FREDERICK HERBERT 
MABERLY M.A.
(1781-1860)

Rector Of Great Finborough
(1834-1860)

Oh Maberly, the Poor Man’s friend!

On God, and you, we do depend!

And hope, the Poor Law soon will end,

O MABERLY for ever! 

What I have discovered about the life of The Reverend Maberly so far suggests an essentially humane man who believed in what we would call "direct action". The sources for this short biography are "Alumni Cantabrigienses", his obituary in "The Gentleman's Magazine" and "Sermons in a Different Style; Life in a Small Cambridge Village". By A. J. Legge. 
I hope to be able to find more about this interesting character.

Frederick Herbert was born on April 18th 1781, the fourth of the six children of the London currier, Stephen Maberly and Mary née Herbert. 
He was educated at Westminster School and was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge on  April 23rd 1802 where he gained his B.A. in 1806 and an M.A. in 1809 and was ordained to the joint curacies of Kingston and Bourn in Cambridgeshire. He married Ann Kimpton at Bourn on July 6th, 1807 and  over the next 23 years the couple produced 12 children.
He was politically active as a Whig and later a Tory supporter and an ardent anti-Catholic, touring the country in 1812 distributing anti-popish propaganda. He also in 1818 took up the cause of adequate student supervision in Cambridge following the drowning of a student there, publishing a pamphlet "The Melancholy and Awful Death of Lawrence Dundas, Esq.", which led to the better regulation of student accommodation.
In 1826 he took an active part in the opposition to Lord John Russell's re-election for the county of  Huntingdon.
In 1829 when the Sheriff of Cambridgeshire refused to call a meeting to oppose the Catholic Relief Bill, Maberly issued a manifesto, declaring that he would on the occasion of a public execution, address the crowd and move a resolution in favour of a petition for the impeachment of The Duke Of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel for their efforts on behalf of Catholic emancipation. He was persuaded against that particular idea but appeared instead at the bar of the House of Lords to carry out his threat to attempt to impeach The Duke Of Wellington and was physically ejected, escaping punishment on the grounds that he was a lunatic. 
Strenuously opposing the Poor Law Amendment Act he organised large public meetings in Royston and elsewhere, to carry on his campaign of opposition he assembled a large meeting of labourers from the surrounding villages on Parker's Piece in Cambridge on June 11, 1836, his proceedings caused the magistrates and Home Secretary much anxiety about the public peace. He also tried unsuccessfully to break into Caxton Workhouse to rescue a pauper. On July 26, 1837 he was taken into custody and charged with creating a disturbance and assaulting a constable and taken to the Station House. He was finally released without charge, but he in turn sued the Inspector who arrested him for wrongful arrest. On another occasion, he intervened in court proceedings that he thought to be unfair against Bernard Ingrey of Wimpole who had been accused of abandoning his wife and children as ‘chargeable’ to the parish. The Revd. Maberly repeatedly interrupted the proceedings of the court, Ingrey was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour and Mr Maberly was physically thrown out from the court.
He was appointed by the Bishop of Ely to the rectory of Great Finborough in Suffolk in 1834 "as a reward for his support of the Tory party".

Great Finborough Church as Maberly would have known it, the church was re-built in 1875.

At the time of the outbreak of incendiarism in 1844 he appeared at the Assize court in defence of a Stowmarket youth accused of starting a fire near Abbotts Hall in Stowmarket.
He held the living of Great Finborough until his death in Stowmarket on Jan 24th, 1860 "leaving a family much impoverished by his rash and miscellaneous benevolence.". I believe Maberly lived in Tavern Street at least he was there in 1859, although I'm not sure yet which house he occupied. Both he and his wife who died in the same year are interred in brick graves in the churchyard at Great Finborough.

Stowmarket Local History Group
2007
email neil@stowman.plus.com