On Tuesday June 13 Nathanael Rawlings (1733-1809) preached in Bourton from Luke 15:2. John Reynolds (1730-1792) had arrived from London. Beddome was, may be, not around then but he certainly was at the end of the week when he again received his old tutor from Bristol, Hugh Evans (1712-1781), who preached on the Sunday. Snooke stood in as clerk (or precentor) once again. Beddome and Evans joined the Snookes for pease and bacon and filet of veal followed by gooseberry pie. On the Monday, the Beddomes took tea (presumably in the afternoon) with the Reynolds. The next day Evans went to Coate (c 30 miles) with Thomas Dunscombe (1748-1811), the minister there. He had come to Beddome's on the Monday night. On the Thursday, Beddome headed off somewhere too. It is not clear from Snooke exactly where he went but we know from the diary of John Newton (1725-1807) that Beddome preached in Olney on Tuesday, June 27. (He would be in Olney again a year later for Sutcliff's ordination). He may well have gone to Chipping Norton too as, at their request, he had recommended Thomas Purdy (d 1802?) to them and it was on August 1 that they formed as a church being made up of 15 baptised at Hook Norton and three others. H Wheeler Robinson and E A Payne (British Baptists, 67) say that it was Beddome who drew up their covenant for them. Reynolds preached for Beddome on Sunday 5 and Dunscombe on July 2. It rained hard all that day but Dunscombe rode both ways, having hospitality from the Snookes (salmon and veal). Beddome was back for tea with Snooke the next day. (Presumably Beddome had been preaching in Coate as well as elsewhere). The Beddomes had tea with Mrs Palmer, Monday July 10. On the 16th “Jasper Bailey's maid” had gone home from the meeting and died of “a putrid fever” ie typhus. (Bailey himself is probably the clerk who himself died July 4, 1782). We know that Beddome's gout was in respite at this point.
Tuesday, August 1 was the double lecture at Bourton and the day before Daniel Turner (1710-1798) of Abingdon arrived with his wife (probably Anne Fanch his first wife but could be Mrs Lucas his second) in the post-chaise and two hours later Benjamin Francis (1734-1799) from Horsley on horseback. Both stayed at the Snookes. All the ministers (including Biggs, T Dunscombe, Turner, Francis and Beddome) dined with Snooke on the day. Beddome was at Snooke's for tea the day after as was Mrs B and Betsy and Snooke himself on August 16 at Mrs Boswell's. On August 27 Beddome again preached in Coate and Mr Dawson (Dore?) deputised for him. Both travelled to their destinations the night before.
On September 5 there was terrible thunder and on September 8, about 10.30, another earthquake. This is the one of which Richard Hall apparently wrote in his diary “after 10 o’clock at Night when at Bourton a Shock of Earthquake was felt. Mr Beddome felt the bed rise up three times. Felt at Oxford, Bath, Salisbury etc.” (John Newton wrote a hymn in response to this, beginning “Although on massy pillars built”).
On September 12 the Halls, who had been staying for just over three weeks with the Snookes, returned to London and Snooke and Beddome headed again for Bengeworth, arriving between 1 and 2 in the afternoon. Snooke says that Beddome preached the next day (1 Corinthians 15:1) and that John Ash (1724-1779) of Pershore, Thomas Skinner (1753-1795) of Towcester and Mr [John] Haydon (1714-1782) then of Tewkesbury were present. That evening, around 3 or 4 pm, they all left, Snooke and Beddome reaching Bourton around 8 pm. Ash and (Lawrence) Butterworth (1740-1828) went on to Chipping Norton, where Thomas Purdy (not to be confused with Thomas Purdy of Rye, Kent) was to be ordained the next day. [See above on the church. Purdy was there about two years before ordination]. Beddome went on Thursday, September 14 to the ordination and did not return until the following Monday, September 18. The preacher in Bourton on September 17 was 22 year old William Wilkins (1753-1812) from Cirencester, later to be very much part of the Beddome story. On September 27, Beddome preached at the double lecture in Abingdon with Biggar (ie James Biggs of Wantage fl 1740-1830). On September 29 Beddome joined with Snooke to celebrate the latter's forty-fifth birthday. They and others ate salmon, calf's head, partridges and boiled plum pudding. On September 30 Beddome was at his father-in-law's with Snooke and others.
On the first day of October Beddome preached in the morning and John Reynolds again in the afternoon. Mrs (Anne?) Beale (d Aug 11, 1811; wife of James, gentleman, d Feb 5, 1813) gave birth to a son that day. The Beddomes were at Mrs Palmer's on October 5. That day John Twinning's child died and was buried the next Sunday evening when Beddome again preached on 1 Corinthians 15:11 at both services, going to Stow in the afternoon. Snooke organised a harvest home supper on October 9 with over 80 present. On October 11 "Mr Dear of Cirencester" preached in Bourton (ie William Dore, d 1791, older brother of London minister James Dore).
Beddome had been in London that week and returned on October 14. He dined with the Snookes between meetings the next day, a Sunday. At this time there seems to have been a fever in Bourton and whooping cough and several died, including, on October 17, Joseph Beddome, probably the boy born in 1768. He is said to have died from “a Fever, Hooping Cough and cutting teeth”. He died around midnight and Beddome went the next day to Bristol, returning on the 19th. That day John Ryland (1723-1792) arrived home to Bourton. He preached on the Sunday taking texts that must have been a help to the Beddomes from Daniel 10:19 and 2 Samuel 30:6. Before he left Bourton, Ryland buried Nancy Clifford, probably a child. Snooke and a Mr Freeman accompanied Ryland as far as Stow, when he left the next day. On October 25 the deaths continued with the demise of Honor Charliot of a fever. Beddome spoke on Job 33:14. On October 27, it was Mrs Beale's lying in visit (the baby was born on October 1, a lying in could last up to two months) and the Beddomes and Snookes were there. On the Sunday, John Charliot was out after a long illness. Snooke gave him a gift of half a guinea.
On November 1 the Wednesday night meetings recommenced and Beddome spoke on Genesis 32:24. On the Sunday it was wet so Beddome did not go to Stow. Another child died of fever. It was very rainy the next Sunday too. The Beddomes and others managed to get to the Snookes for tea the next day, the first time in nine weeks. The fever and whooping cough problem continued and on the Sunday Beddome buried the eldest Herbert son, neither parent being present. He spoke from James 4:14 also referring to 1 Pet 4:3 and Rom 13:14.
On Monday November 20 Beddome took an axe intending to chop a block of wood. Sadly, he succeeded only in bruising himself by falling on it. This meant he was not able to be there on the Wednesday and so Snooke read a sermon on Proverbs 13:20. The sermon is said to be by "Dr George" but "Dr Doddridge" is probably intended. Charliot and William Palmer prayed. Beddome was well again by the Sunday and preached but there was no communion. Snooke notes the wedding on November 21 of Miss (Eliza) Lambert and William Hall of Arlington (Bibury). Snooke used "Mr Whitmore's chaise" to attend.
On Sunday December 3 Beddome preached in Bourton and Stow. There were further deaths from fever (Mary Palmer) and whooping cough (daughter of one William Hows). Both were buried on December 6. Yet more deaths followed. On December 5 Snooke noted the marriage of Nanny (Anne) daughter of William Palmer to a butcher from Stow (William Calydon). In Evesham (Bengeworth), 11 miles from Bourton, on December 13, Snooke heard a double lecture from James Butterworth (1755-1794) of Bromsgrove and a Mr Stainer, a drum-major in the Northamptonshire militia. There was “a very crowded Audience.
Back in Bourton, Snooke and the Beddomes drank tea with Boswell on December 16. The next day Beddome preached again from Acts 9:4, 5 but was not well enough to go to Stow or preach in the evening (William Palmer read a sermon instead). Snooke was also ill. Was it something they ate or a cold? Beddome spoke on the Wednesday (Genesis 32:28) but was a listener on the Sunday when Robert Redding (1755-1807), then a student at Bristol, spoke. Redding also spoke the following Sunday, the last day of the year, and preached on the Tuesday at Bourton and Stow. Thomas Dunscombe (1748-1811) of Coate spoke the next evening. Snooke tells us, amusingly, on the 31st, Redding “lost his watch yesterday – where he could not be certain”. And so a long and difficult year in Bourton came to a close.
NB In Beddome's Library is a volume called Christs gratious message from the throne of grace: to all the prisoners of hope or Confession of our faith, according to the order of the Gospel
Confession of ovr faith, according to the order of the Gospel
Further information: By Timothie Batt, physitian ie Batt, Timothy, 1613-1692.
It was published in London in 1644. Bound in blind tooled sheep it is signed by Beddome with the inscription: Benja Beddome ... 1775
