Lundy Foot
General information▶Date of birth: (baptised) 9 June 1793 Place of birth: Holly Park, Dublin, Ireland (baptised at St John’s Church, Dublin) ▶Father: Jeffery Foot Mother: Elinor Williams ▶Spouse(s): (1) Elizabeth Vicars; (2) Harriet Cunningham Date(s) of marriage: (1) 7 November 1817; (2) 28 November 1827 Place(s) of marriage: (1) Dublin, Ireland; (2) Harrow, Middlesex ▶Occupation: Clergyman (Church of Ireland) ▶Lifestory: Lundy Foot, a native of Dublin, was ordained in Dublin and came to England originally to rally support for the distressed Irish poor before being appointed a Dorset vicar. He was born at Holly Park, Dublin in 1793, the eldest son of merchant Jeffery Foot and his wife Elinor (née Williams); the family fortune derived from his grandfather Lundy Foot’s tobacco and snuff business. Foot matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin in 1810, BA 1815, MA 1824. He married Elizabeth Vicars in Dublin in late 1817; they had three sons before her death in 1825. In 1823 he was ordained Deacon, and in 1824 Priest (both Dublin). By 1824 he was a Curate at Whitechurch in Dublin, and by 1826 was regularly referred to as Minister of Whitechurch. In 1827 he married for a second time, to Harriet, daughter of the Revd. John William Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow, Middlesex, at Harrow (Cunningham was a strong Evangelical, disliked by Fanny Trollope for his views: see his Velvet cushion, published in 1814 and her Vicar of Wrexhill of 1837); they had one son and five daughters. He visited or resided in England from Dublin at this period, advocating strongly support for the Irish poor in distress. In 1827 he preached several sermons as Vicar of Whitechurch in Dublin for the Bristol and Clifton Association “for Promoting the Moral and Religious Improvement of Ireland”, and as part of the “Irish Deputation” returned again in 1829. In 1829 he was appointed Vicar of Longbredy in Dorset, where in 1831 he inaugurated a plan to encourage the “labouring poor” to keep their homes clean and tidy by offering prizes to the best-kept cottages. At least during the early part of his time at Longbredy. Foot and his household spent a considerable amount of time in Cheltenham. He lived in Cheltenham for much of the mid 1830s, and at 8 Pittville Parade (now 16 Evesham Road) in 1833; he purchased a subscription allowing him to take the waters at Pittville Pump Room. In 1833 he preached in Cheltenham forcefully in support of the Cheltenham and Alstone Infants’ Schools, as well as standing in as required for the Revd. Francis Close at the parish church and also preaching at Holy Trinity. In 1836 and 1837 he spoke to the London Irish (or Hibernian) Society; in 1837 he moved to Monson Villa (near Monson Avenue; formerly Croft House, demolished in 1871), which he leased. In 1837 he preached at St James’s Church in Suffolk Place, as Vicar of Longbredy. Foot’s wife died in 1839, at the age of forty. He remained associated with Cheltenham for two years or so after that, but as the 1840s drew on he was found more consistently at his own parish of Longbredy. At the time of the 1841 census he was installed in the Rectory House, Longbredy, as the Rector of the village, with four of his daughters. In 1854 he was appointed Prebend of Netherbury-in-Terra at Salisbury Cathedral. Foot maintained his interest in education and the relief of distress (especially through the Irish Society), and appealed in 1857 for funds to support the British in India suffering after by the Indian Mutiny. He lived at Longbredy for the remainder of his life, as its Rector; by 1871 he resided there with three daughters and his family servants. He died in the village in early 1873, at the age of seventy-eight, and where he was buried. His estate at death was valued at under £2,000. ▶Moved to Pittville from: Longbredy, Dorset Moved from Pittville to: Longbredy, Dorset ▶Date of death: 5 January 1873 Place of death: Longbredy, Dorset ▶Date of burial: 10 January 1873 Place of burial: Longbredy, Dorset ▶Notes: The Bishop of Oxford (Samuel Wilberforce) described Fanny Trollope’s book as ‘a most abominable personal attack’, 23 January 1838: see A R Ashwell, The life of Samuel Wilberforce (London, 1880), p. 1, p. 114. ID: 19378 Contributor(s): John Simpson
Found no family members on the Pittville History Works Database (based on “relation to head” in the 1841-1911 census records and 1939 register records) |