Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn (1880-1935), curate

Introduction

This study explores the life of Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn, who served in various curacies across Wales and the West Country, including a brief period at Hardington Mandeville from 1912 to 1913. The 1911 census and newspaper accounts of his time at Hardington suggest that he was known as Denys, and this name will be used throughout this study. To understand his life, it is essential to consider the context of the two generations preceding him.

A tale of two brothers

Denys’ father, William, came from humble beginnings. His father, Thomas Clunn, worked as a clerk at HM Dockyard in Pembroke, while his mother, Jane Davies, was the daughter of Robert Hood Davies, a local farmer. When Thomas died of consumption in 1845 at the age of 34, Jane was left to raise their two sons, Thomas Robert Hood and William Davies.[1]

After Jane’s death in 1849, the boys were taken in by her sister, Martha, and her husband, Thomas Clougher, who was a bookseller and stationer. Both boys attended Normal College in Swansea, where they studied for the Oxford Middle Class Examinations, a set of external public exams administered by the University of Oxford. Thomas excelled, achieving first-class honours in languages and second-class honours in English and Mathematics, before training as a doctor at Guy’s Hospital, London.[2] William’s results are unknown.

In 1866, William married Annie Gwyther, the daughter of John Gwyther, a prominent landowner and farmer of Manorbier. John had led an unconventional life, fathering three illegitimate children, who lived with him at the Park. Two of these, Annie and John, were probably with his housekeeper, Susan Davies, whom he married at Manorbier Baptist Chapel in September 1861.[3] Susan was the sister of Jane Clunn and Martha Clougher, making William and Annie probable cousins.

Both William and his brother Thomas appear to have benefited from John Gwyther’s wealth. In 1867, Thomas entered the University of London to study medicine.[4] Shortly after, William became a theology student at King’s College, London, in preparation for ordination in the Established Church. He obtained his degree in 1872 and was ordained as a deacon in 1873 and as a priest in 1874 by the Bishop of Lichfield. He served as curate of Tutbury, Staffordshire, from 1873 to 1875.

In his early thirties, William returned to Pembrokeshire. He served as the curate of St Florence from 1875 to 1878 and as the curate in charge of Manorbier from 1878 to 1879. In 1879, he was appointed Rector of Hodgeston by Richard Edward Arden, High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire for 1872/73. At that time, the parish had a population of 65 and a gross annual income of £170 from tithes and 24 acres of glebe land.[5]

Childhood

Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn was born at 2 The Croft, Manorbier, on 9 October 1880.[6] The 1881 census reveals a large household: the parents, eight children, William’s brother Thomas, a twenty-seven-year-old governess from London and two domestic servants. Next door, at the Vicarage, lived Albert Henry Wratislaw, the Slavic scholar who was then writing a study of John Huss.[7] Annie’s parents occupied the Park, a 195-acre farm that employed two labourers and a boy. Around the time of Denys’s birth, the antiquarian Joseph Richard Cobb began restoring Manorbier Castle, and one can imagine the young Denys visiting the site with his mother or governess.[8]

However, this picture of stability soon began to change. William and Annie had another daughter in 1882 and a son in 1883. Annie’s father, John Gwyther, died on Christmas Eve 1882, aged 92, leaving William to administer his estate and become tenant of Park Farm.[9] More distressingly, in February 1884, Deny’s nine-year-old brother, Ernest George, died after a severe chest infection and convulsions, and on 10 May 1888, his father died, aged only 44.[10]

William may have suffered from acute anxiety, as his death certificate cited nervous prostration and angina, suggesting a nervous collapse that ultimately led to heart failure.[11] Additionally, his brother worked as a medical officer at Prestwich Lunatic Asylum from the mid-1870s to about 1909.[12] While a family history of mental illness may have influenced this career choice, there is no direct evidence that he specialised in mental health for that reason.

William’s death, together with that of his mother-in-law, Susan Gwyther, on 9 April 1889, left Annie financially secure. William’s estate was valued at £1,120 4s 6d net and held in trust to provide her with income during her lifetime or until she remarried, with the remainder equally divided among their surviving children.[13] Annie also inherited her mother’s estate of £678 10s and her father’s estate of £721 17s.[14]

She used this money to start a new life in Swansea. She held a sale at the Park on 24 March 1891, and moved to 54 St George Street, where she lived with her children and her brother-in-law.[15] Denys was absent from the household at the 1891 census, perhaps away at school. By 1901, the family had moved again to 9 Cwrt-y-vil Road, Penarth.

Early clerical career

The six sons of the family pursued various paths. John, the eldest, attended St Aidan’s College, Birkenhead, in 1897, and was ordained as a deacon in 1899 and as a priest in 1900.[16] Thomas became a civil engineer, while William and Herbert became farmers and later emigrated to Australia. Denys and James also chose to enter the priesthood.

In his mid-twenties, Denys began training for holy orders at St David’s College, Lampeter, where he earned a Licentiate in Divinity in 1908.[17] He unsuccessfully stood for election as Senior Secretary of the Missionary Society, receiving 36 votes compared to his opponent’s 86.[18] He was ordained as a deacon at Llandaff Cathedral in December 1909 and as a priest in December 1910.[19]

His first curacy was at St John’s Mission Church in Ogmore Vale, a densely populated hamlet in the parish of Llangeinor.[20] From 1911 to 1912 he served at Rackenford, North Devon, probably due to the influence of his brother John, who was vicar of nearby North Molton.[21]

Denys experienced the loss of an important family member when his uncle, Thomas Robert Hood Clunn, died in February 1912. After retiring in about 1909, Thomas had lived with his nephew John at North Molton before spending the last months of his life with his nephews William and Herbert at Manorbier. He left his freehold and copyhold property in trust to provide an income to Annie for life or until her remarriage, with the remainder to be divided equally among her children.[22] However, since his total estate was valued at only £361 4s, this made little difference to the family.

Hardington Mandeville

In 1912, Denys became the curate of Hardington Mandeville. Local newspapers provide glimpses of his duties. On Sunday, 17 November 1912, he preached for the Church Missionary Society and spoke at its meeting the next day.[23] The following Sunday, he preached for the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews and attended a lecture by the society’s representative the next day.[24] On New Year’s Eve, he preached at the Watchnight service.[25] His appointment extended into 1913, as he preached for the Church of England Temperance Society on 23 February, and officiated at the Easter services on 23 March.[26]

Throughout his time at Hardington, Denys may have felt surplus to requirements. He worked alongside the Rector and Rev. Charles Godfrey MacCarthy, the Rector’s unofficial assistant, but the parish was too small to need three clergymen. One of Denys’s last acts in the parish was to witness MacCarthy’s will on 18 March 1913.[27]

Middle clerical career

After leaving Hardington, Denys briefly served as a curate at Dartmouth. During the First World War, he initially worked as a “supply” priest in the dioceses of Exeter and Truro, stepping in for clergymen who were ill or on leave.[28] This lack of job security may have affected his mental health, as he was admitted to Herrison Hospital, the Dorset county asylum near Dorchester, on 16 April 1915.[29]

Denys was not the only family member to suffer from mental illness. His brother James experienced a persecution complex in the last five years of his life, which worsened after the death of his brother Thomas in January 1950. Three months later, James hanged himself in an outhouse behind his vicarage at Cubert, Cornwall.[30]

Denys’s stay at Herrison was brief. Between 1916 and 1917, he served as a curate at the garrison church in Devonport, and from 1917 to 1923, he was curate at Penally on the Pembrokeshire coast. Returning to the landscape of his youth may have restored his spirits, as in 1924 he became curate at Bromsgrove, where he met his future wife.[31]

Marriage

On 11 November 1924, Denys married Doris Mary Powell, daughter of a road surveyor, at Llanyre in Radnorshire. Denys was 44, and Doriswas 24.[32] They set up home at Oakley, Stourbridge Road in Bromsgrove.[33]

Although neither may have realised it, Doris was probably already suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. The illness worsened, and she was admitted to Bromsgrove Isolation Hospital, where she died on 15 March 1928 aged 27.[34] She was buried at Llanyre five days later.[35]

Later clerical career

Doris’s death appears to have deeply unsettled Denys. He spent the next two years at St Minver in Cornwall, living with his mother, brother James and two surviving sisters. During this time, he had only permission to officiate, without a regular post.[36]

By 1930, he had recovered sufficiently to serve as curate at St Mary’s in Bridport, where he participated in the Peace Sunday service on 21 December and delivered the watchnight sermon on New Year’s Eve.[37]

Two more curacies followed. In May 1931, it was announced that he had accepted an invitation to become curate at Holy Trinity in Trowbridge.[38] His duties began in early July, and he lived at 32 Westbourne Road.[39] After just one year, he moved to a similar position at Chipping Norton.[40]

Finally, in 1933, he obtained his own benefice when Richard Randolph William Rawson Trafford of Michaelchurch Court presented him to the vicarage of Michaelchurch Escley in Herefordshire, a rural parish of 248 souls in 1931, valued at £301 per annum and including a residence.[41]

His tenure there was short. On 3 November 1935, he died of cerebral thrombosis at the age of 55. As the condition can be sudden or progressive, it is impossible to know whether its onset led to his resignation. He died at 45 Chandos Street, Hereford, and his death was registered by E. G. Greaves, who lived at the same address— possibly a friend or lodger who cared for him in his final days.[42] He was buried beside his wife at Llanyre on 6 November 1935.[43]

The later life of Annie Clunn and other family members

Denys’s brother, James, served as the curate of St Minver, Cornwall, from 1920 to 1928.[44] The 1921 census shows him living at 4 The Terrace, Rock, Wadebridge, with his mother and three unmarried sisters, Ethel, Mary and Edith. Ethel died in 1925, and Edith in 1933. Annie died on 29 May 1940, aged about 96, although the civil registration index recorded her age as 92.[45] Mary died in 1965, aged 86.[46]

Conclusion

Denys Clunn led a modest clerical life, marked by endurance and quiet devotion. His journey through loss, instability and ill health reflects the persistence of vocation that sustained many minor clergy of his generation.

Denys’s career summary

References

[1] Death certificate of Thomas Clunn.

[2] Star of Gwent, 3 September 1859, p.6; Star of Gwent, 10 December 1859, p.4; Pall Mall Gazette, 8 August 1873, p.5. William’s attendance at Normal College has been inferred from the fact that the 1861 census recorded both Thomas and William as “Scholar A A Oxon.” The A A stood for Associate in Arts.

[3] Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, 18 September 1861, p.5. Two of John Gwyther’s children died in 1858.

[4] University of London Student Records, 1836-1945.

[5] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1885, p.243.

[6] Birth certificate of Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn.

[7] Dictionary of National Biography, p.983-84.

[8] Cardiff Times, 15 February 1879, p.5.

[9] The will of John Gwyther, dated 10 February 1877, proved at the Principal Registry on 20 November 1883; the will of William Davies Clunn, dated 2 March 1885, proved at Carmarthen on 10 October 1888.

[10] Death certificate of Ernest George Clunn; death certificate of William Davies Clunn.

[11] Death certificate of William Davies Clunn.

[12] The Medical Register for 1877, p.142; The Medical Register for 1909, p 376.

[13] The will of William Davies Clunn, dated 2 March 1885, proved at Carmarthen on 10 October 1888.

[14] The will of Susan Gwyther, dated 10 November 1883; administration (with the will) granted at Carmarthen on 23 December 1889; the will of John Gwyther, dated 10 February 1877, proved at the Principal Registry on 20 November 1883.

[15] Welshman, 6 June 1891, p.6.

[16] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[17] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[18] Y Llan, 22 February 1907, p.7.

[19] Western Daily Press, 21 December 1909, p.4; Welsh Gazette, 22 December 1910, p.6.

[20] Kelly’s Directory of South Wales, 1910. The 1911 census recorded him as boarding in the household of a carpenter at Cradley near Malvern. As this parish is not included in the summary of his career in Crockford’s, he may have been on holiday.

[21] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[22] The will of Thomas Robert Hood Clunn, dated 6 September 1891, proved in London on 19 April 1912.

[23] Western Chronicle, 22 November 1912, p.6.

[24] Western Chronicle, 29 November 1912, p.6.

[25] Western Chronicle, 10 January 1913, p.5.

[26] Western Chronicle, 28 February 1913, p.6; 28 March 1913, p.6.

[27] The will of Charles Godfrey MacCarthy, dated 18 March 1913, proved in London on 25 March 1914.

[28] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[29] Dorset Heritage Centre: NG-HH/CMR/4/33/1091.

[30] St. Austell Gazette and Cornwall County News, 19 April 1950, p.2; Newquay Express and Cornwall County Chronicle, 20 April 1950, p.5.

[31] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[32] Llanyre Marriage Register.

[33] Death certificate of Doris Mary Clunn.

[34] Death certificate of Doris Mary Clunn.

[35] Llanyre Burial Register.

[36] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[37] Western Gazette, 26 December 1930, p.2; 9 January 1931, p.10.

[38] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 30 May 1931, p.3.

[39] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[40] Wiltshire News, 5 August 1932, p.10.

[41] Kelly’s Directory of Herefordshire, 1934, pp.148-49.

[42] Death certificate of Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn.

[43] Llanyre Burial Register.

[44] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1932, p.248.

[45] National Probate Calendar; Civil Registration Death Index.

[46] The Civil Registration Death Index recorded her age as 81.