Lay People and Religion in the Early Eighteenth Century

This book investigates the part that Anglicanism played in the lives of lay people in England and Wales between c. 1689 and 1750. It is concerned with what they did rather than what they believed, and explores their attitudes to clergy, religious activities, personal morality and charitable giving, especially in relation to education and health care, and church building and improvement. Using evidence from diaries, letters, account books, newspapers and popular publications and parish and diocesan records, Dr Jacob demonstrates that Anglicanism held the allegiance of a significant proportion of all people. Lay people took the lead in managing the affairs of the parishes, which were the major focus of communal and social life, and supported the spiritual and moral discipline of the Church courts. The author shows that early-eighteenth-century England and Wales remained a largely traditional society and that Methodism emerged from a strong Church. Contrary to conventional views of the period, the Anglican Church was central to the lives of most people in England and Wales.

LAY PEOPLE AND RELIGION IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

LAY PEOPLE AND RELIGION IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY W. M.JACOB Lincoln Theological College

M CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1996 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1996 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Jacob, W.M. Lay people and religion in the early eighteenth century / W M. Jacob. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 57037 9 1. Laity - Church of England - History - 18th century. 2. England - Church history - 18th century. 3. Wales - Church history - 18th century. 4. Anglican Communion - England - History - 18th century. 5. Anglican Communion - Wales - History - 18th century. I. Title. BX5088.J33 1996 283/.42/09033-dc20 96-3297 CIP ISBN 0 52157037 9 hardback ISBN 0 52189295 3 paperback

Contents

List of abbreviations Preface 1

page viii ix

Introduction

i

2 Lay people and the clergy

20

3

Public religious practice

52

4

Personal and family piety

93

5

Lay people and morality

124

6

Lay people and philanthropy

155

7

Lay people and church buildings

186

Conclusion Bibliography Index

223 230 250

Vll

Abbreviations

BL DAD HCRO HMC

British Library Doncaster Archives Department Humberside County Record Office Historical Manuscripts Commission

JEH

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

KLBA LAO NCRO NRO PP RCHM SCH SPCK SPG VCH

King's Lynn Borough Archives Lincolnshire Archives Office Northumberland County Record Office Norfolk Record Office Past and Present

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England Studies in Church History

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Victoria County History

Preface

The history of the Church of England in the eighteenth century has been largely written from the viewpoint of the clergy, based on biographical studies of bishops and research about clergy in particular dioceses. Whilst such studies provide valuable information about those who were the leaders and opinion-formers in the Church, they give little information about the great mass of church people in England and Wales. This book is concerned with the religious life of the lay people of the Church of England (which until 1920 included the Welsh dioceses), rather than with ecclesiastical government and organisation. It is not concerned with analysing people's beliefs, and to what extent they were orthodox or heterodox, or with their involvement in theological controversies. Rather, it is concerned with people's religious experience as members of the established Church. Conventionally the period between the death of Anne and the 1830s is regarded as a period of slumber in the established Church, enlightened only by the Methodist and Evangelical revivals. It is popularly seen as irreligious, when unless there was a determined alliance between squire and parson, churches were neglected and the laity were notable by their absence. When the laity were dragooned into church by a squire and parson, they are depicted as expressing their contempt for religion by sleeping or misbehaving during services. Numerous biographical and regional studies have indicated that some bishops and clergy during the period were conscientious in carrying out their duties. Recently social and political historians have noted evidence of the significance of religion in urban and political life during the period. Stimulated by these works, this study investigates the religious lives of men and women between the Toleration Act in 1689 and the emergence of Methodism. Its aims are ambitious:

x

Preface

to explore the attitudes of lay people to clergy, the public religious observances and private religious practices of lay people, and their attitudes to morality and to charity and to church buildings. The evidence is drawn from letters and diaries, from the observations of clergy and bishops, and from the reports, account books and minute books of parish officials. Whenever there is evidence of the experience and activities of women as well as men, this is noted. The wealth of physical evidence that eighteenth-century people have left in the form of the churches they built, altered and furnished and the inscriptions they put up on monuments to the dead has also been used. The quantity of evidence is vast. Extensive quotations are included from a wide social and geographical range in order to demonstrate the consistency of religious practice and of religion in the lives of a broad generality of people in England and Wales. My curiosity about religion and society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was first prompted by the late Reverend Gerard Folland, sometime rector of Bawdeswell in Norfolk, who rebuilt his bomb-damaged parish church in the eighteenth-century manner, after the 'model of the primitive Christians'. His immense erudition helped me to be aware of parish records as a source for social and religious history. My debt of gratitude to the staff of many record offices will be obvious. Miss Jean Kennedy and her staff at the Norfolk Record Office have answered my requests for documents for many years. Susan Maddock of the Norfolk Record Office most helpfully provided access to King's Lynn Borough Archives. The staff of Lincolnshire Archives Office produced all the eighteenth-century Lincolnshire churchwardens' accounts in their custody for me. The staffs of Doncaster Archives Department and Humberside County Record Office have been most helpful, as were the Archivist of the Sir John Cass Foundation and the staff of the Guildhall Library. I have been grateful for access to the resources of the Library of the Institute of Historical Research, the Bodleian Library, the British Library, Nottingham University Library and the Sibthorpe Library at Bishop Grosseteste College, Lincoln. Caroline Dicker, the Librarian of Lincoln Theological College, has been of great assistance in obtaining books to meet my often rushed timetable. Many people have provided me with helpful references, especially for areas with which I have been unfamiliar. I am particularly grateful to Dr Lynne Broughton for leads in architecture and music.

Preface

xi

Dr John Guy has also provided helpful information about diaries and collections of letters. Many friends have drawn my attention to eighteenth-century monumental inscriptions and have then had to wait patiently while I transcribed them. My colleagues at Lincoln Theological College generously covered my work during a period of study leave when much of the research upon which this book is based was undertaken. Mike Smith and Mark Christian have provided invaluable assistance with the intricacies of wordprocessing. My greatest debt is to Dr Frances Knight and to Dr Nigel Yates, both of whom exceeded the calls of friendship in reading complete drafts of this book. Their perceptive and sharp comments have considerably improved the text. Responsibility for the interpretation of the evidence and the judgements made thereon rest entirely with me.

CHAPTER I

Introduction

The aim of this book is to explore the place of Christianity in the lives of lay adherents of the Church of England during the period between the Revolution Settlement of 1688/9 a n d the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Evangelical and Methodist revivals began to offer new challenges to the established Church. Investigation of social and economic life in the first half of the eighteenth century shows that it is both part of the 'world we have lost', to borrow a phrase from Peter Laslett, and a transitional phase containing the seeds of a new world. The social and economic life of the early eighteenth century was relatively small-scale. Most people lived in villages and small towns. Large towns were exceptional: London was unique, the largest city in Europe. The other great cities, Bristol, Norwich, York and Newcastle, were small by modern standards. In relatively small-scale societies people knew one another, or at least knew about one another. There was potential for a much greater sense of social solidarity and cohesion than is possible in larger communities. It was not, however, a static society. People were mobile. Referring to the mid and late seventeenth century, Richard Gough noted nineteen families in Myddle in Shropshire who had at least one son or daughter who had lived in London and some families who had several members who had settled there. 2 Travel, especially by water, was not difficult, and the network of small-boat travel by coast and river was extensive. Most importantly, much economic activity was at the domestic level. There were a few large-scale industrial enterprises, but these were exceptional. Most people worked in the context of a household or a family, their own or someone else's. Labour relations were close 1

Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost (1965). David G. Hey, The English Rural Community: Myddle under the Tudors and Stuarts (Leicester, 1974), P- 192.

2

Lay people and religion

and direct. At most levels of economic activity husbands and wives worked together, and children, servants and workers were drawn into the family unit for purposes of production, training and education, and support and maintenance. Again, the family or household was a flexible unit: servants, apprentices, sons and daughters came and went. It was not a static society - people rose and fell on the economic and social scale — but it was a relatively stable one. Social identity was not so much by class as by household, which included a wide range of people of different sorts - the master and mistress, daughters and sons, and servants at a variety of levels. The age of marriage for both men and women was relatively late - the mid-twenties - and unmarried children lived with their parents, or, if they were apprentices or employees, with their masters and mistresses. There was thus constant interaction across social boundaries. People of different 'sorts' lived physically close together, either in the same house, or nearby. There were few socially segregated suburbs. People did not travel to work. This created a world in which mutual interdependence was expected and natural. The foci of life were the family or household and the community. Most activities were communal, involving people of different sorts participating together. Fairs, which were the great trading points of the early modern era, attracted people of every level of society. The gentry and aristocracy attended them to stock up for the year, as well as people of'the middling sort' and 'the poorer sort'. There was still much intermingling across social divides at communal festivities in which a broad cross-section might join in the dancing and 'foolery'; this, however, was changing, with the better sort beginning to withdraw into select assembly rooms. Most historians of the eighteenth-century Church have taken a clericalist and hierarchical view of the Church. Alan Gilbert, for example, saw the Church in terms of'clerical influence', and claimed that there 'had been a definite decline of popular religious practices because of the relaxation of state sanctions against irreligion'. Lay involvement in the Church of England is usually seen by historians as an aspect of social control. Gilbert suggested that The Anglican clergy who particularly since 1689 had witnessed the gradual erosion of their traditional independent authority over the moral and religious behaviour of their parishioners, very often remained in a position to dictate religious norms by virtue of an alliance with local ruling elites. When a resident clergyman in a manageable parish enjoyed the whole

Introduction

3

hearted support of the local landowners and the magistracy he could guarantee high rates of religious practice.3 The evidence for this presumed alliance between parish clergy and local ruling elites is nowhere produced. The research upon which this book is based does not suggest the somewhat negative attitude towards the Christian faith and the Church of England and its clergy implied by Gilbert and others. Rather, it suggests a deep attachment to Christian faith among a broad cross-section of people, as illustrated by their expectations of the clergy, their active involvement in the worship of their parish churches, the evidence for their personal devotional practices, their concern for the maintenance of Christian morality and peace between neighbours, their Christianly motivated philanthropy, concerned as it was with both the material and spiritual well-being of other people, and their substantial investment in repairing, extending, building and beautifying churches. J. C. D. Clark has emphasised the importance of religious issues in eighteenth-century English political history. He has pointed out that in much of England during the first half of the century Anglicanism and society remained virtually coterminous, and that it was not a relationship in which the Church was subservient to the State. Clark has demonstrated the importance of the interaction between theology and politics in providing an ideology to underpin the relationship between Church and State, and has drawn attention to the intellectual vigour of the Anglican theological response to heterodox challenges between 1714 and 1754.5 The central role of the Church in English political and social life in the middle years of the eighteenth century has been demonstrated by Stephen Taylor in his study of the Duke of Newcastle's use of patronage. 6 He illustrates the complexity of the interaction between Church and State, and shows how misleading it is to see the sanctions of Christianity as merely a form of social control used to ensure obedience and deference to social superiors. Preachers were aware that their teachings were directed as much at the better sort and their obligations to set an example as to the poorer sort. Taylor 3

4 5 6

A. D . Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church, Chapel and Social Change

1740-1914 (1976), pp. 9-11. J. C. D.Clark, English Society 1688-1832 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 136-8. ibid., pp. 303-6. Stephen Taylor, Church and State in England in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: The Newcastle Years 1742-1762, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1985.

4

Lay people and religion

concludes that Newcastle's extensive management of the Crown's ecclesiastical patronage was dominated not by party politics, but by a desire to ensure that the Church was governed by competent pastors and administrators who were loyal to the State, which protected the Protestant succession and establishment. Peter Laslett claimed that the first ten years of the eighteenth century were the final decade of what he called the cold world'. He asserted that this was a Christian world marked by spontaneous religious activity, and that Christianity was cin the social air which everyone alike breathed'. Laslett pointed out that the power of the influence of Christian belief and imperatives over the sexual habits of the peasantry was exercised, not so much by the authority of the clergy and the officials of the ecclesiastical courts, as by the force of universally held opinion. The evidence suggests that this 'old world' continued for much of the eighteenth century. Religion, as has been noted, played a prominent role in politics, and also in the social life of urban communities. Peter Earle has shown that in London in the first thirty years of the eighteenth century the parish church provided a focus for neighbourhood life and pride. Peter Borsay has vividly illustrated the central role of the Church in the social and cultural life of English provincial towns in the eighteenth century. He has pointed out that welfare and religion were allied forces, and that the secular wealth and the spiritual energy of the period were directed towards charity and church building.10 Recent studies of charity and the movement for reforming moral behaviour in London in the eighteenth century have drawn attention to the central part played by Anglican lay people in these movements. During the first half of the century, charity was still regarded not merely as voluntary benevolence, but as mandatory justice entailed on the enjoyment of any form of property. It was thus a natural and inevitable activity for all Christians, and the vision of a Christian community tied together by gratitude and acts of kindness, by brotherly (and sisterly) feelings in Christ's name, continued to occupy an important place in social thought. 11 7 9 10 11

8 Laslett, World We Have Lost, p. 60. ibid, pp. 72-3. Peter Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London 1660-1730 (1989), pp. 62-3 and 244-8. Peter Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town 1660-1770 (Oxford, 1989). A. G. Craig, The Movement for the Reformation of Manners 1688-1715, Ph.D. thesis,

Introduction

5

These studies of eighteenth-century political and social history imply a lively religious life amongst lay people. Although most recent studies of the Church of England in the eighteenth century have concentrated on bishops and diocesan administration and the clergy,12 a number have focused on lay people and their religious attitudes and practice. 13 The fruits of much of this research have been distilled by John Walsh, Colin Haydon and Stephen Taylor in an important collection of essays which argues for a reinterpretation of the place of religion in eighteenth-century England. There is now considerable information available about lay people's religious practice and much circumstantial evidence about their attitudes to religious faith, and its impact on their lives. The evidence upon which this study is based is drawn from a wide geographical compass from Cumberland to Bristol and from Pembrokeshire to Norfolk. It includes rural areas as well as towns and cities. There is information about old industrial areas like Norfolk and Wiltshire and from newly industrialising regions like Lancashire. The evidence is overwhelming that the practice of Christianity according to the formularies of the Church of England was central to most people's lives well beyond the first decade of the eighteenth century.

12

13

14

University of Edinburgh, 1980; Craig Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity in Augustan London c 1680-1720, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1988; Donna T. Andrew, Philanthropy and Police: London Charity in the Eighteenth Century (Princeton, 1989). See Arthur Warne, Church and Society in Eighteenth Century Devon (Newton Abbot, 1969);^ C. Shuler, The Pastoral and Ecclesiastical Administration of the Diocese of Durham 1721-1771, with Particular Reference to the Archdeaconry of Northumberland, Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 1975; John H. Pruett, The Parish Clergy under the Later Stuarts: The Leicestershire Experience (Urbana, Chicago, 1976); W. M. Marshall, The Administration of the Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford 1660-1770, Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol, 1978; W. M.Jacob, Clergy and Society in Norfolk 1707-1806, Ph.D. thesis, University of Exeter, 1982; Viviane Barrie-Curien, Clerge et pastorale en Angleterre au XVIIIe siecle - le diocese de Londres (Paris, 1992). See, for example, Geraint H. Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society in Wales 1660-1730 (Cardiff, 1978); F. C. Mather, Georgian Churchmanship Reconsidered: Some Variations in Anglican Public Worship 1714-1830, JEH, 36 (1985), pp. 255-83; D. Spaeth, Parsons and Parishioners: Lay-Clerical Conflict and Popular Piety in Wiltshire Villages 1660-1740, Ph.D. thesis, Brown University, 1985^. Barry, The Parish Church in Civic Life: Bristol and its Churches 1660-1750, in Parish, Church and People: Local Studies in Lay Religion 1350-1750, ed. Susan Wright (1988); J. M. Albers, Seeds of Contention: Society, Politics and the Church of England in Lancashire 1689-1790, Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1988; M. Cross, The Church and Local Society in the Diocese of Ely c 1630-c 1730, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1991; William Jeremy Gregory, Archbishop, Cathedral and Parish: The Diocese of Canterbury 1660-1805, D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. The Church of England c i68g-c 1833: From Toleration to Tractarianism, ed. John Walsh, Colin Haydon and Stephen Taylor (Cambridge, 1993).

6

Lay people and religion

The aim is to investigate what these parallel studies reveal about the attitudes of lay people in England and Wales to the established Church, and to examine the evidence for the expression of people's belief in God and the impact that this had on their lives and their world. If, as seems likely, it appears that Christian faith and practice were central in both public and private life at all levels of society, this will have implications for the continuing study of the political, social and economic history of the eighteenth century, as well as for the investigation of the backgrounds of the Methodist and Evangelical revivals. This book is not concerned with those who dissented from the established Church. They were a small minority of the population estimated to be only about 5.6 per cent in the early eighteenth century. Their influence was out of all proportion to their numbers, however, and at least in the early years of the century, this influence was greatly feared by Anglicans. They have consequently attracted much scholarly attention. Their story has most recently been chronicled by Michael Watts. 15 This study is concerned with those who conformed to the established Church. More work, however, needs to be done on the relationship between dissenters and the established Church. There is evidence that the relationship was often relaxed and that the boundary between Church and dissent was porous to the extent that many dissenters attended their parish churches from time to time and that some Anglicans attended dissenting meeting houses. Members of the established Church have received relatively little attention from historians, and this book is intended to remedy this. Most studies of religion in the eighteenth century have been concerned to show that developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had eighteenth-century origins. 16 This book is concerned to see the period in its own right. As will be seen, the religious attitudes of the period may be more explicable in terms of the events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. People, and especially clergy, were haunted by memories of the turmoil of the English Civil Wars. They may have been consciously seeking to re-establish a national Anglicanism, desiring to include dissenters rather than to exclude them. As will be seen there was considerable success in reintegrating elements of the Puritan and Laudian strands of the 13 16

Michael Watts, The Dissenters from the Reformation to the French Revolution (Oxford, 1985). For example, Gilbert, Religion and Society.

Introduction

7

Church to create a Church of England reformed according to the model of the 'primitive Church'. In many ways the Church of England in the first half of the eighteenth century marks the final stages of the Reformation in England, in which the great majority of English people were included in the national Church. Religious belief is not quantifiable. Often there is little evidence, apart from the comments of zealots and enthusiasts, who tend to define the 'godly5 in narrow terms, so as to exclude all those with whom they disagree. 17 The average lay person is often perceived as a passive receptacle for religious truth communicated by a religious elite, who possess authentic religious doctrine and pure religious sensibilities. Although an elite of spiritually zealous lay people are sometimes seen as collaborators with the clergy, they run the risk of being viewed as either the dupes of the clergy, or as a standard against whom all other lay people are measured and found wanting. Historians of popular religion often proceed as if their task is to separate the grain from the chaff, winnowing beliefs and practices to distinguish between those that are truly religious and those that are superstitious and magical, or merely conventional. John Bossy has argued that in order to understand popular religion, English historians need to free themselves from a latent assumption that the only people whose religious outlook and behaviour are worth knowing about are, to take the word in a wide sense, the 'nonconformists'. Hugh McLeod has drawn attention to the need to remember the prevalence of diffuse Christianity, and to give attention to people whose beliefs are not clearly defined and who may have a foot in several camps. 20 As John Byrom noted, we go wrong if we suppose that those for whom Christianity is a 'plain calm business' are Erastians or Deists in thin disguise. This study is not concerned to quantify belief, but to explore the practice of religion and its social and economic expression amongst 17

1

For a discussion of the difficulties of this question with reference to the seventeenth century see Margaret Spufford, Can We Count the 'Godly' and the 'Conformable' in the Seventeenth Century?, J £ / / , 36 (1985), pp. 428-48. For a discussion of these questions see Natalie Zemon Davies, Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion, in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance

19

21

Religion, ed. Charles Trinkaus and Heiko A. Obermon (Leiden, 1974), pp. 307-15. John Bossy, The Counter Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe, PP, 47 (1970), pp. 51-2. Hugh McLeod, Religion and Irreligion in Victorian England (Bangor, 1993), pp. 55-6.

John Byrom, Remains, I, Pt 2, (1835), p. 328, quoted in Donald Davie, The Eighteenth Century Hymn in England (Cambridge, 1993), p. 25.

8

Lay people and religion

conformists in the first half of the eighteenth century. The bulk of the evidence used is not the judgements of the religious elite - bishops, zealous and judgemental higher clergy, and devout lay people - but the circumstantial, and often random, evidence that not obviously devout people have left behind them. Research about lay religious attitudes in the medieval Church shows that considerable evidence can be gleaned about what the Church meant for people by investigating their attitudes to paying tithes, to clerical involvement in making wills, to the sacraments, to worship, to preaching, to death and to their parish churches.22 In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there is additional evidence available in the form of diaries and letters, but it needs to be remembered that the information they contain is subjective, and that the views expressed by diarists and letter writers about their own and their contemporaries' religious practices may be not be typical. Most people did not keep diaries or write letters, so there is only a limited context in which to evaluate surviving diaries and letters. It is dangerous to generalise from a single diary or collection of letters. It may be slightly less dangerous to generalise from a small number of diaries and collections of letters representing a fairly broad social and geographical spread. Whilst evidence from diaries and letters is limited, other evidence is daunting in its quantity. The records of eighteenth-century diocesan and parochial administration are extensive and, apart from a few dioceses where local or regional studies have been undertaken, relatively unexplored. Much of the evidence on which the research for this book is based is derived from parish and borough records for the period and the records of the archdeacons' and consistory courts. Parish records from Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Yorkshire have been examined and compared with evidence from other areas available in print or in unpublished theses. Little use has previously been made of parish, archdeaconry and diocesan records of this period, but they contain much valuable information about attitudes to religious faith and practice at the local level. In the past these sources have been interpreted from the point of view of the Church of England as an institution. They also throw light on the attitudes of lay people in the Church. It is easily forgotten that elected lay officials, the churchwardens of the parishes, 22

See, for example, Norman P. Tanner, The Church in Late Medieval Norwich 1370-1532 (Toronto, 1984).

Introduction

9

were the key functionaries in the life of the Church at the local level. They monitored, on behalf of the Church, the moral life of their neighbours, the condition of the parish church and the conduct of the parish clergy, and reported offenders to the bishop's or archdeacon's courts. In ecclesiastical court records in particular, the authentic voices of ordinary people are often heard. Parish records also show that lay people were energetic in funding additional daily services, the repair, building and beautification of parish churches and chapels, the endowment and management of schools and extensive philanthropic activities. The caution and prudence of the 'small man' is often expressed. Another important source of evidence is church buildings and furnishings. Although most church buildings have undergone many alterations since the mid eighteenth century, much information still survives. Charity boards and inscriptions on monuments in churches, for example, throw significant light on the religious attitudes of lay people who made charitable donations or bequests, or wished, after death, to set the example of a good person before his or her neighbours. Once one starts looking there is abundant evidence in many churches, in inscriptions, monuments and furnishings, as well as sometimes the fabric itself, which provides information about people's religious faith and practice, and the time and money that were devoted to religious ends. An investigation of the evidence helps to clarify the place of Christian faith in people's lives. It should indicate to what extent religion continued to be a significant factor in society in the first half of the eighteenth century, and to what extent lay people devoted time, energy and money to religious activities and ordered their lives in ways consistent with their beliefs. The affairs of the local community were managed by the meeting of the vestry, which comprised the ratepayers of the parish (i.e. those who owned or leased property and contributed to the cost of maintaining communal facilities and, when necessary, the poorest members of the community). A few statutes governed the activities of vestries, giving them responsibility for the support of the poor, repairing the highways of the parish and enforcing rudimentary law and order. The vestry could levy rates for repairing the highways and for maintaining the poor, and each year elected, usually from among the ranks of the ratepayers, a surveyor to be responsible for the maintenance of the highway, two overseers to be responsible for

io

Lay people and religion

the poor, a constable to be responsible for law and order and the two churchwardens to be responsible for the church building and to monitor the spiritual welfare of the parishioners and the conduct of the clergy. Women as well as men were elected overseers and churchwardens. At St Benedict's Lincoln women served as churchwardens in six years between 1720 and 1739. In 1739 both the churchwardens were women. 23 Towns too had this pattern of communal government. Populous cities like Norwich, Bristol and York were divided into parishes governed by vestries, as was the teeming city of London and its suburbs. Some towns and cities were incorporated by royal charter as boroughs, and sent representatives to Parliament. They had charters granting them specific privileges to govern certain of their own affairs, but these did not usually infringe the rights and duties of the vestries of the parishes in the town or city. Only if there was just one parish in the borough, as at King's Lynn, Boston, Tiverton or Wigan, did the common council of the borough effectively act as the vestry.24 The vestry was likely to be a focus for communal tensions. Although surviving eighteenth-century vestry minute books often record only the decisions of the meetings, occasionally, these decisions suggest that they had been arrived at only after major disagreements, for example when it was resolved to limit the churchwardens' or overseers' spending, or to refuse to accept their proposals for the rate. Very occasionally a glimpse is offered of the workings of the machinery of communal life. In the mid 1750s the diary of Thomas Turner, a shopkeeper of East Hoathly in Sussex, who, as a ratepayer, was a member of the vestry, shows that vestry meetings might not be peaceable affairs. Most meetings at East Hoathly seem to have been difficult if not stormy. When it came to assessing the poor rate, all kinds of 'artifice and deceit, cunning and knavery' were used in order to conceal a ratepayer's liability. A rare picture is provided of the complexity of parish life and the clash of personalities in a vestry, which may or may not have been typical of other parishes. 25 It may have been a small-scale society, but all human life was to be found there, rich and poor, good and bad; all were caught up in the 23 24

25

L A O Lincoln St Benedict's 7/2 Churchwardens' Account Book 1715-56. See, for example, W. M . J a c o b , Church and Borough: King's Lynn 1700-1750, in Crown and Mitre: Religion and Society in Northern Europe since the Reformation, ed. W. M. Jacob and Nigel Yates (Woodbridge, 1993). The Diary of Thomas Turner 1754-1765, ed. David Vaisey (Oxford, 1984), p . xxxiv.

Introduction

11

life of the parish governed by the vestry, and its focal point, as the name 'vestry5 suggests, was the church. Neither at national nor at local level did people draw a distinction between Church and State. God's continuing favour to the realm was seen as dependent on the virtue and faith of the English people. The State was ruled, under God, by the monarch, to whom Church and State were accountable. The abuse of God's gifts, the practice of immorality and impiety, both by individuals and the nation endangered the continuing prosperity of the nation and the maintenance of the constitution in Church and State. The parish was the basic unit of local government. The forum of government was the vestry. It was chaired by the incumbent and it was responsible equally for the maintenance of the parish church (except for the chancel) and its furnishings and, as has been noted, for the administration of the parish. Its responsibilities, in modern terms, were both spiritual and secular, though this is not a distinction that would have been real in the early eighteenth century. The relationship between Church and State was not distinguished at national or at local level. It is not the case that the Church was an agent of the State, exploited by politicians for their own ends, or that the clergy were trying to subvert the political system to their own ends. It was an expression of a particular form of Christianity, in which citizenship and Christianity were coterminous and in which, perhaps because death in one's prime was an ever-present reality, most people had a concern for their own and other people's eternal salvation. The generality of people accepted the spiritual disciplines of the Church because they wished to safeguard their future hope. Of course people fell short of their hopes for themselves, and there were many who gave up hope, and seem to have abandoned themselves to lawlessness, but they were not the majority. For the majority the Christian religion was real and was a central, perhaps the central, focus in their lives. The Church of England itself was an institution as much local as national, with checks and balances operated by the laity as well as the clergy. The Crown appointed bishops on the advice of lay ministers. Parliament, in which the bishops were a significant proportion of the House of Lords, legislated for the Church as well as the State. Bishops and their officers supervised their dioceses through the institution and licensing of clergy (and schoolmasters, medical practitioners and midwives) and through regular visitations, but patrons,

12

Lay people and religion

who were more often than not lay people, presented clergy to be instituted. In the parish the lay churchwardens, elected annually by the ratepayers assembled in the vestry, were required by the bishop to monitor the activities of both the parishioners and the clergy. Control of the Church, or of the parish, lay in no single pair of hands, and certainly not exclusively in clerical hands. Citizens as well as clergy exercised a real responsibility for the flourishing and wellbeing of the Church as well as the State. The parish church, as we shall see, was an immensely important focus for the community. It was invariably the largest building in a parish. In many ways it symbolised the community, and most people felt that it belonged to them. Riots broke out in Lincoln in the 1720s when the citizens learned of a proposal to remove the spires from the west towers of the Cathedral: they objected to a potent symbol of their city, their communal identity, being removed. The parish church was the meeting place of the parish both to render their duty to God in worship and to render their duty to their neighbours in considering and making decisions about the ordering of life in their community. Most people, or at least representatives of most households, went to church, and in the church the community was arranged in due order before God. Each sat in his or her ordered place in the community. This was most obviously the case when in a borough the mayor and councilmen processed to church on Sundays and holy days and led the community, of which they were the leading citizens, in their worship. Ralph Thoresby noted that in Leeds one Sunday the communicants ranged from the High Sheriff of the West Riding and the Mayor of Leeds to a newly confirmed black servant.26 Communal identity and pride were expressed in the maintenance and refurbishment of the parish church, as they might be today in the building of a new civic complex, leisure centre or municipal theatre. Church buildings, especially in towns, represented the aspirations and cultural and artistic ideals of the citizens, or at least the leading citizens. In church during divine service public announcements were made and notices were given out. National and local events were focused here. Sermons provided commentaries on the current political situation as well as interpretations of God's will for his people, and guidance to enable people to come to a closer 26

The Diary ofRalph Thoresby, F. R. S., 1677-1724, ed. Joseph Hunter (2 vols., i83o),Vol. 11, p. 2.

Introduction

13

knowledge of God through prayer and spiritual exercises and to lead their lives aright. The church was the storage place for the community's possessions provided and maintained by the vestry, the fire engine and fire buckets, and the standard weights and measures. Religion permeated every area of people's lives. The ringing of the church bell for curfew or to call people to prayer or work ordered the day in most towns and villages. People still noted the days by means of the saints who had survived in the reformed Anglican calendar. The year was punctuated by religious, seasonal or political holidays. It was a world in which people still discovered their identity through belonging to and taking part in communal activities, rather than in asserting their individuality. People therefore generally joined in. There was a merging of the individual and the corporate, the sacred and the secular, the religious and the political. People accepted a corporate view of moral and social behaviour. Offences against moral and spiritual standards had social significance. Taking away someone's good name disrupted both Christian charity and the peace of the local community. Likewise, extra-marital sexual activity was regarded as both sinful and a threat to the peace of the community, and also, in an age when birth-control methods were crude, might have economic consequences in the birth of children who, along with their mothers, might need to be supported by the ratepayers. There was therefore a close coincidence between the standards of conduct thought necessary not to endanger one's immortal soul, enforced by the Church courts, and general social attitudes. It was a world in which many people believed that to lay up treasure for themselves in heaven required them to distribute some of their earthly treasure. It was a world in which, individually and collectively, people were markedly generous. They not merely contributed to build and adorn churches to the glory of God, but endowed schools for the education (and salvation) of poor children; established libraries to provide theological and other improving books for wider reading; gave food and clothing to their poor neighbours, especially in winter; improved the incomes of God's ministers; and provided housing for the elderly, and medical and nursing care for the sick poor. People were well aware of the spiritual need to make material provision for the least of their sisters and brothers.

14

Lay people and religion

At every level of society there was an awareness of the brevity of life. For many people that awareness helped to focus their thoughts on eternity. But, as one might expect, this was not the case for everyone. As in every age and generation, there were people who rebelled against the conventions of a communal society. They had a number of choices in the first half of the eighteenth century. They might identify themselves as freethinkers, questioning traditional theology, or just abandon the quest for a religious meaning in life and join the ranks of the libertarians. Another choice was to identify with the religious radicals and separatists, who questioned the integrity of the faith of the conventional believers in the established Church: Roman Catholics, Independents, Baptists, Quakers and, in due course, Methodists and Unitarians. They have attracted the attention of historians at the expense of the generality of conventional believers who were satisfied by the doctrines of the Church of England. The aim of this study is to seek out and to examine the evidence for that conventional belief. The first half of the eighteenth century saw the slow beginnings of the dramatic changes that undermined the old communal world and established an individualistic and pluralist understanding of religion and society. The world of individual choice from among a wide range of options in society and uncertainty concerning the meaning of life (or lack of it) would have been incomprehensible to the average person in the early eighteenth century. The evidence set out here demonstrates that in general in England in the first half of the eighteenth century religion was embedded in all aspects of human life. The view that by 1700 England was a secularised society is untenable. By 1700 religion was not being 'confined to ever fewer areas of life5. Religion was not 'only part of culture5; nor was it marginalised and easier to ignore. There is little evidence that the 'English form of Protestantism . . . is a secularising religion5 wanting to 'separate religion from other aspects of life - for the sake of purifying religion5.2 Two centuries after the English Reformation, religion was still the basis of English society. The government may have felt no obligation to seek the Church's approval for all its actions, but neither had many medieval governments. However, eighteenth-century governments were well aware 27

28

C. John Sommerville, The Secularization of Early Modern England: From Religious Culture to Religious Faith (New York, 1992), p p . 5-17. ibid., p . 125.

Introduction

15

that though they might manipulate popular anti-clericalism, as their medieval predecessors had done, the Church, comprising laity and clergy, was a powerful opponent that should not be pushed too far. However, change was in the air. The Toleration Act of 1689 had safeguarded the Church of England as the established Church, but had undermined its potential as the national Church, by permitting people to choose to meet for Trinitarian worship in a place other than their parish church. For many years few would choose to do this exclusively, but it was an option for the future. The solidarity of the Church of England and the English State had been fractured. For most of the first half of the eighteenth century the Church had few rivals. As Jonathan Barry has noted, 'The main reason why the Church seemed the natural focus of the community was that there were no alternative associations within the average community that could fulfill the role. The churches provided the intellectual leadership, the physical space, the communal meeting place and time, when there were no rivals save other churches.' At the parish level church government and local government were totally intertwined, and in villages and small towns it was difficult for competition to succeed. In larger towns there was more opportunity for competition, not because the Church was necessarily weak, but because there was room for competition. Already in the late seventeenth century, church-goers in London were aware that churches were in competition with other sources of attraction and entertainment. A broadsheet entitled In the Parable of the Marriage Feast... stated: And now considering the ways and Methods which Satan and his Emissaries have taken to fill his Churches, the Theatres with Votaries, have been (not by Bells which make a great noise near at hand but are not heard afar off) but by silently dispersing their Bells and setting them up at Corners of the Streets whereby they do draw People from all Parts to their contagious Assemblies. I was easily convinced of the success of the like Undertaking, for the Shrines of Almighty God . . . These are therefore Dearly beloved in Jesus Christ, to acquaint you where you may daily, with the Congregations of the Faithful assemble together at the House of Prayer: where you may in Imitation of the Apostles of our Lord, every Lord's Day partake of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And . . . where there are any extraordinary regular Lectures to be heard. 30 29 30

Jonathan Barry, T h e Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, in Unity and Variety: A History of the Church in Devon and Cornwall, ed. Nicholas O r m e (Exeter, 1991), p . 97. In the Parable of the Marriage Feast ..., 2 n d I m p r e s s i o n (1692).

16

Lay people and religion

Here were Anglicans entering into competition with playhouses and theatres, using their methods and, perhaps for the first time, producing an advertisement for church services, with their times, in the City of London and in Westminster. This initiative undermined an important Anglican principle, that people should worship in their own parish church. No doubt the broadsheet was intended for visitors to London from the country, to enable them, while away from home, to find a convenient parish church to attend for daily prayers and Sunday worship. However, it provided a useful resource for London parishioners to work out which might be the most convenient service to attend. In towns and cities with multiple parishes the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the beginning of 'sermon tasting' (and also 'sacrament tasting5), in which people, especially the leisured, sought out the preachers they wanted to hear (or the more frequent Eucharists they wanted to attend) rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) attending their parish church. Thus an essential part of the communal basis of religious life was broken down. A person might see himself or herself as a citizen of a town free to choose where to worship, rather than as a parishioner bound to worship with her or his fellow parishioners in their parish church. It was a logical outcome of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation emphasis on the spiritual development of the individual, and the provision of sermons and books to encourage that development. The first half of the eighteenth century also saw the beginning of a separation of the Church from people's daily lives and communal activities. The beginnings of an improvement in the economic position of the clergy, which became much more marked in the later part of the century, may have led them to begin to withdraw from communal activities in small towns and villages. This should be seen as part of a general tendency during the century for socio-economic groups to grow apart, for masters and mistresses of the middling sort no longer to want their apprentices and unmarried employees to live with them and to eat with them (and probably to go to church with them). In urban developments there began to be segregation of different-quality housing for different socio-economic groups. The expansion of towns, chiefly as the result of migration from smaller settlements, disrupted the family and communal structure of society. There were increasing numbers of people who, temporarily at least, were not part of a household or family unit, and who

Introduction

17

therefore did not fit into conventional social life. There was probably no clear place for them in church either, for seats were allocated to reflect a communal and family-based society. The development of new patterns of work in larger-scale workshops with more intensive working hours in towns and some villages, as opposed to domestic work by outworkers, and the gradual move towards larger land holdings, and a more capitalist approach to agriculture, disturbed the traditional rhythms of the working day and working week, making attendance at daily prayers in the parish church more difficult. Stricter disciplines of work were inimical to the traditional holidays, which were usually holy days, and which had frequently involved attendance at the parish church by the greater part of the local community. Alongside the reduction in the pressure towards a communal religious and social life, there seems to have been a reduction in the pressure for a collective morality, which had been enforced by the ecclesiastical courts. A more fragmented, more urban society allowed more opportunities for premarital and extramarital sexual activity. The existing discipline of the family and household was loosened by changing economic practices and social customs. The better sort and middling sort, as they slowly withdrew into separated classes, felt less individual and personal responsibility for the moral and spiritual welfare of the poorer sort. There was less communal pressure to present offenders for moral offences. People were less anxious about their personal honour, and were less concerned about being defamed, or at least they no longer dealt with these communal tensions by turning to the Church courts. These factors were probably quite as important in diminishing the role of the Church in the lives of English people as the attacks on the Church of England's 'political' power, 31 and the slow growth of Enlightenment ideas in England. 3 The old world was very gradually changing. It was into this slowly changing world that the rather surprising fruit of the Enlightenment, the Evangelical revival, emerged in England. John Wesley, George Whitefield and numerous other religious entrepreneurs, both clerical and lay, like Benjamin Ingham and Lady Huntingdon, as well as Calvinistic clergymen, like 31

32

As discussed in J . A. I. Champion, The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and its

Enemies 1660-1730 (Cambridge, 1992). See Roy Porter, T h e Enlightenment in England, in The Enlightenment in National Context, ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich (Cambridge, 1981).

18

Lay people and religion

Henry Venn in Huddersfield, used methods which, as will be shown, were already familiar from the experience of the early-eighteenthcentury Church of England such as religious societies, singing, personal piety and a strict discipline in moral life. What was different, however, and reflected new and changing ways of thought, was their emphasis on the individual and his or her personal relationship with God, rather than the relationship of the community with God. John Walsh has pointed out that Wesley and his earliest preachers were seen as disturbing common assumptions and threatening accepted norms of communal behaviour, and that this was a major reason for the popular hostility towards early Methodism. 33 Methodism further disrupted communal life focused on the parish church. It withdrew people from popular leisure activities and customs, such as Morris dancing, which were woven into the traditional fabric of life. Most important of all, the new movement seemed disruptive of family life. Preachers were attacked for converting wives and daughters. Men often suspected their wives of taking money from the family budget for collections to support preachers, or of going to meetings and absenting themselves not perhaps so much from household duties as from the common life of the household and family. The clandestine nature of such meetings also generated much paranoid suspicion of disruptive social activities of a sexual and a political nature. It has been suggested that in the early Evangelical revival in Europe the appeal of intense, individual religious experience and of withdrawal into close-knit religious groups was strongest among groups of people who were politically, socially and economically marginalised, such as the persecuted Protestant Salzburgers. It may be that in England, they appealed most strongly to those who had been marginalised by economic and social changes. These were people who had migrated to towns and so had withdrawn from the household religion of their former parish church and, in the town to which they had moved, had difficulty finding a seat in a parish church. This would help to account for the relative success of Methodism in towns and its relative lack of success in villages during the eighteenth century. It is important to remember, however, that these changes hap33 34

J o h n Walsh, Methodism a n d the M o b in the Eighteenth Century, in Popular Belief and Practice: SCH, 8 (1972), p p . 223-4. W. R.Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge, 1992), ch. 2.

Introduction

19

pened very gradually. Many people who joined Methodist societies did not withdraw from their parish churches and continued as though they were still members of an old religious society. There is some evidence that it was not really for another generation, until the 1770s, that there was a substantial outburst of meeting-house building. 35 Although the first half of the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of a series of changes in communal and religious life which led to a total change in the place of organised Christianity, as represented by the established Church, in people's lives, the period itself, as we shall see, belongs to the 'world we have lost3. In fact a more satisfactory understanding of religious practice in England and Wales emerges if it is interpreted as the final act of the pattern of continuity and change that emerged in the sixteenth-century Reformation rather than as the beginning of modern secularised society. The evidence suggests that the Church of England in the first half of the eighteenth century perhaps reached the zenith of its allegiance among the population of England and Wales. In the small-scale communities that characterised England during much of the eighteenth century the parish church and Anglican worship and virtues and morality were largely unquestioned. Nor was this an imposition by a clerical or gentry minority. At the parish level the eighteenth-century Church of England was a people's Church. Lay people managed and maintained the building, determined the frequency of worship, financed the clergy, and, through their good works and generosity, promoted Christian knowledge, relieved the poor and sick, and maintained Christian morality. They were not necessarily saints, but for the great majority of people God was very important, and to be right with God was a determining factor in ordering their own lives and the life of their community. 35

W. M. Jacob, Evidence for Dissent in Norfolk 1711-1800, in Religious Dissent in East Anglia, ed. Norma Virgoe and Tom Williamson (Norwich, 1993), p. 39- In the diocese of Canterbury Anglican incumbents did not view Methodists as rivals until the 1790s: see Gregory, Archbishop, Cathedral and Parish, pp. 231-97.

CHAPTER 2

Lay people and the clergy

Evidence for the attitudes of people towards the Christian faith as embodied in the Church of England is partly revealed by their attitudes towards the Church's ministers. People seldom set down their expectations of clergy, but often attitudes can be gleaned from the involvement of clergy in local society and their social and economic relations with lay people. The laity had always played a part in the life of the Church as patrons of livings. The attitudes of lay patrons towards clergy and their competence for the task indicates much about lay attitudes to the Church. Similarly, the reactions of lay people towards their parish priest and his work among them reveals something of their concern for spiritual matters. The grounds upon which people complained about clergy and criticised them also throws light on the place of religion in their own lives and in the life of the community and the nation.1 Unusually, Lady Elizabeth Hastings had her expectations of a clergyman engraved on a brass plate on the wall of a church of which she was patron. She required I. That he content himself with an Orderly and Regular discharge of his Duty as the same is marked out and prescribed to him by human Laws, but from a true fervency of Spirit and Christian Zeal for the Salvation of his People and his own, add to the Obligations requir'd of him by Man the 1

One of the roots of the tensions was the differing standard of religious practice expected of lay people by clergy and of clergy by lay people. Many parishioners may have thought that they were devout in their religious beliefs and practices, but these, especially when they were translated into action, fell short of the expectations of the more devout clergy. Although parishioners might be deeply concerned about their own salvation, be respectful of the holiness of the church building and the worship that took place in it, and have genuinely enjoyed the singing in the worship, they interpreted these in ways to meet the needs of their own lives, which may not have been how the incumbent saw those needs. Similarly, parishioners may have had expectations of devotion, charitableness or communal involvement to which an incumbent did not conform, and to which he did not subscribe. The opportunities for misunderstandings were legion. 2O

Lay people and the clergy

21

adequate and only sufficient measures of the Gospel, daily abound in the works of his high Galling, rule his own house well, and enforce his Preaching upon the minds of men by holiness of Life and the strength and power of his own Example. II. That he would daily and earnestly in private Prayer humble himself before the Throne of God for all Spiritual Blessings upon Himself upon his Flock and upon all Mankind. III. That he would be much in Conversation with his People, and without partiality, or preferring any one to another, he would inform himself of their Spiritual Condition, the respective wants and Occasions of their Souls, and give them their Portion of Meat in due Season and by all the Wisdom and Prudence he is Master of, turn the Stream of their Affections from the momentary and vain Enjoyments of this World to the everlasting Riches and solid Pleasures of the Next. IV. That at every Visit he receives or pays some part of the Discourse should be upon some vital subject of Religion, as the absolute Necessity of having it implanted in the Heart, and what are the Hindrances whereby it is rendered unable to strike root, and fix itself there . . . So that having the Kingdom of God established within himself, and in the Souls of all his Sons and Daughters (as in his Ministerial Relation he must ever account his people to be) He and They may be able to stand in the Judgement, and may through God's great Mercy in the Redemption of all Men by his Blessed Son, find their eternal Lot and Portion among his Saints, Amen. 2

The evidence suggests that most clergymen were as conscientious as their parishioners wished. There is evidence of steady piety, of an awareness of the eternal dimension of life, of the mercy of God and of the duty of charity amongst apparently prosaic and conventional men. Devotion might be prosaic, yet genuine. The general expectation of a parish clergyman seems to have been that he should be readily available to his parishioners, conscientious and punctual in the conduct of worship and a good preacher. He should also regularly catechise and teach the young that they too might be able, in due course, to benefit from sermons. For the rest he was expected to visit the sick and support them in their need, with absolution and holy communion, and to know everybody so that he might congratulate or admonish as cause demanded. Residence in a parish was important in the eyes of devout lay people. It was most important that a clergyman should be present and involved in the life of a town or village, that his life should be an example and that he should encourage the fainthearted and admonish the fallen. It was assumed that all inhabitants were not only Inscription on a brass plate on the north wall of the chancel of Howe Church, Norfolk.

22

Lay people and religion

Christians but Anglicans. His task was not to convert but to foster growth in the paths of righteousness, but not too officiously. The eighteenth century is often held up as notorious for the nonresidence of the clergy. However, a closer examination of where clergy actually lived suggests that though, for example, in the Archdeaconry of Stow in Lincolnshire, pluralism was almost universal, there was an ingenious grouping of livings and interrelationship of benefices and curacies which was obviously designed to try to give parishes as much service as possible.3 In the diocese of London, including the vast rural hinterlands of Essex and Hertfordshire, less than 20 per cent of the parishes did not have a resident clergyman, whether incumbent or curate, and in the City less than 6 per cent of parishes had non-resident clergy. The number of incumbents who, on investigation, prove to be more or less permanent absentees turns out to be comparatively small.4 In 1778 only thirty-nine Lancashire incumbents were non-resident, and all parishes had a resident clergyman. Even about 90 per cent of chapelries had a resident clergyman. Even if they did not live in the parish, the 1763 visitation returns from Llandaff suggest that most clergy made an effort to reside nearby, for it was quite possible to exercise adequate pastoral care whilst technically non-resident. 6 There is a discernible pattern of some clergy tending to congregate in towns, not just the great urban centres of London, Norwich and Bristol, but small market towns within easy reach of their parishes, where they may have felt more socially at ease and at home, and travelling out three or four miles to their parishes as necessary.7 The vicar of Emmington, which had only thirteen houses, noted in 1738, 'I do not reside upon my cure but . . . Six miles from it. I perform full duty every Sunday. Sometimes I go over on a weekday to see if anything be amiss and if any business should fall out, I have ordered a person of the parish to make me acquainted with it.' 8 Laity played a major part in the lives of clergy as patrons. In 1742 3 4 5 6 7 8

Joan Varley, An Archidiaconal Visitation of Stow, 1752, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Reports and Papers, 3, 2, NS (1948), pp. 144-76. Barrie-Curien, CUrge et pastorale, pp. 228-32. Albers, Seeds of Contention, pp. 86ff. The Diocese of Llandaff in 1763, ed. John R. Guy, South Wales Record Society, 7 (Cardiff, 1991), pp. 181-6. W. M.Jacob, 'A Practice of a Very Hurtful Tendency', SCH, 16 (1979). Articles of Enquiry Addressed to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford at the Primary Visitation of Dr Thomas Seeker, 1738, ed. H. A. Lloyd Jukes, Oxfordshire Record Society, 38 (1957), p. 58.

Lay people and the clergy

23

53.4 per cent of advowsons were in the hands of private individuals (12 per cent of whom were peers), and in 0.8 per cent parishioners or town corporations presented the incumbent. 9 In other cases, as at King's Lynn, because the Corporation paid the incumbent's salary, they nominated the incumbent to the Dean and Chapter of Norwich. Patronage was the customary system for making appointments in eighteenth-century England. The army, the navy and the civil service were all staffed by people who had secured their positions by means of patronage. Patronage, vested in office holders at Court, in individual aristocrats or members of the gentry and corporate bodies such as colleges, chapters and corporations, was seen as a trust. It was the duty of patrons to favour deserving men. If favour was bestowed on worthy and deserving objects, the reputation of the patron was enhanced. Patrons usually informed themselves of the ability and reputation of a client. Merit was usually a prerequisite for preferment: patrons did not wish to occur obloquy and notoriety for appointing incompetents. This was no less true of the Church than other areas in which patronage was exercised. Most patrons were practising Anglicans, aware that they would have to live as neighbours with the incumbents they appointed, and would have to receive their ministrations week by week. Those attempting to develop 'influence' knew that unless they appointed competent men, their influence would not stretch far. Scandalous and outrageous use of patronage was relatively uncommon. The majority of clergy seldom secured more than two livings, and they were seldom immediately promoted to senior posts on ordination. Multiple nominations to benefices were rare. 1 Patronage was often seen in political terms. From the early years of the eighteenth century the political factions, whether Whig or Tory, used episcopal appointments to ensure a majority in the still politically important House of Lords. As a result, ecclesiastical patronage became part of the political system. Such methods had always been common, but under the Duke of Newcastle they were systematically exploited. However, the first proposal for a systematic use of patronage had been by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London. He had suggested that the livings in the gift of the Crown 9

See D. Hirschberg, The Government and Church Patronage in England 1660-1760, Journal of British Studies, 20 (1980), pp. 109-39, quoting Browne Willis, Survey of the Cathedrals (3 vols., 1742). Barrie-Curien, Clergeetpastorale, pp. 1446°.

24

Lay people and religion

should be bestowed upon clergy resident in the diocese to which the livings belonged. He hoped thus to furnish clergy with the expectation of a reward for hard work that would make them grateful to the government and encourage them to express loyalty, in the hope of further preferment. The scheme foundered because of the unwillingness of the Lord Chancellor, Peter King, to comply with it. *1 Nor was lay use of patronage for political ends a callous manipulation of the system. Newcastle was acutely aware of the Church's role as an independent society charged with the salvation of souls. He was anxious to be sensitive to the concerns and preoccupations of the Church and its leaders. His ecclesiastical policy was designed to ensure that the Church performed its functions as the provider and organiser of charity, as the educator of the nation's youth and as the inculcator of doctrines of loyalty to the divinely appointed Protestant succession provided by the house of Hanover. In particular, he nominated as bishops men of pastoral and administrative ability, whom he regarded as most capable of governing the clergy and providing leadership for the Church in its spiritual and civil responsibilities. Politics was not his sole standard in making appointments. He regarded scholarship, generosity of spirit and devotion to the Church as impressive recommendations for a candidate. However, he preferred that they should share his political views concerning what was best, under God, for the nation. 1 In exercising patronage, Newcastle made it a general rule to give priority to recommendations based on local knowledge, and he frequently inquired in detail about the merits of a candidate for preferment. Testimonies to the pastoral and administrative ability of clergy were sought as well as to their political reliability. 13 He respected the judgement of men he appointed to senior positions and routinely asked for their opinions of candidates proposed by lay sponsors. Despite the complaints which bishops made about Newcastle, he consulted them in order to take advantage of their networks of information, and to be seen to have their approval. Newcastle saw himself as working for the benefit of the Church and put his extensive personal connections at the service of the Church. Nor was Newcastle alone among senior politicians in requiring 11 12 13

Norman Sykes, Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London 1669-1J48 (Oxford, 1926), pp. 107-17. Reed Browning, The Duke ofNewcastle (New Haven, 1975), p. 186. Taylor, Church and State, ch. 5.

Lay people and the clergy acceptable standards of service from clergy receiving his patronage; Lord Hardwicke as Lord Chancellor frequently made residence a condition of presentation to a living. He was also unwilling to allow dispensations for holding livings in plurality at a distance from each other. 14 Newcastle saw placing capable men in important posts as the surest way of protecting Church and State, and thus had no qualms in asking bishops, deans and chapters and colleges to yield their patronage to him for a particular appointment. His constant requests for the use of patronage was not a sinister scheme to subjugate the Church of England. Often he was simply forwarding requests from others, both clergy and laity. He acted as the central clearing house for appointments. As Newcastle saw it, the Church of England was unable to coordinate its mission nationwide because its resources of patronage were, to a large extent, in lay hands; his role as Secretary of State to the head of the established Church was to coordinate the Church's patronage. 15 Lesser patrons also exercised considerable care over the presentation of a new incumbent to a living. Lord Fitzwilliam, on hearing of the death of the rector of Elton in 1704, showed exemplary care in choosing a new incumbent. He asked his steward to 'Send me word who you most approve for Elton liveing and likewise Marholm for I intend to part them and whoever has Elton shall be obliged to reside upon the place and build a good house.' Four months later he resolved to offer the living to Mr Church, the vicar of Maxey, who was the first candidate recommended to him. He was prepared to allow Mr Church to hold both Maxey and Elton providing he employed a curate and used the profits from Elton to build a new house there. It would seem that Mr Church quibbled over the terms of the offer, for his lordship noted, CI do not want for candidates enough for these liveings ... He shall be proffered it no more, there's another ready for it.' Another deserving candidate was also rejected because cHe is too young yett that he cannot be fitt for a cure of soules . . . The gentleman may be deserveing very well but my wife and selfe are now very much advanc't in yeares and we desire to have a graver man for our conversation . . . and . . . he tooke orders but last midsummer.' In February 1705 he presented £Mr Paulin Phelips' to Marholm, of whom he was subsequently highly critical for 14

ibid., p. 117.

15

Hirschberg, Government and Church Patronage, p. 138.

25

26

Lay people and religion

trying to charge the parishioners and the patron for a new floor in the chancel of the church. Although it was suspected by contemporaries that the influence of clergy at elections was highly significant, there is evidence that the political importance of patronage was limited. Once presented to a benefice an incumbent might not be interested in further preferment and thus not be susceptible to pressure from his patron, or he might be well aware that there were other patrons available. Clergy frequently outlived their patrons, sometimes by many years. Thus a Whig patron might find that all or most of his livings were filled by clergy reflecting the views of his Tory predecessor. In Cheshire in the first half of the eighteenth century even though Whig politicians were in the ascendant nationally, because the bishop nominated by a Tory administration in the 1700s lived until 1726 and tended to appoint Tory clergy to the livings in his gift, and because the majority of the lay patrons in the county were also Tory sympathisers, the great majority of the clergy in the first half of the century voted Tory in county elections.17 Nor did clergy invariably vote with their patrons. In the election for the county of Norfolk in 1768, fifty-one of the clergy who voted had patrons who were still living, and whose political sentiments are known; forty-four of the fifty-one voted according to their patrons' known views, but two voted in direct opposition. Of the rest, four split their votes and one was in the embarrassing position of having two patrons whose political views were opposed. It would be easy to over-simplify the implications and significance of political influence in eighteenth-century provincial society. Political allegiance was influenced by complex considerations, including political, social, personal and family factors. Although the significance of family connections in political questions may have been declining in importance in this period in comparison with political allegiance and clientage, the clergy were part of a small and tightknit society of gentry and prosperous merchants and farmers and, except at unusual moments of high political tension during compara16

17

The Correspondence of Lord Fitzwilliam of Milton and Francis Guybon his Steward i6gy-iyog,

ed.

D. R. Hainsworth and Cherry Walker, Northants Record Society, 36 (Northampton, 1990), pp. 25 and 28. S. W. Baskerville, The Political Behaviour of the Cheshire Clergy 1705-1752, Northern History, 23 (1987), pp. 74-97. B. D. Hayes, Politics in Norfolk 1750-1832, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1957, P- 47-

Lay people and the clergy tively rare disputed elections, political allegiances may have been relatively insignificant.19 Probably friendship and mutual society decided people's political allegiance rather than a sense of political subservience. It cannot be known how clergy would have voted if they had had different patrons. The letters of Patrick St Clair, vicar of Sustead and Aylmerton in north Norfolk, to his former pupil and patron Ashe Windham of Felbrigg during the 1730s reveal north Norfolk as an almost impregnable Whig stronghold under the Windhams, Walpoles, Townshends, Hobarts and Cokes, with the clergy as apparently steady and contented as their patrons. The reason for this seems to be their shared and common interest. 20 It was not unusual for patrons to be disappointed in their incumbents. Henry Purefoy thought that his mother had 'over credulously5 appointed an incumbent to Shalstone in 1705. When he presented a new incumbent in 1742, Purefoy got his London attorney to draw up 'articles' to be agreed with the new incumbent, Wright Hawes, to standardise tithes at 22s. a yardland on 23^ yardlands. The prospective incumbent was required to give a 'Bond undertaking to resign if any of these Covenants were not performed' and another bond 'to lay out £100 in repairing the Parsonage House'. These arrangements proved satisfactory, for the Purefoy and Hawes families became friendly and eventually Mary, Hawes's daughter, married Henry Purefoy's heir. 21 Henry Purefoy was a relatively well-intentioned patron, concerned to protect himself and his tenants from exploitation. Other patrons could be ruthless with incumbents by driving bargains that the land in the parish should be tithe-free or should not be raised above certain limits. Because of their illegality there is little evidence of such agreements. The practice of patrons demanding resignation bonds, which effectively deprived an incumbent of the freehold of his living, seems to have been relatively common. An example of a complicated manoeuvre of this nature occurs in Patrick St Clair's letters to Ashe Windham. The livings of Wickmere, Wolterton and Alby, in the gift of Horatio Walpole of Wolterton, fell vacant, and he wished to present Horace Hamond, his nephew, when he was of canonical age for ordination. Walpole also wished to avoid pre1

21

Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 (Harmondsworth, 1979), P" 94R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Country Neighbourhood (1951), p. 33. The Purefoy Letters 1735-1753, ed. G. Eland (2 vols., 1931), Vol. 1, pp. 16-19.

27

28

Lay people and religion

sentingjohn distance, son of Alderman distance, one of his leading constituents in Norwich. Walpole therefore offered his livings to St Clair, aged eighty, with the expectation that on St Clair's death the livings could go to Hamond. Presumably because of St Clair's advanced age, there is no mention of a resignation bond. 22 Such informal practices may have been more common than formal bonds. Handbooks written for young clergy cautioned them against accepting a living under such circumstances. The majority of lay patrons were not great magnates, but lesser gentry who presented to two or three parishes on their estates. Many of them had been educated at country grammar schools and at the universities alongside those who were in due course ordained. It seems likely that patronage operated largely through links of friendship, if not kinship, so that patrons appointed their former schoolfellows to their livings. As will be seen, the great majority of clergy were local men. Clearly some patrons took an intense interest in their livings and might be generous with extra endowments. Many lay patrons offered the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty a £200 benefaction to improve the endowment of the livings in their gift. Some patrons restored the impropriated tithes to the benefice income, as did Sir Christopher Calthorpe, to the rector of Great Snoring in Norfolk in 1704.25 Not all patrons were so generous. While Lord Fitzwilliam was careful to manage the benefice income during a vacancy in the interests of an incoming incumbent, others saw a vacancy as an opportunity for improving their own income, and appropriated the income of a vacant benefice to their own use. Thomas Tanner, Chancellor of the diocese of Norwich, complained of patrons doing this in his diocese. Sir Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton in Norfolk enclosed his lands at Barrett Ringstead after 1710, contributing to the depopulation of the parish, and failed to present an incumbent to the living, converting the church into a barn and taking the tithes himself.27 Such practices, however, do not seem to 2 23

25 26 27

Ketton-Cremer, Country Neighbourhood, p. 210. A. J. Russell, A Sociological Analysis of the Clergyman's Role with Special Reference to its Development in the Early Nineteenth Century, D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1970, p. 429C. Hodgson, An Account of the Augmentation of Small Livings by the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty (1826), p p . 3 8 8 - 9 . G. M . Yould, T w o Norfolk Non-Jurors, Norfolk Archaeology, 35 (1972), p . 381. F. G.James, North Country Bishop: A Biography of William Nicolson (New Haven, 1956), p. 123. D . Cherry, Sir Nicholas L'Estrange, Non-Juror, Norfolk Archaeology, 34 (1968), p . 316.

Lay people and the clergy

29

have been widespread. On the other hand, cases of simony involving prospective incumbents paying patrons to present them to livings were comparatively rare. In a number of parishes the parishioners or their representatives had the right of presentation. In Norfolk, at New Buckenham the incumbent was chosen by 'the majority of the votes of all the residents in the parish that pay to the minister's rate 5. At Old Buckenham too the parishioners had the patronage, and also at St Andrew's, St Benedict's and St Peter Mancroft in Norwich. In such parishes the incumbent was usually elected by the ratepayers. At the wealthy parish of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, elections of incumbents were orderly affairs. When Dr John Jeffery, who had been vicar for over twenty years, died in 1720, John Whitefoot, the assistant minister, was unanimously elected by the parishioners, and Samuel Ganning was elected assistant minister in his place. In 1731 Samuel Ganning was unanimously elected in John Whitefoot's place. Eighty people, including six women, signed the resolution of his election, and Dr Robert Carnell was elected assistant minister by thirty-seven signatories. The following month when a second assistant minister was elected, there were four candidates. The pattern of a contested election for the most junior post, with others being unanimously elected to the more senior posts, seemed to be the standard practice at St Peter Mancroft.28 At Bath, John Penrose reported that the reader at the Abbey, Mr Taylor, was 'elected by the Corporation Rector of Bath to the universal satisfaction both of the Inhabitants and Sojourners'.29 In some London parishes, where competition for prestigious parishes was intense, elections were handled in a very businesslike manner. In 1691 St Katherine Cree vestry short-listed eight candidates for the curacy and arranged for each to preach, one in the morning and one in the evening over the succeeding Sundays, after which the vestry met to elect a curate. In 1736 Thomas Wilson, son of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, who was keen to secure preferment in London, canvassed for six days for the Lectureship of St Austin and St Faith's in the City and on the last day 'waited 28 29 30

N R O P D 26/73(5) Norwich St Peter Mancroft Churchwardens' Account Book 1707-50. Letters from Bath IJ66~IJ6J, by the Revdjohn Penrose, ed. Brigitte Mitchell and Hubert Penrose (Gloucester, 1983), p . 188. Earle, Making of the English Middle Class, p. 355, n. 156.

30

Lay people and religion

upon most of the parishioners in both parishes'. However it was to no avail: his opponent secured a hundred and forty-two votes to his forty-nine.31 When in 1747 the vicar of Leeds died after thirty years in office, there was a lengthy dispute among the trustees, in whom the patronage was vested, over the election of his successor. There was a vacancy among the trustees and they divided equally, twelve for each candidate. There was then an election by all the parishioners, which was in turn disputed by an appeal to Chancery, which ordered that the number of trustees be completed and that they should hold a new election. The whole process took nearly seven years. Immediately this was resolved there was a series of disputes between the vicar and the eight chapelries in the parish, which each claimed the right to nominate its own minister. In 1754, when the vicar appointed a minister in Holbeck without reference to the parishioners, a riot broke out. When the new minister tried to take a service in Holbeck Chapel he was reported to have been accompanied by 'near a thousand people', but was resisted by a 'rabble'. He only secured entry escorted by fifty dragoons, on the orders of the magistrates, but the 'rabble' managed to break into the chapel and it was reported that books were torn and seats were smeared with human excreta. The minister subsequently resigned and the tumult died down. A few years later there was another lengthy dispute when the inhabitants claimed the right of presentation to the chapelry of Armley, against the vicar of Leeds.32 Whilst lay patrons may not have exploited or oppressed the clergy, lay patronage gave the laity a strong responsibility for and, in some ways, an authority over many parish clergy. Poorer and younger clergy in particular might be beholden to and dependent on patrons. Even poor curacies had to be angled for. Thomas Brockbank in 1696 had to preach a trial sermon, secure testimonials from parishioners and make a long journey to Chester and yet still failed to secure the post, because there was a competitor. It could be a slow process. In Leicestershire those ordained between 1705 and 1714 waited an 31 32

33

The Diaries of Thomas Wilson, D.D., 1731-37 and 1750, ed. C. L. S. Linnell (1964), p. 185. R. G. Wilson, Gentlemen Merchants: The Merchant Community in Leeds 1700-1830 (1971), p. 183, and R. J . Wood, Leeds C h u r c h Patronage in the Eighteenth Century, Publications of the Thoresby Society, 61, 2 (1948), p p . 103-13. Eric J . Evans, T h e Anglican Clergy of Northern England, in Britain in the First Age of Party 1680-1750: Essays Presented to Geoffrey Holmes, ed. Clyve Jones (1987), p. 229.

Lay people and the clergy average of eight years between taking their BA and securing a living. Competition for the better livings could be intense, as Thomas Wilson's diaries show.34 The attitudes of people towards clergy were governed by a number of factors, not the least of which was the social ease that they felt with the clergy. The Church of England did not develop a separate seminary system of training for its clergy, nor did it require them to be celibate, both of which would have served to separate them from their parishioners. In fact it might be expected that there would be close integration between clergy and laity, for the great majority of the clergy and many of the gentry and professional people were educated at the grammar schools and the universities. The marriage of the clergy might have been expected to integrate them into society. However, clerical marriage could have the effect of isolating them socially from their parishioners, especially if there was considerable intermarriage between clergy families, and if sons followed their fathers in livings, a distinct and self-sufficient clerical caste might emerge. Evidence from the dioceses of Canterbury, London and Norwich suggests that between a quarter and a third of the clergy were the sons of clergy, mostly parish clergy. This strong core of clergy sons suggests the establishment in some places, at least, of a clerical caste, especially if livings descended from father to son. Closer investigation of the clergy whose fathers were designated in college registers as 'gentlemen' raises questions about their status. When their addresses are given, it is clear that most originated from towns, where gentlemen did not have their power base in land and were more likely to be successful professional men - attorneys, barristers, physicians, surgeons, bankers and land agents. This may help to explain why many clergy with country parishes preferred to live in a nearby town, which offered the sort of society and social life they were accustomed to. 36 This strongly urban background of the majority of the clergy is also a feature of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. In an overwhelmingly rural society the Church

34 35

36

Diaries of Thomas Wilson, passim. Gregory, Archbishop, Cathedral and Parish, p p . 65-70, Barrie-Curien, Clerge et pastorale, p p . 71-2, and C. L. S. Linnell and A. B. Douglas, Gresham's School History and Register 15541954 (Ipswich, 1955). Barrie-Curien, Clerge et pastorale, pp. 100-2.

31

32

Lay people and religion

both in England and Catholic Europe was predominantly urban in its recruitment of clergy.37 A significant proportion of the clergy were local men. In Leicestershire, between 1660 and 1760 just under half the parish clergy were natives of the county and another quarter came from adjacent counties.38 In 1721 more than half the clergy in the diocese of Durham were from County Durham and Northumberland, and most of the rest came from the neighbouring counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and Yorkshire.39 London, by contrast, acted as a magnet to many clergy who were the sons of small men in the Midlands and the North, possibly because there were fewer openings in these regions.40 The great majority of the men who were subsequently ordained received their education in local grammar schools, which were mostly in towns, and provided easy access to education for the sons of the middling sort and, if their families could afford to maintain them, poor boys. Most masters, between 75 per cent and 85 per cent of whom were clergy, augmented their salaries by taking feepaying pupils, if possible as boarders. The sons of the urban elites and the sons of a few of the poorer sort were thus educated alongside the sons of the country gentry. The grammar schools were the route to the universities. A university education was a prerequisite for ordination in most English and Welsh dioceses. The early-eighteenth-century universities were small institutions, with only three or four hundred undergraduates in residence. The sons of the aristocracy and more especially the sons of the gentry would therefore have been thrown together, both at school and at university, with the young men who were seeking ordination, in institutions with strong religious constitutions. The statutes of most colleges required that most fellows should take orders. As a result most of the senior members of the universities were clergy. All colleges required daily attendance at morning prayer by their undergraduates at between 6 and 7 a.m. with a fine levied on absentees, and attendance at the University Sermon in the University Church on Sundays and saints' days. It has been claimed that the absence of fellows and gentlemen commoners was often 37

40

Church and Society in Catholic Europe of the Eighteenth Century, ed. William J. Callahan and David Higgs (Cambridge, 1979), p. 34. Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 33. Shuler, Diocese of Durham, p. 410. Barrie-Curien, Clerge et pastorale, p. 94.

Lay people and the clergy

33

winked at, 41 but most young men came from homes and schools where daily attendance at morning prayer or family prayers was customary. However, in spite of youthful reluctance to get up in the mornings, Thomas Wilson's claim that he missed chapel fifty or sixty times (for which he was fined is. a time) during his last year of residence at Trinity College Dublin suggests that this was a rich man's hobby.42 The universities, with their strong religious bias, and emphasis on furthering the study of religion and morality by passing on received wisdom from the classical and Christian traditions, were the nurseries not merely of prospective clergy, but also of the political and social elite. Much weight has been placed on critical reports of the quality of education and life provided by the universities during this period. 43 There was a general tightening up of Oxford's administration and teaching and spiritual supervision in the late 1720s. In December 1728 a general meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Houses and Proctors at Oxford recommended that tutors discharge their duty by double diligence in instructing their respective pupils in their Christian duty and ... in recommending to them the frequent and careful reading of the Scriptures and such other books as may serve more effectively to promote Christianity, sound principles and orthodox faith.44 These requirements were for all undergraduates, not just for those preparing for holy orders. It is clear from the membership of the groups assembled for prayer and supervision by the Wesley brothers 45 and other tutors of which George Fothergill and Benjamin Ingham were members that they included a variety of undergraduates, and not just those seeking ordination. Similarly the lectures on the Thirty-Nine Articles and on Sanderson's De Obligatione Conscientiae were for all undergraduates. This emphasis on religious practice and learning in the universities explains why so many of the literate 41

1

43

G. V. Bennett, University, Society and Church 1688-1714, in The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. V: The Eighteenth Century, ed. L. S. Sutherland and L. G. Mitchell (Oxford, 1986), P-387John Keble, The Life of the Rt Revd Father in God Thomas Wilson (2 vols. Oxford, 1863), Vol. 1, p. 14. See, for example, V. H. H. Green, Young Mr Wesley: A Study of John Wesley and Oxford (1961),

pp. 27-40. Instructions given in a broadsheet 'At a General Meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Houses and Proctors on Monday December 2nd 1728', quoted in The Diary of an Oxford Methodist: Benjamin Ingham, 1733-34, e<^- Richard P. Heitzenrater (Durham, N . C , 1985), p. 14. 45

Henry D. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise ofMethodism (1989), p. 87.

34

Lay people and religion

classes in the first half of the eighteenth century were, as will be seen, enthusiastic readers of religious and theological literature and critical listeners to sermons. The high regard in which the clerically dominated universities were held by their alumni among the gentry and aristocracy is demonstrated by their contributions to the extensive building programmes which were undertaken in the universities in the first half of the eighteenth century. Buildings such as The Queen's College, All Souls and the Radcliffe Camera were of the highest quality and put Oxford in the forefront of English architecture. Works of art were commissioned for college chapels from the most distinguished artists of the age. Sir James Thornhill painted huge frescoes in the chapels at All Souls and Queen's. 46 The richest and most fashionable doctor of the age, John Radcliffe, favoured Oxford as the principal beneficiary under his will. At Cambridge, James Gibbs was employed by the University to design the Senate House, and by King's for their new building. There were also major building works in other colleges. Sir George Downing, who died in 1749, left a bequest that, should his heir die without issue, which he did, a college should be established from the money he left.49 It is difficult to believe that this vast expenditure on building in the universities does not signify some approval by wealthy benefactors both of the nature of the Christian education they offered and of the predominant senior and junior members, clergy and prospective clergy. This close identity with the aristocracy and gentry in education and literary tastes may also help to explain why, despite their generally low economic status, many clergy mixed confidently with the rich. The eighteenth century was not a period of rigid social divisions: there was some fluidity, at least between successful tradesmen and gentry. The younger sons of both titled and untitled gentry went into the professions and embarked on business ventures. There was an upward movement by successful tradesmen. Robert Walpole, a member of the landed gentry, married the sister of a wealthy King's 46 47 48 4

E. Waterhouse, Paintings a n d Painted Glass, a n d S. L. F. Wollenberg, Music a n d Musicians, in History of the University of Oxford, Vol. V. H. M. Colvin, Architecture, in History of the University of Oxford, Vol. V. Bryan Little, The Life and Work of James Gibbs 1682-1754 (1955), pp. 57 and 63. Nikolaus Pevsner, Builders of England: Cambridgeshire, 2nd edn (Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 49-202. N. Ravitch, The Social Origins of French and English Bishops in the Eighteenth Century, Historical Journal, 8,3 (1963), p. 318.

Lay people and the clergy

35

Lynn merchant, who subsequently acquired a baronetcy and an estate in north Norfolk and thus joined the ranks of the county gentry. The better-off clergy, at least, seem to have been accepted in gentry circles. Woodforde and his clerical neighbours in central Norfolk mixed easily with both the landed gentry and the more successful tradesmen. 51 A painting of a 'Musical Party at Melton Constable, 1734', one of the great houses of Norfolk, shows four local clergy playing violins among the ten instrumentalists. Earlier in the century the letters of Patrick St Clair to Ashe Windham reveal a similar pattern of society in north Norfolk, in which the country gentry, the clergy and the better-off tradesmen were on friendly social terms. 53 Henry Purefoy's letters show that the social circle of a Buckinghamshire country gentleman included his own incumbent and four neighbouring clergy. Clergy seem to have fitted in fairly easily with people who were probably significantly better-off financially than they were, but with whom, through education, they had much in common. However, if some could mix easily in the higher echelons of society, others slipped down the scale. Fielding in Tom Jones describes both Molly Seagram's mother and Mrs Honour, Sophia's maid, as granddaughters of clergymen. The daughter of the vicar of Llanfachreth on Anglesey had to earn her living as a 'mantua maker' after her father's death. The general economic status of the clergy was modest. In the diocese of Ely, an analysis of fifty-one clerical inventories and eightyone inventories of churchwardens, most of whom were prosperous farmers, between 1662 and 1742 showed the average total value of churchwardens' inventories to be £208, and of parish clergy to be £131. 57 If real estate was taken into account, the difference was even more acute. In Lancashire in the 1720s roughly half of the parochial clergy had incomes of less than £50 a year, and the majority of the chapelries were worth less than £15 a year. 58 When the clergy were compared with London tradesmen, they ranked well below mercers and tanners and came between maltsters and innkeepers.59 This 51

52 53

56 57 59

The Diary of a Country Parson: The Revd James Woodforde, ed. J. Beresford (5 vols. Oxford, 192631), Vol. 1, pp. 217-20. T . Fawcett, Eighteenth Century Art in Norwich, Walpole Society, 46 (1978), p p . 71-90. 4 Ketton-Cremer, Country Neighbourhood, passim. Purefqy Letters, Vol. 11, p . 174. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (2 vols., 1962), Vol. 1, p. 148. G. Nesta Evans, Social Life in Mid-Eighteenth Century Anglesey (Cardiff, 1936), p. 92. 5 Cross, Church and Local Society, p. 238. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p. 72. David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 138-41.

36

Lay people and religion

modest and often precarious economic position may explain why, in spite of the often relaxed relationships between the clergy and gentry, the country gentry sometimes regarded the clergy as upstarts. Like most of their parishioners, the clergy derived the greater part of their income from the land. Through agriculture, as the recipients of tithe, and the cultivators or landlords of glebe, they had, along with their parishioners, a close interest in farming. Tithe was the mainstay of the income of rural incumbents, and they had a strong vested interest in its collection. Occupiers of land in a parish had a vested interest in avoiding paying tithe, or as much tithe as possible, because it was regarded as a tax on their labour and initiative. In an age when taxes were few it could be a cause of resentment. In each parish the incumbent had to collect his own tithes, although in theory small tithes were required to be delivered to the church porch. As assessor, collector and beneficiary, the incumbent had a difficult position, and his parishioners were likely to be suspicious. Tithes were a property right enshrined in common law. As such they were not purely an ecclesiastical property. Since the twelfth century lay people had owned the right to collect tithe, but the Dissolution of the monasteries switched much tithe into lay hands and created an important class of tithe owners known as lay impropriators. Thus tithes became private property, which could be sold, leased or purchased at will. In the seventeenth century about half of the tithes in England were owned by lay impropriators, and many more were leased out to lay people by clergy. It is important to remember, in the light of the frequent criticisms of the clergy for their rapaciousness in collecting tithes and their alleged ruthlessness in pursuing defaulters, at least a third, and possibly significantly more, of tithe was collected by lay people. Parishioners needed to know which parish they were in, so that two incumbents did not try to claim tithe from them. This was why both parties had an interest in perambulating the boundaries of the parish at Rogationtide. Tithe payers, however devout they were, might be reluctant to see 10 per cent of their hard-earned income disappear. Landlords could and did cause discontent towards the clergy among their tenants by inveighing against tithe. If parishioners 60

For a full discussion of the post-Reformation development of tithe law and collection in England see Eric J. Evans, The Contentious Tithe: The Tithe Problem and English Agriculture 17501850 (1976), pp. 16-19, and Eric J. Evans, Tithe, in The Agrarian History of England and Wales,

Vol V. 1640-1750, ed. Joan Thirsk (Cambridge, 1985), p. 397.

Lay people and the clergy

37

were not devout adherents of the established Church, they might be more than reluctant to pay. An incumbent would need to use his discretion as to the wisdom of trying to enforce payment, for a tithe dispute could poison the relationship between pastor and people, and enable opponents to vilify the pastor as rapacious and grasping. It was not an ideal system for the maintenance of the clergy. The original intention was that tithe should be paid in kind for the support of the clergy, but during the eighteenth century this custom was dying out. The evidence of terriers suggests that for much of the century some tithes were paid in kind, and some by means of a money payment. 61 One of the difficulties of tithe collection was that it depended, to a considerable extent, on local custom. During an interregnum between incumbents parishioners might endeavour to forget what had been the custom, and a new incumbent might have difficulty in ascertaining what was his due, if his predecessor had left no accounts or records in the parish chest. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, terriers, which under the authority of Canon 87 had been intended to combat the transfer of Church property into lay ownership, and comprised a record of the endowments and properties of each benefice, usually included an account of the tithe. The not infrequent reluctance of parishioners to sign the terrier, thereby endorsing its veracity, may point to their suspicions of the acquisitiveness of some clergy, who might be seeking to impose new terms more favourable to themselves, or to the efforts of some people to escape tithe and other customary payments. It would be easy to gain the impression that lay people were involved in constant battles with tithe owners, especially clergy, over the payment of tithes. This would be misleading; most people paid their tithes. However, there could be tensions. At Carlton in Bedfordshire, Benjamin Rogers, the rector, noted in July 1728 that 'Mr Uriah Rey and his son John abus'd me very much on Ryland Balk . . . The Next day . . . John Wallenger said that Mr Uriah Rey bid him tell John Hannah Senior that he had untith'd all the Wheat he had tith'd in Carlton Churchfield.' Whatever the dispute was about, tempers cooled, for Rogers made no mention of the matter again. A threat to withhold tithe was a convenient way for an irate parishioner to abuse an incumbent. Most of the evidence about tithe 62

See Hey, English Rural Community, p. 220, and Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 85. The The Diary of Benjamin Rogers, Rector of Carlton Ca 1727-1771, ed C D . Linnell, Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 30 (1950), p. 5.

38

Lay people and religion

payments and customs comes from documents concerned with litigation, which distorts the picture. The Norwich Consistory Court Act Books show an increase in the number of tithe cases coming into the court during the 1720s, which continued to the middle of the century. 63 It is risky to generalise about agricultural conditions from one region to another, but this may be linked to an agricultural depression between 1730 and 1750.64 The evidence from surviving Norfolk tithe account books for the first half of the eighteenth century suggests that tithe income fell between 1730 and 1750. This may have been a contributory factor to the mood of anti-clericalism in the 1730s exemplified by the Quakers' Tithe Bill in 1736. Walpole supported it, but he miscalculated the strength of the opposition of the bishops and the Church, 66 and, given the number of lay impropriators who might have been affected by the bill, there may have been significant opposition among the landed interest in Parliament. The Archbishop of Dublin had pointed out to Swift the value in lay people possessing tithes, in encouraging impropriators to resist attacks on that part of clerical income. 7 There may not have been much widespread sympathy for the Quakers, who on principle refused to pay any dues to the established Church. Even a strong Whig cleric, like Hoadly's protege, Edmund Pyle, thought that the Quakers' grievances had been overstated. When in 1737 the bishops sought evidence of precisely how many prosecutions had been started against Quakers Tor as many years backwards as they can get good information of, Pyle commented, "tis not doubted that the prosecutions will appear so trifling that the lenity the Quakers have been used with will defeat their design'. 68 Similarly in Canterbury diocese it was claimed in 1738 that Quakers' complaints of oppression by the clergy were ill-founded, that most 63 64

65 66

67 68

N R O N D R A C T 92-100. G. E. Mingay, T h e Agricultural Depression 1730-1750, Economic History Review, Second Series, 8 (1955-6), p p . 323-38. J a c o b , Clergy and Society, p . 182. For a full discussion of the issues involved see Stephen Taylor, Sir Robert Walpole, the Church of England a n d the Quakers' Tithe Bill of 1736, Historical Journal, 28 (1985), p p . 52

~7.5'

Louis Landa, Swift and the Church of Ireland (Oxford, 1954), p . 166. Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain iy2g-iy6j: The Correspondence of Edmund Pyle, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to George II with Samuel Kerrich, D.D., Vicar of Dersingham, Rector of Wolferton and Rector of

West Newton, ed. Albert Hartshorne (1905), p. 69.

Lay people and the clergy

39

Quakers paid their tithes and that failure to pay was more likely to be evidence of poverty than of religious conviction. However, in spite of an increase of cases overall there were relatively few tithe disputes in the ecclesiastical courts in the first half of the eighteenth century. Even if many clergy were not receiving all their dues, the system had certainly not broken down. Most lay people seem to have paid at least a proportion of what the clergy were entitled to without much resistance. As has been observed, 'Tithe itself, whatever its individual vexations and even harassments, cannot plausibly be characterised as a crippling burden weighing down the landed interest.' 70 Trouble arose only when old and accustomed ways were disturbed. When a new incumbent arrived and wanted to tighten up the system, parishioners felt aggrieved and might resist. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that incumbents did not move very often and that the arrival of a new incumbent anxious to collect all his dues only happened once every generation or so, so that people forgot that his predecessor had in his turn reviewed the tithes and caused their fathers much irritation. The arrival of a new incumbent must have been viewed with foreboding by parishioners. Next to tithe, the most considerable factor in an eighteenthcentury incumbent's income was glebe land, which he either farmed himself or let. This too could have considerable repercussions for the attitudes of parishioners towards a clergyman. Possession of glebe land did not place clergy amongst the considerable landowners of the community. Whether the incumbent leased his glebe or farmed it himself had implications for lay-clergy relationships. As in the case of tithe, probably most relationships between incumbents and the tenants of their glebes were entirely satisfactory and businesslike. However, if clergy were not local men familiar with local agricultural practices, they could be vulnerable to their parishioners. Sharing in the major occupation of the great majority of their parishioners helped clergy to establish close links with their people. They spoke the same language and shared the same vicissitudes and successes. Their incomes reflected those of their parishioners. For example, in Lancashire, clerical incomes were higher in the south Lancashire parishes where agriculture was prosperous, and lower in the 69

Gregory, Archbishop, Cathedral and Parish, p. 157.

70

Evans, Tithe, p. 405.

4O

Lay people and religion

northern moorland parishes. Perhaps a priest who was respected as a farmer would also be respected as a man of God, providing always that he was a competent farmer. The average parsonage house, in the midst of its farm buildings, must have had much in common with the larger farm houses, consisting of a hall, still serving its medieval purpose as the principal living room, and a kitchen and perhaps a parlour or study with rooms over them. Such a house would have identified the clergy with the middling ranks of their parishioners, with the farmers and successful tradesmen. There is an impression that the established Church during this period was everywhere under steady pressure to lay on services and to provide a regular, if not a permanent, presence in all corners of the land. It was anxious to respond and to maintain existing services even in places where the number who attended them was paltry. 72 The needs of such places, where neither the endowment of the benefice nor the incomes of the parishioners could adequately support a resident incumbent, were met, as has been seen, by an elaborate network of pluralism, which ensured that in most parishes there would be at least one Sunday service and sermon and that a priest was within reach for the administration of the occasional offices and in case of sickness. It is too easy to condemn the eighteenth-century Church for not fulfilling the expectations of the nineteenth-century innovation of a resident clergyman in every parish. There is little evidence that eighteenth-century parishioners thought that they were being inadequately served. The impressionistic evidence is that there was little active criticism of the clergy. The average parishioner probably preferred only to attend church once on a Sunday. The morning service, of morning prayer, litany and the holy communion service, with the sermon after the Creed, ending after the Prayer for the whole State of Christ's Church ..., was long. Normally where a clergyman had two parishes to care for, he alternated between morning and afternoon services in alternate weeks. However, even in the vast and remote York diocese in 1743, 383 of 836 parishes had two services on a Sunday.73 There is little evidence of complaints by lay people about 71 72 73

Albers, Seeds of Contention, p. 72. Geoffrey Holmes, Augustan England: Professions, State and Society 1680-1730 (1982), p. 103. Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns 1743, ed. S. L. Ollard and P. C. Walker, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, 71, 72, 75, 77 (1928-30), 71, p. 104.

Lay people and the clergy

41

clergy for failing to conduct Sunday services. In the Archdeaconry of Leicester in the period up to 1714, only 7 per cent of the clergy were cited on the complaint of churchwardens for neglecting Sunday services, and two-thirds of these were cited before 1688. 74 Catechising was regarded as an important part of the clerical role, by which clergy attempted to establish a rudimentary understanding of the Anglican faith in the young. Although visitation records suggest that clergy were willing catechisers, some parishioners were unwilling to send their children and servants to be catechised. Some clergy took pains to ensure that each family in the parish was supplied with a catechism for family use. The vicar of Cranbrook in Kent, John Johnson, observed in his 1716 visitation return that 'many people . . . are exceeding backwards in sending their youth to be catechised, yet I find they commonly teach them catechism in their houses'.75 It is clear that lay people expected clergy to visit the sick and pray with them, presumably using the Prayer Book Order for the Visitation of the Sick, and in extremis^ administer holy communion. At Llanfechell in Anglesey in January 1752 'about 5 in the evening word was brought [to the rector] to come to William Davies who was then near expiring, he went there and having read to him, and scarce finished the Recommendatory Prayer he dyed a little before 6'. Refusal to visit the sick caused great offence to parishioners. The curate of Churchkirk in Lancashire was presented in 1733 for, among other 'notorious offences', four cases of refusing to visit the sick.77 Clergy were looked to to write wills for people. The Order for the Visitation of the Sick enjoined drawing up a will, and some seventeenth- and eighteenth-century editions of the Prayer Book included a printed preamble to be used for this purpose. Robert Meeke noted once that 'Was desired to go to G. Thorp's to make his will, which I did'. 78 However, they may have been called upon merely because they were literate, or may have been neutral and trustworthy in tense family situations. Jeffery Whitaker, a Baptist 74 75

78

Pruett, Parish Clergy, p . 132. J e r e m y Gregory, T h e Eighteenth Century Reformation: T h e Pastoral Task of Anglican Clergy after 1689, m '^le Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, H a y d o n a n d Taylor, pp. 72-3. Evans, Social Life, p . 175. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p . 264. Extracts from the Diary of the Rev. Robert Meeke, ed. Henry James Morehouse (Huddersfield,

1874), p. 34.

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and a schoolmaster in Bratton in Wiltshire, also noted that he wrote wills for people. 79 Probably clergy were well aware that the average lay person had not enthused over the various attempts to tighten up on moral and spiritual discipline by Anglicans, Independents and Presbyterians in the 1630s, 1640s and 1650s. They therefore probably did not inquire too closely into people's lives. Pastoral rigorism was not much liked by parishioners, as Samuel Wesley discovered to his cost. In small fairly tight-knit communities it was probably right to assume that it was not necessary to visit very much and that it was acceptable for clergy to wait until they were invited to intervene, or a situation was sufficiently scandalous for intervention. Robert Meeke occasionally noted: 'Being desir'd, I went to make an end of a difference betwixt two or three neighbours, but could not.3 Or in the following year (1693), 'Went to meet Mr Browne, to make away a difference between two neighbours. To make peace is good work, but difficult persons are willful and vengeful. We concluded upon what seemed to agree them. But they would not submit.' Fallen human nature was intractable material on which to work. There were surprisingly few formal complaints by lay people against the clergy. The evidence from areas as disparate as Cumberland, Devon, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Northumberland and Norfolk has produced few complaints against clergy for moral lapses or failure to fulfil their spiritual duties. It is often claimed that the laity had very low expectations of the clergy and condoned their waywardness. The evidence suggests that people had high expectations of the clergy and were particularly hostile towards sexual misbehaviour by them. Only twenty Leicestershire clergy were cited to the ecclesiastical courts for moral offences between 1662 and 1714 (less than 2 per cent of the clergy serving in the archdeaconry during the period).81 Between 1739 and 1800 only seven cases of immorality were brought against clergy in Devon, and two were dismissed.82 Given the vulnerability of clergy to the complaints of disgruntled parishioners over tithe and other infringements of reputation, it would have been tempting for a parishioner 79

80 82

The Diaries ofjeffery Whitaker, Schoolmaster of Bratton 1739-41, ed. Marjorie Reeves and Joan Morrison, Wiltshire Record Society, 44 (1989), p . 7. 81 Diary of Robert Meeke, pp. 57 and 60. Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 129. Arthur Warne, Church and Society in Eighteenth Century Devon, Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds (1963), p. 104.

Lay people and the clergy with a grudge to find fault with a clergyman for a failure to observe some aspect of canon law and expose him, if there was anything to expose, for immorality or drunkenness. Such cases were few and far between. The two most discreditable temptations to which clergy were exposed were drink and sex. Such cases were treated very seriously by bishops and their officials. In general, however, there were few presentments of clergy for drunkenness. In the visitation returns between 1705 and 1723 for the Archdeaconries of Lincoln and Stow, comprising the whole of the large county of Lincolnshire, only three cases of inebriety were reported among the clergy. Cases of sexual misconduct are equally rare and were equally severely dealt with. Between 1700 and 1750 four cases of sexual immorality were brought in Norfolk against clergy. During Bishop Wilson's tenure of the diocese of Sodor and Man from 1697 to 1753 there were only three cases of sexual misconduct. Scandal, it would seem, was not rife among the clergy. Parishioners had clear expectations of the behaviour of the clergy and in small, close-knit communities it was difficult to get away with much without other people knowing about it. The Bishop of Chester heard a private 'Denunciation 5 of 'Mr Winter' for 'breaking a Bottle of wine devoted to the Sacrament with an imprecacion and Curse of it and the parishioners, rashly pronounced with religious fervour, passion and Tears'. The Bishop exhorted him 'to repentance of this sin, especially and gives him a most grave and pathetical admonicions to live soberly, piously and peaceably for the future'. 85 Parishioners and bishops who took such matters so seriously were unlikely to have condoned more serious offences. There were also occasional cases against clergy for neglect of duty. The patron of Wood Rising in Norfolk presented the rector for neglecting the spiritual welfare of his parish. 86 In 1746 a case was brought against the curate of Great Yarmouth for 'deserting' his parish and 'presuming to Substitute another Clergy man to serve the said cure . . . without consulting the Bishop'. 87 It is impossible to 83 84 85

86 87

Charles Brears, Lincolnshire in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1940), p. i n . Keble, Thomas Wilson, Vol. 1, pp. 142 and 283. The Diary of Henry Prescott, LL.B., Deputy Registrar of Chester Diocese, ed. J o h n Addy, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 127 (1987), p . 118. N R O N D R A C T 87 Consistory Court Act Books 1710-11. N R O N D R A C T 98 Consistory Court Act Books 1744-45.

43

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estimate the substance of these cases, for no further details emerge in the court books. Although there is strong evidence that the Christian religion, and the Church of England in particular, were in good heart during most of the first half of the eighteenth century, it is also clear that the clergy and bishops were often unpopular. The evidence, however, suggests that anti-clericalism did not necessarily imply antipathy towards the Christian faith. Numerous examples illustrate this. William Bulkeley of Llanfechell is revealed as violently anti-clerical in his diary. He writes bitterly of a sermon wherein cthe Wisdom of the Church (explained therein to be the Clergy only) is highly magnified throughout'. His deepest resentment was reserved for the 'pretensions' of the clergy, whether to wisdom or to riches. This theme runs throughout the diary. Sermons were condemned as 'suited to the Knavish principle of the order', 'full of priestly craft and cant', and on 6 July 1740 he wrote gleefully that 'The Parson . . . dogmatically expatiated on ye hypocrisy and other vices of the Pharisees, but took care to conceal from his hearers that these which Christ charges with these vices were 00 generally PRIESTS.' Similarly Lord Fitzwilliam condemned the new incumbent at Marholm as scheming and grasping in his attempts to levy a church rate to pay for repaving the chancel floor, when he had apparently taken the old paving slabs for use at the parsonage. 89 There was often a sharp edge to the relationship between clergy and laity, and an impression that anything might be believed of the clergy. Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George II contains much animus against the clergy, and in a particularly pungent aside, alleges that Thomas Hayter, the Bishop of Norwich, was a natural son of 'Blackburne, the jolly old Archbishop of York'. 90 Fielding depicts unpleasant examples of anti-clericalism in the baiting and ridicule of Parson Adams by the hunting squire in Joseph Andrews, When Lady Booby takes her guests to Adams's house for them to see his daughter Fanny, she 'told them, if they pleased she would divert 88

G. Nesta Evans, Religion and Politics in Mid-Eighteenth Century Anglesey (Cardiff, 1953), p. 9 9 -

89

Correspondence of Lord Fitzwilliam, p. 218. N o r m a n Sykes, T h e Buccaneer Bishop: Lancelot Blackburne 1658-1743, Church Quarterly Review, 129 (1940), pp. 81-95. A writer in the Quarterly Review in 1822, reviewing Walpole's Memoirs, quoted 'extracts from the registers of the parish of Chagford in Devonshire which prove that Bishop T h o m a s Hayter was the son of George Hayter rector of this parish and Grace his wife'.

100. 90

Lay people and the clergy

45

them with one of the most ridiculous Sights they had ever seen, which was an old foolish Parson, who, she said laughing, kept a Wife and six Brats on a Salary of twenty Pounds a Year, adding, that there was not such a ragged Family in the Parish'. 91 Satirical prints, which sold in very large numbers, depict the clergy as more interested in good living than in matters spiritual, as casual in their attitude to the money they handed out on behalf of others as any in secular employment, and as fond of the alehouse as their parishioners. 92 There were also violently anti-clerical publications. In Glamorgan, for example, there was a libellous diatribe against the clergy of Llandaff Cathedral and their staff. In 1732 Sir Edward Thomas of Wenroe wrote a ferociously anti-clerical Shortview of the English clergy from 1066 to 1688 proving how frequently their interests had been contrary to those of the nation. 94 There could be sharply hostile reactions to clergy at all levels of society. A chaplain to George II reported that Archbishop Potter, who had unwisely become identified with Frederick, Prince of Wales, twice sought interviews with the King and was twice refused. When he did obtain an audience, it was reported that 'the interview closed with the King telling him "He was a Man of a little dirty Heart" \ 9 5 In Parliament too, anti-clericalism was rife. There were a series of bills attacking the Church and the authority of the clergy after 1715. The Select Vestries Bill in 1716 sought to destroy the power of the select vestries of the metropolitan parishes outside the City, to undermine the authority of clergy and churchwardens and to deprive charity-school trustees of power to appoint teachers, admit children and raise subscriptions. The bill passed the Commons, but was defeated in the Lords through the activities of Archbishop Wake. 96 In 1716, there were rumours of bills to regulate the universities and to control charity schools. In 1717 the Occasional Conformity and Test Acts, which were regarded by many Anglicans as essential to defend the Church of England from dissenters, were under attack. 7 The Commissioners for Building Fifty New Churches were constantly 91 92 93 94

97

Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews (Oxford, 1970), pp. 218 and 280. John Miller, Religion and the Popular Prints 1660—1832 (Cambridge, 1986), p. 33. Margaret Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories .Popular Fiction and its Readership in Seventeenth Century England (1981), p. 220. Philip Jenkins, The Making of a Ruling Class: The Glamorgan Gentry 1640-iygo (Cambridge, 1983), p. 163. Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain, p . 127. Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity, p. 154. G. V. Bennett, The Tory Crisis in Church and State 1688-1730 (Oxford, 1975), p. 214.

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frustrated in their attempt between 1723 and 1730 to secure a bill to set out the rights and claims of patrons, incumbents and parishioners of the parishes in which the new parishes were being created, as well as the endowments for the new parishes. 98 During the 1730s there were a series of unsuccessful anti-clerical bills, including a bill preventing bishops being translated from one diocese to another, a bill limiting the activities of the ecclesiastical courts and a bill requiring church rates to be approved by a magistrate and not the vestry. In 1735 it looked as though the regular bill brought forward for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts would be passed in the next session, it seemed that there would be government support for a bill sponsored by the Quakers to transfer jurisdiction for the payment of tithes from the ecclesiastical courts to justices of the peace, and a bill was introduced to prevent clandestine marriages, which would have interfered with the Church's jurisdiction over marriage. 99 The only successful piece of anti-clerical legislation was the Mortmain Act in 1736. This attacked the many charitable corporations and institutions established since the 1680s to promote corporate philanthropy, especially Queen Anne's Bounty and the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy. It proposed to void any gift of land or money unless it was made by deed, executed in the presence of two or more witnesses, twelve months before the grantor's death. Large majorities in both Houses welcomed the bill and expressed distrust of all charity, particularly ecclesiastical charity, and concern to safeguard the financial interests of a testator's family against avaricious clergy. Although the bill provided exemptions for the universities, and was ill-drafted and easy to evade, it marked, as will be seen, a decline in bequests and gifts to charities. 100 A further constitutional blow against the Church was struck in 1736, by the common law, when, in the case ofMiddleton v. Croft, Lord Hardwicke, the ChiefJustice of the King's Bench, held that the post-Reformation canons and enactments of Convocation were binding on the laity only in so far as they had been specifically confirmed by statute. 101 The question remains why people who regarded the Christian 98 99 100 101

The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches, ed. M. H. L. Port, London Record Society, 23 (1986), p . xxx. T. J . F. Kendrick, Sir Robert Walpole, the O l d Whigs a n d the Bishops 1733-36, Historical Journal, 11 (1968), pp. 421-45. Gareth Jones, The History of the Law of Charity 1532-1827 (Cambridge, 1969), p p . 110-13. Clark, English Society, p . 305.

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religion as central to their lives should have been so hostile to the clergy. William Bulkeley, as has been noted, was a devout man, charitable, regular in church attendance and prayer, an avid reader of sermons. Lord Hardwicke took care in exercising his patronage as Lord Chancellor, and lavished funds on building a parish church at Wimpole. 102 Yet both were harshly critical of the clerical estate. A number of answers may be suggested. Orthodox church people were deeply disturbed by what they regarded as the prevalence of heterodox beliefs in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries undermining the authority of the Church. The lapsing of the legislation to control the press in 1695 was thought to have contributed to a collapse of Christian faith and standards, by allowing satire against the Christian religion and its ministers. Polemic against Christianity gave a prominent place to the unworthy lives and extravagant claims of the clergy, and claimed that priestcraft was the greatest of all evils. Fuel was added to this by the suspicion that some divines themselves, such as Bishop Hoadly of Bangor, had denied the authority of the Church (and, for that matter, the State) and had implied the truth of Deism. 103 The pamphlet warfare that raged over these issues illustrated the strength and resilience of the orthodox in the Church, but also drew attention to the temptations of intolerance and bombast that did little credit to the clergy. There were a wide range of anti-clerical writers, for example Hobbes, Bayle and Mandeville, who alleged that throughout history clergy had conspired to defraud and oppress the general populace, by dint of imposition and superstition keeping the population in such ignorance and fear that people willingly paid good money for the illusory services rendered by the priestly caste. It was claimed that true religion was inward, 'spiritual' and 'moral 5. Underlying this was an assumption that supernatural revelation, as traditionally understood, was irrelevant or impossible, or a distortion of natural theology. As a consequence, it might be assumed that the outward signs of sacraments and religious observance were all ultimately dispensable. Although it is unlikely that the average country gentleman, like William Bulkeley, or even the average Member of Parliament or peer had read these works, the evidence of Bulkeley's 102 103

Pevsner, Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, pp. 492-3. John Redwood, Reason, Ridicule and Religion: The Age of Enlightenment in England 1660-1750 (1976), pp. 174-80.

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diary, at least, suggests that in the 1730s such ideas had wide currency. The social position of the clergy may also have brought them into disrepute and encouraged anti-clericalism. The clergy, as has been seen, were recruited predominantly from urban professional backgrounds and from the middling sort in general. In many instances their social and educational accomplishments may have been modest, on a par with those other objects of popular satire, the small country landowner and better-off farmer. Some may also have been conservative and unfashionable in their views and have been dogmatic and bigoted, or even confused, in the way they expressed ideas. It is not surprising that they should so often have been the object of the raillery of freethinkers and gentlemen-about-town.104 J o h n Eachard in The Grounds and Occasion of the Contempt of the Clergy and

Religion,firstpublished in 1670, felt that scorn for the clergy was so widespread that it could safely be taken for granted. He believed that the clergy were held in contempt quite simply because of cthe Ignorance of some and the Poverty of others'. Stillingfleet repeated this view in Ecclesiastical Cases Relating to the Rights and Duties of the

Parochial Clergy, published in 1698, and Thomas Bray also grounded his appeal for clerical libraries on 'the contempt of the priestly office'. Whether such descriptions were true or false, it made the clergy objects of modest amusement or criticism among the more 'enlightened' groups who, if not opinion-formers for their contemporaries, have left the evidence by which historians have been influenced. Similarly the majority of the bishops were men of middling origins who were social interlopers in the small aristocratic House of Lords, although their numbers were sufficient to swing votes against the established views and interests of the aristocracy. It is not hard to see how a general attitude of anti-clericalism might develop among opinion-formers. A further factor is the tensions that from time to time focused on clergy, individually or corporately, over the collection of tithe. Even though relatively few cases of failure to pay tithe came to court, resentment might be present, especially if an incumbent attempted to assert himself, or tithe payers attempted to take advantage of him. There were also improvements in the management of episcopal and dean and chapter estates, by shortening leases, and increases in fines 104

C. J. Abbey, The English Church and its Bishops (2 vols., 1887), Vol. 1, p. 93.

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49

for the renewal of leases. University colleges were buying advowsons to increase the opportunities for fellows to acquire livings. Queen Anne's Bounty was providing funds for the purchase of new land to augment benefice incomes. In general, the financial position of clergy was improving, in ways that might be felt as threatening the landed interest. Occasional outbursts of animosity or ill-will, as was seen in the debates about the Mortmain Act, are not surprising. Perhaps, however, one of the major causes of anti-clericalism was political. During the last years of the seventeenth and the first years of the eighteenth century, as a result of the Revolution Settlement, and especially the Toleration Act of 1689, n e w ways were sought to re-establish the Church and restore it as the national Church. During Anne's reign the clergy identified themselves closely with the Tory interest. This was politically highly significant, for the clergy presented a block of anything from a hundred to four hundred freehold voters in any English county. By the nature of their office, controlling the pulpit, the major platform in any town or village for the propagation of ideas, they were the most effective canvassers any party could possess. They were accused of using their pulpits to promote the welfare of the Church by political means. During Anne's reign this had often involved them in using sermons to attack the moderate 'Men of Party', Godolphin, Marlborough and Harley, especially during the 'rage of party' during Dr SacheverelPs trial and its aftermath. 106 This major involvement of many clergy on the Tory side at the end of Anne's reign, followed by the loss of power by the Tories following Anne's death, and the suspicion that many clergy did not look with much enthusiasm on the Hanoverian succession, does much to explain the animosity expressed towards the clergy, especially in Parliament, by the Whig majorities in the Commons. Much antagonism stemmed from the fear and resentment which the highchurch campaign had instilled into Whig politicians. Those who had lived through the Sacheverell crisis could not forget the raw passions aroused, and were resolved that churchmen should never again be in a position to inflame popular sentiment. The success of the Church, largely brought about by devout and energetic laymen, however, caused people to be suspicious of the 105 106

G. F. A. Best, Temporal Pillars: Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Church of England (Cambridge, 1964), p . 96. Geoffrey Holmes, The Trial o/Dr Sacheverell (1973), p . 44.

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ambitions of the clergy. The success, as will be seen, of the charity schools, the SPCK, the SPG and the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy in attracting substantial donations, building new churches and rebuilding and refitting old ones were all significant in improving the position of the clergy. All this might lead people to anticipate that they were experiencing the beginnings of a counter-reformation, and to feel that the supposed power of the clergy needed to be questioned and reigned in. The clergy were not without their defenders. Fielding, for example, seems concerned to rescue the clergy from the contempt in which many contemporaries held them. By making Parson Adams in Joseph Andrews a staunch Whig, he asserted that some clergy, at least, were loyal to the Hanoverian succession. In Amelia the young deacon who accompanied Dr Harrison to Vauxhall, where they were insulted by two anti-clerical rakes, reacted thus: 'It is a scandal to the government that they do not preserve more respect for the clergy, by punishing all rudeness to them with the utmost severity.5 Dr Harrison, however, considered divine sanctions to be more appropriate, and suggested that some of their order brought the whole profession into disrepute by their scandalous behaviour. Fielding thus promoted the Church Whig view that the clergy should command respect by their behaviour, rather than seek its enforcement by the State. The true honour of the clerical estate is emphasised when Dr Harrison observes that 'The lowest clergyman in England is in real dignity superior to the highest nobleman. 5 He regretted that poverty made clergy dependent on patrons, and considered that dependence upon a patron was incompatible with the spiritual obligations of the clerical profession. 107 However, even as poor a clergyman as Parson Adams contrived to be sturdily independent. He publicly rebuked Mr Booby and Pamela for laughing in church at the wedding of Joseph Andrews and Fanny Goodwill.108 Throughout the period there was an uneasy balance of attitudes towards the clergy, between a harsh, critical anti-clericalism and a genuine care for the Christian faith and its ministers. Sometimes the same person can be found expressing both attitudes at different times. Perhaps such apparently conflicting views are only to be 108

Henry Fielding, Amelia (2 vols., 1930), Vol. 11, pp. 157 and 159. See Joseph Andrews, p. 344. For a discussion o\ of this see W. A. Speck, Society and Literature in England 1700-1760 (Dublin, 1983), pp. 159-61.

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expected when social groups are thrown together which, while having much in common, also had strongly conflicting interests. It may have been significant to ask with whom a clergyman was popular or unpopular. Could the same approach to preaching and to pastoral care appeal to the separating social and interest groups in a town or village? Sophisticated theological expositions might appeal to the readers of the Gentleman's Magazine and the flood of devotional literature and theological literature, but not to the unlettered members of the congregation. Simple expositions of the Christian faith and the catechism, along with moral exhortation, may have appealed to the simpler members of the congregation, but may have bored those who regarded themselves as sophisticated.

CHAPTER 3

Public religious practice

Communal festivities in the first half of the eighteenth century focused on the parish church and its worship. Public life was taken into the church when civic leaders attended worship weekly in state. The geographical identity of the parish was defined when the congregation went out of church in procession to perambulate the parish boundaries. Fairs and festivities were drawn into church for their annual services, and processions of 'mummers 5 and singers left the church at local festivals to seek 'largess'. People seem habitually to have attended church as an expression of their sense of communal identity before God. Sermons and lectures were attentively listened to. People seem to have enjoyed sermons, and there was a strong market for printed sermons. For those seeking a more personal expression of worship, with time to reflect on their spiritual development, and to plan good works together, the late seventeenth century saw the development of religious societies which provided an opportunity for a voluntary semi-public act of witness to faith in works. Their emphasis on the use of the Prayer Book at their meetings suggests that, whilst there may have been some desire for independence from the clerically led worship of the parish church, there was no unhappiness with orderly Anglican worship. Evidence for church attendance in a pre-statistical age is limited and difficult to evaluate. Generally it has been assumed that until the late seventeenth century the whole population, except for a few notorious laggards, attended their parish church, but, after the Toleration Act of 1689, the majority of people fell away. The view of Humphrey Prideaux, Archdeacon of Suffolk in 1692, about the effects of the Toleration Act has often been quoted: now such liberty is given to others, it cannot be avoyded but everyone takes to doe what he pleases in matters of religion, it being too difficult a matter 52

Public religious practice

53

to distinguish between these absentees from church that goe to conventicles, and those that doe not, that everyone now is free to do what he pleaseth. It is generally assumed that after 1689 most of the population were non-church-goers, and that when they did attend they were 'only a surly captive audience'. 2 Certainly after 1689 there were relatively few prosecutions in the ecclesiastical courts for non-attendance at church. It has been suggested that there was a fear that any use of the church courts against those who did not attend their parish church would drive them into the arms of dissent, not out of conviction, but as a cynical expedient to obtain the protection of the Toleration Act.3 A closer examination of the evidence suggests that this assumption needs reconsideration. Bahlman has pointed out that one way of showing defiance ofJames IFs romanising tendencies was to throng the churches, and that this wave of piety did not disappear with the accession of William and Mary. 4 However, it may have been more than a reaction against romanising that contributed to significant church attendance. People's public religious observances illustrate a complex interaction between religion and its social context. The church building was the main gathering place of the community, and at Sunday services the community assembled there in due order. Church attendance played an important social as well as religious role in people's lives. It offered an opportunity for people both to make sense of their lives in relation to God in the context of the liturgy, and to identify themselves in relation to each other within the context of local society. The church united the parish into a community, a unit to which people were conscious of belonging and which distinguished them from their neighbours in adjacent parishes. The building gave a communal sense of continuity with the past and of present unity, for it served as the one meeting place in the parish. Nowhere else was the community so united. Old and young, men and women, rich and poor, only met all together in church on Sundays. 5 All important public announcements were made there. People even took their dogs to church with them. Payments by churchwardens to a parish officer for whipping, presumably unruly, dogs out of church are very 1 2 3

5

H.M.C. Fifth Report and Appendix, Part I: MSS ofj. R. Pine-Coffin, Esq. (1876), p. 376. Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1982), p . 190. M. G. Smith, Pastoral Discipline and the Church Courts: Hexham Court 1680-1750 (York, 1982), P. 3 1 Dudley W . R. Bahlman, The Moral Revolution of 1688 (New Haven, 1957), p . 67. Hey, English Rural Community, p. 218.

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frequent, for example at Prestwich, near Manchester (where he was also paid for keeping children quiet and orderly), in 1736, and at Barrow on Humber in 1716. Not to attend one's parish church on Sundays, at least fairly regularly, was to exclude oneself from the local community, and not to belong. Parish churches as social institutions played an important role in transcending social barriers and in binding together the civic community and in mediating the shock of urban society for emigrants from the countryside. 7 In a world in which people were concerned about death and salvation, religious worship was important, but they took a practical view and fitted it around their daily lives. They frequently fell short of the expectations of pious clergy and laity, who lamented that the average citizen was not living up to the standard of frequent communion, attendance at two services on Sundays and daily services on weekdays, which has led to the assumption that irreligion reigned, whereas in fact most people were committed to their faith according to their own standards. The evidence for church attendance is mostly circumstantial and haphazard, based on episcopal visitation returns, occasional parish records, and diaries. However, it does offer a wide geographical spread from Newcastle to Cornwall and from Hull to Carmarthen, including rural and urban parishes. 8 There do not appear to be striking regional variations in attendance at public worship. 'A great congregation' at Llanfechell Church in Anglesey is a far more frequent occurrence in the squire's diary than a 'thin congregation'. Indeed, a 'thin congregation' always required an explanation, either of severe weather or sickness.10 This level of church attendance seems to have been general in the diocese of Bangor in the mid eighteenth century. In Cornwall in the 1740s, the vicar of St Just noted that the average attendance 'in the forenoon on Sundays was 1,000 and in the afternoon 500'. In 1778 the incumbents of Birkenhead, Bromborough, Heswall and Stoak in the Wirral all replied that 6

7 8 9

10

J. Charles Cox, Churchwardens' Accounts From the Fourteenth Century to the Close of the Seventeenth

Century (1913), p. 309, and M. W. Barley, Barrow on Humber Town Book, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Reports and Papers, 2, 1 (1938). P. J. Corfield, The Impact of English Towns iyoo-1800 (Oxford, 1982), p. 138. Mather, Georgian Churchmanship Reconsidered, pp. 255-83, provides valuable information about religious practice in the second half of the century, but little about the first half. As suggested by John Walsh and Stephen Taylor in The Church and Anglicanism in the Long Eighteenth Century, in The Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, Haydon and Taylor, p. 12. Evans, Religion and Politics, pp. 17-19.

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all their parishioners attended church, and at Thurlaston the incumbent listed the fourteen people who regularly absented themselves from all public worship. Ralph Thoresby noted that when he went to hear Dr Kennet preach in London on Sunday 13 February 1709 he 'found the church so crowded, that scarce get in at the door, yet pressed forward and stood in the alley [aisle] the whole time'. 12 On 19 February 1707 William Nicolson, the Bishop of Carlisle, noted that when he preached for Dr Kennet in the morning and for Dr Wake in the afternoon at their London churches, both churches were crowded. The clergy's replies to the visitation questions about church attendance in the diocese of Oxford in 1738 and the diocese of York in 1743 suggest that few people 'commonly absented themselves from divine worship'. 14 Henry Purefoy of Shalstone usually attended church twice on Sundays. However, when the vicar was ill in March 1743, Purefoy commented: 'It will be no matter if wee have no church at all fore one Sunday.' The Sussex shopkeeper Thomas Turner was a regular attender and expressed considerable remorse when he fell short of his intention of weekly attendance. He also attended church on the occasion of public fasts.16 It seems clear that many of the labouring classes, even in a rapidly urbanising and industrialising county, were regularly attending Sunday services. In their answers to the visitation returns in 1778, half the clergy in Lancashire reported that 'few' or 'none' of their parishioners were absent from church on Sundays. The rector of Aughton listed by name the six people who regularly absented themselves. The curate of Garston reported that although no one in his chapelry was above the rank of 'Farmers, labourers, Mechanics and Fishermen', only a few of the elderly were absent from church on Sundays.17 Sometimes clergy recognised good reasons for not attending church. At Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire it was reported that 11 12 13 14 15 1

Rodney J. Pope, The Eighteenth Century Church in the Wirral, MA thesis, St David's University College, 1971, pp. 162-3. Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 11, p. 42. Clyve Jones and Geoffrey Holmes (eds.), The London Diaries of William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle 1J02-1J18 (Oxford, 1985), p. 416. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, passim, and Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, passim. Purefoy Letters, Vol. 1, p. 20. l? Diary of Thomas Turner, passim. Albers, Seeds of Contention, pp. 134-5.

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There are a great many yt come but seldom; their Pretence various: want of clothes, Distance from Church, a family of small children, Absence from home, &c. All ye meaner sort, their numbers not increas'd, none professing disregard to all religion; yt I know of. I am not so well acquainted with some of my parishioners as I should otherwise be because ye lower end all go to Henly church or Harding and many of ye upper end to Nettlebed. At Wimbledon in Surrey in 1758 the incumbent illustrates why a second Sunday service might be neglected: I believe the reason of there not being service in the afternoon during the winter is the morning service is seldom over till near one o'clock, and the houses being at a considerable distance from the church the families could not dine and return to church before it was dark. It being a long and dirty walk on foot.19 There are very few clergy who echo the comments of the vicar of Wallington in Oxfordshire: there are a great many that seldom come to Church, nor I believe go to any place of public worship. Some for want of a sense of Religion through a very mean condition; others attending their shops and trades, wch I have endeavoured to prevent but I can't without the interposition of authority. Presentments for non-attendance at church were uncommon, but they did not entirely disappear. In Lincolnshire, parish constables, in articles dated 15 May 1715, were required to answer, at the assizes, 'of all popish recusants, and all other persons whatsoever, not coming to the church to hear divine service, and all persons that use to frequent constanticles [sic] and meeting under pretence or colour of religion contrary law5. In 1717—19 'absentees from church' were presented at the court in Banbury. In the Michaelmas law term in 1738 in the Archdeacon of Oxford's court, twelve of the sixty-two cases were for non-attendance at church. 23 In 1758 the churchwardens from Masbury and Huntshaw in Devon presented six and eight people respectively for non-attendance. 24 In the diocese of Carlisle there were occasional campaigns against notorious sabbath-breakers. In 1733 three grocers were presented in Carlisle for 'following [their] 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, pp. 47, 122 and 126. Parson and Parish in Eighteenth Century Surrey: Replies to Bishops' Visitations, ed. W. R. Ward, Surrey Record Society, 34 (1994), p . 170. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, p. 164. Barley, Barrow on H u m b e r Town Book, p . 16. The Churchwardens' Presentments in the Oxfordshire Peculiars of Dorchester, Thame and Banbury, ed. Sidney A. Peyton, Oxfordshire Record Society, 10 (1928), p . 224. Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford, p . 79. Warne, Church and Society, pp. 75-6.

Public religious practice worldly employment on the Lord's Day', and in 1742 six barbers were presented for the same offence.25 On Sunday 25 April 1756 Thomas Turner and his fellow overseer of the poor at East Hoathly in Sussex 'went out and searched the public houses . . . we came back just as people were coming out of Church'. 26 Cases are sufficiently rare to suggest that they may represent evidence of local disputes and wider questions of nonconformity. Sunday morning service included holy communion in most towns on one Sunday in the month plus Christmas and Easter, whereas in most villages it was celebrated three or four times a year, at Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and Michaelmas. However, if there were large numbers of communicants, there might be two or three celebrations around Christmas and Easter. On a communion Sunday in a substantial town like Almondbury in Yorkshire the full Sunday morning service could last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Numbers could be very large. At Ripon it was noted, 'On Easter day are always near a Thousand Communicants and sometimes more: besides ye Communicants on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.' 27 By contrast, in Lancashire in 1778 in Hale chapelry, outside Liverpool there were 100 communicants on Easter Day out of 106 households. At Easter 1704 Henry Prescott, the deputy registrar of the diocese of Chester, noted that he received communion in a 'crowded congregation' at Chester. 28 At Newcastle, John Wesley noted in his diary on Sunday 14 November that at All Saints' parish church there was 'such a number of communicants that I have scarce seen but at Bristol or London'. 29 At Bath on 18 May 1766 there were estimated to be between 200 and 300 communicants at the weekly communion at the Abbey, including the mayor and aldermen, and 'as many Gentlemen as Ladies (that is common elsewhere) some few poor persons and . . . one Footman with a Shoulder Knot'. However, at Bathwick, just outside the city, there were only six communicants, including the celebrant's wife, on 9 June 1767.30 In their visitation inquiries bishops usually sought information about numbers of communicants. In the answers given by the clergy 25

26 27 29 30

Mary Kinnear, T h e Correction Court in the Diocese of Carlisle 1704-1756, Church History, 59 (I99°)> PP- 191-206. Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 38. 28 Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 71, p. 18 Diary of Henry Prescott, p. 3. The Journal of the Rev John Wesley, A . M., ed. Nehemiah Curnock (8 vols., 1909), Vol. i n , p. 50. Letters from Bath, pp. 125 and 199.

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of the diocese of York in 1743, and of Llandaff in 1763 , there is a striking correlation between the number of families in a parish and the number of Easter communicants. In some cases the figures are identical. At Llonga in Glamorgan, the rector was quite specific: 'There are as many communicants as heads of families in the parish.5 Anne Whiteman has suggested that it may have been fairly usual to count the men, or perhaps the male householders, when quantifying communicants.3 In some parishes, however, the numbers were much higher. In Anglesey at Llanfechell, the squire, William Bulkeley, noted in his diary at Easter 1734, about 170 communicants this day and I do remember severall Easter Days within twenty years last where on Easter Day the Number of Communicants some Easterdays onely (besides ye communicants at Easter Eve) were 260, sometimes 240, but never less than 220 till within this seven or eight years since which a great Mortality destroyed almost half this parish. However, at Easter 1741, including those who communicated on Easter Eve and the sick who were visited in their homes, 300 persons received holy communion. There were between seventy and ninety communicants at Whitsun and Christmas between 1735 and 1752 and an increase to 100-20 between 1752 and 1760. In April 1754 Bulkeley noted that 'The Priest took an account of 102 marryed couples that live at this day in this parish of Llanfechell5, which suggests that most adults communicated at Easter. 33 The replies to Bishop Pearce5s visitation inquiries for Bangor in 1749 suggest that, after making allowance for the young, the old and the infirm, most adults communicated at Easter. 3 However, in the diocese of Ely in the 105 parishes surveyed by Bishop Green in 1728, 2,953 received communion the previous Easter out of 8,284 families recorded in those parishes, which implies that only one in three families were represented. 35 In Lancashire it would seem that there were high rates of communicants in the farming regions of east Lancashire and in the hill country north of the Ribble, but a lesser proportion of people were receiving communion in the weaving parishes of east Lancashire. 36 31 32 33 34 35 36

Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, passim, and Diocese ofLlandaff, p. 196. Anne Whiteman (ed.), The Compton Census of 1676: A Critical Edition (Oxford, 1986), pp. xxxiv—xxxvi. Evans, Religion and Politics, passim. A. I. Pryce, Diocese of Bangor During Three Centuries (Cardiff, 1929), p. xii. Cross, Church and Local Society, pp. 352-3. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p . 102.

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Significantly in Llandaff in 1763, in places where there was a monthly communion the number of communicants was quite small.3 In east Yorkshire, at Holy Trinity, the parish church in Hull, the monthly celebration of communion was increased to a weekly celebration in 1729 because the numbers attending were 'proving too great5. In 1743 it was noted that when there had been a monthly communion there had been about 300 communicants, but now, on the first Sunday in the month, there were about 100 and about 40 on other Sundays, which suggests that there had been a decline in attendance in the previous fourteen years. This pattern was widespread. An impression emerges that in towns, between a third and half of eligible communicants received communion at Easter, with a higher proportion in villages. Large numbers of Easter communicants reflect the survival from the medieval church of the traditional emphasis on communion at Easter as the required minimum for a conforming Anglican. Frequent communion had never been a common practice, and the deterrent of the pre-Reformation emphasis on confession before receiving communion had been succeeded by the post-Reformation emphasis on self-examination and worthy reception of the sacrament, which must also have discouraged many people from more than an annual communion. In Wiltshire fear of damnation through unworthy reception seems to have been an important reason for people staying away from the Lord's Table. 39 At Little Rollright in Oxfordshire the incumbent noted in 1738 that 'The young ones above 16 years old (not withstanding all I can say in Church or Out) are resolved to think [the sacrament] belongs only to elderly people to receive it.' 40 In twenty-six parishes in York diocese the incumbent stated that he had refused communion to a parishioner; reasons included adultery, fornication, 'violent suspicion of fornication', having a bastard child, perjury in a law suit, unlawful wedlock, 'causing variance', open and notorious drunkenness, 'long absence from church', 'not being fourteen years of age', 'a scandalous petition against the incumbent' and 'leaving another Church'. 41 Perhaps fear 37 38 39

40 41

Diocese of Llandaff, p. 195. V C H Yorkshire, East Riding, Vol. I: The City of Kingston upon Hull (Oxford, 1969), p. 290. Donald A. Spaeth, C o m m o n Prayer? Popular Observance of the Anglican Liturgy in Restoration Wiltshire, in Parish, Church and People: Studies in Lay Religion 1350-1750, ed. Susan Wright (1988), p. 135. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, p. 126. Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 71, p. viii.

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of being publicly rejected as a 'notorious evil liver5 deterred some people from receiving holy communion. The claims of the poor that because they had to work so hard to make ends meet they did not have time to prepare for communion were met by the publication of devotional manuals containing simple private prayers to form part of every person's 'closet duty'. 42 Probably the comparative infrequency of communion services was the result of the scarcity of lay people wishing to receive communion frequently, because most had a sense of unworthiness or thought that they lacked the education necessary to receive. It has been estimated that a population of 500 or more inhabitants was required to sustain more than four celebrations a year. Therefore monthly communions were more likely in towns than villages. Viviane Barrie-Curien has suggested that nucleated villages tended to have fewer celebrations of the holy communion than non-nucleated villages because it was more difficult to gather the population from scattered hamlets, and so more frequent celebrations were required to allow people to come a few at a time and that where the local gentry were resident holy communion tended to be more frequent. These suggestions, however, remain unproven. 43 The high regard that people at all levels of society had for the reception of holy communion is illustrated by their desire to receive communion at home when they were ill. Lord Egmont, when his sister-in-law was dying in January 1731, called a priest to give her the sacrament. 44 When Lady Frances Hastings had a bad cold at Christmas 1718 her mother 'had the sacrament in the house', and she received it with her daughter. 45 James Woodforde in his Somerset curacies frequently noted celebrating communion in the houses of sick or dying parishioners. James Newton at Nuneham Courtney in the 1760s frequently read prayers daily by the bedsides of sick parishioners and administered communion at home to those who could not get to church for reasons of ill health or disability.47 The rector of Llanfechell was occupied on Easter Monday and sometimes 4 43 44 45 46 47

Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society, p. 72. Viviane Barrie-Curien, T h e Clergy in the Diocese of London in the Eighteenth Century, in The Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, Haydon and Taylor, p. 100. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Vol. 63 (1920), MSS of the Earl ofEgmont, Vol. 1, p. 124. Hastings Wheler Family Letters 1704^ (Wakefield, 1935), p. 52. The Ansford Diary of James Woodforde Vol. 2 1764-1765, ed. R. L. Winstanley, Parson Woodforde Society (n.p. 1979). The Deserted Village: The Diary of an Oxfordshire Rector, James Newton of Nuneham Courtney 17361763, ed. Gavin Hannah (Gloucester, 1992), pp. 4, 11 and passim.

Public religious practice on subsequent days in the 1730s and 1740s administering the sacrament in their homes to parishioners who were sick.48 The provision of small communion cups and patens for 'the use of the Poor Sick Communicants', for example at St John the Baptist Chester by Mrs Dighton Salmon in 1725, provides further evidence for the practice of communicating people at home. The close relationship between religion and health is illustrated by the practice at Bath of people who had experienced a cure giving thanks at the Sunday morning service at the Abbey. On Sunday 18 May 1766 John Penrose noted that at the communion 'one Gentleman, twelve men and two women belonging to the General Hospital, returned public Thanks for Benefit received by Bath Waters'. 50 Penrose also noted that public intercession was made for the sick, for example when Mr Taylor, the newly elected rector of the Abbey, was very ill.51 Church-going on a daily basis was also quite common. Morning and evening prayers were frequently publicly said daily in parish churches. At St Peter Mancroft in Norwich an annual public subscription was raised from 1680 to pay a clergyman to say morning and evening prayer daily in church. In 1680 fifty-two people (including six women) subscribed £31 os. 5d.; and in 1750, 206 (including thirty women) contributed £33 us. 6d. 52 At King's Lynn the common council of the borough paid a salary of £100 a year to the minister of St Margaret's Church on condition that he read morning and evening prayer daily in church. 53 At least those with leisure attended daily services. John Evelyn attended church twice on Sundays to within a few weeks of his death, and often went to morning prayer on Wednesdays and Fridays. 54 Ralph Thoresby went to morning prayer at 6 a.m. and evening prayer daily at St Paul's Cathedral in summer when he was in London, and at Leeds parish church when he was at home, where a generation later, in 1743, morning prayer was read daily at 11 a.m. and evening prayer twice daily at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. 55 Henry 48 49 50 52 53 54

Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 30. Chester Silver: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Chester Hall-marked Silver, ed. C. N. Moore (Chester, 1984), p. 49. 51 Lettersfrom Bath, p. 125. ibid., p . 201. N R O P D 26/84(5) Norwich St Peter Mancroft Account of Money for Prayer Readers 1680-1759. T h e account book stops in 1759 with no explanation as to why. K L B A C 7 / 1 2 Hall Book 1684-1731. The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer (Oxford, 1955), Vol. v , 1690-1706, passim. Diary ofRalph Thoresby, passim, and Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 72, p. 141.

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Prescott, too, often attended 'early prayers5 and, more occasionally, 'evening prayers5.56 Richard Ford, Senior Alderman and twice Mayor of Bath, was a 'daily Frequenter of Public Worship 5.57 Of Mary Smith, who died on 22 March 1742 in Hull, it was recorded 'God5s Presence in his House she daily sought.558 On a Wednesday in April 1759 'a large Congregation5 was noted at St James's Piccadilly.59 In Lancashire 25 per cent of the churches had services on weekdays at some point during the century. 60 The persecution of which the incumbent of Blaston in Leicestershire complained when in 1700 he attempted to introduce daily prayers in his parish, which resulted in the church bell being stolen, seems unusual, and may have been a symptom of other tensions between the incumbent and his parishioners. Of 135 places of worship listed in London and Southwark, 55 had daily morning prayer and 49 daily evening prayer; of the rest, 76 had morning prayer on Wednesdays, Fridays and holy days. Morning prayer was usually at 11 o'clock, but ten churches had morning prayer at 6 o'clock in summer and at 7 in winter, and St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St James's Piccadilly and St Paul's Covent Garden had morning prayer at 6 or 7 and at 11, to cater for both the industrious poor and the leisured classes.62 At Bath in 1766, the Revd John Penrose went with his wife and daughter to church twice a day, usually at the Abbey, at 11.15 a.m. and 4.15 p.m. On Wednesday 21 May he commented that 'every seat [at the Abbey] quite full, that is quite heavenly5. However, he also recorded that two women of their acquaintance 'never go to Church, nor a multitude besides them, for Fear of Catching Cold: but between five and six o'clock they adorn themselves as richly as they can and away to the Public Room'. He noted that at St James's Bath there was a large congregation of 'the rich and the great5 because 'Service begins later, and (there being no Sermon) is much shorter, and (the Church having but one door) it is much warmer.563 56 57 58 59 61 62 63

Diary of Henry Prescott, passim. Inscription on monument in the south transept of Bath Abbey. He died on 27 May 1733. Inscription on monument at the west end of Holy Trinity, Hull. 6o Deserted Village, p. 26. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p. 102. Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 115. William Best, An Essay upon the Services of the Church of England Considered as Daily Service (1741), p. 10. Lettersfrom Bath, pp. 38, 87, 100, 128, 134,154.

Public religious practice In Oxfordshire and Yorkshire clergy recognised that the demands of work on the land made it difficult to get a congregation in villages for services on weekdays or holy days. The incumbent of Little Rollright commented, 'The Farmers and their men will not leave their work for services on Holydays5, and at South Weston the vicar pertinently noted, cMy parishioners, being such as get their living by daily labours will not, indeed cannot, spare time to attend Publick Prayer every Sts Day as Tradesmen and others in Town can, otherwise I shou'd be very glad to have Prayers on those Days.' 64 At Hessle in east Yorkshire the vicar noted that weekday prayers were suspended during harvest time. The experience of the rector of Nettlebed in Oxfordshire was perhaps more typical of villages: cHe used to toll ye Bell and wait for a Congregation till at last he grew tir'dofitandleftitoff.' 6 6 Despite the attraction of a daily service without a sermon for visitors to Bath, sermons were central to church life. People were often reluctant to go to church if there was not a sermon. At Burstow in Surrey the incumbent noted in 1717 that before he came to the parish there was only a sermon 'but once a day in the Winter 5, but now CI preach twice constantly at the request of the people. 5 In addition to providing an exposition of Christian doctrine and life, sermons might be used to purvey information on behalf of the government and the bishops. In any case the clergy had a responsibility to explain how political and natural events might be interpreted as evidence of the working of God5s providential will in the world around them. Sermons seem to have been listened to and read avidly. The relatively few surviving sermons of parish clergy (apart from those polished for publication by ambitious or successful clerics) show clergy offering clear expositions in homely style, relevant to the needs of their hearers. 68 However, there were criticisms. The Tatler criticised 'The Clergy of Great Britain, who are I believe, the most learned Body of Men in the World: and yet this Art of Speaking, with the proper Ornaments of Voice and Gesture is wholly neglected among 'em'. The criticisms were reiterated the following week: CI 64 65 66 67 68 69

Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, pp. 125 and 140. Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 72, p. 76. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, p. 126. Parson and Parish, p. 152. Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society, p . 18 and N o r m a n Sykes, T h e Sermons of a Country Parson: J a m e s Woodforde in his Pulpit, Theology, 79 (1939). N o . 66, 10 September 1709.

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can't but think your Charge is just against a great Part of the learned Clergy ... who deliver the most excellent discourses with such Coldness and Indifference that 'tis no Wonder the unintelligent Many of their Congregation fall asleep.' The critic doubted whether Bishop Burnet's practice of banging the pulpit cushion was any substitute for oratory. William Bulkely clearly loved listening to sermons, and also bought sermons to read. He timed them and thought fifteen minutes a good length. He disliked the rector's custom of delivering a long sermon in two instalments. On 25 June 1738 he noted ca piece of a Sermon yt lasted seventeen minutes and promised to finish it some other time' and again on 17 September conely a piece of a Sermon of fourteen minutes long, he promised the other piece a fortnight hence, thus it has been always used by this man to make one Sermon last a month'. Bulkely thought the rector's sermons dull, and he often found it difficult to get anything out of them. The evidence suggests that his sermons were more often in Welsh than in English. When the rector died and his successor appointed a curate, Bulkely criticised his ignorance of Scripture and lack of reading, and described his sermons as 'confused' and 'incoherent' and 'unhappy' in their delivery. John Evelyn summarised in his diary every sermon he heard — sometimes at considerable length. 72 Lord Egmont also summarised sermons in his diary. He noted on some Sundays 'Prayers and sermon at home', implying that there was a sermon at morning prayer in his private chapel. 73 Ralph Thoresby made extensive notes on the sermons he heard. 74 John Byrom used taking notes on sermons as an opportunity to practise his shorthand. 75 He went to sermons on weekdays as well as Sundays. John Penrose only noted the length of one sermon he heard on his visits to Bath, and that was '50 minutes long, against the Methodists and other Oppugners of the established Church'. 76 Similarly James Newton only once noted in his diary the length of a sermon, preached at the Foundling Hospital on Sunday 17 February 1760: 'above One Hour'. 77 Whilst the better sort may 70 72 74 75 76

v No. 70, 20 September 1709. Evans, Religion and Politics, pp. 73-81. 73 Diary of John Evelyn, Vol. v, passim. MSS of the Earl ofEgmont, Vol. 1, p. 16 and 33. Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 1, p. 197. The Private Journal and Literary Remains ofJohn Byrom, ed. Richard Parkinson, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chetham Society (Manchester, 1854), p . 133. 77 Lettersfrom Bath, p. 142. Deserted Village, p. 86.

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have enjoyed taking notes of sermons, others may have found familiar or overlong sermons an opportunity for meditation, which may have led to slumber. There are frequent payments by churchwardens to parish officers for 'waking the sleepers' as well as 'whipping the dogs'. Diarists very often noted that if they were indisposed or unable to go to church on a Sunday they read a sermon instead, and they often recorded that on a Sunday evening they read a sermon aloud to their family. This may account for the large number of collections of published sermons by well-known preachers. Sampson Letsome's The Preacher's Assistant, published in 1753, listed 14,725 sermons published between 1660 and 1750, of which 13,734 (93.3 per cent) were by Anglicans and 991 (6.7 per cent) by dissenters. 78 The presence of volumes of sermons in such large numbers in so many country-house libraries suggests that their reading public was significantly wider than clergy in search of a new sermon for the following Sunday. The evidence about the general behaviour of people in church does not support the assumption that they were a 'surly, captive audience'. William Bulkeley often commented on the 'utmost reverence' of the congregation at Llanfechell and noted that on a Sunday in July 1735 when the rector forgot his sermon and had to go home to fetch it, uproar did not break out, as one might expect, but 'there was nothing in Church but a general Silence for three or four minutes'. 79 Ralph Thoresby in January 1709 commented on 'an extraordinary spirit of devotion' among the congregation at St Lawrence Jewry in London at Saturday evening prayers at 8 o'clock 'after the shops are shut and persons are more at leisure'. 80 Admittedly at Bath Abbey in 1700 it was noted that 'there is more billet doux conveyed to the ladies than notes to desire the prayers of the congregation', but if the parish church was one of the few places of major public assembly, this is hardly surprising. Such behaviour was not condoned. The Spectator criticised people for staring in church, and bowing and curtseying to one another during services, and for giggling or for arriving late. The Guardian commented adversely on the Earl of Nottingham's daughter for 'knotting' during 78

79 80

Franchise Deconnick-Brossard, Eighteenth Century Sermons and the Age, in Crown and Mitre, ed. J a c o b and Yates, p . 106. Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 19. 8l Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 11, pp. 18 and 37. Borsay, Urban Renaissance, p. 247.

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the service at St James's Piccadilly and also criticised flirting and whispering in church. Overall an impression emerges of a Church which managed to compete satisfactorily for the allegiance of the English and Welsh populations. The limited evidence does not suggest that the parish churches were deserted in favour of dissenting meeting houses, or irreligion as a result of the element of voluntarism introduced by the Toleration Act. There is a strong impression that the provision of worship was related to lay demand. If the laity were likely to attend church, then services were held by the clergy. When there was not a congregation or a demand by the laity, the clergy did not provide extra services. In the 1770s James Woodforde, as curate to his father, officiated at morning prayer on saints' days at Ansford in Somerset, because, it would seem, it was the custom, and presumably people attended, but he did not introduce services on saints' days when he moved to Weston Longueville in Norfolk. Parishioners may have wanted for two services on a Sunday not because they wished to attend both but so that they could choose the more convenient. If people did not attend church at all on Sundays, there was usually good reason. In upland areas where parishes were large and settlements scattered, often at a considerable distance from the church, in the winter months roads may have been impassable. It was difficult for the very young, the old and the infirm to walk, often long distances, to church. Tending livestock at certain times of the year could have made long absences from farmsteads difficult.83 In urban parishes the accommodation in some parish churches could not have provided the places required if everyone had attended. Even with the considerable church-building programme extending throughout the first half of the century and the provision of tiers of galleries, the whole population of many parishes could not possibly have got into the churches. A survey of London in 1738, when the population was close to 650,000, lists 134 Anglican churches and 98 dissenting meeting houses available for English-language services (i.e. 2,800 people per building).84 E. P. Thompson suggested that although it would not be difficult to find examples of eighteenth-century parishes in which the clergy 82 83 84

Quoted in C. J . Abbey and J . H . Overton, The English Church in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols., 1878), Vol. 11, p . 461. Spaeth, Parsons and Parishioners, pp. 77-8. Sommerville, Secularization of Early Modern England, p. 31.

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were fulfilling with dedication a paternalistic role in the rituals of parish and communal life, the command of the Church and of its rituals over the populace was becoming very weak. 85 He saw the Church as losing command over the leisure of the poor, their feasts and festivals. When, if ever, the Church commanded the leisure of the inhabitants of parishes is unclear. Certainly in the early eighteenth century holy days were often kept as holidays. Throughout most of the first half of the eighteenth century each community still had its local calendar of customary observances related to church dedication festivals and the local economy. St Blaise's Day on 3 February was commonly celebrated by workers in the woollen industry, for example at Bury St Edmunds with a procession 2,0003,000 strong accompanied by music, and at Romsey, where a feature of the procession was someone dressed as the saint. St Crispin's Day on 25 October was celebrated by shoemakers, and St Clement's on 26 April by blacksmiths.86 The Reformation in England did not sweep away observance of traditional festivals, at least not those which had a social or economic importance for the community. Politically and economically important occasions were brought into the realm of the sacred, for example the thanksgivings for the deliverance of the nation from popery on 5 November (the anniversary both of deliverance from 'Gunpowder Treason' and, more recently, from James II), the anniversary of the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 on 29 May, and the anniversary of the sovereign's accession.87 When John Penrose was staying at Bath in 1766 he noted that Restoration was ushered in with ringing of Bells from the three Towers of the Abbey, St Michael's and St James's Churches: not only the Boys and Girls but the Chairmen, Colliers' Horses, Coach Horses, etc. are adorned with Oaken Leaves; large Oaken Boughs stand up in Front of most Houses; the Union Flag was displayed on Top of the Abbey Tower; Mr Mayor in his Scarlet Gown attended by the Magistrates and preceded by his Officers and the City Music went to Church in solemn State.88 At moments of particular danger or joy in national life special 85

87

88

E. P. Thompson, Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture, Journal of Social History, 7, 4 (1974), pp. 390-1. This is extensively discussed in Bob Bushaway, By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England 1700-1880 (1982), pp. 45-7. For a fuller discussion of this see David Cressy, Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England (1989), pp. 185-7. Lettersfrom Bath, p. 150.

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prayers were issued for use at daily prayers in church on a specified day, and, as is clear from Thomas Turner's diary, people of all sorts attended these prayers. 89 The bell ringers, paid by the churchwardens from the church rates, rang the church bells on local festivals, for example on Plough Monday at Waddington in Lincolnshire. In Leicestershire and Rutland it was common for the bells to be rung to signal that gleaning was about to begin. Bells seem to have been rung on almost any pretext. The feast day of the patron saint of the parish church was often celebrated by a 'wake' beginning on a Sunday and lasting for part of and sometimes all the week. There was usually a special service on the Sunday followed by 'feasting, music and dancing' during the week. 'This being our Feast at Kettering', wrote the curate on 6 July 1766, 'we had as usual, large Congregations and many strangers'. At wakes in the vicinity of Claybrook in Nottinghamshire it was noted 'the cousins assemble from all quarters, fill the Church on Sunday and celebrate Monday with feasting, with music and with dancing'. 90 The rector of Nuneham Courtney noted on Sunday 15 November 1761, 'This being Nuneham Feast Self preached on the Text, All is Vanity.' In Anglesey at LJanfechell on the parish feast day morning prayer was read in church, and William Bulkely noted 'a great congregation' in a number of years in the 1730s. The service was followed by games or a fair. In the afternoon there was evening prayer before the 'ale' accompanied by what Bulkeley describes as 'innocent merriment and good cheer'. 2 During the 1730s celebrations began to be transferred to the following Sunday and the clergy began to withdraw from the games and even to play a part in the suppression of games and 'superstitious customs'. The mutual interest of the Puritanism of the revivalist preachers and the economic hostility of the more capitalist farmers and industrialists to the interruption of work seems to have removed the religious element from these occasions, which survived as fairs. However in the industrialising towns and villages of the NorthWest, local trade festivals continued to be marked with a church service. In 1755 a society of weavers asked the curate of 89

90

Diary of Thomas Turner, p . 125. For a discussion of the sermons preached on these occasions see D. Naphthene and W. A. Speck, Clergymen and Conflict 1660-1763, in The Church and War,SCH, 20(1983). Robert W. Malcolmson, Popular Recreation in English Society ijoo-1850 (Cambridge, 1973), P- 19Deserted Village, p. 147.

92

Evans, Religion and Politics, pp. 55ft0.

Public religious practice Westhaughton in Lancashire to perform a special service on the day of their annual meeting and paid him 10s. 6d. for writing and delivering a sermon. The vicar of Bolton preached a sermon for a society of weavers in Bolton in 1754 and himself joined the society. At the chapelry of Newton near Manchester, the parson was reported in the 1750s as preaching on the village green beside the maypole on May Day before joining in the festivities.93 The major Church festivals were observed as communal festivals. In the 1760s James Woodforde, as curate of Ansford, mentioned visits by mummers at Christmas. At Nuneham Courtney the rector 'Gave 2s 6d to the Ringers of the Midnight Peel5 on 26 December 1761.95 Earlier in the century it was noted that in south-west Wales 'at Christmas the common people . . . come over to Church about Cock crowing and bring either Candles or Torches with them, which they set to burn, everyone, one or more upon the Grave of his departed Friend, and there set themselves to sing Halsmyod [responsorial psalms] and continue so to welcome the approaching Festival till Prayer time'. 96 At Kidlington in Oxfordshire in 1738 the incumbent complained of what he regarded as a highly unsatisfactory practice: The Christmas Breakfast gives Occasion to a great many Irregularities. It was introduced at first as some of ye Parishioners tell me to refresh those who came One or two miles to celebrate High Mass at midnight, but at present ye practise stands thus, they get up at 12 o' th' clock, run about ye Parish in a tumultuous manner till four or five, then go to ye Vicarage House take their Breakfast not in ye most decent manner, and by the time Divine Service begins more yn half ye Parish are unfit to attend ye Publick Worship of Almighty God.97 This vividly illustrates the tension between the popular celebration of a feast or festival and what a more sophisticated and pious clergyman (and some lay people) found acceptable. During the next century the majority of the clergy withdrew the hospitality of the parish church from such activities. On Anglesey Easter eggs were collected by schoolchildren during the week before Easter. On Easter Monday, after the vestry meeting to elect the churchwardens, there were races (for men), and on 93 94 96

Albers, Seeds of Contention, p . 197. 95 Ansford Diary of James Woodforde, p . 158. Deserted Village, p . 154. Erasmus Saunders, A View of the State of Religion in the Diocese of St David's (1721, reprinted

Cardiff, 1949), p. 35. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, p . 91.

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Easter Tuesday football with teams of twelve a side with estimates of 400-500 spectators of a game lasting four or five hours. On Whit Monday there was football again, and on Whit Tuesday, cockfighting. On Whit Monday and Tuesday there were also 'interludes', a sort of popular morality play providing an opportunity for satirising clergy and landlords which, whilst having a scriptural basis, contained political and sexual undercurrents. The squire thought that the low attendance at morning and evening prayer on Whit Monday and Tuesday could be attributed to these distractions.98 Whether such communal celebrations were widespread is unclear because there is little evidence. The annual 'perambulation' of the parish boundaries at Rogationtide, on the days preceding Ascension Day, was an important point of identification between the sacred and the secular. It represented a public religious affirmation of the physical, social and ecclesiastical boundaries of the community. When no accurate surveys and maps were available, processing round the parish boundaries provided the community with a mental map of the parish that could be drawn on in the event of boundary disputes. It defined the parish in which tithe was paid, in which parish a person had a settlement, where a person was entitled to parish charities, which church a person should attend, where banns should be called and where a person should be married, and buried. It established a collective memory for the community and defined those who were inside the community, and who and what should be prayed for. Few descriptions of perambulations survive. At Brightwalton in Berkshire in 1720 the procession around the parish was led by the parish priest and the patron together, with the 'chief flag' or 'holy banner'. 99 In the 1730s, the Bishop of Sodor and Man noted that at the perambulation it was customary at certain places for the parish priest to read Psalm 103 'distinctly and leisurely' and 'in other places to pronounce openly "Cursed is he who removeth his neighbour's landmark"'. The Bishop advised his clergy that at the same time the people 'should be exhorted to beware of the great sin of covetousness and to be content with the blessing God has given to their own honest labours, and urged them to warn against the great sin of litigiousness, by which Christian love and charity can be broken'. He recommended as 'collects to be used on the Perambulation' those for 98

Evans, Religion and Politics, pp. 28-36.

"

Bushaway, By Rite, p. 86.

Public religious practice

71

Quinquagesima, Septuagesima and the third Sunday in Lent, 'the Prayers for Rain', if then needful, the 'Prayers in Time of Dearth and Famine5 and 'In Time of War5, the last two petitions of the litany and the 'prayer in Mr Nelson's Book for Rogation Week 5.100 Boundaries were also perambulated in towns. At St Alphege London Wall, £ 9 7s. 8^d was spent in 1707 on an Ascension Day dinner after beating the bounds. 1 1 At Bath on Ascension Day 1767 In the afternoon the Minister and Parish went in Procession from the Church through Abbey Green . . . to Simpson's Rooms, then through Simpson's Walk to the River Avon, preceded by two tip-staves, about twenty Boys with Rods in their hands in pairs, then two French-horns, two Fiddles, two Haut-boys, and followed by a Rabble Rout.102 In the country, as enclosure of land took place, the maps attached to enclosure awards established the villages5 boundaries, and in towns the elite were withdrawing from traditional communal activities. By 1756 at Shabourne in Wiltshire the procession consisted only of the vicar, the churchwardens and four others, of whom three were under sixteen. 103 A ritual that had ceased to be of economic and social value to the parish ratepayers soon ceased to be an entertainment which they were prepared to fund. There is also circumstantial evidence for communal observation of fasts. Religious enthusiasts like Benjamin Ingham might be expected to observe fasts; at Oxford, the members of the Holy Club regularly fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays (the traditional weekly fast days of the Church). George Whitefield also regularly observed the fasts when he was an undergraduate at Oxford. In August 1737 there was an attempt to present John Wesley to the grand jury in Savannah for, among other things, teaching wives and servants to fast without regard to the interests of families, husbands and masters. However, it was not just religious enthusiasts who observed fasts. In 1733, Dr Claver Morris, a physician of Wells, on 'A Fast Day to Deprecate the Pestilence now raging in France5 went to church to hear a sermon and 'did not Eat or Drink 'till after 6 in the Evening', and on Good Friday 1724 he went to church and 'neither Eat nor Drink, nor so much as took any Snuff at all till past 7 in the Evening'. 100 102 104 105 106

IO1 Keble, Thomas Wilson, Vol. 11, pp. 809-10. Cox, Churchwardens' Accounts, p . 265. IO3 Lettersfrom Bath, p . 192. Spaeth, Parsons and Parishioners, p . 92. Green, Young Mr Wesley, p . 173, a n d George Whitefield's Journals (i960), p . 46. Journal of John Wesley, Vol. 1, p . 386. The Diary of a West Country Physician 1684-1226, ed. Edmund Hobhouse (Rochester, 1934), pp. 89 and 106.

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There is some evidence for a general observation of Lent. Bishop Butler in a sermon for the first Sunday in Lent assumes some notice of the season in people's clothes when he speaks of 'Repentance, the outward show of which we all put on in this season5. It seems that London theatres were usually closed during Lent and, instead of operas, oratorios were performed at Covent Garden Theatre. There seems to have been a fairly general restriction on marriage services during Lent. At Myddle in Shropshire and at Halewood in Lancashire there were no marriages in Lent. 108 In a sample often parishes in Nottinghamshire and nine parishes in Derbyshire marriages recorded in March fell below the monthly average between 1721-30 and 1771-80, which may represent a prohibition on marriages during Lent. This continued in these parishes, though with decreasing fidelity, until the 1820s. December marriages were also distinctly below the monthly average in all the parishes but rose to the monthly average between 1720 and 1770, suggesting that the prohibition on marriage during Advent was decreasingly observed. This implies a much greater communal sense of seasonality in religious and personal behaviour than has generally been assumed in the eighteenth century. 110 It is confirmed by the Ladies3 Diary for 1752, which noted in black letters that on Septuagesima, the third Sunday before Lent, 'marriage goes out'; and on Low Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, 'Marriage comes in.' The Saturday before Rogation Sunday, the fifth Sunday after Easter, is marked 'Marriage goes out', 'Marriage comes in' is noted against Trinity Sunday, and Advent Sunday is marked 'Marriage goes out till I3thjanuary.' i n Parish registers give the impression that all inhabitants, including dissenters, attended their parish church for the services of the parish priest for baptisms, marriages and burials. With the occa107 108

109

110 111

J- Wickham Legg, English Church Life from the Restoration to the Tractarian Movement (1914), pp. 220-1.

H e y , English Rural Community, p . 213 a n d J . E. Hollinshead, Halewood Township: A Community in the Early Eighteenth Century, Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 130 (1980), p . 20. L. Bradley, A n Enquiry into Seasonality in Baptisms, Marriages a n d Burials, Part 1, Local Population Studies, N o . 4 (Spring 1970), p p . 21-40. Bradley criticises the m e t h o d used by U . M . Cowgill, w h o concluded, in a study of marriages in York, that the effect of the Advent a n d Lent prohibitions on marriage h a d largely disappeared by 1750. U . M . Cowgill, T h e People of York 1538-1812, Scientific American, 222 ( J a n u a r y 1970), p p . 104-12. See John Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570-1850 (1975), p. 145. Quoted in Legg, Church Life, p. 261.

Public religious practice sional exception of burials, rites of passage were usually administered on Sundays, either in the context of the Sunday service, or after it. People seem still to have been attached to the Puritan custom of the private baptism of infants in their homes. At Burstow in Surrey the incumbent reported in 1717: The parishes are extremely large in this neighbourhood and a custom has prevailed (but not of very long standing) to baptise everybodies' children at home, and the ministers hereabouts use the form of publick baptism on such occasions . . . I have been used a little rudely sometimes for not complying with them in that particular, as some of my neighbours do. It was the subject upon which the Norfolk clergy were most vociferous in their comments in the visitation of 1784. Woodforde spoke for many when he commented to the Bishop of Norwich, 'I only wish that parents could be prevailed to bring these children [after being privately baptised] to be publicly presented into The enthusiasm of some high-church clergy, keen to Church.5 revive practice by the 'Primitive Church' of the total immersion of infants in the font, does not seem to have commended itself to parents. John Wesley, when he was chaplain in Savannah in 1736, noted that he had baptised a baby by immersing her three times. 114 Francis Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, noted in 1735 that 'the fonts in country churches are generally capacious enough to admit of immersion, if requested by the parent of the child'. 11 Complaints, like those of the parishioners of Wells-next-the-Sea, that the curate 'scorns to take children in his Arms but throws the Water on them as they are held by some Person' are rare. 116 Baptisms were a focus for communal celebrations. Dr Claver Morris recorded on 27 October 1709 that 'My Son was at Evening Service Baptiz'd . . . in the Cathedral at Wells . . . I had a great Company of Men and Women at mine House (especially Men) and some of them stayed with me until 4 o'clock next morning.' 117 Sometimes the churchwardens contributed to the cost out of the church rate. At Eaton Socon in Bedfordshire in 1725 the churchwar1 x2 113

116

Parson and Parish, p. 153. II4 NRO NDR VIS/28. Journal of John Wesley, Vol. 1, p. 167. Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk (11 vols., (1805-10), Vol. 11, p. 153. NRO NDR SUN/16. "7 Diary of a West Country Physician, p. 57.

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dens entered in their accounts, 'For Beer at Sarah Bellamy's child's christening is od'. The 'churching of women' after childbirth was generally observed. Both James Newton at Nuneham Courtney in the 1760s and James Woodforde at Weston Longueville in Norfolk regularly noted churching women. Evidence from Cheshire implies that churching was a universal practice. The churchwardens of Heswall reported in 1723, 'All women come to be churched.' 120 Churching seems often to have taken place in the context of Sunday or daily services. Dr Claver Morris recorded that when his wife was churched two or three weeks after their son was born 'She was carried in a Sedan and was clad in a Vail. No women went with her but Mrs Rogers, the Midwife.'121 However, as with baptism, there was a desire for it to take place at home. 122 There is little evidence about the conduct of marriages. There is a strong impression that like baptism, marriage by a priest using the Prayer Book rite was something that lay people desired. The survival of the traditional discipline of the Church with regard to the penitential seasons in relation to something so personal as marriage suggests a strong communal identity with the discipline and mores of the Church. This is further apparent when the evidence for communal adherence to the Church's marriage discipline is considered. A legally provable marriage was important for economic reasons, for the better sort to ensure inheritance, and for the poorer sort to ensure a settlement under the poor laws, but the lengths to which people went to be married by a clergyman suggest that making formal vows before God was thought to be important. If informal marriages by mutual consent were acceptable, it is puzzling that so many people had recourse to clandestine marriages before the Marriage Act 1753 made them illegal. Clandestine marriages failed to observe one or more of the canons or Prayer Book rubrics, most commonly failing to require banns of marriage and marriage in one's parish church. So long as they were free of impediment and met the requirements of free consent, they were upheld in law as valid and indissoluble unions. Clandestine marriages 1

118

120 1 1

in

*

W . E. T a t e , The Parish Chest: A Study of the Records of Parochial Administration in England (Cambridge, i960), p. 173. Deserted Village, p p . 68 and 145, and Diary of a Country Parson, passim. Pope, Church in the Wirral, p. 57. I22 Diary of a West Country Physician, p 57. Parson and Parish, p . 153.

Public religious practice were no cheaper than marriage at a parish church, costing seven or eight shillings, a week's wages for the craftsmen who seem to have entered upon them most often, although there may have been a saving on the subsequent entertainment and the licence duty and the licence or banns fees.123 Most importantly, however, they avoided the publicity of the calling of the banns prior to the marriage in the parish churches of the parties. People from all walks of life had strong reasons for secret marriages, for example servants fearing dismissal, apprentices fearing a breach of their articles, widows fearing that they would lose copyhold leases, widows and widowers marrying soon after the death of a spouse or against the wishes of their families, couples disparate in age, social status or religion; all had reasons to seek privacy, as well as fortune hunters, frauds and bigamists. There seems to have been a strong desire among significant numbers of people of marrying age not to draw the attention of friends to their marriage, and to avoid opposition, comment or censure from friends and family. It has been estimated that during the early eighteenth century nearly a third of all marriages were conducted by licence rather than after the public reading of banns. 124 Poor clergy may have been willing to conduct clandestine marriages for the fees. No doubt if they once made one or two exceptions to assist deserving cases they would attract a steady stream of requests, the financial advantages of which would have been difficult to refuse. There were also a number of clergy who were unbeneficed and unemployed, and may have been under episcopal discipline, who, in London at least, made a regular living from conducting clandestine marriages. It has been estimated that between 1694 and 1756 two to three hundred thousand marriages were solemnised in London within the Fleet Prison and its rules (the surrounding streets where debt prisoners were allowed to live, for a substantial fee). There were also other lesser centres in London where clandestine marriages might be procured, including the Mayfair Chapel, the Southwark Mint, and the area around the rules of the King's Bench Prison. Outside London there were centres such as Dale Abbey, where the curate conducted weddings at a shilling a couple, Peak Forest Chapel in Derbyshire and Tetbury in Gloucestershire. There is also evidence 123 1O/t 124

John R. Gillis, For Better, For Worse: British Marriages 1600 to the Present (New York, 1985), PP- 95-6ibid., p . 92.

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from marriage registers that clandestine marriages were solemnised by clergy throughout the country. 125 At Fledborough in Nottinghamshire there were eleven marriages in the years 1711-1730, all between residents; between 1730 and 1754 there were 490 marriages, of which only 15 were between residents. 126 John Gillis has suggested that the requirements imposed by Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act in 1753 drove a wedge between the clergy and the poor, turning the clergy into constables of morality, rather than allowing them to exercise their discretion in solemnising marriages, and that, as a result, many of the poor may have turned away from the Church. 127 There is little evidence to support the claim that wife-sale provided a secular ritual of divorce. Despite claims that wife-selling was widespread in the period after 1640, only ten cases can be instanced in the period 1690-1750, and four of these are in the 1740s, which may suggest that they are an aspect of the break-up of the old world.129 In one case, in 1696, Thomas Heath 'Maultster' was presented by the churchwardens at the peculiar court in Thame for 'buying the wife of George ffuller of Chinner at 2d the lb\ He was ordered to perform public penance. 130 In 1703 George Burches, curate of Maybull, a deacon, was suspended from his duties by the Bishop of Chester and refused admission to priests' orders for his involvement in the sale of Betty Grigson to a Virginian planter. The small number of documented cases over many years, the large crowds reported on such occasions and their frequent hostility to the sales, the associated broadsheets and the negative reactions of the ecclesiastical courts do not suggest that this was a popular or common practice. Little evidence survives about attitudes to funerals. The funerals of 125

126 127

128 129

130 131

For a full discussion of clandestine marriages in the eighteenth century see Roger Lee Brown, T h e Rise a n d Fall of the Fleet Marriages, in Marriage and Society: Studies in the Social History of Marriage, ed. R. B. O u t h w a i t e (1981) a n d Gillis, For Better, For Worse, p p . 9 2 - 8 . Lawrence Stone, The Road to Divorce: England 1530-1987 (Oxford, 1990), p . 105. John R. Gillis, Conjugal Settlements: Resort to Clandestine Common Law Marriage in England and Wales 1650-1850, in Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West, ed. J o h n Bossy (Cambridge, 1983), p . 273. As claimed in T h o m p s o n , Patrician Society, p . 392. These claims are made in Samuel Menefee, Wives for Sale: An Ethnographic Study of British Popular Divorce (Oxford, 1981), p . 6 6 , b u t in his appendix of cases only the ten cases noted are listed between 1690 a n d 1750. Churchwardens' Presentments in the Oxfordshire Peculiars, p. 184. Diary of Henry Prescott, p. xix. Burches was an unsavoury character who was also charged with adultery, cruelty to his wife, keeping bad company and marrying a couple in an alehouse.

Public religious practice the great were conducted with considerable pomp and ritual. When Lord Fitzwilliam's son died in 1699, t n e parish church at Milton was hung with black for a year. 132 In describing a funeral in Wells Cathedral in 1720, Dr Claver Morris recorded that the choir met the body at the West Door and 'began their Singing and continued it into the Quire and after the Evening Service was over they Sung the Funeral Office and at the Grave'. 13 Lay people seem to have had a high expectation that funerals would be orderly and respectful. The inhabitants of Wells-next-the-Sea again complained about the curate for 'His indecent manner of Burying several Corps without the surplice useing his Great-Horseman's Brown Coat in full view of the Public Road' 1 3 4 Religious societies - groups of devout people, usually men, gathering together regularly for religious purposes - were a marked feature of late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century life. Along with societies for the reformation of manners and charity schools, they emerged from the atmosphere of crisis in Church and nation during the last fifteen years of the seventeenth century. Among Anglicans, the sense of the insecurity of the Anglican Settlement engendered by James II's activities and the belief that William and Mary's arrival was an act of divine providence created a strong movement to reform the life of the nation in thanksgiving for God's intervention and to avoid future backsliding, which might incur the wrath of a just God. A godly nation needed to be educated, and it was thought that this might be achieved, as will be seen, by reforming the manners of offenders against God's laws, as well as by educating the young in God's ways and by creating opportunities for people, especially young men, to reflect on their Christian lives in religious societies. Anglicans were particularly forward in these activities, for they feared that the toleration granted to dissenters to worship in their own meeting houses and the lapsing of the Licensing Act of 1662, suppressing seditious and irreligious publications, were signs that the King and his ministers were unlikely to promote legislation to strengthen the Church. Josiah Woodward, one of the main propagandists of religious societies, rector of Poplar, a village to the east of London until 1703, and then perpetual curate of Maidstone, traced their origins to the 132 13

Correspondence of Lord Fitzwilliam, pp. 62-4. 134 Diary of a West Country Physician, p. 77.

NRONDR SUN/16.

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opposition to the public celebration of masses in London in Charles IFs reign, when a group of devout young men set up at their own Expense public Prayers every Evening, at Eight of the Clock at St Clement Danes, which never wanted a full and affectionate congregation. And not long after they set up an Evening Monthly Lecture in the same Church to confirm Communicants in their Holy Purposes and Vows.135 In 1681 'devout young men at St Martin's-in-the-Fields drew up articles of association to meet every third Sunday of the month to pray, to read the Bible and to hear a sermon'. Members were required to attend their parish church and be 'conformed to the Church of England', and it was ordered that 'no person shall be admitted into this Society but such as have received the Holy Sacrament'. Fines were levied for absence from the society and from communion, and if 'anyone shall swear or speak a rash word'. The money was given to the poor. 136 In 1684 William Smithies, curate of St Giles's Cripplegate, held a 'Club' which met once a month to pray and read together and to give to the poor. Such societies continued to grow during the 1680s. They became more visible after 1689 and increased in numbers. Fourteen societies were reported in London in 1694 with a total of 298 members; by 1698 there were thirty-two, and the next year, thirty-nine. 138 However, they were suspected of being 'schismatic'. People with long memories recalled that groups of godly people had set themselves apart to pray and to study the Bible together during the reigns of the Queen's grandfather and great-grandfather; they too had paid lecturers to proclaim the Word of God. The result was schism in the Church and civil war in the country. It was no wonder that religious societies were viewed with suspicion during an age when governments felt insecure, and there were constant fears of the restoration of a Roman Catholic sovereign or sectarian autocracy. A religious society in Lincolnshire which met before church services for prayer and discussion noted that they could not 'lay too much stress' upon members being 'very careful not to make ourselves a party in 135 136 137 138

Josiah Woodward, An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Religious Societies in the City of London and of their Endeavoursfor the Reformation ofManners, 4th edn (1712), p. 25. T h e Articles of the Society of Devout Y o u n g M e n at St Martin's-in-the-Fields a n d T h e r e a b o u t s , BL Add. M S S 28693. In J o h n Spurr, T h e Church, the Societies a n d the Moral Revolution of 1688, in The Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, H a y d o n and Taylor, p p . 133-4. ibid., p . 134.

Public religious practice the Church. That to our utmost power we assent, maintain and promote . . . the doctrine and Worship of our Church 5. In 1743 the vicar of Ledsham in West Yorkshire felt it necessary, after describing to the Archbishop of York, at his visitation, the society that met in his vicarage, to say 'If ys is schismatical, or in any respect illegal (as some of my Brethren would suggest) I humbly submit it to Your Grace's Judgement, which shall direct me.' 1 4 0 Woodward believed that the societies had successfully defended themselves against such charges 'by their Monthly Communion, their Use of many of the Publick Prayers constantly in their Assemblies, their setting up Publick Prayers in many Churches in the City, and frequenting them in great Bodies'. In Woodward's view, 'It is evident that their zeal hath in many Places given new life to the Celebrations of the Lord's Supper, Public Prayer, singing of Psalms and Christian Conference.' 142 Not only, in Woodward's view, should members of religious societies be concerned with their own souls and improving worship; they should also be concerned for their neighbours' salvation.1 3 Woodward believed that there would be considerable value in members of religious societies adopting the vigilante approach to missionary work practised, as will be seen, by the societies for the reformation of manners. He quoted with approval the example of the Tower Hamlets religious society, which threw in its lot with the local society for the reformation of manners to suppress Sunday markets and 'houses of ill fame'. However, in general there was not a close identification between the two sorts of societies. Many members of religious societies seem to have found the practice of informing against their neighbours and using paid informers distasteful.144 The religious societies were an urban phenomenon and perhaps should be seen as part of the early-eighteenth-century enthusiasm for founding clubs and societies,14 which were symptomatic of the beginning of a separation of social groups which was more obvious and easier in urban than in rural communities, and may have been an admission of the isolation beginning to be felt by some churchmen 139 140 142 144 145 146

An Account of a Society and Others in Lincolnshire, BL Manley M S S , fo. 151. l41 Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 72, p. 144. Woodward, Religious Societies, p. 37. I43 ibid., p . 43. ibid., p . 53. Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, p. 81. Noted by Borsay, Urban Renaissance, p. 136. See Joyce Ellis, A Dynamic Society: Social Relations in Newcastle upon Tyne 1660-1760, in The Transformation ofEnglish Provincial Towns 1600-1800, ed. Peter Clark (1984), p. 200.

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in urbanising societies where church-going was thought to be decreasing. Religious societies became widespread in English towns, although they may have been less evident in the North. 147 The similar post-Tridentine devotional societies for young men in Catholic Europe were also an urban rather than a rural phenomenon. Josiah Woodward quoted the vicar of Old Romney, James Deffray, who, in 1690, had found his parishioners Very Ignorant and Irreligious'. He was 'of Opinion, that the setting up of such a Religious Society as ... would be very proper, but I feared that it would be impracticable in the Country, especially where there appeared no competent Disposition towards it'. However, he persevered and began to teach three or four Youths the skill of singing Psalms orderly and according to Rules withal, minding them of the indispensable Duty of the Spiritual Fervency of their Hearts ... The improvement of these in Singing Psalms being soon observed by others, many young Men desired to be admitted to the same Instruction, which being granted, and the number of them increasing daily: ... whereupon after sundry Exhortations and serious Deliberation they readily submitted to the rules of a Religious Society ... by whose means a general reviving of Piety and a solemn Observance of the Publick Ordinances of God hath been (through God's Blessing) produced amongst us. So that a considerable number of young People are carefully Catechised, and by many pious Books given to them encouraged to fear God betimes.149 Woodward's attractive and persuasive account of religious societies, first published in 1699, and its dissemination through the network of correspondents established by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, itself a group of devout and predominantly lay men, based in London, did much to promote the establishment of religious societies.150 The SPCK was an important disseminator of information. In November 1699, having heard that c a society in Greenwich are going to sett up a School', it had resolved 'to establish a correspondence with one or more Clergy in each 147

148

149 150

Henry D. Rack, Survival and Revival: John Bennet, Methodism and Old Dissent, in Protestant Evangelicalism: Britain, Ireland, Germany and America c 1750-c igjo: Essays in Honour of W. R. Ward, SCH, Subsidia 7, ed. Keith Robbins (Oxford, 1990), p . 3. J e a n Pierre Gutton, Confraternities, Cures a n d Communities in Rural Areas of the Diocese of Lyons under the Ancien Regime, in Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800, ed. Kaspar von Gregorz (1984), p . 210. W o o d w a r d , Religious Societies, 3rd edn (1701), p p . 41-2. W. O. B. Allen and E. McClure, Two Hundred Tears: The History of the S.P.C.K i6g8-i8g8 (1898), p. 19.

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County and with one Clergyman in each great Town and City in England in order to erect Societies of the same nature as this throughout the Kingdom 5.151 Its country correspondents obtained details about initiatives in other parts of the country and sought advice and encouragement about the establishment of societies in their own localities. In January 1699/1700 'The Society, being inform'd that there are severall Religious Societies that want and desire advice, Resolv'd that the Society will be ready to advice and assist them in any difficulties.'152 One of those encouraged by Woodward's account of religious societies circulated by the SPCK to seek advice was Samuel Wesley, the rector of Epworth. He too had formed a very poor impression of the people of Epworth on his arrival, but had worked on 'the most sober and sensible young men amongst my singers' and 'at length [they] came of their own accord to me and desired my assistance in forming 'em into such a society'. There were about twenty members: They are most of 'em remarkably altered since we began: they forebear public Houses unless when their Necessary occasions calls 'em thither; are much more carefull of their lives and Conversation, Communicate Monthly with great devotion and appear very zealous for the Glory of God and the welfare of their own and others' soul . . . [However,] . . . The Chief of the Town laugh at us, or worse, Objecting, what is true enough, that most of our Society are mean inconsiderable men, that those of the most wealth and best Figure do not joyn with us . . . I can't say that they yet encreace much in Knowledge having bin formerly very Ignorant, but I verily think they do in Piety and Humility, and I hope the other will come by degrees. He had hopes of securing a 'Charity School [supported by the collections taken at the Society] . . . amongst us, it would . . . go a great way towards the securing of two generations'. The rules for the society were based on Woodward's rules and emphasised that 'discussion of reforming Manners or the Church are not allowed'. Also, 'They do not take any Women into these Societies in order to avoid scandal . . . Women may hear from their husbands and fathers at home.' 153 Samuel Wesley saw the aim of religious societies as to recreate the piety and devotion of the 'Antient Church'. He compared them with Tertullian's description of 'the first Christians who often met together ad conferandum Disciplinum, and to pray and sing Hymns to Christ as God'. He saw them as 'lay monasteries . . . which may be 151

ibid., p. 41.

I52

ibid., p. 50.

153

ibid., pp. 89-92.

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erected in the most populous Towns and Cities without depriving the Commonwealth of the Service and Support of so many useful Members'. He envisaged the members assisting the parish priest. He quoted the example of 'M. de Renty', who at Caen csett many Societies of devout Persons to meet Weekly and consult about the Relief of the Poor and preventing Offences against God'. 154 This suggests that the societies were not merely inspired by a Puritan model. 155 Although there are numerous references to societies it is impossible to arrive at any accurate figures for them. In London in 1714 twentyeight societies are noted sponsoring sermons or lectures in parish churches.156 This provides some idea of their number, but is probably an underestimate, because not all societies supported sermons or lectures. The SPCK correspondence mentions societies in many provincial towns, for example Canterbury, Ipswich, Leeds, Warwick, Wigan, Wolverhampton and Worcester. Not all correspondents reported successes. Samuel Bedmore reported from Nottingham 'that he had often endeavour'd to form a Society in his neighbourhood but without success'.157 John Gore of Southampton wrote that 'Religious Societies seem to be impracticable in this County.' A similar report was received from Bath; and in Bristol too, surprisingly in view of the societies which John Wesley found there twenty years later, it was regarded as impossible to establish a society. The evidence of the few surviving minute books of religious societies suggests that they were much more sophisticated and independent than the comments of Wesley and Woodward imply. One area in particular where they may have diverged from Woodward and Wesley's concept of a society is in the matter of direction by the parish priest. The religious society at Old Romney (which had five divisions at Old Romney, New Romney, Rye, Brookland, Ashford and Lydd) merely noted that 'A Minister of the Church of England may be pitched upon as their Director.' The 'Care of the Society' was 'in the hands of ye Head Steward or President', who was elected by members of all the divisions; the divisions also each 154 155 156 157 158

Samuel Wesley, The Pious Communicant Rightly Prepared: or a Discourse Concerning the Blessed Sacrament (1700), Appendix: A Letter Concerning the Religious Societies, no pagination. J o h n Spurr suggested that the societies were based on Puritan models: see Church, Societies and Moral Revolution, p . 137. James Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis: or The Present Ecclesiastical State ofLondon (1714). S P C K Archives, C R 1/4 Abstract Letter Books, Vol. i v , 16 April 1713. S P C K Archives, C R 1/5 Abstract Letter Books, Vol. v , 30 October 1715.

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elected their own steward. They had a quarterly sermon, the preacher being chosen by the president. They added 'Practical Directions' to Woodward's rules, undertaking 'to pray daily, morning and evening, to conduct themselves soberly and to behave in a godly manner towards their fellows, to mortify themselves and fast, avoid gaming and alehouses, except as business requires', to put a 'Charitable and constructive construction' on the words of others, and be 'ready to help them in their distress and assist them in their wants and necessities and visit them in their sickness'. They were to 'read the Scriptures with attention, reflection and application' to themselves, attend the public services of the Church, and 'Make a diligent improvement of the Sermons heard and delight in the Conversation of Devout Persons'. They were to be 'constant' and well prepared in attending 'the most Holy Sacrament at all Publick opportunity', and keep the sabbath strictly. They must not show 'a fickle waving temper. In point of submission to the Society . . . [they must] . . . remember that agreement to serve God is a sort of religious oath, the breach of which cannot but be very dangerous.' The members elected the president and secretary. Minutes and accounts were kept and presented to the society. The secretary was required to help in 'ye Prayers and praises'. Members were admitted only after they had 'frequented the Society for the space of three months' and had 'at least one Month to peruse ye Society rules, orders and Directions', and if they gave 'satisfactory answers to what questions be put to them concerning their desire of Submitting to the Society' and not 'Unless they take the promise and engage themselves to contribute towards the Charitable and pious uses and Expenses'. The first charity to be supported was 'putting Boys to school and fitting them by a religious education', for which strict rules were laid down. The reading of'Good Books' was encouraged, and if there was doubt as to the suitability of a book, the advice of the society's minister and of the society should be sought. Though they were not required to have a clergyman as director, they appear to have been strong in their Anglicanism. Benjamin Flint of the Ashford Division turned 'Anabaptist' and was 'forthwith Expelled the Religious Society', although it was 'Resolved unanimous . . . [to] usse what prudent wayes may be to reclaim him to the Communion of the Church'. 159 159

Minutes of the Old Romney Religious Society, 1701, bound in with John Williams, A Brief Exposition of the Church Catechism with Proofs of Scripture, 3rd edn (1691), BL Shelf N o . C 130DD3 (1-3).

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The society had a strong musical tradition. Its hymn book included paraphrases of thirty-three psalms, twenty-six hymns including paraphrases of the Ten Commandments, the Benedicite, the Nunc Dimittis, the Easter Anthems and the Veni Creator, and an index suggesting Tsalms and Hymns to be used on Extraordinary Days'. Tunes were set for all the hymns and paraphrases. 160 These detailed rules and orders and this active concern for education and music imply a much higher level of sophistication among members of some societies than that suggested by the descriptions given by Woodward and Wesley. The members, or at least the officers, of the Old Romney society sound like men of affairs, who were used to taking minutes, keeping accounts and speaking in public. They brought business acumen to matters of the spirit and the affairs of their society, and did not need the assistance of a priest. At King's Lynn in 1697, where the initiative for a society came from the laity initially for six or seven years meetings were held in private houses, but in 1704 new rules were drawn up, and meetings thereafter were held in the vestry of St Margaret's Church till 1732, after which the society appears to have 'languished and dwindled away, so that in the year 1744 it was reduced to six members'. The rules required a meeting every Sunday evening 'after divine service'. At the meeting members were required to kneel while one of the stewards read the collect for the second Sunday in Advent and another Sunday or holy day collect of his choice. A chapter of the New Testament was then read aloud. Members were required to 'discourse of the contents of that chapter, aiming thereby each to improve himself in the understanding thereof, and in the more lively application thereof to his own heart and conscience, and to render the influence more powerful to the mind both of himself and of his brethren'. A collection was taken for the poor, and the meeting concluded with the steward reading two collects, one of his choice and 'the last to be that in the Communion Service (Prevent us O Lord etc.)'. In addition any member hath the liberty to raise any argument of a spiritual or religious nature, provided it be not above our reach or capacity, nor leading to doubtful disputations, but such as may conduce to general benefit and 160

The Christian Sacrifice of Praises: Consisting of Select Psalms and Hymns with Doxologies and Proper Tunes for the Use of the Religious Society of Romney, Collected by the Author of the Christian's Daily Manual (1724).

Public religious practice advantage, to counselling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, confirming the weak and encouraging one another to run with patience the race that is set before us. But matters of controversy to be avoided, especially state affairs, as not belonging to us, who pretend to be instructed by the grace of God . . . Wherefore upon deliberate consideration, reflecting upon the confusions and distractions that have been raised by societies on such occasions, it is ordered with full consent that whosoever shall pretend to start anything of debate or controversy concerning state affairs, after the first or second admonition, shall be excluded from the society, also all discussion of trade, or other temporal concerns to be forborn. Absentees were fined 6d., unless the steward was reassured that the absence was 'involuntary, as from a master's restraint upon a servant5, when the fine might be waived. Stewards were elected annually by a ballot of all members. New members had to be introduced by an existing member and approved by the 'Stewards and the rest of the Society'. Members were required to communicate at St Margaret's Church six times a year. New rules required the approval of a majority of members and a minister of the Church of England. 161 Few details of the London societies survive. During a visit to London in 1689-90 the Scottish Episcopal priest, Robert Kirk, visited and described meetings at St Clement Danes and at St Lawrence Jewry. 'There be two societies', he wrote, 'where about sixty in each contribute for daily prayers and meet one hour twice a week for conference about cases of conscience, questions of divinity to be resolved, advice for advancing trade, getting a maintenance, helping the sick of the society, visiting and exhorting them, and the like'. 16 This mix of spiritual and practical is in contrast with the King's Lynn and Cripplegate societies, where secular matters were explicitly excluded from discussion. There were two societies attached to St Giles's Cripplegate. One sponsored a monthly sermon at St Giles's at which a collection was taken 'at the door' and the members subscribed 10s. 6d. a year. The profits, after the cost of the use of the church and the 'rent for ye room', presumably for weekly meetings, were deducted, were paid to 'ye Cashier for ye School'.1 3 The other had a library of fourteen 161

162 163

William Richards, The History of Lynn: Civil, Ecclesiastical, Political, Commercial, Biographical, Municipal and Military from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time (2 vols., Lynn, 1812), Vol. 11, pp. 1008-11. Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, p . 81. Guildhall Library, M S 6478 St Giles' Cripplegate Religious Society Stewards' Account Book 1693.

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books for lending to members, some of whom were negligent in returning them, and sponsored a quarterly sermon and six lectures a year. Only in 1742 did they give '£10 for the use of the School'. It was noted That ye sole design of this Society being to promote Real Holiness of heart and Life; it is absolutely necessary that the Persons who enter it do seriously Resolve to apply themselves in good earnest to all means proper to make themselves wise unto Salvation. That ye members of this Society shall meet together one Evening in the Week at a convenient place in order to Encourage each other in practical holiness by discoursing on Spiritual subjects and reading God's Holy word and to pray to Almighty God and praise his name together. That at such meetings there be no dispute about controversial points, State affairs, or ye concerns of trade and worldly things but ye whole bent of ye Discourse be to ye Glory of God and to Edifie one another in Love.

An undated list of names of members and their occupations includes fifty people from forty occupations, including a goldsmith, silversmith and watchmaker, a cook, a buckram stiffener and a winedrawer, suggesting a wide range of social standing. 164 The two societies joined each year for a 'Feast' costing, on average, about 3s. each. The only other detailed information about membership of religious societies is a list of members of sixteen religious societies 'about the Cities of London and Westminster' in 1694 which lists 298 members including one woman, a pastry cook, seven 'gentlemen', four clerks, one attorney, one prothonotary, and Lord Salisbury's steward. The rest followed over eighty occupations ranging from porters and weavers to goldsmiths and silversmiths, from servants to schoolmasters. Most were either skilled craftsmen, for example carpenters, coachmakers, peruke makers and shoemakers; or tradesmen, for example bakers, butchers, drapers, grocers, haberdashers and tailors. About forty were described as apprentices and journeymen. 165 Despite the disclaimer about disputing 'State affairs', one of the Cripplegate societies was suspected, probably in 1718, of disloyalty to the Hanoverian succession. It was recorded in the stewards' book, 164 165

Guildhall Library, M S 6479 St Giles' Cripplegate Religious Society Stewards' Account Book 1696-1761. Rawlinson M S , quoted in T . C . Curtis a n d W . A. Speck, T h e Societies for the Reformation of Manners: A Case Study in the T h e o r y a n d Practice of M o r a l Reform, Literature and History, 3 (March 1976), p. 47.

Public religious practice We whose names are hereunto Subscribed do Severally declare that we are fully satisfied of the Just Right that our Sovereign Lord King George hath to ye Crown of these Realms and yt we will Endeavour by ye Grace of God to behave ourselves as becomes those who are well affected to his Majesty and his Government. Although there were spaces for thirty-one names only thirteen signatures were subscribed. 166 At St Mary-le-Bow the religious society's 'Sole design in associating themselves is only to promote piety and Charity and the Honour of God . . . in pursuance of their design [they] have agreed to have, and maintain a lecture or Sermon preach'd on the Third Sunday in each month at the Parish Church of St Mary le Bow'. Members had to be approved by the directors, members of the Church of England, and pay 5s. admission fee and Is. a month towards the sermon, which suggests that they were drawn from the more prosperous members of the community. They were governed by two stewards and nine directors elected at Easter and Michaelmas. They met on the fourth Sunday in each month and one evening each week to unite themselves together in love by friendly conversation, edifying discourse and exhortation and to encourage one another in their respective duties, and that all discourse that tends not thereunto shall be avoided and such a due regularity shall be observed that none shall interrupt another in speaking. It was also required That every member of the Society shall heartily endeavour to lead a Godly, Righteous and Sober Life, and to keep his conscience void of offence both toward God and towards men that our light may so shine before men that they, seeing our good work, may glorify our Father which is in heaven. The society maintained the Cornhill, Lime Street and Langbourn Wards Charity School, which educated fifty boys at a cost to the society of £11 o a year. The stewards and directors managed the school meeting twice a month to superintend it. In April 1711 there was a dispute in the society, the causes of which were not recorded, and thirty members withdrew, leaving a rump of twenty-two members. Probably because of the relatively large sums of money involved, and the animosity between the two groups, articles of agreement were drawn up, and, after consultation with the 166

Guildhall Library, MS 6479.

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rector of St Mary-le-Bow, the society's assets were divided to allow the smaller group sufficient funds to continue to support the charity school at St Mary's and the monthly lecture there. The thirty who withdrew entered into negotiations with the incumbent of St Michael's Cornhill, to attach themselves to his parish, for a 'lecture Sermon' to be preached there once a month and for 'a Collection to be there made for the use of the Charity School to be erected by the Society'. The incumbent consented, provided that 'five named gentlemen of the parish concurred'. Five members were elected to a committee to appoint preachers, and additional quarterly sermons (to raise funds for the school) were negotiated at St Peter's Cornhill and St Benet's Grace Church. 167 The new society's rules required that 'every Member of this Society . . . be of the Church of England as by Law Establish't and of good life and Conversation'. The admission fee was £2 2s. and there were rules about the quarterly presentation of accounts and the election of two stewards, the treasurer, ten directors and four collectors. It was also stated 'That no child be placed out before Enquiry be made whether the Person who is intended for the Master or Mistress be of the Church of England as by law Establisht and of good Life and Conversation'. There were sixty-five members of the new society. The reasons for the split in the society are not clear. The new society had a much higher admission fee, which implies a wealthier and more exclusive membership. Thereafter the society's minute book was entirely concerned with the school, which suggests a shift in interest from concern for members' own 'godly conversation' to concern for an improvement in the godliness of the poorer sort. 168 The surviving society at St Mary-le-Bow also devoted much time and energy to maintaining its school. However, there was further dissension in the society when a furious dispute broke out in June 1716, as a result of which one of the stewards was expelled for 'disturbing ye peace and good order of ye Society'. A resolution passed ten days later vividly illustrates the complicated mixture of faith and works which motivated the members of societies and the interaction between religion and politics. It was ordered That if any Member of the Society shall at the time of Election; or at any 167 168

Sir J o h n Cass Foundation Archives, 1 B / 5 / 9 Minute Book of the Society for the Cornhill, Lime Street and Langbourn W a r d s Schools 1709-12. Sir J o h n Cass Foundation Archives, 1B/5/10 Minute Book of the Charitable Society of St Michael's Cornhill 1711.

Public religious practice meeting of this Society to show any Disaffection to our holy Religion as taught in ye Church of England as it is now by Law Established (wch God in his great mercy grant may continue to ye End of ye World) or to ye Defender of our holy faith, his sacred Majesty King George or to his Government, or shall bring in any party Dispute whatsoever, or contrary to ye Act of Uniformity by Open words declare or Speak anything in derogation depraving or despising of ye Book of Common Prayer or any part thereof shall be esteemed as a person unworthy to be a member of the Society and shall be expelled accordingly. This was followed by a resolution later in July 1716 to expel any boy or girl from the charity school found taking part in 'moles [sic] and bonfires' and 'publick rejoycing5 on 1 August 1716, which might have identified them with Jacobitism. 169 There were a series of similar alarms over the next three years. Surprisingly, however, in October 1716 the members resolved to invite the Bishop of Rochester, Francis Atterbury, a well-known leader of the high-church party, to preach at St Antholin's. There were frequent disputes thereafter over invitations to preachers between members of the society and Dr Bradford, the rector of St Mary-le-Bow, especially over an invitation to Dr Snape because che had in his late writings went from his argument and thrown Injurious reflection on ye Bishop of Bangor which proved false5. On 27 April 1719 the society voted itself out of existence when it resolved 'That for the future the Names of Stewards and Members of St Mary-le-Bow Society do cease and that they be known by the names of the Treasurers and Trustees of Cordwainers Ward Charity Schools'. It is not clear whether the tensions and vicissitudes of the St Maryle-Bow society were in any way typical, but the minutes of this and other societies show that they were very unlike those envisaged by Josiah Woodward and Samuel Wesley. They were groups of apparently prosperous men, who knew how to organise themselves and, whilst dedicated to deepening their Christian faith, seem to have been largely independent of the incumbents of their parishes. They organised their own affairs, invited their own preachers, and conducted their own prayers, without reference to the incumbent, unless he strongly objected. Such control by the laity in voluntary religious societies, however, was nothing new. The great majority of late 169

For the anxiety among charity-school trustees and religious societies over attempts to taint them with Jacobitism in 1716-18 see Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity, pp. 141-54.

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medieval guilds had been under lay control, with the clergy who said their masses being paid by the wardens and answerable to them. 170 These societies seem to have represented the independent men of English urban life who were also to be found in vestry meetings as the leading members of their communities, both civil and ecclesiastical. It was they who, as will be seen, with their wives, widows and daughters, were such generous benefactors to their parish churches and to Christian charitable endeavours. It seems unlikely, in view of their emphasis on the use of the Prayer Book at their meetings, that such societies were a manifestation of lay dissatisfaction with the repetitive routine of parish services on Sundays, although they do suggest a desire for something more informal and more personal. In small parishes societies were much more under the direction of the clergy. The society at Ledsham in West Yorkshire, where Lady Elizabeth Hastings lived, met in the vicarage on Friday evenings, when the vicar read them a chapter out of the New Testament, with Burkitt's Expository Notes, after which they sang a psalm and were dismissed with evening prayers. It is also likely that the societies that were formed as a result of the revivalist activities of the early Evangelical clergy, for example in Wales in the 1730s by Howell Harries on the model of Woodward's societies, 173 were firmly under the direction of the clergy. The societies did not wither away after the Hanoverian succession.174 They continued to flourish during the 1720s and 1730s despite the suspicions of Jacobitism. Although some declined, new ones appeared. Woodward's Account reached its fifth edition in 1724. Some thirty or forty societies were recorded in London and its suburbs in 1732. Members of societies seem to have been sermon tasters, and, after attending their parish churches on Sunday mornings, cin the afternoons they went to hear such ministers whom they thought preached the most spiritual and lived also according to their doctrine'. In this way in the 1730s they came to hear Whitefield, who, as a deacon, was 170 171 172

173 174

J o h n A. F. T h o m s o n , The Early Tudor Church and Society (1993), p . 299. As suggested by Walsh a n d Taylor, in The Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, H a y d o n and Taylor, p . 24. Archbishop Herring's Visitation Returns, 71, p . 144. This society was also probably very m u c h u n d e r the influence of Lady Elizabeth Hastings: see M . G . J o n e s , Lady Elizabeth Hastings, Church Quarterly Review, 129 (1939), pp. 3-21. O w a i n W . J o n e s , T h e Welsh C h u r c h in the Eighteenth Century, in A History of the Church in Wales, ed. David Walker (Penarth, 1976), p . n o . As suggested by Sommerville, Secularization ofEarly Modern England, p. 174.

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invited to preach a society sermon and influenced the society which met at cMr HuttonV, which seems to have been led by Sir John Thorold, and to which John Wesley introduced the Moravians, Bohler and Neisser. It was in this context that John Wesley and others experienced their religious renewal. 175 George Whitefield had already been involved with the religious societies in Gloucester, 176 and as has been seen, John Wesley's father had founded the Epworth society, so it is hardly surprising that they should have gravitated towards societies in the towns they visited and that they formed societies of their own. 177 Wesley, Whitefield and Ingham and Evangelical clergy like Walker of Truro were the products of the devotional and emotional world of the religious societies. Their devotional reading, their attention to the public offices of the Church, frequent communion, reading and praying with others and their charitable work among the poor were all of a piece with the practices of devout members of religious societies. Although he made no mention of it in his Journal, Wesley found that a religious society in Savannah which his predecessor Samuel Quiney had reported to the Trustees for Georgia had been established by his clerk. John Wesley's pastoral strategy in Georgia was based on his reading about 'primitive Christianity' and illustrated his desire to recreate the strict moral and religious discipline which he and others believed were the hallmark of the early Church. 179 He failed to realise, however, that while such discipline might be acceptable to a voluntary society, it was not acceptable to a whole community. John Wesley subsequently used religious societies as a basis for extempore preaching, for example at societies in London in Bear Yard, Gutter Lane, Wapping and the Minories. 180 He also visited societies in Oxford and Westminster, and when he began to preach 175

176 177

17 179 180

W a r d , Protestant Evangelical Awakening, p p . 340-2, quoting Archive of the Moravian C h u r c h in Great Britain a n d Ireland, Moravian C h u r c h House, 5 Muswell Hill, London N i o . Diary 1, William Holland, Short Account of Some Few Matters relating to the W o r k of the Lord in England (1745). George Whitefield's Journals, p. 61. T h e relationship between J o h n Wesley a n d the religious societies is discussed b y J o h n Simon, John Wesley and the Religious Societies (1921); Henry D . Rack, Religious Societies a n d the Origins of Methodism, JEH, 38 (1987), p p . 582-95; a n d J o h n Walsh, Religious Societies: Methodism and Evangelicalism 1738-1800, in SCH, 23 (1986). Leslie F. Church, Oglethorpe: A Study of Philanthropy in England and America (1932), p. 193. See especially Journal of John Wesley, Vol. 1, p p . 111-390. ibid., Vol. 11, p p . 70, 75, 82.

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in Bristol it was in societies in Nicholas Street and Baldwin Street that he made his base; they formed the nucleus of the societies established in his New Room. 181 He followed a similar pattern in most other provincial centres, moving in on Anglican religious societies, attracting dissenters, opening them to women and imposing his own rules and discipline. It was little wonder that clergy were suspicious of Wesley. He appeared to be establishing a discipline over semi-independent societies that had existed in their parishes for a generation or two and included the most active and devout men in their congregations. It is hardly surprising that although religious societies may have continued to survive, there is little evidence that many new societies were formed outside Evangelical clergy circles. The risk of their alienation was too great. However, the fact that religious societies were commonplace in towns may also explain why Wesley's societies often continued in close relationship with their parish church, and why incumbents were unsure whether to regard their members as dissenters. 181 182

ibid., Vol. II, p p . 87, 93, 168, 173 . See, for example, the stringent discipline exercised over the Newcastle society described in Arnold Rattenbury, Methodism a n d the Tatterdemalions, in Popular Culture and Class Conflict i$go-igi4:

Explanations in the History of Labour and Leisure, ed. Eileen and Stephen Yeo

(Brighton, 1981), p. 29.

CHAPTER 4

Personal andfamily piety

Christian faith, as mediated by the Church of England, was not imposed on the laity by the clergy. It was a faith and a Church with which lay people had a lively engagement, to a considerable extent on their own terms. As we have seen, in general they had a high expectation of their clergy, and usually behaved as though the labourer was worthy of his hire. Christian belief permeated people's lives. Evidence for personal belief and the practice of personal piety is always limited, for few people write letters or keep diaries, and fewer commit such information to their letters and diaries. However, the evidence suggests that a wide range of people enjoyed a rich personal devotional life that was in no way under clerical domination. A few of the better and middling sort kept diaries in which they recorded some of their inner thoughts and their prayers, and also noted the activities of other people. In addition, the considerable number of books of devotion and popular theology written by lay people as well as clergy during the period suggests a large audience among all sorts of people for such literature. The contents of libraries and periodicals show a lively interest in matters of faith and devotion. Literature, painting and music reveal that many writers, painters and composers, as well as their patrons, recognised a Christian inspiration and responsibility in their work. There is also more concrete evidence, in the form of domestic chapels in great houses and monumental inscriptions in parish churches, which implies that prayer played an important part in people's daily routines, and that prayer and devotional reading were a significant domestic activity, for which the head of the household had responsibility. Because faith was not imposed, people were broad in their beliefs. Popular reading matter suggests that at all levels of society people were also interested in astrology, prophecy and millenarianism and mystical and heterodox ideas. 93

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In the matter of personal prayer reticence is occasionally broken. Diaries and letters provide considerable evidence for personal piety. When Lord Egmont's sister-in-law was dying in 1731 aged thirtynine, he noted, she desir'd to know what I thought of her breaking a resolution she had made when very young never to say her prayers but on her knees ... she never had failed in it till her arrival in Bath, when the first night, she was so fatigued and ill she had not power to pray on her knees but did it, as she lay in bed, which now in recollecting past matters was a scruple to her.l Egmont described how he spoke to her of God's love and forgiveness. When in 1732 he discovered his son's profligate expenditure of £1,930 2s. gd. in eleven months in Ireland, he wrote, after having spoken to his son, 'God prevent him in all his doings and further him with continual help. Amen.' 2 Bishop Pearce testified of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, that when through age and infirmity he could no longer attend daily services at his parish church, he 'supplied that defect by daily reading over the Morning service of the Church before coming out of his bed chamber'. 3 The Duke of Newcastle, who died in 1768, corresponded regularly with Bishop Hume of Oxford about his spiritual state, including his unworthiness in receiving communion, and about his lack of time, owing to matters of State, to prepare adequately for communion. He also discussed his chaplain's sermons with Hume. 4 Elizabeth Burnet, the wife of the Bishop of Salisbury and a close friend of the Duchess of Marlborough, kept a diary and travel journal containing pages of prayer and outpourings to God. She had obviously experienced mystical prayer. Her writings, including A Method of Prayer, published posthumously in 1709, presupposed a knowledge of the more advanced states of prayer as well as a broad knowledge of the spiritual classics.5 Occasionally diary-writers like Ralph Thoresby note that they prayed 'in secret'.6 George Fothergill, an undergraduate at The Queen's College, Oxford, wrote to his parents in 1722 when he was sixteen, 1 2 3 4 5

MSS ofthe Earl ofEgmont, p. 123. ibid., p. 260. Norman Sykes, Church and State in England in the XVIIIth Century (Cambridge, 1934), p. 276. ibid., p. 277. C. Kirchberger, Elizabeth Burnet, Church Quarterly Review, 168, (1949), p. 42. Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 1, p. 197.

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I desire you both to remember me in your prayers, so that, being by the craftiness of Satan, by the prevalency of companions, by theflexibilityof my age and frailty of human nature, I am, without the continual assistance of God's grace, in danger to fall, you would not cease to pray that His grace may always prevent and follow me, and both restrain me from falling away, and fit me for whatever I may be exercised with, and that I may in all my designs aim at His glory.7 Thomas Turner, the Sussex shopkeeper, in 1757 prayed about the difficulties of his marriage: 'may the God of all goodness and perfection pour into our hearts his Holy Spirit that we may live together in true unity, love and peace with each other, bearing each other's infirmities and weakness'.8 The frequent echoes of phrases from the Prayer Book suggest that many people committed the Orders for Morning and Evening Prayer and the collects and probably the Psalms to memory. Two generations later Hugh Bourne recalled, 'When quite a boy I learned by rote, or committed to memory the morning and evening services of the Church with the Te Deum, Litany, etc. This was done at my father's instance.'9 Many lay people seem to have followed the view of the clergy of the Restoration Church that the Church was a fellowship of prayer which extended beyond public worship into their household and private devotions. Even if they merely heard prayers read by the clergy when they attended the public worship of the Church, those prayers became part of their own vocabulary. It is almost certainly wrong to claim that the specifically Anglican piety envisaged by Restoration church people did not take root and flourish in the Hanoverian Church. ° Church attendance was not a mere formality. Henry Prescott noted in 1709 that when he was 'indispos'd' on a Sunday, he read the Psalms and lessons for the day and a sermon at home. 11 Much literature, painting and music of the period has allusions to an underlying assumption and knowledge about the Christian faith. In his Epistle to Bathurst, Pope depicts 'the Man of Ross', John Kyrle 7

9

10 I1

The Fothergills of Ravenstonedale, ed. Catherine Thornton and Frances McLaughton (1905), P- 6. Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 113. A Sketch of the Life and Labour of the Venerable Hugh Bourne, Primitive Methodist Magazine (1853), p. 516, quoted in Deborah M. Valenze, Prophetic Sons and Daughters (Princeton, 1985), p. 81. John Spurr, The Restoration Church of England i646-i68g (New Haven and London, 1991), pp. 286, 341, 360, 386. Diary of Henry Prescott, p. 260.

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(1637-1726), as an ideal of Christian gentility. Kyrle was described as a daily attendant at church (£at the chiming of the bell, all business ceased with him') and a strong supporter of'Church and King5. All the actions of his life are described as having an almost 'primitive Christian5 tone. He cared for the poor, fed the hungry, healed the sick, and used his talents and his lands for the benefit of the public rather than his family. As the spire of Ross-on-Wye Church, pointing heavenwards, was the culminating point in the prospect of Ross which Kyrle created in landscaping the grounds of his house, so all his life is seen as a single act of worship. 12 Men of letters were certainly much concerned about religion, including those not usually credited with much interest in matters spiritual. Pomfret and Prior, among the Augustans, tried their hands at religious themes. Prior regarded Solomon (1718) as his most important poem. The Guardian asserted, 'there is not anywhere, I believe, so much Talk about Religion as amoiig us in England 5. In 1743 Young5s Night Thoughts echoed this: 'Few ages have been deeper in dispute about religion than this.5 Fielding's Joseph Andrews, as has been noted, is a moral and Christian story concerned with the conflict between living in this world and seeking first the kingdom of heaven. Lady Booby and her set show the difficulties of those burdened with riches in taking leave of them. Parson Adams, who has withdrawn his affections from riches, whose innocence, naivete and benevolence place him in conflict with the majority, is in the minority - the normal place for the true Christian. Richardson's novels too can be read within the tradition of Christian fable, fictionalising the Christian message in contemporary trappings. The Anglican context of Clarissa is buttressed by references to the theological writings of Stanhope and the sermons of Sharp, Tillotson and South. 14 In less direct ways literature was permeated with a sense of Christian values which writers and readers were readier to recognise than some conceptions of the age might suggest. The Spectator and 12

13 14

Howard Erskine-Hill, The Social Milieu of Alexander Pope: Lives, Examples and the Poetic Response

(New Haven and London, 1975), p. 33. No. 65, (1713). Thomas R. Preston, Biblical Criticism, Literature and the Eighteenth Century Reader, in Books and their Readers in Eighteenth Century England, ed. Isabel Rivers (New York, 1982), p. 105,

and Jeremy Gregory, Anglicanism and the Arts: Religion, Culture and Politics in the Eighteenth Century, in Politics and Society in Britain 1660-1800, ed. Jeremy Black and Jeremy Gregory (Manchester, 1991), p. 93.

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the Tatler were in themselves projects for moral reformation. Addison and Steele hoped through them to offer examples of virtue that English people might imitate. They aimed to reform while they entertained. 5 The Spectator printed versified biblical texts, Addison's and Watts's hymns and Pope's Messiah. These journals abounded in lay sermons and moral discussions, and Addison in particular made it his business to promote religion, and was praised for this by Swift and Pope. 16 In painting, the traditional Christian imagery of light was used to acclaim science as the light of truth revealing the works of God. Wright of Derby, in the middle of the century, used Christian imagery in his scientific pictures. In The Air Pump he used an early Netherlandish model of the Trinity, and in the two paintings of blacksmith's shops the imagery recalls the traditional imagery of nativity scenes.17 Wright's allusions to religious art makes explicit the religious context in which not only these scientific demonstrations but all of life was conceived in his day. Nor should it be forgotten that music, which played a major part in polite society in the first half of the eighteenth century, was a very important medium for spiritual experience. Handel, the doyen of composers, was a regular and devout worshipper at St George's Hanover Square. 18 His oratorios, whether they had biblical or mythological subjects, were designed to remind people of the power of God to reveal himself in historical events, most perfectly realised in the resurrection of Christ. 19 Handel, in fact, expressed a wish to die on Good Friday 'in hopes of meeting his Good God, his sweet Lord and Saviour on the day of his resurrection'. He died on Holy Saturday, 14 April 1759.20 Another indicator of popular piety is seen in monuments commemorating the dead. The relative absence of depictions of ascending souls or resurrected bodies on eighteenth-century monuments should not lead to the conclusion that the subject was one in which people took little interest. Sculptors generally used 15 16

17

Bahlman, Moral Revolution, p . 102. A. R. Humphries, The Augustan World: Life and Letters in Eighteenth Century England (1954), David Fraser, Joseph Wright and the Lunar Society, in Wright of Derby, ed. J u d y Egerton

(1990), pp. 18-20. 18 19

20

Christopher Hogwood, Handel (1984), p. 84. For a further discussion of Handel's theological and religious motives see Hamish Swanston, Handel (1990). Hogwood, Handel, p . 230.

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contemporary imagery to refer to hope of life after death. For example, the medallion portrait carried by an angel or cherub or a skeleton, which had first been popularised for this purpose by Bernini in Rome in the mid seventeenth century, metaphorically depicted the passage of the spirit from this world to heaven. A medallion tied, or about to be tied, to an obelisk or a pyramid, which itself was emblematic of eternity, as in the monuments to Mrs Anne Nunney, who died in 1729, at Llanfacreth in Merioneth or to Elizabeth Craig, who died in 1723, at St Mary's Oxford,21 indicated a hope of a resurrection life with God. Church monuments are a fruitful source of evidence for popular piety. The charitable and moral virtues upon which they most often comment were intended as illustrations of Christian discipleship. Examples of piety are often noted, for example that of Edward Payne, Esq., High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1688, who died in 1728: 'He loved the Religion of his Country and Constantly attended its Offices with exemplary Seriousness and Devotion.' 22 Of Sarah Stukely of Holbeach, who died in January 1730, it was recorded 'Twas here she did with Pleasure and Content Receive God's Holy Word and Sacrament.23 In the upper echelons of society household devotions were carefully observed. Bishop Nicolson noted that Queen Anne attended daily prayers while Prince Georg of Denmark attended his Lutheran devotions.24 Addison commented in The Freeholder that Caroline, Princess of Wales cis constant in her Attendance on the daily Offices of our Church'. Lord Egmont recorded his own attendance at daily services at the Chapel Royal in the 1730s, but unfortunately did not note whether George II was present. The Marlboroughs had daily family prayers, and the Duke reprimanded the Duchess for sitting rather than kneeling during prayers. 26 The nobility and the gentry lavished considerable sums on building chapels in their country houses. The practice of Anglican Christianity seems to have been central to the self-understanding of 21 22 23 24 25 26

Nicholas Penny, Church Monuments in Romantic England (New Haven and London, 1977), p. 98. Hough on the Hill Church, Lincolnshire. Inscription on monument. Holbeach Church, Lincolnshire. Inscription on monument. London Diaries of William Nicolson, p. 68. No. 21, 2 March 1715. Frances Harris, A Passion for Government: The Life of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough (Oxford, 1991), p. 189.

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aristocratic and gentry society. Owners of great houses and their households sat in their chapels, often framed in the flamboyant pomp of curtains, coats of arms and coronets, as at Petworth or Belton, reflecting a hierarchy under God, and an ordered and regulated society set in the context of the formal display and etiquette of contemporary society.27 Distinguished architects designed these chapels - Talman at Chatsworth, Gibbs at Canons and Wimpole, Vanbrugh at Grimsthorpe and Kimbolton Castles and at Eastbury and Stowe;28 and fashionable artists were commissioned to provide paintings of scriptural subjects - Sebastian Ricci painted the Last Supper and the Baptism of Christ on two walls of the chapel at Bulstrode for Henry Bentinck, first Duke of Portland in 1713-14, and Sir James Thornhill painted the domed ceiling of Vanbrugh's octagonal chapel at Eastbury with the Ascension.29 Given the expense of employing the most distinguished architects and artists of their generation, Christian worship must have been seen as playing a significant part in the life of these great country houses. The best of design and craftsmanship was lavished as much on the chapel as on the saloon. In his Vitruvius Britannicus,firstpublished in 1725, the illustrations of which were highly influential for English Palladianism, Colen Campbell shows most of the great mansions built in the first quarter of the eighteenth century as having chapels among the suites of public rooms. The plan of the ground floor of Stourhead 'as design'd by Mr Campbell' shows a chapel in the centre of the front opposite the porticoed entrance. Even at the height of Palladianism a great Whig magnate, Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, devoted one of the four pavilions of his sumptuous house at Holkham designed by William Kent and built between 1734 and 1761 to use as a chapel. It was a magnificent apartment on which great expense was lavished. The columns and the lower part of the walls were lined with 'Staffordshire alabaster'. The screen from the family pew towards the chapel was cof cedar wood, inlaid with ornaments carved in limewood'. The altar piece contained The Assumption of the Virgin by 27 28 29 30

M a r k Girouard, Life in the English Country House (New Haven a n d London, 1978), p . 144, where little mention is m a d e of the place of the chapel in the life of a country house. T e r r y Friedman, James Gibbs as a Church Designer (Derby, 1972), a n d Lawrence Whistler, The Imagination of Vanbrugh and his Fellow Artists (1954), pp. 17, 137, 163, 188. Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting 1700-1760, ed. Elizabeth Einberg (1987), p. 39, and Whistler, Imagination of Vanbrugh, p. 163. R C H M , Wilton House and English Palladianism (1988), p. 136.

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Guido Reni with full-length figures of St Anne and St Cecilia by Cipriani as the side panels. Other paintings in the chapel were attributed to Andrea Sacchi, Lanfranco, Benedetto Luti and Carlo Maratti. 31 It should not be assumed that what went on in the chapel was necessarily mere empty display. Not all may have lived up to the standard of Sir George Wheler, who recommended that the daily offices of the Prayer Book should be said in a nobleman's chapel, and the holy communion celebrated daily at noon. However, George Whitefield noted in October 1750 that 'we have the sacrament every morning' at Lady Huntingdon's house. 32 Ralph Thoresby, staying at Wentworth Woodhouse in August 1711, commented: 'I was mightily pleased with the regularity and piety of the family, which is very numerous, yet all attend the prayers twice every day in the family.'33 The Duke of Newcastle was described in his obituary as 'having divine service constantly performed twice a day in his family both in town and country, and at stated times the Sacrament was administered, at which he constantly communicated'. 34 In gentry households where there was not a chaplain the head of the household himself or herself read the prayers. Sir Francis Vyvyan of Trelowarren in Cornwall read evening prayer daily to his family in his chapel. 35 Many of the nobility and gentry employed a chaplain. It was a position much sought after by clergy, for it permitted a clergyman to hold in plurality two livings more than thirty miles apart. A chaplain might also in due course be preferred to a living in the gift of the patron. It has frequently been suggested, on the evidence of Fielding's description in Joseph Andrews, that a resident chaplain was at the beck and call of the family, often the butt of humour and, if tutor to the sons, liable to be overruled on matters of discipline and order. This was not necessarily the case. Jeremy Collier, a wellknown non-juror, in an essay on The Office of a Chaplain Enquired Into,

emphasised that ca Priest or Chaplain in a family is no servant . . . that whatever fair Expectations the Patron may have given the Priest of future Advantage there are no sufficient Grounds to justify an 31 32 33 34 35

J . Dawson, The Stranger's Guide to Holkham (Burnham, 1817), pp. 116-17. Quoted in Legg, Church Life, p . 29. Diary ofRalph Thoresby, Vol. 11, p. 82. Sykes, Church and State, p. 277. H . Miles Brown, T h e High Church Tradition in Cornwall 1662-1831, Church Quarterly Review, 150 (1950), p . 72.

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imperious Deportment on the one Hand, or a Servile submission on the other'. Collier pointed out that ca Man's receiving Money in Consideration of his bestowing his Time and pains upon another does not make him a Servant'. Lawyers and physicians were not regarded as servants even though they were paid a fee. The communication of part of our Wealth to the Clergy officiating in our Houses is ... nothing but a due Respect to their Function, and a grateful Acknowledgement of their Care. What the Priest receives from us is offered to God ... The Office of a Clergyman in a Family is to pray for, bless and give Absolution to those he is concerned with, which are all acts of authority and jurisdiction. He is to Counsel, exhort and reprove the Master of the Family himself, upon occasion (though with respect to his Station) ... If a patron chooses the hours of prayer he is only declaring when the household are ready for God's worship ... As the Church is independent of the State so are Chaplains independent of Patrons ... Those who are craven in the face of overbearing patrons run the risk of repeating the crime of Judas.36 Many distinguished and independent-minded clergy began their careers as domestic chaplains. Thomas Wilson was nominated as Bishop of Sodor and Man by Lord Derby even though he had rebuked him for not paying his debts. The confidence and respect in which chaplains might be held is demonstrated by the way in which they were often entrusted with arranging and supervising the grand tour for their patron's son and heir. Amongst the middling sort of people and those of the lower orders who could read there was ample material available to encourage daily family prayers. Chapbooks, usually costing id. or 2d. each, and sold by pedlars or on market stalls, seem to have dominated the cheap publishing market in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. They included a high proportion of religious titles, which suggests a ready market for popular religious and devotional works. A significant proportion of them consisted of instructional and catechetical manuals. They stressed the role of the family in religious education and usually contained morning and evening prayers for each day of the week, together with graces for before and after meals, and prayers for times of special stress, together with scriptural passages for rote learning. 38 In the mid eighteenth century there was still a large demand for 'Godly broadsides' to be stuck on the walls of 36 37 38

J e r e m y Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects, 7th edn. (1752), p p . 185-250. Keble, Thomas Wilson, Vol. 1, p . 72. Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, p. 211.

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houses, which served the function of daily reinforcing religious truths. 39 The role of the family as the smallest unit of the Church is illustrated by the titles of twopenny chapbooks, for example The Dying Man's Last Sermon; or the Father's Last Blessing Left and Bequeathed as a Legacy to his Children, Immediately before his Death and its companion,

published in 1685, The Mother's Last Blessing, which listed a hundred 'Devout Admonitions' in rhyme left by the dying mother for her children.40 Given the high mortality rate, such books must have spoken to many people's experience. The ideal of the household was that 'A man's house was a little oratory where the master prayed himself with all his family, and read a portion of Scripture.' 41 The family included children, the servants living in the house, any apprentices bound to the master or mistress and any unmarried employees (who would not normally expect to marry until they were in their mid or late twenties). The family, as has been noted, was the basic economic unit. Home and workplace coincided for most people, and most tasks, whether agricultural or manufacturing, were shared between employers and servants and apprentices, men and women.43 Members of the household unit thus had control over the organisation of their working day, and of how time was allocated to particular tasks. It was therefore possible to set aside times during the course of the day for household prayers. This pattern of living began to break down only in the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1804 Arthur Young criticised 'allowing board wages to farm servants instead of the old way of feeding in the house . . . This is one material cause of an increased neglect of the Sabbath, and looseness of morals; they are free from the masters, sleep where and with whom they please, and are rarely seen at church.' 4 Heads of household had a special duty to instruct in the Christian faith by word and example. Whether at her town house in Leeds or 39

40

4

43

Patricia Crawford, Women and Religion in England 1500-1J20 (1993), p . 86. See also Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 178-253. Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, p. 201. Edward Chandler [Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield], A Sermon preach'd at St Mary-le-Bow (1725), p. 13. K. D . M. Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor: Social Change in Agrarian England 1660-igoo (Cambridge, 1985), p. 211. Bridget Hill, Women, Work and Sexual Politics in Eighteenth Century England (Oxford, 1989), pp. 24-39. Arthur Young, A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Norfolk (1806, reprinted Newton Abbot, 1969), p. 484.

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in the country at Ledsham, Lady Elizabeth Hastings assembled her household, 'or such of them as could be spared', four times a day to join in prayer and Bible reading from the Church's service. These prayers were conducted either by the vicar, who acted as her chaplain, or one of the senior servants. Devotional works were also read aloud for those preparing to receive communion. Family worship was especially important for the old or infirm, who might not otherwise be able to join in any worship. The head of the household was expected to ensure that his or her children and servants knew their catechism and attended church. Mothers were regarded as having a special responsibility for teaching children their catechism. On their return from church on Sundays parents were expected to rehearse the whole family in the text and content of the sermon. That perhaps explains why some people took notes from sermons in their diaries. The family was expected to be a model of the Church. Christian family life was the cornerstone of society. Increasingly, as the century progressed, the demands of urban and industrialising life in gathering out-workers into workshops and factories were incompatible with attendance at daily public prayers in the parish church, and with family prayers. These were left to women, especially to those of the middling and upper ranks of society, who, with the increasing separation of the workplace from the home and the increasing separation of employers from their servants, had more time on their hands than men for prayer and piety. Death was an ever-present reality in the first half of the eighteenth century. Although life expectancy had risen in the 1690s and early 1700s, it fell in the 1720s and 1730s. The accession of George II coincided with a rise in the death rate which in effect removed the entire population gain since 1660. The five-year period 1726-31 had the biggest loss of population of any five-year period since 1561. There was another major setback in population increase in 1741-2.47 This was not merely an urban phenomenon: at Llanfechell in Anglesey William Bulkeley commented in 1734 that during the previous seven years 'a great Mortality destroyed almost half the parish'. 48 Average life expectancy at birth was thirty-five to forty 45 47 48

C. E. Medhurst, Life and Work of Lady Elizabeth Hastings (Leeds, 1914), p. 59. Jones, Lady Elizabeth Hastings. Paul Langford, A Commercial and Polite People: England 1J2J-1J83 (Oxford, 1989), p. 146. Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 18.

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years, but in poor London parishes near the river, it was ten years lower.49 Any illness or injury might lead to death. Sickness or minor injury was often seen as a warning of the closeness of death. In a world where medical skills were limited and relatively inaccessible, spiritual 'physick', exercises in penitence and self-abasement, was the means often prescribed for the 'correction of the disease' and was seen by, for example, Nathaniel Spinckes in The Sick Man Visited (1712) as the 'usefulness of sickness to win a glorious victory over Death'. The pious physician James Stonehouse in Friendly Advice to a Patient (1769) gave 'cleansing the conscience' priority over any last-ditch measures by the physician.50 Death stared people in the face: the deaths of one's spouse, one's children, one's friends and, of course, one's own death. It is hardly surprising that most people sought in the Christian faith a meaning in life beyond death. Thomas Turner could never completely relax, for he lived in hourly expectation of his death. As a result, when he occasionally over-relaxed, he was smitten with remorse. Fear of sin was constantly with him, and he saw any diversion as being likely to lead to sin.51 Nor was familiarity with the frequency of death any palliative against sorrow. When her son died, Sarah Churchill was devastated with grief. She was noted as haunting the cloisters of Westminster and mingling with the congregations of strange churches. When her granddaughter, Diana, Duchess of Bedford, died, she was reported as praying prostrate on the floor of Marlborough House. Yet her contempt for ostentatious piety remained strong, and as she grew older, she made no attempt to conceal her religious doubts. The chapel at Blenheim was the last part of the house to be completed. 52 The popular picture of the eighteenth century as a time of religious indifference is belied by the unceasing flow of religious literature during the period. Although the clergy formed a significant proportion of the book-buying public, the great majority of the market for religious books must have been lay people. At an auction in Great Yarmouth held by the Norwich bookseller Henry Cross49

50

51

5

R. M . Smith, Population and its Geography in England 1500-1730, in An Historical Geography of England and Wales, ed. R. A. Dodgson and R. A. Butlin (1978), p. 216. Quoted in Roy Porter and Dorothy Porter, In Sickness and in Health: The British Experience 1650-1850 (1988), pp. 249-50. Derek K. Worcester, Jr, The Life and Times of Thomas Turner of East Hoathly (New Haven, 1948), p. 62 Harris, Passionfor Government, p p . 283, 312, 341.

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grove in 1720, well over half the books offered for sale were theological books. The impression is that the stocks of bookshops were dominated by theology, and that there was a considerable interest in religious works, including devotional works and biblical criticism. Sermons were published in vast numbers. Between 1739 and 1779 the Gentleman's Magazine devoted about 20 per cent of its reviews and 'books mentioned' to religious books. 53 Biblical commentaries went through numerous editions. Matthew Henry's An Exposition of all the Books of the Old and New Testaments went

through ten editions during the century, and Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament through seventeen. There was a wide range of works to assist a reader with interpreting the Bible. Samuel Blackwell's pamphlet Several Methods of Reading the Holy Scriptures in Private,

published in 1718, reached its fourth edition in 1736, and Robert Lowth's Directions for the Profitable Reading of the Holy Scripture (1708) was

still in print in the mid nineteenth century. The usual edition was around a thousand copies; religious bestsellers, however, including some collections of sermons, were printed in the largest editions known to the industry, usually two or three thousand. 5 If Thomas Turner is typical of his class, sermons were widely read. He owned a set of Tillotson's Sermons and read them all the way through aloud to his family and friends at least five times, sometimes as many as seven sermons at a sitting. He also read Stillingfleet, Torriano, Sharp and Drelincourt. It made no difference to him how old the controversies were over which they struggled. He read and re-read sermons of earlier days, commenting on what he thought of them, and some times itemising the heads or topics with which they dealt. 56 Devotional works went through many editions. The Whole Duty of Man seems to have been the most popular devotional work England has ever known, while A Week's Preparation Towards a Worthy Receiving

of the Lord's Supper, first published in I678, was in its fifty-second edition in 1764. Edward Lake's Officium Eucharisticum went through thirty editions between 1673 and 1753; Theophilus Dorrington's Reformed Devotions, based on the Breviary, went through nine editions between 1686 and 1727; Mrs Susannah Hop ton's Devotions in the 53 54 55 5

John Feather, The Provincial Book Trade in Eighteenth Century England (Cambridge, 1985 ), p. 38. For a fuller discussion see Preston, Biblical Criticism. C . J o h n Sommerville, Popular Religion in Restoration England (Gainesville, Fla., 1977), p . 10. Worcester, Thomas Turner, p . 60.

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Ancient Way of Offices appeared in eight editions between 1700 and 1765, a n d The Common Prayerbook: The Best Companion in the House and

Closet as well as in the Temple went through seventeen editions between 1685 and 1734.57 Such devotional manuals were designed for family and personal use and were especially concerned to foster regular devotional habits, emphasising both daily family prayers and private prayer for individual members of the family. They were essentially non-controversial home helps to godly living, preaching a practical and prudential morality. The bulk of this literature emphasised the subjective awareness of sin, the Christo-centric nature of faith and the practical fruits of the growth of grace in the regenerated soul, for example in charitable works. They make it clear that spiritual matters were a personal response, a two-way relationship between God and the individual. By a process of restlessness and uncompromising self-scrutiny, testing the state of mind and soul, they helped to foster attitudes and habits which later contributed significantly to Methodist piety.58 More substantial theological treatises were also in demand. The fruit of the strong flowering of Anglican Patristic study in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in the works of Fell, Wake, Bingham, Cave, Reeves and Deacon is frequently to be found on the shelves of country-house libraries, suggesting that knowledge of early Christian thought reached not only the parish clergy but also devout lay people. Surviving diaries show people reading substantial theological works. In 1708 Henry Prescott read Hooker's Second Book of Ecclesiastical Polity, in March 1710 he began Beveridge's Private

Thoughts on Religion, and in June he was reading 'Tertullian'. On Christmas Day he began the Acts of the Apostles, which he finished that day; he began the Epistle to the Romans the next day. He carried on reading through the Epistles until he finished the Epistle to the Thessalonians on 1 January. Dr Claver Morris in 1709 was reading 'some of Mr Martin's Assize Sermons at Dorchester ... [and] the causes of ye Decay of Christian Piety to my Family'. In 1725 he 'carr'd Dr Creighton's volume of 22 sermons to my daughter who desired to read them'. 60 Morris Oliver, a gentleman farmer of 37 58 59 60

Legg, Church Life, p p . 338-41. Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society, pp. 133-4. Diary of Henry Prescott, pp. 210, 284, 292. Diary of a West Country Physician, pp. 54 and 122.

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Permal, Merioneth, owned 196 books, of which 61 were works of theology and popular religion. Butler's Analog)) of Religion, first published in 1736, went into three editions in its first year. Mary Myddleton, a well-to-do spinster of Croesnewydd, Denbighshire, read a Kempis, Pascal and especially Law's Serious Call. Elizabeth Legson, a widow of Llantrithyd, Glamorgan, who died in 1724, read a Kempis, Symon Patrick and Jeremy Taylor. 61 Jenkins has suggested that there are striking figures to show that practical devotional books drew a substantial number of subscribers from a reading public below the level of the parish gentry, especially small farmers. He also found subscribers to practical devotional works among craftsmen in both rural and urban areas including weavers, shoemakers, butchers, grocers and tanners. 62 Thomas Turner's diaries suggest that people from the same social groups were reading and discussing religious and spiritual matters in east Sussex. Books were widely available for sale. In 1700 there were six booksellers in Chester and nine in Norwich. There were booksellers in Lancaster, Ormskirk, Wigan and Warrington in the 1740s. The stock of Abraham Dent's shop in Kirkby Stephen in the 1760s included, among the household provisions, cloth and items for making clothes, paper, pens, patent medicines and gunpowder, books, including 'Testaments' at id. and is., Prayer Books at is. 6d. and 2s. 8d., Tillotson's Sermons, Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs

and King's Heathen Gods. He also sold an occasional Greek Testament. 64 Market days too provided outlets: George Barton, who had a bookshop in Huntingdon, was also at Peterborough, St Ives and St Neots on market days. 5 Chapbooks, as has been noted, sold by pedlars, catered for the reading interests of the poorer sort. A surviving trade list of a chapbook publisher from 1764 shows that, after traditional fiction, with titles like Robin Hood's Tales and Guy Earl of Warwick, the largest

group of titles dealt with religion, which as a combined category comprised approximately a third of the one hundred and fifty or so titles listed. Of these, thirty-five refer explicitly to religious concerns, 1 62 63 64

Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society, p. 271. ibid., p. 274. Worcester, Thomas Turner, p. 62. T. S. Willan, An Eighteenth Century Shopkeeper: Abraham Dent of Kirkby Stephen (Manchester,

1970), p. 17. Borsay, Urban Renaissance,^. 131.

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many of which were centred on death and divine judgement. 66 Valenze has pointed out that chapbooks made no rigid distinction between sacred and secular. She suggests that, though political themes waned in importance in the content of chapbooks, 'practical' religion retained a central place in popular culture. Chapbooks promoted an anxious alertness to God's judgement and advocated an independent and liberal study of the Bible. People were interested in the Day of Judgement, especially in how judgement would be meted out to unpopular social groups, but the doctrines related to judgement generated less enthusiasm. This may explain why sermons on damnation and election preached by some early Methodists were greeted with hostility and apprehension. Chapbooks certainly suggest that religious observance was important in ordinary people's lives. A New Prophecy suggests that 'Those who forget God and Scoff at Religion and the Worship of God' and 'those that never trouble themselves about Religion but eat and drink like Beasts' are numbered among the damned souls. Clergy were reminded not to fleece their flocks but to feed them. Lack of charity to the poor by anyone was sharply censured, but sturdy beggars were also criticised. Chapbooks emphasised the importance of faith and belief and illustrate the horrific consequences of doubt and disbelief. They strongly suggest that belief in the miraculous formed the basis of popular religion. The Historical Catechism dealt largely with the miracles and wonders of religion, describing the miracle accompanying Christ's birth and 'the dreadful signs and wonders which foretold the destruction of Jerusalem'. 6 An attitude to religion that is relaxed, practical and highly flexible is revealed by the chapbooks. They are much preoccupied with the imminence of destruction, the pervasiveness of evil, anti-clericalism, resistance to Calvinist doctrine, a strong collective morality, interpretation of the weather, strange births and belief in healing and other miracles. The development of provincial newspapers was stimulated by the religious and political controversies of the first decade of the eighteenth century. No fewer than six country newspapers, it is claimed, were started in 1710 to capitalise on the popular interest in Dr 66

68

Margaret Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, pp. 135-46, and Deborah M. Valenze, Prophecy and Popular Literature in Eighteenth Century England, JEH, 29 (1978), p. 76. Valenze, Prophecy and Popular Literature, p. 81. ibid., pp. 82-6.

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SacheverelPs trial. By 1760 fifty-five provincial towns had newspapers, many producing more than one paper — Bristol had nine, Manchester eight, Exeter, Newcastle and Norwich seven each, Nottingham five, and Bath, Derby and York four each. 70 Country newspapers seem to have had a role as an auxiliary to the pulpit. The religious note was always likely to crop up, and a religious controversy always promoted sales. The Bristol Weekly Intelligencer in 1749 deliberately sought to provoke a dispute among Wesley's followers and in the 1750s the Norwich papers threw themselves enthusiastically into the controversy between John Wesley and James Wheatley, one of his preachers whom Wesley was trying to discipline. The Forty-five Rebellion stimulated the provincial press to powerful denunciations of popery. However, there was more substance to the religious content of country newspapers than attacks on Methodists and Roman Catholics; a deeper religious note was struck by the frequent printing of sermons and moral essays. In fact most social and political issues in newspapers were written from a moral viewpoint. 3 These papers were widely read: their circulation increased from between 200 and 400 copies each in the 1730s to about 1,000 each in the 1760s. Addison reckoned that each paper had about twenty readers. Contemporaries were convinced that the poor were frequent newspaper readers. 74 Publishers were concerned to ensure that they were meeting the requirements of their readers, and the evidence of the Gentleman3s Magazine, which by 1744 had a print run of 15,000 copies a month, is that their readers wanted sermons. Every month between five and ten sermons were noted, in addition to listings of published sermons. A further resource for theological and devotional literature, especially for the gentry and urban elites, was the lending libraries, the stocks of which were largely, though not exclusively theological, and which were established and augmented in significant numbers in the early years of the eighteenth century. A major concern of subscribers to and readers of devotional literature was to ensure that such literature was available to the poor. An important vehicle for this was the SPCK who chose books and tracts from already published material to reprint and sell to members, at the cost of the paper for books, and at half the actual 69 70 73

G. A. Cranfield, The Development of the Provincial Newspaper 1700-1760 (Oxford, 1962), p. 17.

ibid., p. 27.

7I

ibid., p. 109.

72

ibid., p. no.

Jeremy Black, The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (1987), p. 255. Cranfield, Provincial Newspaper, pp. 171-86.

i io

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cost for tracts and pamphlets. They particularly specialised in devotional literature aimed at specific social groups, for example Thomas Broughton's Serious Advice and Warning to Servants, more especially those of the Nobility and Gentry (1746) and Josiah Woodward's

The Soldier's Monitor, which was given away to Marlborough's soldiers and reached its thirtieth edition in 1802. Woodward's Sailor's Monitor laid great stress on 'ejaculatory prayer' as perhaps the only form of prayer possible on board ship. Edward Welchman's The Husband Man's Manual, of 1694, directed him how to 'improve the several Actions of his Calling and the most usual Occurrences of his Life to the Glory of God and the Benefit of his Soul'. In its eighteenth edition in 1799, it provided prayers and meditations for ploughing and sowing, planting and grafting, hearing the cock crow, beekeeping, watching the movement of ants, mowing (the mower is to imagine himself as death, cutting down human lives) and rent day (which should remind the tenant of his final account with God). These books were mostly lucidly and vigorously written, using apt stories and illustrations.75 A particularly significant illustration of the concern for the spiritual edification of those deprived of reading matter is the SPCK's support, in 1714, for printing the Bible in Welsh and a considerable number of New Testaments by themselves and also of Common Prayer Books and the Singing Psalms for the use of the Poor who cannot reach to the price of a whole Bible.76 By 1718 5,000 Welsh bibles were ready for distribution. In 1725 the SPCK agreed to have The Pastoral Letter from a Minister to his Parishioners and the Bishop of London's Advice to a Person Recoveredfrom

Sickness translated into Welsh. The following year 1,000 copies of the Bishop of London's Family Devotions were printed in Welsh, and in 1729 a further 4,000 copies of the translation of Advice to a Person Recoveredfrom Sickness were printed. However, translation could prove difficult. It was reported in 1727-8 that there had been 'great Complaint in Wales of the Translation of The Whole Duty of Man into Welch, it being done into the learned North Welch which is not understood by the South Wales people'. 77 75

W. K. Lowther Clarke, Eighteenth Century Piety (1944), pp. 17-28, and Leonard Cowie, Henry Newman: An American in London 1708-43 (1956), ch. 3. Correspondence and Minutes of the S.P.C.K. relating to Wales i6gg-i?4O,

77

(Cardiff, 1952), p. 278. ibid., pp. 294-306.

ed. Mary Clements

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Evidence from a wide variety of sources suggests an Anglican laity who were eager to read devotional works and theological books. Although the lapsing of the Licensing Act of 1662 in 1695 1S thought to have encouraged an outpouring of writings critical of or hostile to the basic tenets of orthodox theology, the defenders and exponents of Anglican orthodoxy were well able to look after themselves without the active intervention of the government. However, even in the 1720s the Secretary of State was willing to intervene and confiscate or suppress works, on the complaint of the Archbishop of Canterbury, before they were published.78 In general, heterodox doctrines may have seemed less threatening to the security of orthodoxy at the time than they appear in retrospect. The Deist John Toland's writings were not very profitable to him, and his reading public seems to have been small. It is remarkable how little attention was paid to them in the private letters of leading defenders of Anglican orthodoxy, such as William King, Archbishop of Dublin, and Peter Browne, Bishop of Cork, and that Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, was so dilatory in condemning them. It also needs to be remembered that Newton's theories of a methodical and harmonious order in the universe were seen by contemporaries like Addison in his poem cThe Spacious Firmament on High' as confirming the omnipotence of God, the divine architect. The variety of sources of evidence suggests the real and substantial devotional life of 'unspectacular orthodoxy' practised by people of all sorts. It may be a mistake to identify this lively devotional life of early-eighteenth-century Anglicanism with an assimilation into the Church of England of seventeenth-century Puritan attitudes. 81 It is paralleled by similar publications for the recusant Catholic community, for example Robert Southwell's A Short Rule of Good Life, first published in 1595, and the little devotional and instructional books produced by John Gother in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.82 Representatives of the high-church tradition, like William Law and Robert Nelson, and the latitudinarian tradition, 78

79

80 81

82

N o r m a n Sykes, William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury (2 vols. Cambridge, 1957), Vol. 11, pp. 161-72. Robert E. Sullivan, John To land and the Deist Controversy (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), p p . 36 and 44ibid., p . 236. Walsh and Taylor, in The Church of England ci68g-ci8^3^ ed. Walsh, H a y d o n and Taylor, pp. 80-1. E a m o n Duffy, Richard Challoner 1691-1781: A Memoir, in Challoner and his Church: A Catholic Bishop in Georgian England, ed. Eamon Duffy (1981), p. 2.

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like Symon Patrick, all wrote popular devotional works, and it is not obvious that lay people chose one rather than another on the grounds of churchmanship. Party divisions among lay people are not at all obvious, and people seem to have been eclectic in their choices. Given the austerity of the reformed Church of England, with its emphasis on the Word and words, and its requirement for the internalisation of a specific set of theological beliefs in the form of the catechism, of which visible expression was expected in conforming the individual's life to the scriptural words of God, it is not surprising that old ritual ways of living survived from an earlier world. Although the ways of providence might provide some of the explanations of the ups and downs of daily life, the purposes of God could seem strange, especially to those against whom providence seemed particularly prejudiced. Whilst some people found comfort in prayer and earnest examination of the Scriptures in the context of their lives, others turned to a simple stoicism, perhaps supported by astrology and magic. The evidence of popular beliefs and practices is difficult to come by. It is recorded in ephemeral publications, which seldom survive in libraries. Their practices, because they were largely informal and oral, and were inconsistent with publicly acceptable modes of belief, are seldom recorded or described. More evidence is available for heterodox beliefs and practices from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when they were seen as greater threats to Church and state. Their exponents' admissions and statements survive in the records of the ecclesiastical courts to tell us something of popular beliefs and practices. From the nineteenth century, too, there is more evidence, because then information about rustic customs was collected by antiquarians and folklorists. For the eighteenth century, when the Church may have thought that it was winning the minds and even the hearts of the poor through the education provided by the charity schools and the devotional discipline provided by the religious societies for young men, as well as through apprenticeships with godly masters and mistresses for young men and women, there is little evidence from the ecclesiastical courts. 'Folk customs' did not become an object of interest for collection and comment until they had ceased to be part of the common culture. It was only as the old communal world began to fragment 83

See Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Harmondsworth, 1973), p. x.

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into a class society that 'folk customs' were seen as part of an alien culture, to be collected and analysed by the better sort. The literate members of the middling and better sort who kept diaries or exchanged letters make few references to magical practices or to witchcraft or superstitious practices. They may have been too commonplace to be noticed. Research has shown, however, that there was a considerable trade in astrological publications and almanacs. 84 There is also sufficient circumstantial evidence to suggest a survival of beliefs from the medieval Church, and of witchcraft. A critic could complain in 1710 that the gentry were as besotted as the common people with astrology and other superstitions. The early-eighteenth-century Welsh aristocracy and gentry are alleged to have shared, on the whole, popular views about astrology and the supernatural. 85 Astrology, because it had an elaborate theoretical basis, still appealed to some educated people, who could study it for sheer intellectual pleasure and exercise. The reaction of fear to the news of the Lisbon earthquake in November 1755 revealed a popular world view in which the supernatural and the natural were closely associated. The late-seventeenth-century chapbooks show that astrology was flourishing and that no necessary conflict was perceived between astrology and Christianity. There was as much need to propitiate God as there ever had been, and, because, as always, saving faith was difficult to feel confident in, there continued to be a turning to old ways.86 However, by the early eighteenth century astrology was ceasing to have much academic respectability. By 1700 it seems to have parted with orthodox Anglicanism, which had rejected the view that God repeatedly interfered in his own laws. The stars were no longer seen as the instruments of divine intervention, and there was little place for astrologers as self-appointed interpreters of God's will. The ridicule of satirists, such as Jonathan Swift, who mercilessly lampooned the claims and methods of almanac makers, did much to undermine the credibility of astrologers. 88 Richard Gough of Myddle, who had been trained in the law, was alternately 84 85 86 87 88

Bernard Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1500-1800 (1979), pp. 276ff. Jenkins, Making of a Ruling Class, p. 205. Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, p. 147. Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press, p. 280. ibid., p . 240.

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fascinated and doubtful when dealing with the 'Secrets of Philosophy', believing some strange stories but dismissing other calculations as coincidences.89 At the beginning of the eighteenth century William Salmon, a well-known astrologer, was still receiving over 1,500 postal enquiries each year, but he and other popular astrologers, John Partridge, John Cadbury and Francis Moore, seem to have had no successors of comparable stature after the 1720s. Their successors were regarded as quacks and no longer enjoyed a place in scientific and genteel society. The Church courts, which perhaps act as a barometer of ecclesiastical tolerance, as well as popular views, seldom deal with matters of astrology or fortune-telling. Only one case has so far come to light, of a woman from Winwick in Lancashire who was presented in 1725 'for occasioning Several young people on ye Lord's Day to come to her under a pretence of telling them their fortunes'. The main thrust of the case seems to have been that the fortune-telling was done on a Sunday rather than that it was done at all. 90 Many early-eighteenth-century almanacs like the Ladies3 Diary\ founded in 1704, gave no space to astrology and told readers bluntly, 'there's no such thing as foretelling events'. These new-style almanacs provided a blend of instruction and amusement, and useful information on matters of fairs, posts, tables of the moon's phases to help night travellers, lists of Church festivals and saints' days, and the Sunday lessons. They became the modern diary. However, editions of oldstyle almanacs like Partridge's and Moore's continued (and still continue) to be published, changing little in form and offering a diet of jingoism and anti-Catholicism. They were not unpopular, as the 107,000 copies of Moore's Vox Stellarum printed in 1768 demonstrate. However, there was little evidence that this was a living dynamic force in people's lives, able to compete with people's adherence to Christianity. 1 This perhaps helps to explain why it was not thought necessary to pursue any of these matters in the ecclesiastical courts. In addition to those devoted to fairly orthodox Christian topics, the surviving list of chapbooks includes fifteen dealing with prophecy and unorthodox religious beliefs, which suggests a considerable market for such works.92 89 90 91 92

Hey, English Rural Community, p. 186. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p. 267 Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press, p. 283-92. Valenze, Prophecy and Popular Literature, p . 76.

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Prophecy in particular seems to have interested the chapbook reader. Mother Shipton's Prophecies went through nearly thirty editions from 1641 and into the nineteenth century. Robert Nixon's Cheshire Prophecies, first published in 1714, reached its twenty-first edition in 1745. Nixon was described as uttering his prophecies in a trance. Mother Bunch's works specialised in fortune-telling, especially in predicting marriage partners. To judge from the popularity of these publications, prophesy was a part of the popular consciousness.93 Much of the interest in the expectation of an imminent judgement, the sense of the pervasiveness of evil and belief in healing and other miracles re-emerge in popular religious movements in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, notably among the followers of Joanna Southcott, the Magic Methodists of Delamere Forest and the Primitive Methodists. 94 It is clear that common people continued to experience visions, to detect forewarnings and judgements, and to condemn the behaviour of others, through the interpretation of natural signs. Millenarianism or prophetism survived into the eighteenth century. Seventeenth-century millenarianism provided an intellectual milieu favourable to eschatological interpretations of events which, as the panic over the Lisbon earthquake in 1754 showed, continued to be common at all levels of society. Anti-clericalism was inherently strong in such a tradition. It was believed that God spoke directly to believers, to women no less than men. The Bible was regarded as an indisputable authority to which everyone could appeal. Not only was the Bible believed to be divinely inspired and accepted in an intensely literal sense, but it was also used as a handbook on the events of the contemporary world. Antinomian traditions very often survived alongside the millennial. John Wesley and strongly condemned antinomianism when it appeared amongst his followers. It was this approach to religion that eighteenth-century churchmen condemned as 'enthusiasm'. Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, defined enthusiasm as 'a strong persuasion in the mind of persons that they were guided in an extraordinary manner by immediate impressions and impulses of the Spirit of God'. People remembered the chaos and fear that had been created by groups of 93 94

ibid., P . 77. See J. F. C. Harrison, The Second Coming: Popular Millenarianism 1780-1830 (1979), chs. 4 - 6 .

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enthusiasts in the middle years of the previous century, and frequently reacted with hostility. Some of the mid-seventeenth-century radical religious groups survived into the eighteenth century. The Quakers are the most obvious example. Although they were becoming respectable and politically and economically influential in the early years of the century, they were still seen as dangerous to Church and State, as is shown by their attitudes to the payments of tithe. The Muggletonians also survived: Muggletonian works were reprinted in 1750.95 New groups emerged in the early eighteenth century to supplement fears and suspicions of'enthusiasm'. The French Prophets, who arrived in London in 1706, 'made a great noise' and collected an English following. They had emerged among a group of Huguenots as a millenarian movement, complete with prophets, and messianic promises. They arrived in England as refugees, and denounced all who refused to accept the authority of their revelations. They made converts among the English, and their meetings were characterised by 'enthusiastic utterances' including prophecy, speaking in tongues and violent bodily actions - convulsions, tremblings, jumping, laughing, and fighting and wrestling with one another to expel demonic influences. Although they did not attract large numbers, they provided a focus for indigenous prophets and millenarian groups, especially through missionary tours to Bristol, Coventry, Worcester, Oxford, Cambridge, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.They were not much heard of after about 1715, but in 1730 Lord Bingley reported that, when they took a room to preach in York, 'at their religious exercises they used strange compulsive postures, stretching out a leg, after that an arm, grinning, shaking the head, and such like'.96 John Wesley noted meeting a young French Prophet in 1739.97 It was probably under the influence of disciples of the French Prophets that a group of millenarians, mostly ex-Quakers, emerged as the Shakers.98 There were also new native manifestations of prophetic and millennial religious groups. The mystical writings of Jacob Boehme, the German 'mechanick' mystic who wrote in the 1620s and 1630s 95 96 97

98

ibid., pp. 23-5. MSS of the Earl o/Egmont, p. 32. For a more detailed account of the French Prophets in England see Hillel Schwarz, Knaves, Fools, Madmen and that Subtile Effluvium: A Study of the Opposition to the French Prophets in England 1706-1711 (Gainesville, Fla., 1978). Harrison, Second Coming, p . 28.

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were available in several editions and selections in early-eighteenthcentury England. They were a powerful protest against institutional, formal religion, and against the claims of the intellect over experience. Mrs Jane Lead (1623-1704) led a small Thiladelphian Society5 which flourished in London in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. She had been influenced by Boehme, and her own prophetic visions were in a similar mould. The Philadelphians were chiliastic mystics who believed in the imminence of the millennium, though not in a violent cataclysmic sense." Boehme's works appear to have been widely read. In the 1750s Stephen Penny, a Bristol correspondent of William Law, referred to acquaintances in Dartmouth who were familiar with Boehme's writings, and 'what is remarkable, they are of a simple and illiterate sort. Others of school learning despise us and ridicule them.' It is not surprising, against this background, that clergy were protective of their religious societies, and bishops were nervous of societies and groups, or that John Wesley attracted such suspicion and was so concerned to keep a tight rein on his followers. Whilst there was a growing scepticism about the influence of the stars on people's lives and about predicting the future, there was still among most people a strong fear of the forces of darkness. Extensive sampling of late-seventeenth-century West Riding quarter sessions records discovered no indictments for witchcraft. However, a suspected witch was bound over by the West Riding quarter sessions in 1712,102 and in November 1736, a few months after the repeal of the witchcraft statutes, a case before the West Riding Quarter Sessions between two women at Baddon demonstrates the vitality of belief in witchcraft. The Revd Humphrey Michel noted five instances of people being 'dowsed for witches' (one man and four women) in June 1709. Their hands and feet were tied, and when they were in the water, if they did not sink but 'swam', they were held to be witches. In what would appear to have been a control experiment, on the third occasion that month, 'one Joseph Harding, servant to Robert Clarke being hired with a collection of our money, to be dowsed, and being bound hands and feet, did not swim but sunk 99 ibid., p. 23. J 00 ibid., p . 22. 101 J . A.Sharpe, Witchcraft in Seventeenth Century Yorkshire: Accusations and Counter Measures (York,

102

1992), P- 3 ibid., p . 3.

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immediately like a stone before us all'. In August 1709 he noted that 'One Frances Sharp, the wife of Thomas Sharp was buryed, was in all probability bewitched to death by one Widow Ridgway', and on 2 October, 'A wench of the widow Barlow, a supposed witch, went out of the church when I had named and read my text, Deuteronomy chapter 18 where is the word witch.5 In 1712 in the last-known indictment for witchcraft on the Home Circuit, in Hertfordshire, in spite of the judge's efforts to persuade the jury of her innocence, a woman was found guilty by a jury and incurred a death sentence. However, the judge procured a pardon from the Queen. It was the last death sentence for witchcraft passed in England. When the font was found to be dry at a christening at Llanfechell in Anglesey in 1737, some of the people attributed it to 'the Sexton's remissness of filling it with water and others affirm it to be carryed away by a Counter charm in opposition to the Priest's Charming Prayer'. On the Isle of Man in 1712 two women were sentenced to two weeks' imprisonment and to do public penance for witchcraft. In 1751 Ruth Osborne was lynched for witchcraft by a Hertfordshire mob. 107 Prosecution seems a very imperfect guide to the extent of beliefs about witches. Belief could be widespread without many prosecutions.108 Educated and urbane men also accepted the possibility of witchcraft. Ralph Thoresby, a Fellow of the Royal Society, noted in his diary on 18 February 1712: 'With Mr Neville, Cousin Cookson, and others of the Grand Jury [in Leeds] to see a reported witch, who tho' aged could not repeat the Lord's Prayer; a fit instrument for Satan'. 109 John Wesley believed in witchcraft, 110 and it is perhaps not surprising that his followers were suspected of witchcraft, especially if people fell into trances and fits at clandestine meetings. 111 William Dyer, an apothecary in Bristol in the mid-century, believed in witchcraft and was a central figure in the Lamb Inn 1

103

104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

no

T h e Diary of H u m p h r e y Michel, Reports and Papers of the Associated Architectural Societies, 5 (1859-60), p . 193. T h e r e are n o further references to witches in the succeeding two years of the diary. Charles Williams, Witchcraft (1941), p . 301. Evans, Religion and Politics, p . 71. Keble, Thomas Wilson, Vol. 11, p . 303. T h o m a s , Religion and the Decline of Magic, p . 696. Sharpe, Witchcraft, p. 20. Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 11, p . 90. The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. J . Telford, Vol. v n , (1931), p. 308. Walsh, Methodism and the Mob.

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Witchcraft case in 1762, when the traditional means were used to test witchcraft.112 Although the statute under which witchcraft had been prosecuted since James Fs reign was repealed in 1736, people at all levels of society still acted as though they believed in witches. 113 Although the great philosophical change brought about by Descartes directly affected only a few minds, they were 'the minds that moved the minds that move the world'. The Cartesian division of soul from body assisted to lessen the power of the Devil in the minds of the orthodox. William Law, most notably, shaped the idea that 'the darkness of hell is but the Divine Nature falsely invoked by the self, and held that it could only be defeated by the 'Spirit of Love'. Given the popularity of Law's writings, magistrates and others may have become more sceptical about popular fears and accusations. Another factor, from legal practice, may have had an impact on attempts to prosecute witches. The weak point in the prosecution of witches had always been the untrustworthiness of the evidence. In the eighteenth century the law began to emphasise that judges ought to discount the evidence of accomplices. However, a fear of evil as projected on to people, especially women, as putative witches, continued to be real for many people, as Obelkevich's researches in nineteenth-century Lincolnshire show. Old superstitions continued. Given the survival of these beliefs, it is not surprising to find survivals of other customs from the preReformation world. That people were reported to be bathing in the springs associated with the saints in the diocese of St David's is perhaps not so surprising.116 It is less expected that Ralph Thoresby, FRS should report that his son Richard, when he was limping, had bathed at St Peter's Well in Leeds. 117 It is easily forgotten that spas were traditionally associated with saints, and that new spas were frequently opened at ancient holy sites, for example at Glastonbury in the 1750s. 18 At York a visitor in 1703 recorded that 112

Jonathan Barry, Piety and the Patient: Medicine and Religion in Eighteenth Century Bristol, in Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-Industrial Society, ed. Roy

113 114 115

117 118

Porter (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 158-61. W. B. Curnockan, Witchhunting and Belief in 1751, Journal of Social History, 4, (1970-1), pp. 389-403. Williams, Witchcraft, p. 302. James Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825-1875 (Oxford, 1976), pp. 283-7. Saunders, Diocese of St David's, p. 35. Diary of Ralph Thoresby, Vol. 11, p. 47. Barry, Piety and the Patient, p. 151.

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the relics of Papism are to be found in the [Minster] Sacristy where those entering are requested to drink a glass of its water to the honour of St Peter ... We were made to see also the Cock of the same Saint as well as the sword with which he cut off the ear of Malchus; considering the ancient shape of this sword, and the rust with which it is covered, perhaps we could believe that it might well have been 1700 years ago.119 There is evidence of a spectrum of Christian belief and practice from the beliefs and practices of the strictly orthodox to the more heterodox beliefs exemplified in the chapbooks and the ambiguous worlds of prophecying, millenarianism and witchcraft. Obelkevich has claimed that in nineteenth-century Lincolnshire the disjunction between what he defined as 'Christianity' as opposed to 'popular religion' was also a disjunction between the elite and the poor. 120 This distinction is much less clear in the eighteenth century. In the first half of the century some women were still attracted to astrology and witchcraft, although Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry were developing as adjuncts to Christian worship for some of the better sort of men. Few people seem to have been much influenced by the mechanistic world view implied by Newton's theories. Most people of all sorts held a sacralised world view and believed in the power of God and of evil. It is difficult to gauge the extent to which the fringe religious activities of the middling and better sort such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry and groups like the alleged 'Hell Fire Club' should be seen as popular heterodoxies. Although their mystical and supernatural concerns give them some similarities with the millennial and prophetic movements already discussed, they appealed to a restricted group of the educated classes. The evidence for their activities is not easy to come by. Rosicrucianism, which had its origins in Bohemia in the early seventeenth century, had spread to England by midcentury. It was more a set of ideas, influenced by alchemy, Alexandrian Hermetism, Christian gnosticism, Jewish mysticism, and the Paracelsian medical tradition, than an actual brotherhood. European intellectual life was strongly influenced by these ideas in the late seventeenth century, and early members of the Royal Society, most of whom were devout Anglican laymen, were much interested in Rosicrucianism. It would seem that Sir Isaac Newton knew the

120

A Diary of the Journey through the North of England made by William and John Blathwayt ofDyrham Park in 1703, ed. Nora Hardwick (Dursley, n.d.), p. 19. Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society, p. 262.

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Rosicrucian manifestos. He possessed a copy of The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity RC. This would fit with his other less public researches in alchemy. A collection of Rosicrucian texts, copied after 1714, is preserved among the Harley Manuscripts. 121 It may well be that there is much more evidence of Rosicrucian interests waiting to be recognised in the libraries of country houses and in family archive collections. Although there is much obscurity, there seem to be links between Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Freemasonry seems to have been established in England in the 1630s. Again, it is linked with those interested in new knowledge: for example, Sir Elias Ashmole, one of the founder members of the Royal Society, was deeply interested in alchemy, and was also a Freemason. By the 1670s many artisan Masonic lodges in Scotland and in England, which were effectively trade guilds, had begun to admit gentlemen, probably for economic reasons. Perhaps the gentlemen architects who worked in the Restoration period, such as Roger Pratt and Christopher Wren, and the development of architecture as a profession influenced this movement. In the first decades of the eighteenth century there seem to be links between religious radicalism and Freemasonry. John Toland, the radical Deist, was a Mason. However, irreligious speculation never infiltrated British Freemasonry; it permeated the movement in Europe. Freemasonry was a growing interest in the first half of the eighteenth century in England. The Grand Lodge of England was formed in 1717 as an attempt to gather together into one organisation lodges already existing in London and Westminster. The first meeting was attended by representatives of only five or six lodges, 124 but by 1723 there were fifty-one lodges listed in London and Westminster, and by 1725 a few lodges meeting in the provinces were listed as affiliated to the 'Grand Lodge of England5. By this time few artisans were left in the fashionable London lodges, the membership being dominated by prosperous merchants. The first Norwich lodge's membership list indicates that members were drawn largely from the city's elite.The minute book shows that subsequently the membership included a number of aristocrats, including the Earl of Leicester, the Duke of 121 122

124 125

Frances A.Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972), pp. 200-2. ibid., p . 193. Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans (1981), p p . I4iff. Hamon le Strange, History of Freemasonry in Norfolk ij24-i8g$ (Norwich, 1896), p. 1. Jacob, Radical Enlightenment, p. 116.

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Newcastle (who has already been noted as a devout Anglican) and the Earl of Essex.126 In December 1745 the entry fine for the lodge in Norwich was set at £3 3s., which implies that it was a rich man's interest. Freemasonry would seem, from the limited evidence available, to have been an activity limited to the larger towns and to have been restricted in its membership. It has been generally thought that in the later years of the seventeenth and the earlier decades of the eighteenth centuries the magical elements in popular culture declined into insignificance. Keith Thomas has suggested that the notion that the universe was subject to immutable natural laws killed the concept of miracles, weakening the belief in the physical efficacy of prayer and diminishing belief in the possibility of direct divine inspiration. 127 However, as he recognised, changes were not achieved overnight. Even Sir Isaac Newton continued to conduct secret alchemical investigations.128 Ezekiel Chambers in his Cyclopaedia, published in 1728, rationalised, rather than rejected, many of the old beliefs, taking alchemy seriously and allowing the rational part of astrology.129 Thomas also identified the decline of magic with an improvement in the extent to which the physical and social environment became amenable to control: for example, agricultural improvements lifted the threat of starvation, the growth of overseas trade and the rise of new industries created a more diverse and flexible economy, and the improvement in communications and the development of London and provincial newspapers increased the dissemination of information. The development of deposit banking and insurance created greater financial security, and developments in mathematics offered new explanations for the probable out-turn of events. 130 These developments, however, as Christina Lamer has pointed out, by emphasising the defence of property, nationalism, and liberty, led eventually not merely to the decline of magic but to the 'political dethronement of God', as a result of which the kingdom of God on earth ceased to be a political objective. If the eighteenth-century Church of England had felt threatened 126 127 128 129 130 131

ibid., P . 13. T h o m a s , Religion and the Decline of Magic, p . 769. F. E. Manuel, A Portrait of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), ch. 8. T h o m a s , Religion and the Decline of Magic, p . 772. ibid., pp. 777-84. Christina Larner, Witchcraft and Religion: The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), p . 139.

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by popular heterodoxy, one would have expected to find cases of witchcraft, fortune-telling and astrology in the ecclesiastical courts. Magical ideas clearly persisted in the eighteenth century but they were seen as an adjunct to Christianity rather than its competitor. Research on nineteenth-century society suggests that intellectual and social changes had much less impact in the lower strata of society, at least, than might be expected. Obelkevich found abundant evidence for the survival of 'heterodox' beliefs in mid-nineteenth-century Lincolnshire. The popularity of such movements as Freemasonry, as well as the continuing interest in millenarianism throughout the nineteenth century and beyond, suggests that the real impact of modern scientific thinking, rationalism and the Enlightenment, even on the upper classes cannot be identified with any single theory of withdrawal of interest in religion. 132

Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society, ch. 6.

CHAPTER 5

Lay people and morality

The period 1690-1745 was a time of political and religious anxiety and instability. Until then there was a strong belief that, as God had providentially intervened to allow James II to be removed and William and Mary to maintain the English Church and religion free from the corruption of Rome, it was incumbent on the nation to respond to God's grace by following his will. Failure to keep God's laws would risk the judgement of God in the form of a return of the Stuarts and their detested religion. Anything that contributed to the failure of the nation as a whole to live according to God's holy laws and ordinances must be dealt with. William III himself warned his subjects that God might withdraw his gracious favour from the kingdom, were profanity and immorality not curbed. 1 The great storm of November 1703 was taken as proving the point; for Defoe every blast of the wind shouted 'Reform!' and every falling timber cried 'Repent!' The insecurity of the Protestant succession continued until at least 1745, after which it was clear that no European power was likely to intervene to support a Stuart restoration. Even in 1750 William Stukeley FRS, whilst offering natural explanations in his book on earthquakes, also devoted a section to their moral causes.3 There was also an awareness that rapid urban growth, aggravated by the economic dislocation brought on by war, was contributing to poverty, vagrancy, drunkenness, prostitution and crime. People lived in fear of a fifth column of the dissolute and indifferent undermining the Church and State. In a letter to the archbishops and the Bishop of London in February 1689, William III requested them to require all clergy to preach frequently against 'these sins and vices which are 1 2 3

A Proclamation for Preventing and Punishing Immorality and Prophaneness (24 February 1698). Daniel Defoe, The Storm (1704), pp. 24-41. William Stukeley, The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Part I (1750), p. 42. 124

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most prevailing in this realm', and that they should also read to their people such statute law or laws as are provided against blasphemy, swearing and cursing, perjury; against drunkenness and against profanation of the Lord's Day, all which statutes we have ordered to be printed together with these our letters that so they may be transmitted by you to every parish within this our realm. He went on to order every parish priest to see that churchwardens presented to the ecclesiastical courts all those guilty of adultery and fornication in the parish and to preach often against these sins. Subsequent proclamations issued by the Crown against profaneness and vice in 1697/8, 1699, 1702, 1703 and 1708 were required to be read four times a year from the pulpit by parish priests and in the courts of law and to be posted in conspicuous places. 4 The societies for the reformation of manners should be viewed against this background. The King's letter sparked off a response in Tower Hamlets, where 'a body of constables, churchwardens and other officers and inhabitants' pledged themselves to suppress bawdy and disorderly houses and to prosecute prostitutes, who were seen as a threat to the secure family life which was the cornerstone of a Christian nation, as well as threatening, through the spread of disease and the encouragement of crime, to destroy not only the local community but the whole nation. This association was encouraged by the Governor of the Tower and the magistrates of the Middlesex quarter sessions. Each parish appointed a steward to oversee the work of constables and to collect 5s. from subscribers to defray the cost of prosecuting offenders. By 1694 it was claimed that this spontaneous movement had resulted in 700-800 offenders being prosecuted and punished. The English victories of 1691 over the French, who were supporting James II in his attempts to regain his throne, were seen as a divine response to these activities. This example fired a group of gentlemen in Westminster to forward a campaign to reform manners. The Queen was petitioned 4

6

See Bahlman, Moral Revolution, pp. 15-17. Societies for the reformation of manners have frequently been confused with religious societies ( see Curtis and Speck, Societies for the Reformation of Manners, p. 47, where a common membership is assumed). Societies for the reformation of manners aimed to do good to others; religious societies aimed to do good for their members. There is some evidence for common membership, but also considerable evidence for members of religious societies withdrawing from societies for the reformation of manners. Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, pp. 20-2.

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to send a letter to the Middlesex quarter sessions urging them to execute the laws against the profanation of the Lord's Day, swearing, cursing and drunkenness and 'all those other lewd and enormous and disorderly practices'. The magistrates responded by exhorting parish officers and all good Christians to give information to assist in the prosecution of offenders. It was in this context that a small group including Sir Richard Bulkeley, Edward Stephens, a barrister and clergyman, Col. Maynard Colchester, William Yates, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn and Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester began to promote a campaign for a national reform of manners. The legislation, as was to be expected in a Christian State, was already in place. What was required was its enforcement. Informers were required who would be less tolerant than parish constables and churchwardens, and would lay information against offenders before justices of the peace and obtain warrants for their apprehension and punishment by parish constables. A campaign was orchestrated to recruit informers and people to fill in warrants (and thus circumvent the fee to the justice's clerk). When warrants were submitted to a justice, they were merely required to sign them and return them to the constable for execution. It was also necessary to supervise the constable to ensure that he complied with the warrant. Consequently a society for the reformation of manners was established in Westminster, consisting mostly of tradesmen, to plan the suppression of 'lewdness' and sexual licence as well as swearing, drunkenness and sabbath-breaking. Another society for constables was set up to encourage them in their duties, and a society was also established to recruit and encourage informers.8 Some Middlesex justices were hostile to these initiatives and refused to accept information from informers. They alleged irregularities on the part of justices who were members of societies for the reformation of manners and were issuing large numbers of warrants on the information of informers. Subsequently a committee of Middlesex justices found irregularities in many warrants and ruled that informers should not remain anonymous, and that justices could only issue a warrant for their own division, thus preventing informers from seeking warrants from friendly justices. The Middlesex quarter sessions also overturned many convictions on appeal, especially where a defendant had been unheard. However, when a new 7

ibid., pp. 24-9.

8

ibid., pp. 31-5.

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commission of the peace for Middlesex was issued in late 1692, some of the magistrates most opposed to the use of informers were omitted, and Bulkeley, Colchester and Yates were included. 9 The reconstituted Middlesex magistrates agreed to encourage informers and, where possible, to protect the identity of informers and to indicate a time each day when they would receive informers. In the summer of 1693 a second general society for the reformation of manners was formed, in Tower Hamlets, with the object of securing the punishment of sabbath-breakers, cursing, swearing, public lewdness and prostitution. The aim was to monitor the activities of parish officers, and two investigators were employed to search out 'houses of lewdness5 and 'persons that haunted them'. There is no evidence to link this society with the earlier one in Middlesex, but clearly the idea and the example were to hand. l l In 1694 Proposals for a National Reformation of Manners, humbly offered to the Consideration of our Magistrates and Clergy was published by the Tower

Hamlets society with an appendix listing several hundred prosecutions by the society. About 80 per cent of these concerned women prosecuted for either keeping or frequenting 'bawdy houses'. In that year the society's turnover was over £300, of which over £200 was subscribed by 'divers worthy gentlemen, and citizens of London, as well as by several bishops and dissenting ministers'. 12 The surviving rules of a society state its purpose as 'being solely to promote the glory of God by the reformation of men's manners', and require secrecy in the society's proceedings and the anonymity of informers. Informers were forbidden to denounce persons from their neighbourhood, and were required to persuade two other people to observe the offence who might report to the magistrate only if there was another breach of the law. They were advised to be cautious, for example in gathering evidence against Sunday trading, because vendors of perishable goods might legitimately have their doors open on a Sunday to admit light and air to their goods. They were warned not to provoke breaches of the peace and to give information only in writing and as soon as possible after the offence. The society was administered by a committee of nine, chosen anew each month, who directed its work, paid out necessary money, received information concerning immorality and supervised informers. Another society was formed in the Strand. This was more 9 12

ibid., pp. 41-61. ibid., pp. 74-6.

10

ibid., pp. 89-100.

n

ibid., pp. 71-2.

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ambitious, aiming to enlist as many informers as possible. It printed blank warrants so that members could complete them on information from an informer and then take them to a magistrate who, after examining the member under oath, would sign and seal the warrant. The member then delivered the warrant to the relevant constable and checked whether the warrant was executed. 13 A second and more powerful wave of moral enthusiasm arose in 1697, probably originating in orthodox Anglican and Presbyterian shock at the apparent eruption of sceptical and heterodox writings following the expiry of the Licensing Act of 1662 in 1695. By 1699 there seem to have been eight societies for the reformation of manners in London and by 1701 there were nearer twenty. In 1699 there were reports of societies in Gloucester, Leicester, Coventry, Shrewsbury, Hull and Tamworth. On the Isle of Wight the society was reported as consisting almost entirely of Anglican clergymen. At Longbridge Deverill in Wiltshire the incumbent formed a society of old people to keep a watch on the misdeeds of the young. At Canterbury there was reported to be a society of forty members, but it was noted that there were only two justices who were not hostile to them. There were reports of two societies in Portsmouth, one consisting of the mayor, aldermen and justices, and the other of tradesmen. Bishop Stratford of Chester encouraged the formation of societies in his diocese, and they were reported from Kendal, Warrington and Chester. The Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Exeter and Archdeacon Nicholson of Carlisle all opposed the societies, suspecting them of affinity with the seventeenth-century Puritan religious groups which had contributed to divisions and dissension in the Church, especially as dissenters were frequently members of these societies. The Account of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners (1699) and A

Help to a National Reformation (1700), which the SPCK distributed through its network of correspondents, helped to spread information about the societies and their work. Although the primary objects of the SPCK were evangelistic and educational, its founders shared many of the apprehensions of the originators of the societies for the reformation of manners. In the preamble to the Society's charter of 13

15

Bahlman, Moral Revolution, p. 33.

David Hayton, Moral Reform and Country Politics in the late Seventeenth Century House of Commons, Past and Present, 128 (1990), pp. 48-91. l Bahlman, Moral Revolution, p. 37. ibid., p. 38.

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1699, 'Gross ignorance of the Christian religion5 was stated to be responsible for the 'growth of vice and immorality' threatening the nation. The SPCK also distributed 'cautions' against 'the profanation of the Sabbath, swearing and uncleanness', and the perils of drink. The members of the SPCK included three vigorous supporters of reform, all MPs; Colonel Maynard Colchester, who sat on the Middlesex bench, Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who distributed 'half sheets against swearing' to his fellow MPs, and Sir John Philipps, a member of a society for the reformation of manners and, in the later 1690s, the principal sponsor of legislation against blasphemy and immorality. 7 The only society whose minute book survives is that in Bristol, founded in 1699/1700. The initial meeting was at the house of Sir John Duddlestone, who was a member of the Bristol Society of Merchants and the Governor of the Corporation of the Poor, with which there was considerable overlap of membership. The mayor was elected chairman. Most of the other founder members were aldermen, prominent citizens and merchants, and constables. The 1 os. annual subscription would have ensured a fairly exclusive membership, and most of the members were, in fact, wealthy. They agreed to meet weekly and secretly, formally and with a salaried secretary. One of the society's first acts was to arrange for special sermons to be preached every Sunday 'against profaneness and immorality and for encouragement and redemption of manners'. They appointed some of their number to search out houses that harboured 'lewd people' and report them to the authorities. It was noted that even respectable activities could be a cover for immorality; 'great numbers of people, under pretence of going to the hot well to drink that water, do profane the Lord's Day by drinking and tippling in Alehouses about the hot well' in Bristol. The society also tackled more general abuses, such as Sunday travel, theatres, music-houses, lotteries and gaming-houses. Probably because of the social status of the members, they seem to have attracted considerable sympathy, although the record of summary convictions before magistrates in the city does not show any increase after 1700. In fact only very rarely after August 1700 is the reformation of manners referred to in the society's minutes. Thereafter the 17 18

Hayton, Moral Reform, p. 55. Reformation and Revival in Eighteenth-Century Bristol, ed. Jonathan Barry and Kenneth Morgan, Bristol Record Society, 45 (1994), pp. 15-41.

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minutes record the society's concern for prevention rather than punishment, and it concentrated on supporting schools in the parishes of the city, seeking advice on this from the SPCK in London. However, the society rarely met after 1703, and in October 1705 it was reported to the SPCK that the charity schools were 'wholly laid aside in that city'. The SPCK's correspondent attributed the failure of the society to attacks from Anglicans, who objected to a society whose membership was ca quarter dissenters, and only three quarters Anglican'. Societies were not successful everywhere. In Durham, in spite of the Herculean efforts of the Archdeacon of Durham and the willingness of Lord Crewe, the Bishop, to call a meeting of the mayor and corporation of the city, at which he charged them to enforce the laws without respect to persons, the lack of co-operation by the constables and the justices nullified attempts to reform the city. Samuel Wesley felt utterly frustrated in his attempts to reform Epworth even after he had pasted up 'broad sheets against immorality in the Alehouses and in the Market Place'. 21 There were similar unsatisfactory reports to the SPCK from Lincoln. It is likely that the promoters of societies for the reformation of manners were regarded with suspicion by the majority of their fellow citizens who may have feared an attempt to return to the moral rigours imposed during the Civil Wars, fifty years before. Most moderate people seem to have regarded them with some unease. There is no evidence to suggest that the moral state of towns in particular had declined during the last decade of the seventeenth century, and that they required such drastic action. The societies targeted those matters that might lead people away from God's laws. However, although profane swearing, cursing and sabbath-breaking were the first concern of the promoters of the societies, informers concentrated on such offences as 'lewd and disorderly practices', which were usually identified with prostitutes. It was claimed in 1703 that there had been a major reduction in the number of brothels in London. However, the published Black Rolls of the societies comprising lists of offenders and offences show a high 19 21 22

20 ibid., p . 45. Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, pp. 231-5. Allen a n d McClure, Two Hundred Years, p . 89. Robert B. Shoemaker, Reforming the City: T h e Reformation of Manners Campaign in London 1690-1730, in Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems in England 1680-1750, ed. Lee Davison, Tim Hitchcock, Tim Kiern and Robert B. Shoemaker (Stroud and New York, 1992).

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rate of recidivism among prostitutes. The reformers were also unsuccessful in their campaigns against gaming-houses, probably because these were patronised by the rich and influential. Although the reformers claimed in 1701 to have distributed over 30,000 tracts against drunkenness in London's public houses, they seem to have had little success in prosecuting people for drunkenness. Despite the legislation for the suppression of profane cursing and swearing passed in 1695, there was also a general public unwillingness to inform against swearers. There was some success in prosecuting Sunday traders, including not merely street traders but tradesmen and council members, but prosecutions could be difficult to bring because of difficulties in defining trading. A list of prosecutions brought by societies between 1704 and 1716 shows that 10,250 out of 10,500 cases concerned Sunday trading, involving especially victuallers, bakers, barbers and fruiterers.2 The list confirms that the societies did not concentrate their attentions on the poor and on women. Apart from informing against actual offenders, it was also considered important to suppress temptations to sin. First among these were theatres, for, in the view of Whitelock Bulstrode, 'one playhouse ruins more souls than fifty churches are able to save'.25 Fairs were also viewed with suspicion. The Bristol society sent deputations to the authorities on more than one occasion in an attempt, at least apparently temporarily successful, to tighten the regulations for the St James's Fair there. 6 There was a prolonged and largely unsuccessful attempt by the London societies to limit the Bartholomew Fair, which was thought to put many, especially the young and servants, at risk of debauchery.27 The other major activity of the societies was promoting sermons to remind people of their duty towards God and their neighbours. The London societies sponsored quarterly sermons until 1705, and thereafter an annual sermon. These were preached by a leading divine who, it was hoped, would attract a large congregation. The sermons were usually printed and distributed by the SPCK through the societies, to reach as wide an audience as possible; they were 23 24 25 26 27

Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, pp. 119-50. Curtis a n d Speck, Societies for the Reformation of Manners, p . 58. T h e Charge to the Grand J u r y of the County of Middlesex, 1718, p . 35, quoted by Bahlman, Moral Revolution, p. 6. Curtis a n d Speck, Societies for the Reformation of Manners, p. 55. Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, p . 160.

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intended to present an apologia for the work of the societies and to attract new members. 28 Societies also published pamphlets directed at specific social groups. Cautions were issued for the benefit of sailors, servants, coachmen and watermen, and Black Rolls were distributed in an attempt to shame people into reform. Although the London societies continued to publish annual lists of those prosecuted, evidence suggests that enthusiasm for them waned. By 1704 the Bristol society had turned its attention to providing schools to educate children in the ways of godliness. The SPCK turned its attention to preventative moral reform by education and publishing. In 1723 the surviving London societies ceased to list prosecutions of gaming-house keeping, drunkenness, cursing and profane swearing, and in 1724 bawdy-house keepers were omitted. However, in the 1720s a new campaign was mounted, against sodomy, which had received little mention in previous publications. This reached its zenith in the early 1730s when it was noted, 'Many were the trials of this period for sodomy and the whole of the filthy details are printed just as they were given.' 30 In 1738 the list of prosecutions ceased to be published. 31 The reasons for the disappearance of the societies were not that people no longer believed Christian morality to be important. In the 1750s printed sermons preached on days of fasting and thanksgiving made the same points in the same language as they had fifty years before. It seems likely that the reasons are related to social attitudes and a changed political climate. Whilst the average church person and citizen agreed with the ends of the societies, they had reservations about the means used. Informing was much disliked. After the first flush of enthusiasm it was as difficult to recruit informers as to persuade churchwardens to present their neighbours, and constables to secure warrants against their fellow citizens. Constables in particular were reluctant to co-operate with societies, especially after Walter Chapman, a chief constable and a keen supporter of the society in Bristol, had to pay £4. 5s. 8d. defending a suit brought against him by a 'sinner5 whom he had prosecuted.3 Whether it was 28 29

30 31 32

ibid., pp. 178-216. Glenice Siddall, T h e Movement to Reform and Improve Manners and Morality in the Years 1678-1738, with Especial Reference to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, M A thesis, University of Birmingham, 1976, p . 40. ibid., p . 46, quoting Francis Place Papers, Vol. 38, 1730/1 BL Add. M S S 27826. Curtis and Speck, Societies for the Reformation of Manners, p . 567. ibid., p . 61.

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distaste at the methods used or closing of social ranks, it is interesting that when Dr Thomas Bray, in his virulent campaign against homosexual practices, arranged the entrapment of Edward Rigby, a naval captain, in an attempt at buggery with a young man, and Rigby was prosecuted and sentenced to two three-hour sessions in the pillory, a year's imprisonment and a £1,000 fine, no one threw anything at him in the pillory and his fine was paid immediately. 33 It has been suggested that the gentry and ruling elites withdrew their support from the societies because they saw them as subversive of the established order and as 'sprouts of the Rebellion of [i6]4i 5.34 Bishop Nicolson of Carlisle thought that the societies smacked too much of'leagues and covenants5.3 Certainly the societies' propagandists complained of the apathy and hostility of the gentry. Not even judges were keen on them. In 1709 an informer was allegedly 'murdered by three soldiers of the Guard whilst he was assisting a constable who was assaulted while carrying a lewd woman to the Watch House'. Thomas Bray described him as a man 'of a sweet, gentle and courteous temper', who had 'often been much abused, beaten, mobbed and wounded, and in very danger of his life in detecting and bringing to Justice the lewd and disorderly persons'. The regular SPCK committee meeting was abandoned on the day of the funeral, so that members might attend. It was reported that at the funeral of this 'Blessed Saint' twelve justices of the peace held the pall, followed by over 1,000 people, including clergy, gentlemen and aldermen. 36 However, Sir John Holt, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, directed the jury trying the alleged murderer to acquit him: in his view members of the societies were enthusiastic zealots. 37 The societies were well aware of the unpopularity of their informers. A London society resolved to require informers 'To give no information where the matter or fact is any way doubtful. Not to inform against anything as a profane oath but where some of those following words are used plainly and lightly'. 38 In the early enthusiasm, support for the societies was drawn from 33

34 36 37 38

Craig, Movement for the Reformation of Manners, p . 173. See also Bray's attack on 'sodomites', in For God or for Satan, being a Sermon preach'd ... before the Society for Reformation of Manners (1709). 35 Bahlman, Moral Revolution, p. 83. ibid., p . 83. Siddall, Movement to Reform a n d Improve Manners, p . 42. J. A. Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern England 1550-1750 (1984), p. 158. Siddall, Movement to Reform a n d Improve Manners, p . 44, quoting An Agreement of divers Gentlemen a n d Citizens in a n d about London for Promoting the Execution of Laws made against Profaneness and Debauchery, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson M S S D129.

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all brands of churchpeople.39 In Bristol, for example, the ultra-Tory mayor Sir John Knight issued the first broadsheet calling for moral reform.40 But later, church people of all shades of opinion were critical of the societies. The secrecy of the meetings and membership lists may have aroused suspicions of political disloyalty. The fear that dissenters were increasing in numbers in the first decade of the eighteenth century may have contributed to anxieties about societies which included dissenters as well as Anglicans. Church people also disliked the encouragement of prosecutions in the secular rather than the Church courts.There was a growing sense that the societies, in spite of their claims, were ineffectual. Samuel Wesley thought that they could not work in country towns where there was not a resident magistrate. The societies seem to have been based on a conservative view of society modelled on the rural parish where everyone knew everyone else, and everyone could be expected to be his or her brother's or sister's keeper. The progenitors of the movement, Edward Harley, Bulkeley, Bulstrode and Sir John Philipps, in many ways represented the pious country squire who feared the expansion of London and other towns during the 1690s. They, and others like them, illustrate the extent to which political activity was seen as part of the struggle for salvation for themselves and for society at large. Sergeant John Hooke, a leading light in the SPCK and an active politician in North Wales, once declared that he was neither a Whig nor a Tory, but had been enlisted into 'a different party [that is the Church] by his baptism, I am for the Christian religion'.41 It is clear that one of the strongest threads holding together the group of MPs concerned with promoting moral reform, whether they were dissenters or Anglicans, was a profound religiosity manifesting itself in the view that the obligations of the Christian faith determined the business of politics. It was probably because the reformers' social model was less suited to changing circumstances after the 1710s that their moral storm troopers ceased to have much impact. Also millennial expectations began to abate in the 1720s and Walpole's foreign policy partially reduced the likelihood of the restoration of popery by a foreign 39 40

41

Hayton, Moral Reform, pp. 56-7. J o n a t h a n Barry, Popular Culture in Seventeenth Century Bristol, in Popular Culture in Seventeenth Century England, ed. Barry Reay (1985), p. 83. Q u o t e d in Hayton, Moral Reform, p . 76.

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power.42 However, although the societies declined, concern for moral reform did not. The ethos of the moralists survived in the public spiritual reformism which flourished on the back benches of Walpole's House of Commons and was concerned with correcting abuses and pursuing social regulation and moral regeneration in a way that was still tinged with piety and philanthropy. 43 In the 1740s writers like Fielding and Richardson and an artist like Hogarth were as concerned with opposing immorality as Addison and Steele had been thirty years earlier. This was never a matter that Anglican lay people were prepared to leave to the clergy, or to moral zealots. A concern for suppressing wickedness and vice was seen by eighteenthcentury church people not as an alternative to maintaining true religion and virtue, but as complementary to it. Whilst the voluntary and predominantly urban activities of the societies for the reformation of manners declined during the early years of the eighteenth century, the Church's traditional machinery for maintaining order and discipline amongst Christ's disciples continued its work. It is often assumed that the Church courts were crippled as agents of moral and social reform among the laity in England during the 1530s.44 Or, if it is accepted that the ecclesiastical courts survived the traumas of the Reformation and the Civil Wars, it has been thought that, as a result of the Toleration Act of 1689 and the various Acts of General Pardon secured by Whig administrations in 1689, 1696 and 1708, the business of the courts, 'apart from routine procedure in matrimonial and probate cases, consisted of tithe cases and trivial matters relating to the parish church and its furnishings, apart from cases brought by energetic bishops against neglectful, scandalous and dishonest clergy'.45 An examination of the surviving ecclesiastical court records for the first half of the eighteenth century shows how inaccurate is the assumption that the courts had largely gone out of business. 46 There was more business being handled in the consistory court in the diocese of Norwich in 1744 than there had been in 1507, and the 42

4J 44

45 46

Margaret C.Jacob, The Newtonians and the English Revolution 1689-1720, 2nd edn (New York, 1990), p . 140. Hayton, Moral Reform, p . 88. For example, see Rosemary O'Day, The English Clergy: The Emergence and Consolidation of a Profession 1558-1642 (Leicester, 1979), p . 25. Bennett, Tory Crisis in Church and State, pp. 14-15. T h e example of Ely, where the Church court archive ends in 1704, would appear to be the exception rather than the rule, as has often been assumed.

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ecclesiastical courts in Lancashire were more effective for most of the eighteenth century than they had been in the aftermath of the Reformation.47 The courts could not have operated without a wide degree of popular support and co-operation. The Church's judicial system was seen as the temporal manifestation of a divinely based order; its moral teachings were the foundations of accepted values by which people lived their lives. If at times they did not comply with them, this was not necessarily because of any objection to the Church's role, but because they were unable to live up to the ideal. The recognition of the Church's moral authority is reflected in the willingness of lay people to bring charges against others for failure to abide by the rules. The ecclesiastical authorities did not (and could not) discipline the laity simply as a means of asserting their authority. Most lay people accepted the courts' jurisdictional powers as a medium of pastoral care, believing that individuals should live in accordance with the will of God; the discipline imposed was ultimately concerned with the saving of souls. This view seems to have had a wide measure of support among people at large. To a considerable extent the courts were instruments that people used to settle their disputes with their neighbours. The records of the bishops' consistory courts and the archdeaconry and peculiar courts demonstrate a widespread willingness among people to participate in the work of the courts. Pressure for presentment in the Church courts was normally the result of pressure from below. Being presented was normally the result of the action of the person or persons offended against. However, individuals might also act when an action offended against collective notions of proper behaviour. It remains problematic whether these collective notions were those of the 'community' or of the ruling elite of relatively prosperous, and perhaps relatively respectable, yeomen and artisans. 4 However, given the very limited powers of enforcement to compel attendance at the courts and compliance with sentences, it seems unlikely that the courts merely represent the attitudes of churchwardens. It is more likely that churchwardens' concentration on issues of local concern and relevance, on which honest householders could agree, 47

48

J a c o b , Clergy and Society, p . 244, and Albers, Seeds of Contention, p . 222. For an account of the church courts in the preceding period see Martin Ingram, Church Courts, Sex and Marriage in England 1570-1640 (Cambridge, 1987). Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern England, pp. 85-86.

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accounts for the vitality of the Church courts and the respect for their justice.49 These courts provided punishments that appear to have been thought appropriate to the misdeeds of local offenders. The adulterer sentenced to do penance before the congregation must have been a reassuring sign for the godly and chaste and perhaps a deterrent for those tempted by sexual immorality. The high percentage of people answering charges made against them for most of the period perhaps indicates that many people were amenable to the discipline of the established Church and feared being cast out of communion. The common law, as represented by justices of the peace meeting in quarter sessions, was usually willing to uphold the authority of the ecclesiastical courts. In 1711 Peter Staynehead was prosecuted at the Lancashire quarter sessions, meeting in Wigan before eleven magistrates, for slandering the Chancellor of the Bishop of Chester's Court. He was punished severely, being fined £200 and sentenced to stand in the pillory on market days in Liverpool, Preston, Ormskirk, Wigan and Warrington and to be of good behaviour for seven years.50 However, an individual justice might be less supportive. In 1706, again in Wigan, William Green, a cloth worker, was alleged to have sworn offensively and cursed at the Chancellor, who had informed the justice, Adam Bowles, who, 'deep in drink, takes little regard, sends not for the Criminal'.51 When, as on the Isle of Man after 1717, the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities fell foul of one another, and the Governor held in contempt the jurisdiction of the Bishop's court and encouraged offenders to flout the courts, it is noteworthy that fourteen out of twenty-four members of the island's House of Keys supported the Bishop in his dispute with the Governor, which suggested that the Bishop's court was not generally unpopular.52 Each English diocese and archdeaconry had a court presided over by an official appointed, usually for life, by the bishop or archdeacon. In the case of the episcopal or consistory court this was the chancellor of the diocese, who was usually a senior clergyman. The chief officer of each court was the registrar, an ecclesiastical lawyer, whose presence was required for any judicial act. The solicitors of the court were the proctors, who were specialist practitioners in ecclesiastical law. The court was served by an apparitor, whose task it was to keep 49 51

50 Cross, Church and Local Society, p. 298. Diary of Henry Prescott, p . xxii. 52 ibid., p. 121. Keble, Thomas Wilson, Vol. 1, chs. 12 and 13 and Vol. 11, ch. 16.

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order in court and to serve notices on those cited, or summoned, to appear before the court. He was perhaps the weakest link in the system, for he had to face recalcitrant offenders, and might be prey to undue pressure or bribery. In 1719 the apparitor for the Leominster Deanery was suspended for offering to excuse a couple for their clandestine marriage in return for payment of ios. 53 In theory the ecclesiastical courts were organised in a three-tier system, the court of first instance being the archdeacon's court, from which appeals lay successively to the bishop's consistory court and to the Archbishop's Provincial Court in the Province of York, or to the Court of Arches in the Province of Canterbury. In practice cases seldom progressed through all three courts. In most causes the archdeacon's court and the consistory court exercised a concurrent jurisdiction, and the litigant seems to have chosen whichever was more convenient court. Anyone who was not an excommunicate could start a case in an ecclesiastical court. Suits were either civil, between two parties, one or both of whom had brought it to the court (instance cases); or criminal, being promoted by an officer of the court on a presentment (or complaint) by a churchwarden or an incumbent (office cases). Presentments were usually made at a visitation when the bishop, triennially, or archdeacon, annually, inquired of the churchwardens concerning the pastoral and temporal affairs of the parish, including the moral conduct of parishioners. There were usually three stages in a case. First the defendant or accused was cited to appear before the court. If the citation could not be served personally, it was read out in his or her parish church after the Nicene Creed, before the sermon during Sunday morning service. When the citation was returned, the plaintiff in an instance case, or the promoter in an office case, set out the grounds of the complaint. Normally office cases were dealt with summarily and no testimonies were recorded, the grounds of the complaint being accepted and the judge pronouncing sentence. In most instance cases, involving disputes between parishioners, or in office cases if the complaint was contested, the plaintiff was given five court days in which to prove the case, by producing documents 53 54

Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford, p . 50. T h e r e were also peculiar jurisdictions in parishes or areas exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon a n d / o r the bishop where someone else, often a dean a n d chapter or an incumbent, h a d a right to hold a court to try ecclesiastical cases.

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or witnesses, or both. The witnesses were examined in private with questions based on the pleadings put by the proctors for each side. The answers were written down and kept secret from both parties until the judge desired their publication. Publication of the depositions was followed by the defendant 'excepting' the depositions. He or she was granted time to produce evidence, which was heard using the same procedure as for the allegations. When the judge decided that all possible evidence had been produced and all the exceptions dealt with, he assigned a time when he would deliver judgement. The final stage was giving sentence. In a handbook for court officials it was pointed out, Seeing all positions and articles are usually written in Latin, by reason whereof the witnesses, especially countrymen, rarely understand them, therefore it is very requisite that the registrar or examiner have a great care in explaining and declaring distinctly and plainly to witnesses all and singular the heads and contents of these articles and positions.56

It was also pointed out that evidence should not be overlooked because of the financial circumstances of the potential deponent or his or her difficulties in attending the court. Witnesses could be paid expenses, and the court might take into account their 'quality', 'whether they be horsemen or footmen', as well as the distance they had to travel and the lodging they required. In their depositions, petitions and presentments, ordinary villagers usually expressed their frank opinions about their neighbours, the Church and the clergy. By contrast ordinary people were reluctant to be summoned to the common law courts. When Henry Purefoy's mother's kitchen maid was robbed by three men while returning from Banbury Fair, he consulted one of his acquaintances about how she could avoid the expense of being made to prosecute the three highwaymen, or if she were merely called on to give evidence, 'how she may get her charges borne for coming from hence to Northampton, both for loss of Time and as a poor witness'.58 Justice, it seems, was cheaper in the ecclesiastical courts than in the common law courts. 55

56 57

This account of procedure is based on The Ecclesiastical Courts: Principles of Reconstruction, Being the Report on Ecclesiastical Courts Set up by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in ig$i at the Request of the Convocations (1954), p p . 14-16, and N R O N D R ACT/101 Consistory Court Act Book N o . 116 1754-67, 'Rules and Orders to be Observed by Proctors of the Consistory Court of Norwich, Procedures varied from diocese to diocese. Anne Tarver, Church Court Records (Chichester,io,95), provides a valuable introduction to the procedures of the ecclesiastical courts based on the procedures of the Lichfield consistory court. Henry Conset, The Practice of the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Courts (1685), p . 118. 58 ibid., p . 114. Purefoy Letters, Vol. 11, p . 404.

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Normally cases were dealt with reasonably expeditiously. As a result of the canonical principle that, unless the suit raised issues which could not be compromised (for example whether the parties were man and wife), the litigants should be positively encouraged to reach an out-of-court settlement to restore harmony between them as quickly as possible, cases could be, and were, dropped at any stage. For the majority of litigants, going to law was a tactical manoeuvre, part blackmail and part bluff, the object being to obtain an out-of-court settlement, and thus the restoration of peace between neighbours and of social order in the community. It has been estimated that only about a half to a third of all cases which were initiated in most ecclesiastical courts in the eighteenth century ever came to sentence. 59 The courts sat frequently. The Archdeacon of Barnstaple's court, for example, sat monthly and the Exeter consistory court twice monthly, continuing for as long as there was business.60 The courts also usually convened in local centres: for example, the Archdeacon of Nottingham's court sat at St Peter's Nottingham, Newark and East Retford.61 The Carlisle consistory court was held in each of the four deaneries in the diocese, usually for one morning, in October, November or December, in the main town: Carlisle for the Carlisle deanery, Alndale in Wigtown, Cumberland in Penrith and Westmorland in Appleby. In cases relating to church repairs or furnishings the officials of the court were usually prepared to hold site meetings; for example, the Chester consistory court's officers inspected the church at Wigan in 1705 and Farnworth in 1706 when there were disputes over the ownership of pews.63 The evidence from Lancashire suggests that the Church courts prosecuted people from a broad social spectrum. The occupations of those cited were only sporadically recorded, but in the south Lancashire deanery courts between 1691 and 1781, of those whose occupation was recorded 7 per cent were described as 'gentlemen', 5 per cent were clergy, 5 per cent were middling trades people, 31 per cent were ordinary trades people, 1 per cent labourers, 6 per cent agricultural labourers and 11 per cent were textile workers. The figures probably under-represent the poorer classes. Some groups 59 61

62

60 Stone, Road to Divorce, p. 24. Warne, Church and Society, p. 14 A. C. Wood, Nottinghamshire Penances 1590-1794, Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, 48 (1944), p. 54. 63 Kinnear, Correction Courts, p . 192. Diary of Henry Prescott, p . xx.

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appear to be present in greater or lesser proportions than their presence in the population at large would seem to warrant. The number of gentlemen probably represents the proportion of gentlemen in the population and suggests that clergy and churchwardens were not intimidated by presenting them. However, they were seldom presented for sexual misdemeanours, but usually for failure to repair chancels or chapels. The most usual offences by clergymen were failure to produce their licences at visitations and performing clandestine marriages. Interestingly, professional men do not appear at all. As they were an essentially urban phenomenon, their absence perhaps indicates that the courts had a lack of impact in towns, from where there were, in any case, relatively fewer presentments, or that they were described as 'gentlemen'. Ordinary tradesmen appear in significant numbers, which indicate their presence in the Anglican community rather than in dissenting communities. Similarly, weavers appear sufficiently frequently to reinforce arguments about the presence of an active Anglican population of industrial workers. Dr Albers has noted a low percentage of presentments in both Manchester and Liverpool, where the large number of inhabitants must have made it exceedingly difficult for churchwardens to monitor sinful behaviour. However, she has pointed out that the churchwardens' accounts for Sacred Trinity Salford suggest that the parish was administering its own moral supervision. There are payments of fines by 'loiterers', who are interpreted as those who did not attend church, and for various offences, such as gaming on Sundays and drunkenness. As none of the individuals involved appeared before the deanery sitting of the consistory court, Albers has suggested that the parish was handling its own discipline. She found no evidence of other Manchester parishes exercising such a discipline. She has noted, however, that parishes like Rochdale and Wigan showed fairly high levels of presentments until after 1750, when the number of presentments began to decline in some towns in roughly inverse proportion to the increase in the number of baptisms, which suggests a link between population growth and the decline of presentments to the ecclesiastical courts.6 By contrast in Newington in Surrey, just south of London, with a population of 600 families in 1717, the incumbent reported, 'No public penance has 64

Albers, Seeds of Contention, pp. 232-39.

65

ibid., pp. 240-41.

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been performed since [1713] nor do I know of any commutations of penances made by any of our parishioners within the said time.' 66 Offences that were deemed to indicate disrespect towards God such as brawling or quarrelling either in church or in the churchyard and absence from church on Sundays were obviously the concern of the ecclesiastical courts. John Spurr has suggested that after the Restoration very few people were cited into the Church courts on charges of failing to attend church and that the Toleration Act of 1689 ended all presentments for failure to attend church on Sundays.67 As has been seen they were less common, but they did not cease.68 However, Dr Albers has noted that in the south Lancashire deanery courts between 1691 and 1781 only 5 per cent of those presented for non-attendance at church on Sundays actually appeared to answer the case. She has suggested that this frequent lack of compliance on the part of those cited may indicate the existence of a plebeian minority who steadfastly refused to have anything to do with religion. However, it may also indicate a strong dissenting element among the poorer sort. Dr Albers also noted that after 1750 such cases are very uncommon, 69 which possibly suggests that churchwardens gave up the battle of trying to get the poorer sort to church, or that they recognised that the lack of seating in churches provided the poor with an adequate defence. It seems highly likely that such presentments reflect a variety of local attitudes. There were also instances of presentments for 'prophaning the Lord's Day'. At Appleby in 1712 a man was presented for 'leaping in the churchyard' on the Lord's Day; at Holmcultram in 1724 a man was presented for 'playing at football on the Lord's Day and being admonished refused to desist, but gave encouragement to other Youth thereto'; at Arthuret in 1738 two men were presented for 'prophaning of the Lord's Day by fighting cocks on that day'. 70 In 1733 t n r e e grocers were presented in Carlisle for 'following worldly employment on the Lord's Day', and in 1762 six barbers were presented for the same offence. The main business of the courts was concerned with the personal conduct of individuals in their extra-marital sexual relationships. In the Norwich consistory court in the 1740s more than two-thirds of the new cases being heard each year were for fornication or adultery. 66

68 70

Parson and Parish, p. 155.

67

Spurr, Restoration Church, p. 212.

9 See above pp. 56-7. Albers, Seeds of Contention, p. 252. 7I Kinnear, Correction Court, p. 202. ibid., p. 205.

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It seems improbable that these represent prurient persecution by prying, self-righteous neighbours; they were probably regarded as offences against popularly accepted standards. Adultery was disruptive of local communal life; fornication placed economic pressure on the ratepayers (from whom the churchwardens were drawn) for the support of illegitimate children and their mothers. Sexual irregularities endangered the nuclear family or the 'household' which was the unit for most economic and social activity. If society was to be maintained in due order, morality had to be enforced. To this end the licence given to midwives by the consistory court in Oxford required them to swear, if you help to deliver any whom you suspect to be unmarried you shall acquaint the Ecclesiastical Court of this Jurisdiction therewith and before you yield your assistance or help you shall perswade and by all lawful means labour with them to declare who is the father of the said Child, this you shall doe faithfully and truly. Soe help you God and the contents of this Booke.72 This reflects contemporary social thought. By an Act of 1732-3 anyone who, after 23 June 1733, was charged on oath with being the father of a bastard child should be apprehended and committed to gaol until he gave security to indemnify the parish from expense for the child.73 This may account for a sharp increase in the number of presentments for sexual irregularities in the 1730s. In the Carlisle court books in the eighteen years before 1731 there were eight years in which there were no presentments for antenuptial fornication and in other years usually only one or two presentments in the entire diocese. In 1735 thirty-three couples were cited, and between 1731 and 1738 there was an average of eighteen a year. Mary Kinnear has also noted that more women than men were presented for fornication: on average, women accounted for 63 per cent of those presented for fornication annually. However, comparison of parish baptism registers in Carlisle diocese with presentments for fornication in the 1730s shows that parents of baptised bastards rarely figure in churchwardens' presentments. She has suggested three possible explanations for this failure in moral supervision. First, churchwardens may have varied in their zeal and competence in presenting offenders. Second, the supervision of churchwardens by

73

Churchwardens' Presentments in the Oxfordshire Peculiars, p. xxv. This oath was administered to Bridget Kirby of Cropredy in 1726. 74 Tate, Parish Chest, p. 192. Kinnear, Correction Court, p. 197.

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an

^ religion

the officers of the courts may have fluctuated. Third, there was selective discrimination by churchwardens over whether or not to present a person. She suggests that the fairly constant level in the number of presentments for fornication over the period of her study implies a consensus among ratepayers that their communities would accept the prosecution of those who did not conform to the rules of Christian morality, especially those who were frequent offenders. There seems little evidence to support Lawrence Stone's claim that there was a collapse in cases concerned with sexual matters in the Church courts between 1680 and 1720. He suggests that suits brought by court officials against offenders almost entirely disappeared, as the laity's resentment against such moral policing intensified in an age of rational religion and hostility to religious or moral enthusiasm. He also alleges that the growing secularisation of society undermined the self-confidence and moral integrity of the officials of the Church courts, so that between 1680 and 1720 they shifted easily from acting out of religious and moral conviction to acting out of a desire to pocket fees. Given the continuing popularity of the courts it is difficult to know on what evidence such claims are based. Sometimes parishioners came before the court voluntarily to confess misdemeanours in order to forestall objections to their banns when they wished to get married. The rector of Great Bradenham in Norfolk wrote to the registrar of Norwich consistory court in May 1760: Sr The Young Man ye Bearer of this, has it seems trespass'd agst ye Ecclesiastical Laws in an Instance too common amongst Young People but in other Cases is of Good disposition. He takes this Method at my desire Neither he nor ye Woman are in any Circumstances so hope you will be as Favourable to him in regard to Charges as ye Case will admit, which will much oblige. Yr very humble Servt H Topping.77 A voluntary appearance before the court was also a means of stopping gossip and scandalmongering. A number of documents from Norwich consistory court suggest that the court used a standard form for defendants to come into court to confess the 'fame' of the allegation and then to deny its truth. For example, Whereas a Fame or Report hath lately been Spread abroad that I Edmund 75

ibid., pp. 198-200.

76

Stone, Road to Divorce, p. 41.

77

NRO NDR CON 86.

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Wright of Necton ... in the County of Norfolk, a Married Man have committed the Crime of Adultery with one Sarah Wright of Necton ... Singlewoman. Now I do hereby Nominate and Appoint William Utten of the City of Norwich, Notary Public, one of the proctors of the Consistory Court of the Lord Bishop of Norwich, to appear before any competent Judge and to Consent to time and place as if in Open Court and to Confess for me and in my Name that a Fame or Report hath lately been Spread in the same parish ... and other Neighbouring parishes of my having been guilty of Adultery with the said Sarah Wright. But for me and in my Name to Deny as I do hereby the Fact or Truth thereof, and to Submit to the Correction of the Judge and to pray and procure me to be Dismiss't from all further prosecution as to the said Fame or Report, Until I shall be duly Convened and Convicted of the Fact. Witness my hand this Ninth day of April, 1766. Witness: Wm Wright Edmund Wright.78 This case should be seen in the context of a class of cases for slander and defamation, usually for sexual defamation, that have been found in Church courts across the country from Elizabeth's reign onwards.79 In the first half of the eighteenth century, England was still a society deeply permeated by the Church's teachings. Defamation constituted a breach of Christian charity and of social harmony. A reputation for sexual honesty was of considerable importance to people and signified their respectability. Evidence for such views may also be seen in the curious eighteenth-century survival in the churches at Minsterly and Astley Abbots in Shropshire and at Abbotts Ann in Hampshire of 'Maidens' Garlands' consisting of a wooden frame with paper flowers, which were apparently placed on the coffins of single women who had died with a reputation of chastity.80 Defamation cases reflect the tensions and rivalries characteristic of small-scale communities which need to be relieved, if not resolved, by appeal to an external arbiter. This role was satisfactorily fulfilled by the consistory and archdeacons' courts. In defamation cases the accused became the accuser. In five law terms in 1720-1, 116 of the 141 new cases entering the York chancery court were for defama78

ibid.

79

See Ralph Houlbrooke, Church Courts and the People during the English Reformation 1520-1570

(Oxford, 1979), p. 87, Ingram, Church Courts, pp. 292ff. and J. A. Sharpe, Defamation and Sexual Slander in Early Modern England: The Church Courts at York (York, 1980), passim.

Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Shropshire (Harmondsworth, 1958), pp. 63 and 202, and Nikolaus Pevsner and David Lloyd, Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (Harmondsworth, 1967), p. 73.

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tion.81 There is a similarly high number of such cases in the Norwich consistory court during the first half of the century.82 The Church courts could not award damages, but if the defamer did not withdraw his or her words and was convicted, he or she might be sentenced to perform a public penance including asking the forgiveness of the victim. The plaintiff was then publicly vindicated of his or her reputation, which was more important than money damages. Matrimonial cases were comparatively rare. There are no identifiable cases of divorce mensa et thoro in the Norwich consistory court during the eighteenth century, and only two identifiable petitions for declarations of nullity; one was on the grounds that the marriage was between partners falling within the 'Table of Kindred and Affinity', and the other was an allegation of irregularity in a clandestine 83

marriage. Although, as has been seen, tithe could be a matter of contention between laity and the clergy, there are not as many disputes about the payment of tithes in ecclesiastical courts as might be expected. This may have been because lay people suspected the impartiality of the consistory courts in such matters. Also the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts was limited. They could not decide cases involving claims over moduses, because these were a matter of temporal, not spiritual right. Writs of Prohibition to suspend proceedings in an ecclesiastical court and to transfer them to a common-law court were more frequent in tithe than in any other cases. The only period in which there was a significant increase in the number of tithe cases in the Norwich consistory court was in the late 1720s and the early 1730s.85 People were required to use the consistory courts for proving the wills of those who had died. Cases about the validity of wills were not common, but presentments by churchwardens of people either for failing to make adequate inventories of the possessions of the deceased or for failing to come into court to prove wills were very common. Another area in which close supervision was exercised by the ecclesiastical courts was the fabric of the church and the churchyard and the furnishings of the church. The consistory court granted faculties for repairs and alterations to church buildings and furnishings and the archdeacon, in the course of his visitations to churches, 81

84

82 Sharpe, Defamation, p. 9. Jacob, Clergy and Society, p. 231. 85 See Evans, Contentious Tithe, p. 43. NRO NDR ACT 92.

83

ibid., p. 231.

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would cite inattentive churchwardens and clergy to his court to require them to rectify defects. The laity also used the Church courts to complain about those who were required to hold a bishop's licence to exercise their calling, including schoolmasters, surgeons, physicians, phlebotomists and midwives, as well as clergy.86 Many schoolmasters in particular, but also surgeons, physicians and midwives, at least until the middle of the century, were presented for not having a bishop's licence. The clergy too (as has been seen) were subject to presentment by the churchwardens when they considered that they were failing in their duties. The sentence of the courts was, in the first instance, to public penance, which was intended to bring the person to repentance for his or her offence against God, and to act as a public acknowledgement that an offence had occurred which had broken the bond of charity in the local community. It was also intended to show that the person was being restored to relationship with God and the community, and to illustrate to others the consequences of sin. Public penance required the offender to attend Sunday morning service and to stand penitently in the Middle Alley, before the Minister's Seat or Pulpit, cloathed in a White Sheet holding a White Rod or Wand in [his or her] hand, having a Paper pinn'd upon [his or her] Breast, describing [his or her] Fault or Sin; and then and there in such Sort to continue during the whole Time of Divine Service and Sermon, and at the End of the same before the Congregation is dismissed, and the Blessing given, shall upon [his or her] Knees make ... humble Confession, repeating every Word after the Minister with an audible Voice. Finally the penitent was required to beseech the congregation to join with him or her in the words of the Lord's Prayer. The officiating minister and the churchwardens then signed a certificate that penance had duly been done which the penitent returned to the court at the next convenient sitting. The impact of penance depended on the status and general standing of the offender. Presumably having to do public penance might endanger someone's creditworthiness and good standing in the 86

87

See Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical 1603, Canon 77. Schoolmasters were required to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles. T h e canons make no mention of surgeons, physicians and midwives. 88 J a c o b , Clergy a n d Society, p . 217. NRO ANF/10/3.

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community. By contrast, for those who were little regarded by their neighbours, penance would not be much to worry about. For some of the lesser sort public penance may have been a means to an end. Samuel Wesley at Epworth refused to marry a woman to a man with whom she was cohabiting until she did penance for having an illegitimate child some years before. 89 Penance before a congregation was a more direct personal influence on an offender than the payment of a fine and also involved the possibility of continuing pastoral care of the repentant sinner by the parish priest or the curate. Sharpe has suggested that litigants may have preferred a formal penance and apology to the pecuniary damages awarded by the common law. He suggests that the type of apology made by a defamer in the course of his or her penance cleared the reputation of the offended party and might thus form a sounder basis for reconciliation than the payment of damages, especially if the defamer was very poor. Even when a cause was fought to the finish, the objective of the Church courts' treatment of defamation was to ease tension in the local community, rather than to give a legal framework within which a case might develop freely.90 Sometimes an offender was permitted to keep his or her clothes on under the white sheet,91 or was required to wear 'mourning apparell'. 92 In 1713 the Chester consistory court permitted those doing penance for ante-nuptial fornication to wear their accustomed clothes rather than to be 'barefooted and bare legged' and clothed in a sheet. Penance might also be permitted to be performed in private, before the minister and the churchwardens in the vestry or another named place. Robert Demore was required to perform penance in the vicarage at Bishopthorpe on Monday 30 March 1699 for saying that 'Bess Lowther was with child by Joseph Daniel gott in the Green Beck at Bishopthorpe Palace and he paid her money to lay it on Ned Carter.' 94 Normally, except for fornication, public penance might be commuted to a money payment, the sum paid being applied to a 89 90

91 92 93

A. F. Messiter, Notes on Epworth Parish Life in the Eighteenth Century (1912), p. 19. J . A. Sharpe, 'Such Disagreement betwyx Neighbours': Litigation and H u m a n Relations in Early Modern England, in Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West, ed. J o h n Bossy (Cambridge, 1983), p p . 178-81. W o o d , Nottinghamshire Penances, p. 61. John Addy, Sin and Society in the Seventeenth Century (1989), p. 208. 94 Pope, Church in the Wirral, p . 78. Addy, Sin and Society, p. 209.

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charitable cause, such as the maintenance of a church. Obviously the better sort preferred to make a money payment rather than suffer the indignity of undertaking a public penance before their fellow parishioners in church. No doubt most people who could afford it preferred to pay the one or two guineas for which Chester consistory court was commuting public penance in the 1750s. However, the sum could be higher. In November 1736 in a case of ante-nuptial fornication by John Mattlus and his wife Catherine, penance was remitted to a fine of four guineas to be expended on 'Pious and Godley Books for the use of the Parish of Neston'. In Chester, at least, the minister and/or the churchwardens were requested to return a certificate stating that a commutation would do as much good as public penance in a particular case and suggesting a suitable amount. 5 This suggests that commutation was not merely limited to the more affluent, but might be related to a person's income or financial situation. The aim of the sentence was always pastoral, not to undermine or destroy a person but to set a sinner back on the path of salvation. Penances continued to be undertaken throughout the period: for example in the Archdeaconry of Nottingham thirty-two schedules of penances witnessed and signed by the minister and churchwardens survive for 1705, thirty-one for 1741 and thirty-five for 1744. Between 1754 and 1765 there was an average of twenty-five public penances returned each year.96 Courts could also order a monition, which required an offender to certify, by a certain date, that a libel had been duly rectified. Excommunication was the final and most severe sentence of the consistory court. Minor excommunication excluded a person from the sacraments, from attending public worship, and from entering a church. This effectively excluded him or her from the chief place of assembly in a town or village. Major excommunication excluded an offender from the communion of God's people, which, because the Church was seen as coterminous with the nation, involved civil disabilities. An excommunicated person could not buy or sell any articles, could not be employed, could not give evidence in any court (and so could not recover any debts), could not give bail or make a will, or receive a legacy, or serve as an administrator or a guardian, was excluded from all juries, from manorial homage (and so could not hold land in copyhold lease, which was the most common form 95

Pope, Church in the Wirral, pp. 78-9.

96

Nottinghamshire Penances, p . 53.

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of tenancy), and from all parish offices. Excommunication made it almost impossible to trade or farm normally or to fulfil family or social responsibilities.97 For this reason its effectiveness may not have been undermined by the rise of dissent, which, in any case, in the early eighteenth century accounted for only about 6 per cent of the population. Effectively excommunication was 'social death 5. Failure to appear when cited before the court three times or failure to do penance or to certify monition could incur excommunication. It did not take effect until the offender was denounced excommunicate by the schedule being read publicly by the officiating minister of his or her parish church before the congregation during the Sunday morning service. The very limited evidence suggests that its use was a last resort and that it had not, as is often claimed, been discredited by excessive use in cases of contumacy. 98 The commissary in the three parishes in the peculiar jurisdiction of Hexham, after securing a schedule of excommunication from the registrar in York, sent for the offenders and warned them that he intended to denounce them. 99 It was used as a last resort, after the commissary had tried to get people to court for years. In general the threat of the reading of the schedule brought them into court. That excommunication could be an effective sanction is suggested by the excommunication of twenty Devon churchwardens by the consistory court in Exeter for failing to appear in court with certificates that necessary repairs to their parish churches, for which they had been cited, had been carried out. The following month they were all in court with certificates that the repairs had been carried out and prayed successfully for the excommunications to be lifted. If excommunication continued for a long time, successful application for a writ of excommunicato caprendo would lead to imprisonment by the civil authorities. Excommunication was ended by the administration of solemn absolution on petition by the excommunicant. The evidence demonstrates that the Church courts still had considerable business in many places during much of the first half of the eighteenth century. It is clear that parishioners turned to the ecclesiastical courts themselves, to settle disruptive disputes or to clear their names. There seems little evidence to support the claims that the courts were slow and that the fees were crippling. 101 The 97 99 101

98 Spaeth, Parsons and Parishioners, p. 212. Spurr, Restoration Church, p . 215. 10 Smith, Pastoral Discipline, p. 33. ° Warne, Church and Society, p. 52. Spurr, Restoration Church, p. 218.

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courts were relatively accessible, the fees were not excessive, and the procedure was relatively informal. They may also have represented a standard of formality and fairness that was less obviously available from a justice of the peace sitting alone in his house, or at an inn with some of his fellow justices in petty sessions. The ecclesiastical courts, with their relatively sophisticated procedures and sense that God would be on the side of justice, making a fair outcome more likely, may have represented an attractive option to the more rough and ready procedures of local magistrates. Offenders against the moral expectations of their society may have much preferred to undergo public penance in their parish church for fornication and having a bastard child, rather than falling into the hands of the justices in quarter sessions. Public penance seems mild compared with the order made by Norfolk quarter sessions against Dorothy Goodyear of West Walton to be committed to Swaffham Bridewell for one month and to be whipped publicly in Swaflham market within that time for having a bastard child in the parish of West Walton which is a charge on that parish and being a lewd and disorderly woman. 102 The Church courts were active in revising and improving their procedures. In the Archdeaconry of Derby, for example, as a result of a late-seventeenth-century initiative the archdeacon's court began to meet twice a year in All Saints' Derby and at Chesterfield parish church as well as in Lichfield Cathedral, thus making the court much more accessible to the people of Derbyshire. Lord Hardwick's decision in 1736, as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in the case of Middleton v. Croft that the post-Reformation canons and enactments of Convocation were binding on the laity only in so far as they had been specifically confirmed by statute, may not have been very significant in the short term for the ecclesiastical courts, as little of the courts' business was governed by postReformation canons. The court records suggest that they still met a need for members of local communities who carried on using the courts, though in smaller numbers, and obeying their orders until well into the second half of the century. Regular sessions of the Archdeacon of Hereford's court continued until at least 1767.104 Fifty-nine cases were brought for defamation in the London consis102 103 104

N R O C S 1/12 Sessions Minute Book 1752-60. Richard Clark, Anglicanism, Recusancy a n d Dissent in Derbyshire 1603-1730, D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1979, p . 225. Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford, p . 59.

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tory court between 1780 and 1783, compared with forty-three between 1743 and 1746.105 The decline in the courts' pastoral authority over the laity was slow to take effect. By comparison, in France this change took place at least half a century earlier. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the civil magistrates had gained direct jurisdiction from the ecclesiastical courts in disputes involving tithes, the possession of benefices, sacrilege, the activities of Protestants, debts and reparations claimed by clergy, and all manner of verbal and physical violence between laity and clergy. The French ecclesiastical courts' jurisdiction was limited to purely spiritual questions relating to ecclesiastical discipline, the administration of the sacraments and the supervision of church fabrics and furnishings.106 It has also been suggested that there was a gradual change in attitude among the clergy after 1689, and that newer generations of clergy ceased to see a pastoral alliance between their work and the ecclesiastical courts and saw the courts as having a merely judicial rather than a primarily pastoral role. 107 If this was so, it was a slow process, not really taking effect until the middle years of the century. However, as we have seen, it was mostly at the initiative of lay people that cases came into court. It is also likely that the increasing political security of the nation, especially after 1745, made people less likely to see the accumulated sins of their neighbours as risking divine intervention in the political, social and economic order to punish the nation for straying from God's will. The ecclesiastical courts, like the manorial courts, represented a communal understanding of a peaceable society, where individuals used the courts to settle disputes or to seek the support of external authority, spiritual or temporal, to regulate affairs and enforce customary duties. It has been suggested that there was in this period a general transition from a local court system geared essentially to facilitating the settlement of interpersonal disputes to one which emphasised the control of the richer over the poorer members of the community and which ultimately demonstrated the penetration of the State into the parish. 'Village tension' offences — witchcraft, and gossip involving defamation - were considerably less likely to be 15 106 107

F. C. Mather, High Church Prophet: Bishop Samuel Horsley 1733-1806 and the Caroline Tradition in the Later Georgian Church (Oxford, 1992), p. 284. T i m o t h y Tackett, Priest and Pastor in Eighteenth Century France (Princeton, 1977), p . 171. 08 Smith, Pastoral Discipline, p. 39. Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern England, p. 93.

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brought to a court by the mid eighteenth century. There was also a decline during the first half of the century of indictments at quarter sessions for communal ills such as scolding and letting animals wander loose and damage property. 109 There was too a decline in the number of communal 'shunning' punishments, such as public penance or the use of the pillory.110 The gradual change in attitude towards sexual morality among parishioners is seen in the decline in the number of presentations by churchwardens for fornication and having a bastard child in the second half of the eighteenth century, and in the very large increase in the number of bastardy orders issued by justices for the maintenance of unmarried women and their children in the last years of the century. Changes in patterns of work and settlement associated with industrialisation and urbanisation may also have contributed to a change in attitude towards the discipline of the Church, especially with reference to sexual behaviour. Dr Albers has suggested that the growing migratory populations of the urban and cotton-producing parishes of south Lancashire made the enforcement of Church discipline more difficult. She has noted that though the level of presentments remained high in the south Lancashire deaneries in the 1770s, indicating that the clergy and churchwardens still wished to prosecute moral miscreants, the rate of compliance declined rapidly. In 1777, only 4 of the 109 people presented from the south Lancashire deaneries actually appeared before the court. By contrast, the north Lancashire deaneries show a strikingly higher degree of acceptance of Anglican moral discipline: in 1770, fifty-five of the ninety-four cited appeared in court. l l Other factors contributing to the decline of the ecclesiastical courts include their lack of sanctions for enforcing penance or excommunication against individuals who ignored them. There may also have been a growing distaste for public penance. Perhaps the later-eighteenth-century church attenders (especially those affected by Evangelicalism) disliked the ribaldry implicit in public penance. Public sympathy for sinners seems to have been on the increase in some circles. People may have been increasingly unwilling to accept as legitimate pastoral care the public humiliation of parishioners for 109

N o r m a L a n d a u , The Justice of the Peace i6jg~ij6o from K e n t quarter sessions. 110 Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern England, p. 178. 1 ' ' Albers, Seeds of Contention, pp. 229-30.

(Berkeley, 1984), p . 245, using evidence

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intimate transgressions, even if they did not mind cartoons publicly ridiculing the great, if not the good, for their transgressions. Fewer cases meant less business, and less business meant a reduced income for the proctors, which led to fewer proctors, taking on more business than they could adequately handle, or to their finding second jobs. This made for less efficiency, which in turn led to fewer cases. As the profession of proctor became less well paid, so it was less likely to attract able men. As a result, the courts lost their appeal as efficient local sources of redress for offences or grievances. Although there was little enthusiasm among laity or clergy for the approach of lay zealots in the societies for the reformation of manners, there does seem to have been a strong consensus, among the middling sort at least, as represented by churchwardens, that for both spiritual and social reasons Christian moral teaching needed to be upheld. While there was consensus on this, the ecclesiastical courts continued to thrive; when the consensus ceased, the courts' business declined to a concern with the merely ecclesiastical. The survival of the ecclesiastical courts shows a continuing concern for communal welfare, for the preservation of one's neighbours from sin. In the first half of the eighteenth century there was a strong sense of the importance of the salvation, of the individual, by his or her 'walking in the paths of righteousness3, and great importance was ascribed to the spiritual value of doing good works for the benefit of neighbours, especially poor and needy neighbours. The next chapter will discuss the evidence for people's good works.

CHAPTER 6

Lay people and philanthropy

In a Christian society such as early-eighteenth-century England, charity was central to Christian life. A good Christian and citizen was expected to be 'a daily Frequenter of Public Worship' and 'a Generous Promoter of every Good Work'. 1 Almsgiving was a Christian obligation. It has frequently been recognised that the early eighteenth century was an age of philanthropy but it has frequently been forgotten that the motivating force for this philanthropy, was Christian piety. There is little evidence to identify the philanthropy of the period with a Puritan ethical ideal. 2 People of all shades of theological and ecclesiastical opinion expressed their faith through charitable activities. It was Christian faith that motivated generosity to the poor, the ignorant, the destitute, the mad, the sick and the fallen, and swelled a tide of voluntary charitable foundations of schools, almshouses, libraries, hospitals, asylums and refuges.3 Eighteenth-century diaries reveal lay people and clergy giving money and goods as a matter of course. Apart from the provisions for relief imposed on parishes by the seventeenth-century poor laws, the only source of social welfare was Christian charity. Charity was not merely a voluntary act: it was regarded as a duty for the giver and a right for the receiver. Holy days, such as All Saints' Day, St Clement's Day, St Catherine's Day, St Andrew's Day and St Thomas's Day, provided opportunities for the poor to perambulate the parish seeking charitable donations in the form of food, drink or money, and if these were not forthcoming, they sought revenge by ploughing the offender's dunghill or throwing 1 2 3

Bath Abbey south transept, Inscription to Richard Ford, died 17 May 1732. David Owen, English Philanthropy 1660—1960 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), p. 12, identified philanthropy with the spirit of Puritanism. Porter, The Enlightenment in England, p. 12.

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potsherds at his house.4 Charity was part of the social and communal fabric emphasising the responsibility of the better-off for the less well-off. The less well-off were well aware that it was their labour or rents that enabled the better-off to give to charity. John Thomlinson, the curate of Rothbury complained in 1717 that 'When one tells these men of uncle's charity in building the school, etc., they reply, what is that? He made us pay for it, he has raised the rent and squeezed it out of us.' 5 Givers of charity were well aware of Gospel criticisms of ostentatious charity, and many donations were from an 'unknown lady' or a 'gentleman'. However, anonymity failed to offer examples to encourage others in charitable activities. Church monuments were often used to provide illustrations from among the dead, who no longer required the cloak of anonymity. The sentiment is explicit on the memorial to two sisters, Mrs Dorothy Beckett and Mrs Anne Sargent, in All Saints' Northampton. It records that 'They jointly settled an Estate in Trust for cloathing and teaching Thirty poor Girls of this Parish' and that Mrs Sargent had bequeathed £150 'to adorn the Church'. The memorial is surmounted by the relief of a girl charity scholar holding a scroll inscribed 'Go and do thou likewise.'6 Similar sentiments prompted large boards in parish churches inscribed in gold lettering, recording charitable donations by parishioners. These lists of annual payments in money, bread or warm clothes to the poor, for the education of poor children, for almshouses for the elderly, of silver plate for use in the sacraments of the Church served as an insurance against loss or misappropriation, as a reminder to the poor of their rights, and a reminder to others to emulate their examples. After the Reformation, when people ceased to give or bequeath money to the poor to pray for the swift passage of their souls through Purgatory, money was given or bequeathed for charitable causes in acknowledgement of biblical exhortations. Charity in the form of expressing loving kindness, if necessary in a tangible form, for one's neighbour was a natural activity for all Christians, however rich or however poor. During the first half of the eighteenth century 4 5

Bushaway, By Rite, p. 171. Diary of the Revdjohn Thomlinson, in Six North Country Diaries, Surtees Society, 118 (1910), p. 74. All Saints' Northampton, west wall of north aisle, c. 1747.

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countless sermons pointed out that almsgiving, directed by the spirit of sacrifice, was essentially a self-regarding religious act. Charity was an act of devotion, involving the giver and God. It redeemed sins and ensured a blessing. Charity was seen as reinforcing communal solidarity; 'as we are all Children of the same Father', so we cannot help being 'affected with the Wants and Miseries of our Fellow Creatures'. 7 In the late seventeenth century a general increase in personal wealth amongst the middling and better sort had a marked impact on Christian charity. In spite of the wars being fought against the resurgence of the Counter-Reformation under the leadership of Louis XIV, and the insecurity of William Ill's regime at home, it was a period of economic expansion leading to a growth in surplus wealth which gave a larger pool of funds from which people might make charitable donations and bequests. There was, in particular, a proliferation of non-landed sources of wealth which contributed to an increasing number of the middling sort having income surplus to their needs. This increase in wealth created greater social fluidity and gave people whose economic position was improving a desire to demonstrate their changing status in society. An important way of establishing one's social position was being seen to contribute to charitable causes by having one's name on a subscription list or charity board in a church. Mandeville may have been cynical in claiming that 'pride and vanity have built more hospitals than all virtue together', 8 but to be identified with public charitable works might be an expression of social ambition as well as of Christian piety. However, as we have seen, much charity was anonymous. A further factor influencing Christian charitable giving in the lateseventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was the development of the joint stock company. This enabled people to subscribe relatively small sums to be deployed and managed by others to increase income and wealth and to work for the relief of distress and the promotion of the Christian Gospel. 10 Thus people of modest means could contribute to charitable causes and people of little wealth but For a more detailed discussion of eighteenth-century understandings of charity see Andrew, 8

Philanthropy and Police, pp. 15-16. Bernard Mandeville, An Essay in Charity and Charity Schools added to the Fable of the Bees (1714),

9

ed. P. Harth (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 269. For a fuller discussion of these issues see Borsay, Urban Renaissance, ch. 9. B. Kirkman Gray, A History of English Philanthropy: From the Dissolution of the Monasteries to the Taking of the First Census (1905, new edn 1967), p . 80.

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considerable initiative and organising ability could direct charitable work. Clerical propagandists for charity schools were quick to discover a theological and spiritual significance in joint stock companies and noted that 'money invested would bring a dividend in the improved happiness and morality of the poor'. 11 The considerable network of schools and hospitals founded in the first half of the eighteenth century provides a dramatic demonstration of what could be achieved by associational action. During the early eighteenth century charitable activity was also a means of promoting a donor's moral and human enjoyment. Charitable giving was closely associated with artistic expression, as is illustrated by the careers of Hogarth and Handel. Hogarth was connected with almost all the great philanthropic projects of his time in London. For both St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Foundling Hospital he painted pictures to illustrate the Christian ideals of charity and benevolence which, whilst advertising his skill and ability as an artist, also promoted the idea of sensibility and the pleasurable emotions aroused by charitable giving.12 Handel's Messiah received its first performance at a charitable concert to raise funds for the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin, which provided care and charitable relief for poor women in childbirth. In 1724 after the choirs of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals had for some years been holding an annual meeting at each of the cathedrals in rotation, Dr Thomas Bisse, Chancellor of Hereford, proposed a collection at the cathedral door at these annual meetings, the money collected to be devoted to the 'placing out or assisting to the education and maintenance of the orphans of the poorer clergy belonging to the dioceses ... or of the lay members of the three choirs'. The proposal was unanimously acceded to. 13 Charity could be beneficial to one's soul, socially advantageous, and enjoyable. Charity was also seen as a means of evangelism. This is particularly clear in the objectives of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), founded in 1701, and in the charity schools established during the period. Evangelism also played an important 11 12 13

Owen, English Philanthropy, p. 12. Ronald Paulson, Hogarth: His Life and Times (2 vols., New Haven, 1971), Vol. 1, p. 38. David Lysons, History of the Origins and Progress of the Meeting of the Three Choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford, and the Charity connected to it, To which is pre-fixed a View of the Condition of the Parochial Clergy of this Kingdom (1812), pp. 123-244.

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part in founding hospitals in London. The order of priorities in the founding of Guy's Hospital in 1726 is shown by paying the chaplain twice the salary of the physicians and surgeons. At an older foundation, St Thomas's, provision was made for a Bible in each ward and for daily services.14 It was perhaps the use of charity as a means of evangelism which led to later suspicions that philanthropy was a means of social control, and to contemporary suspicion that charitable organisations were used for political influence. For example, in Bristol the immensely rich and high-church merchant Edward Colston refused to provide clothes for boys in the charity schools he had founded whose fathers had not voted for Tory candidates in the 1715 general election.15 A sense of a Christian duty to alleviate the needs of the poor was strong for lay Christians for much of the eighteenth century. The communal nature of eighteenth-century society was expressed in the reciprocal relationship between the responsibilities of the wealthy for their poorer neighbours and the deference owed by the poorer sort to the better sort. Rich people sometimes left very substantial bequests for religious charitable purposes. Lady Elizabeth Hastings bequeathed an estate at Wheldrake to provide income for exhibitions to maintain five poor students from northern grammar schools at The Queen's College, Oxford, and land valued at £249 a year to support twelve charity schools. She also left communion plate for nine churches and money for other pious and charitable causes. Edward Colston, who died in 1721, left over £25,000 for schools, almshouses, repairing and beautifying churches, sermons, and augmenting poor benefices, as well as doles for individual poor people. His monument notes 'This great and pious Benefactor was known to have done many other excellent charities, and what he did in Secret is believ'd to be not inferior to what he did in Publick.' 17 The middling sort were also much involved in charitable giving. Some people set aside a proportion of their income for charitable giving. Mary Beale, the portrait painter, and her husband Charles, although they were not particularly well-off, always deducted 10 per cent from payments received for paintings and allotted this amount to cthe pious and charitable account for distribution to the poor'. 18 It 14 16 17 18

15 Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity, pp. 10-11. ibid., pp. 3-4. Medhurst, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, pp. 142-97. Inscription to Edward Colston in the south aisle of All Saints Church Bristol. Elizabeth Walsh and Richard Jeffree (eds.), The Excellent Mrs Mary Beale (1975), p. 14.

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was reported from Wales to the SPCK, in 1707 that ca Young Lady has begun a Poor Box last year wherein a small part of the Winnings at Cards was putt which at the end of that year amounted to £1 16s. 6d. wherewith some poor Naked Children were Clothed 3.19 William Bulkeley at Llanfechell in Anglesey devoted much energy to charitable giving. No week passed without small gifts to the poor and individual unfortunates. He spent much time and trouble preparing for Christmas charities. As early as July, eighty women were employed at Bryndda spinning, carding and winding wool to be woven into lengths of cloth and blankets. In December 'wethers and ewes' were found and killed for the 'Dole of Flesh', corn put ready, or, if no wind blew to winnow the corn, money provided instead. Lastly the candidates for the charity were selected and, if any were too old or ill to attend at Bryndda, the gifts were taken to them. 20 Nor was charity merely a rural phenomenon. The network of small parishes in even large towns ensured the close personal knowledge essential for such a personal system of poor relief to work. Charity was central to parish life; modest benefactions abounded. The link with a person's faith is frequently explicitly stated. In his will dated 22 February 1703, William Tracey of Norwich bequeathed the rents and profit of one and a half acres of land for an annual sermon at which 'there shall be distributed among the poor of the said parish so much bread as shall cost is. 6d. and at the same time the clerk shall have 6d. for his trouble'. 21 At St Lawrence, Norwich 'Mrs Eliz: Wickes bequeathed a rent charge of £10 a year for cloathing poor women' in 1738. In 1741 eight women were clothed from material bought to make up 'gowns, shifts, aprons, kerchiefs, hoods, mobbs, petticoats, shoes and stockings'.22 Surviving charity boards at, for example, All Saints' Pavement in York and All Saints' Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, vividly illustrate the variety and extent of urban charitable giving by lay people during the first half of the eighteenth century. At the small town of Llanfyllin in Powys a charity board on the front of the west gallery of the newly built parish church records that 19 20 21

22

Correspondence and Minutes of the S.P.C.K. Relating to Wales, p. 267. Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 40. N R O P D / 1 0 6 / 5 6 Norwich St Simon and St Jude Churchwardens' Account Book 1731— 1818. N R O PD 58/38(8) Norwich St Lawrence Churchwardens' Account Book 1590-1763.

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Mr Peter Griffiths of Oswestry, Mercer ... by his Will in 1689 gave 12s. a year for ever to be given to 12 poor housekeepers of this parish ... Mrs Ann Wynn, Widow of this Town by her Will in 1708 gave £15 15s. to be distributed among the poor at her decease, £10 to be laid out and the yearly interest to be paid for ever to 12 poor old women born in this parish ... Lewis Evans, by his Will in 1717 gave £20 to be laid out at interest for ever for the Use of the Poor of this Parish ... Mr Griffith Morris of this Town by his Will in 1717 gave £5 to the poor of this Parish ... Mr John Griffith, by his Will in December 1722 gave £10, the Interest to be distributed among the Poor of this Parish.23 Even apparently temporal charitable donations and bequests had a religious purpose, for they were usually distributed on Sundays and holy days, at church, usually at times of greatest material need. St Thomas's Day, 21 December, was the most widespread of all doling days. Then bread, fuel and clothes were distributed by the incumbent and the churchwardens, assisted by the clerk, after morning prayer and perhaps a sermon at the parish church. Groups of poor people went 'a mumping5 in Herefordshire, £a Corning' in Warwickshire, £a Thomason' in Cheshire. This involved visiting the better-off householders and soliciting doles of food, drink or money, so that they might have enough to see them through Christmas and the bleakest part of the year. Thomas Turner, the shopkeeper of East Hoathley in Sussex, noted on 22 December 1755: 'it being St Thomas's Day I gave to the poor of this parish about 2s. 6d., being about 30 in number (giving to each id. and a draught of Beer)'. Giving doles on such occasions was seen as a duty by the better-off and as a legitimate expectation by the poorer sort, who, as has been noted, reacted aggressively if their customary requests were not acceded to. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a burst of charitable concern for education. 26 The promotion of Christian knowledge was seen as a prime means of building up a nation of Anglican Christians in the face of competition from dissent, popery and infidelity. Charitable donations were used to establish schools for the education of the children of the poorer sort in the principles and practice of the Christian faith; to endow sermons and lectures for the 23 24 6

Llanfyllin Parish Church, Powys. Inscription on front of the west gallery. 25 Bushaway, By Rite, p. 187. Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 40. Evidence is provided principally by the Reports of the Commission Concerning Charities, which appear in the Parliamentary Papers from 1816 to 1835, and also from borough hall books, churchwardens' account books and inscriptions on monuments and buildings.

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edification of the Christian faith of adults; and to establish libraries for the promotion of the Christian learning of the clergy and the middling and better sorts. By the late seventeenth century a boy, even from a relatively poor family, might have a year or two of schooling between the ages of six and eight. 7 One year's schooling would have taught him to read, and two years to write. At Eccleshall in Staffordshire in the 1690s, among a population of 615 families, the Bishop of Lichfield noted five women schoolteachers, two bein^ the wives of day labourers, one the wife of a knitter and one the wife of a shoemaker. The evidence from the sale of chapbooks and cheap literature selling at 2d. and 3d. an item, when the average agricultural and building wages were i2d. a day, suggests a ready market for reading material even at the humblest level of society.29 Devout Anglican lay people were not providing a minimal education where there was previously none. Their concern was to put education on a different basis. In a Protestant society literacy was vital to salvation. The Christian had a duty to help those around him to learn to read God's Word. The ability to read would lead a person directly to the Word of God and would free him or her from dependence on others; it was one thing to listen and be inspired, but altogether more satisfactory to be able to read and review, to go back over difficult passages, compare texts and glosses, and find one's way about Scripture. Writing enabled a Christian to take notes from a sermon; it also allowed people to respond to God's Word in the Bible, by keeping a spiritual diary. However, reading could imperil the soul; there were evil books as well as good ones; literacy might lead to depravity rather than godliness.30 Anglicans of all traditions in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries desired to provide a sound education with a Christian basis to lead the young into paths of righteousness, so that the nation might respond to the saving grace of God in removing James II and re-establishing a Protestant succession to maintain a true reformed Church, and looked to 'the Practice of the Primitive Christians'. The Bishop of Norwich pointed out in his sermon at the opening of the Norwich Charity Schools in 1708 that the 'Primitive Christians', from the evidence of Clement's Catechetical Discourses, had schools in Alexandria; therefore a true reformed Church ought 27

29

28 See Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, ch. 2. ibid., p. 36. 3U ibid., p. 48. Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory (1678), p. 60.

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to have schools for the instruction of the young. It was essential that the young should be formed in the doctrines and worship of the true Church, as by law established in England. This was better achieved by promoting the influence of the Church than by attacking and preaching down dissent, as more militant high churchmen proposed. The establishment on a firm basis of schools in which boys would be taught to read the Bible and the Prayer Book for themselves and to say the catechism and, if there was time, to write and perhaps to reckon, was a means of evangelising the lower reaches of society and protecting them from popery and dissent. Because girls too had souls and were in need of salvation and, as mothers of the next generation, would in their turn bring up their children in the Christian faith, provision was also made to teach them to read. The burst of charitable activity in the early part of the eighteenth century put what was previously available on an intermittent basis on a more formal footing. John Leeds, a worsted weaver of Bawdeswell in Norfolk, like many others, was establishing a school on a firm foundation when, in 1728, he bequeathed all his Messuages, Lands, Tenements and Heriditaments to certain Trustees upon condition that they should yearly pay over the Rents and profits thereof... to the Overseers of the Poor for the teaching of 12 poor children of Bawdeswell and 8 of Foxley to write and read by a Schoolmaster. The Master and Children to be appointed, removed and altered by the Minister and Churchwardens of the said parishes, or of the major part of them, the concurrence of the Minister being always necessary.32 A salary was provided for the master, and probably a house as well. Management of the funds was in the hands of both trustees and parish officers so that different groups of people would check up on each other, and thus establish a system of checks and balances of power and responsibility. The involvement of the incumbent meant that the curriculum would be governed by the rubrics of the Church of England. Poor parents might be inhibited from sending their children to school because the children's meagre earnings helped to pay for their clothes. Charitable foundations establishing schools often therefore provided clothing for poor children, which also placed them in a livery as objects of satisfaction 31 32

[Charles Trimnell,] A Sermon Preached at St Peter's Mancrqft in Norwich ... by the Right Reverend Father in God, Charles Lord Bishop ofNorwich (Norwich, 1708), p. 26. Foxley C h u r c h , Norfolk. Inscription a t the west e n d of the nave.

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for the donors, and set them up as examples of godly living for their peers and elders. The increasing prosperity of the period, and the introduction of the joint stock company, set the scene for a surge of charitable giving directed towards formalising Anglican education for the poor. In the early years of the century these activities received great encouragement from the SPCK, who wished to combat 'vice and debauchery 5, which they believed were growing 'owing to the ignorance of the principles of Christian religion, especially among the poorer sort'. Because they believed that 'Christian Vertue can grow from no other root than Christian Principles', and 'being touched with zeal for the honour of God, the salvation of souls of our poor brethren and the Promoting of Christian Knowledge among the poor', they encouraged the provision of schools 'for teaching poor children (whose parents are not able to afford them any education) to read, and write, to repeat and understand the Church Catechism'. 33 The SPCK has often been credited with founding schools and criticised for not founding more. 34 The Society did not in fact found any schools: its concern was primarily as a ginger group, providing a network of information and encouragement for people who were interested in establishing schools in their own parishes and localities. At the core of the SPCK's design for schools was a system of local parish subscription. Members of the Society, both clerical and lay, were skilfully recruited from across party (political and ecclesiastical) boundaries. Its supporters included high-church Tories as well as distinguished Whig bishops such as Charles Trimnell, Bishop of Norwich, and White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough. Its secretary, Henry Newman, worked diligently to prevent the Society, as well as the London charity schools, from being dominated by high-church factions.35 The Society was a working group whose aims were Christian evangelism rather than party politics. Its members were mostly lay people with organisational ability and zeal and a propensity to see specific projects to a conclusion. They used their energies and influence in the interests of promoting Christian (and more

33 34

Allen and McClure, Two Hundred Years, p . 27. For example, see J o a n Simon, Was there a Charity School Movement? T h e Leicestershire Experience, in Education in Leicestershire 1540-^40, ed. Brian Simon (Leicester, 1968),

pp. 56-9.

Cowie, Henry Newman, p. 85.

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especially Anglican) knowledge rather than sectional interests in the Church. Their original concern in the realm of education was with London. However, from November 1699 they recruited corresponding members in each county and large town and city. 36 Correspondents were advised to consult their bishops 'as to what other persons they shall associate to themselves in the carrying on the great Designs of this Society'.37 Their assistance and support for provincial correspondents were invaluable, as will be seen, in encouraging and providing useful advice for promoting schools in the provinces. Even in London the Society's role was confined to the provision of assistance, advice and above all, publicity. Their publishing and printing were a parallel concern to their work with schools. Amongst other evangelistic publications they provided, at low cost, and in large numbers, books suitable for use in charity schools.38 Their translations of the Bible and the Prayer Book into Welsh were used in schools in Wales, and the Prayer Book in Irish was distributed in Ireland. 39 Sermons preached at the opening of charity schools or to raise funds for them were often printed to provide persuasive arguments for establishing schools and influence readers to become donors and contributors. The SPCK also provided publicity about schools and examples of good practice for teachers and trustees. James Talbot's Christian Schoolmaster, commissioned by the Society and published in 1707, set out a curriculum, a method of teaching and detailed rules and orders for anyone wishing to establish a school, and could be given to a newly appointed teacher to provide guidance on how to go about the job. 40 The first charity school was probably established at Whitechapel in 1680. By 1706 the SPCK listed fifty-four schools educating 1,386 boys and 745 girls in London. By 1711 this had more than doubled to 112 schools with 2,759 boys and 1,490 girls. The pace slackened in 36

37 39 40

Robert Unwin, T h e Established Church a n d the Schooling of the Poor: T h e Role of S.P.C.K. 1699-1720, in The Churches and Education: Proceedings of the ig8j Annual Conference of the History of Education Society of Great Britain, ed. Vincent Allen McClelland (History of Education Society, Leicester, 1983), p . 16. This is the best account available of the SPCK's role in early-eighteenth-century education. 38 Allen a n d McClure, Two Hundred Tears, p . 58. ibid., p . 166. ibid., p. 204, and Correspondence and Minutes of the S.P.C.K. Relating to Wales, pp. 278-86. The Christian Schoolmaster is described at length in R. W. Unwin, Charity Schools and the Defense ofAnglicanism (York, 1984), pp. 25-7.

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succeeding years. In 1734 there were 132 schools with 3,158 boys and 1,965 girls.41 There was considerable variety in the administration, management and funding of schools. Most lacked major endowments and were initially, at least, dependent on subscriptions and collections made after sermons preached annually, quarterly or monthly to encourage giving by lay people to support the schools. In 1710 it cost £71 to educate fifty boys at St Mary-le-Bow Charity School. 42 At the end of a child's education great care was taken to ensure that he or she was apprenticed to a good Anglican master or mistress, so that his or her education in the principles of the established Church and good disciplines of labour would be reinforced and not wasted. The London schools were major financial operations. In 1719 the Society of Trustees estimated that £10,000 a year was raised in support of schools. The distribution of this charity was not indiscriminate. Schools were most likely to be established in those areas of London where Anglicans felt most vulnerable to the encroachment of dissent, notably the areas where development was taking place, to the north and east of the city, in Westminster and in Southwark. Twenty-seven schools were established in the thirty-one areas of London designated, in a report to the Convocation of Canterbury in March 1711, as inadequately provided with places of worship. In fact the schools in the 'new church' localities accounted for half the number of schools in the London area, 56 out of 112. The schools were firmly Anglican. The incumbent of the parish was invariably a trustee, but most of the detailed work of fund raising and management was carried out by lay trustees, without much reference to the incumbent. As has been seen, parish religious societies often sponsored schools and acted as trustees. It was usual for membership of a board of trustees to be restricted to confirmed Anglicans, and teachers were required to be Anglicans. At St Martin's-in-the-Fields, teachers were required to be monthly communicants. Church attendance was compulsory for teachers and children. At Raine's School church attendance was required twice on Sundays and holy days, and at St Margaret's Westminster on Wednesdays and Fridays as well as at the evening service daily. The heart of the curriculum was the catechism, the repository of Anglican orthodoxy, encapsulating both orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and 41

ibid., pp. 97-9.

42

ibid., p. 102.

43

ibid., p. 113.

44

ibid., p. 114.

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Christology in the Creed and principles of proper deference towards God and one's social superiors in a divinely ordered society, as set out in the Duty towards God and the Duty towards Neighbour in the Prayer Book catechism. There never seems to have been any shortage of applicants for places in the London charity schools. Although there were material advantages to poor parents in that children were clothed and apprenticed, it is unlikely that the economic advantages offered by the schools offset the disadvantages incurred from the loss of a child's earnings. Perhaps it was only the prosperity of the booming war economy, which enabled subscribers to afford to support schools and enabled parents to afford to forgo their children's earnings, that allowed the schools to be established and to prosper. The Sacheverell riots in London in the early eighteenth century testified to the strength of popular Anglicanism, and parental enthusiasm for sending their children to Church charity schools may have been a more peaceful manifestation of this. 46 Surprisingly few schools were founded by dissenters to compete with the Anglican establishments. This may have been because the dissenters were already financially stretched, through having to provide salaries for their ministers and to contribute towards academies to provide higher education for their sons. It may, however, have been that they did not feel as threatened by Anglicans as Anglicans felt threatened by dissenters, and there may not have been much in the schools' curricula to which they objected, for some Anglican foundations included dissenters among their subscribers. Where London led, the provinces followed. Across the nation there was a burst of lay philanthropic activity directed at education for the poor. Joan Simon has questioned whether this should be regarded as a 'charity school movement' and whether the SPCK played a significant role in it. 47 From the above it is clear that the SPCK provided significant information and encouragement. Joan Simon has also suggested that the term 'charity school' should be limited to those funded by voluntary subscriptions for the benefit of poor children. This does not relate to the reality of the situation in 45

46 47

For the outburst of popular enthusiasm at the verdict of not guilty against the high-church D r Sacheverell when he was impeached for sedition for preaching on the text 'In peril among false brethren' on Guy Fawkes D a y 1709, during the Whig ministry of Lord Godolphin and the Duke of Marlborough, see Holmes, Trial of Dr Sacheverell, ch. 10. Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity, p . 130. Simon, Was T h e r e a Charity School Movement?

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the early eighteenth century. There was a popular and widespread movement, of which the SPCK was an important part, for furthering and promoting education, based on the Church catechism, in reading and writing and to a lesser extent 'reckoning'. Although funding varied, the objective was the same, to educate poor children in the saving grace of God. Local studies show a widespread movement for founding schools. In Wales, Yorkshire, County Durham, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire and Kent the period 1680-1735 shows a marked increase in the number of legacies to schools and in the number of schools established.48 The citizens of London influenced the provinces both by their example and by actively contributing to the establishment of schools outside London. In Northamptonshire William Bliss, winecooper of Southwark, left £515 for a free school in Nether Heyford, in 1712 Nathaniel Billing, a London vintner born in Weedon Beck, left £800 towards a 'free school' in Weedon Beck, and a 'Mr Ashby, Merchant of London', gave £100 to a charity school at Yelvertoft in 1714. Country boys who made fortunes in London circulated some of their money back to their native villages for the benefit of local children to be educated in the principles of true religion and virtue and morality which had assisted them in their providential success. The variety and scale of educational facilities established varied considerably. In Norwich, the second or third city of the kingdom, the establishment of charity schools in 1707 was exemplary: several well disposed Laymen joined heartily in the Business. And the Lord Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, many of the Magistrates, Gentlemen and Trades of the City encouraged the Design and particularly the good Bishop's Authority and Zeal has had a good influence on the Design here as in other Places. So that there are here eight Schools wherein now are 230 Boys and two Schools for Girls wherein are about 40 in all 270. All the Boys have Caps and Bands and against Christmas last, 80 of them were cloathed throughout as more will be against next Winter. The Subscriptions amount to about £200. It was thought proper to be a little more large on the 48

Correspondence and Minutes of the S.P.C.K. Relating to Wales, J. Lawson, Primary Education in East

Yorkshire ij6o-igo2 (East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1959), C. E. Whiting, Nathaniel

49

Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham 1674-1721 and his Diocese (1940), D. H. Webster, A Charity School Movement? T h e Lincolnshire Evidence, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 15 (1980), pp. 39-46, A. Platts and G. H. Hainton, Education in Gloucestershire: A Short History (Gloucester, 1954), and R. H u m e , Educational Provision for the Kentish Poor 1660-1811: Fluctuations and Trends, Southern History, 4 (1982). J o a n Simon, Charity Schools in Northamptonshire and the S.P.C.K., Northamptonshire Past and Present, 7 (1987-8), pp. 327-38.

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Schools of this Place to show how very easily and soon this good Design may be brought about where the Clergy are zealous.50 Though the clergy were thanked for their zeal, they were outnumbered almost two to one by laymen among the trustees of the Norwich schools.51 A small group of laymen led by Alderman John Risebrow, the Norwich correspondent of the SPCK, and a few clergy managed the schools. The trustees in 1712 nominated at least three of their number (usually four, two laymen and two clergymen) 'to visit the schools every month and give an account of them at the next meeting', which continued to happen for the next century. Teachers were admonished if their schools were out of order. They were required to attend the trustees' meetings to report on their schools, and were fined I2d. each for not attending and not sending their excuses. They were expected to attend church twice on Sundays, and were rebuked for failure to do so. In addition to subscriptions, bequests and donations were also received, often in quite small sums, from modest citizens, as well as occasional substantial bequests. The main fund-raising events were the charity-school sermons, of which there were twelve a year between Ash Wednesday and Whit Sunday, in the Cathedral and various parish churches. The children, wearing their caps and bands, walked with their teachers in procession to the sermon and sang an anthem in the course of the service. The sermons were considerable social occasions. James Woodforde noted, when he preached a charity-school sermon in April 1780 at St Stephen's Norwich, that 'The Church was very crowded by rich and Poor. The Mayor was present being Treasurer of the Charity.' 52 Schools were thus kept in the forefront of public attention and earned regular notice in the newspapers. Country market towns followed the example of provincial capitals like Norwich, Bristol, Newcastle and York. At Diss on the NorfolkSuffolk border, a charity school was established by 1713 with sixteen subscribers, including eight gentlemen and five clergy. 53 The children were taught the catechism and to read and write, and to spin, presumably to help to pay for the cost of their schooling, as well as to 50 51 52 53

S P C K Archives, Society's Reports 1704-14. N R O Late Diocesan Box i, P125D, Norwich Charity School Minute Book 1711-59. Diary of a Country Parson, Vol. 1, p. 278. N R O P D 100/311 Diss Charity School Papers.

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train them for work in the local industry. They were required to wear their schoolclothes - cap and bands and coats, waistcoats and leather breeches, provided out of the charity - in public, and if they cursed or swore in the street they might be expelled, as they might also if their parents did not keep them 'clean and decent'. The master was paid jCio a year by the trustees for teaching between ten and thirty poor boys. A woman who taught spinning was paid £2 8s. a year. A total of about £50 a year was required to meet the expenses of the school. The funds were raised from subscriptions of £1 or so each a year from neighbouring gentry and clergy, the 'sacrament money' collected at the monthly celebration of holy communion, and the money raised by the children's spinning. In addition four charity school-sermons were preached each year at which a collection was made. The children processed in their school clothes (as they did every Sunday and holy day) from the schoolroom to the parish church. The sermons provided a financial focus, not merely in the collection taken after the sermon but, more importantly, at the dinner afterwards at the Saracen's Head or the King's Head in Diss, when subscriptions were collected, and the substantial subscribers who were trustees discussed the business and ordering of the school.54 In villages it was less easy to support a master or mistress by subscriptions, for there were insufficient people of the middling sort with a modest surplus of income to contribute, and not enough children for a master or mistress to be able to supplement his or her income by taking other children. Often the incumbent or a few local gentry were the only people who could afford to make regular payments, and the income might cease with the death of an incumbent, or a change in the personnel or attitudes of lay supporters. In such situations a benefaction, as at Bawdeswell, to endow the teaching in perpetuity or to build a school house was immensely important for the survival of a school. During the first half of the century such bequests were very numerous, a significant proportion of them being made by women. A flavour of the schools is given by the rules of the school at Burton on the Wirral. Every evening before they depart the School, the Master is to give the children a short charge to be sure to say their prayers before they go to bed, 54

NRO MS 1760 7 38 D Diss Charity School Account Book.

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and as soon as they rise (such short prayers as he shall teach them), to be dutiful to their parents: civil and respectful to all they meet, to be careful not to tell any manner of lie; not to take God's name, etc. He is to take special care to make the children sensible to the end of learning; which is that they may be better able to read the Holy Scriptures and therein to learn their duty, to live, to fear and to serve God acceptably all their days, that they may be happy when they die ... Every Saturday, before they depart the School, he is to give the children a strict charge to go to Church the day following and to behave themselves with reverence.55 During the 1730s, the number of schools established and bequests for teaching declined sharply. A number of factors contributed to this decline. From 1710, as a result of the political polarisation of Whigs and Tories, the London charity schools were increasingly associated with the Tory cause and some high churchmen began to envisage how the schools might further their aims of undermining dissent.56 After the Hanoverian succession and the fall of the Tories in 1714 the schools were under attack as tainted with Jacobitism. 57 In a charity-school sermon in Norwich the schools were defended against the charge 'That Children are taught to read and write whereas they ought to be kept in Ignorance, that their Religion may be pure and their loyalty unexceptional'. The preacher suggested that so long as children are taught to believe in God and to serve him truly; to honour and obey the King; to submit themselves to their Governours, and to hurt no Body by Word or Deed; I say so long as children are taught this, and due Care taken that they practice it, I cannot apprehend any great Danger from their tender Arms or untainted understanding.58 Charity did not cease to be popular with benefactors for merely political reasons. A decline in economic prosperity led to fears that educating boys ... multiplied Artificers and brought them to the Army or Gallows and abated the number of Husbandmen which were wanted in this Kingdom; injur'd the Persons of Small Estate, by rendering it insignificant to their Children to place them to Handycrafts and so pressed down the middle or inferiour People below the Scum of the Kingdom. 9 55 56 57 58 59

Quoted in Pope, Church in the Wirral, p . 210. Rose, Politics, Religion and Charity, p . 138. Cowie, Henry Newman, pp. 87-9 and Rose, Politics, Religion a n d Charity, pp. 155-60. William George Barnes, Charity and Charity Schools Defended: A Sermon preach'd at St Martin's Palace in Norwich on March 6th 1723 (1727), p. 9. Diary of a West Country Physician, p. 104. Entry for 14 April 1724.

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Such criticisms motivated trustees of schools, with the encouragement of the SPCK, to replace writing, and sometimes even reading, on the curriculum with labour. 60 However, such moves were not popular with some parents, who thought that their children could as well earn money for them as for the trustees of the school. Perhaps the most important factor in the decline in the number of benefactions to the schools was that from the late 1720s the SPCK ceased to give much time to charity or working schools, and concentrated its energies on evangelism in the North American colonies, especially Georgia, and on its publishing and printing interests. The school trustees thus lost the benefit of a network of correspondents through which ideas and encouragement were disseminated. During the 1730s, the charity schools also became the focus for anti-Church attacks. For example, in the Commons on March 1733, a member inveighed against the charity schools as ca cause of Street Robberies', although two other members defied him to produce anyone who had been hanged who had been educated at a charity school.61 These attacks, which focused on the Mortmain Act in 1736, must have had a powerful influence in discouraging benefactors from establishing new educational foundations. However, support continued in the form of subscriptions and supervision for existing schools, especially in cities and towns. In the 1730s and 1740s, some schools came to be seen as 'Nurseries of Methodists'. For those who regarded Methodists as competing separatists it must have been discouraging to see the products of their schools, as well as the members of religious societies, being attracted to the societies taken over or established by Wesley and Whitefield and others. The charitable endowment of lectures by laymen and women, in order to provide instruction in the Christian faith for their fellow citizens, to be delivered at specified times in parish churches is another feature of early-eighteenth-century church life that is often assumed to have died out with the Civil War. However, Anglicans Tim Hitchcock, Paupers and Preachers: The S.P.C.K. and the Workhouse Movement, in Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems in England i68g-iy^o,

ed.

Lee Davison, Tim Hitchcock, Tim Kiern and Robert B. Shoemaker (Stroud and New York, 1992), pp. 155-9. Diaries of Thomas Wilson, p . 95.

Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 108, quotes William Bulkeley of Llanfechell noting the clergy of Anglesey so describing their local charity schools.

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adapted a weapon from the armoury of the Puritans for their own use. 63 By the late seventeenth century weekly lectures had become an important weapon against dissent. Archbishop Sharp of York was reported to have 'erected several weekly lectures in the market days in schismatick towns in Yorkshire, as at Pontefract'. 64 In 1692 there were forty-seven lectures in London churches supported from either endowments or voluntary subscriptions. In 1714, according to the churchwardens' returns to Bishop Robinson, every city parish had at least one lecture on a Sunday, and 85.8 per cent of Middlesex parishes had a lecture. In the next detailed inquiry about lectures, in 1812, 88 per cent of London and Middlesex parishes had at least one lecture, of which less than 30 per cent were endowed, the others being supported by parishioners' voluntary gifts.65 However, lectures were beginning to be transferred to Sundays; in 1714 only thirty weekday lectures were listed.66 There was a close relationship between the London lectures and the lay religious societies, as has been noted. Paterson noted that in 1714 twenty-eight lectures were maintained by religious societies. In the first half of the eighteenth century there were frequent benefactions by individual lay people for lectures. In 1706, at Grantham, 'Michael Sullivan, Gentleman, Gave out of ye Angel Inn ... forty Shillings pr Ann for ever for a Sermon to be preach't against Drunkeness ye Sunday next after ye Aldermen's Choice in the Afternoon.'68 There were eight endowments for lectures or sermons in Norwich parish churches between 1703 and 1765.69 In addition, the Mayor and Common Council of Norwich paid the churchwardens of St Peter Mancroft £20 a year Tor the Tuesday Lecture'. 70 By mid-century support for weekday lectures, as has already been noted in the case of London and Middlesex, was declining. In 1713, the vicar of Ashby-de-la-Zouch claimed that his Wednesday lecture was 'not at all frequented' and arranged for it to be transferred to 63

64 65 66 68 69 70

J o h n Fielding, Arminianism in the Localities: Peterborough Diocese 1603-1642, in The Stuart Church 1603-1642, ed. Kenneth Fincham (1993), p . 108, and J. H . Overton, Life in the English Church 1660-1714 (1885), p. 4. The Diary ofAbraham de la Prynne, Sirtees Society, 54 (1869), p . 142. Barrie-Curien, T h e Clergy in the Diocese of London, p. 96. 67 Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis, passim. ibid. G r a n t h a m parish church, charity board in the ringing chamber of the tower. J a c o b , Clergy and Society, p . 339. N R O PD26/72(s) St Peter Mancroft Churchwardens' Account Book 1652-1706.

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Sunday afternoon. In 1740 the Thursday lecture at St Andrew's Norwich was abandoned and in 1744 the Mayor and Common Council withdrew their annual payment for the Tuesday lecture at St Peter Mancroft.72 The decline in enthusiasm for weekday lectures and sermons may reflect changes in patterns of daily work as much as attitudes towards religion, for Sunday sermons seem to have remained popular, as did published sermons. It may be significant that when John Wesley began to preach in the open air on weekdays he seems to have done so early in the morning, for example at 5 a.m., outside working hours. 73 A further aspect of early-eighteenth-century lay philanthropic activity concerned with the salvation of souls by the promotion of Christian knowledge was the marked increase in the rate of founding and improving libraries of books of religious and general knowledge for the edification of laity as well as clergy. At the end of the seventeenth century at least twenty towns possessed libraries held in trust by the mayor, aldermen and burgesses or the incumbent and churchwardens with the object of advancing the learning of both the clergy and the laity.74 They were all in towns where an educated and articulate laity would have a high expectation of the standard of preaching and learning of the clergy, as well as a desire to improve their own religious knowledge. The increase in the number of libraries in the last years of the seventeenth century and the early years of the eighteenth is part of the renewal of the Church of England engendered by a concern for the salvation of the individual and the community. Andrew Cranston's report that at Reigate, alongside the setting up of the library, a monthly sacrament had been instituted and 'the number of Communicants encrease daily' illustrates the close link between the supply of improving reading matter and religious practice. 75 At least 162 libraries were established or significantly augmented in English and Welsh parishes between 1688 and 1750, whereas only a handful were set up in the following half-century. 6 Some libraries 71 72 73 74 75 76

Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 115. N R O P D 26/73(5) Norwich St Peter Mancroft Churchwardens' Account Book 1707-50. See Journal of John Wesley, Vol. 111, passim. The Parochial Libraries of the Church of England: A Report of a Committee appointed by the Central Councilfor the Care of Churches (1959), p. 17. Allen and McClure, Two Hundred Years, p . 99. Parochial Libraries of the Church of England, passim.

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were intended primarily for clergy, but many were intended as lending libraries for clergy and laity. At Maidstone in Kent, where a library was established in 1716 and augmented in the 1730s, citizens were permitted to borrow books, and the library operated as an embryo public library.77 The most spectacular library was that set up by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh in Dublin in 1701, with almost 10,000 volumes. He employed Sir William Robinson, the architect of Kilmainham Royal Hospital, to design the building and secured an Act of the Irish Parliament in 1707 cfor Settling and Preserving a Public Library for ever'. At King's Lynn the Common Council of the borough had for many years managed the library at St Margaret's Church, from time to time appointing a committee to 'Inspect . . . the Library and order the Binding of such bookes as are necessary and to call in those which are lent out and transact other such matters needful'. In 1714 they received a 'handsome legacy of Books left by the will of Dr Thurlyn', formerly President of St John's College, Cambridge and rector of Gaywood, a parish just outside King's Lynn, and a former scholar of the grammar school in King's Lynn. The Common Council resolved to build a new library at the west end of the south aisle of the church, with a 'lofty Portico' and a 'handsome Pediment' at the entrance, and furnished with fine bookcases lettered in gilt. 79 This was paid for by public subscription, to which Sir Robert Walpole, one of the borough's Members of Parliament, contributed £25 and Viscount Townshend contributed £50. 80 The Common Council also paid the usher of the grammar school to act as the librarian. At Newcastle, Sir William Blackett of Wallington built a splendid library over the vestry of St Nicholas's Church. 81 When a new parish church was built at Stockton-on-Tees, a room at firstfloor level in the south-west corner of the church, off the staircase to the gallery, was fitted up as a library, with tall bookshelves and a bureau. The bookstock of all these libraries was predominantly theological. 77 78 79 8 81

W . N . Yates, T h e Parochial Library of All Saints, Maidstone, a n d other Parochial Libraries, Archaeologia Cantiana, 94 (1983), p p . 159-73. Muriel M c C a r t h y , Archbishop Marsh's Library (Dublin, n.d.), no pagination. K L B A C7/12 Hall Book 1684-1731. Some of the fine early eighteenth-century bookcases survive in the south choir aisle of St Margaret's C h u r c h King's Lynn. J a c o b , C h u r c h and Borough, p. 70. N C R O 2 A N / M 1 3 / C 7 Letter Book a n d Accounts of D r Thomlinson, Rector of W h i c k h a m 1720-48.

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Whilst these examples represent outstanding efforts by lay people for the propagation of Christian knowledge among their fellow citizens by means of easily available reading material in leading provincial centres, ratepayers in smaller towns also showed care to maintain and expand parish libraries. The churchwardens of Boston paid for 'Classis' to be made in the library of their parish church in 1720 to receive the books bought for £50 for the library by the Corporation from Edward Kelsall, the vicar. 82 There were numerous gifts of books and money to libraries attached to parish churches. Sir Philip Sydenham in 1700 erected a library at Hackness in north Yorkshire for which the benefactors' book, begun in 1701, lists twenty donors up to 1729, who together gave 283 volumes. 83 These examples illustrate the care of pious benefactors for the spiritual welfare of the literate better sort, as the support of charity schools illustrates their care for the spiritual welfare of the children of the illiterate poorer sort. The institution and work of Queen Anness Bounty illustrate the charitable concern of early-eighteenth-century church people, lay and ordained, for the well-being of the Church's ministers. Its establishment in 1704 was the culmination of more than a century's efforts to secure a mechanism to improve the incomes of less wellendowed parishes. On the advice of Archbishop Sharp of York and the politician Sidney Godolphin, Queen Anne agreed to grant the revenue from the two clerical taxes of First Fruits (which required clergy to pay the first year's income on entering a new benefice) and Tenths (which required the payment of one-tenth of the benefice income in tax), which had been taken over by the Crown at the Reformation, for the augmentation of poor livings. By statutes of 1707 and 1708 all livings the incomes of which were valued at less than £50 a year were permanently discharged from the payment of both First Fruits and Tenths. Thus in the short term, clergy in poor livings were relieved from the crippling tax of First Fruits on coming into a benefice. Motives for this act of generosity were, inevitably, mixed. Politically this gesture of goodwill towards the Church pacified the majority of the Tory clergy in the Lower House of Convocation who were angered by Parliament's regular rejection of Occasional Con82 83

Presumably 'classis' were bookcases or presses. L A O Boston 10/1 Vestry Minute Book 1705-76 and Parochial Libraries of the Church of England, p. 70. Parochial Libraries of the Church of England, p . 81.

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formity Bills. Both Whig and Tory politicians were prepared to give time to the legislation establishing and improving the working of the Bounty in order to curry favour among the parish clergy, whose political influence was thought not to be negligible.84 During the decade taken up in rationalising the collection of First Fruits and Tenths, the Governors of the Bounty established principles upon which to augment small livings. The most important of these was to invite private benefactors to contribute £200 capital to endow benefices valued at less than £50 a year, which the Governors would match with a further £200. If a rate of return of 3 or 4 per cent is assumed, this could increase the benefice income by £12 to £16 a year, an improvement of 25 per cent. This also ensured that the Bounty was not merely a means of diverting income from richer to poorer benefices, but brought in new money to improve the financial position of the poorer beneficed clergy. Among the other principles which the Governors established were that grants should be invested in land, thus continuing the identity of the clergy with the great majority of their parishioners in the cultivation of the land. Once the Bounty had established its income on a satisfactory basis, after 1718, it began to have considerable success in attracting benefactions from laity and clergy. Up to 1750 there were 359 clerical benefactors, compared with 906 lay benefactors, including 148 women. In some cases this was a return to the Church and the clergy of impropriated tithes alienated at the Reformation. Many laity made benefactions to particular parishes, especially those of which they were patrons. By attracting an additional £200 benefaction from the Bounty, they could appreciably increase the income of the living and hence its market value, if they wished to sell it. Others showed no vested interest in their own financial prospects. In 1748 Mrs Susannah Strangeways Horner gave lands producing about £200 a year to the Bounty to augment poor vicarages in the 'four western counties'. Mrs Gertrude Pyncombe 'late of Welsbore Dorset gave lands now [1811] producing £700 a year for the augmentation of poor livings of any description in any part of England and Wales in aid of Queen Anne's Bounty, on 84

5

For the origins of Queen Anne's Bounty see Best, Temporal Pillars, ch. i, Alan Savidge, The Foundation and Early Years of Queen Anne's Bounty (1953), ch. 2, and Ian Green, The First Five Years of Queen Anne's Bounty, in Princes and Paupers in the English Church 1500-1800, ed. Rosemary O'Day and Felicity Heal (Leicester, 1981). Hodgson, An Account of the Augmentation of Small Livings.

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condition of the patron or incumbent advancing a sum of equal amount given by the trustees of Mrs Pyncombe's charity'. 86 Although the efforts of the Governors of the Bounty and the generosity of lay and clerical benefactors did not eliminate clerical poverty, it was being abated by the 1730s. The Bounty achieved a remarkable measure of co-operation between the three elements most involved, the Crown, the clergy and leading lay people. This is seen in the way interested parties pooled their financial resources. The Crown, through the surrender of revenue, was the largest contributor, but in the first thirty years of the Bounty's operation benefactions from laity and clergy gave almost as much to augmentation as the Governors allotted from revenue income - £195,000 compared with £227,000. The scale of benefactions from lay people suggests that the Bounty attracted wide support across political boundaries. 88 It also seems that the greatest help by individual benefactors was given in the areas of greatest need, for example in the North, the North Midlands and the Severn Valley. 89 The relative success of the Bounty in attracting benefactions from lay people (at an average rate of 28.2 a year between 1726 and 1735) may partially account for the opposition it attracted in Parliament prior to the passing of the Mortmain Act in 1736. The debates in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords reveal deep suspicion and hostility 'against Church encroachments'. There were accusations of mismanagement against the Governors, and the House of Lords was petitioned for an inquiry by the Privy Council which resulted in new letters patent. In addition to the Act's general provision nullifying bequests or benefactions made within a year of the benefactor's death, it forbade the augmentation by benefaction of any living valued at more than £35 a year. During the ten years from 1736 to 1746 there was a marked decline in benefactions to an average of 10.6 a year by lay people. The Mortmain Act was a significant blow to the Bounty's efforts to attract new charitable money to improve the financial position of poor clergy. Provision of accommodation for the aged poor in almshouses was a long-established object of Christian charity. Numerous examples 86 88

89

87 Lysons, History ofthe Three Choirs, pp. 105-6. Green, First Five Years, p . 231. Linda Colley, In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-60 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 108 identifies only 55 T o r y peers and MPs between 1714 and 1736 among 903 donors of benefactions. Green, First Five Years, p . 249.

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survive from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and they continued to be founded and built in the eighteenth century, often in association with charity schools, for example at Farley in Wiltshire in 1689, Bunney in Nottinghamshire and Kilmersdown, Somerset in 1700, and Kirk Leatham, north Yorkshire in 1708.90 A new development in Christian charitable activity in the eighteenth century was hospitals for the care of the sick poor. The purpose of founding hospitals was not merely to cure illness. The governors of St George's Hospital in London stressed the benefits to be derived from bringing the poor into the 'regular society' of the hospital ward. They also saw that There is yet a further Benefit received by the Poor. It regards no less than their eternal Welfare ... Immediate application is made to the Patients ... both in Matters of Instruction and Devotion; and a Perseverance in this Care, enforced by the awakening Terrors of Death, or the First Openings of Gratitude for Mercy received ... produces extraordinary Effects upon the most Ignorant and Abandoned ... others have been softened into a state of Penitence and Reformation, or by their exemplary Behaviour when discharged ... [which] promises ... an Increase of True religion and Piety amongst the Common People.91 There seems to be a clear coincidence between the decline in the establishment of charity schools and the rise in the establishment of hospitals for the care of the sick poor. This may represent more than a mere change in fashion in charitable donations. The early eighteenth century saw a modest increase in the birth-rate. In Gloucester, for example, between 1700 and 1709 there was a small surplus of twenty-four births over burials. There were more children around, and a more obvious need to educate them. In the 1720s there was a sharp increase in mortality. As has been noted, the accession of George II in 1727 coincided with a major increase in the death rate. It was more important in the second quarter of the century to keep people alive than to educate children. Hospitals, it was hoped, would preserve the lives of the poor, to labour for the good of the elect nation in this life, as well as to prepare them for the next world. Lying-in hospitals and the Foundling Hospital preserved the lives of infants and children to restore the population to its former level. Whilst there were strong social and economic motives for estab90 91 92

The Buildings of the Countryside 1500-1750, ed. M . W . Barley (Cambridge, 1990), p p . 13-143. An Account of the Proceedings of the Governors ofSt George's Hospital, London (1737), no pagination. Langford, Commercial and Polite People, pp. 146-7.

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lishing hospitals, a Report of the Northampton Infirmary in 1747 states c That the benefit of a reformatory may as far as possible be added to those of an infirmary'. The clergy of Northampton attended in their turn to visit the sick, to read prayers in the wards, and to give communion at the proper times, for which purpose a Chalice and paten have been presented to the society by an unknown benefactor, and care is taken that the patients of all persuasions may be attended in the manner they desire.93 Another form of donation to a hospital was that of bibles and other improving literature. At Bristol the Infirmary, started in 1737, was publicised as a centre of moral and religious reform of the poor, as well as of their physical recovery. Religious tracts were placed in the wards and given to those who recovered. There were daily prayers and patients were forbidden to swear or gamble. In some hospitals wards had biblical texts painted on the walls. Josiah Tucker entitled his sermon for Bristol Infirmary in 1746 'Hospitals and Infirmaries Considered as Schools of Christian Education for the Adult Poor: and as a Means Conducive Towards a National Reformation in the Common People'. 95 At her death in 1724, Mary Chapman of Norwich bequeathed all her estate to the hospital she had established in 1712: whereas it hath pleased Almighty God to visit and afflict some of my nearest relations and kindred with lunacy, but he has hitherto blessed me with the use of my reason and understanding, as mon ument of my thankfulness unto God for this invaluable mercy and out of a deep sense of the divine goodness and undeserved love to me vouchsafed, and in compassion to the deplorable state of such persons as are deprived of the exercise of their reason and understanding and are destitute of relations and friends to take care of them.96 Hospitals, like charity schools, provided an opportunity for exemplary charitable activity in which people of modest means could collaborate to relieve the needs of the poor. A sick servant or worker was almost always an encumbrance, and often a source of infection, but a modest subscription to a hospital would permit the subscriber 93

95

96

Roy Porter, T h e Gift Relationship: Philanthropy and Provincial Hospitals in Eighteenth Century England, in The Hospital in History, ed. Roy Porter and Lindsay Granshawe (1979), p. 167. Barry, Piety and the Patient, p. 173. M a r y E. Fissell, Charity Universal? Institutions and Moral Reform in Eighteenth Century Bristol, in Stilling the Grumbling Hive, ed. Davison, Hitchcock, Kiern and Shoemaker, p. 129. Sir Frederic Bateman and Walter Rye, The History of the Bethel Hospital at Norwich (Norwich, 1906), p p . 12-13.

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to nominate him or her to a place in a hospital where his or her spiritual as well as physical welfare would be attended to. As in schools, the interests of the better sort and the poorer sort were allied and mobilised in collective rather than individual charity. In the early eighteenth century most hospitals 97 were funded in similar ways to charity schools, by annual services and sermons followed by collections and often dinners at which subscriptions could be solicited from substantial subscribers, to finance the hospital for the following year. In such sermons giving was held up as ca Christian duty, no less than a social obligation of citizenship, to relieve the distress wrought by sickness and poverty'. In the mid eighteenth century sermons began to be supplemented as fundraising events by a new form of religious experience, the oratorio. The example was set in Dublin by Bartholomew Mosse, the founder of the Lying-in Hospital there, in the chapel of which Handel's Messiah received its first performance. His example was soon followed by the Foundling Hospital in London, where there were regular performances of the Messiah after 1750, which were enormously financially successful.100 In a similar fashion to charity schools, committees of the gentry and leading townsmen were set up to manage and regularly inspect the hospitals. Between 1719 and 1750 five general hospitals were founded in London - Westminster in 1720, Guy's in 1726, St George's in 1733, the London Hospital in 1740 and the Middlesex in 1745. The two existing London hospitals, St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's, received substantial new buildings during the period. The London Hospital had an average income of £4,300 a year between 1743 and 1754 and St George's received over £4,100 in its first year, whilst the Westminster Hospital's receipts were over £2,025 in 1738-9. In the same period nine hospitals were founded in provincial cities, where they too attracted substantial subscriptions and donations. For example, the Durham, Newcastle and Northumberland Infirmary received an average income of £2,300 a year in its first five years.101 Pious lay people played a leading part in founding hospitals. 97 98 99 100 101

Porter, Gift Relationship, p . 156. From a sermon by Bishop M a d d o x of Worcester in 1743, quoted by Porter, Gift Relationship, p . 162. Maurice Craig, Dublin 1660-1860 (Dublin, 1952), p p . 140-3. Benedict Nicolson, The Treasures of the Foundling Hospital (Oxford, 1972), pp. 4 5 - 8 . Owen, English Philanthropy, pp. 36-7.

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Perhaps the most outstanding example is Captain Thomas Coram, the founder of the Foundling Hospital in London. In his youth he was befriended by Dr Thomas Bray, one of the founders of the SPCK and the SPG. He was active in the Anglican interest in Massachusetts in the early part of the century and was one of the Trustees for the Settlement of Georgia. 102 Often benefactors of charity schools were also benefactors of hospitals. Mary Chapman, the founder of the Bethel Hospital in Norwich, was the widow of Samuel Chapman, rector of Thorpe St Andrew in Norwich, where he had founded a charity school in 1706.103 Henry Hoare, one of the pillars of St Dunstan's-in-the-West Charity School, in London, was a leading spirit in the foundation of the Westminster Hospital. 104 The chapel was often a central feature. The chapel of the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin, completed in 1751,is central to the plan of the building and, as a triumph of roccoco design, must have been a very expensive item in the cost of the whole building. 105 The chapel of the Foundling Hospital in London cost £4,195 17s. 4d., raised by public subscription. Handel presented the organ. 106 The centrality of religious motivation in the life of these hospitals is illustrated by the subject matter chosen for paintings to edify the governors and subscribers, as well as the patients. In 1734 Hogarth's choices of subjects for the main staircase of St Bartholomew's Hospital were the Good Samaritan and Christ healing the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda.107 Hogarth again saw the possibility of combining piety and self-advertisement at the Foundling Hospital, which he anticipated would attract distinguished patrons and visitors who would notice not only the children but any embellishments the Hospital had to offer. He persuaded his colleagues at the St Martin's Lane Academy, William Hayman, Joseph Highmore and James Wills, to present paintings for the Court Room illustrating scenes from the Old and New Testaments relating to the theme of the rescue of young children: Hagar and Ishmael, The Finding of the Infant Moses in the Bullrushes, Little Children brought to Christ and Moses before Pharaoh's Daughter.108 102 103 104 106 107 108

R. F. Nichols and F. A. W r a y , The History ofthe Foundling Hospital (Oxford, 1935), p p . 7-12. Bateman a n d R y e , Bethel Hospital, p . 12, a n d N R O P D 128/123 T h o r p e St A n d r e w T h o m a s Vere Charity School Account Book 1768-1828. 105 Owen, English Philanthropy, p. 43. Craig, Dublin, p . 143. Nicolson, Treasures of the Foundling Hospital, pp. 39-41. Manners and Morals, p. 103. Nicolson, Treasures of the Foundling Hospital, pp. 24-5.

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Obviously lay benefactors of charities in the first half of the eighteenth century had mixed motives in their benefactions. It would be only human to feel some pride in the charity-school children clothed in uniform they had helped to pay for, or in the hospital for the sick, the splendid buildings of which they had contributed towards, or in the modestly improved standard of living of the incumbent whose income had been augmented by a benefaction to Queen Anne's Bounty. It is also understandable if people found it difficult to resist the communal pressure to contribute to the boisterous groups cheekily demanding pence at 'Wassail5 and other seasons. Communal pressure, however, cannot account for the careful forward planning of Squire Bulkeley in providing his Christmas charities. Nor can it account for the long lists of benefactors of coal, clothes and bread for the poor that feature on eighteenth-century charity boards. The better-off had a sense of responsibility towards their less well-off neighbours, whether they were deserving or not, and the less well-off assumed that they had a right to expect support from their better-off neighbours. Christian belief was an important factor in influencing how people apportioned their money, especially when it came to the final apportionment in their wills. The charitable benevolence of Edward Colston and Lady Elizabeth Hastings is outstanding, but untypical only in its quantity. There would be value in a close examination of a sample of wills of the period to see whether there is any common pattern in charitable giving, for example an average bequest of 10 per cent of assets. T/he centrality of teaching about God and about God's will for people, in terms of Christian conduct, in the charity schools and the care and attention paid to maintaining and founding libraries, the stock of which was primarily theological, also suggests that the members of the urban elites who gave their time, money and financial skills to these causes took their Christian faith seriously and saw it as central to their lives. The extent of lay benefactions towards the augmentation of clerical incomes by means of Queen Anne's Bounty also suggests a concern for the established Church and its ministers. The involvement of women in Christian charitable benefactions illustrates their involvement in the financial world. It is important to remember that this was a world in which women worked alongside their husbands, fathers and sons, whether they were labourers,

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farmers, tradesmen or merchants. Women who outlived their husbands or their fathers often had significant sums of money to manage. They made significant contributions to shaping society by charitable donations and bequests for educational and health projects to alleviate suffering and to promote a Christian society. The careful arrangements made for the management of their charities by the likes of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Mrs Mary Chapman well illustrate the active part that women of the better and the middling sort played in the practical implementation of Christian piety. The period, however, saw a changing attitude towards work and money. In the traditional economy the domestic economy was not consistently motivated by any idea of maximising profit (or of maximising production). With the development of the joint stock company and of a banking system, it was easier to pass on money (especially money other than that invested in land) from one generation to another. Children could see how 'surplus' money, some of which traditionally had been devoted to pious charity, might be passed on to them, and resented too much of it being diverted from family use. Donna T. Andrew has identified a change in attitudes towards charity during the first half of the eighteenth century. Charity began to be seen less as a requirement of justice and more as a requirement of mercy, and so as a voluntary action. Charity began to be seen as a way to change and improve recipients and so to reduce the numbers of the poor. This view may have contributed to a decline in the custom of making charitable bequests in wills. A suspicion was developing that organised charity tended to encourage plebeian indolence and social insubordination. 110 There may also have been a changing attitude to property, linked to a changing attitude to religion. Perhaps the fear that estates and fortunes might be alienated by high-church Tory fathers, to the disadvantage of their Latitudinarian and Whig heirs, contributed to the unease with the ancient custom of bequests to charity for the benefit of one's soul that contributed to the support for the Mortmain Act in 1736. This Act not only constituted an attack on Queen Anne's Bounty, as has been noted, but on the SPCK, the SPG, the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy and the London Charity Schools. It was a powerful attack on the whole concept of corporate 109 110

See Hill, Women, Work and Sexual Politics, ch. 3. Andrew, Philanthropy and Police, pp. 17 and 42-9.

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philanthropy which had become central to Anglican piety.x l x The Act was ill drafted, arbitrary in its operation and easy to evade. It caught devises of land but not bequests of personal goods or money, unless they were to be laid out in the purchase of land, nor did it restrict significantly a donor's power to give land to charities during his or her lifetime. 12 There was a growing suspicion that bequests might be misplaced, and a desire that a benefactor and his or her associates or appointees should supervise the distribution of charity. As the communal and personal nature of society changed with the growth of towns and cities, new more formal institutions were required to deal with the increasing numbers of poor people for whom individuals felt no personal responsibility.1 4 Views of charitable giving changed as the eighteenth century progressed. Preachers began to stress discrimination as a vital part of sensible Christian philanthropy. There was a clearly marked decline in the number of bequests to charitable causes. While more than two-thirds of the surviving wills of members of the Court of Aldermen of the City of London for the period 16901719 had some provision for posthumous aid to the poor, only onethird of aldermen serving from 1739 to 1778 left similar bequests. 115 The primacy of religious motivation in charitable giving during the first half of the eighteenth century is further emphasised when consideration is given to the time and energy devoted by people of the middling and better sorts to the provision of places of worship, which is the subject of the next chapter. 111 112 113 114

115

Taylor, Sir Robert Walpole, the Church of England and the Quakers' Tithe Bill, p. 56. Jones, History of the Law of Charity, pp. 109-13. Andrew, Philanthropy and Police, pp. 42-9. An illustration of how this phenomenon was dealt with in German cities is provided by Hans Otte, Christian Poor Relief between Enlightenment and Revival in the Cities of North Germany, in Crown and Mitre, ed. Jacob and Yates, pp. 123-38. Andrew, Philanthropy and Police, p. 47.

CHAPTER 7

Lay people and church buildings

Nineteenth-century ecclesiological writers create an impression that the preceding hundred and fifty years was a period of abject neglect of the repair of existing churches and lack of provision of new churches in places of urban expansion. The evidence, however, shows that new churches were built in areas of urban development, numerous medieval churches were largely rebuilt, and existing churches were generally kept in good repair and frequently 'beautified' according to the highest standards of contemporary taste. Very large sums of money were expended on church building, repair and improvement, and most of the initiative for and management of the fund raising came from energetic lay people. The Church of England as restored in 1660 restated the importance of dignity, order and beauty in worship advocated by Archbishop Laud in the 1620s and 1630s; its places of worship must therefore present a dignified, ordered and beautiful appearance. The parish church also fulfilled an important social role. Parish meetings were held there. Announcements were made there. Each inhabitant had his or her accustomed place. The layout of the parish church reflected the social order of the town or village and the unity and divisions within the community. l The period saw a wave of urban church building. The number of towns which acquired fine new churches between 1700 and 1750 is quite remarkable. 2 Urban churches were sources of civic pride as well as of communal assembly: the mayoral elections took place in All Saints' Derby and the parliamentary elections in Cirencester and Boston parish churches.3 New churches were frequently the focal points of the rebuilding of a town, as at St Mary's Warwick, or the 1 2 3

Barry, The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, p. 104. Borsay, Urban Renaissance, p. n o . J. G. Davies, The Secular Use of Church Buildings (1968), pp. 174-5.

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Lay people and church buildings development of an estate, as at St Peter's Vere Street in London, or St Ann's in Manchester. Few medieval town churches escaped extensive 'georgianisation', as can be seen in Norwich at St George Colegate, St George Tombland and St John Maddermarket, and in York at Holy Trinity Goodramgate, St Michael-le-Belfry and St Michael Spurriergate. The church building vividly illustrates the interaction between Christian faith and social and civic life in eighteenth-century England. Provision for the religious needs of the whole population was regarded as a Christian duty. To provide opportunities for worship and for the Word of God to be read and preached would assist one's own salvation as well as promote the salvation of others. Church buildings provided communal identity, and expressed civic pride. Most important, it was a means of winning people back from the conventicles of dissent. At Brigg in Lincolnshire, which stood in 'four parishes, and has no church nor chapel, so that it is plagued with dissenters . . . Mr Tho Place of Winterton who spends his time in building, repairing and beautifying of churches, and most of them at his own cost' set up a project to build a chapel to be served in rotation by the neighbouring clergy without payment. 4 By such means the nation could continue to prove itself worthy of God's grace bounteously received in the removal of James II and in the victories of William III and Marlborough, and in the ensuing peace. If the internal arrangements of the parish church endeavoured to reflect the social hierarchy of the parish before God, externally the church was a reminder of the presence of God and of the divinely ordered pattern of life. The Commissioners for New Churches in London were clear that the new churches should be structures that would call people's attention to God and worship. A church, by means of its bells, ordered the life of the whole community. At Barrow on Humber the parish clerk's duties set out a pattern of bell ringing to govern the life of the whole community. The bell was to be rung cat nine in the morning and at four in the afternoon every working day from Monday in the first whole week of Lent until Easter, except such days when there are prayers in the church'. During harvest he was required 'to ring every working day in the morning [at] break of the day and continue the ringing thereof until 4

Diary ofAbraham de la Prynne, pp. 122 and 142.

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All Saints' Day and also ring a bell every eve about sunsetting till harvest be fully ended; which bells are to begin from the first beginning of harvest'. The bell was rung for 'the curfew beginning at St Andrew's Eve and ending at Candlemass Eve'. Bell ringing both reminded people of the duty to pray and worship and set the pattern of work for the agricultural year, regulating people's daily lives and their seasonal labours.5 Additionally bells were rung to mark occasions of communal rejoicing, both national and local, and, of course, to mark the passing of souls to the next stage of their journey to salvation. The parish church also provided storage space for communal safety equipment. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries towns and villages were periodically devastated by fire. The danger and frequency of major fires in towns is illustrated by Lincolnshire, where there were major fires in eleven towns between 1705 and 1749.6 From the late seventeenth century parish vestries began to invest in firefighting equipment for the use of the inhabitants of the town or village. The equipment was usually kept in the parish church. At St Mary's Beverley the churchwardens, from the late 1680s onwards, made regular payments for mending 4i2 leather buckets' which were used for fire fighting.7 At St Peter Mancroft in Norwich in 1736 the vestry agreed that the churchwardens should buy a 'Water Engine . . . with a Sum not exceeding £50 for the use of the parishioners' and thirty-six buckets.8 At Boston there were four 'Engines for extinguishing Fires'. A major contributory factor to the apparently poor condition of many churches in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, had been the destruction and neglect during the Civil Wars. Sixtyfive per cent of the churches in the Archdeaconry of Ely required repairs of some sort, and 20 per cent were suffering from serious structural damage, such as collapsing roofs. St Margaret-at-the-Walls in Colchester was badly damaged in the Civil Wars and was in ruins until 1709, when steps began to be taken to rebuild it. 10 Both St Bartholomew's and St Pancras in Chichester were destroyed during the siege of Chichester in 1642 and were rebuilt during the course of 5 7 8 9 10

6 Barley, Barrow on Humber Town Book, p. 78. Brears, Lincolnshire^ p. 101. HCRO PE1/86-111 St Mary's Beverley Churchwardens' Accounts 1688-1722. NRO PD 26/73S Norwich St Peter Mancroft Churchwardens' Account Book 1707-50. LAO Boston 10/1 Vestry Minute Book 1705-76. Philip B. Chatwin, The Rebuilding of the Church of St Mary-at-the-Walls 1713-1714,

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 23, NS (1942-5), pp. 311-20.

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the first half of the eighteenth century. 11 A traveller through Lincoln in 1703 noted that seven churches were still in ruins from the parliamentary bombardment of the city in 1644.12 In some places parishioners were apathetic towards church maintenance. The rector of Seagrave in Leicestershire, for example, wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln in 1715 that the churchwardens suffer things to run into disorder ... If the outward Case of the Church will but stand, they readily give an Omnia Bene in other things, for no other reason than because they will not spend the parish money upon such things as they think needless or useless. In Glamorgan, archdeacons' visitation records suggest that many churches were in poor repair during the first half of the eighteenth century and that some defects were reported time after time. 14 The churches in the northern part of Northumberland were also reported to be in poor condition in the 1720s.15 There is, however, contrary evidence from other regions. When William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, visited every church in his diocese between May 1703 and March 1704, he did not find much about which to complain, though his standards were exacting. Only 8 out of 104 churches attracted particularly adverse comments. At Kirkbride on 2 July 1703 the church was locked and the incumbent absent, and the Bishop commented: CI never yet saw a Church and Chancel in so scandalous and dirty a condition ... look'd more like a Pigsty than ye House of God'. At Brampton on 7 March 1704 he noted that the church was 'in a Slovenly pickle, dark, black and illseated, The Quire is yet more nasty . . . [no] Rails or even a Table of common decency'. In fifteen instances Nicolson commented on chancels in poor repair, probably reflecting the problems of enforcing maintenance of chancels by laymen who had acquired the duty to repair chancels at the Reformation on purchasing the greater tithes. Nicolson's most frequent criticism was that 'the Teaching of Children in ye Quire (a General practice) is a great Inconvenience', for he often noted chancels were 'spoil'd with the School boyes'. 16 In 11 1 13 14 15 1

C. E. Welch, The Rebuilding of the Churches of St Pancras and St Bartholomew Chichester, Sussex Notes and Queries, 14 (1954-7), pp. 262-70. Diary of the Journey through the North ofEngland, p. 12. Quoted in Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 118. E. T. Davies, The Church of England and Schools 1662-1774 in Glamorgan County History, Vol. iv, ed. Glanmor Williams (Cardiff, 1974). Shuler, Diocese of Durham, p. 321. Miscellany Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle, ed. R. S. Ferguson (Carlisle, 1877), passim.

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mid-century both Thomas Seeker, as Bishop of Oxford, and Joseph Butler, as Bishop of Durham, stressed the importance of maintaining chancels in 'becoming repair' even at the expense of the rector's own standard of living, which suggests a continuing struggle to enforce the maintenance of chancels against some lay rectors. 1 The Archdeacon of Ely, following his visitation in 1712, recorded that only 31.5 per cent of the churches surveyed needed repair, and that the proportion suffering serious decay had declined to 7 per cent, which was a considerable improvement on the situation in 1665.18 In Norfolk, Francis Blomefield, visiting a large number of churches in the process of gathering materials for his projected history of the county, noted few churches in poor condition. At Stanford the church was 'in a very sordid and ruinous condition, both the church and the chancel being for the most part unpaved and the timber of the roof greatly decayed . . . by no means kept as becomes a place dedicated to the service of God'. Only three others were noted as in a poor condition, and one of those, Fordham in Cambridgeshire, was rebuilt in 1730.19 From the early years of the eighteenth century, if not before, there was a major movement to repair and, if necessary, rebuild churches. In Lincoln, St Mary Magdalen's was rebuilt in 1695 and the chancel of St Paul's-in-the-Bail in 1700. St Michael-on-the-Mount was rebuilt in 1739 and St Martin's and St Mark's in 1740.20 The vestry of St Botolph's were so stung, in 1721, by a citation from the Bishop to authorise the use of the stone from the ruins of their church to rebuild St Peter-at-Gowts that they opposed the faculty petition on the grounds that they wished to rebuild their church 'which ye court looked upon as A Ridiculous Fancy, the Parish Being Inconsiderable and the Tythes only for ye use of the Prebend'. They were allowed three months to draw up plans and begin to raise funds. The plans were drawn up and £60 2s. was raised from a subscription in the parish, £39 3s. 6d. 'in the City' and £64 2s. 6d. 'in the County'. A further £200 was raised by means of bonds repayable within ten years. The total cost of rebuilding the church was £461 8s. 4d. The 17 18 19

20

Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford, p. 161. Cross, Church and Local Society, p. 213 Blomefield, History of Norfolk, Vol. 11, p. 254, Vol. iv, p. 351, Vol. vn, p. 368, and The Correspondence of the Reverend Francis Blomefield 1705-1752, ed. David Stokes, Norfolk Record Society, 55 (1992), p p . 29-30. Sir Francis Hill, Georgian Lincoln (Cambridge, 1966), p . 65, a n d E. Mansel, Lincoln: A Historical and Topographical Account of the City (1906), pp. 325-35.

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whole operation was carried out by the leading lay members of the parish.2 In the Wirral deanery in Cheshire many of the churches were in poor repair early in the century: for example, at Bromborough in 1709 there was no communion table, no communion rails, and no font cover. However, in the following forty years a great deal of work was done to churches.22 There was an elaborate system to supervise the maintenance of churches and their furnishings. Bishops, archdeacons, and in the Welsh dioceses and the diocese of Exeter at least, rural deans, all had responsibilities for checking up on the fabric and furnishings of parish churches. Through the regular process of visitations, churchwardens were required to report any defects in the condition of the fabrics or furnishings of their churches. In the bishops' visitation of twenty-five Norfolk deaneries in 1725, comprising over 600 parishes, fourteen rectors were presented for the condition of their chancels, the churchwardens of twenty-six parishes for the condition of the fabric of their churches and of forty-seven for defective furnishings. At the visitation in 1740 only three rectors were presented, the churchwardens of four parishes were presented for the condition of the fabric of their churches and only six for defective furnishings. Whether this represents a general improvement in the standard of maintenance of church fabrics and furnishings or a less close supervision of parish officers is unclear. 23 The records of the next tier of supervision, the visitations by archdeacons, provide detailed information about the condition of church fabrics and furnishings. There is clear evidence of the conscientiousness of archdeacons in supervising the churches in their archdeaconries. One of the major innovations of the period was the regular visiting of churches by archdeacons in England. From 1703 the Archdeacons of Norfolk and Norwich regularly visited the churches in their charge on a two-yearly cycle, and commented in detail on the condition of the fabric and furnishings.24 Similar detailed inspections were undertaken by the Archdeacon of Rochester, the Archdeacon of Stow in Lincolnshire and the Rural Dean of Penllyn and Edeimion in 21 22 23 24

L A O Lincoln St Botolph's 10/1 Parish Book 1721-1815. Pope, Church in the Wirral, pp. 8 8 - 9 9 . N R O N D R VIS 12 Visitation Presentments 1716, VIS 14 Visitation Presentments 1725, VIS 17 Visitation Comperta Book 1740. N R O Archdeaconry of Norfolk, Archdeacons' Visitations Bundle 1713-21, and A N F 1/2-50 N Visitation Books 1713-53

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Wales.25 In the diocese of Exeter rural deans were responsible for visiting churches and presenting churchwardens for irregularities in the church or its furnishings. Although in the 1670s their presentments suggest that churches were in poor repair, by the 1720s the situation seems to have improved, with few presentments for structural problems. Supervision of church fabrics and furnishings was also exercised through the faculty jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. A bishop's faculty was required to make any alterations to the fabric of a church, to install any fixtures or to remove any furnishings. This jurisdiction seems to have been exercised with care during the period. Statements made by incumbents and churchwardens in petitions for faculties were frequently checked by appointing a commission, usually comprising two local clergy and perhaps a surveyor or carpenter or builder, to make a site visit and then make recommendations to the court. When the Bishop of Exeter received a petition from the patron, rector, churchwardens and thirteen landowning parishioners at Filleigh in Devon in 1730 asking permission to demolish the old church and to build a new one, he appointed a commission of three local landowners and four local clergy to investigate and to report back to him. They were required to provide exact measurements of the old building and its site and the proposed new building and its site, a detailed description of the old church's furnishings, information about whether the new site was nearer the centre of the parish and whether any one would be 'aggrieved' at the proposals.27 The faculty books for the diocese of Norwich suggest that in that diocese (and no doubt in others) faculty jurisdiction was carefully exercised.28 The churchwardens as the executive officers of the parish were responsible for the maintenance of the fabric of the nave of the church and for the good order of the church's furnishings. They were elected by the vestry meeting, which included all parishioners who paid rates for the relief of the poor. The churchwardens had a customary right to levy a rate for the maintenance of the church. 29 25

26 28 29

Nigel Yates, T h e Anglican Establishment and its Critics 1714-1830, in Religion and Society in Kent 1640-1914, ed. Nigel Yates, Robert H u m e a n d Paul Hastings (Woodbridge, 1994), p. 32; Varley, An Archidiaconal Visitation of Stow, p p . 144-76; G. M . Griffiths, A Report of the Deanery qfPenllyn and Edeimion, by the Reverend John Wynne, 1730 (n.p., 1955). 2? Warne, Church and Society, pp. 51-3. ibid., p . 56. N R O N D R FCB 1 Faculty Book 1633-1736 a n d FCB 2 Faculty Book 1736-53. Church rates came to replace church ales (which were festivities designed to raise money

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Because it was customary to seek the vestry's approval for the level of rate to be levied in any year, the vestry was usually consulted about any major capital expenditure relating to repairing, improving, or 'embellishing' their parish church. Vestry meetings are often thought to have been obstructive towards expenditure on church repairs. Sometimes they did try to avoid their responsibilities. At Chesham in Buckinghamshire in 1718, while the church was being repewed the workmen discovered £a fracture in the peer or southwest corner of the Tower'; although the vestry had a survey of the church, they neglected to carry out any work. The churchwardens were eventually reduced to appealing to the Bishop for help. 30 At Derby the major repair of All Saints', the parish church, was debated for many years, both the vestry and the corporation being deeply opposed to a new incumbent's proposal to demolish the church and build a new one. It was only as a result of the incumbent's pressure that the proposal was passed. However, once the decision was made the vestry seems to have supported it with enthusiasm. In general there is little evidence to support the 'impression that few rates were wanted rather than many were willingly voted. A certain tolerance for ramshackle churches seems rather in the spirit of the times.' The vestry of St Peter Mancroft, the grandest, richest (and most Tory) church in Norwich, never hesitated to vote funds to repair and embellish their church. In July 1738 they agreed 'an Addition of two Vox humana Stops (Agreeable in manner to those in the Organ in the great Church of Yarmouth) be put in our organ . . . by Mr Harris for £70'. Thirty members of the vestry signed their assent to this expensive piece of keeping up with their neighbours in the worship of God. 3 In some instances there might be good cause for reluctance to spend money. In March 1748 Henry Purefoy of Shalstone in Buckinghamshire wrote that for the parish church) during the early seventeenth century. See Ingram, Church Courts, 30 31

32

p.

101.

B. F. L. Clarke, The Building of the Eighteenth Century Church (1963), p. 2. C. W . Chalklin, T h e Financing of Church Building in the Provincial Towns of EighteenthCentury England, in The Transformation of English Provincial Towns, ed. Peter Clark (1984), p. 300. Robert E. Rodes, Law and Modernisation in the Church of England (Notre Dame, Ind., 1991),

„ P-75-

NRO PD 26/73(5) Norwich St Peter Mancroft Churchwardens' Account Book 1707-50.

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Our Church ... is so much out of Repair and one of the main Beams broke, wch is now forced to be propt to prevent its falling on the People, and unless there is a new Beam ye Revd Mr Hawes can't repair his Chancell. The Pews of the Church are likewise out of repair and must be repaired soon and the Church floor must be new paved with stone, and likewise the Church windows must be new glazed, there must also be a new Church Bible. He pointed out, however, that the economic climate was not favourable to expect parishioners to contribute, for cye Tennants have great losses in their cattle and 'tis bad Times with them'. To resolve the problem, he asked Mr Taylor ... if hee will ... give an Oak Tree to repair the Church Pews and three Guineas towards glazing the Church windows, I will give an Oak Tree for a Beam for the Church and a Church Bible. There will be the paving of the Church left for the Parish to do which will come to about four pounds besides ye workmanship.34 At times of agricultural depression churchwardens may have found it difficult to raise the money from beleaguered farmers to pay a rate for repairs to the parish church in addition to the tithe they paid the incumbent. Vestries exercised careful supervision of their officers and the tradesmen they employed. At St Gregory's Norwich in March 1730 they agreed Articles ... to regulate several Abuses that have crept in and ye Exorbitant expenses that have by degrees growne upon us ... no workman shall be employ'd to do any Work (ye Charg of which upon Computation amounts to five Pounds or Upwards) till ... a Vestry is called to consult upon ye scheme ... That every workman as soon as one Jobb or piece of work is done shall give in a Bill of that Work to ye Clerk to be kept by him in ye Vestry, to be examin'd by any of the Parish who shall request ye Same ... That at ye Meeting to allow ye Workmen's Bills, a Committee shall be appointed to inspect ye Work done and likewise the disbursements of ye church Wardens. Nor shall ye Bills nor Disbursements be allowed till they have made their Report at ye next parish Meeting. Although the churchwardens' £100 14s. 1 id. in 1730 to £61 is. 7d. the pound to 3s. 2d., this did not undertaken on the church in 1733.35 Vestries included tradesmen who 34 35

expenditure dropped from in 1731 and the rate from 4s. in prevent extensive work being knew what they were talking

Purefoy Letters, Vol. i, p. 21. N R O P D 59/54 Norwich St Gregory Churchwardens' Account Book 1574-1771.

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about when discussing details of design and structure or repairs, and who also may have been eager to tender for the contract. Vestries did not invariably go for the cheapest quotation. In rebuilding St Olave's Southwark in 1737 the committee interviewed two surveyors, 'Mr Flitcroft and Mr Porter', and 'ask'd them several questions abt the business of a surveyor'. They chose Mr Flitcroft even though he quoted 4 per cent on the contract price as his fee, as opposed to Mr Porter's 2 per cent. However, on appointing Flitcroft they beat him down to 35 per cent. In general, vestries or specially appointed committees seem to have contracted with tradesmen on very businesslike terms and often managed to knock down their prices. In corporate boroughs where there was only one parish church the common council of the borough might undertake many of the duties of the vestry, especially with regard to the care and maintenance of the parish church and its worship. The parish church where they led the community in the worship of God was a symbol of civic pride. In some boroughs, for example King's Lynn and Beverley Minster, the account books for repairs and maintenance to the parish church are kept with the borough records. At Beverley the corporation administered the Minster Estates and Sir Michael Warton's munificent benefaction for the maintenance and 'embellishment' of the Minster.37 At King's Lynn detailed payments for the repairs to the fabric of St Margaret's Church are recorded in the Corporation Hall Books.38 Such practices were of long standing. In Leicester a borough ordinance of 1510 had laid down that the annual account of St Martin's parish church was to be approved by the Mayor. 39 At King's Lynn when the nave of St Margaret's was badly damaged by the collapse of the central lantern during a storm in September 1741, it was the common council who met the next day to consider what to do. They agreed to lobby their MP, Sir Robert Walpole, the following day at Houghton to secure an Act of Parliament to raise funds for rebuilding the church and to solicit a substantial donation from the King, who subsequently gave £1,000. The committee, largely comprising the Mayor, aldermen and common council men, appointed to raise the £5,000 needed to 36 37 38 39

Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, pp. 36-7. H C R O D D B C / 3 / 1 0 3 Account Book of Receivers for Minster Estates a n d 3/104 Account Book of Sir Michael Warton's Benefaction to Beverley Minster 1706-63. KLBA C7/12 Hall Book 1684-1731 and C7/13 Hall Book 1731-61. Thomson, Early Tudor Church and Society, p. 275.

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rebuild the nave of the church, appointed the architect, employed the tradesmen and carefully supervised the work. Expense was not spared: the rebuilding and refurnishing were carried out in a lavish manner. The incumbent seems to have played little part in this major enterprise in his parish. 40 This too was a continuation of a long-standing practice. In Norwich in the late fifteenth century the initiative for church building was expected to come from the parishioners and not the clergy. Other corporations too were much concerned with church maintenance and church building. Warwick took responsibility for rebuilding St Mary's Warwick after the destruction of the nave by fire in 1696.42 Liverpool paid for the building of St George's in 1725.43 Newcastle spent £250 in repairing St George's porch in St Nicholas, the parish church, and contributed to reflagging the floor at St Andrew's.44 These considerable building projects undertaken by town corporations illustrate vividly the willingness of lay people to give time and money to the building, extension and improvement of places of worship. Rates levied by churchwardens, with the consent of the leading inhabitants of a parish in the vestry, were not the only sources of funds for church repairs, improvement and building. The simplest means of securing funding was an offer made to pay for the whole work or a substantial part of it. Sir George Wheler gave the site and two-thirds of the cost of building a new chapel of St Mary's in Spital Square, Spitalfields, and Mr Thomas Seymour, a goldsmith of Lombard Street, contributed the other third. However, such an arrangement could lead to disputes about the appointment of a minister and authority over the building. Sir George fell out with the minister he had appointed on the recommendation of the Bishop of London, and locked him out of the chapel, with the result that a large part of the congregation removed with the minister to worship in a nearby throwster's shop. 45 It is also likely that some great landowners, while demonstrating generosity in rebuilding the parish church in their parks, exercised absolute power in choosing both the 40 42 43 44 45

4I See Jacob, Church and Borough. Tanner, Church in Late Medieval Norwich, p . 129. Philio B. Chatwin, T h e Rebuilding St Mary's Warwick, Birmingham Archaeological Society Transactions and Proceedings, 65 (1949). Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 43. Whiting, Nathaniel Lord Crewe, p. 263. W . H . Manchee, Spitalfields: Sir George Wheler a n d his Chapel, St Mary's Spital Square, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 11, NS (1913), pp. 454-78.

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site and the design of the church, with little or no consideration for the parishioners. At Nuneham Courtney in Oxfordshire, when Lord Harcourt in 1764 rebuilt the new church on a new site, as a feature in his park, a mile and a half from the new village he had built outside the walls of the park, church attendance declined dramatically. 46 It was more satisfactory to have a number of benefactors with one taking the initiative. At Hanley St John's in Staffordshire in 1737 a benefactor offered £500 towards the building if the inhabitants would raise the rest, and fifty-four acres of land as an endowment for the minister's income. A site was given by another benefactor and his wife, and the money was raised to match the benefaction. 47 St Ann's Manchester, built between 1709 and 1712, was paid for by subscribers, with a local landowner, Lady Ann Bland, giving the largest amount. 48 Subscribing to the building and repair of churches was seen as part of the charitable responsibility of those who had, in God's providence, been provided with money to spare. Testators still regularly made bequests to their parish church. Few people could afford to be as generous as Edward Colston, who left a total of £1,230 amongst his very many charitable bequests to cye repair and Beautifying of [nine] Churches' in Bristol,49 or Sir Michael Warton who in 1723 left £4,000 'to be a perpetual Fund for the Repair of this Fabrick' at Beverley Minster. 50 A more typical benefactor was Mrs Mary Goose, single woman, of St Gregory Norwich, who died in 1695, and 'did out of her pious devotion give to this Church a crimson velvet Pulpit cloth and Cushion and a border for the desk of the same'. 51 Often many people contributed to a building project. At Whitchurch in Shropshire, 204 people (including 31 women) contributed to rebuilding the church in 1711-12. Contributions varied from 5s. to £50. 52 At All Hallows Barking in the city of London eighty-nine people contributed to the rebuilding of the church in 1705, thirty-two contributed to 'setting up ornaments' and eighty to the cost of the organ. 53 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Deserted Village, p. 160. Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 78. Chalklin, Financing of Church Building, p . 292. Inscription on monument in south aisle of All Saints' Church Bristol. Inscription on monument at east end of Beverley Minster. N R O P D 59/54 Norwich St Gregory Churchwardens' Account Book 1574-1771. Benefaction board in west gallery of St Alkmund's Whitchurch. Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis, p. 5.

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Sometimes money was borrowed. At King's Lynn the corporation were authorised by legislation to sell annuities, to be repaid from the church rate, to finance rebuilding St Margaret's Church. 54 Sometimes the income from pew rents was pledged to repay loans for repairs or extensions. It was important when working out such arrangements to ensure that pews were not granted outright to subscribers so that no rents were payable, as happened when Gosport Chapel was built in the growing settlement of Gosport in the parish of Alverstoke in Hampshire in 1696. The chapel had a very precarious financial existence, with no means of raising money for repairs and maintenance. 55 In almost all cases the lead in fund raising was taken by lay people. The most attractive way of funding church building must have been to secure a parliamentary grant by means of import duty on coal. This means was used to finance the construction of St Paul's Cathedral, and then to fund building an anticipated fifty new churches to cater for the rapidly growing population of London. 56 This precedent was used to fund church building in provincial ports. In 1712 Deal Corporation procured an Act for a duty on coals landed at Deal Harbour to build a new chapel completed in 1714. Both the building of St George's, a new church in Great Yarmouth, and the rebuilding of All Saints' Gainsborough were funded from a tax on coal landed in their respective ports. Another formal way of raising money to build a church or undertake major repairs was by means of a brief, which was a royal warrant authorising a collection in churches across the nation for a charitable purpose. Application was made by churchwardens to the local justices of the peace, who heard evidence from surveyors and workmen and received their estimates. If they approved the project, and they usually did, the application was forwarded to the Lord Chancellor. This was an expensive process, and the yield was often small. When Ravenstonedale Church was rebuilt in 1742 at an estimated cost of £280, a brief was granted and 9,986 briefs were issued to be read in parish churches. The sum of £614 12s. gd. was raised. However, £330 16s. 6d. of this went on expenses. Neigh54 55 5

J a c o b , Church and Borough, p . 74. Nigel Yates, T h e Financial Problems of Gosport Chapel in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, in Holy Trinity Gosport: Parish and People (Gosport, 1980), p p . 73-4. For a full account of the work of the Commission for Building Fifty N e w Churches see Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches, ed. Port.

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bouring parishes were the most generous, Appleby contributing •£1 us. 7
58 59

A Guide to St Oswald's Church Ravenstonedale (Ravenstonedale Parochial Church Council, 1991), p . 6. For a full discussion of briefs see Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, ch. 6. Mark Smith, T h e Reception of Richard Podmore: Anglicanism in Saddleworth 1700-1800, in The Church of England c i68g-c 1833, ed. Walsh, Haydon and Taylor, pp. 113-15. London 1500-1700: The Making of the Metropolis, ed. A. L. Beier and Roger Finlay (1986), p. 8.

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the North and West between 1700 and 1750 in comparison with rural areas and the South-East.60 Penelope Corfield has claimed that although some attempt was made to match church provision with urban growth so that in most expanding towns there were some new Anglican churches, the churches were mostly built for fashionable congregations in the fashionable quarters of towns and that financing building work from pew rents (and in the case of proprietary chapels, to pay the minister), left few seats for 'ordinary' people. As a result, it is suggested, the Church of England in towns acquired a 'middle class gloss5.61 Whether this was the case is difficult to judge because there is little evidence of who did and who did not go to church. However, there was certainly considerable concern to provide church accommodation in the areas of population growth. Large employers of labour were not unmindful of the spiritual needs of their workforce, nor were the workforce unmindful of their own spiritual needs. In the North-East, the steward and workmen belonging to the leadmines adjoining Allenhead built a chapel largely from their own voluntary contributions, the timber being provided by Sir William Blackett. The following year they built another chapel at Coalcleugh at the head of West Allenwater for the lead miners. Subsequently Sir William Blackett built a house close to the chapel at Allenhead for the curate-in-charge, who was chiefly paid from the workmen's contributions. Sir Ambrose Crowley's iron works at Winlaton gathered a workforce of 2,000, and in 1705 he built a chapel-of-ease there. The workmen contributed jd. in each 2s. of their wages, and Sir Ambrose gave £10 a year. The money thus raised paid the regular expenses of the chapel and provided £50 a year for the curate. The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London set up by Parliament in 1711 was not merely a piece of high-church and Tory triumphalism at the expense of the Whigs and dissenters. The aim was to meet the spiritual needs of the poor in the rapidly developing parishes along the Thames and in the densely populated parishes to the west of the City, in the Strand, Bloomsbury and Holborn, and south of the Thames in Southwark to reduce the population of the average parish to 4,750. The Commissioners believed that an extra church was needed in almost every suburban 61

Smith, Population and its Geography in England, pp. 225-31. 62 Corfield, Impact of English Towns, p . 139. Whiting, Nathaniel Lord Crewe, p . 239.

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parish except Stepney, which they thought needed five new churches. In 1711 they ordered that Limehouse, Bethnal Green and Upper and Lower Wapping should be made separate parishes and that the hamlet of Spital Fields should be divided into two parishes. The momentum of this ambitious start was not maintained. In Bethnal Green, by 1737 the population was estimated at 20,000 with no Anglican place of worship: St Matthew's was not built till 1743. In Limehouse after disputes among the inhabitants about the site for the church, it took eighteen years to build the church whilst the churchwardens reported that cmany of the Inhabitants, Especially the poorer Sort are Tempted to become Loose and Irreligious and not going to Church at all, or of being Seduced to Resort to Meeting Houses'. At Christ Church Spitalfields work began in 1715 after difficulty in acquiring land for the site. In 1720 the carpenter refused to complete the nave roof because of a debt of £2,000 owed to him, and the nave remained unroofed for three years. In April 1729 a town meeting sent a deputation to the Commissioners asking them to 'Get the church Finished'. It was consecrated later that year, having cost about £4O,ooo.63 Apart from the ambitious churches of the Commissioners, many churches were built in the developing suburbs of London. The expanding towns and villages of Kent and Surrey along the south bank of the Thames were drawn into the orbit of the metropolis. In the shipbuilding town of Deptford, St Nicholas's was built in 1697, and the parish church of St Paul was sumptuously rebuilt by the Commissioners.64 At Woolwich the parish church, St Mary's, was rebuilt between 1727 and 1739, with assistance from the Commissioners.65 At the busy riverside village of Bermondsey, the parish church was rebuilt between 1714 and 1740, and in the neighbouring parish, St John's Horsleydown was built, again with assistance from the Commissioners, in 1727.66 In Southwark, St Thomas's was rebuilt in 1702-3,67 St George's was rebuilt with the Commissioners' help in 1734-36, Christ Church Blackfriars was rebuilt in 1738-41, and St Olave's Southwark was built in 1733.70 On the heights of Blackheath 63

64

65 69

Esther de Waal, New Churches in East London in the Early Eighteenth Century, Renaissance and Modem Studies, 9 (1965). Bridget Cherry a n d Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: London 2: South (Harmondsworth, 9$i P- 4 0 2 ibid., p. 280. ibid., p. 525.

66 7

6? 68 ibid., pp. 600 and 599. ibid., p. 580. ibid., p. 576. ° Sir John Summerson, Georgian London (1945), p. 79.

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development began in the 1690s and the Church of the Ascension was built as a chapel-of-ease in 1697 and rebuilt in 1750.71 As the riverside villages upstream from London began to develop as resorts, they too acquired new churches. St Anne's Kew was built as a chapel-of-ease in 1710-14, the parish church in Richmond was rebuilt in 1750, and that in Twickenham was redesigned and rebuilt in 1714-15.74 North of the river too, church building was closely linked with suburban development. The parishioners of Shoreditch rebuilt their parish church in 1735, and the wealthy residents of Hampstead raised money to rebuild St John's to a design by Henry Flitcroft in 1747. St Martin's-in-the-Fields was rebuilt in 1726.76 A few inner suburban parishes spawned numerous chapels-of-ease: St Andrew's Holborn had four, Ely House Chapel, St George's Queen's Square and Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn Chapels. St Martin's-in-the-Fields had Berwick Street Chapel, King Street Chapel, Oxenden Chapel and Spring Garden Chapel. When Hanover Square was developed by a group of Whig generals after 1715, it was provided with a new parish church, St George's. Lord Harley developed his Marylebone Estate to the north of Oxford Street with Gibbs as his consultant designer, whom he commissioned to build the Oxford Street Chapel (St Peter's Vere Street) at an eventual cost of £4,296 4s. 8^d.78 When the Grosvenors began to develop their estate in the 1730s and 1740s the Grosvenor Chapel in South Audley Street was part of the design. A similar pattern emerges in the industrialising and growing towns of the North of England and the West Midlands. As Liverpool developed, so new churches were built: St Peter's in 1700, St George's Derby Square in 1730 and St Paul's in 1763.79 Manchester acquired St Ann's in 1709 and St Mary's in 1753. The suburban church of St Thomas's Ardwick was built in 1741, and Sacred Trinity Salford was rebuilt in 1752. Manchester's growing manufacturing hinterland in south Lancashire received new churches to accommodate the increasing population. The chapel in Rochdale, a chapelry of Saddleworth, seated about 260 people, or around 20 per cent of the population of the district in 1700. In 1711 a gallery was built at the 71 73

79 80

72 Cherry and Pevsner, London 2: South, p . 413. ibid., p. 503. 74 75 ibid., p . 518. ibid., p . 538. ibid., p . 79. 77 Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis, p . 19 and passim. Little, James Gibbs, p p . 67-70. Summerson, Georgian London, p . 87. Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: South Lancashire (Harmondsworth, 1969), p . 145. ibid., p . 268.

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west end, and over the next few years seating was extended until the chancel was crowded with seats, almost as far as the communion rail. Then a second gallery was built along one of the chancel walls. In 1728 further galleries were built along the north and south aisles, and a loft was built for the organ and singers. By 1730 the seating capacity in the chapel had been doubled but still only accommodated about 30 per cent of the growing population. In the south Lancashire deaneries seven new churches were built between 1690 and 1704, twelve each between 1705 and 1720 and 1721 and 1736, and fourteen between 1740 and 1754. Oldham alone increased its church buildings from two in 1730 to seven in 1770.8l Leeds acquired a third church, Holy Trinity, in 1727, Sheffield, where the population had outgrown the parish church, acquired a second church, St Mary's, 82 and Birmingham acquired a second church, St Philip's, consecrated in 1715.83 When Lancaster became an independent port in 1741, the Corporation granted a piece of land for a chapel-of-ease cby reason of the great increase of the inhabitants within the town of Lancaster, the Mother Church there being rendered not sufficiently capable of the number of the parishioners who would resort to divine service therein'. 84 Funds were provided by the Corporation, Queen Anne's Bounty and local inhabitants. The ease with which money was raised illustrates not only the high point of Lancaster's wealth, but also the importance people attached to church buildings and opportunities for worship and to hear sermons. Few expanding towns did not acquire a new church, and the money spent was commensurate with the size and pretensions of the town or parish. Vast sums of money were raised by the laity of the Church of England for building new churches during this period. Their nineteenth-century descendants accused eighteenth architects and patrons of building churches to resemble pagan temples. They saw their forefathers as reneging on the Christian faith. However, the desire of the most influential architects of the early eighteenth century, such as Hawksmoor and Archer, was to rediscover the liturgy and architecture of the 'primitive Church'. In this they were part of the wider movement of a search for a legitimation 81 82

83 84

Smith, Reception of Richard Podmore, p. 115. Marcus Whiffen, Stuart and Georgian Churches: The Architecture of the Church of England Outside London 1603-1837 (1947-8), p. 29. Marcus Whiffen, Thomas Archer: Architect of the English Baroque (1950), pp. 23-5. Stjohn the Evangelist, Lancaster (1986), no pagination.

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of Anglicanism and a desire to identify the reformed Church of England with 'the first fathers of the Church'. Anglicans, it was believed, had reformed their Church in accordance with primitive purity. Roman Catholics had innovated and erred. The principles of church design approved by the Commissioners for Fifty New Churches were deeply influenced by the search for 'primitive Christianity'. They largely adopted the views of the nonjuror George Hickes that the ideal church should have a precinct containing houses for the sexton and parish meetings, which should not be in the vestry, which should be reserved 'for keeping the sacerdotal Robes and Holy Vessels'. Hickes advocated a baptistery at the west end with a font 'large and deep enough for immersion' of babies, to counter any surviving Puritan tendency to use a bowl, and, following 'primitive' practice, that there should be no burials in church. Hickes derived these ideas from Bingham's Origines Ecclesiasticae: or the Antiquities of the Christian Church, based on his extensive

research on the early Church. Bingham also pointed out that in the early Church women had sat in galleries. Interest in the liturgy and buildings of the early Church was not confined to high churchmen. The Whig Sir Peter King, who subsequently became Lord Chancellor and who was a Commissioner for New Churches from 1715, wrote An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the

Primitive Church. Hawksmoor seems to have been aware of these ideas and is probably the author of a draft model plan entitled 'Basilica after the Primitive Christians', incorporating all these ideas, including the use of the crypt for a charity school and 'women's galleries' from which the plans and elevations for St Alphege's Greenwich may be derived, and of the plan for Christ Church Spitalfields.87 Wren in rebuilding the City churches after the Great Fire of London, and even in building the fashionable St James's Piccadilly, had emphasised convenience and cheapness as well as beauty. Vanbrugh stressed 'the most Solemn and Awfull Appearance both without and within' and the grandeur and magnificence that were 85 86

87

(10 vols., 1708-22). H o w a r d Colvin, Introduction to The Queen Anne Churches: A Catalogue of the Papers in Lambeth Palace Library of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster ijn— 1739, ed. E. G. W . Bill (1979), p . xii. Pierre de la Ruffiniere d u Prey, H a w k s m o o r ' s Basilica after the Primitive Christians: Architecture and Theology, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48 (1989), pp.

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required in a church. 88 The Commissioners and their architects wished their churches to be focal points in urban settings. Their steeples were to be 'ornaments of the Towne . . . to shew at a distance what regard there is in it to Religious worship'. Hawksmoor in particular was concerned that every part of a church building should have theological significance. He used the triple keystone made out of a monolithic lintel at St George's-in-the-East as a statement about the greatness of God and the goodness of the Church and its sovereign head and also about the nature of stone and the truth of geometry (which would lead a believer's mind to God the Creator). 89 The basilican plan of 'the primitive Church' dominated English church design for the next century. Others too saw building in theological terms. Neve in The City and Country Purchaser and Builders Dictionary reminded his readers that 'our

Blest Redeemer ... was pleased to exercise this art of architecture and to be a mechanic'. 90 John Wood the Elder developed a theory of the divine origin of Palladian architecture in his Origins of Building: The Plagiarism of the Heathen Deduced. Wood saw classical architecture

as an expression of divine wisdom brought into the world at God's command at the building of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness during the Exodus. God, the Divine Architect, in Wood's view worked only with 'perfect harmony and the most delightful proportions'; so classical architectural forms, such as proportion and the orders of capitals of columns, derived from God. In his designs for Bath, Wood used a wealth of religious symbolism and contrived to frame the urban environment to enhance human awareness of God and of human beings made in his image. In Queen's Square the central area was designed as a perfect square with, at its centre, a perfect circle radiating four diagonals each ending in smaller circles. The final geometrical design was intended to look like an abstract Vitruvian figure. That the chapel he intended to build as an integral part of the whole development was thought to have increased the demand for building-sites suggests that his customers liked his religious notions. Wood gave full expression to these ideas in designing King's Circus. It was planned around two perfect circles, one inside the other. The design embodied a threefold expression of his notion of the Trinity and of the three parts of Man 8 89 90

Kerry Dowries, Hawksmoor (1970), p. 105. Kerry Dowries, Hawksmoor: An Exhibition Selected by Kerry Downes (1977), p. 6. 9I (1703, reprinted Newton Abbot, 1969), pp. iii and 8. (Bath, 1744).

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- head, trunk and limbs - all the parts of which, in their utmost extent, are comprehended in a square, or in a circle, symbolised in the Vitruvian figure of a man with arms and legs diagonally stretched with the points of his feet and hands touching the circumference of a circle and the perimeter of a square. Wood saw the development of Bath as glorifying God, and in the King's Circus his aim was to write The Whole Duty ofMan in stone. 92

The alleged conflict of styles between the baroque of Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh and Archer and the Palladianism of Lord Burlington, Kent and Halfpenny was not a conflict between Christian and pagan. Both drew their inspiration from the Christian tradition, in seeking to interpret the basilican plans of 'the primitive Church'. However, the Palladian movement, which under Burlington's inspiration was dominant in every other area of building between 1720 and 1750, made a less significant impression on church design. Perhaps clients' requirements for steeples, pews and galleries conflicted with the search for classical purity in Palladian design. 93 Gibbs was certainly unhappy with the requirement for galleries and box pews in St Martin's-in-the-Fields, for they prevented the Palladian ideal of pillars from floor to ceiling, as exemplified in the Assembly Rooms at York, designed by Lord Burlington. Both baroque and Palladian enthusiasts worked constructively with earlier gothic buildings. Hawksmoor was involved in a major restoration of Beverley Minster. In drawing up a specification for work to cost £3,000, he described the Minster as 'of an admirable Taste and Performance after the Monastical Order; But especially ye West Front, which is most Stupendously Magnificent, Beautiful and Durable'. 94 The quintessential^ Palladian architect William Kent designed a pulpit, choir seats and an archbishop's throne for York Minster in 1741 and a choir screen for Gloucester Cathedral, for all of which he restated a gothic style.95 In general, however, architects and designers chose to restate the Christian message in imagery which was largely classical in origin, 92

93 94

95

Wood, Origins of Building, p. 235. Wood's theological understanding of design is more fully described and discussed in Ron Neale, Society, Belief and the Building of Bath 1700-1793, in Rural Change and Urban Growth 1500-1800: Essays in English History in Honour of W. G. Hoskins, ed. C. W. Chalklin and M. A. Havinden (1974), pp. 272-7. Dan Cruickshank, A Guide to the Georgian Buildings ofBritain and Ireland (1985), pp. 112-14. H C R O PE 129/165 An Extract of the History of Beverley Minster . . . Surveyed by N. Hawksmoor. Cinzia Maria Sicca, William Kent: Architecture and Landscape, in A Tercentenary Tribute to William Kent, ed. John Wilton-Ely (Hull, 1985), p. 80.

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deriving from the world of 'the primitive Church'. In Hawksmoor's new buildings at All Souls, Oxford some of the elevations are quite clearly drawn not as ordinary containers but as giant banded eggs, symbolising the breaking of the bonds of death at the Last Judgement. 96 Architects commonly used the classical symbols of crowns or wreaths to indicate Christ's victory over death. The flaming urn was used to signify life, while the closed urn signified death. The symbol of faith was a burning lamp, taking its significance from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Resurrection was symbolised by an angel or a cherub blowing a trumpet to raise the dead at the Day of Judgement. Eternity was symbolised by an obelisk or pyramid. 97 Georgian churchmen and women also invested very large sums of money in modernising their parish churches and chapels. Most medieval churches were as aggressively 'georgianised' in the first half of the eighteenth century as they were subsequently 'victorianised'. Paterson, in his guide to church services in London, published in 1714, noted that 19 out of 157 churches and chapels listed had been 'beautified' in the previous ten years. Where details are given, major work seems to have been involved, for example a new organ or new altar piece. 98 The total may not seem large, but it should be remembered that from 1690 to 1714 the economy was on a war footing. At Beverley Minster, under Hawksmoor's direction, there was a major restoration in which the north transept gable was forced back into position, the central tower was rebuilt and all the roofs, apart from the nave roof, were renewed between 1717 and 1723; in addition all the surviving medieval glass was gathered into the east window, the choir was entirely refurnished with a new reredos, stone choir screen, a marble pavement, and iron screens and rails, and the nave was provided with galleries and a new pulpit and pews, doors and font cover. Nearly 400 workers were involved, including leading craftsmen from York and Hull, which must have had a marked impact on the economy of the town. 100 At Wigan parish church between 1718 and 1740 the vestry agreed 'to flag the three isles and make a new clock', to gild the sun dial over the church porch and repair 'the curtains at the altar', to gild the organ, to

97 98 99 100

Dowries, Hawksmoor, p. 78. Brian Kemp, English Church Monuments (1980), pp. 168-87. Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis. V C H Yorkshire, East Riding, Vol. VI: The Borough and Liberties of Beverley (Oxford, 1989), p. 234. R C H M , Beverley: An Archaeological and Architectural Study (1982).

2o8

Lay people and religion

recast the five existing bells and add three more to make a peal of eight at a cost of £228 2s. id., in addition, a new pulpit, reading desk and sounding board were provided and painted and the reading desk was gilded. Between 1700 and 1750 at least ten York churches received communion rails with distinctive semi-circular gates, four received font covers surmounted by doves, and four parishes received sumptuous reredoses. Almost certainly there was much more that has been subsequently lost during 'victorianisation'. 102 Churchwardens' accounts from villages up and down the country record the care and attention that churches received from the members of their vestries, paid for from the rates. At Northwold on the edge of the Fens in Norfolk the churchwardens on 3 April 1706 Pd Tho: Poole the painter in part of £y 5s. he had for whiteing the Church and Stepil and writing the Sentences, cullering the desk and pulpit, Painting the Queen's Arms, font and Dial plate &c £3 12s. 6d. Laid out for leaf gold to gild the Cherubs head £0 2s. 6d. More for the cullering for the Church doors £0 os. 8d.103 Walls were usually whitewashed and inscribed with texts from Scripture. Woodwork, including pews, reading desk and pulpit were usually painted, and the 'better sort5 had their pews lined with baize, in red, green or blue, or with rush matting. Ceilings were frequently painted blue to resemble the sky with white clouds and cherubs looking down, with perhaps, as at Soulbury, Buckinghamshire, a dove over the altar. 04 Few examples of this style of decoration survive, but two late-seventeenth-century examples may be seen at Rug Chapel in Clwyd and Gwydor Uchaf Chapel in Gwynedd. Stonework too was painted to resemble marble, as at Tring in Hertfordshire and Newton in Cambridgeshire. Texts were frequently painted on the walls of churches. An example of about the 1660s from Stokesay in Shropshire shows that appropriate texts were chosen for particular locations. By the altar is quoted 'Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled . . . [indistinct] . . . '; by the pulpit, 'As new born Babes desire ye milk of ye word that 101 102 103

105 1

George T. O. Bridgeman, The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan, Part III, Chetham Society, 17, NS (1889), p p . 6 2 0 - 5 . R C H M , City of York, Vol. V: The Central Area (1981), p p . xlvii-xlviii and passim. Percy Milligan, Northwold C h u r c h w a r d e n s ' Accounts 1626-1795, Norfolk Archaeology, 28 (1945). PP- 285-95. Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 55. W . Nigel Yates, Rug Chapel, Llangar Church and Gwydor Uchaf Chapel (Cardiff, 1993). Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, pp. 55 and 64.

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209

ye may grow thereby'; and by the door 'How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the House of God. This is ye gate of heaven. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give ye sacrifice of fools.' Stained glass was not unknown, especially in major churches, providing the subject was scriptural. In 1718 a Last Supper surmounted by a Resurrection was placed in the east window at St Andrew's Holborn. However, Protestant susceptibilities could be offended. When in 1758 the churchwardens of St Margaret's Westminster bought for £400 a window originally designed for Henry VIFs Chapel as a gift from the Magistrates of Dort but never installed, they were cited to the consistory court for failing to obtain a faculty for installing a window 'whereon is represented by Delineation and Colours one or more superstitious Picture or Pictures and more particularly the painted Image of Christ upon the Cross'. The churchwardens' defence quoted a passage from Archbishop Wake's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, stating that 'Pictures of

our Saviour and the blessed Saints' might be 'rendered truly the Books not the Snares of the Ignorant' and bade people 'respect the images of our Saviour and of the Blessed Virgin. And as some bow down towards the Altar, and all of us are enjoined to do so at the name of the Lord Jesus; so we will not fail to testify all due Respect to his representation'. 108 The central feature in a church upon which the most care and expenditure was lavished was the altar piece which implies a strong sacramental focus for the worship of the church and the devotions of the people. At the end of the seventeenth century in some important town churches altars remained in the centre of the chancel as adopted during the Civil War after Laud's ill-fated attempt to return them to the east wall. Celia Fiennes in 1697 noted that at Hull 'their altar stood table-wise for the Communion just in the middle of the Chancel as it was in primitive tymes before Popery came in'. 109 At Taunton and at Plymouth she also noted the altar standing in the middle of the chancel. 110 Bishop Nicolson in his visitation of all the churches in Carlisle diocese in 1703 noted that at Ormeshead 'as at 107 108

109 110

Whiffen, Stuart and Georgian Churches, p. ioo. K a t h e r i n e A. Esdaile, Changes at St Margaret's Westminster 1761, Church Quarterly Review, 150 (1930), pp. 235-6, quoting The Ornaments of Churches Considered, with a Particular View to the Late Decoration of the Parish Church of St Margaret Westminster (1761). The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, ed. Christopher Morris (1947), p . 89. ibid., p p . 243 a n d 252.

21 o

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Bougate and several other places in this deanery the Altar stands east to west'.111 The practice may have been quite widespread for Bishop Gardiner of Lincoln in his visitation charge in 1697 appealed to the clergy whether they did not cfind great inconveniencies in consecrating in so strait a place as an alley of the church and delivering the bread and wine in narrow seats and treading upon the feet of those that kneel?5.112 Nicholson noted thirty-one churches without altar rails. Nor was this merely an example of the conservatism of a remote diocese. The Archdeacon of Norwich in his visitation in 1703 noted six churches in the Blofield deanery lacking communion rails. 113 Within a few years most churches were transformed. By 1711 the altar in Holy Trinity Hull was against the east wall of the chancel, and James Parmentier was paid £50 by the vestry to paint a picture of the Last Supper to cover the space above the altar, created when the east window had been bricked up in the sixteenth century. In 1753 this in its turn was replaced with a new roccoco altar and reredos. 114 At Keighley in Yorkshire in 1710 a reredos was put up painted with 'fifteen co-partments which contain a short history of the lives of the blessed Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the twelve Apostles and St Paul, with the figures of each head set crestwise; also old Time flying and running [cOld Father Time'?], a skeleton and many Scripture sentences in addition to the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments'. 115 In Bristol in 1755, the vestry of St Mary Redcliffe commissioned Hogarth to paint a vast triptych of 'the Ascension, the Sealing of the Tomb and the Three Maries at the Tomb' at a total cost of £761 6s. 4d. to replace a triptych put up in 1709.116 The business instincts of members of a vestry did not desert them when negotiating for a new altar piece. At Boston the churchwardens were ordered by the vestry, when in 1740 a new altar piece was being put up, 'to advertise in the Stamford Mercury and in one of the London papers, that the present Altar piece will be put up Publicly to Sale in the Vestry upon the 2nd January next'. It was noted on 2 January that 'the Present Altar Piece was put up to Public Sale to the Church wardens of Gedney the highest bidders at the 11 ] 112 113 114 115 116

Miscellany Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle, p. 39 and passim. Quoted in Overton, Life in the English Church, p. 181. NRO Archdeaconry of Norwich General Visitation Book No. 4 1703-10. VCH Yorkshire, East Riding, Vol. 1, p. 292. Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 170. M. J. H. Liversedge, William Hogarth's Bristol Altarpiece (Bristol, 1980), pp. 8-9.

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price of £20'. * 17Faculties may have been sought to reduce the length of chancels, but what survived was splendidly fitted up. Generosity in adorning the altar was not limited to town parishes. William Bulkeley noted on 22 July 1749 that 'This Day the New Purple Table Cloath with a silk fringe about it for the Communion Table at Llanfechell Church and which I made a present to the parish was first laid upon the Communion Table. 5 18 The Whig politician and magnate Lord Townshend presented a new altar piece and pulpit to the parish church in his park at Raynham in Norfolk in 1733.119 Across the country, individuals and vestries gave generously to adorn not only the house of God, but most particularly the altar where the Eucharist was celebrated. This is seen most dramatically when donations of silver plate for use at the communion are examined. For few parish churches in England were not given at least one piece of silver plate for the altar during this period. It has been suggested that the terrier of St Ives in Cornwall in the mid eighteenth century lists an array of plate, linen, altar 'carpets' and candlesticks of almost medieval proportions. 120 This may not have been uncommon. Table 1 shows the number of pieces of communion silver dating from this period surviving in a range of English counties and compares them with silver ware surviving from earlier and later periods.121 Obviously large numbers of communion cups and patens survive from the 1560s and 1570s, when all parishes were required to replace chalices with communion cups. It is less expected that the period 1680-1750 usually has a larger number of pieces of surviving silver than the previous eighty years or the succeeding ninety years. 117 118 119 120 121

LAO Boston 10/1 Vestry Minute Book 1705-76. Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 16. N R O N D R FCB 1 Faculty Book 1633-1736. Brown, The High Church Tradition in Cornwall. These figures are calculated from the plate listed in each parish in Nikolaus Pevsner and Enid Radcliffe, Buildings of England: Cornwall, 2nd edn (Harmondsworth, 1970), Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: County Durham (Harmondsworth, 1953), Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth, 1967), Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Essex (Harmondsworth, 1954), Pevsner and Lloyd, Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (Harmondsworth, 1967), Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Herefordshire (Harmondsworth, 1963), Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: North West and South Norfolk, and North East Norfolk and Norwich (Harmondsworth, 1962). The small number of pieces of silver dating from the sixteenth century and the higher proportion from 1601 to 1679 in Cumberland and County Durham presumably reflect either the slowness of these areas to implement the Elizabethan requirement or their economic situation during the late sixteenth century and the need to catch up in the seventeenth century.

212

Lay people and religion Table i Items of silver communion plate surviving in parish churches (including chalices, patens,flagons,almsdishes and candlesticks)

Cornwall County Durham Cumberland Essex Hampshire Herefordshire Norfolk

1500-1600

1601-1679

1680-1750

138 25 28 169

42 32 60

in

100

126

94

93 527

236

1751-1840

90

49

64

64

160

256

42 116

J 95 388

270

62

86

Parish vestries themselves sometimes gave plate, paid for out of the church rate levied on parishioners. At St Saviour's in Norwich in April 1726 the vestry 'agreed that the new Churchwardens procure a silver Flagon, salver and change the Cup for the use of the Communion Table and the charge which it amounts to shall be allowed in the rate'. 122 At St Clement's in Norwich in April 1739 it was noted, 'It is this day agreed by the Gentlemen here present that the sum of Sixteen pounds be laid out for a Silver Flagon for the Communion Table.' In November they sold 'Two Pewter Flaggons and a pewter salver' for £s. 4^d. and on 21 December paid £16 16s. for '2 Silver Flagons'.12* Individuals also gave plate, sometimes enormously generously, as for example Lady Elizabeth Hastings, who bequeathed money to provide Collingham, Thorp Arch, Aberford, Ferry Fryston and Castleford in Yorkshire and Howe and Buckenham in Norfolk with magnificent sets of a silver rilt chalice, paten and flagon, each set weighing sixty-six ounces.12 At All Saints Gainsborough in 1692 Robert Brewer gave 'a Silver Flagon with handle' weighing sixtynine ounces, an 'unknown donor' gave a similar flagon in 1726, William Sampson, Jr gave a 'Silver Dish' weighing forty-eight ounces in 1730, Thomas Dowker gave another 'Silver Dish' weighing fortyseven ounces, Anne Lee gave a silver paten weighing fifteen-and-aquarter ounces and Ann Hood gave a 'silver cup' weighing twenty ounces. 125 At Newark parish church Lady Frances Leake in 1705 122 123 124 125

N R O P D 33/37 Norwich St Saviour Parish Book 1700-1952. N R O P D 6/57(5) Norwich St Clement C h u r c h w a r d e n s ' Account Book 1714-48. Medhurst, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, pp. 172-3. All Saints' C h u r c h Gainsborough, benefactors b o a r d at the west end of the church.

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213

gave six flagons, two communion cups and patens, an alms dish and a pair of candlesticks weighing in all 700 ounces. This extraordinary generosity indicates the importance of sacramental worship during the period in the lives of many people. Pulpits were adorned with substantial cushions for the preacher to rest his book or notes upon. They, and the reading desk, were also very often adorned with fringed hangings. The lavishness and cost of these textiles is illustrated by an inscription on a charity board at Grantham parish church, where 'The Right Honble the Lord Viscount Tyrconnell gave in the year 1732 Crimson Velvet Furniture with Gold Trimming for the Pulpit of Fifty one Pounds Ten Shillings Value'. 127 In town churches these were changed during Lent. John Penrose noted that in Bath Abbey 'during Lent all the cushions, the Pulpit, Desk, Mayor's Seat, Communion Table and other cushions are covered with Black; black curtains to the Pulpitsides, Organ gallery, etc., very decent'. 128 For important funerals churches were often also specially decorated. When Lord Fitzwilliam's son died in 1699, he ordered that the church at Elton should have cloth and six escutcheons on the pulpit and that the chancel should be hung with 'mourning', and the clerk was ordered to be 'ready with a ladder or two to help' the man sent to hang the cloth. There were also sixteen escutcheons to be hung round the chancel. He ordered that the cloth to cover the pulpitt must continue to be putt on every Sunday for sometime ... [and] ... after service is over on Sundays after dinner it must be taken down and brusht and laid by till next Sunday ... The baies and escutcheons in the chancell must continue up [the whole] year.129 At festivals, churchwardens regularly paid for 'dressing' or 'garnishing' the church, with evergreens at Christmas and also at Whitsuntide. Perhaps no references to this practice appear in country churchwardens' accounts because it was not necessary to pay for greenery. It was also customary to cover the floors of churches with rushes. At Llanfechell in Anglesey, the rushes were replaced six times a year, when the floor was also swept. 130 At Barrow on Humber in Lincolnshire the parish clerk was responsible for arranging for a 126

127 128 129

St Mary Magdalene Newark: The Treasury: An Exhibition of Church Plate in Nottinghamshire (Newark, 1981). Grantham parish church, charity board in the ringing chamber. Letters from Bath, p. 166. 130 Correspondence of Lord Fitzwilliam, pp. 62-3. Evans, Religion and Politics, p. 14.

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fourteen-acre field on Westcote Farm to be mown, for which the churchwardens paid, and for arranging for a load of straw to be delivered to the church stile in the weeks before Christmas, Easter and Midsummer Day. 131 In north Derbyshire and Cheshire the rushes on the church floors seem to have been replaced only once a year, but much was made of the occasion. The rushes were carted to the church decked with garlands and flowers on a Sunday in July or August and were then spread throughout the church and on the 132

pews. Most town churches acquired splendid brass chandeliers in the early eighteenth century, presumably for use at evensong during the dark days of winter and perhaps even for the morning services. In 1753 Elizabeth Plaxton gave four chandeliers to Holy Trinity Hull to light the chancel. In 1732 William Ashton 'many years an inhabitant of this Parish [gave] a Brass Branch5 to Grantham parish church. Purchase of them was sufficiently frequent for the leading chandelier-maker in mid-eighteenth-century London, William Alexander, to describe his stock of 'fine wrought or plain Brass Branches or Chandeliers, and plain or erlass lustres5 as suitable for 'Churches, Halls, Assembly Rooms, etc.5. The provision of candles for these was expensive. The churchwardens of St Andrew's Norwich regularly paid 2s. 6d. 'for Candles at Crismas5.136 Most important, given the likely state of the rushes or straw on the floor and the large assembly of the population, not to mention the decaying bodies of former worshippers under the floor, attention was given to the smell in church. Churchwardens' accounts record payments for items which may have been intended to improve the atmosphere. At St Peter's, the parish church, in Barnstaple there were payments for 'Tobacco ant Frankincense burnt in the Church 2[s.] 6[d.]5 in 1741, and in 1752 for 'Frankincense, Senemon [cinnamon?] and Charcole 3[s.] o[d.]'. 137 Little attention was paid to heating churches, and few complaints are recorded about the coldness of churches keeping people away from church until the 1740s and 1750s, when domestic heating in middle-class houses was presumably improving, and suggestions 131 133 134 135 136 137

132 Barley, Barrow in Humber Town Book. C o x , Churchwardens' Accounts, p . 204. V C H , Yorkshire, East Riding, V o l . 1, p . 292. Grantham parish church charity board in the ringing chamber. Country House Lighting 1660-1890, C o u n t r y H o u s e Studies N o . 4 (Leeds, 1992), p . 39. NRO PD 165/81 Norwich St Andrew Churchwardens' Account Book 1712-58. C o x , Churchwardens' Accounts, p . 312.

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215

began to be made about installing stoves in churches. 138 In 1766 John Penrose noted that ' we ... hear every day that People are afraid to go to Church because the Churches are cold'; whereas in Lady Huntingdon's Chapel 'all Things are contrived, as it were on purpose, for the sake of warmth'. 139 The parish church focused the life of the community in terms of both its unity and its tensions, as well as its aspirations to learn from God's Word read from Scripture and interpreted from the pulpit, to share together in worshipping God and to gather at the altar in God's presence to receive his grace through the sacraments. Heaven was envisaged in contemporary terms. The courts of heaven were envisaged in baroque or Palladian forms and angels as cherubs, and it was thought that the ordering of life on earth would continue in heaven. It was therefore appropriate that the great should be elevated in life in pews and galleries and in death on their tombs. Sir Jacob Astley sat isolated and elevated in his pew in the parish church in his park at Melton Constable, as his house was isolated and elevated in its park. The Duke of Newcastle sat in his pew, designed by Vanbrugh, at Esher elevated above his fellows, facing the pulpit, with his own separate entrance and with marble chimney pieces to warm the ducal party. The arrangement of the seats reflected the social order, but it also focused tensions within society. The construction of galleries, as will be seen, may well echo the increasing numbers of the middling sort whose aspirations to pews, as the vicar of Ashbourne noted in a dispute over a pew, might force the people who expected to sit in a pew to 'stand in the aisles'.140 The poor, however, were not forgotten. Both Wren and Vanbrugh were agreed in the Church Building Commissioners' discussions that pews should be restricted in the new churches, to allow room for the poor 'in the Middle Line, with decent Forms regularly plac'd'. 141 The poor should not be discouraged from coming to church, for how else would the foundations laid in the charity schools be built on? People were well aware that the poorer sort needed to be accommodated in church, otherwise they might be led astray by dissenters 138

W. B. Whitaker, The Eighteenth Century English Sunday: A Study of Sunday Observance from i6yy to /«%7 (1940), p . 104.

140 141

Lettersfrom Bath, p. 116. Clark, Anglicanism, Recusancy and Dissent, p . n . Q u o t e d in Whistler, Imagination of Vanbrugh, p. 249.

216

Lay people and religion

(which was unlikely, for their meeting houses were every bit as carefully allocated as parish churches, and rents were charged for the seats to maintain the building and the minister), or worse, into popery. Strenuous efforts were made, especially in the growing towns, to create places in church for the poor to ensure that they too would experience the saving grace of the Gospel and be confirmed in their place in the divinely ordered society and learn to be moral and well-behaved citizens. Another area of tension was the place of women in churches. Sir George Wheler, a noted enthusiast for the 'primitive Church', believed that 'the promiscuous mixture of men and women together in our assemblies is an abuse crept in, not meant by our first reformers ... and the order in many country churches today'. He thought that the practice of 'strict separation' was very proper in church, though not in domestic prayer, where it was enough 'that men be arranged on one side of the Chapel, or room and women on the other'. 142 The sexes were certainly separated in some Carlisle parish churches, for Bishop Nicolson commented that at Askham 'the women's seats in the Body of the Church are without Backs, but those for men well enough', at Uldale 'Half the Seats are good; and the rest (for the women) look a little mean', and at Melmerby 'The seats appropriated to ye Men are back'd and good: but those for the women are low and mean.' 143 At Abberley in Herefordshire in 1718, men sat in the front pews and women behind them, and the back pews were allocated to day labourers, wives and maidservants. In the gallery there were separate pews for women, the passageway was for children and a further range of seats for men and maidservants i

144

respectively. In some town churches too men and women were separated. In 1735 at St Mary the Virgin in Oxford it was noted that 'when ye Church was regulated as 'tis at present, Bishop Fell order'd that ye Seats on ye side of ye Pulpit should belong to ye men Parishioners and the side Pews to ye Women and the Pews behind the Drs to their Wives and Daughters'. 145 In Grantham parish church 'Madm Sarah 142 143 144 145

Sir George Wheler, The Protestant Monastery or Christian Oecomides, Containing Directions for the Religious Conduct of a Family (1698), p. 100. Miscellany Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle, pp. 73, 78, 120. Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford and Oxford, p . 175. Articles of Enquiry to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, p. 119.

Lay people and church buildings

217

Ellys built ye Lofts in ye North He at her Own Charge for Batchelors to Sit in.' 146 At Bath Abbey in 1766 the chancel was described as 'full of Ladies all sitting on Forms matted'. 147 However, the custom was in decline during the first half of the eighteenth century. At Ford in 1717 the seats were allocated to houses, not to people. 148 At Orleton in Herefordshire in 1722, the pews were reconstructed to be 'uniform and decent and so contrived that men and their wives might be seated together 5. The battle to prevent the 'promiscuous mixing5 of the sexes in church had been lost; the household or family arrangement of seating became the norm. An important means of accommodating the growing population for worship in parish churches, without building new chapels-of-ease or creating new parishes, was to build galleries in existing churches. Though this was execrated by nineteenth-century church 'restorers 5 as the cheapest and least satisfactory means of increasing seating, and as totally unsympathetic to gothic buildings, eighteenth-century architects claimed the authority of the 'primitive Church 5 for erecting galleries. There was a burst of gallery building in town churches during the first half of the eighteenth century. Seventeen faculties were granted for the erection of galleries in the diocese of Chichester during the period 1700-1750.14 Few town churches did not have galleries installed. That this was done by vestries to accommodate the increasing population is suggested by the extent to which galleries were built and extended over a number of years. At St Mary Lowgate in Hull a west gallery was built in 1718, followed by north and south galleries in 1745 and 1749 respectively.150 Even a relatively new church like Stockton parish church, rebuilt in 1710-12, had a west gallery installed within a few years in 1719.151 At Lymington in Hampshire a gallery was built in 1682, and in 1703-4 a second gallery was built.1 2 At St Martin's Leicester the vestry agreed in 1724 to build a north gallery uniform with the south gallery put up in 1705.15 146 147 149

150 152 153

G r a n t h a m parish church charity board in the ringing chamber. Letters from Bath, p . 32. Marshall, Dioceses of Hereford a n d Oxford, p. 175. Vic G a m m o n , Babylonian Performances: T h e Rise a n d Suppression of Popular Church Music 1660-1870, in Popular Culture and Class Conflict i^go-igi^. Explorations in the History of Labour and Leisure, ed. Eileen and Stephen Yeo (Brighton, 1981), p . 70. V G H , Yorkshire, East Riding, Vol. 1, p. 296. Whiting, Nathaniel Lord Crewe, p. 241. Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 27. The Accounts of the Churchwardens ofSt Martin's Leicester 1489-1844, ed. Thomas North (1884) p.

220.

218

Lay people and religion

Galleries did not always provide as much space as was hoped, because, as stairs were required to gain access to them and pillars were required to support them, it was often necessary to sacrifice pews on the floor of the church. The erection of a gallery could also create major problems for churchwardens and vestries in the allocation of seats. Provision of seating at a higher level in a gallery disturbed the social ordering of the inhabitants gathered for worship. As in a theatre the seats in boxes and the circle commanded the best prices, so too did the seats in a gallery in church. 154 The quality did not wish to be overlooked by the poorer sort, nor did they wish to be the victims of what might be dropped from the galleries. At Boston in 1724 the seats in the new organ loft were sold to the highest bidders. 155 At King's Lynn when the nave of St Margaret's was rebuilt and new seating installed, including galleries in 1747, for the avoiding any uneasiness and Discontent that may arise among the Parishioners at large or any imputation of undue preference or partiality in the Disposal of the ... seats. It is resolved by the Trustees that they will make the Contributions [to the rebuilding] their Rule in the following manner. That the subscribers shall be divided into four classes, viz. 20L, 15, 10 and 5L Subscribers. That the Subscribers shall ballot for the choice of the Seats according to their subscription. The 20L class to ballot first and afterwards each according to their Order and Degrees. Galleries were also built to accommodate the singers recruited in a considerable revival in choral music in churches, who often comprised children from a charity school and members of a religious society. On 10 February 1732 the vicar and churchwardens of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire petitioned for 'a Gallery or loft for Young persons to sitt in to sing Psalms3.157 Putting up a gallery for singers created at least two difficulties. It could cause some of the poorer sort who were numbered among the singers to be elevated above the better sort, who disapproved of this. It could also discourage the rest of the congregation from taking part in the sung parts of the service. The vicar and churchwardens of Mayfield in Sussex in 1731 were 'desirous to promote the singing of Psalms in the said Church to the honour of Almighty God in the most decent orderly manner, and do judge that a gallery, to be built 154 r j ^ e u s e Q j . g a j j e r j e s t o provide seating for the poor seems to have been a nineteenthcentury development. 155 L A O Boston 10/1 Vestry Minute Book 1705-76. 156 K L B A St Margaret's C h u r c h Book 1741 [Account Book for Rebuilding]. 157 Clarke, Building the Eighteenth Century Church, p. 32.

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in the West end of the parish church will be convenient to answer that end'. They were granted a faculty, but it was stipulated that the gallery be ... for the sole use of such persons ... who shall sing psalms skillfully, and well, to the honour of Almighty God ... subject to such rules and directions as to place and precedency as the Vicar and Churchwardens shall be agreed on ... And we further order that some of the singers ... who may have a right to sit or be placed in the said gallery do sometimes disperse themselves into the body of the said church for the direction and assistance of such persons as shall have a pious intention of learning to sing.158 People who had subscribed to building a gallery, even though it was intended for singers, might assume that they had a right to a seat in the gallery. At East Hoathly in Sussex in 1747 property seems to have triumphed over music, for although the gallery was specially built for singers, it was ordered by the vestry that 'the families of those parishioners who are not in the following list of subscribers have no right to sit in the gallery'. 159 Non-singers might be ejected. At Berwick St James in Wiltshire the churchwardens presented Mary Frapwell and her five-year-old daughter Tor intruding ... into a Gallery within our parish church for the use and service of the singers of Divine Hymns and Psalms'. 160 High hopes were often expressed of the value of singers. At Highworth in Wiltshire it was hoped that when a singers' gallery had been built the congregation 'will bee exceedinglie increased and incouraged to appear there, and to joyne with them in that everlasting dutie'. However, the vicar of Box discovered some of the difficulties of encouraging singing when he noted in 1717 that he had for some years pass't to my sorrow observ'd that the pious Exercise of Singing Psalms in the Publick Worship of God is confin'd in my own Church (as indeed in most Country churches) only to a few Select Persons in the congregation, and those for the most part placed in the Gallery by themselves, or some other apartment in the Church.162 In the 1730s the ecclesiastical authorities began to take strong action against singers in galleries. In 1736 it was reported that at Calne 'several Irregularities and Innovations have lately been introduced . . . by several persons pretending to sing Anthems and Services instead of Plain Psalm Tunes which the Congregation hath 158 160

Gammon, Babylonian Performances, p. 70. Spaeth, Parsons and Parishioners, p. 156.

159 161

ibid., p. 71. ibid., p. 159.

162

ibid., p. 161.

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been customarily used to have sung there5. It was also complained that the organ had been used to play 'light gay Tunes and Airs highly improper and indecent to be used in the House of God 5.163 Drastic action was ordered by the Norwich consistory court after the Bishop's visitation in 1735 at Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. The Churchwardens are admonished to take down the Singers Seat built without Authority and certify the same under the Minister's or Curate's hands by Xtmas next and further admonished to take care that only Common psalm singing be in the Church for the future.164 West galleries were often built to accommodate organs. In the early eighteenth century, any town with pretensions had an organ in its parish church or main church. An up-to-date organ and a good organist were important both for divine worship and for civic selfrespect. Vestries were happy to pay large sums for organs and for additions to their organs. The vestry at St Martin's Leicester paid £70 to add two new stops to their organ in 1716.165 At Whitchurch in Shropshire the organ, designed by Schrider, who had built the organ in Westminster Abbey, was given in 1715, three years after the church was rebuilt. 166 At Doncaster in 1739 the Mayor and Corporation opened a subscription for an organ in a gallery in the parish church. A total of 260 people, including 55 women, subscribed sums ranging from 2s. 6d. to £10 towards the organ, and over £500 was raised towards the cost of £525 for which John Harris agreed to build it. 167 Good music was important in eighteenth-century town churches, and vestries and corporations took care in appointing organists and in paying them at about the same level as a curate, £20 or £30 a year, on top of which, it may be assumed, they earned fees for teaching. The Oxford Street Chapel in Marylebone for many years had William Boyce, the composer, as their organist. The Corporation at King's Lynn employed Dr Charles Burney as organist. Organists were usually elected at a vestry meeting: the Vestry Minute Books at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, Holy Trinity Hull and St Martin's Leicester all record the votes cast at the election of organists. However, this might not be a satisfactory process, and 163 164 165 166 167

i b i d , P . 169. N R O N D R V I S / 1 6 1735 Visitation C o m p e r t a Book. Accounts of the Churchwardens qfSt Martin's Leicester, p. 219. Inscription o n benefactions board in the west gallery of St Alkmund's Whitchurch. D A D P 1 / 3 / C 2 / 1 3 St George's Doncaster File of Papers relating to the erection of the Gallery and O r g a n Loft 1736-9.

Lay people and church buildings professional adjudicators were sometimes called in. In January 1742 the vestry at Boston Agreed that William Forty Esq. and Mr William Lee Organist of Southwell be desired to be judges of the abilities of a new Organist to succeed Mr Webber and that the Candidate so approved shall be immediately put in the place of Organist, Provided such Judges decide such Candidate to be a Master of Music.168 The musical life which centred round the parish churches of English towns in the first half of the eighteenth century may have been quite as lively as that which Bach knew in Germany. Church building and improvement in the first half of the eighteenth century is the most impressive monument to lay piety. It represents a special sort of charity. Although the building and 'embellishing5 of churches offered considerable temptations for ostentatious public display of personal and civic pride and wealth, it also represents a significant investment of personal and communal resources, which reflects what wealthy merchants or gentry were spending on rebuilding and modernising their houses during the period, and certainly exceeds what was spent on public buildings, such as town halls and assembly rooms. Church buildings, more than any other evidence, demonstrate the centrality of religion in people's lives. They provided the theatre in which the central events of public and private life were played out, and the liturgy of the Church and the Bible provided the text for the drama. The clergy might occupy the reading desk and the pulpit, and stand at the altar, but they did not have a captive congregation. It was the congregation, with it would seem little help from the clergy, who set the scene for the drama. All the evidence from local records suggests that the communal leaders willingly took the initiative in repairing, building and 'embellishing5 their parish churches. Laymen and women dug deep into their pockets to rebuild and restore churches, after a period of apparent neglect. They were concerned with getting value for money, and for properly managed contracts. They may have driven hard bargains with tradesmen, but there is much evidence that they were concerned for high-quality workmanship. Whilst this activity reflected their own wealth, it was also directed to the glory of God, and to the benefit of their poorer 168

LAO Boston 10/1 Vestry Minute Book 1705-76.

221

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neighbours. The poor were not neglected, and places were provided for them in the churches. The tensions that arose over the allocation of seating reflect the tensions of the ordering of society. New property developments normally required a church, either at the expense of the developer, in the genteel suburbs of Westminster or Manchester, or at public expense, in the rapid expansion of the London docklands and of manufacturing towns. However, it is clear that in London in particular, provision of places in churches did not keep pace with population growth. Church buildings were important symbols of the nature of society. In most cases, like their medieval predecessors, they dominated the local community. They confidently proclaimed a Christian society, reformed according to the principles of the 'primitive Church 5. Their classical style identified them with the early Christian world, before it was corrupted by the medieval papacy. The imagery and iconography of painting and sculpture also identified the eighteenthcentury Church with the early Church. In their care for altars and the sacramental vessels, there was an emphasis on sacramental worship, alongside the proclamation of the Word of God from reading desks and pulpits. To a considerable extent the interiors of most English parish churches during the first half of the eighteenth century illustrated the triumph of the Laudian ideal in Anglican liturgy and worship. In the provision and maintenance of church buildings in the first half of the eighteenth century, the Church was clearly managed by lay people. They worked in partnership with bishops, archdeacons and the parish clergy, but they provided the funds and energy, and determined the nature of the provision.

Conclusion

In many ways the early eighteenth century was the final act of the long drama of the English Reformation, in which the factors which had created the uneasy tensions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Church and had blown apart the English Church under Charles I came together to create a Church with which the great majority of English people could identify. The Church of England as restored in 1662 was, as Ian Green has shown, in its origins a Church of moderation and latitude, intended to reintegrate those who between 1630 and 1660 had separated into Presbyterianism and Independency, in an attempt to recreate the Church of Elizabeth and James I. Because there were many old and festering wounds that needed to be healed, this was unlikely to be brought about within a few months, or even years. Historians have assumed that because the divisions were not healed within a few years of the Restoration, the restored Church of England was a failure. If, however, one looks beyond the Restoration Church, and the 'rage of party' during Anne's reign, many of the factors causing tensions a century or more before, and for many years thereafter, had been brought into harmony. Clergy of all schools of thought were regarded by most of the laity with respect, as labourers worthy of their hire and as godly and learned ministers whose preaching was worth hearing. It was no longer necessary for people to go 'gadding' out of their parishes to sermons and lectures. Parishes had adjusted to married clergy whose tastes and interests were shaped by the experience of the universities as much as by their local origins. With the development of other professions in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and with the beginning of agricultural 1

I. M. Green, The Re-Establishment of the Church of England 1660-1663 (Oxford, 1978). 223

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capitalism, producing comfortably-off farmers, the clergy had a much clearer peer group in local society. Although 6 per cent or so of the English population dissented from the established Church, over 90 per cent of the population were at least nominal adherents of the Church. The evidence, as we have seen, is patchy, but where it survives, particularly in the vast diocese of York for 1743, it seems that in many parishes most households may have been represented at holy communion services, and that a considerable proportion of the population of each parish was in church on Sundays. After a century and a half of usage the Prayer Book had become embedded in people's consciousnesses. Whilst some people in country areas may have absented themselves from their parishes on a Sunday, they may well have gone to church in a neighbouring parish. In towns there was a demand for daily services, as well as sermons. Conventicles, which in the early seventeenth century had been feared by the authorities in Church and State as tending towards separation, re-emerged in the later part of the century as weapons against popery (which itself had similar bodies). Far from this expression of religious voluntarism being a force assisting the disintegration of traditional local communities, these voluntary communities, cto which men belonged to deepen their spiritual insights and to hear the preacher of their choice', 2 were focused on the parish church, in which the laity saw themselves as having as much right as the incumbent. Societies were as common in the parishes of highchurch clergy as in parishes where the incumbent was thought to be latitudinarian. In any case the prayers at their meetings were usually taken from the Prayer Book. There is no substantial evidence for regional variations in religious practice in England and Wales in the first half of the eighteenth century. Regional studies of Devon, Kent, Lancashire and Norfolk produce similar pictures, as do the visitation returns for the diocese of York and the counties of Oxfordshire and Surrey. Nor is there an urban-rural divide. Provincial centres, such as Bath, Doncaster, Hull, Norwich and York, had a lively religious culture. In expanding towns, such as London, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, and many smaller centres new churches were built to accommodate a growing urban population. In small and scattered parishes where agriculture 2

Christopher Hill, Society and Protestantism in Pre-Revolutionary England (1966), pp. 483, 484, 488,

49I>492-

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225

was at subsistence level, it was more difficult to sustain a lively religious life, because people had other preoccupations, but there is little evidence for the total neglect of worship by clergy and laity in even the smallest parishes. Party differences too seem to have had little impact at parish level. People of all political and ecclesiastical persuasions were involved with religious societies, societies for the reformation of manners, various charitable activities for promoting Christianity, and building and 'adorning' churches. The general uniformity is remarkable. For nearly everyone God was central to life. Keeping right with God was of paramount importance. He was providentially active in the world; and he punished as well as blessed. Many people were attentive to their personal daily prayers, and, what has often been assumed to be a mark of 'godly' Puritan families, family prayers were the custom in many households, along with catechising children and servants. 3 Many heterodoxies survived from the old world, but the Church was now sufficiently confident in its own position not to feel it necessary to persecute the heterodox, especially suspected witches. However, individual Christians, lay and clerical, were less tolerant of accusations of witchcraft, putting suspected witches to ordeal and even attempting to lynch them, whilst themselves accepting astrological and millenarian interpretations of events. The attempt to establish a system of voluntary societies and informers to suppress the infringement of God's laws against drunkenness, prostitution and Sunday trading and thus establish a godly society was unsuccessful. However, the traditional ecclesiastical courts, which had been bitterly opposed by Puritans, continued to flourish during the first half of the eighteenth century, supervising church buildings and the behaviour of the clergy and also the spiritual and moral welfare of parishioners, who in many instances willingly made use of the courts in an attempt to maintain the peace of God in their parishes. The flourishing of Christian charity reveals another aspect of the reintegration of Anglicanism. The tradition of personal charity to relieve the suffering of the poor and to adorn one's parish church continued. Alongside this, charities flourished to promote the reformed ideal of a godly people who could themselves read Scripture 3

Patrick Collinson, The Religion of the Protestants: The Church in English Society 1559-1625 (Oxford, 1982), p. 265.

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and took notes from sermons. Godly learning, as has been seen, was a high priority for eighteenth-century people, and not just for the poor. Sermons and lectures continued to be endowed, but now they were usually in association with the parish priest, rather than in opposition to him, as had often been the case in the past, and sermons and lectures were now always delivered after Prayer Book morning or evening prayer. Libraries too were endowed to encourage godly reading by clergy and lay people. The eighteenth century also saw the implementation of the Reformation principle of an improved income for the maintenance of godly ministers, by the establishment of Queen Anne's Bounty. This diverted some Crown revenue for the benefit of clergy, reduced taxation on the poorer clergy, and attracted funds from benefactors, the majority of whom were lay people, to improve the endowments of individual parishes. It succeeded in improving the economic position of the poorer clergy as no previous post-Reformation legislation had done, and as Archbishop Laud had singularly failed to do in the 1630s. The early-eighteenth-century Church also succeeded in implementing other aspects of Laud's policies, most notably the restoration and reordering of churches as fit buildings for sacramental worship. In some places in the 1690s the Puritan custom of the communion table in the centre of the chancel still survived. Within a few years this had changed and lay people were enthusiastically giving money to install elaborate reredoses behind altars standing against east walls, and spending substantial sums to make donations of rich hangings and sumptuous sets of communion plate to their parish churches. It was all beyond Laud's wildest dreams. In church building in particular the reintegration of Anglicanism can be seen. New churches and the refitting of old ones illustrate a concern to gather the whole community in due order. Where there were insufficient churches, new ones were built or the capacity of old ones was increased. The design of churches was intended to provide enough seating, suitably arranged, to enable people to hear the Word of God read and preached, and also to partake in the dominical sacraments administered with due solemnity appropriate to the grace they conveyed; hence the elaborate fonts, screens, altars and reredoses, as well as high reading desks and pulpits. These buildings were designed to be the focal points of parishes, and also provided accommodation for religious societies and libraries, thus

Conclusion

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including aspects of church life that, when previously excluded, had led to separatist tendencies. The common ground which enabled this reintegration of Anglicanism is a thread which has appeared throughout these chapters, a desire to rediscover and re-establish the order and the discipline of the 'primitive Church'. There was much interest and research in both the theology of the early Christian Fathers and the discipline of early Christian life. All schools of thought in the Church were interested in this and appealed to the early Church for evidence about how best to complete the reform of the contemporary Church. In personal devotions, in frequency of reception of communion, in the establishment of catechetical schools and libraries, and most especially in the design and arrangement of churches, appeal was made to the practice of the early Church. This revival of Church life can most clearly be seen to be the fulfilment of the ideal of the Reformation in the fact that all these activities involved an articulate and theologically literate laity. In many instances they took the initiative in relatively uncomplainingly supporting the clergy, in developing their own spirituality, in maintaining Christian worship and discipline, in philanthropic works, and in building and improving churches. The Church of England in the first half of the eighteenth century was a communal Church to which the greater part of the population actively adhered, and it was a Church in which the laity played a full part. It was in no way a clerically dominated Church. Seen from the perspective of earlier centuries, the early-eighteenth-century Church is a culmination of the English Reformation, in which the tensions between moderate Protestant and moderate Catholic were resolved. It was also a period when new tensions were emerging. Although, as has been noted, the Toleration Act of 1689 and the lapsing of the Licensing Act in 1695 may not have had the immediate impact that has often been attributed to them, they paved the way for much greater voluntary initiatives arising from the Evangelical renewal in all Protestant churches after 1770. The religious societies provided a model, and they and the charity schools offered a recruiting ground for the most successful religious movement of the second half of the century, led by J o h n Wesley and others, which proved impossible to contain within the established Church. The scene was being set for the competition that would emerge in

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the following century between the churches, and between religion and unbelief. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries also provided the models of voluntary associational bodies at a national level, like the SPCK and the SPG, which were taken up in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to provide agencies like the National Society and the Church Missionary Society to enable the Church of England to compete with the revived dissenting bodies. The strong direction which lay people in vestries and as church ratepayers exercised over the ordering of the whole church and its life, and especially in towns where the incumbent was elected, may also have contributed to the direction that Anglicanism took in latereighteenth-century North America. There in both the United States and in Nova Scotia members of vestries elected their incumbents, subsidised their stipends and set the terms for their employment, as we have seen the vestries or corporations did at St Peter Mancroft, King's Lynn and Bath. In retrospect it can be seen that the old order was changing by the middle of the eighteenth century. Patterns of work were changing. People were less willing, or more probably less able, because of their changing work routines, to attend weekday services and lectures. Attitudes to charity were changing. People began to see charity as a means of managing the poor. Donors began to direct how their hard-earned donations were to be spent. Indiscriminate benefactions, particularly by will and particularly to the undeserving poor, became less common. The expansion of industry, commerce and the population proved a major challenge to the Church. However, Dr Albers's research has shown that in Lancashire at least until 1790 the local church was responding in the traditional way, by building new churches. Perhaps these changes were less obvious to contemporary church people, who may have thought that they were coping adequately. It only became inadequate in the eyes of hostile dissenters and utilitarians in the early nineteenth century, and of the aggressive new breed of Anglican clergy who emerged in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and condemned all that had been done in the name of the Church by people and clergy in the previous See Frederick V. Mills Sr, Bishops by Ballot: An Eighteenth Century Ecclesiastical Revolution (New York, 1978), and Judith Lingard, The Anglican Design in Loyalist Nova Scotia 1783-1816 (1972).

Albers, Seeds of Contention, pp. 50-6.

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century. One such person was Matthew Humberston, Esq., who was born in London and whose memorial noted that by his diligence and application, he was early advanced to Several places of Trust and profit in the Custom house where he acquired an ample Fortune with great honour and reputation . . . he gave ioool to build this Church, 500I to build a School house and 6 Almes houses here, and 600I for the Endowment of the Almes houses, he also made an Addition to the Vicar's stipend, and directed 300I to be lay'd out on a Monument in memory of him . . . He dyed at his Mannor house here on the 28th of August 1709 and lyes interred in a vault under the Communion Table. 6 The piety of Humberston and many like him ceased to be respected. 6

Inscription on monument in Humberston Church, Lincolnshire.

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Index

Abberley, Herefordshire 216 Addison, Joseph 97, 98, 109, i n , 135 Advent 72 Albers, J. M. 142, 153 Allenheads, Northumberland 200 almanacs 114 Almondbury, Yorks. 57 almshouses 13, 178-9 Amelia 50

Andrew, Donna T. 184 Anglesey 35, 58, 68, 69, 199 Anne, Queen 98, 176 Ansford, Somerset 66, 69 anti-clericalism 15, 44—51, 178 Appleby, Westmorland 142 archdeacons 191-2 Archer, Thomas 205, 206 Arthuret, Cumberland 142 Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leics. 173-4 Ashmole, Sir Elias 121 Ashton-under-Lyne, Lanes. 199 Askham, Cumbria 216 astrology 113-14 Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Rochester 89 Aughton, Lanes. 55 Aylmerton, Norfolk 27 Banbury, Oxon. 56 Bangor, diocese of 54, 58 baptism 73, 74, 118, 204 Baptists 14, 41, 83 Barnstaple, Archdeacon of 140 Barrie-Curien, Viviane 60 Barrow on Humber, Lines. 54, 187-8, 213 Barry, Jonathan 15 Bath 29, 57, 61, 65, 71, 82, 109, 205-6, 213, 217 Bawdeswell, Norfolk 163,170 Beale, Mary 159 Bedfordshire 37, 73 behaviour in church 65

bells, church 13, 15, 68, 187-8, 199 Belton, Lines. 99 Berwick St James, Wilts. 219 Beverley 188, 195, 197, 206, 207 Binham, Norfolk 199 Birkenhead, Cheshire 54 Birmingham 203 Bishopthorpe, Yorks. 148 Bisse, Dr Thomas 158 black people 12 Blackett, Sir William 175, 200 Bland, Lady Ann 197 Blaston, Leics. 62 Blenheim Palace 104 Blomefield, Francis 73, 190 Boehme, Jacob 116-17 Bolton 69 books, religious 104-7 boroughs 10, 23, 29, 54, 61, 160, 174-6, 186, 195-6,203,219-20, 228 Borsay, Peter 4 Bossy, John 7 Boston 10, 176, 188, 210, 218, 220 Bourne, Hugh 95 Box, Wilts. 219 Brampton, Cumberland 189 Bratton, Wilts. 42 Bray, Dr Thomas 48, 133, 183 Brigg, Lines. 187 Brightwalton, Berks. 70 Bristol charity schools 159, 169 'georgiamsation' of churches 210 heterodox groups 116-18 hospitals 180 newspapers 109 religious societies 92 societies for the reformation of manners 129-34 Bromborough, Cheshire 54, 191 Browne, Peter, Bishop of Cork i n 250

Index Buckinghamshire 27, 35, 193 Bulkeley, Sir Richard 126, 127, 134 Bulkeley, William 44, 47, 48, 58, 65, 103, 160, 199, 211 Bulstrode, Whitlock 131, 134 Burches, George 76 Burnet, Elizabeth 94 Burstow, Surrey 63, 73 Burton, Cheshire 170-1 Bury St Edmunds 67 Byrom, John 7, 64 Cadbury,John 114 Calne, Wilts. 219 Calthorpe, Sir Christopher 28 Cambridge 34 Campbell, Colen 99 Canons, Middlesex 99 Canterbury 82, 128 Canterbury, diocese of 31, 38 Carlisle 140 Carlisle, diocese of 56, 140, 143, 189, 209 Carlton, Beds. 37 Carnell, Dr Robert 29 Caroline, Queen 98 catechising 21, 41, 101, 162, 169, 225 Chambers, Ezekiel 122 chapbooks 101-2, 107-8, 113, 162 chapels, private 93, 98-100 chaplains, domestic 94, 100-1 Chapman, Mrs Mary 180, 182, 184 charity boards 9, 156, 160-1 Chatsworth, Derbyshire 99 Chesham, Bucks 190 Cheshire 26, 54-55, 74, 191, 214 Chester 52, 61, 107, 128 Chester, diocese of 43, 140, 148 Chichester 188 Chichester, diocese of 217 children 102, 194 at charity schools 162-3, l&7, 169-72, 179 in church 189 singing 218 Christmas 57, 58, 59, 60, 69-70 church attendance 52-77, 222 evidence for 52-4 regional variations 54, 224 reasons for non-attendance 55-6, 60, 215 prosecutions for non-attendance 55, 142 by charity-school children 166-7, 2 I 5 church buildings communal and social role 53, 186, 221, 226 condition of 188-92 design 203-7 funding for repairs and building 190-9

251

'georgianisation' 207-21 new churches 196-7, 199-203, 224, 228 provision of sufficient seating 66, 142 rebuilding churches 190, 192-6 repairs and maintenance 9, 146, 193-6 Church courts 4, 8, 9, 13, 17, 39, 46, 52, 56-7, !25> I35~545 225 archdeacons' courts 137-8, 140 and common law courts 118,125,126,137,151 excommunication 149-50 jurisdiction 142-7 officers 137-8 procedures 138-40 reasons for decline 151-4 sentences 137,147-50 structure 138 support by laity 136, 139, 144, 150-1 church furnishings altars 209-11 decorations 213 galleries 202, 204, 216-19 heating 214-15 lighting 214 pews 214-15 provision for music 218-21 pulpits 213 silver plate 211-13 stained glass 209 wall and ceiling paintings 208 church parties 112, 159, 163, 164, 171, 224-5 church services frequency of 66 pattern of 40, 57 public intercession at 61 public thanksgiving at 61 churching of women 74 churchwardens 8, 10, 12, 125, 136, 138, 142, 143, 147, 161, 191-7, 211, 213, 218 Cirencester, Glos. 186 Civil Wars, English 6, 78, 130, 133, 135, 172, 188-9, 2O 9 clandestine marriages 74-6 Clarissa, 96

Clark, J. C. D. 3 Claybrooke, Notts. 68 clergy complaints against 42-4 contributions to stipends 177 economic position of 16, 35-40, 48, 177-8, 226 education of 32-3, 48 expectations by laity 20-2, 40, 66 farming 39-40 geographical origins 32 residence in parishes 21-2, 25

2

52

Index

Coke, Thomas, Earl of Leicester 27, 99, 121 Colchester 188 Colchester, Col. Maynard 126, 127, 129 Coalcleugh, Northumberland 200 Collier, Jeremy 100 Colston, Edward 159, 183, 197 Commission for Building Fifty New Churches 45, 187, 200-1, 204-5, 215 community communal life 2, 6 and morality 17, 136-7, 145-6, 152-4 parish as 11, 13 parish church as focus of 12-13, 14, 15, 19, 52-4, 68-74, 186-8, 221, 226-7 and philanthropy 155, 185 Coram, Capt. Thomas 182 Corfield, Penelope 200 Cornwall 54, 212 Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy 46, 50, 184 Counter-Reformation 16, 157 County Durham 32, 168, 212 Coventry 116, 128 Cranbrook, Kent 41 Cranston, Andrew 174 Crowley, Sir Ambrose 200 Cumberland 32, 42, 140, 212 Custance, Alderman, of Norwich 28 daily services 9, 15, 17, 61-3, 94, 98-100, 103, 224,228 Dale Abbey, Derby. 75 death 8, 14, 54, 103-4 Deal, Kent 198 defamation 17, 144-8, 151 Defoe, Daniel 124 Deism 7, 47, i n , 121 Deptford 201 Derby 109, 186, 193 Derby, Archdeaconry of 151 Derbyshire 72, 75, 151, 216 Devon 42, 56, 150, 192 devotional literature 101-2, 105-8, 113, 162 diaries 8, 93, 94, 103, 106, 113, 146, 155 Diss, Norfolk 169-70 dissent 6, 14, 45, 77, 127, 128, 134, 142, 167, 187, 200, 201, 215, 224, 228 Doncaster 220 Downing, Sir George 34 Dublin 33, 158, 175, 181 Duddleston, Sir John 127 Durham, Archdeacon of 140 Durham, diocese of 32 Eachard, John 48

Earle, Peter 4 East Hoathly, Sussex 10, 57, 161, 219 Eastbury, Wilts 99 Easter 57, 58, 59, 60-70 Eaton Socon, Beds. 73 Egmont, Viscount 60, 64, 94, 98 Elton, Cambs. 25, 213 Ely, diocese of 35, 58 Enlightenment 17 'enthusiasm' 115 Epworth, Lines. 81, 91, 130, 134 Esher, Surrey 215 Essex 22, 212 Europe 31-2, 80, 82, 121, 132 evangelism 158-9, 172, 179, 187 Evelyn, John 61, 64 Exeter 109 Exeter, diocese of 191, 192 fairs 2, 52, 68, 131 families 16, 18, 102-3, IQ 6 family prayers 33, 101-3, 106, 216, 225 fasts, public 55, 68, 71-2 Felbrigg, Norfolk 27 festivals national 67 patronal 68 trade 68-9 Fielding, Henry 35, 44, 50, 96, 100, 134 Fiennes, Celia 209 Fitzwilliam, Lord 25, 28, 44, 77, 213 Fledborough, Notts. 76 Flitcroft, Henry 196, 200 Ford, Richard 62 Fordham, Cambs. 190 Fothergill, George 33, 94 Foxley, Norfolk 163 France 82, 132 Frederick, Prince of Wales 45 Freeholder 98

Freemasonry 120-2 French Prophets 116 funerals 77, 213 Gainsborough, Lines. 160, 198, 212 Ganning, Samuel 29 Garston, Lanes. 55 Gedney, Lines. 211 Gentleman's Magazine 51, 105, 109

George II 45, 98, 103 Gibbs, James 99, 202 Gibson, Edmund, Bishop of London 23, i n Gilbert, Alan 2, 3 Gillis, John 76 Glamorgan 45, 189

Index glebe 39-40 Gloucester 91, 128, 158, 179, 206 Gloucestershire 168 Godolphin, Sidney 49, 176 Gosport, Hants 198 Gough, Richard 1, 113 Grantham, Lines. 173, 213, 214, 216 Great Bradenham, Norfolk 144 Great Snoring, Norfolk 28 Great Yarmouth 43, 104, 193, 198 Greenwich 80 Grimsthorpe Castle, Lines. 99 Guardian 65, 96

253

hospitals 13, 158-9, 179-82 funding for 180-3 for lunatics 180 motivations for founding 179-80 Huddersfield 18 Hull 59, 62, 128, 207, 209, 214, 217, 220 Humberston, Lines. 229 Humberston, Matthew 229 Hume, John, Bishop of Oxford 94 Hunstanton, Norfolk 28 Huntingdon 107 Huntingdon, Selina, Countess of 17, 100 Huntshaw, Devon 56

Gwydor Uchaf Chapel, Gwynedd 208 Hackness, Yorks. 176 Hale, Lanes. 57 Halewood, Lanes. 72 Hampshire 145, 212 Handel, George Frederick 97, 158, 181 Hanley, Staffs. 197 Hardwicke, Lord, Lord Chancellor 25, 46, 47, I51 Harley, Robert 49, 202 Harries, Howell, 90 Hastings, Lady Elizabeth 20, 103, 129, 184, 212

Hastings, Lady Frances 80 Hawksmoor, Nicholas 203, 204, 205, 206, 207 Hereford 158 Hereford, Archdeacon of 151 Herefordshire 42, 145, 161 Hertfordshire 22, 118 Heswall, Cheshire 54, 74 heterodoxy 3, 47, 111-23, 225 Hickes, George 204 Highworth, Wilts. 217 Hoadly, Benjamin, Bishop of Bangor, 38, 47, 89

Hobbes, Thomas 47 Hogarth, William 135, 158, 182, 210 Holbeach, Lines. 98 Holkham, Norfolk 99-100 Holmcultram, Cumberland 142 Holt, Sir John 133 holy communion 15, 174, 224 attendance at 57-61 communion of the sick 58, 60-1, 180 frequency of celebration 57-9, 100 furnishing of churches for 210-13 reasons for infrequent celebration 60 reasons for not receiving 59-60 religious societies and 83, 85 Hook, Sergeant John 134 Homer, Mrs Susannah Strangeways 177

imagery, Christian 98, 204-7 Ingham, Benjamin 17, 33, 71, 91 Ipswich 82 Isle of Wight 128 Jacobitism 88-9, 90, 171 James II 53, 77, 124, 125, 162, 187 Jeffery, Dr John 29 Joseph Andrews 44, 50, 96, 100

Keighley, Yorks. 210 Kendal 128 Kennet, White, Bishop of Peterborough 55, 164 Kent 168, 201 Kent, William 99, 206 Kettering, Northants 68 Kew, Surrey 201 Kidlington, Oxon. 69 King, Sir Peter, Lord Chancellor 24, 204 King, William, Archbishop of Dublin i n King's Lynn 10, 23, 34, 61, 84-5, 175, 195-6, 198, 218, 220 Kinnear, Mary 143 Kirkbride, Cumberland 189 Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland 107 Knight, Sir John 134 Kyrle, John, 'Man of Ross' 95-6 L'Estrange, Sir Nicholas 28 Lancashire 22, 35, 39, 41, 42, 55, 58, 136, 137, 140, 153, 168, 202 Lancaster 107, 203 Larner, Christina 122 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury 6, 209, 222, 226 Law, William i n , 117, 119, 156 lectures 15, 172-4, 226, 228 Ledsham, Yorks. 79, 90, 103 Leeds 12, 30, 62, 82, 118, 119, 203 Leicester 128, 195, 217, 220

254

Index

Leicester, Archdeaconry of 41 Leicestershire 30, 32, 41, 42, 68, 189 Lent 72, 187 libraries 13, 46, 22 endowed 174-6 lending 109 private 106 supported by religious societies 86 Licensing Act 1662 77, i n , 128, 227 Lincoln 10, 130, 189, 190 Lincolnshire 22, 43, 56, 68, 78, 98,119, 123, 188 literature and religious belief 50, 95, 97 Little Rollright, Oxon. 59, 63 Liverpool 141, 195, 202 Llandaff, diocese of 22, 58, 59 Llanfechell, Anglesey 41, 44, 54, 58, 60, 65, 68, 103, 118, 160, 211, 213 Llanfechreth, Anglesey 35 Llanfyllin, Powys 160-1 Llonga, Glamorgan 58 London attraction of clergy to 32 charity schools 164-8, 171 church attendance 57 church building in 187, 196, 197, 199-206 clandestine marriages in 75 daily services in 15-16, 61-2, 65-6 election of curates and lecturers 29-30 Freemasonry in 121 'georgianisation' of churches 207 hospitals 158, 179-83 incomes of tradesmen 35 lectures 173 numbers of churches 66 philanthropy 185 religious societies 78, 82, 85-92 residence of clergy Rogationtide 71 scale of population 1, 199 societies for the reformation of manners 124-8 London, diocese of 22, 31 Lymington, Hants 217 Mackworth, Sir Humphrey 126 McLeod, Hugh 7 Maidstone 77, 175 Manchester 141, 186, 197, 202 Mandeville, Bernard 47, 157 Marholm, Cambs. 25, 44 Marlborough, Duke of 49, 98, 187 Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of 94, 98, 104 marriage 2, 72, 74-76, 95 Marriage Act 1753 74, 76

Masbury, Devon 56 Mayfield, Sussex 218 medical practitioners 11, 34, 71, 146 Meeke, Robert 41, 42 Melmerby, Cumberland 216 Melton Constable, Norfolk 35, 199, 215 Methodists, Magic, of Delamere Forest 116 Methodists, Primitive 116 Michel, Humphrey 117-18 Middlesex 125, 126, 127, 173 midwives 11, 143, 146 millenarianism 115 Milton, Cambs. 77 monuments 9, 93, 97-8, 156 Moore, Francis, 'Old Moore' 114 morality 3, 4, 9, 17, 124-5 enforcement by Church courts enforcement by societies for the reformation of manners 124-35 Morris, Dr Claver 71, 73, 74, 106 Mortmain Act 1736 46, 172, 178, 184-5 Muggletonians 116 music in churches 93, 97-8, 158 organs 193,208,220-1 religious societies 79, 80, 81, 218 singers 52, 218-20 Myddle, Salop 1, 72, 113 mysticism 116-17 Necton, Norfolk 145 Nelson, Robert 71, i n Neston, Cheshire 149 Nettlebed, Oxon. 62 New Buckenham, Norfolk 29 Newark, Notts. 140, 212 Newington, Surrey 141 Newman, Henry 164 newspapers 108-9, I 2 2 Newton, Cambs. 208 Newton, Sir Isaac 111, 120-1, 122 Newton, James 60, 64 Newton, Lanes. 69 Nicolson, William, Bishop of Carlisle 55, 133, 189, 209, 216 Norfolk 26, 35, 38, 42, 43, 66, 73, 144,163, 190, 191, 212 Norfolk, Archdeacon of 191-2 Northampton 156, 180 Northamptonshire 168 Northumberland 32, 42, 189 Northwold, Norfolk 208 Norwich booksellers 104,107 charity schools 162-3, ^ 8 - 9 , 171 churches as community focus 188

Index communion silver 212 daily services 61 election of incumbents 29 Freemasonry 121 'georgianisation' of churches 187, 193-4, 197 hospitals 180, 182 lectures 173, 174 newspapers 109 parishes 1 philanthropy 160 residence of clergy 22 Norwich, diocese of 31, 38, 135, 144, 148 Norwich, Archdeacon of 191 Nottingham 82, 109, 140 Nottingham, Archdeacon of 140 Nottinghamshire 72, 76 Nuneham Courtney, Oxon. 60, 68, 69, 74, 197 Obelkevich, James 119, 120, 123 Occasional Conformity Act 45, 46, 177 Old Buckenham, Norfolk 29 Old Romney, Kent 80, 82, 83-4 Oldham, Lanes. 199 Orleton, Herefordshire 217 Ormeshead, Cumbria 209 Ormskirk, Lanes. 107, 137 Oxford 34, 91, 116, 206, 216 Oxford, Archdeaconry of 56 Oxford, diocese of 55 Oxfordshire 42, 55-6, 63, 69 painting and religion 93, 97, 99-100, 158, 182 parish clerk 161, 187, 214 parsonage houses 40 Partridge, John 114 pastoral care 21-2, 41-2 pastoral visiting 21, 42 Patrick, Symon, Bishop of Ely 112 patronage, by election 29-30 patronage, private 3, 11-12, 20, 23-30, 177-8 Payne, Edward 98 Pearce, Zachary, Bishop of Rochester 94 Penrose,John 61, 64 personal prayer 94-5, no, 112, 171 Peterborough 107 Petworth, Sussex 99 Philadelphians 117 philanthropy 3, 4, 9, 13-14, 96, 225-6 almshouses 178-9 changing attitudes towards 183-5, 2 2 ^ charity schools 164-72 church building and repairs 186-221

255

as an example 156 expectations by the poor 155-6 hospitals 179-83 lectures 172-4 libraries 174-6 motivations for 156-9, 183-4 personal 159-64 Queen Anne's Bounty 176-8 Philipps, Sir John 126, 134 Pinchbeck, Lines. 218 Plymouth 209 politics 3, 4, 6, 23-7, 49, 171, 176, 184, 200 Pomfret, John 96 Pontefract, Yorks. 173 Pope, Alexander, 95-6 Poplar, London 77 popular religion 4-7, 11, 14, 21, 93, 98, 108, in—12, 120-2, 221-2

population geographical mobility 1 social mobility 2 Potter, John, Archbishop of Canterbury 45 Prescott, Henry, 52, 61, 95, 106 Preston 137 Prestwich, Lanes. 54 Prideaux, Humphrey, Archdeacon of Suffolk 52 'primitive Church' 7, 73, 81, 91, 96, 162, 203-4, 217, 222

Prior, Matthew 96 prophecy 115 providence 113, 115, 122, 124, 162, 187, 225 public notices 12 Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath 94 Purefoy, Henry 27, 35, 55, 139, 193 Puritanism 6, 73, 82, i n , 128, 155, 173, 204, 225, 226 Pyle, Edmund 38 Pyncombe, Mrs Gertrude 177 Quakers 14, 38-9, 46, 116 Quakers' Tithe Bill 1736 38, 46 quarter sessions 118, 125, 126, 137, 151 Queen Anne's Bounty 28, 46, 176-8, 184, 203,226 Radcliffe, Dr John 34 rates 9, 192-4, 196, 212 Ravenstonedale, Westmorland 198 Raynham, Norfolk 211 Reformation 7, 16, 19, 36, 59, 67, 136, 156, 176, 177, 189, 223, 227 Reigate, Surrey 174 relics 119-20 religious belief 7-9

256

Index

religious societies 18, 19, 52, 77-92, 117, 224 and charity schools 81, 83, 85—9, 166 disputes in 87-9 and Jacobitism 88-9, 90 and lectures 173 membership of 84, 86 Methodism 91-2 Moravians 91 origins of 77-81 rules of 78, 81, 83-9 and sermons 85 and singing 79, 80, 81 and societies for the reformation of manners 79 Restoration 95, 142, 223 Retford, Notts. 140 Ricci, Sebastien 99 Richardson, Samuel 96, 134 Richmond, Surrey 201 Ripon 57 Rochdale, Lanes. 202 Rochester, Archdeacon of 191 Rogationtide 36, 70, 71 Rogers, Benjamin 37 Roman Catholics 14, 53, 78, 109, i n , 114, 124, 135, 161, 163, 204 Romsey, Hants 67 Rosicrucianism 120 Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire 96 Rothbury, Northumberland 156 Rotherfield Greys, Oxon. 55-6 Rug Chapel, Clwyd 208 Rutland 68 Sacheverell, Dr Henry, 109 Saddleworth, Lanes. 199, 202 St Clair, Patrick 27-8, 35 St Ives, Cambs. 107 St Neots, Cambs. 107 saints' days 13, 17, 63, 66-8, 155 Salmon, William 114 Savannah, Georgia 73, 91 schools 9, 189 schools, charity 13 curriculum 166-7, : ^9 decline of 171-2, 179 and dissenters 167 funding for 158, 163-6, 168-9, J 7 0 J J 7 2 > I ^ 1

management of 163-72 motivations for 161-3, 182, 204, 215 opposition to 171-2 recruitment of children 167 and religious societies 81, 83, 85-7 rules for 170-1 schools, grammar 32

schoolteachers 11, 148, 163, 166, 169, 170 Seeker, Thomas, Bishop of Oxford 190 secularisation 14, 19, 144 Select Vestries Bill 1716 45 sermons 3, 8, 12, 21, 49, 52, 103, 225-6 for charity schools 165-71 endowed 161 for hospitals 180 length of 64 popularity of 63 publication of 65, 95, 105-7 and religious societies 85 and societies for the reformation of manners 124, 129, 131-2 Shabourne, Wilts. 71 Shakers 116 Shalstone, Bucks. 27, 55, 193 Sharpe, J. A. 148 Sheffield 203 Shrewsbury 128 Simon, Joan 167 social class 2, 11, 16, 32, 55, 107, 113, 141, 157, 159, 183, 200, 215, 218 social control 2, 3, 11, 67, 93 SPCK 50, 80, 158, 184, 228 and charity schools 166-72 and publishing 109-11, 131, 165, 172 and religious societies 80-2 and societies for the reformation of manners 128-32, 133 SPG 50, 158, 184, 228 societies for the reformation of manners 125-35, 225 origins 125-35 reasons for decline 132-5, 154 and religious societies 79, 81 and sermons 129, 131-2 Sodor and Man, diocese of 43, 70, 118, 137 Soulbury, Bucks. 208 Southampton 82 Southcott, Joanna 115 Southwark 62, 166, 195, 200, 201 Spectator 65, 94, 97

Spinckes, Nathaniel 104 Spurr, John 142 Stanford, Norfolk 190 Steele, Sir Richard 135 Stephens, Edward 126 Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of Worcester 48, 126 Stoak, Cheshire 54 Stockton-on-Tees 175, 217 Stokesay, Salop 208 Stone, Lawrence 144 Stourhead, Wilts. 99

Index Stow, Archdeaconry of 22, 191 Suffolk, Archdeacon of 52 Sunday observance 56-7, 102, 114, 127, 129, 131, 142 superstitions 113, 119 Surrey 56, 63, 141, 201, 202 Sussex 55 Sustead, Norfolk 27 Swift, Jonathan 38, 113 Talbot, James 165 Talman, William 99 Tamworth, Staffs. 128 Tanner, Thomas, Chancellor of Norwich 28 Tatler 63, 97

Taunton 209 Taylor, Stephen 3, 5 Tetbury, Gloucs. 75 theology 3, 106 Thomas, Keith 122 Thomlinson, John 156 Thompson, E. P. 67 Thoresby, Ralph 12, 55, 61, 64, 65, 94, 100, 118

Thorold, Sir John 91 Thurlaston, Cheshire 55 time 13 tithe 8, 36-9, 48, 146 Tiverton 10 Toland,John i n Toleration Act 1689 15, 49, 52, 66, 135, 227 Tom Jones 35

Tower Hamlets, London 125, 127 towns 1, 4, 5, 15-16, 18, 22, 31, 79, 135, 141, 160, 174-6, 216, 222, 224 Townshend, Viscount 27, 175, 211 Trelowarren, Cornwall 100 Trimnell, Charles, Bishop of Norwich 162, 164 Tring, Herts. 208 Truro 91 Turner, Thomas 10, 55, 57, 95, 104, 105, 107, 161 Twickenham, Surrey 201 Uldale, Cumbria 216 universities 32-4, 46, 49 urban growth 124, 141, 153, 186-7, I 9 9 ~ 2 0 3 J 224,228 Vanbrugh, Sir John 99, 204, 206, 215 Venn, Henry 18 vestry 9-12, 191-6, 204, 220, 228 visitations, bishops' 11, 57, 138, 192 archdeacons' 138, 146, 191-2

257

voluntary societies 228, see also SPCK and SPG Wales 32, 106-7, 113, 116, 174, 177 Walker, Samuel, of Truro 91 Wallington, Oxon. 56 Walpole, Horace 44 Walpole, Horatio 27-8 Walpole, Sir Robert 27, 34-5, 38, 134, 175, J 95 Walsh, John 5, 18 Warrington 107, 128, 137 Warton, Sir Michael 195, 197 Warwick 82, 186, 196 Warwickshire 161 wells, holy 119 Wells, Somerset 71, 73, 74, 77 Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk 73, 77, 220 Welsh language 64, no, 163 Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorks. 100 Wesley, John 17, 18, 33, 71, 73, 82, 91-2, 116, 117, 118, 172, 174, 227 Wesley, Samuel 42, 81, 89, 130, 134 Westhoughton, Lanes. 69 Westmorland 32, 140 Weston Longueville, Norfolk 66, 74 Wheler, Sir George 100, 216 Whitchurch, Salop 197, 220 Whitefield, George 17, 71, 91, 100, 172 Whitefoot, John 29 Whiteman, Anne 58 Whitsun 57, 70 Whittaker, Jeffery 41 wife sales 76 Wigan, 10, 82, 107, 137, 140, 141, 207 William and Mary 53, 77, 124, 187 wills 8, 41, 146, 184, 197 Wilson, Thomas 29, 31, 33 Wilson, Thomas, Bishop of Sodor and Man 43, 101 Wiltshire 42, 59, 71, 128 Wimbledon, Surrey 56 Wimpole, Cambs. 47, 99 Windham, Ashe 27, 35 Winlaton, County Durham 200 witchcraft 117-19 Wolverhampton 82 women and charity schools 170 and church building and improvement 197-8,220 and Church courts 143, 145 churchwardens 10 and philanthropy 183-4 and Queen Anne's Bounty 177-8 and religious societies 81

258 women (cont.) and societies for the reformation of manners 131 seating in church 204, 216-17 Wood, John, the elder 205 Woodforde, James 35, 60, 73, 169 Woodward, Josiah 77, 79, 81, 82, 89, no Woolwich 201 Worcester 82, 116, 158

Index work 2,169-72,174, 184, 187-8, 228 Wright, Joseph, of Derby 97 Yates, William 126, 127 York 10, 109, 116, 119-20, 160, 169, 186, 197, 206, 207, 210 York, diocese of 40, 58, 59, 145 Yorkshire 32, 63, 117, 168, 173 Young, Edward 96