People of St Marylebone
Rectors
What is a Rector?
A Rector is a type of parish priest. However, the history of the Rector at St Marylebone Parish Church is more complicated than this simple definition. To learn more about the history of the Rectory of St Marylebone, click the button below!
Heritage
Our Current Rector: Stephen John Evans
The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Evans was ordained Deacon by the Rt Revd George Sessford, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness in his Cathedral Church of St Andrew in June 1986 and Priest by Bishop Sessford in his Cathedral Church in March 1987. Prior to ordination Stephen served as a Seaman Officer in the Royal Navy serving in HMS AVELEY, HMS ARGONAUT and HMS GALATEA before reading Theology at the University of Oxford and undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of Aberdeen. The University of Aberdeen awarded Stephen the degree Doctor Honoris Causa in 2017.
The Revd Canon Stephen Evans
Christopher R. Gower
Christopher R Gower was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1997 – 2010. Christopher Gower was born in 1945, and worked as a civil servant and police officer before his Ordination in 1973. He held a variety of appointments around the capital, before moving to St. Marylebone in 1997; he was made a prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2007. For much of his time after Ordination, Gower continued in secular employment, working in education, leisure and community services in local government.
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John Charter (1929 – 2022)
John Charter was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1990-1997. He was ordained deacon in 1956 and priest the following year in the Diocese of Bath of Wells following studied at Ridley Hall and Queen’s College Cambridge.
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Christopher Hamel Cooke (1921 – 2002)
Christopher Hamel Cooke was the Rector of St Marylebone 1979 – 1990. The Reverend Christopher Hamel Cooke was one of the outstanding parish priests of his generation; during the final decade of his ministry, when he was Rector of St Marylebone, he turned this important parish church into a leading centre of collaboration between religion and medicine.
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Frank Coventry (1913 – 1994)
Frank Coventry was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1958 – 1994. Frank was born on April 2, 1913. He was educated at the Strand School, Brixton, and later read English at King’s College, London. In 1948, he spent five years there before being appointed vicar of St Mary Magdalene, Enfield in 1953. Coventry was heart and soul a parish priest and thrived on the round of parish activities. Following the sudden death of Rev James Bruce Harington Evan in 1958, Coventry, was appointed Rector of St Marylebone.
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James Bruce Harington Evans (died 1958)
James Bruce Harington Evan was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1938 – 1958.
The son of the Reverend James Lachlan Evans, Evans married Frances Muriel Laurie, daughter of Cecil Emilius Laurie and Helen Janet Douglas-Campbell on 3rd February 1938. They had two children, Anthony James Cecil Evans (born 20th May 1940) and Judith Frances Evans (born 8th November 1946).
The Venerable Hubert John Matthews (1889 – 1971)
Hubert John Matthews was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1942 – 1954. He was educated at Winchester College and St John's College, Oxford. Matthews' ecclesiastical career started as a curate at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square. From 1950 to 1961, he was archdeacon of Hampstead and, from 1961 to his death in 1971, archdeacon Emeritus.
William Douglas Morrison (1852 -1943)
Revd William Douglas Morrison was the Rector of St Marylebone 1908 to 1943. William Morrison was born in 1852 in Newton, New Brunswick, Canada. He was a prison chaplain between 1883 and 1898 and became a noted prison reformer building on this experience. Soon after he was awarded an LLD at the University of St Andrews. Not only did he dedicate 35 years to St Marylebone, he also remains a noted criminology & penal reformer.
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William Barker (1838 – 1917)
William Barker was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1882 – 1908. William was born in London on 1st December 1838. William was educated at Worcester College, Oxford and ordained in 1862. He began his ecclesiastical career as Curate of Hanover Chapel, Regent Street after which he was the Chaplain to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields. He was Vicar of St Mary’s, West Cowes from 1873 to 1882 and an Honorary Chaplain to the Queen.
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Charles James Phipps Eyre (Before 1813 – 1899)
Charles James Phipps Eyre was the Rector of St Marylebone 1857 – 1882. He was born before 1813. Eyre came to St Marylebone having been Rector of St Mary’s Bury St Edmunds from 1842 to 1857. Whilst there he was responsible for carrying out the parish church’s restoration in 1849, where he commemorated by a marble plaque. During his incumbency of St Marylebone, Eyre, a wealthy landowner in his own right, lived at 20 Upper Wimpole Street.
John Thomas Pelham (1811 – 1894)
The Rt Revd the Hon John Thomas Pelham was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1855 – 1857. John Pelham was the third son of Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester and his wife Lady Mary Henrietta Juliana Osborne, eldest daughter of Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds.
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Luke Heslop, DD (1738 – 1825)
The Venerable Luke Heslop was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1821 until 1825. He was born and baptised on St. Luke’s Day, 18th October 1738. He was admitted a sizar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on 30th May 1760 and subsequently appointed Chapel Clerk on 31st October.
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Sir Richard Kaye, Bart. LL.D (1736 – 1809)
Revd Sir Richard Kaye was the Rector of St Marylebone from 1788 until his death in 1809. He was born in 1736, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and graduated in 1761. He was awarded the degree of BCL in 1761 and DCL in 1770.
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The Hon. and Rt. Revd John Butler (1717 – 1782)
Revd John Butler was the Rector of St Marylebone in 1788. He was born in Hamburg in 1717. He was for a while a tutor in the family of a banker, Mr. Child. Despite not attending university, he was awarded the degree of LL.D. from the University of Cambridge. His first wife was a school-mistress; his second a wealthy heiress, which improved his social standing. He was ordained and became a popular preacher.
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The Hon. and Rt. Revd John Harley (1728 – 1788)
Revd John Harley was the Rector of St Marylebone in 1788. The Hon. John Harley was the second son of Edward Harley, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. He was Archdeacon of Shropshire from 1760 to 1769 and then Archdeacon of Hereford from 1869 to 1787. He was Dean of Windsor (1778 – 1788), Registrar of the Order of the Garter and briefly, at the end of his life, Bishop of Hereford. His son Edward (by his wife Roach Vaughan, the daughter of Gwynne Vaughan of Trebarry, Radnorshire) succeeded John Harley's elder brother (Edward), as 5th Earl of Oxford.
The Revd Nicholas Sambrook Russell, AM (1732 – 1795)
The Revd Nicholas Sambrook Russell was the Rector of St Marylebone Parish Church from 1768 until 1788. He was born at Basingstoke in 1732, was educated at Winchester; and was thence admitted of Queen's College, Oxford; where he took the degree of B. A. in 1753; and M. A. in 1757.
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