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- The Reverend John Froude II (1777 – 9 September 1852) of Knowstone and East Anstey, both in Devon, England, Rector of Molland-cum-Knowstone, in Devon, was an extreme and notorious example of the "hunting parson", a phenomenon which started to disappear in the late 19th century, for whom "hunting was...the main pursuit of their life, and clerical duties were neglected or perfunctorily performed". During his lifetime the anti-hunting lobby of the evangelicals was gaining ground. In his case this movement was represented by his nemesis Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, with whom he had many amusing disputes. He was the model for the evil "Parson Chowne" in The Maid of Sker, the 1872 novel by R. D. Blackmore, and was described by the Devon historian Hoskins (1954) as "an unspeakable oaf". According to Sabine Baring-Gould: "Froude fascinated his neighbours, overawing them as a snake is said to fascinate a mouse. If he told them to do a thing, or to keep silent, he was obeyed. They dared not do otherwise...He encouraged about him a lawless company of vagabonds who, when they were not in prison, lived roughly at free quarters at the rectory, and from thence carried on their business of petty larceny; and who were, moreover, ready to execute vengeance upon the rector's enemies". (en)
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- The Reverend John Froude II (1777 – 9 September 1852) of Knowstone and East Anstey, both in Devon, England, Rector of Molland-cum-Knowstone, in Devon, was an extreme and notorious example of the "hunting parson", a phenomenon which started to disappear in the late 19th century, for whom "hunting was...the main pursuit of their life, and clerical duties were neglected or perfunctorily performed". During his lifetime the anti-hunting lobby of the evangelicals was gaining ground. In his case this movement was represented by his nemesis Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, with whom he had many amusing disputes. (en)
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