William Charles Plenderleath (2 June 1831 – 1 April 1906) was an English
Anglican clergyman, author and
antiquarian, best remembered for his ''White Horses of the West of England'' (1885, 2nd edition 1892).
Life
Born at
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton D ...
, Plenderleath was the only son of
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Plenderleath, of 27, Richmond Terrace, Clifton.
[Hunter, Andrew Alexander, ''Cheltenham College Register, 1841–1889'', p. 83][1881 Taylor b. North Tawton, Devon, UK]
at ancestry.com, accessed 19 July 2008 Colonel Plenderleath was a half-pay officer of the
49th Regiment of Foot
The 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1743. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Princes ...
. He had been commissioned into the
89th Regiment of Foot on 29 May 1796, served in the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
, was decorated after the
Battle of Crysler's Farm
The Battle of Crysler's Farm, also known as the Battle of Crysler's Field, was fought on 11 November 1813, during the War of 1812 (the name ''Chrysler's Farm'' is sometimes used for the engagement, but ''Crysler'' is the proper spelling). A Brit ...
of 1813, and was a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).
Plenderleath was educated at
Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Hugget ...
in Gloucestershire
[ and at ]Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
, graduating BA and MA, and entered the ministry of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
.[ He was ]Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Cherhill
Cherhill is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about east of the town of Calne, on the A4 road towards Marlborough. The parish includes the village of Yatesbury.
Overview
Cherhill has a population of around 7 ...
, Wiltshire, from December 1860 to April 1891, and then of Mamhead
Mamhead is a rural village and civil parish near Dawlish and Kenton in Devon, South West England, in the Teignbridge local authority area. Current community venues includMamhead Village Halland The Church of England parish church, dedicated to ...
in Devon from 1891 until 1905, dying on 1 April 1906.[Memorial tablet to Rev. William Charles Plenderleath at Church of St James the Great, Cherhill]
at oodwooc.co.uk, accessed 19 July 2008
While he was at Cherhill, Plenderleath's interest in the Cherhill White Horse
Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse ...
led him to write a paper, ''On the White Horses of Wiltshire and Its Neighbourhood'' (1872) for the ''Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine'', followed some years later by a book, ''White Horses of the West of England'' (1885). He also kept a notebook of Cherhill's affairs which was first published in 2001, ninety-five years after the author's death, as ''Plenderleath's Memoranda of Cherhill''. He intended this as a record of "what an English country village was in the 19th century, as portrayed by one who had the best opportunities of knowing".[Hobnob Marketplace]
at Hobnob Press (Other Publications), accessed 19 July 2008
At Mamhead, from 1891, Plenderleath also kept notes of his parish, described as "Includes census details (official and unofficial), offertory accounts, list of communions, collections in aid of voluntary church rate, and confirmations. In the front is a linen-backed map showing inhabited houses in Mamhead".
Publications
*'On the White Horses of Wiltshire and Its Neighbourhood', in ''Wilts Archaeological Magazine'', vol. 14 for 1872, pp. 12–30
*''White Horses of the West of England'' (London: Alfred Russell Smith; & Calne: Alfred Heath, 1885)
*''White Horses of the West of England'' (London: Allen & Storr, 2nd edition, 1892)
*''Plenderleath's Memoranda of Cherhill'', ed. John Reis (Compton Bassett
Compton Bassett is a village and rural Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of approximately 250. The village lies about north of Cherhill and east of the town of Calne.
Parish church
The Church ...
: Fulmer Publishing, for the Village & Family History Project, 2001, xxxviii + 134 pp., )[
]
Family
The 1881 census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
for The Rectory, Cherhill, gives a snapshot of Plenderleath's household. His wife, Margaret E.J. lenderleath was aged forty-four and had been born in the West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
. Margaret Edith Plenderleath (unmarried, age 24, born Bedminster, Gloucestershire), and Maud Mary Plenderleath (unmarried aged 2?, born Clifton, Gloucestershire) were their daughters. Five domestic servants are also recorded, a cook, a footman, a lady's maid, and two housemaids.[
On 20 April 1881, at Cherhill, Plenderleath's daughter Maud Mary Le Fevre Plenderleath married George Bayntun Starky (1858–1926) of Spye Park House, ]Bromham, Wiltshire
Bromham is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England.OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). The village is northwest of Devizes and the same distance east of Me ...
, later of Brackenfield Station, Amberley, New Zealand
Amberley (Māori: ''Kōwai'') is a town located in the Hurunui District in north Canterbury, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1 approximately 50 km north of Christchurch. It is the seat of ...
, and they had six sons:
#John Bayntun (1882–1944);
#George (1883–1959), who served as an officer in the Wiltshire Regiment
The Wiltshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot and the 99th Duke of Edinburgh's (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot.
The ...
and became a farmer in New Zealand;
#Wadham (1883–1953), a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, also a farmer in New Zealand;
#Francis (died 1963), a farmer at Toatoa, near Opotiki, New Zealand;
#Walter (1886–1930), an officer in the Somerset Yeomanry who became a sheep farmer in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
;
#James (1889–1916), who was killed in action during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
while serving in the Wiltshire Regiment
The Wiltshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot and the 99th Duke of Edinburgh's (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot.
The ...
.
A stained glass window at St James's church, Cherhill, bears the inscription:Plenderleath window
at oodwooc.co.uk, accessed 19 July 2008
References
External links
at oodwooc.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plenderleath, William
1831 births
1906 deaths
Writers from Bristol
19th-century English Anglican priests
Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford
People educated at Cheltenham College
Clergy from Bristol