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The chapel was situated at the west end of East Terrace where it meets Chapel Street as shown on the following small part of the 1890 Ordnance Survey map redrawn by Harry Lane.

It is said that Lord Rolle built the chapel in 1812/13 in response to the construction of the Temple Church built by William Lackington in 1811 that later became the town Methodist Church.  The Chapel cost £900 but as the town grew in size it was enlarged in 1832 at the additional cost of £1,100.  Lord Rolle never allowed the chapel to be consecrated(1), and the first minister was only licensed five years after the chapel was completed.  

The name of the first minister is not clear but we know that John Dennis was the assistant minister in 1814 and 1816 when two of his children were baptised (2).  As Dennis was living in Budleigh until 1828 it is likely he was involved in some capacity for much of this time (although he was described as the Minister to the Cavalry Barracks in Exeter in the 1819 register).  The first minister probably resided in Exmouth because it was apparently usual for them to come from there in the early years (see later). 

Cradock John Glascott was incumbent from 1825 until 1838 before moving to be vicar of Seaton cum Beer.  Cradock John Glascott was the son the Reverend Cradock Glascott who represented a dissident reformist group in the Church of England and it was said that his “radical Methodist position had put him and his children outside the sphere of social influence” (3).  This undoubtedly made it difficult for his sons to progress in the Church (indeed one went to India to improve his career prospects); however Cradock obviously appealed to Lord Rolle as evidenced by his quite lengthy stay. 

It is known that James Stonelake was the chapel clerk and master of the Sunday School at that time due to an accident that took place in November 1828 involving severe damage to his right hand.  He had tried to retrieve a powder horn thrown into the fire by his son.  The horn exploded and the incident was reported in local  newspapers.  He was still the clerk in 1832 when his daughter was baptised in East Budleigh. 

A salver with a communion service made by Ellis of Exeter was presented to Rev Glascott after he moved to Seaton in 1838 to thank him for over twenty-three years of “zealous and pious discharge of his sacred trust” at the chapel. 

In the Western Times of Saturday 11th May 1839 there was an article entitled “State Church Liberality!” by a man who signed himself “Observer” which was sub-titled “No Pay – No Prayers”.  This was an attack on Lord Rolle’s practice of charging for the use of the pews in the chapel.  A board was displayed at the entrance to the chapel stating that .. 

“Every renter of a pew or sitting is to pay the rent quarterly in advance, without which they cannot have the use of a pew or sitting”.  

There were separate charges for visitors who could rent a pew for a minimum of one month payable, naturally, in advance.  

At some stage after Glascott left for Seaton George Henry Kempe became the minister of the chapel.  He had graduated B.A. from Exeter College, Oxford in 1831 (2nd class Maths & Physics), became a Deacon in 1832 and was ordained Priest in 1833 (4).  

He may have come to Budleigh soon after his ordination.  He was unmarried when living in East Terrace near the Chapel in 1841 but in December of that year he married Sophia Hole in Donhead St. Mary, Wiltshire and their son, George, was born in Budleigh Salterton in July 1844 (he also later became a clergyman).  In the Clerical List for 1844 George was described as curate of Budleigh Salterton and domestic chaplain to Lady Rolle; he was also described in that List under the East Budleigh entry as a (second) curate.  He became Vicar of Bicton in 1845 where he remained till his death in 1889. 

It was apparently the practice at one time for Lord Rolle to solicit subscriptions to go toward the stipend of the resident minister of the chapel. This caused another anonymous letter (signed “Civis”) to appear in the local press in May 1839 under the heading “Lord Rolle and the Voluntary Principle”. According to the letter a book had been kept “for many years past” in the local library in which people could enter details of their subscriptions for the officiating clergyman. The letter goes on to say that … 

“it is thought still more necessary that such a custom should be continued, since the minister is now residing in the place, and not (as formerly) at Exmouth, having also sole care of the district.”  

The letter-writer then upbraids Lord Rolle for building a chapel and then … 

“cannot afford to pay the parson without sending him a begging around the parish”. 

Its possible that being an Oxford graduate Kempe may have been exposed to the ideas of the Oxford Movement led by John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey.  Pusey, who was Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and had revived some of the traditions of catholic pre-reformation teaching, used to holiday in Budleigh Salterton in the University summer vacation.  He was here in at least 1839 and 1840 and had written several papers during his stays (5).  

He probably preached locally, as his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography notes he liked to preach on his summer vacations.  In August 1839 Pusey, writing to Newman, described Kempe thus …  

“Mr. K. here seems a well-disposed person, though probably too easy, and taking things too easily, but he is young: he had been wishing to introduce the Wednesday and Friday service, but could not, for the chapel is unconsecrated, and Lord Rolle's private property. He has now done it.” 

 Kempe in turn wrote that … 

'Dr. Pusey occasionally availed himself of the boat of a retired tradesman.  An old servant who waited on him and, who afterwards lived in my service for some years, used to tell me of the simplicity and self-denial of his daily life, and of the hardness of his bed.'  

During his holidays Pusey always endeavoured to discover how far Church principles, as restated by the Oxford Tracts, were making their way in the Country.  He would have found that some priests locally had Puseyite sympathies and this became on issue later for instance in Woodbury (6) and Littleham cum Exmouth (7), and led to protests in those places and also in Budleigh Salterton (see below).  

D. Richard Cann in his excellent book about the town (27) includes a description of the chapel written in 1840 by James Davidson. He wrote … 

“The building consists of an open area with 3 aisles with large and deep galleries one of which contains an organ.  The windows are underpointed arches and are formed into lancet lights and there are crosses on the exterior gables but the structure though recent has no pretensions to architectural beauty”.  

Many people before and after had also been of a similar opinion. 

In late 1841 George Kempe was involved in another local controversy (8) when he either threatened or actually removed the local school mistress from her job because she had attended a prayer meeting at some unspecified unlicensed premises.  The writer of the letter at (8), calling himself  “a lover of truth” then pointedly enquired whether the Rolle Chapel was consecrated or even licensed, concluding if it wasn’t then it itself was no better than a dissenting chapel.  Towards the end of Kempe’s tenure, the controversy over the fact that the chapel wasn’t consecrated reared its head again.  After complaints to the Bishop and letters to the Press, the Bishop closed the chapel “in consequence of its not being consecrated nor duly licensed” (9). 

Another minister with involvement with the chapel around this time appears to have been Richard Byrn Kinsman but little evidence remains of his ministry at the chapel or the length of any tenure.  The Royal Cornwall Gazette records in December 1845 that “the Rev. R. B. Kinsman late minister of the chapel in Budleigh Salterton is to become the next rector of St. Paul’s Exeter”.   

There is a gap in Kinsman’s entry in Crockfords Directory between the years 1842 and 1845.  He was rector of Mawnan in Cornwall from 1838-1842 and rector of St. Paul’s Exeter 1845-1851 therefore it seems likely that he was in Budleigh between these other appointments.  However these dates clash with those of George Kempe so he may not have been at the chapel for all of that time or, if he was, he was working either with Rev. Kempe or Kempe had returned to East Budleigh leaving him temporarily in charge. 

The next minister was Richard Prat who was sanctioned by the Bishop and appointed by the trustees of the chapel; he took up his post in March 1846 and the chapel was again licensed for divine service (10).  Richard Prat had graduated B.A. from Merton College Oxford in 1842 and was ordained priest by the Bishop of Chichester in 1844.  He was curate of Harting in Sussex from 1843-46 before his move to Budleigh (4).  (He is not to be confused with Richard Pratt, a graduate of Wadham College Oxford, who was Vicar of Littleham with Exmouth from 1813 till his death on 6th June, 1840). 

While at Oxford, Prat had apparently come under the influence of some of the tractarian ideas of Pusey and Newman.  It appears that Prat may have advanced some of these ideas in a sermon that he preached in Budleigh in 1847 and this led to a major confrontation with Frederick Lambart, 8th Earl of Cavan, who, according to newspaper accounts, had lived locally with his family for some time (probably at either number 5 or 6 Cliff Terrace according to different newspaper accounts).  

It seems that Cavan attended the chapel on two occasions and heard a sermon which he considered espoused a “tractarian bias”.  In response he imported the Rev. Kerr, an ordained minister of the Church of England and allowed him to hold a form of service in his summer-house.  This all resulted in lengthy correspondence in the press (e.g. 11,12,13) in which he denounced Prat.   

However Prat was defended by many of his parishioners in Salterton.  One, calling himself “Veri Amatore”, describing him as highly esteemed by the residents as “a sound, unobtrusive, and kind hearted clergyman, and his orthodoxy has never been called in question” (12).  These controversies may have contributed to a drop in attendance at the chapel, the same writer recording that there were good congregations at the Methodist and Baptist chapels in the town but that the benches set aside for the poor in the Rolle Chapel were empty.  

Prat left in 1849 to go to Newtown in Hampshire and later had a spell as the consular chaplin in Christiana.  He appears to have been replaced by H.A. Morshead who was a curate in East Budleigh (14).  Morshead was still in post at the time of the 1852-3 Slater’s Directory.  

A short account of the Rolle Chapel at Fairlynch Museum mentions  a letter to Lord Rolle implying that the Rev. Glassett from Exmouth had some involvement with the chapel around the 1850 period.  However I have been unable to confirm this or find any further details. 

The incumbent after Morshead was Field Flowers Wayet.  He was the son of the Reverend John Wayet of Boston in Lincolnshire.  Educated at Louth Grammar School, he graduated B.A. from New Hall, Oxford in 1848 and became a deacon that year.  He was ordained by the Bishop of Carlisle in 1849 and received his M.A. the same year (4).  He married Ellen Gordon Smith in Brighton in October 1851 and was in Budleigh presumably from around 1854 as the couple had children born here in 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1860.  

In the late summer of 1858 he had to temporarily relinquish his duties due to ill-health and the local gentry gave him a testimonial of £50, and the following year, the local tradesmen and others added a further twenty guineas “to mark the esteem which we maintain for you personally” (15).  Either as a locum or to lighten Wayet’s load, he advertised for a curate in May 1859 (16) at a stipend of £50 per annum, which he was to pay from his own income.  Whether the adverts were successful is not clear.  

He was obviously well regarded locally as shown by the testimonial; he also received a gift of a “handsome time-piece” in July 1859 from the young people of the town “as a mark of their appreciation of his great care and attention in preparing them for Confirmation” (17).  Previously, in 1856, he had been actively involved when the town participated in the national rejoicing that took place when the Treaty of Paris was signed that brought an end to the Crimean War.  The town was … 

“splendidly decorated with colours and banners .. along with evergreen arches.. so arranged to afford an entire woodland perspective.  An ample store of beef and plum pudding was provided .. the entertainment took place in the street .. Our respected minister, the Rev. Field Wayet, said grace, and took a lively interest in contributing to the enjoyment of the assembled parishioners” (18). 

As the above suggests, there do not appear to have been any major controversies during his incumbency.  He became Vicar of Otterton in 1865 but left after three years to become Rector of St. Stephen’s in Bristol.  He was replaced at the chapel by the Rev. James Wortham Hitch. 

Hitch was a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge and was ordained in Norwich in1827.  He married Elizabeth Dresdena Errington in 1826 and they had a son who also became ordained.  Hitch was in post in Budleigh Salterton by May 1866 at the time of the Archdiaconal Visit held at St. Martin’s in Exeter.  He was living in Octagon House but had moved to The Mount at the top of Fore Street Hill by 1871 (town directories).  

The main event that took place during his tenure was in March 1870 when the chapel was closed for repairs.  This led to entreaties to the Trustees of the Rolle Estate for a new church to be built “worthy of being called God’s house” and it was pointed out that Lady Rolle had paid for the re-building of Otterton Church (19).  

When the chapel was closed services were held initially in the National School Rooms which involved Rev. Hitch officiating in one room and Rev. J. Leakey (? from Topsham) in the other on the first occasion.  The rooms were fully attended both morning and afternoon and the temporary arrangements seem, according to one correspondent, to have been well received by most people but one person at least thought that … 

“the schoolrooms were wholely inadequate to meet the requirements of the congregation .. many murmured at the insufficient accommodation provided, some found their way to the Parish Church two miles distant, others wended their way to the churches of Withycombe and Littleham”  

and his view was that the Public Rooms should have been used (20).  

Hitch died here in March 1875. His widow lived till her death in 1888 in Cliff Road where she resided with her brother-in-law Philip Hitch. 

Rev. Hitch was replaced by the Rev. Andrew Turner who was in post before October 1875 when his health was proposed by Mr Lipscomb, coupled with that of the Bishop and local clergy, at the dinner in the Rolle Arms held at the Mark Rolle Annual Rent Audit.  Turner in his reply said that …

 “since he came he had had many proofs of their kindly feelings towards him.. and in his endeavour to benefit them he hoped he should have their sympathy and co-operation, and although they might differ in minor matters, he trusted that the great end which should actuate every Christian minister would be kept in view”. (21) 

It is interesting to note his mention of differences that the congregation might have with him as he could well have been made aware of previous controversies. 

Andrew Turner was born in Scotland the eldest son of James Turner and grandson of Andrew Turner of Kelbuie, Dumbartonshire.  He attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge and received his B.A in 1852 and M.A. in 1855.  He was ordained by the Bishop of Chichester in 1853 and held posts in Brighton, Burnham Deepdale, several in East Anglia, and from 1872 was the incumbent in Rothesay (22) before coming to Budleigh in 1875. 

While in the town as well as performing his ecclesiastical duties he was involved in local events which the incumbent usually patronised.  These included, being on the committee of management of the Budleigh Salterton Cottage Garden Society’s annual exhibition, the local School Board, visiting the sick and attending events such as the tea held for the children at Tidwell Barton by Mr Lawrence on the occasion of the Sunday School Anniversary in 1876.  Turner was undoubtedly not in the best of health as in September 1875 Lady Rolle had sanctioned the moving of the Sunday afternoon service to the evening to allow him more time to recover between the two services. 

He lived at 3 Upper West Terrace (1878 Harrod’s Directory) but his stay in the town was quite a short one.  He was obviously well regarded because  in January 1880 he preached his last sermon “to a sorrowful congregation” (23). In that newspaper article he was described thus: “By his kind disposition and benevolent efforts he has endeared himself to all classes of society”.   

He left to become Curate of Chudleigh, and in the 1881 census we see that he was unmarried and that his unmarried younger sister Helena was living with him, so it is likely they were both together during his stay in Budleigh.  As a further example of how highly regarded he was in Budleigh, in 1881 after he had left the town he received a legacy of £100 from the estate of Miss Ellen Dart (24). He died at the Vicarage in Chudleigh on April 4th 1883 at the age of 55.  

Reverend Turner wasn’t replaced immediately and there was a proposal that all Sunday evening services and the Communion service on the 3rd Sunday of each month should be abandoned.  This led to protest letters being sent to the Vicar of East Budleigh, the Bishop and Mark Rolle as Lord of the Manor, from a committee chaired by General Goodwyn.  These stated also that no provision had been made for visiting the sick, for private baptisms and for presentation of candidates to the Bishop for Confirmation as there was no-one to prepare them (25).  

As the stipend of the curate was met out of the pew rental fees it was felt that a minister should be appointed to cover these duties.  Eventually the Rev. Jacob Van Linge D.D. took over the role although he was appointed initially as a curate at East Budleigh Church in August 1880; however in his Crockford’s entry in 1885 he was described as curate of Budleigh Salterton from 1880.  Certainly, in 1884 Sunday evening services were not taking place at the chapel but in the Church Room in Cliff Road and these services were financially supported by voluntary collection from the local parishoners (26) 

Van Linge was a Dutchman and attended Gronigen University becoming a Doctor of Theology in 1838.  He was ordained in 1850 in Montreal, Canada where he worked for several years.  His first posts in England were in Marden, Wiltshire (1877-78) and Lansallos, Cornwall (1878-80), before he moved to Budleigh.  At the times of the 1881 census and the 1883 Town Directory he was living in Irene Cottage in Chapel Street (now Maple Cottage) with his wife Alice and two sons and two daughters.  All four children were born in Canada in Toronto and Niagara.  His wife Alice was from Saddleworth in Yorkshire.  In 1882 their son Jacob emigrated to the USA where he remained. 

In 1887 the box pews in the chapel had their doors removed and their ends lowered.  This was supposedly because the opening and closing of the doors was causing a disturbance, however, the fact that the pew ends were lowered probably exposes the true reason for the alterations, namely the “unseemly behaviour” that was said to take place under cover of the high walls (27).  It was probably at this time that the Long Room at The Feathers Hotel was temporarily used to hold sevices (28). 

Jacob Van Linge left the parish in either late 1887 or early 1888.  In November 1887, because she was leaving the parish, his daughter Lavinia had been presented with “a very pretty present” by the teachers of the Church Sunday School where she herself presumably taught. Jacob seems to have retired at this point and he and his family moved to St. David’s in Exeter where he died at the age of 79 in late 1891. 

The final minister at the chapel before St. Peter’s was built was Rees Charles Price.  He became curate of East Budleigh with Budleigh Salterton in 1886 and presumably took over responsiblity for the chapel immediately Rev. Van Linge left.  

Price was the eldest of the ten surviving children of Rees Charles Price and his wife Amelia (nee Humphreys).  He was born in Lympstone in 1852 where his father was a doctor for the St. Thomas Union.  He graduated from St. Edmund’s Hall Oxford in 1876 and was ordained in Exeter in 1878.  His parochial work was all in Devon; he was curate in Sheldon, Lower Brixham, Sidbury, and Wolborough before coming to Budleigh (Crockford’s 1898).   

His father, when he retired from his post, came to live in Budleigh Salterton where several of his children were born; he lived here from about 1859 to1872 i.e. before his son became curate of the chapel.  He was at Park House in Little Knowle for a large part of this time. 

Rev. Price lived in Park Villa in Little Knowle in the early years of his tenure.  He performed the usual parochial and extra-parochial duties being involved with Church Guilds, the National and Sunday Schools, the Budleigh branch of the Band of Mercy and he was on the committee for the Cottage Garden Society Shows and others.  

In the winter of 1890 he threw open his rooms at High Cliff for the use of workingmen and others.  London and local newspapers were provided plus games such as bagatelle and draughts.  A committee was set up including himself and ten other town worthies to oversee the arrangements (29). 

The long awaited Church for the town became more of a reality in 1891 when the Hon. Mark Rolle donated The Lawn Field to be used for its construction.  The foundation stone was laid on November 24th of that year by Miss Mary Rolle and the consecration ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Exeter in April 1893 (although another account says it was by Dr Trefusis, Bishop of Crediton).  All the clerical dignitaries robed at the Rolle Chapel and then processed to the new church.  The organ from the Rolle Chapel had been moved into St. Peter’s to be used until a better instrument was installed in July 1898, the money for that instrument having been raised from public subscription. 

When built, St. Peters Church took on the role of Chapel of Ease for the town until Budleigh Salterton became a separate parish in 1900 when it then became the parish church.  Rev. Price remained as vicar of St. Peter’s Church until his death in 1914. 

The Rolle Chapel was finally demolished in 1904. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon © 2013 

(1)Saturday 24 July 1847 Western Times 

(2)See OVApedia entry for John Dennis

(3)Page 17 in “Bombay Anna” by Susan Morgan. Philip E. Lilienthal Books 2009

(4)Crockford’s Directory 1868

(5)From: Project Canterbury. Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey by Henry Parry Liddon, D.D. London:Longmans,1894 volume two

(6)Saturday 10 April 1847 Western Times

(7)Saturday 25 January 1851 Western Times

(8) Saturday 11 December 1841 Western Times

(9) Friday 05 December 1845 Royal Cornwall Gazette

(10 )Saturday 14 February 1846 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette

(11) Saturday 14 August 1847 Western Times 

(12) Saturday 24 July 1847 Western Times

(13) Saturday 17 July 1847 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 

(14) Ecclesiastical preferments  in  Exeter Flying Post  Thursday 11 April 1850 

(15) Saturday 09 April 1859 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 

(16) Saturday 14 May 1859  Bucks Herald Buckinghamshire

(17) Saturday 23 July 1859 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette

(18) Saturday 07 June 1856 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette

(19) Thursday 24 February 1870  Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams  

(20) Thursday 17 March 1870 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette DailyTelegrams

(21) Friday 29 October 1875 Western Times

(22) Crockford’s  Directory 1874

(23) Friday 16 January 1880 Western Times

(24) See the Dart entry in OVApedia

(25) Saturday 31 January 1880 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams

(26) Wednesday 01 October 1884  Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams

(27) The Book of Budleigh Salterton D. Richard Cann. Halsgrove. 2005

(28) Information with a postcard in Fairlynch Museum.

(29) Wednesday 19 November 1890 Western Times. 

There is some further information on the Chapel in a file entitled “Local Churches in Budleigh Salterton: Book 1” in the Local History Room at Fairlynch Museum. It has some photographs of the interior of the chapel.

BS-B-00059 Biography 157 any