Parish Clerks and Sextons of Kildwick: A Living History 

For many centuries, the life of Kildwick Parish Church was sustained not only by its clergy, but by the quiet faithfulness of its parish clerks and sextons. These roles, now largely vanished, were once essential to the daily rhythm of worship, record-keeping, and care of the church and churchyard.

The Parish Clerk is an office of great antiquity, dating back to the earliest days of the English Church. Remarkably, it survived the Reformation and continued as a legally recognised role well into the nineteenth century. Clerks were responsible for maintaining parish registers, assisting in services, leading responses, and supporting the clergy. Sextons, meanwhile, cared for the church building, bells, clock, furnishings, and burials—often serving for decades.

The records show a continuous line of service at Kildwick from at least 1622, beginning with Peter Barrett, a well-educated clerk whose careful handwriting still survives in the parish registers. Through the upheavals of the Civil War and Commonwealth, clerks such as John Towne were appointed under Parliamentary law to register births, marriages, and burials—leaving behind fascinating evidence of how national events shaped local parish life.

From the late seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries, figures such as George Emmott, Henry Newby, and Anthony Holmes combined clerical duties with other roles as schoolmasters, innkeepers, or tradesmen, reflecting the close connection between church, village, and everyday life. Sextons like Richard Batty, Joseph Horrocks, and Thomas Dixon served faithfully for many years, maintaining the churchyard and ensuring dignified burials for generations of parishioners.

Perhaps the most notable chapter is the long service of the Crossley and Tillotson families. John Crossley and later his son served as parish clerk for over forty years between them, while John Hartley Tillotson, appointed sexton in 1853 and parish clerk in 1859, devoted nearly fifty years to the church. During his lifetime he officiated at thousands of baptisms, marriages, and burials, working alongside seven vicars and witnessing multiple restorations of the ancient church.

John Hartley Tillotson’s ministry was marked by humility, reliability, and deep affection for the parish. His life bridged the ancient traditions of the church with the modern age, and his memory remains woven into the fabric of Kildwick’s story. He was succeeded in 1903 by his son Seth Tillotson, continuing a remarkable family legacy of service.

Together, these clerks and sextons represent more than names in a register. They were the custodians of memory, worship, and place—ensuring that the church remained a living centre of faith through centuries of change.