Nathan Haines (priest)

Memorial to Nathan Haines in St Mary's Church, Nottingham

Nathan Haines was an English priest. He was born c.1735/6 and died 27 April 1806.

Family

Nathan Haines came from Dorset. He was the son of the Rev. John Haines of Cattistock. Nathan's wife's cousin, Elizabeth Chudleigh was the wife of Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, whose family had bought the living of St. Mary's in 1616, and this connection probably secured Haines the living in 1770.

He married Anne Tempest, daughter of Captain John Tempest of the 10th Royal Hussars, on 25 September 1780 at Tong, Yorkshire.

They had one surviving child, Nathan Tempest Haines.^[1]

Career

He was ordained in 1761 and became vicar of St. Mary's Church, Nottingham on 24 March 1770 a position he held until he died.^[2]

He was also Rector of Weston, 1770–1797, Curate of Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire 1772 - 1799, Prebendary of Southwell 1788 - 1806, Perpetual Curate of Tong, Yorkshire 1789 - 1806, Domestic Chaplain to Viscount Newark (later Earl Manvers) 1796 - 1806, Rector of Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire 1797 - 1806

Although Nottingham was a strong dissenting town, relationships between Anglicans and Dissenters were largely cordial; many dissenters attending chapel and receiving communion in their parish church. It was widely recognised that the poor of the town received more charity from the Anglican clergy than from any of the dissenting ministers.

In 1801, the Nottingham Journal published figures for St. Mary's - 3,872 inhabited houses, 5,312 families, 10,895 males and 11,759 females, giving a parish population of 22,654. This was double the figure in 1770 when Haines took the living.

During Haines incumbency, the cordial relations between Anglicans and dissenters deteriorated. In 1799, shots were fired through the vicarage bedroom window, "manifestly with a destructive and malicious intent" while Dr and Mrs Haines were asleep in bed. The Vicarage was Washington House, on High Pavement.

In 1800, the Nottingham Journal reported loitering, gaming and other nuisances in the churchyard during divine service. In 1801, the vestry demanded the restoration of the right to elect one of the churchwardens, and "during this time some highly reprehensible irregularities were committed in the church". The election of a sexton in 1805 turned into a party-political affair with the parading of rival banners. By 1806, the year of Haines death, railings were erected around the churchyard with lockable gates and the age-old footway across the churchyard dug-up and discontinued. He had become a Doctor of Divinity (DD).

References

1. A genealogical and heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank, but uninvested with heritable honours, Volume 1, John Burke. Colburn, 1834
2. Notes on the churches of Nottinghamshire: Hundred of Bingham. John Thomas Godfrey, Phillimore & Co, 1907