Richard Aslatt Pearce
| Reverend Richard Aslatt Pearce | |
|---|---|
Lithograph from photo by Hills & Saunders of Oxford
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| Religion | Christianity |
| Denomination | Anglicanism |
| Institute | Winchester Diocesan Mission to the Deaf and Dumb |
| Church | Mission Church, Oak Road, Southampton (demolished) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church Lodge, Winchester |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | British |
| Home town | Winchester |
| Born |
9 January 1855 Portswood |
| Died | 21 July 1928 (aged 73) Winchester |
| Spouse | Frances Mary Monck |
| Parents | Richard S. Pearce |
| Religious career | |
| Ordination | Deacon 1885 Chaplain to the Deaf and Dumb |
Reverend Richard Aslatt Pearce (1855–1928) was the first deaf person to be ordained as an Anglican clergyman. He was educated via the sign language of his era, he became Chaplain to the Deaf and Dumb, and he fulfilled this duty in the Southampton area for the rest of his life. In 1885 he was introduced to Queen Victoria, who then ordered the Royal Commission on the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb and Others of the United Kingdom, 1889.
Richard Aslatt Pearce was the grandson of Robert Pearce (born 1785) and Sarah Seward (born ca. 1788). Their son, and the father of Richard Aslatt, was Richard Seward Pearce (1820–1893), a solicitor and town clerk of Southampton, and Frances Aslatt (1836–1899). Richard and Frances were married in 1854 at South Stoneham. He was born in Portswood on 9 January 1855, one of four siblings of which three were deaf. Two of his siblings were artist Walter Seward (1862–1941) and Fanny (1863–1892), all three described as "deaf and dumb from birth" in the 1881 Census. His single hearing sibling was solicitor Arthur William Pearce (1858–1928).
There are two indications that Pearce did not speak. One is that in his own handwriting on the 1911 Census form he differentiated himself, as "deaf and dumb", from his wife whom he described as "deaf." The second is the Hampshire Advertiser's description of his sermon at Golden Common in 1887, as "silent eloquence."
His father paid £50 per year from 1860 to 1872 for him to attend the Brighton Institution for Deaf and Dumb Children at 127–132 Eastern Road, Kemptown, Brighton, where he received private tuition using only the manual system. His headmaster, who gave him personal tuition via the manual and sign system of that era, was William Sleight. The 1861 Census shows him at six years old, already at the Institution, when it had 82 inmates and two teachers besides the headmaster. In 1871 when Pearce was 16 years old, the Institution had 93 inmates, plus several former female inmates employed as servants and as an assistant teacher. Besides the headmaster who taught, the only other teachers besides the deaf former pupil, were an assistant master and a pupil teacher; however all the inmates were described as "scholars." In that year, 40 of the inmates were of unknown origin, and 31 were of vague origin, where only the county or country were known.
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