William Jennings (1772-1833) & Frances Jennings (1778-1859)
William Jennings was born in Cannington, Somerset, the son of Joseph Jennings and Edith Sully; he and his twin Elizabeth were baptised on 25 June 1772.
Williams received sufficient education for him to be able to attend St Edmund Hall, Oxford – where he matriculated on 2 December 1801 as pleb (Alumni Oxoniensis) – suggesting both he had natural ability and that this was recognised and sponsored by a clergyman.
He was ordained as deacon on 10 March 1805 at St James’s, Westminster, and appointed Curate of Ossett cum Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, on 11 March 1805 with a stipend of 50 pounds (Clergy of Church of England Database – CCEd). This parish had been created in 1718 from the ancient parish of Dewsbury All Saints. In 1806 the church was rebuilt – in a “very bad specimen of the Italian style” (Wakefield Express) – to accommodate the growing population, and the size of the parish had also required the additional appointment of a curate (www.ossett.net). William was ordained priest on 9 July 1809 at Bishopthorpe, York (CCEd).
Frances Jennings was the youngest daughter of John Jennings and Elizabeth Fear of Huntspill, where she was baptised on 18 December 1778. Her father was a prosperous shopkeeper.
On 25 March 1806, the Reverend William Jennings of the parish of Dewsbury in the county of York, bachelor, and Frances Jennings, spinster, were married at Huntspill, Somerset, by licence.
William and Frances’s eldest children were baptised at Ossett: Mary on 25 January 1809 and William Sully Jennings on 6 March 1810.
On 1 March 1815 William was appointed Curate of East Garston in Berkshire with a stipend of £70, plus surplice fees, plus use of vicarage house, garden and offices, where he was required to live (CCEd). Whilst at East Garston there are references to William making donations to the publication of A Companion to the Common Prayer Book and to the church missionary society (1816).
William and Frances had five more children while living at East Garston, two of whom died in infancy: Ann Goodland Jennings was baptised on 15 May 1811 and buried on 29 June 1811, and Joseph Jennings was baptised in 1815, died aged 19 months at Vicarage House and was buried on 5 April 1817.
Their three other children survived: James Knight Jennings was baptised on 13 November 1812, John Edward Harbert Jennings was baptised on 31 December 1813, and Joseph Cave Spicer Jennings was baptised on 19 November 1817.
William was appointed Perpetual Curate of Baydon, Wiltshire, on 18 May 1821 (CCEd). Although in a different county, Baydon is less than 10 miles from East Garston and was in the gift of the Lords of Rambury manor: “The living of Baydon, Wilts, has been presented, by Sir Francis Burdett, bart, the patron, to the Rev. W. Jennings of East Garston vicarage, Berks” (The New Monthly Magazine Vol 3 1821). The living was worth £147 a year c.1830 (Victoria County History).
William died aged 61 “after a long and painful illness, borne with exemplary Christian piety and resignation” (Devizes & Wiltshire Gazette) and was buried at Baydon on 21 September 1833, the parish register noting in the margin “vicar 1812 – 1833”. A pony, chaise and harness “suited to an invalid, belonging to the late Rev W Jennings of Baydon” were advertised for sale in October 1833.
After her husband’s death, Frances with her daughter Mary, and a servant, were living at Seth Ward’s College of Matrons in the Salisbury cathedral close (1841 and 1851 census records). This was the alms-houses for widows of clergy in the Salisbury diocese. In the 1851 census Frances was described as “annuitant and recipient of Seth Ward Charity. Clergyman’s widow”.
In 1841, their eldest son, William Sully Jennings, died of yellow fever in Jamaica. “His whole heart and his life, in its shortened space, were devoted to the service of his Divine Master, and his end was peace. He had recently removed to Good Hope, Trelawney.” (Salisbury and Winchester Journal Dec 1841)
William and Ann’s second son also joined the clergy after graduating from Queen’s College Cambridge in 1838. He was vicar of Hagbourn in Berkshire and then principal of Weston Park School in Weston-Super-Mare. In 1868 he was appointed minister of Calcott Donative in Somerset. In 1869 he published the second and updated edition of Observations on Some of the Dialects in the West of England, Particularly Somerset (1869) – the first edition having been written by his uncle, James Jennings of Huntspill (published in 1825).
John Edward Harbert Jennings became a “chemist and druggist, member of the Pharmaceutical Society”, and lived in Sheffield.
Their youngest son, Joseph Cave Spicer Jennings, became a surgeon.
Her daughter remained unmarried.
Frances died on 30 January 1859 and was buried at Salisbury on 4 February 1859.
A tribute of respect to the memory of the Rev.d William Jennings, late incumbent of this parish, who entered into rest on the 14 of Sept. 1833 after a pilgrimage of 61 years with humble yet firm assurance of salvation through the merits and death of that saviour whom he had ever proclaimed as the only hope of sinners.
Also of Frances, his widow, who died at Salisbury Jan 30 1859, aged 80 years; and was interred in the cathedral cloisters green. In simplicity and Godly sincerity, by the grace of God, she had her conversation in the world.