The Rev. William Dampier

The Rev. William James Dampier

Vicar of Coggeshall 1841 – 1876

William James Dampier was born at Hackney in 1803. At the age of 17 he went to the West Indies to study for the Bar, and returned seven years later to enter the Inner Temple. He felt called to the ministry and gave up his profession as a lawyer to study for the Church. After learning Greek (a necessity for entry to Holy Orders), he went to Cambridge and was ordained in 1831. He was a curate at Ware when he met and married Elizabeth Martin-Leake, by whom he had two sons and five daughters.

Picture of Rev. Dampier taken from G. F Beaumont's book "The History of Coggeshall", published in 1890.

In 1841 he became Vicar of Coggeshall and at once set about restoring the church which was greatly in need of repair, the roofs of the nave and aisles being unsafe and the buttresses and windows requiring attention. He was greatly assisted in this work by his curate, the Rev. Edward Cutts, who was responsible for raising the estimated repair costs of £4,000 and for giving much valuable advice, being an expert in ecclesiastical architecture. Edwin, one of the sons of the Rev. Dampier, was responsible for the design of the lych gate at the church.

The engraving of the parish church that was used to top the letters appealing for funds to restore the building. Dated 1855

His wife Elizabeth died in 1858, never seeing the new Vicarage that was being built in West Street for the Dampier family. The foundation stone for the house was laid by Isabella Dampier, the second daughter of the Vicar and a parchment recording the event and a coin were placed under the stone. The arms of the Dampier family were carved on the mantle-piece in one of the rooms and in April 1870 the family moved in.

By 1875 the restoration of the church was almost complete, but the health of the Rev. Dampier, which had been failing for about a year, finally gave out and he resigned in March 1876. He had been Vicar of Coggeshall for 35 years. He died in Ramsgate in 1878 and was buried in the churchyard at Coggeshall next to the graves of his wife and mother-in-law.

The Rev. Dampier wrote two books, “The Sympathy of Christ” and a “Memoir of John Carter” (the lip artist), both of which can be seen in the Coggeshall museum.

In 1880 a magnificent new alabaster and stone reredos, paid for by friends and parishioners and dedicated to the memory of William Dampier, was unveiled behind the High Altar, bringing about a long-held, but unfulfilled in his lifetime, wish to have a new reredos in Coggeshall’s parish church.

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