St. Paul’s Parish Church, Withington ........... another story by Tony Goulding

It is a couple of years since I took these photographs of St Paul’s Church on Wilmslow Road in Withington, Manchester. 

St. Paul's, Withington – January 2023

The Lych-Gate

I was drawn at the time by its impressive clock tower and the lych gate which mirrors  Chorlton-cum-Hardy's own on Chorlton Green.

Neither of these features were part of the original church building from October 1841. The Clock, an illuminated electric one, was an addition to the tower to commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary on 22nd June 1911 whilst the lych-gate only dates from December 1894. It formed part of a new boundary wall and was gifted to the parish by Mr. James Clayton Chorlton, a woolen and cotton clothing manufacturer, of Didsbury Priory, Wilmslow Road, Didsbury.

The founding of the church was largely financed by Wilbraham Egerton, of Tatton Hall, the M. P. for Cheshire who donated the land and £400 towards its construction. His son William Tatton Egerton who was created the 1st Baron Egerton following in his father’s footsteps gave the land on which the new St. Clement's Church was built in Chorlton-cum-Hady, also making a sizeable subscription towards its building fund. The Holy Innocents church in Fallowfield also benefitted from the Egerton family’s largesse. 

The church was fitted with a fine new organ built by the royal organ builder, Henry Cephas Lincoln on Friday 17th March 1843. It is believed that the great composer and organist Dr Felix Mendelssohn once played the instrument in one of his visits to South Manchester as he is recorded as playing a similar instrument in St. Luke’s Church in Cheetham Hill, Manchester on Wednesday 21st April 1847.

The BBC also made use of the fine instrument broadcasting a service from St. Paul’s on several occasions.

Dr. Felix Mendelssohn

In its first century, St Paul’s was served by only six rectors, the initial one being the extravagantly named Rev. Webster Frederic Henry Hooper. Rev. Hooper was born in Colchester, Essex where he was baptized on 9th June 1816 at St. Leonard’s Church. His parents were Henry Hooper, the Lieutenant Colonel of the 84th Regiment of Foot, and his wife, Caroline. 

Webster Frederick Henry Hooper died at his father-in law’s house, Mauldeth House, (1) Heaton Norris, Lancashire on 4th July 1849 while he was still the incumbent of St. Paul's and was interred in its churchyard. He left a wife, Mary (née Wright) whom he’d married on Tuesday 1st August 1843 at St. James’s Church, Didsbury, Lancashire, and two young children a 4-year-old son Edmund Huntly and a daughter Mary Blanche, who was only 18 months old. (2) 

Mauldeth Hall, 2008

The second rector of St. Paul’s was an Irishman, Theophilus Bennett who was born in “Bellwood”, Templemore, Co. Tipperary, Ireland in 1823. His father, Thomas was a local landlord recorded as “Generosus” in his university record. He was a student at Trinity College, Dublin from 2nd July 1841 where after first gaining a B.A. degree in 1845 he was conferred with a Master of Arts degree on 20th February 1849. He was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Manchester at Lancaster on Sunday 1st October 1848 in a ceremony said to be the first of its kind in the town’s parish church.

Appointed in September 1849 Rev. Bennett remained at St. Paul’s until he resigned in October 1855 enabling his acceptance of the Rectorship of All Saints church in Gordon Square, St. Pancras, London. Shortly after arriving in London, he met and married a local young lady, Emily Ivens Harris Bevan one of the nine children and the eldest daughter of John Connell De La Rue Bevan an oil seed broker of Byng Place, Gordon Square, St. Pancras.

The wedding was conducted by a canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Rev. Bennett’s own church on February 14th 1857. Despite the auspices of it taking place on Valentine’s Day, the marriage was not to be a happy one. Within a year of his marriage Theophilus was transferred to Kilsallaghan, a parish near Dublin, Ireland where two sons, Alfred Ormond Theophilus and Ernest Emilius, were born to the couple. There was a considerable age gap between the man and wife, and it is not altogether surprising that Mrs.  Bennett eloped with another man. This led to quite a sensational court case as the man in question was Count Frederick Ernest Charles Spiridon von Lusi, a Prussian aristocrat with Greek ancestry. (3) 

 

St. Basils Church, Toller Fratrum, Dorset

Rev. Bennett was granted a decree nisi on Wednesday 15th February 1865 at The Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, Westminster, London. A full summary of the case was printed on the following Friday in the Dublin Daily Express. By this time, he had left Ireland and was a curate at All Saints Church in Hertford before moving to become the Vicar of Christ Church in Plymouth, Devon in August 1865. Whilst in Plymouth Theophilus married a local doctor’s widow Caroline Ann Soltau (née Hawker). Showing no sign of superstition, the wedding was performed in his own church on Valentine’s Day 1868. 

 Throughout the rest of his life Rev. Bennett moved parishes quite regularly. In order, briefly at the combined tiny Dorsetshire hamlets of Toller Fratrum and Winford Eagle with its ancient stone church, then for almost a decade, Eastrington in Yorkshire (East Riding).

In the 1881 census, he is recorded as the vicar of Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorsetshire, living with his wife Caroline and his youngest son Ernest Emilius who had just embarked on a career as an army veterinary surgeon. Later still he served as the “curate in charge” of Chudleigh in South Devon from July 1883 before his final appointment, on 9th July 1885 as the rector off Newton Hall, Stocksfield, Nr. Hexham, Northumberland. Whilst in this post he was also licensed to the Chaplaincy of Ospedalliti, Nr. San Remo, Italy.

Rev. Theophilus Bennett died at Hove, Brighton, Sussex on 20th November 1893.

The next rector of St. Paul’s, Withington was Rev. Robert William Burton M.A. who came via “an exchange of benefices” with Rev Bennett on Tuesday 18th December 1855. He remained in office until resigning in May 1862. Rev Burton was also a native of Ireland born in Co. Dublin in 1806 he too was a student at Trinity College being admitted as a 16-years-old on 3rd June 1822. He obtained a B.A. degree in the spring of 1828 and was awarded his M.A. in November 1832.

 The 1861 census record shows him as “a landed proprietor and rector of Withington” married to Elizabeth with 8 children, 3 sons and 5 daughters. The various place of births of this offspring reveals he also moved parishes regularly. His first child, Elizabeth was born in Ireland in 1838 a year later, Ellen arrived in Bath, Somerset. Two more daughters, Isabella and Anna followed in Clifton, nr. Bristol, Gloucestershire in 1843 and 1844 respectively. Rev. Burton’s first son, Arthur Thomas was born in 1849 in Harrow Middlesex as was a year later another daughter, Emily Adelaide. His last two children were twin boys Albert and Hubert born in Willesden during the June quarter of 1853. After leaving Withington Rev. Burton was for a short while Rector of Newchurch, Culcheth, nr Leigh, Lancashire (replacing Rev. William Henry Strong who in turn succeeded him at St. Paul’s) before returning to his hometown, Dublin; taking over the parish of Raheny.

Rev. Robert William Burton died at Barton Villas in Dawlish, Devon on 16th October 1885. He left £7,252 (= £790.000 today) in his estate, his solicitor son Arthur Thomas being one of his executors. 

    The remaining three incumbents of Withington St. Paul's first 100 years were

       Rev. William Henry Strong (1865-1872)

       Rev. George William Grogan (1872-1892)

       Rev. William Muzzell (1892-1937)

     Their stories will appear in a subsequent post.

Pictures:   St. Paul’s Church, and its Lych-Gate, Wilmslow Road, Withington (January 2023) from the collection of Tony Goulding, Mauldeth Hall By Trevor Harris, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13648576  Dr. Felix Mendelssohn, by Eduard Magnus - Berlin State Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5854375 St. Basil's Church, Toller Fratrum, Dorset by Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12978976 St. Basil's Church, Toller Fratrum, Dorset by Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12978976

Notes: -

Mauldeth Hall was built in stages between 1832 and 1882 and the 1840s became the home of Edmund Wright a very wealthy calico printer of the firm Wright & Lee. The house in the 1851 census accommodated Edmund his wife, Mary, his two orphaned grandchildren, Emund Huntly and Mary Blanche, a nephew John Wright and no fewer than 13 servants. Interestingly also in the household recorded as a visitor was Rev. Bennett. Appropriately given its prior connections to the church on Edmund Wright’s death in 1852 Mauldeth Hall became the home of the first Bishop of Manchester, The Right Rev. James Prince Lee D.D.  It later served as a hospital for incurables. After restoration in the 1990s it became the residence of the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Manchester. The housing development in the grounds of the property has appropriately, with a nod to history, been named Prince Lee Gardens.

2) The wealth of Rev. Hooper’s family is indicated by the fact that both his children left over £1m in their estates. Edmund Huntly died on 26th June 1931 left £40,764 – 5s –6d (= £2,353, 379 today). Mary Blanche’s estate was £25,302 (= £1,443,340) when she died on 14th September 1938.

3) Although of a similar age Count Lusi was a perhaps a more dashing companion for young Emily Ivens; he was a Prussian Officer, a rider and follower of country sports. He was also the son of a former Prussian Envoy to Greece and a friend of the King of Prussia.