where art collides philosoperontap

Last week we visited St Denys, the Parish Church of Sleaford. Yesterday we dropped into St Peter’s, the erstwhile parish church of Aubourn. Much of St Peter’s is no more with the present building confined to what was the chancel. It was never as big as St Denys, Aubourn being a tiny village. For reference in 1921 the parish had a population of 212. 

A few observations. Thirty eight blokes in total held down the job of Vicar over the recorded period of eight hundred and fifty six years at an average of twenty two and a half years each. The early history is a little unclear as there is no way Geoffrey would have been in the job a hundred and forty three years. The parish website today suggests that the current building was there from around 1200AD which is consistent with when Rog started in the job.

In my mind Geoff was an appointee of someone who came over with the conquering Norman hordes and his church was quite possibly built of wood. Although significant in our history as the first recorded vicar he is to a certain extent an outlier. He was probably a monk.

In any case I’m not interested in producing an academic work of detailed historical accuracy. It’s the trivia that are of more interest. Sixteen of them died on the job, so to speak. A few lasted quite a long time, the longest being James Pilkington whose sixty years spanning a big chunk of the seventeenth century has to be considered good going.

Nine resignations in there. Some went after a relatively short space of time and you wonder what was going on? Maybe some of the short lived ones didn’t cut the mustard. Maybe they didn’t get on with the flock or got a better offer.

There were a couple of “exchanges”. Were church swaps a thing? In seventeen seventeen the position became “lawfully vacant” which does arouse some curiosity. The Patronage at that time appeared to have lapsed to the Monarch. I dunno.

One thing that does jump out of the page is the ending of the patronage of the Prior and Convent of Belvoir which appears to coincide with the English Reformation. Inneresting. Mildly. Patronage fell to the reigning monarch for over a hundred years. Power.

Another observation is the possession of university degrees from the seventeenth century on. This was the law and the only two places you could pick up said degrees were Oxford and Cambridge. It was a way of controlling who got into the church and therefore into positions of being able to influence the populace. 

On 1 April 1931 the parish was abolished to form “Aubourn, Haddington and South Hykeham” which will account for why John Alderson Seaton, A.K.С. Was in 1931 the last recorded Vicar. Did he get the bigger job one wonders? Also what’s the A.K.C. all about?

Size and current usage apart there is one other major difference between St Denys and St Peter’s and that is the fact that the latter had no hymns up on the board. Either they rarely use the church these days, which is probs the case, or someone is very efficient in putting up and taking down the numbers. I quite like the idea of the last hymns sung being left up there. Hey, who am I to say?

Because I know you want to see it, the list of vicars is presented below.

	Name of Vicar	Date	Cause of Vacancy	Patron
1	Geoffrey, Clericus de Aubourn	1076
2	Roger de Lundelthorp, Chaplain	1219		Prior and Convent of Belvoir
3	Nicholas de Belver, Chaplain	1230		وو
4	Robert			وو
5	Roger de Graveley, Presbyter	1276	Death	وو
6	Richard, s of John de Botheby, Presbyter	1324	Death	وو
7	William			وو
8	John Colselt de Ludford, Presbyter	1361	Death	وو
9	John, s William, s Alan de Wyffelingham	1384	Death	وو
10	Richard Tirynton, Presbyter	1389	Resignation	وو
11	Thomas Bretton, of Allington, Presbyter	1397	Exchange	وو
12	Roger Scotton			وو
13	Robert Outhorp	1409	Exchange	وو
14	William Morecroft	1418	Resignation	وو
15	William Blakeston, Presbyter	1419	Death	وو
16	John Ostyler, Presbyter	1421	Death	وو
17	Henry Garbray, Presbyter	1428	Resignation	وو
18	John Browne, Chaplain	1433	Resignation	وو
19	John Wasse, Chaplain	1435	Resignation	وو
20	William Alwode, Presbyter	1480	Resignation	وو
21	William Johnson, Presbyter	1507	Death	وو
22	Richard Smythe, Chaplain	1528-9	Death	وو
23	George Ewyn, Chaplain	1529	Resignation	وو
24	Nicholas Bennett	1562?	Died 1569	Patron unknown
25	James Wolfenden, Clerk	1578	Death	Queen Elizabeth (on Petition of Master Garthe)
26	Alexander Gee, Clerk	1585	Death	Queen Elizabeth
27	John Bawdon, Clerk	1605	Resignation	King James I
28	James Pilkington, B.A.	1612-3	Death	وو
29	Adam Lawson	1673		Patron Unknown
30	Christopher Nevile, M.A.	1716-7	Lawfully vacant	King George I (by Lapse)
31	William Thomlinson, B.A.	1720	Resignation	Gervase Nevile
32	Herbert Leak	1735	Death	Christopher Nevile
33	Andrew Chambers, B.A.	1772	Death	وو
34	John Watkins, B.A.	1821	Death	وو
35	Francis Miles Willan, B.A.	1834	Death	Christopher H. Noel
36	Joseph Potts, M.A.	1890	Death	T. H. Burroughs, of Ketton, Rutland (pro hac vice)
37	Joseph Henry Davis	1912	Death	Geoffrey Henry Nevile
38	John Alderson Seaton, A.K.С.	1932		وو