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Career Patterns among the Clergy of Lincoln Cathedral, 1660–1750

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John H. Pruett
John H. Pruett
Affiliation:
Mr. Pruett is assistant professor of history in the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
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Extract

In every diocese in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there was a clerical elite whose most visible members were the clergy attached to the local cathedral. They included the bishop, the bishop's major judicial and administrative assistants and the cathedral's dean and chapter. What were the general career patterns of these men in the late Stuart and early Georgian periods? From what geographical, social and educational backgrounds were they recruited? What economic rewards did their appointments carry? One might answer these questions by citing contemporary writers and by relating case histories of the clerics involved, but contemporary writers are not always accurate reporters, and individuals are not always representative members of the group as a whole. What is needed is a more systematic investigation of the late Stuart and early Georgian cathedral clergy than has so far been made—one that can establish general patterns for the group as a whole by actually looking at the group as a whole. Collective biography makes it possible to delineate general patterns for an entire group and to relegate the individual example to its proper function—that of illustrating hypotheses that have already been demonstrated by more systematic means. This article attempts such an analysis: it is a prosopographical study of the cathedral clergy of Lincoln Diocese under the late Stuarts and early Hanoverians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 204 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975

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References

1. The names of the dignitaries and prebendaries, and the dates of their installation, are taken from the Dean and Chapter's Act Books deposited with the Muniments of the Dean and Chapter in the Lincolnshire Archives Office. All subsequent unpublished doannents hereafter cited are deposited in the Lincolnshire Archives Office, unless otherwise noted. The Muniments of the Dean and Chapter are cited as D. and C., followed by the appropriate file number; for example, in the case of the Dean and Chapter's Act Books: D. and C., A/3/9–13. Biographical and career-pattern information for the dignitaries and prebendaries comes from J. and Venn, J.A., Alumni Cantabrigiensis, Parts 1 and 2, 10 vols. (Cambridge 1922–1954),Google ScholarFoster, J., Alumni Oxeniensis, Parts 1 and 2, 8 vols. (Oxford and London, 1888–1891);Google ScholarBurtchaell, G. D. and Sadleir, T. U., Alumni Dubliniensis (London, 1924);Google ScholarWood, A., Athenae Oxoniensis, 5 vols. (London, 1813–1820); 3.Google ScholarPeile, J., Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1505–1905, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1910–1913);Google ScholarVenn, J., Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College, 1349–1879, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1897–1912);Google ScholarLe Neve, J., corrected by Hardy, T. D., 3 vols. (Oxford, 1854)Google Scholar; Burke, J., A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols. (London, 1848);Google ScholarDictionary of National Biography; Longden, H. I., Northamptonshire and Rutland Clergy, 16 vols. (Northampton, 1938–1952);Google ScholarNichols, J., The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 4 vols. (London, 1795–1815).Google ScholarMaddison, A. R. ed., Lincolnshire Pedigrees, 4 vols. (London: Harician Society 1902–1906)Google Scholar; Clay, J. W., ed. Familiae Minorum Gentium, 4 vols. (London: Harleian Society 1894–1896);Google ScholarMatthews, A. G., Calamy-Revised (Oxford, 1934);Google ScholarMeadows, A. G., Walker-Revised (Oxford, 1947);Google Scholar and the Index to the Act Books of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 1663–1859, compiled by Dunkin, E. H. W., edited and extended by Jenkins, C. and Fry, E. A.. 2 vols. (LoLndon British Record Society, 1929 and 1938).Google Scholar

2. Reg. 36, p. 119; Le Neve, , Fasti, 2: 25–237.Google Scholar

3. Bowker, Margaret, The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1495–1520 (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 155–156;Google ScholarJohnston, J.O., “Sermons in Lincoln Cathedral,” Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers, 33 (1916): 288–298;Google Scholar Reg. 36, p. 119; D. and C., Dvi/22/15; Dvi/27/4.

4. D. and C. Di/25/1/1–3; Dii/62/2/la-5; A/3/9, ff. 207–227; Matthews, , Walker Revised, pp. 9–10 et passim;Google Scholar Venn, Al. Cant.: Foster, Al, Oxon.: D.N.B.

5. D. and C., A/3/9, ff. 208–213v.; A/3/11, f. 18; Bij/4/1, f. 63v.; Di/18, pp. 22–23, 46, 485–487; Le Neve, , Fasti, 2: 160, 211.Google Scholar

6. D. and C., A/3/9, 11–13.

7. All the following information on the geographic and social origins, university credentials, and career patterns of Lincoln's dignitaries and prebendaries comes from the sources listed above in footnote 1. The same sources have been used for comparative information on Leicestershire's parish clergy, whose names are taken from bishops' registers, subscription books, Libri Cleri, presentation deeds, and letters testimonial and dimissory at the Lincolnshire Archives Office: Reg. 31–38; Sub. 1–6b; L. C. 5–17; P. D. (type- scripts); Specula I and II; L. T. and D. Also used are induction mandates and subscription books deposited at Leicester Museum: 1D41/28/356–1260 (file card index) 1D41/34. See Pructt, John H., ‘The Clergy of Leicestershire, 1660–1714’ (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1973), pp. 43–55.Google Scholar

8. These distributions take into account income earned through plural holdings. They are based primarily on a survey of 1706–07 recorded by Bishop Wake in his Speculum, which gives a rough estimate of the annual value of almost every benefice in the Diocese of Lincoln. Values of livings outside Lincoln Diocese are taken from surveys made during the same decade under the terms of Queen Anne's Bounty, recorded in Ecton, J., Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum (London, 1742).Google Scholar

9. D. and C., Dvii/3/13/19.

10. J. Gardiner, W. Gardiner, E. Wake, W. Wake, A. Torriano. See Le Neve, , Fasti; Venn, Al. Cant.; Foster, Al. Oxon and Lamberth Palace Library MS 1770, f. 78v.Google Scholar

11. Ibid.: J. Bentham T. Cheyne, J. Sedgwick W. Needham, J. Nicholson.

12. Ibid.: R. Willis, J. Mandeville, J. Gostling, W. Wake, J. Rogers, A. Barnes, T. Sellers, A. Torraino, L. Eachard, J. Hammond, D. Trimnell, W. Wake, W. Offley, A. Smythe, W. Needham.

13. Cole, R. E. G., ed. Speculurn Diocceseos Lincolniensis, Lincoln Record Society, 4 (1913): 80–83, 160, 166;Google ScholarVenn, , Al. Cant., Pt. 1, 1:133, 379.Google Scholar

14. Wood, , Ath. Oxon., 4:785.Google Scholar

15. British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books, 263 vols. (London, 1960–1966);Google Scholar and Supplements, 76 vols., (London, 1968–1972)Google Scholar; Wing, D.G., Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed … 1641–1700, 3 vols. (New York, 1945–1951).Google Scholar

16. D. and C., A/3/11, ff. 185v., 193v., 212v., 249v.

17. V/VIII/I/1–30; CC 113/1270; CC 117/136888; CC121/1363; CC129/1442; 2CC 44/1417.

18. Generalizations about prebendal leases are based on all the leases I was able to find for the period 1650–1750 in the Lincolnshire Archives Office. The Dean and Chapter did not file the leases they received systematically, and about 130 are scattered among various sorts of documents, chiefly: Bij/2/7, 9, 11–14; Bij/3/21; Bij/4/1–13; Div/1–2; Ciij/46/2/21; CC 110–132; 2CC 42–45; V/VIII/1–4; A/3/11.

19. Le Neve, , Fasti, 2:103;Google Scholar 2CC 52/199468, 199472; V/VIII/1/19.

20. Wake, MSS (Christ Church Library, Oxford), CCXXXIV, f. 181.Google Scholar

21. V/VIII/1/6; D. and C., A/3/11, f. 128; Bij/2/12, pp. 1–8.

22. Reg. 36, p. 119; D. and C., Dvi/22/15; Dvi/25/4.

23. V/VIII/1/5, 31; CC 127/23387; 2CC 45/22808; D. and C., Bij/2/11, pp. 41–49; Bij/2/14, pp. 66–72.

24. Wake, MSS (Christ Church Library, Oxford), CCLVI, n.f.Google Scholar: letters from Maurice Wheeler to William Wake: April 10, 1708; August 14, 1708; September 15, 1708; July 26, 1710; September 11, 1710; October 18, 1712; another undated; April 3, 1713; November 3, 1713.

25. V/VIII/IVa/22; Speculum II, pp. 348–350; D. and C., Bj/3/11–12; Bj/4/1–4; A/3/9, f. 235v.; A/3/11, f. 217; A/3/12, p. 31: A/3/13, pp. 51, 113, 115, 123–124, 126, 134, 145, 178, 183, 192, 206, 267, 347, 410, Di/18/A p. 488; Di/18/8 p. 55.

26. Wake, MSS (Christ Church Library, Oxford), CCLXVII, p. 49.Google Scholar

27. Speculum II, pp. 349–350; D. and C., Dvii/1/98; Valor Ecclesiasticus (Record Commission, London, 1821), 4: 27–28.Google Scholar

28. D. and C., Dvi/22/15; A/3/11, ff. 64v.-65v.

29. The vicars' names are taken from Maddison, A. R., “Lincoln Cathedral Choir, AD. 1640 to 1700,” and “Lincoln Cathedral Choir, A.D. 1700 to 1750,” Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers 20 (1899–1890): 41–55, 213–226.Google Scholar Information on their backgrounds and careers comes from the same biographical sources listed in footnote 1.

30. Information on the vicars' incomes comes from Cole, ed., Speculum; D. and C., A/3/11, ff. 64v.-65v.; Dvi/25/4; V/VIII/1/1–30.

31. V/VIII/1/13; V/VIII/2, unnumbered eighteenth-century account sheet; D. and C., A/3/11, ff. 26, 163; A/3/13, pp. 49, 77.

32. Maddison, , “Cathedral Choir,” pp. 42–44, 215–218;Google ScholarFoster, , Al. Oxon., Pt. 1 2:488.Google Scholar

33. D. and C., A/3/11, ff. 64v.-65v.; Dvi/25/4.

34. D. and C., A/3/11, ff. 20, 46–46v., 126v., 127v., 133, 202av-203; A/3/9 ff. 229–230; Maddison, , “Cathedral Choir,” pp. 49–51.Google Scholar

35. Reg. 36, p. 119; D. and C., Dvi/22/15; Dvi/27/3, 4.