Showing The Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century by John Latimer

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ...was held, when the reverend dignitaries came perilously near to fisticuffs. The dean's account of the affair, appended to the minutes, is that he had nominated a clergyman for a vacant rectory, and proposed that the chapter should proceed to the election, when the sub-dean (Castelman) seized the minute book out of the clerk's hands, "and held it from me by violence, and would not let me have it till they were going out of ye chapter." Next day, at another meeting, the dean proposed several gentlemen for the vacant livings of St. Leonard's, Bristol, and Sutton Bonnington, but the prebendaries rejected all of them. Ou the other hand the prebendaries were unanimous in the choice of a clergyman for St. Leonard's, but the dean refused to put the question. In July three of the prebendaries held a chapter in the dean's absence, and elected their protege, Berjew, to St Leonard's, another person being instituted to Sutton. Berjew was also appointed precentor. But when the dean came back, in February, 1751, he protested against all that had been done whilst he was in waiting on the king, and denied the right of any prebendary to enjoy his stipend unless he resided in his prebendal house and came properly apparelled to church during his term of residence--which indicates the laxity then common amongst the dignitaries. After much more squabbling, the contending parties agreed to leave the great point in dispute to the bishops of London, St. David's, and St. Asaph, who in March, 1752, determined against the claim of the dean, declaring that the right of electing minor canons, schoolmaster, etc., lay in the dean and chapter. At the next chapter meeting the elections made by the dean were declared invalid, and it was resolved to fill certain...