Ovapedia search :

The main source of information for this article was an account of the Hawtrey Family written by John Hawtrey’s youngest daughter Florence (1), and also other sources (2).

John Hawtrey was born in 1781 in Exeter the son of Stephen Hawtrey, a Barrister and the Recorder of Exeter, and his wife Sarah (nee Hunard).    His grandfather Charles Hawtrey was Sub Dean and a Canon of Exeter Cathedral and had also been rector of Heavitree, and Wooten Courtney in Somerset. 

John attended Eton College which he described as “then very warlike”.  In 1798 he was bought a commission as a Cornet in the 4th Regiment of Dragoons and then the rank of Lieutenant in 1800.  He finally became a Captain by the age of 20 when he purchased a commission in the 25th Regiment of Foot.  

He married Ann Watson in 1804 in Wexford where he had served; they had at least thirteen children (2).  A six foot man with blue eyes and fair hair he had a short and undistinguished army career.  Around the time of his marriage he was stationed in Gibraltar and had been “a professed avowed infidel” but then became a very serious man.  

In 1807 he went with his Regiment in a force sent to capture Madeira, but Madeira put up no resistance.  From Madeira the Regiment went to the West Indies.  He was already becoming very interested in religion and began preaching.  The Army and religion didn’t mix very well so he resigned his commission in 1808 and left a profession which he had come to view as - “a bad one, a very bad one”. 

He and his wife returned to Ireland to Sidbury Farm in Wexford where his religious convictions deepened.  He held classes, and preached on Sundays.  In 1814 he had his attention drawn by an old Eton school friend to an advert that James Lackington (3) had placed calling for candidates for the post of minister in his new chapel in Budleigh Salterton.  

In the winter of that year Hawtrey travelled to Budleigh and returned with details of the intended stipend and with the information that, although the chapel wasn’t consecrated, the prayers of the Church of England would be used.  Hawtrey decided to take the post and in a letter sent to him in 1814 by another much older friend Mr Averell, which lamented his departure from Ireland, Averell remarked that Hawtrey was in a Country that needed him almost as much as Ireland itself and … 

 “I never met on Earth greater darkness in the human intellect, and particularly in religious matters, than I met in Devonshire”.  

Averell did however advise Hawtrey not to become a travelling preacher for the Weslyans but to remain in Budleigh Salterton.  

Another acquaintance of Hawtrey, Joseph Butterworth, had written to him from London in 1814 giving his insight into Lackington’s character, describing him as “an uncertain, capricious man”.   Lackington was however very happy with Hawtrey’s ministrations and left the Chapel to him in his Will in 1815; Hawtrey then received visits from the Reverend John Dennis, Minister at the Chapel of Ease in East Terrace (4), and also from the Weslylans, both entreated him to make the Chapel either a Church of England or a Methodist place of worship respectively (1).  

His sympathies and beliefs at that time were more in accord with Weslyan doctrine so he joined with them and became a confirmed minister of the Methodist denomination much to the displeasure of his parents and close family, several of whom were Church of England clerics.   He later worked in Maidstone, France and Manchester (5) and appears to have been a very inspirational preacher. 

The attachment of John Hawtrey to Methodism lasted until 1831 when he became an ordained Church of England Minister.  He was incumbent of St. James, Guernsey from 1834-1848 and then Rector of Kingston Seymour, Somerset.  He died in 1854 in Windsor during a stay with his son Rev. Stephen Hawtrey one of the masters at Eton College.  

Hawtrey used to preach and lecture in the military church of the Holy Trinity and his preaching was highly esteemed by The Household Brigade who asked to participate in his funeral procession and service.  Afterwards they subscribed to a tablet in his memory in the Church. 

Anyone interested in the early history of the Temple Church in Budleigh Salterton should read articles printed in the Temple Link Magazine in 2012 (Lent & Easter editions) written by Jackie Bryon and John Goatley, however there was apparently  little recorded on the time period from Lackington’s death until about 1842. 

Compiled & Researched by Roger Lendon © 2013 

(1)The history of the Hawtrey family - Volume 1  1903 Florence Molesworth Hawtrey

(2)http://www.reardon-family.org/pafg104.htm

(3)Lackington, James (1746 – 1815), Built Temple Methodist Church, Budleigh Salterton, OVApedia entry from Cyril Cowland

(4)Rev. John Dennis  OVApedia entry from Roger Lendon

(5)Letters in the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies: Hawtrey Family Papers. 

BS-B-00060 Biography 159 any