Rector, scientist, artist, coin collector, antiquarian; the list of achievements of Rev. Thomas Rackett go on and on.
Drive along the A350 from Corfe Mullen towards Blandford, and you’ll go past the church of St John the Baptist in Spetisbury. In the cemetery stands an imposing three-sided pyramid about 7 feet high. This is a memorial to one Thomas Rackett, rector of the parish and his wife Dorothy.
Such a striking memorial stands out against the more commonplace tombstones dotted around the cemetery, and little wonder because Rackett was quite an influential character.
Early years
He was born in London in 1757 and was a rather precocious child. At the age of 14, he recited the ode for the Shakespearean jubilee to the renowned actor David Garrick. He was so impressed that he presented Rackett with a gilt copy of the speech. In 1771, Garrick went one better and presented Rackett with a folio copy of Shakespeare.
The fact that the young Rackett was consorting in such company may come as a surprise to some, but growing up he was in touch with some of the most influential and greatest minds of the day. He was taught to draw by Theodosius Forrest and Paul Sandby a founding member of the Royal Academy; he was given an interest in natural history by the renowned surgeon and scientist John Hunter, who worked with Edward Jenner on the smallpox vaccination https://celebrantglynbawden.com/a-fascinating-find-in-a-dorset-graveyard/ and as a young boy he had his portrait painted by the renowned artist George Romney.
He graduated from Oxford with an MA in 1780 and at that same time became rector of St John’s in Spetisbury, the position he would hold for just over 60 years.
London life
At the time, the Dorset parish was one of the wealthier parishes, bringing in rental sums of around £750 pa, more than enough for a rector and his family to live on, and prior to Rackett, that is exactly what had happened. However, Rackett was more interested in pursuing his many other interests and living a life in London, than he was in being rector of a small parish in Dorset.
Throughout his 61 year tenure, he spent about 30 years at his house in London rubbing shoulders with eminent scientists and antiquaries of the day and spending the rental income from his post as rector on various treats and works of art.
He was friends with the Italian astronomer and scientist Tiberius Cavallo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Cavallo#:~:text=Tiberius%20Cavallo%20%28also%20Tiberio%29, who stayed with him at his home in Spetisbury. He also studied Dorset’s natural history, archaeology and geology.
In the early 1800’s, there was such an influential group of scientists and antiquaries living in Blandford that Dorset, for some years, became the centre of enlightenment thinking and scientific discovery and Rackett was right at the heart of it.
Problems
Unsurprisingly, his parishioners became disillusioned with their absent rector and voiced their c0mplaints to the landowner Lord Lansdowne, who took the complaint to the House of Lords. In addition to this, suspicions had been raised to the Bishop of Bristol as he discovered that several parishioners were converting to Roman Catholicism and Rackett was leaving a low paid curate to do his work in his place, and so wrote a letter to Rackett asking for an explanation.
Rackett had to answer his case to both the bishop and the House of Lords, but evidently was a very persuasive man because no further action was taken and he was allowed to continue his varied pursuits for many years afterwards.
An accomplished artist, he illustrated the second edition of the Rev. John Hutchins life’s work ‘ History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset’. He was a member of the Royal Society, the Linnean Society, the Society of Antiquaries of London and was an avid collector of Greek coins and in his 80’s was studying conchology.
On his memorial on the pyramid in St John’s church Spetisbury are carved the words;
‘During near LX years His diligence and eminent talents were not confined to the exercise of Parochial duties…’
Never were there truer words said. It was a remarkable life, lived to the full at the very forefront of, what was then, cutting edge scientific, artistic and historical investigation.