by Arthur Penn

Dean was vicar of Warton for 26 years in the mid-nineteenth century. It was in his time that services were first held in the old Tithebarns of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester at Carnforth and Priest Hutton. Yealand was already independent and Silverdale had its own church and minister. Dean it was who noticed the dangerous state of the south aisle of Warton church in 1848 and dealt with the expensive re-building of the arcade under Edward Paley. He was also responsible for the first Victorian stained glass in the church, which according to James Erving, was put in without even the knowledge of the churchwardens. Erving seems to have thought him a Romaniser and also criticised him for havering over the vexed question as to whether the psalms should be chanted. He must have found Erving a difficult parishioner, for, as has been described in an earlier article, he took every opportunity to denigrat? him in his commonplace book. The east window in the chapel is in memory of his first wife Mary, and that on the north side of the sanctuary is in memory of Dean himself, who is described as Rural Dean of Tunstall.

More information has come to light recently about Dean’s earlier career through an inquiry addressed to the vicar of Warton by Tony Brooks of Camborne, Cornwall. Mr. Brooks, in researching his family history discovered that his great-great-aunt Mary Whitworth became Dean’s second wife in 1864 when he was 71. Her father was a successful cotton millowner at Facit, near Rochdale. Mr. Brooks has a silver tankard given to Dean by the parishioners of Colwall near Malvern in 1841. He has discovered that Dean ran a school there between 1819 and 1845. His appointment was also as curate of Berrow and Little Malvern. He had just been ordained by the Bishop of Salisbury at the minimum age of 23 when appointed. The school was endowed by Humphrey Walwyn and was supervised by the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Dean took on a run-down establishment. A recent book by Pamela Hurle ‘Portrait of a School, the Elms in Colwall 1614-2000′ describes his efforts and their success. The master was paid a salary of £30 per annum by the charity and the school was established as a ‘Free School’ rather than a Grammar School. However, Dean’s predecessor had, according to a report in 1818 ‘studiously discouraged‘ the poorer children from attending ‘in order that they might not interfere with the more lucrative class of scholars … it has become a boarding school instead of a free school’. There were 18 boys in the school and not one was able to say the Lord’s Prayer. The master’s house was uninhabitable and Dean lodged at a farmhouse. A deputation sent by the Grocers’ confirmed what Dean had reported, and the Company co-operated with him in rectifying matters. They ‘heard with Pleasure that the Parishioners were loyal and all of the established church but at the same time with a mixture of Regret we heard that they had little Inclination to attend that Church’. There was a problem about the boys attending church as there is no accommodation for them, but the deputation ‘had no Doubt that the Company would be at the expense of a few forms whereby the rising generation of a Parish consisting of about 700 might be kept firm in their loyalty, free from Schism and be taught to thank the Almighty for the almost peculiar abundance annually bestowed upon them and the Neighbourhood – altho their parents have hitherto neglected to do so.’

Dean was ‘much esteemed in the Neighbourhood’ and was approved by Lord Somers of Eastnor Castle and by one of the churchwardens, ‘Mr. Barrett, a gentleman of fortune residing at a castle called Hope End, built in the Turkish style’. This was the father of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Unfortunately for the reputation of Dean’s preaching she wrote in her diary in 1831 ‘heard Mr. Dean preach a sleepy kind of sermon‘, and, later ‘Mr. Dean’s preaching is not worth disturbing ones’s feelings.‘ In 1822 the number of pupils had risen to 57. Dean was able to augment his small stipend by taking boarders and in the 1841 census is shown as having 17 boys, aged 9 to 15. In 1841 he married Mary, who was aged 40, and in 1844 left the school ‘to take up a position in Chester, he was given a hundred guineas by the Grocers’ for his zealous and efficient services‘. Warton was at that time in the diocese of Chester, and the patrons being the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, it would seem that this Colwall reputation must have been the reason for his appointment.

A curious feature of Dean’s opinions comes out in his response to the 1851 [religious] census. He was fairly new to the parish and had begun services in the Sunday School at Carnforth which was licensed for worship in 1850. He stated that over three months the average attendance was 80. In reporting for Warton Church, however, he was more circumspect. There was some reluctance on the part of the Church of England clergy to carry out the count of heads required on Sunday March 31, though all the other local clergy did so. Dean left the space blank and under ‘remarks’ wrote: see 1 Chron. Chap 21 and 2 Sam, Chap 24. He certified the return ‘except as to the number of Persons attending divine service which cannot be taken without prophaning God’s Holy Sabbath’. The Biblical references are to the census David carried out of able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. This amounted to 1,570,000 (the two accounts differ). God’s displeasure at David for numbering the people led to a choice of punishment – famine, defeat in war and plague. He chose the last and 70,000 died. Dean must have taken the prohibition of census literally, and, perhaps, feared similar visitations.

Dean died September 25 1870 and his widow took up residence at Burton Old Hall where she died in 1909.

Published in the Mourholme Magazine Issue 41 2001