of the era ; Eobinson's History of Stoke Newington ; the
Biographia Britannica, &c.
BURY STEEET. 261
to do good, in which he much delighted. He was
highly esteemed by his excellent friend, Dr. Watts,
who in his will styles him ' his faithful friend and
companion in the labours of the ministry,' and men-
tions a legacy he bequeaths him ' as only a small
testimony of his great affection for him on account
of his services of love during the many harmonious
years of their fellowship in the work of the Gospel.' "
He died in April, 1756.
An assistant of Samuel Price was Meredith Town-
shend. He removed from the church in Bury-street
to Hull, and thence to Stoke ISTewington. His
respectable talents and stainless character won him
a moderate share of popularity, and the esteem of a
wide circle of acquaintances.
The colleague and successor of Samuel Price was
Samuel Morton Savage, whose family originally
belonged to the county of York, and was connected
with the noble house of Rivers. The Savages were
nearly related, moreover, to Dr. Boulter, the Irish
Primate ; and, under the Archbishop's distinguished
patronage, young Morton would have entered the
Established Church, had not his sympathies gone
strongly with the cause of the Dissenters, and made
him determine to cast in his lot with them. The
lad spent most of his youthful days with " Mr.
Toulmin, an eminent apothecary in Old Gravel-lane,
Wapping." For a time he lived without any fixed
plan or purpose. At length he resolved on com-
municating with Dr. Watts, to whom he fully
20? ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
explained his literary and ministerial predilections.
Watts discovered in Savage some shining abilities,
and from that date the poet made it his business to
aid his protege in realising his desires. For a tutor
Savage had John Eames, and eventually became an
assistant in the academy under the succeeding pro-
fessor, Dr. Jennings. When the college was ulti-
mately removed to Hoxton, Morton Savage filled the
divinity chair, having for his colleagues Drs. Eees
and Kippis, Dr. Savage engaged himself at Bury-
street as early as 1742, and in 1756 acceded to the
pastorate on the death of Samuel Price. He con-
tinued in the ministry till the end of 1787, having
two years prior resigned his connection with the
academy. In addition to his regular duties, Dr.
Savage served on several lectureships, and was fore-
most among the agitators who demanded the repeal
of the Test Act. As an acknowledgment of his
worth and service in the cause of truth, the Univer-
sity of Aberdeen conferred upon him the distinction
of Doctor of Divinity. Like too many of his class,
our author, in his earlier days, injured his health by
midnight studies. His death was at length occa-
sioned by a throat affection, which obstructed the
passage of nourishment beyond a drop at once. He
died of sheer starvation, after having grown so ema-
ciated that the bones protruded, and occasioned a
soreness of the skin. Yet, notwithstanding so sharp
an affliction, he continued in a resigned and happy
frame of mind, and enjoyed the satisfaction of
BURY STREET. 263
offering up the family prayer of his household on
the Sabbath preceding his death, although necessarily
held in his chair. The Doctor breathed his last in
April, 1791, and was long remembered in the circle
of his acquaintance as an able, divine, and Christian
gentleman.*
Dr. Savage was succeeded by Thomas Beck, a
native of Southwark, and born in 1755. His
parents apprenticed him to trade without harbouring
the notion that he would ever adopt the ministerial
profession. Young Beck's predilections were of a
serious kind, and by following the Wesleyan
preachers he became a local preacher himself, and
in that department of Christian work grew ex-
tremely popular. According to his early inten-
tions he was to have studied at the Countess
of Huntingdon's College, at Trevecca a design
which was never accomplished, and he never
enjoyed the advantage attending a theological curri-
culum. He first settled in the ministry at Wapping,
where he remained a year, after which he became
closely associated with the people at Whitfield's
Tabernacle. For a while he preached in this con-
nection, next removing to Gravesend, there to con-
tinue for nine years. At Gravesend he published
his only printed piece, if we except his poetical
works. In 1788 he removed to Bury-street, but
found himself unable to restore a departed prosperity.
* Toulmin's Life of Savage ; Wilson's Dissenting
Churches.
264 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
Nevertheless, lie displayed some spirit in fulfilling
what he deemed to be his duty ; for he erected a
chapel in his private garden at Deptford for the use
j of his poorer neighbours. The pastor was also one
of the projectors of the Evangelical Magazine. He
resigned his pulpit about 1820, and was succeeded
by Mr. Mummery. Three years later the members
forsook their ancient meeting-house, and settled in
Founders' Hall. Thence they finally removed to
Bethnal-green, and the Eev. Isaac Vale Mummery,
a son of the former pastor, is the present minister.
This gentleman has our congratulations, seeing he
has become so worthily associated with that splendid
Nonconformist galaxy, which, by the writings of
OWEN, CLAKKSON and WATTS, will shed its reful-
gence over unborn generations.
dtjjaptcr TIL
LITTLE CAETEE LANE.
CARTER- LANE, Doctors'-commons, is overshadowed by
St. Paul's. A visit to this spot occasions some quaint
associations of the cathedral and its vicinity to crowd
into the mind. Here, for example, it is supposed a
demolished church of the Christian Britons testified
to the fury of the Diocletian persecution. Here also
was reared, at amazing cost, that fair structure which,
covering four acres of land, fell a prej^ to the flames
of 1666. In the olden time the bishop's palace
standing close to the church was linked with some
important events in English history; and the hum
and rattle of the modern street need not prevent the
old scenes from rising in our imagination. Thus
we seem to behold that ill-fated child, Edward the
Fifth, pass in at the great hall door just prior to his
death in the Tower. In the same manner we wit-
ness the first meeting of Catherine of Arragon and
Prince Arthur, which took place in one of these
apartments. Perhaps of higher consequence still is
a lead-covered pulpit we discry in the distance; for
Paul's-cross occupies a prominent place in the annals
266 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
of England and of the Eeformation. But such archaeo-
logical minutiae must give place to the object of our
visit the Meeting-house in Carter-lane.
Many readers will remember the old chapel. "The
meeting-house in Carter-lane," says Wilson, "is a
large, substantial brick building, of a square form,
and contains three galleries of very considerable
dimensions. The inside is finished with remarkable
neatness, and in point of workmanship is scarcely
equalled by any place of worship among the Dis-
senters in London. The sombre appearance it ex-
hibits, arising partly from the colour of the pews and
galleries, immediately arrests the attention, and ap-
. pears much better suited to the solemnity of divine
"worship than the theatrical style of decoration
', adopted in many of our modern chapels."
Of Matthew Sylvester, the founder of this society
and the colleague of Baxter, only few memorials sur-
vive. During youth, and while possessing only slender
means, he found himself thrown upon the w T orld.
Some friendly assistance enabled him to prosecute
his studies at Cambridge U niversity ; but he left his
college sooner than he would have done had he pos-
sessed ampler means. Soon afterwards he was pre-
ferred to the living of Gunnerly, in Lincolnshire ; and
was there silenced by the Act of Uniformity in 1662.
Sylvester was highly esteemed by his diocesan, Dr.
Sanderson, who strongly persuaded him to conform ;
but "the unfeigned assent and consent that was re-
quired of him were two things that he much stuck
LITTLE CARTER LA.XE. 267
at." In the years immediately succeeding the Bar-
tholomew secession, Sylvester led a life of ease with
some distinguished Nottinghamshire families. He
emerged from retirement, and settled in London
while the City was suffering from the devastation
of fire and plague; and with exemplary bravery
espoused the cause of Nonconformity. It is gratify-
ing to find that, while slighting personal danger, he
never realised the miseries which were then so often
the penalties of a conscientious procedure. The har-
mony characterising the united action of Sylvester
and Baxter was no less honourable than remarkable.
Indeed, the veneration of the former for his more
gifted colleague almost exceeded allowable bounds ;
for notwithstanding his constitutional shrinking from
death, Sylvester only desired to live and die with
Baxter. He survived his friend, however, about
seventeen years, having been suddenly taken to his
reward in the year 1708. "He was," says Calarny,
fl an able divine, a good linguist, no mean scholar, an
excellent casuist, an admirable textuary, and one of
uncommon divine eloquence in pleading at the throne
of grace." According to Calamy also, Sylvester was
a genius whom defective elocution alone prevented
from shining as one of the luminaries of his era.
The ancient borough of Kidderminster is situated
one hundred and twenty-four miles north-west of
London, and was called by the Saxons, Chidermin-
ster i.e., a church on the hill-side with a stream at
its foot. This town so indissolubly associated
268 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
with the name and labours of Eichard Baxter
could boast of its prestige long ere the leaven of
Puritanism influenced English society. John Beau-
champ, domestic steward to Eichard the First, was
rewarded for services rendered to that monarch by
the barony of Kidderminster. About the middle of
the seventeenth century the poet Waller, as lord of
the manor, disposed of his rights to discharge some
heavy political fines. In early times Kidderminster
returned its member to Parliament, but, by some
means unexplained, the burghers were deprived of a
privilege they re-inherited on the passing of the first
Eeform Bill. A charter, granted by Charles the
First, exempted the town from local magisterial in-
terference. Then there are certain local customs,
inherited from a ruder age in themselves quaintly
interesting, but the perpetuation of which reflects
little credit on modern intelligence. Thus, on elect-
ing a bailiff in the olden time, the townsmen mus-
tered in the streets and waged a war of cabbage-
stalks ; but fortunately " the lawless hour " was re-
stricted to the prescribed limits. Heralded by music,
the newly-chosen official and his attendant officers
then marched to the residence of the out-going
bailiff, and during their progress the populace were
expected to pelt them with apples. In former days
the town was extremely unhealthy, a fact accounted
for by the confinement necessitated by its staple
trade ; but, while fever and consumption were mak-
ing unchecked ravages among the inhabitants, the
LITTLE CARTER LANE. 269
atmosphere was highly salubrious, as the more satis-
factory condition of the suburban population plainly
proved. When Baxter nourished, the people har-
boured a deeply-rooted horror of witchcraft; and
this prompted them summarily to impose a horse-
pond discipline on the objects of their aversion.
The vicarage is now worth about ,1,100 a-year,
but in the seventeenth century it had scarcely a fifth
of that amount attached to it. The impetus given
by Baxter to religion and philanthropy would seem
to be yet benefiting the town e.g., the number of
chapels, schools, and provident societies is far higher
than the average for a town of eighteen thousand
souls.
Baxter was born in the year 1615, or about the
time that that courtly sycophant, Edward Villiers,
was rising into political ascendancy. The elder
Baxter was a gentleman of Shropshire, whose debts
by some considerable amount exceeded his estate.
Richard first saw the light at the seat of his maternal
grandfather, Eichard Adinery, of Eowton, with whom
he spent the first decade of his existence, after
which he was taken to his parents at Eaton Con-
stantine, a place of small note in the vicinity of
Shrewsbury. " His schoolmasters were both lewd
and ignorant" a fact sufficient to account for his
defective education. Indeed, but for the grateful
assistance of John Owen, of Wroxeter, the youthful
Baxter would have fared worse than he did ; but
while Owen was serviceable in one direction, he
270 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
bears the blame of having deprived his protfy6 of an
university training. His parents intended sending
Richard to one of the great national colleges, till,
diverted from their plan by the counsel of Owen,
they placed him with a neighbouring minister, whose
knowledge was stored upon his library shelves rather
than in his head. To general incompetence this tutor
added the sin of indolence, and Eichard was con-
sequently allowed to roam at will among the books,
with neither assistance nor advice. But even thus
early he was animated by that amazing industry
which, in his case, was constitutional ; and there-
fore, in spite of the difficulties of his situation, he
visibly improved in learning during his stay of
eighteen months. At this conjuncture Owen, be-
cause dying of consumption, had his place for a
time filled by Baxter.
The insight into the moral and religious condi-
tion of England at this era which Baxter affords us,
is shockingly interesting. Thus a description of a con-
firmation as then observed reveals some characteristics
of Laud's ascendancy. Such young parishioners as
were willing congregated in the churchyard, and the
bishop, while hurriedly walking round, placed his
hands on the head of each, muttering the while some
indistinct sentences, which completed the ceremony.
In rural districts even bad sermons were at a pre-
mium. In the parish where Baxter resided, the in-
cumbent, being blind, was only competent to re-
peat the prayers from memory, and consequently
LITTLE CARTER LANE. 271
a thatcher and a tailor were hired to read the Scrip-
tures. The vicar of Kidderminster was an illiterate
drunkard, whose income was partly derived " from
the celebration of unlawful marriages." Patrons of
livings became Simoniacs, and were not ashamed to '
lease such parishes as were in their gift. As num-
bers of the clergy were scarcely superior to their
plebeian neighbours, they occasionally supplemented
their stipends by such menial crafts as those of rope- J
making and woodcutting.
The villages around Shrewsbury, as they existed
in the time of Eichard's boyhood, may be taken as
fair samples of rural England in those days. Too
often the clergy were no less degraded than their
flocks, and the accounts of the condition to which
certain parishes degenerated sounds incredible when
related in modern ears. With some bright excep-
tions, the clergy only seldom practised preaching.
In the place of study they unblushingly substituted
gaming, drinking, and vicious sports ; and the only
reverence shown for the Sabbath was manifested by
their encouraging maypole dances, and sundry village
games, instead of honouring those dictates of religion
or even of morality in unison with the character of
the day of rest. Thus tutored by precept and ex-
ample, the populace for the most part progressed in
debauchery till unable to appreciate the instructions
of grave and sober ministers. At Eaton Constantine,
where Baxter resided, a sermon was rarely heard in
the parish church, " and the service was run over
272 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
' very cursorily and irreverently, and when that was
done the rest of the Lord's-day was profanely spent
in dancing under a maypole and a great tree." In
the midst of such terrible surroundings, young Baxter
was preserved from serious contamination ; although
as a child he was addicted to lying and orchard-
robbing. The means of his conversion, which soon
after occurred, were the reading of Parson's Resolu-
tions, and Sibbs's Bruised Reed.
The genius and industry of Baxter were suffi-
ciently manifest in youth to attract the notice of
some influential neighbours well qualified to pro-
mote his interests. Even at this conjuncture, that
" crazy body " restrained his ardour to a degree
which his spirit could scarcely endure. He was an
indefatigable student, and studied philosophy under
Richard Garbett, vicar of Wroxeter. Then came
life's changes, many of them fraught with danger.
During the domination of Laud, when the King was
hoping to impose prelacy on Scotland, some siren
charmers gained Baxter's inexperienced ear, and ad-
vised his aspiring to the equivocal honours of a
courtier. His fond parents were allured by the bait
and dazzled at the advantages the proposal promised.
He was, therefore, summarily despatched to White-
hall, to be handsomely received by his patron, Sir
Henry Herbert; and Sir Henry would probably
have advanced his interests had not the glit-
tering world to which fortune had introduced him,
been at utter variance with Eichard's predilections.
LITTLE CARTER LANE. 2 7 3
A month at court was a complete surfeit. He re- *
turned to Eaton Constantino to become " more in-
defatigable in the pursuit of knowledge than can
easily be imagined."
On attaining his majority, Baxter was suffering
from excessive weakness, rendered more alarming by
a strong cough and spitting of blood. That consump-
tion would speedily cut down his fragile body ap-
peared an absolute certainty. For two years he
remained afflicted by this extreme debility, which all
supposed to be but the precursor of death. Not-
withstanding such painful drawbacks, the young
scholar's longings were still for the Church ; and a
desire to be useful even in the smallest degree, led
him to apply for ordination to the bishop of Wor-
cester. Thus did Baxter inaugurate his ministry.
Baxter's splendid career for so it may be truly
designated commenced at Dudley, a notoriously
wicked place, which his ministry sliglitly benefited.
At this stage he was a zealous conformist ; but on
attending to the controversy between the Church of
England and the Puritans, some hitherto accepted
opinions were shaken, although he occasionally re-
proved Nonconformists for what he termed their
want of charity. After staying nine months at
Dudley, he settled under William Madstard, who,
it is gratifying to learn, was " a grave and severe
ancient divine." For a manse Baxter appropriated
the neighbouring vicarage of Oldbury, a parish which,
with some of its neighbours, enjoyed exemption from.
18
274 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
prelatical interference, so that the ministers were at
liberty to honour just what regime their consciences
prescribed. The two pastors were zealous evangelists
among an "ignorant and dead-hearted multitude."
!The staple trade of the town seems to have been re-
presented by the numerous alehouses ; and therefore,
it affords no matter for surprise, if the chief obstacles
: to the progress of good were " tippling and ill com-
pany."
Meantime the precursors of civil war were appear-
ing thick and fast. By a resolution of Convocation
the bishops were required to impose the Etccetera
oath, or to oblige the clergy to swear they would
never consent to the slightest alteration in the Eubric.
Next followed the imposition of prelacy upon Scot-
land, with its attendant train of troubles. Then,
amid the prevailing discord, Ship-money became the
chief bone of contention; but the story of Ship-
money is too well known to need recapitulating here.
When the Long Parliament assembled in November,
1640, Baxter and Madstard were stationed atBridg-
north. We are afforded a few glimpses into the old
town, and see something of the local contentions of
those troublous days. Let us take this example.
On a certain Saturday afternoon the Lord President
of the Welsh Marches, (the Earl of Bridgwater)
passed through Bridgnorth, en route for London.
f. Many of the meaner sort among the parishioners
I embraced this opportunity of impeaching their
j ministers on the basis of Nonconformity. Neither
LITTLE CARTER LANE. 275
of them, it was truthfully averred, would wear a
surplice nor make the sign of the cross in baptism.
They obstinately refused to pray and declaim against
the Scots, as recently ordered by their diocesan. The
wary Bridgwater listened with cautious attentive-
ness, he attended church, and even gave the peti-
tioners some general advice; but when he found
himself safely distant from the townsmen's impor-
tunity, he sent a message to declare that he had no
jurisdiction in the matter.
Among the flagrant abuses which invited the
attention of the Long Parliament, those of the
Church Establishment were not the least flagitious.
That Establishment was crowded with reverend
time-servers, whose notorious licentiousness or literary
incapacity bore testimony to their unfitness for the
office they usurped. Feeling, therefore, that an era
of freedom was inaugurated, numbers of parishes ,
petitioned to be relieved of pastors whose connection
with the Church was a disgrace to the Christian
profession. It was thus with Kidderminster ; and, '
on account of the scandalous lives of the vicar and
curate, their supercession was allowed. Baxter took
possession of the parish, but the vicar retained his
dwelling-house and a principal share of the stipend. '
Baxter's marvellous experience at Kidderminster
fills a page in the history of the Church as gladsome
as it is encouraging. What he really accomplished
is sufficiently wonderful, but its happy colours are
set off to greater advantage by the dark ground of
18*
276 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.
an unpromising beginning. His entrance on the
' work of transforming the parish was resented by the
passionate hatred of a revengeful populace, and,
therefore, his herculean achievement of conquering
I the dissolute habits of a town will proclaim to all
time that, his fragile body, which for half a century
people supposed was but stepping into the grave,
was inflamed by a zeal of enthusiasm having its
source in heaven. A programme of his pastoral
procedure has been bequeathed us. Besides the
heavy duties of each returning Sabbath, he held
week-day meetings for common instruction and
prayer, for the catechising of families, for discipline,
and for ministerial intercommunication. During his
' connection with it, the church was enlarged by the
erection of five galleries : and, from being one of the
most irreligious, Kidderminster came to be one of
the most Christian of English towns. As such it
was the wonder of visitors and the delight of its
pastor.
The shock of civil war disquieted the old borough
soon after Baxter's settlement, he being " a mournful
spectator of the pullic confusions." Such, however,
as desire to study his extraordinery career at Kid-
derminster must peruse the narrative of Sylvester,
or its abridgment by Calamy. Understanding some-
thing of physic, the indefatigable pastor exercised
that art for the benefit of his poorer people, till he
deemed it prudent to abandon the practice in favour
of a regular practitioner. He truly delighted in.
LITTLE CAETEE LANE. 277
effecting good by any lawful means, no matter how
great the self-denial. We find, for example, that
the sixty or eighty pounds a-year, remitted him by
the publishers of his books, were charitably distri-
buted, as also were other gains not absolutely re-
quired for bare subsistence. His beneficence at one
time would prompt the placing of a youth at the
university, or anon, it distributed books among the
poorer people ; and the latter class predominated at
Kidderminster, for few, if any, of the inhabitants
were wealthy. The leading manufacturers main-
tained their commercial state on forty pounds a-year,
while the majority of master weavers lived as honest
citi/ens on only half such a revenue. The people in '
general were extremely poor, and, to quote Baxter's
own expression, " lived from hand to mouth."
On the raising of the standard of civil war persons
suspected of Puritanical sympathies often risked im-
minent danger of outrage, even of life itself, from the
" loyal " populace. Sometimes, while walking the
streets, such as presumed to wear short hair would
suddenly find themselves the objects of sudden and
ferocious attack. Among the profane, " Puritan "