Introduction
Rev. Charles Godfrey MacCarthy was a popular curate at Hardington during the last years of Cleife’s rectorship. Before this, he had served as a missionary in his native Ireland and in Spanish Honduras. Although he only lived in the village for a couple of years, his personality and religious convictions left a lasting impression.
Ireland
Charles was born around 1850 in Ballyclough, a small village in south-west Ireland. By his mid-fifties, he was working as a missionary on the remote north-west coast of Connemara, one of the most sparsely populated areas of County Galway.
The 1901 census listed him as a 54-year-old widower, living at Barnahallia, Sillerna, Galway, with his 19-year-old daughter, Eleanor Anna. He spoke both Irish and English, while Eleanor spoke only English. Both could read and write. Charles was a J.C.M. Missionary, and Eleanor was a housekeeper. Their house was a second-class dwelling with ten to twelve rooms and a cow house.
Spanish Honduras
Sometime between 1901 and 1905, Charles left Connemara for the independent republic of Honduras, then widely known in Britain as “Spanish Honduras.” From 1905 to 1907, he served as the missionary-in-charge of the Cayo district, an Anglican mission area under the Episcopal Church’s Central American jurisdiction. He was ordained as a deacon in 1905 and as a priest in 1906, both ordinations taking place locally. In 1907, he became rector of St John’s, Puerto Cortés.[1]
Charles faced severe challenges there as the population was predominantly Roman Catholic and Spanish-speaking. Additionally, the intense heat and humidity, coupled with tropical diseases like malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever, posed a constant threat.
During his time in Central America, Eleanor moved to London and enrolled as a midwife at Plaistow in April 1906.[2]
Hardington
In early 1911, Charles arrived in Hardington at the age of sixty. The 1911 census recorded him lodging in two rooms at Bushay, rented from Mrs Susan Reynolds. One of his first duties was attending a confirmation class at St John’s, Yeovil, on 9 April 1911.[3]
He officiated at the funeral of Mrs Angelina Guppy on 28 April 1911 and assisted Cleife in conducting the funeral of Henry Sandiford, the licensee of the New Inn, on 13 June 1911.[4] He was officially licensed to the curacy in October 1911.[5] At the church workers’ party at the rectory on 15 January 1912, he spoke warmly of the work of the Rector and his wife, and of their kindness to him and to the parish.[6]
Despite these feelings of attachment, Charles probably craved greater challenges. He spent most of 1912 serving as a curate at All Saints’ Church, Darlaston, an industrial town near Walsall, working under Rev John Oliver West (1852-1916), an evangelical clergyman known for his energetic mission work in Liverpool and Bristol.[7] Charles returned to Hardington in time to deliver an impressive address at the Watchnight Service on 31 December 1912, this time as an honorary curate.[8]
His return may have been prompted by declining health. On 18 March 1913, he made his will, leaving everything to Eleanor, who was then a trained sick nurse at Biggleswade in Bedfordshire. The witnesses to his will were his landlady, Susanna Reynolds, and Rev. Robert Denys Gwyther Clunn, the curate.[9]
Charles remained active throughout 1913. He, Cleife, and Clunn took the Easter services together, and in June, he attended the Club dinner, expressing concern about the decline in daily family prayers and Bible readings.[10] In July, he gave a short address at the Sunday School treat at the rectory and in December, opened a Church of England Temperance Society meeting at the schoolroom with a prayer.[11]
His final church duty was assisting at evensong on Sunday, 18 January 1914.[12] Five days later, he died of “apoplexy,” probably a stroke or heart attack. His death was registered by George Walter White, who was present at the time.[13] His funeral was well attended and included the village schoolchildren. His coffin was adorned with flowers, including a wreath from Eleanor depicting a harp with three broken chords, and another from the parishioners. James Saint Partridge and Charles Milton led the procession, and the bearers were Walter White, George Walter White, Henry White, Frank Hayward, George Hamlin and Albert Chester. The mourners included Eleanor, Mrs Cleife, Mrs Frank Purchase, Mrs Watts, Miss Guppy, Walter Guppy, Mrs George Walter White and Mrs C Partridge. Rev H H T Cleife and Rev. C. R. Milligan officiated.
The following Sunday, a large congregation gathered to hear Cleife preach a sermon in memory of his friend and colleague. Charles’ newspaper obituary, probably drafted by Cleife, stated that “During his ministry, he made a profound religious impression on the people, by his earnest preaching and diligent visiting, which always manifested great zeal, accompanied by a strict godly life.”
Eleanor’s later life
Charles’s death created a massive void in Eleanor’s life. At the time she was working in an isolation hospital at Newton Abbott.[14] She kept in touch with Susanna Reynolds and visited Bulshay in June 1921.[15] In 1928, she married Harry Woodruffe Green, a bank clerk. They lived in Biggleswade and later in Essex until his death in 1956.[16] Eleanor died at Dedham, Essex, on 10 November 1962 at the age of 72.[17]
References
[1] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1908, p. 913.
[2] The Midwives Roll.
[3] Western Gazette, 14 April 1911, p.3.
[4] Western Gazette, 5 May 1911, p.3; 16 June 1911, p.3.
[5] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 4 November 1911, p.11.
[6] Western Chronicle, 19 January 1912, p.6.
[7] Western Chronicle, 6 February 1914, p.6; Western Daily Press, 25 February 1913, p.5; Liverpool Echo, 22 March 1918, p.5; Walsall Observer, 1 April 1916, p.9.
[8] Western Chronicle, 10 January 1913, p.5; 6 February 1914, p.6.
[9] The will of Rev Charles Godfrey MacCarthy, dated 18 March 1913, proved in London on 25 March 1914. The will describes him as formerly of Bamahalbee Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. His estate was valued at £430 16s 4d.
[10] Western Chronicle, 28 March 1913, p.6; 20 June 1913, p.8.
[11] Western Chronicle, 11 July 1913, p.7; 12 December 1913, p.7.
[12] Western Chronicle, 6 February 1914, p.6.
[13] The death certificate of Rev Charles Godfrey MacCarthy.
[14] The grant of probate for the will of Rev Charles Godfrey MacCarthy; Western Chronicle, 6 February 1914, p.6.
[15] RG15, enumeration district 5, schedule 26.
[16] Civil registration marriage index; voters’ lists; 1939 Register.
[17] National probate register.