Tuesday 30 June 2015

Some of our forgotten Chorlton people ............ another story from Tony Goulding

Now there are always those fascinating bits of Chorlton's history that someone has researched so here is another story from Tony Goulding which he has called  SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE-THE HISTORY OF THREE CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY CLERGYMEN, WITH DUE DEFERENCE TO GEORGE ELIOT'S CLASSIC

St Clement's Church
Re, Peter Hordern, Rector:  1833-1836

Born Shaw near Oldham May 1797 the son of Rev. Joseph Hordern the minister of Shaw Chapel and his wife Ellen (nee Allen) of Salford

Died 1836 aged 38 and buried March 22, in Chorlton churchyard, next to his son who had died February11 1836 aged just 1 day

His daughter Ellen Frances, christened in St.Clement's on April 10 1835, married a John Lubbock on her 21st birthday in 1856 at the ancient parish church of St. Mary's, Rostherne.

This John Lubbock was very a very distinguished man. The son of the banker Sir John William Lubbock, he was to forge a prolific career in the family bank as well as in academia and in politics He wrote extensively on archaeology, biology, and anthropology. He championed the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, a near neighbour who he had known from his youth and became good friends with Thomas Henry Huxley.
   
In politics; he never attained ministerial rank but as a backbench Liberal M P he promoted in the region of 30 Acts of Parliament. These included the 1871 Bank Holiday Act which led to their introduction and the 1882 Ancient Monuments Act which provided some protection for our ancient historic sites.

Roland Joesph Blain,  Ast.Curate 1911-1914

Born: Brampton, Cumberland 1879 where his father, John kept a boys boarding school
Died: at Stockton Road. Chorlton- cum -Hardy  on January 31 1914

Manchester Evening News, February 27 1914
An inquest into his sudden death concluded that he had taken his own life whilst temporarily insane

It was reported that he had had a nervous breakdown and was exhibiting signs of hysteria the cause of death being recorded as a self- administered overdose of Laudanum.
   
A delve into the census and BMD records has revealed this cleric appears to have had a very colourful past before arriving in Manchester. In the 1901 census he is recorded as a single 22 years old commercial clerk residing in the Elswick district of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Further investigations, however, indicate that he had by this time been married to and divorced from a woman several years his senior. He was not yet 18 when he wed the daughter of a ship brokers agent, Florence Springmann in 1895 and they divorced less than 5 years later in 1900.

Interestingly Florence was to re-marry in 1904 and by 1911 had settled in West Yorkshire her new husband and two young boys.  A fact from which you are free to make your own speculative conclusions.
 
Roland's grave is located in Southern Cemetery consecrated section C 10.

He was buried on 3rd Feb.1914 and on his headstone he is described as "priest----sometime assistant curate of St.Clement's -----"

John Lubbock
Charles Ambrose Old Curate: 1881-1900

This man aroused my curiosity first when I realised that he is not recorded in the list of clergy which John M Lloyd gives as an appendix to his 1972 book.

In 1881 he arrived as Chorlton's first (assistant) curate and was to serve the growing community for the best part of two decades performing many hundreds of christenings, marriages, and burials Investigation into his life story revealed some interesting details.

Unusually, for this period, for clergymen he came from a distinctly working-class background. Being born in Portsea, Hampshire in 1849 the son of a railway porter, also called Charles, and his wife Ruth.

He was ordained at Gloucester in 1875, following studies there and worked for a time as a curate at St.Michael's church in that city
   
With an expanding population and an incumbent Rector Rev.John E. Booth by then in his 60's by 1881 Chorlton was in need of a curate. It is likely that Charles may have been glad of the fresh start this appointment offered as in his time in Gloucester he had tragically lost both an infant son and within a year his young wife.
   
In 1900 as some reward for his hard work he moved to become the Rector of St.Andrew's Beelsby near Grimsby where he is buried in the churchyard having died there in 1910.

© Tony Gould, 2015

Pictures; St Clement's Church, from A Short History of St Clements Church, 2012, John Lubbock from Wickipedia Commons, Tony Goulding

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