[Abridged from The Parish Church of Saint Andrew, Moretonhampstead, by John Anthony Benton, M.A. (Oxon.), Rector of Moretonhampstead (1968-1974), Rural Dean of Moreton (1973-1974). First edition 1974, revised by F.K. Theobald 1998. A list of Rectors is included in the original, and is available here. References (in brackets) will be found at the end of this document.]
According to Miss Cresswell the first named Rector was Alfred de Haume in 1259, but this does not agree with J.F. Chanter's list of Rectors recorded on the west wall of the Church, where the first name given is that of Robert de Cumbe (or possibly de Combe) in 1276. This was during the episcopate of Bishop Walter Bronescombe who was the first Bishop of the Diocese of Exeter to keep a systematic register. Bronescombe's Episcopal Register states that the Patron of the Living at that date was Sir Richard Fitz John, but in 1298 the advowson was held by the King -Edward I - and then in 1309 the name of Sir Hugh Courtenay appears, and for six hundred years the Courtenay family remained the Patrons almost without interruption.
Unhappily there is very little reference to Moretonhampstead in Dr. Oliver's Monasticon Diocesis Exonienses. It is listed there as one of the parishes of the diocese, but without any accompanying remarks. There is a record, however, of the levy imposed by Pope Nicholas IV between 1288 and 1291 as it affected Moretonhampstead. The Taxatio or Valuing amounted to £14 and the Decima or Tax was fixed at £1/8s/0d. It is interesting to note that the parishes of Totnes and Okehampton were rated somewhat lower than Moreton while Widecombe and Ilsington were more highly assessed.
The Visitation Report of the Archdeacon of Totnes in 1342 (cited by Hughes) reveals that the Church In the Middle Ages was not always cared for in the manner that one expects of the so-called Age of Faith.
The Rector of the day was Philip de Valletort who occupied the benefice from 1309 to 1362. He lived through the period of the Black Death (1348-49), a time when so many parishes lost their parish priest from the plague. His incumbency was in fact a long one compared with the length of most incumbencies at Moreton during the 14th and 15th Centuries.
In 1355 Phillip de Valletort was involved in a serious dispute with his parishioners over the charging of fees, and the matter was brought before the Bishop of Exeter, John Grandisson, who seems to have pronounced judiciously in favour of one party on some counts and of the other Party on others (Hughes).
The calamity of the Black Death was indirectly the cause of a rise in clerical Stipends. A Clerical Subsidy Roll dated about 1379 gives a complete list of stipends within the Archdeaconry of Totnes where Moretonhampstead is found to be rather above average with an income of £162 (Boggis).
A hundred years after the incumbency of Philip de Valletort brings us to the period of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) which so successfully bled the noble families of England of their power. Trevelyan states that the mass of the people of England looked on with indifference but Freeman maintains that the sympathy of the people of Devon was with the Lancastrian cause. This may well have been due to the fact that the Courtenays of Devon were one of the principal Lancastrian houses. From 1453 to 1456 the Rector of Moreton was PETER COURTENAY, third son of Sir Philip Courtenay, the Patron of the Living. He has the distinction of being the only Rector of Moretonhampstead to have been raised to the episcopate. After leaving Moreton he was successively Dean of Windsor and he moved from Deanery at Exeter to the Palace in 1478, remaining Bishop of Exeter until 1487 when he was translated to Winchester where he died in 1492. Almost inevitably Courtenay was caught up in the political struggle of his day, and being a Courtenay, found himself at odds with the reigning House of York. So when Richard III visited. Exeter in 1483 and - as Shakespeare makes him say - "the Mayor in courtesy show 'd. me the castle, and. called it Rougemont", Peter Courtenay was not in the city (or indeed within the diocese) to take part in theofficial welcome. He was living across the Channel in Brittany for reasons of personal safety, and did not return to England until after Bosworth Field in 1485. The see of Winchester was his reward for loyalty to the cause of Henry Tudor. He is commemorated in the Courtenay Window in Exeter Cathedral (Oliver).
In 1539 THOMAS PARKER was instituted to the benefice of Moreton. The Monastic Houses were being suppressed and the period of the Reformation in England was beginning. In the very year of Parker's institution the great abbeys of Buckfast and Tavistock were dissolved, and the dispossessed had to find other employment, as priests, schoolmasters and clerks. Hughes refers to the "Valor Ecclesiasticus" of 1540-41 which gives a list of such men and where they were employed, and he notes that one came and settled in Moretonhampstead. The relevant entry reads: “Moreton. Thornas Bowden, employed by the parishioners of the same”. Trevelyan assures us that former monks like Thomas Bowden suffered personally much less than used to be supposed.
When he had been Rector of Moreton for ten years, Thomas Parker - like all the clergy of England - was obliged to introduce King Edward VI's 1st English Prayer Book on Whitsunday 1549 as a substitute for the services with which everyone was familiar. But he and his parishioners do not appear to have objected to the new Liturgy like the men of Sampford Courtenay who declared that it was “like a Christmas game” (Carpenter) and rebelled against its use. Indeed Parker seems to have accepted the changes rather too readily, for in 1554 he was deprived of the living, Mary having succeeded Edward as Sovereign. A great many priests were deprived of their livings at this time. Dr. S.C. Carpenter tells us that accurate figures are not available but that “it may be said that all those who were deprived were married”. So it rather looks as if Thomas Parker was Moretonhampstead's first married priest. Parker was succeeded by JOHN LYB who would presumably have been sympathetic to the cause of Queen Mary. Unfortunately there is no information about him on the List of Rectors, and we do not know whether death, deprivation - deprivation would have been unlikely - resignation or preferment was the cause of.the succession of ROBERT JAMES in 1560.
In 1624 FRANCIS WHIDDON of Whiddon in the parish of Chagford was instituted to the benefice of Moreton. He was Rector during the exciting and fearful days of the Civil War, remaining in office until his death in 1656. Unlike most of the surrounding towns and villages, Moretonhampstead seems to have supported the Roundheads, and welcomed the arrival of General Fairfax in January 1846. The last years of Whiddon's incumbency must have been difficult, for the Book of Common Prayer was forbidden by the Cromwellian regime and a Directory of Public Worship was imposed on all churches. Whiddon wrote "The Golden Topaz" which was published by the Oxford University Press in the year of his death. Based on the text of Hebrews 13 v. 14, it is a recipe for keeping a good conscience and is dedicated to his faithful flock. Whiddon says of himself: “He is a very plain man, and has written it for a very plain people - his own congregation”. It is not improbable that this 17th Century Anglican Divine was a forbear of the immortal Daniel Whiddon who rode to Widecornbe Fair. The monument to Francis Whiddon over the south door of the Nave is considered to be the best in the Church (see Memorials).
Francis Whiddon was succeeded by ROBERT WOOLCOMBE who is described as an “Intruder”. This means that he was. not a priest of the Church of England, but a Presbyterian or Independent Minister. According to Edmund Calamy, the Noncomformist biographer, “he was a very hard student, a great philosopher and a sound and solid preacher. He was a glorious confessor for the Cause of Nonconformity losing by it, not only a good benefice but a good estate, for his father on that account disinherited him” (Hughes). He was ejected from the benefice by Bishop Seth Ward on October 3rd, 1662 and ROBERT MANLY was presented to it in 1663. Colonel Hughes tells us that Woolcombe formed a congregation of Presbyterians in Moreton but was not allowed to continue, and went for some years to his birthplace, Chudleigh”. The Unitarian Chapel in Cross Street stands close to the site of what must undoubtedly have been the first conventicle or dissenting chapel in Moretonhampstead. There is a slate against the west wall of the Burial Ground - the wall which separates the Chapel from the present Rectory - which reads simply, ‘Remains of old Chapel’. This old Chapel was a humble building erected in the 17th Century. It seems to have been a Presbyterian place of worship before it passed to the Unitarians. Dr. Hoskins dates it from 1692.
We come to the 18th Century. For 38 years - from 1735 to 1774 - the Rector was JAMES FYNES (alias CLINTON), D.D. Born In Lincolnshire in 1695 he was the son of a staunch Jacobite and Non-Juror, and a great grandson of the 2nd Earl of Lincoln. His adoption of the family name of Fynes was probably an act of discretion in Hanoverlan England because the Clintons were so closely associated with the cause of the "Pretender". He was educated at Charterhouse and Magdalen College, Oxford of which he became a Fellow. He was married but had no children. He was tutor to Henry Courtenay and it was through his connexion with that family that he came to Moretonhampstead. The.18th Century is usually considered a rather inglorious period of history for the Church of England with its dislike of “Enthusiasm”, but we have evidence that great care was taken of the temporalities at the Parish Church of Moretonhampstead at that time, and such care may well indicate that there was an accompanying care of souls in the parish. A marble monument for which he left £40 or £50 in his will was erected to the memory of him but has, for some unknown reason, disappeared. (see Memorials) The long Incumbency of Jarnes Fynes was followed by the remarkable incumbencies of the three Clacks, broken only by a period of two years (1805 to 1807) and bringing us into the 20th century. THOMAS CLACK succeeded James Fynes In 1774 and remained Rector of Moreton until his death In 1805. He was a brother-in-law of William, 2nd Viscount Courtenay, Patron of the Living. Then followed the short interval of two years when GEORGE CROWTHER was Rector. In 1807 WILLIAM CHARLES CLACK became Rector and remained in office until his death in 1885 when he was succeeded by WILLIAM COURTENAY CLACK who died at the Rectory in 1901. So the three Clacks cover a period of history from the eve of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution to the Anglo-Boer War. The late Prebendary Bcggis - who himself lived to a great age - wrote in his memoirs “I once took the service at Moretonhampstead in order to give the curate a holiday ...... my note records of the Rector of Moretonhampstead ‘He is 75, has been blind for fourteen years and knows little or nothing that goes on in the parish, but occasionally goes to church on Sunday morning and recites the opening prayers of the Communion and the Ten Commandments. He draws £900 a year and has a good rectory house,and pays the curate a small stipend to do the work’” (quoted by Hughes). This refers to the situation only 75 years ago and brings us into the present century.
It was the end of an era for Moretonhampstead Parish Church just as surely as the Queen's death that same year was the end of an era for the Nation. After possessing the advowson of the living for centuries, the Courtenays were displaced as Lords of the Manor by the Smiths of Hambleden, who then held the right of presentation for just 30 years wben it passed to the Bishop of the Diocese.
We will not go beyond this point as we come within the living memory of many people. Sadly, relations between Parson and People - and often this meant between Church and Chapel too - have not always been harmonious. Tithe was a great irritant, and the rights and privileges connected with the Sentry Field were a cause of contention, as Rector STANLEY DAWS DEWEY was to learn as recently as 1923 (Mid-Devon Times) . But Tithe Redemption (Tithe Act 1936) and the fact that the Parson's Glebe no longer includes the Sentry (the Parsonage House with Glebe was sold in 1953, when a smaller house was acquired) mean that these causes of contention have now thankfully been removed.
Not surprisingly, Moreton's incumbents appear often - perhaps more often than not - to have been men of Devon. The Register of Exeter College, Oxford - a Westcountry foundation - includes the names of Peter Courtenay, Francis Whiddon, Robert Manly, Matthew Atwell and Joseph Shebbeare, and the present writer is proud and happy to find himself in such a succession.