martyr’s tomb [not the overnight resting place of the bloody corse] was between the altars of SS Augustine [though not of Hippo, I guess]& John the Baptist. These are the patrons of the twin churches in Stoke on the site of Priory that owned our advowson by this time.
Caveats probably the wrong Augustine
The Baptist had very many dedications, especially around here
Memo: The Franciscan John Pecham [Patcham; Peckham] [122592] Archbishop of Canterbury, castigated the Stoke monks as
“idlers, boors, dunces & dullards”
following his inability to persuade them to pay for support of Oxford University which seems a quite proper stance in view of their close links with Cambridge.
Chronological List of Rectors 1277-1985
(I have also put this into table form but have a closer facsimile of the original formatting on file if preferred. AFE 08/08/03)
Name Appointed Left
Robert de Redeswell Here in 1277
Robert de Cotyngham Here in 1310
John de Titford Left 1339 by exchange
John de Stratheme Appointed 1339 Left 1339 by exchange
Geoffrey de Mere Appointed 1339 Left 1344 by exchange
William de Drayton Appointed 1344 Left 1346 by exchange
John Calabra Appointed 1346
Robert Druel Left 1348 by exchange
Peter Morteyn Appointed 1348
Hugo Ellis Appointed February 1349
Robert de Staunton Appointed March 1349 Resigned 1351
Richard. Goderam Appointed 1379 Left 1381 by exchange
William Cersyn Appointed 1381
William Sturmynster Appointed 1387 Left 1390 by exchange
William Sutton Appointed 1390
Adam Copsy . Died by 1427
Richard Gwyas Appointed 1427 Resigned 1429
John Rawe Appointed 1429 Died by 1438
Henry Dedham Appointed 1438 Died by 1442
John Boket Appointed 1442
John Story Died by 1474
John Meybum MA
Oxon Lincoln Appointed 1474
James Robson Died by 1480
Richard Garwyn Appointed 1480 Died by 1509
James Kylshey Appointed 1509 Died by 1526
Reginald Baynbridge MA BD
Cantab St Catherine’s Appointed 1526 Resigned 1532
George Blenkern Appointed 1532
John Luddington Appointed 1559 Died by 1578
Thomas Paynell Appointed 1578 Resigned 1622; died 1624
John Paynell Appointed 1622 Died 1651
Henry Havers BA
Cantab Catherine’s Hall Appointed 1651 Ejected 1662
Robert Cooke MA Appointed 1662
Peter Berkenhead MA
Oxon Christchurch Appointed 1662
Robert Cock MA Appointed 1663
William Thompson. MA Appointed 1667 Died 1686
Mark le Pla MA Appointed 1686 Died by 1715
(probably in absentia)
George Bowyer MA
Oxon Brasenose Appointed 1715 Died 1740
Venn Eyre MA Appointed 1740 Died 1777
(latterly in absentia)
William, Lloyd MA Appointed 1777 Died 1809
(probably in absentia)
James Hopkins MA Appointed 1809 Died 1858
John Forster MA
Cantab Magdalen Appointed 1858 Died 1868
Alfred Master MA
Durham University College Appointed 1868 Resigned 1889
David RiceJones MA Appointed 1889 Left 189596
James Henry Brooks
St Bees Appointed 1896 Resigned 1919
Percy Robert Mitchell OBE MA
Cantab Trinity Appointed 1920 Resigned 1922
Thomas Henry Taylor BA
Durham Hatfield Appointed 1923 Resigned 1930
Francis J Deeping Webster MA
Oxon Exeter Appointed 1930 Left 193334
Harold Edward Alston Horn MA
Oxon Keble Appointed 1934 Resigned 1959
Harold Frank Godwin PiC
Clifton Theological College Appointed 1959 Left 1960
Lawrence Pickles BA
Leeds Appointed 1962 Died 1965
Ernest Elworthy MC Appointed 1967 Resigned 1976
John Speers MA PiC
Dublin Trinity Appointed 1977 Left 1982
Howard Marker PPC Appointed 1982 Left 1983
William Roy Jessup BSc
London Appointed 1985
Note 1. The years before 1752 have been converted to modern usage.
Note 2. The Revds Godwin, Speers and Marker were not appointed Rectors, but had the status of Priestin Charge. All before Godwin were Rectors of Stambourne, while Pickles, Elworthy and Jessup were appointed Rectors of Toppesfield with Stambourne (the union of the parishes took place in 1959).
Note 3. Curates known to have officiated in Stambourne are:
Name Period Rector
S Jones 1691 Mark le Pla
Mr Roberts 1716 1713-15 Mark le Pla more?
Thomas Orchard 17561777 Venn Eyre
John Swaine 17781785 William Lloyd
Richard Gregory 17851787 William Lloyd
Hany Paxton 17871796 William Lloyd
John Walker 17971799 William Lloyd
John Whitehurst 18011808 William Lloyd
John Wilson 18561858 James Hopkins
Thomas Paynell was a minister in Stambourne for nine years before he became Rector, presumably as curate to John Luddington.
J Walton DD 1831 Jas Hopkins Xmas Holiday
#78 & 79
Note 4. Kenneth Edward Cartwright was styled Priest in Charge at two weddings in late 1932. He became Vicar of Great Bardfield the following year.
Note 5. From 10 October 1646 to 19 June 1660 during the Commonwealth, Bishop Compton made no appointments, though he did leave some blank pages. Havers was therefore ordained by the St Andrew’s, London, Classis in 1651 and appointed by the Commission of the Great Seal. As he had legal tenure he could not be ejected in 1660.
List of Elders & Wardens copied
Wm Ruffle & Robt E Smith 1860 for Forster ξ
Eliz Unwin & John Jo since 1911 ξ
Jo M J Parnell – Stephen Hints, Elder (Davids)
Muriel Crow was PCC Treasurer ?1960 ξ
This print is from History file,now fully corrected and copied to Rectors
File = Rectors 1 Rx1227on; it is copied to History volume as file = Ch8p4on
Catalogue of biographies
This is a catalogue of all the known Rectors with brief or extended biography of each. There is no clear record from which to deduce a date on which the Rectory as such was instituted. A perpetual Vicarage was certainly created in 11635 by Stoke Charter 310 and the previous section gives the names of all recorded clerics around that time. The list of Rectors which follows begins with de Redeswell in 1272 & is of the holders of the Glebe. A later list will detail curates and the other clerics of which we have records.
The data come mainly from the second, Essex, volume of Newcourt’s Repertorium [NRII] of 1700 for the years 1388 1686, and the more extensive Novum Repertorium of Hennessy [HNRII] covering the period 1277 – 1896 which he revised in 1911; other sources are the original court Rolls & a few of the men have been found only in references in textbooks. The XXc incumbents are recorded in extant church documents.
The means of appointing an incumbents haves changed at least six times in the nine centuries. Hewitt [p17] says that by 1066 transfer of the existing Chelmsford Diocese to London from Canterbury was complete. It was to pass via Rochester & St Albans to independence, but always had a Bishop who made most of the appointments, save during the time of the Root & Branch Petition 1640/11660 (different version in red file copy attached)
1085 – 1197 The” Monks of S Peter in free alms “; seven are mentioned between 1150 & 1240.
1125 – 1397 The Priory is set up at Stoke as an alien foundation; elsewhere it is written
alienig. alienagena = a stranger. And again:
The Temp’ of the Priory of Stoke being in the King’s hands
2 of the meanings of templum are sanctuary or asylum
1140 Simon de Greinville, s o Ralph, gives up his advowson to these monks.
11968 A perpetual vicarage is instituted; the monks have the duty to provide the vicar
13371380 appointments are by Royal Patents of Edward III to Richard II
1387 – 1686 [saving the Commonwealth] the authority is given as the series of Regester Bookes of the Bishops of London = Nom.Reg.Libb. Where a patron is recorded it is the monarch & he usually employed the Chancellor of the D~(uchy) of L~(ancaster) from Blenheim?? onward.
1427 1532 Dec. & Cap. Coll. de Stoke are listed as patrons following between the creation of the College in 1425? & its dissolution in 1547.
1622 & in 1662 these isolated appointments are again by Royal Patents of Jas I & Chas II
1651 Henry Havers is the sole Rector legally appointed by the Great Seal; this is recorded in the Journal of the House of Lords.
1716 – 1868 The Royal patrons, from Geo I to Victoria, are the sole authority quoted, though as patrons; the mechanism was probably still episcopal.
This typescript has:-
1716 – 1868 The monarchs, from Geo I to Victoria, are alone quoted, though as Royal patrons.
1889 up to the present time the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is quoted; it is probable he was responsible from 1547 onwards. The effective appointer will have been the appropriate Bishop for all this time.
Robert de Redeswell 12778 [sic].
He is not recorded in Alumni Cantabrigiensis (AC) [apart from Peterhouse this could not be effective before 1347] or the Register Oxoniensis (RO) , [this register covers only the years up to 1500 AD]
Hennessy gives his authority as the de Banco Roll No 13 M 50 & this is all we know of this man [banco = the bench of the court of Common pleas]. It is not clear whether his dates mean a tenure of two years or simply that Redeswell was here in y.e. 26 Mar 1278 new style. Remarkably, only four of the 80 or so dates that he quotes occur between January 1 & March 25 but on each occasion he uses the format as in 1428/9 and not as in the hyphen here copied. His Vol I was printed but this Vol II exists only in manuscript in the ERO. The likely explanation is a lack of precision in the dating of the entry in the Roll.
Robert de Cotyngham 1310
(Not in AC or RO)
Hennessy says imply “here Mar 31 1310”; the manuscript format may imply he found this man in the same roll.
Geo Hennessy leaves a line blank in his carefully ruled manuscript at this point suggesting that there may have been another incumbent at this date
John de Titford 1337/8
(Not in AC or RO)
The sole piece of information in HNRII is exch. 1337/8 It is clearly derived from the entry which follows it.
John de Statherne 1337 1339
(Not in AC or RO)
Hennessy gives Pat 12 Edw III p.1. m.34. for the former date of Feb 16 1337/8 and “Edw III the Temp’ of the Priory of Stoke being in his hands ” to justify Exch 1339.
This is the first Rector in the list in NRII where he is Rob. Newcourt gives no date in his table;
as Patron he writes ” Edw III Rat. pioratum de Stoke Alienig”. [tr: in a religious manner]
His footnote a for this and the next two rectors reads :
Rob de Statherne, Rector here in 1339 for Oct 6 that year he had licence to exchange for the Vicar of Borham in this Dioc. with Galf. de Mere Pat 13 EIII p2 who was thereupon admitted Rector in 1344. for May5 that year he had licence to exchange the same with Will. de Drayton for the moiety of the church of Danbury in the same Dioc. pat 18 EIII p2
The NRII entry for Boreham, however, reads:
the said Galfr. continued in the year 1339. for Oct. 6 that year he had the King’s licence, to exchange it with John de Stratherne for the Ch. of Stambourne, in this county. Pat 13 EdwIII p.2.
It also records the transfer as May 3, not May 5; the journey could have taken two days.
In the peculiar of Braintree one Hugh de Stratherne is recorded as Rector for 1337.
Out of this confusion of two Johns, two Roberts and one Hugh, all mentioned in the same year 1337, we follow Hennessy in accepting John for our man.
Geoffrey de Mere 1339 1344
(Not in AC or RO: He is given as pr. on the NRII list for Boreham)
HNRII, which has him as Galfr. de Mire, gives Pat13 p2 EdIII m21 as authority for Oct.6 1339 ends : Exch 1346. NRII simply prints his name and the footnote a above under Stambourne. Under Boreham his foot note b reads:
Galf de Mire or Mere was first Rector of Honegheton in the Diocese of Norwich which he exchanged with Richard Dunstan for this church of Borham to which he was collated in March 1326 by the then Bishop of Norwich by virtue of a commission to him directed, for that purpose, by Steph de Gravesend, then Bishop of London where the said Galf. continued in the year 1339 for Oct. 6 that year he had the King’s licence to exchange it with John de Statherne for the Ch. of Stambourne in this county Pat 13 Edw III p.2. And afterwards, viz. May 3 1344 had the like licence to exchange Stambourne for the moiety of the church of Danbury with Will de Drayton Pat 18 p. 2.
William de Drayton 134446
(RO p593; Balliol 1321)
Hennessy gives Pat 18 EDW III p1 m14 for the date of May 3 1344 and ends: Exch 1346
NRII repeats the licence to exchange with de Mere under both Stambourne & Boreham. Note a under Danbury reads: Will de Drayton was Rector of one moiety of this church in 1344 for, by virtue of the King’s licence, dated May 3. that year, he exchanged the said moiety, which I take to be that belonging to the said Priory of S. Bartholomew with Galfrey de Mere for Ch. of Stambourn Pat 18. Edw. 3. p. 1. and by like licence dated July 30 1346 exchanged the Ch. of Stambourn with John Calabra for the vicarage of Felsted Pat 20. p 2.
It thus seems that during the period in which Edw III had the Temp’ of Stoke Priory under his hande,[tempero, v.a. & n., can mean to regulate, govern or rule][v. HNR II], between the years 13381346 these last four Rectors made several moves around the county by his licence. The next incumbent made a similar exchange. This suggests some kind of financial opportunity with, doubtless, fees being paid into the Treasury.
Another de Drayton, Richard, was a Franciscan Friar @ Merton College in 1324
John Calabra 1346
(Not in AC or RO)
HNRII gives Pat 20. EdwIII p.2. m.5. for the accession date of July 30, 1346 but gives none his leaving. NRII does not mention him under Stambourne but under Danbury refers to his leaving Felsted to come here. If he did come his tenure was short for his successor had left by June 17 1348.
Robert Druell here in some part of the year 1348
(RO p594)
HNRII has simply Exch 1348 with no reference or comment
The list in NRII gives just the name but spelt with only one terminal ‘l’. In footnote b there is :
Rob Druel was Rector in 1348 for June 17 that year he had licence to exchange with Peter Morteyn for Retyndon in this dioc. Pat. 22. E III. p. 22. In his entry for Rettendon he gives :
Pet. de Morteyn, by licence, June 17. 1348. exchang’d for Stamborne , with Rob. Druel Pat. 22. Edw. III. p. 2.
AC in 1428 names two brothers, both called John, at Kings [p.594]. They were members of a family from Higham Ferrers in Northants and died in 1453 & 1456 respectively. Rector Hugh Ellys q.v. in 1349, also came from there;
I suspect some confusion here that must be checked
Peter de Morteyn 13481348/9
(Not in RO or AC)
HNRII, in an uncharacteristically confused entry has Pat. 22 Edw III p. 1 or 2 or 1 m. 29 changed to 30 to justify entry on June 17 1348.
NRII has him spelt with and without a terminal e. Neither gives a departure date.
Hugo Ellis One month from Feb 18 to Mar 18 in 1348/9
(Not in RO or AC)
HNRII has Pat 23. Edw. III p.1. m.29. to support induction on Feb 18 1348/8 of Hugh Ellys de Hegham Ferrers and no other comment.
NRII has as note:
c ‘Hugo Ellis had the King’s present 18 Febr 1348 Pat 23 E.III p. 1. but whether it took effect appears not. NJE comments that this was the exact month when the Black Death appears in North essex and surmises that he may have been a victim.
These multiple appointments in a few months bring to mind the similar number at the Restoration, when the Plague was rife
The possibility of these two families from Higham Ferrers being connected must be explored.
I have noted from the display in the Chivalry Exhibition of Feb 1989 that # 233 Laurence de St Maur, [which was synonym of Seymour]who also came from here and died in 1337; the exhibit was a motto on glass which read: Fishier (?) de miserere mei. I suppose I just noted the coincidence of both and time place as worthy of followup.
File is named Rx 1349on & has been copied to History as Ch8p7on
Robert de Staunton (134952 or 1379)
(not in RO or AC)
This man’s history is confused but HNRII has not doubts. He gives
Pat 23 EdwIII p.1. m.23*,30 Mar.18 1348/9 [* the #23 is altered, ? from 22 ,& is out of order]
& he follows with :
Res. 1379…. Edw 3(sic)….. three dittos [for “being in his hande”] … followed by alien.
[elsewhere Newcourt has it as alienig [alienigena = a stranger] various other forms imply insanity or debt; The HNRII list implies that the alienation lasted 52 years from Feb 16 1337/8 until Oct 4 1390, well into the reign of Richard II(137799)]. I did not copy the list of Priors of Stoke from SCs but they are listedin the Suffolk VCH. The charters themselves only run from 1125 1253; Clare’s own charters continue to 1464 but do not mention our alienation; they did have a minor one themselves over 12 acres in 13647 under Edw III. It was called an alienation in mortmain; perhaps just to make doubly sure.
NRII brackets Staunton, Goderam & Cersyn, without dates, giving footnote d which says;
Rob de Staunton had the King’s present 13 Mar.1348 Pat 23. E III and the like to the Ch. of Middleton, in the Lincoln Dioc. 14 Jan 1351 Pat 25 E III. He appears also to be Rector here in 1379 for in Aug. that year the King granted a present to the same Ric Goderam, void by resig. of Staunton [no suffix, de here; NJE thinks it a different man] Pat III. R.2. p.1. [the u.c. & l.c. numerals are reversed from the normal pattern] whereupon he was admitted ; for in Febr. 1380 he had licence to exchange with Will Cersyn for Belchamp S Paul Pat.4. Ric II. p.2.
[* Hennessy does not mention Pat 25 but his alteration to #23, v. line 3 above, could perhaps have been from 25]
Richard Goderam (13791380/1)
[There is a family of Goderichs John, Robert, Simon & William on p 227 of AC at around this time]
HNRII has Pat.2. RichII. p. space m.30 for admission Aug 18 1379 which has clearly been altered from 1349. He then gives exch.1380/1 but confusingly brackets it within the time of the Edw III alienation. NRII simply gives the name as Ric.G and footnote d above.
Neither authority clarifies who was Rector 134979. At present I think that the above did retain the benefice until 1379, in plurality with Middleton in Lincoln Dioc:
[there is a Middleton 1 mi from King’s Lynn & another 1/2 mi from Sudbury across the border into Essex. Though so nearby I dont think he can have held this local cure, for no part of Essex was ever in Lincoln diocese; I believe it all went from Canterbury to London by 1066 and then in the XIXc via Rochester to St Albans before becoming independent].
William Cersyn or Corsyn (1380/1 perhaps until 1387)
(not in RO or AC)
HNRII gives Pat.4 Rich II p.2 m 24 for installation by Exch. on Feb 14 . This and the next two rectors he brackets with the note: Rd II, the Priory of Stoke being alien. The ‘o’ has been overwritten and appeasrs to be a correction for ‘e’ This is one of half a dozen entries with a crossed tick by the christian name suggesting he has had some way of checking that his spelling is more correct than Newcourt’s. He does not give an exit, leaving the space blank.
This is the third of the three men bracketed in footnote d in NRII . He is also the last for whom dates are only given in footnotes. Newcourt’s version of alienation is : Ric.II.R rat.sim., presumably referring to his earlier note which is : Rat pioraticum al Stoke alienig.
He thus has the same period for the alienation.
From now on both authors refer to the Regester Books of the Bishops of London; Newcourt heads his column Nom. R. Libb. :
Hennessy just gives the name of the volume and the folio number, which as does Newcourt omits, in the margin.
Wiliam Sturmynstre (1387 90)
(not in RO or AC; Hennessy gives him cap. as a title)
HNRII has Braybroke 53 for installation of Wm. Sturmynstre (‘re’ is written above ‘ed’ crossed out) on May 22, 1387 & Exch[blotty]1390 for departure.
NRII has the same reference followed by Will. Sturmynsted cap. 22 Maii 1387. per mort. ult. rect.
[This abbreviation cap. is probably for the verb capio, which can, among a dozen meanings, be to seize, occupy, get or obtain. Newcourt does however put it in the same place as he puts the titles pr. & cl. He also uses cap. in his entry for Kylshey, v.i.: I think it is not a title, as Hennessy apparently, assumes. The same abbn does appear for capitulum after 1427,where it means the chapter of Stoke College. It could be an abbn for capitulorum as a title implying that this Rector was recruited from the 6 canons but at this time the Priory had not yet been converted to a college.]
HNRII says he exchanged in 1390 but NRII says he resigned.
William Sutton (1390 to an unknown date)
(He may have been a Fellow of Pembroke) HNRII gives Braybroke 79 for the installation of Wm. Sutton de Farndon on Oct.4.1390 per res. Sturmynster. He has overwritten of the letters FARN… as one of his many alterations. (pencilled alterations on typescript incorporated in your electronic version: marginal note recognises this)
Farndon is near Chester and was the birthplace of John Speed 15521629
NRII says Will. S and does not mention a place but agrees otherwise
A William Sutton was a Fellow of Pembroke in c1432 AC p188 and died in 1454; he is more likely to be the son of this man than the Rector himself.
Adam Copsy (died in 1427)
This is all we know of this Rector and is taken from the next entry of NRII. HNRII simply copies it but again with an overwritten alteration of Copsy to Coply (which does seem more probable). He is not in any of the three academic lists. NJE postulates a missing Rector in this gap but as it is a span of only 37 years for the two known men I do not see the need for this.
Richard Gwyas (14279)
(not in RO or AC; both lists call him pr.)
HNRII reads : Grey 8 Rd. Gwyas, pr. July 24, 1427 Res. 1428/9
NRII agrees but adds per mort. Copsy. This with the following three entries, are the first he records and brackets together as having Dec. & Capitulum Coll. de Stoke as Patroni.
John Rawe (142928)
(not in AO or AC)
HNRII has: Grey 25 Jan 21 1428/9 D.1438
NRII adds: per res. Gwyas.
Henry Dedham (1438420
(not in AO or AC; both lists give him the title of pr.)
HNRII has Gilbert 16 Dec 22. 1438 D.1442.
NRII adds: per mort. Raw(sic)
John Boket (1442 to an unknown date)
(not in RO, AO or AC; both lists give him pr.)
HNRII has : Gilbert 45 Oct.20 1442. The figure 4 of 42 is anoher of Hennessy’s firm corrections, probably from 1422. This entry also has the crossed tick. There is no terminal date.
NRII has: Joh. Boket, pr. 20. Oct. 1422. per mort Henrici [pres: Dedham]. This is the error Hennessy corrects.
John Story (for a period ending in his death in 1474)
(not in RO, AO or AC; v.i.)
All we know of him is in the next entry. His name is on a line of its own with neither a reference nor a Patron. AC on p 170 lists an Edward Story DD as Chancellor of Cambridge 146869, Fellow of Pembroke in 1494; he dies 29 January 1503. This could be his son.
John Meyburn (1474 to perhaps 1476)
(A.M. , probably of Lincoln)
HNRII has: Kemp 147 John Meyburn, A.M. July 18, 1474
NRII has the same but adds per mort. Story
Neither gives a date of departure. I havepencilled in 1476 but have not recorded my source. NJE refers to my notes on RO but I do not have them now.
He is the first Rector to be specified as a graduate. The name appears in RO, but not AO, as a Fellow of Lincoln College from 1460 to at least 1472. and was librarian in 1464. He had 4d a week as long as he stayed at University. No date of death is given.
James Robson (perhaps 1476 until his death in 1480)
(not in RO, AO or AC)
All we know of Robson is in the next entry; he appears on a line of his own with no qualification.
NRII gives his christian name as Jac.
Richard Garwyn (1480 1509)
(not in RO, AO, or AC; both lists give him the title pr.)
HNRII gives: Kemp 181 Rd Garwyn pr. Oct. 17, 1480 D1509
NRII adds per mort. Robson
James Kylshey (1509 26)
(not in RO, AO or AC; both lists give him as: cap.)
HNRII has : Fitzjames 3 James Kylshey cap. [then a 1″ space] July 19, 1509 D 1526
NRII has, after the ref: Jac. Kylshey, cap. 19.Jul 1509. per mort. Garwyn
Both appear to attach the abbn cap. to the man, not the date but Hennessy is certainly copying Newcourt and the latter uses no spacing. Certainly the College existed in 1509; the next two Rectors, the last appointed before it closed, had other qualifications (A.M. & pr.) and cap. never appears later. v.s.
Reginald Baynbridge A.M. (1526 32)
(M.A., B.D.; perhaps S.T.B)
HNRII has : Tunstall 17 followed by the crossed tick Regin.Baynbridge A.M. Dec.1, 1526 Res 1532
NRII has : the same with the addition per. m. Kylshey and a footnote v. Brickelsea This reads:
Regin. Baynbrigge 19 Maii 1530 per resig. Denny
Aristotelus Webb, pr. 1 Jul 1555 per mort Baynbrigge.
AC has Bainbrigge. Ath:C has Baynbrigg. DNB has Bainbridge. His history from all five sources is:
B Middleton, Westmoreland, approx 1488; he was probably the uncle of the naturalist of the same name who is also in DNB. BA 15078, but from whch college is not clear; MA 1510; BD 15256; Possibly S.T.B. Fellow of St Catharine’s. Proctor 15167. Of King’s Hall 15249. Master of St Catharines from 1529 until at least 154049. R of Downham, Essex 1525 which he exchanged for V. Brickelsea [Brightlingsea] 153055 where he died aet. c. 60 yo. R of Stambourn 152632. His plurality included also: V Steeple Bumpstead 1533; Preb of Wells, 1537; V Gt Oakley 1538.
His is one of the three connections between Stambourne & St Catherines, Aula Sancta Katherina as it then was. He was appointed to us by Dr Shorton, Dean of Stoke. The Hall had rents in Stoke. The Rector paid his first fruits to the the Dean who, in turn, paid the Hall to say masses for his soul; he seems to have had a long fatal illness.
As Prebendary of Wells he will have known Bishop John Clerk who, in 1540 was sent to the Duke of Cleves to explain his sister’s divorce from K Hy VIII. Though R.B. was no longer our Rector he may well have called on Queen Anne in the new mansion on the Cambridge road in Haverhill on his way to Bumpstead or Brickelsea in the last 15 years of his life; though her tenancy is not proven
The value of Stambourn was £ 10 in the Valor & is just twice his stipend as Master; the other parishes would yield similarly large sums. His BD late in life, perhaps aet 32, coincides with his acquisition of his first livings. The Master, unlike the Fellows, did not have to resign on taking them.
It will have been R.B’s drive and his university contacts that doubled the size of the Church during his ministry , though the money was provided by the Lord of the three combined manors. The greatest treasure he left us is the East Window, at the apex of which are portraits of two figures in white clerical garb. There is no proof of their identity but I like to see them as Bainbridge & Shorton. This entry significantly amended from typescript: assume this is later version .
George Blenkern (1532 to an unknown date)
(not in AC or AO)
HNRII has: Stokesely 14 [crossed tick] Geo Blenkern, pr. July 5 1532 there is no enddate
NRII has the same data with the addition of: per res Baynbrigg Dec & Cap p m l [indistinct]
About a century earlier the poet Osbern de Bokenham, whose name may be rendered as Blenkern, was active in the priory; he wrote the political & genealogical polemic on the tomb of Joan of Acre. It is possible that there was a local devout family hereabouts.
The Repertorium entries are however really all we know of this man. He was appointed by Dr Shyrton, possibly to release his friend Baynbridge to go to Brickelsea which benefice he chose to retain until his death. Blenkern will have been in post when the Priory was dissolved, early on, in 1538. I assume he was also still here at the time the College was later closed in 1546/7 by Edward VI; Matthew Prior was the incumbent and last Dean. The title of pr., the exact significance of which is unknown, may well mean that he was a member of the chapter; it does not appear again after the closure. There is no record of him in AC or AO. The next Rector was appointed in 1559, the year of Queen Elizabeth I’s Act of Uniformity.
The simple explanation of his career is that Shyrton appointed one of his canons to our living, Prior let him continue, as did Henry VIII. Whether he was sacked by the Queen or conveniently died after a 27 yr tenure does not appear. His burial is not in our register but this only begins in that same year and exists as a copy made by Thos Paynell of earlier loose sheets…
NJE thought that he may well have been deposed at the time of the closure; this would have left a gap of seven years in the record for which we have no explanation.
John Luddington (15591578)
(not in AC or AO)
HNRII has : C B Ser I John Luddington June 1559 D. 1578 [1559 is altered in bold overwriting from 1660 ; I cannot trace the meaning of C.B.]
NRII has only: f Luddington. The subscript says ” v. Joh. Luddington in Samford Magna. The entry is in fact under Hempsted Chappell and reads:
Grindall 135 Joh.Luddington, cl 23 Sep 1564 per mort Man Ep. Lond per Lapf. [?lapse]
[Newcourt gives no death date but the next Rector there was in post in 1601]
The death in 1578 is not in our register. There is an entry for 1561 which is probably relevant:
Henrye, son of John Lyddington & Sara his wife christened 9 May 1561
It is probable that J.L. moved to Hempsted in 1564 and his other history is recorded there; it was a much richer parish with the famous Harvey monuments in the church. Hennessy’s clear note implies he did find a source. Our registers for this time exist in the form of the copies in a book of the original loose sheets, ordered the the Queen in 1598 and made here by John Paynell. Yet again we will have been served by curates for some 14 years, though for 8 of them it was by the succeeding Rector. We have no specimens of J.L.’s hand.
Thomas Paynell (minister 15708; Rector 15781622)
(cl. He is not in AC or AO)
HNRII has : Grindall 193 Thos. Paynell, cl. June 17, 1578 D. 1622 [altered from 1624]
NRII has: Grindall 193 g Tho.Paynell cl. 17 Junii. 1578 per mort Luddington Eliz.Reg.
[this is the probable source for Hennessy’s confident date of 1578 above as he gives no day]
Footnote g is: Rob Paynell v. All Hallows, Hony lane, London. It is indeed about a Tho Paynell or Paganell but of one who was Rector there in 1540, resigned in 1560 & dies in the winter of 1563. This man was a canon of Merton Priory in Surrey, later a Canon in London and an author. He has an entry in Athenae Oxon. 1 vol. /12. As our man will have been born about 1545 this Canon may well have been his father, initiating a three generation clerical tradition spanning c.15401651.
Annex 1 on a separate page at the end of this chapter gives much detail of this family which is not repeated here. They undoubtedly were early dissenters in our Parish & are first discussed in chapter 4, for they are the first identifiable nonconformists. The confusion of dates is because Thos resigned in favour of his son John a couple of years before he died at an advanced age.
John Paynell (16221651)
(MA on Al Cant p 324; check college)
HNRII has only : Pat.20 James I p.17 m.1 John Paynell May 16 1622 [again altered from 1624]
NRII gives no information between the appointment of Tho. Paynell in 1570 & that of Cook following the Bartholomew Act in 1662. He seems almost exclusively only to have transcribed the Reg:Libbs:
He was born in 1589 when his father is referred to as T.P. Clerk. His entry in Al.Cant, p 324 gives: Emmanuel College 1605/6; matriculated 1606; BA 1609/10; M.A. 1613. He was ordained Deacon @ Peterborough in 13 December and made priest on 19 December. Paynell’s death is in our Register of burials for 29 September 1651. His will was proven (Com.Essex) in the same year.
He had signed the Essex Testimony in 1648 but not the Watchword of the following year, only a year or so before he died. He also is noted as appearing in support of John Mow of Great Bardfield by helping him with a christening at a time when Mow was charged in 1644 with being insufficiently Puritan.. J.P.seems to have been an orthodox Presbyterian.
Split here and put in Paynell Annex (Done 08/09/03)
Annex 1: The two Pannell Rectors and their family (This text is already in Chapter 4 ?p3. In a pencilled note it says ‘out of place move to p8.12’. So delete 4.3?? AFE 06/08/03???)
There are 33 entries for the name Pannell in the Registers from 1581 1684 and a solitary one of 1782; I have listed some of them below. I also recall that there is one grave in the churchyard.
The Congregational records contain 14 entries of 4 families from 1877 to 1904. There is none in the period 181177 which might connect with ours.
Our Rectors belong to a local family. They owned Pannells le Hill, now Hill Farm in Ridgewell, in 13851613; [my note on it says it is not far from Ridgewell but I do not think this means Ridgegwell Norton] also Bradfields in Toppesfield: there are Paynells in both Hedinghams: the placename Pannells Ash occurs in both Ashen & Belchamp St Paul.
There was however a Canon Thos. Paynell in Surrey & London who died in 1563 when Rector of All Hallows, Honey Lane. He could be the father of our Thos.
There are at least 3 Pairings with a Thomas in our own register:
No 1 is our Rector with his first wife Susan: they had 810 children 15821603; he died 1624
No 2 is with Grace; 1 child in 1623 who died ?1670 this may also be our Rector when a very old man with a new young wife who then died 15 Jan 1628
No 3 is Thos with Sara; 3 or 4 children in 166476; died 1714. This Thos is probably s.o. our Rector & may be the child on the line above
Some of the entries which I noted in about 1984 follow:
January 1618/19 An isolated signature at the bottom of a page that is at not the end of an o.s.year. It is clearly Robin [& possibly] Pannilz
Thos Paynell s.o. Thos & Grace bz 20th [written CCth] July 1624. [the distorted C was a way of writing X] There is a cross in the margin & the Father is written Thomas [M] Paynell [the script M having 4 peaks] is this a sign for a posthumous [postmortem of the male parent, as opposed to a Caesarian] birth, for Rx was buried on CCth February.? This entry is pairing No 2 above.
Jldach Paynell s.o. John & Sara bz 25 Nov 1623
Thos Paynell, clerk, [supposedly our Rx 15781623] buried CCth(20) February 1623/4 [I deduce his birth to be about 1545 making him nearly 80 when he died.
Thos. gent of Hedghm Sible, widower, m Sabryna of Castle H 1635 [was she a Fitch ?]
A beautiful latin secretary hand appears in 1632, 1635&6 & 1639. He wrote year headings as well as did some work [how do I know he did ?]; he will be the parish clerk who wrote the only surviving Bishops transcript signed by John P in a quite different italic hand.
Francis d.o. John & Rebecca bz 22 Feb 1650/51
John s.o. John & Rebecca bz 22 Feb 1650/51 [is this a young 2d wife of Rx ?]
John Paynell buried 29 Sep 1651 [Rx 162251; bz 1589; + aet 62]
Anna d.o. Thos & Sara bz 16 Feb 1666/7 [ father is probably s.o. of Rx Thos bz 1623, now aet 43; cannot be the Hedingham parents.]
William Pannell buried 16 Aug 1684 [apart from the Robin Pannillz & this entry the name is constantly spelt Paynell] (I have a note d.o.b. 1620 + aet 64 but could be 1636 + aet 48; G O K Y)
Sara Paynell + 15 Jan 1628 [I think J.F.asked for this]
Canon Fitch mentions several families, mainly of Stoke, from 1442 onwards going on to his own family.
They are in Appendix B of Chapter 6 of Fitchcraft, pp 116118 but seem not to tie in with any of these entries in the Stambourne Registers. He does not mention either of our Rectors. There must be a connection but it would take a large family tree to work this out. I shall delay this until I see need for it. Much of his data come verbatim from a man called Neil whom I suspect to be a previous cleric from Stoke, but he gives no references. I have destroyed my notes on my 1984 notes.
Henry Havers (1651 until his ejection 1662, though he probably did not go until 1664)
(B.A. St Catharine’s)
HNRII has a note added in small hand at the bottom of the page in isolation saying:
Hen Havers Presbyterian 1645 – 1662 never ordained
NRII has no mention of him, nor of his predecessor.
College history → ordination
This Rector, who undoubtedly held legal tenure under the Great Seal and was, I am sure, ordained in their fashion by the Holborn Classis, was perhaps the most influential churchman ever to be in our village. After his ejection he founded the Stambourne Meeting, which survives as the Congregational Chapel, and remained preaching in some manner until his death in October 1707. He is buried in the Churchyard he had left 45 years before.
Though he himself left no traceable will, his family was of sufficient importance for a mass of data to be accumulated. We have the full text of that of his father (HHR) The are presented as four appendices at the end of this Chapter;
they detail the chronology of his times & family;
give an extensive family tree over five generations;
a description of it;
some detailed notes on the important members of the family tree with their location on it indicated by greek letters; if recast these last two will be amalgamated
The events following his ejection de jure under the Bartholomew Act, whenever that took place
de facto, are complex. Stambourne church had three new appointees in three months. This series is discussed in a separate note on Rectors at the time of the Restoration in our part of Essex in another annex to this chapter.
These suggestions repeated below in slightly different form (presumably a later file)
The Paynell annex could be #1 on p 12
The four Havers Annexes could be
#2 on pp 13 14 15 16
#3 on pp 17 & 18 this & #4 will be amalgamated if retyped
#4 on pp 19, 20, 21
#5 as a spread on pp 23/24
The Restoration Rectors could be # 6 but should follow the Cooks
Annex 2: The Chronology of Henry Havers
After these various notes
See also notes on Tree
A Chronology of the Life & Times of
The Revd Henry Havers BA c1620 – 1707
Rector of SS Peter &Thomas 1651 – 1662
The main characters are:
His propositus whom I have called HHI
His father Henry Haver of Matching, C1590 – 1657 called HHR
His eldest son Henry Havers c1648 – 1724 called HHII
His grandson Henry Havers 1707 – 1748 (s.o Philip Havers) called HHIII
A number of other events which appear in documents of in law is included to set the scene. Where spelling departs from modern usage it has been copied from an original source. The generation of HHR did not adopt a terminal letter S but the next generation did. Venn sometimes writes Heavers.
1350 Robt Havers of Sudbury was fined for keeping a gaming house.
1560 21 Dec H Havor (who may be the father of HHR) was witness to the murder of Augustus Sawkyn (ERO A55)35/3/2/31
1590 estimated dob of HHR
1592 Thos Haver Bt resides at Thelton Hall Norfolk. There is a massive tree of this branch of the family in the Genealogical Society library.
1613 28 May on the death of Jno Pollard his son of the same name is admitted to St: properties Page Croft (? Acres), Whay Croft (5a) and Wallers.
1614 25 Apr HHR appeared with Robt Whyberd at Canewdon to answer questions. He defaulted and was estreated (Q SR 206 95).
1614 HHR = Catherine Marshall at Matching (from Boyd; WBS says not confirmed)
1617 two bzs of HH babies this year; one is at S Vedast on 28 Sep.
Neither of them is HHI I think.
1619 HHR gives messuage at Sheering to Edwd Br of HHI (T/A44/253 & D/DHT)
1620 probable dob of HHI; S B (in TEMP) says it is at Matching. I have not found this record but it is the date I had estimated from his matriculation in 1627 and graduation BA in 1641/2 (HHI did become MA).
1629 12 May Henry Bigg sells to Simon Finch Little Parkfield abutting Colliers; Park Meadow; Paynells; & Rectory Land – these Stn names can still be identified.
1630 bz of Dorithy Clopton if I have identified her correctly (3d m of HHI)
1637 HHI matriculates as a sizar at Aula Sancta Katherina, as it then was.
1641/2 HHI graduates BA.
1643 HHI chosen on the 6th ‘Classis’ to be Vicar of Chipping Ongar.
1647 this year is also quoted for that choice.
At about this time a sister of Anne Peachy’s mother Bridget x married a male Havers to become Anne’s rich uncle and aunt. Havers – quoted in the diary of Anne’s husband Rev Isaac Archer p138/9 (IA’s numbering).
1648 first m of HHI and birth of HHII at about this time.
1648/9 February to 1650 Vicar of Fyfield. Signed the Watchword but did not take the engagement. The dates of his duties are unclear because of the sequestration of Dr Reade’s living to Jessop and of another appointment to the living before he left.
1649 Michaelmas. Chaplain to the Earl of Warwick, one of Cromwell’s generals: absence on service may explain why the next entry in the Fyfield registers leaves blank the christian name of his first wife.
1650 22 May Philip, 2d s o HHI bz and his mother dies in childbed.
1651 1 May ordained by Andrewe Classis, Holburne; the name (printed in later books) is spelt Hawes.
13 Oct appointed Rx of Stambourne by the Great Seal with full legal title
27 Nov m Anne Collins at Matching – she is of Braintree.
1653 Last autograph records in our registers certainly in the hand of HHI; the civil register is appointed – this record is later heavily deleted so is uncertain. I doubt any of the records are by him; those relevant all seem to be made at one time and go to 1665.
1656 HHI to preach same Smi??? (1650 – 56) Funeral ????? [Gladys Horton p 136]
1653 27 Sep m Dorithy Clopton at Edwardstone, Sfk (Boyd has 1652). We have no records of Anne’s †; timing suggests it was in childbed.
1656/7 24Feb bz of Dorithy’s firstborn, Clopton Havers (later to be MD FRS). This is one of the entries I guess to have been made in 1655.
1657 28 Nov Will of HHR, proven 30 July 1658. HHR does not sign and makes no bequest to HHI save 10/-. (this entry out of order). Moved AFE
1662 23 Aug Act of Uniformity becomes law; I have no evidence when HHI refused to conform but suppose it was before 11 November 1662.
Michaelmass: The first of the Hearth Tax records in ERO. Various Havers in Essex paid: a Henry in Colchester S Peter; Philip at All Saints; Edward at Harlow; Richard at Bishops Wood and Gt Waltham; at Margaretting; at Stambourn [blank] Havers Gent paid for vii hearths, who must be HHI. Only Choate, with 10, paid more. There were 5 other Havers in Essex.
11 Nov Robert Cooke MA instituted by Bp London “per inconformitatem ult. rectoris”.
4 Dec Peter Birkenhead appointed by order in council on a court roll.
1662/3 27 Jan Robert Cock AM instituted by the same bishop in the same register book; I cannot determine whether these are the same man or no.
1663 June HHI excommunicated (Act books of the Archdeacon of Middx; ERO)
1664 17 Aug Conventicle Act: R T-J says it means to exclude meetings of more than 5 souls + household members.
6 Sep Robert Cock attends Primo Visitio Humfredo Henchman Hedingham Decanat
1665 17 July John Choate and his wife cited for being preached to by Mr Havers at their house. In this and later prosecutions several names that are recorded in the village for centuries are specified.
1664 – 1666 For this period the PRO has 3 manuscript books of Hearth Tax records with a total of 5 columns of data. The dates are unclear; one is ‘CAR I’, another 1671. All attribute vii hearths to (blank) Havers Gent. On one only there is an endorsement ‘now Robert Cock Cl’icus, markedly more polite record than HHI gets. Logically this should be Michaelmass 1666 but I suspect it is 1664.
1664 24 Mar On the last day of that year the Five Mile Act became law; it prohibits an ejected minister from coming within 5 mi of a parish in which he was beneficed, or held a conventicle or of any city, corporation or borough.
1666/7 15 Jan Epiphany: HHI cited for not removing his abode
(Stambourne Sessions Rolls Q/SR 411/55 in ERO).
1667 8 Oct Again, probably for non-compliance (for he did not) (414/26).
By this time he will have been installed in New House Farm within a moat a few hundred yards S of the Rectory; it was still stood there in 1944. I guess he built it in 1664.
1668 A complex controversy, with others, with the Quaker George Whitehead.
1669 16 Apr Reported to Bp Sheldon for having a conventicle (not a v certain record).
1670 22 Feb Three entries in the Archdeacon’s record book relating to HHI’s ‘little flock’.
18 May Some were excommunicated.
20 July
1672 15 Mar Declaration of Indulgence (which allowed licences) R T-J says 400 in Essex (p91); Bainbridge quotes Bate as giving 58 of which 40 were Presbyterian and 12 Congregational (they began in 1640 and claimed 130 ministers in 1660).
16 Apr HHI licensed as Presbyterian Teacher in Gray Friars in Nicholas Parish, Ipswich; but was silenced at Colchester Assizes.
2 May HHI licensed at his house in Stambourne.
There are two legends of little substance relating to somewhen prior to this time. The Cobweb parson Story relates his hiding in his Malt kiln to avoid capture and the soldiers leaving him because of a spider’s web on the opening. Davids in his Finchingfield entry has ‘Tradition states’ that meetings were held in the dark and thunderstorms at Rivells on the Stambourne border (Revells is our most southerly farm).
1673 27 Sep Margarett Havers’ will, spinster (sic) of Matching. Property is divided between her two “sons”, John & Edward and 10 grandchildren get 5/- each. She is the mother of HHI and though his children are in he is excluded.
1675 Speake v (Philip) Havers, Rx Mt Bures, for clandestine marriages
(Court of Arches 8581)
1677 19 Apr Stambourn Moot Hall (presumably Moons Hall) Admission of Eliz Chapman to 10 acres of Jerminghams in Halstead, part of Abels acquired of Ric Cuthbert and another messuage in Halstead of Daniel Parkfield.
1677 Philip Havers v London & Exton; his impersonation by Mr Andrewes at his installation in Mt Bures (& he claimed an MA) 8581 in All p363.
1679 Q/SR 443/45 continues the Mt Bures story of Philip
1681 and again
1683 HHI again charged with keeping a conventicle (Archdeacon’s visitation D/AMV 7)
1690 HHI has £20 pa as one fifth of his emoluments as Rector & also has £12 pa of his own (probably Dorithy’s)
1691 Clopton Havers m to Dorcas Fuller d.o Dr Thomas Fuller (but not the writer) by the Bishop of London ML
Thomasin Clopton buried in Stambourn (probably Dorithy’s sister)
1701 “Mrs Judith Havers” buried in Stambourne; I think this may well be widow of Ric Havers of Sparlings or a spinster daughter but others have assumed her to be a fourth wife HHI.
1702 Death of Clopton Havers
1703 Dorcas m Bp White Kennet of Peterborough
1704 28 Dec Thos Plate sells to John Choate part of 12 acres on the highway from Stambourne to Finchingfield (D/DHT Acc No 2822) (T/A44 p444) (T 245/1-4)
1707 25 Oct HHI buried in the churchyard he left 45 years before. He was still preaching & Kennet says he did so twice a week until he was eighty.
1710 Grant of a ‘Parcel of the Wast’ to HHII who was then living at The Shop, Stambourn.
1713 Deposition to Gamekeepers in Q/RG1 & 41 Walley Halley & London. This is quite unclear and may relate to HHII keeping a gun.
1717 First chapel built – there is still some argument on this
Illustrations (They occur on p 4-7 & 4-8; AFE)
1722 HHII gives a sermon in Isaiah chap XL vv 1 & 2.
1724 HHII dies aet 73 or 75; HHIII succeeds as minister
1735 Book of Common Prayer in use in the Chapel & for some time afterwards!
1739 HHIII writes a beautiful manuscript copy of the 1722 sermon bound as a 408 pp leather book in ERO (D/DQ 35)
During his ministry the Chapel is said to have been enlarged & had double doors fitted.
1748 Death of HHIII ends 86 years of Havers Non-conformist ministry in Stambourn. A stone recording HHII & HHIII lies in the grass beside the door of the present, 3rd, Chapel.
1811 Chapel baptismal & burial records begin; they call it still ‘Meeting’
1821 Village population 432
1831 475 persons
The Chapel owns two porringers, last used as communion cups by Frank Dodderidge Humphreys, Pastor 1914-23. The smaller was made by P*P in London in 1658 when HHI was still Rector: the larger, which bears the arms of Clopton, by Isaac Davenport in 1675. I can find nothing of their history but they do suggest that HHI was comfortably off and that the former may well have been used in SS P & T.
Your notes on Positioning of Annexes
The Paynell annex could be #1 on p 12
The four Havers Annexes could be
#2 on pp 13 14 15 16
#3 on pp 17 & 18 this & #4 will be amalgamated if retyped
#4 on pp 19, 20, 21
#5 as a spread on pp 23/24
A discussion of the three Restoration Rectors will follow the Cooks; the disc must absorb my early typescript on the restoration. The evidence hinges largely on the XXIV Register Bookes of the Bishops of London. They are A3 size vellum rebound in red buckram; they are numbered MS 9531/16 et seq in the Guildhall library. They are numbered in the top RH corner of each spread but Newcourt uses this number for the obverse & reverse of a single folio.
They carry 3 entries per side(6 per folio) of a reasonably fixed format within a box of 6mm ruled lines. They are illwritten in secretary hand of ecclesiastical doglatin.
The date is commonly given in full; there can be little doubt as the entries are consecutive with few gaps. The day no: is in full, often in u.c. in 20 mm letters. The year and month are in words; the latter may be as in 1638 or 1667/8. Mensis et annus prae or et locus prae are often used to facilitate, e.g., 3 entries on 6 November 1662, 3 on the 8th, 1 on the 11th (this is Stambourne) ansd 3 on the 13th
The appointees name usually writtten by the scribe but Gugl: Tompfon did sign.
The Bishops christian name commonly as a signature in a gap left for him.
The place in camera sua apud Whitehall or in Palatio
Notary Publics name
Parish name
Cause of vacancy sadly this usually omitted
Patron’s name
This takes up half the entry; the rest is oaths & benefits.
They contain entries by more than one bishop but are solely entitled by the name of the man who largely figures in it;. in our period:
Laud was Ep.Lond 162833; his book was numbered XV. He was translated to Canterbury & executed in 1644 [Laud folio 132 is 20 Aug 1660]
Wm Juxon (c 1578 – 1663) was instituted in 1633, attended Car I on the scaffold, was sacked by Cromwell in 1646 and restored to his see in 1660, aet 80 – 82 y probably in May @ the Restoration. His earlier entries are in Reg.Lib XV. He does not have a book named after him. For a reason I cannot discern his reference [perhaps his only one, I did not check] is R C Juxon; is this Revd in Christ, Roman Catholic or some other abbn. I wonder if there is a book missing. He is translated to Canterbury in turn in October 1660.
Gilbert Sheldon (c 1598 – 1677) is Ep.Lond 1660 to Oct 1663. He does not have a book; his entries are in Henchman. He leaves a dozen blank pages between 10 Oct 1646 and 19 July 1660, presumably to record sub rosa Commonwealth appointments; this is never done. There are 9 July, 40 in August & 7 in September, the last being on the 12th. He also makes our contentious appointments in 1662/3. I did not find the original of Cook to Maplestead Magna appointment dated 27 September 1660 attributed to R C Juxon. Where is it recorded ? This book seems to have ended @ Michaelmas.
Humphrey Henchman (1592 – 1675) is Ep.Lond. 1663 to Oct.1675. Book XVI, which I guess was begun in about 1640, had his name added to it much later, perhaps when it was bound. It has both Juxon & Sheldon entries. He makes a visitation to Henningham Decanat in 1664 & confirms Sheldon’s appointment of Robert Cock. [Henchman folio 24 is 21 Oct 1661 for Lamborne]
Henry Compton was Ep.Lond. 16751700; his name is on book XVII & he appears in 2 vols.
Thus these bishops were aged 80 –82, 62 and 69 when appointed to London.
M.A. was invariably associated with c*licus = clericus. If no A.M. pr. was used; is this praebendarii ?
These books have marginal notes referring to these words & data:
The patron presents to the living
The Bishop institutes the incumbent to the cure of soul,
The induction to the material benefices is commonly by the proxy of a local divine.
A collation is when the Bishop is himself the Patron and is the sum of 1 & 2. (OED 1640)
A collation may “now” mean a patron giving himself the living.
My papers have been rearranged and are :
a 4page typescript of 14 Nov 1986 which transcribes all my pencil notes made in the Guildhall that day; the obligatory pencil documents are stapled together under Cook in his file
a fifth page dated 15 Mar 1987 is a typed copy of my latest understanding of the doglatin and my own translation
all the 14 traceable references to the 10 variants of Cook are on two typed pages
one page typescript which I have called notes on the Civil Register; I now think it may not be the work of a layman but I do describe the entries made on Commonwealth register events; I now think they may all have been done in one sitting in 1665, possibly by some cleric. It should be compared with the notes called annex #6 above.
NJE’s work is in 3 parts though his appendix seems to me to be a separate 4th part.
Part 1 is his listing of all the rectors pp3/1 3/3
Part 2 is his discussion of the evidence, largely that compiled by me; he writes brief biographies; I have absorbed these into Chapter 8 3/4 3/22 3/16 is mssing
Part 3 is a list of sources 3/23 & 3/24
Part 4 is his appendix discussing 166065 3/25 to #41
He numbers them consecutively from 3/1 to 3/23 and then continues as pages 24 to 41
Robert Cook (1662)(M.A. Caius 1636) [let us call him RCI]
HNRII says; Henchman 43 [crossed tick] Robt. Cooke A.M.Nov. 11 1662 [no further date or patron]
NRII says: Henchman 43 h Rob.Cooke A.M. 11 Nov. 1662 per Inconformitatem ult. Rectoris.
Patronus Car II R. Footnote h says : Rob. Cook, v Maplestead magna
[the represents a tiny blob that may be an abbn for a lower case letter e]
This man, whose entry in the the Nom.Reg Libb is quite clear, has one of 10 possible identities among manuscript & printed contemporary records. These will be discussed later with his data. NJE’s idiomatic translation, after he had made 14 erudite observations and grammatical corrections on my rough literal attempt to render the Henchman 43 appointment, runs:
Following the failure of the previous incumbent to make declaration as required by the recent act of Parliament, Robert Cooke A.M. Priest was admitted and instituted on 11 October 1662 to the rectorship of the partish church of Stambourne, with all its rights & revenuse, by the Reverend Father Gilbert Sheldon, Bishop of London, speaking with due authority in his room at Whitehall in the presence of Richard Butler.
Cooke was presented to the living by our illustrious Lord ruler in Christ, our Lord Charles II, by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France & Ireland, Defender of the Faith and by undoubted right Duke of Lancaster, the lawful sponsoring Patron.
Cooke declared in the presence of the Bishop that he would conform to the articles of religion and to
canon law and swore an oath of allegiance to the supremacy of the King’s Majesty. Her had on a previous occasion promised canonical obedience to the siad Reverend Father and his successors
[from here on NJE considers it to be unintelligible but it seemed to me to be a fairly clear statement that he would own and enjoy all the property.
Thus it is clear that:
He was Havers’ immediate successor
He was our first appointee after the Bartholomew Act
That this was intended to be complete appointment, institution & patron’s gift.
The instrument does not contain any evidence that he actually got here but the Parish Register does shew a change of hand for the entries dated 1 August 1661 & 14 June 1662; both are christeningsof children named ffitch. They appear at the bottom of a page and could and do look to have been written at the same time after the latter date. They are not by HHII [Hw6] who had probably retained physical possession of the book; they could possibly be evidence of a fleeting visit by RCI or even P.B. v.i. It is most likely they were inserted later in response to a request & payment.
In my view [v.i.] this man, though legally appointed, almost certainly never came here. He had been appointed to Maplestead Magna by “R.C.” Juxon on 27 September 1660 and he stayed until he died. NJE has suggested that he lost this plural appointment because he failed to eject Havers.
Peter Berkenhead (for 45 days in 1662)
(M.A. Oxon)
HNRII says, in a small cramped line inserted as an afterthought:
Pat 14 Ch.II p.19 m83 Peter Berkenhead Cl. M.A.[no date of departure is given]
NRII does not mention him, presumably as this is a crown lawyer’s appointment.
Al: Oxon on p 128 gives him as:
Birkenhed, Peter (Berkinhead), ‘ser’ ChristChurch, matric 23 July 1656, rector of Somercotes
S Peter, co. Lincoln, 1663 & S Somercotes S Mary 1672.
It gives no dates for his degrees which are likely to have been BA 1659, ordination soon after and MA 1662 or ’63 . Thus we would have been his first post but he probably went straight to Lincoln hoping to hold us as an absentee for a second source of income only. There is certainly no entry in the Register likely to have been made by him.
I have seen the original open letter and illustrate it here. NJE makes 11 comments on my interpretation of the doglatin text much of which is clearly idiosyncratic. His idiomatic translation is :
Peter Berkinhead, MA, priest
I King Charles, having taken advice, in accordance with various laws and in particular in accordance with all the requirements of the established law concerning the usual procedure for presentions, do now on the 4th of December [it was 1662] exercise my legal right to issue a letter patent confirming presentation of this priest to the rectorship of Stambourne, Essex in the Diocese of London, as arranged by the Reverend Lord Bishop of London, Gilbert Sheldon.
This purports to be a confirmation. However Sheldon had already made appointments to us in Henchman on pages 43 & 50 dated Nov 11 1662 & on Jan 27 1662/3. His scribes have left no spaces as, e.g., the dozen blank leaves left for later entries over the Commonwealth period. It could, I suppose be a case of Sheldon being so confused he has asked the Royal scribes to confirm an appointment he had arranged but had not, in the phrases he uses in his own records, admitted and instituted him. Berkenhead was our first Oxford alumnus & Sheldon was an Oxford grandee
The text on p 43 for Cook starts by giving as a reason the failure of the Havers to conform. There is no such reason here nor in the next entry for Cock on p 50 of Henchman though many entries do not give any reason.
The only register entry dated for one of P.B’s 45 days incumbency is the birth of the second Dorothy Havers on 26 December 1662. It is the same handwriting #12 as his other entires of 1653/65 and was probably written in 1665 from notes. It seems improbable that Hw 12 is that of P.B. though it is a just tenable hypothesis that he did retain some connection with us and returned to make these entries in the interrgenum between RCII & Thompson. Hw12 is not Thompson’s or RCII’s hand.
Robert Cock (1662 1667)(A.M. Emmanuel 1658) [let us call him RCII]
HNRII says: Henchman 50 Robert Cock A.M. Jan 27 1662/3 [the 6 is overwritten on a 7]
[no departure date is given]
NRII says Henchman 50 Rob. Cock A.M. 27 Jan. 1672 (the space after this date where a reason would be inserted is overrun by the reason why RCI was appointed given on the previous line]
Patron Car II. R. This mistaken 7 was first copied & then corrected by Hennessy.
Henchman folio 50 on the obverse has Stamborne Rectoria in the margin It begins:
VICESIMO SEPTIMO DIE die [repeated] mensis Janii AD villimo sextesimo sexagesimo secundo [the letter x is written with a long tail flourish downwards to the right and does indeed at first sight ressemble a l.c. letter p, as Newcourt had read it.] The name is clearly Robertus Cock and is written by the scribe without a terminal e, though there is a tail to the letter k which might be an abbreviation for this letter; Robe has been overwritten in blacker ink with a sharper pen. He is titled cl*icus artibus magister. Sheldon has himself signed Gilbertus: in his room @ Whitehall, Richard Butler present. It continues….. Ecclia prealis (Eccelsiae parochialis has been squeezed in in abbreviated form .) Ad Rectoriam de Stamborne; de Stam [but not ‘borne] is in a rough white patch and has been neatly rewritten in an identical manner to “Robe” v.s. It was this alteration that made me search for other parishes ending in ‘borne’ and found Lamborne. Here Will Parsons was appointed both on 30 Aug 1660 & on 21 Oct 1661 a similar confusion to ours but not invalidating our entry [v.i.]; it ends
Com Essexia, iam l***time [legitime] My facsimile of his name is:
It is written in poor quality secretary hand on very rough vellum. Caroli secundi has also been overwritten but there is no reference to his being Duca Lancastri. No term is given as is usual.
Annex 3: A discussion of the two Cooks
This Rector is clearly later than Cooke (thus we call them RCI & RCII). Henchman 125 admits Will. Thompson to our Rectory on 28 May 1667 giving the reason per mort ult rect [no name spelling given] so we may assume that RCII died early in 1667. Grace Cock [without an ‘e’] was buried 26 Oct 1668 by Tompfon and Robt had married one, Judith Cocki? to Thos Chaplin on 9 Mar 1665; indeed it was the first of his few entries. Thus we can be sure that he, at least, of these three men did live in the village and perhaps used the spelling Cocke for his family. It will appear that he was quite young so these two ladies will have been his sister and his wife or mother.
For entries on 12 June 1666 and 8 Jan 1666 [66/67] we employed a latinist who was not his successor, Tompfon; he was appointed 22 May, 5 months later. This suggests that RCII had pneumonia that winter, or perhaps died of the plague which was at that time in Coggeshall; there is some support for this latter supposition in that his burial is not recorded in our register whereas Grace Cock’s is..
Both NJE & I have addressed three questions:
Are RCI & RCII one and the same person, appointed twice, as e.g, was Will Parsons.
Who were they.
Was either of them in fact named Richard Cooke as Newcourt assumes.
We have 23 references to men of similar names from sources between 1660 &1700; among them are ten clerics, 3 called Richard & 7 who are named Rob., Robert or Robertus. These data are listed as interleaved, by their sources. The additional names appear in the Hearth Tax records as in chapter 4. Richard #8 and Roberts #s4, 7 & 10 are possibilities.
The evidence for a definitive decision is not available. There are no signatures on documents or manuscripts from 166267, save perhaps Rob Cock at the visitation; the Weeley man is called Mr. so presumably this is by a scribe. There are no certain entries in our Registers other than those by the putative Civil Register in 16621665. No births or deaths of Cocks/Cookes &c prior to Grace Cock in 1668 appear in Stambourne registers; even the undoubted death & presumably burial of RCII is not here.
There is a fair degree of homogeneity about the spelling of Robert Cock for RCII in all of Henchman’s Register Book & the record of his 1664 Visitation, in HNRII, NRII, Al: Cantab: and the second of two Cock entries we do have. The Rector himself, who wrote italic and not secretary, spelt Judith’s name Cocki at her wedding; the terminal letter, which has no dot on it, may well be just a flourish to the k, for he was, after all, writing his own surname.
There is no such agreement about RCI who is either Cook, Cooke or Cocke but never Cock.
My conclusion is therefore:
Richard Cooke, a pensioner of Sidney 1624/5, BA 1629, MA 1632, bz c. 1608 & 56 in 1662 is the Rector of “Wiley” = Weely or Weeley who is entered as Mr Rich Cooke R. in the visitation to Tendring Decanat later in 1664. This mentions Kelvedon & Lofting. Kennett puts him also in Little Braxted. Sheldon undoubtedly calls him Robertus & thus Newcourt conflated him with RCI. He never was here.
Robert Cock, Emmanuel 1650, Matric 1651, BA 1654, MA 1656, born about 1635 & 27 in 1662, a local man, s/o of Robert of Much Waltham is, in my view, most likely to be RCII and the only Rector to work in the parish.
Robert Cocke, = Cooke s/o John of Rockland in Norfolk; school; Wymondham; pensioner of Caius in 1628, scholar 162935; matriculation 1629, BA 1632/3, MA 1636. Curate Thetford 1637; Minister Deopham, Norfolk, 1648; Approved to preach by the Parliamentary committee 1658. Venn has him a Rector of Maplestead Magna & Stambourne. Though both appointments are clearly recorded there is little doubt that he never came here and spent the this part of his life in Maplestead, where he died. He is RCI
All these three men had plural livings but, for the most part, maintained themselves in one, or two nearby parishes for the majority of their activity. They tended to give up an earlier one when a more suitable living was found. Some of the restoration appointments seem to have been almost experimental, or even haphazard, and the suggestion that all three of ours were, in turn, intended to effect the removal of the popular but recalcitrant incumbent has force.
It seems likely that HHI, perhaps with the aid of the shadowy Civil Register, had kept the village going until Michaelmas 1664. In that September the new broom, Bishop Humphrey Henchman,made a deliberate visitation, confirmed RCII and laid down the law. Havers was despatched, perhaps by agreement with the young and energetic appointee (for half a mile at least, as far as Newhouse Farm) and this let Robert Cock into the benefits of the living. It is known that Havers was given the standard one fifth compensation; perhaps up till that time this had been the stumbling block.
I suspect that all the time HHI had held on to the register and was able to hand it over, probably with his own sheaf of notes. Kennet says the church was derelict. Cock, though young, may well have been sick. When he dies Wm Tompfon takes over in 1667 and pulls everything together.
Annex 3a: Henchman notes
Page 2 of the 6 hr stint ≡ 19 Nov 86? (no evidence of Page 1 of same; AFE)
Reverse of p42 Reg Lib Henchman – actually the appointments are by Sheldon, on Weeley the volumes have more than 1 bishop.
Weeley Rectoria (in margin)
(sexentesimo in previous entry)
OCTAVO DIE mensis Novembris Anno Domini millesimo sextesimo sexagesimo secundo.
(clericus) (sic) (Episcopalium)
Robertus Cooke clicus A M per Reverendum Patram Gilbertum London Epicum in
(court or chamber) (in the presence of)
camera sua apud Whitehall presento (?) Richardo Butler Notario Publico Ad
(sic) (ecclesia parochialis) (o – clear)
Rectorium ecclio parolis de Weely in comitatu Essexiae per inconformitatem
(cottationem)
ultimi incumbentis ibidem vacantem et ad donationem sivo Collaronem (?) (the said)
(spontantane?)
domini Episcopi Sportand Collatus et admissus fuit intuiti charitatis.
(sum) (doesn’t exist) (portiones eus) (elemosiniis)
*suis – juribus nomembris et portinonontius (?)
universus investitis subscriptus prius per Emm – Artis Religiosus et
†jinonitis(?) Allograntiae
(This is in execrable hand so I gave up her and went on to our own entry)
imperitas is commanded
orantem imper(ibus) edicte
Garantem G O impex= editi l=t
Robt Cook (Desiring or suppliant) by command is appointed is to Stamb~ Rect~ presented
Hn 43 obv: Stamborne (sic) Rec (in margin) (Abeautiful squarish script)
UNDECIMO DIE (rest of date as above) Robertus Cooke Clericus in Artibus Magister
(I have left a space for, I think, Bp & N P) in non subscriptione declaratorii
recent? Actis x x x
per ult. incumbenti secundum tenorme artis parliamenti impex edili Garantem et ad
domini
(another regrettable space for I think Rec Ecc par de Stamborne) presentatodii(?)
Illustrionii in Christo Principusat Dñi nostri Dñi Caroli secuñdi Dei Gratia
Hibernia Chersinus (of land)
Anglia Scotia Francia et Epibornia(?) Regis et Fidei defensis (nus)
recte (deservedly)
et indubitati racoe(?) Ducat Lancastriae pleno jure (ut asseritur) Patroni
to the same with all its rights & revenues (parts of a house)
(see above) Spontantono admissus et institutus est at in et de eadem sum *suis juribus membris
elemosiniis having just subscribed
universus invertitis subscriptis ptius pl Emm
artis Religionis juxta Canones praestitio †juramentis allegiantiae et
Suprematis Regiae Majestatis et oliam Canonitae – obediente ditto Reverendo
successoribus
Patri et ejus Suttosonibus et quod milla Simoniata gravitate son Conventione sese ad sandu praesentati
procuraviti et anop
data per emm Cura Animum parochianorum ibidm scriptum fuit Dno Arfino(?)
Middlesexiae son ejus offili ad monteno Eum
(indurendum)
(Gilbertum is in a different hand, presumably the Eps signature)
Hn 50 obv: Stamborn Rectoria (in margin)
27 Jan 1662
VICESIMO SEPTIMO DIE die (again) mensis Jani A D villimo Sextesimo Se agesimo secundo
This explains NRII’s 1672 error
Robertus Cock (Robe has been overwritten in blacker ink
tail could indicate an ‘e’
with a sharper pen) clicus artibus magister (or magistrar)
(by Gilbert in his rm @ Whitehall, Richard Butler present)
Ecclia prealis
Ad Rectoriam de Stamborne
Comˉˉ Essexia, ultime probably iam legitime
Poor quality Secretary hand on very rough vellum
No reason given as in many others
de Stam (but not the borne bit) is in very rugh white patch and has been rewritten as has Robe (vs) with the same neat correction.
Patroni (who is Charles II) has also been overwritten but there is no Duca Lanc reference
No term is given – but many entries have none either
Ecclesiae Parochialis has been squeezed in abbreviated as has jam
The long tail on the x of sexagesima does make it look like septagesima, hence RN’s 1672 & Venn’s copying thereof
Hn 125 rev: Stamborn Rectoria (in margin) 22 Maii 1667
Gulielmus Thompson appears to be a signature cl A M
Humfredum Lond by the scribe
ad Rect Ecc Par di Stamborne in Com Essex (I can’t remember whether these are my abbns or his)
Per mortem ultimi Incumbentis ib̃m vacanδ (same being vacant)
Again there is no mention of any determination of the tenancy
Compton 53 rev: Weely Rec: in margin where it also says Collatio alone on this spread, all the others being Instutio
25 Jan 1678/9 (year sic)
Samuel Sedgick (scribe) Artium Mag¯
Henrico Parker Not˜ Pub˜
Bishop’s name not given
per mortem Richi Cooke clici
Can the odd word I cannot decipher explain the long delay in some way? (It was all on one line – I did not leave enough space before Richi.) [Have tried to put it back on one line; AFE]
There is no doubt Richi is not Rob in the text but Hn 42 of 1662 clearly gives Robertus.
So both Hn visits of 1664 & Compton 53 of 1678 give Rich: or Richi. Cooke for Weeley
I looked through Newcourt ( of which Guildhall has an excellent copy but will not permit photocopying) to see if the Hn50 entry could be some other ‘born’ than us as the de Stam was obviously a rewrite, I found:
P 360 Lamborne
Laud 132 Will Parsons LD 30 Aug 1660 per mort ult incumb. Patron Peter Mewes
Hen 24 Will Parsons LD 21 Oct 161 Car II R
There was a biography saying he was gaoled in the Commonwealth, was an LB @ Birchanger which he reseigned in 1660, was given a DL, ws under warden of New College, Prebendary of Chichester and ended up at Lambourne also holding Gt Dunmow.
Clearly another Royalist being paid off, this appearing as two (in his case) absolutely identical entries within 1660 – 1662.
As a side issue, pluralities seem to have been dualities with resignations of early livings on receipt of the better ones.
So I looked for more just at closing time and found:
P 324 Sible Hedingham
Bancroft 231 John Jegon AM 15 Oct 1618 His Patron was several Jegons
Laud 84 John Jegon AM 17 Nov 1634 Car II R Must be Car I R
Something wrong here too, perhaps the late hour, but we now have (assuming Cooke = Cock) 3 double entries the second being Car II R in each case.
The dates of the various Uniformity Acts all assume Car II R came to the throne as the head of Car I R hit the scaffold; thus 1662 is the 14th yr of his reign.
Another side issue: collatio now means giving yrself a living of which you are the patron but what it meant in 1678/9 is not clearly different from Institutio, though it does imply Bp was patron
Prima Visitation Generalis Humfredo Henchman is MS 9537/16.
It is indexed “All Clergy in 1664
It gives us Robert Cock & Weeley Mr Rich. Cooke R.
It is execrably written on cheap paper – more study needed.
I have Guildhall notes:-
List double entries – Lamborne & Sible Hedingham
15 Mar 1987 Call it p5 of Guildhall notes
An attempt to bring together all the notes on my original transcription of the:
Obverse of p 43 of Henchman: Stamborne Rectoria (in margin)
I now understand much better the significance and probability of abbreviations & admissions and have notes on translation from both Margaret Jones & NJE. I have also looked for many esoteric variant meanings in an1847 Ainsworth. Omissions are in ( )
UNDECIMO DIE mensis Novembris Anno Domini mille(cente)simo sex(ent)esimo secundo
Eleventh day of the month of November in the year of Our Lord 1662
Robertus Cooke clericus in Artibus Magister per reverendum Patram Gilbertum
Robert Cook (small flourish on e) clerk MA by the reverend Father Gilbert
London(ensis) Epi(s)c(opali)um in camera sua apud Whitehall p(re)sento Richardo Butler
London’s Bishop in his room at Whitehall in the presence of Richard Butler
in non subscriptione declaratorii per ult(imi) incumbentis secundum recens (or tenorem)
On the non-subscription to the declaration by the last incumbent according to the recent
actis parliamenti imper(io) edic(t)o Orantem et ad Rectorium eccle(es)ia(lis)
act of parliament commanded proclamation to the suppliant and to the Rectory of the parish
paro(chia)lis de Stamborne presentat(i)oni(s) Illustrioni in Christo Principus at
church of Stambourne at the presentation of our illustrious lord ruler in Christ and
D(omi)ni nostri D(omi)ni Caroli Secundi Dei Gratia Anglia Scotia Francia et
our Lord Charles the second by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France &
Hibernia Regis et Fidei defensis cher(s)i(nus) et indubitati recte Ducat Lancastriae
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith of land & undoubted direct line Duke of Lancaster
pleno jure (ut asseritur) Patroni Spontantono admissus et institutus est at in et
by full right (as it is asserted) as patron he is freely admitted and instituted but for &
de eadem sum suis juribus membris et portiones eus universus invertitis subscriptus prius
to the same with its rights, parts of home, portions of its all without exception tilled ground having first subscribed
p(er) Eum artis Religionis juxta Canones praestitio xc juramentis allegantiae
by oath to the article of religion and the canons in force and the oath of allegiance
et suprematis Regiae Majestatis et oliam Canonitae – – – obediente ditto Reverendo
and supremacy to the King’s Majesty, and of canonical obedience to the said Reverend
Patri et e(j)us successoribus et quod milla simoniata pravitate son Conventione sese
Father and his successors and so far as many simonies, depravities, convenants himself
ad saneu praesentati prcuravit et anor(mis)
to truly forsee and will protect (others) without order.
data per Eum Cura Animum parochianorum ibid(em) scriptum fuit D(omi)no Arfino
Given by oath the cure of souls in the parish herein written by master Arfino
Middlesexiae son ejus offi(cio)se indurendum
of Middlesex has respectfully made it firm
(Gilbertum has been inserted into a space in a different hand as is presumably a signature
An attempt to list all Cook variants that may be relevant (14 Mar 87)
The name is common in the area. G E Cook who founded the off-licence in Halstead that was still selling real beer in wooden casks in 1966 died last week. (So incidentally did Robert Copsey). There aren’t however any in the village at present.
This is a compilation from Al Cantab, Al Oxon, smith, Kennett, Newcourt, Henchman’s visitation of 1664, sources quoted by these
We are looking for a man with an MA in 1662/3, therefore more than 23 or 24.
Nothing else seems certain. All sources have discovered errors. I have discounted St Andrew’s degrees.
John Cook, Coke or Cock was ejected 1660 as Rector of Hyeford Warren
Jonas Cooke was rector of Little Bumpstead in ? 1627
(1)† young: had no living dec ‘62
He could Robt CII getting a living in the following yr and † 1665 aet 31
He is Rich in 3 refs.
He is most likely to be (2) and was † by 23 Aug 1662.
Hearth Tax
John Cook in Bumstead ad Turrum 1664
Now Robert Cock clicus in Stambourne: 8 chimneys 1666 = (12)
14 Mar 1987 1653-1664 Copy in Reg file (This is a direct clone of 7-77 and so does not attempt to incorporate pencilled notes from this typescript)
Annex 4: A note on the Civil Register
A note on the Civil Register & the overlapping at both ends of his entries with those made by Henry Havers & the second Robert Cock (= HH & RC2)
I now assume we have identified these handwritings. Tiny hand is HH. 53/65 is that of the Civil Register. The single column which contains the Cock wedding is RC2.
All the HH writing is on the one dirty page in the LH column which also has the putative election entry; I presume the ERO has seen many of these but its unreadable.
All the Civ Reg entries are on the next 4 spreads, one of which has 1 entry cut out. His is the only hand on them except for 2 consecutive borns (CR puts borne) at the bottom of the first on Aug 1 1661 & June 14 1662. Otherwise his entries are consecutive and continuous ending with a gratuitous 1675 entry.
All the RC2 entries are in one RH column on the next spread. It is headed AD 1665 but does contain the March .9.1664.. Judith Marriage entry.
The top 4 entries are baptisms on 27 June, 9 Jul, 10 Jul, (7 August ?not RC2)
the next 2 are marrieds 9 Mar 1664 (?os), 12 Oct 1665
there is a blur in which Th Ch pl of F (Judith’s spouse) can be discerned.
Next are 2 buryeds on September.26.
The 2 marrieds, Feb 166X & April. 25.166x. These are intended to be 1666 (though why the Feb 22 is is not clear) so he seems to be starting a new year.
The 1 bz of clearly april.25.1666. (It is of Robert Choat the sone of the couple married 10 minutes earlier.)
12 Jun 1666 marryed
4 June 1666 buryed
Decimoquarto Juny 1666 the latinist baptised a Peacock (Rebecca)
July 25 1664: a Cragg baptism in a spidery hand writing english. Date absolutely clear.
There is a sort of tortuous logic here. RC2 plans 1665 as Bzs, then Ms then buryeds.
The first entry is an M on Mar 9 so he puts it in 3 inches down and notes it is 1664(os). He has however first had a bosh shot putting it 5 inches down – presumably his very first record in the parish.
There are then 4 bzs squeezed above it – the 4th is rather different & dated August the 7th anno pra;di° I don’t think its RC2. It is not CivReg though it does say Born not bz
He then plans 1666 but starts with Ms. The poor little bastard is the only bz & he is tucked in in proper chronological sequence after his parents M.
He finishes with a buryed on June 4. 1666. This is his last entry – I am sure it is RC2.
So he runs from 9 Mar 1665 to 4 Jun 1666 – was perhaps sick 7 Aug 65 & + by 4 Jun 66. Now our Reg wouldn’t enter a church wedding anyway so his last entry, a ffitch borne, on 12 jiine 1665 comes immediately before RC2’s first (Wiborough) baptism on June 27.
Were they handing the book back and forth?
Though Reg makes mistakes (16585; 1634 for 1654) and the Fitch 12 Jun 65 is the only isolated one he does after 26 Sep 1663 I don’t think it can possibly be 1663 itself. It just could be 1664 but I think not.
So the only 1664 entry is at the end of RC2’s column in a neuritic hand – it is John Cragg’s baptism on 25 July and the 4 of 1664 is so clear I wonder if it was altered to support some curious legal inference.
In short the only 1664s are one tht is 1665ns & one forgery = none.
Where Reg begins is also obscure. The one 16563 entry is between 2 1664s which are really Feb 1665s ns.
Annex 5: Rectors at the time of the Restoration.
I have examined 31 North Essex & 2 Suffolk Parishes to see whether the appointment of three Rectors to Stambourne following the Ejectment of Henry Havers on S Bartholomew’s Day 1662, within the period up to the end January 1662/3, represents a common or predetermined pattern. They include all parishes that play a part in our story and a few others nearby.
That there may have been such a pattern is suggested by Paul Ducker’s installation @ Rettendon on 29 August 1662: this must clearly have been planned well in advance. Here it will have been well known that the parish was run by nonconformists during the Commonwealth.
In the event however our Stambourne experience seems to have been unique. It is made up of a confusion of identity by which two men of similar names were appointed by the same 62 y.o. Bishop, in November & January, and by an unusual appointment by order in council of an Oxford Graduate for whose existence there is no other evidence in the village
Most of the information has been derived from volume II of Newcourt’s Repertorium. From his text it is clear that he omitted to record most of any Commonwealth Great Seal & thus, nonepiscocal, appointments, despite their undoubted legality at the time they were made.
Of the parishes examined these EIGHT NINE following have no unusual circumstances:
Braintree
Copford; no appontment from 16381662, though there may have been a nonconformist installation
Earls Colne; Rad Josselin, the diarist, survived 1640 1683 despite his views.
Liston
Hempsted Sam Newton for 49 years
Ramsden Bell house Thos Clopton for 47 y
Ramsden Craies Jer Jones 1645 1671
Rettendon John Dunton 16411662 at which time he probably did not sign.
Yeldham Magna Robt Morley 1637 1657
Robt Plume 1657 1660
John Brook 16601716 p.m.u.rx; he was appointed by C II
These SIXTEEN have a long gap suggesting that some appointments were made under the Great Seal that have not been recorded by Newcourt:.
Birdbrook 1632 1661 with Tho Thompson intervening as Cl., perhaps related to our Tompfon
Brickelsea 15861671 a gap of 85 years!!
The parish that precedes Bures alphabetically 1636 1661
Bures [Mount] 16161675
Campsea Ashe 16371671
Clare 16451663 this is a mere 18 years
St Edmundsbury 1639??1665 but lecturers 1654, 1655, 1661, 1664: Unclear
Honey Lane 1628 1663 = 35 y
Rettendon 1641 29 Aug 1662 v. John Dunton in the introduction
Hempstead (a chapel then) 16341683 = 49 y
Gt Thurlow 16221666 = 44 y
Tilbury 16541680, =26 y
W Hanningfield 16301661 = 31 y
Wethersfield 16421660; in 1642 Philip Tennison ejectus de fidelite C I
Wiley 1607 1662 = 55 y
Willingale Doe 16421660 = 18 y but both appointmens were per.mort.ult.rx
SIX EIGHT Parishes HAVE a pattern comparable to Stambourne or are known to have had ejectments
Birchanger 1641 Will parsons per.mort.ult.rx
1660 Ric Pearse per resig Parsons
1672 Beaumont Percival per.mort. Pearse
Finchingfield 1640 Ste Marshall, a dissident
John Glover was a Cmwth appt that was recorded by R N
1662 Sam Bishop per cess Glover
Lamborne – 1660 Will Parsons per.mort.ult.rx Patron Peter Mewes
1661 Will Parsons [no reason] Patron Car II R
Parsons also held Gt Dunmow & v.s. Birchanger
Low Laver – 1635 Elisha Pratt
Tho Constable t.c.
1661 11 Feb Nath Owen per cess Constable [cessio ionis = yielding or cession]
Maplestead Magna – 1650 Wm Hicks t.c. is listed on a board in the church headed Burials 1678 and is followed by the next two names; he is not in NRII; probably a classis appt.
1660 Robt Cook 27 Sep [our appointee RCII who came to us probably in Michaelmas 1664]
1663 John Brewer 5 Maii; he died in 1700
Toppesfield 1624 Laurence Burnell
1648 John Overed [v. my biography of him]
1660 Clement Thurston who was not inducted
1661 Ed Waller ind; 1662 on susp; of Overed
Sible Hedingham – here 2 Jegons were appointed successively in a family affair in the 1630s. I have recorded it here as there was a John Cook in Sturmer suggesting we too were appointing from a local family
Yeldham [Little] 16421662; = 20 y Walker says Evett ejec: in 1642
1662 23 Feb Rad Garnon [who lived on until 1680]
1664 24 Jul Rob Loker
1666 25 Feb Ger Vandermenden per cess u Rx
London Parishes; data from the printed Vol I revised by Hennessy in 1890
None of these several hundred had a similar pattern to Stambourne in 1662/3
Analysis of the entries in our surviving registeres?1653 1665.
This is detailed in chapter 7 and repeated under RCII and provides no elucidation. The only one of our four Rectors in 1660645 to make any entries was RCII. Other entries in the period are, save two, made in the hand of what may have been the Civil Register [though I suspect it was a later unidentified cleric] The data are too sketchy to depend upon for who did or did not arrive.
Summary
Thus 8 of the 313 parishes examined are worthy of study to see whether they replicate our pattern.
Two of them, both close by, do have an untidy arrangement at the Restoration but neither shows more than one appointment in the dying months of 1662/3.
None exactly reproduces our experience nor do they together suggest it was a common pattern
In the detailed lists of the London Parishes in the printed volume 1 of Hennessy’s admirable revision of Newcourt I found not a single example of multiple appointments like ours. Such confusion is likely to have been a rural phenomenon
The most probable interpretation is that Havers was unique; the multiple appointments resulted from having to remove this popular strongminded person who, in the event, though he relinquished the living never did leave the village. He us is buried in the churchyard from which he was finally ejected still though the site of his grave is now unmarked.
The bishops making these appointments were either senile or projected without experience of high office at what is now close to retirement age. It is probable their staff were still of a Parliamentary persuasion. Some confusion od names and identities, when it wa s urgent to make firm appaointments quickly, is to be expected. There was alos the need to reward Royalists for constancy in the difficult Commonwealth times. It is not therefore surprising that failed appointments were made.
Catalogue of biographies (continued)
William Tompson [later Thompson] (16671686)
(MA, probably of Jesus; AE p228)
HNRII has : Henchman 125 Wm. Thompson A.M. May 22 1667 [no reason given]
NRII has : Henchman 125 Will. Thompson A.M. 22 Maii 1667 per mort. ult. rect.
This Rector was one of our most conscientious. He recorded his own institution and kept excellent records (if in an ugly hand = Hw 10), with a single, probably natural, gap of four months, until the day before he died on 12 October 1686. Each Lady Day his wardens, for whom he used the title guardianus validated his signature, though none of them could write.
We have 11 biographies of scholars and some 50 or so references to possibly relevant persons. The IGI has traced 29 Wm T(h)ompsons and a further 13 men without a known christian name. Nine were in the Cambridge area and one in Huntington but none has sufficient data certainly to connect them to Stambourne. One W.T., born, in 1632 did marry an Ellen Montaigne before 1656. There are two other marriages, both in 1636, but neither has the lady’s name. They did not find either ot the Willliam burials that follow and only one Thomson entry in Stilton: this Daniel, born in 1819, curiously, m. an Ann Whitehead v.i.
He is probably related to the owners of Moyns Park for Thomas Gent had m. an Elizabeth Thompson of Scarborough Castle in c. 1620. Thus it is likely he is related to the famous political family who owned the Humbleton seat. This and the confusion of the identity of the Jesus scholar v.i. caused me to examine the possibility that he attended the Pensionary Parliament (1660 1681); from his registers it was possible for him to have done so but because of an early Act of Car II prohibiting clerics, he cannot himself have been the M.P. They also held the advowson of Birdbrook; Henry Thompson was Rector 168191, it was indeed he who buried our man. He was one of three to have held it and half a century later a John Thompson was Rector of Sturmer .
His scholastic identity is unclear. The most likely candidate is the pensioner admitted to Jesus 14 June 1648: presumably born ‘ of Hunts ‘ about 163032 & aged 35 in 1667. He matriculated 1648/9, proceeded B.A. 1651/2 & M.A 1655. He would have been 6466 y.o. when he died.
Venn says of this man he was probably Rector of Stilton 165886 and perhaps Rector of Stambourne. He hypothesises education @ Merchant Taylors. There is no doubt that both of these divines died in 1686 but I have shewn that they were each were domiciled in their parishes & interred in their respective churchyards. Ours was buried with witnesses & an affidavit on October 14, having made his last entry on the twelfth 8th Aug while the other made his last entry on 23 September but was not buried until 17 December. I have this on the authority of the Huntingdon archivist but have not seen the record; it does appear that a previous Rector considered the December record as being by and not of his predecessor but the later interpretation seems more probable. This same scholar is identified in the historical record of M.P.s with the William Thompson who was the Restoration M.P. 166091; not only is the date of death different but they also give birth on 30 Aug 1629. I think the probable resolution is that the M.P. was at Merchant Taylor’s school, as their history suggests, but did not proceed to Jesus College: that our man was educated in the venerable Hungtington Grammar School at the same time as the young Oliver Cromwell (and perhaps Samuel Pepys, though he is claimed also by Christ’s Hospital).
Who then has the best claim to this Scholar of Jesus College? No one can say. The significance of birth nearer to Stilton is offset by the acquisition of a living close to the seat of the important family in Moyns Park who owned the Birdbrook advowson. Neither Venn nor Foster claim that any of their scholars was an M.P.
He has given rise to a 13th generation descendent in George A Whitehead who, born in Kent, now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. GAW has pointed out to me the close connection between the Rector and the Parminter’s. These data are with my lists of names but I do not agree with all his findings.
The rest of my data form a separate section for Thompson in my Rectors file. I abstract his curriculum vitae on the next page
163032 born ‘ of Hunts ‘
164048 at either Huntingdon Grammar School, or less probably Merchant Taylors Pepys 1646 – 50
1648 admitted pensioner Jesus College on 14 June an odd date
1648/9 matriculated
1651/2 B.A. elected a scholar
1655 M.A.
1657 Marries a lady of whom we only know her christian name of Hellen
1658 Dorcas born, probably [another William Thompson is appointed to Stilton]
1660 Elnathan born, probably
1664 Judith Cock m to Thos Chaplin
1665 William the young scholar of Jesus, born probably; there is no firm evidence as to whom his father was[he is not in our register ; the archivist does not say he can find any of these 3]
1666 Robert Cock dies, perhaps of plague, as his burial is not recorded in Stambourne.
1667 Appointed to SS Peter & Thomas by Bishop Henchman of London on Maii 22nd.
Conducts his own “indust” in the church on June 1st; no witnesses or clerics present.
1668 Buries Grace Cock on 26 Oct; makes 3 entries in latin during this year
Signs register for events in 1667 o.s. on the Lady Day March 23 which is both o.s. & n.s.1668 Matthew Butcher & John Carder are Gardi:
1669 & 1670 they do the same for the two previous years
1670 makes his last entry in latin on 2 May; writes churchwardens in English
1671 John Carder & Thos Misent are Gardi
1672 John Harwood, churchwarden
1673 John Harwood Sen. Gardianus
1674 John Harwood Sen: & John Levitt Jun: Churchwardens
1675 Jo: Levitt & Jo: Harwood Gard.
1676 John Levitt jun: Gardia
1677 John Harwood: churchwarden
1678 John Harwood John Levitt Gardi: thirteen events on the last page of the old B:M:D register;
April 22 to 21 Mar 1678/9 He does not sign it off
Act for Burial in woollen 38 Car II August 1
Starts a new register for Burials only on September 3. Adopts spelling Thompson for his name
Buries his daughter Dorcas on September 30
1678/9 Makes a new B:M: register on March 21 copying the last eight entries from the old one.
1679 Lady Day; signs new B:M: register only with J Harwood, Guardian.
First burial in new register on 1 Aprill; no further entry in either register until August 10th
First uncopied entry in the new B:M: register on December 11 after a ninemonth interval; there are 6 burials in this time leaving only a real gap of only 4 months
1679/80 2 baptisms, 3 marriages & 6 burials in 1679 are signed by W.T. and J.H. only on 23 Mar 1680
1680 2b; 2m; 6b; within the o.s. year; there are no signatures on Lady Day until 1687
1681 Elnathan m. Elizabeth Harwood on 15 September 5b; 1m; 5b;
1681/2 5b; 2m; 4b;
1683 One, William Thompson, probably the boy born in 1665, goes to Jesus College
1682/3 11b; 3m; 2b;
1683/4 9b; 3m; 17 burials, a remarkable number
1684/5 17 births sent by the Good Lord to balance the recent spate of deaths; 4m: 4b
1685/6 8b; 2m; WT last signs Lady Day Register with John Harwood & Theophilus Peacock Gard
1686 There are 6 baptisms between 23 Aprill & 8 August. The last of these is the last in W.T.’s hand
[NJE has coded it Hw10]
7 baptisms between September 2 & October 12 in Hw18
W.T. is buried by, I assume, Hy Thompson [Hw20], Rx of Birdbrook on 14 October. Joseph Harris swears the affidavit; “Affid Cora H.Thompson”
1687 Young Wm Thompson Leaves Jesus with his B.A. but never proceeds to M.A.; perhaps as his father is dead [of which ever he was Rector] he can no longer afford the battels.
The register begins on August 17th in a new Hw 19. There must be missing entries.
1687/8 Mark LePla is appointed on 22 March after an eighteen month interregnum. Nov 3
1697/8 Our last recorded burial in woolen is on 29 January
1700 Hellen is buried on 22 April an imprecise entry, probably by LePla’s curate.
1715 Elnathan Thompson, Church Clerk, is buried on 11 May in pencil on typescript; so edited after printing?
Marcus Le Pla (1686 to about 1715)
(M.A. but not in A.C. or A.O.)
HNRII has : Compton 98 Marcus le Pla, A.M. Nov.3 1686 No further information
NRII has: Compton 98 i Marcus lePla, A.M. 3. Nov. 1686 per mort.ult.Rect. Jac.II. R.
Footnote i says Mar.le Pla, the present Rector, 1700. v. Finchingfield [this note dates our entry]
It shews that he was made vicar there on Xmas Eve in 1676.
This appointment after only 3 weeks suggests that Thompson had a long terminal illness which had prepared Whitehall; their solution was to give a plural appointment to a senior Rector only 5 mi away. The invasion by William of Orange was imminent and probably widely expected so they would have been keen to get this Royal living filled expeditiously
The registers are rather sparse in his time with entries in 35 different handwritings handwritings within 19 years. Their numbers are Hws 21 to 54 & 56, substantially more than in the whole of the rest of the registers up to 1740. The last two are probably the curates Mr Roberts and S. Jones. Numbers 24 (30 entries), 26 (26 entries) & 32 (28 entries) each stayed for about 3 years but the others were only occasional visitors. None can certainly be identified as the absentee Rector. It is possible that Hw21 is the same hand as that of the next paragraph.
He did however take a serious interest in the temporality of the parish. Almost at once he made a copy in 1688 of the early versions of the terrier. He signed it Marke, and elsewhere Mark, not Marcus. This is discussed in Chapter 7 with the conclusion that he was just trying to be helpful to the Lord of the Manor; but it is not improbable that he had hoped to find some realisable elements within his new freehold. The land Tax act was to come into force in 1692, lasting until 1832, so it is also possible that he knew of and was preparing himself for it..
We do not appear to have a record of his death which is doubtless in the registers of the parish on our southern border. Bowyer’s appointment v.i. on the very last day of 1715 n.s. renders it practically certain that he died within that calendar year.
George Bowyer (1715 1740)
(M.A. 1667; B.N.C. Al. Oxon. p162)
HNRII has: [the crossed tick] Geo. Bowyer A.M. Dec.31 1715 D[ied] 1740 George I.
NR II was published in 1710 and has no further entries for us. Similarly there are no more references to the Regester Bokes. There is a memorial stone behind the altar which gives his date of death as 18 March 1739, aged 72 yrs; his wife Anne had died on 6 January aged 66. The text on it is the annex 3 to Chapter 7.
Morant has: Geo. Bowyer M.A. presented 1715 under the patronage of King George I following the death of Mark Le Pla
He matriculated 19 Feb 1686 @ Brasenose and got his B.A. in 1689 (aet 22) & his M.A. in 1693 (aet 26) His rectory spanned aet 47 72; there is no information covering 16931715.
The Bodleian Library has a copy of a fulsome obituary lauding his character which contains no new biographical data [reference: MS. Rawlinson J. fol. 6, fol.73 ]
Bowyer was another of our most conscientious divines, making 302 entries in his characteristic italic hand (Hw 55); both variable and idiosyncratic. He recorded 102 christenings, 34 marriages and 166 burials in his quarter century incumbency. Four other unidentified clerics recorded 2 more marriages & five burials. This total of Bz 102, M 36 & 170 burials in a uniform period may be taken as characteristic of that time and averaged 4 births to one and a half marriages and seven deaths in each year. The implication is that some births were not recorded; this is confirmed by the not infrequent practice of baptising a child at the time of a marriage; no marriage, no baptism.
We have a large amount of genealogical data on this name but I think it to be fortuitous & mostly irrelevant to the Rector. From 1820 to 1878 a prolific family lived in the village, among other occupations running the Red Lion. A headstone of Mrs Emily Bowyer lies at the north end of the row fronting the road. Three groups of persons have been interested in them. I have been quite unable to find a connection across the gap form the Rector’s death in 1740 & the next register entry in 1820. I conclude that our saintly priest cannot be accused of spawning a family of publicans.
Pencilled alterations incorporated by JBE
In 1850 an Emily Whittaker Bowyer was born: this is the only occurrence of this middle name in our registers. Rector Alfred Master, [186889] resigned and changed his name to MastersWhitaker. I suspected a plot such as Jane Austen might have used indeed it was so but it did not involve Stambourne. He left our quite rich living to become a curate at a poorer one in Lancashire of which the advowson was held by a Mr Whitaker. He shortly died and our Rector spent the rest of his life with the widow and new patron in her large house, acquiring the Rectory there on the death of the incumbent to whom he had been curate.
Details of these investigations are in the Bowyer section of my Rectors file. The family tree is in the long black file.
Venn Eyre (1740 1777 but in absentia from about 1753 onwards)
(M.A.; not in AO or AC)
This incumbency covers the change in the Julian Calendar on 24 September 1752 when New Years Day changed from Lady to the first day of January.
HNRII has: Venn Eyre, M.A. Sept 9 1740 D. 1777 George II
The date is that of his institution. Morant does not mention his contemporary.
Nathl Eyre in N Weald 1656 on
His first entry appears to be 14 June 1741 and on 19 May 1742 he opened a new book to record the birth of his son born to Frances on 24 June. Subsequently 3 girls, Sarah, Susan & Jane, were born to them in 1744, 1745 & 1749. A Frances Eyre was married here to John Cott B.D., a clerk. in 1771 by the curate, Thomas Orchard: the Rector was a witness but their relationship is not given.
Eyre remained active here until 1753. After that he solemnised only 6 marriages , about one every quinquennium. An analysis of his registers (along with those of William Lloyd) is the next annex. Clearly he retained contact with his benefice, to which he had appointed a curate, but only as a visitor.
Venn Eyre died and was buried in Lynn in Norfolk in 1777 where Mrs King said he was a magistrate. She also implies that a Mr Frost of the Hall officiated in the church but this name is limited to occasionl entries by John Frost as a witness [the surname is in A.C. p 114 as Walter Frost, a Fellow of Queens; B.A. 1720/1; M.A. 1724; this College owned much of our land; he may have been a steward] .
William Lloyd (17771809)
(M.A. but he is not in A.O. or A.C.)
HNRII has : Wm. Lloyd M.A. July 8 1777 D. 1809 George II
He is not in Venn’s Index Ecclesiasticus which is said to cover the years 1800 1840.
This Rector is the most shadowy of all our men, at least since the Revolution. There is none of his writing or of any family events in our registers. I have found no evidence of him elsewhere. As J.H. does not give him the title of Reverend he may have been a lay rector. The Coat of Arms was painted during his time; hypothetical dates for its hanging are on his appointment & in 1789 as a thanksgiving.
Shortly after he was appointed he did rewrite the Terrier and in 1803 sold off some of the property; it is said to pay Land tax, for which v.s. chapter 7.
There is a continuous series of six curates serving, curiously, for 7, 2, 7, 2, 7 & 2 years respectively, covering his whole incumbency. One of the 7yr curates may well have hung the coat of arms. The last of these was the Revd Dr J Walton D.D., no less the only Doctor to have officiated in our church: he brings the number, with ourselves & Clopton Havers, known to have lived in the village up to four. I do have a note of the day of Lloyd’s death on the 9th June 1809 but have not been able to trace the source of this information either; it probably was the great Jas Hopkins.
The Register was inspected by a J Greenwood on 7 December 1784; I wonder if it was done in response to a complaint from influential parishioners but there are no surviving documents other than the signature in the register.
There follows my typescript analysing the registers as an annex with a page number
Annex 6: Venn Eyre and William Lloyd Register Analyses
Venn Eyre was Instituted on 9 September 1740
In the existing register 2 marriages in February 1740 and 2 of 3 baptisms in 1741 are in the same hand. On 14 Jun 1741 Ann daughter of William Pearcifull and Susan his wife was baptized…. is in a different hand. In 1742 a new book was opened carefully lined and beautifully written in copperplate.
The first entry was written
May ye 19th Edmund the Son
Of Venn & Frances
Eyre, was born; &
Baptiz’d June 24th
This could be the same hand as baptisms June 14 1741, & on Jan 17, Jan 24, Feb 28, all 1741/2 (sic) (one of them was Elizabeth Daughter of Cook)
It is consistent with Eyre’s actual signature 6 times in the later marriage register so we can I think assume it is the new broom sweeping cleanly.
If so Eyre appears to have worked throughout 1742 – 1753 solemnizing 20 marriages without assistance
1742=1 43=2 45=1 46=1 47=4 49=1 51=3 52=4 53=1 Total 20 averaging 2 per year.
There is a gap in the records 1753-6.
On 15 April 1756 a new formal register was opened by Thomas Orchard, Curate, pursuant to act of Parliament. The first entry is again interesting; James Frost was married to Ann Percival: John Frost was a witness. J F also witnessed No 2, No 10 in 1759, No 16 in 1760 and lastly a fifth one in May 1764 – they are not numbered despite the legal requirement to do so (Which is still in force and obeyed in Stambourne).
This is the total involvement of ‘Mr Frost of the Hall’ that I can find; 4 out of 26 1756-64.
Of 56 marriages in 1756-77 V E did 6 only: 14 Oct 59; 22 Jul 60; 2 Oct 66; 11 Jul 69; 9 Aug 71; 13 Aug 73. = 6
C Stewart (Minister) did No 33 on 6 Feb 70 (perhaps of Bumpstead) = 1
J Hodgkin (Curate) Yeldham (sic) did 42 on 18 Oct 71 & 13 Oct 74 & 18 Apr 75 as (Minister) = 3
Geo Pawson (Rector) Topsfield did No 50 on 16 Jan 75 = 1
Thos Orchard did the rest 45
In 1759 Isabel (or Isaheri) & Sarah Eyre were witnesses
On 19 Sept 1771 John Cott Clerk BD was married to Frances Eyre by Thos Orchard; V E signed as witness.
Eyre died and is buried at Lynn (sic) in Norfolk in 1777.
It appears he came promptly in 1740 and worked enthusiastically till 1753. He then got a curate called Thomas Orchard who did all the work till 1777 with a little help in locum tenens from recognisably local divines except for the unidentified Charles Stewart. John Frost of the Hall offered a benign support to Orchard only as an occasional witnefs.
William Lloyd was presented 8 July 1777 & died 9 June 1809 without ever leaving his mark on the parish registers. He did write a Terrier.
In 1777, 78 & 84 George Pawson (now Curate though I think the same hand) did 3 weddings = 3
In 1778, Arthur Hay (Curate) of Birdbrook did 3 weddings = 3
20 Oct 1778 to 10 Mar 85 John Swaine (Curate) did 12 weddings almost con =12
(Register Inspected December 7 1784 J Greenwood) (was there a complaint I wonder)
5 July 1785 to November 1787 Richard Gregory (Curate) did 5 weddings =5
13 Nov 1787 to 12 May 1796 Harry Paxton did 10 weddings as Afsistant(Minister) then (Clerk) then (Curate) =10
18 Jan 1797 to August 1799 John Walker (Curate) did 6 weddings =6
In 1794 George Pawson Junr: (Clerk) officiated & then did 2 more in 1797 =3
12 May 1801 to 1 July 1808 John Whitehurst (Curate) did an unbroken series of 22 weddings =22
13 Nov 1808 Gilbert Malcolm (Minister) =1
29 Dec 1808 to 25 July 1809 John Walton Officiating (Minister) did 4 =4
(Promptly on 29 Oct 1809 we have James Hopkins)
Thus of 69 weddings in 32 yrs the Rector did not one; he had 6 curates for curiously, 7,2,7,2,7,2years in sequence with 4 local divines helping out.
Wedding numbers stop @ 17 (Orchard) & page numbers @ 19 (Whitehurst) despite the Act.
JBE 8 Feb 1987
James Hopkins (1809 1858)
(M.A.; he is Index Ecclesiasticus 180040 but no University is given)
HNRII has : James Hopkins M.A. Sept.16 1809 D. 1858 George III (his only appointment)
The Index has his installation dated as 16 August, one month earlier; this conflict cannot be resolved by comparing the writing in the registers: one of the earliest works of the conscientious new man was to rewrite all the records of XIXc into a new book in his same neat copperplate and this is the only copy that has survived. His first wedding entry is on the 29th October, later than both of these dates.
There is no such confusion about his death; his is the earliest clerical tombstone, a simple large stone with an ornate castiron railing beneath a yew tree that can well be 140 years old in 1998. Both it and his wallplaque give the date as 3rd December.
His first wife died aet 22 and is buried under the floor of the chancel. He soon remarried & his second wife was interred in his tomb some six years later. The stone also carries a carefully worded later addition recording the later burial of a second old lady, from Colchester: this was certainly the first child of the of the poor girl who died so young. The texts are recorded in Chapter 7.
Many of the records we possess are copies made by J.H. I deduce that the steel nib was available to him. A few are notes & texts; one is a full lesson; He copied out the first, 1811, census and added some later years to it. The majority is simply of old, difficult to decipher, original records. He has left notes on his interpretation of the secretary hand. He had some derelict books resewn.
He did not himself initiate a new Terrier but he did copy the old one and annotated it. He asked Mrs King whether she knew who had added to the Rectory. He noted the disposal of Church lands by Wm Lloyd in what seems to me to be disapproving tone. In addition to the glebe, he became the proprietor of Turners Farm in Dyer’s End and probably had bought it. He wrote a detailed forerunner of the 1837 Tithe list for his own use twenty years before it was surveyed; they are remarkably similar. We thus have LePla, LLoyd and J.H. all taking a somewhat unseemly interest in landed property.
He clearly got on well with Jas Spurgeon, an exact contemporary who actually served the village for longer, outliving J.H. by several years. There is oral tradition of his having been generous to the poorer cleric with his large family. It also appears that the latter may well have had a larger flock. There can rarely have been a small village of similar size served by two such good and conscientious men for a continuous halfcentury. One consequence is the extremely complete demographic records we have in the registers for the Victorian period.
James Hopkins Holdings
John Forster (185868)
(M.A. corpus Christi)
HNRII has : John Forster M.A. Dec 23. 1858 D. 1868 Queen Victoria
b 14 Dec 1809; 2d s of Henry, a Captain of the 23rd Regt, & Sarah [Stebbing]
He went to Bedford School
14 Feb 1829 admitted Pensioner aet 19 2/12 to magdalene Coll: Camb: of London
Lent 1829: matriculation; transferred to Corpus Christi 25 May 1830
1835 B.A. 1838 M.A. The dates given in the 1860 Crockford’s are clearly impossible
1836 5 June ordained deacon ” Gloucester litt dim from London” (whatever that may mean)
1838 14 June m Laura Ashley
1838 3 December 1858 18 February; Chaplain of the Savoy
1858 3 December appointed Rector of Stambourne; thus he held two Duchy livings in plurality a for couple of months. Loftis v.i. says a curate ran the Savoy for ‘ a few months’.
1868 26 June made his last burial entry
21 July solemnised his last marriage
24 July He died after 10 y. here at the early age of 58. and was buried 29 July just beneath the South wall of the chancel here.
1869 27 April his daughter Laura married Ben Smith; Rosalie Forster is a witness
His brief incumbency here raised five questions, discussed severally below:
How should his name be spelt; with or without an ‘r’ in the middle ?
Hennessy spells his name Foster in HNRI on London which is set in print & includes the Savoy. In his clear, if untidy, later manuscript HNRII on which we so heavily rely he wrote Forster in his Stambourne list. W J Loftis in Memorials of the Savoy in 1878 has Foster. Robert Somerville in The Savoy, published after 1959, has Forster. E Beresford Chancellor in Annals of the Strand (after 1859) uses both spellings. Forster is correct. This is the spelling on his headstone which still bears traces of inlet black pigment. We have hundreds of clear signatures in his reasonably neat clear copperplate. He sometimes uses an italic ‘r’ that flows into a script ‘S’ that is higher than the succeeding ‘t’. When christening the d.o. Joseph Hardy, a labourer on 25 September 1859, instead of his usual subscript ‘Rector’ he perseverates and writes ‘Labourer’. He strikes this out irritably with fifteen minims and squeezes ‘Rector’ in underneath. Even in this frame of mind he never omits the ‘r’ altogether.
Are our present Smith & Drysdale families related to a former High Admiral of England ?
Our man seems to have been from the NW home counties, a Cambridge scholar of a wellconnected military family. He received one of the best of preferences at aet 28 but accepted our lowly one only 20 years later when still in his prime.
Laura had eight children none of whom is named Rosalie or John or Laura. Ben was a farmer and they lived at Great Tagleys, a nice but unpretentious Tudor farmhouse. The Smiths have been here for four centuries at least and presently occupy Park View. Phyllis, a grandaughter of Laura , m David Drysdale & Lived @ Robin Hood, once the home of James Farewell, where Laura died; she had been secretary of the Parochial Church Council & herself died recently aet 88. I cannot find a record of the burial of either Laura or Rosalie.
The elder brother of J.F. was Henry Brookes [Brook or Brooks] F. [180890] . He lived in Oxon & Gloucs & seems to have been more important; he m. Ellen, d. of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour who captured Canton in the Opium War and was made Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom in 1875. There is then a connection but it is distant via the female line; it is closer for Daniel Smith than for for Robert Drysdale & for Andrew, the son of the late of Donald Drysdale, and his mother who is currently a member of the Council.
Why did he leave his appointment to the Savoy Chapel while still so young? His death @ 58 may well have been natural in the Victorian age; he was older than Prince Albert. The possibility of his performing his duties less than to the Queen because of chronic disease does however suggest itself. In this regard his hand is clear and neat and does not change. This last page does have more entries crossed out and untidy inkblots than any of the others during the period when he kept the registers. In addition he left the church in a poor state see the restoration by Master, his successor. Nevertheless, analysis of HNRI shows that 20 y. was a common length of tenure of the Savoy benefice.
There is a note in the Folk Song Society’s library linking a visit by Georgina [Loxley] Heatley @ the age of four to Stambourne with Ralph Vaughan Williams; does our village have a connection with the great composer ? This will be discussed with the relevant information in Chapter 9. The answer is no.
Important books of biography & theology by authors named John Forster were published in London in that decade; were they by one or two men ?
The keeper of the Records of the Duchy of Lancaster, whose initials seem to be R.T.S. posed the question in a note he sent me: ” did our cleric write the famous biography of Dickens ?”. R.T.S., as well as the present Chaplain of the Royal Victorian Order, the Revd John Robson A.K.C. and Dr William Snow, Master of the Music [sadly now deceased] have kindly provided me with much data. Unequivocally, the Rector did not write the biography.
There were two contemporary writers, both spelt John Forster and neither using a middle initial. The other was a Barrister of the Middle Temple who had proceeded LlD by 1860; his name is invariably spelt with an ‘r’. He lived at Palace Gate in Kensington and was alive in 1872. He was a member of the Athenaeum and we have 10 signed copies of his works. He was published by Murray; his main subject was Stuart politicians & the books are biographical & historical. He wrote on Smith & Goldsmith as well as the 3 vol biography of Dickens. Froms C.D.’s own ‘ My Early Times’ it appears that J.F. persuaded him to convert his own biographical memoir into David Copperfield. He was Godfather to two of Dicken’s daughters to whom he dedicated the biography.
The Chaplain, as he was at this time, is described in ‘The Savoy’ as a religious author. I can trace only one work of his of which the London Library has a large 8vo copy in its only edition of 1845; he is not a major writer. It is indeed the only work to have been published by any of the sixty or so scholars who have been our Rectors. Its full title is :
THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE
according to the authorised text of the Evangelists
weithout repetition or omission.
With a continuous exposition, marginal proofs in full, and notes
briefly collected from the best criticism & commentators
by the Revd John Forster MA
Her Majesty’s Chaplain of the Savoy
It is said to be based on his own translation from a greek Codex. The parts that I have actually checked however do have the identical wording of the 1611 text. Its plan was :
firstly to provide a new more correct translation
secondly to put all comparable bible stories in close juxtaposition for ready comparison, which meant his abandoning the separation of the individual gospels
thirdly to remove the divisions into chapter & verse
finally, to make it a suitable textbook for theological students, he felt the need to put interpolations in italics by way of elucidation; there are also some phrases in quotation marks.
The resulting text is broken into 140 sections with only everyday paragraphing & syntax. I found it turgid and difficult to read. I am not surprised that I seem to have been the only person to borrow it in a century and a half.
His headstone has the text of Luke xii v 20 on it as the Revd J.M.Suddards, our present Rector & Rural Dean has identified: this wording is not that of the King James’ bible, the only versionin common use at the time. Had J.F. any hand in the Revised version shortly to be published ?
The inscription on the headstone ends with:
Be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye
know not the son of man cometh
In the authorised version the text is:
Be ye therefore ready also: for the son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not
The Revised Version has it :
Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the son of man cometh
Now: the dates on the monument are 19 Dec 1809 to 26 July 1868. His own book was published in 1845. The relevant text on pp 220 & 221 of Section LXXXIII is :
The like watchfulness is demanded of christians in spiritual things: be ye therefore ready also, for the son of man, your Divine Lord and Master, cometh “as a thief in the night ” to summon you to death and judgement at an hour when ye think not of it. The phrases emboldened by me are thus the text of 1611 unchanged.
The committee for the Revised version first met on 30 June 1870, two years after the death of J.F. They completed the New Testament on 11 Nov 1880 and published it in 1885.
Matthew xxv 13 on the foolish virgins is not dissimilar but they are exhorted to watch, not to be ready. The version in Mark xiii 3335 is much more wordy.
None of the texts of 1611, 1845 or 1880 is that reproduced on the headstone. The closest is the last, Revised, version published 12 years after the stone, which shews still some of the original black pigment, was carved. J.F. cannot have been party to the actual revision but must have been a prime mover in the interval between 1845 & 1868. It seems probable that his family chose a version of which they knew J.F. was appraised and preferred.
Note at foot of Forster entry: I think this needs to have Master obliterated on 8:44
Pencilled slip of notes with Master: If start on p42 JF will overflow to top of 8:44 but AM will not overflow 8:45. Therefore start AM perhaps 15 lines down on 8:44
No burial entries after Sep 87
(Most of above largely irrelevant, I think, as pagination is different after all these edits AFE 09/09/03)
Pencil note Latest at head of the typescript: I have amended my electronic copy below in red. Check
B**lox!! Have just found two more versions of Hopkins Forster and Masters pages: Think I’ve now resolved all this, but do check Hopkins to Masters for continuity and accuracy.!!!
Alfred Master (18681889)
(M.A. Durham)
HNRII has a complex entry, much altered:
Bps.Cert.Va[2 ciphers] Bip Alfred Master M.A. afterwards) Nov.14 1868 Res 15.11.89 ” “
Rock Alfred Masters Whitaker ) Chan of D of Lanc
[the two ciphers may be rtS or nS or the S/ sign he uses for Saint]
[the ” ” relate to Queen Victoria on the line above; the ref: Ch D of Lanc was added later]
[Hennessy clearly found the new name after he had written his first list and squeezed the additions in; I cant interpret the meaning of the whereabouts of the Bishop’s certificates.]
Masters kept a combined diary & accounts book bound in vellum which is preserved in the church black box. In it he dates his induction by the Bishop of Rochester to 3 November , not the 14th. He first officiated at a wedding on Christmas Day, a fashionable date at the time, and last did so on 14 October 1889. Throughout he signs himself Alfred Master, Rector.
1838 is the probable date of his birth deduced from his B.A. He was the youngest son of the Ven’ble Revd Archdeacon Master, Rector of Croston, Lancashire:
1858 B.A. Durham : made Deacon ; became curate of Baschurch, Salop, until 1863.
1860 M.A. In this year D Sutcliffe is made Vicar of Holme in Cliviger
1863 Rector of Kilbeck, until 1868
1868 Instituted into the living of Stambourne by the Rt Revd Thomas Legh Claughton. Ld Bp Of Rochester at his palace in Danbury. He was presented by Colonel William Patten, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, later made Lord Winmarleigh.
1869 Went abroad for his health for the winter with his sister, returning at the beginning of March.
1873 The Clergy list, precursors of Crockford, have him as: Master, Alfred, Rector of Stambourne
In this year he restored the church, starting the fund with a donation of £100 [£7,500 now]
1875 The same: I have not seen a continuous series, nor did I note when Crockford began in 1838 and took over by 1917
1885 the same; population 434 souls.
1889 He resigns from Stambourne
1890 He is licensed as a preacher @ Holme and continues to be until 1896
1893 He now appears as Alfred Master Whitaker. Mr T.H.Whitaker is the patron of the living of Holme in Cliviger, the first indication of the name that Master has adopted as his own.
1895 Alfred Master Whitaker appears again as a licensed preacher Dioc: Manchester; his address is The Holme, Burnley, Lancs this must mean he is living in, or close to, the home of theWhitakers but the significance of The Holme & its relationship to Holme in Cliviger is not clear. Sutcliffe is still Vicar & must be quite old. The Patron is written T.H.Whitaker Esq, Holme (no definite article), V, Lancs, £ 150.
1896 In this edition he is: Vicar, Alfred MasterWhitaker [in 1895 he had no hyphen]; Patron Mrs MasterWhitaker [also with a hyphen but no christian name]. Presumably THW had died and left it to her. Why has she adopted his name, as well as he, that of her late husband during his lifetime ? Did they get married ?
1899 His entry in Crockfords has now become:
WHITAKER, Alfred Master (formerly MASTER, Alfred) The Holme, Burnley Lancs. B.A. ’58; M.A. ’60; d ’58; p ’59; V of S John (the dedication is to the Evangelist) Holme (no The) Dio Man ’96 Patron Mrs Whitaker (no initials) gross income £ 150 Pop 2121. Formerly C of Baschurch, Salop 58 63; R of Killeck, 63 68, R of Stambourne 68 69.
1902 There is no entry relating to him in his earlier name of Alfred Master this year.
1903 The patron is now Mrs M Whitaker [she does not use a hyphen nor does she use Mrs T.H.]
1905 The name of the Vicar is now given as Alfred MASTERWHITAKER
1911 The entry remains the same until this year
1914 He has a curate, who may well be Mr Gell, but the patron is not now given
1920 The Vicar is now Mr W Gell; presumably Master died in about 1918
1988 The Patron was Mrs C P Creed and A R Frearson, born 1957, was Priest-in-charge.
Frearson lived in The Vicarage, Burnley Road, Cliviger, Burnley, Lancs, BB10 4SH. Whether this is a different address from “The Holme” where A MW resided is unclear: I guess the Vicarage was a late Victorian building and that Master did indeed live with Mrs Whitaker in her mansion. As she had adopted Master as a prefix by 1903 it is possible that they did marry.
Holme in Cliviger is now called Holme Chapel & lies 5 mi S of Burnley 2 mi W from the Yorks border into Lancashire. It is about 25 mi from Preston; Croston, where he was born is 6 mi S of there. Manchester, in which Diocese he was first made a curate at Holme, is quite near; Blackburn, the new diocese of which Holme is now in, is rather nearer to it to the North It seems likely that Archdeacon, who he had died by 1868, knew Mr T.H.Whitaker during his lifetime.
When he resigned from Stambourne at the age of about 50 y. he became a mere licensed preacher for 6 y. During this time Mr T.H.W was alive and A.M. lived with or near them. He adopted the Whitaker prefix during the lifetime of T.H.W.
It seems that in 1886 both T.H.W. and Vicar Sutcliffe must have died for Mrs W became patron and A.MW became Vicar. Though in a larger parish the living was never as valuable as the one he had left.
Various editions give these figures:
Parish Year Population Gross income net income Places in the church
Stambourne 1885 435
1896 434 347 248 500
Holme in Cliviger 1896 2121 150 not recorded 421
1902 1669 268 258 421
1903 all figures are the same
Two points of interest. Master left our church with the nice round figure of 500 seats, more than the population; it has never been higher than 551. Shortly after his elevation the stipend, which suffered negligible or no deductions, was increased to just exactly ten pounds more than that which he had left.
Crockford John 1st Publ 1858 – rubbish
1860 – useful
13 Jan 1865 – John dies aet 41
1917 – Absorbs clergy list
(I could make this into a little boxed note on Crockfords: AFE)
David RiceJones (M.A. Oxon) (1889 1895/6)
HNRII has: ” ” ” ” S/ Alb David RiceJones M.A. Dec. 5 1889 [no departure date] ” ” “
[for the dittos see Master’s entry; Hennessy’s work has become scrappy by now]
Al.Oxon: has a curious entry: 1 s of John of Newport. NONCOLL Matric: 18 February 1876,
aet 45y. B.A. 1880. M.A. 1884 [PME suggests may have been at S Peter’s Hall, now Peorterhouse College]
The Clergy List for 1890 has: priest 1881; rector 1889; he does not appear in 1902 Crockford’s so presumably was dead by then.
From his matriculation entry he was born in 1831. His last register entry is of two baptisms on 2 February 1896 when he would have been 65 y.o. if the deduction is correct. It is logical for him to have resigned shortly thereafter and reasonable that he should have died before the age of 70. There is no burial entry for him in our register nor for his wife Emma. She is nevertheless buried in the area wherein lie the other clergy: her headstone records that that she died on 6 April 1896. This is just two months after he husband last officiated.
David & Emma had a son, Howard William, christened May 31 [#761] & born on 13 February 1890. If Emma were 25 y.o. at the time of the birth she was born in about 1865 and was only 31 y.o when she died; she was most unlikely to have been more than 46 y.o in 1896.
His register entries are neat.
The weddings reasonably continuous and of normal frequency throughout his short incumbency. His last wedding was a Xmass celebration, so popular for a short period at this time: this was in in 1895, the year before he left in the following Spring.
He made only one burial entry, dated at the top of a new page for 1890, on the 8th August. This was the important resident of Church Farm, opposite the church, Wm John Ruffle, who died aet 45 y. I can find no reason for this lack of entries. Master made his last on 27 September 1888, resigning 15 November 1889. There is a headstone for Dora Kate Smith who died 6 August 1891; There should be an entry for her as well as for poor Emma. Many of the other stones from this period were removed in 1952. It is possible that the book was mislaid in Master’s last year and RiceJones wrote the only one he could remember, perhaps from a note, when he found it just before he left. One would have expected at least a dozen entries.
He also failed to make any baptismal entries between 7 August 1892 & 23 February 1896; again perhaps he was doing some tidyingup just before he left. Emma’s death took place six weeks after these entries
All these data and speculations may be looked at together. The most unusual, for the time, seeking for a degree at the age of 45; late ordination in his fifties; the death of a wife, probably much younger than himself, perhaps in childbed; an aversion to burials and failure to record all births; his silent disappearance leaving an interregnum of about six years, during which time he took no preferment elsewhere, suggest an unhappy story.
James Henry Brooks (1896 1919)
(St Bees)
HNRII has : [the crossed tick] James Henry Brooks Oct.1896 [no other data]
[this is Geo. Hennessy’s last entry in his manuscript for us]
Crockford’s 1902 edn gives : St Bees, 1880; deacon 1882; priest 1883; Rector of Stambourne 1896. His previous posts were in Staffordshire and Herefordshire. The 19212 and 1926 editions say he retired to Sussex ending his mionistry here in 1919. He is not in the 1936 edition.
One may guess that he was born about 1860, came here aet c. 35, stayed till he was 60 and died at 70.
He first officiated at a wedding on 21 June 1897 and last did so on 4 June 1919. His writing is exceptionally neat and he always signs himself James H Brooks, Rector.
There is the coincidence that the wellborn family of Rector Forster used the name Brooks.
Percy Robert Mitchell (1920 1922)
(M.A. Cantab.; O.B.E.)
Crockford 1921/2 has : Trinity College, Cambridge; B.A. 1898; M.A. 1902; deacon 1899; priest 1900; Chaplain to the Forces 1904; Bermuda 190810; Tower of London 191115, 191619; Staff of Chaplain General 191516; (mentioned in despatches 1918) O.B.E. 1919; Rector of Stambourn (no e???) 1920.
The 1926 edition says his ministry here ended in 1922 when he moved to become Vicar & Rector of Bodiam; he is not in the 1936 edn so presumably had died by then.
He officiated at only two weddings at the end of 1920; there was none in 19213. He conducted four burials between 23 February 1921 and 22 October 1922. There was then a gap until 2 June 1924. Close examination of the registers repeatedly suggests that recording was far from complete.
He seems to have been a brave and senior career soldier; no rank is mentioned but perhaps the Royal Corps of Priests (I forget its name) was not formally commissioned until much later. I do not recall any other of our Rectors receiving an honour such as his O.B.E.
Thomas Henry Taylor (19231930)
(B.A. Durham)
Crockford 1926 has : Hatfield College, Durham, B.A. 1884; deacon 1885; priest 1886; Rector of Stambourne 1923 (I have noted before March); formerly Vicar of All Saints, Habergham, 18981923. He is not in the 1936 edn so presumably has died by then.
He first officiated at a wedding here on 17 May 1924 and last as Rector on 7 May 1930. I have noted that he resigned in November.
He is likely to have been born about 1862 so was already aet 60. when he came here. He conducted a wedding in 1934 so presumably died aet 73 in 1935. He must have remained nearby is he the man with the square grave by the path ?
Francis George Deeping Webster (1930 1933 or 1934)
(M.A. Oxon)
Crockfords for 1936 has : AKC 1902; Deacon 1903; Priest 1904; Exeter College Oxford, B.A. 1908, M.A. 1911; Acting Chaplain to the Forces, Dublin 19089; Chaplain to the Forces, Colchester, 190912, 19171923; Potchestroom 19131914; B.E.F. 191517 [mentioned in Despatches, 1916]; British Army of the Rhine 19236; Belf(ast?) 19268; Blackdown & Deepent (?) 192830; Rector of Stambourne 193134.
He signs himself FGD Webster; NJE reads his loopy G as a J but I agree with Crockford.
He first officiates @ a wedding here on 31 January 1931 and last did so on in 1933.
From his A.K.C. he was born about 1880; on this assumption he came here aet. 51. After his second late spell at University he joined the Forces aet. 28 and resigned aet.50; this is the usual age for Officers below Field rank. We have no evidence on what he did 19041908 nor whether he took other preferment when he left us, presumably resigning, aet 54. He is not buried here.
Harold Edward Alston Horn (1934 1959)
(M.A. Oxon)
Crockford’s for 1936 has : Keble College, Oxford B.A. 1915, M.A. 1925; Rector of Stambourne from 1934.
There is no explanation for his late M.A. nor any evidence from whence he came here. He too may well have joined the Forces at the time of the Kaiser’s War and retired to come here aet. about 41 y. At least three military men are known to have come here this century, towards the end of their careers in the church: presumably the Duchy of Lancaster has some such predilection and he may be a fourth.
From his B.A. he would have been born about 1893 and with us from aet 41 to 66 y. He first officiated @ a wedding here on 26 January 1935 and last did so on 27 September 1978 (1958??). He conducted his last service on Easter Day, 1959. A Memorial Service was held for him on 4 December 1960. He was the last Rector to hold the single Stambourne Benefice.
He signed himself Harold E A. Horn in a neat modified copperplate hand which changed little. He ran a full choir and left notes indicating a keen interest in music in his church. He wrote the earliest extant leaflet on the church much of which is copied from an article by the local historian P.G.H.Dickinson and some from Morant. Sadly, he has copied errors from them both from a lack of checking the original data.
There was oral tradition that towards the end of his incumbency he was far from robust. A senior churchman told me that he visited him here and found the Rectory in a poor state. A row of halfbarrels of grain had been put along the very long drive to attract pigeons; the study to the right of the front door was acting as a sanctuary and hospital for them. However he dates the visit by recalling his own promotion which took place at a time after Horn’s death.
Two longstanding senior residents disputed this recollection and would not entertain any suggestion of infirmity; they say his sister came to live with him in 1949 and kept the house speckless. When Miss Horn died in 1960 she left us a substantial bequest implying she had happy memories of our village. An old choirboy, who perhaps could claim the most attendances in our church throughout his long life, related an incomprehensible row over his singing a solo which he could only attribute to a lack of balance of mind.
Another longstanding choirboy, who later played the organ for us, supported this view. He also said that the Rector himself had been responsible for breaking the glass on the panel of the Ten Commandments at the time of its installation; certainly the broken glass was seen in situ from 1962 to 1995 when the wardens removed it and repainted the damaged lettering. The couple referred to above however dispute that this man was ever a choirboy.
It is also reported that when the rectory was sold after his death many of the church records were found abandoned in the large barn and were deemed not to be recoverable; certainly there are some unexplained gaps in the sequence of them.
There is, then, some printed evidence & at least one fact among these reminiscences, but the culpability therein is as uncertain as the conclusions to be drawn from the other oral testimony. It does seem he died early for no recorded reason, though he is recorded as having resigned in 1959.
Harold Frank Godwin (19591960)
Crockford’s 196364 has:
Clifton Theological College 1933; deacon 1938; priest 1939; curateincharge of Toppesfield 1958 60; Stambourne 195960; Rector of Orsett from 1961.
This Rector thus inherited and was the first occupant of the combined bebnefice.
He first conducted a service for us as principal minister on 5 April 1959 and his alst last on 18 December 1960. He did not take any of the Christmas or Easter Services, the most important in the calendar during this time; the pattern of subordinating our church to the whims of Toppesfield was early established.
Lawrence Pickles (1962 1965)
(B.A. Leeds)
Crockford’s 19634 has :
University of Leeds, B.A. 1937; deacon 1938; priest 1939; Rector of Toppesfield with Stambourne from 1962.
He was instituted as Rector on 27 January 1962, conducted his first service on the 28th and his last on 12 September 1965. His first wedding was 23 June 1962 & his last on 5 June 1965.
This was the first Rector we knew in the village; we recall a quiet unassuming pleasant scholarly man. He had designed his own wood cut bookplate; perhaps he even cut it himself.
He had relatives in America whom he visited that September. On returning after a long flight [JBE recalls taking 24 hours to get to St Louis Mo. only a couple of years earlier] he was driving downhill into a low sun, failed to see a parked lorry and was tragically killed.
He left legacies to both of his churches for the construction of lychgates. That at Stambourne was built with the roof at right angles to the customary direction.
Ernest Elworthy (1967 1976)
(M.C.)
Crockford’s 196970 edn has : Westcott House, Cambridge, 1931; M.C. 1945. Rector of Toppesfield with Stambourne since 1967.
This entry suggests he was born about 1911 and was 34 y.o. in 1945. He appears not have been a graduate and I have found no record of his ordination or other posts; he may well have been with his regiment for the whole period from about 1934 to the time he went to Clavering, perhaps in c. 1961. He conducted his last service in Stambourne on 19 September 1976 and would have been about 65 y.o. when his ministry here ended. He resigned and died shortly afterwards. He is not buried here.
His first service here was on 28 May 1967. He had come from the parish of Clavering where the PictonTurbervilles live; they gave us a most glowing testimony for him but, sadly he did not seem to be confident in his ministry here. He was another of our military men, invariably wearing his ribbones or miniatures on the scarf over his surplice, giving him a rather unapproachable air, particularly with small children.
John Speers (1977 1982)
(M.A., Trinity College Dublin)
Crockford’s 197779 has :
Trinity College Dublin; B.A. 1938; M.A. 1941; priestincharge Toppesfield with Stambourne from 1977 [he was the first holder of our Rectory to be so designated; reorganisation was already being considered]
There is no further information on his earlier appointments; from the date of his B.A. he was probably c. 22 y.o. in 1941. He may well have been another of our exmilitary padres.
He conducted his first service on 8 May 1977 and his last on 25 April 1982. He was a conscientious cleric and his wife, Mary, acted as Secretary of the Parochial Church Council when I joined it. He became frail and resigned for reasons of health; sadly he died of a stroke before he had long enjoyed his deserved retirement.
Howard Marker (1982 1983)
Crockford’s 19889 has :
Marker, John Howard; b. 1911; d. 1934; p. 1935; I. Copford with Easthorpe, Chelmsford, 196877; [there is no record of earlier appointments] rtd 1977; perm. to offic. St Ed. from 1983.
This cleric had a rather unofficial appointment for a part of our longest interregnum.. He styled & signed himself Priestincharge between 2 May 1982 & 19 June 1983. Originally he worked in both parishes but chose to devote himself to us alone for the greater part of this time. He conducted only one wedding on 26 June 1982.
He does not appear in the 19889 Crockford so presumably had died in the interim.
William Roy Jessup (1985 1992)
(B.Sc. London)
Roy Jessup, as he wished to be known, was appointed full Rector to end our longest interregnum of some six years. He clearly informed us that he wished for a seven year ministry among us and faithfully fulfilled that commitment.
The 19989 95th edition of Crockford’s has :
b. 1927; [before the next entry he taught mathematics at a school in London] Cert. Ed. Ridley Hall, Cambridge 1959; d. 1961; p. 1962; c. Walton St Edmunds 196164; Rector of Tuddenham St Mary with Cottenham 196483; P.in C. Eriswell 197578; associate minister All Saints, Ipswich 198385; R. Toppesfield and Stambourne, D. Chelmsford, 198592; rtd 1992; Permission to officiate in the same diocese from 1992. He is currently living in Braintree.
He conducted his first service here on 28 July 1985 and first officiated at a wedding on 28 September, Despite his preference he signed himself W.R.Jessup, Rector. He preached his farewell sermon at mattins on Sunday 26 April 1992 to a full church which also hosted our Congregational friends. His text was verse 13 of the XIV chapter of the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews:
Here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come
I reproduce it from his notes as the next annex; apart from one by the second Henry Havers 1707-1724 delivered in the XVIIIc preserved in the Essex Record Office, it is the only sermon delivered in our village I know to have been preserved entire. There is another reference in a typescript index to Milway Thomas giving a sermon in Stamborn July 19 1750. 1751 p 274 entitled ‘The Righteous men of Faith explained in a Sermon’.
Pencilled note at foot of page:- Is this the Havers one? ?1748-74 Anthony Mayhew
Pencilled note on slip of paper:- list of sermon 5 Suddards one here and Bp Edwards too = 5 at least
Annex 7: The Farewell Sermon of William Roy Jessop
The text of the Farewell Sermon preached by the Reverend William Roy Jessup at S Peter & Thomas,Stambourne on Sunday 26 April 1992 immediately after his 65th Birthday and a few days before his retirement from the Rectorship of the combined benefice of Toppesfield with Stambourne.
The Rector said that:
The year was 1957. It was in my single days when I was a schoolmaster and I was on holiday in Switzerland. The second week of the Summer House Party was being spent in the village of Wergen, high up in the Alps near to Interlaken. It was a Sunday morning and the sun shining on the glistening snow made a beautiful sight. During a break in our Sunday programme I decided to take a short walk through the Alpine village. As I walked along, past the attractive homely Swiss chalets, I spotted one with what appeared to be German writing around the inverted V-shaped roof, writing which terminated with a Biblical text which I deciphered as Hebrews chapter 13 verse 14. My German and my knowledge of the Bible, was not at the moment good enough to understand what was there written, so I decided to look it up when I got by to my hotel. When I did I read these words, in the Authorised version: Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
My immediate reaction was one of assent: ‘Yes – this life is not the end. One day we die physically but there is another life after death.’ And throughout the years I have always interpreted these words from Hebrews in that way. However, seven years ago, I received a slight surprise when I decided to bring those works from Hebrews chapter 13 into a farewell sermon to the All Saints Parish Church congregation in Ipswich before coming here. As I set about studying those words in the context of the passage in which they came, I began to realise that there was far more there than I had expected. We preachers always need to place our text into its context; otherwise we may be in danger of using it as a pretext for what we want to say.
So let me now put my text Here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come into its context. As we look back to the previous two verses in Hebrews chapter 13 we find that the writer has first turned his readers’ minds to Christ and His crucifixion outside the city wall. He sees this as the following through of the Old Testament practice of animal sacrifices. These always took place outside the camp of the Israelites and their purpose was to seek to put the worshippers right with God.
The writer does not just say to his readers: “Let us go to Jesus”, or even, “Let us go to the crucified and risen Jesus.” He makes a point of stressing that it is to One who suffered and died outside the camp. Now to a Jew and especially one who was experiencing persecution, and those to whom he was writing were – to a Jew those words would be very threatening. ‘Outside the camp’ would have conveyed to them danger and unpleasantness. In time of persecution it would have been natural for them to want to withdraw into the familiar prescribed safe pathway of life, which they always had within Judaism. The writer is calling them to step outside the familiar pattern, as Jesus did. To move out with Jesus to a new experience, to risk everything in the adventure of finding a new life. To leave the old work behind and to move on. Yes there are moments in life when, to quote a famous saying:
Time maketh ancient good uncouth.
That can apply as much to us today in the late 20th century, both in our personal home lifes and in our corporate Church life, as to those 1st century Jews who were the recipients of the writer’s letter.
‘Time maketh ancient good uncouth’
‘Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come’
The writer to the Hebrews, in those words, was not just thinking of the life after death in the next world, in the Heavenly Jerusalem, he was also thinking of the newness of life in Christ in this world. Going to Jesus outside the camp implied that this new life would be very different for them than that they had experienced so far. It would incorporate challenges and dangers they had not met with before, but with Christ all will be well.
So with us. There are times when God calls us to new experiences, new challenges. May we be ready always to follow His leading, remembering that He who calls also enables us to fulfil his will.
Do you recall the last words of the Psalmist in Psalm 48 (which we say together earlier in our service?) I quote: This God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.’ Yes and not only our Guide in the sense of pointing the way we must go but also our Companion and Strengthener along the Way. As the Apostle St Paul put it ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’. So then, there is a depth of meaning in my text and its surrounding verses for us all today.
For Mary and myself as we move on into retirement, for our son Paul as he moves into his own flat, for those of you who are members of Stambourne Parish Church as you move on into an interregnum of at least six months and with the prospect at the end of having to share a new Rector with more parishes than at present, there is a depth of meaning too. (And for those of you who have come from outside our normal church congregation to be with us today may I say how good it is to have you with us.) Turning to Christ outside the camp, may mean leaving old things behind – things that at the time were very good but not so now. There may be new opportunities, new good things which come out of the dying of the old. Think of the Phoenix, that fabulous Arabian bird that burned itself every 500 years and then rose rejuvenated from its ashes.
Do you also know the story about Grandma Moses the famous American primitive artist? She did not take up painting until she was in her 80’s and her sight was failing so that she could no longer see to do fine needlework. Her simple paintings, with cheerful colouring, won the hearts of a wide public.
One of my memories of Toppesfield and Stambourne is the School Leavers Service in the Summer. At this they often sing a hymn bringing in these words:
One more step along the world I go
From the old things to the new
Keep me travelling along with you.
And its from the old I travel to the new
Keep me travelling along with you.
As I travel through the bad and good
Keep me travelling the way I should
When I see no way to go
You’ll be telling me the way, I know.
And from the old I travel to the new
Keep me travelling along with you.
Those words express simply what is expressed in more adult language in the letter to the Hebrews. As I draw to an end let me quote from that letter, chapter 12, verses 1 & 2, words which each one of us may appropriate to oneself through our lives to the end.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the air which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the Right Hand of God.
[Here the Rector wrote STOP! across his text and NOT USED across three more paragraphs of notes. We sang Hymn 128 with great sincerity and held a small gathering in the Tower (which space had been cleared during his incumbency) to mark our gratitude for his ministry in our village. Roy Jessup was the 54th Rector of whom we have a record since Robert de Redeswell was here in 1277 AD.]
I end by quoting the prayer with which the Rector introduced his address:
Forgive O Lord what we have been, amend what we are and order what we shall be, to the Glory of Thy Holy Name.
May the words of my lips and the thoughts of our hearts be now and always acceptable unto Thee, O Lord our Strength and our Redeemer.
Transcribed by JBE (who accepts responsibility for any errors) from the notes kindly lent by the Rector, on the fourth day of May in the Year of Our Lord 1992.
John Martin Suddards (present Rector from 1993)
(M.A.Cantab: Barr: @ Law)
Crockford’s 19989 has :
b.1952; Barr: @ Law 1977; Trin: Hall, Camb: B.A. 1974; M.A. 1977; Qu: Coll: Birm 1986; Birm: U. Dip. Theol: 1989; d. 1989; p. 1990. c. Halstead S. Andrew with Holy Trin: & Greenstead Green, Chelm. 198993; p. in ch. Gt with Lt Yeldham from ’93; p. in ch. Toppesfield & Stambourne from ’93.
After an interregnum of, this time, little more than a year Rector was appointed with the task of melding together a benefice of five parishes, the last being Tilbury juxta Clare. It was a complex task, not least because it spanned two deaneries. It is described in chapter 5 and in my view has been carried out with resounding success.
This has been recognised by his appointment and licensing on Monday 23rd February 1998 as Rural Dean of the new Deanery of Hinckford. In his pastoral letter he claims that he appears to be the first Stambourne incumbent within living memory to be honoured; he is, characteristically, too modest.
The office is of great antiquity; I have first encountered in the Valor Eccliasticus prepared by Henry VIII to record his infamous acquisitions. It is referred to again in the visitations of which I have seen the original record of Bp Humphrey Henchman’s journey to Henningham Decanat. in 1664. Its importance was largely usurped by the Archdeacons thereafter until it was formally revived in the pastoral reconstructions of 1836. Prior to this the only probable candidate seems to me to be Mark Le Pla; but we have so few of his records one cannot decide. Of the Victorian & later incumbents, neither Hopkins, in his voluminous writings nor Master in his splendid Journal, refers to it. The earlier longstanding occupants of our Rectory, Tompson & Bowyer, both kept detailed records in which it must surely have appeared. None other held office long enough to be a probability.
I conclude therefore that this honour has been most appropriately bestowed to reward a painstaking solution to a difficult task with which he never [quite] lost patience and that its importance is emphasised by his being [almost certainly] the first of our incumbents to be granted the title of Rural Dean.
I relate an incident of a decade ago which has a slight bearing, post hoc. The Canon Director of the Diocesan Council for Ministry, of which I was a member, called for a report from his fellow Cathedral Canon on local reorganisation. One of its recommendations was that the office be renamed ‘ Area Dean ‘. I wrote a terse and firmly worded letter objecting most strongly. The proposal was, I am sure, based on the large size of the coloured congregations in the parishes of our Diocese that came within London’s East End, far exceeding ours in the countryside. Admittedly, their rural character is not now obvious, but the main area, in which I was then working, does have two of our very oldest churches: the Norman St Margaret’s in East Ham and the 800 y.o. West Ham Parish Church. Despite the extremely liberal nature of the body I was invited to address it and was most sympathetically heard by the Chairman Bishop; he was a fellow A.K.C. and, I suspect, less than happy to have his own office designated as an area post rather than the older more prestigious title of Suffragan. No resolution was made however; the report was adopted. I did not apply to stay on the Council on its reorganisation into a much smaller body and I did not see a final copy, if there ever were one. However it is now clear that my point was taken and I am happy to have played a distant tiny part in this memorable appointment.
This note on our present incumbent concludes these biographies of the fifty or sixty or so Rectors. I am unable to be precise when the first was socalled; certainly the earliest were monks or ” Presbiters” and several of the latest were appointed as priestsincharge. Indeed I think the present Rector is technically five priestsincharge within one cassock but since all the parishes have been Rectories since time immemorial he is fully entitled to use the senior designation. I shall never refer to him by any other .
Annex 8: Sermon of John Martin Suddards, 9th July 1995
The New Law
Some people have told me how wonderful it must be to sit on my terrace and write my sermons. I can honestly say that I have never actually done this. Indeed until recently I could go for weeks without even admiring the view. I sometimes wondered why I felt so estranged from my garden but things changed in the last few months and I got an insight into the issue. This year for a variety of reasons, I managed to make my mark on the garden. I should not claim too much of the credit. It was partly that a number of schemes came to fruition at long last, that the regular gardener managed to tackle two problem areas with the help of roundup, and that two school leavers tamed the flowerbed in front of the terrace. All of a sudden I began to enjoy being in the garden, stealing the odd five minutes here and there to admire it. Before the garden seemed like a pile of horrendous chores waiting to be done, and silently reproaching me. Now the garden is a pleasure to be in.
“Making your mark” was the theme taken by Canon Eric James in a recent “Thought for the Day” on Radio 4. He was doing what all Christian people are supposed to do each day – taking the issues of the day and reflecting on them in the light of the Gospel. One famous theologian said that on any minister’s desk there were two essentials – today’s newspaper and the Bible. What the Canon had done is reflect on the rioting in Luton. It had obviously shocked him but he was not full of condemnation of the rioters or of the police. Instead he asked himself what it was in human beings that made them into vandals.
He saw in so many people the urgent need to make their mark. If their community did not give them much recognition then they rebelled and used one form of vandalism or another. This did not just apply to young people but to many adults too. Politicians were particularly prone to making their mark, and this last week’s activities at Westminster were good examples of that, and of the bad feeling that can result from disappointed ambitions. A failed politician could use subtle forms of verbal vandalism to get revenge. And on the other hand there were some who were too frightened to make their mark in any sense. The Canon was suggesting that if the only way these youths can make their mark is by rioting, then society is sick indeed. But he was also suggesting that there was something of the vandal in each of us as we strove to make our mark or to react to not making it.
So what’s the alternative – you might ask. We all want to make good impressions and to be admired for what we do. From dressing up for a special occasion to following a challenging career path we are wanting to make our mark. But we can perhaps see the dangers of it in something very ordinary. You are introduced to someone. Let us suppose you want to make your mark and impress the other person. Are you really wanting to get to know that person or are you simply putting on a performance? Are you really loving that person? Or are you simply using him or her for your own pride. And if the person fails to be impressed, how do you react?
The New Law – which is today’s theme – is a law designed to cure vandals of all kinds. It is not simply a set of orders but also diagnosis, prescription and cure. The New Law is not a code but a way of behaving that stems from Jesus and his way of being. It causes us at times to do things which go against common sense, such as turning the other cheek or doing good to our enemies. It causes us at times to do things that make us very vulnerable and can even put us in danger. It makes us turn from selfish ends to the needs of others. We need to be more concerned about others feeling fulfilled and valued, than about making our mark. What can prompt us to feel like this?
The answer is about feeling cherished by God. Could I ask you to do some homework? Could you sit down and write a letter to God? Imagine you have received a postcard from God saying “just to let you know – I love you!”, and you feel you ought to respond. Do not try to make your mark! You will soon find out what you really feel about God’s message.
The people who heard the Law being read to them in the Old Testament Reading wept. Perhaps the holiness of God was brought to them in the reading of the Law and they felt ashamed. Or perhaps they were just moved by coming close to God. Then Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest said “Let there be no sadness, for joy in the Lord is your strength.” In other words, if you want to be strong, rejoice in God’s love. Cheer up. No longer worry about making a mark, for what mark can you need if you have God’s love? Action may be necessary but not for selfish reasons. Observe the Law and let it be your joy.
The New Testament Lesson develops this. The Law in the end is not enough. It tends to corrupt people into making burdens for others through a legalistic interpretation of the Law. The hallmark of the new Law is the sense of freedom it gives – freedom from enslavement to having to make one’s mark. Jesus of Nazareth frees us from all that and instead bids us strive to do his will. For fear of humiliation it puts conscientiousness. For pride it puts the exhilaration of God’s service. And for failure it puts the newness of life each day – the new start that needs such humility to grasp.
If we are humble, then Jesus’s yoke is indeed easy and his burden is light. And we need to find time to appreciate who he is in prayer and meditation. And a garden is an excellent place to do it in – once you have put it to rights a bit!
Visiting Rectors and Locum tenens visitors
The Revds Godwin, Speers & Marker, and indeed our John Suddards now, were not formally appointed Rectors but as Priestsincharge, though I do understand that the last of these does have freehold. They appear in the list of Rectors, for the parish has remained nominally a Rectory, even though the financial significance of this appointment disappeared when stipends became the responsibility of the Church Commissioners in, was it, 1948. this section lists what can be seen from the registers of other clerics who were either in locum tenens, visitors, curates appointed by absentee rectors, or otherwise helping to maintain our ministry. The number who came out of the goodness of their hearts is impressive, as indeed it was during the recent interregna.
Name Period Rector Comments
Henry Thompson 1686 The R(ector) of B(ird)brook who He buried Engl? Wm Thompson.
S Jones 1691 Mark Le Pla
Mr Roberts 1716 Mark Le Pla
Thomas Orchard 17561777 Venn Eyre T.O. effectively acted as Rector
John Swaine 17781785 William Lloyd 7y
Richard Gregory 17851787 William Lloyd 2y
Harry Paxton 17871796 William Lloyd 9y
John Walker 17971799 William Lloyd 2y
John Whitehurst 18011808 William Lloyd 7y
Sequestration until 1809
Jon Walton 18131819 Jas Hopkins
again 18301831 He now signed D.D.
Lewis Way 18131823
again 1833
Frances Okes 1819
Turner Livingstone 18191820 Christian name is T?u???
Geo Pyke 1820
Frederick Elwes 1820; 1828; 1834 Rector of Wixoe
Frederick Ford 1822; 1846
Charles John Way 18241827 Curate of Toppesfield; c.f.1813
Rufsell Skinner 182830
Geo S Simcokes? 1830
J Gooch 1832
Thomas Ager 1833 & 1834 Rector of Toppesfield
Edward Pemberton 1841
Francis Forster 1842 & 1846 Vicar of Ridgewell [n.b. John Forster]
Geo Wightman D.D. 1846 Vicar of Clare
C Abbott 1847
J M St. Clare Raymond 1848
R S A Roberts 1850
Arthur Stock
A F Wynter 1854 & 1858
John Wilson 6 Mar 1854 Jas Hopkins I think JH wrote later entries from notes by JW:
18561858 he died 23 March 1858 aet 57
W C Murphy 1858 R(ector) Ringwood ? & Bromstead??
T K Tullon
Henry L Owen
John Wilson[secundus] 1859 Buried J.H 11 Dec 1858: 3m’s; no bz’s.
Edmund Day 1863
John d’Arcy Sirr D.D. 186365
Peter Moody 18691870 Alfred Master A.M. was ‘out of health’ & abroad for winter
H Perrott 1888 Curate of Toppesfield
Jas Christie 1889
Wm Jas Earle 1889 Rector of Gt Yeldham
1794 – 1868
Joseph
T C B Author
John? Next to Edmund Day
Next to John D’arcy
Next to H Perrott
Next to Jas Christie
Fredk J Hinton Axford 1912 Retired & died here in 1927 aet 85;
Lavinia died in 1915, aet 70;
he signs himself L.P. [?licensed priest]
& has several entries
Geo. A Wightman EoK??
Kenneth Edward Cartwright In 1932 styled himself P. in Ch:
he became Vicar of Gt Bardfield in 1933
Interregnum September 1965 March 1967
Interregnum October 1976 May 1977
Howard Davies
Barry Rodwell Rector of Sible Hedingham
W Saxby
H Sharpe
P.C.Forde
Mr Stebbing
Interregnum May 1982 July 1985
Howard Marker May 1982 – Jun 1983 In locum tenens though styled P. in Ch
D.O.R.Parry
D. Thomas
S.G.Moody Many services; n.b. 186970
J Sharpe
A.G.Banks
D.T. Willcox
W. Gregory Cameron Several of these men came from St Marks
Patrick Lenice
Prebendary Llewis Lloyd
C G T Jones M.A. Methodist Lay Preacher, now ordained
Margaret Jones M.A. As above; our first lady preacher
Interregnum 1992 1993
Canon John A Fitch
Christopher Elliot Rector S. Hedingham; held regular H.C.s
Bernard [Bunny] Ottaway Vicar Ridgewell, Retired to Wash Farm
Graham Ridgewell Lay Reader
Joan Redmond Lay Reader of St Andrews
Some of the early rectors such as Bainbridge, had pluralities but we have no records from their times.
Most of these men came for single purpose visits, to carry out a baptism, wedding or interment.
Several were clearly resident curates; these were of two kinds, those who assisted a living Rector as Wilson did for Hopkins and those who ran the parish alone.
Some of these appear to have had contracts, as in the pattern of alternating two & seven year periods during Lloyd’s total absenteeism. Le Pla’s assistants seem to be similar.
Orchard seems to have been effectively a Rector from his work on the bells even though Eyre was alive, living in Kings Lynn.
Marker appears formally to have been appointed locum tenens during an interregnum; so may well have been some of the others.
A remarkable number of names appear twice:
Earle was Rector of Gt Yeldham; Mr Erles was Justis of the Pees @ Toppesfield in the 1660s
Francis Forster had the same name as our Rector John Forster, in its unusual spelling.
Sidney Moody adopted us during the long interregnum; Peter may have been his father
Henry Thompson, Rector of Birdbrook, buried Rector Wm Thompson in 1688; I believe they were of the same family of landed gentry.
Lewis Way & Charles John Way made a number of overlapping entries; perhaps brothers.
The two John Wilsons, one of whom buried J.H. after the other had already died @ an early age, were probably also father & son
Will fit to previous page when pencilled comments resolved/integrated.
Other Church Functionaries
Pencilled note @ head of page: Copy W Th.s Gaudi?? From p 8.37
Wardens and other officers
Date to Rector Warden [E] = Elder Treasurer PCC Secretary Organist
[O] = Overseeer Parish clerk
1610 John Allen
1615 John Allen O
Thomas Bocher O
Sarah Chapman
1622 51 M J Parnell Stephen Hunts E
1615
1623 45 H/w #3
1677 87 Thompson John Harwood
John Levitt
1700 Thomson
1860 Forster Wm Ruffle
Robt E Smith
1911 Eliz Unwin
John Joseph
1918 Eliz Unwin
John J Smee Phyllis Drysdale
Betty Johnson
1960 Aunt Ashard Muriel Crow
Mary Speers
1970 83 Andrew Soundy
Leonard Howard Cdr Patton Old Lady
1970 83
1980 96 A W Garratt B.Garratt Locksmith
1983 95 J B Enticknap P M Enticknap Tom Drew
Tom Basking
1995 D Johnson Reg Cave
1996 Reg Cave
Young Scholar
Stambourne Choir
from inserted handwritten sheet
The labels on the hook rail ± 1950 Val??? down 1990
A Brown
E. W –
H Ra Mamford???
H Hasler | P Pannell
W Cago??? P Guent??? P Mascall
Clayden Oxley D Roberts
R West
Boughtwood???
L Ruggles
Andrew Thompson
Cyril Hasler???
James Irish???
Donald Drysdale
Billy Clark
Robert Drysdale
John Lew
Witnesses in Marriage Register [?1813 – 37]
I seem to have an earlier version of some of this too which contains some but not all of the info below. It also has a penciled marginal note as follows:- Work out a scheme for indexing numbers to decades from Ch 7 & including it into the witness list. a) main list c(ontaining?) common persons b) Professional witness list separate page Ch 8
Date Name First # Last # Total
Ann Allfounder 65 1 x
Alexander Arnold 29 74 10
Jas Ashard 54 1 x
Eliz Barnard 15 1
Hannah Barnard n.r. 1 x
John Barnard 80 1 x
Lydia Barnard 4 5 2
E Baynes 16 1
Sarah Bincliffe 38 1
Geo Bird 16 1
Timothy Bowyer 18 38 7
Richard Bowyer 14 1
Ursula Brett 12 1
John Brown 40 91 2 x
Mary Brown 52 98 12
Cath Bunton 66 1
Hannah Bunton 9 10 2
Heph: Bunton 36 39 2
James Bunton 10 1
Eliz Button 1 11 4
Timothy Button Jun 8 1
Mary Choat 1 1
Gabriel Clark 3 1
Robert Cross 73 1
Wm Cook 63 1
Daniel Davis 56 1 x
Daniel Dowsett 5 1
Heph: Dowsett 95 1
Stephen Drew 92 1 x
Joseph Fitch 81 1
Sarah Fitch 81 1
Barnabas Flack 70 70 1 1
Geo French 8 1
Henry Frost 15 1
Susan Garrad ? 96 1
Mary George 68 1
Robert Hardy 44 1
Thos Hardy 58 1
Hannah Harver 61 1 x
Wm Honeyball 26 1
Alf Jarvis 87 1
Ed Jarvis 11 27 1 s.o.Malster
Sophia Key 13 1
Wm King 27 1
Thos Layver 100 1
John Lewrey 1 x
Eliza Martin 82 1
Sarah Martin 59 1 x
Thos Martin 34 48 4
Fred Matthews 18 1
John Mortimer 75 1
Sarah Mortimer 75 1
Barker Myall Jun: 23 1
Branson Parmenter 30 53 1 x
Edward Parmenter 28 89 4
Hy Lambeth Owen 42 1
Hannah Oakley 61 1
John Parmenter 2 104 56 in 48 yrs
as Junior 20 53 4
to 25 Dec 1859 as Senior 20 35 7
from 2 to 35=18
from 20 to 104 = 49
Heph: Paysk 1
Ed Plail 46 1
Daniel Ralling 64 103 2 x
Lewis Ralling 37 1
Geo Rolleson 17 1
Hannah Rolleson 44 1
Eliz Slater 70 1
Rebecca Smith 25 1
Eliza Spurgeon 87 1
Thos Stains 45 1
Eliza Unwin 70 1
John Underwood 60 1
Susan Wesley 50 62 2
Wm Westley 67 1 x
Wm Wesley Jr: 9 84 8
Geo Warren 71 102 2
Susan Weybrow 57 1 x
Sarah Wybrow 32 51 5
John Wiffen 86 1
Hannah Wiffen 86 1
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