Ealing has numbered among its vicars many divines who have been celebrated for their learning, their piety, and their zeal, and it is the merest justice to say that in the attributes that adorned his predecessors, in lofty and stately eloquence, in moving pathos, in chastened declamation, and in all the graces of cultured speech glowing in poetic imagery, Dr. Oliver, the present incumbent, has amply sustained the traditions of his benefice. The following is the list of the Vicars of Ealing:—
| Roger de Thorlaston. | ||
| 1372, April 8. | Robert de Haytfield. | Resigned. |
| 1386, Nov. 12. | William Semley. | Ob. |
| 1386, Feb. 11. | John Dames. | Ob. |
| 1390, Oct. 25. | David Bagator. | Resig. |
| 1398, Dec. 7. | Nic. Bowne. | ,, |
| 1399, Oct. 18. | Will. Wright. | ,, |
| 1400, Sep. 15. | John Duffield. | ,, |
| 1407, Dec. 21. | Baldwin Bagatour. | |
| 1437, Aug. 2. | John Mallony. | ,, |
| 1443, July 18. | Joh. Smith. | ,, |
| Ric. Burton. | ||
| 1451, Nov. 26. | Thos. Curteys, LL.B. | |
| 1478, May 28. | Will. Tournour, A.M. | Ob. |
| 1503, Sep. 15. | Thos. Everard. | ,, |
| 1513, Dec. 9. | Sim. King. | Resig. |
| 1537, Jan. 19. | Will. Havard. | Ob. |
| 1566, Feb. I. | Oliver Stoning, S.T.B. | ,, |
| 1571, Nov. 26. | Thos. Rycroft. | ,, |
| 1582, April 7. | Thos. Knight, A.M. | ,, |
| 1591, Nov. 26. | Ric. Smart. | Resig. |
| 1602, October. | Joh. Bromfield, A.M. | Ob. |
| 1610, Jan. 29. | Edwd. Abbot, A.M. | ,, |
| 1615, Jan, 19. | Rec. Tavernor, A.M. | Resig. |
| 1638, Oct. 13. | Rob. Cooper, LL.B. | Ob. |
Cooper’s lines did not lie in pleasant places. He was ejected by the Puritans, and from this circumstance no less than from his position, we may be sure he had not disguised his Royalist sympathies. It is not known how the erstwhile vicar of Ealing spent his interregnum, whether he had means apart from his calling, or lived on the goodwill of friends, or flitted about as so many of the deprived clergy did from the house of one cavalier to another’s, or followed the fallen fortunes of the young king de jure at the foreign courts that gave a grudged shelter to the royal exile. During the period of his suspension,marriages assumed the character of a civil contract, and the Registrar acted much as a Registrar acts in our days in civil marriages. Here is a copy of an entry of the publication of intent to marry, 1653. “A publication of an intent of marriage betweene John Holliday, the sonne of Jo. Holliday, waterman, and Sarah Walker, spinster, and daughter of Richard Walker, of Old Brentford, mealman, was published in Yling church three several days, viz., November 6, 13, &c., 1653. By me Joseph Walker Register.”
During Cooper’s deprivation the pulpit of the Church was occupied by Daniel Carwarthen, and by Thomas Gilbert, the latter of whom was in possession at the Restoration. Just as Cooper had clung to Church and King, so did Gilbert refuse to recognize the new or restored polity. So Gilbert was removed from the Church, and as it happened that Gilbert was the first recusant, he desired to have it recorded on his tomb that he was the proto-martyr to the cause of non-conformity. Robert Cooper was reinstated in his old benefice, but died within a few months thereafter.
1660, January 4. William Beveridge, A.M. of St. John’s College. An excellent and a most learned divine. In his twentieth year he wrote a treatise on the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Samarian tongues. He resigned the Vicarage of Ealing for the rectory of St. Peter’s, Cornhill. In 1681 he was made Archdeacon of Colchester with a stall as Prebend in St. Paul’s. In 1691 he declined the see of Bath and Wells from conscientious motives, but subsequently became Bishop of St. Asaph. He died in 1708 and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
| 1673, April 29. | Seth Lamb, A.M. | Resig. |
| 1702, Jan. 26. | William Hall, A.M. | Ob. |
| 1719, Feb. 9. | Thomas Mangey, LL.D. prom. |
The author of many theological works that attained considerable repute. Dr. Mangey was chaplain to Dr. Robinson, Bishop of London, and prebendary of the Cathedral of Durham. He married the daughter of Archbishop Sharp.
| William Hall | Resig. | |
| 1754, Sep. 29. | John Botham, M.A. | Resig. |
| 1773, Dec. 10. | Chas. Sturges, M.A. | Ob. |
The Rev. C. Sturges was Vicar of Ealing during the time Mrs. Trimmer was resident in the Parish and in her Memoirs he is described as in every part of his duty indefatigable, admonishing, persuading in season and out of season, exhorting his flock to walk in the path of duty, or to return to it if they had unhappily strayed. The sick were visited, the ignorant instructed, the distressed relieved, and all watched over with a regard almost paternal. It was in the time of Mr. Sturges that Sunday Schools were introduced into Ealing. The credit of establishing Sunday Schools is generally attributed to Robert Raikes who advocated them in the Gloucester Journal of which he was proprietor and Editor. The idea was communicated to Mr. Raikes by the Rev. Mr. Stock, curate of St. John’s, Gloucester. Mr. Stock secured the co-operation of Mr. Raikes and though the Schools inaugurated by the coadjutors were not in fact the first Schools which might properly be termed Sunday Schools, there is no doubt that to the publicity and prominence given to the subject by Raikes, we are indebted for the general and rapid adoption of the institution throughout the land, and Mr. Sturges welcomed and encourage the first Sunday Schools opened in Ealing.
| 1797, Sep. 21. | Colston Carr, LL.B. | Resig. |
| 1822, June 1. | Herbert Oakeley. | ,, |
| 1834, Mar. 19. | John Smith, B.D. | |
| Edwd. Wm. Relton, M.A. | ||
| W. E. Oliver, LL.D. | Floreat. |