The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-14 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS

AT B.RA.MPFOBD SP.E.K.E.

(From the Exeter Gazette.)

Considerable excitement has been occasioned in the
parish of Brampford Speke, near Exeter, by a circumstance
which has given rise to much animadversion in the neigh-
s bourhood. A few days since a respectable farmer, named
Batting, residing within the parish of Brampford Speke,
waited on the Rev. G. C. Gorham, the Vicar, respecting
the burial of his deceased child, an infant of five months
old, which ceremony he desired might take place at one
o'clock on the next day. Mr. Batting expressed a wish
that the child might be buried without going into church,
a short service only being read at the grave, curtailed by
the omission of the psalms and the lessons, and in support
of his application mentioned several instances in which
that practice had been followed by clergymen in adjoining
parishes. Mr. Gorham, however, declined to perform the
service of burial for the dead in any other way than that
laid down by the Rubric, and the farmer went away with
the remark that he did not see why his wish could not be
complied with. On the following day, (Thursday) the
minister met the corpse at the gates of the churchyard,
and preceded the body in the usual way towards the church.
On reaching the church porch, Mr. Gorham, (the officiating
clergyman) had proceeded as far as the words, " I am
the resurrection and the life," when Batting violently
shouted, " I say it shan't be taken into the church." Mr.
Gorham took no notice of this, but went on with the sen-
tences, and took his place in the reading-desk. Batting and
his friends then went with the body to the grave, the
minister and his clerk only remaining in the church. Mr.
Gorham at length sent a person to ask Mr. Batting to,
decide whether he would attend the clergyman in the
church or not, and Batting then marched into the
sacred edifice, went up to the reading-desk, and
commenced an argument in support of his view,
as to performing the Burial Service. Mr. Gorham
did not reply, but after unrobing in the Vestry he
went into the church-yard, and there he remonstrated
with his contumacious parishioner for his behaviour. Mr.
Gorham asked him his reason for insisting on that me-
thod, which, he assured him, would be an ecclesiastical
offence, as the Rubric expressly directs that the Psalms
and the Lesson shall be read " after they be come into
the Church." Batting refused to give any reason, but
threatened if his demand were not complied with instantly
to read the service himself, but desisted, on the vicar warn-
ing him of the possible consequences of usurping his sacred
office. Mr. Gorham then retired, and the party left the
church-yard, where the body remained several hours unin-
terred. After some time had elapsed, the vicar was in-
formed that the body was within the church, and that
Batting desired its interment. He, therefore, returned,
and, finding the nurse present, (though Batting and the
relatives had absented themselves,) Mr. Gorham conducted
the service in the usual manner. Acting on professional
advice, Mr. Gorham intimated his determination to pro-
ceed against Batting in the Ecclesiastical Court, for
brawling in the church-yard and church, and for inter-
rupting him in the discharge of his lawful duty. Mr.
Bremridge, proctor, of Exeter, was instructed to take out
a citation in the Archdeaconry Court ; but on Friday last,
Mr. Batting made the following public acknowledgment of
his msiconduct, " regretting the scandal thereby occa-
sioned," and thanking Mr. Gorham for his forbearance,
and the proceedings were consequently abandoned :
" Whereas I William Batting, of Brampford Speke, in the
county of Devon, yeoman, on the ninth of February last,
did interrupt the vicar, the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham,
in the performance of his duty at the funeral of my child,
as follows, namely, by refusing to allow the undertaker
and attendants to enter the parish church to hear that
portion of the service for the burial of the dead, which is
appointed to be read in the church, by ordering one of
my servants to leave the church ; by brawling in the
churchyard and at the reading pew, after the service had
begun and before it was finished; and by threatening
to read part of the said burial-service myself when the
vicar refused to shorten it, or to read it in anyway repug-
nant to the directions of the Rubrics, at my demand,
which he had previously informed me would be a serious
ecclesiastical offence.—Now, I do humbly acknowledge
my misconduct, regretting the scandal I may have thereby
occasioned • I do thank the vicar for his forbearance in
not proceeding against me in the Archdeaconry Court of
Exeter ; and I do freely permit him to make such public
use of this acknowledgment as he may deem necessary,
for repairing, as far as lies in my power, the injury done
to the church and its minister. As witness my hand, this
third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-four. Was. BATTING. —Witness to the signature of
the said William Batting, Thomas J. Bremridge, proctor,
Exeter."

For the information of our clerical friends, we append
the following observations on this disgraceful exhibition,
together with Dr. Bayford's opinion thereon:—

OBSERVATIONS.

It is said to be a very common practice in Devon and
Cornwall, for the minister to take only a half fee from
paupers, who may desire to compromise the dues; on the
understanding, that the Psalms and Lessons shall be
omitted, and that the body shall not be brought into the
church. The refusal of Mr. Gorham to abridge the service,
is, however, quite irrespective of this question; he has
conscientious scruples. So long ago as 1811, when per-
forming the burial service at Sidmouth, as officiating
gratuitously for the rector there, he declined (when urged
so to do) to take the corpse of a pauper at once to the
grave, and to mutilate the burial formulary.
The service book of 1549 directed that the psalms (and
by implication the lesson) shall be read "in the church ;"
but it allowed a discretion to read them "either before or
after the burial of the corpse."
The service books of 1552, 1559, and 1604, contain no
psalms ; the lesson was to be read "at the grave."
The last revision, 1662, re-introduced the psalms, but
did not restore the Rubric as to the optional reading of
them " before or after the burial ;" on the contrary, it
absolutely directed that the psalms (and the lesson by
implication) shall be read "after they are come into the
church;" and, therefore, (presuming that the order of
their insertion must be followed) before the interment.