Meanwhile, the death of the Archdeacon had left the rectorate vacant, and an unfortunate nomination was made by the patron-bishop. The Rev. John Craik, B.A., was probably never resident--a fact quite usual: but to this was presently added the more painful one that he became incapable of managing his affairs, and his sister had to act for him. Only five years after his appointment, Sir William Fleming writes of the complaints of the parishioners, who with a church sadly in need of repair can do nothing, since the rector will not come over to see to it. Matters presently became so acute that a petition was framed, begging the Bishop of Chester to intervene, as Mr. Craik was out of his mind, and had not been near the church for three years.[167] Yet it was not till the man's death, in 1806, that this miserable situation came to an end. [167] Rydal Hall MSS. The Rev. Gawen Mackereth was curate under Mr. Craik. To judge by his name, he was a native of the vales, and he apparently entered the church--like many more in this period--by the door of the village school-house. He wrote his name in the register on October 23rd, 1735, as "Ludimagister et Clericus Grasmereiensis," copying the inscription of Thomas Knott, though with a fault in the spelling. Twenty years later he preached for the last time his two yearly sermons in Langdale. Sir William Fleming chose the next curate himself; and he may have intended the Rev. John Wilson to occupy the post of rector, should this fall vacant. But that day was far distant, and Wilson--who seems from his action with regard to the owner of Bainrigg to have been a man of strong temper--lived but a short time after his appointment.[168] [168] _Rydal Chronicles._ He was followed by Edward Rowlandson, of whom scarcely anything is known; but who--according to the register that records his burial in 1811--served the parish for fifty years. He could not have taught the school, as the burial of Thomas Davis, schoolmaster, is recorded in 1801.