▶Date of birth:  (bapt) 11 November 1820        Place of birth: Woodchester, Gloucestershire

▶Father: Obdiah Paul Wathen      Mother:  Margaret Bateman

▶Spouse(s):   Emma Maria Louisa Andrew     Date(s) of marriage:   6 August 1851    Place(s) of marriage:  St Paul’s, Compstall, Lancashire

▶Occupation: Tutor, Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: John Bateman Wathen lived in Pittville for some of the time he was a Curate in Prestbury. He was born in Woodchester, Gloucestershire (baptised 1820), the second son of Obadiah Paul Wathen, clothier and Magistrate for Gloucestershire, and his wife Margaret Bateman, who lived in Pittville in the 1840s and early 1850s. He worked as a Tutor in Gloucester at the time of the 1841 census, and matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford in 1843, BA 1847, MA 1850.

Wathen was ordained Deacon in 1847, and Priest (both Gloucester and Bristol) in 1849. In 1847 he was licensed Curate of Prestbury, Gloucestershire; between 1848 and 1851 he lived with his father and family at 12 Pittville Villas (now 44 Prestbury Road), Cheltenham.

In August 1851 he married Emma Maria Louisa, third daughter of George Andrew Esq., of Green Hill, Cheshire, and the couple moved to Yew Tree Cottage in Prestbury High Street, nearer to his church and parishioners; they had three daughters and two sons.

He became Curate of St Mary’s Chapel, Barnard’s Green, Worcestershire, in 1857, and in the same year became the first Rector of the Consolidated Chapelry of Guarlford in Worcestershire, where he remained with his family for forty-eight years. During this time he served as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer for eight years of the Malvern Rural Hospital, for nine years for the Malvern National Schools, and acted as Chairman of Guarlford Parish Council for ten years, where he was indefatigable in his support of parochial educational facilities.

Wathen spent his last months in Rhyl, Flintshire, and died at St Asaph, Denbighshire in 1906, in his mid-eighties; he was buried back at Guarlford in Worcestershire.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Oxford      Moved from Pittville to:Barnard’s Green, Worcestershire

▶Date of death:  5 January 1906      Place of death: St Asaph, Denbighshire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial: St Mary’s Church, Guarlford, Worcestershire

▶Notes:        ID: 8335

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden