Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (33) 11 May 2023

Archbishop Higbert, first Archbishop of Lichfield, and Thomas Cantelupe, once a prebendary and then Bishop of Hereford, in a stained-glass window in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

This is the Fifth Week of Easter. Two of us are staying in York for a few days, having arrived here late on Monday. We visited Whitby yesterday, and we are planning to visit Knaresborough later today.

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. Following my recent visit to Lichfield Cathedral, I am reflecting each morning this week in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The window in Lichfield Cathedral with Archbishop Higbert and Saint Thomas Cantelupe is in memory of Canon Jeremiah Finch Smith (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Archbishop Higbert and Saint Thomas Cantelupe window:

The Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral is currently the venue for the exhibition ‘Library and Legacy,’ showcasing the collections in the cathedral library.

The chapter house was decorated with frescoes and stained glass in the late 15th century by Thomas Heywood, who was Dean of Lichfield in 1457-1492. The glass in the Chapter House once contained figures of the apostles, with other depictions above. These all predated the Cromwellian era, and were destroyed by the Puritans during the Civil War in the mid-17th century.

In the 19th century, the glazing of the chapter house displayed armorial bearings, more or less correct, in imitation of glass known to have ornamented the cathedral in the past. This armorial glass gradually gave way to glass representing scenes in the history of the cathedral. Six of the windows were glazed with these images in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the original but unfilled plan was to fill all the windows in the Chapter House.

The fifth window I am looking at this morning, like many of the windows in this series, is by Charles Eamer Kempe, and this window is in memory of Canon Jeremiah Finch Smith.

The figures in this three-light window represent Archbishop Higbert, first Archbishop of Lichfield, and Saint Thomas Cantelupe, once a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral and Archdeacon of Stafford and then Bishop of Hereford.

Higbert or Hygeberht was the Bishop of Lichfield from 779 and Archbishop of Lichfield after the elevation of Lichfield to an archdiocese some time after 787, during the reign of King Offa of Mercia. However, little is known of Higbert’s background.

King Offa succeeded in making Lichfield an archbishopric, but this was unpopular with the Archbishops of Canterbury. After Offa’s death, his distant relative Coenwulf became King of Mercia, and petitioned the pope to have Lichfield returned to a bishopric. Pope Leo III agreed in 803, but by then Higbert was no longer considered a bishop, and he is listed as an abbot at the council that oversaw the demotion of Lichfield in 803. The date of his death is unknown.

Thomas de Cantilupe (1218-1282) taught canon law at the University of Oxford, where he became Chancellor in 1261. He was Archdeacon of Stafford when he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England in 1264. He became Bishop of Hereford in 1275, and died in 1282. He was canonised by Pope John XXII in 1320. His feast day is on 2 October.

The scenes in the lower panels of this window continue the historical series in the Chapter House windows, and show two bishops of Lichfield, from the ninth and the 12th centuries.

Bishop Higbert’s successor, Bishop Aldulf, is shown at the Council of Cloveshoo in the year 803, resigning as Archbishop of Lichfield and renouncing the metropolitan powers in favour of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He died ca 814-816.

Roger de Clinton, who was Bishop of Lichfield in 1129-1148, is shown building a new cathedral in Lichfield in honour of Saint Mary and Saint Chad. Roger de Clinton also laid out the main streets of Lichfield in a grid pattern, still in evidence almost 800 years later.

This window is in memory of Canon Jeremiah Finch Smith (1815-1895). He was the eldest son of Jeremiah Smith (1771-1854), High Master of Manchester Grammar School. Jeremiah Finch Smith was the Rector of Aldridge, Staffordshire, from 1849, Rural Dean of Walsall from 1862, and a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral. He published sermons and tracts, and edited Admission Register of the Manchester School (3 vols, 1866-1874), and Notes on the Parish of Aldridge, Staffordshire (1884-1889, 2 parts).

The lower parts of the window show Archbishop Aldulf renouncing his metropolitan powers, and Bishop Roger de Clinton building a new cathedral in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

John 15: 9-11 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’

A late 19th century bookplate for Canon Jeremiah Finch Smith

Today’s prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘The Work and Mission of the Laity.’ USPG’s Regional Manager for Africa, Fran Mate, reflected on Sunday on the work and mission of the laity.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Thursday 11 May 2023):

Let us pray for a mutuality of relationship between lay and ordained. May those in positions of power honour their responsibility and work to build up the body of Christ.

Collect:

Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

The coats-of-arms of Bishop John Hackett and of the Diocese of Lichfield, representing the arms of Bishop Roger de Clinton, two bishops who rebuilt Lichfield Cathedral, on the railway bridge at Upper John Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Sir Charles Barrington, ‘the father of Irish rugby’, and his life in Co Limerick

The Barrington family at Glenstal Castle in 1917: Charles, Winifred, Mary-Rose, Fitzwilliam and Sir Charles Barrington

Patrick Comerford

I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks researching and writing a paper on members of the Church of Ireland in Co Limerick and the impact on their lives of World War I, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

A key figure in these stories is Sir Charles Burton Barrington (1848-1943) of Glenstal Castle, who is also known as ‘the father of Irish rugby.’ He played a significant role in seeking peace and conciliation at the height of sectarian attacks, but eventually moved to England after the murder of his only daughter.

He was born at Glenstal Castle, Murroe, Co Limerick, on 6 February 1848, the eldest of four sons of Sir Croker Barrington (1817-1890) and his wife Anna Felicia West. He was educated at Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, Rugby School (1864-1866), and Trinity College Dublin (BA 1870, MA 1877).

He was an accomplished rower and rugby player and is credited with being ‘the father of Irish rugby.’

The playing fields of Rugby … Sir Charles Barrington is known as ‘the father of Irish rugby’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) existed as early as 1854. When Barrington entered TCD in January 1867 there was what he described as ‘a rugby of sorts’, but with few formal rules and no designated kit. At Rugby, he played the game according to the rules produced in the school in 1846. Later, he took credit for formalising the game in TCD and, by extension, throughout Ireland.

Barrington and RM Wall, honorary secretary of DUFC, met in 1867 in Wall’s rooms in ‘Botany Bay’ to lay down the rules for DUFC and its matches. He first captained the club in 1867-1868, and was captain for the following two seasons. At the subsequent AGM it was announced that the rules had been forwarded to other clubs in the hope of spreading uniformity.

In reality, the rules were almost identical to those of Rugby School. The important difference was that the DUFC rules outlawed what was known as hacking. Under the Rugby rules, the forwards remained standing in a scrum and attempted to win the ball by hacking at the other side. Under the DUFC rules, the forwards crouched in a formation similar to today’s scrum and tried to win the ball by hooking.

Barrington and Wall also decided to introduce a formal kit for the team, with the black and red jerseys. The kit was ordered from Rugby. Barrington also helped to formalise positions and differentiate between forwards and backs by introducing the positions of full back and half backs. He appears in the earliest known photograph of DUFC rugby team, taken in 1867, and in a photograph taken during his last season as captain of the first XV (1869-1870).

Barrington was also an accomplished oarsman. He competed in Trinity’s first Henley regatta in 1870 and was one of the founders of Limerick Boat Club that year. He continued to row for many years. Barrington and his brothers William, Croker and John represented Ireland and Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC) at the Philadelphia International Centennial Regatta, in 1876 and he stroked the DUBC boat to victory.

The boathouse of the Dublin University Boat Club (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Barrington family held more than 9,400 acres in Co Limerick in the 1870s and was popular throughout the county. Barrington became a DL, JP and high sheriff (1879).

Barrington succeeded his father as fifth baronet on 4 July 1890, inheriting the family title and estates. But with his unionist views he failed to get elected to the first Limerick County Council in 1899. He was commissioned as an officer of the Limerick City Royal Field Reserve Artillery in 1901.

Barrington was in his late 60s during World War I, but was attached to an Anglo-American unit with the French under Lord Castlemaine. He drove a field ambulance in France, for which he was made an MBE in 1919.

Back in Ireland, he was a life governor and joint honorary secretary of Barrington’s Hospital, founded by his grandfather Joseph Barrington, was the provincial grand master of the freemasons of North Munster and was the first president of the Limerick Amateur Athletic Bicycle Club.

Sir Charles Barrington was a life governor and joint honorary secretary of Barrington’s Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Barrington married Mary Rose Bacon (1868-1943), the youngest daughter of Sir Henry Hickman Bacon, in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, on 14 February 1895, and they were the parents of two sons and a daughter.

Their only daughter Winifred Frances Barrington, who had been a nurse during World War I, was shot dead by the IRA on 14 May 1921 in an ambush near Newport, Co Tipperary, on a police inspector with whom she was travelling.

But Sir Charles Barrington continued to be involved in peace efforts during the Irish war of independence (1918-1921) and the civil war (1921-1922). He chaired a public meeting on 4 April 1922 to express disgust at sectarian outrages in Belfast, and – despite the earlier murder of his daughter – praised the toleration shown to Protestants in Limerick and insisted they ‘had thrived’ in a Catholic community.

Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick … sold by the Barrington family in 1926 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But the Barrington family decided to leave left Ireland to live at Fairthorne Manor, Botley, their estate in Hampshire. Barrington offered Glenstal Castle to the Free State government in 1925 as a residence for the governor general. But, due to its distance from Dublin and the cost of upkeep, WT Cosgrave turned down the offer. Glenstal was sold to Monsignor James Ryan, a former president of Saint Patrick’s College, Thurles, for £2,000 in 1926. Ryan later offered the castle and grounds to Benedictine monks from Maredsous Abbey in Belgium for founding a community.

During the 1920s and 1930s, he corresponded with Edward John McCartney Watson of TCD, who was researching Dublin University’s older sports clubs. He was said still to row occasionally (but only in fine weather) in Hampshire in his 90s. He died on 12 August 1943 in Hampshire at the age of 95. Fairthorne Manor was sold to the YMCA in 1946.

The family title was first inherited by his elder son Sir Charles Bacon (‘Pat’) Barrington (1902-1980) as sixth baronet, and then by his younger son, Sir Alexander Fitzwilliam Croker (‘Fitz’) Barrington (1909-2003) as seventh baronet.

His brother John Beatty Barrington (1859-1926), who rowed with him for Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC), later was his land agent in Limerick, a Justice of the Peace for Limerick City and County, High Sheriff of Co Limerick (1912), and a member of Limerick County Council.

John Barrington’s daughter, Mary Charlotte Gladys Barrington (1889-1981), was the mother of John Middleton (‘Jock’) Campbell (1912-1994), Baron Campbell of Eskan, who spent formative childhood years in Glenstal Castle and was a key figure in the growth and development of Milton Keynes as chair of Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

Sir Charles Burton Barrington’s biography in the Dictionary of Irish Biography was contributed by Shaun Boylan (October 2009)

Sir Charles Barrington was one of the founders of Limerick Boat Club in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)