Richard Conyers

Richard Conyers (1725–1786) was an English evangelical cleric, and the hymn-book compiler of a precursor to the Olney Hymns. He became well known as the parish priest of Helmsley in the North Yorkshire Moors, a cure of scattered villages.

Born in Lastingham, Yorkshire, he was the son of John Conyers (died 1733) and his wife Ann Boulby (died 1740), and was brought up by a grandmother; Wilson considers it likely this was his paternal grandmother Elizabeth Conyers, who died c.1748, widow of Robert Conyers who died 1734. Family property in Helmsley passed from Elizabeth to John (1723–1761), elder brother of Richard, and then to Richard.

Educated at Coxwold grammar school, Conyers matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1742, graduating B.A. in 1746 and M.A. in 1749. He became LL.D. in 1767. A tradition states that he was Senior Wrangler in the Cambridge Tripos; the year 1745 of his graduation precedes the period when this title was given in public. In any case he was placed above his friend Henry Venn, to the latter's chagrin. On leaving university, he lived in Helmsley with his grandmother Elizabeth Conyers.

In 1747 Conyers was ordained deacon, by Samuel Peploe, with a promise from the Duncombe family of the succession to a living; it followed an unsuccessful attempt to be ordained to Kirby Wiske the previous year. Resident in Helmsley, he assisted at the church there. Conyers was ordained priest by Matthew Hutton in 1755, and was licensed to Kirby Overcarr, also known as Kirby Misperton, as curate.

The parish of Helmsley, noted in the 19th century as one of the largest in England, was 16 miles from north to south. It including Bilsdale to the north, and Harome somewhat to the east of the town of Helmsley; also Laskill, Pockley, Rievaulx and Sproxton. Initially Conyers also held the living of Kirkdale, a valley to the east beyond Kirby Misperton, but asked to be relieved of it in 1763.

...
Wikipedia