People of Note
About The Gatty Family of Ecclesfield and Hooton Roberts
Ecclesfield, the Church 1902
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.
Reverend Dr Alfred Gatty
(1813-1903), Church of England clergyman and author, born in London on 18 April 1813, was the second surviving son of Robert Gatty, solicitor, of Angel Court and Finsbury Square, London, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Edward Jones of Arnold, Nottinghamshire. The family originally came from Cornwall. After receiving preparatory schooling at Temple Grove, East Sheen, Gatty entered Charterhouse in 1825, and Eton in 1829. For a time he prepared for the legal profession, but on 28 April 1831 he matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated BA in 1836, proceeding MA in 1839 and DD in 1860. Gatty was ordained deacon in 1837 and priest in the following year. From 1837 to 1839 he was curate of Bellerby, a small chapel of ease in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
He married Margaret (1809–1873), in 1839, she was the second daughter of the Rev. Alexander John Scott (1768-1840) and his wife, Mary Frances Ryder (1785–1811). Her father, a linguist and scholar, had been chaplain to Horatio Nelson; he held the livings of Southminster, Essex, and Catterick, Yorkshire. .
Upon his marriage Gatty was nominated by his wife's uncle Edward Ryder to the vicarage of Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, which he held until his death in 1903
Margaret Scott Gatty was an editor, writer of children's books, and landscape artist.
In 1866 she became editor of Aunt Judy's Magazine and remained editor until her deathon October 4th 1873.
Alfred and Margaret Gatty had six sons, two of whom died in infancy, and four daughters:
- Reginald Gatty, later rector of Hooton Roberts
- Juliana Horatia(1841-1885) Born at Ecclesfield on 3rd August, 1841. She married Major Alexander (Rex) Ewing (1830–1895) on 1st June, 1867. She was a writer of children's books and was responsible for establishing the Ecclesfield village library. She died at Bath on 13th May in 1885 and was buried Trull Somerset on 16th May 1885.
- Sir Alfred Scott Gatty (1847–1918), became Garter king of arms.
- Sir Stephen Herbert Gatty (1849–1922), became chief justice of Gibraltar
- Charles Tindal Gatty (b. 1851), a convert to Roman Catholicism, had a varied career as a museum curator, newspaper editor, and private secretary to Lord Bute.
- Horatia. K. F. Gatty (daughter)
Margaret Gatty died 4 October 1873 and was buried on 9 October in Ecclesfield churchyard, and like her daughter was commemorated by a memorial window, known as the Parable Window, in the church.
After the death of his first wife, Alfred Gatty married, on 1 October 1884, Mary Helen, daughter of Edward Newman, solicitor, of Barnsley, Yorkshire; they had no children, and she died in 1919. They lived at Smallage Farm, Fence. A gateway arch still has the initials of Mary Helen Newman and Alfred Gatty entwined with the dates 1866 and Latin motto UBI AMOR IBI FIBES - where love is there is faith.
Gatty was a regular lecturer at the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society and published his writings on a wide range of subjects from an early age. Between 1846 and 1858 he published four volumes of sermons. He never responded to charges that he wrote anonymous political articles for a Sheffield paper of Conservative persuasion. His most substantial works, however, were in the field of local history. In 1869 he published a folio edition of Joseph Hunter's Hallamshire, a greatly enlarged version of the original work, which had been published fifty years earlier. The Gatty edition of Hallamshire was for many years highly regarded by local historians, though inevitably its approach became dated. In 1873 he published a popular history, Sheffield, Past and Present. A brief history of Ecclesfield church and priory is contained in his A Life at One Living.
Gatty died at Ecclesfield vicarage on 20 January 1903 and was buried in the churchyard. His parishioners erected the Gatty Memorial Hall as a village social centre.
Rev. Reginald Gatty
Rev. Reginald Alfred Gatty was born in 1844–1914), he acquired a reputation as a field archaeologist and local historian.
The eldest son of Alfred Vicar of Ecclesfield, he became Rector of Hooton Roberts, Yorkshire
Alfred Scott-Gatty
He was born in Ecclesfield, on 26 April 1847 and married at Laughton-en-le-Morthen to Elizabeth Emma Foster of Newhall Grange, daughter of John Foster. (Her sister, Ida Foster m. 1881 Thomas Wright Badger, Solicitor of Red House, Whiston.
Regarded as an amateur composer, his music was nevertheless popular. Little Songs for Little Voices although composed by Alfred Scott Gatty in 1875 - the lyrics are by R. A. Gatty, presumably his brother.
Local Performances. Two of his songs, The Sneezing Song and Three Little Pigs he performed at a concert at Doncaster Grammar School on 21 June 1870, long before they were published. He also performed at Wentworth Woodhouse, the home of Earl Fitzwilliam .He died in 1918.
Ivor Gatty
Son of the Rev. Reginald Gatty. Here is a link to a Folk Play website with details about a folk play written by Ivor Gatty - The Old Tup, Braithwell, 1895
Nicholas Comyn Gatty
Nicholas Comyn Gatty, son of the Rev. Reginald Gatty, was born in Bradfield, Sheffield, on 13 September 1874 . He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music which is where he met and became a lifelong friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams,who from the 1900's spent many a summer vacation with the Gattys at Hooton Roberts.
In 1897, the Hooton Roberts Musical Society was formed by the Gatty's. Nicholas played the harpsichord and the violin. His brothers Ivor and René were also involved with the Society.
His first opera Greysteel, with text by René was performed in Sheffield on 1 March 1906 by the Moody-Manners touring company and at at the Crystal Palace on 24 May, Lucy Broadwood, acting as guarantor. This was followed by the opera Duke or Devil, premiered in Manchester on 16 December 1909, again by the Moody-Manners company. This opera proved more successful, as did his next opera Prince Ferelon, which won a Carnegie Award. Gatty's other operatic works were: The Tempest, , King Alfred and the Cakes, both with text by René Gatty.
His orchestral works included a Concert Allegro for piano and orchestra premiered at the Proms in 1901 and a set of Variations on Old King Cole.
In October 1972, a Festival was held at Hooton Roberts - the Vaughan Williams Festival . Gatty's Mass for four voices was performed here.
Gatty's major choral work was the Ode on Time, to Milton's words with orchestra, which premiered in Sheffield at the Festival of 1905. True Till Death received performances by a Doncaster choir in 1921. He contributed two original tunes - Laetabundus and Tugwood - to The English Hymnal edited by his great friend Vaughan Williams in 1905 and harmonised other tunes in that volume.
In 1939 the Organist of Conisbrough Parish Church, discovered a collection of music by various local composers including hymn tunes by Nicholas Gatty.
His solo songs, which achieved some popularity early this century, include A-Maying, Fain Would I Change That Note, Relieving Guard, Evening and Touch Not The Nettle.
He was 72 when he died in London on 10 November 1946.
Rotherham Archives hold details of Vaughan Williams Festival records 1972-1972 - ref. 46/G
©2004