Rectors
Warleggan is a small parish nestled in between the two larger ones of St Neot (with which Warleggan forms the Benefice) and Cardinham. It was never considered wealthy and often meant the Church of England rector was often an absentee, leaving his flock in the care of a curate who, for a pittance, probably officiated in several other parishes as well. Warleggan's isolation and its windswept position would have also made it unattractive to many.
EXTERNAL WALLS
Church & Moor
SAMUEL HILL
In the seventeenth century Samuel Hill was Rector for about 50 years, until he died in 1659. He not only lived in the parish but was party to a series of land transactions.
After his death there was a rapid succession of rectors, including Will White, “minister of this parish”, a very good man, died with a cancer in his mouth. July 1673.
Daniel Baudris
For nearly half of the eighteenth century however the parish was served by a devoted resident priest, Daniel Baudris, a French Huguenot refugee. He came in 1706 and died herein 1745. He rebuilt the rectory and in 1711 converted it into the brew house, the upper storey of which was used as a lumber room (traditional British terms for a storage room, usually in an attic), this is probably the building in the field to the east of the church which is still known locally as the band-room where, in the days when still a mining area, Warleggan band would have practised.
Chest Tomb
Baudris planted trees, oaks, sycamores and ash, and at his death was buried with his brother Matthew in the east end of the churchyard in a simple moor stone table tomb, we believe it to be called a chest tomb.
Absentee Rector
Daniel Baudris was succeeded by Samuel Gurney, an absentee rector. Samuel held several positions and explained to the Bishop of Exeter that as he gained little financial advantage he hardly ever visited. Warleggan only provided him with £10 per annum, and he had seven children!
Dalston Clements
Another long-term rector was Dalston Clements, who started in 1833 and was still incumbent in 1840 when Warleggan tithes (one tenth of an individual’s income pledged to the church, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the Church and clergy) were commuted to money, at the time equivalent to £174 per annum. Dalston became chairman of the committee set up to oversee the building and management of the new Board School at Mount, however he died in 1879 the year before the school opened.
DENSHAM
The history of Warleggan in the 20th century has been dominated by the incumbency of the Reverend F. W. Densham who arrived in 1931, he was sixty-one when he arrived and stayed until he died in 1953.