William Maskell

William Maskell (1814–1890) was an English priest of the Church of England, liturgical scholar, and Catholic convert.

Life

He was only son of William Maskell, a solicitor of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and his wife Mary Miles, born 17 May 1814. The family moved to Bath in 1823. He matriculated on 9 June 1832 at University College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1836, and M.A. in 1838, having taken holy orders in 1837.

From an extreme High Church position, Maskell attacked in 1840 Edward Stanley, a latitudinarian, over subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles. His father William died in 1841. In 1842 he was instituted to the rectory of Corscombe, Dorset, and concentrated on research into the history of Anglican ritual. Having resigned Corscombe, he was instituted in 1847 to the vicarage of St Mary Church, Torquay, and appointed domestic chaplain to Henry Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter.

For Phillpotts, Maskell conducted the examination of George Cornelius Gorham on his views of baptism, when Gorham was being considered for presentation to the vicarage of Brampford Speke, near Exeter. The Gorham case was escalated through the courts to the Privy Council. Soon afterwards Maskell resigned his living, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church.

Not taking Catholic orders, and indeed unable to do so after his second marriage in 1852, Maskell spent most of his later life in retirement at The Castle in Bude, Cornwall. His father's fortune allowed him to retire in that way. Robert Stephen Hawker, a good friend, was nearby with the living at Morwenstow. When Hawker died in 1875, his widow Pauline presented Maskell with evidence that Hawker was only kept from a Catholic conversion by the economic imperative of retaining his clerical income. Maskell asked her not to disclose it.