Lives in Cricket No 51 - Rev ES Carter

Chapter three The York Clergyman Edmund Carter as a young and middle-aged man was to spend much of his vocational life working in parishes close to York Minster and in the Minster itself. After his spell on leaving university at Ealing, his clerical life was all spent within the Yorkshire. His social and county cricket, considered in subsequent chapters, had to take second place to his role within the Church of England. Vicar-Choral and Services at the Minster He started work at York in 1875 as a Vicar-Choral at York Minster. Vicar-Chorals are paid to sing in the cathedral choirs, often several times a week on Sundays and at evensong, generally in a cathedral, or as at York in the Minster. There were in 1875 five Vicar-Chorals working at the Minster and at that time, as indeed generally today, there were also 12 ‘Songmen’ and 20 boy choristers. One of those responsible for Carter’s move to York would have been the Dean of the Minster, the Very Reverend Augustus Duncombe and it may have been helpful to Carter that the dean was himself a former scholar at Worcester College, Oxford. Years later, in 1914, Carter revealed that the dean did not like him playing cricket matches, which may have one reason why Carter was never to be appointed a full Canon of the Church of England to work at York Minster or elsewhere. After 29 years as a Vicar-Choral, Carter was in September 1904 elected by the other Vicars-Choral to became the senior Vicar- Choral, in a post known in the late Victorian era, and today as the Sub-Chanter (otherwise known as Succentor Vicariourum). To add to the complexity Crockfords Clerical Directory refers to this group of senior clergy as ‘A Corporation under the title of The sub-chanter and Vicars-Choral of York Cathedral’ (not Minster). His election was confirmed by the Dean and Chapter and an installation ceremony took place. Crockford’s stated that the income of the Sub-Chanter was £275 per annum, a Vicar- 43