neighbouring Baptist society, and whose faith drew
forth many banterings from her fellow- workers. Du
Veil expressed to this girl the longing he had for an
interview with Hanserd Knollys. The sequel was,
that the two eventually met at the mansion of a
nobleman in the vicinity where Knollys was occa-
sionally entertained. The latter, after this, intro-
duced his newly-made acquaintance to the noble
galaxy of his compeers Kiffen, Keach, Gosnold,
and others who were fathers in their denomina-



FOOTPKINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 425

tion. Delighted with his new associates, Du Veil,
began diligently to examine the differences separating
such men from other Christian bodies, the result
being his acceptance of the tenet of Believers' Bap-
tism. The thorough honesty of the man's convic-
tions and motives cannot be 'doubted, for the im-
mediate temporal loss his conversion occasioned him,
constituted little less than pecuniary ruin. If we
except the amiable Tillotson, Du Veil was forsaken
by his friends, and therefore he now divided his time
between literary pursuits and the practice of physic.
At or about this time the Baptists in Gracechurch-
street lost their pastor. In an evil hour he quailed
before the persecution of the Restoration, and through
fear had given place to the enemy by relinquishing
his belief. This action occasioned remorse so intense
that the unhappy subject of it, by taking his own
life, escaped from a world where each day was but <*
a round of horror. The afflicted congregation invited j
Du Veil to take them in charge, and he consented./
Because only able to' speak English very brokenly, ,
his immense acquirements never won the pastor any '
lasting popularity ; and the church ceased to exist *
as a separate society at the pastor's death, or at the,
close of the seventeenth century. Du Veil's writings
are chiefly commentaries on various books of the
Bible. He wrote with correctness in Latin and Eng-
lish. May this recutting of his almost forgotten
name not prove altogether unprofitable labour.

Hitherto the labour of portraying the customs,



426 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

sufferings, and victories of the Nonconformists in old
London, has proved a task of pleasure, and the hope
is entertained that these histories and word-pictures
have not overtaxed the reader's patience. Each
spot connected with these reminiscences has many
memories hanging around it welcome treasures to
a Dissenting archaeologist. Such must experience a
pensive pleasure in holding up to the light of modern
times the sayings and actions of men by whose pre-
cepts and example our fathers were instructed, and
by whom they were directed to a better inheritance.
Where now is that great motley crowd which of yore
enlivened these identical streets? Where, alas !

" For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,

Or busy housewife ply her evening care ;
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knee, the envied kiss to share."

Their lives have been stereotyped by the hand of
time, and as the trees have fallen, so do they lie.
What should prompt the eschewing of evil more
than this awful fact : our words and actions are
impressed on the days in which they were spoken or
performed ? While scrutinising the lives of workers
who preceded us, let this truth exercise its legitimate
influence, that as regards ourselves also, father Time
will prove himself to be an unflinching and impartial
witness.

Eightly to understand what a sacrifice Du Veil
voluntarily made by embracing Nonconformity, it is
necessary to know something of party warfare, or



FOOTPKINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 427

more properly of religious warfare, in the Puritan
era. Numbers of the lampoons on Dissenting leaders
are either too absurd or too indecent for quotation.
Such pamphlets, usually emanating from foes to all
religion, will not repay attention ; but the literary
offspring of various party zealots, oftentimes written
in strains of ferocious satire, is more interesting.

In 1681 a poetical broadside, purporting to be a
faithful description of the Dissenting preachers, was
circulated in London. It belonged to a department
in our literature now happily extinct, but which was
vigorously maintained in those never-to-be-forgotten
times, when the political horizon grew darker daily,
when Episcopacy was at last apparently triumphant,
when Liberty was driven from her natural home,
and when Nonconformists could under no circum-
stances safely assemble. The spectacle of England's
humiliation, to High Church bigots, to Court trim-
mers, to believers in the divine right of kings, was
a landscape tinged with paradisaical hues. The
voice of mourning from closed meeting-Louses, and
the despair of homeless ejected ministers, were
replied to by our poet :

' ' What ! shall a glorious nation be o'erthrown
By troops of sneaking rascals of our own ?"

He also describes the Nonconformist preacher :

" He's one that scarcely can be called a man,
And yet's a pious holy Christian,
He's big with saving faith (he says), yet he
Has not one spark of common charity."



428 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.



Dissenters, it plainly appeared, were despisers of
reason a fact which accounted for their rejecting
Episcopacy, and for their refusal to honour bishops.
All, however, was easily comprehended ; Eeason dis-
countenanced their dark designs. Nonconformist
preachers are portrayed as immoral livers, and their
prayers as insults to the Deity. As for their
sermons,

" You'll quickly find sedition is hid there."

Then follows a descriptive touch of the Three De-
nominations :

" They all mankind except themselves despise ;
Chiefly the great, for being good and wise.
Some subtle have, and some have giddy souls ;
Some fools, some knaves, and some are knaves and fools.
These vermin would even the best things command,
And suck up all the sweetness of the land."

At the Revolution, poetasters of another school reached
down their lyres from the willows, and Church and
State was roughly handled in the sheets of doggrel
hey scattered among the people. One author deals
some telling blows at the enemy, The High Church
Bully, in a sheet of that name, e.g.;

" Home, whose footsteps you so closely tread,
Great Eome ! thy mother Church and darling head."

Then follows a graphic description of an Anglican's
sermon. If heated by the fumes of his own poli-
tical or theological diatribes, the pulpit creaks by
reason of blows received from the fists of its sub-



FOOTPRINTS or THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 429

stantial orator. His fiery nonsense echoes down the
ancient aisles till the auditors imagine themselves
overtaken by a tempest of thunder and lightning.
The excellence of arbitrary laws is insisted on,
while moderation is proved no less unscriptural
than the Hanoverian succession. Throughout, the
harangue

' ' Mightily extols all High Church ranters,
Now lashes all false brethren and Dissenters."

On the proclamation of the Indulgence of 1687, the
Nonconformist press once more worked unrestricted.
An anonymous author in a quarto pamphlet detailed
the Dissenters' sufferings. Although written some
years previously, the manuscript had been laid aside
in consequence of the danger attending the dissemi-
nation of such publications. One minister (Delaune)
had died in Newgate for the offence of having com-"X.
posed a similar treatise. Many others who may not
have actually died in their cells were scarcely less
fortunate, since they failed to leave their loath-
some confinement until the germs of mortal diseases
were sown in their constitutions. Only by a strong
mental effort can we realise the sufferings of these
confessors. Their personal pains were a heavy
cross, but to bodily anguish were often added many
agonising reflections that a wife was sinking under
hardship ; that daughters were exposed to privation ;
or that sons, on whom the father had fondly centred
his hopes, were constrained to earn a pittance by
wheeling a barrow, or by driving a cart.



430 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

The curious pedestrian, whose antiquarian tastes
may occasionally prompt an exploration of our old
City's secluded nooks, will be well aware of the
archaeological attractions attached to St. Helen's,
Bishopsgate. The rural dress of the graveyard sur-
rounding the quaintly-interesting church, pleasantly
contrasts with the neighbouring crowded thorough-
f .fare. St. Helen's is one of the few city churches
y >N which escaped the fire of 1666. On its erection in
the twelfth century, its pious founders dedicated
their work to the mother of Constantino, and se-
cured for the foundation some important privileges.
The sanctuary was inherited by the neighbouring
priory, the nuns assembling for prayers in a portion
of the present building, then separated by a partition
from the portion allotted for public service. The
partition was removed on the dissolution of the
nunnery in the reign of Henry the Eighth.

ISTo less a person than Hanserd Knollys preached
in Great St. Helen's. Possessing a chapel of very
respectable dimensions, he attracted a thousand
hearers. Hitherto Knollys had officiatad in parish
churches whenever facilities for so doing occurred.
His most lively enemies were the Presbyterians, and
probably at their instigation the landlord of the
meeting-house refused to allow the Baptists to con-
tinue in possession. Moreover, a committee of
divines, who sat during the Commonwealth, evinced
an effrontery quite uncharacteristic of their modern
representatives, by ordering Knollys to preach no



FOOTPRINTS OF THF, BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 431

more an injunction he was scarcely the kind of
being to honour with attention. The pastor, how- ,
ever, removed with his followers to Newgate- street.
The chapel in Great St. Helen's disappeared, and
regarding either its site or fate, history is silent.

East-cheap was the cooks' quarter in ancient
London. Through a long period there flourished
here a leading society of the Baptist denomination.
Doubtless the spot has a narrative belonging to it,
abounding with interesting histories, could the
records be recovered. Baptists have certainly been
remiss in the matter of bequeathing history to pos-
terity, and accordingly but few particulars of Great
East-cheap are now obtainable. Wilson supposes,
that after Du Veil's removal, his people were ab- I
sorbed by a congregation which met in Tallow-
chandlers' Hall, Dowgate-hill. This united body
eventually removed to Maidenhead- court, Great
East-cheap, but when the lease of this chapel ex-
pired in 1760, the members dispersed themselves
among various societies. In this old meeting-house
a Wednesday-evening lecture was established, which
Dr. Gill sustained for thirty years. This sermon )
was continued at Cripplegate, Little St. Helen's, and
Devonshire-square.

The first pastor, John Noble, was born about the
time of the Eestoration. Some particulars of his
life are preserved in a funeral discourse, the quaint
title of which is emblazoned with a death's head,
a skeleton's limbs, and the implements of grave-



432 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

digging. The sermon, by Edward "VVallin, was
preached on the longest day of 1730.

During his early years Noble tasted a full share
of the prevailing persecution. A common experience
made his parents and their children familiar with the
routine of prison discipline a discipline, however,
which never sufficed to suppress their courage, nor
to annihilate their determination to persevere in
righteousness. While in captivity, the prison cell
served young Noble as a study, and on regaining
his liberty he set up a school, and laboured as a
Gospel minister. He was sufficiently successful in
the country for news of his fame to reach the
capital. Two London Churches simultaneously in-
vited him to take them in charge, and of that both
might enjoy his ministry, they united. As a theo-
logian, Noble prominently expounded certain fa-
vourite tenets, till many accused him of teaching
Antinomianism. However this may have been, he
was " A man of learning and excellent parts." In
circles outside his immediate connection the pastor
was regarded as a man of uncharitable proclivities
and harsh demeanour. Crosby thinks these failings
were more apparent than real, or, even if real, were
only manifested at Eastcheap. When presiding at
the monthly assembly of denominational representa-
tives., Noble's moderation of speech and becoming
mien excited the surprise of observers familiar with
their brother's more disagreeable attributes. A
memorable illustration of this occurred at John



FOOTPRINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 433

Gill's ordination in 1719. Noble vehemently op-
posed the custom of laying on of hands, but he
preached the sermon on the day in question, although
the obnoxious custom was observed. He died in J
June, 1730, to the intense grief of his people, who
interred his remains in Southwark Park.

This period in the history of the denomination,
and of England, appears to have been one of those
calms which sometimes, in the national as in in-
dividual life, or in the political no less than in the
natural world, precede and follow change and com-
motion. Sir Robert Walpole controlled public af-
fairs. The country was quietly enjoying a term of
peace. The contemporary press represents the nation
as having reached a height of happiness above the
average, which sprang from a full tide of commer-
cial prosperity. If such pictures of England as she
existed a century and a half ago, are slightly
exaggerated, the colouring has tinges of truthful-
ness. Fifteen years had flown since the Pretender's
ill-fated adventure ; and while his English supporters
were growing fewer, His adherents on the Continent
were dying in exile. Old-fashioned opponents of
the Hanoverian succession were fast diminishing.
The Tories, or Jacobites, by a salutary experience,
were being taught something of reason. Trade
being good and money abundant, the consumption
of articles of luxury by the common people was
daily increasing. In this era, moreover, a new
page was turned in English literature, for a nota-

28



434 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

bility rose whose celebrity is even yet sustained,
although his career has far extended into the
second century of its duration. Our allusion is to
Sylvanus Urbon, who now took possession of St.
John's Gate, Clerkenwell, and published Number
One, price sixpence, of the Gentleman's Maga-
zine.

Noble's assistants were Samuel Wilson, who re-
moved to Goodman's Fields, and Peter Davenport,
the probable founder of the Church at Liverpool,
but about whom little only is known. The im-
mediate successor of John Noble was Samuel Dew,
a native of Michel Dean, in Gloucestershire. Of
an humble origin, his parents destined him for
nothing more pretentious than the stone-cutting
craft. While earning his bread by this latter occu-
pation, Dean's leisure hours were devoted to learning
a course in which he persevered until his minis-
trations became acceptable to a body of Christians
in his native town, and this led to his settlement
according to the Nonconformist order. His acces-
sion to the pulpit at East-cheap occurred in 1731.
As a country pastor, Dew pursued a course of use-
fulness and popularity, but to the more cultivated
members of a City audience his homely discourses
were not so acceptable, so that his followers were
chiefly partisans of the extreme Calvinistic school.
In 1*760 the congregation had sufficiently declined
to render unadvisable a renewal of the lease of the
chapel. The members dissolved their union, and



FOOTPRINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 435

while seme settled under Dr. Gill, others retired to
Devonshire-square.

The old meeting-house then passed through a few
more stages ominous of approaching demolition.
Among those who successively held possession were
the Swedenborgians and the German-Lutherans.
About seventy years ago the building was removed ;
not even a trace of the site it occupied is now
discoverable amid the surrounding commercial ac-
tivity.

Tallow-chandlers' Hall has some reminiscences
belonging to it separate from those already alluded
to. Elias, a son of Benjamin Keach, gathered a
congregation at Wapping, and after their pastor's
death, the people removed into the City and
assembled in the Tallow-melters' Hall. Thence they
migrated to Angel-alley, Whitechapel.

To turn aside into Thames-street is again to find
ourselves standing upon interesting historical ground.
Prior to the erection either of the Tower or London
Bridge, a battlemented wall protected the southern
boundary of the river a fortification which re-
mained intact till the encroaching waters under-
mined its foundations. In the reign of Henry the
Sixth the Warwick family possessed a mansion in
Thames-street the Earl having, as is supposed,
wrested the property from its rightful owner.

Here, in the olden time, and in the hall of the
Joiners' Company, a fraternity of Baptists congre-
gated. During its prosperity this society was one

28*



436 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

of the wealthiest in the denomination, but unfor-
tunately its history cannot be traced to its original
planting. The first pastor of whom any accounts
survive, is John Harris, who died in 1691, and who
was simultaneously assisted by two colleagues ; a fact
in itself testifying to the importance of the station.
This trio are found to have signed the Confession of
Faith of 1689.

Joseph Maisters, a native of Kingsdown, Somer-
set, appears as a preaching elder of this society.
He was born in the memorable November of 1640.
In his sixteenth year he entered Magdalen College,
but when at the Restoration, practices were intro-
duced among the Fellows which Maisters deemed
objectionable, he took up his quarters in Magdalen
Hall. As a penalty for Nonconformity, he was
refused his degree of Bachelor of Arts, although he
had fairly won that distinction. Disappointed,
though adhering to principle, he allied himself to
the Dissenters, and in 16 67, was ordained pastor
over a people both few and small, at Theobalds, in
Hertfordshire. The times were gloomy and dis-
heartening. Numberless annoyances and difficulties
springing from persecution had necessarily to be
endured and overcome. None but candidates of
the truest Christian type were then found seeking
admission to Nonconformist communion. Very
strong, therefore, was the uniting tie which bound a
persecuted pastor to a persecuted people ; the Church
at Theobalds being no singular example of the



FOOTPRINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 437

truth of this remark. When Maisters became in-
vited by the rich and influential company in Thames-
street to settle in London, no persuasives could
make him entirely forsake his rural followers. His
country hearers were received into communion at
Joiners' Hall, and on removing thither, the pastor "\
reserved one Sabbath in every month to minister to j
his Hertfordshire flock. The church soon after re-
moved into Pinners' Hall, and by permission of the
Independents the lease-holders held their services
on Sabbath afternoons. As a preacher, Maisters
enjoyed a fair reputation ; but he never ventured on
publishing a single piece. He died in 1717, and
lies in Bunhill-fields. Jeremiah Hunt, the Inde-
pendent minister at Pinners' Hall, celebrated the
pastor's memory and Christian attainments in an
appropriate funeral discourse. Maisters was a Cal-
vinist ; his eulogist was an Arian. Notwithstanding
so awkward a discrepancy, Crosby's complaisance
designates the latter " a shining light."

In the days of Thomas Eichardson, 1718-30,
who next succeeded, the Church removed to Devon-
shire- square. The last minister, Clendon Dawkes, a
native of Wellingborough, was a divine of con-
siderable learning, and of respectable powers. He
continued his pastorate until 1751, when, on account
of diminished numerical strength, this once pros-
perous society voluntarily dissolved its union, and
Dawkes settled at Hemel Hempstead, where, seven
years later, he died.



438 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

One other reminiscence of Thames-street may be
here introduced. In Elizabeth's reign the vicinity
was remarkable for its brewhouse, whence the citi-
zens chiefly derived their supplies of beer. This
institution stood at Broken Wharf. Near at hand
was an "ancient great hall," belonging to the City
Water Works of the sixteenth century. This
estate had formerly been the site of the Duke of
Norfolk's town mansion. Some footprints of the
Baptists are found here, for here preached Hanserd
Knollys. In 1691, he and his congregation left
the meeting-house to settle in Newgate-street, and
afterwards to find a home in Curriers' Hall.

When, after the Bartholomew massacre of 1572,
the Huguenot subjects of that royal assassin, Charles
the Ninth of France, sought an asylum in England,
a number of them settled in London, when the
citzens gave their colony the expressive sobriquet of
Petty France. This neighbourhood, the aspect of
which has been entirely changed by the formation of
new streets, occupied the area between Bishopsgate
and Moorfields. The thoroughfares of Petty France
w r ere interesting by reason of many sacred associations.
They contained the homes of many whom duty had
required to encounter the Papacy in the full vigour
of its treacherous power : that apostate church, whose
abettors, through being too meanly subtle to risk
honest controversy, or honourable war, have been
wont to promote their iniquitous designs by political
dissembling, assassination and priestcraft.



FOOTPRINTS OF THE BAPTISTS IN OLD LONDON. 439

Oil some uncertain site in Petty France stood a
meeting-house of the Baptist denomination. The
Church thus situated in the heart of the City, found
itself fully exposed to the persecution of the Restora-
tion. It formed one of the more conspicuous butts
whereat the Government aimed their vengeful shafts,
while manifesting their infallibility and hatred of
Dissent. The worshippers, who, in those dreary
days, attended meetings in Petty France, could
never calculate whether it would be their fortune
peaceably to separate, or whether they would
Be maimed, and carried away to prison. Their
services were often interrupted by military intruders,
Charles the Second's soldiers being experienced
adepts in the valorous exploits of destroying pews
and of frightening women. Apparently the accounts
of the earlier pastors in this district have perished ;
for the " very learned and judicious " William Collins
is the first of the list whom the somewhat capricious
Crosby deigns to mention. That honest historian
manifested predilections by no means singular, when
he preferred giving unreadable dissertations rather
than history ; for John Piggott, in a funeral sermon,
professed to give an account of Collins ; and, in
doing so, has taken considerable pains to multiply
words without knowledge, carefully omitting to
mention either the time or place of his subject's
birth. Some facts, however, are given by Crosby
who always interests us when he ceases arguing
from which we infer that Collins was a scion of



440 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

some considerable family. After receiving a superior
education, lie set off on his travels ; and in those
days, for a student to make a tour through Europe
the sequel to his college course, was quite uncom-
mon. While enjoying these perambulations, neither
theology nor general literature was neglected ; and in
philology and medical science his attainments were more
than respectable. From some of his high connections
there came alluring proffers of Anglican preferment ;
but such temptations were manfully repelled. On
returning to England, Collins entered the ranks of
Nonconformity. Difficulties vexed him as they
vexed others under similar circumstances. Now
his way is clouded by perplexity until the path of
duty is not clearly discoverable. One whole day is
set apart for seeking divine direction with fasting
and prayer. These exercises are scarcely concluded,
when there arrives what Collins' s simple faith accepts
as an answer to his heart's request a call to settle
in London from " The baptised Church in Petty
France." Only little besides the above is known
about this divine. Here he laboured, and here he
died. In addition to being an excellent philologist,
he inherited a natural capacity for extempore
preaching ; a practice which from time immemorial
has found high favour among the English Baptists.