In search of the family

  REVEREND ARTHUR OSBORNE MONTGOMERY JAY 1858-1945       "THE BOXING PARSON"                                         This week I am again writing about a clergyman. 'What has religion got to do with sport?' you may ask. Well, Arthur Jay was known as 'The Boxing Parson.' He was a man who courted controversy which has resulted in various versions of his life. Arthur Osborne Montgomery Jay was the younger of 2 sons, born in India on 14th April 1858. His father, William James Jay married to Harriett nee Osborne, was chaplain to the East India Company and was Assistant Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment from 1850-1860 throughout the Indian Mutiny, before returning to the UK. By 1861 and the census, the family had returned to the UK and were living in Poplar where William had a chaplaincy. During his time in India, William had baptised and instructed the Maharajah Duleep S...

  REVEREND GEORGE STEWART HITCHCOCK 1866-1922 B.A. D.D. S.S.D.  illustration from The Vicar of Bray opera www.wikipedia.org George Stewart Hitchcock links to my Pye family ancestry, he married a widowed Edith Louisa Miskin nee Pye in 1914. Edith was the youngest sister of Marian Pye, who I have previously written about under the theme 'Work'. I have chosen to write about the Rev Hitchcock under the theme 'Changes' as he was a clerical man who changed his denomination no less than 4 times (3 different denomination) and is perhaps why in a newspaper obituary was described as a modern (c1922)  'Vicar of Bray'.  The  Vicar of Bray  is a satirical description of an individual fundamentally changing his principles to remain in ecclesiastical office as external requirements change around him. The religious upheavals in England from 1533 to 1559 and from 1633 to 1715 made it almost impossible for any individual to comply with the successive religious requ...