The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-20 00:00:00

An Extraordinary Clergyman,

Last week we gave particulars of Mr. Henniker's conduct
in refusing to read the burisl service over the body of an
aged parishioner named Alcock, and actually detaining the
body in the church until, after it had remained above
ground 14; days, it was taken possession by some of the
parishioners, and interred by the Rev. H. Ward, of Calton.
Mr. Henniker by his conduct excited a strong feeling of
indignation, which led on Sunday last to the results we are
about to describe. A great number of persons assembled in
and out of the church during the afternoon service, and
greeted the rev, gentleman on his arrival with shouts and
hisses. The service lasted about 15 minutes, during which
several persons standing at the door shouted in the church,
and we are informed several stones were thrown in also. At
the conclusion of the service there was a great crowd out-
side the church waiting to give Mr. Henniker a " reception,"
but instead of coming out the way ho was expected, he came
out another way, after using some very harsh language to
his clerk, calling him a fool and a liar. The crowd then
followed Mr. Henniker down a by-road about 50 yards from
the church, hissing and shouting, and we are told several
clods were thrown at him. Here he made a rush at a group
of persons, who all ran away, except a young man, a shoe-
maker, from Cheadle, whom he struck. The Rev.:B
Henniker is not only the incumbent of Cauldon, but of the
adjoining parish of Waterfall, both livings being in the
gift of his father, Mr. A. Henniker. He is quite a young
man. For some time he has been in the habit of conduct-
ing the services at both churches in the most extraor •
dinary manner, generally dispensing with the Confession,
the Absolution, the Thanksgiving, the prayer for the
Royal family, and many other prayers, and also with sing-
ing and preaching. Sometimes, however, a homily or a tract
has taken the place of a sermon. Bat the strangest thing
of all is that he has been in the habit, until some months
ago, of reading the Lessons from the Douai version of
the Bible, and since he has given up this practice he has
read unauthorised translations from scraps of paper. The
service, curtailed in the way described, has generally been
got through in 15 or 20 minutes. This course of conduct,
coupled with his refusing early in the present year to bury
a little child named Basset, who died of typhus fever, re •
sulted in an inquiry by the rural dean, the Rev. J. Simp-
son, of Alstenfield. The latter gentleman buried the child
himself, after it had been in the church several days, in-
cluding Sunday, when the stench from the corpse filled the
whole church. The result of the inquiry was that Mr.
Henniker signed the declaration drawn up by Mr. Simpson,
in which he promised to conduct the church services pro-
perly for the future. He, however, soon relapsed into his
old way, with the exception that he did not commence read-
ing the Douai Bible, bat read from scraps of paper as stated
above. There can berm doubt that Mr. Henniker is liable to
bo proceeded against at ecclesiastical law both for refusing to
bury, and his systematic violation of the order of service
laid down in the Book of Common Prayer. As yet the only
proceedings that have been taken, so far as we can learn,
are that a summons has been taken out against Mr. Hen-
niker by a young man named Joseph Richardson, for an
assault alleged to have been committed in the churchyard
on Sunday week. The case is to be heard at Leek next
Wednesday. The villagers call to mind various acts on the
part of Mr. Henniker which it would be speaking of lightly
to call eccentric. Some months ago he refused to proceed
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with a funeral until a person whom he chose to consider a
Dissenter, and who was one of the funeral party, left the
church. When any of his Cauldon parishioners wish to
have a christening performed he refers them to Waterfall,
1
and vice versa. A short time ago he served the parish clerk
with a notice, of which the following is a copy :—" Cauldon
churchyard not to be broke without an order from Rd. IL"
On the clerk saying that he should not pay any attention to
this order, as he lead a letter from the bishop giving him