Clement Moody (clergyman)

Clement Moody (1811 – 23 September 1871) was a British Anglican clergyman notable as the vicar of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1853 to 1871, and involved in a well-known local dispute which led to the creation of Jesmond Parish Church.

Early life
Clement Moody, born 1811, was the sixth son of George Moody, surgeon of Longtown, Cumberland, and was a cousin of Richard Clement Moody, who was the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia and first British Governor of the Falkland Islands.

He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, (matriculated 17 December 1838, aged 27; B.A. 1844, M.A. 1845) and appointed Perpetual Curate of Sebergham, Cumberland, by the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle.

Vicar of Newcastle
Moody was appointed Vicar of Newcastle at St Nicholas vicarage on 6 April 1853. At a public meeting in June of that year he proposed a plan for the building of ten new Church of England schools for the city. The plan met with concern from a Scottish minister, Thomas Gray Duncan, about Tractarianism and possible Catholic influence, in an open letter to Moody, The Present Doctrinal State of the Church of England; Duncan, at St David's, Kirkintilloch, had been a missioner at Leswalt, and left the Church of Scotland at the Great Disruption of 1843, coming to Trinity Church, Newcastle in 1850–a presbyterian church involved in efforts to build an evangelical alliance in Newcastle.

Moody's work in the time of pandemic cholera, and for education, were recognised with a presentation by the Mayor of Newcastle in 1855.

Contentious chaplainship
On 29 October 1856 the corporation of Newcastle appointed Moody Master of the Mary Magdalene Hospital and chaplain to the Church of St Thomas the Martyr, consequent on the untimely death on 8 October 1856 of the previous incumbent, the Rev. Richard Clayton, M.A., an evangelical Anglican low church clergyman. Moody was identified as a high church minister, and one moreover known to view evangelicals with “strong disapprobation”.

The corporation's action proved hugely controversial, and was greatly displeasing to many of the largely Jesmond-based congregation, who in reaction raised £8000 to fund the construction of Jesmond Parish Church between 19 October 1859 and its consecration service on 14 January 1861. Richard Welford, in his biography of John Bennet Alexander, a corporation Alderman involved in the decision, notes that "the mystery of that appointment has never been properly explained."

The decision was passed by a majority of five. The appointment was proposed by Alderman John Blackwell, owner of the Newcastle Courant. It was a moderate radical paper, and from the 1830s Blackwell was known to vote Whig or Liberal. It was supported by Ralph Park Philipson, Mayor, and a Whig activist. John Bennet Alexander resigned from the corporation, offended by the decision. His politics as represented by a poll book record for the 1859 general election in the constituency were also Whig-Liberal. He was a merchant, known also for philanthropy and Sunday School involvement.

Death
Clement Moody died on 23 September 1871 and is buried in Saint Nicholas Cemetery, Newcastle.

Works
Moody published:


 * New Testament Expounded and Illustrated, with notes, translations and marginalia, published in Britain by 1851 and New York City by 1852.
 * The Church of England a Means of Infusing the Spirit of Christianity Into Literary and Scientific Institutes (1854), inaugural address as Vicar of Newcastle

Family
Moody married in 1851 Anne Vansittart, daughter of the Rev. William Vansittart.