Horatio Moule was born in the town of Melksham in Wiltshire on  20th October 1805 the sixth son of George Moule by his wife Sarah Hayward. Melksham lies 12 miles south east of the city of Bath and Horatio was not baptised at St Michael & All Angels church until he was 23 months old on 21st August 1807⁽¹⁶⁾. His father, a solicitor and banker, sent him to university at Queens College Oxford where he matriculated on 23 October 1824 at the age of 19; obtaining a BA degree in 1828 and an MA in 1840. ⁽¹⁾

From University, he followed in his elder brother Henry’s footsteps and decided on a career in the church. He was ordained a Deacon at Bristol Cathedral on 12th Jan 1829 and awarded a stipendiary Curacy at Sutton Waldron of £50pa.⁽²⁾ His brother the Rev. Henry Moule became Vicar at St George’s in Fordington that year, carrying out his first baptisms on 28th June 1829. St George’s was a very active and prestigious church and Henry needed a curate so Horatio joined his brother there from the outset, reading the banns of marriage on the 5th, and officiating at his first baptism on 19th July. Horatio actually carried out eleven baptisms for Henry in 1829 and even stood in as officiating minister for another at Holy Trinity Church in Dorchester, although I can only locate his official appointment as curate at Fordington on 10th Jan 1830 when he appears to have taken a drop in income to £40pa. Church Records also record the 10th Jan 1830 as the date he was ordained a priest at Bristol Cathedral. In fact he only carried out 1 further baptism and 3 burials in Fordington in 1830, before he was temporarily appointed Vicar of the parish of Box in Wiltshire on the 14th April.⁽³⁾

Parish of Box in Wiltshire - 1830/1

The Vicar of Box since 1799 had been the Rev Isaac William Webb Horlock but he became ill and had died by April 1830. I think the family may have held the advowson of the parish as they decided that Isaac's replacement would be his third son who went by the equally impressive name of Holled Darrell Cave Smith Horlock. The problem was that he was still at university in Oxford at Magdalen Hall where he was awarded his BA that year (1830). He was quickly ordained into the church as a deacon and immediately appointed as assistant stipendiary curate to the parish on the 18th October 1830. He was given a generous stipend of £50pa and possession of his fathers vicarage, garden and offices. Horatio Moule was therefore appointed as Vicar in April⁽¹¹⁾ to hold the fort until Holled could take over which he did as soon as he was made a priest on 27th March 1831. Under the terms of the covenant Horatio was them obliged to resign which he did the following day.

On the 1st June 1831 Horatio was in Bath to conduct the wedding ceremony of his elder brother Charles Thomas Moule, who had also been born in Melksham and was about 5 years his senior. (Charles had followed their fathers profession and become a Solicitor and according to the Bridgewater & Somerset Herald newspaper he married an Anne Falkner, a native of Bath, who at the tender age of 18 would have been 13 years younger than her groom).

'the rick-burnings' describing 'the almost nightly alarms, the constant tidings of violence and disorder, and the energy and courage of Henry who organised patrols and served on them, and meanwhile retained the good word of the poor'.

St Georges Church Fordington in Dorset - 1832-1837

There is no doubt that difficulties continued for some time and Horatio is shown as carrying out two baptisms in Fordington in January 1832 (once again recorded as a curate). On 7th July 1832 Horatio was at St Georges Church for the baptism of his brother Henry’s 4th child, another son, and was honoured when they gave the boy his own name of Horatio. To avoid confusion the family referred to the child as Horace, a name that he went by for the rest of his life. This event seems to have marked Horatio's permanent return to Fordington as between August 1832 and February 1837 when he left the parish he was in almost constant attendance officiating at another 469 baptisms, marriages and burials in St George’s church. The sketch of the church to the left is thought to show the church as it stood around this time. Indeed it had not changed very much over the centuries until the extensive renovation and extension started by the Rev RG Bartelot in 1907. For comparison follow link to postcards dated circa 1895 and 1905.

Official Records also seem to indicate that Horatio was licensed to officiate at Nether Cerne which is 5 miles North of Fordington on 29th May 1833 but it is clear that he continued to live and officiate at Fordington throughout this period.

The Church Pastoral Aid Society - 1838- 1844

Horatio's last official duty at Fordington was a burial on 29th Oct 1837⁽⁵⁾ and he left to become one of the secretaries of the newly established 'Church Pastoral Aid Society or CPAS'. It was founded in 1836 by prominent Christians, including the pioneering social reformer Lord Shaftesbury with the aim of raising funds to establish a charity that would, through the giving of grants, increase the number of clergymen available to spread the word of the gospel. In November 1838 he gave a speech, reported in the press, stating that they had already been able to provide stipends in whole or in part for an additional 150 clergymen and 26 scripture readers who were now labouring in different parts of the Kingdom.⁽¹⁸⁾

Marriage 1841

It was during this period that he met and married on 9th March 1841 by licence to Elizabeth Mary Hughes [1820-1906] in the Church of Holy Trinity in Clapham Surrey⁽⁶⁾. Elizabeth was the 11th of 13 children of Thomas Hughes [1773-1831]⁽¹⁵⁾ and Mary Anna Stokes [1783-1852] and had been born on 17 Oct 1820 in Finsbury London⁽¹⁰⁾. She was baptised on 21st December at St Luke’s Church in Finsbury so was 15 years his junior. They were married by Horatio's elder brother Rev Henry Moule [1801-1880] with Anna Stokes and her youngest brother Edmund Chauntell Hughes acting as witnesses. Immediately after marriage we find them living for a short period in London at temporary accommodation in Great Cern Street in Holborn.^{(14 )} Horatio's appointment to the See of Calcutta soon followed when he was made the Assistant Chaplain at Chittagong where he arrived later that year. ⁽¹⁷⁾

Chaplain St Andrews - Singapore 1845-1851

He next turns up in the archives of the 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts' (the SPG) as being made a residency Chaplain at Singapore in 1845. This is confirmed in the publication 'A short history of St Andrews Cathedral in Singapore' compiled by Frank G Swindell and published in 1929. His tenure there seems to have stretched up to 1851 as he appears in 'The Straits Times & Singapore Journal of Commerce' as marrying couples there in 1846 and 1850 and there are references on rootsweb to his having signed the baptism registers for at least 1847 & 1851⁽¹³⁾ . His time there does not appear to have been a happy one. It was not until 1834 that the foundation stone of the first Anglican Church had been laid on the site of the present building. This church was completed in 1837 but enjoyed a short and unfortunate history. In the year of his arrival (1845) the church steeple was badly damaged by a lightning strike, severely disrupting the functioning of the church. Having undertaken repairs it was struck again in 1849 this time striking the steeple and the main body of the church. Divine services had to be moved to the Mission Chapel at Bras Basah Road and in 1852 it was declared unsafe and demolished. The rebuilding of the church took some time, not least of all raising the funds required, and the foundation stone of the new church was not therefore laid until 4th March 1856. It took nearly 5 years to build, consecration taking place on 25th Jan 1862.

Despite the chaos they found themselves in at Singapore, other work of the church still had to progress. On 25th Aug 1849 the Rajah gave an area of jungle covered hill behind the old town of Kuching in Sarawak to the church and the Bishop (within whose jurisdiction Kuching lay) authorised the laying of a new foundation stone to build the church of St Thomas. Early in his final year at Singapore Horatio traveled with Bishop Wilson (now aged 72) to Sarawak and was present when the Bishop consecrated the Church of St Thomas the Apostle on 22nd January 1851.

His wife Elizabeth together with his daughter Constance & son Horatio Frederick D’Oyly took the opportunity to return to the UK residing in March 1851 at 40 Denbigh street St George Hanover Square, Westminster in London⁽²⁵⁾. Horatio was then appointed Senior Chaplain at St Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta.

Chaplain of St Paul’s Cathedral - Calcutta India 1851-1875

From late 1851 to 1875 Horatio served as Senior Chaplain of St Paul’s Cathedral in Calcutta.

St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta

He & his family must have arrived at an interesting time. The Cathedral had a similar history of misfortune having been devastated by an earthquake. Construction of the new Cathedral however had commenced in 1839, and mainly due to the efforts of his Bishop (i.e. Bishop Wilson) already been completed in 1847. So it must have been uplifting to stand and admire its grandeur when he arrived in 1851.

He was still at the Cathedral when the Indian Mutiny occurred. Fires first broke out in Calcutta on 24 January 1857 and the war officially started on March 29th at the Barrackpore (now Barrackpur) parade ground, near Calcutta. The picture opposite shows one of a number of memorial tablets erected inside St Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. This one is to 16 of the officers who fell in the Indian Revolt in the years 1857 & 1858. Horatio returned to England a number of times, for example in 1871 (accompanied by his daughter Constance) he stayed with Samuel Butler in Somerset who was a magistrate, a landowner and East India Merchant.

Descendants ^{(6, 7 & 21)}

Horatio and Elizabeth had a daughter and a son that I know of:-

(1) Constance Mary Moule born circa 1840 at Byculla, Bombay (now called Mumbai) in East India. She was unmarried aged 29 when she visited England with her father in April 1871.

(2) Horatio (Horace) Frederick D’Oyly Moule (1843-1925) . He was born on 4th Nov 1843 and baptised at Chinsurah Bengal in India on 26th Nov 1843⁽²⁴⁾. In March 1851 as stated above he was, along with his elder sister Constance, with their mother Elizabeth Moule ⁽²⁵⁾. He was later educated at Cheltenham College and having passed his examinations in 1862 he was appointed to the Indian Civil Service, arriving on 14th Nov 1863. He served in the North Western Province for many years holding a number of important posts including that of deputy superintendent of family domains of the Maharaja of Benares and was made a companion of The Order of the Star of India for services to the Indian Empire. He married Banna Horsford (1845⁽⁸⁾-1913) on 1st June 1871 at Stoke Bishop in Gloucestershire and they raised their family in India. He retired in November 1898 returning to London where he became a member of 'The Reform Club'. In 1911 he was living with his wife at East Dale House in East Sheen (now in the London Borough of Richmond-on-Thames) and being visited by his married daughter Gwendoline. Banna died on 12th March 1913 and Horace on 19th Dec 1925 at 7 Hereford Square South Kensington ⁽¹⁹⁾. There is a memorial to them in Christ Church East Sheen. They had five children:-


1. Gwendoline Power Moule (1872-1934) born on 18 Aug 1872 at Mirzapore West Bengal, she was baptised there in St John on 30th Sep 1872; and married Gerald Charles Kitson at Bareilly, Bengal on 14th Feb 1894. She died on 26th Nov 1934 at the Colonial Hospital Gibraltar.⁽²²⁾


2. Gerard Bannatyne Moule (1874-1896) born on 1st Aug 1874 at Chunar Bengal he was baptised there on 28th Aug 1874. He died on the 4th June 1896 at Ambala Bengal and was buried there the following day


3. Hugh Elliot Moule (1875-1915) born on the 5th Nov 1875 in Bengal he was baptised at Mirzapur on 22 Nov 1875; He joined the army in 1896 eventually attaining the rank of Major in the 1st battalion of the 4th Gurkha Rifles. He married Evelyn Douglas Prothero (1886-1949) at Rangoon Bengal on 4th Dec 1911 and they had 2 children that I know of. According to probate records he was stationed at the barracks Bakloh Punjab in India but he was killed in France on 22nd May 1915 and is commemorated at the Neuve-Chapelle memorial.


4. Vera Banna Moule (1879-1949) she was born on 3rd July 1879 at Saharunpore in Bengal India and and baptised there on 27th of the same month. In the April 1911 census she was visiting in Chelsea and she married later that year in London to Kellow Chesney. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with the 15th Lancers Indian Army and died in 1919. The 15th Lancers seem to have been posted to Mesopotamia at this time. Vera is said to have died on 17th Oct 1949 in India although I have no independent confirmation of this. Both Kellow and Vera’s ashes are interred in the church wall beneath their memorial in Christ Church Mortlake
   
   
5. Doris Isa Moule (1883-1884) she was born on 28th Aug 1883 and baptised on 19 Nov 1883 at Moradabad Uttar Pradesh in India and was buried on 18th April 1884.

Horatio Moule (1805 – 1886) eventually returned to England and became the rector of Charmouth in Dorset where he served between 1875 and 1879. He then moved in 1880 to Road-cum-Woolverton in Somerset until his death at the age of 80 on 3rd June 1886.⁽⁹⁾ His funeral is reported in the newspapers⁽¹²⁾ to have been attended by a large number of relatives and friends which included his nephews the Bishop of Durham and Rev Frederick John Moule

His wife Elizabeth Mary died on 21st Nov 1906 at the age of 86 at the Grand Hotel in Torquay.⁽²³⁾

Genealogical notes:-