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1781-1783 – Joshua Jennings

Joshua Jennings was Curate at Badsey and Wickhamford during the tenure of the Vicar, the Reverend John Rawlins.  The list of Curates in the Church of St James, Badsey, indicates that Joshua Jennings became Curate in 1781 and was followed by Henry Seward in 1782, but it would appear that both served as Curate in 1783 as Jennings and Seward each conducted two wedding ceremonies at Badsey in 1783.

Joshua Jennings was born at Arrow, Warwickshire, on 16th June 1749, the son of Joshua Jennings, Rector of Arrow, and his wife, Jane.  He was baptized at Arrow on 24th October 1749.  He was just a year old when his father died the following June.

Joshua entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in October 1876.  The Clergy of the Church of England database (CCEd) reveals that he was ordained as a deacon on 10th October 1777 and appointed Curate of Binton on 12th October 1777.

After Badsey, Reverend Jennings then became Curate of the neighbouring village of Offenham.  He returned to Badsey on two occasions, one in 1790 and one in 1792, to conduct marriage ceremonies; he was then described as Curate of Offenham.  A list of the “Principal Residents of Evesham, 1791” lists Reverend Joshua Jennings under Clergy.

The CCEd also reveals that on 15th March 1793, Jennings was appointed Rector of Bremilham in Wiltshire, an appointment which he held until his death.  The tiny church at Bremilham has the distinction in the 21st century of being in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest “in service” church in England.  

Reverend Jennings died at Evesham on 8th May 1804; a copy of his will is held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the National Archives and online at Ancestry.  He had never married and he requested that his body be interred in the vault at Arrow where his parents were interred.