Joseph Greenwaye Knapp (1823-1902) first conducted services at Badsey in November 1850 when he officiated at two baptisms. He was then Curate of Bengeworth and was standing in for Badsey’s Curate, Edmund Boggis. It was then not until the 1870s that Reverend Knapp officiated at further services when he stood in for the Vicar, the Reverend Thomas Hunt, on the occasion of two baptisms and two burials at Badsey and Wickhamford.
Joseph Greenwaye Knapp was born at Claines, Worcestershire, in 1823, the eldest of four children of Joseph Knapp and his wife, Eliza (née Walters). He entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 5th July 1843, gaining BA in 1847.
Joseph was ordained deacon at Worcester in 1848 and a priest in 1849. From 1848 he was Curate of Doddenham and Knightwick and in 1850 he became Curate of Bengeworth. A glowing testimony of his work at Bengeworth appeared in The Worcestershire Chronicle of 13th December 1854, when the death of the Vicar, John Shaw, was reported:
The Rev John Shaw, Vicar of Bengeworth, died on Friday morning ….. The congregation will the more regret his demise from the fact that it will cause the removal of Mr Knapp, whose services are so highly appreciated that a proposition has been made to raise by subscription a sum to purchase the living for presentation, in order to retain his services.
Joseph remained in touch with the Shaw family after the death of Reverend John Shaw, as in 1888 he was executor of the will of Reverend Shaw’s daughter, Mary Lucy Shaw.
From 1853-1869 Joseph was Curate-in-charge of Church and Cow Honeybourne, then being appointed Vicar of Cow Honeybourne in 1869 following the death of the absentee Vicar, William Baldwin Bonaker. In 1874 he became Vicar of Great and Little Hampton, a post which he held until his death.
In 1858, Joseph married Chrysogen Maria Beale Cooper (known as Maria), daughter of Thomas Beale Cooper of the Mansion House, Bengeworth. They had two sons: Oswald Greenwaye (1859-1947) and Charles Frederick Cooper (1870). Oswald was born at Church Honeybourne but, by the time of Charles’ birth, they were living at the Mansion House, Coopers Lane, Bengeworth, where they remained for the rest of their days.
Reverend Knapp died at The Mansion House on 15th March 1902 and was buried at Hampton. Chrysogen Maria Knapp died in 1906.