159 
To return to the old book. There were no less than five vicars 
at Penrith in seven years; but in the year 1669 a very worthy 
man—John Child—was appointed, who held the living doing his 
duty faithfully for twenty-three years. After him, for five years, 
there was a Mr. Farrington; and in 1699 a new era in parochial 
life began, by the collation of the learned and indefatigable Dr. 
Hugh Todd, who immediately became a power in the parish. 
Dr. Todd was born at Blencowe about 1660, was educated at 
Queen’s College, Oxford. He was learned as a divine, and 
accounted a great authority as an antiquarian. He was a pre- 
bendary of Carlisle Cathedral as well as vicar of Penrith. On 
coming to the living he at once took in hand the Grammar School 
and instituted many reforms and renovations, as the school account 
book kept by himself plainly shows. The Doctor was evidently a 
stickler for church discipline, as a result of which there is in the 
churchwardens’ book a note in the Doctor’s own well-known hand, 
which one finds it difficult to believe could have occurred so late 
in Protestant times. This is it: “May 12, 1700. Susana Hen- 
derson was relaxed (ie. relieved) from excommunication, and 
performed penance according to the canon. The congregation 
gave in charity to her (bastard) child 8s. and 1od., it being sick, 
and she poor.” It appears then, that the ancient rag of priestly 
tyranny—excommunication—was still occasionally brought out, 
and seven years later Dr. Todd himself got a taste of it, for the 
bishop excommunicated him. 
Jefferson’s account of it is this. In the year 1707, on the 
appointment of that fiery spirit, Dr. Atterbury, to the deanery of 
Carlisle, Dr. Todd became involved in a most unhappy dispute 
with Bishop Nicolson, who at length suspended him and then 
excommunicated him. The Doctor petitioned the House of 
Commons, who allowed him to be heard by counsel. We hear 
nothing, however, in his case about penance, as in that of poor 
Susana Henderson. Bishop Nicolson and Dr. Todd were, how- 
ever, soon after on the most friendly terms, and the Doctor none 
the worse for the Bishop’s ban. Dr. Todd’s great work at Penrith 
was the building of the present church, which occupied his great 
energies for several years, and was completed in 1722, 
