[125]Mr. Harmer (and after him the Editor of the Nonconformists’ Memorial) was evidently led to consider Mr. Ottee as the pastor chosen in 1653, by mistaking the year in which he was said to be “made pastor,” which is certainly 1656. Mr. Harmer says, “July 29, 1653, Mr. Robert Ottee was chosen their pastor, and ordained Nov. 12th.” See also Palm. Nonconf. Mem. iii. 255. Mr. Ottee is stated, in the dedication prefixed to his posthumous Sermons, to have been minister of this congregation “for above thirty years,” which would be a more natural mode of expression, if he had been thirty-two, than if he had been thirty-fiveyears pastor; and he died in 1689.
[127a]It will be recollected that prior to 1752, the year commenced on 25th March.
[127b]He baptized, on this occasion, two of his own children, (Mary and Samuel,) and three others. The baptism of his son Samuel is recorded under the same date, in the parish register: “Samuell, yesonne of Robert Ottey, preacher of God’s woorde, & Margret his wife.” This appears to have been the only son of Mr. Ottee who attained manhood, and he died at the age of twenty.
[128a]Acts vi. 1–6. In the “Form of making of Deacons” prescribed for the church of England, theapostlesare said to have been inspired to choose the martyr Stephen, and others, to this office; whereas it is plain that the election was the act of “the multitude of the disciples.”
[128b]Neal, i. 428.
[128c]1 Cor. xi. 23–26.
[133]Mather’s Hist. New England, b. iii. p. 100.
[134]See Neal, i. 305.
[135]This expression, (as well as the practice itself,) was evidently borrowed from the “prophesyings” of the Elizabethan times.
[137]Neal, iv. 172.
[139a]Harmer’s Miscellaneous Works, p. 150.
[139b]Neal, iv. 177.
[141]Mather’s Hist. New England, b. iii. p. 4. Palmer’s Nonconf. Mem.passim. It is no satisfactory answer to the statement in the text, that the episcopal clergy had suffered persecution at a previous period. See on this subject, Adkins’s Hist. Indep. Ch. at Southampton, p. 38, note; and Rogers’s Life of Howe, p. 129.
[142]Mr. Samuel Baker’s Experience, 1667, MS. He was born about 1645, at Wrentham, of which place he declared his belief that religion had there flourished longer, the gospel had been more clearly and powerfully preached, and more generally received, the professors of it were more sound in the truth, open and stedfast in the profession of it in an hour of temptation, more united among themselves, and more entirely preserved from enemies without, than in any village of the like capacity in England. He was sent to school at Beccles, and mentions that, during the latter part of his stay there, being about twelve or thirteen years old, he was “exceedingly pleased with Mr. Ottee’s ministry, and became more serious and affectionate.” He afterwards studied at Cambridge, and at one of the Inns of Court. He became the proprietor and occupier of Wattisfield Hall, a zealous Congregationalist, and a sufferer unto bonds for a good conscience.Ibid.And see Harm. Misc. Works, p. 182. Palm. Nonconf. Mem. iii. 283.
[144a]Dedication to “Christ set forth.” William Bidbanck, M.A. was ejected under the Act of Uniformity, from Scottow in Norfolk, and was afterwards pastor of the congregation at Denton, where he was greatly beloved for his sweetness of temper, obliging deportment, and excellent preaching. He died, much lamented, about 1693.—Palm. Nonconf. Mem.iii. 14.
[144b]“Christ set forth, in several Sermons upon the 7th chapter to the Hebrews, by Mr. Robert Ottee, late Pastor to a congregation in Beckles, in Suffolk. London: printed for Edward Giles, Bookseller in Norwich, near the Marketplace, 1690.”
[145]Ejected from Totney, Lincolnshire; “a man of the most remarkable seriousness, meekness, prudence, and patience, mingled with the greatest zeal to do good to the souls of men.” Palm. Nonconf. Men., ii. 434. And see Blomefield’s Norfolk, iv. 465.
[147a]Christ Set Forth, pp. 70, 71.
[147b]Ibid. p. 76.
[148a]Christ Set Forth, pp. 87, 88.
[148b]See Palmer’s Nonconf. Mem. iii. 9, and Blomefield’s Hist. of Norfolk, iv. 149. The value of Dr. Collinges’s friendship may be learned from the former of these works. The latter writer contents himself with stating that “he was a grand Presbyterian.”
[149a]Christ Set Forth, pp. 54, 155.
[149b]Ibid. 121, 122, 142.
[149c]Ibid. 54, 55.
[149d]Ibid. 124, 125.
[149e]Ibid. 115, 116.
[149f]Ibid. 127, 128.
[149g]Ibid. 1, 157.
[149h]Ibid. 129, 130.
[150]Christ Set Forth, pp. 22, 23.
[151]Christ Set Forth, pp. 113, 114.
[152a]“May, 1689, Robert Utto, clarke, was buried, the 5th day.”—Beccles Parochial Register.
[152b]This statute, though it was invaluable to the dissenters, and was gratefully received by them, as affording considerable protection, and as opening the way for further improvements, was, nevertheless, encumbered with intolerance. It afforded no relief to Papists, or Unitarians. It exacted from dissenting teachers a subscription to nearly all the Articles of the church of England; it did not abrogate the Corporation and Test Acts; nor permit the solemnization of marriage by dissenters in their own places of worship, nor exonerate them from the obligation to contribute to the maintenance of the public religious establishment, though they do not attend on its ministrations. To a great extent, these deformities have been removed by successive struggles. The period immediately following the revolution may be regarded as one of comparative bondage; but much still remains to be accomplished, before the religion of the Bible will have shaken off all the impediments which have hitherto interrupted its free and triumphant course.
[153]Neal, v. 30.
[154a]His gravestone remains in the church-yard, near the south porch;—“Here lyeth yebody of Mr. Francis Haylovck, who departed this life, March ye7th, 1702, aged 77 yeares.”
[154b]1694. February, “Edmund Artis, gent. was buried the 21 day.”—Parochial Register.
[157]See page 142.
[160]MS. in the possession of Rev. E. Hickman.
[161a]Wils. Diss. Ch. ii. 515, 518.
[161b]August 7th, 1695.
[161c]The trustees were, John Killinghall, Robert Sherwood, William Crowfoot, John Primrose, Nathaniel Newton, John Utting, and Thomas Feaver.
[162]There cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose that at the period referred to above, the Presbyterian dissenters alone couched their trust deeds in general terms; unless it be the strange notion that the absence of doctrinal restrictions implied indifference as to religious sentiments. The present is one instance of many in which a Congregational place of worship was settled in that manner, under a minister whose sermons betray no symptoms of such an indifference. Equally unfounded, and more unkind, is the imputation of intolerance cast upon the modern Independents, on account of the restrictions by which experience has taught them to protect propertythey devoteto a specific object, from being diverted into other channels. In order to sustain so serious a charge it should be shown, not merely that the Independents attach the highest importance to the possession of scriptural views on the doctrines of Christianity, and that they take care not to allow their chapels to be held by those whose opinionstheydisbelieve, and even regard as dangerous; but that they desire to employ some degree or kind of coercion to induce others to profess their opinions and to worship in their temples. The truth is, that the importance attached by the Independents to certain doctrines, imparts a more honourable character totheiradvocacy of religious liberty, than can belong to those who deem religious opinions of minor if not of trivial moment. The writer has been induced to advert to these topics in consequence of a remark on the subject of Presbyterian practices, in an interesting work, written by one whom he well knows to be incapable of wilful misrepresentation, or even of an unkind feeling towards any denomination of Christians.See Murch’s History of the Presbyterian and General Baptist Churches in the West of England, pref. p. x.
[163]Wils. Diss. Ch. iv. 147.
[165]Howe on Charity in reference to other men’s sins. Works, vol. ii. pp. 226, 231.
[166]Of the esteem in which he was held amongst his own flock, a touching illustration is afforded in the following circumstance. Mr. Green, it seems, was extremely fond of roses, and several of the good people, desirous to testify their respect to the old gentleman, in every form, used to bring him roses and stick in the pulpit, till sometimes it was almost surrounded with them.Harmer’s MSS.
[167a]See the eminent Mr. Benjamin Robinson’s death-bed address to his children, Wils. Diss. Ch. i. 377.
[167b]Calamy’s Life and Times, by Rutt, i. 139, 142.
[168a]Life and Times, i. 144.
[168b]The first mention of him in the church book, occurs 28th July, 1703.
[168c]Milner’s Life and Times of Watts, p. 290.
[169]Watts’s Works, Barfield’s ed. iv. 451, 452.
[171]Watts’s Works, iv. 461.
[172]This advice is stated in the church book to have been given by “the reverend elders,metat Norwich.” Such meetings were occasionally held in the earliest times of the Congregational churches, in Norfolk and Suffolk. At a later period,statedmeetings were held by the ministers of the Walpole, Wrentham, and Southwold churches, who were, by degrees, joined by others of their brethren. Dr. Doddridge, in 1741, dedicated a sermon (preached at Kettering) to the associated ministers of Norfolk and Suffolk, with expressions of great affection and respect. In 1761, these meetings, which, (as Mr. Harmer remarks,) “agreeably to the usual course of human affairs,” had been attended with diminished zeal, were revived on an extended scale, and continued to be held twice a year, for some years afterwards. Those who attended them, claimed no “authoritative power, but merely a reverential regard to counsels, given in the gentlest way.”—Harmer’s Misc. Works, pp. 197–200.
[173a]Wils. Diss. Ch. ii. 536. Prot. Diss. Mag. vi. 259. There was, at one period, a disposition amongst some of the members of the Independent church at Norwich, to invite Mr. Nokes to settle there as colleague to Mr. Stackhouse.—Harm. MSS.
[173b]Calamy says “in Suffolk.” Life and Times, i. 142.
[174]MSS.
[175a]Harmer’s MSS.
[175b]Prot. Diss. Mag. vi. 349.
[176a]Rev. Samuel Hurrion’s Diary. MS.
[176b]Prot. Diss. Mag. vi. 95. Wils. Diss. Ch. iv. 369.
[177]Harmer’s MSS. Wils. Diss. Ch. iv. 369. The seceders were afterwards joined by the Baptist church of Rushall, which is said to have been as ancient as the protectorate. About 1730 a Mr. Miller was its pastor. He subsequently removed to Norwich, and was succeeded by Mr. Milliot. Towards the close of his life they chose a Mr. Simons, the benefit of whose ministry the Baptists of Beccles were also desirous of enjoying. For their accommodation the seat of the church was removed to Beccles, and there Mr. Simons resided till his death. After that event the interest at Beccles declined. It was broken up about 1766, and the members residing in or near Beccles re-united with the Independents there and with the congregation at Rushall.—Harmer’s MSS.
[178a]Dr. Ridgley published a sermon on his death, preached at Fetter-lane, Nov. 9, 1749.
[178b]When the chapel was re-built in 1812, several gravestones were laid down in the floor of the entrances, and amongst them Mr. Tingey’s. This accounts for the partial obliteration of the inscription. Two or three are almost entirely effaced. There is one to the memory of “Mrs. Elizabeth Playters, relict of Mr. Richard Playters, who departed this life December the 22nd, 1727, aged 44 years.” And another which pointed out the resting-place of “Joshua Nunn, who departed this life Feb. ye27th, 1729, aged 80 years.” Surely a more respectful mode of disposing of these memorials of the departed might have been adopted.
[179a]He had a daughter married to the Rev. W. Parry, the late divinity tutor of the Academy at Wymondley.
[179b]Mr. Samuel Hurrion being obliged, by an impaired state of health, to resign his ministry, retired first to Bungay, and then to Beccles, where he died Oct. 25th, 1763, aged fifty-three years. He was buried at Denton, his native place. Wils. Diss. Ch. iii. 296. He is described on his tombstone as “late of Beccles.”
[184]Prot. Diss. Mag. v. 1—6. 355. vi. 112. Aikin’s General Biography.
[185]Wils. Diss. Ch. ii. 554.
[186]Harmer; MSS.
[190a]His father, in consequence of this step, disinherited him, and never saw him but once afterwards. Theol. Mag. iii. 179.
[190b]His academical certificate is dated 6 Kal. Junii 1771, and is signed by Drs. Conder, Gibbons, and Fisher, and by Messrs. Barber, Hitchin, Watson, and Stafford.
[191]These were Thomas Ebbs, afterwards a highly respectable deacon, and whose daughter Mr. Heptinstall married; Wm. Leabon [Leavold]; and John Dann.
[192]Mr. Heptinstall’s ordination took place on the sixteenth anniversary of Mr. Bocking’s.
[194]It appears that these two excellent ministers and the late Rev. John Carter of Mattishall, Norfolk, all commenced their labours, at the respective places in which they so long adorned the gospel, upon the same sabbath. They enjoyed an unchanged friendship till separated by death—a friendship which has been renewed in heaven, never more to be interrupted by distance, or severed by calamity.
[196]Theological Magazine, iii. 177–181.
[202]Those who are acquainted with Mr. Jay’s “Life of Winter,” will understand this reference to his cruel treatment with regard to the ordination he desired to obtain in the church of England,—treatment, however, which was so overruled by Providence, that he possessed, as Mr. Whitfield predicted, “the greatest preferment under heaven,—to be an able, painful, faithful, successful, suffering, cast-out minister of the New Testament.”
[206]Mr. Sloper’s MSS. and Evan. Mag. 1803, p. 406.
[207a]Church book.
[207b]At first they united themselves to the Baptist church at Claxton, in Norfolk, under the pastoral oversight of Mr. Job Hupton; but the inconvenience of attending public worship at so great a distance, induced them to obtain the use of a building in Beccles. The place they procured had been occasionally used for devotional purposes, and the celebrated John Wesley had once preached there; but it was sometimes appropriated to the barbarous amusement of cock-fighting. This circumstance was very repugnant to the feelings of those who resorted thither for religious purposes, and it stimulated their efforts to provide a house of prayer of their own. In 1805, the present Baptist meeting-house was erected. On the 5th Sept. 1808, a church was formed consisting of twenty-four persons; and, on the 12th July, 1809, Mr. Tipple, late of Hail-Weston, Hunts. was publicly recognized as their pastor. He resigned his pastorship in the following year, and from that period the church and congregation were supplied by a succession of ministers, without pastoral settlement, till 1822, when the Rev. George Wright commenced his labours. On the 19th July, 1823, he was set apart to the pastoral office, which he now ably and usefully sustains. The church comprises, at the present time, nearly 150 members.
[209]Jay’s Life of Winter, p. 284.
[211]Jay’s Life of Winter, 2nd ed. p. 223.
[217a]Anna Seward. See Campbell’s Life of Mrs. Siddons, ii. 241.
[217b]Campbell’s Life of Mrs. Siddons, ii. 329.
[218]September 16th.
[225]Evan. Mag. 1813, p. 61.
[232]Pp. 15–17.
[250]The writer regrets that the scantiness of his information, as well as the unexpected length to which these records have extended, prevent his noticing some other excellent and exemplary individuals, who have been ornaments to the church, and are now “through faith and patience inheriting the promises.”