Henry Caswall

Written by Peter Tipton for the St Peter's Church Millennium Exhibition, 2000

Henry Caswall was born at Glebe House, Yateley, and christened on 15 May 1810. He was the eldest son of Rev Robert Clarke Caswall and his wife Mary née Burgess. Robert Caswall had been installed as perpetual curate of the parish on 27 Jan 1803. His sister was married to John Halhed and was already living at Yateley Hall. It is unlikely Robert had met his wife Mary before he began officiating in Yateley, since she was the daughter of John Burgess, who lived at Brook Farm in the south of the parish see John Burgess - inventor of anchovy sauce. Robert and Mary married, probably in 1809, and Robert purchased a house on the old Reading Road, and built the new house which we now know as Glebe House see Famous Hymn-Writer - born in Yateley.

Henry's paternal grandfather was also a Church of England clergyman. John Caswall had been Vicar of Swalcliffe near Banbury in Oxfordshire until he had died in 1808. In his will Rev. John Caswall stated that he would make no bequest to his eldest son Robert Clarke Caswall since he had already been handsomely provided for having his Grandmother‘s jointure and what his Grandfather left him.

The infant Henry, although apparently being born in a small house to a country parson, was actually born into a family of considerable means, with well-connected grandparents, uncles and aunts, mostly living locally.

With a father and grandfather ordained into the church, and a greatuncle who became Bishop of Salisbury in 1825, it is not surprising that Henry chose the same career, eventually becoming Vicar of Figheldean in Wiltshire, near his father's last parish of West Lavington, and his brother Edward's first appointment at Stratford-sub-Castle. When he was fifty in 1860 he was appointed Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral until he died in 1870. Henry's career and personal life would seem at first glance to have been uneventful as a well-to-do country parson in rural Wiltshire --- but this is not so.

Henry Caswall: Emigration to America

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