| |
Erasmus Saunders,
Rector of Helmdon 1706 - 1721
an article by Edward Parry
|
| |
While writing an article about the rise of nonconformity in the Brecon
area I came across a reference to a book written by the Reverend Erasmus
Saunders in 1721 in which he described the weaknesses and failings
of the Anglican church in the diocese of St David's. This was a very
useful source as it explained many of the grievances voiced by nonconformists
later. What I did not realize was the series of coincidences which
would follow.
When I looked Saunders up in the Dictionary of National Biography
and its Welsh equivalent I found that the author of A View of the
State of Religion in the Diocese of St David's about the beginning
of the Eighteenth Century - to give his work it full title - had been
rector of the village I had lived in thirty years ago. Also among
the church appointments he held was that of prebendary of the Collegiate
church of Christ College in Brecon; this ancient grammar school later
became an independent boarding school where I taught for twenty-five
years until my retirement in 1999. As if that was not enough serendipity
Erasmus Saunders married into a Welsh family whose home was about
six miles from where I now live in Montgomeryshire.
However I had no clear recollection of coming across this man when
I worked on the local history of Helmdon many years ago; why not?
The answer is simple and in view of his criticisms of the Welsh church,
ironic - he was an absentee cleric who, as far as I know did not come
to the village of which he was rector. He was too busy in Gloucestershire.
Helmdon was looked after by a curate, George Jones, who held that
post from just before Saunders's appointment as rector until 1717
when he succeeded as rector himself until he death in 1723. Jones
was also a pluralist - being rector of Upper Swell in Gloucestershire
from 1712 - thus producing the symmetry whereby both men held livings
in the same two counties. There is clear evidence that the Rev. George
Jones lived in Helmdon - he was named as executor by a friend in Greatworth,
as 'Geo.Jones of Helmdon, clerk' and both he and his widow, Elizabeth,
are buried at the church.
Erasmus Saunders was born in Pembrokeshire and like many Welshmen
of the period went to Jesus College, Oxford. Here his interest in
history and archaeology was encouraged by a fellow Welshman, Edward
Lhuyd who was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Saunders's clerical
life was spent in or close to Blockley, Gloucestershire. He was curate
of Morton Henmarsh (as Moreton-in-Marsh was known them) for seven
years and then from 1702 he held the same office at Blockley. Even
before he came to Blockley as curate Saunders was recording evidence
of Roman occupation in the parish; he wrote to Lhuyd at Oxford that
at the Dorn he found '10 or 11 more Roman coins … and I also
had a Roman brick'. Three years later he became vicar of the parish
until his death in 1724. His career was no doubt helped as he succeeded
William Lloyd who was the son of the bishop of Worcester of the same
name. The bishop was also a member of a prominent Welsh family as
well as being an alumnus of Jesus, Oxford where Saunders had been
an undergraduate. He was an industrious and generous incumbent who
is commemorated in Blockley in various ways.
In 1713 he founded a new school in the village and the building survives.
The inscription above the door recalls the founder and the later restoration
of the school by Lord Northwick in 1826. According to one source Saunders
had a motto carved inside the building to inspire his pupils, but
one wonders how many of them knew enough (or any) Welsh to translate
'Aros a Llwydda' which means 'Stay and Succeed'. There is a second
inscription recalling the vicar this time on the wall of the vicarage
garden: 'Mors lanua Vitae E.S 1716'. Perhaps by then some of the pupils
at the school would have been able to translate this as 'Death the
Gateway to Life'. The third reminder is above the pulpit in the church;
his son - also Erasmus - erected the tablet which recalls his father
who 'by his Piety as well as his Life as Writings Endeavoured (sic)
to promote Religions and Virtue'.
The vicar was appreciated beyond Blockley. In 1712 Saunders was granted
the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Oxford and on the same day Saunders
was selected to preach at the University. This was a period of intense
political and religious controversy and in his sermon Saunders extolled
the virtues of compromise and the duty of churchmen 'not to animate
unnecessary Contentions'. As a consequence of his local Montgomeryshire
connections by marriage he was invited to preach the Assize Sermon
at Welshpool in 1720. A year later he was in more exalted company,
preaching before the House of Commons at St Margaret's, Westminster.
There is no evidence to indicate when Saunders collected the information
for his book on the State of Religion in the Diocese of St David's.
Perhaps the coincidence of the date of publication and Saunders's
resignation of the Helmdon living is significant. This at least would
have made his strictures against pluralism and non-residence less
hypocritical. He was born in Pembrokeshire which along with Carmarthenshire
and Breconshire constituted the sprawling diocese of St David's with
its headquarters in the smallest city in the kingdom. The book is
dedicated to the late Bishop Bull who held the see from 1705 until
his death in 1709. The whole work is a swinging attack on the weaknesses
of the Anglican church in south-west Wales. There were insufficient
clergy, few spoke the language of the people and the churches they
preached in were ruinous. The root of the problem was the parlous
financial state of a church which could not afford to pay the stipends
to attract well qualified clergy. All these arguments were to be rehearsed
by the nonconformists later in the century but by then it was too
late to avert the wholesale desertion of the church by the people
of Wales.
In the early 1720s Saunders's health was failing and he died in June
1724 but far from the parish he had served for over twenty years.
He was staying at his wife's home, Aberbechan Hall new Newtown, and
here on June 1st - in the words on his memorial - 'Apoplexia correptus
in sinu delectissimae conjugis animan afflavit' (Having been seized
with apoplexy, he expired on the breast of his most beloved wife).
Because he died in Montgomeryshire he is buried in the great town
church of St Mary's, Shrewsbury. Although more than thirty miles from
Aberbechan this is where the Lloyds were buried and so too was their
son-in-law. While the chancel has a wall tablet with a long inscription
to Humphrey Lloyd, his father-in-law, there is now no trace of the
memorial to Erasmus. However, the wording was recorded by a later
curate of Blockley, Alfred J.Soden in his History of Blockley published
in 1875. Saunders is praised for his faithful and unwearied care of
the souls in his care in Blockley and also remembered as a man of
excellent learning. Although there is, as far as I know, no surviving
physical evidence to connect Erasmus Saunders with Helmdon his interest
in education was shared by the man who looked after the parish in
his absence. The Re. George Jones endowed a charity - known as Jones's
Gift - leaving £20 to be used for the building and running of
a village school. Was Jones emulating the work of Saunders in Blockley?
In many respects Saunders was a typical cleric of the early eighteenth
century: well educated, with influential patrons, he progressed from
Oxford to comfortable livings in Blockley and Helmdon. However his
antiquarianism and his concern for the education of his parishioners,
along with his willingness to stand for moderation at a time of ecclesiastical
ferment, raised him above the ordinary. In particular the perceptive
and often acerbic comments he made about the church in his native
diocese of St David's make him an important authority on the religious
history of an area which within thirty years of his death played a
pivotal role in the history of nonconformity.
Edward Parry |
|