Summary. Precentor William Higgins and Bishop John Hacket oversaw the rebuilding of the cathedral after the devastation of the Civil War from1660. It was a major enterprise backed by the king.
Three sieges
of the Close, including a heavy bombardment, in the Civil War, 1643-6, left the
cathedral wrecked. Cromwell’s parliament wanted it demolished. Harwood wrote, ‘the
whole of the building reduced almost to a ruin.’[1] Two
priests, both Royalists, resisted attempts to complete the demolition and with
the restoration of the monarchy, 1660, supervised reconstruction. They were
Precentor William Higgins and Bishop John Hacket.
AI generated image of the cathedral in 1646.
William Higgins, born
in London, was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and held livings at Henstridge, Almondbury, Cheselbourne and
was rector of Stoke on Tern, Shropshire, before becoming a canon of Lichfield Cathedral in 1633, and precentor in
1636.[2]
In 1642, he fought for the Royalists at Edgehill and was taken prisoner and imprisoned
at Coventry for three months. His release came with paying a sum of money.[3]
At some point in the 1640s he removed St Chad’s gospels and arranged for its
safe keeping. He admitted to having the gospels on 15 August 1658. He stayed
within the Close during the third siege and was taken prisoner when the Close
surrendered in 1646. The priests by now had scattered and the cathedral was
without any leadership. On his release Higgins became a teacher in Shropshire,
but this reduced him to penury.[4]
AI generated image of William Higgins holding St Chad’s
Gospels.
At the Restoration of the Monarchy, 1660, the rebuilding of the cathedral began under the supervision of Higgins and later in February 1661 with the help of dean William Paul. Paul was only the dean for two years, 1661-3, before being elevated to Bishop of Oxford, but he must have contributed to the preparation for rebuilding, as well as the clearance of the Close.
In September 1660, Higgins became
president of the chapter and reformed it with much disagreement on who should
be appointed. Services restarted in the chapterhouse and vestry, 1660. Savage
wrote, ‘practically alone (Higgins) preserved a continuity of the cathedral’.[5]
In 1664, he had to cope with a new dean who was disliked by all. Higgins
died in 1666, aged 66, half way through the rebuilding.
Procession to the Chapter House on 16 June 1660 after the restoration of the monarchy. A roundel in the presbytery floor. A diary records “The Clerks Vicars of the cathedral had entered the chapter-house, and there said service; and this, with the vestry, was the only place in the church that had a roof to shelter, them.”
Statue of John Hacket from west front. He is holding the Book of Common Prayer which he used all his life.
He was ordained in London in
1618, aged 26 and gained a D.D. in 1628. He preached to James I in 1623 and
again in 1624;[7]
being made a Prebend of Lincoln Cathedral in 1623. Between 1631 and 1661, he
was archdeacon of Bedford. In 1641, Hacket was asked to speak to parliament against a bill forwarded
by Puritans to abolish bishops, deans and cathedral chapters. He gave reasons
for the existence of cathedrals, their clergy and all who work in them causing
the bill to be delayed for a month. A year later he was made a residentiary
canon of St Pauls. In 1642, he was imprisoned for failing to pay money
to Parliament and a year later the Parliamentarians accused him of
‘superstition, covetousness, sending money to the king and aversion to the
Covenant’. Whereupon he retired to his rectory at Cheam having no more to do
with the Civil War.[8]
After the Civil War and the Commonwealth he became chaplain to Charles II. In
1660 he frequently preached before Charles II, sometimes occupying the pulpit
at St. Paul’s. That year he was offered the bishopric of Gloucester but refused
it, and then on the recommendation of Charles II accepted the see at Lichfield
with all the difficulty of rebuilding “that most ruined cathedral, city and diocese to his prudent
circumspection and government.” He was consecrated Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry on 22 December 1661, aged 69. Taking on this project for the next
8 years must have seemed daunting, and can only be explained by the king
imploring him.
Bishop
Hacket painting in Trinity College, Cambridge. Wikipedia, Public Domain.
Near
life-size effigy of Hacket on a marble table monument located in the South
Choir aisle. The bishop is holding the Book of
Common Prayer and a crozier. His eldest son, Andrew, erected the effigy to his father’s memory.
Hacket gained a reputation for learning, perseverance
and determination and was widely known for his strong Royalist sympathies, but
he came to Lichfield in mental turmoil.[9]
The Civil War had caused him much anguish and sorrow and he had retired to
rural Cheam claiming he would never again enter London after the execution of
the king. William Harvey, a fellow Royalist who had been physician to James I,
described Hacket as wanting to depart the world after the execution of Charles
and death of clergy. His time was spent in prayer and study and the isolation
made him a ‘sickly old man.’ Harvey told him to take exercises and gave him
curatives for his despondency. Leaving his rectory sanctuary and restoring the
cathedral after its Civil War desecration was for him never going to be easy.
Hacket seated at the bench planning the restoration of the cathedral. Note the figure at the front of the bench holding the working drawings.
He arrived at the cathedral two years into its
restoration. By then precentor Higgins, a reinstituted Chapter, a new Dean and
other local notables had initiated much of the early planning and clearance of
the site from 1660–1.[10]
Hacket arrived in August 1662 and was immediately preoccupied with building a
house in the Close, spending £1000 of his own money.[11]
He returned again in October. He gave a silver-gilt communion service, two
chalices, two flagons and a paten, for facilitating Eucharist.
Communion
service given to the cathedral by Hacket, 1662. Made by Daniel Rutty and
engraved with the cathedral arms, with one piece made by an unknown
silversmith.
From 1663, Hacket and the Chapter had a quarrelsome
relationship with the Dean, who he described as siding with ‘Puritans’
(Nonconformists) in the town.[12]
He visited Lichfield in August 1668 to see the work being done. The restored
cathedral, after eight years of considerable work, was rededicated by Hacket on
Christmas Eve 1669, followed by a feast for three days.[13]
Hacket paid for a statue of Charles II to be placed high on the west front.[14]
For some, he was the builder of a new cathedral,[15]
but evidence for his close involvement in its material reconstruction is
lacking. Instead, Hacket’s great contribution was the raising of finance and
before he died, he claimed to have raised £15,000 (equivalent to £1.5 million).[16]
In his last year he preached again to the king. When close to death he heard a
new bell chiming in the south-west tower; described by one writer as his
passing bell. He died in October 1670. Hacket’s sermons for which he was most
noted were published in 1675.[17]
Hacket grave marker at the end of the south aisle.
Hacket’s cathedra, the middle stall. It was adapted for use by judges in the Consistory Court, 1814. The Court from late 17th-century to 1830 was mostly concerned with arbitration for intractable disputes of a predominantly rural nature.[18]
Chairs believed to be from Hacket’s restoration of the interior of the cathedral.
It is supposed that Hacket brought his
friend Sir Christopher Wren to help with the rebuilding, but there is little
evidence he did any more than be consulted.
Christopher Wren on the east end
Harwood gave a long list of all who
contributed to pay for the rebuild.[19]
He also wrote, ‘In the space of eight years it was restored to its former
beauty and magnificence.’[20]
[2]
J. Foster (ed), Hieron-Horridge', in Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714,
(Oxford, 1891), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp706-747
.
[3]
H. E. Savage, ‘Reconstruction after the Commonwealth. Unpub. article in
Lichfield Cathedral library (1918).
[4]
M W Greenslade and R B Pugh (ed), 'House of secular canons - Lichfield
cathedral: From the Reformation to the 20th century', in A History of
the County of Stafford: Volume 3. (London, 1970), 166-199. British
History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol3/pp166-199
.
[5]
H, Savage, (1918), 18. See note 3.
[6].
T. Harwood, (1806), 155. See note 1,
[7]
Hacket in his study time composed the Latin comedy called Loyola, which
was twice performed before James I. It satirised church groups outside of
mainstream Church of England.
[8]
There is a story of Hacket preaching from the unauthorised Book of Common
Prayer when a soldier entered his church and presented a pistol at his breast
and ordered him to stop. Hacket replied that he would do what became a divine,
let the other do what became a soldier; and continued with his service. It
has not been possible to find the origin of this story, or which church it
occurred in; there are variations.
[9]
T. Plume, An account of the life and death of the Right Reverend Father in
God, John Hacket, late Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, foreword to A
century of Sermons, (London: 1675)
[10]
H. E. Savage, (1918). See note 3.
[11]
T. Harwood, (1806), 66. See note 1.
[12]
The bishop was driven to excommunicate the Dean openly in the church.
[13]
M. W. Greenslade, ‘Lichfield: From the Reformation to c.1800', in A
History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990),
14-24.
[14]
T. Harwood (1806), 72. See note 1.
[15]
M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh, (London, 1970), 166-199. See note 4.
[16]
Ibid. £1683 12s was said to have come directly from Hacket.
[17]
See https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A43515.0001.001?view=toc
for a list of the sermons.
[18]
A. Tarver, The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry and
its work, 1680-1830. Unpub. thesis, University of
Warwick. (1998)
[19]
T. Harwood (1806) 59-65. Contributors were from across the county. The
Archbishop of Canterbury gave £200 and the Duke and Duchess of York each gave
£100. The Dean and Chapter raised £445 in 1661 and £186 in1668. The Close
raised £18 and the magistrates of Lichfield £14. It is presumed most of the
benefactors were Royalist in sympathy.
[20]
Ibid 65.