After Mr. Workman (alias the Rev. James Murray Richard Workman, alias the Rev. J. Rawlings) left St Leonards, he continued his malpractices in connection with churches and church livings, and in 1869, the St. Leonards Gazette of Feb. 20th, quoted the following paragraphs from a London paper:-
A CLERICAL SCANDAL.-
The Rev. G.J. Merest of Britannia Square, Worcester, has been committed by the Worcester Magistrates for trial at the ensuing Worcester Assizes, on a Charge of sending threatening Letters to another Clergyman, the Rev M. R. Workman, manager of the Church and School Gazette, 10, Southampton street, London, demanding money of him. Mr Montagu Williams Q.C., conducted the prosecution, and Mr Meredith, Solicitor, Worcester, the defence. The case excited great stir in Worcester and occupied the Bench from noon on Friday until nearly Six PM. There were numerous letters produced which were said to have been sent to the complainant by or at the instigation of the defendant, but the following was the letter on which the prosecution was based:-
Mount-Villa, Newtown, Worcester, October 2. My dear Sir. - I am sorry to say that some startling disclosures of your antecedents have lately reached me. I am informed upon undoubted authority that your name is "Rawlings" and that you were once curate of Huntsbourne, in Hants and perpetual curate of Bardsley, Lancashire. I have to say that unless the £405 that's paid you for Branksen be returned, together with the documents that I agreed to when last in your office, and a full explanation given of how the money for the house at Upton and the restoration of the church is invested, it will come before the public. A relation of a friend of mine, who is a writer to the Times is anxious for me to hand over to him all of the correspondence I have received from you, but I have at present not done so - Yours faithfully, James J. Merest.
The other letter referred to allegations against the complaint of having misapplied certain sums received from the sale of livings and the complainant himself on examination admitted that his name had been originally Rawlings, and that in 1854 he had been convicted of forgery and served two years in Coldbathfields prison.
