thusiastical and canting, that he did almost craze
and distract many of his disciples by his amazing
and frightful discourses. 1 ' While not attempting to
excuse this harsh judgment of an enemy, it may yet
be conceded that, in many respects Bampfieid was a
sanguine enthusiast an admission in no degree ex-
cusing the hard treatment he endured. He seems to
have regarded with strong disapproval all systems of
punishment is entailed than merely human inflictions, and
on that account he cannot relinquish preaching the Gospel.
He points out to Charles, what estimable advantages a king
possesses for benefiting others, and adjures him to make the
Bible his standard of government. By many of his con-
temporaries Bampfield was mistaken for a Quaker. Vide
Bolls" House MSS., Domestic Series, Charles II., vol. xcix.
166 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
human learning : he refused to countenance any
science other than the Bible supplied. He stoutly
maintained that, Scriptural knowledge alone was
sufficient for all temporal as well as all eternal pur-
poses. He manifested a general dissatisfaction with
terrestrial affairs, and even wished to see the Eoman
characters superseded by the Hebrew alphabet. A
survey of education afforded him still less comfort.
Youth were taught to reverence " Enthusiastic phan-
tasms, humane (human) magistralities, self-weaved
ratiocinations, forced extractions, indulged sensua-
tions, and unwitting scepticisms."
The various events of Bampfield's diversified life
strikingly reveal the roughness of those times, and
of the pastor's way in particular ; besides illustrating
what was too oiten the experience of a dissenting
minister in the reign of Charles the Second.
We have now- specially to refer to Saturday,
February 17th, 1682, the place being that sanc-
tuarium of Nonconformity, Pinners' Hall. The con-
gregation is not a large one, but every member is
genuine, as is sure to be the case in time of danger
and trial. The pastor, who is in his pulpit, is now
an old man, and in addition to the furrows of time,
he discovers some honourable scars of hard service.
Suddenly, and without warning, a company of armed
men enter the room, the leader exclaiming, " I have
a warrant from the Lord Mayor to disturb your
meeting." " I," replied Bampfield, " have a warrant
from Christ, who is Lord Maximus, to go on." This
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 167
brave or defiant mien, however, avails nothing.
The preacher is ruthlessly pulled down from his desk,
and, with six of his followers, arraigned at the bar of
that impersonation of justice and patron of feasting,
the Lord Mayor, who, with undissembled pleasure,
fines the culprits ten pounds each. Other strange
events were destined to characterise that memorable
Saturday. In a short space the time arrives for
afternoon meeting, for none of these veterans intend
relinquishing their second service on account of their
preceding experience. Anon, this service is speedily
interrupted by the representatives of civic justice,
and a scene ensues which perhaps is scarcely pre-
cedented in the history of Pinners' Hall. The oc-
cupants of the pews warmly remonstrate with the
official intruders, until the latter, with abashed faces
and apologetic tones, excuse their performance of
duties which necessity alone compels them to dis-
charge.
Although again arrested, Bampfield is immediately
dismissed. He next openly proceeds to his own
house, and there conducts the service which the law
forbids his holding in the Pinmakers' Hall. On the
morning of the following Saturday, the 24th of
February, pastor and people are again molested, the
former being dragged from his pulpit while in the
act of prayer. Bible in hand, he is led captive
through the City streets, testifying to the spectators
that, for Christ's sake, he willingly surrenders liberty.
According to their predilections, the citizens express
168 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
sympathy or resentment. " A Christian Jew ! " ex-
claims one party, while others as readily reply, " A
martyr; see how he walks, with his Bible in his
hand." Ultimately, the Lord Mayor commits him to
gaol, and he is sentenced to imprisonment for life
for refusing to swear allegiance to the King, although
Eis principal crime was, doubtless, Nonconformity.
Dn hearing the judgment of the Court, Bampfield
essayed to speak, but could only evoke the reply of
" Away with them ! " We have only to follow the
old confessor to Newgate, for there the dismal tragedy
of his suffering is ended in February, 1683, at the
age of seventy years. In those days, the Dissenters
possessed a graveyard in the vicinity of Aldersgate,
and thither, in the wintry morning, were conveyed the
remains of Francis Bampfield, the ceremony of inter-
ment being attended by " a very great company of
factious and schismatical people." *
Edward Stennett was in every respect a man
superior to Francis Bampfield, whom he succeeded
in or about 1686. It is to be regretted that the
materials at disposal for making a sketch of his life
are too scanty to do the subject justice, the memoir
of his son Joseph being the principal source whence
our facts and inferences have to be drawn. Very
probably Edward was the first of his family to pro-
* Athense Oxonienses ; Calendars of State Papers, Do-
mestic Series, Charles II. ; Crosby's History of the English
Baptists ; Calamy's Account and Continuation ; Wilson's
History of the Dissenting Churches, &c.
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 169
fess the Baptist tenets, or even to embrace the Non-
conformist regimen; for, on the breaking out of
civil war, his principles prompted an espousal of the
Parliamentary cause a procedure which estranged
him from his nearest relations. Besides sorrow of
heart, this action ensured a large amount of tem-
poral difficulty. He practised physic while dis-
charging the functions of a Dissenting preacher.
His success in the medical profession far exceeded
his expectations, since he amassed sufficient means
to start his children handsomely in life.
After the Eestoration, Steimett bravely shared the
common trouble, and in his turn suffered imprison-
ment for conscience' sake. Residing at Wallingford,
he had a home in some apartments of the castle in
that town, which then existed entire. This baronial
stronghold having been associated with the most re-
markable portion of the pastor's life, we may venture
on a short digression to say a few words concerning it.
The Parliamentary borough of Wallingford, situated
about fifty miles from London, was anciently of some
importance, as is testified by the Eoman ramparts
which may yet be traced, and by the antiquarian
relics occasionally discovered. In the year 1006
the town became a prey to Danish invaders. About
half a century later the castle was inhabited by
Wigod the Saxon, who, when the prestige of his
race declined at the battle of Hastings, conformed
to misfortune, and entertained the victorious Wil-
liam during his march to London, in 1066. A
170 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
Norman officer wedded "Wigod's daughter, and on
this son-in-law's inheriting the castle, he superseded
the old pile by another more in sympathy with con-
tinental tastes. Amid the quarrels of hostile par-
ties which characterised succeeding centuries, the
weather-beaten walls and towers went through some
hard service, now resisting, and anon succumbing to
the fury of maddened assailants. The middle of the
seventeenth century found the castle in a state of
decay, but the whole being speedily repaired, passed
into the hands of the Eoyalists, from whom it was
wrested by Fairfax, in 1646, to be utterly demo-
lished in succeeding years.
At the Restoration era, as just stated, Edward
Stennett resided in the castle at Wallingford.
Among other privileges attached to this place, and
a remnant of feudal times, was this : no civil
functionary, ranking lower than a Lord Chief Justice,
could grant warrants of search, no matter how great
the emergency. Stennett resolved on taking advan-
tage of a fact so auspicious, and, therefore, in spite
of squire and parson, he metamorphosed the hall of
kings and barons into a Nonconformist conventicle,
for the innovation could be effected with impunity,
if only ordinary caution were exercised to exclude
such undesirable society as common informers. The
consummation of the project supplied an apt illus-
tration of the proverb, "An Englishman's bouse is
I his castle." So uninterrupted a progress to Non-
conformity, however, gave unspeakable annoyance to
THE SABBATAHIAN BAPTISTS. 171
those brave gentry, whose too liberal scheme of ethics
embraced the rustic joviality of maypoles and village
ale-houses. As the resident magistrate cast many
malicious glances at the proud gates of "Wallingford
Castle, his ire was stirred by the remembrance that,
not by his puny authority could those venerable
towers be humbled. By false pretence or stratagem,
various were the endeavours made to get an emissary
admitted, for the Dissenters' keenness in scenting
interlopers was every way worthy of and as pro-
voking as their general mien and teaching. In fact,
the Nonconformists had literally encamped in the
very midst of the enemy's territory, their citadel,
meanwhile, wearing a front as boldly defiant as those
mud ramparts described by Foster, which could be
neither stormed by surprise nor reduced by perse-
verance. But with " The Merry Monarch " gracing
the throne, and willing hands to support a different
order of things, it could not be tolerated that this
centre of religious influence should continue to
flourish. The squire and parson alluded to con-
vened a conference, whereat were debated certain
grievances, but those of Wallingford in particular.
Ultimately resolving to honour the maxim, " all is
fair in love and war," they determined to effect, by
questionable measures, what a fair and open pro-
cedure refused to accomplish. The arts resorted to
were suggested by purest knavery. Witnesses were
to be hired who, for a certain consideration, would
supply the wanting testimony. The parson, it is
172 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
' true, had openly expressed friendship for Stennett,
because the physician had ably served him in his
professional capacity without accepting fees. But
now Dissent had to be repressed, and, if necessary,
by the sacrifice of both principle and gratitude.
The witnesses were duly marshalled, each having
his appointed task, and as success appeared not un-
likely to attend their manoeuvres, Stennett took due
precautions to thwart the conspiracy. The plotters
were in high spirits. When the assizes came off
at Newbury, even the presiding judge acted like a
confederate ; but on the morning of hearing some
curious disasters discomfited the conspirators. A
son of the judge, an Oxford student, who was to have
shared the perjury, opportunely absconded with some
strolling players. Both by his presence and by his
lying testimony, the parson designed aiding the pro-
secution, but death suddenly disconcerted his plans.
Sickness cut down one of the witnesses, accident
prostrated another; at length, but one of any im-
portance remained, and on him were fastened the
dearest hopes of the party. This man was a gar-
dener, whom the Stennetts had partially employed,
and, although by them he had been very considerately
treated, they had never ventured on admitting him
into the hall at the hours of service. By bribes
and by drink the better nature of this gardener was
temporarily overcome, yet, prompted either by super-
stitious fear, in consequence of the strange turn
events had taken, or by remorse for his ingratitude,
THE SABBATAEIAN BAPTISTS. 173
he disappointed his employers at the critical moment. '
Instead of testifying against his master, he expressed
penitence for his individual wickedness. When,, '
therefore, he walked into court on the day of trial, I
our physician found the course completely cleared,,
and the proceedings against him were immediately
quashed.
After the death of Francis Bampfield, Stennett
succeeded to the pastorate at Pinners' Hall, but be-
cause he still continued to reside at Wallingford, he
only visited London at stated periods. He was
peculiarly happy in his family, his sons and only
daughter 110 less exemplifying the Christian graces,,
than they did those intellectual accomplishments
which rendered them the charm of cultivated circles.
Benjamin and Joseph entered the Dissenting minis-
try, Jehudah succeeded his father in the practice of
physic, and honoured his Jewish name by publishing
a grammar of the Hebrew tongue at the age of nine-
teen. Miss Stennett discovered an aptness for learn-
ing equally worthy of her family, her knowledge of
the ancient tongues being such as members of her
sex only rarely achieve. The favoured sire of this,
amiable galaxy just survived the triumph of Liberty
in the accession" of "William the Third, in 1689.
The pastor's remains rest with those of his lady, in
the town so closely associated with his life and
labours.*
* " Here lies an holy and an happy pair ;
As once in grace, they now in glory share ;
174 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
Abingdon, in the county of Berkshire, is ranked
among the most venerable of English towns, dating
its foundations, as some imagine, from the days of
the ancient Britons. The name, being of Saxon
origin, signifies the town of the abbey ; for at Abing-
don in the olden time nourished one of the wealthiest
of monasteries. The ancient borough records contain
some interesting items e.g., here lived Offa, King of
Mercia; and here an English prince, afterwards Henry
the First, was educated. Not, however, on account
of such matters do we make this allusion to Abingdon ;
but rather, because, in 1663, Abingdon was the birth-
place of Joseph Stenuett.
This divine a son of the eminent physician al-
luded to above spent his youth with his father at
Wallingford. In early life he mastered Hebrew,
French, and Italian in a manner to discover his re-
markable philological capacities. Probably directed
by his father, he also fulfilled the prodigious task of
systematically studying the writings of the Christian
Fathers ; and by a diligent attention to these and to
Scripture, his principles became early and firmly fixed.
After honourably acquitting himself in the prepara-
They clar'd to suffer, but they feared to sin,
And meekly bore the cross, the crown to win ;
So liv'd as not to be afraid to die,
So dy'd as heirs of immortality.
Header, attend : though dead, they speak to thee ;
Tread the same path, the same thine end shall be."
Vide Epitaph on Edward and Mary Stennett in Wallingford
CJiurchyard.
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 175
tory stages of his education, lie left his parents' roof
to settle in London, in 1685 one of the most gloomy
and humiliating periods of our national history. At
that date, indeed, the friends of our constitution were
troubled, not so much by the death of a profligate ruler
as by the accession to the throne of his popish brother.
During the momentous five following years, when events
transpired, and triumphs were achieved, the blessing
of which we are yet enjoying, Stennett was quietly
located in the capital, earning his living as a common
tutor. A a young man he was a keen-sighted poli-
tician, who gladly lent his genius and wit to the
cause of the patriotic party. Many of the squibs
privately circulated by the Whigs were the offspring
of his versatile pen. In the Indulgence year 1 687
Dissenters would have been more extensively
allured by the specious bait but for Stennett's dex-
terity in versification the means he employed to
expose the wily monarch's real design, meanwhile
taking care plentifully to strew the printed copies
among the Nonconformist assemblies. After the
happy accession of William the Third a collection
was made of this revolutionary literature ; but hav-
ing been published anonymously, it is now impos-
sible to distinguish our author's handiwork.
On religious liberty being restored by the Eevolu-
tion, Stennett earnestly turned his attention to what
he had long considered his legitimate work the
Gospel ministry. At the outset of his course he
ably acquitted himself at an evening lecture set up
176 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
by the Baptists at Devonshire- square. It soon be-
came evident that his learning, natural talents, and
winning mien were sufficient to raise him into an
enviable station among the Nonconformists ; but to
his cost, in a pecuniary point of view, his principles
coincided with those of the Sabbatarians to whom
he engaged himself, in 1690. Stennett's mastery of
English would have eminently qualified him for suc-
cessfully discharging the functions of the orator, had
his vast knowledge and ready utterance been attended
by a larger compass of voice. It having been
otherwise ordained, one humble sphere constituted
his lifelong pastorate. What a path of conscien-
tious self-denial he trod is shown by the scantiness
of his followers, and also by that poverty which pre-
vented their raising anything considerable towards
their pastor's support. Besides tending his regular
charge, he very generally employed himself on the
ordinary Sabbath. For a number of years he thus
ministered to the General Baptists of Barbican a
station he relinquished, in consequence of a disagree-
ment, in the last year of the seventeenth century.
Stennett sufficiently meddled with politics to prove
his patriotism, and to lay bare his purely unselfish
nature, as anyone may judge from his published
pieces. Among those numerous addresses which, in
1698, congratulated, the King on his escape from
assassination, none were more heartily sincere in ex-
pressions of loyalty than the one which our author
himself drew up and presented on behalf of the Bap-
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 177
tist denomination. Other passages in Stennett' s life
are sad illustrations of that fierce animosity which
then separated the English people from their neigh-
bours of France. Several years prior to the date we
write of in the dark days when Louis the Four-
teenth basely revoked the Edict of Nantes a
Huguenot trader, of the name of G-ill, sought an
asylum in England. He was accompanied by his
two daughters one of whom became Mrs. Stennett,
while the other married Daniel Williams, the muni-
ficent founder of the library named after him.
Threatened by imminent peril, Gill had hurriedly
forsaken his native country, leaving property behind
to the value of 12,000. Lord Preston, the am-
bassador of Charles the Second at Paris, was com-
missioned to represent the case fairly to Louis the
Fourteenth ; and that despot readily signed an in-
strument promising the restoration of the estate; but
when the Kevolution changed the aspect of English
affairs, and for a base betrayer of his people's honour
substituted A PRINCE OF ORANGE, passionately eager
to humble the haughtiness of France, Louis found
it inconvenient to remember his engagement. Never-
theless, it was supposed that some persons might ven-
ture across the Channel to investigate the probability
of being able to reclaim the estate ; and on account
of his fluency in the French language, Stennett was
adjudged the individual most likely to succeed in so
hazardous a service. The latter, in his anxiety to
serve his father-in-law, would have embarked for
12
178 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
France had not the counsel of more judicious friends
occasioned the project's abandonment. It subse-
quently transpired that the pastor had escaped the hard
usage of certain other Englishmen who, while travel-
ling through French territory, were grossly maltreated.
In the year 1700 Stennett retired to Tunbridge
Wells then, as now, the fashionable resort of plea-
sure-seekers and invalids to recruit his strength,
which a dangerous illness had recently reduced.
Although his modesty blinded him to the fact, he
ingratiated himself in the good opinions of the dis-
tinguished company with whom he daily associated.
Thus while benefiting on the one hand by relaxation
from pastoral cares, by the pure atmosphere, and by
drinking the waters ; on the other hand, he materially
widened the circle of his acquaintance. One of that
t circle, Mordecai Abbot one of Stennett's most gene-
rous friends as receiver-general of the customs, was
a great favourite with William the Third. A genial
and high-spirited Nonconformist, Abbot never missed
either public or private opportunities of honouring
the principles he professed. For Stennett he showed
particular fondness an attachment as warmly re-
turned, as the epitaph on the abbot's grave survives
to testify. * This gentleman and his amiable daughter
* " Just, prudent, pious Abbot's dust
Has found a sleeping-place beneath, this stone ;
Earth, in thy bosom hide thy precious trust,
Till his departed spirit claim its own.
How that returning soul will joy to see
Her body as immortal and as blest as she ! "
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 1 79
were prematurely and almost simultaneously removed
by death. Stennett so acutely realised the severity
of the loss that the shock threatened to impair his
constitution.
Meantime, Stennett's great learning and correct
judgment won general appreciation. While he
ranked as a principal leader of his denomination
in the capital, provincial admirers, and even those
in foreign climes, availed themselves of his wisdom
and impartiality when perplexed by cases of disci-
pline or of disagreement. By reading his pieces,
whether in prose or verse, such persons in the dis-
tance naturally formed a high estimate of Stennett's
powers and personal character. As Baptists, they
had hailed with grateful delight their champion's
able and temperate rejoinder to Eussen's True Pic-
ture of the Anabaptists. On the appearance of
Stennett's treatise many outsiders were found, who,
while not sympathising with the author's conclusions,
yet failed not to commend the wit, learning, and
good temper pervading his pages virtues but poorly
cultivated by controvertists of the Augustan age.
Besides such services of the pen, the pastor proved
himself a formidable disputer, since Quakers and
Socinians, Nonjurors and Komanists, were made to
smart in succession. Had health and leisure been
awarded, he intended writing a complete and elabo-
rate history of the Baptist denomination a work
posterity may regret the want of; for had it been
written, the succeeding century and a quarter would
12*
180 AXCIEXT MEETING HOUSES.
not have seen the Baptists suffer as they did from
the unskilful hands of incompetent historians.
His answer to Kussen forms the fifth volume of
Stennett's works in the edition of 1732. The first
four volumes are chiefly sermons and poems, the
sermons having been taken down in shorthand ; for,
on account of his fluency in our language, the pastor
never favoured written notes, but stored his memory
with ideas rather than words. After his death many
regretted the irrecoverable loss of numbers of very suc-
cessful discourses, these not having been secured at the
time of delivery in the manner described. In Non-
conformist circles Stennett's poems were very popular,
but many of these fugitive pieces, parted with in
manuscript to private individuals, were lost for ever ;
while others, by not being inserted in the collected
edition of their author's works, no less mournfully
passed into oblivion.
During the war of the Spanish Succession, or those
years of widespread carnage, of terror, of devastation,
and of what are popularly called great victories, the
national conscience would seem to have been seared,
till even such a kindly nature as animated Stennett
could attend with comparative complacency, and even
with emotions of exultation, to narratives of whole-
sale destruction of life, and to evidence of misery's
having extended her empire to the homes of un-
offending peasants, provided such peasants were
classed with papists, and were sufficiently unfortunate
to live under Louis the Fourteenth.
THE SABBATARIAN BAPTISTS. 181
The terror inspired throughout Europe by the
encroaching ambition of the French king, must ex-
cuse that passion for war and hatred of France so
characteristic of our fathers. The barbarous cam-
paign of 1704 culminated in a double triumph
the capture of Gibraltar, and the magnificent victory
of Maiiborough at Blenheim. Hundreds of burning
towns and villages, whence the luckless inhabitants
were driven into neighbouring woods and fields,
marked the track of the chivalrous allies. Anon,