The death of Frances Snooke (nee Seward)

In a 2015 thesis Experiencing smallpox in eighteenth-century England Rosemary A Leadbeater makes the following references to the death of Frances Snooke (nee Seward) in 1766.

After his wife’s smallpox diagnosis in 1766 William Snooke in Bourton, Gloucestershire recognised the importance of his role as communicator: ‘… I can’t be as cruel as not to acquaint You and D[ear]r Sister by this Post with our present mournful situation’. [Letter W. Snooke, Bourton, Gloucestershire to R. Hall, London (19 May 1766). All letters used from this collection were kindly transcribed and provided by Michael Rendell.] ...

William Snooke and his brother-in-law by marriage, Richard Hall of London, were unaware or unconcerned about the risks of infection through an intermediary. Snooke was unconcerned about the presence of his wife’s nine-year-old nephew, Francis (Hall’s son) in the infected household when his wife, Frances, had the disease in 1766.27 On the contrary, on the day before her death, and as Snooke actively cared for his wife he reported that his guest (Francis) was ‘in no way troublesome’ and ‘ … the little Rogue is now my Bedfellow’. It is possible that Francis had already had the disease in infancy with his older sister eight years earlier, although it was not noted in his father’s diary where other family illnesses were recorded. Snooke was a financier, operating a loan system among wealthy families, however, despite his influential connections, we do not know whether or not he was up-to-date on medical thinking on the risks of smallpox transmission. His correspondence contradicts the other testimonies above; inconsistencies such as these are not easy to explain but investigated more fully in the section on nursing. [Letter (24 May 1766)] ...

On Day 7 of her illness (see Table 5.1) Snooke wrote as follows:

My dear wife has had hardly any Sleep the last Night, this Morning threw up 2 or 3 times what she took; Vomiting is very difficult to the Dr Creature …. In her face ‘tis a small Sort and very thick, there most probably ‘twill be confluent; on her Breast ‘tis not so full, being a larger Sort, the same on her Arms and Legs. By tomorrow morning ‘tis that all will be out. She complains a little of her Throat … proves there are no dangerous Symptoms. [19 May 1766]

Frances Snooke was severely affected by pustules on her face, breast and limbs although she was termed as having ‘no dangerous symptoms’ within the same letter. Clearly, Snooke did not think that the disease was life-threatening and did not anticipate his wife’s death. He continued in the letter that a physician would be sent for, ‘If [my italics] the Dr pronounces her case dangerous’. On the day before her death he wrote that ‘the discouragements’ were yet considered to be ‘less than the encouragements’.[24 May 1766] In this case, Snooke was incorrect in thinking that his wife’s case was not severe. Perhaps he was aware of the work of Dr John Woodward, eminent physician and Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal College of Physicians who published regularly, including his State of Physick on the treatment of smallpox, in 1718.50 Woodward advised the importance of physicians and carers, ‘continually keep[ing] up the Hopes of the [smallpox] Patient’51 and Snooke’s optimistic commentary may have been coloured by this. However, he was unlikely to have been writing in the presence of his patient and it is supposed that he had no reason to be unrealistic about her condition; recovery from smallpox was thought likely even at this stage in the illness. ...

Within the text of the letter quoted above Snooke reports, ‘The Dr says her Lowness of Spirits today is the only unfavourable Circumstance’. [19 May 1766] For the Snookes, lowness of spirits was perceived to be the only dangerous symptom – and one which had been recognised by Diemerbroeck approximately 70 years earlier as ‘… an oppression of the heart with Melancholy’. Snooke was unaware of transmission of smallpox through third party but he and his doctor were conscious of the implications of a troubled state of mind in the smallpox patient, knowledge which shows that people possessed a range of attitudes which were informed by several sources. ...

A particularly revealing example of spousal sensitivity comes from William Snooke’s correspondence with his wife’s brother-in-law, offering an insight into the upheaval to normal life patterns when caring for a spouse. Snooke immersed himself and others in the care of his wife, Frances, when she developed smallpox in May 1766. Specially chosen women or trusted friends were called in as nurses; Mrs Peaks, Mary (a family friend) and Nurse Gladwin, who applied blisters to her back and arm and oversaw her vomiting and expectoration. (19 May 1766) The motive behind Snooke’s decision to involve nurses was based on his reflection that, although he had had the disease and presumed himself to be immune, the rest of the family should not risk infection by nursing her. After a period of five days a second physician, ‘who has been very successful in the Small Pox’ was summoned. (24 May 1766) Tabulating Snooke’s record of Frances’ symptoms shows that Snooke was an attentive husband and this delay was almost certainly due to Frances’ perceived improvement rather than negligence. Snooke was deeply and emotionally involved in his wife’s illness. In five letters written over a period of nine days, he uses terms of endearment on nine occasions, ‘my poor wife’ and ‘my afflicted dearest partner’ being the most expressive. Frances’ demeanour is referred to in every communication; Snooke observed and carefully reported on each symptom and change of mood. Table 5.1 illustrates the course of her illness. During the first three days Frances’ illness was believed to be a cold aggravated by menstruation and her husband was relieved when on Day Three ‘she has sweat, so that I think she is better’. When smallpox was diagnosed on Day Four, and as the disease ‘comes out rather thick’, the family was devastated. On Day Seven Snooke reported that a physician would be summoned if her condition was pronounced dangerous. Despite severe symptoms from Day Seven to Day Nine and ‘the very awful distressing sight’ of his wife by Day Nine, ‘blind and greatly swelld’, Frances was more cheerful and Snooke hopeful that her condition ‘begins to turn’. On Day Ten Snooke was optimistic that her condition would ‘turn’. Two days later, Snooke expected a recovery, possibly because the development of the critical stage coincided with Frances’s increased peaceability, a characteristic of smallpox later identified by Dixon in 1962. A physician from Tewksbury was summoned ‘very early’ on Day Eleven. He visited ‘before Dinner and staid all Night [evening]’, revisited early the following morning on Day Twelve ‘before 5’ and was due to return on the day she died.

Snooke had undertaken round-the-clock care once Frances’ illness had been identified as smallpox. In a letter to Richard and Eleanor Hall he wrote; Tho’ very poorly myself thro’ Distress and Fatigue (not being in bed ‘till near 1’o’clock this Morning, and up before 6 and not much sleep in that space) … my dear Wife has had hardly any Sleep the last Night, this Morning threw up 2 or 3 times what she took; Vomiting is very difficult to the Dr Creature. In this family Snooke adopted a pro-active role. This conclusion adds to previous studies; as Lisa Smith has shown, men were involved in decision-making and practical nursing care when their wives were sick. Although Snooke had appointed others to nurse his wife the responsibility of care, and of reporting on her condition, was his alone. Moreover, throughout the correspondence and as the illness intensified, his reactions changed. On the day of diagnosis Snooke was distraught and at that point made his first reference to the anticipation of divine intervention in curing his wife. He wrote;

Oh! My dear Br. and Sister, the Cause of my dear Wife’s Disorder too plainly appears to be the Small Pox – the Dr makes no doubt of it, … Our Distress is inconceivable. Pray remember her in your Prayers. May the Lord support the dr. Creature and carry her thro’ it. I’ll write again by the next Post.

Providence, or the will of God, was a powerful tool in helping families manage the practical care of smallpox sufferers, an aspect of care referred to in many of the sources. Snooke looked forward to ‘… the God of Mercy and Goodness’, ‘appear[ing] for my afflicted dearest Partner’ anticipating a recovery and concluding, ‘ … - Oh what a Blessing will [my italics] this be.’ However, three days later his distress and isolation were apparent. Although tired, he continued to write to his extended family with reports on his wife. As he wrote of her vomiting, lowness of spirits and severe pustulation the correspondence lacks continuity and becomes disjointed, displaying evidence of extreme stress. His wife’s lowness of spirits on this day may have influenced his own mental state. ‘Poorly’ through sleeplessness, ‘distress and fatigue’ he briefly discussed the health of his sister-in-law, modes of smallpox transmission, nursing arrangements for his wife, family immunity and the likelihood of calling a physician, all within a few lines of the same letter. Inside this narrative he also injected the phrase ‘pray write soon’, adding, ‘Your fervent Prayers and those of our Friends are earnestly desir’d’, reiterating his confidence in godly providence. Here he attempted to maintain a dialogue with other associates but due to physical and emotional exhaustion through nursing his wife he asked Richard Hall to act as amanuensis ‘… as I can’t write more than one letter’. At this point he changes his signature to ‘Your distress’d Br.’ Two days later and calling for ‘an Act of Friendship’ through their prayers he changed his signatory again to ‘Yr afflicted B[rothe]r’ and the following day, as his isolation overcame him, Snooke can ‘hardly bear such a long Silence’ as he wrote again on his wife’s condition. The correspondence represents a distressed husband who depended on his religious faith, extended family and friends for support and comfort. In contrast to the absence of emotional depth in the accounts of smallpox experiences from the ‘medical gaze’, his letters display the feelings experienced by a principal carer, which were compounded by his physical separation from his extended family. ...

Letters in the National Library of Wales

I was able to see the Calendar of Letters in the National Library mentioned elsewhere, today. The 201 letters (NLW MS 1207E) have been bound in a thick volume with an appropriate frontispiece. Divided between ministers and missionaries, the letters appear alphabetically by author. In some cases prints of the relevant men have been inserted at the appropriate point. It would be good to look at other letters in the volume.

I was easily able to locate the two Beddome letters and the one sent to him by John Reynolds in 1786 with regard to the Seward Fund. I hope to report on these three letters in due time. They are (in order of date)

1. Beddome to Henry Keen[e] (November 14, 15, 1772). Henry Keene (1726?-1797) was the leading deacon at Maze Pond, Southwark, where Beddome was once a member. He was a philanthropist and involved in the anti-slavery movement.

2. Reynolds to Beddome (December 12, 1786). John Reynolds (1730-1792) is mentioned elsewhere on this blog.

3. Beddome and his deacons to the Association meeting in Evesham (May 31, 1789)

Thayer Bequest

In an article in the Baptist Quarterly for October 1977 Harry Foreman has an article on Baptists and the charity school movement. There he says

In 1718 Sarah Thayer, of Dalston, Hackney, bequeathed £200 for the provision of a school in Stow-on-the-Wold. A schoolmistress was to teach poor female children who had either been born, or were living, in Stow to read and learn the "Assemblies" (that is, Presbyterian) catechism by heart. There is no indication as to whether this lady was a Baptist, nor is there any indication as to whether the children had to omit the offensive (to Baptists) 95th Article of the catechism. However, we do know that in 1782 the bequest was increased by £100 by Joseph Moore or Morse [Bengeworth], who was a Baptist, and who stipulated that the interest from this money was to be used by "the religious society or meeting" at Stow as the members thought fit. One of the trustees was Benjamin Beddome, Baptist minister at Bourton-on-the-Water, and it was decided that the money should be used towards the school's upkeep. We have no indication of the school's fortunes. (Beddome, of course, was also minister of Stow and usually preached there twice a month).

The next Baptist charity for educational purposes which has been discovered is that of Elizabeth Seward who, in 1753, left the proceeds from £400 South Sea Stock to Jacob Moore and every Particular Baptist minister of the Baptist church in Bengeworth, Worcestershire, for teaching poor children to read in schools at Badsey, near Evesham, Evesham itself (two schools), and in Bengeworth. By the time of the Charity Commissioners' Report in 1830, there was only one school open at Evesham and one in Bengeworth, where the mistress was appointed by the Baptist minister. No other details are known of the schools and no mention is made of them in the Worcester diocesan returns for the period from 1782 to 1806, although the presence of Baptists in Badsey, Bengeworth and Evesham is noted.

(Beddome was again a trustee for this charity which we have often mentioned).

The Seward Charity

In Volume 11 of the papers of the House of Commons (Reports of commissioners on charities 1831) these entries can be found on pp 502, 514

502

SEWARD'S CHARITY

Seward's Charity. Under the Will of Elizabeth Seward, dated 2d June 1753, of which see a further account under the head of Charities in the Borough of Evesham, the parish of Badsey is entitled to 6s. per month to be applied in paying for the teaching of poor children to read.

There is a schoolmistress in Badsey, appointed by a Baptist minister, of Evesham, who has the teaching of nine poor children of the parish, in consideration of such payment; she also takes day scholars from the parish at small weekly payments. She is said to do her duty diligently and carefully.

514

CONGREGATION OF PARTICULAR BAPTISTS IN COLE-STREET.

Elizabeth Seward's Charity. By certain clauses in the Will of Elizabeth Seward, bearing date 2d June 1753, and proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 6th February 1754, it was directed by her, that the interest and dividends of 350£ South Sea Stock, part of 2,000£ in the said fund, bequeathed by her to the several trustees named in her Will, should, after certain life interests therein given by her, be paid to each of every minister or teacher for the time being of the congregation of Protestant dissenters of the denomination of Particular Baptists, in Bengeworth, for so long as such congregation should continue in being, towards the maintenance of such minister or teacher; and it was by the said testatrix further directed, that her said trustees should from time to time pay the interest and dividends of 400/. South Sea Annuities, other part of her said 2,000£ South Sea Annuities, to Jacob Moore, during his life, and after his death to each and every succeeding minister or teacher of the said congregation of Bengeworth, to the intent that he and they should therewith or thereout pay for teaching poor children to read, whose parents were not able to pay for the same, of the place and schools of Badsey, near Evesham, two schools in Evesham, and one in Bengeworth aforesaid; viz. to pay 6s. per month to Badsey, and to the said three other schools 4s. per month each; and further, the said testatrix directed that her trustees should from time to time, and at all times thereafter, pay the interest or dividends of the sum of 400/. South Sea Annuities, other part of her said sum of 2,000/. South Sea Annuties, into the hands of every minister or teacher for the time being of the said congregation, to be by him or them paid for the support of monthly lectures in divinity, to be preached in Bengeworth aforesaid; viz. the sum of 8s. to be paid to the minister who should preach such lectures for every such lecture, and the sum of 12s. for the expense of entertaining the ministers who should attend every such lecture at friends' houses as they should agree to meet in.

The body of the trustees has been regularly kept up by new appointments, as vacancies have occurred.

The congregation intended to be benefited by the testatrix, for some time after her death, continued in existence at Bengeworth; but after a certain period of time a portion of that congregation separated from it, and established themselves at Mill Hill, at Evesham, the Bengeworth congregation still continuing there, till that also removed to Cole-street in Evesham in 1788, where it has ever since been in active existence, and so continues to be. Since the separation above alluded to, the ministers at Bengeworth and in Cole-street have uniformly received the benefit of this donation.

The interest of the 400/., which was to be paid to the minister of Bengeworth for teaching children to read, has regularly come to his hands, and has been employed for the purposes expressed in the will concerning the same.

There is a school at Bengeworth for teaching poor children, under the care of a schoolmistress, appointed by the minister of the congregation, and another under similar management at Evesham, towards the support of which schools this fund is applied. To the schoolmistress of the school at Bengeworth 2£ 12s is paid per annum; and to the school at Evesham 51£ 8s per annum; the two schools intended by the testatrix to have been established there having been consolidated.

The interest of the 400£. South Sea Annuities, assigned by the testatrix to a lecturer in divinity, is regularly paid. But the sum of 8 s. was found to be a very insufficient consideration for the duty required; and the present minister has thought it more conducive to the objects of the testatrix to procure a lecture to be preached in the chapel every two months, for which he pays the sum of 1/. 10s., making the amount paid to the preacher 9/. per annum, to which 3£ is added for his incidental expenses; from which it appears that the 12s. assigned monthly for the expense of entertaining the lecturer is accounted for.

Calendar of Letters 02

Letter 35

On (Tuesday) December 12, 1786, John Reynolds (1730-1792), London, wrote a letter to Bourton conveying the views of Dr (Samuel) Stennett on the distribution of money left for the poor by Mrs Seward. A side note shows the letter to have been passed on to Mr Reynolds' Church.

[John Reynolds, now aged 56, had followed Brine at Cripplegate. He was, of course, baptized at Bourton by Beddome, and in 1770 had received an honorary AM from Rhode Island. Mrs Seward, of course, is the great Baptist benefactor and friend of George Whitefield.]

The Snooke Diaries Preface

The husband of the descendant of William Snooke who transcribed the diaries has put in a two page intro as well as adding family trees at the end. The intro gives these details

29/09/1730 Snooke's birth date
16/01/1799 Date of Snooke's death
Pre-1752 Probably lived at Compton Abdale Rectory (sold to Lord Chedworth in 1768) some 5 or 6 miles west of Bourton.

16/01/1752 Came to live at the Manor House Bourton on the Water at the heart of the village (I understand that the original house was probably built c 1200 and was a residence of the Abbots of Evesham. It was rebuilt in the C16, then again in 1890 by Sir Guy Dawber and most recently in 1919.

He owned several farms in the Bourton area.

15/11/1743 Birth of sister Betsy

24/03/1745 Birth of sister Polly

11/06/1751 First marriage - to Frances Seward (1732-1766)

21/02/1753 Richard Hall of London marries Frances's sister Eleanor Seward (1733-1780) leading to relationship with him

04/06/1767 Snooke remarries - to Anne Snook (b 1742).

They have 5 or 6 daughters. Nancy dies young (07/12/1768-04/04/1773) dying by means of scalding bread and milk. Eliza goes on to marry Dr Nathaniel Stenson (of duct fame).

Descendants remain in the Manor House until 1928.

1768/69 Major changes to Manor House

Portraits exist apparently.

Richard Hall's three children also get mentions - Polly (1754) Patty (1756) and Franky (1757).

1775 - Bengeworth enclosures

Tantalisingly, he mentions that two other diaries are known to exist and are in Canada somewhere. (Apparently these diaries were subsequently lost in flood damage).

Seward House

Slightly tangential, this is from Berrow's Worcester Journal of Thursday March 10, 1763, and announces the disposal of Seward house some ten years after the death of Benjamin and Elizabeth. Their sons-in-law William Snooke and Richard Hall are mentioned at the end.

To be LETT, and Entered upon Immediately,

THE Dwelling-House of the late Benjamin Sheward, Esq; at Bengworth, in Worcestershire (a most agreeable Situation, and healthful Air) very near the Town of Evesham; consisting of a large handsome Stone Kitchen and Laundry, two Halls, two Parlours, five Bed Chambers, two Dressing-Rooms, a Drawing Room, and five Garrets, with two large Cellars, and other convenient Offices : The Whole being in very good Repair, and the Rooms neatly wainscoted : With a large Garden, and an Orchard well planted with the best of Fruit Trees - The River Avon runs at the Bottom of the Garden, and there is a large Stable, &c fit for any Gentleman.
For further Particulars enquire of William Snooke, Esq; at Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire; of Edward Sheward, Gent, at Evesham aforesaid; of Mr. Richard Hall, Hosier, in Red Lion Street, in the Borough, London; or of Mr. Joseph Sheward, in Bewdley.
N.B. The Worcester Stage goes almost by the House.

How to pronounce the name

Some are tempted to refer to Beddome as Bedd-o-me (making the o long). Rather it appears to be Bedd'm. This is partly conferred by the spelling of Beddome as "Bedham" in Elizabeth Seward's will. Also in Snooke's diaries he invariably refers to him as "Beddam".

Seward Will

In his History of the English Baptists Joseph Ivimey writes (1830) of the Baptist cause in Bengeworth where the pastor from 1728 was Jacob Mower. He says that about the year 1739 Benjamin Seward, Esq attended the ministry of Mr Mower, and on July 9, 1742, was baptised and became a church member. He and his wife, says Ivimey "were both of them singular ornaments to their profession. Mr Seward was a man of good natural abilities - he studied to do good, abounding in works of charity, and was eminent for his devotion. Some hymns composed by him are found in the Bristol Collection, having the initials B. S." He died in 1753, and on April 8 John Gill preached his funeral sermon (published in his Collection of Sermons and Tracts, vol. i. p 498). "The worthy widow of Mr Seward being desirous to leave a perpetual proof of the charitable disposition of her husband, in her last will, dated June 2, 1753, settled the interest of £4,550 for charitable purposes, naming seven Baptist ministers as trustees (of whom Mr. Mower was first mentioned), providing for the perpetual renewal of trustees as often as any of them shall die."
In a footnote Ivimey gives the details of Mrs Seward's will. Much of it is tangential to our interest but I have underlined the bits that are of particular interest to us.
The will of Mrs Elizabeth Seward, of Bengeworth, Worcestershire, widow, was executed June 2, 1753, in the presence of Isaac Woodman [Sutton in Elms near Leicester from c 1749, previously Warwick, 1740-1746], W Gibbons and W Gibbons Jn and proved at Doctors' Commons February 6, 1754.

She appointed the seven following Particular Baptist ministers her trustees: Jacob More (Mower), Bengeworth; Nathaniel Overbury Sn, Tetbury [d 1795]; John Overbury, Alcester [d 1764]; Philip Jones, Upton-upon-Severn [d 1771]; Benjamin Beddome, Bourton on the Water; Dr John Gill, Horsleydown, Southwark [1607-1771]; and William Anderson, Grafton street, St. Anne's, Westminster an associate of Gill's, d 1767. To them were left in trust, £2000 South Sea Stock, £2000 New South Sea Annuities and £550 Bank of England Stock. The way the yearly interest, dividends or produce of the said £4,550 were to be applied is set out by Ivimey with some footnotes.

1. The South Sea Stock towards the support and maintenance of the minister or teacher of the Particular Baptist congregations at the following places
Bengeworth, Worcestershire £350
Chadford Bottom, Gloucestershire 300
Henley-upon-Thames, Berkshire 300
Worcester 100
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire 100
King's Stanley, Gloucestershire 300
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire 100
Leominster, Herefordshire 200
Sheepshead, Leicestershire 200
Coat, Oxfordshire 50

Total £2000

A dreadful fire broke out at Bengeworth a few years afterwards, which consumed a number of houses, and the meeting-house with them. In 1760 it was rebuilt on the same foundation.

2. The New South Sea Annuities.
Towards the maintenance of the Particular Baptist minister at
Coat, Oxfordshire £50
To the relief of the poor of the Particular Baptist congregation in Grafton-street, St. Anne's, Westminster, to be distributed by the minister 100
To the relief of the poor of the Particular Baptist congregation at Horsleydown, to be distributed by the minister 100
Note In case either of the two last mentioned congregations shall not have a settled minister, the said interest is to be paid to the deacons till there shall be one.
To the Particular Baptist minister at Bengeworth, to pay for teaching poor children to read, whose parents are unable to pay for the same; at the school at Badsey, near Evesham, six shillings a month; and at two schools at Evesham, and one at Bengeworth, four shillings a month each 400
To the Particular Baptist minister at Bengeworth, to pay for the support of monthly lectures in Divinity to be preached there; viz Eight shillings to the minister who shall preach such lecture for every such lecture; and twelve shillings for the expense of entertaining the ministers who shall attend every such lecture at such friends' houses as they shall agree to meet in 400
To the elder of Evesham during his life. After his death, the interest or yearly produce to be paid to the ministers, pastors, or deacons, of the Particular Baptist congregations at Bourton-on-the-Water, Alcester, Leicester, and Kettering, for the relief of the poor of the said congregations 400
To William Tinkley, of Bengeworth, during life 150
Mary Hughes, of Evesham, ditto 100
Eliz Shaning, of ditto, ditto 100
Nancy, a poor woman of ditto ditto 60
Note After the death of these four persons, this interest to be equally divided between the trustees, in or near London, for their trouble.
To widow Hewitt, during life. After her death, to the minister of the Particular Baptist congregation at Beccles, Suffolk 100
To Mary Squires during life 60

Total £2000

Mr. Jacob Mower died July, 1764. During bis connexion with the church twenty-four persons were added to it . In the month of November following, the majority of the church and congregation invited Mr. Lawrence Butterworth [1741-1828] to settle with them. The meeting-house in Bengeworth becoming too small for the congregation, and the greater part residing in Evesham, they judged it prudent to erect a new meeting-house in that place: this was accomplished in 1788. Since Mr. Butterworth became the pastor there have been added, by baptism (1821), one hundred and eleven members; the present number of members is fifty-one. Mr Davis, a student from Stepney, was subsequently associated with him in the pastoral office. Mr. Butterworth died lately, at the advanced age of nearly ninety.

3. The Bank Of England Stock.
To Mary Squires during life £50
To Eliz Peake during life 150
Note After the death of Mary Squires and Eliz Peake, for the relief of such poor dissenting ministers in the country as my trustees shall think fit.
To Eliz Tandey during life. After her death to the minister of the Particular Baptist congregation at Crosby, Leicestershire, towards his support 50
Interest to lie unreceived till one of the trustees shall die. Then the new trustee to be paid £20 for his trouble. And so to every new trustee £20. In case of refusal or death, the surviving trustees to appoint new ones by a writing signed by them. Instead of trustees residing in the country, trustees residing in the country shall be appointed; and instead of trustees residing in London or Westminster, or their suburbs or liberties, trustees residing in London or Westminster, or their suburbs or liberties, shall be appointed. All new trustees to be ministers or teachers of Particular Baptist congregations. 300

Total £550

William Snooke and Richard Hall, her sons-in-law, were executors and residuary legatees.

Richard Hall 04

1780 started positively with Hall's son William being taken into the family business. Several versions of the next important and sad diary entry exist. In one Hall writes “11th January, 1780. O the affliction of this day. My very dear and affectionate wife departed after so short an illness as about six or seven hours, to my great grief and sorrow, having lived together in the conjugal state 27 years, all but 41 days. Blessed be the Lord”. Other members of the family confirm that “She was remarkable for her piety, an affectionate wife and tender parent”. She died from a stroke.
Buried in Bunhill Fields, January 18, Eleanor was interred alongside her father. To the original tombstone was added, “Underneath this tomb are also deposited the remains of Mrs. Eleanor Hall late the beloved wife of Mr. Richard Hall of London Bridge and daughter of the above named Benjamin Seward Esq.”
Hall appears to have started attending St Magnus at this time, becoming Church Warden. Bourton held attractions for him – though he never mentions what they were. He set off for the Manor House, June 16, staying with the recently widowed Mrs Snooke. His frequent mentions of Mrs Snooke might suggest he hoped to promote his cause with the wealthy widow. Maybe he tried suggests MR. He stayed a month and returned to London, July 20. Then, with no explanation, the entry for Thursday December 14 reads “This day entered into the Solemn and very important engagement of a second marriage with Betty Snooke”. Betty Snooke was not William Snooke's widow but his younger sister. Ominously, he continues “may it never lessen the Happiness of my Dear Children”.
Possibly Betty Snooke wavered, but MR says subsequent events suggest that a problem lay with Hall's children - perhaps the three, anxious to guard their Seward inheritance, thought it more appropriate that Richard should marry “an old widow” for companionship – one way past child-bearing! The diaries give the firm impression Hall's decision to re-marry was somewhat calculated but after about 10 years things slowly improved for Betty.
Reviewing events years later, Hall writes “The Lord in whose hands are all my times and ways, has suffered a further change to take place – my dear children being dissatisfied that we should continue to live together I removed to a small house at Bourton on the Water, where we slept the first night November 19th 1781.”
Not for them the grandeur of the Manor House – they moved into “a house opposite the New Inn” – rented from Mrs Snooke. Throughout October and into November they packed “to go into the Country” leaving November 7 and settling in on the 19th. “O that the Lord will be pleased to make this a peaceable and quiet dwelling”.
“December 28th – Mr, Mrs & Miss Palmer, Mrs Beddome, her Sons, Mr Boswell and Richard Boswell, Mrs Snooke and Sophy din’d. Very stormy with wind. Rain – our Parlour smoaked so I was oblig’d to put out the fire and dine without one. Had a fire made upstairs.” Fitting into a tiny house would have been a major upheaval – even more so when Anna, the first of two children, arrived March 15, 1782. Benjamin was born in 1787. He subsequently mused “The name Benjamin was probably given me from respect to the late Benjmn. Seward Esqre. and out of compliment to the Rev. Benjmn. Beddome, to whom my Father was much attached”.
Hall's first marriage had produced William Seward 14/9/1754 (married 1785, producing 8 children, 1786-1803); Martha 6/3/1756 (also married later in 1785, to Henry Griffith. They had 6 children, 1786-1794); Francis 26/12/1757 (married 1788. They had 4 children, William Snooke Hall being the only one to reach maturity, 1789-1793) and Frances 12/11/1758. The second marriage to Elizabeth Snooke (1743–1818) produced Anna Snooke Hall 15/3/1782 and Benjamin Snooke Hall 28/11/1787.

 MR has noted how a mark of Hall's esteem for his cousin, the poetess Anna Seward, was that he sent her the better oysters – those from Pyefleet at 4/3d a barrel. Friends of lesser importance (eg Beddome) had to make do with the cheaper ones from Colchester, costing 3/4d.
Beddome's death in 1795 obviously affected Hall. Writing 40 years later, his youngest son (Benjamin) mused “(I recall) the death of the Revd. Benjm. Beddome M.A. for 55 years the respected pastor of the Baptist Church at Bourton on the Water aged 78 years. This occurred September 3rd. I recollect his funeral which was on Sabbathday afternoon September 6th. My father and mother attended – the Revd. Benjmn Francis of Horseley preached the sermon to a crowded congregation from Phil. 1.21.”

Richard Hall 01

As mentioned, I've corresponded with a descendant of Richard Hall (1728-1801) who eventually became a member of Beddome's Bourton congregation. Hall was born in Red Lion Street, Southwark, March 4, 1729 (1728 he'd say). His Mother Ann (nee Kearse) was 25, having married Francis Hall two years earlier. They had no other children.
Red Lion Street is just off Borough High Street, which in turn leads straight to London Bridge - then an unfashionable but cheap place to live. Francis was a hosier and Richard followed him into the trade. MR says Hall Junior seems to have had a good education and always had books around him. Pilgrims Progress, Milton's works and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs are "among his well-thumbed favourites". Religious treatises figure large from an early age.

Hall later wrote "From a child I have small conscience of secret prayer and remember to have been extended thereto by my dear mother when very young, perhaps not more than that six or seven years old". His copy of Willison's Catechism (first published 1735) has the earliest version of his signature on the front page.
The family Bible was a 1578 Geneva Bible that MR still has. Hall had many Bibles – his favourite being an annotated Pasham’s Bible, which he mentions specifically in his will (printed by J W Pasham in London from 1776).
Throughout the 1730s Hall lived with his father "over the shop". MR suggests that at some stage the Halls' paths crossed those of the Sewards, particularly Benjamin, no doubt through the church they attended, where John Gill (1697-1771) was pastor from 1719. Further, like Francis, Benjamin was in his thirties, from a well-off family and had come to London to be apprenticed as a hosier. Seward and Eleanor Knapp had two daughters, Frances Seward (1732-1766) born when Hall was about 4 and Eleanor Seward (1733-1780). Eleanor senior died in child birth so the Seward girls were brought up back in Badsey and Bengeworth. MR is quite confident of trips there by the young Hall, laying a foundation for the later marriage to Elinor.
When Hall was 13 his mother died (April 17, 1741) aged 38. In less than 12 months his father remarried - a widow, Turner by name. Hall had a good relationship with her until her death, 1765.

Hall noted from this same period that "On February 3rd 1743 I was bound an apprentice to my father as a Hosier at Red Lion St in the Borough of Southwark". He was just short of 15. In one place his son wrote In noticing the events of the 1745 my father mentions my grandfather being convinced of biblical baptism and of his being baptized by Dr Gill at the Barbican. He also records the death of his grand mother Mrs. Rebecca Hall who died 23rd November, 1745 aged 77. It was to be another 20 years before Hall "gave in his experience" and was himself baptised. Meanwhile he collected printed versions of many of Gill's sermons, then had them bound up into his own book entitled "Miscellaneous Sermons". MR says Gill was a most influential figure throughout Richard’s formative years – indeed for the rest of his life. His was the teaching by which all other ministers would be judged.
At some stage in the 1740s Hall and Eleanor became childhood sweethearts. Her elder sister Frances had met and fallen for a certain William Snooke (1730-1779). Snooke was wealthier than Richard but the four became very close friends in the years ahead. The two couples were to marry within a short space of time with their families' full blessings. Snooke was orphaned while still in his teens, leaving him to look after his much younger sisters Elizabeth (b 1743) and Mary (b 1745) known as Polly. For a while they continued to live at Compton Abdale Abbey. He later sold the abbey to Lord Chedworth (1768), but by then had long removed to the Manor House, Bourton-on-the-Water, taking up residence with his new bride, January 27 1752. He brought his younger sisters to live with him, so his bride in effect inherited a ready-made family with two girls, 7 and 9.

Yet more on the Sewards

MR records this note from Richard Hall's diary

1766 May 25th died Frances my beloved sister in law of the smallpox. She had but recently visited us in London and on her return to Bourton fell ill and died in her 34th Year. He says that the actual exchange of letters between William Snooke and Richard Hall during the period of the illness (which by a remarkable providence he has been able to see) is most poignant. He suggests that the news of Frances’ illness must have come as dreadful shock to Hall and his wife as they had been entertaining the Snookes in London just days before. The letters start with Snooke commenting that Frances felt poorly during the journey back to Witney – that she was unable to come down to dinner, but had some bread in her wine and water, that she felt "feverish, with a weariness in her Limbs". He suspected she had caught a cold. But the next day he reports that it is smallpox and seeks their prayers. Daily updates follow. On May 24 a specialist comes from Tewkesbury. Snooke mentions Hall's son Francis (then 11) who was staying with them in Bourton and attended school there. Sadly, May 25 brings a letter from a mutual acquaintance, Mr Palmer, that Frances Snooke is dead.

Richard and Eleanor set off from London immediately to be at the funeral. The family put up a plaque in memory of Frances in the chapel at Bourton, where it can still be seen:

"In a vault beneath is deposited all that was mortal of Frances Snooke, wife of William Snooke of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gentleman. The immortal part dismiss’d about the dawning of the Sabbath, from a body perishing by that dreadful disease the small Pox. She was the eldest surviving Daughter of that eminent Christian Benjamin Seward of Bengeworth in the County of Worcester, Gentleman. In whom the Divine Graces planted in the best of soils, a most amiable sweetness of Temper sprung up and flourished And far wide diffused their fragrance. The daughter was the exact Portraiture of her much valued father Every Alliance to whom Was an Honour – a Blessing."

Snooke remarried the following year.

The Seward will can be accessed here.

More on the Sewards

Seeing this blog, a gentleman contacted me some while ago. He is a descendant of Richard Hall who was a member of Beddome's congregation for some time and, like William Snooke another member of the congregation, married a Seward daughter, Eleanor. (Snooke married Frances on June 11, 1751, in a memorable “double” – Frances' aunt Grace Seward (widow of the martyr William Seward) marrying Josiah Roberts on the same day in the same church.) The gentleman in question (MR) has done a lot of research on Hall using the notebooks and diaries he left.

He says that shortly after Richard's wedding to Eleanor Seward (1733-1780) at Badsey Church near Bengeworth, on February 21, 1753 the Hall and Seward families left for London. Richard then writes in his diary:

“I had scarcely entered into the Marriage state before I was called deeply to sympathise with my Partner in the unexpected Death of her worthy father. Mr [Benjamin] Seward and his wife [Elizabeth] had left Bengeworth after the time of my marriage in order to visit London, where he was seized of fever which terminated in his death March 30, 1753. His last words were “Sweet Jesus, Come! Come!” His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields burying ground in a vault which Bro. William and I had built for him.”
The epitaph was apparently written by Beddome and is on the tomb:

Whoever knew the man, with sweeping eyes
Must read his mournful epitaph
Here lies the tenderest husband Providence could send.
The kindest father and the warmest friend.
The scholar, Gentleman and Christian too
what more could Grace, what more could Nature do?
Sound was his judgment, just were all his ways.
Ever applauding yet not fond of praise.
With feet he trod the Heavenly road.
Here sleeps his body but his soul is with God

Benjamin Seward's wife (his second wife Elizabeth) remained in London until her death which occurred on January 29 1754 at the age of 58. Her remains were interred in the same vault. "Thus" Richard remarked in his diary “both left their house at Bengeworth and never returned it to it. Oh how wondrous are the ways of the Lord, but he gives no account of any of his matters.” As noted previously, in her will Elizabeth left the income from £4,550 to various Baptist causes. This charitable trust was to be overseen by seven Baptist ministers,
including the minister at Bengeworth, Dr John Gill and Beddome from Bourton. Richard Hall and William Snooke were the executors of the will – and also the residuary beneficiaries.

MR refers to the great financial effect the sudden demise of both Mr and Mrs Seward would have had upon Hall’s fortunes. He explains how in the 18th Century a single woman had extensive rights to own property – but those rights disappeared on marriage. In legal parlance when she became his wife Eleanor ceased to be a feme-sole and became a feme covert – under her husband’s protection, but equally, her husband’s property. It is highly likely that before Eleanor “entered into the married state”, Benjamin Seward would have paid a dowry – and in return Eleanor would have been granted a guaranteed “pension” in the event of Richard’s death. Any property owned by Eleanor became Richard’s on February 21, and anything she acquired after that date passed to him and not to her.

MR has seen a surviving letter from Frances Snooke (March 29 1765). It shows that Richard had been asked to let his son William, then 11, visit the Snooke family at Bourton. She writes "Thank you for your very acceptable letter – the more so as it gives us the agreeable prospect of seeing our Dear Billy so soon at Bourton. We think the journey and Country Air will be very serviceable to our Dear Nephew." The same letter contained words of comfort from Frances to her sister. "I am sorry you complain of such a dark and uncomfortable frame of Soul … you seem my dear Sister to have the desires of Faith tho’ you have not the Joys of it. It is a great Mercy to experience the former and a strong Encouragement to hope that in the Lord’s time you will possess the latter".

Elizabeth Seward

In his Baptist History on p526 John Mockett Crampton speaks about Anne Steele the hymn writer then says

Another lady, Mrs. ELIZABETH SEWARD, widow of Benjamin Seward, Esq, of Evesham, Worcestershire, bequeathed the sum of £4,550, the interest whereof was directed to be annually distributed among the ministers or the poor of several Baptist churches named in the will, in the proportions therein specified.

See here.

The Seward Connection

John Seward (b 1668) is described by Arnold Dallimore in his biography of Whitefield as ‘a country squire’. He and his wife Mary moved to Badsey, near Evesham, Worcestershire, in the late seventeenth century. They were Anglicans and had as many as seven sons. The large stone house that would be the family home for the next hundred years is still known as Seward House today [see pic].
Their most famous son was their fourth, William Seward (1702-1740), ‘the first martyr of Methodism’. In the 1720s he moved to London where he became a successful stockbroker. A religious man active in promoting charity schools, in 1738, following his wife’s death and a spiritual awakening, he met Charles Wesley at the Fetter Lane assembly. He was soon converted and became a generous financial supporter of Methodist causes, a source of some tension with his family and eventually some consternation to himself. He soon became a very close companion to George Whitefield. Dallimore speaks of ‘an exceptionally earnest Christian and a most faithful helper’ who ‘served the Lord with a flaming devotion’. In 1739 he accompanied Whitefield to Georgia as what the ODNB calls a 'fund-raiser, business co-ordinator, and publicist'. He organised printed support in England, including 'paid newspaper advertisements purporting to be news articles'. He did this on both sides of the Atlantic. He sent a poem to colonial newspapers, the first stanza of which ran

Whitefield, the great the pleasing Name,
Has all my soul possest,
For sure some Seraph from above
Inspires his Godlike Breast.(Trefeca MS 3174)

He returned to Britain in 1740, among other things, to raise funds for the Orphan House and negotiate with the Georgia trustees concerning several important matters, including urging the use of black slaves in the new colony.
He also began open-air evangelistic preaching, something for which he was probably not suited. Preaching with Hywel Harris in South Wales he encountered hostile crowds and was injured. Then, in the October, at Hay-on-Wye, he was heavily stoned by a violent mob. A few days later he died from a wound to the head. He is buried near Hay, in the village churchyard at Cusop. Dallimore commends his zeal but questions how much it was according to knowledge and speaks of his baneful influence on Whitefield. Seward died intestate and although he had provided for his only daughter, all the help he had previously been giving to Whitefield now suddenly dried up. The debt on the Georgia orphanage became something of an albatross around Whitefield’s neck.
Little is known of the second son Edward Seward. Two other brothers, Francis Seward (d 1732) and Thomas Seward (1708-1790. See ODNB) became Anglican ministers and remained unsympathetic to Methodism. In his journal John Wesley apparently speaks of Thomas as ‘pleasure- and preferment-seeking’. The eldest surviving brother, Henry Seward (b 1695, a yet older son John Seward died in 1728) married a Mary White of Wickhamford when he was 60 (1755), and, according to Tyerman’s biography of Whitefield, was a violent opponent of Methodism. In his journal, Charles Wesley describes threats and even actual physical violence from Henry during his brother Benjamin’s illness, the illness he sustained just prior to his conversion.

Benjamin Seward (d 1753), the sixth son, was converted after his brother William, having also been upright and religious beforehand. He had been an older contemporary of Charles Wesley at Westminster School. An intelligent man, he was a graduate of Balliol College, Cambridge. In his journal for April 1739, Whitefield writes about Benjamin’s earlier opposition to Methodism. He told Whitefield that he had once planned to write ‘against Mr Law’s enthusiastic notions in his Christian Perfection.’ Apparently his conversion followed a week in bed with fever. Besides the undoubted influence of his brother, ‘God sent a poor travelling woman, that came to sell straw toys, to instruct him in the nature of the second birth’. At this early stage he was set on entering the Anglican ministry but that did not happen. Whitefield saw him as a typical example of how far a man may go in religion and yet not be saved, remarks which he later had to defend to the Anglican hierarchy.
Both Benjamin and his wife Elizabeth went on to be members of the Baptist church at Bengeworth near Evesham, where John Beddome had once ministered. Even by August, 1739, when Charles Wesley visited Evesham and stayed with them, they had already come to a Particular Baptist persuasion. Wesley describes in his journal how Benjamin, unlike his wife, appeared sympathetic to the Arminian scheme – ‘polite’ would perhaps be more accurate. She, says Wesley, ‘refuses to see me,’ and ‘is miserably bigoted to the particular scheme’. He adds later
‘Here I cannot but observe the narrow spirit of those that hold particular redemption. I have had no disputes with them, yet they have me in abomination. Mrs Seward is irreconcilably angry with me; ‘for he offers Christ to all’. Her maids are of the same spirit; and their Baptist teacher insisted that I ought to have my gown stripped over my ear.
When Mr Seward, in my hearing, exhorted one of the maids to a concern for her salvation, she answered, ‘It was to no purpose; she could do nothing.’ The same answer he received from his daughter, of seven years old. See the genuine fruits of this blessed doctrine!’
Benjamin Seward was eventually baptised in 1742, his wife probably earlier.
One other thing to note about Benjamin is that he wrote at least one hymn. Six verses are quoted by Tyerman. It begins

Come blessed Jesus quickly come
And mark the bright celestial way
Within my breast erect thy throne
Nor let me fain through long delay.

In 1753 Benjamin and then Elizabeth Seward both died. John Gill was the preacher at Benjamin’s funeral. Gill spoke of him as 'a gentleman of fine natural parts and good sense; he had a peculiar sweetness of temper, scarce ever known to be ruffled, discomposed, fretful and impatient, upon any occasion; which singular good nature, as it is commonly called, adorned with the grace of God, set him in a most amiable light, and caused him to shine in a most pleasing manner to all that knew him.' His humility and generosity were also praised.
In her will Elizabeth devoted the proceeds of the settled interest of a sum of £4,550 to charitable purposes to benefit the ministers and the poor of various Baptist causes. This charitable trust was to be overseen by seven Baptist ministers, including the minister at Bengeworth, Jacob Mower; Dr John Gill and Benjamin Beddome. Beddome not only had fraternal links with the Bengeworth church but was a very good friend of the will’s two executors, Bourton residents Richard Hall and William Snooke. Hall and Snook were sons-in-law to Benjamin and Elizabeth Seward. Holmes refers to Sister Hardiman as one who, despite her behaviour, benefited from the Seward fund.
The Sewards had two daughters. We have previously indicated how Frances and Elinor, respectively, married William Snooke and Richard Hall and came to live in Bourton. In a fascinating anecdote written by Caroline Mary Griffith, in Bath, on June 6th, 1912, (found here) for a relative in Brisbane, Australia, she recalls a family story that says that 'the two friends, Richard Hall and William Snooke, were ‘gentlemen’, and rather eccentric ones, of Bourton on the Water. My aunt used to tell a story of some extraordinary arrangement they made between themselves, (based on the expectation that one sister, who was delicate, would die first), in order to keep the Seward property to which their wives were heiresses, from going out of the family. But the wrong sister died, with the result that the usual fate of the Griffiths in money matters happened, ie not much of the property came to that side of the family in (sic) which our great grandmother Martha Hall belonged.'
The arrangement sounds more like village gossip than a reliable fact but is interesting nevertheless. Martha was the first of three children born to Richard and Elinor, the other two being boys. The same article speaks of the Sewards as cultured and wealthy people and suggests correctly that Anna Seward, the poetess, was aunt to Elinor and Frances.
The Halls were not living in Bourton in 1764 although they were frequent visitors. In the archive at the Angus Library there is a letter from Beddome, dated February 18th, to ‘Richard Hall, hosier, of Red Lion Street, Southwark’. Written on a Saturday afternoon, this friendly letter asks Hall to purchase stock to the value of £100 and also mentions Mr Snooke. It has the greeting ‘to my good friend Mrs Hall’ and contains a hymn for her ‘By night, by day, at home, abroad’. Presumably Beddome had just completed it for singing the next day. The hymn is Hymn 498 in the posthumous hymnal.
The Snookes had four girls – Sophy, Eliza, Maria and Martha. Richard had two sons and a daughter. Following Elinor’s death in 1780, did Richard marry Martha Snooke, to whom Anna Nancy and Benjamin Snooke were born? Actually it was William Snooke's sister, Betty Snooke (1743–1818). Their son Richard was father to Benjamin Snooke Hall who became a member at Bourton and went on to minister at Burford in 1830, according to Holmes. He was a subscriber to the book of Beddome sermons published in 1825.
(Main sources: Journals of Charles Wesley and George Whitefield; Tyerman and Dallimore’s biographies of Whitefield; letter in Angus Library Archive. Online materials including this one)