Curate to Vicar

[SmallTownGirl]

My knowledge of Church of English clergy is almost entirely restricted to what I've learned from reading Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope - so not exactly in-depth then.

I'm transcribing a burial register from Cornwall and when the register starts in July 1813, the entries are written by Jacob Hawker, the curate. They continue that way, uninterrupted, until February 1833, and from then on Jacob describes himself as vicar. In June 1845 Jacob's own burial is registered, age 67 with the entry being made by Thomas Harper [the then curate]

Would it have been usual for someone to have been a curate for 20+ years? And to be as old as 55yo when promoted from curate to vicar?

I can see from the rest of the register that Thomas Harper didn't go on to become vicar of the parish, so it can't just have been a question of the curate sitting it out until the incumbent vicar shuffled off this mortal coil.

Can anyone point me to an article where the appointment, succession process is explained in sufficiently simple terms for me to understand it, please?

[Uncle John]

Yes, someone could remain as curate almost from cradle to grave. The job of vicar was a "living" - usually in the gift of the local gentry, and a vicar was normally a job for life. When the vicar died, the gentry would decide who succeeded to the living - clearly Thomas Harper's face didn't fit!

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Being appointed a vicar didn't necessarily mean that he lived in the parish, or even went there. Some employed a curate "carer of souls" to carry out the parish duties. In the village where I live, one rector (appointed by the crown) was the son of a Jersey lord, and eventually inherited the title himself. I don't think he ever visited the parish, although he presented the church with a set of rather fine plate. He was Rector for about thirty years but appointed a curate for the whole of that time and it was the curate who lived in the Rectory, took services and carried out all church related duties. The curate died in post and was replaced by another for a short time, until the death of the Lord meant that there a new rector had to be appointed.

Nowadays curates are often viewed as someone new to the clergy, serving an apprenticeship before being appointed to their own parish.
Jay