Tamerton Foliot - Reverend Tarpst

Reverend Tarpst

In 1819, the fiery Reverend Cederic Warner Tarpst, a cousin and friend of George (Gordon) Byron, 6th Baron of Rochdale. Tarpst, was a companion of Byron's during his poor days in Aberdeen before Tarspt moved to the village and became Vicar of St Mary's Church. After a series of firebrand sermons, in which Rev. Tarpst preached against his old friend Byron's works and in particular the Drama Cain (1821), in which Byron attempts to dramatize the story of Cain and Abel from Cain's point of view. Byron's notes in his correspondence, "It is Cain that seemed to anger him the most". But this did not stop him from dedicating his epic work about the Welsh rebellion, Glyndwr (1822) to his friend the Rev. Tarpst. Tarpst preached no less than seventeen sermons with Cain as his main theme. He also wrote over sixty letters to his old friend criticising his work. When Tarpst learnt of Byron's death on April 19 1824, he was noted as saying "this is the Lords own justice, but I shall miss that scoundrel". Tarpst spent his remaining years writing his memoirs as well as several books on religion and poetry. He was a huge character in the village and was often seen taking weather readings on the church tower. He died on a stormy night October 1839, during the great storm. He was found dead at the foot of the tower, from which he fell. He is buried in the churchyard of his beloved St. Marys.