Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 45, 1989, 167-172

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER AT WINCHESTER IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

By W GIBSON

ABSTRACT in their income. Indeed the dean's income fell to £1,304 and the canons' to £652 a year (RIDC, From 1541 to 1840 the chapter of was 1), and the canonries were to be reduced in unaltered inform, consisting of twelve canons, including two- number as they fell vacant: the second, third, archdeacons and four dignitaries, and a dean. But by the, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and eleventh 1830s criticism of abuses within the like vacancies would be left unfilled and the first, pluralism and non-residence led to attempts to effect changes fourth, seventh, tenth and twelfth vacancies in the Church by Lord Melbourne's Whig government. In a were to be filled. The surplus made by the series of reforms recommended by the Ecclesiastical Commis­ reduction of the incomes of the chapter mem­ sion set up by the government the outward structure of the bers amounted to £5,136 annually once the Church was altered and an attempt was made to change the reduction had been completed, and this sum perception of the clergyman's role. Bishop Blomfield of London, a determined reformer, aimed to use the Commission was appropriated by the Ecclesiastical Com­ to establish "a consistent scheme of discipline ..." among missioners for redistribution within the the clergy (Brose 1959, 125). The 1840 Cathedrals Act Church (SREC, 38). In financial terms there­ referred to the objective of increasing the efficiency of the fore the impact of reform was not great, money cathedrals (Brose 1959, 126). Historians, in a rather was still allowed for the payment of salaries Whiggish manner, have tended to regard these reforms as a and for repair of the fabric, and the dean and watershed in the life of the Church, and the era before the canons received similar amounts to their pre- reforms of the 1840s has been called that of 'the unreformed reform income. The reduction in numbers of Church'. The legislation that arose from the Ecclesiastical canons was a change that did not immediately Commission appeared to give the Church its modern form and effect great changes. It took until 1865 for all to detach it from the practices of the past. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of the reforms on the chapter twelve canonries to fall vacant and thus for the of Winchester Cathedral and to question whether the changes number of canons to drop to five. Nevertheless of the 1840s were as dramatic as has been traditionally it seems that the reduction in numbers of assumed. canons was the most unpopular aspect of the Cathedrals Act. As late as 1884 the Bishop, The most evident way in which the chapter Edward , expressed his prefer­ was altered in the 1840s was in the reduction ence to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for a in the number of its personnel. The second large chapter. He claimed that the 'ancient report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in foundation' cathedrals, with non-resident pre­ 1836, revealed that the Cathedral had an bendaries and resident canons were more to income of £10,869. After the deduction of £1,478- his taste {RECW, 49). 2-6d for the salaries of thirty three lay officers At the heart of the Cathedrals Act was the and servants, and of £251-l-2d for maintenance issue of residence. Before the Act the majority of the fabric, £9,139-18-2d remained to be of Winchester's canons were not resident at divided among the dean and canons. The dean the Cathedral, combining their canonry with received £1,430 and each canon £680-19-8d a college, parish or other Church livings. Good year (SREC, 37-39). By the Cathedrals Act of examples of this practice are Thomas Gamier 1840 the number of canons fell from twelve to and Thomas de Grey. Gamier was the incum­ five. However there was no corresponding rise bent of four parishes within the diocese of 168 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOCICAL SOCIETY

Winchester (Bishopstoke, Brightwell, Drox- However a significant minority, seven canons, ford and Foxhall) as well as chaplain to the were pluralists who held other offices and had bishop, master of St Cross and a canon of thereby to limit their residence at the Cathe­ Winchester. (It is no coincidence that Gamier dral. Of these seven pluralists, three held was the son-in-law of Brownlow North, bishop parish livings in the diocese, three were high­ of Winchester 1781-1820 and in due course flying young clergy - on their way to mitres - became dean.) Garnier's son-in-law, Thomas who held a variety of Church offices and one de Grey, was the second son of Lord Walsing- was an inspector of training colleges (Home ham. De Grey was incumbent of Calbourne, 1974, passim). An explanation for this partial Fawley and Merton, chaplain to the king, enforcement of residence of canons can be archdeacon of and a canon of Winches­ found in the attitude of Bishop Charles ter (Wade 1832, 29, 107). These two canons Sumner to the changes proposed by the with their pluralities piled high had little time Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Although to devote to the Cathedral at Winchester, and Sumner favoured the creation of chapters staf­ with the other canons spent a month each fed by theologians he was a virulent opponent resident in Winchester in rotation (Gibson of the church reforms proposed by the Whigs. 1988). The Ecclesiastical Commissioners felt He refused to give up his patronage in other strongly that the canons of cathedrals should dioceses, as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners not be sinecurists, but active members of a had advised. He also paid scant respect to the chapter. In their report on cathedrals they Commission, attending only 133 meetings out proposed that canons should be inoffensive of a total of 506 meetings, between 1840 and and useful aristocracy in a clerical body . . . 1847 (Best 1964, 316, 381). It is clear that until (Brose 1959, 131). The , his retirement in 1869 Sumner continued to 1827-1869, , made clear his nominate a number of canons who had other view that chapters of cathedrals should be livings to attend to and could not as a result be 'nurseries of sound theological knowledge . . .' resident in Winchester (Sumner 1876, 167). A (Hansard, 151). In the Cathedrals Act of 1840 successor of Sumner's, Edward Harold Browne these ideas were refined into legislation that (bishop 1873—1891), was more sympathetic to excluded deans from holding any other living the reforms of the 1840s. In 1878, at his in plurality, other than a parish in the same visitation of Winchester Cathedral, Browne city as the cathedral over which they presided; told the chapter that a canonry should not be and then the income of the living could not 'dignified retirement in old age' but a chapter exceed £500 a year (Best 1964, 438). The canons should be 'learned body . . . the Bishop's were obliged to be resident at their cathedrals counsellors . . .' (Kitchen 1895, 444). Even so, for at least eight months a year, unless they Browne continued to nominate archdeacons had the express permission of their bishop or from the active parish clergy of the diocese and held professorships or archdeaconries .(RECW, in 1880 allowed Archdeacon Atkinson of 30). Like the reduction of the canonries, this Surrey to retain his vicarage of (ibid, was introduced gradually as posts fell vacant, 449). so there was no overnight change at Winches­ By 1884, when the Ecclesiastical Commis­ ter, nevertheless the role of the dean and sioners reported on Winchester Cathedral, the canons had been redefined. The tide turned chapter had come close to the model laid down against pluralism and non-residence. in the 1840 Act. At Michaelmas each year the The Winchester chapter did begin to con­ chapter members met to agree on periods of form to the model that the Ecclesiastical Com­ residence that they would observe. The missioners had in mind. Of the sixteen canons canons' duties were described as four-fold: appointed between 1842 and 1900, nine were instructing, preaching, theological study and resident canons who performed their functions 'the oversight of useful work' within the dio­ at the Cathedral as their sole clerical function. cese {RECW, 30). This last function was open GIBSON: CONTINUITY AND CHANCE: THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER AT WINCHESTER IN THE 1'ITH CENTURY 169 to interpretation by the bishop, and most of decline of the aristocratic canon no doubt the pluralist canons were appointed under this reflects the increasingly limited opportunities heading. A good example being Canon Ernest for nobles to use their 'connections' to obtain Wilberforcc, who from 1878 to 1882 was a offices within the Church. Moreover as canons, canon of Winchester, but also the head of a after 1840, became increasingly residentiaries diocesan mission house in Portsmouth. too, the attractiveness of a stall waned for The change from non-resident pluralist rapacious noble clergy who sought sinecures. canons to a largely resident chapter was not As nobles vacated the stalls the sons of clergy the only effect of the reforms of the 1840s. moved in, and this hereditary clerical element Other changes can be detected in the chapter. at Winchester was part of a wider process that There was a dramatic change in the geogra­ was taking place within the Victorian Church. phical origins of members of the chapter. In The Church was becoming a profession, with a the first forty years of the 19th century the vast career structure, societies which promoted its majority of members of the chapter were born interests and the attributes of limited recruit­ either within the , or ment and rigorous education. It was therefore within neighbouring dioceses in southern to be expected that like other middle class England. After 1840 this picture changed quite professions, the Church would attract clergy dramatically: only one canon nominated who had followed their fathers into a pro­ between 1840 and 1900 was born in Winches­ fession. ter diocese. The remainder were drawn from Two further minor changes are also worth the midlands, the north, London and Ireland noting in the Winchester chapter. First, after (Home 1974, passim). Of course this change 1842 there were virtually no royal chaplains reflects, in some measure, the growth of geo­ among the clergy of the Cathedral. This is a graphical mobility generally in 19th-century striking change, since between 1800 and 1842 Britain. But it also indicates a shift in the there were six royal chaplains among the position of Winchester canons. The decline of canons. The explanation for the decline lies pluralism, nepotism and personal patronage partly in the decline of the aristocratic canons, emanating from the bishop meant that fewer since royal chaplains were frequently chosen Hampshire clergy could expect to receive a from clergy from noble houses, who had con­ canonry. Moreover, the requirement that nections at court or an established link with canons be engaged on some pastoral or the monarch. Equally important is the decline academic work introduced an element of a of the monarch in the distribution of church meritocracy to the selection of members of the patronage. As this happened, the opportuni­ chapter. This required that canons and deans ties for a king or queen to reward a favourite be recruited from deserving clergy irrespective chaplain with a canonry or deanery collapsed. of their origins. The second observation is that all canons had The social status of the chapter members entered directly into the Church after 1842. also reflects changes in the pattern of recruit­ However, of those canons appointed before ment. Before 1840 the canons and deans seem 1842, two entered the Church after prepar­ to have been predominantly drawn from those ation and entry to another career. The Hon at the top of the social pyramid: five canons and Revd Gerald Noel had spent nine years as were sons of noblemen, thirteen were the sons a lawyer in Lincoln's Inn and the Hon and of armigers or 'gentlemen'. After 1840 this Revd George Pelham had been commissioned dominance was broken: in the remaining sixty into the Guards before he took Holy Orders. years of the century only one noble and three Whilst there were major changes in the armigerous canons entered the chapter. chapter at Winchester during the 19th Instead the middle classes dominated the century, there were also a number of ways in Cathedral clergy, by 1890 the sons of cler­ which the Cathedral clergy remained similar gymen were in a majority in the chapter. The to their predecessors. In the area of education 170 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY and training, for example, the Winchester Ecclesiastical Commission to exempt canons appointed after 1840 remained much academics from the full residence as they had been before. Throughout the requirements encouraged fellows to become century a majority of canons were educated at canons (RECW, 30). Oxford, rather than Cambridge, and outnum­ A strong element of continuity existed in the bered Cambridge graduates by a constant two career structure of the canons during the to one. In the 18th century, and before, this century as a whole. Less than 20% of canons at preponderance of Oxford graduates could be Winchester acted as curates before obtaining explained by the Cathedral's strong links with their own livings, and this figure is constant the Wykhamist foundations of Winchester throughout the century. This confirms the College and New College, Oxford (Home view that canons in the first half of the century 1974, 76). However during the 19th century were frequently men of some social standing, only six of the thirty-six Oxford-educated who had access to patronage and could there­ canons had gone to either of these colleges. fore enter directly into their own parish. In the Thus it is necessary to seek an explanation second half of the century the absence of (elsewhere) for the dominance of Oxford. One canons who had been curates may be the possible answer is the growth of three Oxford product of fellows of colleges being ordained colleges as the powerhouses of clerical training on a title of their fellowship. Equally, after during the 19th century. Christ Church, 1842 with a strong meritocratic element enter­ Balliol and Oriel prided themselves on both ing the appointment of canons, it may be that high academic standards and on the education canons were recruited from the ranks of young of clergymen. As the 19th century progressed able clergy who had stepped over curacies as these colleges came to dominate Oxford their abilities were sufficiently apparent to (Engel 1983). In all these three colleges obtain them livings directly after ordination. educated fourteen Winchester canons. Throughout the century all but three canons A similar stability exists in the numbers of had tenure of at least one parish living, and a canons who have studied divinity during their majority had served between one and three academic careers. From 1800 to 1842 seven parishes. Ten canons over the century had canons obtained a BD or DD (i.e. higher held four or more parishes. The vast majority degrees), while the others tended to have of canons had held at least one parish within studied Greats which included work on the the diocese of Winchester. Nine canons came Greek and Latin fathers, or they studied lan­ to the chapter from the headship of a great guages. After 1842 the proportion of canons public school or college. Clearly the career with these degrees remained the same, background for a canon remained stable although at the very end of the century there during the century, in spite of the reforms of was a slight up-turn in the numbers of canons the 1840s. with divinity qualifications. Academic training Most remarkable are the constant patterns in divinity was not considered a sine qua non for of recruitment to the chapter that are apparent members of a chapter, even though they were in the 19th century. Bishops seem to have expected to be involved in academic study. appointed canons and exercised their patron­ However it would not be correct to conclude age in an unvarying manner. Of course the that firm academic training was lacking. The lengthy episcopate of Bishop Charles Sumner numbers of canons who had been fellows of from 1827 to 1869 is partly responsible for this, colleges remained stable throughout the but even after his retirement Samuel Wilber- century too. From 1800 to 1842 exactly a third force (1869-1873) and Edward Harold Browne of all canons had been fellows (or held a (1873-1891) continued 'pre-reform' patterns fellowship with their canonry); after 1842 this of recruitment. Nepotism remained a constant proportion fell only marginally to six out of feature of the Winchester chapter, even late in twenty canons. Certainly the willingness of the the century. Bishop North's relationship with GIBSON: CONTINUITY AND CHANCE: THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER AT WINCHESTER IN THE I9TH CENTURY 1 7 1

Gamier and Garnier's with de Grey have at least twenty years for the 1840 Cathedrals already been noted. (In addition North nomi­ Act to begin to change the face of unreformed nated two of his sons to the chapter at the ages Winchester. Paradoxically, when the changes of 26 and 29 years of age.) But as late as 1885, gradually took effect they affected the social George Sumner, Charles Sumner's son, was and geographical origins of the canons as well made a canon of Winchester, and subsequen­ as their number, residence and functions. By tly suffragan . This was a the end of the century Winchester's chapter classic example of 'transferred nepotism', a was a strong contrast to that described by strong feature of the Church in the 18th Edmund Pyle in the mid-18th century. In 1756 century (Gibson 1987). 's he wrote, son Ernest was a canon of Winchester also: and between 1860 and 1890 the chapter at '. . . the life of a prebendary is a pretty easy Winchester seems to have been a family way of dawdling away one's time; praying, domain as a result of intermarriage between walking, visiting; and as little study as your the Sumner, Browne and Wilberforce families heart would wish. A stall in this Church is a (Coombs 1965, 192-3). As marked, though less charming thing . . .' (Hartshorne 1905, 266). reprehensible, was the way in which Winches­ ter canonries, like other Church offices and In stark contrast, in 1880 Edward Harold fashionable parishes, served as stepping Browne, in nominating a new member of the stones for clergy destined for the highest chapter, outlined his qualifications: an able reaches of the Church. Thus John Garnctt preacher, an excellent administrator and a (canon 1810-1813) became a dean of Exeter; man of great energy (Kitchen 1895, 449). George Pelham (canon 1797-1803) became a Perhaps therefore the greatest change that bishop; James Hook (canon 1807-1814) occurred at Winchester was not in the formal became a dean of Worcester; Samuel Wilber­ or functional changes effected by legislation, force (canon 1840-1844) became a bishop; but came in the way the chapter was perceived Joseph Cotton Wigram (canon 1847-1860), both from within and without. A stall in a James Utterton (canon 1860-1874) and Ernest cathedral was no longer a reward for clergy Wilberforce (canon 1878-1882) all became irrespective of merit, carrying no defined func­ bishops too. Winchester canonries clearly tions and without clear qualifications. By the remained part of a wider web of patronage that end of the 19th century it had become part of a was recruiting into positions in the Church. professional, meritocratic career, regulated by There was a certain upward propelling effect law and part of a system of patronage within that gained Winchester canons high offices in the national Church. the Church. Of course the source of this propulsion was the original reason for the Note: All statistics in this paper have been nomination to the canonry (in the case of compiled from: Dictionary of National Bio­ Pelham for example this was noble origins), graphy; Foster's Alumni Oxoniensis; Venn's but the canonry seems to have been an added Alumni Cantabridgiensis and the Clergy qualification. Lists. The detailed careers of four There arc then clear areas of continuity in canons have not been traced, these are: the chapter of Winchester, as well as change Henry Jenkins (1809-1817); Edward during the 19th century. It is clear that the Poulter (1791-1832); William Heath- Whig reforms of the 1840s did not effect an cote (1789-1802) and Robert Barnard overnight change at Winchester, indeed it took (1793-1834). 172 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

REFERENCES

Printed sources Coombs, J 1965 George and Mary Sumner, London. Engel, A J 1983 From Clergyman to Don, Oxford. SREC Second Report of the Ecclesiastical Commission Gibson, W 1987 Patterns of Nepotism and Kinship (1836) Parliamentary Papers XXXVI. in the Eighteenth Century Church J RIDC Report of the Ecclesiastical Commission on the Religious Hist 14,4. Incomes of Deans and Chapters (1840) Parlia­ 1988 A Hanoverian Reform of the Chapter of St mentary Papers XXXIX. Davids Nat Lib Wales J XXV,3. RECW Report of the Ecclesiastical Commission on the Home, J (1974) (ed) John Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesia Cathedral Church of Winchester (1884-1885). Anglicanae 1541-1857 iii, London. Hansard. Hansard, Third Series, LV 1115. Hartshorne, A 1905 (ed) The Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain, London. Secondary works Kitchen, G 1895 Bishop Harold Browne, London. Sumner, G H 1876 The Life of Bishop Sumner, London. Wade, J 1832 The Black Book of 1832, London. Best, G F A 1964 Temporal Pillars, Cambridge. Brose, O J 1959 Church and Parliament, London.

Author: W Gibson MA FRSA, Southampton Technical College, St Mary St, Southampton S09 4WX.

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