Church of England - A field guide to the English clergy: a compendium of diverse eccentrics, pirates, prelates and adventurers ; all Anglican, some even practicing

The Author dedicates, with the utmost respect and humility, this scraped together offering to both His Grace the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXON, so that, in mutual opprobrium at so ghastly a volume, they might effect a THEOLOGICAL RECONCILIATION befitting their respective ranks and statures.

It will not escape the eagle-eyed reader that this is a compendium of eccentrics that features exclusively clergy of the male sex. Here, Im afraid, your humble narrator can but plead cowardice. It is not that there is a shortage of eccentric, successful or nutty women, or, indeed, women renowned for their sense of adventure or love of good living currently in Holy Orders. However, the Church of Englands regrettable tardiness in ordaining women to the Priesthood means that most of these potential subjects are still alive and, being women of great ingenuity as well as great godliness, many have access to excellent lawyers and some (particularly those in rural ministry) to unlicensed firearms. In light of this, a decision was made to restrict this collection to clergy who have shuffled off to a Better Place. It is to be hoped that the large numbers of women clergy who undoubtedly warrant a place in this collection will not feel too aggrieved by the authors decision to exclude the quick from his collection. Confident that God will continue to call as many manifestly strange women to the Priesthood as men, the author looks forward to a tome being produced in the not too distant future, replete with tales of these remarkable Priests; produced, however, by an individual braver (or with better legal representation) than he.

FBG
Cambridge, 2018

CONTENTS

The Reverend Robert Hawker,
Vicar of Morwenstow (180375)

The Reverend George Harvest,
Rector of Thames Ditton (172889)

The Reverend Sandys Wason,
Perpetual Curate of Cury and Gunwalloe (18671950)

The Reverend Thomas Massey,
Rector of Farringdon (c.18291919)

The Right Reverend Lord William Cecil,
Bishop of Exeter (18631936)

The Reverend Edwin Teddy Boston,
Rector of Cadeby cum Sutton Cheney (192486)

The Reverend Frederick Densham,
Vicar of Warleggan (18701953)

The Reverend Ian Graham-Orlebar,
Rector of Barton-le-Clay (19262016)

The Reverend Morgan Jones,
Curate of Blewbury (17471827)

The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Frederick
Hervey, Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry (17301803)

The Very Reverend Samuel Smith,
Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (17651841)

The Reverend Thomas Espin,
Vicar of Tow Law (18581934)

The Reverend Dr William Spooner,
Warden of New College, Oxford (18441930)

Canon Frederick Simpson, Dean of Trinity College,
Cambridge (18831974)

The Reverend Professor Stephen Reay,
Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford (17821861)

The Reverend Richard Polwhele,
Rector of Manaccan (17601838)

The Reverend Francis Hugh Maycock,
Principal of Pusey House (190380)

The Reverend Dr Vicesimus Knox,
Headmaster of Tonbridge School (17521821)

Canon Claude Jenkins, Canon of Christ Church
and Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford (18771959)

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould,
Rector of Lew Trenchard (18341924)

Canon Brian Dominic Titus Leo Brindley,
Vicar of Holy Trinity, Reading (19312001)

The Reverend Nathaniel Rothwell, Rector of
Thursford and Great Snoring (16521710)

The Reverend Thomas Patten,
Vicar of Seasalter (16831764)

The Reverend John Mad Jack Allington,
Rector of Barford (17951863)

The Reverend James Woodforde,
Vicar of Weston Longville (17401803)

The Reverend Jack Russell,
Vicar of Swimbridge (17951883)

The Reverend Jeremiah Carter,
Curate of Lastingham (1701c.1780)

The Very Reverend William Buckland,
Dean of Westminster (17841856)

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Michael
Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England (190488)

The Right Reverend Launcelot Fleming,
Bishop of Norwich (19061990)

Canon Sydney Smith,
Canon of St Pauls Cathedral (17711845)

The Reverend William Webb Ellis,
Rector of St Clement Danes (180672)

The Reverend Joseph Wolff,
Vicar of Isle Brewers (17951862)

The Right Reverend Douglas Feaver,
Bishop of Peterborough (191497)

The Reverend Charles Lowder,
Vicar of St Peters, London Docks (182080)

The Right Reverend Howell Witt,
Bishop of North West Australia (192098)

The Reverend Donald Pateman,
Vicar of St Marks, Dalston (191598)

The Reverend Hugh Grimes,
Chaplain of Vienna (18751962)

The Reverend James Hackman,
Vicar of Wiveton (175279)

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Lancelot
Blackburne, Archbishop of York (16581743)

The Very Reverend Marco de Dominis,
Dean of Windsor and sometime Archbishop of Split (15601624)

The Reverend Dr Sir Robert Peat,
Perpetual Curate of New Brentford (17721837)

The Reverend James Stanier Clarke,
Chaplain to the Prince of Wales (17671834)

The Reverend Bruce Cornford,
Vicar of St Matthews, Southsea (18671940)

The Reverend Harold Davidson,
Rector of Stiffkey (18751937)

The Reverend Sir Henry Bate-Dudley,
Rector of Willingham (17451824)

The Honourable and Reverend William Capel,
Vicar of Watford (17751854)

The Reverend Dr Edward Drax Free,
Rector of All Saints, Sutton (17641843)

ECCENTRICS

he archetype of the dotty Anglican Vicar is one with enduring appeal. Whether the imagined parson of a half-remembered past or the character who gives a touch of anecdotal variety to the drudgery of parochial existence, a clergyman with unusual habits is a stock figure in the English cultural lexicon. The secret of the clerical eccentrics longevity in the popular imagination (long after it appears to have abandoned many of the other appendages of cultural Christianity) is that he is essentially a hybrid figure, standing at the crossroads of two rich seams of public strangeness. Put simply, to be a clergyman is eccentric enough, but to be English on top of that is almost overkill.

The parson is recognisably part of the broader tradition of English eccentricity. Quite what it is in the English character that has engendered such a predisposition is unclear perhaps it is a legacy of those who seek to disrupt a culture historically bound by complex rules of etiquette and propriety, or maybe its just a result of people trying to entertain themselves amid the perpetual drizzle. Either way, whether collecting curios, walking oddly or fostering inappropriate relationships with animals, the English have carved a niche as a nation with a streak of eccentricity running right through national life.