Hon. Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel

Second son of Sir Gerard Noel Noel MP (q.v.) and his 1st wife, Diana, Baroness Barham. Awarded with others part of the compensation for an estate in St Kitts as trustees for the marriage settlement of Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel's brother Frederick Noel and his wife Mary [nee Woodley].  

1. Admitted (age 18) at Trinity, Cambridge, 6 July 1801; Matriculated 1804; B.A. 1805; M.A. 1808. Admitted at Lincoln's Inn, July 14, 1798. Curate of Radwell, Hertfordshire, 1806-7; vicar of Rainham, Kent, 1807-26; Curate of Kingston upon Thames with Sheen, 1826; Stipendiary Curate of Farnham (1833);  Prebendary of Winchester, 1834-51. Vicar of Romsey, Hampshire., 1840-51, where he restored the Abbey Church from his own fortune. His elder brother was Charles Noel Noel (1781–1866), whig MP for Rutland and Earl of Gainsborough in 1841. His younger brother was Baptist Wriothesley Noel, a celebrated London evangelical (and 'one of the most influential evangelical clergymen of early Victorian England' [Oxford DNB]). His first wife, Charlotte Sophia (d. 31 Aug 1838), was the daughter of Sir Lucius O'Brien; his second was to Susan (d. 14 Feb 1890), daughter of Sir John Kennaway. He 'was well-connected in the clerical world, not only through his influential family but also through his close friendships with William and (later) Samuel Wilberforce.' (Oxford DNB). A conservative evangelical whose theology was Calvinistic and premillennialist, although he resisted the development of the Catholic Apostolic church. He was the author of A Brief Enquiry into the Prospects of the Church of Christ (1828), an influential work, and many other publications.

2. Will of the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Thomson Noel, Clerk, one of the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Close Winchester, proved 2/4/1851.

T71/879 St Kitts no. 705.

1. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II, vol. IV, p. 558; ODNB online, Grayson Carter 'Noel, Gerard Thomas (1782-1851), Church of England Clergyman'; Clergy of the Church of England Database http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/ (CCEd Person ID 71598).

2. PROB 11/2131.