William de Rodes

Keeping it in the family

William de Rodes was probably the brother of Sir Gerard de Rodes (1216 - 1272), who was lord of the manor of Langar.

In noble families, the eldest son inherited the title, the manors and the money, while a younger son might become a priest. This was very profitable in a wealthy parish. Priests farmed land belonging to the church (glebe land) and they were also entitled to the tithes, one tenth of all the produce of the people of a manor - cereal and vegetable crops, meat from animals. milk, eggs, wool  . . . 

In August 1335 the Prior of Lenton Abbey started a court case against a group of men who had attacked three of the priory's corn wagons.

The carts had been stopped by gangs at Langar, Barnstone and at Wiverton. Their horses had been killed and the prior's servants had been assaulted.

One of the people accused was Baldwin de Cokefield, the Rector of Langar church.

The court was asked to investigate:

A complaint by the Prior of Lenton that

Baldwin de Cokefeld, parson of the church of Langar, William le Palmere, chaplain, James Baudewyne squier de Cokefeld, Thomas de Cokefeld, Michael Baudewyne squier de Cokefeld, Hugh de Wyverton, William Perre, John de Boulond, Adam Williams servant de Pykenhale, Ralph de Langar, clerk, Germanus Hauberc of Herdeby, William Raffold of Wyverton, William de Bekyngham, John son of Alice de Colston, Thomas Brochmere of Langar, Richard le Souter of Langar, and others

stopped three carts loaded with the Prior's corn at Langar, Wyverton, and Bernestone and threw the corn into the dirt, not allowing the Prior to carry it or make his profit of it. They broke the carts into pieces, beat the nine horses that were with them so that they died of the blows, carried away the Prior's goods, and assaulted his men and servants. 

This is a strange case. The Prior of Lenton was actually in charge of the church at Langar, so the Rector seems to have been acting against his own boss! And not just the Rector: William le Palmere was a chaplain at Langar (deputy rector), and Ralph de Langar, was a clerk, also a member of the church staff.

So, what was going on? The truth is: nobody knows, because we do not have the records that tell what happened later in court. 

Certainly, priests were sometimes guilty of committing crimes.

But priests also supported the people of their village against an unfair master. If we look at the list of local people involved in this incident, they came from local villages: Langar and Barnstone, Wiverton, Colston and Harby. Was the Rector, Baldwin de Cokefield, doing a Robin Hood with his Merry Men of Langar - stealing from the rich to help the poor?

Nobody knows!

Click here to meet the Tudor Rectors:

Reginald Hyndmare and Robert Clarke.

The First Church of England priest in the West Indies 

John Featley, also known as John Fairclough, 1605–1666 moved in high circles. His uncle, Daniel Featley was a chaplain (personal priest) to King Charles I. When John qualified as a priest in 1624, he sailed to the small island of Saint Kitts in the West Indies to become the first preacher in the new British colony.

Ten years later his uncle took him on as his curate at Lambeth church, next-door to the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1639 he was made chaplain to Charles I. When it looked as though King Charles would lose the Civil War, his uncle persuaded John to go back to Saint Kitts with his wife, children and servants, which he did in 1643.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, King Charles II made John Featley his chaplain extraordinary. In 1661 he was made rector of Langar but later moved to Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire.

Henry Mugg

In 1681 Scrope Howe, 1st Viscount Howe, lord of the manor of Langar and Barnstone planned enclose the open fields. (See The Middle Ages for an explanation of open fields.) Up until this time, the rector of Langar church was entitled to the tithes (one tenth of whatever people produced on their farms.) 

No cuts to my wages!

Henry Mugg was worried that he was going to lose money and so he objected to the plans. As a result, the church was given over 300 acres of farmland  - the rector could farm the fields himself or rent the land out and the money he received was his wages. 

Star gazer

Edward Gregory was a keen astronomer who built an observatory in the garden of Langar Rectory. One night in January 1793, he was observing the planet Venus when he noticed a small object moving through the sky in an unpredicted way. He measured its path for several nights and realised that it was a comet that had never been seen before. The comet was seen two days later by a French astronomer and was later named Comet 1793 Gregory-Méchain. The comet is now known to have an orbit round the sun of 750 years. 

Watch out! Comet 1793 Gregory-Méchain will be back in the year 2543. 

A story with a sad ending . . .

Joseph Unwin was involved in a complicated law case regarding being rector of Langar-cum-Barnestone. 

The case involved a priest called William Bowerbank, whose son was also training for the priesthood. William bought the right from the lord of the manor to choose who should be the next rector of Langar-cum-Barnstone - he wanted his son to be the rector. Strange! - but that was how the system worked in those days.

However, when the old rector, Rev Edward Gregory died in 1824, Bowerbank's son was still at university. Bowerbank asked his friend, Joseph Unwin, to be the rector until his son passed his exams and qualified as a priest. Joseph Unwin became rector in 1824. But when Bowerbank's son graduated in 1828, Unwin refused to give up the job as rector.

Scandal!

Bowerbank took Unwin to court - and lost. And worse, during the trial, it was discovered that Joseph Unwin had been forced to take only a quarter of his wages, the rest going back to the lord of the manor. Unwin won the case, but he was a broken man. He resigned as rector in 1834. Joseph Unwin lived for a few years in poverty until, on Saturday 13 May 1837, he walked to Nottingham, sold his spoons, which was all he had left, for £5. The next morning he was found dead, drowned in the Nottingham canal. 

Thomas Butler was the Rector of Langar cum Barnestone from 1834 to 1876. He had been at university with Charles Darwin; he wrote that Darwin had given him an interest in plants which stayed with him all his life.

Thomas restored St Andrew's church to how he thought it looked in the Middle Ages.

(For more, see Langar Church in the Middle Ages.)

No fun at the Rectory!

Victorian photographs always show people looking serious. The reason for this is that it took 15 minutes to take a photograph. However, this picture probably shows what it was like at Langar Rectory - not a house of love and fun! Thomas's younger son, Samuel wrote later that his father was certainly his 'most implacable enemy' and he didn't get on well with his older brother either. When Samuel emigrated to New Zealand, the most distant place on earth, a voyage of 100 days with rough seas, cramped conditions and no certainty of a safe journey, not one of the family came to wave him off.

(For more, click The Butler family.)

First ever:

Edana Bronwen Gamble, Rector from 2006, was the first woman priest to serve

at St Andrew's

EVER!

In 2017 the Parish of Langar cum Barnstone was made part of a wider group of parishes, called the Parish of Wiverton in the Vale which includes the churches of

St John the Divine, Colston Bassett • St Giles, Cropwell Bishop • St Michael and All Angels, Elton • All Saints, Granby cum Sutton • St Andrew, Langar cum Barnstone • Holy Trinity, Tythby cum Cropwell Butler.

Rev Rachel Mitchell was appointed Rector of the Parish of Wiverton in the Vale in August 2019.