A note on Thomas Coles and the Oxfordshire Association

On page 348 of Useful Learning, Anthony R Cross has a footnote on Thomas Coles, saying he came from Beddome's ( Bourton-on-the-Water) and entered the Bristol College in 1795, following his baptism at Shortwood and acceptance into membership in August that year. In October 1797 he went to Marischal College, Aberdeen, as a Dr Ward Scholar, where he completed his MA in April 1800. He became assistant to Abraham Booth at Prescott Street, London, and then was ordained at Bourton on 17 November 1801 as Beddome's successor (he says to see Ryland and James Hinton, The Duties and Supports of a Gospel Minister; and The Duties incumbent on a Christian Church.) In 1802 he was a prime mover in the establishment of 'An Association of Baptist Congregational Churches for Oxfordshire and the Counties adjacent," serving as its secretary from its founding to his death in 1840.

(Cross cites B S Hall, 'Memoir of the Late Rev. Thomas Coles;" Brooks, Pictures of the Past, 42, 69-70, 72-80, 82-101, 103-107, 108 and 111; Swaine, Faithful Men, 190-92; Tongue, Dr. John Warts Trust, 16-17 and 35; Ivimey, Histoty, IV, 469; and Whelan, Baptist Autographs, 369, as authorities).

In 1813, Coles preached to the Bristol Education Society, Advice to Students and Ministers, which indicates, among other things, the importance to him of the place of studying the scriptures for students and ministers.

So although Bourton was in the Midland Association all through Beddome's time, no doubt because the geographical focus of that grouping had changed, after his death they joined this new Oxfordshire focussed group, something perhaps anticipated by the double lecture in Beddome's own lifetime.

Thomas Coles

The Baptist Magazine for May 1841 includes an obituary of Thomas Coles by Benjamin Snook Hall. It begins

The memoirs of departed saints are ever dear to surviving relatives and friends; especially the records of Christian ministers whose labours have been abundantly blessed of God in the advancement of his cause; whilst such memorials are read with lively interest by the Christian family at large.

It is with emotions best known to those who have experienced the reciprocation of a David's and a Jonathan's affection, that the writer, after an uninterrupted friendship of thirty-five years, presents a sketch of the life of the late Mr Coles, who, for nearly forty years, honourably filled the pastoral office over the Baptist church at Bourton-on-the-Water.

Thomas was the youngest son of William and Mary Coles, both pious persons, who resided at the time of his birth, which took place August 31, 1779, at Rowell, in the parish of Hawling, near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. Before he had entered his second year, death deprived the family of its paternal head, which painful providence occasioned the removal of his widowed mother, with her children, to Bourton, in the spring of 1783. His early years were spent at different schools in the village, where he made considerable progress, but what most distinguished those years were the indications he gave of youthful piety. His mind, it appears, was frequently under serious impressions, and its bent and inclination directed to religion. From occasional entries in his pocket-book, we find that in the beginning of the year 1790, when under the age of eleven, he began to take somewhat extended notes of the sermons delivered by his universally revered and much beloved minister, the Rev Benjamin Beddome. This practice he continued for five years, and the last sermon thus taken down was the last the venerable pastor preached; August 23, 1795, from Hosea v. 6.

For three years prior to the death of Mr Beddome, this young disciple was accustomed to read at the weekly prayer-meetings, with much profit to those who attended, the fragments he had gathered from the rich stores of spiritual knowledge, which on the Sabbath had been publicly imparted. Nor was there anything forward, or assuming, in this. Those who knew him best, in after life, can readily conceive that he was actuated by the purest motives, and much encouraged in the undertaking by the desire of the friends, who were gratified by the correctness of his notes, and pleased to foster such hopeful appearances in one so young. On the 2nd of August, 1795, one month before the translation of the aged Elijah to his eternal reward, this youthful Elisha, on whom the mantle was wisely ordained by providence at a subsequent period to fall, gave in his experience to the Christian church.

Many pleasing extracts from the statement he delivered at that interesting period of his life, might be made did our limits admit. "Jane way's Token for Children," given him when a child, appears to have been very useful in producing a sense of his condition as a sinner; whilst he mentions "Erskine's Gospel Sonnets," and "Doddridge's Rise and Progress," as affording greater light in the discovery of his helplessness, and in leading him to embrace the only Way of salvation.

The following memorandum in the church book, written by Mr Beddome, and pinned to the final page of his entries in that book, where it has continued to the present time, will be read with interest, especially when we consider it was the last, and that in a few days afterwards the pastor was no more on earth.

"August 2, 1795. - Master Thomas Coles gave in his experience to the church, and was universally approved; on the 9th, at his own and the church's request, Mr Francis baptized him, with several others, at Shortwood, and he partook of the Lord's Supper there in the afternoon. His reception into the church at Bourton was recognized, and the right hand of fellowship given him on the 16th."

Coles was evidently a youth of much promise, the "love of Christ was shed abroad in his heart," and he felt its predominating influence. There appears to have been from his earliest years an expectation of entering the ministry, probably both on his own part and that of his friends. Whether he accustomed himself to any particular course of study at this time, beyond the continuation of his classical studies, under the late Rev Wm Wilkins, who kindly assisted him after his connexion with Mr Collett's school, and the diligent reading of religious works, in prospect of the ministry, it is not easy to ascertain. That he possessed an eager thirst for knowledge is apparent, from his manuscripts of early prose and verse composition, together with two or three common-place books, containing extracts from a considerable range of authors, chiefly religious, schemes of sermons, synopses, chronological notes, etc, etc, written in this year.

Many of his Christian friends had, it appears, often requested him to exercise his talents among them as a preacher, previously to his going to Bristol Academy; on one occasion only he complied; which he states was opposite to his inclination, feeling conscious of his youthfulness and inexperience.

Following the leadings of divine providence, and the advice of judicious friends, he entered the Academy on the 24th of August, 1795. This was a new era in his life. His diligence was great, and he highly prized the advantages which were afforded him. Dr Ryland was president, the Rev Joseph Hughes tutor; and such was the respect and affection they entertained for him, that they soon commenced a friendship with him on equal and intimate terms, which continued until death removed these valuable men. His first sermon was preached at Fishponds, Nov. 8, 1795, from Luke xv. 2.

The following extract from his journal, written at the close of this year, shows us, that his diversified studies and new associates had not weakened his regard to personal religion, or diverted his mind from the important object he had in view.

"I have this year added to my sins, and have had great additions to my mercies. Oh, were I sufficiently humbled for the one, and thankful for the other! I have made a profession of religion. Lord, enable me to 'walk as becometh the gospel of Christ,' with all well-pleasing. I have entered upon the work of the ministry; the Lord assist me in that great and arduous work."

In the summer vacation of 1796, Mr. Coles visited his mother and friends at Bourton, where he preached three times, and received from the ohurch its sanction to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation wherever providence might call him. Other places, in the neighbourhood and at a distance, were supplied by him.

The following year, an opportunity being afforded him of completing; his studies at Marischal College, Aberdeen, on Dr Ward's exhibition, he, with the advice of his tutors, and the approbation of the Committee, finally left Bristol the next recess.

Several months elapsed, previous to his departure for Scotland, which were profitably and usefully spent, part of the time at Battersea, with his attached friend, Mr Hughes, at whose ordination he was present on the 19th of June, and the remaining part at Bourton. His fervency and zeal in the extension of. the Redeemer's kingdom evidently burst forth during his stay at the latter place: hence, in a letter to a fellow-student, he says, "Think not, my friend, that 1 have at all forgotten or given up the idea of Tillage preaching in this neighbourhood. I came to Bourton, I think I may say, full of religion and the warmest desires for the spread of Christ's interests and kingdom; and I hope 1 have inflamed the hearts of many here. ... Affairs as to the church are, I trust, on the mending hand; but, oh, what a revival is there among the younger part! so many young men so frequently assembling in prayer and experience meetings, oh, it would do your soul good to see! and most of these brought within these two or three years past to the knowledge of the truth; some, more recently than this, who before were bigoted and openly reprobate. Blessed be my dear Saviour! among other instruments I hope he has used me. I mention these things to you, because I well know how you rejoice at any glad tidings of our Immanuel's kingdom.'

The period drawing near for the commencement of the session at Aberdeen, our friend preached his farewell sermon at Bourton, Sept. 24,1797, from Exodus xxxiii. 15; words truly descriptive of the feelings of his mind on leaving his beloved family and endeared Christian friends. He reached Aberdeen on the 20th of October, and immediately entered his new sphere of action and duty. Here he evidently experienced difficulties in carrying out the warmest wishes of his heart. This is apparent, from the following extract taken from his diary: "My situation at Aberdeen is in many respects a perilous one. Lord, preserve me. Oh, may I not become languid and cold. Keep my heart warm in thy cause; may I continually pray for the prosperity of religion throughout all the earth. May I be devising schemes for thy glory. Lord, teach me; and, if I can, may I be permitted to speak a word for my Saviour. 'His name is like ointment poured forth.'

The writer would not be doing justice to the memory of his friend were he not to notice the singleness of purpose Mr Coles maintained with reference to ministerial preparation, in the midst of the great variety of studies in a Scotch university; and the readiness he always showed, although much attached to his college pursuits, and anxious to continue them, even after he had graduated, to subordinate everything to his zeal for practical usefulness.

One of the plans he felt anxious to prosecute, was the spiritual instruction of the children whom he found grossly ignorant of divine things. In this " labour of love" he was much assisted by the late Mr Hey, of Bristol, who was then on a visit to Aberdeen. Arrangements were made for a public meeting of parents and children on the 31st of December, to whom an affectionate and judicious address was given, and the children who had arrived at the age of eight, invited to attend every sabbath evening, for the sole purpose of religious instruction. The children were to read, or repeat from memory, portions of scripture appointed the week before; questions followed tending to impress the mind as to the meaning of these portions: then, the shorter Catechism with proofs, a concise address, and the whole concluded with praise and prayer.

Another extract from his diary, written at this time, will show the fervour with which he entered on this arduous but successful undertaking: "Went with Mr. Hey to the Sunday school; opened it comfortably; many attended. God will bless it. Lord, give me ability for the great work; make me an instrument in converting some poor souls to thyself, and to thee shall be all the praise."

The benefits resulting were great, and clearly show that the great Head of the church took delight in the labours of his servant. In a letter to his mother he thus writes "Our sabbath evening schools flourish exceedingly, and increase in number. I trust they have been blessed to the real conversion of several children, as well as to the outward reformation of all. Last night I had I believe the sixth child, who came to me to converse about the great concerns of his soul, under deep anxiety of mind, saying, ' What must I do to be saved?'"

It must have been peculiarly delightful to the subject of tins memoir, on his visit to Scotland in 1821, on behalf of the Baptist Mission, to find the schools he had established when at college in a prosperous condition, and to hear of several instances of spiritual benefit arising from them of which he had not been previously acquainted.

Some of these children, subsequently, filled useful and important stations m society; one, at least, became a minister, and still lives to unfurl the banners of the cross in this country. etc, etc.

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.

How many baptised?

In his book Pictures of the past, Brooks says that, according to Thomas Coles, Beddome baptised 250 in 55 years, an average of 4.5 a year.

Ivimey on Beddome

In his History of the English Baptists (1830) Joseph Ivimey [1773-1834] writes in connection with Bourton on the Water:

Mr Benjamin Beddome was a most useful pastor of this church. He was a son of Mr John Beddome [1674-1757], one of the pastors of the church in the Pithay, Bristol, and was born at Henley, Satruday, January 23, 1717. He was baptised in London by Mr Samuel Wilson [1702-1750], of Prescott Street, in the year 1739; and by that church he was called to the work of the ministry. He spent some time as a student under Mr Bernard Foskett [c 1684-1758], of Bristol, and afterward was a student at the Independent Academy, Mile End, London. He went to Bourton in July, 1740, and was ordained September 23, 1743. Mr Foskett, his former tutor, gave the charge, founded upon 1 Tim iv 12 "Let no man despise thy youth" and Dr Joseph Stennett [1663-1713] preached to the church from Heb xiii 17 "Obey them that have the rule over you." Messrs Hayden, Cook and Fuller of Abingdon [ie John Haydon then of Tewkesbury 1714-1782, Edward Cooke of Pershore fl 1730-1770 and William Fuller 1671-1745] prayed; and Mr Foskett offered up the ordination prayer, with the laying on of hands by the pastors.
After the death of Mr Samuel Wilson he received some very pressing invitations to become his successor as pastor of that flourishing community. It was to his honour that his respect for his people led him to refuse this application. "If my people," said he, "would have consented to my removal (though I should have had much to sacrifice on account of the great affection I, bear to them, yet), I should then have made no scruple in accepting of your call; but as they absolutely refuse it, the will of the Lord be done. I am determined I will not violently rend myself from them; for I would rather honour God in a station much inferior to that in which he hath placed me, than to intrude myself into a higher without his direction."

Ivimey then quotes the baptist Register and adds

The selections from his manuscript sermons have been, within the few last years, printed in three volumes, as also a volume of excellent hymns. Mr Beddome was succeeded by the present pastor, Mr Thomas Coles [1779-1840], who was a member of the church.

Robert Coles Brother of Thomas

In the Baptist Magazine for 1862 there is under the heading "Recent death" an obituary for Mr Robert Coles who had died at Winston Мill, Gloucestershire, on March 30, 1862. Coles was born in 1773 at Ailworth Farm, near Naunton, Gloucestershire. His parents, we read, "were regular attendants upon the ministry of the Rev Benjamin Beddome, MA, of Bourton-on-the-Water; and though they removed when their son Robert was about four years old, to Rowell farm, near Winchcomb, and seven miles from Bourton, yet their places in the accustomed sanctuary were always filled at the Sabbath morning services. 'The word of the Lord was precious in those days,' and the eminent gifts of Mr Beddome were not unappreciated by them; for seventy years afterwards their son could speak with vivid recollections of the outline of the sermon, which was regularly brought home by his father on the Sunday morning, to be the subject of meditation and conversation through the rest of the day."
It goes on to speak of his conversion and his later involvement and interest in the progress of the gospel in the village of Arlington. A miller by trade he was also a deacon and a godly man.
It says that the early seeds sown "were watered when he himself frequented the house of God where the venerable Beddome now trembling with age and feebleness sat in his pulpit to teach and exhort, and still loved to unite the hearts and voices of his people in the hymn which, Sabbath after Sabbath, embodied the preacher's deepest feelings on the subject of the morning's sermon. In after years the hallowed spot was rendered yet more interesting by his own brother the Rev Thomas Coles AM being called to the pastorate as successor of Mr Beddome, at the beginning of the present century. By his brother's hands he was solemnly immersed in the stream which flows through the beautiful village of Bourton and although residing at ten miles distance was accustomed to attend there at the monthly celebration of the Lord's supper."

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).