▶Date of birth:  11 March 1800        Place of birth:  Bristol

▶Father: John Edwards, of St Michael’s, Bristol   Mother: Jane Wathen

▶Spouse(s): Elizabeth Milford     Date(s) of marriage:  15 January 1831     Place(s) of marriage: Prestbury, Gloucestershire

▶Occupation: Clergyman

▶Lifestory: John Edwards (later Baghot de la Bere) was the third son of John Edwards. He matriculated at Worcester College, Oxford in 1819, BA 1823, MA 1830. He was ordained Deacon in 1823, and Priest (both Gloucester) in 1824. In 1823 he was appointed Stipendiary Curate of Prestbury, and in 1825 became Vicar of Prestbury 1824, an office he held until 1860 (he was both the patron and vicar), when his son (with whom he shared a name), a controversialist and extreme Anglo-Catholic priest, took over. After 1860 the family lived on in Prestbury, and he remained a clergyman “without cure of souls”.

Between about 1880 and his death in 1886 he lived at 15 (now 67) Pittville Lawn, at the time of the 1881 census a clergyman “without cure of souls” living on interest from land, with his wife Elizabeth and four servants.

His family assumed the name Baghot de la Bere in 1879. He died 5 February 1886. His wealth at death was sworn at under £21.800.

His son, who succeeded him as Vicar of Prestbury, was suspended from his living through his ritualistic irregularities. ‘His services were described as being “rejected by the Protestant clergy of the established church, whilst Roman priests regard it as a mere sham”’ (N. Yates, Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain 1830-1910 (Oxford: 1999), 251. The ‘Prestbury Ritual Case’ was one of a number of high-profile ritualistic cases.

▶Moved to Pittville from: Prestbury, Gloucestershire     Moved from Pittville to: (deceased)

▶Date of death: 5 February 1886     Place of death: 15 (now 67) Pittville Lawn, Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:  9 February 1886       Place of burial: Prestbury, Gloucestershire

▶Notes:        ID: 1505

Contributor(s):  Alan Munden/John Simpson