Joseph Leech Rector of Adwick 1731-1735
Some documents recently catalogued in York have revealed the secret past about the infamous Rev. Joseph Leech, who became Rector of the parish of Adwick Le Street in 1731. He was married to Sarah Savile, a grand daughter of the Patron of the parish, to whom Leech probably owed his appointment of Rector.
In 1735 Joseph Leech was suspended from duty, by the consistory court at York, for excessive drinking. The document gives evidence of ten witnesses from the village. They describe the Rector’s drinking habits and their violent, unseemly and neglectful consequences.
The report goes on to say that he was much addicted to strong liquor and frequented the two ale houses in Adwick, where he became drunk in a shameful, quarrelsome and abusive manner and given to profane swearing, or fell asleep in the pub for several hours at a time, or had to be helped upstairs in the vicarage, undressed and put to bed.
His consumption of alcohol was not restricted to the pubs. One Easter day he helped himself to all the unconsecrated wine in the church and then vomited outside the porch. His intoxication at home often resulted in him walking out of the house without his cloaks and breeches on, and thereby causing great offence to the parishioners.
His unfortunate state led him to unprovoked attacks on his flock. Evidence was given of how he had threatened to stab Thomas Day with a pitchfork in the Rectory barn, he chased the same man and his wife with a gun out of the fold yard. He had also struck the Police Constable, John Walton with his cane, he had also burnt the face of William Wharan with a candle. His frightened family suffered also and once the Constable had to order Nathan Downing to stay in the Rectory for four days and nights to prevent the Rector attempting to kill or maim his wife.
Whether this had affected the parishioners church attendance we don’t know but it certainly affected his. He frequently missed either morning or evening prayers on a Sunday and six times in six months he had neglected toper form the Eucharist. He also neglected to explain the catechism to the youth of the parish, and other duties.
Possibly his suspension, in the end, came as no great hardship to him, for several witnesses heard him declare in public in the Town Gate that ” he would come no more into the church and that the parishioners might do what they would for a curate, he cared not what became of them.”
The fate of Joseph Leech after his suspension remains a mystery.
