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WEST COWES
In an Autobiography Canon Bower wrote "At the end of October 1839 1 received an order from the Bishop to be at Southampton for the Feast of All Saints and to do as the Rev. W. Hunt directed me. The real intention of my going to Southampton was to serve the Mission of Cowes as the Rev. J. Rathborne was an invalid and was supposed to be too unwell to say Mass . This I found to my cost was not quite true. On the first Saturday I presented myscif he told me very decidedly that he did not want me and on the next when was sent over from Southampton I found the house closed against me and the Cha'ice was sent to the care of the Rev. Joseph's mother. remained in Southampton about six weeks when received notice to leave. He spent another six weeks at Virginia Street and was then sent to Buckland, and in August 1840 went to Bermon Isey. In February 1841 he was sent to Brentwood and in November to Southampton. In June 1842 he went to Islington and in September to Wandsworth. He was at Cowes from 1852 till September 1884, when he retired on account of ill- health. During the years that followed he was living at various addresses in Cowes: 1885 , 1 Mount Place, Victoria Roadin Newport: 1888 , 1 St. John's Terrace , * Node Hill ; 1896 , 1 Terrace 1897 , 1 St. John's Terrace * ; 1901 , St. John's Road , Road till 9 April 1903 , when he died and was buried in Cowes cemetery . During his incumbency the Rev. J. A. Gross baptized once, in March 1854 . The Rev. Francis J. Kelleher was here from September 1884 to February 1885. He was ordained 23 December 1866 and was made a Canon 18 August 1896. The Rev. Richard G. Davis was appointed Rector in February 1885. He may be styled the Historian of the Cowes Mission , for it is due to his indefatigable researches that Cowes is one of the best documented parishes in the diocese, and the large majority of the foregoing details are from his manuscripts . He was born in London 1 February 1837 , and educated partly at Downside and partly in Belgium , and in 1853 went to Ushaw . He was ordained priest 5 April 1862 by Bishop Grant in St. George's Cathedral , Southwark. After ordination he was successively at Gravesend, Dover, Southampton, Woolwich and Portsmouth. In 1871 he went to Maidenhead, and later to Aldershot. In 1882 , on account of ill - health, he went to Buckland, removing to Cowes in 1885, where he remained until his retirement in 1909. He died at Southcliff Road , Southampton, 19 November 1914. He was succeeded by the Rev. John O'Hanlon, who remained parish priest until his retirement in 1946 . His assistant priests were : The Rev. William J. Kearney , January 1944 April 1945. The Rev. Timothy Dwyer, April 1945-1946. The Rev. William Kirk succeeded as parish priest 1 November
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THE REGISTER.
WEST COWES
(1796-1856) The Register is a vellum-covered volume 8 x 6 inches. The pages are plain white paper, each measuring 7 x 61 inches. On the * All these addresses are so suspiciously similar that one is forced to conclude that they were all one and the same. A letter written in 1892 from " 1 St. John's Terrace " confirms this. U