Transcript

of

William Rennell Coleridge [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. XXXVI, (1904), pp. 35-36.

by

J. Brooking-Rowe (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1904 Teignmouth meeting. Extensive records, mainly from census data, are available for William Rennell Coleridge and his family here. These form part of a larger collection of The “Coldridge” families of Devon website. Mr Coleridge is commemorated with a handsome memorial plaque in St Mary’s Church at Ottery. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers

William Rennell Coleridge. William Rennell Coleridge, born in 1832, was the son of Bishop Coleridge, of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, the first colonial bishop sent out from this country. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, and married, in 1855, Miss Barton, of Borough House, North Devon, who died in October, 1903. For nearly fifty years the deceased took a very active part in the management of county and parochial business, in which he felt a very keen interest. For some years he was a major in the South Devon Militia. On the formation of the Devon County Council he was unanimously elected a member for the Ottery St. Mary Division, and was at once appointed as an alderman. He was at one time chairman of the Honiton Board of Guardians, as well as of the Ottery St. Mary School Board, on which he served for over twenty years, and of the Ottery St. Mary Local Board. He was also, up to the time of his death, chairman of the Governors of the Ottery Church Corporation, of the Governors of the King's School, and of the Governors of Axe's Charity. He was the oldest member of the Bench of Magistrates for the Ottery Division. In politics he was a strong Conservative, and was chairman of the local Conservative committee and vice-chairman of the East Devon Conservative Association. He became a member of the Devonshire Association some years since, but retired, and again joined it in 1903, at the Sidmouth meeting. Mr. Coleridge died 18th January, 1904, aged seventy-one years.