William Carr Fenton

[Rev.] William Carr-Fenton, (1783–1855) Christian philanthropist and social reformer in Victorian England. Rector of Cowthorpe, Yorkshire, and Vicar of Mattersey, he founded a school for deaf and dumb children in Yorkshire which is still flourishing today under the name of Doncaster College for the Deaf.

Anglican clergyman

Fenton was the eldest son of James Fenton, Esq., of Glasshouse, near Leeds, where he was born in 1783. He was ordained in 1820, and was subsequently curate at one or two places in Yorkshire. In 1824 he was presented by R. F. Wilson, Esq., to the rectory of Cowthorpe, near Wetherby, and in 1835 he became Vicar of Mattersey near Bawtry, in Nottinghamshire. He married Miss Caroline Mary Myddleton, daughter of the Rev. Robert Myddleton, DD, at Knaresborough, in 1823. She died in 1850. They had a numerous family of whom only three daughters survived them. Died April 23rd, at Mattersey, Notts, aged 72,

Foundation of School for Deaf

Carr-Fenton was inspired to found a school for deaf children of both sexes after overhearing a laborer talking about how he had five deaf children, who would all find it very difficult to obtain work. After visiting the Royal Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, Carr-Fenton set up the Doncaster Deaf Trust in 1829, originally as the Yorkshire Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. The organisation became the Yorkshire Institute for the Deaf from 1904 and the Yorkshire Residential School for the Deaf in 1941. By the late 1970s, it had educated more than 3,500 students. It is still operating today, run by The Doncaster Deaf Trust, which was officially recognised by the Charities Commission on August 15th 2001.

Likenesses

An oil portrait shows Carr-Fenton to have had a warm and friendly face.