I have recently embarked on a project to record all the clergymen who have served in the various churches of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
In the process I have come across this story of the Rev. Bickerstaffe. Although he was only at St. Clement’s for nine months in 1855 I think it a story worth telling; involving as it does a bigamous, drunken, wife-beating cleric who came to a sticky end.
Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe was born in Chirk, Denbighshire, North Wales, where he was baptised on the 28th December 1825. His parents were Rev. Roger Bickerstaffe, the curate of Chirk, and his wife Ann (nee Lloyd) who married, in Chirk, on 27th December 1808.
From, August 1842 to June 1844 he was a pupil at Repton, a Public School in Derby, Derbyshire and went on to Jesus College, Oxford University.
In 1848 he commenced training for the Church of England ministry at St. Bee’s Theological College in Cumberland and, whilst he was there, he met Elizabeth Mona Brougham Drew the daughter of the Rector of Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland, Rev. Pierce William Drew. After his ordination Rev. Bickerstaffe was briefly an assistant curate at the parish church at Dove Bank, Derby Road, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, before travelling to Ireland to marry Miss Drew, in Youghal Co. Cork on the 9th October, 1851 and on returning to England took up the curacy at Thorne Nr. Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Assigned to curacy at St. Andrew’s, Ancoats, Manchester in 1853 moving to Chorlton-cum-Hardy as a curate, assisting Rev. Birley, in 1855. He later held a curacy at the Holy Trinity Church, Poulton-le-Sands, Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. He became increasingly unsettled with no stable employment and by now with four children (Francis, Pierce William, Roger, and Harry Roger) to support his relationship with his wife soured and he turned to drink for solace.
He became violent after these bouts of heavy drinking and this eventually led to Rev. Bickerstaffe separating from the family home, by this time in the Headingly area of Leeds, Yorkshire, in late January 1859. After arranging to live apart for five years in order that he could address his problem alcohol consumption he promptly disappeared and was not heard of for nearly a year.
He secured a position as a curate for Rev. H. Blankner the invalid incumbent of Thursley, Nr. Godalming, Surrey and in April 1859 embarked on an ill-fated relationship with Miss Campbell who was paying a visit to the rectory. Despite Miss Campbell’s charms and his prospects of gaining access to her £5,000 fortune Rev. Bickerstaff could not keep off the drink and after causing a scene when he drunkenly fell off the Rector’s coach, he was dismissed his post and ejected from the rectory.
In spite of this occurrence and the cautionary advice of her family Miss Campbell still agreed to the wedding taking place. Even after being “left at the altar” when the first ceremony had been arranged for the 15th October, 1859 she still persisted only to be told, by her brother, on her honeymoon in Cambridge that her new “husband” was a bigamist.
In January 1860, Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe appeared in court in Leeds, Yorkshire on charge of bigamy. He had been arrested in the Bee Hotel in Abergele, Nr. Rhyl, North Wales, after spending nearly three months “on the run” around the country.
He did not refute the charge and after evidence was given that he had entered a “marriage” with Anna Maria Campbell at Bartlow, Nr. Linton, Cambridgeshire on the 8th November 1859, while his “first” wife was still alive; he was convicted at the York Assize Court on the 7th March 1860 and sentenced to three years “penal servitude”. On his release from prison, the by then Mr. Harry Lloyd Bickerstaffe “re-married” Anna Maria Campbell on the 19th November, 1862 in the church of St. Nicholas, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, which he was free to do; his first wife having obtained a divorce, at the Probate and Divorce Court, York, on the grounds of his adultery and bigamy on Friday, 19th July, 1861. Two days before this wedding Harry L. Bickerstaffe obtained a passport and subsequently no further trace of him appears in the available official records.
However, the Repton School Register, published in 1905, does reveal that he died at Caen in Normandy, France and “The Globe” newspaper of 22nd December, 1868 carries his death notice, he died “on 15th inst. at Caen, Normandy, suddenly from the effects of a severe fall” Mrs. Anna Maria Bickerstaffe appears, as his widow, in the 1881 census living at Cotmaton Hall, Sidmouth, Devon where she died on 22nd November, 1883.
Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe’s first wife, remarried in the June quarter of 1870 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire to Charles, the third of the nine children of Rev. Daniel Brent the vicar of Grendon, Northamptonshire, who was 15 years her junior.
After living for a time in Elesmere, Shropshire where her new husband worked as a cashier for the Earl Brownlow, emigrated to the United States of America, where she settled in Kerriville, Texas a town in which her brother-in-law was already established in a druggist business.
Mrs. Elizabeth Mona Brent died, aged 86, on the 13th July 1916 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church Winterbourne, Wiltshire. One of her (and Harry Lloyd’s) sons is buried with her.
Rt. Rev. Monsignor Count Francis Browning Drew Bickerstaffe-Drew C.B.E.
He had converted to Roman Catholicism while at Pembroke College Oxford and became a prominent Roman Catholic army chaplain, prelate, and author of several novels. He died on the 3rd July 1928 at 2, De Vaux Place, The Close, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Another of Henry Lloyd’s sons, Pierce William Drew Bickerstaffe, emigrated to New Zealand where the electoral directories from 1893 onwards record him as a “rabbiter” and a shepherd in the Wairarapa District of Wellington in New Zealand’s South Island. He died there on the 25th March 1927.
Of his remaining two sons not, much is revealed in the records apart from the youngest child, Roger living with Henry Lloyd's father the Rev. Roger Bickerstaffe, then at Hoole, Great Broughton, Cheshire though still the nominal rector of Boylestone, Derbyshire.
After his grandfather died in November 1861 young Roger vanishes from civil records.
Tony Goulding © 2020
Sources; Findmypast, Free BMD, Find a Grvae
Pictures; St. Clement's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy A.H. Clarke m70278, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass remaining image courtesy of Tony Goulding, Monsignor Francis Bickerstaff-Drew, pre 1913
 |
| St Clement's Church, 1920 |
Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe was born in Chirk, Denbighshire, North Wales, where he was baptised on the 28th December 1825. His parents were Rev. Roger Bickerstaffe, the curate of Chirk, and his wife Ann (nee Lloyd) who married, in Chirk, on 27th December 1808.
From, August 1842 to June 1844 he was a pupil at Repton, a Public School in Derby, Derbyshire and went on to Jesus College, Oxford University.
In 1848 he commenced training for the Church of England ministry at St. Bee’s Theological College in Cumberland and, whilst he was there, he met Elizabeth Mona Brougham Drew the daughter of the Rector of Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland, Rev. Pierce William Drew. After his ordination Rev. Bickerstaffe was briefly an assistant curate at the parish church at Dove Bank, Derby Road, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, before travelling to Ireland to marry Miss Drew, in Youghal Co. Cork on the 9th October, 1851 and on returning to England took up the curacy at Thorne Nr. Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Assigned to curacy at St. Andrew’s, Ancoats, Manchester in 1853 moving to Chorlton-cum-Hardy as a curate, assisting Rev. Birley, in 1855. He later held a curacy at the Holy Trinity Church, Poulton-le-Sands, Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. He became increasingly unsettled with no stable employment and by now with four children (Francis, Pierce William, Roger, and Harry Roger) to support his relationship with his wife soured and he turned to drink for solace.
He became violent after these bouts of heavy drinking and this eventually led to Rev. Bickerstaffe separating from the family home, by this time in the Headingly area of Leeds, Yorkshire, in late January 1859. After arranging to live apart for five years in order that he could address his problem alcohol consumption he promptly disappeared and was not heard of for nearly a year.
He secured a position as a curate for Rev. H. Blankner the invalid incumbent of Thursley, Nr. Godalming, Surrey and in April 1859 embarked on an ill-fated relationship with Miss Campbell who was paying a visit to the rectory. Despite Miss Campbell’s charms and his prospects of gaining access to her £5,000 fortune Rev. Bickerstaff could not keep off the drink and after causing a scene when he drunkenly fell off the Rector’s coach, he was dismissed his post and ejected from the rectory.
In spite of this occurrence and the cautionary advice of her family Miss Campbell still agreed to the wedding taking place. Even after being “left at the altar” when the first ceremony had been arranged for the 15th October, 1859 she still persisted only to be told, by her brother, on her honeymoon in Cambridge that her new “husband” was a bigamist.
In January 1860, Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe appeared in court in Leeds, Yorkshire on charge of bigamy. He had been arrested in the Bee Hotel in Abergele, Nr. Rhyl, North Wales, after spending nearly three months “on the run” around the country.
He did not refute the charge and after evidence was given that he had entered a “marriage” with Anna Maria Campbell at Bartlow, Nr. Linton, Cambridgeshire on the 8th November 1859, while his “first” wife was still alive; he was convicted at the York Assize Court on the 7th March 1860 and sentenced to three years “penal servitude”. On his release from prison, the by then Mr. Harry Lloyd Bickerstaffe “re-married” Anna Maria Campbell on the 19th November, 1862 in the church of St. Nicholas, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, which he was free to do; his first wife having obtained a divorce, at the Probate and Divorce Court, York, on the grounds of his adultery and bigamy on Friday, 19th July, 1861. Two days before this wedding Harry L. Bickerstaffe obtained a passport and subsequently no further trace of him appears in the available official records.
However, the Repton School Register, published in 1905, does reveal that he died at Caen in Normandy, France and “The Globe” newspaper of 22nd December, 1868 carries his death notice, he died “on 15th inst. at Caen, Normandy, suddenly from the effects of a severe fall” Mrs. Anna Maria Bickerstaffe appears, as his widow, in the 1881 census living at Cotmaton Hall, Sidmouth, Devon where she died on 22nd November, 1883.
Henry Lloyd Bickerstaffe’s first wife, remarried in the June quarter of 1870 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire to Charles, the third of the nine children of Rev. Daniel Brent the vicar of Grendon, Northamptonshire, who was 15 years her junior.
After living for a time in Elesmere, Shropshire where her new husband worked as a cashier for the Earl Brownlow, emigrated to the United States of America, where she settled in Kerriville, Texas a town in which her brother-in-law was already established in a druggist business.
Mrs. Elizabeth Mona Brent died, aged 86, on the 13th July 1916 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church Winterbourne, Wiltshire. One of her (and Harry Lloyd’s) sons is buried with her.
 |
| Francis Bickerstaffe |
He had converted to Roman Catholicism while at Pembroke College Oxford and became a prominent Roman Catholic army chaplain, prelate, and author of several novels. He died on the 3rd July 1928 at 2, De Vaux Place, The Close, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Another of Henry Lloyd’s sons, Pierce William Drew Bickerstaffe, emigrated to New Zealand where the electoral directories from 1893 onwards record him as a “rabbiter” and a shepherd in the Wairarapa District of Wellington in New Zealand’s South Island. He died there on the 25th March 1927.
Of his remaining two sons not, much is revealed in the records apart from the youngest child, Roger living with Henry Lloyd's father the Rev. Roger Bickerstaffe, then at Hoole, Great Broughton, Cheshire though still the nominal rector of Boylestone, Derbyshire.
After his grandfather died in November 1861 young Roger vanishes from civil records.
Tony Goulding © 2020
Sources; Findmypast, Free BMD, Find a Grvae
Pictures; St. Clement's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy A.H. Clarke m70278, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass remaining image courtesy of Tony Goulding, Monsignor Francis Bickerstaff-Drew, pre 1913
