James Ross was the vicar of Toot Baldon from 1871 to 1888. Alongside his pastoral duties, while living at Court Leys, he wrote extensively about Toot Baldon village life in a series of booklets, some annual (the “Pastoral Charge”) and some monthly, which contained, along with sermons, prayers and hymns, a rich legacy of information and opinion relating to the village school, the local people and the church.
Ross was ordained as a deacon in 1867, and as priest in 1868 by Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, who himself had been a minister in the Baldons.
James was from an illustrious and wealthy family, the owners of Wadworth Hall near Doncaster, a manor house (now Grade I listed) built for the Wordsworth family . He was the son of the admiral and explorer Sir James Clark Ross and his wife Ann (née Coulman).
Shortly before coming to Toot Baldon, James had married Elizabeth Salman with whom he eventually had seven children – Hilda, Katherine, Basil, Cyril, Arthur, Reginald and Evangeline.
When James and Elizabeth arrived they had a large comfortable house to live in, and St Lawrence’s Church was in good repair – a fortunate combination. James came to the village with the zeal of a young man, and the resources of a man of private means. During his time in the village he instigated great improvements to children’s education, to the Toot Baldon school buildings, to the fabric of the church and, notwithstanding his often considerable frustration, to the spiritual life of his parishioners. Indeed, Ross provided about 50% of the ongoing funding of the school from his private means. This largesse, however, seemed to have had little impact on his household finances - for example, the 1881 census shows that in addition to himself, his wife and six children, he employed five servants.
A few months after his arrival he wrote “while there is undoubtedly much that makes me very thankful and very hopeful, there is much also that tends rather to disappoint and dishearten”. For example, whilst there were 28 communicants on his predecessor’s last day, there were only seven on his first Sunday and just two at the 8 am service on his second Sunday. He also found fault with those that did attend – sitting when they should be kneeling, not singing or joining in the responses. He was of the view that most people only came to church out of habit rather than for any deeper spiritual purpose. These were some of the challenges confronting the young vicar.
Indeed, he seemed to be more or less permanently disappointed with his parishioners, where their behaviour fell short of his expectations. For instance:
- In 1882, clearly exasperated, he wrote “evening services … will have to be discontinued … if certain rough lads from Marsh Baldon come to annoy us by bad behaviour at the back of the church … Church is not the place for unseemly talk and lounging positions and giddy conduct with young girls, who it must be said, are not slow to avail themselves of evening church for the purpose”;
- In 1888 he ordered the removal from the church of side benches, and the closure of seats at the back of the church “which formed too long a hiding place for those who desire to behave unseemly in the House of the Lord”;
- Later he wrote: “The parish school can hardly be looked to with much hope, so long as the parents at home, by their example, try all they can to undo the good lessons of religion taught in the school”.
In 1880 he conducted a census of the parish, identifying the level of “heathenism” in each household i.e. church attendance: regular, irregular, seldom or none. From 44 cottages there were 41 people who seldom or never attended church. Things obviously had not improved, in his eyes, by 1882, when he had harsh words for his flock, saying “ .. you [parishioners] live like very heathen …in sin and neglect, in bad words and evil deeds, in drink, in malice, in dishonesty … a natural consequence of a neglect of prayer…”
In 1881 he complained that this was ”one of the most desolate and trying posts in the church’s service, the single-handed work of a very small country parish with an entirely poor population.”
He was clearly struggling to deal with the decline in the role of the church (which was widespread, not just in Toot Baldon), regretting that, in 1885, two secular events (with bazaars and dramatic performances) produced a sum of money far greater than the church collections. Also that “The Village Feast passed off without any unpleasant incidents, but we wish people would remember that, in the good old days, the village feasts had the Church for their centre”, comparing it to the present system “wherein the public house forms the centre of attraction, to the no great edification of those who resort thereto.”
Yet he did take great satisfaction (and is due great credit) regarding improvements in the standard of education achieved at the school . Hence, in 1881 he wrote “I rejoice again to testify to the continued efficiency of the instruction given in our parish school, both secular and religious.”
He also innovated in other ways, for example setting up a night school for adults, run on Wednesday and Friday evenings in the vicarage dining room; he established a penny bank to encourage people to save; he raised funds to install new stained glass windows and an organ for the church; and he oversaw the enlargement of the school building in 1886.
On October 15th 1885 Ross took it upon himself to deliver a lengthy lecture in the schoolroom entitled “Liberal or Conservative – an impartial explanatory address” for the purpose of “enlightening the minds of those, who now for the first time are called upon to exercise the right of voting.”
Towards the end of his time in Toot Baldon James sounded a rueful and rather sad note, writing “since my first coming among you in 1871 … I cannot conceal from myself the fact that, as a whole, the Parish is on a downward course; that irreligion prevails … worldly interest, without any thought of GOD, will henceforth be … the ruling passion of this place.”
After leaving the village in 1888 he returned to his family seat as the squire of Wadham Hall. For twenty years he acted as parson for the nearby village of Loversal. In 1912 he suffered a paralytic seizure, which left him an invalid and he died in 1916. His obituary, in the Doncaster Chronicle, was written by Archbishop Tait.
Sources for this article: From between 1871 to 1891 various editions of the booklets produced by JC Ross – A Pastoral Charge and The Gospeller / Baldon St Lawrence; Life and Faith in a Victorian Village, Marcus Braybrooke, Braybrooke Press, 2021