If you thought that the Victorian postman in charge of rounds at Hurley has quite an easy and peaceful job, you would be reckoning without the Rev F T Wethered. That man certainly knew how to write letters. He probably would have kept the post service going in the village single handed. He fired off letters to national papers on religion, politics and history, to academic, sporting and natural history journals, to his parishioners who had gone far afield and of course personal correspondence. The local press was treated to his advice on everything from gardening to teaching children to swim and the evils of motor cars. As such we've learnt a lot of the Reverend's opinions on a whole host of subjects and so now it's the turn of the polymath to feature in a post of his own.
A man called Florence
The future Rev F T Wethered was born in Hurley Vicarage in 1840. He was called Florence as was his father* the then incumbent. You would be right to think the gentlemen shared an unusual first name. However this isn't because they bore what was then regarded as a typically female name, rather it was usually male if not that common overall. Our Florence spent his childhood in the lanes and meadows of Hurley, before going away to a school for young gentleman at the vicarage of Stratfield Mortimer. He was following the well worn path of sons of better off clergymen who were routinely sent away to their colleagues to receive an education before entering public school and university. For Florence university was Christ Church Oxford and a career following in his father's footsteps beckoned. In his late 20s he married Mary Josephine Bonsor at Hurley church.
Born to rule at Hurley?
When Florence was 8 his father bought the "advowson" of Hurley. This meant he was buying the power to nominate his successor there. Perhaps he was already thinking of placing his young son in the pulpit, or he just wanted to ensure his legacy would be carried on by someone he approved of. The nominations were subject to the diocese approving the person as a fit candidate. After his father's death in 1867, Florence inherited the advowson, and used it to advance himself to the living at Hurley. This was around 5 years after his ordination. Later on when debate was raging about how or if the advowson system should be changed, the case of the vicar of Hurley was often mentioned as an example of how it could advance nepotism. But Florence was hurt by being singled out in this way. He said he wanted to serve the parish that was his home and where he knew the people whose souls he would have care of. The inheritance of the advowson had allowed him to do that and he felt his family did nothing wrong. Regardless of how he came to the role, F T certainly served the parish with diligence for decades.
Get the corks out
Florence had an affinity with the river. If he wasn't swimming in it, he was fishing or casting a critical eye at Sunday boaters who maybe should have been in church - at least according to FT. In 1873 he wrote to The Field to weigh into the debate about the best way to teach boys to swim. He dismissed the usual practice of giving the children floats of bound rushes or belts of cork for example. The secret he said was to engage a waterman with a punt and a large pole. The would be swimmer would have a length of webbing placed under their arms and fastened over their back via a hoop to the pole. Perhaps he tried this method when teaching his own sons to swim. If so, his boys would certainly not have got out of lesson if the water was cold. Their father was a firm believer in daily swimming whatever the weather. In 1894 he said he'd bathed everyday before breakfast from December - February for the last 3 years, bar 3 days that the Thames was in high flood. He believed that doing so kept his iron constitution going, and he continued the habit well into old age - until a few months before his death in fact.
When not swimming, Florence enjoyed fishing. He was involved with the various angling associations and bred trout for them in troughs at the Vicarage for future release into the Thames.
Florence sued for libel
Moving away would not necessarily mean the Florence's watchful eye did not follow you. In 1887, two of his former parishioners went away and married. Florence discovered that they had done so by the calling of banns in a parish where they were not legally resident. So Florence said the marriage was invalid. The vicar who conducted the marriage exchanged letters with Florence and revealed that the bride was heavily pregnant on the wedding day and that her sister had also been illegally married. FT was shocked. The couple had both been lodging with the girl's grandmother in Hurley and the vicar blamed her for failing to keep a sufficiently close eye on the goings on under her roof. She had worked for him as a washer woman and was promptly fired. The groom said the couple hadn't wished to marry in Hurley for the sake of quietness. (And avoiding Florence probably!) A little later Florence wrote an article in the parish magazine that referenced the fact that two parishioners had been illegally married and explaining the rules of banns. This resulted in an action of libel against Hurley's vicar. He said the case was motivated by a personal grudge as it was funded by someone who refused to be named. He lost, and had to pay a modest sum in compensation. The judge obviously disagreed with the juries verdict, cautioned the couple against their conduct and denied them the payment of their costs. Many other vicars spoke up in defence of FT who they said was doing only what every vicar did - advising their flock as to their conduct. They considered their job would be impossible if they couldn't call out "sinners". They raised a collection fund to pay Florence's legal costs.
*Rev Florence senior was Florence James, the son of Thomas Wethered of Remnantz in Marlow. His wife and FT's mother was Esther nee Peel. Both are buried at Hurley. Esther's sister Anne also married a Wethered.
Councils mail bag gets bigger
One of the most frequent recipients of Florence's missives was the local council. Pot holes, dusty roads and bad drainage were his particular bete noirs. When one of the councillors was reported to be rather dismissive of the volume, frequency and length of the correspondence (they'd just received a 20 page letter about the state of Hurley's roads from him) , Florence acted with fury. Another councillor said they "laughed" at the vicar and added his letters should always be read at the end of meetings so those who had important business could leave beforehand. Florence regarded the comments as a personal insult to both him and his wife. And so he wrote more letters. The road that most angered FT was repaired after all, although the council did say they were always going to do it eventually.
The devils transport
If you really wanted to get FT riled, the subject to raise was the motor car. In 1904 he suggested they shouldn't be allowed on the roads but instead should be given trackways like rail roads to travel upon. He expressed the same view the following year when addressing the High Wycombe Mutual Improvement Society. This scheme was necessary as "most drivers are utterly selfish" and "life is already unbearable and the nuisance gets monthly worse and worse". Car travel was an emotive subject in Hurley at this time as a little boy from the village (Tommy Overall) had been run over and killed.
When discussing the horrific automobiles, he recounts an interesting story he had found record of regarding an earlier form of transportation. This was an 1832 visit to Hurley by a "steam coach". It was due to stop at the village blacksmith to take on water. On doing so it drained the well. But it also needed some repairs. After this, watched by a large crowd, it limped off but had to stop every 20 yards or so. It was described as a "great unwieldy monster" and noisy to boot.
History man
Florence was a keen historian and antiquarian. He loved nothing better than delving through the parish records to find interesting old documents to share with the local press (by letter of course.) He made a great effort to track down items related to the history of Hurley. When the council asked him to hand over certain parish records as a recent law entitled them to, he flatly refused. He did not trust them to preserve them carefully. I do not think they ever managed to force him to do so. All his research cumulated in a book on the history of Hurley church in the middle ages which was published in 1898. He also wrote papers and gave many lectures on this subject.
Man of many talents
Florence did not spend all of his time at his writing desk or in the pulpit. He was fortunate enough to spend much time in Switzerland pursuing his hobby of Alpine climbing. Regarded as an authority on certain routes and climbs, correspondence from FT often filled the columns of the Alpine Clubs journals. In 1918 they politely called him "as vigorous a correspondent as ever". He retained an affinity for the Swiss communities that he visited and led fundraising efforts for the relief of those affected by avalanches and rock slips.
I have not mentioned much about Florence's family, which would make this post too long. But I will mention that Hurley church bears a memorial to his soldier son Lieutenant Harold who died of enteric fever in Lucknow, India in 1898. The plaque was put up by the officers of his regiment. Florence himself passed away in 1919.
N.B if you were wondering what horticultural advice Florence had I will pass on an example tip. If you need to get snow off conifers without damaging them, use a long handled hay rake for the task. Now you know.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day
More information:
To find other posts about Hurley see the index here
To read about how the "horseless carriage" was received in Marlow see the post here
Sources :
Ten Days Hard Work In The Zermatt District BY THE REV. F. T. WETHERED. Read before the Alpine Club, December 16, 1875.
Conway, William Martin - The Zermatt Pocket-book: A Guide-book to the Pennine Alps, Edward Stanford 1881
The Ecclesiastical gazette, or, Monthly register of the affairs of the Church of England. United Kingdom, n.p, 1867 & 1868
Wethered, Florence Thomas. St. Mary's Hurley in the Middle Ages: Based on Hurley Charters and Deeds. United Kingdom, Bedford Press, 1898.
Reading Mercury January 20th 1894, March 30th 1918
South Bucks standard 24th December 1887, 28th Jan 1898, 1st December 1905
Maidenhead Advertiser 9th October 1872, 28th December 1887, 18th March 1903 & 20th November 1904.
Hurley census record returns from the transcript by Jane Pullinger.
Newspaper cutting 1st June 1894 (Reading Mercury?) with thanks to Enid.
The Field, September 1873.
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