Getting to the Meeting House (AI)

Benjamin Beddome, who served as pastor of the Baptist church in Bourton-on-the-Water for over 50 years, lived a considerable distance from the chapel. He resided in a house about a mile away from the church, located along the Rissington Road. Historical accounts suggest that he would often walk to the chapel on Sunday mornings.

Beddome’s Sunday Routine

Walking to the Chapel

Walking was the most common mode of transportation for clergy and congregants in the 18th century, particularly in rural areas like Bourton-on-the-Water. Beddome's relatively short distance to the chapel made walking practical and allowed him time for contemplation or prayer as he prepared to lead worship.

The Scenic Route

The walk along the Rissington Road would have taken Beddome through the charming countryside and village surroundings, offering a peaceful and reflective start to his Sunday duties.

Occasional Use of Horse or Carriage

While walking was the norm, it's possible that in adverse weather or later in life, Beddome might have occasionally used a horse or a small carriage for convenience, though no specific records confirm this.

Spiritual Reflection During Travel

As a hymn writer and theologian, it’s plausible that the walk provided Beddome with inspiration for his hymns or sermons. His pastoral duties required much mental and spiritual preparation, and a walk through the tranquil landscape of Bourton would have been a fitting prelude to worship.

This simple routine reflects the modesty and dedication of Beddome's life and ministry, hallmarks of 18th-century Baptist pastors. His example would have resonated with his congregation, emphasizing humility and devotion.

What about a sedan chair? An interesting idea, but it seems unlikely given his circumstances and the context of rural Baptist life in 18th-century England.

Sedan Chairs in 18th-Century England

Primarily Urban Transport

Sedan chairs were most commonly used in urban areas by wealthy individuals, as streets in cities like London or Bath were often too narrow or muddy for carriages. They were less common in rural settings like Bourton-on-the-Water.

Cost and Maintenance

Employing a sedan chair required not only the chair itself but also the services of at least two chairmen to carry it. For a Baptist minister like Beddome, known for his humility and modest means, this would likely have been seen as an unnecessary expense.

Cultural Considerations

The Baptist tradition emphasized simplicity and equality, and such a display of comfort or status might have been viewed as at odds with the values of his congregation.

How Beddome Likely Travelled
Walking

Walking remains the most plausible mode of travel for Beddome. It was practical, cost-free, and aligned with the modest lifestyle expected of a Baptist minister.

Horse or Simple Conveyance

If physical infirmity or weather made walking difficult, he might have used a horse or a small, locally available cart.

Community Support

In small, tight-knit communities, congregants often assisted their ministers. If necessary, someone in the congregation might have offered Beddome a ride in a cart or carriage.

Conclusion

While sedan chairs were a feature of 18th-century transportation, they would have been an unusual choice for a rural Baptist minister like Benjamin Beddome. Walking, with occasional assistance from a horse or cart, better aligns with both the geographical and cultural realities of his time and position.

*

If Benjamin Beddome was invited to preach at Stow-on-the-Wold, a neighbouring town approximately 4-5 miles from Bourton-on-the-Water, the journey would likely have been more complex than his usual Sunday routine. In such cases, his mode of transport would have depended on practicalities like weather, terrain, and available resources.

Travelling to Stow-on-the-Wold

Walking

Walking was a common mode of travel even for longer distances in the 18th century, especially for those in rural areas. While a 4-5 mile journey might have taken about 1.5-2 hours on foot, Beddome was known for his pastoral dedication and might not have minded the walk.

The journey would involve hilly terrain as Stow is situated at a higher elevation, making walking more strenuous than his local walk to the Bourton chapel.

Horseback

Riding a horse was a practical and relatively fast way to travel such a distance. Horses were commonly used for rural travel, even among modest clergy, as they provided a balance between speed and cost-effectiveness.

Given Stow’s location on the Cotswold hills, a horse would have been particularly helpful for navigating the uphill paths.

Cart or Carriage

If the journey required carrying items (eg books or materials for preaching) or if Beddome was travelling with others, a cart or carriage might have been used. While less common for rural Baptist ministers, borrowing or renting a cart from a local farmer or congregant could have been an option.

Assistance from Congregants

In the spirit of Baptist community, members of either the Bourton or Stow congregations might have offered Beddome a ride. This mutual support was typical in small church communities.

Conclusion

If Benjamin Beddome travelled to preach in Stow, horseback would have been the most likely and practical option, balancing efficiency with the modesty expected of a Baptist minister. However, walking or relying on the assistance of congregants were also plausible, reflecting the communal and resourceful nature of his ministry.

Will of Joseph Morse Stow d 1782

... I Joseph Morse of Stow on the Wold ... gentleman ... weak in body ... My debts and funeral expenses are to be paid.

I give the following to Harry Collett of Stow, currier, Robert Hudson of Bampton, yeoman, and Richard Blizzard of Stow, gentleman:

My messuage etc in the Market Place in Stow now in the occupation of William Bristwell.

My messuage in Bampton now in the occupation of William Smith.

My messuage in Sheep St in Stow where I now dwell, with its yard, garden etcIn Trust for the following purposes:To take the rents etc of [all those properties] until Joseph Morse and John Morse, sons of my nephew Joseph Morse, reach age 21, applying them as directed [almost at the end].

When Joseph and John Morse reach 21:Re the [properties] in the Market Place in Stow and in Bampton, In Trust for Joseph Morse Jr and his heirs forever.

If Joseph dies before 21 without issue, In Trust for John Morse and his heirs forever.

If both die before 21 without issue, to permit William Freeman of Bath, currier, to receive the rents etc for life for his own benefit, and after his decease In Trust for Ebenezer Williams of Bampton, yeoman, and his wife and their heirs etc forever.

Re the [property] in Sheep Street in Stow, In Trust for John Morse and his heirs forever.

If John dies before 21 without issue, In Trust for Joseph Morse Jr and his heirs forever.

If both die before 21 without issue, to permit the above William Freeman to receive the rents etc for life for his own benefit, and after his decease In Trust for the above Ebenezer Williams and his wife and their heirs etc forever.

I give my messuage etc in Stow, now in the occupation of Stephen Minchin, to Sarah the daughter of my brother-in-law John Farmer of Bourton on the Water and her heirs forever.

I give my close with its buildings etc in Sheep St in Stow to my nephew John Fox of Stow, blacksmith,*  and his heirs forever, but charged with the payment of £20 to his sister Ann, wife of John Lait of Lew, as and when directed by my Executors so as to prevent her husband from squandering it all away, her receipts (without her husband and not withstanding her coverture) being sufficient discharges.

I give my farm lands etc in GLS Oddington to Robert Hudson of Bampton for life.

After his decease I give [the property] to his sister Jane Hudson for life.

After the decease of both Robert and Jane I give [the property] to Joseph Morse Jr and his heirs forever.

I give £100 to Benjamin Williams of Cote and Thomas Dunscombe, Ebenezer Williams, Thomas Combe and Robert Hudson of Bampton, In Trust to invest it in the public funds and apply the interest etc for the benefit, support and further encouragement of the Religious Society or Meeting at Cote as they think most fit and proper, to be a perpetual fund for that purpose.

[Appointment of replacement trustees if two or more die or refuse to act.]

I give £100 to the Rev Benjamin Bedoine? of Bourton on the Water, Samuel Rollins of GLS Moreton in Marsh, Josiah Hill and the above Harry Collett of Stow, In Trust for the Religious Society or Meeting at Stow as directed above for Cote I give £20 to Benjamin Bedome?

I give the following money legacies, to be paid within one year after my decease (without interest in the mean time) except that of Thomas Morse of Burscott which my Executors are to pay from time to time as they think most fit:£20 each to the Rev Mr Wilkins of Little Rissington and the Rev Thomas Dunscombe of Bampton.

£30 to my brother-in-law Giles Fox.

£30 to my niece Mary, wife of George Hinton of [BRK] Abingdon, also my mourning ring with the name of Hannah Moses.

£20 to my nephew John Nobes of Charney

£30 to my servant Mary Fisher over and above her wages.

£100 to my niece Mary Curtis.

£10 to James Hague of Dunnington to enable him to pay off his Note to the widow of the late Thomas Burford.

£20 to Samuel Fox Jr of Bourton, wheelwright.*

£20 to John Farmer of Bourton, cordwainer.

£10 to Richard Farmer of Stow, breeches maker.

£20 to Frances Taylor of Hampnett, and Whitfield's Sermons.

£20 to Ann, wife of John Hayward, formerly Ann Marshall.

£10 to Farmer Tilling of Tangley Farm.

£10 to Sarah, wife of John Twyning of Bourton.

£5 to the widow of William Jones of Stow.

£5 to James Horseman of Stow, hemp dresser.

£10 to Mary Mosely of Stow, spinster.

£10 to Mary Osmond of Stow, widow.

£5 each to my three faithful workmen Henry Jones, John Gardner and Thomas Arther of Stow.

£10 to Elizabeth Newman of Bampton, widow.

£10 to Hannah, wife of Benjamin Durbrich? of Clanfield.

£20 to Thomas Morse of Burscott.

£100 to Ann, wife of William Tanner of London, butcher.

To Alexander Payne, two volumes of Pool's Annotations, and £5 to his wife.

£30 to Hannah, daughter of my nephew Joseph Morse.

I give £10 to such of the poor of Stow as do not receive weekly relief from the parish, to be distributed immediately after my decease.

I give all my wearing apparel to the above John Morse.

I give £20 each to my Executors over and above all their costs, charges, trouble and expenses.

I give all the residue of my goods, chattels, money and securities for money, effects and all my other estate real and personal to the above Harry Collett, Robert Hudson and Richard Blizzard In Trust to apply [it], together with the rents etc of the above Trust Estates, towards the support, maintenance and education of the above Joseph Jr and John Morse until age 21, and for the better support and maintenance of Armando, wife of my nephew Joseph Morse, as they think most fit.

The surplus (if any) is be divided between Joseph Jr, John and Armando in such proportions as my Trustees think just and reasonable.

I appoint Richard Blizzard, Harry Collett and Robert Hudson joint Executors and Trustees ... revoking all former wills.

Witnesses William Macey, Burford; George Pritchard; An Corbett

Probate 19 Dec 1782 London (PCC) ... Richard Blizard als Blizzard, Harry Collett and Robert Hudson the Executors ...

* Possibly the brothers of William Fox, mentioned elsewhere on this blog

Getting to the meeting house

By consulting a map of 1748 reproduced elsewhere on this blog, it becomes clear that to walk to church Beddome would have left the manse and crossed the Windrush by means of one of four low stone bridges, presumably the most convenient one, almost next to the manse. On the other side of the Windrush, he would not turn west towards the parish church but east until he came to a left hand turn that would take him past William Snooke's grand house to the meeting house, opposite a piece of land owned by the Burfords.

If he was preaching in Stow that day, no doubt he would have saddled his horse, and this time not turned left but carried on to the nearby Roman Road, the Fosse Way, where he would have ridden north easterly the four miles or so, across the Eye and the Dikler, to Stow and the chapel on Sheep Street.

More on Stow

The entry in British History Online on Stow on the Wold under the heading Protestant Nonconformity includes this:

In the 1660's dissenters held open-air meetings near Stow and three inhabitants were fined for dissent, and in 1676 there were 55 nonconformists in the parish. The earliest known meeting house in Stow, licensed in 1690, belonged to the Friends, who had a community there by 1670. In the mid-18th century there were said to be 15 Quakers, or two families. Their meeting was in the 'Red Lion' yard, and although it was disused by 1850 and demolished in the early 20th century the graveyard adjoining it survived in 1961. There were then seven headstones of 1818–55, six for members of the Pegler family.

A newly built Baptist meeting house, off Sheep Street, was licensed in 1700 and one of the two dissenting preachers in Stow in 1715 was a Baptist. In 1735 there were 44 Baptists, who then ran a school and took out further licenses in 1736, 1765 and 1772. The minister's support was helped by a bequest of £100 in trust by Joseph Morse, by will dated 1782; his initials and his wife's are inscribed on the house next to the manse in Sheep Street. The father of George Payne (1781–1848), the Congregationalist divine, was Baptist minister in Stow in the late 18th century but earlier, and for the first quarter of the 19th century, the Baptists in Stow relied on ministers from Bourton-on-the-Water and Naunton. In 1851 there was a morning congregation of 200 and in 1852 a new chapel was built standing back from Sheep Street and approached through an archway beside the manse; it is of rubble, with long and short chamfered stone quoins, roundheaded windows, and a Welsh slate roof.

Stow and the Cotswolds after Beddome

Beddome lived in Slaughter before he married and moved to Bourton. It appears that he preached at Stow in the Wold twice a month for most of the time that he was minister at Bourton (from 1756?). People from all over the area would attend his ministry in Bourton.

In 1799 The Baptist Annual Register revealed that in 1792 Elisha Smith (1754-1819) had left Shipston on Stour, having an opportunity of fixing one S(amuel) Taylor in that place. He was ordained there quickly afterwards, but the pastorate did not last that long. Mr Read, who we have mentioned as for some time serving Bourton on the Water then came there.

On Beddome's death, Smith served Stow in the Wold, but found it hard to ride twenty miles and preach three times every Sabbath, and an opportunity offering of their procuring a stated minister, he left them to the care of brother (James) Rodway (d 1843), previously in Sierra Leone, who laboured among them with good acceptance.

Smith's removal from these two places, was not occasioned by want of reciprocal affection, but was all down to the plain indications of Providence. After leaving Stow, he divided his labours between (Chipping) Campden and Blockley. Interest there, though small, yielded him growing encouragement.

The Register also reported that religion was advancing in the vicinity more generally. It mentions a Mr (Joseph) Proctor, of Fleet Street, coming to Moreton in the Marsh, three miles from Smith and a Midland Association connectionthat went back to 1655. Proctor had fitted up at his own expense a place of worship, and sent down a worthy minister from Hoxton academy, John Mann, a namesake of one of the early ministers there. Mann's labours had been blessed. He also preached at Blockley, he and Smith getting on very well.

A place of worship had also been erected at Broadway, five miles distant, by a worthy independent brother. A James Dean had been ordained as pastor over the Baptist church at Chalford.

Richard Mosely 1746-1819

The Baptist Magazine of the time, reporting on the death of Richard Mosely, minister at Grittleton, six miles from Chippenham, Wiltshire, from 1776, mentions that his  "parents were members of the church at Bourton-on-the-Water, under the care of the venerable Benjamin Beddome". Mosely was born in Stow, Gloucestershire, June 12, 1746 and was baptized in 1762, joining the Baptist Church at Upton. Called to the ministry in 1774, he was ordained by his tutor Caleb Evans along with John Tommas and Benjamin Francis. He died August 12, 1819. The obituary drawing on a letter from a Mr Martin says he was "a very pious and laborious minister". (This Martin is perhaps the one mentioned in connection with Sheepshead as a source of Beddome hymn material).

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 Snooke Diaries

I made one of my little trips the other day. This time to the Gloucestershire Record Office in Gloucester, where they have transcripts of four diaries by William Snooke, esq. These diaries are for 1768, 1769 (though January-September has been excised from the original for some mysterious reason), 1774 and 1775. The diaries contain sparse comments on every day life and accounts.

I only had time to take notes from two and a half diaries so will have to return for the rest.

Most fascinating from our point of view are the references to Beddome and his family, especially the record of his texts Sunday by Sunday (except when Snooke is in London) and often in the week too. Initial observations are these

1. It appears to have been the Beddomes' practice to take tea at the Snookes on Mondays. Sometimes it was on another day or without Benjamin's presence or not at all.

2. Beddome, as we know, was a textual preacher but he often preached runs of sermons on a passage, such as a Psalm or part of Matthew 25.

3. He was not over fastidious about keeping such series to the right service, ie having started a morning series he might switch to the afternoon.

4. Sometimes funerals would take place with a sermon at the time of the regular worship.

5. There were meetings in the week. In the earlier diaries these take place on Fridays (Preparation day) but later move to a Wednesday.

6. The sacrament was observed usually once a month. There is no obvious pattern, however.

7. Two Sundays a month were Stow days when, presumably, there was also a service in Stow.

8. Beddome was the usual preacher unless he was away at the Association, in London, unwell or making room for another preacher.

9. The evidence for Snooke's regular payments to Beddome is here. It was £2 2 0 quarterly.

10. Snooke obviously loved preaching, being a regular hearer of Beddome and other preachers. He also bought and read sermons. He gave to beggars from time to time. He also went to plays and other entertainments in London and occasionally did the lottery. There is no strong evidence of rigid Sabbath keeping.

Hayden 04

Hayden has a section on Beddome (pages 80-92).

He suggests that he was involved in medical studies with Foskett (always writing prescriptions for people) first before switching to theology. Hayden calls him "witty and vivacious". He then gives the story, as found elsewhere on this blog, of Beddome's conversion, baptism, call and settling at Bourton. He gives the date for the building of the manse as early as 1741. He also mentions how early on the Stow church (23 members) officially disbanded and Beddome agreed to supply once a month with the Lord's Supper once a quarter.

He then spends some pages on the London call.

On page 87 he says that Beddome discovered Jonathan Edwards early on and may have been the one who introduced Ryland to him. The distinguishing marks of 1741 was in his Library by April 1742.

Referring to the church books, he mentions the strong Association involvement and visits from other ministers. As examples he mentions

July 12, 1752 Collection for Bro Whitewood of Reading

May 11, 1760 Collection for Bro Hall and Arnsby people

November 9, 1766 For fire in Montreal, Canada

June 3, 1770 For Joshua Andrews of Abergavenny (prompted by Joshua Thomas Leominster)

He also mentions fast days

June 18, 1756 French War

August 13, 1756 War and harvest

April 22, 1757 French War

November 13, 1776 American War

The last a recurring theme.