The rise and decline of the squarson (with special reference to the diocese of Worcester)

• Main Author: Leatherdarrow, J. S.
• Published: University of Birmingham 1976
• Subjects: 253
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.462919

This essay deals explicitly with a subject which appears only to have been noticed inferentially by Church historians namely the emergence after the Restoration of a distinctive Anglican phenomenon, M The Squire-Parson or Squarson. It attempts, first, to rehabilitate the country parson from the classical strictures of T. B. Macaulay and to demonstrate that in the late 17th century the Anglican ministry was attaining a credibility which offered a respectable career to members of substantial County families. During the 18th century the squarsonical status grows and multiplys and the essay seeks a reason for this in'the expanding values of benefices due to favoured conditions of protected agriculture, The improved conditions of the clerical order are examined in the elevated standards of living symbolised in the impressive growth of clerical residences. Specific life styles are examined in brief biographies of three Worcestershire clergymen and the two final chapters are devoted to a detailed account of the tenure of one particular benefice, Martley in the Teme Valley, by a family of squarsons who entered upon the living in 1796 and held it until 1958.