Rev. Hon. Charles Leslie Courtenay (31 March 1816 – 29 October 1894)

By Michael Steer

Canon Courtenay was appointed Vicar of Bovey Tracey in 1849, succeeding Rev John Macauley, reputed to have been related to the celebrated historian.

The Canon was fourth son of William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon and brother of William and Henry, both of whom succeeded to the title during his lifetime. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and graduated BA in 1837 and MA in 1840. He was chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, 1843–49. In that year he married Lady Caroline Margaret, daughter of John Somers-Cocks, 2nd Earl Somers. In 1859 he was appointed to the fifth stall in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, an appointment he held until he died in Bovey Tracey in 1894 after a two-day illness (Robertson, 2004).

At Christ Church, he was heavily influenced by the ‘Oxford Movement’, an ideological force that sought a renewal of “catholic,” or Roman Catholic, thought and practice within the Church of England in opposition to the Protestant tendencies of the church. Leaders of the movement were John Henry Newman (1801–90), a clergyman and subsequently a convert to Roman Catholicism and a cardinal; Richard Hurrell Froude (1803–36), a clergyman whose father was Archdeacon of Totnes; John Keble (1792–1866), a clergyman and poet; and Edward Pusey (1800–82), a clergyman and professor at Oxford.(Oxford Movement, (n.d.).

Those who ascribed to the new movement were called ‘Tractarians’ and asserted that the doctrinal authority of the Catholic Church was absolute. By “catholic” they understood that which was faithful to the teaching of the early and undivided church. They believed the Church of England to be such a catholic church. Some of the results of the movement were increased use of ceremony and ritual in church worship, the establishment of Anglican monastic communities for men and for women, and better-educated clergy who were more concerned with pastoral care of their church members.

On his arrival in Bovey Tracey the new vicar ran head-on into an entrenched, immovably protestant church community led by such leading local families as the Traceys, Holes and Crokers. He also found matters at the Parish Church not much to his taste, with a great deal that in his opinion needed to be reformed. The vicarage was in near ruin and the church fabric in need of major restoration and improvement. In 1858 a ruthless renovation of the church took place, and many ancient features disappeared or were replaced. Some fragments of blue and yellow glass added to the highlights of the modern East window that resulted from War damage, are all that survives of the large, colourful window placed there by the Canon in memory of his father (Duxbury, 1956).

Canon Courtenay also built Grey Gables as his new vicarage, complete with its own private chapel (Duxbury, 1956). There was for many years a widely believed story in the Town, with little evidence to support it, that Queen Victoria visited the Courtenay’s there. (Hargreaves, 1968).

Shortly after his arrival, the new incumbent decided it was necessary to build his own church, St John’s, with his own resources. He selected and purchased a site on the outskirts of Bovey, He then held two sorts of service- “High Church” (Romanism) at St John’s and the pejoratively named “Low Church” (Non Conformist) service at the parish church. St John’s has since been described as “a gem of ecclesiastical art” (Upham, 2004). The new church and it’s rituals were not, however, to everyone’s taste and became the centre of controversy for many years. St John’s eventually became a separate parish in 1895. Throughout the emerging saga there were periodic rumblings in the parish. In 1875, wall posters appeared throughout the town headed “Romanism in Bovey Tracey”. Then a letter to the Lord Bishop of Exeter complained that the services at the Canon’s new church were no different than those at a Roman Catholic Church (Tregoning (1983).

In addition to his active antipathy to non-conformism, the Canon speedily initiated and developed a series of impressive community support initiatives in the town. He founded the Devon House of Mercy on a hill overlooking the parish church. Bovey’s current local historian, Dr Frances Billinge points out that The Devon House of Mercy was a sisterhood of Anglicans within the Order of the Sisters of Mercy of the Community of St John the Baptist, whose mother house was at Clewer, Windsor. They established a home for abused women, at that time called fallen women, which started in 1863 at Chapple in Bovey, then moved to the prestigious new premises near the parish church in 1868. (Billinge, 2020; Wallace, 2004).

The energetic Canon then built the town’s National School and established a Mission House (Courtenay House) in Fore Street to care for the sick of the parish. Soon after his induction he organised an evening school for adults, and then developed a lending library. He was, during his incumbency, widely respected for his generosity. A biography of Earl Somers records that the Courtenay’s lived in an impressive style at Bovey, with innumerable servants and drove in an open carriage between his two churches preceded by an outrider sounding a horn. (Robertson, 2004).

Canon Courtney was buried at St. John's beneath the East window, near to the blessed Sacrament. Robertson (2004) informs us that The Western Morning News of 16th November 1894 stated:

A heavy gloom hangs over Bovey and the sorrow is general, as the vicarage has been for nigh half a century a centre of sympathy and help for all… whoever is appointed will be a poor successor to the good departed vicar and his lamented lady, unless he is fond of hard work, has great tact, a long purse and a heart full of sympathy (p. 190).

Shortly after his death, demolition commenced of the ancient cob and thatch cottages that comprised the North side of College in front of the Parish Church. The resultant space provided the present memorial ground to the Canon, with the old Town Cross at its centre (Tregoning, 1983).

References

Billinge, F. (2020). Devon House of Mercy.

Duxbury, G.O.C. (Ed.). (1956). The Story of Bovey Tracey Parish Church. [Westcountry Studies Library, Torquay Central Library]

Hargreaves, A, (1968). Bovey Tracey: History and Legend. Newton Abbot: Mid-Devon Newspaper Co. Ltd.

Oxford Movement (n.d.)

Robertson. J. (2004). Canon Courtenay. In Kennedy, V. (Ed.) The Bovey Book. Plymouth: Latimer Trend Group. Tracey: An ancient town. Exeter: A Wheaton & Co.

Tregoning, L. (1983). Bovey Tracey: An ancient town. Exeter: A Wheaton & Co. Ltd.

Upham, E. (2004). The parish Church of St John the Evangelist. In Kennedy, V. (Ed.) The Bovey Book. Plymouth: Latimer Trend Group.

Wallace, J. (2004). The Devon House of Mercy. In Kennedy, V. (Ed.) The Bovey Book. Plymouth: Latimer Trend Group.