The Revd Thomas Heather: Fareham’s Vicar and Chaplain to Charles II

The Revd Thomas Heather was Vicar of Fareham for only a short time, from 1660 to 1662, but his life places the parish directly inside the dramatic years of the Restoration of the monarchy.

Heather was born around 1621 and educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He entered ministry during one of the most unsettled periods in English church history, living through the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the eventual return of Charles II to the throne in 1660.

That same year, Heather was instituted as Vicar of Fareham on the presentation of the King. The timing is striking. Charles II had only just returned from exile, and the Church of England was being restored after the upheavals of the Commonwealth. Fareham therefore received a new vicar at precisely the moment when parish life across England was being reorganised under the restored monarchy.

Heather’s connection with the royal court became even closer. He served as Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II, a position that placed him among the clergy appointed to serve the monarch personally. Historic print collections and portrait engravings identify him as "Thomas Heather, Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II".

His time in Fareham was brief. In 1661 he also became Vicar of Titchfield, holding livings in plurality, and by December 1663 he had been appointed Vicar of St Thomas’s Church in Portsmouth, now Portsmouth Cathedral. Fareham’s own church guide records him as Vicar from 1660 to 1662 and notes his royal chaplaincy.

It was in Portsmouth that Heather spent most of his ministry. He remained there for thirty-three years and oversaw the rebuilding of St Thomas’s after damage suffered during the Civil War. His memorial still survives in Portsmouth Cathedral, describing him as Chaplain to Charles II and praising his life, preaching, and pastoral ministry.

His life remained closely connected with the monarchy. In 1665, his son Thomas was admitted to Winchester College on the King’s nomination, and Charles II later personally requested that the boy be sent to Oxford because his father had been particularly useful in his ministry at Portsmouth.

Heather died on 20 December 1696, aged seventy-four or seventy-five.

His place in the history of St Peter & St Paul, Fareham, is brief but remarkable. For two years, Fareham’s vicar was a clergyman personally connected with Charles II and directly involved in the restoration of the Church of England after the Civil War. Through Thomas Heather, the parish is linked with one of the great turning points in English history: the return of the monarchy, the rebuilding of the established Church, and the reign of Charles II.