CHAPTER X.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The first Bishop of Carlisle in the eighteenth century was the celebrated, learned, and very busy prelate, William Nicolson,¹ 1711 to 1718. He was the son of the Rev. Joseph Nicolson, who was ejected from Plumbland in Cumberland by Cromwell's Commissioners, but who lived to be restored; and the bishop's mother was a Brisco, of Crofton, whence he must have inherited a strong Puritan strain. He was sent to Oxford, and there he found a patron in Sir Joseph William, Secretary of State, son of a former vicar of Bridekirk, and by him he was sent to Leipsic in 1678 to study foreign languages, and in the following year he travelled in France. He took to literary work and published a huge atlas in several volumes. In 1681 Bishop Rainbow appointed him to a stall in Carlisle cathedral, with the vicarage of Torpenhow, and in 1682 to the archdeaconry of Carlisle, which was held with the rectory of Great Salkeld. He immediately devoted his energies to deciphering the runic inscriptions in the diocese, and to the study of its natural history and antiquities. In 1696, 1697, and 1698, he published the three parts of his "English Historical Libraries"; he published a similar work for Scotland in 1702, and one for Ireland at a much later period. As the county histories say, this publication involved him in many controversies. We shall see the truth of this.

In 1702 Nicolson was appointed Bishop of Carlisle, and was consecrated at Lambeth [in London] in June. He was, no doubt, as an active archdeacon and a beneficed clergyman in the diocese, well acquainted with its condition. But he lost no time in making a thorough investigation into the same. In 1713 he commenced his primary visitation; in addition to summoning his clergy to meet him at various convenient centres, he went himself to every church in the diocese, personally inspected its condition, made notes thereon, and copied all the inscriptions to be found. These notes have recently been published by the Cumberland and Westmorland Archæological Society, under the title of "Miscellany Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle, with the Terriers delivered into me at my Primary Visitation, by William Nicolson, late Bishop of Carlisle." The book gives a curious and minute, but most deplorable picture of the diocese. The fabrics of the churches, especially of the impropriated chancels [surely, "chapels" is meant here], were commonly in a very bad condition, - other things were to match. Frequently no Bible of the modern version, though that was then over a hundred years old; no prayer-book, no surplice, no altar-rails; in some cases the table stood east and west. Education neglected almost everywhere, though the church was too commonly the only school-house. The clergy were miserably poor, and shamefully robbed by the lay impropriators. Occasionally scandalous churches were matched by scandalous vicars. It must have taxed all Nicolson's energies to effect an improvement, but we shall see that it was done, though not perhaps always in his time.

Nicolson soon found himself with other work on hand of a troublesome character; he had, in his "English Historical Library," dealt roughly with some little works by Dr. Todd, a canon of Carlisle; the celebrated Dr. Atterbury had severely criticised the "English Historical Library," and to him Nicolson had replied.

In the year 1704, the then Dean of Carlisle, Dr. Graham, a member of the Netherby family, was appointed and duly installed as Dean of Wells. The deanery of Carlisle was given to Dr. Atterbury, a somewhat unfortunate appointment, considering the ill-feeling known to exist between him and Bishop Nicolson. The patent under the broad seal commanded the admission of Dr. Atterbury to the deanery of Carlisle then vacant sive per cessionem sive per resignationem. A difficulty was raised, whether by Nicolson or not does not appear, on the point that Graham's installation at Wells did not vacate the deanery of Carlisle, and Dr. Atterbury, as a precaution, possessed himself of a written resignation by Dr. Graham of that deanery. In September, 1704, the new dean started to go to Carlisle to be installed. At Bishopsthorpe he found a communication from the Bishop of Carlisle, enclosing a form of retractation which the bishop required Dr. Atterbury to sign as a condition precedent to his installation as Dean of Carlisle. The form ran thus:

"1. The Queen of England out of Parliament has not the same Authority in causes ecclesiastical that the Christian emperors had in the Primitive Church.

2. The Church of England is under two sovereigns; the one absolute and the other limited.

3. The supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as annexed to the Imperial Crown of this realm, can be exercised no otherwise than in Parliament.

These three propositions, separating her Majesty's authority from her person, and impeaching her legal supremacy, are erroneous, and contrary to the received doctrine of the Church of England, as well as the known laws of the realms. And therefore (so far as they or any of them are deducible from anything that I have heretofore asserted and published) I do hereby, openly and freely, revoke and renounce the same."

Accompanying this form of retractation, was a request from Nicolson to the Archbishop of York, asking him to give Atterbury institution by his metropolitan authority, in the event of Atterbury declining to sign. Atterbury of course declined to sign, and the Archbishop of York, who seems to have been most anxious to make peace, wrote to the Bishop of Carlisle, asking that prelate to send a commission, under seal, authorising the archbishop, or some commissioners, whose names he suggested, to institute, as he was advised he could not institute without. Nicolson replied that he would give a commission under his seal to nobody, for doing anything which he would not and could not do himself, and therefore Atterbury must come to him. Dr. Atterbury, therefore, attended at Rose, when he found that the bishop had, on the advice of the archbishop, withdrawn the form of retractation just mentioned. But he had prepared another, which he required Atterbury to sign. Atterbury replied by a written protest and demand for institution, and declined to discuss the matter further. The bishop then demanded Atterbury's orders and letters testimonial of his good life and behaviour, and then proposed to examine him as to his learning. Finally, he adjourned the business for a month to the 12th October, and entered into a correspondence with the Secretary of State, Sir Charles Hedges, who replied, after giving his own opinion;-

"I shall add no more, but that I have obeyed your commands in making such a representation of your scruples to her Majesty as you desire; and all I have in answer is that her Majesty expects that there should be no further delay in giving institution to Dr. Atterbury."

This order was complied with, and Dr. Atterbury regularly instituted on the 2nd of October, but the controversy raged for some time afterwards, though we need not follow it to the dregs. Atterbury complains that the bishop put several affronts on him, while keeping him in suspense, but he admits that he had tried to prevent the University of Oxford from granting Nicolson a doctor's degree. In point of temper there was probably little to choose between these two able and strong men.

Dr. Atterbury soon obtained a dispensation from the Queen, exempting him from residence, but Dr. Todd, whom we have already mentioned as having been engaged in bitter controversy with Nicolson, was "only too ready to act jackal to the lion." The literary quarrel between Nicolson and Todd was much inflamed by a further quarrel over the appointment by Todd, who was vicar of Penrith, of one of his curates to be churchwarden of that parish. The bishop objected, and took steps to enforce his objections by declining to admit the curate to priest's orders, while Todd published "A Letter to a Person of Quality," in which he handled his diocesan [i.e. his bishop] with severity and freedom. Occasion was soon found for a quarrel between Atterbury and his chapter. Two minor canons having "misbehaved themselves in the vestry by kicking, boxing, and by words abusing" one another, were suspended and made to apologise in November, 1714; and in the following April, in the absence of the dean and Dr. Todd, they were restored to office. The dean and Dr. Todd promptly protested against this act as an infringement of the rights of the dean; the dean protesting "particularly on y^e account of the right conferred on me, as dean, by the foundation charter of our church (lately retrieved and registered) to take cognisance of and punish all such offences and disorders." The dean, supported by Dr. Todd, ignored various acts of the vice-dean and chapter; he withheld his key of the chapter-seal, when it was required in such cases as the renewal of leases or the presentation to livings, unless he had previously given his formal consent, by himself or his proxy.

This chapter was thus divided into the dean and Dr. Todd, who denied the validity of the statutes given by Henry VIII to the dean and chapter, and the vice-dean and two canons, who upheld them. Matters soon came to a deadlock, and the vice-dean and his party appealed to the bishop to hold a visitation under the statutes. The bishop at first tried to arrange for some compromise. He was soon convinced of the uselessness of this, and determined to visit the cathedral. He issued his monition in August, 1707. Dean Atterbury at once questioned the right of the bishop to visit under the authority of "(pretended) local statutes." He and Dr. Todd refused to take any part in the proceedings. The visitation was, however, held in September, and the bishop's injunctions issued, ordering the statutes to be observed, and upholding the authority of the vice-dean and chapter. The proceedings were soon afterwards carried to the Queen's Bench [i.e. to the law courts], and the bishop excommunicated Dr. Todd, from which sentence the Court of Common Pleas relieved him by a prohibition direct to the bishop. This controversy had caused considerable excitement, the authority of the statutes of all the cathedrals of the new foundation being impugned. The matter passed out of the realms of law, and was quieted, so far as public interests were concerned, by the passing of the 6 Anne, 21, "An Act for the avoiding of Doubts and Questions touching the Statutes of divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches."²

Nicolson found time while archdeacon and bishop to do a good deal of archæological and scientific work, and from the original documents of his see he compiled some volumes of collections towards the history of the two counties, which form the basis on which Joseph Nicolson, his nephew, and Dr. Burn founded their "History of Westmorland and Cumberland." He also carried on a most voluminous correspondence with all the archæological scholars of his time.

To Nicolson the diocese owed one most precious legacy, the interference of ecclesiastical dignitaries in political contests, the source for about 130 or 140 years in Carlisle of quarrelling and ill-will, the memory of which has not yet died away. Thus, in the election for Carlisle, in 1710, the bishop's interference on behalf of the Whig candidate, Sir James Montague, was so marked as to bring upon his lordship the censure of the House of Commons, who summoned him to their bar. In an election petition that followed he was charged with threatening the cathedral choir with dismissal, if they did not vote for Montague.

In 1718, Bishop Nicolson was translated to Londonderry, and was much chagrined at finding he would have to reside in Ireland. On February 9, 1736-7, he was translated to the archbishopric of Cashel, but died suddenly on the 14th of that month.

Nicolson's successor at Carlisle, in 1718, was Samuel Bradford, a prebendary of Westminster, who found his way down to his see about a year after he had been appointed, and spent a fortnight in making a visitation of it. He was translated to Rochester in 1723, and was succeeded by John Waugh, a native of Appleby, who held the see until 1734. To him succeeded Sir George Fleming, who died in 1747, aged eighty. Osbaldiston succeeded him, and held the see until he was translated to London in 1762. Then came Charles Lyttleton, who held the see for six years. During these episcopates the chief moving spirit in the diocese was Chancellor John Waugh, son of the bishop of that name. He was a staunch Whig, and he laboured assiduously to promote the Whig interests in Carlisle and Cumberland. During the outbreak of 1745 he arranged and managed an intelligence department for the English Government, and he organised a corps of guides for the Duke of Cumberland. He was rewarded with the deanery of Worcester, but continued to reside at Carlisle. He drafted the searching set of visitation queries put to the clergy at Bishop Osbaldistone's primary visitation in 1747. The terriers delivered in at this visitation contain most valuable information as to the diocese. This we are able to supplement by Chancellor Waugh's annotated copy of Bishop Nicolson's Miscellany Notes. From these it is obvious that since Nicolson's days considerable improvement had taken place throughout the diocese in respect both of the fabrics add furniture of the churches; the livings had been augmented, misappropriated endowments restored, and the number of discreditable parsons largely reduced. This seems mainly due to the administrative talents of Chancellor Waugh, who must have commanded the confidence of his bishops; he was helped as to augmentation of the livings by Dr. Bolton, dean of Carlisle, and by pecuniary assistance from Lady Gower. Bishop Law next held the see of Carlisle, from 1768 to 1787, in conjunction with one of the golden stalls of Durham. It is recorded of him as a great merit that during his nineteen years' tenure of the see, he generally spent the summer months at Rose, a period of residence which would hardly satisfy the requirements of this century. He placed two of his sons in stalls in his cathedral, both of whom became bishops. Bishop Douglas, a distinguished scholar, next held the see for four years from 1787 to 1791. Then came Vernon, the first of a series of bishops of Carlisle, Vernon (Vernon Harcourt), Goodenough, Percy, Montagu Villiers, Waldegrave, and Goodwin, who lived at Rose Castle, made it their home, bound up with their dearest family interests, and did not reckon it a mere summer residence. Vernon had ten children born to him at Rose Castle, where he lived in a charming simplicity, which contrasted much with the subsequent splendour he kept at Bishopthorpe.

Bishops living in the diocese with and among their clergy have done much to elevate it from what it was when Nicolson made his famous notes, or even from the improved condition recorded of it in 1747 by Chancellor Waugh. Among the difficulties the bishops have had to contend with are, of course, the inadequacy of the stipends and the largeness of some of the parishes, many of which, in addition to the mother Church, contained several chapelries: the sole endowment of these chapelries was a few shillings, which the inhabitants had at some remote period agreed to charge upon their estates. In consequence of their poverty these chapelries were served by unordained persons, called "readers," but in the time of George II the bishops (Carlisle and Chester) came to a resolution that no one should officiate who was not in deacon's orders. The existing readers (one of whom is described as clogger, tailor, and butter-print maker) were ordained without examination. This [in] no way helped the incomes, and the reverend gentlemen eked out their stipends in various ways, assisted by contributions from their neighbours. In "The Old Church Clock," by the late Canon Parkinson, will be found an interesting account of the Rev. Robert Walker, curate of Seathwaite from 1736 to 1802, better known as "Wonderful Walker,' which shows the poverty of the north-country livings, and the thrift and the piety of some of their incumbents, among whom were many scholars of high attainments, buried alive in remote mountain valleys. It must not be supposed that they were all like "Wonderful Walker"; on the contrary, there were too many no better in any way than the rude peasants among whom they lived, and of whom local legends preserve many quaint but disreputable stories. These, however, are now things of the past. But in the eighteenth century there were other abuses in the diocese of Carlisle. Pluralities abounded. Bishop Nicolson, in 1701 found Mr. Culcheth endeavouring to hold the livings of Stapleton, Upper Denton, and Farlam in commendam with that of Brampton, which last the Bishop computes at about £60 per annum. Stapleton he computes at about £20. Farlam, as late as 1750, was only £5 15s.; and at that date Over Denton was only twenty shillings a year, so that this pluralist Culcheth enjoyed the magnificent income of something less than £90 a year, and yet he was comparatively a well-to-do man, for Chancellor Waugh, in 1747, seems to consider the perpetual curate of St. Mary's church, Carlisle, well provided for with an annual income of £50. But if Culcheth was well off, his four sets of parishioners were not. The bishop describes the church at Brampton as -

"in a slovenly pickle: dark, black, and ill seated. The Quire [Choir] is yet more nasty."

Of Stapleton he records, -

"The Quire here is most intolerably Scandalous: No Glass in the Windows: no Ascent to anything like an altar; no Flooring; no seats . . . . The parishioners follow the example of their Parson, and have the Body of the Church in as nasty a pickle as the Quire. The roof so miserably shattered that it cannot be safe sitting under it . . . . . onely some few scraps of a common-prayer-book, and an insufferably torn Bible of the old translation. There was no Surplice to be found: nor did ever any such thing (as far as any present could remember) belong to this church. One of 'em told us that sometimes on Easter-day, the Parson has brought a surplice with him: had Administer'd y^e Sacrament in it: But even that Ordinance (amongst the rest) was most commonly celebrated without one."

We may add that the dead at Stapleton were buried without any service, and that the road between Brampton and Stapleton was impassable in winter. Farlam was more decent than the bishop expected; there was a curate there, who seemed to pick up a poor and precarious salary by keeping a school in the Quire. Over or Upper Denton the bishop did not visit. This was the state of things in 1704.

Let us refer to Chancellor Waugh's notes and see if there was any improvement by the year 1747. Brampton certainly was better off; the income was improved, - £90 annually, - and the service held, except on the first Sunday in the month, in a decent chapel made in the hospital in the town. On the first Sunday it was held in the parish church, which is at some distance, A new vicar was just appointed, who complained that the late vicar had left the vicarage in a bad state, but the chancellor says his son was answerable for it and able to pay. Brampton was clearly improved. Stapleton, in 1747, had a vicar of its own, who was instituted in 1714, and the chancellor says:-

"Stapleton . . . I never saw the place, but from the lndecency of the man (the vicar) and accounts I have had of it, all in very poor order." But Farlam and Over Denton were, in 1747, held together with the neighbouring parish of Lanercost; not one of these parishes possessed a residence for the vicar; from Farlam and Denton he drew the magnificent incomes, already mentioned, of £5 15s. and of 20s.; while Lanercost was worth, on the average, about £20, painfully made up by the collection of the following dues over a parish which covered 40,000 acres of land:-

Lanercost, Farlam, and Denton had been, before the Reformation, appropriate to the priory of Lanercost, and served by inmates of that house. After the Reformation, when the property of the priory had been granted to lay hands by the Crown, the Crown grantees grasped all that they could, and left as little as possible for the parish. By means of Queen Anne's Bounty, and in other ways, those three livings were gradually augmented; but they were held together until within this century [that is, the 19th.], the united income being barely £100 per annum, while the highly respected incumbent could not possibly fulfil the duties of the three parishes under his charge, though he did what he could. At the present time Farlam has an income of £160 per annum and a vicarage house, while the church was rebuilt in 1859. Its population is 1585 persons. Lanercost is now worth £300 a year, which includes £80 from the trustees of the Earl of Carlisle, while its church (in the nave of Lanercost Abbey) and its vicarage are among the most charming in the diocese. Its population is 11,000. Over Denton, in 1808, was augmented to £46 5s. per annum. It was held with Lanercost until 1858, whose vicar occasionally went over on Sunday afternoons and held a service, if a congregation appeared. Over Denton is now merged in Gilsland, and has two churches and a vicarage-house with an income of £171 per annum, and a population of 330 persons.

From this account we may see that the bishops of Carlisle in the eighteenth century were frequently in a dilemma: if they allowed pluralities, the parishes were neglected; if they disallowed them, the parsons could not live. Thus, in 1737, Bishop Fleming severed the parishes of Dearham and Gilcrux, which had for long been held together on account of their poverty. In 1747 Chancellor Waugh complains "that neither of them were left a tolerable substance to the incumbent," Gilcrux being about £15 per annum, and Dearham probably the same. The vicarages were mere thatched cottages.

Chancellor Waugh's notion of a sufficient income for a vicar was not extravagant; he records, apparently with satisfaction, that St. Cuthbert's and St. Mary's churches in Carlisle were, in 1747, held by perpetual curates, who were also minor canons of the cathedral, and who each enjoyed an income, as curate and minor canon, of £50 per annum, without house or residence. One of these two curates, the Rev. George Braithwaite, the vicar of St. Mary's, was, in 1747, supposed to be 104 years of age, and was blind; he had held his two valuable pieces of preferment, curacy and minor canonry, for sixty-eight years, and had previously been singing boy and singing man in the cathedral, having commenced as singing boy at the Restoration; in 1747 he was still officiating at baptisms, marriages, and funerals, but his brother minor canons took the Sunday service for him.

To leave this digression, and to return to the clerical incomes of the eighteenth century, it is clear that in 1747 £50 was considered by Chancellor Waugh a sufficient income for an incumbent; between £50 and £100 a good income; and anything over that wealth. The chancellor's own living of Caldbeck he reckons at £150 a year clear, and he also held Stanwix, which was £90, in addition to his canonry and chancellorship. Greystoke was £300 a year, and was held by Archdeacon (afterwards bishop) Law, together with Great Salkeld, which was worth £70 per annum. The living of Arthuret Chancellor Waugh values at £170 per annum; Crosthwaite (Keswick) at £120; Penrith at about £85, or more, out of which a curate must be kept; Kirkbythore at £140, after paying £20 each to the chapelries of Sowerby and Milburn; and Appleby, £120.

We have already mentioned the chapelries as possessed of very small endowments. Here is a list of chapelries in the barony of Kendal, as cited by Canon Ware from Burn and Nicolson's "County History"

Old Hutton with Holmscales, £6 13s. 4d.; Grayrigg, £6 13s. 4d.; Selside, £3 19s.; Burneside, £6 13s. 4d.; Longsleddale, £5 2s. 10d.; Kentmere, £6; Stavely, £6 13s. 4d.; Ings, £2 16s. 8d.; Crook, £3 16s. 6d.; Winster, £3 19s.; Underbarrow, £6 4s. 2d.; Langdale, £6 4s. 3d.; Troutbeck, £4 12s. 3d.; Crosthwaite and Lyth, £5 8s. 10d.; Witherslack, £6 13s. 4d.; Preston Patrick, £3 6s. 8d.; Furthbank, £3; Ambleside, £14 originally, but reduced to £12 4s. 11d."³

The date of origin of these chapelries is difficult to ascertain; some were consecrated in the sixteenth century, but had apparently been licensed at a much earlier period for prayer and preaching. The reason of their origin is clear; the inhabitants of outlying and remote districts in enormous parishes like those of Greystoke, Crosthwaite, St. Bees, Kendal, Kirkby Stephen, Kirkby Lonsdale, &c., found it inconvenient or impossible to attend the Mother Church, and so petitioned the bishop, with consent of the incumbent of the Mother Church, for licence to have a chapel; the bishop, before granting his licence, would require an endowment, which at one time was to be not less than six marks, afterwards raised to twelve. This the petitioners bound themselves to provide, and by deed charged upon their lands, sometimes in proportion to the rent they paid the lord of the manor, sometimes at so much a seat in the chapel. But they still looked to the parish church as their Mother Church, and on the greater festivals trooped there in a body for the Sacrament, headed by their curate and their banner; thither, too, they resorted for burial. Gradually the bishops consecrated the chapelries, the sacraments were administered in them, and the dead buried beside them. The curates of the chapelries augmented their salaries by teaching school, generally in the chapels. To get a school and schoolmaster was as much the object of the subscribers to these chapel salaries as to get a chapel and curate. The subscribers frequently in turn provided the curate with a "whittle-gate,"⁴ - that is, his board, - or "the run of his teeth." Thus, prior to the Reformation, sufficient provision was made for the maintenance of a celibate curate, often sent from some monastic house, if there was one, as at St. Bees, interested in the Mother Church. But after the Reformation, with the introduction of a married clergy, and the fall in the purchasing power of money, the salaries became insufficient, and the unordained readers we have already spoken of were all that could be obtained.

The origin of these chapelries requires to be made known; their salaries are charges on the land, but the deeds creating the charges are at this date rarely forthcoming, and in some place, the landowners, who are liable to them, are beginning to repudiate the payment on the ground that they are voluntary payments, were abolished with church rates, or other frivolous and shabby pretence.

In connexion with these chapelries and the smaller livings in the diocese of Carlisle (as extended in 1856), it may not be inappropriate to mention the extraordinary length of time during which some incumbents held office. The Rev. George Braithwaite, and the Rev. Robert Walker (Wonderful Walker) have already been mentioned. The first was admitted minor canon of Carlisle cathedral on June 25, 1679, and appointed perpetual curate of St. Mary's church, Carlisle, about the same time. These valuable pieces of preferment he retained until his death in 1753, at the supposed age of 110 and in tenure of office of 74 years. His age may possibly be exaggerated, and he may not have been a centenarian, but there can be no doubt about the 74 years if Chancellor Waugh's extract from the chapter-books of the date of his admission is correct. Wonderful Walker died in 1802 in the 93rd year of his age and the 67th of his curacy at Seathwaite, which, when Walker first accepted it, was worth £5 per annum. In the middle of the century Walker valued it at £17 10s. per annum. His successor, the Rev. Edward Tyson, held the curacy from 1802 to 1854, having previously been Walker's curate for seven years. Two incumbents thus held Seathwaite for 118 years. The chapelry of Threlkeld, near Keswick, had only thee incumbents in 153 years, - namely, Alexander Naughley, 1705 to 1756; Thomas Edmondson, 1756 to 1798; and Thomas Collinson, 1798 to 1858. A melancholy and curious account of the first of these incumbents, - a man of extraordinary attainments in literature, - who eked out a scanty stipend by teaching the classics and mathematics, is given in Hutchinson's "History of Cumberland," vol. i, p. 422. He clearly went mad [for more on Naughley, see Threlkeld in the Greystoke parish description]. His successor, Edmondson, was an exemplary and worthy man. Threlkeld is not unique. In another fellside parish three incumbencies covered a similar period, and each incumbent reigned for about half a century. One committed suicide, and one, if not both the others were deprived for drinking. The terrible isolation from all educated society told at last. These cases are sad contrasts to the bright picture of cheerful and Christian piety presented of Wonderful Walker in "The Old Church Clock." Parallels to him in piety and poverty can be instanced:- the Rev. Josiah Relph, the poet priest of Sebergham, where he supplemented a stipend of £25 per annum by teaching school, occupies a high place in the list of Cumberland worthies of the last century.⁵ Another Cumberland poet and scholar succeeded Relph at Sebergham, though not immediately, the Rev.Thomas Denton.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century many of the poorer livings (if the name is appropriate) were held by Scotch Episcopalians, who had been driven out of preferments in their own country. Threlkeld was held from 1698 to 1705 by Andrew Naughley, father of the unhappy Alexander; Andrew was an Episcopalian clergyman of reputation at Stow, in the Lothians, but refusing from conscientious motives to sign the covenant, and siding with the Marquis of Montrose, he was deposed and banished. He and his wife trudged on foot, with a pony carrying their children in panniers, to Threlkeld, and he accepted the vacant cure there. He was a scholar, and educated his son Alexander, and out of his stipend of £12 per annum managed to send him to the University of Edinburgh. Another ejected Episcopalian, Kinneir, once rector of Annan, in Scotland, was curate of Sebergham from 1699 to 1735. He was a man of worth and piety, and was followed to Sebergham by some of his flock, who settled in the parish. At Bewcastle, the curate, Mr. Allen, is mentioned by Bishop Nicolson as "a poor, ejected Episcopalian of the Scottish nation." There were one or two more with poor preferment in the diocese, all men of good character; and others found employment as schoolmasters, a position from which many in the diocese of Carlisle rose to high preferment in the Church. Thus at Sebergham, Relph was followed as schoolmaster by Blain, Halifax, and Jackson, all three classical scholars of high attainments. The first kept school at Sebergham, in a mud hut, and was afterwards master of Wigton Grammar School, and domestic and examining chaplain to Bishop Law; the second succeeded Blain at Sebergham, and at Wigton Grammar School, and became incumbent of Westward; the third, mathematician as well as classic, became vicar of Morland, and was the intimate friend of Archdeacon Paley.

Chancellor Waugh, at various times from 1730 to 1747, collected statistics as to the number of families of Dissenters in the diocese. As these are utilised in the foot-notes to each parish in Hutchinson's "Cumberland," a few parishes need only be given here.

1. See ante, p. 154, for a note as to the diaries kept by this bishop. [which is in the previous chapter]
2. The above is abbreviated from "The Statutes of the Cathedral Church of Carlisle," translated with an introduction by J. E. Prescott, D.D., 1879. Carlisle: C. Thurnam & Sons.
3. 1 See papers on Killington, Kirkby Lonsdale, by Canons Ware and Simpson. "Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society," vol. viii., pp. 93 and 109.
4. The rector of St. Ninian's church at Brougham, in Westmorland, still has right of "whittle-gate" on Sundays at Hornby Hall, if he pleases to claim it.
5. Whelan, in his "History of Cumberland, states that Relph died "from actual want of the necessaries of life"; that is not so, for his will, proved at Carlisle in 1743, shows he died worth £227.

Diocesan Histories : Carlisle,
by Richard S. Ferguson, Chancellor of Carlisle
Published by SPCK, London, 1889

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