William Hiley, Minister of God's Word, Rector of Poole

This year we will start looking at Hiley families that originated in places other than Yorkshire. The posts this month are about some members of a Hiley family who are first mentioned in Poole in Dorset in the 16th century.

William Hiley became Rector of Poole in 1582. He followed Richard Marcan who had been Rector in 1581, and was succeeded by Nicholas Jeffrey after his death in 1611.

We do not know where William came from. There seem to be no records of Hileys in the Poole area before 1582 so he may have come from outside Dorset. At this time the only universities in England and Wales were Oxford and Cambridge, and the main subjects taught were the classics and theology. If William received a university education he may well have attended one of these two universities. He may have come from a humble background and was looking to move up in the world and prepared to move to a completely different part of the country to pursue his profession.

William married Eleanor Haviland on 9th November 1585 in Poole. Eleanor was the daughter of  Christopher and Cecilia (nee Mann) Haviland. The Havilands were a very prominent family at this time. Originally from Normandy they had lived in Guernsey in the Channel Islands for many years. Christopher settled in Poole in about the year 1540.

William and Eleanor had ten children - Susanna, Samuel, Israel, Jenifer, Elizabeth, Peter, Temperance, Haviland, James and Hester. William died on 22 June 1611 and was buried eight days later at St James's Church in Poole. 

The original church was built in 1142. It was demolished and rebuilt starting in 1819. The pictures show the old church and the present one. 

William must have been an important person in the life of the town of Poole.

Stirring times were those that William Hiley saw. He became Rector in 1582 and died 1611. He saw the beacons on Worborow and the Purbecks flare for the Armada, and rising to the greatness of the occasion, urged the men, that needed little urging for such a task, for they were Englishmen, to join in death grips with Spain, for the freedom of their land, and their conscience. Little need of urging, indeed, when as Froude says, "from Lyme, and Weymouth, and Poole, and the Isle of Wight, young lords and gentlemen came streaming out in every smack or sloop that they could lay hold of, to snatch their share of danger and glory at Howard's side." And so Hiley saw depart "The Castell of Comforte," "The Grace of God," "The Stetts," "Bounauenter," and many besides, (such names are found among the lists of shipping referred to above), and cheered on the hardy sons of Poole, who hastened to join the fray so nobly begun off Plymouth, and still waxing more and more furious. 

Then to watch from the heights the straggling line of the Spaniards, to note the flash of the guns, in the action off the Wight, and to listen to the sullen roar, that told of danger and death to those bold adventurers. What a day of suspense that Thursday, August 4th (n.s.), 1588! The Rector found men praying then as they had never prayed before, and had, doubtless, much to do, striving to comfort the wives that might even then be widows, and children that might never see their fathers more.

(Poole Church and its Rectors by H Lawrence Phillips, Rector of Poole, published in 1915)

........ on the appointment of William Hiley in 1582, the Corporation built a new parsonage house for him and William Hiley remained as Rector of Poole for the rest of his life. In fact the 29 years of William Hiley's rectorship of Poole was a most significant period in national and religious history. It was during his curacy that the Warbarrow Beacons were lit to signify the approach of the Spanish Armada. It was, too, William Hiley, as Rector of Poole, who received the very first copy of the authorised version of the Bible for use in St James.

(Mansions and Merchants of Poole and Dorset - Poole Historical Trust)