Header image: A composite of three old picture postcards of St.Nicholas church

History of Sutton in St.Helens, Lancashire
Sutton Beauty's History & Heritage Pages

Part 5) Rev. Henry Vallancey, the first Vicar of Sutton Church

Written and researched by S.R.Wainwright for Sutton Beauty & Heritage © MMVIII

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Rev. HEFV Vallancey - first vicar of Sutton Church (St.Nicholas), St.Helens
As described on Sutton Beauty & Heritage's Religion & Education page, Rev. Henry Vallancey was an influential figure in Sutton during the second half of the nineteenth century. He was the first vicar of St.Nicholas / Sutton Church and he ministered to the denizens of his parish for a remarkable thirty-nine years. Vallancey was also the driving force behind the creation of Sutton National Schools and was responsible for many local children receiving an education.

He was a respected man of the church who had sufficient clout to chide the great and the good when he felt they weren't coughing up enough cash for his projects. This he did on 28th March, 1856 in a stern letter to Sutton landowner Ellen Hughes, widow of Michael Hughes (I), which he prefaced with the words:
Pasted Graphic 1  You will pardon me, I trust, for what I am going to say for I must speak out very plainly.  Pasted Graphic 3
He then demanded £100 a year for his new schools or land in lieu, which Mrs. Hughes promptly obliged.

Rev. HEFV Vallancey - first vicar of Sutton Church (St.Nicholas), St.Helens
However, the long-standing Sutton cleric hadn't always been so good himself and Vallancey concealed a secret throughout the four decades that he served his Sutton flock. I wonder what Mrs. Hughes would have made - or members of his own congregation who had to listen to his stern sermons - of a revelation that their vicar was a father of twin, illegitimate sons?

Henry Edward Francis Vallancey (1807 - 1888) came from a remarkable military family, who are worthy of some exposition here. His grandfather, General Charles Vallancey (1725 - 1812), was born to Huguenots in England but served in Ireland in the Royal Engineers as Chief Engineer, engineering many of the old fortifications of Ireland.

The famed General Vallancey also acted as a military surveyor and was a founder of the Royal Irish Academy with a keen interest in antiquarian writings and Irish folklore. It has been claimed that he was the first practitioner of ethnology in Ireland.

Signature of George Preston Vallancey

Henry's father was Colonel George Preston Vallancey (1747 - 1809) who fought in America during the American War of Independence with the rank of Lieutenant and met General George Washington on November 12th, 1777 after the future first President of the United States granted him safe passage to Philadelphia. Despite their enemy status, his treatment by Washington was said to have been "polite and noble".

After the death of his first wife, Colonel Vallancey married Isabella Humphrys (c.1772-1849) in 1792, and Henry, the future vicar of Sutton, was the seventh and last child that he fathered with his two wives. By 1807, the year of Henry's birth, Colonel Vallancey had been made adjutant to the Staffordshire Militia at the Royal Barracks at Windsor. The militia acted as King George III's bodyguard and the colonel was on intimate terms with the monarch. It has been said that young Henry's first friends were the king's own children.

Henry studied at Eton until 1827 and then at King's College, Cambridge up to 1831 when he was ordained as a deacon at Buckendon, Hunts which was the seat of the Bishop of Lincoln. The Bishop of Chichester ordained him as a priest in 1835 and Vallancey served in Norwich, Bricet and Wattisham in Suffolk and Rochford in Essex. From 1843 until 1849 he acted as chaplain to the first Bishop of Guiana (Guyana) before arriving in Sutton to take up his post as the first vicar of Sutton parish, which he held until his death on September 19th, 1888.

Times report from 1841 of Captain Vallancey's campaign against Thugees in India
The Times report from 07/05/1841 - click for full story

Although Henry turned his back on the army to serve God and Sutton, his brothers continued the family military tradition. Captain Richard Vallancey (1787 - 1867) served with Wellington during the Peninsular Campaign and was twice at Paris with British troops. Captain George Preston Vallancey (1806 - 1878) spent much time in India where he became Assistant Government Superintendent for the Suppression of Thuggee. He had responsibility for clearing the Indian network of secret fraternities who murdered and robbed travellers. It has been claimed that up to two million people were disposed of by the 'thuggs', who often used the yellow Rumaal scarf to strangle their unsuspecting victims after first befriending them. This, incidentally, is the derivation of the English term "thug".

Whilst in India, George married Harriett Garrett (1817 - 1858), a daughter of Sir George Garrett who was a member of a successful brewing family in Portsmouth. In 1796, Henry Garrett, Sir George's younger brother had married Mary Raikes, who's father was Robert Raikes (1736 – 1811), a founder of the Sunday School Movement.

frederick thomas and james roberts, children of rev. henry vallancey
As might be expected, Rev. Vallancey was a strong advocate of Sabbath school instruction and on March 5th, 1856 at a meeting commemorating fifty years of Sunday schools in the St.Helens townships, Vallancey commented that they were "eminently calculated to promote the spread of Christianity and bring it home to the hearth of the poor." He called for the town to be canvassed to "induce the poor to send their children to the schools."

Seven years later, on Christmas Day 1863, at the Sutton church of St.Nicholas, Rev. Vallancey baptised his nephew Aylmer D' Estampes Vallancey, a son from Captain George Preston Vallancey's second marriage.

Whether Captain George was aware that his bachelor brother who had officiated at the baptism was a parent himself - indeed grandparent by this time - will probably never be known. It seems to have been a closely guarded secret that in 1831 Henry Vallancey had become a father to twin boys by his then housekeeper. This was also the year of Henry's ordination and probably this fact and the couple's different social stations in life made a marriage impossible.

mary roberts
Frank Jones' marvellous Deguerreotype of Mary Roberts (née Bradshaw)

The housekeeper's name is unknown but her two sons were given the names Fredrick Thomas and James Roberts. On the 1851 census return, Fredrick is listed in Henry's household as one of four servants domiciled in Sutton. On the 1861 and 1871 censuses, only three servants in total are listed. Henry was probably helping out his son, who five years later (30/9/1856) married Mary Bradshaw at St Mary's church in Liverpool. Mary was a local girl whose father had been killed in a pit accident at Eltonhead in December 1845. By the time of the marriage, Fredrick was resident at 216 Smithdown Lane in Liverpool and was a 'town waiter', a police officer who looked after magistrates.

Mary and Fredrick had two sons, Fredrick Henry and William Thomas and Henry Vallancey baptised both of them at his Sutton church (on 30/9/1857 & 31/12/1858 respectively). These must have been difficult experiences for him as he could not publicly reveal that they were his own grandchildren and William's baptism was conducted in the middle of the night.

The grave at the front of St.Nicholas Church, Sutton, St.Nicholas of Mary Roberts and child
Mary Roberts and child William's grave at St.Nicholas - her sister Ann and
brother-in-law William Baxter are also buried there.

At this time the population of the St.Helens' townships was expanding at a remarkable rate, only held back by the dreadful sanitary conditons which caused endemic disease and a high mortality rate for some years. On November 3rd, 1854 a letter was published in the Northern Times which criticised:

Pasted Graphic 1  ...the present miserable and truly fearful state of cholera, typhus and inflammatory fevers which have, and continue to cause such havoc  Pasted Graphic 3
The author claimed that there were 1100 dangerously ill victims in the St.Helens townships at that time. Mothers and new-born babies were particularly vulnerable to highly contagious disease and Mary Roberts and little William Thomas both contracted forms of tuberculosis (phthisis and tabes mesenterica, respectively).

Mary died on March 8th, 1859 when she was just 23 years old and four months after giving birth to William. Her baby then died two months later and mother and son are buried together in the graveyard at the front of St.Nicholas church in New Street.

Frank Jones of Prescot, near St.Helens is the grandson of Fredrick Henry and has told this website how his grandparents would refer to Rev. Vallancey as "the old devil"! However, the longstanding Vicar of Sutton clearly had a soft spot for members of his family, even if he wasn't able to publicly acknowledge them. Mary's sickness and death seems to have hit him very hard as he used to wear an 'in memory' medallion with her picture in it. This is now in Frank's possession as well as original Deguerreotype family photographs.

Rev. Henry Vallancey grave, St.Nicholas, Sutton, St.Helens
Rev. H.E.F. Vallancey's grave at the front of St.Nicholas Church in Sutton

Henry Vallancey's two sisters Margaret Baverstock (1783 - 1864) and Isabella Vallancey (1801 - 1879) both lived with their brother at Sutton. For much of the time this was at the Green End House vicarage although they moved to 'Millersdale', in Mill Lane, Sutton between 1872-3. Spinster Isabella's remains share a modest grave along with her brother at the front of St.Nicholas church, next to the much grander Pilkington family vault. Their half-sister and widow Margaret, is buried in her own place of rest close by and all the Vallanceys are at peace just yards from the grave of Mary Roberts and her 6 months old child William. Just where Mary's husband and his twin brother are buried is not presently known.

Rev. Henry Vallancey's will
Henry Vallancey's gross personal estate was valued at £2089 8s 5d -
the equivalent of around £170,000 in today's money

In his will Henry Vallancey ordered that all of his personal papers should be destroyed upon his death, which was a highly unusual request from a man in his position. Of course historical documents regularly get pulped but people don't normally arrange for the destruction of their own papers unless they have something that they don't want revealed. His legacy to the people of Sutton was the provision of education for all of its citizens' children and the creation of a strong foundation for the new parish. He was clearly a dedicated man and his youthful indiscretion probably caused him great sadness throughout his life and should in no way tarnish his achievements as the first vicar of Sutton parish.

Sutton Beauty & Heritage is grateful to Vallancey / Roberts family descendants Frank Jones & Myles I. Earle for their contributions to both this page and our Religion & Education page

Next:  Part 6) Mineworking in Sutton Township;

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