The "Reverend Scamp" Elopes

Holy Cross Church, Uckfield, East Sussex

The Rev. William John Thomas Hill Brooks-Hill brought that magnificent name to the Sussex town of Uckfield in 1877. Newly ordained from Durham, he had come south to be a curate at the Holy Cross church. The rector was the aging Rev Mr Cardale, who'd been there for over thirty years. Uckfield was a considerable and growing place but - according to an 1877 guidebook - "there is not much to see." Even the old church was built of plain stone which the rector had recently touched up "in what was intended to be Gothic style." Thus, it was probably no surprise the young curate didn't stay long, leaving Uckfield in 1879. What was surprising, however, was that he left in the company of "a rich widow lady," abandoning his young wife. 

“For some days the village has been in a mild state of commotion,” reported the Times of London. The woman was never publicly named but in the National Archives divorce records, she was identified as “Emily ----- Duncan, a widow.” The couple was last seen October 13 at Isfield station, the nearest stop on one of the branch lines of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Earlier that day, on some pretense, Rev. Brooks Hill borrowed £50 from Bannister, the grocer. Days later, Bannister received a wire from the curate announcing that he would not be returning to Uckfield and, to cover his loan, he authorized the grocer to sell all his property and effects.

The wire had come from Clapham Rise in London. With that information, Inspector Peerless of the Sussex Constabulary went to the capital and eventually traced Brooks Hill to a two-room flat on Warwick Road in Pimlico. The woman in the case was released but the curate was returned to Uckfield to be charged with "deserting his wife, whereby she became chargeable to the common fund of the Union." On October 30, Rev Brooks Hill was sentenced to the maximum penalty: three months at hard labour in Lewes prison.

Apparently, the "reverend scamp," as one of the papers had called him, had soon repented of his action and wished to return to his wife, Mary, and leave the country. Mrs. Brooks Hill, in fact, dropped her divorce petition and became the leader in a letter writing campaign to the Home Secretary seeking her husband's release. She insisted that he had not left her destitute and was therefore not guilty of the charge brought against him. Her petition, at first, was unavailing. She was supported by many parishioners; more letters followed . The advocates made clear that "although the moral impropriety of his conduct cannot be defended," Mr. Brooks-Hill should not be in jail for it. The Home Secretary was assured that the curate's wife was “thoroughly satisfied that her husband’s repentance was not only sincere but deep and heartfelt, and that she was quite prepared to leave the country with him as soon as he was free.” On December 16, a month early, Brooks Hill was released and met at the jail gates in Lewes by his forgiving wife. 
Despite the somewhat romantic ending (except, perhaps for the widow Duncan), Brooks Hill's conduct was widely condemned as “a great scandal to the Church and to society.” In Uckfield, the community rallied round their old rector who had been greatly distressed by the whole affair. Rev. Cardale remained there until his death in 1893.

As expected, Mr and Mrs Brooks Hill left England for Canada, settling in London, Ontario, where he found employment as a teacher of classics at Helmuth College. It seems as if the scandal of his Sussex escapade had not followed him. By 1881, he was once again a practicing clergyman. From 1888 to 1911, he was the rector of St. John the Evangelist, the Anglican church in London (Ont.) The present rector, the Rev. Lyndon Hutchison-Hounsell, kindly sent me the details of Rev. Hill's tenure.

Another Victorian clergyman sent to jail, the Rev Richard Marsh Watson, was not released early from his prison sentence. His story can be found in Clerical Errors - A Victorian Series, Vol II, available only thru amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.