FRINTON: RELIGIOUS HISTORY

ORIGINS AND STATUS OF THE PARISH CHURCH

There was a church at Frinton before 1199 when the lords of the two manors disputed the right to present the incumbent.[1] The dedication to the Virgin Mary was not recorded until the mid 18th century.[2] St. Mary’s was replaced as the parish church in 1929 by the new church of St. Mary Magdalene, a short distance to the west in Old Road.[3] The small size of Frinton parish meant that the living, which remained a rectory, was one of the poorest in Tendring deanery;[4] indeed one rector, Theophilus Pierse (1659–91), complained that he could not live on the small income he received from Frinton.[5] The living was consequently held mainly by non-resident, pluralist, incumbents until the late 19th century.

PASTORAL CARE AND RELIGIOUS LIFE.

THE MIDDLE AGES. Geoffrey, rector in 1285, was apparently resident; he employed two servants in the parish.[6] John Noble, rector from 1459 died in 1471 in Kirby le Soken, where he presumably lived. Among his possessions was a portable breviary which he bequeathed to his brother.[7] In 1524 Ralph Richardson, rector 1495–1532, leased the parsonage to a clerk who sub-let it to a husbandman.[8] Only two medieval rectors are known to have been university graduates. Thomas Barry L.B. who held the church for just over a month in 1426 later became bishop of Ossory.[9] Richard Berne, presented by John Godmanston in 1450, was one of the first fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, which Godmanston had helped to found. Berne undoubtedly lived in Oxford.[10] Another rector, Ralph Richardson (rector 1495–1533), may have been a Cambridge graduate.[11]

There is no evidence for chantries, guilds, or cults in the medieval church. A shield of arms which survived in the glass of one of the chancel windows in the 17th century may have been that of Godmanston, and perhaps commemorated the repair or extension of the building by John Godmanston, his father or his son, all of whom occasionally lived in Frinton.[12]

THE REFORMATION AND THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The church appears to have escaped the worst upheavals during the Reformation. The rector Richard Whitmore, presented in 1533, died in office in 1542, as did his successor John Hanmere in 1557 or early in 1558, having served through the reforms of Henry VIII and Edward VI and the return of Catholicism under Mary. His successor John Leke or Luke, presented in May 1558, conformed to the Elizabethan settlement, holding the living until his death in 1572. In 1604 Puritans described the rector, Richard Forth (1585–1616) who held Great Holland in plurality, as a ‘dumb minister’ who did not keep a curate for any length of time and who supplemented his meagre clerical income by work as a grazier.[13] Forth may have been a Cambridge graduate, and was sometimes active in the parish, witnessing Humphrey Maptyd’s will in 1594.[14]

A silver cup belonging to the parishioners, presumably a chalice, was stolen from the churchwarden’s house in 1630.[15] In 1633 the church building was in poor condition, needing tiling, pargetting, and white-washing. There was no decent communion table or carpet to cover it, and no books of homilies.[16] The rector, Simon Lea or Lee, possibly a Cambridge graduate, who was presented in 1629 by William Laud as bishop of London, is not known to have held another living, and may have been resident; he attended the visitation in 1633.[17] Henry Grimston, rector from 1639, was probably a relation, perhaps a nephew, of the patron Sir Harbottle Grimston, and presumably shared Sir Harbottle’s puritan sympathies.[18] Under the reorganisation of church government during the Commonwealth, Frinton was part of the Tendring classis.[19] A plan, put forward in 1650, to unite the parish with Walton seems to have come to nothing,[20] and Frinton continued to have its own rector, James Reynolds, who had been appointed by 1650, and died or resigned c. 1659.[21] Reynolds was succeeded by the episcopally ordained Theophilus Peirce. Peirce, who held Woodham Walter in plurality from 1671, held Frinton until his death in 1691. He was non resident, visiting Frinton occasionally, when the occupier of Frinton Hall gave him ‘horse meat and man’s meat’. He presumably spent much of his time in Cambridge, where he proceeded DD in 1682.[22] In 1683 neither Peirce nor his churchwarden attended the archdeacon’s visitation. The church then had no decent communion table or ‘utensils’ for it and no surplice; nor was there a bible, Prayer Book, book of homilies, or even a register book. It seems unlikely that regular services were held in so ill-equipped a church.[23]

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Peirce’s successor, Joseph Avery, spent the first years of his incumbency in attempts to increase his income by taking his tithes in kind, or at least increasing the composition formerly agreed with the occupiers of Frinton Hall. The attempts led to law suits, first with Thomas Warren and then with his widow Elizabeth.[24] In 1703 Avery engaged in a similar dispute with the occupier of Frinton Wick, and in 1705 he was again in dispute with Elizabeth Warren.[25] Avery, who lived in Kirby and leased Frinton parsonage and glebe to farmers,[26] was described in 1703 as a ‘quarrelsome and contentious person’ and ‘a hard man to many of his parishioners’.[27] The best that a witness could say of him in 1705 was that he knew ‘no great matter of harm in his dealings’.[28]

The disputes between Avery and his Frinton parishioners may have been exacerbated by the condition of Frinton church, which does not seem to have improved since 1683. Perhaps Avery was the incumbent later accused of having attempted to close the church. Bishop Henry Compton of London responded by ordering a sermon to be preached once a month,[29] and in 1708 he ordered that the ruined church should be repaired to make it usable.[30] Between c. 1730 and c. 1790 two 14th-century shields, bearing the arms of Baynard and Warenne, were inserted in the east window. The arms do not relate to any medieval Frinton family and were presumably brought from elsewhere.[31] Perhaps they were given by Jeremiah Warren, before he sold the manor in 1731; he might have associated the Warrenne arms with his own family.

Claudius Richier, minister of the French congregation at Thorpe-le-Soken and also incumbent of Weeley, was presented by Jeremiah Warren in 1721 and held Frinton until his death in 1726.[32] In 1723 there was only one service a month, as had been customary for some years, and Richier noted that the five families in the parish could attend nearby churches on other Sundays if they wished.[33] Communion services were being held by 1725 when a silver communion cup was acquired.[34] By 1738, when the rector, William Wootton (1726–49), lived in and served Little Clacton, there was a service every Sunday and Holy Communion was celebrated four times a year.[35] Apart from a reduction in the number of Communion services to three a year by 1741, services remained the same throughout Wootton’s incumbency.[36]

By 1766, however, services had reverted to the earlier pattern of one a month, taken by a curate who also served Kirby and Walton from the vicarage house at Kirby. There seem to have been no Communion services, the three communicants going to a neighbouring church if they wished.[37] There was no change under the non-resident George Johnson, who was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford until 1765 and thereafter presumably resided on one of his other livings. In 1778 his curate, V. L. Bernard, was paid a stipend of £6 6s. a year.[38] In 1783 Bernard became rector, and by 1790 services had been increased to two a month in the summer; there were no Communion services, there being no communicants. Bernard lived in Great Holland, where he was curate and had the use of the vicarage house.[39] He resigned, possibly under pressure from the bishop of London, in 1801.[40] By 1810, when the church was served by the vicar of Great Clacton for a stipend of £21 a year, there was a service once a fortnight and on Christmas Day, Good Friday, fasts, and thanksgivings. Holy Communion was celebrated twice a year for the c. 4 communicants. The rector, E. G. Charnock, lived in Rutland.[41]

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Like his predecessors, F. V. Luke, rector for 57 years from 1819 to 1875, was non-resident and visited Frinton only occasionally, as in November 1824 when he read prayers and inspected the rectory house.[42] In 1835 his address was Stalbridge, near Shaftsbury, Dorset. He later lived at Weeting, Norf., where he was curate from 1848 to 1864.[43] He died in Jersey. Frinton church was served by licensed curates, among them J. L. Kirby vicar of Little Clacton until his death in 1850,[44] Thomas J. Brusher, 1850–60, and W. Green who was still curate in 1868. Most of them lived in neighbouring parishes.[45] Luke had some contact with his parish, contributing towards the purchase of sheets and blankets for the poor in 1845, and coming at least once a year (to collect tithe) in the 1850s.[46] The purchase of candles from 1850[47] suggests that evening services had been introduced. If the average attendance in 1851 really was c. 25, as the curate reported in the ecclesiastical census that year, the whole adult population must have attended church.[48] Luke’s successor Frank Beadel (1876–88), served the church from Great Holland, where he lived.[49] The first resident rector was T. H. Cook, appointed in 1888 when the new resort was being laid out.

Insofar as there was a 19th-century revival in Frinton, it was the work of Richard Stone, sole churchwarden and parish clerk, who appears to have run the church almost single-handed,[50] not an arduous task in such a small parish. In 1836 Stone and his wife Mary Ann gave the church a small gothic window with stained glass at the top, and in 1845 they gave a flagon of best Sheffield plate for the Communion service.[51] Major improvements were made in 1860 when the daughter of a former curate gave a scarlet cloth for the communion table; a communion rail, designed by the Stones’ son Henry, was erected, and stained glass was inserted in the west window. The rail was paid for partly by a charge on summer visitors to the church. In the same year Richard Stone presented an ancient cabinet and a bible printed in 1599 to the church.[52] A harmonium was bought in 1863, and replaced in 1874.[53] The church was repaired and re-pewed in 1868,[54] and restored in 1879 when a new chancel was built.[55] The new rector, Frank Beadel, contributed £323, over half the cost, but Richard Stone’s £15 was one of the largest of the other donations.[56]

PATRONAGE AND ENDOWMENT

The advowson descended with the manor until 1902 when P. S. Bruff’s executors conveyed it to the Church Pastoral Aid Society.[57] The lords presented fairly regularly. In 1572 and 1575, however, the bishop of London presented by lapse, in 1629 the bishop was patron for the turn, in 1616 James I presented, presumably also by lapse, and in 1533, 1542, 1558, turns had been granted. [58]

The rectory, worth only 40s. in 1254 and 1291 and £7 3s. 10d. in 1535, was one of the poorest livings in Tendring deanery.[59] In 1604 it was apparently worth £50.[60] In 1839 the tithe was commuted for a rent charge of £150 a year, with an extra £10 10s. from the glebe lands when they were not in the rector’s possession.[61] In 1898 the gross annual value of the tithe rent charge was only £108, but there was a small additional income from fees. By 1898 an average of £15 a year was being collected to augment the living.[62]

In 1637 the glebe comprised c. 27 a. 2 r.; in 1839, 27 a.[63] In 1851 it was said, possibly erroneously, to be 50 a.[64] In 1887 it comprised 28½ a. with a small barn and stable; all except 1 a. had been sold by 1898,[65] presumably to the development company.