Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Madge, Francis Thomas

1849 - July 1933

F.T. Madge, or Canon Madge, as he was usually known later in life, was in a line of Cathedral Librarians that recognized the historical importance of its holdings in the late 19th century. He was the son of Thomas Hellier Madge, rector of Kettering, Northants, whom he followed into the church, He was ordained priest in 1873 and after a curacy at Brownsover, Warwickshire, was in 1877 appointed Winchester Cathedral Librarian. It came with an annual stipend of £10 and was held by him until his death in 1933. Here he made use of the Classics he had read at St John’s College, Cambridge, and worked on a wide range of medieval and later documents. As was the custom with this appointment, he was also for some time sacrist of the Cathedral and chaplain of Bishop Morley’s College, Winchester.

On 6 January 1887 he married Florence Louise in her home town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA. They lived in Christchurch Road, Winchester, in a house bought for them by her father.

He held a number of church livings in succession: Littleton (1890-95), St Swithun’s Winchester (1895-1905) and in 1905 Stoke Charity, where he served until 1918. The family went to live in the village, but soon afterwards in 1907 faced a tragedy, when Florence died at the early age of about 46.

He has been credited with founding the Diocesan Guild of Bellringers (now the Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers) in the 1880s, and in 1909 became an honorary canon. Between 1901 and 1911 he edited the Winchester Diocesan Chronicle.

Together with his successor, Arthur Goodman, who initially acted as his assistant, it was a ‘golden period’ of nearly 70 years when the collections of the Cathedral Library were progressively organised, indexed and opened to a wider readership. During his term, in the early 1900s, a sensational, discovery was made, when a series of medieval paintings were found hidden behind bookcases.

Madge clearly gelled with George William Kitchin, Dean of Winchester 1883-94, with whom he edited the first volume of the Hampshire Record Society (HRS, 1889). It covered the foundation of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester in 1541-1547 by Letters Patent of Henry VIII and its endowment with estates. The frontispiece of the book reproduced a painting from the documents, showing the King, Bishop Stephen Gardiner, the first dean William Kingsmill, and twelve canons, wearing red cassocks trimmed with fur.

Kitchin, in the preface to his Manor of Manydown (HRS, 1895), acknowledges help from Madge, calling him a ‘colleague and friend’. Two years later, with Kitchin’s successor, William R.W. Stephens, Madge edited a volume on the history of the cathedral in the 17th century (HRS,1897). It included an important Parliamentarian survey of the Close in 1649, though the accuracy of the transcription has been criticised (John Crook, WCR, 1983).

Later works by Madge included, in 1902, a list of early printed books in the cathedral library and in 1918 a volume of clerical inductions in Hampshire.  In 1926, with the Winchester College archivist, Herbert Chitty, he edited the register of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, short-lived Bishop of Winchester, enthroned in commendam (to avoid plurality) on 11 April 1529, little more than 18 months before his death on 29 November the following year.

Although Madge remained the cathedral librarian until his death in 1933, he had de facto given the job to Goodman a decade earlier. Records posted on Family Search show him in his later years, visiting Genoa and Tangiers during the winter.  Also, his daughter E.A. Madge (b. 1887) tells of visits of the family to her mother’s roots in the USA (HRO, AV12/45/S1). On at least one occasion, in 1914, he continued to visit the USA after his wife’s death.

Sources

• Winchester Cathedral Record, passim.
• HRO, DC/F2/3.
• HRO, DC/K11.
• HRO, AV12/45/S1.
• The Times, 27 July, 1933 (obituary)

Portrait

Photograph, HRO, DC/F1/7/9

Contribution to county’s history

He was a key person in helping to open the holdings of the Cathedral Library to scholars. 

Relevant published works

• With G.W.Kitchin, eds., Documents relating to the foundation of the Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, HRS, 1889.


• With W.R.W. Stephens, eds., Documents relating to the Cathedral Church of Winchester in the seventeenth century, HRS, 1897


• Winchester Cathedral Library: Early Printed Books, 1479-1640, Winchester, 1902


• Hampshire Inductions, Warren & Son, Winchester, 1918


• With H. Chitty, Registrum Thome Wolsey, cardinalis, ecclesie [sic] Wintoniensis administratoris, Canterbury and York Society, 1926

Critical Comments

His work never involved ‘telling the story’ of the cathedral or related subjects, but was a significant stage in the fruitful sequence that allowed scholars to study more easily the history of Winchester and the wider world during the middle ages.

Other Comments

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 6 October, 2023.

Key Words

Winchester Cathedral Library, A.W. Goodman, G.W. Kitchen, H. Chitty, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, bellringing

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