Rectors

The Very 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.

He was a great patron of the artists Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (whom Sir Richard instructed to draw “everything curious”) and Tilly Kettle. He was also friends with Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks; the former named Kaye’s Island after Sir Richard (now called Kayak Island). His interests were wide and varied: he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1765, as an experimentalist in the field of electricity.

He held a variety of clerical posts in plurality (many at the same time), rising from Rector of Kirkby in 1765, to Archdeacon of Nottingham and Chaplain to King George III. He was a Canon variously of Lincoln, Durham, and Southwell. He died on Christmas Day 1809, leaving no children; the baronetcy came to an end with him.