The Rev. Philip Stannard

The Rev. Philip Stannard's name doesn't appear on the list of rectors of Tasburgh at the back of the church for the simple reason that he was never the rector, but he was nevertheless a prominent landowner and resident of the village in the first half of the 19th century.

Philip Hopson Stannard had been born at Mulbarton Hall in 1763, the son of Philip Stannard and his second wife Ann Hopson. His father was a successful and wealthy Norwich cloth merchant who had been Sherriff of Norwich in 1747 and by 1755 was employing 300 weavers to produce his materials. In 1750 he had purchased Mulbarton Hall as a country residence for himself and his first wife, Priscilla, who died in 1757. Ann Hopson was 25 years his junior when they married five years later and in addition to their son Philip they had a daughter, also Ann. Unfortunately he increasingly left the running of his business to others who over expanded, buying in cloth from other producers and selling to merchants throughout Europe and as far away South America, but when bad debts mounted there were insufficient reserves to pay creditors and Philip was declared bankrupt in 1769. Mulbarton Hall and the family's town house in St. Giles had to be sold which must have had a big impact on the young family, but even that wasn't enough to pay everyone to whom he owed money.

However, son Philip was able to attend the Norwich Free Grammar School and was then awarded a scholarship to Corpus College Cambridge. By that time his father had died but Philip wouldn't have had much of an inheritance, if any, and decided to become a clergyman, being ordained in 1785 as a deacon in Norwich Cathedral and then licensed as a curate in Stoke Holy Cross. His starting salary was £230 p.a. three or four times the salary of other curates appointed at the same time which suggests they may have had some private means and he hadn't. That however may have been the limit of his ecclesiastical career because by 1789 at the age of 26 he had already moved with his mother to Fritton, his sister having died. Although it's unclear whether he was still acting as a curate, he certainly wasn't the vicar or rector as there's no record of him ever having been priested.

There they bought a farmhouse and buildings with 106 acres of land extending into the neighbouring parishes of Hempnall and Shelton for £2,200 which would suggest that his mother had by then inherited a significant sum of money from her side of the family because the contract was originally in her name but at her request the transfer was taken in his. At the time the farm was let so they must have been living elsewhere in Fritton but it's not known whether they subsequently moved into the farm. Five years later he mortgaged the farm for £500, a sum equivalent to about £600,000 in 2025, though for what purpose isn't known. The documentation for those events are held at the Norfolk Record Office under refs. MS14119, 36A5 and MS17856, 39A5.

It is also not known exactly when Philip Stannard started buying land in Tasburgh, because the Manorial Court records (MC1827/99) only registered purchases of copyhold land, not freehold, but they do show that in 1801 he bought a house and 33 acres, almost certainly Old Hall Farm as he describes it in correspondence as a manor house and farm, and the known ownership of Manor Farm and other possible properties at the time rules those out. Shortly after buying Old Hall Farm he decided he needed a house more befitting of a gentleman so he built Tasburgh House on the main road for himself and his mother, having presumably sold his property in Fritton. Other purchases soon followed so that by the time of the Enclosure Award in 1818, from which he benefitted, he was the biggest landowner in the Tasburgh, owning about a quarter of its agricultural land.

Although he was no longer a practising clergyman, he was one of Tasburgh's church wardens along with John Gay of Rainthorpe Hall, and both their names still appear on a brass plate attached to the church vestry door as initial trustees of the Thomas Clabburn charitable legacy. His mother died in 1812 but he continued living in Tasburgh House for another 25 years before selling all his properties in 1837. The purchaser of the majority was Alexander Campbell, an investor/absentee landlord from Little Plumstead who in 1840 was recorded as owning 370 acres representing 40% of the parish. There is no record of him buying land in Tasburgh before 1837 so it may well be that the majority of that holding had previously belonged to the Rev. Philip Stannard who then moved to Stratton St Michael where he died the following year.

With no close relatives, he left detailed instructions under his Will and codicils for the distribution of his possessions including his gold and silver watches, other items of silver and his pictures, and he gave sums of money to various local people including a lady who had been living as part of his household and was also one of his executors. Perhaps the most unusual legacy however was a gift of his pony, harness and trap to his vet in Norwich with instructions that the pony should not be sold or given away but if for any reason it was no longer of any use to him or was ill "then it should be killed". Clearly he didn't want his pony to fall into the wrong hands and be mistreated. Finally he wanted to be buried in the family vault in St Giles church, Norwich where a number of Stannard wall memorials are to be found including one for him and one for his mother.