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BAPTIST FOREBEARS

Figure 1 Berkeley Vale from Tyndale’s Monument

Recently I attended a fascinating talk by Gary Best on the enduring legacy of

George Whitefield at the Church of St Mary de Crypt – part of the Gloucester

History Festival. We will be celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth in the

city next year.

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Figure 2 Bell Inn, Gloucester

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Figure 3 Rev George Whitefield

He is a truly big beast, one of the greatest and most influential English Evangelists

of all time and a child of Gloucester. Next year there will be celebrations in our

city and I, for one, hope to share in them. As you will know George Whitefield

helped to spread the Great Awakening in the United Kingdom and in the British

American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the

evangelical movement generally. He became perhaps the best-known preacher in

Britain and America during the 18th century, and because he travelled through

all of Britain and the American colonies he drew great crowds. He was one of the

most widely recognized public figures in colonial America. Whitefield preached

out of doors, on waste land, in town squares and market places. At Hanham near

Bristol he preached to over 20,000 at one time, mainly miners. His sermons were

widely reputed to capture his audience's enthusiasm, and many of them as well as

his letters and journals were published during his lifetime. He was an excellent

orator, an actor who used his talents to spread the Gospel, he was strong in voice

and able to extemporise confidently. His voice was so expressive that people are

said to have wept just hearing him.

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Figure 4 Reverend George Whitefield

Figure 5 The Great Awakening. Whitefield preaching

He and the Wesleys offer a background to the period that I am going to be talking

about. In contrast to the Wesleys, Whitefield shared in common with my Strict

Baptist forebears an acceptance of a Calvinistic theology and understanding of

the Gospel.

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A man who probably had even more influence on many of my ancestors than

Whitefield was the Reverend Rowland Hill. He represents the next generation

of Evangelists being born during the 1740s. Like Whitefield he took to public

revivalist preaching and was schooled in Calvinistic theology. His Tabernacles

in London and at Wotton-under-Edge and Dursley drew many, many people

from 1773 onwards. Whitefield and Hill were giants in the land.

Figure 6 Reverend Rowland Hill

Figure 7 Reverend Rowland Hill

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Figure 8 The First Tabernacle at Wotton-under-Edge

JAMES ELEY THE ELDER

Let us kick off though with a bit of Local Baptist History. How would a young

man living in Thornbury during the late 1750s have become involved with the

Strict and Particular Baptists?

The Baptist Church in Thornbury began in 1747, when a Certificate was obtained

from the Bishop of Gloucester to hold Baptist services in the house of one John

Rawlings. The certificate granted under the Toleration Act of 1689, allowed

nonconformists to hold services without molestation, provided the doors were

unlocked.’

Earlier still Baptist meetings were established at Chipping Sodbury and at

Broadmead in Bristol and further afield at Hillesley where the congregation was

formed in 1723. Originally it included both Particular and General Baptists, but

was reorganised in 1812 on Calvinistic principles. My Great Great Great Granny

was a member of that church.

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The cloth industry was then flourishing in the Stroud valleys and many weavers

were Baptists. There was an early meeting at Leonard Stanley and from 1705 at

Figure 9 Hillesley Baptist Church

Figure 10 Kings Stanley Baptist Church

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Shortwood. Shortwood is situated between Horsley and Nailsworth and gradually

grew to be one of the largest rural Baptist churches in the country.

Now for those Eleys…

James Eley the Elder was born at Thornbury. His father was a tailor and his

ancestors had lived in the Thornbury area for many generations. James would

appear not to have received infant baptism although older children were

christened at the Parish Church in 1724 and 1727. Perhaps his parents had become

Baptists?

Figure 11 The Eleys' home in Castle Street, Thornbury

His mother died when James was only eleven years old and his father died a few

years later. Their daughter married and stayed in Thornbury but in 1760 James,

now aged twenty-four and a tailor like his father, left Thornbury to take up work

as an Exciseman. Before he left his native town he married his wife Ann Taylor.

The archive of the Customs and Excise is deposited at the Public Records Office

at Kew and includes fully indexed minute books. Young James is first mentioned

in the Excise records as being posted as a Supernumerary at Ledbury on the

Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border. This was probably only a temporary

position because he was soon living at Pembridge in North Herefordshire.

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The young couple took up residence at “The Broad Stone”, near to the New Inn,

Pembridge and it was here that their eldest son, James Eley the Younger, was

born in 1762. Pembridge is a delightful village some eight miles west of

Leominster, with many “black and white” houses, with overhanging storeys and

striking timbering. The 13th century “New Inn” overlooks an old open Market

Hall, said to have been the earliest centre for the sale of Hereford Cattle.

Figure 12 The Broadstone, Pembridge

Figure 13 The Broadstone, Pembridge

Years later his son, made a nostalgic trip to Pembridge and wrote the following

about his childhood and the place of his birth:

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‘We met opposite the house called the Broad Stone. A little girl was standing at

the door – This, says I, is the house where I was born, I must go in and see it –

without any ceremony we passed the girl and entered the house, and on seeing

the parlour door open, I ran in exclaiming, this is the very spot of my nativity,

they all followed and having minutely surveyed the room, we left the house and

the girl too, wondering I suppose what sort of fellows we were – this was a little

indecorous but I was formerly acquainted with the man that lives at the house –

tho’ he was not at home…’

James Eley, the Exciseman, was appointed as office keeper at Leominster and so

the family moved there occupying a house near to the Castlefield – now a

depressing industrial estate.

His son wrote years later:

‘Went through the Castle field and had a sight of the old House, where we once

lived, The Garden, Poplar tree and bower, where I have spent many a playful

hour, free from all anxiety and care – leaving this once favourite spot, which was

not even without its charms, I went by the Quaker’s meeting along Turnbole

Street, up Beast Street, and so home.’

The Baptist Church in Leominster was much older than the one at Thornbury and

it was one of the most important Baptist Churches on the Welsh border. The

church was fortunate in having a hugely influential minister, the Reverend Joshua

Thomas.

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Figure 14

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Figure 15 The Benefactress of Leominster Baptist Church

In an old church history we read:

‘When the Rev. Rees Evans determined to leave Leominster he urgently pressed

Mr. Joshua Thomas to come to Leominster and occupy the pulpit on the first

Sunday after his departure. Mr. Thomas consented, and on October 7th, 1753, he

preached his first sermon here. The Church at this time consisted of only 14

members. He, however, did not become the settled pastor till November 1754. In

order to maintain himself and his family, he kept a day school to augment his

stipend, which naturally must have been small.

He was a man of fine abilities and of a fine Christian spirit, but he was of a

dogged, determined disposition, and whatever he took in hand he would

accomplish at any cost. During his ministry of 47 years he added about 110

members, but the deaths and removals were not a few.

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It has justly been said of him, “He was a man of clear understanding, strong in

judgement, wide in knowledge, a sincere Christian, a true friend, and an earnest

and faithful preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” During his pastorate the

present Chapel was erected with the Manse. At the opening of the Chapel in 1772

two sermons were preached by the Revs. Caleb Evans, of Bristol, and Benjamin

Francis. He finished his course on August 25th 1797.

Figure 16 Leominster Baptist Church

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Figure 17 Leominster Baptist Church

Who were these preachers at the opening ceremony? First Benjamin Francis was

a friend of Joshua Thomas and he links Leominster with Gloucestershire.

He was born in 1734, the son of a Welsh minister. When only seven years of age,

Benjamin felt an abiding reverence of the divine Majesty, a dread of associating

with wicked companions, and such an abhorrence of all profane and impure

conversation, that if he ever heard anything of the kind, he could not forbear

severely reproving it. He had, at this early period, such a flow of affection

sometimes in prayer, which he then began to practise, that "his whole heart was

overwhelmed with rapture." He was baptized at fifteen years of age, and began

to preach at nineteen, as his father had done before him. He went to the academy

at Bristol in 1753, where he continued three years. He preached for some time at

Chipping Sodbury, but removed to Shortwood in Gloucestershire, in 1757 when

he was ordained.

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Figure 18

Figure 19 Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church

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Figure 20 Shortwood Baptist Church

In the course of his journeys through Worcestershire, which he regularly made

from about 1772 to 1784, it appears that the Reverend Benjamin Francis had

preached at Cheltenham, 130 sermons; at Tewkesbury, 136; at Pershore, 137;

and at Upton-upon-Severn, 180. His manner was to set out from home on Monday

morning, and return on Friday evening, after having taken a circuit of 90 miles,

and preached every evening. At Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, also, he established a

monthly lecture; where, from 1771 to 1799, he preached 282 sermons; and at

Christian Malford, 84; at Devizes, 56 ; and at Melksham, Frome, Trowbridge,

and Bradford, 90 in each. At Wotton-under-Edge, he kept up a monthly lecture

for 30 years, and preached there 394 times. His sermons at his own place

amounted to more than 4000; and at Hampton, 802. On his visits to Bristol, he

had preached 101 times at Broadmead, and 28 at the Pithay. He had preached

22 sermons at Portsmouth, and an equal number at Plymouth and Dock; and 20

times he had preached in Cornwall. He frequently visited his native country, and

was often at their annual associations, and preached in the principality, both in

Welsh and English, about 150 sermons. In 1791, he visited Ireland, and preached,

chiefly in Dublin, 30 times.

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Figure 21 Broadmead Baptist Church

Figure 22 Interior of Broadmead Baptist Church

The other - Dr Caleb Evans - was the great exponent of village preaching – he

assisted and later followed his father as both Minister of Broadmead Chapel in

Bristol and as head of the Bristol Baptist Academy where Benjamin Francis had

been a student. Unlike John Wesley Evans was not afraid to stand alongside the

Americans who wanted political liberty and he was also a champion too for

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religious liberty and toleration here in England. Like Wesley he was a forceful

opponent of the Slave Trade where his influence in Bristol must have been

controversial. Both he and his father retained close links with the Baptist churches

of Wales. Benjamin Francis was a friend and wrote an Elegy when Evans died in

1791.

Figure 23 Bristol Baptist College

Back to James Eley. We can be sure that his heart must have been touched by

these important Baptist preachers - Joshua Thomas, Benjamin Francis and Caleb

Evans – were Giants in the Land. Thomas was seventeen years older than James

Eley but Francis and Evans were almost his age and were certainly of his

generation. He had became a Member of Leominster Baptist Church in 1762. His

wife was baptised at Leominster two years later and in 1778 he became one of

the three deacons a post he retained until he left Leominster.

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Figure 24 Leominster Baptist Records

Figure 25 Leominster Baptist Records

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Figure 26 Leominster Baptist Records

Another well-known Baptist Minister the Rev. William Steadman discovered his

vocation at Leominster and he wrote an account of his early struggles with

preaching which makes a brief mention of James Eley.

‘However, from this time I surmounted the difficulty, and attended the meetings

preparatory to the Lord’s Supper, the monthly prayer-meetings for the spread of

the gospel, then for the first time set-up, and also the conference on the Lord’s

day morning. That meeting was attended by few; Mr. James Eley, Mr. Samuel

Nichols, and myself, were the speakers. As they were aware that the meeting was

set on foot with a view to my preaching, these good men left me room to speak. I

experienced more liberty than I had anticipated, and the result was, as I

afterwards learned, their conviction that I should be a preacher….’

Many years later James Eley’s son visited the Baptist Church in Leominster

where he had been taken as a child:

‘From thence I went into the body of the church, walked round the aisles, and

saw a table of benefactions two or three bequests of the late Mrs. Marlow, one of

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which is thirteen shillings and tenpence yearly to the poor of the Baptist meeting

of this town. On looking round the meeting, a degree of melancholy came across

my mind, and these words instantly occurred – “Your Fathers, where are they,

and the Prophets – do they live for ever?” the venerable Thomas gone whose

instructive voice has so often charmed my ears and warmed my heart – most of

the families with whom I used to worship are now no more, and scarcely a pew

with its old inhabitants.’

As I said James Eley was an Exciseman. The Hereford Collection covered a very

wide area, and the references to Rides implies that they were just that, as the

Officers would ride around a district on horseback, and it was perhaps possible

for James to remain centred on Leominster. The records mention a move to the

new Birmingham 16th Collection. Perhaps this was just a temporary appointment

because he was working in Leominster a couple of years later. Even so

commuting to and from Birmingham and Lichfield for a couple of years over

eighteenth century roads must have been an awful prospect.

In 1796, at the age of sixty, James Eley was appointed to Banbury in Oxfordshire.

There is at Leominster an undated list of ‘Members at a distance’ recording the

following details:

Figure 27 Leominster Baptist Records

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Figure 28 Leominster Baptist Church

James Eley – Deacon- removed to Banbury, Oxon. (died at his sons’ Thornbury

1802)

Ann Eley – to Banbury Died July 1799.

Elizabeth Eley their daughter is marked as ‘London’

We know from the Excise Records that James Eley retired from the Excise

Service shortly after his wife’s death:

Wednesday 31st July 1799: James Eley, officer of Banbury 1st division, Oxon

Collection, through age and infirmities rendered incapable of performing the

duty of an officer as by letter 28th instant from Samuel Harman, collector, to

relinquish and qualify for charity.

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James Eley died in Thornbury in 1803. After forty years he had returned to the

land of his fathers and here in the burial ground at Thornbury he would be

surrounded by many of his descendents. Family burials continued there until 1877

and in total there are five James Eleys buried in that hallowed spot.

When his son visited Leominster some years later he noted these kind remarks:

‘The Clerk who turned out to be Ned Hare came and said to me “Binna you a

Lemster Man?” “I believe so” replied I, and told him I was a son of Mr. Eley’s

– “Ay, Ay, I knew him, your Father and Mother”, said he, “were as quiet good

sort of people as ever lived in Lemster. I hear they are both dead, for I have often

enquired about them.’

‘Saw Thomas Smith, son of Alderman Smith. He very politely paid me this

compliment, “Your Father was as honest a man as ever carried a guage stick” –

These and many such like observations were very grateful to my feelings for I

found my father among his old friends was universally remembered with respect.’

The description of James Eley as being as honest a man as ever carried a gauging

stick, a stick used by excise men to gauge liquor of all kinds, is a useful one and

indicates his recognised integrity. His work must also have required considerable

courage, for those were days when tough resistance was often shown to the Excise

Officers in the pursuit of their duty, and many who did not fall for bribery were

injured or maimed. He certainly lived an active and varied life in times when the

enforcement of the excise regulations was subject to both temptation and risk to

life and limb.

Of his children they seem to have been Baptists too and they left Leominster and

settled either in London or in Gloucestershire.

Elizabeth married John Bruton of Thornbury who registered a child at Wotton-

under-Edge Baptist Church. She and her husband were enrolled as members of

Thornbury Baptist Church and their eldest son became a deacon and Sunday

school superintendent.

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Figure 29 Wotton-under-Edge Baptist Church

Hannah married Joseph Foxwell, a weaver of Wotton-under-Edge, and they

joined the Baptist Church there. Their son-in-law, a printer and bookseller of

Wotton-under-Edge, specialized in religious books and hymnology.

Today the Baptist Church in Wotton is situated in the Ropewalk. The present

building was erected in 1816 to replace the one erected a hundred years earlier in

Ludgate Hill. From that time until well into the twentieth century it was known

as “The Particular Baptist Church of Christ”. This means that membership was

strictly limited to “totally immersed (baptised)” members only. There is in

existence a document entitled “The Confession of Faith and Covenant of the

Particular Baptist Church of Christ, Wotton-under-Edge”, which stipulates that

there must be a closed membership of the church of “baptised believers” only.

Mary and her sister Sarah moved to London possibly to be with their brother

Thomas who was working at the Excise Office there. Mary had left Leominster

Baptist Church to attend ‘Mr Booth’s Church’. The Reverend Abraham Booth

was a famous Baptist Minister in the 18th century first of all in the East Midlands

as a General Baptist and then from 1769, following his acceptance of Calvinistic

convictions, at Little Prescott Street in London for over thirty years.

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Figure 30 Rev Abraham Booth

Figure 31 Rev Joseph Ivimey

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Later Mary and Sarah belonged to Eagle Street an influential Baptist Church in

London with an interesting if turbulent background. The minister at Eagle Street

during the time of the Eleys was Joseph Ivimey who was converted by a sermon

of William Steadman, the young Herefordshire man mentioned earlier as starting

his ministry under the eye of James Eley at Leominster. Ivimey was then in

business as a tailor. He was called to become the minister at Eagle Street which

he brought into the main stream of London Baptist life. He added eight hundred

members to the church and sent twenty men into the ministry…

The Eleys left London in 1825 and the sisters joined Wotton-under-Edge Baptist

Church. Sarah outlived all of her brothers and sisters and she was buried at

Thornbury Baptist Church in 1873 aged ninety-four-years. A great great nephew

later wrote:

‘I remember when she died because my mother had £50 under her will. Your

mother saw her funeral procession pass the top of Morton lane on the way to

Thornbury.’

JAMES ELEY THE YOUNGER

Figure 32 James Eley the Younger

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Figure 33 Elizabeth Eley nee Greenwood

As we have heard already James Eley the Younger was born at Pembridge and

was brought up in Leominster. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to

Jonathan Sayer, a member of the Baptist Church and a staymaker of Leominster

whose shop was situated opposite the Red Lion in Broad Street. His younger

brother Thomas was also apprenticed to Mr Sayer before becoming an exciseman

like their father.

Figure 34 Red Lion Leominster

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Figure 35 Probably Mr Sayers' Shop

Figure 36 Probably Mr Sayers' Shop

By 1786 James Eley the Younger was living in Thornbury.

But first an aside - a distant cousin has inherited a silver watch which was made

for James Eley by a Thornbury watchmaker named 'Collins.' The outside of the

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watch is plain. There are no markings to indicate any Thornbury connection on

the face or rear of the watch case. The markings inside the case indicate that it

was made by a silversmith Nicholas Thomas Wood of St John's Square

Clerkenwell. The name of 'James Eley Thornbury' is clearly engraved on the

brasswork. Notes in it state that the watch was made in 1786 and detail how the

watch has passed down through the family.

Figure 37 James Eley's watch

Figure 38 James Eley's watch

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Figure 39 Inside the watch

Figure 40 Inside the watch

James ma rried Elizabeth Greenwood, his cousin, and they set up in business as

staymakers at the Corner House on the Plain in the very heart of the old market

town.

Now for their Baptist credentials… again as with his father… I have found no

record of his baptism.

Whilst the meeting has a much longer history the first stone of the Baptist Meeting

House in Gillingstool, Thornbury was laid by J. Eley Esq. on August 15th 1788

and the building was opened for Public Worship by the Rev. Caleb Evans, M.A.

on May 27th 1789.’ This Caleb Evans preached at the opening of the new church

in Leominster back in 1772.

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Figure 41 1 & 2 The Plain, Thornbury (left)

Figure 42 High Street, Thornbury

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This means that young James Eley the staymaker, then aged only twenty-seven-

years, had laid the foundation stone of the new church and he also signed various

other church papers at that time.

Figure 43 Thornbury Baptist Church

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Figure 44 Thornbury Baptist Church

The first Church book belonging to Thornbury Baptist Church is an account book

which opens in 1793 with the death of Thomas Bissicks who had been Minister

for about 40 years. After his death, there was an arrangement for many years with

the Bristol Baptist Academy to send out preachers to Thornbury, and the minister

from Chipping Sodbury came once every two months, when a Communion

service was held.

Figure 45 Interior of Thornbury Baptist Church

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It was perhaps because there was no resident minister in Thornbury that the Eleys

decided to register the birth of six of their young children at Wotton-under-Edge

Baptist Church.

As I mentioned James and his wife Elizabeth were first cousins. Her sister Mary

married John Shepherd, a maltster, dealer and chapman. The Shepherds became

very close to the Eleys and they too had their children registered at Wotton-under-

Edge too. Many of the Shepherds were later buried alongside the Eleys and

Brutons at Thornbury Baptist Church. Their daughter Sarah married Jesse

Cossham and their grandson Handel Cossham became an MP for Bristol and a

great philanthropist – Cossham Memorial Hospital near Kingswood was his

greatest gift to the people of Bristol.

‘In a small house in High Street, Thornbury, which has now disappeared was

born to Jesse Cossham, carpenter and builder, a son on March 31, 1824. He was

named Handel because of his father’s admiration for ‘The Messiah’. Jesse was a

man of forceful character, a leading member of the Congregational Church and

a firm Liberal who made no secret of his views. At the election of 1831, he said

to the boy as he left the polling booth – it was open voting in those days – ‘My

son, I expect to be ruined for voting Liberal but I will not vote against my

principles and my conscience for any man’. He always remembered the day

August 1, 1834 when his father took him out before dawn to see the sun rise on a

Britain which had freed her slaves.

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Figure 46 Handel Cossham

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Figure 47 Cossham Memorial Hospital

It is of interest to note that the Baptist Chapel was built in the same year as the

Methodist Chapel, and may well have been completed at the time of Wesley’s 4th

visit to Thornbury. James Eley was not a great lover of Methodist ministers as an

incident in Gloucester reveals:

‘At two I went to the Bell to meet the coach that was going from Birmingham to

Bristol, it soon came Well frighted with Westlean parsons, who were going to the

Bristol conference, and to my great mortification they told me I could not go. O

how happy I should have felt if these Reverend Gentlemen had addressed me in

Gospel language and said “Yet there is room.” But though I was very urgent for

a place among them these universal philanthropists tottilly (sic) excluded me, not

quite intimidated with these severe repulse I made another effort, went on to the

Turnpike and spoke to the coachman as they passed but here I received a final

denial and was left behind.

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Figure 48 Morton Baptist Church

Figure 49 Morton Baptist Church

The grandfather of the great preacher, George Whitefield, had been Rector of

Rockhampton, a village near to Thornbury and situated between these two places

is the hamlet of Morton. Here we find a daughter church emerging, an off-shoot

of Thornbury Baptist Church. In 1805 James Eley signed the papers and in due

course both his son and grandson farmed Chapel Farm, opposite to Morton

Chapel. As at Thornbury this Baptist church still thrives today.

James Eley continued in business as a Linendraper. He was Overseer of the Poor

of Thornbury and Clerk to Thornbury Magistrates. In 1812 and 1813 he was

Mayor of Thornbury.

In July 1808 as one of the Overseers of the Poor, he went To Gloucester Quarter

Sessions to indite four persons for contempt for not obeying Orders in Bastardy.

He went on by coach to Hereford and Leominster, to visit old friends and familiar

places, and during a week’s stay he rode over to Pembridge to see his birthplace.

At the request of his daughter, Martha, he kept a very full Journal of his

experiences, packed with interesting details and is a fascinating social record of

the times. This Journal has been preserved and reveals the author to be a man of

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some education and a fluent writer. He seems to have been artistic, sensitive,

responsive to beauty, observant and inquisitive – an extrovert – who was

impatient of bores, and somewhat self-righteous. He was an early riser, friendly,

fond of good company, good food and drink, but not to excess. While dining with

the Minister of the Baptist Church at Leominster, he much enjoyed some

“excellent bottled perry made from the Longlon pears grown on a plantation

belonging to the (Baptist) meeting.”

James Eley wrote a moving obituary of his daughter Selina, who died in 1810,

for ‘The Baptist Magazine’ and the article is dated July 1813.

Written by her Father, soon after her Death. After various symptoms of a

declining state, for the space of two or three years, in which she experienced

considerable weakness of body, and much interruption of health, my dear child

Selina became confined to her room on January 20. 1810 in the 19th year of her

age. Her memory will be ever dear to me, as I feel a humble confidence that she

is now “without fault before the throne of God.” The following is a brief account

of her experience from the above date to the time of her death, May 15, 1810.

His wife died in 1814 and he made his own will in 1830, the year before he died.

A grandson wrote in 1902:

Our grandfather occupied a good position in Thornbury, being Clerk to the

Magistrates. I have heard Thornbury people say he was a highly respectable and

amiable gentleman, esteemed and revered by all who knew him, his name up to

the present day (1902) being held in great veneration in that town.

Grandfather was a Baptist of the old Puritan school, and as such the chief

supporter of the Baptist Chapel there, often conducting the services when needed,

and I for one am proud to be the grandson of such a good man. He lies buried

with my grandmother and all my paternal aunts and uncles in the graveyard of

the chapel, having passed away 6 December 1831, aged 69 years, leaving a name

the memory of which is fragrant now in 1900.’

Two daughters Martha and Elizabeth, continued living at the Plain. In 1834,

Martha was charged with possessing four defective weights at the Petty Sessional

Court, She was found guilty, her weights were forfeited and she was fined six

shillings with eight shillings costs. We know from a notice placed in the

newspaper following her death that Martha 'kept the depot of the Bible Society

and the Religious Society for several years and was much beloved by a large

circle of friends'.

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Figure 50

Figure 51

WILLIAM REED

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Have you heard of William Reed, the Baptist Writer, Traveller and

Philanthropist?

William Reed of Thornbury was an unusual boy. When he was 16, his father

expected him to take up the shoemaking trade, but William resisted such mundane

work. He had a passion for music and saved his pennies until he bought himself

a fife which he later exchanged for a flute. He acquired a knowledge of drawing

from painting letters on boards to be placed on carts and he expressed a desire

to further this interest to obtain a living. His father forbade this venture and forced him to learn 'the art and mystery' of a shoemaker.

Bored at work, William sought amusement elsewhere and he excelled at fives-

playing. In 1790 he found religion and became a devout Baptist. He refused to

play any tune on his flute except sacred music. He also took to writing poetry. In

1791 having accepted that fate had determined him to be shoemaker in spite of

his personal feelings, he set out to be a perfect master in every aspect of the

business. He went on a tour visiting Gloucester, Worcester and Birmingham. At

the end of six months he returned to Thornbury with his mission accomplished -

his brother thought him to be the neatest workman he had ever seen. However

soon after a problem with his eye-sight made him give up his work and he never seriously continued with it.

William spent his time reading and drawing when his eye-sight permitted and

wandering around the neighbouring countryside which he enjoyed so much. In

1797 or 1798 he was invited to escort Dr Salmon to Edinburgh and spent a year touring the Highlands and he began to write about his observations.

In due course William Reed moved to live in Bristol and he busied himself writing

essays which were widely acclaimed and he also wrote songs. He did manage a

long trip round Ireland in 1810 and in June 1813 he went to Guernsey and the

neighbouring Channel Islands. The book 'The Remains of William Reed' contains

a full essay about his Irish trip and an interesting letter reporting on his

adventures in the Channel Islands. The letter shows that he was enjoying good

health in Guernsey, but this changed and he died there on 30th September 1813. His remains were buried in the Friends Burial Ground at Guernsey.

James Eley was appointed Trustee of William Reed’s estate and he was

personally left the sum of £8 in his will.

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Figure 52 The Plain, Thornbury

Figure 53 Copper Plate of James Eley of Berkeley

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IN MORE RECENT TIMES

As the years passed some of the next generation became involved with the Union

Churches which resulted from collaboration between ministers of the local

Congregational and Baptist Churches. From 1832 worship began in Berkeley

Town Hall and this resulted in the erection of the Union Chapel four years later.

Figure 54 Berkeley Union Church

Figure 55 Sharpness Union Church

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James Eley, a Berkeley saddler, led the band at Union Chapel and his family were

later involved with the building of Sharpness Union Chapel. One of his sons-in-

law - Joseph Bennett – was the Music correspondent for the Telegraph and was

responsible for the Music at the Weigh House Chapel in London.

Figure 56 Joseph Bennett

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Figure 57

Figure 58 Joseph Bennett's Autobiography

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Figure 59 Kingswood Congregational Church. Burial Place of James Eley, Farmer

In the twentieth century Shield Eley was a lay-preacher and was associated with

the Mount Pleasant Union Chapel at Falfield. His legacies give us a picture of his

interests: The Gloucestershire Congregational Union for Falfield Chapel;

Thornbury Baptist Church, Hereford Hop Pickers’ Mission, J.W.C. Fegan’s

Homes, Scripture Gift Mission, British & Foreign Bible Society and London

Missionary Society.

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Figure 60

Figure 61 Mount Pleasant Church, Falfield

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Figure 62 Mount Pleasant Church, Falfield

Shield’s sister-in-law, Lucy Bennett, lived with him and his wife. At an early age,

she began writing poems, hymns and prose. In 1888 she paid the first of three

visits to Keswick Conventions, which were a great influence on her, and in this

and other ways she became acquainted with and corresponded with many

prominent Christian leaders. Her correspondents included Christina Rossetti and

C.H. Spurgeon. She helped to found All Nations College, Upper Norwood and

Mount Hermon College, Streatham Common.

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Figure 63 Biography of Lucy Bennett

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Figure 64

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Figure 65 Rev George Muller

Buried next to Shield Eley at Mount Pleasant Chapel is his sister who left a

substantial sum for ‘God’s work’ – namely the work of the Reverend George

Muller – In 5 orphanages at Ashley Down in Bristol he provided for 2,050

orphans at a time. When Muller died in 1898 the City of Bristol came to a stand-

still, tens of thousands filled the streets and eighty carriages followed his coffin.

Although not a Baptist Muller was the sort of pastor the Eleys would have

respected and honoured – another Giant in the Land.