Fordington
Life of Rev. Frederick John Moule [1830 – 1900]
Curate of St Georges Fordington; Chaplain to the Dorset County Museum; and Vicar of Yaxley
Compiled by Michael Russell OPC for Fordington © 2007 (last updated July 2011)
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Frederick John Moule was the third son of Henry Moule [1801 - 1880] the vicar of Fordington and his wife Mary Mullett Evans. He was the first of their children to be born in Fordington on the 10th May 1830. He was duly baptised there by his father on 17th June that year, and taught at home with other paying students in preparation for university. According to his brother Handley, he was the mechanician of the family. Before he went to Cambridge (which he did at the age of 20) he actually superintended the improvement of the peal of church bells at Fordington, and trained a team of bell ringers. He was a constant encouragement to Handley, the youngest of the brothers, and managed to get him to ring a peal of bells even though he was still only 8 years old. He was adept however at all manner of tools and he taught Handley for example how to use the old lathe they had. He went initially to Caius College in Cambridge which he entered on 26 June 1850. By 1851 he was still studying, but his place in the house had been given over to paying pupils so when he came home he lived with his elder brother George Evans Moule at Cuckolds Row in Fordington. He matriculated in that year but then transferred to Corpus Christie College on 26 June 1852, where he obtained a BA in 1855 and an MA in 1858. Frederick like his father & elder brother George settled on a career in the church and in 1857 was ordained by Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury. The parish records for St Georges church show that he carried out baptisms in Fordington as a curate from 27th Dec 1857. It was not however until In 1859, as a priest, that he was formally licensed to his fathers parish in Fordington where he continued to operate as Curate until October 1868. There is a note in the parish burial register that he departed Fordington for Yaxley on 15th January 1869. It is not clear how Frederick met his wife but he married Mary Alicia Foster on the 22 August 1860 in her home parish of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Mary had been born in Hitchin on 13th June 1841 and baptised there on 29th September that year. She was the daughter of Oswald Foster a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and his wife Martha. Mary was therefore 19 old when she married, and 11 years younger than Frederick. They settled into the house next door to his fathers vicarage in Fordington called Salisbury House and like his father he took in boarders as students for university. In 1861 also in the house were his two servants (Katherine Norris and Mary Ann Churchill), and James White a parochial school master and his wife Mary Jane who would have been paying rent. I have managed to locate the following children from this marriage:-
Frederick Oswald Moule Born March quarter of 1864 and baptised 31st Jan 1865 in Fordington. He became a railway engineer and was in Ipswich in 1891 Francis Henry Moule born December quarter of 1865 and baptised 23rd Nov 1865 in Fordington. He became a bankers clerk living in Hackney London in 1891. Edith Mary Moule born December quarter of 1868 and baptised 30 Nov 1868 in Fordington. She became a Governess of a school in Hertford by the age of 22. Mary H.B. Moule according to Census returns she was born at Yaxley Vicarage Huntington c1877 but I could not trace in the GRO. She was living with her mother in 1901 and after her death she married a Thomas C Des Barres in the 3rd quarter of 1914 in the district of Erpingham Norwich. |
 Asylum Chapel built 1880 |
Chaplain to the Dorset County AsylumIn 1864 he took on the additional responsibility of Chaplain to the newly opened Dorset County Asylum. This was quite an extensive set of buildings set in 56 acres of land situated a mile from Charminster and about two and a half miles from Fordington. When it opened in 1864 it had 320 patients roughly split evenly between males and females. Some patients came from as far away as Oxford and Abergavenny. Frederick seems to have passed these responsibilities onto a new Chaplain the Rev Hyson in the spring of 1867, presumably in preparation for his own Ministry. The picture opposite shows the Asylum Chapel which was built in 1880 to replace the somewhat smaller one known to Frederick during his time there. |
St Peters Church - YaxleyIn 1868 Yaxley was in Huntingdonshire but it is actually situated quite close to Peterborough in present day Cambridgeshire. He was appointed Vicar of St Peters abt Oct 1868 but formally took up residence with his family in January 1869. A further child Mary was born here, and Frederick served for 23 years as Vicar until 1891 when the Lord Chancellor appointed him to the Rectory of St Laurence in Norwich where he remained until just before his death. Death |
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