That the said parish of St Bees is a very large and spacious parish, containing within it a thousand communicants or thereabours, which repair to that Church to receive the Holy Communion, and in that respect, it ought to be supplied with two able curates to execute and perform that office, as formerly it hath been, for one curate though never so sufficient, is not able to officiate that cure, by reason of so great a multitude of parishioners and communicants… That you the said William Coats, who of a sailor were made a Minister and ordained by the late Bishop of Manchester deceased, are the sole curate of St Bees aforesaid, and so you have been for twelve years last past of thereabouts, and the cure being so great, and you so very ignorant and unlearned, are not able or fit to perform that office of curate yourself… That you the said Willaim Coats, are so ignorant and unlearned that you cannot read divine service truly and distinctly, but you miscall many words in reading thereof, and by that means you do become very ridiculous to the congregation, and have caused them by your foolish gesture and ignorance in reading to laugh at time of divine service, whereby you have given great offence and scandal to the congregation… That within the months and years aforesaid or in some or one of them you the said William Coats have and do keep a common drunken disorderly alehouse, contrary to the laws and canons of the Church of England, and have called your parishioners to drink, and have kept them there so long that they have been drunk, and fought and quarrelled in your house… That you the said William Coats upon Easter Eve in the year of Our Lord God 1632… or upon one of other of those days or years administered the Holy Communion to Francis Bateson and Thomas Taylor or some other, and suffered them to sit in your house drinking, in the afternoon of the same day, until they were drunk… That in the years and months in the fourth article… or in every, some or one of them, you the said Coats have suffered… sundry disorderly people to frequent your house, and to sit drinking there till they were drunk, and to fight or quarrel in your house, which was a great disturbance to your neighbours and a scandal to the ministry… That you being a Minister of God’s word have in the years of our Lord God 1630, 1631, 1632, and 1633 and in the months of the same years and in every some or one of them been oftentimes overcome with drink, both in your own house, and also in other houses within the said parish of St Bees, and other parishes and places adjoining… [and] have not been able to read divine service, and also have been so drunk that oftentimes you have been carried home, and in your drunkenness you have been like a dead man void of sense, by reason thereof, danger of your own soul, scandal to the Ministry, and evil example to others.
Depositions & Examinations
EDC 5/1634/100 (unfol.) Office c Coats
CRO
Immorality
1634
Plaintiff
Office [Not specified]
[Not specified]
Defendant
William Coats
male
Church of England clergyman
St Bees, Cumberland, England
Event
The alehouse-keeping and habitual drinking of William Coats
1630
1634
St Bees, Cumberland, England
Components
Clerical misconduct
Drunkenness and excessive consumption
Unlicensed alehouse-keeping
Arguments
Fights and violence
Haunting, frequenting, and habitual drinking
Loss of speech
Staggering, reeling, falling
Alcohol | Unspecified
Setting
Alehouse
Location of Event
Statement
1634
Office [Not specified]