Rev. Henry Soames 1785-1860

There is a memorial in St Mary's church, Stapleford Tawney, erected to the memory of Henry Soames, who was Rector there in the nineteenth century.

The Reverend Henry Soames was Rector of Shelley (nr Ongar), from 1812 until 1860, and Rector of Stapleford Tawney with Theydon Mount from 1839 until his death in 1860. He also held the livings of Little Laver [1821] and Brent with Furneaux Pelham in Hertfordshire 1831-1839]

He was born on the 15th January, 1785, the son of Nathaniel Soames, a shoemaker, of Ludgate Street, London. Educated at St Paul's School, and Wadham College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1803, graduated BA in 1807, and MA in 1809.

He became deacon in 1808 and was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1809. He held the post of assistant to the high-master of St Paul's School from 1809 to 1814, and was appointed chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral by Bishop Blomfield in 1842.

In the 1851 Census he is shown living at the rectory with his sister and 3 female servants.⁹ He was appointed Chaplain to the Sheriff of Essex in 1852.

He lived in the rectory at Stapleford Tawney with his sister, Sarah, Street Soames (born 1791), until his death on the 2131 October 1860. He wrote many books on church history. One of his more notable works was a revised edition of James Murdock's translation of J. L. von Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History (1832). In addition he concentrated his labour and learning on English ecclesiastical history in Anglo-Saxon times and in the sixteenth century. His book s included, History of the Reformation of the Church of England (1826-8) and Elizabethan Religious History (1839, An Inquiry into the Doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church (1830), The Anglo-Saxon Church: its History, Revenues, and General Character (1835; revised, augmented, and corrected, 1856). and The Latin Church during Anglo-Saxon Times (1848). He also publíshed two sermons and The Romish Decalogue (1852).