William Dowell (1782-1826) was the first of nine curates at Badsey and Wickhamford to serve during the 43-year tenure of the new absentee Vicar, the Reverend Charles Phillott.
William Dowell was the son of William Dowell of Bristol by his first wife, Ann Owen. He was born on 28th June 1782, his mother dying in childbirth. William was baptized at St Peter’s, Bristol, on 29th December 1782. His father married again in 1789 to Arabella Carpenter Ray.
William Dowell entered Merton College, Oxford, in April 1801, aged 18, and graduated with a BA from Wadham College in 1806 and MA in 1809. He was ordained as a deacon on 14th September 1806. He was appointed Curate of Badsey and Wickhamford in 1808. The baptism and burial registers for this period do not give the name of the officiant, but the marriage registers for Badsey reveal that he conducted the first of two weddings at Badsey on 17th November 1808 and the second on 8th November 1809.
Where he went to immediately after Badsey is not known but, in 1812, having been ordained as a priest at Wells on 23rd May 1812, William Dowell became Vicar of Locking, Somerset.
In 1817, Reverend Dowell was President of the Gloucestershire Society (a charitable organization dating back to 1657, which still exists to this day). In August 1817, a notice appeared in local newspapers inviting “The Gentlemen natives of the county of Gloucester, and such other Gentlemen as shall be pleased to encourage this charity, are requested to meet their President on Thursday the 11th day of September next at the Parish Church of St Paul, to hear Divine Service and a sermon and from thence to accompany and dine with the President, at the White Lion in Broad Street, Bristol.” This was on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the Gloucestershire Society.
On 15th June 1819 at Swaffham, Norfolk, William Dowell married Charlotte Theresa Yonge, daughter of the Reverend Chancellor Yonge. They returned to Locking where a daughter and son were born: Theresa Arabella Fanny (1820-1859) and Edward William (1823-1896). In February 1824, Reverend Dowell became Rector of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire. Another son was born at Holme Lacy: William Montagu (1825-1912).
After a short illness, Reverend William Dowell died at Holme Lacy on 1st March 1826, aged 43. The following memorial plaque was placed in the church of St Cuthbert:
Sacred to the Memory of/The Revd William Dowell/Vicar of this Parish/Who died 1st March 1826/in the 44th year of his age./To power, wealth, or glory’s name/Let this world’s children bow the knee,/This Tablet speaks of one, whose aim/Was Faith, Hope, Charity, these three.
Following her husband’s premature death, Charlotte Dowell returned to her native Norfolk and settled in Swaffham where she had been born. She died there in December 1870, having survived her husband by 44 years.