BY
JAMES McGEACHY
Pastor of the Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, London, England, since 1929
Published
by
SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST CENTER
3120 Kennedy Road
P. O. Box 1678
JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN 53547
James McGeachy received our invitation to
prepare the following paper on "The Times of Stephen Mumford" only a
few weeks before coming to America to the First World Consultation of Delegates
from Seventh Day Baptist Conferences ("CoWoCo") and the General
Conference at Salem College, Salem, W. Va., August 17-22, 1964. He was
therefore not able to list in footnotes the sources consulted in several
British libraries or to document certain new insights he has presented. We do
not hesitate to disagree earnestly in search of truth, and students may well
debate pro and con some of his findings. But he paints a clear and moving
picture of the threats to conscience in 17th Century England and New England,
echoes of which are still heard. The paper was received with enthusiasm when it
was presented by McGeachy with charm and incisiveness at the Salem Conference,
and we are indebted to him for the trust he lays upon us. It has been my
privilege to prepare the manuscript for publication as a resource for
"Sabbath Heritage Day" and for general reading.
Albert N. Rogers, President
Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society
Denver, Colorado
THE
TIMES OF STEPHEN MUMFORD
By James McGeachy
As we all know this year 1964 is the 300th
anniversary of the departure of Stephen Mumford from England and his arrival in
Rhode Island in 1664; and therefore it is appropriate that Seventh Day Baptists
should celebrate this event since it was through his testimony to the Sabbath
truth that our first church was founded on American soil at Newport, R. I., in 1671.
Stephen Mumford was a member of the Bell
Lane Seventh Day Baptist Church in London, and so he could not but witness to
his faith among the Baptists of the New World. He persuaded a number that the
Fourth Commandment should still be kept, and they had to separate when they
found it impossible to continue in fellowship with the other Baptists who
opposed the truth for which they stood. Thus he was the human instrument used
by God to establish our denomination in America where it succeeded in taking
root and in expanding, while unfortunately the cause declined in the country
from which he came.
There is no doubt that Stephen Mumford
decided to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean because of the difficult
circumstances in which not only the Seventh Day Baptists but other Baptists and
Dissenters found themselves in England at the time. They hoped to find greater
freedom over the seas.
England was under the rule of King Charles 11
who had been restored to the throne in 1660. His father, Charles 1, had sought
to enforce uniformity of worship throughout the kingdom according to the Prayer
Book of the Church of England, causing much dissatisfaction. This led to revolt
by the Dissenters under Oliver Cromwell. Charles I was put to death in 1649
after a long conflict between King and Parliament. Cromwell had raised the New
Model Army which by its new tactics was able to overcome the Royalists; and so
it became the great power in the land even opposing the Presbyterians who held
power in the Long Parliament. This was because the Presbyterians wanted to
enforce their form of church government upon the national church and do in
England what they had succeeded in doing in Scotland. They would have abolished
episcopacy and the rule of bishops altogether and have made the national church
Presbyterian.
Cromwell and his army were opposed to this
conception of the church and wanted everyone to have complete freedom of
worship as they thought right, to set up independent churches if they so
desired. His army was largely composed of Independents, now known as
Congregationalists, and Baptists; and so they fought for freedom of conscience
and worship and asserted that the civil power had no right to interfere in any
way with religious matters.
Thus it came about that under the
Commonwealth established by Cromwell the greatest amount of freedom was allowed
in this respect. He set Triers who examined the lives of the clergy in the
pulpits of the national church, and this resulted in the election of
"ignorant and scandalous" ministers. Most of the parish churches were
still occupied by Episcopalian clergymen but there was a shortage, and so
Nonconformist ministers were given other parish churches. Mostly Presbyterians
undertook this task, but also some were occupied by Independents and Baptists.
This is no doubt how Thomas Tillam, a Baptist chaplain with Cromwell's army,
came to occupy the parish church of Colchester and, upon accepting the Sabbath,
closed the church on Sundays and opened it for Sabbath services about 1656.
Needless to say this was too much for the authorities and so his career there
did not last long. There he baptized about 100 people by immersion. It is
possible that he was influenced by Theophilus Brabourne, the Episcopalian
clergyman of Norwich, who had advocated the claims of the seventh day in 1628
in his book on the subject which he dedicated to Charles 1. Both were
acquainted with Christopher Pooley, to whose Seventh Day Baptist Church in
Norwich Brabourne left 10 pound in his will doubtless pleased to see a church
practicing what he had advocated in the national church so long before.
Tillam, of course, was quite notorious being
mixed up with all kinds of plots and schemes, the greatest of which was the
emigration of 100 families in 1666 from East Anglia to the Palatinate, in
Bavaria, South Germany. In this he was assisted by Christopher Pooley. However
this anticipates a later part of our story.
When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 he was
succeeded by his son Richard, who was not strong enough to hold the
Commonwealth together. So General Monck, who was in charge of Cromwell's Army
in Scotland, opened negotiations with the exiled Prince Charles, son of Charles
1, for his restoration to the throne.
The Scots had already proclaimed Charles II
king in 1651, but his arm had been defeated by Cromwell at Worcester and so he
had to flee abroad again. Now however he was recalled by Monck. and promised in
the Declaration of Breda to give a general pardon and religious freedom. On
this assurance he was welcomed back, sailing from Scheveningen in Holland with
a great fleet of ships and arriving in Dover. The mayor of Dover presented him with
a Bible, which Charles declared was the Book he loved more than anything in the
world. He was crowded in 1661. Perhaps Charles really intended to give much
latitude in religion, at least for a time, till he was secure on the throne.
But circumstances did not favor this course, because of the action of the
extremists in Cromwell's old army, which had of course to be disbanded. Its
officers had to promise good behaviour, otherwise they had the choice of
emigration or being imprisoned. This of course was hard for them, and
rebellious spirits began to plot against the new Government of Charles II,
encouraged by the Fifth Monarchy men who thought they should overthrow Charles
and set up the kingdom of Christ by force.
It was a party of these led by Thomas Venner
who sallied forth from his meeting place in Coleman Street with an armed band
of 50 men in January 1661, and, no doubt with the assistance of others,
terrorized the city of London for about four days. Venner was an Independent,
but there was also a Baptist church in the same street and others not far away.
Venner indeed was opposed to the Baptists, and promised that when he succeeded
in his revolution "the Baptists would know that Infant Baptism is an
ordinance of Jesus Christ." However, it was not long before he was
captured and put to death with others of his deluded followers.
Naturally this experience did not encourage
the king to carry out his promise of religious tolerance; for it became evident
that many Dissenting meeting houses were used for political plotting as well as
preaching, and Baptists unfortunately were not all free from blame. The famous
Col. Thomas Blood, who plotted against the government and later tried to steal
the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, was a Baptist. During the war which
Charles declared on Holland, Baptists passed information to the Dutch; and if
the Dutch had succeeded in landing in England they would have had 30,000 men
from Cromwell's old army to help them. They saw no more harm in doing so than
Charles himself saw in being in league with the French king, Louis XIV, to
please whom he had declared war on Holland which was then the home of religious
liberty and had shown Prince Charles hospitality while he was in exile.
Venner's rebellion led to the martyrdom of
John James, pastor of the Seventh Day Baptists in Bullstake Alley, Whitechapel,
whose story we recalled in 1961, the 300th anniversary of his execution on
November 26, 1661. John James was a believer in the views of the Fifth Monarchy
men, who were looking for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ. This would
be the Fifth Monarchy, the Stone Kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar's dream which was to
follow the four great monarchies of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. John
James, we believe, belonged to the moderate section who were content to preach
about the Fifth Monarchy and not seek to establish it by force. He contended
vigorously for the idea that the Millennial Kingdom of Christ would be a
literal kingdom like the previous monarchies, and his great text was Rev. 11:
15, "The kingdoms Of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."
On this point, the Mill Yard Church which is
the continuation of John James' congregation is still a Fifth Monarchy church;
but you need not be alarmed. I am not likely to lead our congregation on the
streets of London to attempt the overthrow of the government of our gracious
queen, Elizabeth 11! But John James greatly emphasized the point; and that, in
the circumstances of his time, was a highly dangerous thing to do with the
consequence that he was arrested and condemned for his belief.
In the same year, 1661, the Earl of
Clarendon, chief minister of Charles 11, introduced the first Act of the series
which became known as the Clarendon Code and which was aimed against Roman
Catholics and Dissenters. This was the Corporation Act, requiring that all
members of corporations such as mayors and aldermen should take Communion
according to the Prayer Book of the Church of England, and take the Oath of
Supremacy and Allegiance. The second Act was introduced in 1662 and was the Act
of Uniformity, which excluded from the parish churches all ministers who
refused to be ordained by bishops and conduct services according to the Prayer
Book. This resulted in the Great Ejection of 1662 when the conscientious
Dissenting ministers introduced by Cromwell into the parish church pulpits were
compelled to leave, and the former clergymen removed by Cromwell were brought
back. So about 2,000 Presbyterians., Independents and Baptist ministers were
expelled with such harshness that it created a deep gulf between the Episcopal
clergy and the Nonconformists for many years.
The third Act was the Conventicle Act of 1664
which forbade the assembly of more than five people in addition to the family
of the house for religious services except according to the Prayer Book, under
penalty of fines and transportation. For the third offense they could be
banished to the American plantations, excepting New England and Virginia. If
they should return or escape, death was the penalty. Many were sent to the West
Indies where they endured great hardship. Vast numbers suffered in all parts of
England and Wales. It is said that 8.000 perished in prison during the days of
Charles 11. It may have been this Act which led Stephen Mumford to decide to
migrate to Rhode Island, to banish himself by so doing rather than wait for the
Government to do it. This Act was meant to silence the clergy ejected in 1662.
The fourth Act of the Clarendon Code was the
Five Mile Act, which forbade any preacher or teacher who refused the Oath of
Allegiance and Supremacy to come within five miles of any important town.
Many Baptists beside Stephen Mumford were
led to migrate to the New World even before the troublous times we have
mentioned, and these had been persecuted in New England and Connecticut. Led by
Roger Williams they had found a haven in the Island of Aquidneck which they
bought and named Rhode Island. John Clarke was their leader at Newport and
conducted worship. When the First Baptist Church of Newport, R. I., was
organized in 1644 he became its ruling Elder. It was with this church that
Stephen Mumford connected himself and made known his convictions concerning the
Sabbath, convincing quite a number who joined him in its observance. Later four
of them returned to Sunday-keeping, and this created such tension with the
church leaders preaching against the Sabbath that the only solution was for the
seventh-day keepers to withdraw and form a church of their own in 1671.
Before this the Bell Lane Church in London,
which seems to have been gathered by John Belcher the bricklayer in 1662, kept
in touch with Stephen Mumford at Newport. Their letter was dated 26 March 1668,
four years after he had migrated, and signed by eleven members of Bell Lane.
Among these signatures appear the names of Belcher and William Gibson who later
came to Newport and was the second pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist Church
there. A month before this on 2 February 1668 Edward Stennett wrote to Newport
from his place in Abingdon, Berkshire.
Another Sabbath-keeper in England wrote to
those in Newport two years later. This was Joseph Davis, Sr., who had accepted
the Sabbath in 1668 and was in prison at Oxford Castle in 1670 as a result of a
fresh wave of persecution for attending conventicles. It would seem that those
in Newport had heard of him because they wrote to him on 4 July 1669, and to
this letter he replied 26 January 1670 bemoaning the fact that Baptists and
Independents were preaching against the Sabbath. He exhorted the
Sabbath-keepers on Rhode Island not to be discouraged by opposition. He seems
to have written again on 7 February 1670 another letter in which he mentioned
that he had kept the Sabbath for two years. This was the Joseph Davis who later
bought the Mill Yard property and erected the old chapel and other buildings in
1691, and endowed the cause with his charity for Sabbatarian Protestant
Dissenters,
Meanwhile, soon after Stephen Mumford's
departure from England in, 1664, other developments were taking, place which
greatly promoted in the Seventh Day Baptist cause in the old country. In 1665
Francis Bampfield was a prisoner in Dorchester Jail, having been one of the
ministers ejected in 1662 from his church at Sherborne, Dorset. in this year
someone wrote to him enquiring about the Sabbath question, and this led him to
study the Bible carefully on this point so that he came to the conclusion that
the seventh day should still be kept. He made known his conclusions among his
fellow prisoners and won a good number of them to its observance. In this
prison he remained for eight years, and it is said he organized a Sabbath
keeping church there.
In 1671, the year of the founding of our
Newport church, we find Bampfield at Salisbury where he formed another
congregation but this resulted in his imprisonment in Salisbury Jail for 18
months. After his release he came to London and there at Bethnal Green he
organized a third church on 5 March 1676. This congregation he moved to the
famous Pinners Hall in 1681, and from this hall his congregation took its name.
This church sent him out as a Messenger to five or more churches in Wiltshire
(Salisbury), Hampshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Berkshire (Wallingford). He
also wrote a letter of brotherly love to churches in Holland and New England.
Francis Bampfield was arrested at Pinners Hall in 1683 and died in Newgate
Prison, London, on 16 February 1684. Edward Stennett succeeded him as pastor of
the Pinners Hall Church in 1686 and ministered there for three years, being
followed by his famous son Joseph Stennett in 1690.
We may wonder why Francis Bampfield never
connected himself with the church led by Dr. Peter Chamberlen and John James,
which became known as the Mill Yard church in 1691. This church at that time
met at East Smithfield. The reason is that the Mill Yard church held Arminian
views, or that salvation is open to all men, whereas Bampfield was a Calvinist
in his views and so could not unite with them.
The Mill Yard church was also in touch with
Rhode Island, and wrote to the church at Newport on 21 December 1680 having by
this time left Bullstake Alley and gone to East Smithfield. That is eleven
years before it really became the "Mill Yard" church.
The Bell Lane church after various
migrations from place to place also came to Pinners Hall in 1690 and linked up
with Joseph Stennett and the Pinners Hall church. John Belcher, pastor and
leader of the Bell Lane church, was still living for he died in 1695. One party
met in Pinners Hall on the Sabbath morning, and the other in the afternoon.-
but they attended each other's services and eventually merged in 1702.
It might be well to learn something of this
famous Dissenting meeting place of the 17th century, Pinners Hall. Originally
the site off Old Broad Street, and not very far from where Liverpool Street
Station now stands, was occupied by an Augustinian Priory, dedicated to the
famous Bishop Augustine of Hippo, North Africa. At the dissolution of the
monasteries by Henry VIII about 1540 the Friars House, Cloisters and grounds
were granted to a Mr. Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, who died in 1572
after building Winchester House on part of this site. Much history is imbedded
in the names of present day streets and alleys of the city of London.
In 1580 Verselyn, a famous glass blower,
came from Venice and being granted a patent by Queen Elizabeth I set up a
factory off Old Broad Street. It was on the site of this Glasshouse that
Pinners Hall was built by the Company of Pinmakers or Pinners incorporated in
1626 by Charles 1. This hall was let to various groups of Dissenters during the
reigns of Charles I and 11. In 1649 Thomas Gunn's Baptist Church hired the hall
and fitted it with two tiers of galleries. Richard Wavell's Baptist Church
hired it on Sundays from 1609-1705 and this hall was let to Bampfield's church
on Saturdays from 1681. Just a few years before the famous John Bunyan had
preached here from 1676-79 having been released from Bedford Jail in 1672 when
Charles 11 proclaimed an indulgence. He had been in prison twelve years.
Unfortunately Bunyan was one of the opponents of Seventh Day Baptists in his
time. It was to this famous hall that the Bell Lane church came in 1690.
John Belcher was a Fifth Monarchist, and
seems to have adopted the seventh Day about 1658 after the famous debate on the
Sabbath question held in the Stone Chapel of Old St. Paul's Cathedral which had
been hired by Chillenden's Baptist church. Chillenden was an opponent of the
Sabbath, and this debate was between Dr. Peter Chamberlen, Matthew Coppinger
and Thomas Tillam, on the one hand, upholding the Sabbath, and Jeremiah Ives, a
famous Baptist controversialist of that time, on the other hand, who opposed
its observance. Coppinger is believed to have been connected with the Traskites
who had preached the Sabbath since 1617, the year from which we usually date
the origin of the Mill Yard church.
As for Belcher, he was quite a notorious
character, associated with the leading Fifth Monarchists of his time such as
Tillam and Col. Blood. In fact, he was such an ardent Fifth Monarchist that he
was reported in the State Papers of 26 September 1661 as the chief preacher in
Coleman Street and as one who was likely to follow in the footsteps of Venner.
Belcher was one of the 150 signatories of the Fifth Monarchy, Manifesto on
August 1654, which was really a protest against the new attitude taken up by
Cromwell in 1653 when he had himself proclaimed Protector. Previously he had
expressed Fifth Monarchy sentiments in his speech to the Nominated Parliament,
but in the following months had evidently concluded that these ideas were
impracticable in the situation which confronted him and which demanded a strong
hand. So he set up the Protectorate; but this move turned the Fifth Monarchy
men against him, for in assuming the title of Lord Protector he was taking a
position which they regarded as rightly belonging to Christ. Hence this
Manifesto of 1654.
Dr. Peter Chamberlen was the famous
physician who served Charles I and Charles 11. He seems to have been spared by
the king despite his heresies as a Baptist and a Sabbath-keeper because of the
value of his medical services to the royal family, a curious example of how the
king could turn a blind eye when it was in his own interest to do so. Dr.
Chamberlen would have attended the Queen, Catherine of Braganza, daughter of
King John IV of Portugal and a Roman Catholic. He had been an Independent, but
in 1648 he had become a Baptist and in 1651 accepted the Sabbath to which he
remained faithful till his death in 1683. Evidently Jeremiah Ives had not been
able to shake his convictions on this point.
Chamberlen and some of his Sabbath-keeping
group also signed the Fifth Monarchy Manifesto. Another signatory was John
Clarke of Rhode Island, and he signed as one of "The Church that walks
with Mr. Jesse." This was the famous Henry Jessey, a well known Baptist
minister . of that time. How was it that John Clarke of Rhode Island signed
this Manifesto?
It is not known perhaps that the expectation
of Christ's appearing to inaugurate the Fifth Monarchy was very vivid in New
England at that time. John Eliot preached it and Thomas Venner was so stirred
by it that he returned to Old England to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, with
the sad results that we have seen. In 1654 Clarke had returned to England on
business connected with Rhode Island Colony which in the spring of that year
was incorporated by the Protector an his Council. In 1657 there was a move to
change Cromwell's title from Protector to King which aroused dissent so that a
petition, signed chiefly by Baptists, was sent to him begging him to refuse the
title of King. Among these signatories appear the names of Henry Jessey, John
Clarke and Hansard Knollys.
A few days later there was a Fifth Monarchy
insurrection at Shoreditch led by Venner, so here we find him opposing Cromwell
before Charles came to the throne. In April 1658 several People were arrested
in Coleman Street, including Clarke and John Belcher, showing a connection
between the famous Rhode Islander and the founder of our Bell Lane Church; but
this was probably before the debate in the Stone Chapel which converted Belcher
to the seventh day. Clarke defended himself at his trial with great spirit and
even accused his judges of treason, producing various Acts of Parliament to
prove it and throwing them into confusion.
After the death of Cromwell another Fifth
Monarchy Manifesto was presented to Parliament in September 1659, but Clarke's
name is not among the signatories although Jessey signed it. This may indicate
that Clarke was beginning to change his views. Clarendon in his history of
those times says that some Baptists in 1659 made overtures to Prince Charles.
Perhaps Clarke sympathized with them, and believed that the restoration of the
monarchy was the only solution to the crisis.
A few days after the defeat of Venners
insurrection in January 1661, there appeared a pamphlet entitled "The
Plotters Unmasked, Murderers no Saints, or a word in Season to all those that
were concerned in the late rebellion against the peace of their king and
country, on the sixth of January last at night and the ninth of January. By a
friend of Righteousness, and a Lover of all men's Souls, knowing that one is of
more worth than 10,000 worlds." The author was John Clarke, who never associated
himself with the extremists but now took the opportunity of disowning the
rebels.
On the 20th January, 1661, Clarke put in a
petition for a royal charter to be granted to the Rhode Island Colony. By the
end of March he had succeeded and prepared to return to Rhode Island. No doubt
his loyal pamphlet had helped him to gain favor with the king.
The Bell Lane church wrote again to our
Newport church on 17 June 1674 and enquired about a certain Isaac Wells
"who had been an officer with Mr. Pillam at Colchester, but had been long
gone." Wells seems to have settled in Jamaica, Long Is., and to have been
a member of the Newport church. It was about the time of this letter that
Stephen Mumford returned to England to report the actual conditions in Rhode
Island and invite others to this haven of rest. He succeeded in persuading
William Gibson to return with him. We remember Gibson as one of the signatories
of the letter sent from the Bell Lane church to Newport 24 March 1668.
Gibson became assistant to the first pastor
of the Newport church, William Hiscox, one of the first converts made by
Mumford. When Hiscox died in 1704, having been pastor for 33 years, Gibson
succeeded him. It was under Gibson that the First Seventh Day Baptist Church in
Hopkinton was organized in 1708 as the denomination began to move westward.
This enables us to understand the
contribution made by the English Seventh Day Baptists to laying the foundation
of the denomination in North America. The honor belongs largely to the Bell
Lane church, and not so much to the Mill Yard Church. We are glad that the Mill
Yard church encouraged the Sabbath-keepers in New England by sending letters,
especially those of Joseph Davis who was imprisoned for his faith and later
gave the Mill Yard church its chapel in the East End of London at Whitechapel,
and whose legacy has helped the Mill Yard church ever since.
The Bell Lane church, as we have learned,
merged with Bampfield's Pinners Hall church in 1702, seven years after the
death of its founder John Belcher. After Joseph Stennett's death in 1713 the
Pinners Hall church declined but continued to worship until 1721. It then left
Pinners Hall and came to share the premises of the Mill Yard church, remaining
until 1727. Then it called Edmund Townsend of the old Natton church, near
Tewkesbury, to be its pastor and under him moved back into the City of London
and worshipped at Curriers Hall, Cripplegate. He was its pastor for 36 years
till 1763. Samuel Stennett served as its pastor from 1767 till 1785 and Robert
Burnside from then till 1826; and under him the church moved to Red Cross
Street in 1800 and to Devonshire Square in 1812. Burnside became pastor of the
Mill Yard church and was succeeded at Devonshire Square by John Brittain
Shenstone who was pastor from 1826 till his death in 1844. By this time the
tiny congregation had moved to Eldon Street Baptist church, where this once
famous Calvinistic Seventh Day Baptist church founded by Francis Bampfield
finally became extinct in 1847. The last member, Mrs. Shenstone, died in 1863,
just over 100 years ago.
The Mill Yard church thus becomes the sole
heir of the fine traditions of the Pinners Hall and Bell Lane churches. Let us
pray that we may faithfully maintain these traditions in Britain and expand our
witness for Christ and the Sabbath. We feel sure our American brethren and
sisters, who owe such a debt to Stephen Mumford and William Gibson will do what
they can to encourage us in this endeavor, looking forward to the establishment
on this earth of the Fifth Monarchy, the Kingdom of Christ.
The author acknowledges his debt to many
articles in the Transactions and Quarterlies of the Baptist Historical Society,
which contain a wealth of information regarding the early history of the
Seventh Day Baptists in England.
Other helpful books from which further
information has been gained are:
Information published by the owners of the
present "Pinners Hall," a fine block of offices which occupies the
site, and retains the name of the original Pinners Hall.
Dictionary of National Biography (Both
British and American.) Articles in various Encyclopedias.
Notes copied from a MS of the researches of
the late Dr. W. T. Whitley of the Baptist Historical Society, who kindly loaned
it to the author many years ago.
The Church Records of the seventh day Sabbath keepers on
Rhode Island
______________________
Let us here the Conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole
duty of man.
If ye love me saith Christ Keep my Commandments.
From
the title page of the earliest records extant, 1692-1836.