256 WHITE 



June 1631, Ralph Austine, vicar. 



July 1632, John Longworth. This unfortunate gentleman, 

 living in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, was deprived of 

 his preferment for many years, probably because he would 

 not take the league and covenant; for I observe that his 

 father-in-law, the Reverend Jethro Beal, rector of Faringdon, 

 which is the next parish, enjoyed his benefice during the 

 whole of that unhappy period. Longworth, after he was dis- 

 possessed, retired to a little tenement about one hundred and 

 fifty yards from the church, where he earned a small pittance 

 by the practice of physic. During those dismal times it was 

 not uncommon for the deposed clergy to take up a medical 

 character; as was the case in particular, I know, with the Rev- 

 erend Mr. Yalden, rector of Compton, near Guildford, in the 

 county of Surrey. Vicar Longworth used frequently to men- 

 tion to his sons, who told it to my relations, that, the Sunday 

 after his deprivation, his puritanical successor stepped into the 

 pulpit with no small petulance and exultation : and began his 

 sermon from Psalm xx. 8, " They are brought down and fallen ; 

 but we are risen and stand upright." This person lived to be 

 restored in 1660, and continued vicar for eighteen years; but 

 was so impoverished by his misfortunes, that he left the vicar- 

 age-house and premises in a very abject and dilapidated state. 



July 1678. Richard Byfield, who left eighty pounds by 

 will, the interest to be applied to apprentice out poor chil- 

 dren; but this money, lent on private security, was in danger 

 of being lost, and the bequest remained in an unsettled state 

 for near twenty years, till 1700 ; so that little or no advantage 

 was derived from it. About the year 1759 it was again in the 

 utmost danger by the failure of a borrower ; but, by prudent 

 management, has since been raised to one hundred pounds 

 stock in the three per cents reduced. The trustees are the 

 vicar and the renters or owners of Temple, Priory, Grange, 

 Blackmore, and Oakhanger House, for the time being. This 

 gentleman seemed inclined to have put the vicarial premises 

 in a comfortable state ; and began by building a solid stone 

 wall round the front court, and another in the lower yard, 

 between that and the neighboring garden; but was inter- 

 rupted by death from fulfilling his laudable intentions. 



