Rev. Stuart Eyre Bathurst, M.A., (10/12/1815-1900) Fellow of Winchester College & Merton College, Oxford; was the rector of Kibworth Beauchamp from 1844 to 1851, son of Sir James Bathurst K.C.B; grandson of the Right Rev. Dr Henry Bathurst, (1744-1837), Lord Bishop of Norwich. He is listed as a member of the Oxford Movement a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism, indeed Bathurst is listed as later converting to the Roman Catholic faith.. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy and theology. They conceived of the Anglican Church as one of three branches of the Catholic Church..It was also known as the Tractarian Movement after its series of publications Tracts for the Times, published between 1833 and 1841.
His conversion is mentioned in a letter of 6th September 1850 by Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle; "it is not the only conversion, for young Bathurst, the clergyman of Kibworth in this county, has taken the same step, having been received by Father Newman (who was beatified on 19 September 2010 at Cofton Park, Birmingham, by Pope Benedict XVI during his Papal visit to the UK) at Birmingham. He has given up a benefice of 1500 a year "what a noble sacrifice." Later in the same letter it states that "Mr. Bathurst s brother and two sisters are, I hear, likely to take the same step immediately"
Bathurst's fornames are listed as Sturat Eyre in "ROME'S RECRUITS:" A list of PROTESTANTS WHO HAVE BECOME CATHOLICS SINCE THE TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT. Reprinted, with numerous additions and corrections, from "The Whitehall Review" PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF " THE WHITEHALL REVIEW." And Sold by James Parker & Co., 377, Strand, and at Oxford; and by Burns & Oatks, Portman Street, W. 1878. However all other references to him use E S rather than S E Bathurst. He is stated as the founder of the first Kibworth cricket club in 1846 and was the scorer of the first recorded half century two seasons later. His brother F Bathurst played in the first recorded match in 1846 and top scored with 34.
The club that Bathurst founded came to an end in 1851, the same year that he left his position and it likely that the two events are related.After leaving Kibworth and moving to Birmingham he was priest and canon of Birmingham at St Michael's, Aston, Stone, Staffordshire and founded the Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School in Wednesbury, West Midlands