VICARS OF CHARD
[The Faithful Few Fought Bravely To Guard the Nation's Life, The Stories of three almost forgotten Vicars, by Timothy Peake, St. Mary's Chard, A Guide and History]
ADAM ABRAHAM Vicar (1603 - 1636) - Bur. 25 Mar. 1637, Chard. Educated Trinity College, Cambridge, graduated 1592. Previously Vicar of Swinshead, Lincolnshire before coming to Somerset. Married Anne Still, dau. of William Still of Grantham, niece of Bishop Still of Bath and Wells (1593-1608). Rector of Chelwood, Somerset, instituted Aug. 29, 1598 retained Vicarage at Chelwood until May 1606. Abraham was also Prebend of Barton St. David. resigning in 1632.
NOTE - 1627 - Abraham joined with Fathers and four others, WILLIAM GILLET, RECTOR OF CHAFFCOMBE, Ralph Turner Rector of Cricket Matherbie, John Ford, Curate of Broadway and George Drake, Curate at Long Load, in writing a letter to Sir John Denham in London, appealing for an end of Church ales. Matthew Hassard (1630-1634) Thomas Trevilian
VICARS OF CHARDSTOCK
[A Short History Of The Church Of St. Andrew in Chardstock, P.J.Wood, March 1985, reprint 1989]
RICHARD WHITE - (1597 - 1621) - D. 1621.
JOHN PITT - (1627 - 1645) - Son of Robert Pitt of Isle Abbotts who leased land from Nicholas Wadham of Merrifield. - 1644 became Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, founded by Dorothy Wadham, widow of Nicholas Wadham in 1613. He also became the leader of the dissident heads of houses who denied the authority of the Parliamentary Commissioners during the Civil War. - 1636 sent James Strong to New Inn College Oxford who in return in 1645 turned John Pitt out of his living in Chard, who "carried off his books and goods to his own living in Bettiscombe." - 1648 - dispossesed of the Wardenship.