It requires little knowledge to conclude that the name and address on this letter of 31 January 1827 makes it worth looking at more closely. Dr Keate lives on in the book of records as the headmaster who on just one day succeeded in flogging eighty Etonians. Who would be writing to such a man and what might they write about?
The
contents are cross-written and when transcribed come to a Microsoft total of
1082 words. They begin “Dear Sir” and close “Your faithful humble servant
W.G.Broughton”. He was Dr Keate’s curate in the Hampshire parish of Hartley
Wespall where the letter was written. Dr
Keate was a pluralist, awarded this particular living in 1818 by the Dean and
Chapter of Windsor and held until his death; he retired there after resigning
his post at Eton and is buried inside its parish church, a prominent tomb much
polished. His son succeeded as Rector.
The
curate begins by reporting on the discharge of charitable duties; both vicar
and curate were High Church Tories who accepted that they should provide at
least something to the deserving poor. Married with two children living,
Broughton also had duties to his family; he was conscious that lack of funds
had obliged him to forego an Exhibitioner’s place at Cambridge in favour of a
job in London with the East India Company. Only an unexpected legacy from an
uncle enabled him much later to enter Pembroke College to study mathematics,
graduating in 1818 at the age of thirty. In the same year he took Holy Orders
and married a childhood sweetheart. He has been at Hartley Wespall since then.
But
now he is leaving and the rest of the letter runs through the arrangements he
is making or suggesting to Dr Keate. As for his replacement, he offers several
names but concludes by recommending Mr Procter despite the fact that the Bishop
of Winchester is against him, suspecting Evangelical tendencies, a canard which
Mr Procter repudiates. In contrast, Mr Broughton has impressed the Bishop of
Winchester who has offered him the curacy of the parish of Farnham, equipped
with a fine residence and grounds being prepared for the bishop’s own eventual
retirement. Broughton has accepted and is about to leave Hartley Wespall..
Farnham
is just sixteen miles from Stratfield Saye and Broughton was soon introduced to
the Duchess and then to the Duke of Wellington installed there by a grateful
nation. Wellington was impressed by this new but no longer young curate and as
Constable of the Tower of London added the chaplaincy there to Broughton’s
portfolio. In 1828 Wellington – now Prime Minister – told the Colonial Office
that the Reverend Broughton was just the man needed to replace the outgoing
Archdeacon of Sydney. Broughton, who had never travelled farther abroad than
the East India Company’s London offices, accepted. The salary of £2000 per year
(equivalent to over £200 000 today) promised financial security for his family
and offered compensation for what would be a long and still hazardous journey.
He became the first (and only) Bishop of Australia and a significant and
controversial figure in the history of the colony, the subject of a full-length
biography by G P Shaw (1978); more recent discussions focus on his involvement
in policy towards Aboriginal populations.
He
died on a visit to England in 1853 and is commemorated in Canterbury Cathedral
with a chest tomb on which he lies as if a medieval knight at rest from his
labours; an exact copy can be found in Sydney’s Anglican cathedral.
Transcription
Addressed
to: The Revd. Dr. Keate Eton College
Datelined:
Hartley Wespall January 31st 1827
Dear
Sir
The
severity of the weather and the state of the roads in Kent prevented my
returning hither till Saturday last and on Monday I was again on the wing to
Farnham and back again yesterday. It has therefore been out of my power to
reply sooner to your letters of Jan’y 6th and 27th. First
of the first previous to leaving home I made an adjudication of the 30 blankets
and though they did not arrive until after my departure Mrs Neville distributed
them according to my directions. This was before the cold weather set in and
from such of the poor as I have yet had communication with I have received very
grateful acknowledgements to you for your charitable consideration of their
wants. From what occurred yesterday at Farnham I have reason to think that I
shall be required to be there for the first time on Sunday February 18th.
Mr Procter who is to make way at Bentley for Mr Austen will take my duty here
on that day and the 25th. I am quite in the dark as to Mr Hadow’s [
sp?] present intentions. In answer to the letter which arrived when you were
here I sent him an exact account of the emoluments of the curacy, house &
premises, duty &c (with which however I should have thought him already
acquainted from having lived here with me) and in an answer to a subsequent
letter I replied to his enquiries as to the probability of obtaining a supply
of pupils in the neighbourhoods. Since this I have not heard from him; but you
are probably by this time acquainted with his final decision. I have not the
slightest knowledge of Mr Kerr or of his family As however I found from the
Bishop’s communication yesterday that they are known and noticed by him I
conclude they are acceptable. This however is now unimportant, as Mr Kerr
writes to me that he wishes to withdraw his application thinking the house
& premises too extensive for a single man. Mr Dobson some time ago told me
that upon the same grounds that he should decline it even if you made him the
offer. Mr Bricknell has taken the curacy at Hartley Wintney, nor do I think
that there is any clergyman in the neighbourhood who could undertake regularly
for the period you mention. Mr Procter, whom the late arrangements at Farnham
have cast out of house and home, requests me to make you the offer of his
service, for as many weeks as you desire; that is until you have got … a
permanent curate or until it may be convenient to the gentleman appointed by
you to enter upon the duties of the parish. His charge is 2 guineas a Sunday
and he will relinquish the employment at any time at a week’s notice from you.
I must not omit to say that the Bishop declined
to license Mr P to the Curacy at Farnham. He assigned no reason of course;
but the impression upon Mr Procter’s mind is that his Ldship had
been persuaded that he was of the Evangelical school. This however he
strenuously denies and assured me that he had a decided dislike to their tenets
The circumstance which has given rise to the imputation he thinks can be only
that he has in preaching a naturally energetic manner (which indeed shows
itself in his conversation & ordinary deportment) and that this has
attracted to church some persons who before he came went always to chapel. As the best mode of disproving the charge
brought against him, and of undeceiving the Bishop, he is about to publish by
subscription a Volume of Sermons, which will explain his real sentiments. As
far as a single interview to be depended on Mr Procter certainly gave me the
impression that he was a man of talent & honesty. He is one of the Bye-Fellows
of Peter House; and a gentleman residing in his parish spoke of him to me as
exemplary in his moral character, in the discharge of all his duties and
especially in his attention to the poor. I have thought it right to inform you
of all I knew about him good or bad in order that you might better be able to
decide whether you would avail yourself of his services or not. I shall see him
again next Monday and hope in the meantime to receive your answer. It was my
intention to have left Canterbury last Monday week and taken Eton on my way
down to Hartley but the great fall of snow which we had in Kent, by obliging me
to postpone my departure til the end of the week, frustrated this plan and as I
expect tomorrow to have my two pupils with me I really am afraid it will hardly
be in my power to have the pleasure of coming over at this time. If you would
be so good as to make a memorandum of any further questions you wish to ask
concerning the parish I will send you the best answers in my power. Next Sunday I am to preach a Sermon for the
Relief of the Manufacturers and the next day we shall collect what we can in
the parish. If you have not already contributed to the full extent of your intention
I should be happy to put down your name for a small sum at the head of the
list. I have not yet received any communication from the lady you mention
respecting her son. I beg you to be assured that I have never for one moment
doubted of your inclination to serve and assist me in the matter of pupils, or
in any other manner as far as circumstances would admit and my thanks I am sure
are due to you for these our good wishes. There are a few fixtures here
belonging to me: which the best way will be to have appraised and send to you a
list of them and a valuation. They are such as my successor would most probably
wish to take. I left Mrs Broughton and children quite well: I shall be very
happy to hear as good an account of Mrs Keate and yours. With best remembrances
to all I am Dear Sir Your faithful humble servant
W:
G: Broughton
References
Shaw,
G P Patriarch and Patriot. William
Grant Broughton 1788 -1853 (1978)
Wikipedia:
William Grant Broughton (22 May 1788 – 20 February 1853) was a
British Anglican bishop. He was the
first (and only) Bishop of Australia of the Church of England.
The then Diocese of Australia has become the Anglican Church of Australia and is divided into twenty three
dioceses.
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