The Revd. John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875)
Vicar of Egham and Englefield Green (1853-1872)
The Revd John Samuel Bewley Monsell was described in a history of the Church of Ireland[1] as a “notable Rector”. He graduated Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College, Dublin in 1832. He took Holy Orders in 1834, obtaining his first post as curate of Templemore, Derry (1834-1836) after which he was successively Chaplain to Bishop Mant, Chancellor of the diocese of Connor, Rector of Ramoan (Ballycastle, N. Ireland), Vicar of Egham, and Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford.
In 1853, after resigning his Rectorship of the parish of Ramoan where he had been the driving force behind the building in 1849 of a church to replace the original church (The Church of St. Ereclacius), he became the Vicar of Egham (St. Johns) a church dating from 1820 which had replaced the old 12th century church after it had been demolished. Of this ‘new church’ he wrote: ‘My parish church is so bad in form and feature that its influence must be, no matter how people struggle against it, to unsolemnise’
At that time Englefield Green was in the parish of Egham, (in fact it was only in 1930, because of the growth in the population, that Englefield Green became an independent parish). By 1824 the Church Vestry had decided that parishioners in outlying districts (including Englefield Green and Virginia Water) needed their own churches. However, in Englefield Green a school for the children of the “labouring” classes was given priority, and this was built on the corner of Armstrong Road and Victoria Street (now demolished and replaced by houses)[2]. By the time Monsell arrived in Egham there had still been nothing done about a church and burial ground for Englefield Green. However, as stated by the Revd. Richard Falkner (Vicar of St Jude’s Church until his untimely death in 1986) in his pamphlet “Church and School in Englefield Green”(1973): “The time of the Vestry and local, well-meaning but often ineffective management … was passing”[3]. The Revd. Monsell recognised that action was overdue and immediately started to plan for the new church. A site where the cemetery now stands was offered by the Edgell Wyatt Edgell family, and part of it was purchased. Money was raised, an architect appointed and the first stone laid on SS Simon and Jude’s Day, 25th October, 1858. The work was completed in 8 months. The church was built in mid-14th century style. Outside it is of Kentish rag with Bath stone dressing and inside the walls are of coloured brick with courses of Kentish rag and Bath stone. The interior attracted a lot of criticism at the time, but is now much admired as unusual and beautiful. St Jude’s Church was dedicated on the 5th July 1859. One of the lights over the altar commemorates the Revd. Monsell’s eldest son who died on the way to the Crimea.
As well as his church activities he was also involved in the promotion of education in Egham in relation to the schools (Egham Board Schools) in Station Road, the building of which originated with a grant of land to Monsell in 1868 (see item no.8 of the display). In 1975 the schools, by then called Manor School, closed, following which it was eventually demolished and a housing estate built on its site.
In 1872 Dr Monsell (he had obtained the degrees of L.L.B. and L.L.D. in 1856) left Egham to become Rector of St Nicholas’s Church, Guildford and Honorary Chaplin to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In 1975 he died at the age of 64 as a result of a fall from scaffolding on St Nicholas’s Church which was in the process of being repaired..
Dr Monsell was a prolific hymn writer and poet. A Dictionary of Hymnology lists 72 of his best known hymns which are described as “on the whole bright, joyous and musical”[4]. Two of his most popular hymns are “Fight the Good Fight with all thy might” and the Epiphany hymn “ O worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness”. A “lay” (a narrative poem or ballad) which he wrote in 1848, entitled “The Church of Ramoan” was 30 verses long.
A Bishop of Ripon in his book Some Pages of My Life[5] wrote of him, “There was John Monsell – a tall man, with a rubicund and cheerful countenance, who smiled at us from behind his gleaming glasses, and called my mother by her Christian name. His letters, written in a clear, somewhat feminine hand, are kindly letters, breathing genuine religious feeling”.
Joan Wintour
October 2014
On Display:
1. Falkner, R. Church and School in Englefield Green (Englefield Green: printed by brian Hooker, 1973),
2. Englefield Green School.
Initially built on a modest scale in 1827 on the corner of Armstrong Road and Victoria Street, new buildings for the school were added in 1864 and enlarged in 1885, 1896, and 1899. Its existence on that site ended in 1984 when the buildings were demolished and replaced with residences, its pupils, with the exception of the infants, having been re-located in 1967 in new buildings on the Bagshot Road with the name of St. Judes School.
3. St Judes Church. Englefield Green
The 150th anniversary of the building of St Jude’s Church was celebrated in 2009. The Vicar of Egham, the Revd John Samuel Bewley Monsell, was the driving force behind the building of the church in Englefield Green, which was begun in 1858 and consecrated in 1859. The architect was Edward Buckton Lamb. (See also item no. 5)
5. Revd. John Samuel Bewley Monsell (copy of photograph and text extracted from the Oliver Collection’s copy of Turner’s History of Egham[6])
It was largely due to the energetic efforts of the Revd. Monsell that the plans for a new church in Englefield Green were implemented in 1859. It was because of the part he played in the foundation of that church that the section of it which was reconstructed in 2014 was give the name of ‘The Monsell Room’.
6. St. John’s Church, Egham, 1840.
7. A notable centenary, by P.W.D. An account to celebrate the writing of 4 hymns by the Rev J S B Monsell, Vicar of Egham from 1853 to 1870. A from a guide to Egham (September 1963).
8. The Right Honble the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to the Revd John Samuel Bowley Monsell. Grant of a piece of land containing 1a. 2r. 0p. at Egham for the site of a school. Dated 15th July, 1968. Typewritten copy of the document.
9. The Schools, Egham, c. 1910.
[1] Boyd, H. A. A History of the Church of Ireland: In Ramoan Parish (Belfast: R. Carswell, 1930)
[2] Falkner, R. Church and School in Englefield Green (Englefield Green: printed by brian Hooker, 1973), pp.2-3, 7-8
[3] Ibid, p.5
[4] Julian, J. A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: John Murray, 1907), pp. 762–763.
[5] Carpenter, W. B., Bishop of Ripon. Some pages of My Life (London: Williams & Norgate, 1911)
[6] Turner, F. Egham, Surrey: A History of the Parish under Church and Crown (Egham: Box & Gilham, 1926)