Ruddington St Peter

List of Incumbents

List of incumbents

At the north west end of the central aisle is a roll bearing the list of Patrons, Rectors and Vicars of Flawforth and Ruddington (A rector and resident in Ruddington appointed a vicar [vicorius = deputy] to serve in his place). It was dedicated in March 1981 in memory of churchwardens Edgar Stevenson and John Bargh, who died tragically in 1979 and 1980 respectively. The first rector listed, Ralph Barry dates from 1293. The lack of a vicarage and the poverty of the living is said to have made it difficult to appoint and retain a priest. To a large extent the community’s tithes, paid in kind, for example, hay, pigs, bees, eggs and corn helped. Some later priests were pluralists, for example, Francis Simes vicar in 1798 also held the benefices of Bunny and Plumtree.

In the seventeenth century when England was a republic under the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, Puritanism had an impact on all church livings. Francis Carrington (1638) had been a loyal Royalist and supporter of Charles I. He was unable to accept Puritan dogma and practices and was forced out, to be replaced by Henry Bee in 1652, a sound Puritan intended to bring the church into line. In 1654 Joseph Truman, a Puritan scholar, was appointed, probably until 1656 when the turbulence of the period led to a seven-year interregnum. Hugh Barlow was appointed the first schoolmaster of the Free School for children in the village later in the century. There is no record of his ordination; he probably acted as vicar.

In the Nottinghamshire Archives a folder of miscellaneous documents dated 1867 in the time of Henry Bell includes an incomplete list of Ruddington incumbents from 1650. It begins with the statement that it is ‘necessary to pass over the first three pages’, one reason being the peculiar style of the various writings. Hugh Barlow is the first name recorded. What is interesting is a few potted biographies, for example William Bayley Cocker (1801) was born in Nova Scotia where his father was serving in the British Army. Cocker himself was in the army for a short period. As a pluralist, he was responsible for Ruddington and Bunny, and although he died in Cheltenham in 1823, he, his wife and daughter were buried in a vault at Bunny.

Edward Selwyn, who succeeded him in 1823, was born in Gloucester in 1793, and also had army experience. He served in the Canadian wars 1812, 1813 after receiving a military education in Marlow. He died in Huntingdonshire in 1867 after 15 years in Ruddington.

Later in the nineteenth century, it is recorded that the incumbent in 1878, Henry Telford Hayman, was known as Friar Tuck, being Chaplain of the Sherwood Foresters! Frank Potts is commemorated in the twentieth century by the clock face on the church tower facing Easthorpe Street being erected in his memory. He died in 1951 after twenty years in the parish.

The updated list of incumbents reads as follows:

  Rectors Patrons
1293 Ralph Barry Sir Richard de Bingham, Kt
1301 Hugh Barry    "
1310 Richard de Bingham    "
and Alice his wife
1311 William Bertram de Bingham    "
1323 John de Ludham Alice, widow of Sir Richard
1329 Hugh de Wylughby    "
1344 Robert de Annesley    "
1371 Alban de Fen    "
1372 Robert de Sibthorp    "
1376 Thomas de Mydleton Sir John de Nevill, Kt
1383 Alan de Hayden    "
  Vicars  
1294 William de Radeclyve Ralph Barry, Rector
1306 Roger de Doncaster Archbishop of York (by lapse)
1347 Walter de Hampton    "
1348 Robert Lincolne Robert de Annesley, Rector
1349 Robert Huatts de Rottington    "
1350 Robert de Tytheby    "
? Roger de Saxton    "
1401 Ralph Dalby Prior & Convent of Durham (Oxford)
1414 Peter de Walford  
1421 John Corbrigge  
1422 Thomas Westhorp  
1425 William Voate  
1433 John Bramcote vel Koo  
1435 Robert Woodger  
? John Melton  
1465 John Bland  
1466 Richard Lovet, MA  
1491 Richard Brigham  
1492 Richard Chamber  
1493 Robert Cawnbell  
1505 William Jowkyn  
1515 Robert Cawnbell  
1516 Richard Caley, MA  
1541 Christopher Procter  
1549 William Sarcey  
1553 Alexander Constable  
1572 William Aldreade  
1573 John Smythe  
1587 Thomas Storer  
1638 Francis Carrington Christian, Dowager Countess of Devonshire
1654 Joseph Truman  
1669 Hugh Barlow  
1682 Abraham Hockstall William, Earl of Devonshire
1710 Daniel Fernihough  
1727 William Horn  
1729 John Savage  
1750 Job Falkner  
1753 John Henson King George II (by lapse)
1759 Thomas Poynton William, Duke of Devonshire
1765 Luke Stevenson, BA  
1798 Francis Simes  
1799 William Beetham  
1801 William Bayley Cocker, MA  
1823 Edward Selwyn, BA Charles Simeon and four others
1839 Henry Bell, BA Archdeacon of Stafford and four others (Simeon Trustees)
1878 Henry Telford Hayman, BA Simeon Trustees
1884 Frank Boykett, MA  
1924 Richard Dudley Weller, MA  
1930 Frank Potts, BA  
1952 Aner Clive Shrimpton, BD,ALCD
(Canon from 1978)
 
1985 Frederick Graham Harrison  
2005 Andrew Axon  
2011 Andrew Buchanan