Rev Dr Richard Child Willis

Born at Petworth, Sussex, 4 March 1799, third and only surviving son of Admiral Richard Willis and Ann Child, his wife. Matriculated at University College, Oxford, 15 December 1817; B.A. 28 March 1822; M.A. 17 Jun 1824; B.D. 2 April 1840 (Grand Compounder!); D.D. 28 Jan 1841 (Grand Compounder again!).

Ordained deacon at St. George's, Hanover Square, by the Bishop of Ely on 31 March 1822, and then appointed Curate at Albourne and at Twineham (both in Sussex) on 1 April 1822. Ordained priest in the Chapel of St Marylebone by the Bishop of Lincoln, 9 March 1823. Appointed perpetual curate of North Stoke (Sussex, again) 26 March 1823 and apparently still there in 1839, and acted as a curate at Haddenham, Bucks, in about 1842-44, for his cousin. However, much like his cousin his behaviour was not entirely clerical:

A Doctor of Divinity - I have each of these statements on indisputable authority - only a year or two ago, lived for 7 weeks at an Hotel in London under the name of Captain with a female whom he left there to pay the cost; this said Doctor regularly speculates in the Derby Sweeps at Evans {22 November 1843} L.A.O. Cor. B 5/3/21/1/18

In between all that, he had time to inherit and then gamble away a large manor house in Yorkshire, and play cricket for Sussex. Here are some letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Chaplain to the Sheppey workhouse in 1849. Vicar of Minster, in Kent, 1847 - 1877 (Patron: Mr James Whitchurch), and Rector of Warden, Kent, 1845 - 1877 (Patron: W. H. Witherby esq (his wife's sisters both married Witherbys) , and then himself, and then the Dean and Chapter of Rochester).

The Rev. R. C. Willis, D.D., Rector of Warden, Kent, has been licensed to the perpetual curacy of Minster, in the Isle of Sheppey, vacant by the death of the Rev. H. Turmine. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, within whose jurisdiction the two livings are situate, has, by dispensation, allowed the Rev. Doctor to hold both benefices, they being within a short distance of each other, and together below the value of 300l. Minster contains a population of nearly 9,000 persons. The Morning Post (London, England), Wednesday 14 July 1847

It appears that in 1876, Richard Child Willis was presented to the living of Drayton Parslow, a village in Buckinghamshire. The Bishop of Oxford was having none of it, presumably because Willis was a bankrupt [London Gazette, July 16, 1872] and convicted fraudster:

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, April 8 Richard Child Willis, an elderly person of gentlemanly appearance, and a clergyman of the Church of England, surrendered to take his trial upon an indictment for misdemeanour. Mr. Ballantine prosecuted, and Mr. Parry appeared for the defendant. Mr. W. Smith deposed that he was a wine-merchant, carrying on business in Leicester-square, and was acquainted with the prisoner. On the 12th February, 1849, the prisoner produced a cheque for 2l. upon Messrs. Drummond and Co., signed by himself, and asked him to cash it, and he accordingly gave him the amount. The cheque was presented, and it turned out that the prisoner kept no account at the bank. Mr. John Cox, cashier of Messrs. Drummond, deposed that the prisoner kept no account at their house. By Mr. Parry .— He knew that the prisoner kept no account with the bank from having examined the books. The books were not here. Mr. Parry submitted that the books themselves ought to have been produced. The Recorder said the case must go to the jury. Mr. Parry addressed them for the defence, and remarked upon the circumstances of the case, and the fact that the prosecutor would have lent the prisoner the money if he had asked him, without the cheque being at all resorted to, and he earnestly called upon the jury, if they could find ground for reasonable doubt as to the intention of the prisoner, that they would give him the benefit of that doubt, and acquit him. The jury wished to be informed of the reason why the charge had not been brought forward before the present time? Mr. Ballantine said the prosecutor was not desirous to prefer any charge. The prisoner was in custody upon some other matter, and Mr. Smith was summoned by the magistrate. The Jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. The prisoner was then charged, upon another indictment, with obtaining money by false pretences. In this case it appeared that the prisoner went to the Sabloniere Hotel, in Leicester-square, accompanied by a lady, and having dined, he tendered in payment a cheque which was made payable at Messrs. Currie and Co.'s, and received 4l. 15s. 2d. change. It turned out that the cheque was altogether fictitious. The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty. The prisoner was then charged, upon a third indictment. It appeared in this case, that he had gone to Hatchett's Hotel, Piccadilly, and having run up a bill of 3l. 3s. 6d., he gave a cheque for 14l. 13s. 1d., and being known as a customer of the house, no suspicion was entertained, and the difference was handed over to him, the cheque, as in the other cases, turning out to be of no value. The Jury found the prisoner Guilty. Mr. Ballantine stated that there were no less than 12 other charges of a similar character against him. Judgment was respited. London Standard, Tuesday 09 April 1850

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.— April 9. OLD COURT. (Before the Recorder.) The Rev. Richard Child Willis was placed at the bar to receive judgment. The prisoner was tried on Monday upon several indictments for obtaining money by mean- of false cheques. The cases were all of the same description, but the prisoner escaped conviction upon every one of the charges except one, in which he had defrauded Mr Thomas, the proprietor of Hatchett's Hotel, Piccadilly, of 10/. Mr. Perry addressed the Court in mitigation of punishment. He said the prisoner had hitherto borne a most respectable character, and it was only recently that he had resorted to these irregular proceedings. He was formerly the possessor of an estate producing from 1,500l to 2,000l a year, and although, no doubt, there were mortgages upon the property, he believed that he was still the legal owner of it. He also said that he believed the prosecutors had no desire to press the case with any harshness against the prisoner. Mr. Ballantine, who was for the prosecution, said it had been instituted by the Society for the Protection of Licensed Victuallers, and he knew no more of this case than appeared in the depositions. He had no doubt, however, that the prisoner had formerly filled a respectable position in society, and he certainly had no instructions other than to leave the matter entirely in the hands of the Court. The Recorder, in passing sentence, said that the prisoner had been convicted, upon the most satisfactory evidence, of obtaining money by false pretences, and the evidence left no doubt as to the fraudulent character of his dealings for some considerable time. He thought it right to inform him that for this offence he was liable to be transported for seven years; and, although the Court would not proceed to that extremity upon the present occasion, it would most undoubtedly have done so if there had been a conviction upon the other indictments. It had been urged in his behalf that he had filled a high position in society, but this was rather an aggravation than a mitigation of his offence, as it was his duty to have shown a better example to others who were less educated, or who had more temptation to commit such an offence. The learned Judge then sentenced the prisoner to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the House of Correction for one year. Morning Post, Wednesday 10 April 1850

A transcript of the trial was taken. As a consequence of all this he was enumerated in the 1851 census in Coldbath Fields Prison in Clerkenwell. He died at the Vicarage, Minster, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, 27 Jan 1877 aged 77:

DRAYTON PARSLOW. The Rectory.-The following communication has been addressed to us by Mr. John Newton, of Leighton Buzzard, together with the extract appended:- As the late Rev. Dr. Willis was presented to this living through my introduction to the patroness, and by my request, and the Bishop of Oxford refused to institute him on the ground that he was not worthy of his ministry, being minus sufficiens literis, I beg to forward extract from the Sheerness Guardian of the 10th instant, in order that your readers may know in what estimation he was held by his late parishioners at Minster.- 'With many regrets it is our duty to chronicle the death of the Rev. Dr. Willis, which took place at the Vicarage, Minster, Sheppey, after a short illness, on the 27th ultimo. Dr. Willis was born at Petworth, Sussex, on the 4th of March, 1799, and was the third and only surviving son of the late Rear-Admiral Richard Willis, formerly Port Admiral at Portsmouth, and grandson to Dr. Francis Willis, an English physician of eminence, distinguished for his skill in the treatment of the insane, who was physician to King George the Third, and afterwards had care of the Queen of Portugal. The subject of this notice, the late Rev. Dr. Willis, was in his seventy-eighth year, and was a very remarkable man for his age - energetic, courteous, and accomplished - a good type of the English gentleman and scholar. In youth he became gentleman commoner of the University College, Oxford, and at his thirteenth term he took first class in classics. Somewhere about 1834 he was ordained. But what we more particularly know is that during these last ten years the Rev. Dr. Willis has been vicar of Minster, and well known for his able ministry and preaching. That he was beloved by all who knew him, and by his parishioners, and generally respected, we can testify; assiduous in his duties, his Church was never neglected, and he won the favourable opinion of all classes. To the poor he was ever considerate and kind, and was most respectfully treated by the Archbishop of his diocese (Canterbury). His urbanity, his eloquence as a preacher, and his finished elocution as a reader, drew numbers of people to hear him. Sunday after Sunday many persons from Sheerness wended their way to Minster for the express purpose of listening to the excellent and scholarly discourses of the venerable doctor. In summer the people literally flocked to hear him, so universal was his fame. We sincerely believe that he always lived as he has died, "in peace and harmony with all men," his dying words. It is thought that the worry caused by the litigation brought about by the Bishop of Oxford had a very depressing effect on Dr. Willis, and on the whole hastened his death. Sic itur ad astra.' Bucks Herald, 17 February 1877

His ability as a preacher was remarked upon in several places; after his death, his Churchwarden made a sworn statement about how good he was. The paragraph above was in fact only half the obituary that was in the Sheerness Guardian, which continued:

THE FUNERAL took place on Tuesday last, the mournful cortege left Minster at noon for Iwade, and consisted of a shillibeer and carriages containing his chief mourners, Mrs. And Mr. H. Willis, Junr., followed by J. Ward, Esq., Chairman of the Sheerness Local Board of Health, and R. Palmer, Esq., Chairman of the Sheppey Board of Guardians, then Dr. Bland, of Minster, and J. Copland, Esq., solicitor, Sheerness, &c., &c. The pall-bearers were the Rev. R. H. Dickson, Eastchurch, the Rev. S. Brown, H.M.S. Duncan, Colonel Price, and Mr Munchin, R.N. The Rev. G. Bryant, M.A., of Sheerness-on-Sea, was the officiating Chaplain. The greatest mark of respect was shown to the passing corpse, the bells being tolled at Minster and Iwade, at this place the inhabitants and the children of the village respectfully formed themselves into a line through which the sad procession passed to the church, where the sublime and beautiful Service of the Church of England was most impressively gone through by the Rev. G. Bryant, whose suppressed emotion was evident by his earnest manner; the solemnity of the occasion affected all alike by its spell-like quiet, broken only by the clear tones of the officiating clergyman. After the last sad rites at the grave were performed, the sorrowing relatives and friends returned to their carriages, and the procession preceded back to Minster-in-Sheppey. The whole of the funeral arrangements were under the charge of Mr. C. Bridges, the undertaker, who ably and satisfactorily carried them out. In closing this notice of the good man gone we are constrained to say Requieseat in Pace. The Sheerness Guardian, 10 February 1877

Married at Petworth, Sussex, on 24 January 1826 to Frances (Fanny), youngest daughter of William Hale esq., of that place:

MARRIED-On the 24th inst, at Petworth, in Sussex, by the Rev. J. K. Greetham, the Rev. R. C. Willis, M.A., only son of Admiral Willis, to Frances, youngest daughter of William Hale, Esq., Solicitor, of the same place. Morning Post, 25 January 1826

She was born at Petworth 30 May 1799 and baptised there 19 July 1799, and died 11 October 1881 at Croydon, Surrey. Buried at Petworth. Her will says:

This is my last will. I leave all my property to my Executor, Revd Robert Hale Witherby, upon trust, to pay my debts and funeral expenses, and to divide the remainder, if any, amongst my relations with the same manner as if I had died intestate, and without ever having been married.

She was enumerated separately from her husband in the censuses. In 1861 and 1871 she was living with her sister and brother-in-law at North Chapel, in Sussex, and in 1881 was in Croydon. This is presumably not unconnected with the Rev Dr. Willis having moved in with somebody else; in 1861 he was enumerated at Wormley in Herts:

NameRelation to head of familyConditionAge of malesAge of femalesOccupationPlace of birth
Richard WillisHeadMarr62Fund HolderSussex Petworth
Hester do.WifeDo.27Sommersett Shir Camley
Henry do.Adopt Son5mSurrey Lambeth
Emma BirdServUnm26Middlesex Enfield

Hester was baptised Hester Kingston at Cameley, Somerset, on 17 June 1833, third daughter of John Kingston and Hester his wife. She never officially married Willis (because he never divorced his wife), which caused great scandal in the church. She was nonetheless his sole executor and legatee:

This is the last will and testament of me Richard Child Willis of the Parish of Minster In Sheppey in the County of Kent Clerk in Holy Orders I give devise and bequeath all my real and personal estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever unto Hester the third daughter of John Kingston Esquire late of Cholwell in the Parish of Cameley in the County of Somerset Esquire deceased absolutely and I appoint the said Hester to have sole control over my burial and that my body may be placed in one of my family vaults or in any other place convenient at the time of my death In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of August 1873 - Richard Child Willis

Following Willis's death (he left her less than £100), she became a matron / proprieter of children's homes.