Reading, family religion, and evangelical identity in late Stuart England

Historical Journal

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 875-896

  Cambers, Andrew ^a   Wolfe, Michelle ^b  

^a KEBLE COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

^b OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 50549092883     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X04004029     Document Type: Article

References (142)

1. After-dissenters, or after-nonconformists, were conforming clergy who resigned or were ejected in the twenty-six-year period following the mass ejections on St Bardiolomew's Day 1662.
2. On the criminalization of nonconformity in the 1660s and 1670s, sec Michael R. Watts, The dissenters, 1 (Oxford, 1978);.
3. John Spurr, 'Religion in Restoration England', in Lionel K.J. Glassey, ed., The reigns of Charles II and James VII & II (Basingstoke, 1997), pp. 90-124;.
4. N. H. Keeble, The Restoration: England in the 1660s (Oxford, 2002).
5. Henry E. Huntington Library (hereafter HEHL), San Marino, California, MS HM 6131, 'A narrative; or an historicall account of the most materiall passages in the life of john Rastrick', fo. 55V. This item is reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
6. Now Kirton.
7. Biographical information is from Dictionary of national biography;.
8. A. G. Matthews, ed., Calaniy revised: being a revision of Edmund Calamy's Account of the ministers and others ejected and silenced, 1660-1662 (Oxford, 1934), p. 403;.
9. Edmund Calamy and Samuel Palmer, The nonconformist's memorial: being an account of the lives, sufferings, and printed works, of the two thousand ministers ejected from the Church of England, chiefly by the Act of Uniformity, Aug. 24, 1666 (2 vols., London, 1802), 11, pp. 436-7;.
10. William Richards, The History of Lynn, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Political, Commercial, Biographical, Municipal, and Military, from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time (2 vols., Lynn, 1812), 11, pp. 1050-64.
11. The article thus develops the discussion of family religion in Gerald R. Cragg, Puritanism in the period of great persecution, 1660-1688 (Cambridge, 1957), pp. 136-43, and the classic account of the puritan family in Edmund S. Morgan, The puritan family: religion and domestic relations in seventeenth-century Xew England (revised edn, New York, 1966).
12. See T. C. Curtis and W. A. Speck, 'The Societies for the Reformation of Manners: a case study in the theory and practice of moral reform', Literature and History, 3 (1976), pp. 45-64.
13. The character of this programme resonates across the early modern period: see Martin Ingram, 'Reformation of Manners in early modern England', in Paul Griffiths, Adam Fox, and Steve Hindle, eds., The experience of authority in early modern England (Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 47-88.
14. For comparative material, see Tom Webster, 'Writing to redundancy: approaches to spiritual journals and early modern spirituality', Historical Journal, 39 (1996), pp. 33-56;.
15. Margaret Spufford, 'First steps in literacy: the reading and writing experiences of the humblest seventeenth-century spiritual autobiographers', Social History, 4 (1979), pp. 407-35.
16. For the traditional approach, see among others, C. G. Bolam, Jeremy Goring, H. L. Short, and Roger Thomas, The English Presbyterians:from Elizabethan puritanism to modern Unitarianism (London, 1968), and Watts, The dissenters, 1.
17. For sensitive accounts of religion across church divides, see Margaret Spufford, Contrasting communities: English villagers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Cambridge, 1974);.
18. Bill Stevenson, 'The social integration of post-Restoration dissenters, 1660-1725', in Margaret Spufford, ed., The world of rural dissenters, 1520-1725 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 360-87;.
19. Spurr, 'Religion in Restoration England'.
20. On voluntary religion see W.J. Sheils and Diana Wood, eds., Voluntary religion: studies in church history, XXIII (Oxford, 1986);.
21. Peter Lake, Moderate puritans and the Elizabethan Church (Cambridge, 1982);.
22. Tom Webster, Godly elergy in early Stuart England: the Caroline puritan movement, c. 1620-1643 (Cambridge, 1997).
23. W. P. W. Phillimore, Ashley K. Maples, R. E. G. Cole, Thomas M. Blagg, and Reginald C. Dudding, eds., Lincolnshire parish registers: marriages (11 vols., London, 1905-21), IV, p. 89.
24. HEHL, MS HM G131, fo. 3r;.
25. Lincolnshire Archives, Lincoln, LCC Wills 1618/1/169.
26. HEHL, MS HM 6131, 6v-13r.
27. Ibid., passim.
28. Ibid., fo. 81r.
29. Ibid., fo. 5v.
30. Ibid., fo. 5v.
31. Ibid., fo. iir.
32. Ibid., fos. 32r, 21v.
33. Ibid., fo. 20r.
34. Ibid., fo. 31r.
35. Ibid., fo. 31v.
36. Ibid., fos. 53r-56r;.
37. John Rastrick, An account of the nonconformity of John Rastrick, M. A., sometime vicar of Kirkton, near Boston, in Lincolnshire, ed. Edmund Calamy (London, 1705).
38. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fos. 38v, 53r.
39. Ibid. fo. 38v.
40. Ibid., fos. 41r-v and passim.
41. Ibid., fos. 53r-56r;.
42. Rastrick, An account of the nonconformity, passim.
43. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 55r.
44. Naomi Tadmor, Family and friends in eighteenth-century England: household, kinship, and patronage (Cambridge, 2001).
45. Ibid., Naomi Tadmor, Family and friends in eighteenth-century England: household, kinship, and patronage (2001)pp. 38, 207, 63-72;.
46. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fos. 22v, 53v, 55V, 81-82r, 86v.
47. Tadmor, Family and friends, pp. 198-211.
48. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 82r.
49. His circle of friends while at Kirkton included: Richard Brocklesby, the rector of Folkingham, and his household; John Richardson, ejected minister of Stamford, and his daughter, son-in-law (Mr Rasor) and sister-in-law (Mrs Reynolds);.
50. Ishmael Burroughs, curate of Frampton and after-dissenter;.
51. William Scoffin, curate of Brolhertoft and after-dissenter; Mr Pell, Minister at Boston; and Rastrick's second wife, Mary Harrison.
52. Webster, Godly clergy.
53. HEHL, MS HM 6131, passim.
54. Anthony Fletcher, 'The enforcement of the Conventicle Acts, 1664-1679', in W.J. Sheils, ed., Persecution and toleration: studies in church history, xxi (Oxford, 1984), pp. 235-46.
55. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 54r.
56. Ibid., fo. 53v.
57. Rastrick, An account of the nonconformity, p. 14.
58. HEHL, MS 6131, fo. 22v.
59. 'Straddled' is Tadmor's term, Family and friends, p. 212.
60. HEHL, MS HM 6131, Fos. 81r-83r.
61. Ibid., fo. 80v.
62. Ibid., fos. 80v-85r.
63. Ibid., fo. 84v.
64. Ibid., fo. 84r.
65. Philip Goodwin, Religio domeslica rediviva: or, family-religion revived: or a treatise as to discover the good old way of serving God in private houses: so to recover the pious practice of those precious duties unto their primitive platform (London, 1655).
66. Christopher Hill, 'The spiritualization of the household', in his Society and puritanism in prerevolulionary England (London, 1964), pp. 382-416.
67. William Payne, Family religion: or, the duty of taking care of religion in families, and the means of doing it: recommended in a sermon preached at guild-hall chappel before the lord mayor and court of aldermen, on Sunday February 22th 1690/91 (London, 1641);.
68. John Tillotson, Six Sermons, I. Of steadfastness in religion. II. Of family-religion. III. IV. V. Of education of children VI. Of the advantages of an early piety (London, 1694);.
69. Samuel Slater, An earnest call to family-religion, or, A discourse concerning family worship being the substance of eighteen sermons (London, 1694);.
70. John Shower, Family religion in three letters to a friend (London, 1694);.
71. Thomas Bray, An appendix to the discourse upon the doctrine of our baptismal covenant being a method of family religion (London, 1699);.
72. Matthew Henry, A church in the house: a sermon [on 1 Cor.xvi. 19] concerning family-religion (London, 1704).
73. Parkhurst lacks a historian. For some preliminary remarks, sec Harold Love, 'Preacher and publisher: Oliver Hcywood and Thomas Parkhurst', Studies in Bibliography, 31 (1978), pp. 227-35.
74. Tillotson, Six sermons, p. 50.
75. Ibid., Tillotson, Six sermons, pp. 53-4.
76. Ibid., Tillotson, Six sermons, p. 55.
77. Ibid., Tillotson, Six sermons, p. 64.
78. Henry, A church in the house, p. 8.
79. Oliver Heywood, A narrative of the holy life and happy death of that reverend, faithful and zealous man of God, and minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Mr John Angier (London, 1685), pp. 60-1.
80. An account of the life and death of Mr Philip Henry, minister of the gospell, near Whitchurch in Shropshire (2nd edn, London, 1699), p. 51. ".
81. Ibid., An account of the life and death of Mr Philip Henry, minister of the gospell, near Whitchurch in Shropshire (1699) pp. 61-2.
82. David Jones, A sermon of the absolute necessity of family-duties (London, 1692), p. 34.
83. An account of the life and death of Mr Philip Henry, pp. 3, 56.
84. Thomas Vincent, An explicatory catechism, or, an explanation of the assemblies Shorter Catechism ... useful to be read in private families after examination in the catechism it self; for the more clear and through understanding of what is therein Learned (London, 1680), sig. A3v.
85. Ian Green, The Christian's ABC: catechisms and catechizing in England, c. 1330-1740 (Oxford, 1996), passim, highlights the common ground across church divides. Note, however, pp. 87-90.
86. where he concedes that catechisms based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism were more common among more conservative nonconformists and those based on the Prayer Book were more common for the Anglican majority. In an earlier article, Green suggested that the purpose behind catechisms was essentially a 'desire to teach the simple and unlearned' rather than 'grinding theological or liturgical axes' and that doctrine was a 'secondary' motive: idem, '"For children in yeercs and children in understanding": the emergence of the English catechism under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 37 (1986), pp. 397-425, at pp. 405, 406.
87. Symon Patrick, 'A brief account of my life, with a thankful remembrance of God's mercies to me', in Alexander Taylor, ed., The works of Symon Patrick, D.D. sometime bishop of Ely, including his autobiography (9 vols., Oxford, 1858), ix, pp. 407-569.
88. For example, A. Caley, A glimpse of eternity: very useful, to awaken sinners, and to comfort saints: profitable to be read in families (2nd edn, London, 1679);.
89. Thomas Vincent, An explicatory catechism (London, 1680);.
90. R. Alstree, The whole duty of man, laid down in a plain and familiar way for the use of all, but especially the meanest reader: divided into XVII chapters; one whereof being read every Lord's Day, the whole may be read over thrice in the year: necessary for all families: with private devotions for several occasions (London, 1684).
91. Richard Baxter, A Christian directory (London, 1673), p. 60.
92. Ibid., Richard Baxter, A Christian directory (1673)sig. A3r-v.
93. Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxierianae ...published by Matthew Sylvester (London, 1696), 11, p. 147.
94. Richard Parkinson, ed., The autobiography of Henry Newcome, M. A, 1 (Manchester, 1852), pp. 2, 135, 249;.
95. Matthew Storey, ed., Two East Anglian diaries, 1641-1729: Isaac Archer and William Coe, Suffolk Records Society, 36 (Woodbridge, 1994), pp. 98, 106.
96. A. Grafton and L. Jardine, '"Studied for action": how Gabriel Harvey read his Livy', Past and Present, 129 (1990), pp. 30-78;.
97. Kevin Sharpe, Reading revolutions: the polities of reading in early modern England (New Haven and London, 2000).
98. Roger Chartier, 'Leisure and sociability: reading aloud in early modern Europe', in S. Zimmerman and R. F. E. Wiseman, eds., Urban life in the Renaissance (Newark, NJ, 1989), pp. 103-20, .
99. and idem, 'Culture écrite et littérature à l'âge moderne ', Annales HSS, 4-5 (2001), pp. 783-802.
100. See, among others, Alexander Carse, Sunday morning (Bible reading at the cottage door), National Galleries of Scodand, Edinburgh; for a case study of domestic religious reading, .
101. see Naomi Tadmor, '"In the even my wife read to me": women, reading and household life in the eighteenth century', in James Raven, Helen Small, and Naomi Tadmor, eds., The practice and representation of reading in England (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 162-74.
102. The historiography of religious practice in New England has been more attuned to that of reading practices: see David D. Hall, Worlds of wonder, days of judgment: popular religious belief in early New England (New York, 1989), pp. 21-70;.
103. idem, Cultures of print: essays in the history of the book (Amherst, 1996).
104. Alexandra Walsham, '"Domme preachers"? Post-Reformation English Catholicism and the culture of print', Past and Present, 168 (2000), pp. 72-123.
105. Arthur Dent, The plaine mans path-way to heauen wherein euery man may clearly see, whether he shall be saued or damned (London, 1601), sig. Ar.
106. Lewis Bayly, The practice of piety (London, 1612);.
107. Felicity Heal and Clivc Holmes, The gentry in England and Wales, 1500-1700 (London, 1994), pp. 361, 363-4, 367-9.
108. Parkinson, ed., The autobiography of Henry Newcome, 1, pp. 12-13.
109. British Library (hereafter BL), MS Royal 17B xxxiii, quotations at fos. 3v and 13v-14r.
110. BL, MS Sloane 3945, fo. 89v.
111. Joanna Moody, ed., The private life of an Elizabethan lady: the diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605 (Stroud, 1998), pp. 22, 24, 31 and passim.
112. The marginalia is the discussion of Andrew Cambers, 'Print, manuscript, and godly cultures in the north of England, c. 1600-1650' (D.Phil, thesis, York, 2003), ch. 1.
113. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 12r.
114. Ibid., fo. 5r.
115. Daniel Dyke, The mystery of selfe-deceiuing: or a discourse and discouery of the deceilfullnesse of mans heart (London, 1614);.
116. Arthur Dent, The plaine mans path-way to heauen (London, 1603);.
117. John Cotton, Milk for babes, drawn out of the breasts of both testaments chiefly for the spirituall nourishment of Boston babes in either England, but may be of like use for any children (London, 1646).
118. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 5r;.
119. The mystery ofselfe-deceiuing and The plaine mans path-way were popular throughout the century. The former went through fourteen editions before 1651, the latter at least twenty-seven before 1681.
120. See Ian Green, Print and Protestantism in early modern England (Oxford, 2000), Appendix 1.
121. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 9v.
122. Ibid., fos. 17v, 22r, 23r-v.
123. Ibid., fo. 23r.
124. Ibid., fo. 29v.
125. Ibid., fos. 82v, 84r.
126. Ibid., fos. 23v-24v.
127. Ibid., fo. 32r.
128. Ibid., fo. 24r.
129. Ibid., fo. 24r.
130. Ibid., fo. 20r.
131. Ibid., fos. 81r-v.
132. For the relationship between spiritual 'conversation' and communal reading, see Cambers 'Print, manuscript, and godly cultures', ch. 1.
133. HEHL, MS HM 6131, fo. 82v.
134. Ibid., fo. 82v.
135. Ibid., fo. 82r.
136. Ibid., fos. 82r-v.
137. Ibid., fo. 82v.
138. Ibid., passim.
139. We are preparing a microhistory of John Rastrick and an edition of his manuscript, further elaborating this discussion of textual networks and evangelical identity after the Restoration.
140. See Mark Goldie, 'Voluntary Anglicans', Historical Journal, 46 (2003), pp. 977-90, esp. p. 990.
141. John Newton, Susanna Wesley and the puritan tradition in Methodism (2nd edn, London, 2002).
142. The continued popularity of the publications of early Stuart puritans (and of the use of their names to boost sales) is demonstrated by Green, Print and Protestantism, Appendix 1.