Bishop Wake's Visitation 1705 to 1723

NEWTON (WOULD)   Rectory.   Deanery Grimsby.   Families 22 ... 23.  Patron the Bishop of Durham.

[‘...’ separate different answers given in successive returns.]

The fact that the rectory is described as ‘ruinous’ was not unique to Wold Newton so much as the state of the church in this area generally.  A number of other parishes are similarly described as having inadequate accommodation for the clergy.  The rectory at Hatcliffe was partly demolished; William Welfitt was the incumbent at Beelsby but lived ‘in his own house at Wold Newton’; the Rectory at Brigsley was ‘nearly destroyed’.  The vicar of Grimsby did not live in the vicarage but ‘only a Cottage’.  Hawerby rectory was let and the rector lived in Humberston.  It was common for incumbents to be non-resident and to have the living of more than one parish.

Wold Newton’s relative wealth can be better appreciated by a comparison of the revenue measures with those of neighbouring parishes.

Similarly, its relative size can be seen by comparing the numbers of families (in some cases showing variations in successive returns).

[1] The amount which it returned in 1706 to the Commissioners of Queen Anne’s Bounty.

[2] The value of the benefice as entered in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of Henry VIII, the ‘King’s Book’ in 1535.

[3] Assessed as payable to the Crown on the basis of the King’s Book value.

[4] Due to the ecclesiastical authorities.