Appendix C — Curates of Somerton

Source: Parish Registers of Rectors, Curates and Church Officers. Names appear in the registers with the first date of mention and the year of burial if local. The list from 1767 to 1813 shows that the parish was served by a succession of short-stay curates during the incumbency of the “ever absent” Barfoot Cotton.

1627 — John Creek

1631 — Robert Kendricke

1638 — James Willmer (died 1641)

1650 — Edward Archer

165? — John Fenwick

1672 — ? Slatter

1683 — William Chapman (buried 1685)

1685 — Samuel Lowe (Rector of Hardwick in 1709?)

1689 — Richard Keyt

1691 — Samuel Lowe (subscribing as curate)

1709 — Henry Tipping

1718 — George Roberts

1720 — Thomas Swallow

1767 — John Russell

1770 — William Harrison

1771 — Thomas Brown

1781 — Edward Turner

1787 — John Horseman

1788 — J. Hind

1792 — Dorminy Rasbotham

1794 — Robert Kening

1801 — George Webb MA

1809 — W. H. Clerke

1810 — Robert Dickenson

1813/5 — William Nicholson

1827 — Henry Wintle Junior (buried 1830)

1836–40 — John Jordan

1840 — Edward Marshall

1846–50 — Charles Reed Clifton BA

1853 — Oswald Pattinson Sergeant BA

1857–61 — John Aldworth

In 1707 Samuel Lowe’s fees were recorded as follows: for burying a corpse, 1 shilling; for publishing banns of marriage, 1 shilling; every inhabitant in the parish of age to communicate, 2d to be paid at Easter — called “offerings.”

In 1817 Henry Wintle recorded difficulty in obtaining payment of 1 guinea for “opening the ground” of the Fermor vault, in addition to his fee of 1 guinea. This was eventually paid by the family’s steward. In 1828 the extra guinea fee was paid without demur for another Fermor interment. The executors of the late T. T. Ramsay paid £2 10s 0d to the Rector to open the vault and a surplice fee of 6 shillings and 8 pence to the curate.