On this day … 14 August 1812

The Rev. Humphrey Shuttleworth, vicar of Preston until he resigned in 1809, died. He was one of a long line of Preston’s Anglican clergymen bitterly hostile to the town’s Catholics, stretching back to the Rev Samuel Peploe at the beginning of the eighteenth century and on into the nineteenth, when they were encouraged by a later vicar, the Rev John Owen Parr.

In his History of Preston, Peter Whittle, himself a Catholic, described the Rev Shuttleworth, who was appointed in 1782, as follows:

‘… a man of truly singular and eccentric habits, but of a generous and charitable disposition; he died August 14th, 1812, aged 76, and was interred in the parish church of Kirkham, August 21st. He wrote a work on polemics, entitled, “Lectures on the creed of Pope Pius the 4th,” together with many miscellaneous tracts against the growth of popery in these parts.’

Sadly, Whittle doesn’t say what was ‘singular and eccentric’ about his habits. Perhaps a clue lies in the fact that he was known as ‘Old Mumps’.

Preston wasn’t his first appointment. In 1771, according to Fishwick in his History of Preston, he had been appointed vicar of Kirkham, and he remained vicar of both towns until he resigned his Preston post. He continued as Kirkham vicar until his death, and was buried there. His wife, Anne, granddaughter of Sir Charles Hoghton, who predeceased him, was buried at Walton-le-Dale.

In his History of Kirkham, Fishwick writes:

‘Although he resigned the vicarage of Preston in 1809, he still continued to reside there, going to Kirkham only on Easter Sunday or on other special occasions; his curate, the rev. Thomas Stephenson, being left in charge.’

His second son, Philip, was educated at Preston Grammar School and had a distinguished career, with posts including Warden of New College, Oxford, and Bishop of Chichester.

In addition to his religious duties, the older Shuttleworth held an important political and social position in the town. At the 1802 Guild he led the ladies’ procession with the Queen of the Guild, who at that guild was the mayoress. Whittle describes the procession, which gives a flavour of the social importance of Preston at that date. They were, Whittle says, followed by:

‘Lady Stanley, daughter of the Earl of Derby, and Lady Anne Lindsay; Lady Susan Carpenter, and the Hon. Mrs. Cawthorne; Lady Gerrard, and Lady Hoghton; Lady Jerningham, and Lady Fitzgerald. Several other baronets’ ladies, and the residue of the other ladies followed, walking in pairs, in all nearly four hundred in number, consisting of the most noble and distinguished ladies in this and the neighbouring counties. They were superbly attired, and elegantly adorned with a profusion of the most inestimable jewels.’