New Festschrift including essays on Beddome

“A deep spiritual well”: eighteenth-century Evangelicals & their legacy has just appeared. It is a collection of essays celebrating the academic achievements of historian Grant Gordon, whose research on key eighteenth-century Evangelicals such as John Newton, John Ryland Jr, David George, George Whitefield and John Wesley has opened up fresh avenues for understanding these men and their times. The essays especially focus on Ryland and his family and the English Particular Baptist community to which he belonged. A number of essays deal with slavery, the impact of the American Revolution on British North America, pastoral vision and race and touch on key issues of concern to the Rylands and to Newton. I noted in oparticular two essays on Beddome, one by Dr Haykin and one by Dr Yuta Seki. Both appear elsewhere in different forms but it is good to see our friend's name out there.

Beddome and Ryland

See here for this quotation

As a mentor Beddome "led him forward to the work of the ministry with the fostering hand of a wife and kind parent” (John Rippon, The Gentle Dismission of Saints from Earth to Heaven [London: Dilly, 1792], 37-38). As to their friendship, Beddome called Ryland his “dearest friend,” and the two kept in contact well after Ryland left Bourton-on-the-Water (Newman, Rylandiana, 137-39).

At Abingdon August 1746

We know from the diary of John Ryland that on one Sunday in August 1746 (7,14, 21 or 28) he preached for Beddome, while Beddome preached 30 miles east in Abingdon. This would be before Daniel Turner began his long ministry there, two years later.

Ryland's diary says

Mr Beddome at Abingdon

And Poor me to supply his Place here.

In the Morning my heart too dry and dull.

10 Eighteenth Century Baptist Hymn Writers

1. Anne Steele
2. Benjamin Beddome
3. Benjamin Francis
4. Benjamin Wallin
5. Daniel Turner
6. John Fawcett
7. John Rippon
8. John Ryland Jr
9. Robert Robinson
10. Samuel Medley

Ordination of John Ryland Sen

Ivimey says (Volume 4)

At Warwick, Mr. Ryland had often preached before September 21, 1746; and at that time the church unanimously invited him for twelve months. His ordination took place July 26, 1750. Mr. Brine [John Brine 1703-1765, High Calvinist pastor in Cripplegate, London] gave him a charge, which appears in his printed works. Mr. John Haydon, of Horsley, [1714-1782, later went on to Tewekesbury] preached to the people; Mr. Beddome, Mr. [John?] Overbury [1729-1764, pastor at Alcester], and Mr. [Thomas] Craner [1716-1773, then in Blunham, Bedfordhsire but who went on to pastor in London] prayed; and Mr. Ryland himself concluded 

Letter of Dismission for John Ryland from Bourton Church to that of Warwick.

“The church of Christ meeting at Bourton-on-the-Water, and Stow, in Gloucestershire, under the pastoral care of our beloved brother, Benjamin Beddome, to the church of Christ of the same faith and order meeting at Warwick, sendeth greeting.

“Dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus,

“As it was our happiness that God should raise up such a gift as our brother Ryland amongst us, so 'tis your privilege that you have enjoyed his ministry so long - had him restored after a threatening and dangerous illness (of the small-pox in April last) and are now likely to have him settled in office amongst you. For this purpose we dismiss him from his fellowship with us, and recommend him to you; assuring you that we think it our honour that we ever had such a member; and hoping that the God of all grace will still preserve to him that amiable character which he hath hitherto sustained. May you long be a mutual blessing one to another; and may you enjoy much of God and Christ under his ministrations! In return for such a gift, we desire, and think we have some claim to an interest in your prayers, who are

“Yours in the glorious Head of the Church, Christ Jesus,“

BENJAMIN BEDDOME, Pastor, [and eleven other names.]

Done in the church this 8th day of July, 1750, and signed by us in behalf of the whole.”

Beddome's journey from Bristol to Tewkesbury

This is the journey mentioned in the poem

Tewkesbury is 50 miles from Bristol, Tytherington 12 miles, Newport 19 miles,

Cambridge 24 miles and Gloucester 39 miles.

Poem to Ryland

In a book compiled by grandson Samuel Beddome and found in the Angus Library there is a printed poem preserved with the heading we have reproduced here. It must be from the early 1740s.

ORIGINAL POETIC EPISTLE

From the late REV. BEN. B - ME, to the late REV. JOHN RYLAND; written from Tewksbury, the Day after he had left Bristol, his friend Ryland having accompanied him about ten Miles from Town.

DEAR BROTHER, WHEN of your company bereft,

I turn'd a little to the left;

I spurr'd my mare, and made her go
Thro' thick and thin, thro' hail and snow:
But she (alas!) is aged grown,
As by her pace may well be known.
To Tethrington (Tytherington) I came at last,
At nine o'clock, or somewhat past;
Down by the fire I straightway sat,
Hoping the snow wou'd soon abate.
From head to foot (alas) wet thro',
I dry'd my coat, and stockings too.
I ate-and drank, and fed my, Horse:
(The charge was small, the diet coarse:)
But now an hour full expir'd,
And I with waiting almost tir'd;
I call'd to know what was to pay,
Then took my horse and rode away.
Large flakes of snow came down apace,
And still the wind was in my face:
With feet benumb'd and spirits down,
At length I came to Newport town
Then on I passed to Cambridge Inn
And there arrived wet to the skin
Again I drank, again I ate,
And gave my horse a little meat
Again I dry'd, then on I went,
Nor e'er repin'd at what I spent.
Still heavy clouds obscur'd the sky,
Now rains descended from on high.
I travell'd on, and thought of you,
And Bristol friends, and you know who;
Perhaps (said I) some of them see
The beating storm, and think of me.
Sometimes I wish'd that heav'nly grace
Might thus bedew our fallen race.
'The Lord' (said I) 'with gentle show'rs
Visit these barren souls of ours,
Till ev'ry plant of grace within
Be like the earth more fresh and green!'
At Gloster now did I arrive,
A quarter wanting just of five;
At Mrs Smith's I made some stay,
Tir'd with the labours of the day.
Such acts of kindness there I met,
'Twou'd be ungrateful to forget.
A welcome glass, some cheering tea,
I wish'd my RYLAND there with me;
If ever you to Gloster come,
I'd have you make that house your home.
But still to Tewkesbury I must go;
There's nought enduring here below;
And now the heav'ns more fair and bright
(At even tide there oft is light)
I took the hint and mounted straight
And got to Tewkesbury just at eight.
O thou e'er-availing Power above
Accept the tribute of my love.
O thine upholder of my ways
Now move my lips to grateful praise!
This night I've had a little sleep
And onwards am engag'd to keep.
The Lord be with you, my dear friend,
And me to those I know commend,
To parents dear be love expressed,
And then to Mrs Evans next
First read, then burn these doggerel lines.
But I must haste - day brightly shines.
Then think of me as I of you,
My dearest friend once more adieu.

Beddome on communion

The late Peter Naylor says in his book on Baptists and communion

That Beddome in earlier days had upheld restricted communion is shown by his exposition of the Baptist catechism, 'the proper subjects' of the ordinance of communion being 'they who have been baptized upon a personal Profession of their Faith in Jesus Christ and Repentance from Dead Works'. He asks: 'Are Baptized Believers proper subjects of this Ordinance? YES They that were baptized. But in later years Beddome shifted his position, his assistant, William Wilkins, appointed in 1777, introducing to the Lord's Table some who had been sprinkled in infancy. Furthermore, with John Collett Ryland (1723-92) at Northampton, Daniel Turner [1710-1798] at Abingdon and Robert Robinson [1735-1790] at Cambridge, Beddome tended to favour open membership.

Ryland's Memoranda

In 1773 (around August) John Ryland wrote to John Manning in Rhode Island, America, giving him a memoranda and some hints. He says there

1. The Calvinistical Baptist ministers in England and Wales are about 200; but I have given away my printed lists, and forgot to ask Mr Wallin for some more. Be so good as to mention it to him.

2. I cannot yet procure a complete list of the Independent ministers and churches. You know there are about 32 in London, and we have 12 or 14 in Northampton.

3. I suppose you know that it was Dr Stennett that procured an order from Government to put a stop to the oppression of the Baptists near Boston. I have not a perfect idea of that affair.

4. Two young men, of good parts and sound knowledge of the learned languages, and men of eloquence and piety, are lately come into the ministry from Mr Evan's academy in Bristol; namely, Mr Biggs, just going to be ordained over the Baptist church at Wantage, in Berkshire, and Mr Danscombe, at Coat in Oxfordshire, whose ordination is to be at tho same time. You will do well to mark them down as men of uncommon merit, worthy of your feathers in a year.

5. The sooner you send over a clear, short, printed account of your college, in its rise and present state, the better. I beg you would pay due and equal attention to our leading men, in presenting each with a copy, that no jealousy or pique against you may arise. You know our chief ministers. We have about 30 or 40 that can read Greek. Let not one be forgot. If you know not all of them, I will inform yon, or take the trouble of giving them a copy in your name.

6. As to your visit to old England, I shall be glad to see you, and will do you all the service I can; but I wish you to attach some more of our ministers to your interest by your pretty baubles first, and also let your account of the college come six months before you.

7. As to your worthy Mathematical Professor, I wish him all possible success; but I must not ...

CALVINISTIC BAPTIST MINISTERS IN ENGLAND WHO CAN READ THE GREEK TESTAMENT, ETC.

1. Samuel Stennett, DD

2. Benjamin Wallin

3. William Clark

4. John Reynolds

5. Abraham Booth

6. Dr. Gifford

(All London)

1. Hugh Evans

2. Caleb Evans

3. Mr Newton

(Bristol)

1. Benjamim Beddome, Bourton on the water, Gloucester.

2. John Ash, Pershore, Worcestershire.

3. Joshua Symmonds, of Bedford, who has lately altered his sentiments from Pedobaptist and honestly is come into and submitted to believer's baptism; for which he is abhorred and despised by the Independent ministers. Give him your best honors.

4. Daniel Turner Abingdon, Berkshire.

5. Mr Robinson of Cambridge.

6. Philip Gibbs of Plymouth.

7. Morgan Jones of Hampstead, Hertfordshire.

8. Samuel James of Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Now dying.

9. Isaac Woodman of Leicestershire.

10. John Brown of Kettering, Northamptonshire.

11. Biggs and Dunscombe; excellent scholars.

12. Robert Day, Wellington, Somersetshire.

13. Benjamin Fuller, Devizes.

14. John Poynting, Worcester.

15. John Oulton, of Rawden in Yorkshire.

16. John Fawcett, of Wainsgate, Yorkshire;  now keeps a seminary.

17. Joseph Jenkins.

18. Benjamin Davies, in Wales, keeps an academy at Abergavenny, about 10 pupils. Give him a feather.

19. Mr John Rippon, at Dr Gill's meeting-house.

20. Ryland, Sen.

21. Ryland, Jun.

Hayden 07a

On pages 89-92 Hayden looks at who went into the ministry through Beddome. We have a post on this here. He does add a little information.

1. Richard Haines - Hayden says his death was on May 17, 1767. He was baptised May 15, 1741. He gives the 1747 note about calling him. Haines pastored in Bradford-on-Avon 1750-1767. Hayden gives the note from the Bourton church book on his death mentioning a work started by him in Bath in 1755.

2. John Ryland Senior is only mentioned in passing.

3. Richard Strange (Stratton, Wiltshire). Not mentioned by Hayden.

4. John Reynolds (1730-1792). There is quite a bit on him. Hayden quotes the Bourton church book but can cast no light on the period before the call to Cripplegate 1766 and ordination, which involved Gill and Stennett, with Benjamin Wallin the preacher (no Bristol men involved). Hayden mentions the unfortunate accidental swallowing of his shirt studs that impaired his voice forever after. He mentions a friendship with former Bristol student John MacGowan and says that Reynolds one published sermon was a 1782 address to the annual meeting of the Bristol Education Society.

5. Nathanael Rawlings (1733-1809) was baptised March 24, 1750. Hayden gives some further background on this man who ministered in Trowbridge and Broughton (Broughton Gifford near Melksham or Borughton in Hampshire?).

6. William Wilkins. Hayden mentions Beddome's Bristol trained assistant from Horsely here.

7. Alexander Paine. Not mentioned by Hayden.

8. Thomas Coles, Beddome’s eventual successor. Not mentioned by Hayden.

Hayden 03

We have included the quote referring to Beddome from Ryland's diary, April 1 1745, before here

Hayden quotes it (page 76). He also includes (page 77) this very interesting extract from May 25, 1745, a Saturday,

... at 2 I rode with Mr Benja Beddome about 9 miles onward of his journey to Horsely, it was very wet. he told me substance of his sermon, Rev 19:8 .... He writes 5 sides 8vo - for a morning sermon and about half so much for an afternoon. Mr Benja Beddome told me the following texts to think up, viz. Jer 1:6, Job 36:22 - and he advis'd me to go to Jesus the great Prophet of the Church ...

Hayden 02

Hayden quotes from Rippon (pages 71, 72) who says on John Ryland (to quote Rippon himself)

Many years pastor of the Baptist Church at Northampton, was well known, and highly esteemed, by his acquaintance, both in London, which he often visited, and in most parts of the kingdom. He was born Oct 14, 1723. When a youth he was proverbially gay, and spent his early days in folly and sin: but in the spring of 1741, the Lord met with him in mercy, at a time of general awakening in the Baptist congregation at Bourton on the Water, then under the pastoral care of the Rev Benjamin Beddome, MA. when about 40 persons were brought under serious impressions at the same time Mr Beddome baptised him, Oct 14, 1741, (Hayden has Oct 2) received him into the church, and, observing an uncommon sprightliness in his genius and animated piety, gradually led him forward to the work of the ministry, with the fostering hand of a wise and kind parent; laying laying a plan, without his knowledge, for his going through a course of academical studies in the Baptist seminary at Bristol, then under the presidency of the Reverend Bernard Foskett.

When the intention was fully made known to Mr Ryland, he felt an unusual degree of concern and retlessness; as his private diary of that and of subsequent life sufficiently evinces.

Hayden quotes Ryland's diary

"At 6 went with Mr Benja Beddome towards Mr Thompson's and he told me what I had never before heard that I should go to Bourton for Mr Beddome and the church to prove me and if they thought me capable and worthy of the Ministerial work - to call me out - and then for Mr Foskett - (after I returned) to correct and instruct me in the composure of sermons"

Bourton called Ryland in the Spring of 1746.

Hayden 01

Bristol trained ministers who served in Midland Association churches (See footnote page 44).

John Ash (1724-1779) Pershore (followed Cooke)
Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795) Bourton
Edward Cooke (fl 1746-1770) Pershore
John Poynting (1719-1791) Worcester
Isaac Woodman (1715-1777) Warwick; Sutton in Elms, Leicester

Could add
Samuel Pearce (1766-1799) Birmingham
John Reynolds (1731-1792) Cirencester 1750-61, went on to London
John Ryland Jr (1723-1792) Warwick 1746-59, went on to Northampton
Elisha Smith (1754-1819) Campden and Shipston then Stow

Character and influence

There appears to be no portrait of Beddome in existence and no physical description of the man. We get some idea of his character from the description given by the scholarly and eloquent Robert Hall Junior (1764-1831) in his preface to the collected hymns. We should bear in mind, however, that this is a young man’s description of an eminent man of an older generation.
Hall speaks of his personal acquaintance with Beddome but he was only 31 when the latter died, there being an age gap of nearly 50 years. No doubt the input of Hall’s father, Robert Hall Senior (1728-1791) is significant. The Preface is simply signed R Hall, Leicester and it could possibly be the work of Richard Hall but the former suggestion seems far more likely. Hall was pastor at Harvey Lane, Leicester, 1806-1826. The frontispiece includes ‘Rev R Hall AM’ the same form used in his collected works. Hall gained his MA from King’s College, Aberdeen. The memoir with the works is by Olinthus Gregory, [see pic] mathematician and father-in-law to Samuel Beddome, Benjamin Beddome’s grandson.
'Mr Beddome was on many accounts an extraordinary person. His mind was cast in an original mould; his conceptions on every subject were eminently his own; and where the stamina were the same as other men’s, (as must often be the case with the most original thinkers) a peculiarity marked the mode of their exhibition .… Though he spent the principal part of his long life in a village retirement, he was eminent for his colloquial powers, in which he displayed the urbanity of the gentleman, and the erudition of the scholar, combined with a more copious vein of attic salt than any person it has been my lot to know.'
(Robert Hall, Recommendatory preface, Hymns adapted to public worship or family devotion, London, Burton & Briggs and Button & Son, 1818)
As for Beddome’s abiding influence, besides his later published hymns and sermons and his immediate influence on the Bourton congregation (Brooks, 63, ‘As a pastor Mr Beddome seems to have been no less excellent than as a preacher’) and beyond, there was that which came in the shape of men converted under his ministry who later became ministers themselves. As Derrick Holmes remarks (42) the extent of Beddome’s influence on each individual we are about to mention cannot be properly ascertained without more information than we presently have but he must have had some influence on each of the following.
Richard Haines from Burford was converted, shortly before Ryland, who we mentioned in an earlier post, in the 1741 awakening. He began to preach in 1747 and went on to pastor at Bradford-on-Avon from 1750. (The letter of dismissal is in the Bourton old church book, 43. See Appendix 12 in Holmes. Haines ministered at Bradford until his sudden but not wholly unexpected death, 1768. The final year was particularly blessed with some 24 being converted.)
John Ryland Senior became ‘a master preacher’ and ‘a giant in the land’. He was set apart to the ministry in 1746. Following studies in Bristol, he pastored the Castle Hill church, Warwick, where Beddome had once been a frequent visitor. In 1750 he moved to Northampton where he ministered with much success until retirement to Enfield, 1785, where he had a school originally begun in Warwick and carried on in Northampton. (Peter Naylor, John Collett Ryland (1723-1792), BPB 1, 200, 201)
There were several others. Richard Strange became pastor at Stratton, Wiltshire in 1752. Little is known of him. (Presumably he was son to deacon Joseph Strange, mentioned by Holmes, 60, 61. Was Nanny his sister? Cf fn 43).
John Reynolds (1730-1792) from Farmington, baptised in 1743 aged 14, studied in Bristol and for several years often deputised for Beddome. In this period his more settled ministry appears to have been at Cirencester, Cheltenham and Oxford. (Holmes, 46). In 1766 he became minister at Cripplegate, London. He succeeded High Calvinist John Brine (1703-1765) and is buried next to him in Bunhll Fields. Of Reynolds’ ministry The Baptist Register 1794-1797 says ‘Nothing very remarkable attended’ it but he had a marked ‘solicitude for the conversion of souls’, 44. Like Beddome and Ryland he was awarded an MA by the college in Providence, Rhode Island. His father, John Reynolds Senior, who died in 1758 was ‘the oracle of the town’. (Cf Holmes, 60, 61n).
We have mentioned Nathanael Rawlings, from Moreton-in-the-Marsh, baptised in 1750. Another Bristol student, he became pastor in Trowbridge in 1765. His call seems to have been a rather drawn out affair lasting from 1763-1766. He also seems to have had financial difficulties getting through college. See Holmes, 47-49. Rawlings ministered in Trowbridge, 1765-1771, when there was a disruption, and again from 1778 until his death, 1809.
Alexander Paine was a former Methodist preacher who joined the Bourton church in the Autumn of 1775, the same year that he was baptised at Fairford by Mr Davis. His name first came before the Bourton church in 1778 but there was no call until 1780, there clearly being some doubts over his suitability. The church at Bewdley considered calling him for some while but he eventually became minister at Bengeworth from November 1780. (One wonders if the Bengeworth congregation were better able to cope with the remaining Methodist traits in Paine).
Thomas Coles, Beddome’s eventual successor, was baptised and joined the church at the age of 15 or 16. He headed off to study at Bristol 10 days before Beddome died. He went on to gain an MA from the Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1800. He eventually succeeded Beddome the following year and pastored the church until 1840. (In the intervening period he turned down a call to Cannon Street, Birmingham and worked with Abraham Booth 1734-1806 at Prescott Street, London). His youth does not rule out Beddome’s influence. Even at the age of 11 he was taking extended notes of Beddome’s sermons and at 13 was reading them back at the midweek meeting (Cf Brooks, 82).