CHURCHES.
A priest was recorded at Painswick
in 1086 (fn. 42) and the church there was granted to
Llanthony Priory by Hugh de Lacy before 1096. (fn. 43)
A vicarage had possibly been ordained by 1237 when
Warin de Munchensy confirmed the advowson of
Painswick to Llanthony Priory and was given the
right to appoint three canons at Llanthony in perpetuity to celebrate mass for the souls of him and
his heirs. (fn. 44) The living was certainly a vicarage by
1291 (fn. 45) and has remained one. In 1395 Llanthony
Priory was licensed to appropriate the vicarage and
serve the cure by members of the community but
the grant was evidently not acted upon. (fn. 46) During the
19th century the growth of the outlying settlements
resulted in the establishment of district churches at
Sheepscombe, Slad, and Edge, and a mission chapel
at Uplands. (fn. 47)
At the Dissolution the advowson passed with the
rectory (fn. 48) to the Crown but the next presentation was
made by David Pole, later bishop of Peterborough,
who had received a lease of the advowson from the
priory. (fn. 49) The Crown granted the advowson to Sir
Christopher Hatton in 1579 (fn. 50) but there was some
confusion about its ownership (fn. 51) until it passed to Sir
Henry Winston before 1599. (fn. 52) In 1613 the advowson
was conveyed by Giles Winston to Winifred and
Thomas Bond (fn. 53) who sold it to Nicholas Hampson in
1617. (fn. 54) Thomas Bingle of Hardwicke presented for
one turn in 1622. (fn. 55) Before 1642 a Puritan element in
the town promoted the purchase of the advowson by
the parishioners, who presented through trustees,
although the first presentation was reserved to the
Heydon family of Shipton Solers. (fn. 56) The terms
which governed the presentation of the vicar were
vague and the loss of the original deed of purchase
led to a number of disputes. At various times the
trustees tried to limit the right of election to the
chief inhabitants of the parish or to those who had
received the sacrament in the year preceding the
vacancy in the living, but no satisfactory solution was
found, and the acrimony and expense involved in
successive elections (fn. 57) ceased only with the sale of the
advowson in 1838. (fn. 58) Later the advowson passed
through a number of owners, who usually appointed
relations to the living, (fn. 59) until 1899 when C. W. D.
Perrins exchanged it with the Lord Chancellor, (fn. 60)
patron in 1972. (fn. 61)
The vicarage was worth £7 yearly in 1291 (fn. 62) and
£14 15s. 1½d. in 1535. (fn. 63) In addition to the small
tithes, a vicarage house and 45½ a. of glebe land were
attached to the living in 1612, (fn. 64) and the yearly income in 1650 was £80. (fn. 65) In 1679 the vicar paid an
annual pension of £1 9s. to the Crown but this had
ceased by the early 18th century (fn. 66) when the value of
the living remained at £80 yearly. (fn. 67) In 1750 the
living was worth £150 yearly, (fn. 68) but it had increased
to £550 by 1817 (fn. 69) and remained at that figure in
1856. (fn. 70) In 1839 the small tithes of the parish were
commuted for a corn-rent of £426. (fn. 71) There was a
new-built vicarage house in 1704, (fn. 72) and it was restored in 1806. (fn. 73) In 1872 a new house was built at the
east end of Vicarage Street to the designs of A. W.
Maberly. (fn. 74) The house, in the Gothic style with a
crenellated parapet, was sold c. 1913, (fn. 75) and the incumbent resided in a small early-18th-century house
called Loveday's House, at the east end of the
churchyard, in 1972.
Of the medieval vicars of Painswick John of Aston,
instituted in 1297, (fn. 76) and Matthew of Haresfield,
vicar from 1366, (fn. 77) were probably local men. John
Buck, vicar in 1385, (fn. 78) was reinstituted in 1403, (fn. 79)
possibly to confirm his title against John Launder
with whom he was in dispute in 1389. (fn. 80) A John
Launder, possibly the same man, was instituted to
the living in 1427. (fn. 81) Patrick Corbett, vicar in 1532 (fn. 82)
and until his death in 1548, (fn. 83) was assisted by three
curates in 1540, one of whom was an ex-religious,
John Haskyns, and another, William Corbett,
presumably a relation. William Corbett, whose
stipend was paid by Sir Anthony Kingston, (fn. 84) also
served the chantry dedicated to Our Lady, which
had been founded in Painswick church before 1443 (fn. 85)
by Walter Collins, (fn. 86) one of a family of customary
tenants. (fn. 87) Part of the chantry lands, which were
worth 10s. 7½d. clear in 1548, was farmed by Sir
Anthony Kingston. (fn. 88) Patrick Corbett was succeeded
as vicar by John Williams (fn. 89) who was assisted in 1551
by an unlearned curate. (fn. 90) A tradition that Richard
Cheyney, later bishop of Gloucester, served the
living at about this time (fn. 91) has not been substantiated,
and Williams was succeeded as vicar by Lawrence
Gase in 1554. (fn. 92) The vicar in 1576, Anthony Higgins,
was a pluralist who neglected his cure and had leased
part of the living. (fn. 93) From 1585 until 1590 the living
was held in commendam by John Bullingham, bishop
of Gloucester, who was succeeded at Painswick by
Robert Edwards, (fn. 94) described as a sufficient scholar
but not qualified to preach. (fn. 95)
Francis Yate, vicar from 1599 until 1622, (fn. 96) who
held Painswick in plurality with Standish, (fn. 97) was
succeeded by William Acson, who resigned in 1641 (fn. 98)
having been in trouble with the High Commission. (fn. 99)
Acson's successor Thomas Wild, whom he had
prosecuted before the High Commission in 1639, (fn. 1)
was ejected c. 1644 by the inhabitants of Painswick
in favour of the Puritan George Dorwood, (fn. 2) later a
signatory of The Gloucestershire Ministers' Testimony; (fn. 3) Dorwood remained at Painswick until his
death in 1686. (fn. 4) John Downs, vicar from 1701 to
1736, held Painswick in plurality with Sedgeberrow
(Worcs.). John Moseley, elected vicar in 1762 (fn. 5) in a
hotly disputed contest, took ten years to secure his
title, and after his death in 1794 (fn. 6) the living was again
the subject of litigation because the trustees refused
to present John Fearon, who had been elected by the
inhabitants. Fearon secured a decision in his favour
in 1807 (fn. 7) but the expenses involved in securing his
rights prevented him from residing at Painswick
which was served by curates while he ran a boys'
school in Liverpool. After Fearon's death the last
election for a vicar took place in 1823. (fn. 8) W. H.
Seddon, vicar from 1885 to 1890 and again from
1897 to 1917, was very active in local affairs during
his tenure of office. (fn. 9)
The parish church of ST. MARY (fn. 10) apparently
occupies the site of the church recorded in the late
11th century and is built of limestone ashlar with
stone slate roofs. The present church comprises
sanctuary, chancel with north and south chapels and
south vestry, aisled nave with south porch, and west
tower with stone spire. (fn. 11) The oldest part of the fabric
appears to be the north chapel, the manorial chapel,
which was built in the late 14th or early 15th century.
A sanctuary was added to the east end of the chancel
during the 15th century, possibly to accommodate
the chantry; the sanctuary was later the vicar's
responsibility while the chancel belonged to the rectory. (fn. 12) Later in the 15th century the five-bayed nave,
the north aisle, and the west tower were built, and in
1505 the church also contained a chapel, possibly the
south chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. (fn. 13) The
spire was possibly added or repaired in 1632. (fn. 14) In
1741 a classical south aisle with an arcade of Doric
columns, designed by Brice Seed, was added by a
group of leading inhabitants to house proprietary
seats, (fn. 15) and a round-headed east window was inserted in the sanctuary. Galleries were later added in
the aisles and the west end of the nave. (fn. 16) The church
was restored during 1879 and 1880 when the south
chapel and aisle had arcades inserted to match
those on the north, a south doorway was opened to
the nave, the galleries were removed, the sanctuary,
chancel, and nave reroofed, and most of the fittings
replaced. In 1883 the top of the church spire was
damaged by lightning and rebuilt. Further restoration took place in 1890 when the south chapel was
extended eastwards, the fenestration on the south
made compatible with that on the north, and a south
vestry built. (fn. 17) A south porch was added in 1968. (fn. 18)
A memorial to John Seaman (d. 1623), attributed
to Samuel Baldwin, stood in the sanctuary but was
broken up in the later 18th century and the figures of
Seaman and his wife were placed on the 15th-century
tomb-chest beneath a 16th-century canopy which
remained from the Kingston monument in the north
chapel. (fn. 19) A stone altar-piece designed by John Bryan
in 1743 was removed to the south chapel at the restoration, and some wall monuments dating from the
18th century remain in the church. (fn. 20) The peal of ten
bells, cast or recast by Abraham Rudhall in 1731,
had a further two added by John Rudhall in 1821,
and was well known locally until the disbandment of
the Ringers' Society in 1862. The two bells of John
Rudhall were recast in 1887 and the society was
revived in 1895. The bells were later repaired and
rehung, some of the wood from the belfry being incorporated in the lych-gate built in 1901. (fn. 21) The plate
includes chalices of 1646 and 1664, a paten of 1722,
and a flagon of 1721. (fn. 22) The parish registers survive
from 1547. (fn. 23)
The churchyard is notable for its clipped yews and
for the richly carved, 18th-century tombs attributed
to the Bryan family. (fn. 24) The ceremony of clipping
(encircling the church with a ring of children),
known to have been performed intermittently in the
early 19th century, was revived as an annual event
in 1897. (fn. 25)
A church at Sheepscombe, dedicated to ST.
JOHN and comprising a nave and a small tower, was
built to designs of John Wight of Sheepscombe in
1820 (fn. 26) and was extended by the addition of a
chancel, south aisle, and vestry designed by Francis
Niblett in 1872. (fn. 27) It was served by a curate, who received a salary derived mainly from a grant from
Queen Anne's Bounty in 1821, but it remained a
chapel of ease to the parish church (fn. 28) until 1844 when
it was given an ecclesiastical district. (fn. 29) The living,
a perpetual curacy later called a vicarage, was in the
gift of the vicar of Painswick. (fn. 30) It has often been
served by clerics of evangelical sympathies. (fn. 31)
A chapel, dedicated to the HOLY TRINITY and
comprising chancel and nave designed by Charles
Baker of Painswick, (fn. 32) was opened at Slad in 1834. (fn. 33)
A gallery was added in 1836 (fn. 34) but removed in 1869
when a north aisle and porch were added to designs
of Benjamin Bucknall. (fn. 35) The church was given its
own ecclesiastical district in 1844 (fn. 36) and was served
by perpetual curates, later called vicars, presented
by the vicar of Painswick. (fn. 37) An iron mission hut,
erected c. 1868 for the new housing estate at Uplands
in the ecclesiastical district, was later moved to
another site and maintained by T. M. Croome until
1875. It remained in use (fn. 38) until 1910 when a new
chapel, dedicated to All Saints and comprising sanctuary, nave, south aisle, and west tower, designed by
Temple Moore, was opened at Uplands. (fn. 39) The
benefice was thereafter called Slad with Uplands.
A chapel of ease, dedicated to ST. JOHN THE
BAPTIST and comprising chancel, nave, and east
porch with small spire, designed by S. W. Daukes, (fn. 40)
was consecrated at Edge in 1865. (fn. 41) In 1873 Edge
ecclesiastical district was created from parts of the
parishes of Painswick, Harescombe, Haresfield, and
Brookthorpe with Whaddon (fn. 42) and the living became
a vicarage in the gift of the bishop. (fn. 43) The benefice
was united with the living of Pitchcombe in 1932. (fn. 44)