VICARS OF LOWESTOFT.
IN consequence of there not having been any regular registers of the
institutions to church benefices before the year 1299, it is impossible
to obtain any information respecting those appointments prior to that
period; but after the keeping of those registers, much light has been
thrown on the ecclesiastical history of this country: and it is from the
assistance derived from these registers that the regular succession of
vicars of this parish can be given from the year 1308.
Thomas Scrope, surnamed Bradley, from the town where he was born,
descended from a noble family, and very much adorned the honour of his
birth by his learning and virtues. He was first a monk of the order of
St. Benedict; after that, aspiring to a greater perfection of life, he
took upon him the profession and rule of a Dominican; and afterwards he
submitted himself to the discipline of the Carmelites. He became Bishop
of Dromore, in Ireland, but in the year of his age one hundred, he died
in this town of Lestoffe, the 15th January, 1491, the 7th of Henry VII,
and was buried in the chancel of Lowestoft Church. On the stone over his
burial place was a stone upon which was the effigy of a Bishop in his
episcopal habit: his crozier in one hand and his pastoral staff in the
other, with several escutcheons of the arms of his family etc., and
ornamented with a border, all in brass; but, scarce any remains of them
are now to be seen, and the matrices wherein they were placed are almost
empty.
In 1540 John Blomewyle, was on the presentation of Thomas Godsalve, Esq.,
instituted vicar. He resigned in 1555, in the beginning of the reign of
Queen Mary. Probably he could not conform to the alterations in
religious matters made by the Queen at that time; or possibly he might be
a married man, and therefore under the necessity of resigning, to prevent
being ejected, as was the misfortune of a great number of the clergy in
that unhappy reign.
The Rev. Jacob Rous appears to have been minister of this parish during
the whole usurpation of Oliver Cromwell. He was vicar, on June 12, 1644,
when Francis Jessope was sent with a commission from the Earl of
Manchester to disrobe the grave stones of the brasses that had the
inscription “Orate pro anima, etc.”
The Rev. Whiston, on the 19th August, 1702, resigned Lowestoft, to
succeed Sir Isaac Newton in the mathematical professorship, at Cambridge.
He was a divine of great abilities and uncommon learning. In 1694 he was
appointed chaplain to Dr. Moor, Bishop of Norwich, which he held till
1698, when the Bishop presented him with the living of Lowestoft with
Kessingland. A parish (Mr. Whiston said) of 2,000 souls, but not worth
more than £120 a year clear. The care of souls was rightly esteemed by
him as a concern of the highest importance; he, therefore, set himself
sincerely and in good earnest to that great work, discharging the several
duties of a parish priest with distinguished piety and unwearied
diligence. Notwithstanding that his income was so small, he kept a
curate, allowing him £30 a year, and the curate made £30 a year more by
teaching a small school. Mr. Whiston set up public prayers morning and
evening, everyday, at the chapel within the town. He constantly preached
twice on Sundays; and at the summer season, at least, had a catechetic
lecture at the chapel in the evening, designed more for the benefit of
the adult than for the children. To these lectures came many dissenters.
This may easily be accounted for when it is considered that the noted Mr.
Emlyn had officiated as minister to the Dissenters of the town eighteen
months, about ten years before. Mr. Emlyn had adopted the Arian
principles, and probably had introduced the same sentiments among many of
his hearers, who consequently, were pre-disposed to attend lectures that
were given by a minister of the establishment who entertained opinions
similar to those of Mr. Emlyn, as was the case with Mr. Whiston. There
appears to have been the most intimate friendship between these two
divines: for when Mr. Whiston, in 1715, held a weekly meeting for
promoting primitive Christianity, the third chairman of those meetings
was Mr. Emlyn. Mr. Whiston resigned the livings in 1702, and being, by
the interest of his friend, Sir Isaac Newton, appointed to succeed him in
the mathematical chair at Cambridge, he went and resided in that
university; but continuing to retain and propogate Arian principles, he
was for his heterodox opinions expelled the university on the 30th
October, 1710. In 1747 he left the communion of the Church of England,
and joined the Baptists. After engaging in various schemes, and
experiencing many vicissitudes of fortune, he died on the 22nd August,
1752, in London, after only a week’s illness. His body was interred at
Lyndon, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. The inscription placed over him
says he died in the 85th year of his age. Endued with an excellent
genius, and indefatigable in labour and study, he became learned in
divinity, antient history, chronology, philosophy and mathematics.
Jacob Smith, vicar in 1702, was a native of Scotland, and for
conscientiously refusing to take the oaths of King William, he was (with
a large family) reduced to all the hardships and miseries of an obscure
and necessitous life; but on the resignation of Mr. Whiston, Bishop Moor
presented him to Lowestoft. He was buried in the churchyard, close by
the north side of the chancel, where a tomb was erected to his memory.
And tradition reports that he was the first person ever buried on that
side of the church. There was formerly a great partiality respecting
burying on the south and east sides of the churchyard at Lowestoft. Many
years after the interment of Jacob Smith there was not more than two or
three graves on the north side of the church, though subsequently it
became as general to inter on one side as on the other. This partiality
may, perhaps, at first, have partly arisen from the antient custom of
praying for the dead; for as the usual approach to this and many other
churches is by the south, it was natural for burials to be on that side,
that those who were going to divine service, might, in their way, by the
sight of the graves of their friends, be put in mind to offer up a prayer
for the welfare of their souls; and even now, since the custom of praying
for the dead is abolished, the same obvious situation of graves may
excite some tender recollection in those who view them, and silently
implore the passing tribute of a sigh.
The Rev. John Tanner, who was Vicar of Lowestoft many years, died in
1759; he was precentor of the Cathedral of Asaph, Rector of Kessingland,
and also commissary and official to the arch-deaconry of Suffolk, (in
1725), which offices he resigned as soon as the infirmities of age
rendered him incapable of performing them with that care and exactness he
had always shewn in their discharge. Among his many antient acts of
charity may be mentioned (exclusive of the active part which he took in
the re-building of Kirkley church) his purchasing the impropriation of
Lowestoft, for the benefit of his successors; his expending a large sum
of money in repairing and beautifying the chancel; and also setting the
first example in new-pewing the church. He was the third son of the Rev.
Thomas Tanner, vicar of Market Leavington, Wiltshire; was educated at
Queen’s College, Oxford; and obtained his preferment through the interest
of his brother, Thomas Tanner, who was many years Chancellor of the
Diocese of Norwich.
Rev. J. Arrow who was instituted to the vicarage of Lowestoft in 1760,
was born in London in 1733; was educated at Westminister school, and
admitted of Trinity College, Cambridge; was formerly a chaplain to the
Royal Navy, which he exchanged for Lowestoft, with Dr. Greet, chaplain to
Dr. Hayter, Bishop of Norwich, who had presented him to the same, but was
not instituted. The Rev. Arrow died the 22nd of June 1789, aged 55
years, and was buried in the chancel of Lowestoft church. He was a
person of a very regular life and conversation; zealous in promoting the
interest and welfare of the church; and so very conscientious in
discharging the duties of his function, that although very ill, yet he
preached twice in the last twenty-four hours before he expired.
The Rev. Robert Potter, prebendary of Norwich, was well known in the
literary world as the learned and ingenious translator of the Aschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides.