The Rectors of Chagford, recorded on the board in the west end of the north aisle, are as below. However, G. Wareing Ormerod M.A., F.G.S., a prominent Chagford solicitor and antiquarian of the Victorian period, read a paper at Ashburton in 1876, printed in the Transactions of the Devonshire Society for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art 1876. He stated that the list of Rectors was obtained for him by a Dr. Oliver from the Diocesan Registry at Exeter.
The differences in Ormerod’s list from that on the board in the church are shown below in capitals, those in parentheses not being recorded by him.
- Simon de Wybberi (Wilbury) 1315
- Laurence de Wybberi (Wilbury) 1319
- (Henry de Folforde) (1320)
- Thomas de Folforde (institution not recorded)
- john TolThorpe 1382
- Robert Burgeys (Burgess) 1384
- William Mayow (Mayor) 1391
- (John Dypphull 1392)
- (Laurence Haukyn 1397)
- John Lydeford (institution not recorded) 1397
- Robert Chirbury 1429
- Michael Lerchdekne 1434
- William Ford (Forde) 1440
- Thomas Coplestone 1447
- Richard Stoyle 1470
- Henry Grymstone
- Edward Wyluchby (Wylucghby) 1490
- (Institution not recorded)
- William Trugg(e) 1500 (1508)
- RobertBecansawe 1517
- Robert Wesion 1525
- FrancisCopleslone 1539 (1531)
- Roben Harneman (institution not recorded)
- Robert Fisher (Fissher) 1555
- John Staughton
- John Dynham 1610 (1618)
- German Goldston (Gouldstion)
- (Commonwealth)
- George Hayter 1622
- (Admitted on deprivation of goldstone)
- William Reade 1680
- George Hayter 1701
- Thomas Rennell 1729
- Joshua Hayter 1742
- Joshua Worth 1771
- John Hayter 1779
- William Moore 1810
- George Hayter Hames 1819
- William Hames 1821
- William Hames 1827
- Hayter George Hames 1852
- Gerald Lewis Henry Ley 1886
- Hubert Charles Studdy 1912
- Thomas Collins Walters 1915
- Thomas Morgan Bell-Salter 1922
- Cecil Frederick Joy Holmes 1931
- Charles Egerton Chadwick 1939
- Ralph Sadleir 1948
- Alexander Goudge 1953
- Cuthbert Harold Septimus Buckmaster 1959
- George Vivian Syer 1971
- William Joseph Bully 1977
- Philip Louis Baycock 1984
- Anthony Geering 2001
Thecurrent Rector is The Revd Paul Seaton-Burn.
Ormerod mentioned that two Rectors were of particular note:
Michael Lerchdekne who died as Treasurer of Exeter Cathedral in 1442, and
John Hayter, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, who was referred to by Disraeli as a classic antiquary who first discovered the art of unrolling the Herculaneum manuscripts (the more than 1,800 papyri found in the Herculaneum Villa of the Papyri, in the 18th century, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79).