The Rectors of Chagford

The Rectors of Chagford, recorded on the board in the Gabriel Room, are as below.

However, G. Wareing Ormerod M.A., F.G.S., a prominent Chagford solicitor and antiquarian of the Victorian period, read a paper at Ashburton in 1876, printed in the Transactions of the Devonshire Society for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art 7876. He stated that the list of Rectors was obtained for him by a Dr. Oliver from the Diocesan Registry at Exeter.

The differences in Ormerod’s list from that on the board in the church are shown below in CAPITALS, those in (parentheses) not being recorded by him.

  1. Simon de Wybberi (Wilbury) – 1315
  2. Laurence de Wybberi (Wilbury) – 1319
  3. Henry de Folforde – 1320
  4. Thomas de Folforde (Institution not recorded)
  5. John Tolthorpe – 1382
  6. Robert Burgeys (Burgess) – 1384
  7. William Mayow (Mayor) – 1391
  8. John Dypphull – 1392
  9. Laurence Haukyn – 1397
  10. John Lydeford (Institution not recorded) – 1397
  11. Robert Chirbury – 1429
  12. Michael Lerchdekne – 1434
  13. William Ford (Forde) – 1440
  14. Thomas Coplestone  – 1447
  15. Richard Stoyle – 1470
  16. Henry Grymstone
  17. Edward Wyluchby (Wylucghby) – 1490 (Institution not recorded)
  18. William Trugg(e) – 1500 (1508)
  19. Robert Becansawe – 1517
  20. Robert Weston – 1525
  21. Francis Coplestone – 1539 (1531)
  22. Robert Harneman (Institution not recorded)
  23. Robert Fisher (Fissher) – 1555
  24. John Staughton
  25. John Dynham – 1610 (1618)
  26. German Goldston (Gouldston) (Commonwealth)
  27. George Hayter – 1622 (admitted on deprivation of Goldstone)
  28. William Reade – 1680
  29. George Hayter – 1701
  30. Thomas Rennell – 1729
  31. Joshua Hayter – 1742
  32. Joshua Worth – 1771
  33. John Hayter – 1779
  34. William Moore – 1810
  35. George Hayter Hames  – 1819
  36. William Hames – 1821
  37. William Hames – 1827
  38. Hayter George Hames – 1852
  39. Gerald Lewis Henry Ley – 1886
  40. Hubert Charles Studdy – 1912
  41. Thomas Collins Walters – 1916
  42. Thomas Morgan Bell-Salter – 1922
  43. Cecil Frederick Joy Holmes – 1931
  44. Charles Egerton Chadwick – 1939
  45. Ralph Sadleir – 1948
  46. Alexander Goudge – 1953
  47. Cuthbert Harold Septimus Buckmaster – 1959
  48. George Vivian Syer – 1971
  49. William Joseph Bully – 1977
  50. Philip Louis Baycock  – 1984
  51. Anthony Geering – 2001

Our current Rector is The Revd Paul Seaton-Burn.

Ormerod mentioned that two Rectors were of particular note:

  • Michael Lerchdekne who died as Treasurer of Exeter Cathedral in 1442, and
  • John Hayter, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, who was referred to by Disraeli as a classic antiquary who first discovered the art of unrolling the Herculaneum manuscripts.