South Leverton All Saints

List of Incumbents

William II gave the church of South Leverton, as part of the manor of Mansfield, to the Bishop of Lincoln in 1093. In 1194 it was assigned to the Dean of Lincoln. There is no record of the building of a vicarage but it was done by 1279. The Dean of Lincoln was the patron until 1834, then the Bishop of Lincoln by 1867. In 1884, along with the rest of the county, it became part of the Diocese of Southwell and the parish came under the patronage of the Bishop of Southwell. In 1952 by Order of Council it was united with North Leverton.

Vicars

Date Name
By 1298/9 Mauger mentioned
10 June 1323 Robert de Bilburgh
4 Oct. 1323 William de Allerton
1332 Simon de Wrangel
-- Robert de Ballio
1334 John (son of Simon of South Leverton)
19 Aug. 1350 William de Ledes
1363 John de Ancaster
1371 Thomas de Langwath
1381 William de Moreton
-- John de Belton
1401 Robert Sybthorp
1402 John Gote
1408 Robert Tankerley
1421 John Stokes
1421/2 William Thrumpton
-- William Bytam
1431/2 Roger Cowper
1440 Roger Swannard
1448/9 John Preston
1457/8 William Couper
1484/5 John O Kedeyn
1516 Robert Foster
1535 John Tookyll
1555 John Scotte
1567/8 Richard Hyndley
1582 Richard Hunte
1618 Robert Helme
1620 Richard Mustion (Muston?)
by 1649 Thomas Dunville
c 1656 Martin Horbury
1663 Francis Thorpe
1679 Daniel Draycott
1686 Stephen Master
1694 Henry Gaches
1699 John Charlesworth
1725 Thomas Edwards
1749 Thomas Hurst
1771 Richard Tilliard
1779 Samuel Simon Lawry (sequestered for debt of £500 in 1792)
1806 John Cleaver
1834 John Mickle
1867 Edward Cayler
1885 Alfred Thornley
1904 Alfred Edward Clarke
1931 Cecil Ernest Alford
1941 John Garland de Quincy Mears
1951 Reginald John Wagstaff
1956 Sydney George Ernest Wright
1961 Lindsay Hopkin Morgan
1964 Claud Wilfred Billington
1979 Roy Akerman
2003-6 J Martin Leaton
2008- Felicity E Ferriter

Notes on Some of the Clergy

Richard Hunte (1582)

A “frequenter of alehouses”

Richard Mustion (1620)

Richard Mustion (or Muston) was still in the parish in 1641 when he was listed on the Protestation returns. A puritan, he fled to Lincoln c1643, and there was a petition to the Earl of Newcastle to replace him by James Stevenson. This may have been the James Stephenson who was curate in St Peter’s, Habblesthorpe in 1641 at the time of the Protestation returns.

Henry Gaches (1694)

“A protestant refugee of France”. Probably Henry Gaches is one charged with seduction and attempt to procure abortion 17 August 1695.

John Cleaver (1806)

John Cleaver read the service himself once in 1807, but was never in the parish again. John Mickle, then vicar of North Leverton officiated in his place. White’s Directory of 1832 mentions the Rev John Mickle officiating but not the incumbent.

John Mickle (1834)

His greatest pre-occupation seems to have been making money. He shot himself with a horse pistol in 1866.

Alfred Thornley (1885)

Alfred Thornley was a student of entomology. His collection is in the Natural History Museum.

Reginald John Wagstaff (1951)

He had been a rubber planter in Malaysia. Failing sight prevented him becoming a missionary in China. He became blind but did all parochial work. He was vicar of North Leverton 1931-56. (The union of North and South Leverton churches by Order of Council took place in 1952.)