Part 8 (1/2)
We have named John Barritt among the early Horncastle ministers. He was preaching on one occasion at Boston, when a band of roughs forced their way into the chapel and interrupted the service, driving some of the congregation away. He had, however, a more serious experience, from exposure to the roughness of the elements. He was riding to Boston, apparently by a somewhat circuitous route, and a violent storm arose at sea. When he was not far from the coast the sea bank gave way, the country was inundated, vessels were even carried some distance inland, Boston itself was deluged, and he might have been drowned, but that he managed to reach some high ground, and arrived safely at Sibsey.
About this date, we are told, the progress of Wesleyanism excited the jealousy of the clergy, not so tolerant as they are now, and a meeting was held at the Bull Hotel, Horncastle, at which it was argued that the ”spread of Methodism was one of the causes of the awful irreligion”
prevalent, that the ministers were ”raving enthusiasts, pretending to divine impulse, and thus obtained sway over the ignorant.”
John Barritt was re-appointed to Horncastle in 1801, as Superintendent, his colleagues being Thomas Rought, John Watson, and Squire Brackenbury as supernumerary, the latter was also, about this time, appointed head of the society in Spilsby. {68a} J. Barritt was grandfather of Robert Newton Barritt, who was very popular in Horncastle, 18821884. Wesley's characteristic advice to him had been ”When thou speakest of opinions, or modes of wors.h.i.+p, speak with coolness, but when thou speakest of Repentance, Faith and Holiness, then, if thou hast any zeal, show it!”
and to these principles he was ever true.
Other ministers of note at different periods were George Shadford, a name still surviving in the town; Charles Atmore, who wrote sundry Wesleyan hymns; Thomas Jackson, a great scholar, twice elected President of the National Conference; Digory Joll, grandfather of the present Mr. Watson Joll (to whom the writer owes much of the information here utilized); and to these we may add Benjamin Gregory, 1817; Robert Ramm and Robert Bryant, 1830; {68b} Bryant was called a ”son of thunder,” from his great energy.
In 1835 Leonard Posnet was a popular minister, not only in the town but in the country around, being much appreciated by the farmers from his intimate acquaintance with their avocation. He was followed (18381840) by Joseph Kipling, grandfather of the now well-known Rudyard Kipling.
Joseph Clapham was a faithful minister from 1843 to 1845, and was succeeded by (18451848) ”Father” Crookes, ”Preacher” Wood, and the ”saintly” Fowler, who was said to have made 900 converts.
Then followed Wright Shovelton, Martin Jubb, Peter Featherstone, Henry Richardson, and others, among whom it would be invidious to make distinctions. We may add that a famous missionary of this sect was Thomas Williams, son of John Williams, a cabinet maker of Horncastle, the latter being an active member of the Wesleyan Sunday School Committee.
His first wife, mother of the missionary, was Miss Hollingshead, who, with her mother, kept a girls' school, near the Bow Bridge. A _History of the Fiji Mission_, issued in 1858, says ”The good s.h.i.+p Triton sailed from England, Sep. 14, 1839, carrying out the Rev. T. Williams, and his wife, to Lakamba, Fiji.” They arrived there July 6, 1840. He there built a mission house and chapel, where he laboured several years, the mission growing in extent, until it was beyond his strength. In June, 1852, Mr. Moore was appointed as a colleague to relieve him of some of the work, but again his health broke down, and he was obliged to leave, after 13 years' hard labour, in July, 1853. He went to Australia and took various charges in that country, being chosen President of the Mission at Ballarat in 1873. He re-visited England in 1861, and again in 1881, returning to Ballarat, as a supernumerary, but still officiating.
The present writer well remembers the impression made by a lecture, given by Rev. T. Williams, at the Bull Hotel, Horncastle.
[Picture: Wesleyan Day Schools]
Among the latest ministers of note has been the Rev. John Percy, who gave up his charge as Superintendent in 1904, and was succeeded by the Rev. E.
Hayward, who left Horncastle on Thursday, Aug. 29, 1907, for work at Bridlington; he was succeeded by Rev. John Turner, of Colchester, who was 6 years ago in Louth Circuit, {70a} the Rev. G. German Brown continuing as a.s.sistant. He was succeeded by the Rev. M. Philipson, B.A., coming, with his wife, since deceased (March 14, 1906), from Stanley, near Durham, where they were the recipients of valuable presents on their departure.
In recent years no member of the society has been more valued than the late octogenarian, Mr. John Rivett, J.P., who died Sept 4, 1906. For nearly 70 years he was a generous supporter of the cause; he represented the district at no less than 13 Conferences, in various parts of the country, and at the Leeds Conference, in 1882, he spoke for an hour and a quarter in advocacy of its principles. Mr. Henry Lunn, of Horncastle and West Ashby, is also well known, as, for many years, an able local lay preacher and practical man of business; he was a representative at Conferences in London and at Burslem.
Of the buildings in Horncastle, connected with this society, we have gathered the following details. As already stated the first chapel was erected in Cagthorpe about the year 1786. It stood a few yards to the north of the present Baptist place of wors.h.i.+p, which is close to the north-west corner of the Wong. The early history of this first erection is little known, but a letter written by Rev. T. Williams of Ballarat, dated May 10, 1889, to the late Mr. W. Pacy, states that, after some years, it was replaced by a larger building, of which the dimensions are elsewhere given, as being length 54-ft., by width 36-ft., with 4 large windows, having pointed heads, on the north side, and single windows on the south and west; a small porch at the south-east corner, facing the Baptist Chapel, giving entrance to the body and galleries; a door at the south-west end for the use of the minister, opening near the pulpit, which was at the west end; the eastern gable being the roadway boundary.
Of these ”pointed” windows the Rev. T. Williams says, ”the lancet windows, with quarry panes, were a whim of Mr. Griggs Lunn and of my father. Of this building some remains are still visible, to the height of about 3 feet, in the south wall of Mr. Scholey's garden, about 50 yards to the north of the Baptist Chapel. Towards its erection a number of masons, joiners, and others, who could not afford subscriptions, gave their labours gratuitously. Two houses for ministers were also built close by.
In 1836 a third chapel was begun, on a new site in Union Street (now Queen Street), and was opened on Good Friday in the following year, the interior fittings being transferred from the second building in Cagthorpe.
In 1866 a movement was commenced, with a view to the erection of a still larger chapel, and the present fine building was the result; opened in 1869, with accommodation for over 1,000 persons (1024), at a cost of 5,876. {70b} The Sunday School adjoining, with large cla.s.s rooms and infant school being built in 1875, at a further outlay of 2,578. The fittings of the chapel are of stained polished deal, the gallery front and pulpit are white, picked out with gold, the latter standing upon 4 round-headed arches of light and graceful design. A new organ was erected soon after the opening of this chapel, at a cost of 300, and in 1883 the instrument was enlarged and improved.
In 1886 the Centenary of Wesleyanism was celebrated and the occasion was marked by a strenuous effort to clear off the debt from the Horncastle Circuit. This effort was supplemented by ”Ye olde Englyshe Fayre, houlden in ye Exchange Hall, Nov. 20, 21 and 22, MDCCCLx.x.xVIII;” and at a tea gathering on March 12, 1889, it was stated that the original debt had, in the previous two years, been reduced to 60, and since then the whole had been cleared off, the exact sum raised being 1,526 2s. 4d.; while, as an evidence of the general prosperity of the Society, the Chairman stated that in the last 24 years debts had, throughout the country, been paid to the total amount of no less than 1,226,245. {71a}
In 1860 a former foundry show room, in Foundry Street, built by the late Mr. Tupholme, was acquired through the generosity of Mr. J. Rivett, to be used as a mixed day school; it had one large general room, four cla.s.srooms, and two large yards, and afforded accommodation for more than 400 scholars. The premises cost 450, but before the school was opened some 1,300 had been spent in adapting them to educational purposes.
This has now been superceded by an even more commodious building in Cagthorpe, on the south branch of the ca.n.a.l, at the corner near the Bow Bridge, opposite St. Mary's Square, at a cost of 2,500. It has a very large room for a mixed school, another for an infant school, with cla.s.srooms and everything required, in accordance with the latest conditions by Act of Parliament. The foundation stone was laid June 22, 1904, and the school was formally opened Jan. 4, 1905.
A Young Men's Inst.i.tute was established in the beginning of 1889, by the Rev. G. White, then Superintendent Minister, for which the cla.s.sroom of the Sunday School was to be available for their use, every evening except Sunday, supplied with daily papers, magazines, &c.; cla.s.ses also being held for the consideration of important subjects and for mutual improvement; these are still continued. There is also a Wesley Guild, which meets every Friday evening, in the band room, Queen Street, at 8 o'clock, during the winter months, and on the first Friday evening in the month during the summer. Marriages are celebrated in this chapel. {71b}
THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS.
We have given an account of the rise and progress of Wesleyanism, but, as that society eventually made a complete separation from the Church of England, of which its founder remained through life an ordained minister and communicant, so the seeds of disruption spread in itself. At different periods it threw out off-shoots, amounting in all to some eight different daughter societies; such as those which are named ”The Original Connection,” ”The New Connection,” ”The Primitive Methodists,” &c. Of these the last alone is represented in Horncastle. More than 50 years ago {71c} the Primitives had, in this country, 2,871 places of wors.h.i.+p, with 369,216 sittings; with the exception of the ”Original Connection,”
none of the other off-shoots had then as many as 100,000 sittings.
In Horncastle the first chapel, opened in 1821, was a small building, situated on the left side of what is now Watermill Yard, to the north of the town. This proving too small for the growing congregation, a larger structure, an oblong building, with front gable at the east end and a gallery, was erected in 1837; the minister's house being at the west end.
This was about half way up Watermill Road, on the north side, now a stable, but still retaining a pointed window. This building was of the date of the superintendency of the Rev. John Butcher. The residence was found to be too damp to be comfortable, and a house was taken for him in Prospect Street. In the early days of this chapel Mary Crossley, a Revivalist, occasionally preached here. Possibly the services at this time were rather too demonstrative, as they were not unfrequently interrupted by roughs, and the sect acquired the name of ”The Ranters.”
{72} An amusing anecdote is related of Mr. Butcher; he was a somewhat eccentric character, and in the discharge of his intinerant ministrations he usually rode on a donkey, sometimes accompanied by her foal; and a waggish pa.s.ser-by on the road is said, on one occasion, to have saluted them with the greeting ”Good morning, ye three,” adding _sotto voce_, ”donkeys.”
After a few years this second chapel was found lacking in accommodation and a third building, the present edifice, was erected in Prospect Street, in the year 1853, with sittings for 380, at a cost of about 1,100. As this is a substantial structure, likely to last for many years, we may here describe it. It is of red brick, except the arch of the western door, which has a band of white bricks; the bricks are larger than usual, being 3 inches in thickness. The entrance has a double door opening into a lobby, at each end of which is a staircase, leading to the north and south galleries. There is a window on each side of the door, three windows above, and over them, in the gable, a stone, with the inscription ”Primitive Methodist Chapel, 1853.” At the east end of the interior is a Rostrum, 12-ft. long, divided into two stages, the front one being 8 inches above the floor, the second, behind it, about 4-ft.
high, with access by steps at both ends. The front of this platform has slender piers, supported by lancet arches, with trefoils and quatrefoils between, giving a graceful effect, and painted white, gold, and grey, with a background chocolate in colour. At the back of the rostrum are eight arches in the pannelling. This is said to have been a copy of the arrangement in Bardney Chapel. Over the rostrum is a recess in the east wall, containing the harmonium, which cost 40 gs., and seats for the choir. The sittings in the body of the chapel are of stained and varnished deal. At the rear of the chapel, entered by doors at each side of the rostrum, is a large room for the Sunday School, with two smaller cla.s.s rooms above it. The erection of this building was due to the exertions of the Rev. J. Haigh, who was appointed minister in 1850, and as an exception to the usual custom, he was requested to continue his ministry for four years. We may add that, at the opening service of this third chapel the ministers present were Rev. J. Haigh, as Superintendent; Rev. T. Fletcher; Rev. R. Pinder, then at Coningsby; Rev. J. Garb.u.t.t, Supernumerary, from West Ashby. The Rev. T. Fletcher was appointed as Second Minister in Horncastle, at that time, for two years; he became in 1872 Superintendent Minister for three years, and again 1884 for four years, leaving for Market Rasen in 1888. During the ministry of Rev. J.