Nat Gould

William Gould 1807-1880

William Gould was born in 1807 in Cheapside at the London home of his parents Thomas Gould 1752-1829 and his wife nee Frances Hunt 1766-1836.

Educated at Balliol College Oxford, he graduated BA in 1829 and MA in 1832. He was ordained deacon on 19 December 1830 in Chichester cathedral, and priest there on 10 December 1831. He was appointed assistant curate at Burwash in Sussex on 19 December 1830, where his older brother the Reverend Joseph Gould 1797-1866 purchased the advowson (1) in 1835 and became Rector in 1840.

Whickham Church

Willesborough Church

The Reverend William Gould married Elizabeth Pryor 1814-1900 on 20 August 1835 at Baldock in Hertfordshire (2).

At that time he was serving his ministry at Whickham in County Durham (3).

In 1851 he was Vicar of Willesborough near Ashford in Kent aged 48, living at the Vicarage with his wife Elizabeth aged 36 and daughter Fanny Jane Gould aged 14 born at Baldock, employing a governess, footman, cook, and housemaid.

Hatch Beauchamp Church

Hatch Beauchamp interior

He was appointed Rector of Hatch Beauchamp near Taunton in Somerset in 1854, and remained in that parish until he retired from the ministry in 1869.

In 1871 William and Elizabeth Gould were living at Ayot St Peter near Hatfield in Hertfordshire, together with their butler, cook, lady's maid, housemaid, and (at the lodge) their gardener and his family.

The Reverend William Gould died on 30 May 1880 (4).

Elizabeth Gould (nee Elizabeth Pryor) was the eldest daughter of Vickris Pryor of Baldock in Hertfordshire, who lived in a large house at the end of Hitchin Street in the town. He was a maltster, the youngest son of John Pryor, who was a prosperous brewer. Vickris Pryor died on 14 May 1849 aged 63 years.

The Reverend William Gould and his wife Elizabeth had one child, their daughter Fanny Jane Gould, who was born at Baldock in 1836.

She was married on 4 November 1858 at her father’s church in Harch Beauchamp to George Raban of Beauchamp Lodge in the same village. He was a Captain in the 56th Regiment of Foot. The Raban family had a tradition of distinguished army service in India.

(1) The advowson was the right of presenting a priest to the bishop to be appointed to a parish.
(2) Surrey Advertiser 4 September 1835.
(3) The town is four miles west of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and is now incorporated into Gateshead.
(4) Alumni Oxonienses 1715-1886 volume 2 (1888) page 545.