Rev. James Senior/Husey-Hunt M.A.

  Notes:

Born Senior. Changed name to Husey-Hunt by Royal Licence in 1894 (only 3 years prior to his death) following the death of his brother whence he inherited the Compton Pauncefoot Estate, he was already Rector of that Parish.

Educated King's School, Bruton and Cambridge Uni - BA 1837, MA 1859.
Ordained Deacon & Priest (Bath & Wells) in 1838.
Rector of Compton-Paucefoot with Blackford, Somerset from 1839-97.

1861 Census (age 45) living at The Rectory, Compton Pauncefoot, of which he is the rector, with his first wife Louisa, 2 sons, 4 daus, 2 visitors Elizabeth COSTER, 19, dau of an MD and Augustus Powell, 12, son of a retd officer in the army) and 4 servants.

1871 census (age 56) living at Rectory House, Compton Paucefoot, of which he is the rector, with his second wife Ellen, 3 daughters, governess and 3 further servants.

1881 census (age 66) is a widower living at Vicarage House, Compton Paucefoot, still rector, with 1son, 4 daughters and a son-in-law (William J Hawkins who is a Captain in the 8th Foot Regiment) and 4 servants.

1891 census (age 76) is a widower living (presumably still the Vicarage) at Compton Paucefoot with son, 3 daughters, (different) son-in-law and 2 grandchildren and 5 servants. Is still in Holy Orders.

Got death date from grave in CP. Reads "In Memory of The Rev James Husey-Hunt M.A. (formerly Senior) for 58 years rector of Compton Pauncefoot cum Blackford 1838 to 1897. Born Oct 27th 1815 died Apr 16 1897"

From: 'Blackford', A History of the County of Somerset: Volume VII: Bruton, Horethorne and Norton Ferris Hundreds (1999), pp. 242-47. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18759; "James Senior, rector of both Blackford and Compton Pauncefoot from 1838 and of the united benefice from 1873, lived at Compton and in 1840 held one service each Sunday at Blackford in winter and a second on alternate Sundays in summer. By 1851 one service was held each Sunday, alternately morning and afternoon, and c. 100 attended. The rector, who continued to live at Compton Pauncefoot, held morning and afternoon services in 1870 and celebrated communion eight times a year."
and
"Successive holders of the manor exercised patronage until 1928 when Selina Frances Husey Hunt conveyed the advowson of the rectory of Compton Pauncefoot and Blackford to the Melanesian Mission Trust (England) Ltd. which retained its ownership until the creation of the team patronage board in 1976."
More on Seniors and C-P in Somerset Archives;
http://www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/fedocs.asp?FER=F9830

"Recently this house (the Rectory) and the church caught the eye of television producers and both were used quite extensively in a serialised version of Jane Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’."

James married Louisa Frances Smith, daughter of Daniel Smith and Harriet Rawson, on 13 Jul 1852 in British Embassy, Dresden, Saxony. (Louisa Frances Smith was born in 1827 in Derbyshire, christened on 20 Feb 1827 in Mayfield, Staffordshire and was buried on 22 Jun 1865 in The Rectory, Compton Pauncefoot, Somerset.)