Description:William Hutchinson Rector of Checkley, 1839-1878 .
William Hutchinson was born at Bury in Lancashire on 31st July 1799, the eldest of three children of Thomas Hutchinson, a wool merchant of that town. William graduated at Brasenose Oxford in 1822, receiving his MA on 1st August 1824, at the same time entering the Holy Order of Deacons. A year later he entered the Holy Order of Priests in Salisbury Cathedral. His first post was with his uncle, the Rev. J. Paley of Laycock Hill.
His father suffered from gout and finding the waters of Bath suitable for his complaint developed a fondness for the city and paid frequent visits. It was on one of these visits to Bath that William first became aquainted with his future wife, Sarah, the eldest daughter of Captain Edward Mitchell of Castle Strange, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. The couple were married on 7th March 1827, the ceremony taking place at Walcot Church, Bath. In 1835 William became curate of St. Mary's, Chester and during the cholera epidemic in that city. He had the whole work of the parish on his hands as the Rector, Rev. T. Mandesley was very infirm. Handbridge, then part of the parish was the centre of the plague, the people dying here by the hundred and funerals taking place day and night. At the same time he was Chaplain to the hospital and the military gaol of Chester. He survived all this to be instituted Rector of St.Mary's and All Saints Church, Checkley in 1839. He had already bought the living of Checkley from his predessor the Rev.S amuel Langley in 1836. The Rev. Samuel Langley died suddenly in February 1839 and Rev. Hutchinson was installed in his own presentation to the living of Checkley by the Right Rev. Samuel Butler, Lord Bishop of Lichfield. One year after coming to Checkley a small Sunday School was built in front of the east window of the Church which was supported entirely by village subscriptions. The numbers attending services at the church right up until William Hutchinsons death were consistently in the 80s and 90s. In 1879 the people of Checkley together with friends of the Rector subscribed over £1,000 for the building of a village school and although Hutchinson did not live to see it built, such was the appreciation of the parishioners for his 40 years service as Rector, and his interest in the education of the children that they chose to name the school as a memorial to him. He died in 1878 and was buried by his curate and successor Edward Philips to the left of the east window of Checkley Church.
Photograph courtesy of St Mary and All Saints Church, Checkley.