Hussey, Thomas John , DD
Rector of Hayes 1831 – 1854
Scientist, astronomer, theologian
Thomas John Hussey was born in Lamberhurst on 4 April 1797 to Catherine and John Hussey whose family were well known in Kent.
His father, a chaplain with the East India Company, died in India in October 1799 leaving his wife Catherine and his older brother Edward who owned Scotney Castle, the guardians of Thomas or Tom as he was known in the family.
Education
Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Dublin, Tom had a very unhappy childhood which included his mother being duped into parting with large sums of money. In spite of numerous court cases most of the money was not recovered. However, at university he was a diligent student and seems to have progressed well. He became engrossed with mathematics and science, particular astronomy.
Ordination
At the time of his request for ordination in March 1823 his address was 65 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, London. His application was supported by the Rector of St Marylebone, Revd Luke Heslop DD, and two other ministers from that church where he had been worshipping for over a year. ‘he hath during that time lived piously, soberly and honestly & diligently applied himself to his studies, nor hath he at any time as far as we know or have heard maintained or written anything contrary to the doctrine and disciple of the Church of England and moreover we think him a person worthy to be admitted to the sacred order of priests’, 31st March 1823.
His ordination followed at the Chapel Royal, St James Palace on 25 May 1823.
Chislehurst
He shared his interests in meteorology and astronomy (see a Notable Astronomer) with the rector of Chislehurst, Francis Dawson, in whose rectory was an existing telescope. He moved to Chislehurst Rectory and with Dawson cooperated on a number of astronomical and meteorological observations. He also helped with some of Dawson’s parochial duties. Through Dawson, who also had the patronage of appointing to Hayes Church, Thomas was appointed Rector of Hayes in 1831. Now he had an income and a house he married Anna Maria Reed from Leckhampstead, whose father was one of the earliest vaccinators.
Rector of Hayes
The following year, 1832, their daughter Catherine was born but she only survived a few months. Three more children were born between August 1833 – June 1836, although their son Thomas died at 18 months and was buried on the same day that their daughter Anna was born in June 1836.
Building activities
During this time in addition to carrying out his duties as a priest – services, baptisms, marriages and funerals, Hussey was busy creating an observatory attached to his Rectory. From here he noted Halley’s comet in 1835. He appealed for subscriptions to erect a clock in the church tower & to extend the church chancel by 12 feet. He decided that the Rectory was not large enough for his growing family and arranged for an extension to be erected on its north side consisting of a library and kitchen with two bedroom above. To pay for this he mortgaged the Hayes living which resulted in 1835 in an Archbishop’s Inquiry into his justification for taking out a mortgage!
Attitude to Parishioners
Local craftsmen such as Gabriel Hutfield, Joseph Langridge and George Butcher benefitted from the building activity. He also supported some of the poorest families, particularly helping those whose lives were affected by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This Act resulted in the closure of the local workhouse, strict rules about who could receive help without going into the workhouse and the transfer of this function to the Guardians of a Central Bromley Workhouse. It was not the Act he opposed but some of the actions of the Guardians: ‘the unfeeling treatment the labourers receive at the hand of the agriculturalists’. Several of his letters on the Poor Law were published in The Times in 1838 and also his Assize Sermon in 1844 on ‘The Christian Obligation to the Poor’ after his appointment as Chaplain to the Essex Assizes.
Worshipful Company of Bowyers
In 1838 Thomas Hussey became a member of the Bowyers Livery Company by patrimony and on 21 January 1839 a freeman of the City of London. Later in 1848 he apprenticed his ten year old son John.
Accident
By 1838 Hussey had experienced an accident which he wrote left him unable to pursue his astronomical observations. His equipment was sold to become the basis of the Observatory at Durham University. To assist with his parochial duties he needed the help of a curate, the first of whom was George Varenne Reed, his wife’s brother, who had recently been ordained. He was provided with a bedroom in the corridor to the Observatory which later was used as a school room for his daughters, Anna & Dorothea who was born three years later in 1841. Another son was born in 1842 but died a few months later.
Theologian
In 1844 Hussey wrote to Lord Brougham, the Lord Chancellor, ‘scientific pursuits never interfere with my professional studies and after twenty seven years of labour, the labour of my life, I have brought before the Public a work which is designed to represent the state of Biblical learning at the present day’. It was a commentary on the Bible which was originally published in 24 parts. The first volume went to the end of Esther and was ready for sale by Feb 1844. The work was well reviewed by the Times but did not receive the critical acclaim that Hussey had hoped for.
Hayes Church School
The Rector was one of the Trustees of the Church School. During his time the school became affiliated to the National Society but his correspondence with the Society became quite heated as he tried to receive a grant to help towards the cost of repairs needed to extend the school. Work started in 1838 for which he loaned the money. The task of Treasurer was taken over by Samuel Ward of Baston Manor and sufficient funds were raised from the local gentry to remedy the shortage of money to support the school. Hussey was repaid his money but from this point on he seems to have made no further contributions to the finances of the school. He later fell out with another trustee, Frederick Moysey of Pickhurst Mead, over communications with the National Society.
1850s
In 1841 and in 1851 the Husseys had five resident servants but in 1851 there was also a resident governess for their two daughters. Their surviving son, John, had been sent to school in Leyden and in 1851 according to his mother’s letters joined up as a midshipman
Bankruptcy
The late 1840s and early 1850s saw Increasing financial difficulties for Hussey as he tried to recover the money that he was due from his mother’s estate. The legal expenses and his debts mounted. Eventually in 1854 he became bankrupt and resigned as Rector of Hayes. The death of his wife in Paris the previous year had had a profound effect on him. In a letter to John Lubbock, edged in black, he wrote ‘in the worry and confusion of today …..so utterly unconscious was I of what I was talking about.‘ He disappeared to Algiers. He was thought to have returned to Paris in 1866 but his family had no contact with him. In 1875 advertisements appeared in the paper for anyone with news of his whereabouts to make contact.
In February 1893 his daughter Anna Maria finally secured the Probate Court’s approval that her father, who would then be 96, could be presumed dead.
It was a sad ending for a man who had shown so much ability.
