Archdeacon Wakefield

Bull Hotel, Peterborough

History of Bull Hotel

1921 The Consistory Court found the Venerable John Wakeford guilty of adultery with an unknown women at the Bull Hotel on Sunday 14 and Monday 15th march, and Good Friday 2nd April 1920. Wakeford, Archdeacon in Lincoln, tried to conduct an affair at a distance but police were already looking for a fraudster dressed as a clergyman who passed dud cheques, who had a female accomplice. Lincoln Cathedral were asked to verify his identity and in so doing discovered the illicit affair.

Daily Express, 27 April 1921

ARCHDEACON TO REMAIN IN THE CHURCH.

RESOLVE IN THE FACE OF A NEW CONDEMNATION.

LAST APPEAL FAILS.

“Their lordships are of opinion that this appeal fails.”
—The Lord Chancellor.

“I am still a priest, and I shall remain a priest.”
—The Rev. John Wakeford.

John Wakeford, Archdeacon of Stowe, Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral, and a man accounted among the most eloquent of preachers in the Church of England, was branded as guilty of misconduct by the Judicial Board of the Privy Council yesterday.

This court was the highest to which Archdeacon John Wakeford could appeal. He came to the court to ask the four Law Lords and the four Lord Bishops, sitting with them as assessors, to reverse the decision of the court below that he had stayed with a woman at the Bull Hotel, Peterborough, on the nights of March 14 and 15 and April 2 in last year, and had committed misconduct.

The decision was given in a crowded court, but there was only a brief moment of suspense, for the Lord Chancellor began with this sentence: “Their lordships are of opinion that this appeal fails.”

John Wakeford heard these words, and knew that his reputation was shattered. Yet he remained unmoved. It was as though all his courage and nerve had been summoned from within him to meet that one moment bravely. That curious half-whimsical expression, which is so characteristic of the man, remained stamped upon his mobile face. His eyes closed to hide the pain within, and that was all. The archdeacon scarcely changed his position during the hour and three-quarters it took the Lord Chancellor to read the court’s decision. Once or twice he leaned forward, with his ear cupped to catch a special reference to himself; now and again he flushed, and sometimes his hand plucked at his cuffs or the buttons of his archdeacon’s coat.

Whatever else may be said of John Wakeford, Archdeacon of Stowe, he can meet adversity with a brave front.

His young daughter, who was his only companion, was obviously distressed. Her face went pale to the lips and her eyes kept turning towards her father, appealing, wondering, searching in their look.

The archdeacon gave a special interview to a “Daily Express” representative after he left the Privy Council Court.

“You ask as to my plans,” he said. “I have none until I have talked the whole matter over with my wife. I am going straight back to her at Lincoln, where she is lying ill with blood poisoning. She will, I know, help me in every way by her brave encouragement.

“We shall have to leave our house at Lincoln, and that will be the greatest blow of all to my wife, for she loves the place, and particularly the old walled garden, to which she is devoted.

“I am still a priest, and I shall remain a priest. Already I have had offers of a vicariate. There is one clergyman in the diocese of Rochester, for example, who has four livings in his gift, and he has said I can have the offer of the first which falls vacant.

“I have also in mind the question of lecturing. There is much that I want to say about the reform of the Church and the alteration of the Consistory Court system.

“Dear friends since the decision have come around me expressing their trust. All the laymen in Lincoln have faith in me—vergers, assistants, choir boys, they have all said, ‘We know this cannot be true.’ Only this morning I received a loving letter from the boys in the choir, enclosing £2 10s. towards my expenses fund. It is such affection and belief as this which gives me heart to carry on my work.

“Circumstances have beaten me, but only for the time. My faith is unshaken. I know that I am innocent, and therefore I look forward to the future with supreme confidence. The truth in the end must prevail.

“After all, there is one tribunal in this country greater than any other, and in my judgment less liable to error. It is that great court of public conviction whose understanding goes intuitively to the heart of things, and reckons better than any balance of words can reckon the alternatives of right and wrong. I believe that in this court I found a favourable verdict more than three months ago, and that nothing can alter this decision.

“My costs in this case and in the Consistory Court have been exceptionally heavy. I have received from loyal friends and the public subscriptions amounting to £3,000, but I shall need much more than that. The money will be forthcoming.”

The total costs of the whole case amount to nearly £8,000. This includes the archdeacon’s expenditure and that of the Bishop of Lincoln, who now has to be reimbursed. Legal expenses of counsel and solicitors in the two trials account for about £6,500. The out-of-pocket expenses of fifty witnesses have also to be paid.

THE SENTENCE.

The sentence of the Bishop of Lincoln on Archdeacon Wakeford now becomes operative in consequence of the failure of his appeal. It is as follows:

“That the archdeacon be deprived of all his ecclesiastical promotions within the diocese of Lincoln, and especially of the archdeaconry of Stowe and of the canonry and precentorship of Lincoln Cathedral, of the vicarage of Kirkstead, and of all the profits and benefits appertaining thereto, and of any other ecclesiastical promotions within the diocese of Lincoln.”

MRS. WAKEFORD.

“Daily Express” Correspondent.

LINCOLN, Tuesday.

Mrs. Wakeford received the decision in the heroic spirit which has characterised her attitude from the beginning of the proceedings. She is by no means despondent, in spite of her recent operation and the long illness through which she has passed.

She still firmly believes in her husband’s innocence, and indulges the hope that in time the world will know that her faith was justified.

A summary of the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, delivered by the Lord Chancellor yesterday, will be found on Page Seven.

Photograph caption: Archdeacon WAKEFORD.

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