Congregationalism in Yorkshire ; a chapter of modern church history

Preface

The late Rev. Thomas Scales, of Leeds, whose name is deservedly honoured among our Independent Churches, designed to compile a history of Yorkshire Nonconformity, and was engaged, during some years, in gathering materials for this purpose. The pressure of public engagements prevented him from building his detached fragments into a perfect whole. It is an affecting circumstance that his last entry was the record of the death of Rev. J. Paul, Wibsey (May 24, i860). In proceeding from Gomersal to preach the funeral sermon for this lamented minister, Mr. S. was suddenly seized by a stroke, which terminated his own useful and laborious life.

After Mr. Scales' death, his papers became the property of the West Riding Congregational Union. The entire work was intended to embrace the history of the three Yorkshire Nonconformist denominations — the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Independent. The West Riding Congregational Union, being desirous that the project should be executed so far as it regarded their own body, placed the papers in the hands of the present compiler.

A few sentences only of the intended work were composed by the originator : these will be found under the head of " York." The mass of papers exhibits a miscellaneous combination of facts and dates, strongly illustrating the industry of the collector, but very incomplete and imperfectly arranged. Many considerable periods of time are passed over, informa-

VI PREFACE.

tion regarding which needed to be sought out from independent sources ; the records of other periods demanded re-examination and verification, and the notices of the churches given in the Appendix could only be furnished by a new and elaborate process of mosaic work. The volume may be therefore regarded as, in the main, a new compilation.

The Author has not aspired to be a laborious collector of trivial antiquarian details. This would have demanded more time than is compatible with his public and pastoral life. But much pains and labour have been bestowed on giving shape to the scattered materials, and the following up of the design by minuter touches must be left to other hands, though with the conviction that there is much which might prove worth the investigation. Nor has he studiously encumbered his pages with references which could be productive of no adequate advantage.

Among those to whose aid he acknowledges himself much indebted are G. Hadfield, Esq., M.P., Joshua Wilson, Esq., Rev. T. Hunter, Dr. Williams' library, Rev. J. H. Morgan, and Rev. D. Jones, secretary to the movement.

He dedicates this volume to the honoured memory of the late Rev. T. Scales and to the Congregational Churches of Yorkshire, especially those of the West Riding, and he commends them and it to the blessing of Almighty God.

Bradford^ July 13M, 1868.

THE MODERN ERA — FROM THE REMOVAL OF AIREDALE COLLEGE TO

THE PRESENT TIME. A.D. 183I — I 868 .... 1 86

Appendix

lord wharton's bible charity . . . . . . 219

synoptical history of yorkshire churches .... 223

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

Page 224. Advertisement, for "would," read "must."

Page 251, eighth line from bottom, for " 1846," read " 1848."

Page 264, fourth linear "Bush," read "Busk."

Page 288. Instead of "his native town," read "Hull." Ninth line from bottom ; the quotation is an extract from Scales' copy of the Dagger Lane Record. I am informed, however, by Rev. A. Dodgson, that there is no such passage in the original.

Page 300, note, for " Rusted," read "Rustedt."

Page 334, first column, for " Sales," read " Sale."

Page 346. Selby ; Insert in the blank the following : —

1 8 12. Rev. J. Pinchback. In 18 15 he removed to Woodbridge. 1 8 16. Rev. J. Mayhew. He remained till 1821. 1821. Rev. J. Watkinson. He left in 1829.

Page 334. Note, for "Rogers," read "Rayner."

Page 359. The note in the second column ought to be placed in the first, and to be attached to the name of Rowterby.

Cottswsatwttaltsm in ^oxHfym*

Chapter The First. Development

FROM THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH TO THE EJECTION OF THE NONCONFORMISTS. A.D. I558 1662.

The History of Evangelical Religion in Yorkshire, immediately after the Reformation, is clouded by much obscurity. Less is known respecting it than concerning that more remote time when early Christianity first made its appearance in this part of England. Antiquarian # researches have been lavishly expended upon the former period ; little attention has been bestowed upon the latter. It may be feared, however, that, at this crisis, Yorkshire as a whole was not conspicuous among the counties of England for its attachment to the principles of the Protestant faith. Archbishop Grindal describes the inhabitants of this region as being, in 1550, cc not well affected to godly religion ;" and complains that cc among the people there are many remanents of the old" (faith). cc They keep holidays and fasts abrogated ; they offer money,

eggs, etc., at the burial of their dead ; they pray beads,"

1 *■

B i Congregationalism in Yorkshire.

etc., cc so as this seems, as it were, another church rather than a member of the rest." In the same letter, he speaks of the natives of the county as characterized by cc great ignorance, much dulness to receive better instruction, and great stiffness to retain their wonted errors." Even so late as 1569, Sadler wrote to Elizabeth "that there were not ten Gentlemen in Yorkshire that did allow her proceedings in the cause of religion." *

Yet two names of distinguished eminence in the history of spiritual liberty had been furnished by this large and remote district. A turn of the river Tees in the neighbourhood of Richmond (Wycliffe) supplies the name of England's Proto-Reformer, and indicates the place of his birth (circ. 1324.) But we have no proof that Yorkshiremen had been eager to follow that spiritual hero in his denunciation of error and in his intrepid promulgation of truth, though his energies were warmly seconded at Oxford and in the midland counties. Miles Coverdale, also (for some time Bishop of Exeter), was a Yorkshireman by birth, though he does not seem to have maintained, in his subsequent career, much connection with his native region.

The rise and development of that singular and fanatical movement, " The Pilgrimage of Grace," is the strongest possible illustration of the hold which Romanism possessed over these northern regions. Indeed, when we remember how some greater or smaller religious establishment had crept into almost every fC coigne of vantage " throughout the greater part of this wide county, we naturally infer how many would be the interests ready, at all perils, to sustain the system which gave them birth. There were also stronger things than even interests ; there were blind

1 Froude's History of England," ix. p. 529. This statement must be taken with considerable exceptions.

and superstitious attachments. At the divorce of Catharine of Arragon, the loud threat had been uttered that cc the king would not reign long ; for York will be in London hastily." We look in vain for any very strong demonstration on the part of Yorkshire Protestants to countervail such contumacy. Yet it is probable that the inhabitants of the ancient cc regiuncula " or little kingdom of Elmete, (which included Leeds, Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, &c.,) were inclined to the old Christianity which their forefathers had received before Roman Missionaries visited these shores, rather than to any form of Romish corruption ; it is certain that many inhabitants of these districts were afterwards most conspicuous for their Protestant and Evangelical opinions. And as in the course of this insurrection cc the burning of heretics " was a privilege much insisted on by the rebels, it may be naturally supposed that they knew of heretics who in their estimation were fit fuel for such a fire. The religious thoughtfulness awakened in other districts must have been contagious even in stolid and self-willed Yorkshire. Still, during the reign of Elizabeth, mass was openly celebrated ; and the number of the adherents of the old faith is said to have been cc overawing." It is, indeed, recorded by Mather that, during the reign of Mary, Yorkshire furnished only a single Protestant Martyr. This was an apprentice named John Leaf, who heroically suffered with John Bradford in the flames of Smithfield. Thus arose the saying that <c for all the fires in the days of Mary, Yorkshire, though the largest county in England, only furnished a single leaf" 1 But this epigram must be received with some modification ; for Robert Farrer, Bishop of St. David's (who was martyred in the

1 Mather's " Magnalia," B, II.

B 2 town of Caermarthen, 1555), was born in the parish of Halifax, in the church of which a monument is erected to his memory. And Foxe mentions two inhabitants of Bedale, named John and Richard Snell, who, towards the close of Mary's reign, were summoned before Dr. Dakins, of Richmond, on the charge of heresy. They were inquisitorially examined ; were threatened with cc fire and faggot ;" were imprisoned till their toes rotted off, and one of them could only walk by the aid of crutches ; were compelled to hear mass, &c. At length one of them, tempted by the offer of a sum of money, recanted and was set free, only to drown himself, as he did immediately afterwards, in the river Swale. The other brother was consigned to be burned. When the flames arose around him, he cried out three times cc Christ help me ! " One of the spectators, Robert Atkinson, called to him — fc Hold fast there, and we will all pray for thee ! " cc And so," says Foxe, cc this blessed Martyr ended his life,"

Thoresby, in his Cf Vicaria Leodiensis," says (p. 47): cc This West Riding of York had a double share in the nativities of the celebrated Bishops of that age (the Reformation), witness Farrer, a pious martyr ; Coverdale, a religious confessor and learned exile; Baines, Hebrew Professor in France ; Oglethorpe, who crowned Queen Elizabeth; Hopton, a benefactor; Tonstall, a learned and moderate divine ; Bentham, Best, and Guest, three eminent confessors of the first famous set of Queen Elizabeth's bishops in England; and Loftus, the first Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland." x

In the course of Elizabeth's reign, the principles of

1 Thomas Bentham, D.D., minister of a Protestant congregation in London in the days of Mary, was born at Sherburn. He became, on the accession of Elizabeth, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and died Feb. 21, 1578-9. (Wilson's "Dissenting Churches," Vol. i.)

Protestantism advanced in Yorkshire with great rapidity. The accession of that Queen proved a fearful disappointment to those who, returning joyfully home from exile, had anticipated the end of their religious difficulties. They were now on the threshold of a new era; having suffered greatly for their adherence to the reformed religion, they justly expected that the restored Protestantism would regard them for their past sacrifices, would respect their religious scruples, and would institute a system in which their conscientious piety might have large room. And it would have been well for the Church of England and the interests of truth had these expectations been realized. But, as in other similar instances, the cause of religion suffered from the too generous confidence of its leaders. The tendencies already shown by the new Sovereign, who had a monarch's love for an imposing ritual, might have well suggested caution, and prompted demands on the Puritan side for a satisfactorysettlement. It is probable that, had this been strongly insisted on at the beginning, it would not have been withheld. But the enthusiasm of hope drowned the whispers of prudence ; the opportunity was lost, and it only returned after long years of oppression and disaster. In truth, men's minds were as yet in their nonage, and liberty, then little understood, was only to be acquired by very gradual advances. In the meantime, the Queen's popularity with the people encouraged her in every strong assertion of Tudor will, and prompted her to the maintenance and enlargement of her Royal prerogative.

It is impossible to review the history of the early Puritan conflicts without remarking how many of the principles of modern Congregationalism were embarked in the issue. It has often, indeed, been the mission of Independency to give life to systems which never acknowledge the parentage. Cranmer himself was strongly of opinion that Bishops and Presbyters were but difFering names for the same office, and that their appointment ought to be ratified by the voluntary choice of the people. The religious societies which had been formed abroad by the emigrants varied in no important respect from those afterwards called Congregational, and the idea which floated before the minds of the returned exiles was distinctly un-prelatical. A preference for extemporary prayer; a recognition of the self-government of the church ; an acknowledgment of the right of Christian people to elect their ministers ; freedom in religious worship and the utmost simplicity of ecclesiastical attire, were points strongly and repeatedly insisted on in all the manifestos of the early Puritans. But added to these was one claim -—the fly in this pot of precious ointment — which marred and corrupted the whole. That demand was for the coercion of the Royal power in affairs of religion. 1 As a matter of theory, the early Puritans believed this interposition to be a necessity (under certain restrictions not very clear to us or even to themselves) ; the notion of a modified Theocracy filled their minds, and led their imaginations astray ; and, practically, they desired to overcome force by force, and the only means they saw of destroying a Papal religion was by substituting the legal penalties of a Protestant establishment. Unwittingly they were sowing the wind. They little thought what a whirlwind the hardest would prove.

The earliest steps taken by Elizabeth were ominous ; although some time elapsed before the consequences were

1 Sandys, when Bishop of London, states the following as one of the requisitions of the extreme Puritans : That " the judicial laws of Moses are binding upon Christian princes, and they ought not in the slightest degree to depart from them,"

fulJy developed. 1 By virtue of the ecclesiastical powers assumed by the Sovereign, the Queen issued a set of edicts for the regulation of the Reformed Church. This might well appear an outrage in the eyes of the Romanists. It called forth the protest of Heath, Archbishop of York, who led the way in opposing such an ecclesiastical assumption. He contended that the Queen, not being a spiritual person, was utterly incompetent to exercise spiritual powers. Scot, Bishop of Chester, joined in the protest. From whatever quarter it came, there was reason in the objection; the subsequent history of the church demonstrated its force. But the earlier Puritans did not as yet perceive how untenable was the principle of Royal religious patronage ; and, when they did, they found themselves weaklings in the hands of a power resolute to crush all opposing pretensions.

It is the misfortune — to use no stronger word — of the English Reformation that, originating in the will of an imperious sovereign, it set up a religion, not that which seemed most nearly to resemble the pattern of the New Testament, but that which was the most convenient to the

1 Camden says (life of Queen Elizabeth) : " The change of religion was not in her time suddenly made, but by little and little, by degrees ; for the Roman religion continued in the same state it was at first for a full month and more after the death of Queen Mary. The 27th December it was tolerated to have the Epistles and Gospels, the Ten Commandments, the Symbols, the Litany, and the Lord's Prayer, in the vulgar tongue. The 22nd March, the Parliament being assembled, the order of Edward VI. was re-established, and by Act of the same the whole use of the Lord's Supper granted under both kinds. The 24th June, by the authority of that which concerned the uniformity of public prayers and administration of the sacrament, the sacrifice of the mass was abolished, and the liturgy in the English tongue more and more established. In the month of July the oath of allegiance was proposed to the bishops and other persons ; and in August images were thrown out of the temples and churches, and broken or burnt."

royal hands which moulded it. We do not, therefore, wonder that one of the first measures of a Tudor princess should have been the imposition of a strong Act of Uniformity. Such a proceeding was new to the Church. Romanism, though subject to a single head, had always admitted a large variety of religious administration ; but such liberty was not congenial with the wishes of Elizabeth's despotic mind. Accordingly, the Act of Uniformity, which was passed in the early days of her reign, after revising the Prayer Book (in a manner by no means ultra-Protestant), enjoined an absolute sameness in the mode of worship, and authorized the Queen, cc with the advice of her commissioners and metropolitan, to ordain and publish such public ceremonies and rites as may be for the advancement of God's glory and edifying His Church, and the reverence of God's holy mysteries and ceremonies." All this, too, under heavy penalties. An accompanying Act — the Act of Supremacy — declared the Queen to be supreme governor, not only in matters temporal, but things spiritual, and conferred on her Majesty power to commission any of her born subjects " to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatever," whether defined already, or to be defined hereafter. There was, it is true, an apparent limitation to this power in the proviso that nothing should be pronounced heresy unless so declared by Scripture or by some acknowledged council ; but the exception was so vague as to be of no practical value; and the Act, as Blackstone remarks, rendered a man "liable to be burnt for what he did not understand to be heresy till the ecclesiastical judge should so interpret the words of the Canonical Scripture." Such was the origin of the <c Court of High Commission," a court which, when constituted, claimed powers not foreseen by the Act under which it was appointed ; and which proceeded to institute ex officio and inquisitorial oaths ; and to fine, imprison, and maltreat the subjects of the realm by such wanton acts of ecclesiastical tyranny as afterwards rendered its very name a terror and execration through successive generations. Thus, whilst the cry of the Church was for greater liberty, retrocession was the policy of the Court. It is not wonderful if such opposing currents soon wrought the sea into the fury of a tempest.

As only one Bishop (LlandafF) consented to take the oath of supremacy, the other sees were declared, after an interval, to be vacant. To fill them was not, however, easy ; for many of the returned exiles, among whom were Knox, Bernard Gilpin, and Miles Coverdale (heretofore Bishop of Exeter) declined the offered appointments. It was not without much hesitation that Grindal (who had been chaplain to Ridley, and had given much aid to Foxe in the compilation of the Book of Martyrs) accepted the Archbishopric of York. 1 Though many Popish priests were removed from their livings, it was not easy to overcome the scruples of the Protestants, and to induce them to accept the vacant benefices.

At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the aversion of the foremost Puritans was extremely strong against the imposition of ecclesiastical vestments, the gown, square cap, tippet, and surplice, especially the last. 2 During the life of Edward VI. they had been, by the advice

1 His chaplain was Rev. Edmund Bunney, D.D., born near Wakefield. When he was at Oxford, there was not a single preacher in his College, and very few in the University. He was a thorough Calvinist, and a most laborious preacher from place to place. Grindal gave him a prebend in York cathedral, and the rectory of Bolton Percy. He afterwards became sub-dean. His death took place in 16^7.

2 See Strype's "Reformation," vol. i. pt. ii., p. 125. &c.

io Congregationalism in Yorkshire.

of Bucer, mainly set aside, and bishops and clergy alike despised and detested them. Those prelates who, like Archbishop Parker, used the provisions of the new Act of Uniformity to enforce the attire, did so, not so much from preference for the apparel, as from a desire to maintain the authority of the Sovereign. Some of the objections urged against the use of these vestments may appear to us to be pertinacious and unreasonable. Let it, however, be remembered that the nation was just emerging from an era of Popish domination in which ecclesiastical laws had been written in blood, and that the majority of those who now held livings were suspected to be but Romanists in disguise. Froude tells us: — cc The vast majority of the clergy, unambitious of self-sacrifice, or, it may be, acting under secret instructions and with a dispensation for perjury when hard pressed, abjured the Pope, retained their benefices, and laboured in secret for the cause which they seemed to desert. Out of 9,400 persons holding cures of souls in various forms, less than 200 refused to the last to comply with the statute, and resigned their livings. But several years passed before they could all be sworn. They evaded the visitation, or protected themselves in the house or behind the authority of some Catholic neighbour, too powerful for the commissioners to meddle with. They absented themselves altogether from their parishes ; they closed their churches, rather than consent to read there what they considered heretical ; and Elizabeth, except in the towns where the Protestants were strong, was compelled to bear with them till she sat more firmly on the throne." 1 It was natural, therefore, that decided Protestants should regard with extreme disfavour all that tended to restore the old and hated ritual. But the matter went farther. 1 Froude's "History of England," vol. vii., p. 89.

In the eye of the Puritans, religion was too subtle and sacred a matter to be confounded with mere ceremony. It was the assent of the understanding, the adoration of the soul, the obedience of the life. They could not consent to receive the husk in the place of the kernel. Many of them would have refused the vestments had their adoption been a matter of indifference ; but when their use became a necessity, the absolute law of a carnal commandment ; and when men who, however high in office, had no true conception of a heaven-born religion were endeavouring to enforce their inadequate impressions on those whose minds were expanding with all the grandeur of a Divine life, the whole religious nature rebelled. In the early days of Christianity the martyrs had refused to offer the single grain of incense, not because it was incense, but because it was an offering to a false God. In like manner these habits were now rejected, not merely because of the uselessness of the garments themselves, but from the resolution to keep the commandments of God inviolate from human admixture. Was it right to constitute such a trifle as a cap or a hood a test of fitness for the ministry ? Was the observance or non-observance of so paltry a ceremony to be the measure of the reality of a man's religion, and the condition which authorized or disqualified him as a true servant of Jesus Christ ?

The vestments were not, however, the only point on which objection was taken to the proposed uniformity. No small dislike was felt to a liturgy as tending to cramp the utterances of God's Spirit from within. And not even the grand diction of the Book of Common Prayer could reconcile Christian freed-men to a state which they regarded as one of spiritual vassalage. Not to speak of the cross in baptism, the marriage-ring, kneeling at the sacrament, the veil used in the churching of women, and the use of musical instruments in public worship, — still graver objections were taken to the prelatical titles ; to the reading of the Apocrypha; to sponsors in baptism, the disfavour shown to married clergy, the assertion of the real presence in the Sacrament, the want of due discipline, and the denial of a large liberty in matters not essential to salvation.

The state of religion throughout the kingdom was at this time deplorable. Many churches were closed ; the inhabitants of not a few large districts never heard a sermon ; carelessness and neglect prevailed on every hand. Yorkshire, as might be imagined, furnished no exception. Many parishes were utterly uncared for. Sermons were extremely rare. Many parish clerks were unable to read. Pedlars sold their wares in the church-porches during Divine service. It frequently happened that morricedancers, &c, in anticipation of the amusements which were to follow the prayers, came into the churches in their motley garb, thus withdrawing the attention of the worshippers from their devotions, or dealing out scoffs, jests, and wanton gestures among the audience. cc Many there are," said Sandys, when a little later he preached before the Queen, cc that hear not a sermon in seven years, I might say in seventeen ; their blood will be required at somebody's hand."

This state of things roused the zeal of all the pious clergy. They formed themselves into societies for voluntary religious services, in which preaching occupied a conspicuous place, and the meetings were hence designated " prophesyings." (i Cor. xiv. ji.) The practice began at Northampton, and soon reached the northern counties. Grindal, a.d. 1574, threw himself warmly into the movement, and these preachings, in some districts, were termed, after him, cc Grindalizings."

Lectures of this kind were set up at Manchester and in Halifax, a town early distinguished for its adherence to Puritanism. When objections arose to the practice, and Elizabeth herself expressed her dislike, Grindal thus vindicated it in a sermon before the court : —

cc What bred the rebellion in the north ? l Was it not Papistry and the ignorance of God's Holy Word, and through want of preaching ? And in the times of that rebellion were not men of all estates that made profession of the Gospel most ready to offer themselves for your defence? Insomuch that one poor parish in Yorkshire, which, by continual preaching, had been better instructed than the rest — Halifax I mean — was ready to bring three or four thousand men into the field to serve against the said rebels. How can your Majesty have a more lively trial and experience of the contrary effects of much preaching and little or no preaching, the one working most unnatural disobedience and rebellion, the other a most faithful obedience ! "

Notwithstanding this argument, however, Elizabeth was still unconvinced, and continued intent upon suppressing these prophesyings. The Puritans began to be regarded as enemies, not of the Church only, but also of the State. Preaching was, in fact, in those days what the press is in these, an object of terror to those who desired to rule by prerogative and with a strong hand ; and she, who held that one or two preachers were enough for a county, exerted her utmost authority to stop such dangerous influences. But her prohibitions roused the conscience of Grindal who, in 1575, had been raised to the See of Canterbury, and he ventured to address to the Queen an

1 Norton's Rebellion, a.d. 1569. Defoe, "Tour through Great Britain," tells us that no Jess than 1 2,000 men went in arms from this single parish.

honest and earnest remonstrance ; declining, moreover, to enforce the royal prohibition. The daughter of Henry VIII. fired up at such resistance. The archbishop was at once sequestered during six months from the exercise of his functions, and confined to his own house. Though he afterwards besought the Royal clemency, his submission was deemed so unsatisfactory that he remained in disgrace, and was not restored to his office till within a year of his death. The prophesyings were arbitrarily terminated. The prelate never recovered the Queen's favour.

Grindal was succeeded at York by Edwin. Sandys, D.D., a.d. 1576. This clergyman, who had been successively Bishop of Worcester and London, a favourer of Lady Jane Grey, and one of the translators of the Bishops' Bible, had taken part in the earlier Puritan movements, and had been an exile for his religion. But he had become gradually estranged from his party as their demands for reformation became more distinct and definite, and his character was unconciliatory in a high degree. Yet he does not appear to have approved of all the proceedings against the Puritans, since he declared in his will that he believed the processes tended rather to destruction than to reformation. His treatment of his former friends was, however, so sharp and severe as to dishonour his religious memory.

Sandys' first proceedings were taken against the Dean of Durham, whom he attempted to displace because he had not been episcopally ordained ; though, by the statute of 13 Eliz., the ordination of foreign Reformed churches was at this period acknowledged.

If, however, Elizabeth needed an instrument qualified by earnestness and ardour to become a Protestant inquisitor, and one to whom scruples of tenderness were little known, she found such an one in John Whitgift, a Yorkshireman by descent, who, after having been Bishop of Worcester, was, on the death of Grindal, elevated to the see of Canterbury. Whitgift had, indeed, shown some sympathy with the earlier Puritan movements, but had latterly become estranged from that body ; and, disgusted by some of their more unscrupulous attacks, had passed on to unrelenting opposition. 1