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The Christian Church of Anglo-Saxon England differed in form to that which we know today, being based on the life of the 'minster', or monastery. At that time dioceses were few, but large, and the head minster would be the seat of the Bishop, while smaller minsters serving their in immediate localities would be ruled over ether by an abbot or a provost. These minsters were usually on enclosed pieces of land, containing a small, thatched church, with small dwellings for the monks or priests.
By the late Saxon period the church was an integral part of rural society. The villagers paid their tithes to the priest and attended mass etc, in return for which the priest taught them what little culture and learning he possessed. The duties of the clergy as defined by Saxon law were various and, apart from supervising the parishioners, morals and religious teaching, they were expected to hear confessions, impose penances, visit the sick, avoid drunkenness, abstain from oaths, not consort too much with women, not to bear false witness or consort with thieves, and not to be a hunter or a gambler.
The village priest had his own strip of land in the Common Field. At Domesday it is thought that there were two priests in the Manor of Bedminster; the Bedminster priest whose land is described in the Tithe Terrier as belonging to Winchester College, and Turstin, the priest at Leigh. This implied that there were two churches in the area and one of these would have been on the site of the old Bedminster Parish Church of St John's.
At a sermon preached at Bedminster Parish Church on the day of its Consecration, the 30th October 1855 - and also on Sunday the 4th November of the same year - it was stated that ' the new structure replaces another of ancient date, consisting of a chancel, nave, north aisle with porch and western tower. The walls date back as far as the 13th century'.
Robinson, in his 'West Country Churches', suggests that a church stood on the site in the 10th century. It has also been said there was a stone, found in the wall of the church when it was rebuilt in 1855, with the date 1003 A.D. inscribed upon it. While there is no definite proof of a church at these early dates, there is a strong indication that a Saxon church existed about the year 1000 A.D., if not before.
The Saxon churches were either built of wood, or stone, but after the Norman Conquest many parish churches were rebuilt in stone.
The history of Bedminster Parish Church and its chapels of St Mary Redcliff, St Thomas the Martyr and Abbots Leigh, together with the recorded chapels at Bishopsworth and Knowle, have been fully discussed by the Rev. C.S. Taylor in a paper he read before the Clifton Antiquarian Club, on November 28th 1892. This may be seen in the proceedings of the society. Also, a detailed description of Bedminster Church, after its rebuilding in 1855, is given by Robinson in his 'West Country Churches'.
As these histories of Bedminster Parish Church are standard works and the knowledge contained therein easily accessible, it is felt that a more intimate study of the life of the clergy and parish would be of greater interest, rather than a mere repetition of commonplace facts. The Parish Books of St John's having either been lost, or destroyed, we are therefore denied an important section of parish history. The scattered remnants remaining can only show glimpses of clerical and parish life in Bedminster. For a more general picture of parish life the reader is referred to 'The Parish Chest' by W.E. Tate.
John Gibb, Prebendary of Bedminster from 1697 and Vicar of Bedminster from 1702 until 1744, left the following notes for his successor. (Glos. Notes and Queries Vol 1).
I, John Gibb, Vicar of the Parish and Parish Churches of Bedminster, in the County of Somerset and Diocese of Bath and Wells and of the chapel belonging thereto, St Thomas and St Mary Redcliff in the City of Bristol and Abbot's Leigh, in the County of Somerset; all these in the jurisdiction and diocese of the Bishop of Bristol; and likewise prebendary of Bedminster and Redcliff in the Cathedral Church of Sarum did, for the information of my successors, set down an this register book belonging to the chapel of St Thomas, and always in the custody of the vicar, those particulars I know and could learn
concerning my vicarage.
Not doubting but though much be wanting in order to an exact account of it from the beginning because the like was not due by my predecessors, or never came to my hands, it may be useful in succeeding times to a man who shall come as a stranger as to this place, and may be utterly unfurnished with other help, as I was, for knowing either the duties or the profits of the place except where I could learn these from the clerks or sextons, or others that I asked.
At least if I may judge by myself, I am sure I would have esteemed myself extremely obliged to any of my predecessors who should have writ down what he knew or what was usual 100 or 200 years ago.
So I hope that this will not be unacceptable to any that shall come after me.
Bedminster is the mother church and I was instituted and inducted to it with the chapels annexed in the., month of June 1702. The Bishop of Bath and Wells gave institution and the Archdeacon of Bath by his mandate to a neighbouring clergyman (it was the minister of Long Ashton in my case) gave induction.
The usual particulars of public services as it was in my time and had been practised by my predecessors since the Restoration in the year 1660, are as here set down:
1st. Sermons and Publick prayers (one part of) evening, Sunday morning or evening at St Thomas and the other part at St Mary Redcliff. But when there is any publick worship at one place there is none at the other, the congregation being the same in both.
2nd. There is a sermon or prayer once every Sunday at Bedminster morning or evening as the minister is pleased to appoint.
3rd. There is a sermon or prayer one Sunday in three at Abbot's Leigh. But it is only once in one day-at any of the churches and upon the morning or evening as the minister shall appoint. And the clerks do commonly wait upon him the Saturday before to know what he has resolved, that they may ring the bell to call the people together either for the morning or afternoon as he shall direct.
4th. There are prayers read out at St Thomas every day of the week except Thursday when the market for the cattle hinders the people that they cannot conveniently come to church. But the prayer there is only once in the day and that usually in the morning.
5th. At the other churches are never any prayers read except on extraordinary occasions and when there is a sermon; only they are usually read at St Mary Redcliff, the week-days before the sacrament is administered there, but they are only in the morning and then they are omitted at St Thomas.
6th. Upon days appointed by authority for publick thanksgivings, there is a sermon with prayers once in the morning commonly at St Thomas and the prayers only read at Bedminster. But upon days of fasting there is a sermon with prayers at each church only once and omitted in one place when it is given about in the other.
7th. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is given at Leigh only once a year, commonly about Christmas, at Bedminster three times viz. Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide before and after any of these days as the vicar does appoint. At St Mary Redcliff and St Thomas four times a year viz, at St Thomas on Christmas Day, Easter Day, Whit-Sunday and the first Sunday after the Feast of St Michael the Archangel. At St Mary Redcliff on the first Sunday after Christmas Day, on Palm Sunday and Trinity Sunday and the second Sunday after Michaelmas.
8th. Finding that it had been the practice of my predecessors and of the other ministers of the city to baptise by the form appointed for Publick Baptism, with god-fathers and god-mothers - finding, I say, this to be a common practice, in private houses, I complied with it and the request of the parishioners on the week-days, but refrained to do it on the Sundays.
We made no scruple to marry people who had a licence early that is, any time after four or five in the morning and before twelve, or dinner-time, but never in the afternoon or at night.
Some of the parish duties of the clergy were of an extraordinary nature and the following may be related to the practice, still prevalent today, of having a clergyman confirm his witness to a signature, or a statement of character.
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At times the priest was called upon to christen children with rather eccentric names bearing some relationship to their place of birth or the circumstances under which they were born. (Mr Bumble, in 'Oliver Twist' told Mrs Mann that the foundlings of the parish were named in alphabetical order. The last was an 'S' - for Swubble and as the next was 'T' 'I named him Twist'). There are several examples of such derivations in the parish register of Bedminster Church.
1728 Baptised. William Bishport - a base child.
This entry would refer to an illegitimate child. Possibly found abandoned at Bishport.
1785 Baptised. John Wapping, a black, about 7 years old. The possibility here is that the lad was named after the docks of that name in Bristol.
1797 Baptised. George England - a black lad of 15 years. Here there is an obvious connection between the King and England.
As far back as 1702 a committee of Convocation drew up a list of ecclesiastical offences needing attention and the parish register came in for criticism because of the irregular way in which it was kept.
Another Act in 1711 ordered that a proper register be kept with ruled and numbered pages. Later, in 1753, a bill was passed for the registration of births, marriages and deaths, when presented to the commons, but was rejected by the House of Lords.
When Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act began to be enforced in 1755, many long overdue reforms were introduced. Not least among these was the order that records should be kept of both the banns and the marriages and that they should be in proper books of vellum, or good and durable paper, to be provided by the churchwardens. The entries were to be signed by the parties and to follow a prescribed form and the records were to be kept carefully and preserved for public use.
Some difficulty was experienced in the latter half of the 17th Century and the first half of the 18th, because of an ancient law which stated that marriages were valid, if celebrated by a priest, whether or not banns or licence had been called or granted; whether within, or outside, of canonial hours, or whether in a church or elsewhere. However, the practice was frowned upon and persons contracting such a marriage were liable to censure; the priest celebrating it subject to severe penalties, involving the loss of his liberty and benefice.
Bedminster Parish records of 1705 show that the vicar, John Gibb, married a number of people at St John's who were not of his parish. They were from such places as Portbury, Compton Martin, Portishead, Brislington, Chew Magna, Yatton, Cainsham (Keynsham) and Glastonbury.
Some difficulty was experienced in the latter half of the 17th Century and the first half of the 18th, because of an ancient law which stated that marriages were valid, if ceebrated by a priest, whether or not banns or licence had been called or granted; whether within, or outside, of canonial hours, or whether in a church or elsewhere. However, the practice was frowned upon and persons contracting such a marriage were liable to censure; the priest celebrating it subject to severe penalties, involving the loss of his liberty and benefice.
Bedminster Parish records of 1705 show that the vicar, John Gibb, married a number of people at St John's who were not of his parish. They were from such places as Portbury, Compton Martin, Portishead, Brislington, Chew Magna, Yatton, Cainsham (Keynsham) and Glastonbury.
But this was insignificant when compared with marriages which took place in many large seaports, Bristol amongst them, when a fleet of merchantmen arrived. Sometimes mass marriages would take place at public houses and, in the suburbs of London, at least one publican kept a priest on the premises and married couples free, providing they held their wedding feast at his house.
At Bedminster about the year 1727 a clergyman, the Reverend Emanuel Collins, kept the Duke of Malborough Inn, where he apparently carried out the practises quoted above. For these 'illegal' marriages he was much maligned by Latimer in his 'Annals of Bristol', and more so for his poems and other writings which had been published under the title of 'Miscellanies', in which ... the depravity of his mind only too clearly revealed'.
Actually, to read Collins' writings today, the satire and humour of his work could by no means be called depraved. Once or twice they might appear to be in bad taste, as in the open letter to Dr James Manning of London, but is must be remembered that the early 18th century was being judged by Latimer's late Victorian background, which was far more critical of morals (at least publicly) than would be the case today. Whatever criticism may be thown at Collins, there is no doubting the human quality of his writing, though it might be 'earthy' at times.
The examples of his work which follow are typical of the many writings contained in his book.
Collins was not adverse to advertising his establishment and taking a sly dig at his more orthodox fellows among the clergy.
Apart from his notoriety for keeping a public house, performing 'illegal' marriages at a crown a couple and his writings, little is known concerning Collins' background. However, we are able to deduce that he was married and had at least one son, by the fact that he addresses one of his verses to his daughter-in-law, Mary Collins.
The most comprehensive account of Collins' life appears to be that written by
John Evans in 1824. About this period, according to the author, mezzotinto engravings of the Rev. Emanuel Collins were not infrequently seen in local print shops.
Collins had been educated first, at Bristol Grammar School, then supposedly, at Wadham College, Oxford. There is no substance in Evan's statement that 'Collins was Vicar of Bedminster'. The records of St John's Bedminster do not contain his name. He was a vicar living in Bedminster.
On July 1st, 1758, Collins put the 'Sign of the Duke of Marlborough' up for sale and, in 1762, he was residing at Shannon Court, Bristol, where he was master of a boys' school there.
He died in March 1766, and the following epitaph was put in Felix Farley's Journal by an admirer.
'Tuesday died the Rev. Mr Emanuel Collins For his superior abilities The learned and ingenious part of mankind justly esteemed him living And sincerely regret him dead His pen was always: The Herald of true merit The dread of Coxcombes and The Scourge of Fools'.
From an advertisement in Felix Farley's Journal of 1745, the 'Sign of the Duke of Marlborough' is confirmed as being West Street, Bedminster. In all probability at the southern end, near what is now Parson Street.
The 1758 advertisement describes it as being' ... a good accustomed and commodious public house with large garden, orchard and stable adjoining'. There are several possibilities as to what happened to the property. Either it remained a public house and took another name, it was turned into private accommodation, or it was demolished.
On a smaller scale of notoriety was the Rev. Martin Richard Whish who, in may 1843, was accused by the Venerable Thomas Thorp of conducting an illegal marriage.
The Rural Dean of Bristol sent a citation to the Rev. Whish requiring him to appear before the Dean. Whish protested against this and questioned the authority of such a court stating, ... before any step can be taken in the pending case, a higher authority must be consulted'. Whish indicated that the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells had, in his own handwriting, confirmed the step which Whish was taking. The Rural Dean of the Bishop of Gloucester was, at that time, the Rev. Dr Allen, Rector of Winterbourne.
The complete charge against the Rev. Whish was that on the 29th of January 1843, at St Mary Redcliff Church, he did cause celebrated an illegal marriage between William Redgers and Charlotte Durbin, both of the parish of Nailsea in Somerset, knowing on credible evidence that the parties were not resident in the said parish of St Mary Redcliff as alleged, and also that they were within the prohibited degrees of affinity thereby offending against 'the Laws Ecclesiastical of this Rhealm'.
The Rev. Whish was summoned to an enquiry to be held at the Chapter House of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Bristol. A charge was also brought against the Curate of St Mary Redcliff, the Rev. Corges Marcus D'Arcy Irvive, Clerk.
The case against the two was based on the facts supplied by Archdeacon Thorp. These stated that William Redgers was originally married to Jane Durbin at St Philip's Church, Bristol, on Christmas Day 1837. Jane was the sister of Charlotte Durbin, with whom Redgers was said to have an illegal marriage.
Another sister, Caroline, said that William Redgers came to stay at her mother's house the day after her sister Jane's burial. He had not slept out of the house until his marriage to Charlotte. In turn, her sister Charlotte had not slept out of the house except for the night before her marriage, which she passed in the house of John Cooke, porter or clerk of Stiff and Benson Starch Works, by Redcliff Street.
(It would appear, from the above, that Charlotte's sleeping for one night in the parish of Redcliff was a common subterfuge used by those anticipating such a marriage as this).
Archdeacon Thorp had obtained his information concerning the marriage in a round-about way. A letter had been sent to the Rev. Frederick Brown, of Nailsea, stating that the couple had gone to Bristol for the marriage without informing their family or friends.
The Rev Brown, in his letter to Archdeacon Thorp, commented on the marriage 'Like many others that I know of, a clandestine one, to which kind of marriage every possible facility is afforded as you know, by the present scandalous system of marriages in Bristol churches'. About the same time another letter was sent to Archdeacon Thorp by a Mr Merriman of Street, Somerset. Merriman complained that Ann and James Hooper had declared their intention of going to Bristol to be married.
'She is the widow of his father's late brother (his aunt). I have the admission of the parties themselves that they are bent on this incestuous marriage'.
As, from the evidence above, a large number of these marriages were evidently taking place in Bristol, the question arises of why? At least three reasons suggest themselves and, no doubt, there were others.
Firstly, the clergy participating in the marriage may have considered the church laws too rigid; secondly, they may have sympathised with young people whose relatives wanted them to be party to a marriage of 'convenience', usually a young girl to an old man, and who were running away to avoid the situation; thirdly, they wanted the marriage fee.
It would be wrong to assume any of the above reasons to the Rev. Martin Richard Whish, without more definite proof. Whatever judgement he made could not have been entirely wrong, for he remained as Vicar of Bedminster until his death in 1852.
The Rev. Thomas Broughton (who was Vicar of Bedminster in Chatterton's time) Prebendary in 1744, and Vicar from that date until his death in 1774, was an acquaintance of Handel. Broughton supplied the composer with words for some of his compositions, including his drama 'Hercules'.
A stained glass window in St Mary Redcliff Church commemorates this association. Felix Farley's Journal of February 1762 reports: Wednesday the 3rd instant a cause was heard in His Majesty's Court of Exchequer between Mr Edward Hill (lessee of the Rev. Mr Broughton, Vicar of Bedminster) Plaintiff, and Robert Branson, one of the inhabitants of the parish, Defendent, for substraction of Tythes, the defendent and the rest of the parishioners setting up exceptions to excuse payment, when the court gave an opinion in favour of the Plaintiff and decreed payment of Tythes in kind and the defendent to pay all costs.
Commentby the 'Journal'
Notwithstanding that the layman has his nine-tenths of the land by the same laws that the Vicar has his one, yet from some peculiar depravity, people who are tolerably honest in every way else, will not scruple to cheat their parson, tho' he should be contented with the Tythe of his little tribute. In vain may the Vicar cry out to them from the prophet 'In tythes and in offerings have ye wronged me' saith the Lord, for, had his children no bread, but what the parishioners brake them they must starve.
It has been said the small tythes of the extensive parish - computed at more than 4000 acres - are worth '200 per annum. Mr. Broughton, for peace sake, offered to accept of '30, but that was thought too much and many of them (it is feared) would have thought the tythe of that not too little.
The imposition of tythes upon parishioners was, of course, resented. Sometimes, as in the case of the Rev. Broughton, agreements were reached between the local clergy and their parishioners so that a lower payment than that required by law was made.
Dr David Alfred Doudney, Vicar of St Luke's Bedminster, became well-known in the latter half of the 19th century for his work amongst the poor of Bedminster.
He was bom on March 8th 1811 in the Southampton area, leaving home in 1824, at the age of 13, to become an apprentice to the printing trade. He lived and worked in Southampton and appears to have been married there in 1834.
In 1840 he was in Bedminster, involved in a project setting up an industrial school, to teach the art of printing to young boys.
The following year Doudney was going through a particularly distressing period because of the illness of his wife and children. His daughter Sarah died on the 11th of March, that year, and the other two children, on medical advice, were moved to Woolwich for a change of air. In spite of this precaution his second daughter, Mary Jane, died, followed by his wife, Jane, in May 1841.
Later, back home in Bedminster, lonely and almost out of his mind with grief, he considered throwing himself from Bedminster Bridge into the New Cut. Fortunately for the poor people of his parish, he found the strength to carry on.
In 1847 Dr Doudney was ordained and, in 1849, according to his journal, he was engaged with industrial printing in Ireland; a similar project to that which he had started in Bedminster. On his birthday in 1859 he writes:
'Here I am with much in hand - much to do in this dark and heathenish parish
a church and a schoolhouse to be built - large funds still need to be raised.
No preaching started as yet. No income for my large family'.
This reference by Dr Doudney to his family confirms his second marriage. Their home at this time was No.1, Devonshire Buildings, New River (New Cut).
In 1861 the church of St Luke's was finally completed and in February of that year, the Rev. David Alfred Doudney M.A. was nominated as its vicar.
He was nominated by Richard Drake, John Drake, Edward Thomas lnskip, John Cox and William Hinkes Cox. The Drakes and the Cox's having large tanneries close to the site of the church.
At the church's consecration there is supposed to have been 700 present. With this event, and his son David (a child from his first family) being ordained at Carlisle later that year on December 22nd, the year of 1861 must have been a particularly happy one for the Rev Doudney. David came to Bedminster the following year and gave a sermon at St Luke's.
Another of Dr Doudney's sons, Edwin, passed his Apothecary exams in 1862 and, in 1864, expressed the wish to go to America and join the Confederate Army. His father, quite naturally, tried to change his mind, but Edwin was determined to go. He served for about a year before returning to England in 1865. At this time the Doudney family were living at Knowle and the same year Dr Doudney's eldest son was married.
Edwin, having tasted adventure and travel, in 1867 embarked on the emigrant ship 'Young Australia' for Brisbane, in charge as surgeon.
The same year Dr Doudney's second wife died and there is a hint in his journal that he married again the following year. This event may have prompted his son Montague to follow Edwin to Australia, as at this time he put out from England to Sydney.
In 1870 Edwin returned to England and successfully passed his examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons.
This same year saw the commencement of the buikiing of St Luke's Mission Rooms, Soup kitchen, Ragged School a room for Mother's Meetings. He writes in his journal:
'As I sat down to dinner, the second post brought me a letter from far-off Australia. The writer (a plain humble man) states, that he had long had it upon his heart to write to me, but hitherto had been prevented. He says 'he was formerly a resident of Bedminster, and that he and another friend, whom he names, were called by grace about the same time, 43 years ago.
That friend (knowing somewhat of my work in Ireland) used to say, speaking of me, 'He will be brought to Bedminster and a place will be erected for him near Brown's Row' and he wanted the writer to ask me to come. His answer was 'It is impossible' But, he adds he lived to hear of the accomplishment of his prediction. This was more than twenty years ago.
He further states he was present at the death bed and that a joyous one it was. I think I shall never forget the timeliness of the arrival of this letter. Oh, how it rebuked my unbelief and how it stimulated me to go forward in my present work how marvellous it is that the prediction to which I before averted is so strictly and literally verified, inasmuch as for years I lived at the corner of the identical street named; the temporary church was set up in a street leading off from it; the permanent church stands within a hundred yards of it; and the Mission Hall is situated some three or four hundred yards on the other side of the self same Brown's Row'.
In 1871 St Luke's was burnt and final repairs to the tower were made in the following year.
Dr Doudney's son Edwin came to Bedminster in 1877 and lectured to the children at the schoolhouse and, no doubt, was something of a hero in their eyes. Regaling them with stories of America and Australia.
Dr Doudney resigned in 1891 and his place was taken by the Rev William Frederick Jepson, who must have found it difficult to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor.
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