Vicars in the 1670s

[Phoenix]

This is not something I had ever seriously considered before.

I don't usually pay much attention to the names of the vicars but....

I have been looking at Hearth Tax Exemption Certificate, a sort of mini census for the mid 1600s. A separate one for each parish, each signed by the vicar.

I have photographed a couple of hundred, so a sizeable sample.

What is very obvious is that the names of the vicars are local names, still in the district a couple of centuries later.

Given all the religious & political upheavals of the previous thirty years, is it feasible that quite ordinary, albeit literate, men were vicars at this time? Or are they all younger sons of the local bigwigs?

[Anstey Nomad]

"Or are they all younger sons of the local bigwigs?"

The Church was a reasonable career for the most academic of the squire's sons...

AN

[Olde Crone]

The Landed Gentry almost always provided a son for the church..

One for the land (inherits)
One for the sea
One for the sky

I think any reasonably genteel family could provide a clergyman, but their social/financial standing in the community would decide what sort of living they got - poor clergymen condemned to be Curates for ever!

OC

[KiwiChris]

It is my understanding that until the early/mid 1800s only Oxbridge graduates were ordained. I believe that St Bees College in Cumbria was one of the first to train "working" clergy to increase the supply of trained clergy particularly in the northern regions. It made it possible for the less well off to afford a life in the church.

[Tom Tom]

Sorry, not sure about the 1600s, all my Vicars in the 1800s were from middle and upper middle class families, many of whom went to Oxbridge.

[Phoenix]

Thank you all for your comments.

My understanding is just the same as yours: Oxbridge graduates, with the Church being a way to provide a living for the gentry's younger sons.

It just struck me wonder whether in the wake of the Restoration, where there might have been several changes of incumbent, there might have been a serious deficiency of suitable candidates who had followed the established routes.

A bit like the current suggestion of filling teaching posts with people who haven't got all the relevant bits of paper.

[Olde Crone]

You could be a clergyman (Vicar) and never ever set foot in your parish or your church, you hired a curate to do the dirty work for you, while you got on with huntin shootin and fishin.

OC