Edward Roberts was appointed to the livings of Hempstead and the Sampfords in 1905 by his retiring predecessor Robert Eustace, who had by this time inherited the patronage from his father, General Sir William Eustace.
Like Eustace, Roberts was a graduate of St John’s Cambridge. Unlike Eustace, however, he was a colourful Welshman with a lively style in sermons and a taste for field sports. He moved into the Vicarage in Hempstead on his appointment, compelling the curate John Escreet, who had also now retired, to move to Firs House. From there he would cycle over to Great Sampford to conduct Matins, stopping off at the Black Bull for a pint with his churchwardens before making the return journey.
One afternoon, according to Curtis, when he had a funeral to take at Great Sampford, he “shot his way over” and arrived at church with a gun, a cartridge bag and a brace of partridges. After the service he shot his way back again. Curtis report thatv the village found this “most unseemly”.
Curtis resigned the living in 1921 and moved to Castle Frome, Herefordshire.