For almost 200 years there had been a doctor resident in Bow. I was the twenty-ninth.
This is our story
THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN OF BOW
Three Drown at Hayne Bridge
Monday November 29th 1841 – There had been a day of torrential rain in mid-Devon, so bad that 7 or 8 houses had been destroyed by floods in Coleford. Rev Henry Allwright Hughes, aged 60, curate of Clannaborough, his wife Sophia, their son George Frederick, one of their daughters and a servant boy named John Knowles aged about 15 had been to a christening party at the house of Rev George Baker Garrow in Bondleigh, near North Tawton. Their daughter stayed in Bondleigh, but in the evening the rest of the party set off back to Clannaborough.
By about 7 o’clock they reached Hayne Bridge, which crosses the River Yeo on the road from Zeal Monachorum to Bow. They were advised by some farm workers not to attempt to cross the bridge as the river was in full flood. Their son George managed to go over on horseback first and then came back and persuaded his father who was driving their four-wheeled phaeton (carriage) to attempt to cross. The second time he attempted to cross the bridge, his horse lost its footing and he fell into the swollen river. Shortly afterwards the carriage was washed away and floated down the river.
George, and his mother and the servant boy who were inside the carriage, all drowned. Rev Hughes was found clinging to a tree some 15 minutes later and was pulled out of the water alive by local blacksmith William Bibbings.
The bodies of Mrs Hughes and her son were found at about 8 a.m. the following morning. William Wreford of Clannaborough Barton helped in the search. They were taken to Hayne Farm, the residence of Mr George Snell, where at an inquest on 3rd December, verdicts of accidental death were recorded.
The body of the servant boy John Knowles was found by his father and his brother-in-law, half a mile downstream, but not until over a month later, on 10th January. At an inquest the following day a similar verdict was returned. John was buried in Colebrooke Church on 12 January. He has no memorial, not even a gravestone.
John Knowles was born at Lower Coombe and baptised in Colebrooke Church on 5 Feb 1826. At the time of his death he was a servant living at Clannaborough Rectory. Stephen and Jane, his parents, lived at Lower Coombe; his father was an agricultural worker for Mr John Sillifant.
The funerals of Sophia and George Hughes took place on 3 December in Clannaborough Church where, in the chancel, there is a memorial to them.
37 year old Bibbings, a non-swimmer, was presented with an honorary silver medallion by the Royal Humane Society the following February.
Rev Henry Allwright Hughes was born in Worcester in 1781 and educated at Worcester College, Oxford. He had been rector of Honiton - his wife was the daughter of Rev Edward Honywood, his predecessor there and Chaplain to the Prince of Wales. They had twelve children. Prior to his appointment at Clannaborough he had been for three years Curate of Zeal Monachorum. Whilst at Clannaborough he acted as Curate of Nymet Rowland whilst Rev Charles Rookes was Rector.
Two years after the drownings Rev Hughes remarried, in Gloucestershire, to Sarah Winwood (1796-1866). She was a widow, the daughter of John Hoyte, surgeon of Glastonbury. Her son was a clergyman. Henry and his second wife seem to have lived apart.
He retired a few years later to Nicholls Nymet House in North Tawton where he died aged 80 in 1861.
The South Window of Clannaborough Church, erected in 1863.
Erected by his friends at a cost of £100, it is dedicated to the memory of Rev Henry Allwright Hughes, Sophia his first wife, and their five children who predeceased him –
Sophia Louise who died aged 9 when they lived in Honiton,
Henry Honywood who died aged 25 in Liverpool,
Harriet Georgina who died aged 21 of consumption,
George Frederick who drowned aged 18,
Arthur Honywood who died aged 21 in Peru.
