Scenes of Clerical Life in Georgian Hampshire: the Reverend Richard Wavell
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Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 55, 2000, 68-78 (Hampshire Studies 2000) SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE IN GEORGIAN HAMPSHIRE: THE REVEREND RICHARD WAVELL By COLIN HAYDON ABSTRACT Woodforde's diary is a natural starting-point for a discussion of the Hanoverian Church: in The Reverend Richard Wavell was rector of St. Maurice, deed, in his magisterial Church and State in England Winchester, from 1741 until his death in 1779, and also in the Eighteenth Century, Norman Sykes, dean of rector of-nearby Chilcomb from 1750/51. Between 1744 Winchester from 1958 to 1961, saw Woodforde and 1778, he corresponded with his friend, Thomas as, in popular estimation, 'representative of the Woolls, vicar ofFarehamfrom 1739 to 1789. Seventy-six country clergy' of his day (Sykes 1934, 270). Such of his letters have survived and the photocopies of them in a statement raises a number of questions about the the Hampshire Record Office form the basis of this essay. condition of the Established Church in Georgian Like James Woodforde's famous diary, WaveR's letters times. For if Woodforde, keeping the noiseless provide us with a many-sided, absorbing picture of a clericalteno r of his way in his remote backwater, seems a career in the provinces, where mundane Ife ticked on largelydecen t and affable individual, his piety, whilst oblivious of the high affairs of state and great events. firm, appears limited and uninspiring (at least judging by the selections of the diary's twenti In the popular mind, the embodiment of the eigh eth-century editor). And was not Woodforde one teenth-century Church of England is probably of the better clergymen who enjoyed the life James Woodforde, rector of Weston Longeville in which Edward Gibbon, the historian of the Ro Norfolk from 1774 to 1803. Woodforde's diary, man empire, derided as 'the fat slumbers of the kept between 1758 and 1802 (Woodforde 1968), church' (Gibbon 1978, 163)? The Georgian provides us with a detailed account of a village Church is frequently portrayed in a repellent parson's work and a marvellous picture of hum light. Between the great days of the Caroline di drum, everyday life in provincial England. From vines and the Oxford Movement, parsons are it, we learn of Woodforde's ministry, his relations often perceived as grasping, selfish, and worldly, with the local squire, his dealings with the poor, caring more for their tithes than their congrega and his treatment of his servants and animals. The tions and enhancing their incomes through the diary describes the Parson's journeys to London, practice of pluralism. When pluralism produced Bath, and Oxford, his trips to the theatre, and mi non-residence, was not a parish's worship ne nor ailments. And then there is Woodforde's glected, or entrusted to an inadequate, delight in the gross quantities of food and drink impoverished curate? The Established Church is which he so dutifully recorded: presented as the handmaiden of a state which treated the lower orders harshly, whilst its gouty, gross clergy, bigoted and port-soaked, are seen as We had for Dinner to day a boiled Leg of Mutton apologists for an unjust status quo and toadies to with Capers, a Couple of Chicken rosted and a the rich (Malcolmson 1981, 85; Thompson 1991, Tongue, a Norfolk plain batter Pudding, Tripe, 32). Small wonder that the zealous Methodists Tarts and some blamange with 4 Sorts of Cheese. eventually broke with the Anglican body. For Supper some Oysters, a wild Duck rosted, Po tatoes rosted, and some cold Chicken &c. After This hostile picture does not derive merely Coffee and Tea (Woodforde 1968, II, 358) ... from the period's jaundiced sceptics, vicious car- HAYDON: SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE IN GEORGIAN HAMPSHIRE 69 toons, and angry radicals, and from smug Victo Dr. William Gibson, too, has seen much to com rian writers who anachronistically condemned the mend in the Hampshire clergy's endeavours in Georgian Church because it failed to conform to Hanoverian times - when focusing, for example, their standards and values. The accusations are on the parish of St. Mary, Southampton, he main reiterated in the works of modern scholars (e.g. tains that its clerics served their flocks effectively Virgin 1989). Other recent historians have, how (Gibson 1998-99). Unfortunately, however, the ever, countered the charges, and have presented, lower clergy, when they appear in these four stud both in national surveys (e.g. Taylor 1987) and lo ies, largely seem faceless men, lacking - for better cal studies (e.g. Barrie-Curien 1993), a more fa or worse - the human attributes of a Woodforde. vourable picture of the Hanoverian parsons, Given the authors' preoccupations or broad ana maintaining that their achievements were far from lytical sweep, and the space at their disposal, this negligible, especially since in their lifetimes the was unavoidable. Church encountered new and serious problems. This essay adopts a narrower perspective, look As attendance at services was, from 1689, legally ing at the world of one Winchester parson in the unenforceable (Bennett 1975, 11-12), clergymen Hanoverian period. It is possible to do this be worked hard to maintain, or to swell, their congre cause, a few years ago, a gift was made to the gations. New church buildings were erected or old Hampshire Record Office by Mr. Douglas ones extended. Efforts were made to ensure that Pearson. Mr. Pearson, who lives in New South parishioners properly understood Christian doc Wales, Australia, is a descendant of the Reverend trine through catechizing and careful, intelligible Thomas Woolls, an eighteenth-century Hamp preaching. Taken together, in the eyes of 'revi shire clergyman, and the material he deposited is a sionists', such endeavours constitute an 'eight set of photocopies of letters to his ancestor from eenth-century Reformation' in England (Gregory the Reverend Richard Wavell, another Hamp 1993; Gregory 1998), aimed at bringing the shire cleric and the subject of this piece (H.R.O. Protestant message with increasing effectiveness Photocopy 605, 1-118). One reason for the corre to the lower orders. spondence, which covers over thirty years In line with this general debate, historians have (1744-78), was that the two men used to swap ser investigated the Church of England's functioning mons (H.R.O. Photocopy 605, 2, 7,11,33,39, 90, in Hampshire during the Georgian period. For the 105) in a way somewhat reminiscent of the regu left-wing writer E.P. Thompson, the Winchester lar exchange of telegraphic confessions and abso diocese was, in the early eighteenth century, a lutions contemplated by two priests, old friends, baneful institution, whose greedy officials ex in Gabriel Chevallier's novel Clochemerle. A novel ploited the tenants on its lands and displayed a ist whom Wavell liked was Fielding (H.R.O. Pho hard-hearted disregard for the lower orders' wel tocopy 605, 48). And like Fielding's books, fare (Thompson 1977, passim). Professor W.R. Wavell's letters give a humane, vivid, and absorb Ward, using the answers to episcopal visitation ing account of life in Georgian England. enquiries from 1725, 1765, and 1788, also pro Richard Wavell was bom in 1717 (H.R.O. duces a gloomy picture of the Church in 21M65/E1/4/192). The Wavells were prominent Hampshire (Ward 1995, ix-xxxvi). Pluralism and citizens of Winchester. Thomas Wavell, a linen non-residence were rife, parochial schooling was draper, had been a leading Whig under Charles LI unimpressive, and the administration of charity and James LI, and had opposed the Crown's politi often flawed (Ward 1995, xi-xii, xviii-xxi, cally contentious schemes for remodelling the xxviii-xxxi). Yet, by contrast, Dr. R.K. Pugh has city's charter. With the end of Kingjames's reign argued that the Winchester diocese was in a satis and the Glorious Revolution, therefore, Thomas factory state when Benjamin Hoadly was bishop was raised high, becoming mayor (Carpenter (1734-61). Despite Hoadly's reputation as a politi Turner 1992, 103-4; Coleby 1987, 175-7); and cal appointee, self-seeking and negligent, Pugh other members of the family assumed the office in contends that the diocese's administration oper the eighteenth century. Richard's father, Daniel, ated smoothly during his episcopate (Pugh 1985). was rector of the ancient church of St. Maurice, 70 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Winchester (which was rebuilt in 1842, but de the church of St. Peter and St. Paul by a memorial molished, apart from the tower, in the twentieth cen tablet (1790), the work of Richard Westmacott tury) (Carpenter Turner 1992, 127-8; James 1997, (Pevsner and Lloyd 1967, 220). hi 1740, Wavell 110; Surry 1984). Richard, then, was brought up in was appointed curate of Headbourne Worthy, a a comfortable, educated, religious household, and, short distance from Winchester, and, the follow in 1736, he matriculated at Pembroke College, ing year, he became rector of St. Maurice (his fa Oxford; Thomas Woolls had preceded him there ther had died in 1738). He held the living until his in 1733 (Foster 1888, IV, 1,608, 1,514). own death in 1779 (H.R.O. 21M65/E1/4/192; Woolls's period of residence was an interesting Carpenter Turner 1992, 128; Ward 1995, 235). rime at Pembroke: the College was, said Samuel From 1750/51, he also held the incumbency of Johnson, its most famous son, 'a nest of singing Chilcomb, a rural parish just outside the city birds' (Boswell 1980, 55). Johnson had left in De (Ward 1995, 173), and, in 1773, he was made cember 1729, but, in 1732, 'the triumvirate' of master of the Hospital of St.