John Motlay or Motley
Vicar of Ringmer 1575-1604)
John Motlay was vicar of Ringmer for nearly 30 years, but relatively little is known about him. His name appears as both Motlay and Motley, but he himself seems to have preferred the Motlay version.
John Motlay was probably born about 1544, as he matriculated as a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, at Easter 1562, graduated in 1566 and was awarded his MA in 1569. He was made a Fellow of Trinity in 1566, but was not ordained for almost another decade. He was ordained deacon in 1574 and priest in 1575, with both ordinations at Chichester. He was presented to the vicarage of Ringmer by Queen Elizabeth on 17 Nov 1575 while the archbishopric of Canterbury was vacant, and he compounded for the first fruits on the following day. A year and a half later he was presented to the vicarage of West Firle by John Comber, and he then held both posts until his death in 1604.
Unfortunately the Ringmer parish registers for the period the parish was in his care do not survive – they were recorded in the Victorian era but disappeared before the contents of the parish chest were handed to the record office. Had they survived it is likely we would have had much more information about his family and his activities.
What little evidence there is suggests that he lived at Ringmer. He certainly had a curate at West Firle in the 1680s, and the seven surviving ESRO wills that he witnessed were all made by Ringmer residents. In 1592 he was John Motley of Ringmore, clerk, when standing surety for a marriage licence. In 1598 Mr John Motley was described as vicar of Ringmer (he was also vicar of West Firle) when appointed as one of the overseers of the will of Magus Fowle of Mayfield, but Magnus Fowle’s estate included Ringmer landholdings. Magnus Fowle directed that he was to receive twenty shillings for his pains. Vicar of Firle may not have been an especially attractive office at this date as the Gage family who were the dominant landowners in that parish were Roman Catholics. The Gages owned land in Ringmer too, most importantly the Plashett Park, but as that had formerly been a private hunting park belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury there was no tithe payable, so no tricky negotiations.
The will of John Motlay of Ringmer, clerk, was written on 31 May 1604 and proved on 20 October 1604, so he must have died in the intervening period. Replacement clergymen to serve Firle and Ringmer were appointed in September and October of that year.
His family appear to have continued to live in Ringmer after his death. A Mary Motly married at Ringmer in October 1605 – the second marriage entry in the earliest surviving Ringmer register. In January 1606 the marriage licence for Richard Motlay of Cliffe, a draper, had a Ringmer yeoman farmer as the surety. An Elizabeth Motley was buried at Ringmer in November 1606. Then in October 1612 “The Widdowe of Mr Motley, vicar of Ringmer” was buried here in October 1612. We can exclude the possibility that she lived elsewhere and was simply brought back to Ringmer to be buried with her husband, as the will of Eleanor Motley of Ringmer, widow, was written in August 1612, witnessed by two Ringmer men and proved in December 1612. Neither John nor Eleanor Motlay’s wills have been read, and they are likely to provide additional information about their family.
Principal sources used:
Clergy of the Church of England online database: http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/
John Venn, ‘Alumni Cantabrigiensis’ [online version]
Walter C. Renshaw, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 55, 220-277.
E.H.W. Dunkin, ‘Ecclesiastical History of the Deanery of South Malling’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol.26, pp.9-96
Ringmer parish registers
Wills in the ESRO PBT 2/2/1 & 2/2/2 series [The Keep online catalogue]