"A tradesman in South-street, residing near Trinity Church, had his shutters painted, and for convenience of drying placed them in the church-yard opposite. The Reverend Pedlar Shield, coming by, exclaimed with great indignation, that it was horrid thus to desecrate holy ground. He threatened to visit the painter with his wrath, and had the shutters instantly removed.
"Nice man, this Pedlar Shield or Shield Pedlar, to talk of desecrating holy ground with a few shutters! We should like to know what he calls desecrating holy ground - if jilting a young maiden without money, and marrying a mature one with money, and expressing neither remorse nor contrition for his false promises and broken vows - be not desecration.
"The painter put a harmless color upon the shutters, but this Reverend Pedlar put a sordid color upon his love of pelf, and under the plea that the young lady was not staid enough to be a parson's wife, he left her' she being unprovided with fortune, to ally himself to a lady whose pockets were full of gold, but whose age, habits, and education, disqualified her from those visits of mercy and sympathy, which the clergyman's wife, commencing in her youth, is qualified to discharge with so much benefit to those who have the privilege of receiving them. A remarkable nice man this Pedlar Shield to talk of desecration, say we. "
*
Well, for once I can't agree with the reporter of The Western Times ( 25th October 1845.) The Reverend Shield Pedlar, Rector of the Trinity Church was quite right to object to freshly-painted shutters being put out to dry in the churchyard. There's too much of that sort of thing. It's like those tradesmen of Exeter today who fill the streets with unsightly dustbins and piles of rubbish. That too is a form of sacrilege, not against the sacred Christian church but against our sacred city of Exeter!
But the Reverend Shield Pedlar was an enemy of The Times. He was a Bishop's man, an active enemy of nontrinitarians, a Conservative, Chaplain to the Mayor, and, in the opinion of the newspaper, a bounder.
The Rev. Pedlar had been the Curate at Silverton. The daughter of the Exeter brewer Ben Salter had met him when she went to a party there. He declared his love for her and she expected to be his bride. He came to Exeter and dined at her father's table. He discovered she had no great dowry but he also discovered that her father, Ben Salter, who was a devout Anglican, had a close friend in the Sub Dean at the cathedral. The Sub Dean spoke to the Dean and, wonder upon wonders, this penniless Curate became the Rector of Trinity Church in South Street. This at least was the newspaper's understanding of events. He then, shock and horror!, jilted the brewer's daughter and subsequently married Miss(?) Shield, a lady who,, the newspapers pointed out, was twice the age of the jilted one but very wealthy. In April(?) of 1844, a Court of Arbitration valued the younger lady's loss at £300.
Pedlar Shield or Shield Pedlar: It was clearly part of the marriage contract that our Rector should take the Shield name. The Times seems to be hinting perhaps that it was the wife who 'wore the trousers'.
Color: In 1845 one would have expected colour, I just wonder if this was one man's error, (one who had been reading too much American fiction!,) or somehow a Devonshire accepted alternative.
Staid: The implication is that the brewers daughter was somewhat wild, fanciful, fidgety, something like that. She sounds more fun to me.
disqualified: There was clearly a wide and general acceptance that being a parson's wife was tantamount to a 'job' and a job which the newspaper regarded Mrs Shield Pedlar not to be able to do. I wonder what was it about her habits and education that made her, reputedly, unfit? Did she have too much education or too little?
How the world has changed! It must be profoundly difficult for the children of the 21st Century to understand a society where women could take men to court for breaking off a relationship.
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