Clement Moody (clergyman)

Clement Moody was born in Arthuret, Longtown, Cumbria,^[1] in 1809 into a high church landed gentry family that had a history of military service.^[2] He was the sixth son of the surgeon George Moody of Arthuret, Longtown, Cumbria,^[3] and later of Leeds, (d. 1844).^[4] His uncle was the Colonial Office expert Colonel Thomas Moody, Kt.^[5] through whom his cousins included Major-General Richard Clement Moody, who was the founder of British Columbia, and the clergyman James Leith Moody.^[5]

His sister Jane married Lewis Alexander of Hopwood Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire,^[6] who was the father of the barrister Robert Alexander FRS FSA.^[7] Another of his sisters was ladies' school founder Anne Moody, of Warwick Place, Leeds, who married David Latimer^[8] of Berwickstown, Kirklinton,^[9] whose granddaughter married Colonel Thomas Moody's grandson Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody.^[10]

Clement Moody married on 7 May 1851, at Harpsden Church, near Henley-on-Thames, Anne Vansittart (b. 1818) who was the eldest daughter of The Rev. William Vansittart DD (1779 - 1847) of Driffield, Prebendary of Carlisle, Rector of Shottesbrook^[11] and of White Waltham, Berkshire, by Charlotte Teresa Warde, of Woodland Castle, Glamorgan.^[12] Anne Vansittart was the granddaughter of Colonel Arthur Vansittart MP JP DL DCL, of the Berkshire Militia, who was MP for Windsor between 1804 and 1806. Anne Vansittart was a great-great-grandniece of the judge Robert Vansittart and the Governor of Bengal Henry Vansittart.^[13]

Clement Moody and Anne Vansittart had seven children^[1] including Charlotte Jane Mary and Henry George who died at Sydney, New South Wales, in 1887.^[14]

Moody taught at Tonbridge School from 1832 to 1840.^[15]

He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, at which he matriculated on 17 December 1838, received a B.A. in 1844, and received an M.A. in 1845.^[3]

He composed the 1841 Second Edition of The New Eton Greek Grammar in English, and the 1841 Fourth Edition of The New Eton Latin Grammar in English.^[16]

He served as Perpetual Curate of Sebergham, Cumberland,^[3][17] from 1846 to 1852.^[18]

He served as Vicar of St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle, from 1852 to 1853.^[19]

Moody was appointed Vicar of Newcastle on 6 April 1853.^[20] Moody's subsequent proposal, at a public meeting in June 1853, of plan for the building of ten new Church of England schools for Newcastle^[21] provoked concerns about Tractarianism and possible Catholic influence that was expressed by the Scotsman Thomas Gray Duncan in an open letter to Moody that was entitled The Present Doctrinal State of the Church of England.^[22] Duncan had left the Church of Scotland at the Great Disruption of 1843 and moved in 1850 to Trinity Church, Newcastle, which was a presbyterian church that was involved in efforts to create an evangelical alliance in Newcastle.^[23][24]

Moody became a Royal Arch freemason during 1855^[25] and served as Provincial Grand Treasurer of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Northumberland during the same year.^[26]

Moody's work during the 1846–1860 cholera pandemic, and for education, were recognised by the Mayor of Newcastle in 1855.^[27]

On 29 October 1856 the Corporation of Newcastle appointed Moody as the Master of the Mary Magdalene Hospital, and as Chaplain to the Church of St Thomas the Martyr,^[28] after the untimely death on 8 October 1856 of the previous incumbent The Rev. Richard Clayton, M.A., who was a low church evangelical Anglican. The Corporation's appointment of Moody, who was a high church minister who considered evangelicals with 'strong disapprobation',^[29] displeased the Jesmond-based congregation, who raised £8000 to fund the construction of an alternative Jesmond Parish Church, which was consecrated on 14 January 1861.^[30][29] Richard Welford, in his biography of Corporation alderman John Bennet Alexander, contends that 'the mystery of that [Moody's] appointment has never been properly explained'.^[31] Moody's appointment, which was passed by a majority of five, was proposed by the Whig Alderman John Blackwell, who was the owner of the moderate radical newspaper the Newcastle Courant, and was supported by the Whig Mayor Ralph Park Philipson.^{[32][33][34][35]}