Dorset Editor of SDNQ 1921-1936.
Born on 5 December 1868 at Thurloxton, Somerset, son of the Rev. Robert Leach Bartlett (1826-1912) and Christiana (nee Adams) (1834-1920).
Educated at Harlow College, Crewkerne, and Wadham College, Oxford (won long jump and hurdles at school and at Wadham College, 1888).
Married in 1907 to Evelyn Grace Pope, daughter of Alfred Pope FSA, JP.
Curate of Whitechurch Canonicorum (1891), Shrewton (1893), Corfe Castle (1895); Chaplain at Turin 1899); Diocesan Missioner of St Andrew’s, Salisbury (1900); Cadet Chaplain during the Great War; Vice-President of Dorset Field Club (1927); member of the Council of Dorset Archaeological Society (1930), Vicar of Fordington St George, Dorchester (1906-1936).
Died on 8 May 1947 at The Vale House, Timsbury, Bath, Somerset.
Retirement as Vicar of Fordington (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 3 October 1936)
The Rev. R. Grosvenor Bartelot who has been Vicar of Fordington since 1906, and, retiring to Bath, has announced that: “The main reason for my retiring is this – the Tithe Act says that every clergyman in possession of a living on Oct.2nd this year will received the same income as he had before the Act came into force. If my successor came after that date it would make a big difference to his income. But my resignation dates from Sept.29th just in time to dodge the Act. In addition, I have also surrendered my claim to a pension of £130 out of the living.” Mr Bartelot has made these moves in favour of the new incumbent, who is the Rev. Gilbert Jessop, son of the Gloucestershire cricketer. Mr Bartelot preached his 4,000th sermon on Sunday.
Notice of his death (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 17 May 1947)
The Rev. Richard Grosvenor Bartelot, who, as Vicar of Fordington, Dorset, from 1906 to 1936, preached 4,000 sermons, has died at The Vale House, Timsbury, aged 79. He was a member of the Bath branch of the Somerset Archaeological Society, and had given addresses to that body. He was an authority on ancient manuscripts, and was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Funeral at Fordington (Dorset County Chronicle, 15 May 1947)
When the Rev. Richard Grosvenor Bartelot, M.A., F.S.A., extended St George’s church, Fordington, to double its length during his 30 years as vicar, he conceived the idea that he would like finally to rest within its walls. So a special niche was prepared in the steps, quite near the Communion table. And there, on Monday afternoon, was placed the tiny casket containing the ashes of a man who was not only an enterprising parish priest but a great historian, archaeologist and author and – an amateur mender of clocks!
Richard Bartelot was vicar of Fordington from 1906 until 1936, when he retired to Timsbury, Bath, and it was at the Vale House he died on Thursday, aged 79.
Cremation was at Bristol on Saturday when there was a Requiem Mass at Timsbury, whose Rector (Rev. A.T. Rose) performed the committal rites in St George’s on Monday. There had also been a Requiem at St Mary’s, Dorchester, on Monday, and the Vicar (Rev. W.F. Harding) paid tribute on the previous day, for Mr Bartelot was a patron of that living.
Mr Bartelot possessed a family tree going back to the Norman Conquest and though a Somerset native was descended from two centuries of Dorset forefathers. His works included histories of Fordington and Crewkerne School, and he was co-author of The three Dorset captains at Trafalgar and Nelson’s Hardy and Dorset editor of Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries. He was a member of the archaeological societies in both counties. And everybody loved him.
Mrs Bartelot is a step-sister of Major Rolph Pope and a daughter of the late Mr Alfred Pope, F.S.A.
In addition to the rector of Timsbury, clergymen officiating at the St George’s service were the vicar (Rev. G.L.O. Jessop), Canon G. Clare Morrow (Holy Trinity), and the Revs. F.W. Harding (St. Mary’s) and H.E. Trask (Winterborne Steepleton).
Family mourners were the widow, Major R. Bartelot, R.A. (son), Misses Romana, Evelyn and Rosella Bartelot (daughters), Miss Haig-Brown and Mrs Alec Pope (sisters-in-law), Mrs Percy Jones and Mrs A.C.R. Pope. Mrs Patch was at the organ.
Obituary for R.G. Bartelot, Dorset Editor (SDNQ vol. 25, Part 233, p.21, June 1947)
Richard Grosvenor Bartelot.
AVE ATQUE VALE.
By the death of the Rev. R. Grosvenor Bartelot, MA, FSA, on May 8th last, the Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries has lost a close friend and ardent servant, and the County has lost its leading genealogist.
He was born in 1868, the son of the Rev. Robert Leach Bartelot, and educated at Crewkerne Grammar School, and Wadham College, Oxford, taking an honours degree in History in1889. After being ordained deacon in 1891, he served his first curacy at Whitchurch Canonicorum in 1891-2, was priested in 1893, served successively at Shrewton 1893-5, and Corfe Castle 1895-1900, and became vicar of Fordington St George, Dorchester, in 1906, where he worked for thirty years. He had already written the History of his old Grammar School, in 1899, and in 1919 [?1915], he wrote the History of Fordington. It was as Vicar of Fordington in 1907 that he met and married Evelyn Grace, daughter of Alfred Pope, Esq., JP, FSA.
It was in January, 1920 that Canon Mayo, finding that advancing age was telling upon him, wrote and invited Bartelot to act with him as sub-editor for Dorset, of the S&DN&Q. The letter, written from Gillingham, lies before me. In March 1921, Canon Mayo resigned the Editorship, and until 1936 – for fifteen years – Bartelot held the post. It was his removal from the county that year which brought about his resignation – but by no means severed the ties that he had formed with the periodical, and its little band of officers. Only last summer he attended the happy renewal of the annual business meetings and luncheon parties which Mrs Bates-Harbin had for so many years made a memorable event in the history of S&DN&Q, and which only a second World War had interrupted. It was obvious that his health was then failing, though he took part, in his incisive fashion, in the discussions. Bartelot’s service to our publication was too varied to sum up in this short tribute to his memory, but it was chiefly as a genealogist, and, amongst other things, in the prosaic preparation of the Indices to the volumes of S&DN&Q from time to time, that he rendered yeoman service. One of the very pleasant foibles upon which Bartelot prided himself, was his practical knowledge of, and interest in the mechanism of clocks and watches, and the mending of his friends’ timepieces may certainly be reckoned as not the least favourite of his recreations. He had a real knowledge of early clocks and clock makers in the two counties of Somerset and Dorset.
Mrs Bates-Harbin will not mind, we feel sure, if we add to this brief notice a quotation from a letter which Bartelot wrote to her on September 14th 1946, accepting her invitation to the luncheon party at her house on the 25th of that month:
‘I have been looking up my diaries and I note that I attended the meeting and lunch at Newton Surmaville first on August 18th, 1920, and on that occasion we went over to Coker Court for tea and old Documents. I think I was present at all the gatherings since that date. On July 28th, 1923, we visited Clifton Maybank and came back to tea at Newton where I had the honour of meeting your Musgrove Clock. The last meeting took place on August 3rd, 1939. Then came the War. And now after seven years we have survived to meet again.’
He had made his home latterly, at Timsbury, near Bath – and there he died – his ashes being buried in a niche near the Altar in St George’s church, Fordington, as he had desired: and may God grant rest and peace to the soul of his servant, whom everybody loved. To the family at Vale House, of which he was the stalwart and honoured head, we offer our respectful regard for his memory, and our sincere sympathy in their loss.
Joseph Fowler, Dorset Editor.
Publications
R.G. Bartelot, History of Crewkerne School AD 1499-1899 (Crewkerne, 1899)
R.G. Bartelot & A.M. Broadley, The three Dorset captains at Trafalgar: Thomas Masterman Hardy, Charles Bullen, Henry Digby (London, 1906)
R.G. Bartelot & A.M. Broadley, Nelson’s Hardy: his life, letters and friends (London, 1909)
R.G. Bartelot, A short paper on Thurloxton (Taunton, 1911).
R.G. Bartelot, The history of Fordington (Dorchester, 1915)
R.G. Bartelot, Dorset clocks and clockmakers (Dorchester, 1927)
R.G. Bartelot, Our family surname (Frome, 1944)
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