St Mary's vicars - Late Georgian/Regency Era

St Mary's is served by an array of 'sub-curates', faithfully serving in a church bulging at the seams - a new militia in town, a new gallery in church - but the building's disarray and insalubrious interior make worship rather unappealing, even to the Bishop of Durham!

Late Georgian/Regency Era

1785–1815 – James Stubbs Hale. Born locally at Ravensworth in 1754 and educated at Trinity College Cambridge, Stubbs Hale was initially curate at Whorlton (now part of Barnard Castle parish). During his curacy of St Mary’s, the living was effectively held by a number of sub-curates. He died in 1815, Kirkby Hill, Ravensworth, aged 61.

  • 1787-94 – sub-curate John Harriman (1760-1831). Harriman, an expert botanist, lichenologist and member of the Linnean Society, is credited with the discovery of various plants in Teesdale c. 1793, including blue gentians. Later curate at Egglestone, Gainford, Heighington, Long Horsley and Satley.
  • 1795-1801 – sub-curate Robert Barnes; his memorial (with profile) in the church porch reads

To the Memory of the Revd. ROBERT BARNES;’ who died the 29th of May 1801/Aged 42 years/The Youth who under his paternal care; had been Instructed/in the Rudiments of Learning/and the Principles of Religion/truly sensible of his Merit/ and deeply impressed with Sorrow for his Loss/ caused this Monument to be erected as a Testimony of their Esteem and Gratitude.// Posses’d a Mind with Learning, Virtue fraught,/Was in Example, what his Precepts taught.

Barnes was initially sub-curate at Bowes nearby, marrying the daughter of its vicar; later marrying Mary Hodgson of Cumberland. His sudden death aged 42 left a widow and eight children, five under the age of 12. The Society of Poor Orphans of Clergymen till of Age to be Put to Apprentice 1806 reports of the School for Boys in Acton in Middlesex – “John Barnes, one of the Eight Children of the Rev. Robert Barnes, late of Barnard Castle, Durham, 1802. Aged seven Years and ten months.” and the Society for Maintaining and Educating Poor Orphans of the Clergy mentions – “Jane Barnes, another of the Eight Children of the Rev Robert Barnes, late of Barnard Caslte, Durham, aged ten Years and nine Months.”

However, during his tenure, the church is described as ‘slovenly and offensive’ even while a new north gallery is installed to seat more parishioners; the dirt floor covers burials still taking place inside St Mary’s and the building is damp, with no heat or light. The roof-lead is failing and the pews are rotting…in 1794 the Bishop of Durham “hopes that measures will soon be taken to render the chapel of Barnard Castle a more becoming place of worshipping Almighty God.”

 

  • 1801-12 – George Wharton – sub-curate
  • 1812-16 – Martin Wright – sub-curate. After some hasty new pews and wall repairs in 1797, Revd. Wright oversaw more work on the still-failing building: a west entrance was restored, and the “wretchedly stalled and the pavement broken,” interior was made good with a new floor and pews.On the appointment of John Davidson, following the death of James Stubbs Hale, Wright was given leave to reside at Romaldkirk and was licensed as schoolmaster there; later curate of Elwick Hall and Redmarshall, near Stockton.

1816-47 – John Davidson. Born 1781 and initially curate at Heighington. On his arrival, local brewer John Adamson negotiated with Davidson and his wife Elizabeth, and The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of Poor Clergy, to sell to Davidson and his successors in the curacy “a dwellinghouse and one acre of land of a messuage on the north side of Newgate Street” [now 64 & 66 Spring Grove, Newgate].

In 1828 the Bishop of Durham offered Davidson the living of Chillingham in Northumberland (with a replacement ready for Barnard Castle) but Davidson declined the offer. Davidson’s son – also Rev John Davidson – died at home in Barnard Castle in 1837, aged 26.

 *** Upon Davidson’s death there was some difficulty in filling the curacy at St Mary’s. A former missionary to Sri Lanka, Rev James Selkirk, was approached, and possible curates from Ingleton or Whitburn; the vicar of South Benfleet declined the post.