A History of Clewer
The Clewer Group
Canon Thomas Thellusson Carter
Ó Denis Shaw 2001
Index
The year 2001 will be the centenary of the death of Thomas Thellusson Carter, Rector of Clewer from 1844 to 1880. In his day Carter was a man of national importance in the Church. He it was who founded the Convent of St. John the Baptist in Hatch Lane but he also founded a great many charitable institutions.
I think he is probably the only parochial clergyman to merit an entry in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (O.U.P. 1957) It reads as follows:
"CARTER, THOMAS THELLUSSON (1808 - 1901) sub-Tractarian divine
Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he left Oxford before the Oxford Movement began, but when, after a series of parochial appointments he became Rector of Clewer, near Windsor, in 1844, he had come deeply under Tractarian influence. In 1849 he founded at Clewer a House of Mercy for the rescue of fallen women, and in 1852 a Sisterhood to take charge of it. Throughout the rest of his life he continued to take a prominent part in the High Church Movement. He was the author of a long series of spiritual and controversial writings, including the widely used "Treasury of Devotion" (1869)."
"Tractarianism" was the movement started by the issue of tracts from Oxford by J. H. Newman and others, asserting the Catholicity of the C. of E.
Accounts of Carter’s early years in the ministry make strange reading. He was ordained Deacon in 1832 and served for an unhappy year at St. Mary’s, Reading, where church life was at a low ebb. In 1833 he went to be curate for his father who (in addition to his Eton duties) was vicar of Burnham.
In 1838 Carter was presented by his father to the parish of Piddlehinton in Dorset. It is said that the Dorset climate was a trial to his health, which I (as a Dorset resident) find puzzling. Giving that as his reason he spent two winters at Weymouth. In 1842, while retaining the Piddlehinton post, he went to be his father’s curate at Burnham where he remained for two years. This adds up to an extraordinary pattern for a newly ordained (and presumably dedicated) young man.
We have to consider what was happening in the Church of England at the time. The "Tracts for the Times" were being issued from Oxford and had great influence. John Henry Newman, whom Carter respected greatly, wrote many of them. In 1839 Newman began to have doubts about the claims of the Church of England, gradually withdrawing from its work until, in 1845, he became a Roman Catholic. Henry Manning, another of Carter’s mentors, was increasingly attracted to the Church of Rome and he was to "go over" in 1851. Other, less well-known, Oxford men also made the change.
This climate of change among men whom he admired must have been disturbing for Carter. Because he had married in 1835, it would have been difficult for him to follow the others into the Roman Catholic Church. In 1844 he became Rector of Clewer where, despite opposition, he proceeded to put his "high church" beliefs and practices into effect.
In 1838 Carter was presented by his father to the Rectory of Piddlehinton, a living in the gift of Eton College about six miles from Dorchester. When neighbouring clergy heard that he neither shot nor fished they said "What will he find to do?"
It has to be said that his ministry at Piddlehinton was a failure. I have visited the village several times and although the Church has an east window in memory of Carter his name still evokes disapproval. Indeed, the Churchwarden said to me that the memorial window must have been installed by his relatives, as nobody local would have paid for it.
He was Rector from 1838 to 1844 and during this brief period he was absent on many occasions. Claiming that the climate disagreed with him, he spent two winters at Weymouth. In 1842 he obtained leave of absence and returned to Burnham as his father’s curate.
He gave offence at Piddlehinton in many ways: he removed the Church gallery, for instance, and he disbanded the choir to start a new one. But his greatest offence was to tamper with an old charity. It was customary for the Rector to give, at Christmas, a mince pie, a quart of ale and a loaf to every parishioner. He considered this a waste of money and proposed instead to spend money on the needy only. There was great opposition and villagers smashed the chancel windows in the church, knowing that Carter would have to pay for their repair. In the words of a recent local historian, his critics "generally made life so unpleasant for him that he had to leave."
In 1844 he became Rector of Clewer, a post he held until his resignation in 1880. There is a mystery in the Piddlehinton account of his departure. It is stated that he "exchanged parishes with the Rev. George Coke of Clewer." Coke stayed there until 1863 – but where did he come from? The Clewer records know nothing of George Coke.
P.S. The Churchwarden at Piddlehinton told me – with some glee – that the custom Carter had sought to abolish is still observed!
Several writers, including Carter's biographer, have made much of the poor state in which he found Clewer Church and parish on his arrival in 1844. For some time the parish had been under sequestration owing, it was said, to "the intemperate habits" of the former Rector, William Henry Roberts.
The later years of Roberts' incumbency may have been clouded, but it seems as though those who sought to boost Carter's reputation chose to ignore much of what had gone before.
The parish registers make it clear that Roberts was the first rector for perhaps a hundred years to devote himself to the parish and not to live at Eton leaving Clewer to a curate. Roberts conducted most of the services himself. Sometimes his father came to help and he always signed himself "Vice Provost of Eton." This does not suggest a state of neglect.
Roberts, during his 13 years, did what no predecessor had done: he ministered the sacraments and took the statutory services for hundreds of parishioners. The Church in his time was sufficiently well thought of for wealthy parishioners to set their mark on it. In 1828 Col. Dare of Clewer Green had his distinguished friend, Daniel Paterson, buried in the north aisle, with an impressive stone to mark the spot. When Lord Harcourt died in 1830 an important marble by Sievier was placed in the north-east corner. His wife, Mary, is also commemorated. In 1837 the same family installed a memorial to Ann Woods who had served the Marquise d'Harcourt for many years. In 1834 Clewer Church had its own book of hymns and psalms printed. One of Roberts' churchwardens was George Kellner, an important member of a family of Court musicians.
None of this suggests a church in a state of neglect. I believe that possibly Roberts' last few years were sad, but that historians have chosen to ignore what had gone before in order (perhaps not consciously) to enhance Carter's role.
In Thomas Carter’s earliest years at Clewer, a lady living in Clewer village, influenced by the Rev. Wellington Johnson, a tutor at Eton, had started taking into her home some of the "fallen women" from "the ungodly garrison town" of Windsor.
The lady was Mariquita Tennant, the Spanish widow of an English clergyman. Quite soon she had more women than she could cope with. Carter’s answer was to found "the House of Mercy" to give these women a home, which he did in 1849.
In 1851 Harriet Monsell, another clergy widow, came to devote herself to God’s service and this was the beginning of the Community of St John Baptist, Clewer.
The buildings, on Hatch Lane, were designed, free of charge, by the architect Henry Woodyer who also designed Clewer Church’s Lodge.
From these beginnings many charitable institutions were to spring up: many in various parts of England, some in India and some in the U.S.A. (It may be of interest to note that one of them – All Saints Home, Hawley, Hants, which was for girls to be trained for service – was where, in 1975 Clewer Church obtained the beautiful altar, reredos and credence table now in the Lady Chapel. Clewer Church could also have acquired a stained glass window depicting St John the Evangelist with Carter’s face, but it could not be accommodated.)
So the work started by Carter spread far and wide and he always took a keen interest in the various institutions.
However, despite the noble character of his work, Carter had some severe critics in the parish, including some of the most distinguished residents, who disapproved of what they saw as his "Papistical tendencies"
Trouble lay ahead.
There were reasons why Carter’s introduction of "high church practices" were at first accepted without objection at Clewer. In the first place, the congregation was doubtless small after the past years of neglect. Secondly, the authority of the parish’s patrons - Eton College - loomed large, and especially that of Carter’s father.
Yet there were some indications that not everybody was happy, and perhaps some parishioners who, after Robert’s incumbency, were looking forward to returning to church, were put off.
In 1877 some parishioners started a campaign against him and his "papistical practices" and on the walls of the Tithe Barn somebody painted the gibe "LOOK OUT FOR HIGH MASS AT CLEWER CHURCH".
Carter himself made a note of some of the practices which, in his own words, had "split the parish". They were, he said, things which "went beyond what the Upper Ten of the congregation liked."
These were:
But, it is recorded, "the first movement that made a commotion was lighting the candles at an early celebration."
It is interesting to note that these practices, considered so scandalously "papistical" in their time, have since become virtually universal practice.
In 1874, in response to what were seen as growing "papistical tendencies" in the C of E. the Government passed the Public Worship Regulation Act. The Queen - with her soft spot for Presbyterianism - was delighted. Disraeli called high church ritualism "a mass in masquerade". Gladstone, however, disapproved of the Church and its liturgy being made "a parliamentary football" and he opposed subordination of Church to State. Four priests were actually imprisoned under the terms of the Act, but these imprisonments of good men served to bring the Act into disrepute.
The Act gave leave for "aggrieved parishioners" to make representations to the Bishop. The Bishop, however, had the power to veto legal proceedings, thanks to a clause introduced by Archbishop Tait.
So when, in 1877, Captain Thomas Bulkley of Clewer Lodge, and others, tried to bring charges against Thomas Carter, Bishop Mackarness vetoed the action. In 1878 Dr. Frederick Julius of The Hermitage, Clewer Green, sought to bring action against Carter, but ultimately, after many legal developments, the Bishop of Oxford stood firm for Carter.
He (Carter) when the Julius case collapsed, knowing that although Bishop Mackarness had defended him he did not approve of "ritualism" decided that the honourable thing to do was to resign.
This he did, becoming full-time Warden of the Community of St. John Baptist and living in a house, St. John's Lodge, built for him in Hatch Lane. The new Rector, Roland Errington, allowed Carter to continue to live at the Rectory until his house was ready.
Thomas Carter’s residence at the Convent by no means restricted his interest in the various other organisations under his aegis.
He made frequent visits to many of the foundations which were within reasonable travelling distance of Windsor and his services as a preacher were often in demand. Despite pressure from his successor at Clewer, the Reverend Roland Errington, he withstood, for a long time, invitations to preach at Clewer.
However, at last he agreed to do so on the Church’s patronal festival: the feast of St. Andrew in 1896. So, once more. he occupied the pulpit from which he had preached for 36 years.
But his health was failing and his deafness was increasing. In 1897 he resigned his position as Superior-General of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, which he had held for thirty-five years. Members of the society combined to give him a splendid set of altar vessels. In thanking them he said, "brokenly" as it is reported, "I think you’ve overdone about me. But I don’t know…I don’t know."
One of his pleasures that year was seeing the first work of his architect grandson: a new bell-tower for the House of Mercy. In December he suffered a heavy blow: the wholly unexpected death of his only son. From that time his strength failed more and more. In the summer of 1901 after a holiday in Ryde he suffered an "internal attack" from the effects of which he never wholly rallied. On October 26th he presided at the re-election of the Mother Superior of the Convent and on the same day visited the Convalescent Hospital. The next day he did not feel able to get up and on the following day– the Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, - he passed away "without pain or struggle" in the presence of his two daughters and a nursing sister.
Thomas Carter’s years as Warden of the Convent were, from a public point of view, uneventful. He faithfully ministered to the Sisters and he exercised a loving oversight of the many branch institutions in various parts of the country, and, indeed, in other parts of the world.
However, those years were immensely productive in terms of his literary output, and his writings exerted an enormous influence over the Church at large.
From the time of his retirement Carter was responsible for close on 40 publications. Some of these were aids to prayer, some dealt with theological matters. In the first category were (for example) his Book of Family Prayer and (most famously in its time) A Treasury of Devotion which, by the time Carter died, had gone into eleven editions.
In the second category were his Parish Teachings (Series 1 and 2) and The Roman Question. He also published a number of biographies. These included a Life of Harriet Monsell, the first Mother Superior of the Clewer Convent, and Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637) who founded a community of married people at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. He also wrote (in 1896) a Life of John Kettlewell, (1653-95) who was a "Nonjuror". These were the clergy who, after 1688, would not take the Oath of Allegiance to William and Mary on the grounds that by doing so they would be breaking their oath to James II and his successors. John Kettlewell was, because of his writings, deprived of his living in 1690 and spent his remaining years in writing books of devotion and controversial tracts. Thus can be seen, in Carter’s choice of subjects, affinities with his own beliefs and experience.
In those days theological writings were of intense interest to the educated public, and so it happened that Carter’s influence, in the Church at large, grew enormously during the years when he was otherwise out of the public eye.
FOOTNOTE: In my copy of The Priest’s Prayerbook, which is dated 1921 (pub. Longmans, Green & Co.) there is a list of "recommended books" and five of these are by T.T.Carter.
Denis Shaw sent this last article to complete the set celebrating Canon Carter’s centenary just before his death. -Ed.
At dusk on the evening before Canon Carter’s death, one of his daughters was about to draw the curtains. He stopped her saying "I want to see the star." He was referring to the evening star, and, as his biographer records, "he lay gazing at the planet which shone in unusual splendour through the window at the foot of his bed." If you look at the exquisite small bronze memorial (by W Bainbridge Reynolds) on the north wall of the sanctuary in Clewer Church, you will see the star in the background.
Two days after his death, on the eve of All Saints, Carter was laid to rest, beside his wife, in Clewer Churchyard.
The funeral procession from the House of Mercy was a quarter of a mile long, with 150 clergy and 100 Sisters taking part.
A Solemn Requiem at the Convent was celebrated by Carter’s nephew, William Carter, Bishop of Zululand.
The stone which marks Carter’s grave is carved with passion flowers, and the same motif may be seen embroidered on one of his stoles which is in the Clewer Museum. The symbolism of the flower has been explained as follows: the leaf symbolises the spear which wounded Christ, the five anthers are the five wounds, the tendrils are the cords used in the scourging, the column of the ovary is the pillar of the cross, the stamens are the hammers, the three styles are the nails, the fleshy threads within the flower are the crown of thorns, the calyx is the nimbus or halo, the white tint stands for purity, the blue tint stands for heaven. The flower is reputed to stay open for three days, symbolising the three years of Christ’s ministry.
It is easy to understand how such an eloquent representation of the story of our salvation, found in nature, should have appealed to Thomas Thellusson Carter.
The records of The Church Times give a curious, and perhaps rather shocking footnote to Carter’s life. Two years after his death the Dean of Lichfield (H.M. Luckock) spoke to the Sisters in the Convent Chapel, about their founder. Towards the end of his talk he felt it necessary to tell the Sisters that they should not address their prayers to Thomas Carter but directly to God.
This completes the series.
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