The Rector of Nunney

St. Peter's, Nunney. (Now All Saints Church) 

The Theobalds were lords of the manor in Nunney for much of the Victorian period. The Rev. John Theobald had been rector at St. Peter's in the Somerset village from 1830. In the summer of 1842, the rector was charged with two counts of "assaulting with intent" one of his servants, 21-year-old Caroline Cornish. 

The accuser was described as a "fine handsome girl" but even the prosecutor admitted she was not a woman of "unspotted chastity." Before a crowded court at the Assizes in Wells, Miss Cornish said her brother had been a sometime footman at the rectory in Nunney's High Street. She was taken on as a maid. The Theobalds had three children and a fourth on the way. Caroline testified that in February, while the rest of his family was out walking, the rector asked her to bring some warm water up to his dressing room. She found him undressed. He threw her to the bed, “his person was all exposed.” She was able to struggle free and ran to the cook who begged her not to tell Mrs. Theobald who was so very near her confinement. The rector then offered her £10 for her silence. A night or two later, Caroline was told to sleep in a rarely used attic room without a lock. When Mr. Theobald appeared at the door with a candle and asked her why she wasn't in bed, she said, "I have no intention of sleeping here." The rector threw himself on her and began groping her but again she successfully resisted him. The next day, Mrs. Theobald let her go because her husband had decided "you are not enough servant for him." 

Nunney Rectory (visitnunney.com)

The rector was defended by a young John Duke Coleridge, the future Lord Chief Justice. He relentlessly cross-examined the accuser, interrupted by a hysterical fit and fainting spell (on her part). No, Caroline insisted, Mrs. Theobald hadn't criticised her for slovenly dress. She didn't tell the other servants she liked beer and gin. She denied kissing Hillier, the page. She never told him she would rather sleep with him than the rector. The rectory was described as very small. Why she didn't cry out? Caroline said she did. On that first day, she "hallooed" the cook but she mustn't have heard her. As for that second night, that attic room was over the Theobald bedrooms and Mrs. Theobald slept with her door open. No one heard anything. Again, Caroline didn't cry out. Coleridge then read out the names of three or four men. She admitted sharing a room with one of them but she pointed out that he wasn't a married man. 

The prosecutor argued there are no witnesses to these kinds of crimes; the woman is believable. In his defense argument, Coleridge described the Rev. Theobald as a married clergyman, from a respected family, who enjoyed an unblemished reputation. The jury foreman interrupted to say they were all agreed, they did not believe Miss Cornish. They found the Rev. Mr. Theobald not guilty. 

The church bells rang in Nunney for the rector's return. Rev. Theobald remained at St. Peter's until his death in 1877. For some years, he served as domestic chaplain to the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston.

Many Victorian clergymen were accused of misconduct with female servants in their household. Similar arguments were often employed against the women with like results. But, not always. See: https://victorianclericalerrors.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-vicar-and-his-housemaid.html

For full length accounts of Victorian clerical scandals, go here.