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The Rev George Parkinson 1846-1908
One of the offices at the Bourne Union or workhouse in past times was that of chaplain, an ordained minister of the Church of England who carried out the duties of a parish priest by giving inmates religious services and spiritual succour in time of need. We know a little about this post because in January 1870 it was advertised in the local newspapers with a salary of £40 per annum and required the successful applicant to carry out the duties which had been laid down by law. Although the job was offered publicly, the chaplaincy was usually given to the vicar of Bourne who delegated the duties to his curate, a post that was held in 1876 by the Rev George Parkinson who had already proved his worth as priest-in-charge of the Abbey Church when standing in for a few months between incumbents following the death of the Rev Joseph Dodsworth in May 1877. During this period he gained a reputation as an eloquent preacher whose sermons attracted large and appreciative congregations and he frequently took the chair at various church meetings such as those held on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He was popular with the inmates, helping to arrange entertainment for them at Christmas, and in the town where he took an active role with the newly formed Bourne Athletics Club at a time when annual sports meetings on selected Bank Holidays were becoming popular and helped to organise the first such events at the Abbey Lawn in the summer of 1878. He was also secretary of a football club which was formed in the town in September 1877 and organised practice games and matches with clubs from neighbouring towns and for several years was also captain of the Bourne Cricket Club. His time as priest-in-charge came to an end with the arrival of the Rev George Massey in November 1877 when he left the Abbey Church to become curate at St Andrew’s Church, Dowsby, but continued in his job as workhouse chaplain until he resigned suddenly in 1881. Parkinson then left Bourne to live in various parts of the country. He had been left money in legacies from his rich relations in Nottinghamshire and despite having a wife and two young daughters, it was revealed that he apparently had a weakness for the ladies and for high living. But this sudden wealth was soon spent and after spells at Nottingham and Bristol, he found himself in the dock at the Quarter Sessions at Bath in Somerset in January 1888 accused of obtaining money from various tradesmen by false pretences. The sum involved was £3 10s. [about £400 today] and despite the gravity of the charges, he did not appear to take the proceedings very seriously, often making jokes from the dock and even objecting to one juror “because he did not like his countenance”. It appears that Parkinson had gone into a local bank on Christmas Eve and opened an account with £2 in cash, claiming as references that he was a great friend of two well-known Bath clergymen. He paid 2s. for a cheque book and immediately drew out £1 17s. 6d., leaving a balance of just 6d. in his new account. On Boxing Day, he went to several tradesmen, ordered goods and gave cheques, receiving change from the amounts written, but the cheques were eventually returned dishonoured. The evidence showed that he also tried to cash one cheque for £5 but could not and so he borrowed 10s. on it and with the money bought a quantity of flowers for different ladies then paid for an excellent dinner to which he invited several prominent citizens. “The extraordinary action of the bank was accounted for by the prisoner stating that the clergymen named had recommended him to open an account”, reported the Nottingham Evening Post (3rd January 1888). “While the cashier was in the witness box, the prisoner got the cheque book from the Recorder and saying that he wanted to close his account, wished to write out a cheque for 6d.” One of the two clergymen who Parkinson claimed to know was also called as a witness. He was the Rev E Handley who said he was at school with the prisoner at St Peter’s College, Radley, and had known his father in Nottinghamshire. He believed that Mrs Milward, widow of the late Richard Milward of Thurgarton Priory, near Nottingham, and one time High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, was the prisoner’s aunt. He had also known the prisoner when he was chaplain at the workhouse in Bourne. Parkinson pleaded not guilty to the charges and told the court that he had fully expected to be able to meet the cheques but the Recorder found the case proved and he was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour and to be placed under the supervision of the jail surgeon. He was released after his sentence and as he was still without means, the following year he found himself back in the workhouse, first at Marylebone in London, then in Kent and then at St Pancras where he had been admitted as an inmate "in a state of destitution" and the Nottingham Evening Post recorded his fate in a few colourful sentences (Thursday 4th April 1889): A distressing case of the misfortunes of life is now manifest at Bourne in Lincolnshire. Not ten years since, the Rev George Parkinson, a middle-aged man of prepossessing appearance, was chaplain of the union workhouse, curate, and for a time clergyman pro tem of the parish of Bourne where he was thoroughly respected by the inhabitants for his affability and the great interest he evinced in the success of local affairs. Mr Parkinson has been comfortably off, having had legacies left him from time to time. Being a person, however, fond of society, he quickly got through them. He was an enthusiastic sportsman, being the prime mover in the athletic clubs in Bourne. Mr Parkinson was also a clerk in holy orders at Nottingham, Bristol and Bath and at the latter place his downfall was imminent, being convicted at the Quarter Sessions of issuing fictitious cheques to the tradesmen of that town, his silk was taken from him and at the present moment he is an inmate of the union workhouse having been recently transferred from St Pancras Union, London, the authorities there refusing to contribute towards his maintenance, so becoming a pauper in his own parish.
Parkinson soon made his presence felt at
the workhouse where he must have been one of the only literate inmates and
therefore able to complain if conditions did not suit him. He soon found the
food unpalatable and the Grantham Journal reported on Saturday 1st
February 1890 that he had written complaining of "the dietary" to the Board of
Guardians adding: "The matter is now under consideration but, as is well
known, the meetings of the Bourne board are not open to the press." Although still an ordained minister, Parkinson was never again offered a post by the Church of England and their records of him end in 1891 but he did manage to find gainful employment elsewhere. The newspaper publicity over his complaints about the food attracted the attention of officials at the Abbey Church where he once worked as a priest and one of them, Robert Mason Mills, offered him a job in his mineral water factory and helped find him lodgings in the town, first with a family in Union Row [now St Peter's Road] and later in Eastgate. But he never again enjoyed the high esteem in which he was once regarded in Bourne and he died almost forgotten, in 1908, aged 62.
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