Conway Rand

Conway Rand was born in 1692. His father lived at Brackley, Northamptonshire. He matriculated to University College, Oxford on 7 July 1698 at the age of 16. he received his BA in 1702 and an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge  in 1726.  

• Ordained Deacon at Peterborough: 21 February 1703
• Ordained priest: 9 March 1707
• Vicar of  at Slapton, Northants: 1703
• Vicar of Stowe, Bucks: 1710-33
• Chaplain 1st Dragoon Guards (Lord Cobham of Stowe's regiment): 1726

Rand was Rector of Finmere from 1726 to 1733 while remaining Vicar at Stowe. 

His main claim to fame, or rather infamy, was to feature in a poem: Stowe, The Gardens of the Right Honourable Richard Viscount Cobham by Gilbert West (1731):

But with redoubled speed away she fled,
And sought the Shelter of the closer Shade;
Where in thick Covert, to her weary Feet,
A Private Grotto promis'd safe Retreat:
Alas! Too private, for too safely there
The fierce Pursuer seiz'd the helpless Fair;
The Fair he seiz'd, while round him all the Throng
Of laughing Dryads, Hymeneals sung:
Pronubial Juno gave the mystic Sign,
And Venus nodded from her neighb'ring Shrine.
The Grotto, conscious of the happy Flame,
From this auspicious Deed derives its Name.

A footnote denotes the Grotto as the 'Randibus.' This would appear to refer to a real incident or incidents where Rand used the Grotto for sex and the poem above appears to lampoon once such incident. The word 'randy' has origins in the sixteenth century or earlier, so the poem is making a pun on an existing word. 

Rand died in 1733 and was buried at Stowe on 13 March. (The Stowe Church guide gives 1734 as his death; this may be confusion over how dates were written at the period).