1775b

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

1768

We know from Brooks that although 1767 had been a good year, there were no baptisms in Bourton in 1768 (although we know from elsewhere that William and Henry Collett were baptised in Upper Slaughter). Other things went on, however, including a mild earthquake on Wednesday, December 21! The British Geological Survey describes it as “little-known”. It was felt fairly strongly in the Gloucester-Droitwich area and in Oxfordshire and as far east as Reading. The western limit was Stoke Edith, near Hereford; the north-south extent is obscure. In Gloucester many people ran from their houses, but in some parts of the city it was less noticeable.

January 1, 1768, was a Friday. Preparation day meetings should have taken place but there was snow so that did not happen. In fact, on the Sunday, a communion Sunday, it was so cold that the evening meeting was cancelled. The snow continued into the second Sunday of the year when, although both services in Bourton took place, the scheduled afternoon meeting at Stow was cancelled (twice a month an afternoon meeting was held at Stow).

As the weather improved various church members put on new year's entertainments at their homes (Richard Boswell, Beddome's father-in-law; Mr (Henry) Collett, Dr Paxford, Mr (Samuel) Palmer*). Which ones Beddome attended we do not know nor do we know how he celebrated turning 51 on January 23.

We do know, however, that Mrs Beddome had given birth to Joseph on December 9, 1767. Snooke, Boswell and Palmer paid her a visit on February 3, 1768. She had been unable to be at the first tea party for two months at Snooke's, where Beddome, Collett and Polly Palmer had come together the day before.

February was a better month weather-wise and on Sunday 14, Mrs B was able to borrow the Snooke sedan chair and go out for the first time in weeks. She remained at home when tea was served at the Snookes again the next day, though Beddome went. The same thing happened the next Monday too and on the last Monday of the month of that leap year they all gathered at the home of Mrs B's father, Richard Boswell.

On Sunday, February 19, Farmer Penny died. Beddome preached from Isaiah 40:8 at the funeral the following Wednesday. From February 27-March 1, a Thomas Skinner (d 1782) was around. He had tea with Beddome on Saturday, 27 and breakfast with him on Tuesday, March 1. Beddome and Skinner were also at Snooke's for tea on Sunday, when Skinner preached (2 John 5:4, John 10:27). This is not the Devonshire Skinner (1752-1795) who eventually ministered in Clipstone, Towcester (1783-93) and Newcastle and who first studied in Bristol but the minister of Alcester, 1766-1782. He was not actually ordained until September 7 of this year, 1768.

The rest of March was unremarkable, then Snooke was in London, Monday, March 28 – Wednesday, May 17.** (This was the day, apparently when Richard Haynes, over at Bradford on Avon suddenly died. Summing up his ministry many years later William Hawkins wrote that "He was ordained on the 25th April, 1750. He appears to have been sound in the faith and consistent in discipline. His ministry was greatly honoured for eighteen years, when he suddenly died, having been called from earth to heaven while at his dinner on the 17th May, 1768.") Snooke was back in time for the preparation day and the funeral of “Dame Collett” on the Sunday. Beddome preached from 2 Chronicles 24:15, 16.

The next day Beddome himself set out for the Association meetings in Bromsgrove. The distance is around 40 miles and he probably stopped overnight somewhere – perhaps in Alcester but not with Skinner who preached again at Bourton, Sunday May 29 (Rom 8:28, Luke 11:13). That day a Mr Cresser died, probably Jeremiah, a deacon and the father of a later deacon, Thomas Cresser (d February 25, 1808). Skinner set off back to Alcester early the next morning and Beddome was back by the evening. On June 2 Cresser was buried, Beddome preaching on Job 42:17. Four days later (June 6) there was a wedding. Ann Collett (1741-1811), twin of John, married James Beale of Stow. (They eventually had seven children altogether).

At the Association Beddome would have heard Benjamin Whitmore (pastor of Hook Norton 1754-1786) and John Poynting (1719-1791) of Worcester preach. He shared their sermons at the subsequent Friday meetings (Ephesians 2:5 and Psalm 102:16 respectively). The minister of Chipping Campden, the predecessor to Elisha Smith, was present on the latter occasion. (This would be David Davis),

July was difficult for Beddome. Although he preached on the first Sunday and part of the second, by the second service on July 10 he was very poorly with rheumatism and could not preach. Unusually he had not been able to write his own hymn on Matthew 25:31 that week either. By the following week he was well again for a communion Sunday. On Thursday July 21 he and Mrs B had tea at her father's with Snooke and others. That day Beddome Senior's successor at the Pithay church, John Tommas (1724-1800) arrived at the Beddomes (Snooke stabled his horse) and the next day the Beddomes were with Snooke for tea when Tommas preached on Psalm 73:25, leaving for Bristol early the next day. Beddome preached on the communion Sunday (July 24) but was again ill the next day when Snooke and others came for tea.

On Friday August 3 most of the Beddomes were at the Snookes with the Palmer family enjoying fresh fruit and on Monday August 22 and Thursday September 22 the Snookes visited Mrs B. At this time the Beddome children were 18, 12, 10, 5, 3 and nearly 8 months. Ten year old Foskett was not there on this occasion.

From Monday, September 26-Monday, October 13, Beddome went up to London. We do not know any details but, presumably, he preached on October 2 and 9, somewhere. In Bourton, either John Butterworth (1727-1808) from Coventry or, more likely, his brother Lawrence Butterworth (1741-1828) from Evesham and former member John Reynolds (1731-1792), then in London, stood in. Nathanael Rawlings (1733-1809), another former member, came up from Trowbridge for the meeting on Friday, October 7. Reynolds and Rawlings both arrived in Bourton on Tuesday October 4.

On Sunday October 17, Beddome shared his pulpit with John Martin (1741-1820), who had fairly recently gone to Sheepshead in Leicestershire.

The rest of the month and into November was more routine with more Monday teas at the Snookes. On Wednesday, November 16, John Poynting preached (Hosea 12:3,4a). Snooke says that on Sunday 27 he acted as clerk as Mr (Jasper) Bailey (d 4 July 1782) was ill. Clerk was apparently the term used for the precentor. December 25 fell on a Sunday in this year. Beddome preached in the morning on Mark 3:27 (No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house) and in the second service carried on with his series in Acts 16.

*The names Paxford and Palmer are illustrious as (according to Ivimey) Dr Paxford was the son of Thomas Paxford of nearby Clapton, of whom Calamy wrote "Though he was not bred a scholar, yet he had good natural parts, and preached and prayed well, and sometimes officiated for Mr (Anthony?) Palmer at Bourton-upon-the-water. After his ejectment, he became an Anabaptist and fell under some censures as to his morals; which I the rather take notice of, because of an intimation of Dr Walker's, as if some of the ejected were therefore passed by, because they were such as partiality itself could not speak well of." Mr Palmer, after mentioning the above adds, "Crosby has nothing more than this quotation from Calamy, except abuse of the Author for relating this last circumstance, which he does not attempt to disprove". Ivimey defends Paxford who was obviously held in high esteem in Bourton. Presumably the Palmers were connected to Anthony Palmer. Henry Collett was also of good nonconformist stock no doubt.
** In April Samuel Burford c 1726-1768, Pastor of Little Prescott Street, died. He was succeeded that same summer by Abraham Booth who had published his Reign of grace the April before.

Richard Hall 03

Sadly, there was division after Gill's death and his young successor John Rippon (1751-1836) was not liked by all. Hall's son later wrote “In consequence of a division in the Church on the death of their Minister my father's mind appears to have been very unhappy and for a time he was unsettled. Much animosity and contention existed in consequence of the majority of the Church choosing Mr. Rippon, (afterwards Doctor), who was ordained to the pastoral Office November 11th, 1773. My father was one of the minority who signed the protest against this step, and with that minority chose Mr. Button to be their pastor, for whom it appears that they built a new Place, but owing to some shyness between the members he discontinued his attendance and in 1776 was set aside by the Church”. (Exactly what this last sentence means is unclear. Button served faithfully at the new place in Dean Street for many, many years).
Hall, says MR, always viewed this as most ungenerous conduct on the church's part. He never forgave Rippon (who remained as pastor for 63 years all told). Cathcart's Baptist Encyclopedia (1881) says "When about twenty-one he became the successor of the great Dr. Gill, in London. Mr. Rippon had neither the talents nor the learning of his predecessor, but he was bold, witty, and ready in speech; his "preaching was lively, affectionate, and impressive; his administration of church affairs was marked by great prudence, and he soon became very popular."

MR suggests a more personal slant. He says that Rippon took a fancy to Hall’s daughter Martha – then just 16. Hall, MR suggests, was having no Devonshire hot-head messing with her affections! Spurned by the family, Rippon turned his attentions elsewhere and soon found an alternative bride.
Later family diaries recount: “On 20th August, 1776 my father was much pleased by the baptism of his beloved wife at Leominster by Mr. [ie Joshua] Thomas and on the 6th November, 1777 that pleasure was enhanced by his daughter (Martha) giving in her experience to the same Church and being baptized by the same minister on the 20th of the same month.” Such pleasure was short-lived because two years later daughter Martha went back to Rippon’s church! Hall was horrified and his relationship with his daughter deteriorated. He seems to have regarded her as something of a “wild child”. Matters improved in time but at some stage after 1785 (when she married) contact dwindled to the extent that they barely spoke or corresponded. For the last 10 years of his life they never met or wrote to each other. Hall was to die without resolving their differences.

Hall remained unmoved and carried his grudge against Rippon to the grave. The dislike was reciprocated – at Richard’s funeral Dr Rippon wrote a short eulogy, not, as was normal, praising the deceased for his fine qualities, but stating: “Mr Hall was certainly not distinguished among his religious connections for the felicity of his disposition but we are given to understand that he has left behind him the testimony of an affectionate husband a kind father and a sincere friend.”
Hall made his distaste for Rippon clear to all and sundry. A letter from a friend who was the Baptist Minister in Bedford dated February 16, 1773 reads: “… you complain in your letter you are like a sheep without a shepherd. May the great Head of the Church afford you support, relief, direction and consolation. But I always think it must dismay a humble minister to think of succeeding the great Dr Gill of precious memory.”
Hall refers to his sadness at matters being “very quarrelsome”. He was still attending Rippon’s services – and indeed having him round for tea – but matters were coming to a head and on August 16 he records “was at Church meeting. Very disagreeable disputes and contentions”. Later in the year (October 11) he records “Was at Church Meeting – things very confused. A protest against the proceedings delivered in – signed by 19 persons. Very fine day. Like Summer. Cool”. There is a reference to Rippon's ordination (November 11 – “to my great concern”).
In summer, 1774 Hall appears to have made a visit to Bourton, which he did from time to time. In 1775 he was there again and we read interestingly "1775 - Sept 8th – 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."
Then on January 16, 1799 Snooke died. Richard later wrote “After a short illness of about five days of a paralytic stroke departed my worthy friend and brother-in-law William Snooke Esq. aged 49. My dear wife and self went to Bourton on hearing of his illness but he died the day before we got here. We stayed the interment which was on the 17th.”
It must have been a huge blow to Richard says MR – William was all the things Richard was not – rumbustuous, charming, always laughing at his own mistakes. Richard, always pious and invoking the Lord, must have envied William his simple Faith, his generosity – and of course his enormous wealth!