Richard Child Willis

Richard Child Willis (4 March 1799 – 27 January 1877) was an English clergyman and convicted fraudster.

Early life[]

Little is known of Richard Child Willis's early life. He was born at Petworth in Sussex, third and only surviving child of Admiral Richard Willis and his wife Ann (nee Child), matriculated at University College, Oxford, on 15 December 1817, and graduated from there B.A. on 28 March 1822 and M.A. 17 Jun 1824. On 31 March 1822, two days after his B.A., he was ordained Deacon at St. George's, Hanover Square, by the Bishop of Ely, and the next day (1 April 1822) he was appointed curate at Albourne and at Twineham, both in Sussex. He was ordained priest in the Chapel of St Marylebone by the Bishop of Lincoln, 9 March 1823, and then appointed perpetual curate of North Stoke (Sussex, again) on 26 March 1823. He was married at Petworth, Sussex, on 24 January 1826 to Frances (Fanny), youngest daughter of William Hale esq., of that place, and the indications are that he spent this part of his life in Sussex – he bought a Sussex game licence in 1826 while living at Petworth, and played a single game of cricket for a Sussex XI, scoring 2 and 4 vs. England at Lords on 13–15 July 1829.^[1] England were dismissed for 248 runs in their first-innings, while in response Sussex were dismissed for just 48, with Willis being dismissed for 4 by James Burt. England were dismissed for 88 in their second-innings, leaving Sussex a target of 189 to chase. Sussex could only make 124 in their chase, with Willis being run out for 2.^[2]

Ravenhill[]

His mother Ann was the daughter of William Child, a Captain in the King's Light Dragoons. In 1763(5?) William Child leased the Peak Alum Works near Staintondale, in conjunction with ‘Joshua Child of Roberttown in the parish of Birstall’ and George Brooke of Wakefield, and apparently liked the area so much that in 1774 he built a house there, known variously as Peak House or Raven Hall or Ravenhill. In his will the house was left in trust for his daughter Mary until her death or marriage; and after that to his son William Gilbert Child and his heirs; and if there were none of them, equally to his daughters Mary Child and Ann Willis. Ann Willis outlived her brother and sister, neither of whom had heirs, and so inherited Ravenhill in 1825 on the death of her sister Mary.

Ann Willis died on 30 April 1835 and her son Richard Child Willis inherited Ravenhill, but only after a legal battle.^[3] The intention of his grandfather's will appears to have to been to leave the estate in fee tail, meaning that each generation had only a life interest in it and had to pass it on to their heirs. This was a device often used to ensure that feckless relatives did not squander away the family fortune. However, the Court of Chancery found that the will was wrongly worded and devised the estate to Ann Willis's heir (singular), rather than her heirs (plural) – or in other words, to her immediate heir Richard rather than all her future heirs in whatever generation they may be. Richard Child Willis's wife Frances was left an independent legacy of £200 a year; maybe her mother-in-law suspected that her husband might not be a reliable source of money.

The aim of his grandfather's will had been to ensure that the estate remained in the family and could not be lost. The court case revealed that his mother had also taken similar action in May 1833, but it was ruled invalid. She was obviously under no illusions about her son – in February 1833 he had raised an annuity against his future expectations – and sure enough, upon inheriting he proceeded to spend five years squandering his inheritance. Rumours of what he did and did not do abound; what is reasonably certain is that he immediately embarked on an extensive programme of building works, which included blasting some spectacular cliff terraces out of the sheer rock. At the end of the works, on 14 October 1836, a feast was given for the 90 men who had carried it out. Richard Child Willis was always generous – on the 6 May 1837, he was Whitby's largest contributor for the relief of the highlanders and islanders of Scotland.

What of the other rumours about him?^[4] Did he preach at Whitby in his shirt-sleeves? Probably – he was known to have ‘gifts in the pulpit’. Was George III treated at Ravenhill? Probably not – he died in 1808, well before the Willis's got their hands on it. Did he plant iron trees that jangled in the wind? Probably not – he may have planted ironwood, a hardy shrub. Was he reduced to selling a quack cure for insomnia at a guinea a time? No – there was a Victorian clergyman who did this, but his name was the Rev Dr William Willis Moseley. Did he gamble Ravenhill away on which of two woodlice would first make it to the edge of a saucer? Probably not – though he did gamble, and it didn't help his financial situation.

In 1840/41, the bank of Chapman Simpson at Whitby foreclosed on his mortgage. Whether this mortgage was the annuity mentioned in the court case is not known, but on 19 December 1840 it was reported that “Mr. HAMMOND begs respectfully to give Notice that he has had the Elegant FITTINGS and FURNITURE of RAVENHILL HALL REMOVED to the NEW HALL at SCARBOROUGH, TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION”.^[5] Mr Hammond was the auctioneer brought in to oversee the sale of the estate, and on 20/21 January 1841 he bought it himself. A week later, the Reverend Willis became the Reverend Doctor Willis, becoming (as a grand compounder) D.D. of the University of Oxford.^[6]

Buckinghamshire[]

Richard Child Willis appears to have left Yorkshire at this point. He resurfaces a year later, when on 2 June 1842 he wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln for permission to act as a curate for his cousin in Buckinghamshire:

Being a resident in the Parish of Haddenham, and desirous of assisting my relation (The Revd John Willis, the Vicar) in the parochial duties of Haddenham and Cuddington may I request your Lordship to give me a license for that purpose.^[7]

A week later, the Bishop received another letter – this one anonymous:

It having been communicated to me, that a Revd. D.D. of the name of Richard Child Willis, who either has, or is about to apply to you for a Licence to serve a Cure, – I admonish you to suspend granting it, till you have communicated with the Bishop of Exeter, the Rector of Falmouth, and the Vicar of Toller in Dorsetshire, the two last Incumbents, with whom he officiated as curate^[8]

The Rector of Falmouth reported tersely that Willis “served my curacy for several months on trial and that trial was not satisfactory and we parted.” Willis was licensed despite misgivings^[9] – “I fear that the person your Lordship spoke to me about will not turn out to be very reputable” – and turned out to be a success. The same anonymous letter writer wrote back to the Bishop the following year and reported that

it is with great satisfaction I have now the pleasure to inform your Lordship that the reverend gentleman named in my former letter has as I am told by several very respectable people in his Parish behaved himself in a very becoming and promise worthy manner and is much beloved by the Parishioners and that the dissenters now often go to Church as he is thought a fine preacher in short they say that he is become a new creature^[10]

The Rector of the neighbouring parish was less kind. Though he does not name names, he undoubtedly refers to Richard Child Willis:

A Doctor of Divinity - I have each of these statements on indisputable authority - only a year or two ago, lived for seven weeks in an Hotel in London under the name of Captain with a female, whom he left there to pay the cost; this said Doctor regularly speculates in the Derby Sweeps at Evans.^[11]

In 1843, cousin John Willis, the rector of Haddenham, was caught with a prostitute in Aylesbury, found drunk in a hayrick, and accused of being the worse for wear in the lectern. The Willis family was good at disreputability. He was suspended from his living for a year, but Richard's curacy seems to have continued – he was still conducting weddings at Haddenham in December 1844.^[12]

Imprisonment[]

In October 1845 Richard Child Willis was licensed to the Rectory of Warden, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. The patron was W. H. Witherby esq.;^[13] two of Willis's wife's sisters had married members of the Witherby family, so they were obviously still on speaking terms. Two years later he was also licensed to the perpetual curacy of the nearby parish of Minster in Sheppey, and he would hold both livings until his death. Holding two livings required a dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, but as the population of Warden was a mere 27 Willis was probably coping. More of a concern was money; Warden was valued at £70 and Minster at £169.^[14] £300 was probably the minimum income needed for a clergyman to survive, so Richard Child Willis was going to be short.

This, and the gambling, explains what happened next. Willis was entitled to money from Queen Anne's Bounty because the living was so poor, and got into the habit of promising it to people. Unfortunately, he promised it to more than one person at a time, so that although the first person to turn up at the Queens Anne's bounty office with Willis's receipt might get paid, the subsequent ones didn't. He first did this in 1848, which created some correspondence; on 11 April 1849 he did it again, going (with a lady!)

to Hatchett's Hotel, Piccadilly, and having run up a bill of 3l. 3s. 6d., he gave a cheque for 14l. 13s. 1d., and being known as a customer of the house, no suspicion was entertained, and the difference was handed over to him, the cheque, as in the other cases, turning out to be of no value.^[15]

On 9 April 1850 he was found guilty at the Old Bailey of obtaining money upon false pretences.^[16] For this he was sentenced to one year's hard labour, and as a consequence was enumerated in the 1851 census in Coldbath Fields Prison in Clerkenwell.

Remarriage[]

What he did next is unknown. He does not resurface until the 1861 census, which finds him at Wormley in Hertfordshire, where he has acquired a young bride:

This is a little surprising because his original wife Frances was alive and well, and living in Sussex with her sister and the Witherbys; she outlived him, and there was no divorce. Hester was officially Hester Kingston, baptised at Cameley, Somerset, on 17 June 1833, third daughter of John Kingston and Hester his wife. For the rest of his life, the exact nature of his relationship with her would cause Richard Child Willis problems.

He next appears on the Isle of Man, which presumably was remote enough that the Bishop there had not heard about him. His cousin John's son (also named John) had moved there in 1855, and they seem to have been friendly – in September 1863, the younger John named a son John Richard Child Willis,^[17] implying that Richard Child Willis was there at that point. In 1864, Richard Child Willis was reported to be the Curate of St Luke's, Baldwin, Isle of Man.^[18]

All was well until the Archbishop of Canterbury had cause to try and find out who was doing the duty back on the Isle of Sheppey:^[19]

I had some trouble in finding out where Dr Willis was residing, when Mr Bennett left Minster – at last I discovered that he was officiating in the Isle of Man – I wrote to the Bp, and he told me that he was so doing – and that he had in his house a person who passed as his wife – Now Dr Willis had and still has, a wife living in England. The Bishop informed Dr Willis that he had ascertained this fact, and accordingly he took his departure suddenly from the Island.

Before he did so however the Bishop had an interview with this female who passed as his wife, and she told him that about 10 years ago she was married to Dr Willis in Somersetshire: that after a while she discovered that he had a wife living, and from that time she ceased to cohabit with him. Now that they are in England she denies ever having said this to the Bishop – that Bishop however persists in his statement:– and the story they tell is, that she is the widow of a son of his; that she came to live in his house after her husband's death, and that, for certain family reasons with which she has not acquainted me, she consented to pass as his wife!

I am not in a position to prove the second marriage but under the most favourable point of view, it is a great scandal that with a wife living, he should have passed off another woman as his wife; and I have told him that under the circumstances I can never give him any countenance, adding that whenever I am asked about his character, I shall tell this much.

You are quite at liberty to show this to Mr Lewis and Mr Bryant – Will you let me know if this female is living in Dr Willis's house.

The letter is not dated, but appears to be 1869/70. Mr Bennett was Curate in Sole Charge of Minster in Sheppey and Chaplain to the Sheppey Union Workhouse from 1860 – 1866, so it appears that Richard Child Willis was on the Isle of Man until about 1866, and then returned to Sheppey; the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to sanction his appointment as Sheppey Union chaplain when he got back.^[20]

Return to Kent[]

Richard Child Willis spent the rest of his life on Sheppey, living in penury and in sin with Hester. The church hierarchy were well aware of both these things, but were unable or unwilling to do anything about it. A practically illegible letter^[21] dated 12 August 1870 says:

Dr Willis' antecedents (which are all within my own knowledge) are most unsatisfactory. I believe him to be devoid of any thing like principle. His earlier life was one of scandal.

It is quite probable that the woman who resides in[?] his establishment is or has been his mistress, and it is not unlikely that her child is his, but I see no means of arriving at proof of this. His story is that the person alluded to is a widow of a connection of his, and that her child is his adopted child - whose parents are living and can be found and that the child calls him 'Papa' but that this is no more than a natural habit, and means nothing.

He requests proof of any improper intercourse between himself and this "Mrs H. Willis". I feel sure none could be adduced - such proof could only be obtained from within the house and I have reason to believe that none such could be obtained.

If the archbishop should still desire to pursue the inquiry I see no other way of doing this other than by finding some stranger from Minster to make inquiry - but my impression is that such a step would lead to no useful result - the objections to any such proceeding at the insistence of His Grace are obvious.

I [??] - the advice I would venture to you is to do nothing trusting that Dr Willis continued money embarrassments may be the means of ridding the place of him.

No complaint appears to have come from his parish and my impression is that he is personally well liked by his people and that nothing to his prejudice could be extracted[?] from them

His meagre income would have taxed a more prudent man. The bailiffs were frequent visitors,^[22] and in 1872 he was declared bankrupt.^[23] Presumably this is why a friend got him presented to the vacant Buckinghamshire living of Drayton Parslow (worth £477)^[24] in 1876.

Given his reputation, it is no surprise that the Bishop of Oxford should have refused to institute him. The reason officially given was that Willis was non idoneus et minus sufficiens in literatura – literally, not fit and insufficiently learned. Willis responded by asking on what grounds was he not sufficiently learned – he was a Doctor of Divinity of Oxford University – and the Bishop said that he did not have to give grounds, because his judgement as a Bishop was final. The Court of Arches decided that the Bishop did have to explain his reasoning;^[25] was the standard he expected of Willis required by law as a prerequisite for institution?^[26]

The answer never emerged. On 27 January 1877 Richard Child Willis died at the Vicarage, Minster, aged 77, while the case was ongoing. His obituary in the local paper^[27] makes clear the affection in which he was held:

during these last ten years the Rev. Dr. Willis has been vicar of Minster, and well known for his able ministry and preaching. That he was beloved by all who knew him, and by his parishioners, and generally respected, we can testify; assiduous in his duties, his Church was never neglected, and he won the favourable opinion of all classes. To the poor he was ever considerate and kind, and was most respectfully treated by the Archbishop of his diocese (Canterbury). His urbanity, his eloquence as a preacher, and his finished elocution as a reader, drew numbers of people to hear him. Sunday after Sunday many persons from Sheerness wended their way to Minster for the express purpose of listening to the excellent and scholarly discourses of the venerable doctor. In summer the people literally flocked to hear him, so universal was his fame. We sincerely believe that he always lived as he has died, "in peace and harmony with all men," his dying words. It is thought that the worry caused by the litigation brought about by the Bishop of Oxford had a very depressing effect on Dr. Willis, and on the whole hastened his death. Sic itur ad astra.

His churchwarden went so far as to make a sworn statement to the Court of Arches:

The discussions which have taken place in this Court on the pleadings in this suit reports of which have appeared in the Public papers have I believe tended to do injustice to the memory of the late Vicar

Richard Child Willis was buried at Iwade, just off the Isle of Sheppey, and left everything to Hester. It came to less than £100.

Aftermath[]

They had trouble finding a new incumbent:

Minster-in-Sheppey, with its old Abbey church, and its ancient monuments, and tithe of £1,800 a year, has no vicar. The living is a poor one; the late vicar existed for some years on a stipend of £2 a week. The vicarage is in ruins and uninhabitable. The parish is an important one, as it includes Sheerness and Sheerness-on-Sea, with 15,000 inhabitants. With the church decaying, dirty, and going to ruin, and no vicar or probability of one being appointed, church affairs are at very low ebb in Sheppey.^[28]

It was only when the size of the living was increased that anybody would take it on,^[29] but at least Minster church was still standing. Richard Child Willis had suffered the indignity of seeing his other church, at Warden, demolished because encroachment by the sea had undermined the foundations. It had been semi-derelict for many years previous:

Much dissatisfaction exists in the Isle of Sheppey at the disgraceful state of Warden church. The noble pile, formerly an object of admiration to all visitors, will soon disappear from the face of the earth, and for no other reason than, that it has been entirely neglected, because the slipping down of the cliff had caused the walls to crack. It is truly stated that “the ruin now seen has been nearly all caused by the pilfering of the materials, and the wind and weather acting on the partly open and exposed building.” And yet while this goes on, and depredators help themselves to what they like, some one is drawing the money for the living, but the spiritual welfare of the parish is evidently not worth consideration.^[30]

What became of Hester, who was 33 years younger than Richard Child Willis? She ended up in Hastings, the matron-cum-proprietor of a children's home:

Over twenty years ago, when a district visitor in the parish of Gillingham, near Chatham, the neglect of orphan children which she witnessed led Mrs. Willis to take the matter up. Sometimes she would visit and cheer lonely little ones, whose fathers or mothers were away at work. But all her pleading could do little, and her friends suggested that she should herself start a Home for fatherless or motherless children. Anxious to make some voluntary effort, Mrs. Willis for three years, worked in connection with Dr Barnardo's Home for Girls. She returned to Gillingham, formed a ladies committee, and hired a house, by the name of which - Star Villa — the Orphanage has ever since been known, notwithstanding its removal from the original scene of its work. In December, 1888, the Home was established in its present quarters.

She seems to have run the Star Villa Children's Home in Godwin Road, Hastings until 1901, when it became the Calliope Balli Home and moved to St. Leonards. She died in Sussex in 1904.^[31]

And young Harry, his illegitimate son? In the 1881 census a Henry Willis, born at Lambeth in 1860, was listed as an ordinary seaman on board HMS Swift at Sheerness, though his entry was crossed out. And then he disappears.

References[]

External links[]

• Richard Willis at ESPNcricinfo
• Richard Willis at CricketArchive
• https://www.chradams.co.uk/willis/rcwillis.html