Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire Part 19

CHAPTER X.

MEMORIALS OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT OUNDLE.

In attempting to trace the principles of Nonconformity to their earliest manifestations in the town of Oundle, after the reformation from Popery, we find two Puritan divines ministering here in the course of the sixteenth century. These were men who could not conform to all the rites and ceremonies of the Church as by law established, and who had to suffer much for their refusal to comply with its requirements.

The first of these was Eusebius Paget, who was born at Cranford, in this county, and educated in Christ's College, Oxford. During his abode at Oxford he broke his right arm, and was lame of it ever after. When he removed from the University he became vicar of Oundle and rector of Langton, but was exceedingly hara.s.sed on account of his Nonconformity.

On January 29th, 1573, he was cited by Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough, who first suspended him for three weeks, and then deprived him of his living, worth 100 per annum. Several others were suspended and deprived at the same time, because they could not with a good conscience subscribe to certain promises and engagements proposed to them by the Bishop. And this Dr. Edward Scambler, successively Bishop of Peterborough and Norwich, was the first pastor of a Protestant congregation in London in the reign of Queen Mary; but was compelled, on account of the severity of the persecution, to relinquish the situation.

He was a learned man; very zealous against the Papists; and was probably driven into a state of exile. But surely he forgot his former circ.u.mstances, when he became a zealous persecutor of his brethren in the days of Elizabeth; not remembering that they were as conscientious in their objections to what they considered to be the remains of Popery in a reformed Church, and in their endeavours to obtain a purer mode of discipline and worship, as he had been in his efforts against what he formerly disapproved. After this Mr. Paget was preferred to the rectory of Kilkhampton, in Cornwall.

When Mr. Paget and his brethren were deprived, they presented a supplication to the Queen and the Parliament for their restoration to their beloved ministry, but to no purpose; they must subscribe, or be buried in silence.

Further suffering awaited Mr. Paget: his unfeeling persecutors, not content with cutting him off from his ministry and his living, ordered him to be taken into custody and sent up to London. He was therefore apprehended, with Mr. John Oxenbridge, another leading person in the a.s.sociation in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, and they were both carried prisoners to the metropolis, by an order from Archbishop Grindal. It does not however appear how long they were kept in custody, nor what further persecution they suffered. Mr. Paget filled different situations in the ministry afterwards, and was repeatedly subjected to ecclesiastical censures. He died in London, May, 1617. Wood says of him, "He was many years a constant and faithful preacher of G.o.d's word"; and Fuller styles him "a golden sophister, a painful preacher, and author of an excellent history of the Bible." He had a son, Ephraim Paget, who was born in Northamptonshire, probably at Oundle, in 1575, who became a Puritan minister.

It was probably not very long after Mr. Paget was thus driven from Oundle, that Hugh Clark, A.M. was settled in the ministry here. He was born at Burton-upon-Trent, August 15th, 1563, and educated first in Jesus College, Cambridge, then in the University of Oxford. It is stated, "that when he came to Oundle he found the people in a state of the most deplorable ignorance and profaneness, living in the constant profanation of the Lord's-day by Whitsun ales, morris-dancing, and other unG.o.dly sports. For a considerable time he laboured to convince them of their sins and to reclaim them from their evil ways, but without any prospect of success. Though G.o.d visited several of the ringleaders by successive remarkable judgments, they still persisted in their profane sports. They seem to have made a covenant with death, and to have been at agreement with h.e.l.l. At length, however, there was a pleasing alteration. They began to take serious heed to the ministry of the word; their lives became reformed, and many were called to a saving knowledge of the Gospel."

During Mr. Clark's abode in this place he experienced several remarkable providential deliverances, among which was the following: Having in his 'Sermon on the Sabbath-day' announced the just judgment of G.o.d against certain particular sins to which the young people were much addicted, the next morning a l.u.s.ty young man came to his house wishing to see him. Mr. Clark, having invited him into his chamber, and knowing his vicious character, sharply reproved him, and warned him of his awful danger; and G.o.d wrought so effectually upon his heart by this pointed and faithful dealing, that the man, falling down on his knees and crying for pardon, pulled out a dagger, by which he had determined to murder him. "I came hither," said the man, "with a full resolution to stab you; but G.o.d has prevented me. This was occasioned by your terrifying sermon yesterday; but if you please to forgive me, I shall never attempt any such thing again." Mr. Clark freely pardoned the offence, and after giving him suitable advice, dismissed him.

In the year 1590 Mr. Clarke removed from Oundle to Wollaston, in Warwickshire, where he was chosen to the pastoral office by the people, and received the presentation to the living from Sir Roger Wigston. He was once indicted for high treason, because he had prayed that "G.o.d would forgive the Queen her sins"; but was acquitted. He was a constant, zealous, and laborious preacher, a person of great learning and piety, useful in his ministry, and an acute and powerful disputant. His death occurred November 6th, 1634, in the 72nd year of his age. Three of his descendants were numbered amongst the ejected ministers in the year 1662.

At the time of the restoration of Charles II., it appears that Mr.

Richard Resbury was vicar of Oundle, and that he became one of the Nonconformist ministers, resigning his living six weeks before Bartholomew-day. Here he afterwards preached in his own hired house, practised medicine with some success, and was advised with by persons of all ranks. We are informed that he was a man of brisk parts, and very facetious; but had the general reputation of a solid divine, and made a considerable figure in this county. He was particularly honoured for what he wrote in opposition to Mr. John Goodwin, on the Arminian controversy. In addition to what he published on this subject, he wrote 'The Tabernacle of G.o.d with Man; or, the visible Church Reformed: A Discourse of the Nature and Discipline of the visible Church.'

Robert Wild, D.D., who was ejected from the living of Ayno, in this county, after his ejectment came to reside at Oundle. He was a native of St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire; educated at St. John's College, Cambridge.

He published 'The Arraignment of a Sinner at the Bar of Divine Justice: an a.s.size Sermon, preached at Oxford, 1655, and dedicated to John Cartwright, Esq., of Ayno.' Several other works appeared as the production of his pen. He was noted for his facetiousness, but was very serious in serious things. As an ill.u.s.tration of this, it is related that Mr. Job Orton received the following statement from an ancient Christian in Northamptonshire:--

Mr. Baxter, being much displeased at some instances of his facetiousness which he had heard of, called on him, in his way from Kidderminster to London, to reprove him, as the times were very dark; and he appears to have thought that there was something especially unsuitable in this to such days of trial. When he came to Ayno, he found the Doctor just gone to Church, it being observed by him and his people as a fast-day. Mr. Baxter goes to the Church, seats himself in one corner, and becomes so deeply interested, and so well satisfied, that when the service was over he came to the Doctor, thanked him for his service, and desired that he would reprove and rebuke him sharply, as he deserved it. Being desired to explain himself, Mr. Baxter said, "for my great uncharitableness and folly in regarding reports," &c.; and then told him why he had called upon him.

After Dr. Wild came to reside at Oundle, it pleased G.o.d to visit Mr.

Resbury, the ejected vicar, with the palsy; and the Doctor wrote letters to all parts of the country in order to raise him some money to take him to Bath, for his relief. A Mr. Stancliff wrote of him, "that he was excellently qualified unto his ministerial work; none more melted and melting in prayer, nor more serious and fervent in preaching Christ and his Gospel." He died at Oundle, in the year 1679. A little before his death he preached on Rev. xiv. 12: "Here are they that keep the commandments of G.o.d, and the faith of Jesus;" when he said, "it is but a short time, and I shall be in paradise."

There was also in these days a Mr. Strickland Negus, ejected from Chester, in this county, who was one of the Thursday lecturers at Oundle. It appears to have been the custom of the Puritan ministers of this county, while in the Church, to have week-day lectures preached at their different churches by their brethren alternately. Of Mr. Negus it is said, that "he was a truly good man, and a useful preacher."

Mr. Edward Cauthorn, ejected from Tansover, was one of the lecturers at Oundle, where he had a good estate, and whither he came to reside after his ejectment; and here he died in 1665 or 1666. "He was a man of great meekness, and a very able preacher."

Whether these Nonconformist ministers went so far as to form a Church here on Congregational principles, we are not informed; but their example and their services appear to have been the means of a regular congregation being gathered in these early days of Nonconformity; and probably the spirit of persecution might not now discover itself so much here as in some other parts of the country, which might be one reason why several of those who were cast out of the Church resorted to this place.

That there was a stated congregation, and probably a Church formed, appears to be manifest by the next fact in relation to these things that we find recorded; which is, that Mr. Shepherd, who had been minister at Tillbrook, in Bedfordshire, on quitting his living a few years after the pa.s.sing of the Act of Uniformity, became pastor to a Dissenting congregation at Oundle. This is the minister of whom it is stated, in our account of the Church at Kettering, "that he had the true spirit of his office, his preaching being very awful and affecting, and his life very holy." About 1697 he removed to Kettering, where, a few months after, he died.

There is a tradition generally credited in Oundle, that the Meeting House was built immediately after the pa.s.sing of "the Toleration Act,"

in 1790 or 1791. The founder was Joseph Hewson, a draper in the town, who erected the building on his own freehold, for the use of himself and other Nonconformists in the neighbourhood, who, as in other places, were but too happy to emerge from the state of depression into which they had been cast, to a state of comparative liberty: but in 1724, David Hewson, of Market Harborough, also a draper, son and heir of the founder, sold the property to the society for the nominal sum of 40; and in the month of August, the same year, the first trust deed was made, settling the building for ever as a place of religious worship, and conveying the fee of the freehold to twelve trustees. It was in the deed denominated a place for a Presbyterian congregation, but now the Church is formed on the principles of the Independents. After Mr. Shepherd's removal from Oundle, there appears to have been a Mr. Atkinson pastor of the Church, for on the sacramental cups is this inscription: "The Rev. Mr. Atkinson being our present pastor, 1713."

The next pastor was Mr. Joseph King, who probably might be first a.s.sistant and afterwards successor to Mr. Atkinson, as there were three of Mr. King's children buried in Oundle Churchyard, the first in 1712, the other two in 1714. Mr. King died in 1720. A tombstone was erected to his memory in the Churchyard, on which is a Latin inscription. The following is a translation:--

JOSEPH KING died 29th Jany., A.D. 1719/20, aged 46.

Thy spirit upright, and thy heart sincere; True piety engaged thy fervent love; Instructed from above To feed the flock committed to thy care; And with the eloquent they will thy name revere.

Happy to have fulfilled thy sacred toil, the end arrives, And here thou liest.

Blest man! thy name for ages shall survive.

The monument that marks thy dust shall fall, Decays the marble tomb, The sepulchre comes down: The fame which goodness gives shall long survive them all.

Mr. King was the father of Mr. Samuel King, who was minister at Welford for forty years. This son was born in 1815, and was little more than four years of age when his father died. He was regarded as given in answer to maternal prayer; for his mother, Mrs. Hannah King, a woman of a devoted spirit, earnestly desired to have a son that might become a minister of the Gospel. She long survived her husband; lived to realize her highest desire on this behalf; and had the happiness of closing her days, in a good old age, in the house of her son, when he was minister of the Independent Church at Welford. On an upright stone in the Churchyard of that village there is the following inscription, probably expressive of the affectionate remembrance of her son:--

In memory of Mrs. HANNAH KING, relict of the Rev. Joseph King, of Oundle, who departed this life the 25th day of April, 1763, aged 81 years.

Farewell, bright soul, a long farewell, Till we shall meet again above, In the sweet groves where pleasures dwell, And trees of life bear fruits of love.

Sweet soul, we leave thee to thy rest; Enjoy thy Jesus and thy G.o.d, Till we, from bonds of clay released, Spring out, and climb th' heav'nly road.

The next pastor of the Church at Oundle was Mr. Daniel Goodrich; his name was inserted in the first trust deed of the Meeting House, in 1724.

In the account which Doddridge gives of his ordination at Northampton, in 1730, he mentions Mr. Goodrich, of Oundle, as commencing the service by prayer and reading the Scriptures. In the memoirs of Mr. Sanderson, one of the pastors of the Church at Rowell, we find a short letter from Mr. Goodrich, dated December 26th, 1740, which pleasingly indicates the spirit of piety, and the attachment of the writer to evangelical principles.

I thank you for your long expected favour, and am glad to find that you hang upon the covenant; it is the great prop and support of our souls. Pleasant frames, and to live by sense, are what we are fond of; but faith and patience must have their perfect work here--these shall have nothing to do above. Then the redeemed of the Lord shall live by sight, in full fruition--see face to face, and know as they are known; no clouds shall come between their beloved and them; no corruptions from within, no thorns and briars from without; and a brother shall not then be as a thorn hedge; but as G.o.d is love, we shall be like him, swallowed up in love to G.o.d and to one another. A little while, and thus it shall be. The wilderness is but a short pa.s.sage, though difficult and troublesome. Our lights are but to burn here for a little while. The Lord grant, that we may so shine that our heavenly Father may be glorified.

I beg the Lord may fit you for your work, and crown your labours with success, &c., &c. D. GOODRICH.

At the ordination of Mr. Boyce over the Church at Kettering, Mr.

Goodrich was engaged in asking the questions and offering the ordination prayer. He died February 25th, 1765, aged 66 years.

In the report of Homerton College, the name of Jeremiah Longfield is given, as a student who settled at Oundle. Though the exact date does not appear, it seems to have been soon after the death of Mr. Goodrich.

The next in succession appears to have been Mr. Wm. Ward, who was ordained at Oundle, and continued there for about four years, when he removed to Dudley.

After Mr. Ward, Mr. Wright, from Ringwood, was the pastor for twelve years. He died at Boston, and was buried in the Chapel at Oundle, where also his wife and two daughters were interred.

Mr. R. Forsyth was pastor for two years, and then Mr. Reynold Hogg, who was afterwards minister at Kimbolton and Thrapstone, and treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society.

Mr. Isaac Cooke was pastor for two years, when he removed to Narborough.

Mr. Joseph Chadwick became the pastor of this Church in the year 1790, and continued his ministry here for forty years. Mr. Chadwick was a native of Trull, near Taunton, in Somersetshire, where he was born in 1751. He has been heard to say, that his father was a man of no energy, and that whatever advantage he might gain from parental instruction, or example, or aid, was derived from his mother. We have heard, that he was a descendant from the early Nonconformists, and he evidently took a great interest in the memorials of their trials and sufferings. Of this he gave a singular proof at a meeting of the County a.s.sociation, held at Ashley, when he delivered a sermon from Heb. x. 34, "And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance;" at the close of his discourse reading some memoranda of the sufferings and losses, the fines exacted, the goods sold, &c., of our Nonconformist forefathers. There was a person of the same name, a Mr. Joseph Chadwick, ejected from the living of Winesford, in Somersetshire, of whom Mr. Chadwick was great-grandson.

He was also a descendant of Mr. Thorn, ejected from Weymouth, Dorset.

In his youth he was apprenticed to a peruke-maker and hair-dresser, at Taunton. During the course of his apprenticeship, his general conduct and marked piety, and ardent thirst for knowledge, as indicated by his love of reading, attracted the attention of John Toller, Esq., an attorney at Taunton, and the grandfather of the late Rev. T. N. Toller, of Kettering. That gentleman, it is thought, bought out the latter part of Mr. Chadwick's apprenticeship, and sent him to study under the Rev.

Mr. Kirkup, of South Petherton, who had been the preceptor of the late Mr. Toller's early years. With Mr. Kirkup Mr. Chadwick continued two years, and made remarkable progress in his studies, especially in the cla.s.sics. At the expiration of his residence with Mr. Kirkup, he was sent, under Mr. Toller's patronage, to the Western College, as his name stands in the list of their students. He was first settled at Wellington, Somersetshire; from whence, after a few years, he removed to Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, and came from thence to Oundle. He was a man of considerable learning, and an indefatigable reader of the most solid works in theology and in general literature. He resigned his charge at Midsummer, 1831. He died May 7, 1841, in the 90th year of his age. Mr.

Toller, of Kettering, preached his funeral sermon.

Mr. Ebenezer Prant, from Highbury College, succeeded Mr. Chadwick. He resigned his charge in 1835, and is now one of the Secretaries to the London Missionary Society.

Mr. Abraham Calovius Simpson, LL.D., of the Glasgow University, was the next pastor, serving this Church and congregation in the ministry of the Gospel from 1836 to 1841, when he resigned his charge.

The present pastor, Mr. Alfred Newth--who studied at Homerton College, and had been previously settled at Ripley, near Christ Church, Hants--came to Oundle in the year 1842, as the successor of Dr. Simpson.

The present number of communicants is about 70. There are 120 children in the Sabbath-schools.

Occasional services are conducted in two villages in the vicinity of Oundle, viz., Tansor and Glapthorne.