Religious Tolerance in Coughton

William Pearkes had the unenviable job of being Anglican vicar of a parish which was to a large extent Roman Catholic.The major landowners, the Throckmortons, were a prominent Catholic family and it was only natural that their stewards hired a great many workers belonging to the old faith.

In Quarter Sessions records of the late 17th century many Coughton and Sambourne residents were presented as recusants or for not attending the Anglican church. The situation had not changed much when Pearkes became vicar of Coughton on 16 April 1717 and it would be interesting to know how he got on with his R.C. neighbours -- open conflict or tolerance at a time when Catholics still had to be careful about admitting their adher ence to papist doctrines? (The Catholic church at Coughton was not built until the 1850s, when anti-Catholic feeling in the country had decreased)

William Pearkes (or Pirks) was baptised at St.Swithin’s, Worcester, on 6 October 1691, son of Benjamin Pirks. He may have been related to John Pearkes, rector of St.Nicholas, Worcester, (d.1706) and he also had relations in Stoke Prior and Bromsgrove. William attended University College, Oxford, and matriculated on 27 October 1709, aged 18: he became B.A. in 1713 and M.A. in 1716. in 1717 he was inducted into the vicarage of Coughton by Nathaniel Wilkins of Himbleton. Pearkes remained there until his death in 1767.

William had seven children - three daughters by his first wife, Martha, two daughters and a son by his second wife, Susanna and a son, Phineas, by his third wife, Mary. During his time in the parish the registers were well kept, with details of occupations and interesting entries which describe some of the tragedies and happenings in the parish, of great interest to modern readers, Births (not baptisms) of papists are also recorded. (Not every Anglican register mentions Catholic births at this time but most Catholic burials were within the parish churchyard).

There is no evidence of ill-will between Pearkes and any of his Catholic neighbours. All the Coughton people of Pearkes’ social standing were Catholic. He would have felt very isolated if he hadn’t fraternised with them. Indeed, he rented land from John Wilks on the Tucketts (or Tookeys) Farm estate in Astwood Bank. Wilks was a well-off Catholic in his own right and was also the Throckmortons’ steward. On 18 June 1760 Pearkes’ daughter, Ann, married John Wilks’ son; the register of the Coughton Court chapel records the wedding: married according to Roman ritual John Wiiks, Jnr. and Ann Pearkes. He is of this house and congregation but she is a Protestant. Their children were all baptised in the Catholic chapel and brought up as Catholics.

What did Ann’s father think about her marriage to Wilks? A good catch he was of a wealthy family - or a disgrace that she should be converted? We shall never know but it was not contrary, probably,to her father’s wishes. In 1765 Ann’s father- in-law, John Wilks, was buried, followed by her father, William Pearkes, two years later. I like to think of William Pearkes as an amiable academic, enjoying a friendly religious discussion with his neighbours and their Catholic priest, Mr. Gregory Greenwood, whom Pearkes buried in 1744. This rather romantic view of enlightened tolerance is probably quite erroneous!

Winter 1985 Index