12. GREAT CHANGES IN WILLINGHAM

Dr William Smith must rate as one of the most outstanding Rectors of Willingham. He was certainly a very busy man, and must have been a rich one too. In his 30 years as Rector from 1585 he was also Master of Clare College for 11 years, Provost of King’s College for three years, Vice-Chancellor of the University for one year, and Chaplain to both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.  Whilst being Rector of Willingham until 1615, he also variously held the livings of Kingston, Little Bardfield, and Halstead, as well as being  a Canon at Peterborough. One might have thought that with all these responsibilities he would have been a fairly rare visitor here. Indeed, during his incumbency of 30 years he had four curates in all.  However, the record shows that he did a great deal for the village. He endowed and built Almshouses at the east end of the churchyard, and on his death in 1615 he left eight acres of land in West Meadow ‘to be let as allotments to poor persons’. Now, 600 years later, those same allotments still exist behind what is now West Meadow Close.

Dr. Smith was also one of the 102 founding benefactors of Willingham’s first formal school in 1593. It was endowed with the sum of £100, raised by public subscription. This was quite unusual then, as most schools at the time resulted from a private bequest. The school was intended for the education of children of the 102 subscribers, but there was also specific provision for children of poor families to be taught free.  Lawrence Milford, who had already been licensed 14 years earlier to teach children in his house in George Street, was appointed as the first Master. Through the 17^th century the de Bruyne Chapel (now the Lady Chapel) in the Church was used as the schoolroom. There are scores of initials carved on the oak screen, on the window splays, and on the old family tomb that testify to this.

In 1601, after 500 years in the hands of the Bishops of Ely, the Manor of Willingham was ceded to the Queen. She granted it to Thomas Parkes of Wisbech, whose only daughter and heir brought it by marriage to Sir Miles Sandys of Wilburton. Sandys immediately started a vigorous campaign to enclose what had previously been ‘open’ land. Within four years he had enclosed 250 acres, and was starting to sell off arable land to tenant farmers. The impact of this change of ownership on the village must have been momentous.

One of the many appointments held by Dr William Smith when he was Rector of Willingham, was that of   Chaplain to the protestant King James l. As such he is likely to have been heavily involved in the aftermath of the famous Gunpowder Plot on 5^th of November 1605. Guy Fawkes had led a desperate band of catholics to avenge the harsh treatment to which catholics were being submitted. Barrels of gunpowder in the vaults under the Houses of Parliament were meant to have exploded under the King and his Ministers, but Guy Fawkes was betrayed and arrested. He was subsequently convicted and publicly hung, drawn and quartered. As Chaplain to the King, it is probable that Dr. Smith would have been much consulted, and it is doubtful if the village would have seen much of their Rector around that time.

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