William Cowper (1778-1858). The Indispensable Parson: The Life and Influence of Australia's First Parish Clergyman

By Peter G. Bolt

A biography of Rev William Cowper (1778–1858), third Chaplain to the colony of New South Wales. Appointed to St Philip’s, Sydney, in 1809, William Cowper served in that parish until his death in 1858. During his long tenure, he adapted the patterns of evangelical Anglican ministry he had learned in Yorkshire for New South Wales, as i

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bolt Publishing Services Pty. Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780980357943

Peter G. Bolt

Bolt is lecturer in New Testament at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia.

Book preview

Introduction

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, on 18 August 1809, William Cowper¹ arrived in New South Wales to begin his long ministry in the Parish of St Phillip’s Sydney. The year in which his descendants celebrate the bicentenary of his arrival provides the opportunity for re-telling the story of his life and influence for a new generation of Australians. He was Australia’s first Parish Clergyman.

Despite serving the people of Sydney for almost fifty years,² Rev. William Cowper has not previously received much attention from ‘outside the family’. His son, the first Dean of Sydney, William Macquarie Cowper—also a long-serving early Australian clergyman—considered that it would be the ‘filial duty which [he] owed to [his] father’s memory’ to devote the first part of his Autobiography and Reminiscences to his father’s untold story.³

A few years ago […] I was, in the providence of God (Who orders all the events of our lives, though we often forget the fact), laid aside from active work by serious illness; and in reflecting upon the past, I was impressed with the fact that, with the exception of a short obituary published in the newspapers at the time of his death,⁴ no account of my revered father’s work as one of the earliest chaplains in the Colony, and extending over nearly half a century, had ever been given to the public. It then occurred to me that this was a serious want, which I might be able, in some measure, to supply, though not so fully as I could desire.

Although the second part of his book is autobiographical, W.Macquarie claimed that his:

chief object in writing these recollections, has been to impart to the present generation some knowledge of one who was so long a pillar of truth and righteousness in the land, and to whom large numbers, in common with myself, were indebted for the moulding of their characters.⁵

His veneration of his father ensured that the Dean, 88 years old when he began, persevered in his chosen task, despite being hampered by many difficulties. His aim with regard to his father’s memory was clear:

These memories of my beloved father, which I have thus endeavoured to call up from the past, will, I trust, enable my readers to form a proper estimate of his character, his principles, and of the service which he rendered to the church in this Colony.⁶

His service to church and colony is undoubted, as will be shown below. However, can William Cowper justly be called ‘Australia’s First Parish Clergyman’?⁷ Before Cowper arrived in August 1809, four other Anglican clergymen had already been hard at work in New South Wales. Arriving with the First Fleet in 1788, Richard Johnson had pioneered the work of the gospel in this strange, new land at the other side of the world, amidst the great difficulty arising from his constitution and circumstances, and from the lack of support—and even open opposition—from Government officials and the military.⁸ In 1794, when almost exhausted, he was joined by Samuel Marsden—an ex-blacksmith of a completely different constitution. With his ox-like strength of body and character, Marsden pushed on as Chaplain to New South Wales, and Missionary to New Zealand, until his death in 1838.⁹

Two other clergymen served in NSW in addition to the two official chaplains to the colony. James Bain had arrived on HMS Gorgon on 21 September 1791, as chaplain to the NSW Corps, and, after a period at Parramatta, served on Norfolk Island (January 1792 to February 1794). He was back in NSW for some months before ill health took him home to England (December 1794), where he resigned.¹⁰ And finally, there was Henry Fulton, who arrived amongst the political prisoners from Ireland in January 1800 on the Minerva. He received a conditional pardon from Governor King in November —unnecessarily as it turns out, because he was never properly convicted—and began a ministry along the Hawkesbury and then on Norfolk Island, receiving a glowing report from the Governor and a full pardon in 1805.¹¹ In 1806 he was called back to Sydney, to do duty in the colony while Marsden was in England. In this role, he festered bitterness towards Marsden because of the senior chaplain’s failure to adequately remunerate him for his duties.¹² With Marsden still away, Fulton was the only clergyman in the colony when William Cowper, the Senior Chaplain’s new recruit, stepped off the Indispensable, to commence duties on the following day.

However, although these four clergyman served before him, it would not be strictly accurate to describe any of Cowper’s predecessors as a ‘parish clergyman’. William Cowper, on the other hand, can be described as nothing but a parish clergyman. For sure, he was commissioned as ‘assistant Chaplain’, but from the beginning he was located at St Phillip’s, Sydney.¹³ Prior to 1802 there were no parishes in NSW, but on 23 July of that year, Governor King proclaimed two parishes, St Phillip’s and St John’s Parramatta.¹⁴ This was, of course, following the English practice, with ‘parish’ being a secular label for an administrative district. But, in a strange reversal of the order of the English system, this proclamation also had ecclesiastical implications, especially since the new Church of St Phillip’s was opened at the same time as Cowper entered his incumbency. Although Marsden’s responsibilities as Senior Chaplain ensured he still had a role beyond the new parish of St John’s, Parramatta, Cowper’s ministry, from beginning to end, would be situated in Sydney, bounded by the Parish of St Phillip.

Despite his best efforts, when William Macquarie Cowper completed Autobiography and Reminiscences, he was ‘much dissatisfied with the result’.¹⁵ Alongside his dissatisfaction, it is also important to notice his frank admission of what he thought he was —and what he thought he was not—doing when he put pen to paper, especially in regard to the connection of his work with other sources of information. The elderly Dean struggled due to a lack of resources,¹⁶ and due to his inability to read the ones available to him, due to their basic illegibility and to his own failing eyesight.¹⁷ He also frankly admitted that he did not attempt:

to produce anything like a biography of the venerable man, for which indeed I had not the materials. What I have written may be regarded as an outline of his history and work in the Colony, mostly from recollection, but not without verification of facts where this became necessary.¹⁸

Besides the obituary mentioned by the Dean, the Sydney press had also published a brief testimonial to William, senior, in 1854,¹⁹ and in 1887 he was also given an entry in the National Dictionary of Biography.²⁰ At about the same time as the Dean was writing his biography, H.W.H. Huntington was working on another, but this was never published.²¹ Since W. Macquarie’s Autobiography and Reminiscences, several short studies of the life of William Cowper have also been written.²² However, despite the Dean’s dissatisfaction with his own account, and his assessment of its modest aims, the little that has been written since has been content to draw heavily on his sketch, without much supplementation from other sources.²³

The 2009 bicentennial celebration aims, in part, to alert a new generation to the significance of William Cowper. It also provides, therefore, the occasion to re-examine the long and influential life of this colonial Australian. Unlike William Macquarie Cowper, the researcher of today does not lack materials to illuminate either early Sydney society, or Cowper’s life within it. Indeed, the Cowper200 celebrations have unearthed some new material from family archives, which has supplemented other public sources to provide an even fuller picture of our biographical subject. Unlike that for the Dean, the challenge in 2009 is to adequately utilise the many available resources, in order to show how Cowper’s long and faithful work contributed, not only to the infant Anglican Church of Australia,²⁴ but also to the youthful town of Sydney, and, indeed, the growing nation of Australia.

If the present work succeeds in this challenge, it will help to further the cause begun by W. Macquarie when he put pen to paper just over one hundred years ago:

So far as I have been able, I have endeavoured to give an accurate description of his life, work, and character. I regard it as a privilege and honour to have had such a father, a true man of God, whose example and influence have followed me through my life, though not indeed as fully as they should have done, and whose memory I cherish with the deepest affection. And I esteem it a privilege now in my ninety-first year to be instrumental in making known to the present generation how he lived and laboured for the welfare of the land in which they dwell. It is my earnest hope and prayer that those who may read these pages may be animated by the same spirit and zeal for the public good as he was inspired with, and may strive to imitate his example. Such religion as that which he possessed is a power for good far more effective in its moral results than great wealth or high honour.²⁵

Notes

1.William Cowper was almost certainly called ‘Cooper’, as demonstrated by frequent variant spellings of his name at all periods of his life, both in England and Australia. When his sons had reached adulthood, however, both Charles and William were called ‘Cow-per’; Cable, ‘The Cowpers’, 22–23.

2.Serving from 1809 to 1858, his 49 year long stint at St Philip’s is ‘certainly a record for the city of Sydney’; Cable, ‘The Cowpers’, 24. With William Macquarie serving for a further eleven years after his father, St Philip’s enjoyed sixty years of Cowper ministry in all.

3.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, 1–84; both quotations that follow are taken from his preface (11 November 1901).

4.The obituary in the Sydney Empire 10/7/1858 was picked up by other papers, both Australian (South Australian Advertiser 21/7/1858) and English (Morning Chronicle 6/9/1858) and the London Times, 23/6/1858.

5.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, ‘Preface’.

6.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, 76.

7.Cf. Cowper Family, ‘Commemoration of the 175th Anniversary’, 20, where he is called Australia’s first rector.

8.See further, Macintosh, Richard Johnson.

9.See further, the biographies of Johnson, by Bonwick and Macintosh; and those of Marsden, by Johnstone, Marsden and Yarwood.

10.Parsons, ‘Bain, James (fl. 1789–1794)’, 49.

11.HRA I.iii, 40, 125. Loane, Centenary History, 2.

12.Cable, ‘Fulton, Henry (1761–1840)’. His bitterness towards Marsden in clear in H. Fulton to E. Bligh, 1809, pp. 4–5 (SLNSW: Series 42.07=CY 3007/814-815).

13.Technically, the ‘Old St Phillip’s’ (named after the first Governor) has the double ‘l’, and the ‘New St Philip’s’ (named after the biblical evangelist) (1856+) the single ‘l’, and this convention will be retained as far as possible in this volume. Unfortunately for such neat schemas, however, the sources themselves are so full of variation, that it can get unsightly! Nevertheless, the original spelling will be retained.

14.Government and General Order, 23 July 1802, HRNSW IV.802.

15.K. F[rench], ‘Introduction’, who notes that the elderly Dean had to contend with ‘the illegibility of much of the correspondence of the earlier times’, as well as being blind in one eye, having failing sight in the other, being deaf and being unable to dictate.

16.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, 73. ‘It has been put together under many disadvantages, and in the absence of materials which at an earlier period of my life I could have availed myself of, but which are no longer within my reach’. He also goes on to mention the additional difficulty caused by his ‘imperfect sight’.

17.F[rench], ‘Introduction’.

18.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, preface.

19.‘The Venerable Archdeacon Cowper D.D.’, Sydney Illustrated News 28/1/1854. In 1842, just before Cowper left for England, he was also presented with an address that very briefly surveyed his time in the colony, but it contains little hard information; see Australian 19/2/1842.

20.Rigg, ‘Cowper, William, D.D. (1780–1858)’.

21.Huntington, ‘Biography’ (1900). Houison, ‘The Venerable Archdeacon Cowper’ (1916), drew heavily on Huntington’s work.

22.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences (1902); Houison, ‘The Venerable Archdeacon Cowper’ (1916); Aust.Enc., ‘Cowper, William (1780–1858)’ (1927); Aust.Enc.2, ‘Cowper, William (1778–1858)’ (1958); Pollard, ‘Cowper, William (1778–1858)’ (1966); CEHS, ‘William Cowper’ (1971); Loane, Hewn From the Rock, 23–41 (1976); Cowper Family, ‘Commemoration’ (1985); Horsley, ‘Chaplaincy’, 53–54 (1994); Cable, ‘Cowper, William’ (1995); Cable, ‘Cowpers, Father and Son’ (2003).

23.The Huntington-Houison material utilises some independent sources, which appear to have now unfortunately disappeared.

24.‘The account which I have thus somewhat roughly given of my father’s ministerial work in this Colony, may perhaps help to fill a niche of the history of the church in Australia, whenever such a history may be written’; Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, 73.

25.Cowper, Autobiography & Reminiscences, 73.

CHAPTER 1

AN ENGLISHMAN COMES TO SYDNEY (1778–1809):

Vision Inspires Action

Evans House and St Andrew’s Sedbergh. ‘Evans House’ by Henry Bracken, ca. 1930. Watercolour. Courtesy: Sedbergh School Archive and Heritage Centre.

WILLIAM COWPER DISEMBARKED at Sydney Cove in August 1809 to become the first incumbent of the parish of St Phillip’s, Sydney. Almost fifty years later, he died at the St Philip’s parsonage, and was buried from St Philip’s. When he arrived in the Colony, he was unknown. But on the day of his funeral, Sydney closed down, and 25,000 people lined the streets. He had spent his days in New South Wales conscientiously doing the work of a parish clergyman, actively engaged with his parishioners and with the new society being built so far away from his English roots. What was it about this man’s life and influence that made one third of the city of Sydney mourn his death and crowd the streets to say farewell?

COWPER’S PREDECESSORS IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Although Cowper was the first Chaplain to be appointed for a particular parish—Australia’s first parish clergyman—there had been other clergymen in the Colony before him.

Richard Johnson

The first clergyman came with the First Fleet. Although Captain Cook had praised Botany Bay, Governor Arthur Phillip quickly recognised that this location was unsuitable for the new colony and so, after just six days, the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.¹ Amongst those discharged from their long voyage, Rev. Richard Johnson also stepped ashore, ready to begin his ministry as Chaplain to the British Government’s latest penal settlement.

Despite the oft-repeated claim that there had been no plans for Christian ministry at Botany Bay before Wilberforce and his friends pressed the idea, the British Government had indeed thought of the spiritual and moral needs of the colony. Lord Sydney’s plan, dated 18 August 1786, made provision for a chaplain to be appointed, at a salary of £182:10:0 p.a. and Prime Minister Pitt invited William Wilberforce to suggest a suitable name.² The September papers were abuzz with announcements of the Botany Bay scheme and, as it rapidly became the talk of the town, William Wilberforce, Rev. John Newton, the poet William Cowper, and John Thornton began to seek after a person who would be right for the position. By October, alongside the predictable snide humour, serious discussion of the Government proposal had begun. On the evening of the 2 October, for example, the Westminster Forum agreed to investigate an ‘important question’ communicated to them by ‘a gentleman of great eminence in the republic of letters’, namely, ‘Is the intended transportation of convicts to Botany Bay disgraceful to a civilized community?’.³

The scheme also provoked an important discussion in the Eclectic Society. Founded in 1783, this fortnightly discussion group included clergy (notably John Newton, John Venn Sr, Henry Foster, Richard Cecil, Eli Bates, and Thomas Scott) and laymen. Leaving aside the morality, or otherwise, of the Government’s plan, this group of ardent evangelicals met on 13 November to discuss the question: ‘What is the best method for planting and propagating the Gospel in Botany Bay?’—a conversation which became the first of several similar discussions, which eventually led to the establishment of the Church Missionary Society in 1799.⁴

By their November meeting, this group had already suggested the name of the Rev. Richard Johnson to Wilberforce, and he had already been appointed. The new Chaplain was invited to their discussion about the gospel in Botany Bay, but was unable to attend.⁵ When he eventually sailed, however, Johnson was well aware of the interest and support of this network of evangelicals who, through Wilberforce and others in the ‘Clapham Sect’, had a great deal of influence in Government circles.

And so, on the 26 January 1788, the Eclectic Society nominee, Rev. Richard Johnson, accompanied by his wife, Mary, joined the other newcomers to the Great South Land, as the first Chaplain to New South Wales.⁶ Although no record survives of the Eclectic Society’s November discussion, it is perhaps indicative of one of the standard methods of ‘planting and propagating the Gospel’ that Johnson had been sent to Botany Bay with a small library of Bibles, Prayer Books, and other printed materials to assist him in his ministry.⁷ At this period, and especially amongst Johnson’s evangelical circles, education and reading was regarded as an essential step towards moral reformation. He had been sent to teach, and, in both Church and School, that is what he would do.

Things were still in some disarray on the first Sunday after the Fleet’s arrival, but on the 3 February the colonists gathered together to read prayers and to hear Johnson expound the Scriptures. As he began what would prove to be a very difficult ministry in New South Wales, the Chaplain sounded a note of thankfulness to God, preaching on the text Psalm 116:12 ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?’.⁸

Over a century later, William Cowper’s son and biographer, W.Macquarie Cowper, spoke of that Sunday as ‘the day on which the planting of Christianity was begun in Australia; the day on which the Christian Faith was proclaimed, and Christian Worship first celebrated’.⁹ Johnson was the first of a succession of clergymen ‘sent to minister in this Colony […] children of the [Evangelical] revival; men firmly rooted in its principles, animated by its spirit, and living witnesses in their lives to the power of those truths’.¹⁰William Cowper also stood in that succession, and with W. Macquarie following in his footsteps, the two Cowpers had a key role in establishing the evangelicalism begun in eighteenth century England in New South Wales, not only in the nineteenth century, but on into the opening years of the twentieth.¹¹

Samuel Marsden

Johnson’s lot was not easy, but he laboured on alone for five years, until, on 10 March 1794, Rev. Samuel Marsden came to work alongside him. When ill health took the rather disheartened Johnson home in October 1800, Marsden became the senior clergyman in the colony, a role he would vigorously fulfil for the next thirty-eight years.¹²

These first two Chaplains to New South Wales had much in common. Both men were from Yorkshire; both were firm evangelicals; both had come under the influence of Joseph Milner at the Hull Grammar School¹³ and under other prominent evangelical influences then in Yorkshire and at Cambridge; and both had benefitted from the patronage of prominent evangelicals associated with Hull and with London’s Clapham Sect and Eclectic Society, such as the famous social reformer William Wilberforce. In due course, William Cowper would also fall in with the same influential circles.

Bain and Fulton

Although not appointed as Chaplains to the Colony, two other clergymen were in New South Wales before Cowper. Rev. James Bain arrived on the Gorgon, on 21 September 1791, as Chaplain to the New South Wales Corps.¹⁴ Him being stationed on Norfolk Island from January 1792 to February 1794, and then returning to England in December 1794, meant that he had little time to interact much with Johnson, nor with Marsden, once he had arrived. In any case, Bain did not share his colleagues’ evangelical convictions. Whereas Johnson and Marsden—and in due course, Cowper—were accused of being ‘Methodists’, two weeks after Bain arrived Johnson wryly observed a difference with his new companion in the cloth:

I wish rather than hope that he may prove a fellow Labourer in the same blessed Cause. As yet he seems to be greatly caressed by our great ones, & I fancy is not suspected as being a Methodist.¹⁵

Bain soon returned home, but once Rev. Henry Fulton had come to the Colony, he was here to stay.¹⁶ Unlike the others, he did not come with a clergyman’s commission, but he came as a prisoner. The scholarly minister of the Church of Ireland had been convicted of seditious practices in 1799, and arrived in Sydney on the Minerva in 1800, just as Richard Johnson was leaving the Colony. In November he received a conditional pardon and commenced as an assistant chaplain on the Hawkesbury, before being sent to Norfolk Island in February 1801. Here his ministry was well-received, and in 1805 he received a full pardon, just before he returned to the mainland to fill in for Marsden, who was about to leave for England on a recruiting drive.

Marsden the Recruiter

When Johnson’s health and well-being had suffered enough to take him home, Marsden proved an able successor. Despite possessing the physical strength of a blacksmith, and a naturally energetic temperament, with Johnson gone and Fulton on Norfolk Island, Marsden was soon convinced that the Colony needed more labourers in the Lord’s harvest field. In May 1803, he wrote to Rev. Miles Atkinson, minister of St Paul’s Church, Leeds, and one of the leading Yorkshire evangelicals. Atkinson was a member of the Elland Society, the body who was behind Marsden going to Cambridge with a view to entering the ministry.¹⁷ Now Marsden requested that another promising young Elland protégé might be found to assist him:

I wish that some person could be sent out to assist me. […] Should you have any young man belonging to the Society fit for this situation, I should be exceeding happy if he could be sent out […]. He must be married, have a good Constitution, not afraid of toil and labour, and have by nature an active turn of mind. Such a young man would be very acceptable in this Country; and might be very useful.¹⁸

After a few more years labouring on his own, Marsden saw the opportunity to do something about the situation, by capitalising on a trip he was making to England. In 1806, Governor King reported to his superiors:

Chaplains. Since Mr Johnson’s resignation in 1801,¹⁹ that duty has been performed by the Rev Mr Marsden with much assiduity and zeal. A church is built at Parramatta, and one of stone is far advanced at Sydney, the first of which has obtained the name of St John, and the latter that of St Phillip. Exclusive of Divine service being performed each Sunday at those settlements, two missionaries of good character [R. Hassall and W.P. Crook]²⁰ perform Divine service at Hawkesbury, Castle Hill, and Kissing Point, with great advantage to the inhabitants. After a residence of thirteen years, Mr Marsden has obtained my leave to go to England on account of indisposition and to arrange his private concerns; and that the important duties of religion may not be neglected, the Rev Mr Fulton, chaplain of Norfolk Island, does Mr Marsden’s duty in these settlements during his intended absence.²¹

With Henry Fulton ‘minding the store’, Marsden sailed for England on 10 February 1807 aboard the Buffalo.²² Whatever the reasons that may have taken him home,²³ this trip became a recruiting drive for the needs he had perceived at the other side of the world. Marsden spoke with the infant Church Missionary Society about New Zealand²⁴ and proceeded to recruit the first missionaries to the Maori people, John King and William Hall. He also found two men who would become his faithful assistants in New South Wales. Both men would spend the rest of their days in the Colony and both would have a profound influence on its life and character. The Rev. Robert Cartwright began at the Hawkesbury, before serving at St Luke’s Liverpool and, more briefly, at St James’ Sydney, and ending his days as a pioneer missionary amongst the settlers in the expanding Southern Districts.²⁵ In contrast to Cartwright’s various movements, once the Rev. William Cowper came to the Parish of Sydney, he remained there forty-nine years.

COWPER’S ROOTS

When William Cowper came to New South Wales, he undoubtedly brought with him ‘invisible luggage’ which had already shaped his life and ministry, and would continue to do so, as he, in turn, set about shaping the lives of others in his new land.²⁶ Since he was thirty years old when he arrived, it is all the more important to examine his lengthy English background, in order to identify some of the influences that gave his Australian ministry its patterns, features and basic character. What was it in his past that helped him to become ‘the indispensable parson’, who was so fondly farewelled at his funeral in July 1858?

When William was born, the Cowper family was living near the Lancashire village of Whittington. However, just like Johnson and Marsden, Cowper’s roots lay in Yorkshire. Born on 28 December 1778,²⁷ William was the third child born to Samuel and Isabella Cowper, after Leonard (who died as an infant), and John.²⁸ His father was a farmer, who had married Isabella Sedgwick in Sedbergh,²⁹ a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Both family names are strongly represented in the Sedbergh area and, in fact, at one time (before the 1620s), the Cowpers were ‘not a family in Sedbergh but the family at Sedbergh’.³⁰ Although Samuel’s connection to the Sedbergh Cowpers is not proven, but it is interesting that, although he was probably baptised at Ulverston where his parents were also married, Samuel found his way to Sedbergh to marry Isabella, who was probably brought up in or around this pretty area in the Yorkshire dales.

Samuel and Isabella’s first son, Leonard was christened in Sedbergh (3 March 1769),³¹ which makes it likely that they were still living there in 1769. They had moved to the Lancashire village of Whittington, some 13 miles down the Lune valley from Sedbergh, however, in time for John to be christened at the village church, St Michael the Archangel (22 Oct 1775). William was also christened at Whittington (20 Jun 1779), as was Thomas (1 Oct 1781) after him,³² who sadly died some six weeks later.³³

Thomas’s baptismal record enables the family home to be identified, for the Register notes that Samuel and Isabel were ‘of Sellet Hall’,³⁴ a home with a long history set amongst the picturesque hills to the northeast of Whittington village. Although previously in the Baynes family, the Hall was owned by John Harrison since 1711 and leased to tenants since his death in 1738. By 1775, Samuel Cowper had become the tenant,³⁵ and he was the last tenant before the tenancy was taken over by the Robinsons, who then held it until the second quarter of the 20th century. Since this clear line of tenancy began in 1787, the Cowpers must have moved on in that year. It is unclear whether the move was prompted by Samuel being squeezed out, or by him ‘bettering himself’ by acquiring his own land.³⁶ The location of their new home is also unknown.³⁷

William’s Educational Influences

Almost from the moment he arrived in Sydney through to just months before his death, William Cowper displayed a high regard for education. He was regarded as a well-educated man himself, and his love of knowledge was noticeable to others. His love of, and commitment to, reading is patent throughout his ministry in New South Wales, and his interests were fairly wide. He apparently kept up with not only the advances in theological thinking,³⁸ but he also had an abiding interest in scientific knowledge, and he had a proven facility in Mathematics, which continued to receive comment from others.³⁹ All of this raises the question as to how William himself was educated.

Previous biographers have said little about William’s education, and much of it is deduced from later events. So, for example, Pollard stated that ‘he was educated locally and at 17 became a tutor to the family of a clergyman of Northallerton, Yorkshire’,⁴⁰ and Cable that he ‘was clearly well educated—enough to tutor in a local clergyman’s family, to hold down a clerk’s job in a government office at Hull […] and to attract the favourable attention of the local Evangelical clergy’. Cable also noted what didn’t happen, saying that Cowper ‘was clever enough to receive a local education’, but, unlike Johnson or Marsden, he was not sent to university, but ‘he stayed in secular life, married and had children before he was ordained’.⁴¹

Huntington’s unpublished biography often gives an independent account, probably drawing upon sources no longer extant. He states that William’s father, Samuel:

is described as a man, who possessed much vigor of intellect, and a capacity for high attainments, in science and art, also his early circumstances were not favourable to the development of his unquestionable abilities & lastly, he was a hard working farmer who carried his conscience into every scene of action.⁴²

Huntington also claims that, with such a father, William was educated mostly through lessons at home. This is certainly consistent with the fact that William also educated his own sons at home, but without the information available to Huntington it is difficult to confirm or deny these claims.

The modern biographer may be forgiven for providing only brief comments about William’s education, for their older counterparts don’t seem to add much more. William’s obituary noted that he had a particular facility in Mathematics, claiming that as a young man he even published a few articles in scientific journals.⁴³ His son, William Macquarie, spoke of a general love of knowledge that was observed throughout his father’s life, noting in particular his ‘special taste for Mathematical study’.⁴⁴

Although certainty about William’s education still remains elusive, two interesting possibilities are suggested by circumstantial evidence. It is possible, firstly, that he attended the Sedbergh Free Grammar School; and, secondly, that he came under the influence of the mathematical genius, John Dawson. Both possibilities also have a bearing upon his Christian influences.

Sedbergh Free Grammar School

The area in which William spent his young life afforded both informal and formal opportunities for education. It is perhaps an indicator of the intellectual life of the area that the famous Sedbergh Book Club flourished in this area.⁴⁵ Local members included Wynne Bateman and Christopher Hull from the Sedbergh Free Grammar School, and John Dawson, the famous mathematician.⁴⁶ Members also travelled some distance to participate in the Club, including Rev. Oliver from Whittington,⁴⁷ a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford.⁴⁸ The thirteen miles to Sedbergh from Whittington was close enough for regular, if not frequent visits.⁴⁹

Sedbergh was also famous for its Free Grammar School, established by King Edward VI. Across the years, several Cowpers had acted as governors of the School.⁵⁰ At the time William was born, the school could rightly take pride in several scholars in its recent history under Wynne Bateman D.D. Reflecting upon this period in her 1876 History, Platt was pleased to bypass names from a more distant period, in order to:

commemorate either the living or the recently departed ornaments of this seminary. Dr George Mason, late bishop of Man; Dr Walker King, now bishop of Rochester; Sir Isaac Pennington, late professor of physic at Cambridge; Dr Thomas Kipling, dean of Peterborough; Dr William Cookson, canon of Windsor; Mr Thomas Starkie, fellow of St John’s Cambridge and vicar of Blackburn; the witty and elegant Thomas Wilson BD; and above all, Dr William Craven, master of St John’s College, who to the attainments of a profound scholar, added the humility of a saint, and to the manners of a gentleman the simplicity of a child.⁵¹

Although the original records have long-since disappeared, William’s name appears on the printed Register of the School, which dates to 1875, when the old card index (now destroyed) was typed up.⁵² William’s name is accompanied by a brief biographical note, which claims ‘He is said to have been a Sedberghian’.⁵³ The note, however, mistakes the year of his birth and summarizes his life from the perspective of its conclusion, suggesting that it probably drew upon sources other than the school records. All that can be reliably said, therefore, is that it probably records an oral memory that placed William amongst the old boys of the school. Nevertheless, this does raise the possibility, at least, that Cowper was educated at this ancient school delightfully set in the West Yorkshire dales.

If so, this may help account for William’s renowned facility in Mathematics. During the period of his education, despite the shortcomings in some departments, the School possessed a remarkable degree of excellence in this subject. Rev. Christopher Hull was appointed master when Dr Bateman died (15 May 1782), and he served the school until his own sudden death on 3 January 1799. Although the governors were upset about Mr Hull’s incompetency as a teacher of Latin and Greek, as third wrangler in his year at Cambridge he would have given them no reason to complain about his mathematical skills.⁵⁴

In general, ‘Mr. Hull’s Mastership can in no sense be declared an honour to the School’, but it was, in fact, rather ‘inglorious’.⁵⁵ One of his more successful decisions was his 1784 purchase of the property now known as ‘Evans House’, which became his residence. The boarders tended to live with the master, or, if their numbers were too great, in lodgings in the town. With this purchase the Master and his boarders now occupied a ‘commodious dwelling house with outbuildings and garden complete’.⁵⁶ If William did attend the school, and if his family had not moved to Sedbergh when Samuel handed over the tenancy of Sellet Hall in 1787, then Evans House would have probably served as his home.

John Dawson

Given William’s mathematical aptitude, it is perhaps even more noteworthy, that during the period in which he was being educated, ‘local boy made good’, John Dawson (1734–1820), was teaching mathematics in the district.⁵⁷ After being born at Garsdale in 1734, Dawson had there acquired a remarkable amount of knowledge, before studying medicine and mathematics in Lancashire, Edinburgh and London, and then settling back at Sedbergh. Here he married, in 1767, and established:

an extensive medical practice, but in spite of this still continued his scientific studies, until he became one of the greatest mathematicians of his day, and his fame spread over the country. After a time he gave up his surgical practice and became a teacher of mathematics. Many Cambridge men were his pupils, amongst whom may be mentioned Professor [Adam] Sedgwick, and Dr [Charles Richard] Sumner, the late Bishop of Winchester; and he had among them ten or twelve senior wranglers.⁵⁸

Sedgwick and Sumner were Dawson’s students towards the end of his career,⁵⁹ but when William Cowper was a youth, Dawson was in mid-career and already had a well-earned reputation as a teacher.⁶⁰ According to Adam Sedgwick:

about 1790 he entirely relinquished his practice as surgeon, and devoted himself exclusively to mathematical teaching. Between 1781 and 1794 he counted eight senior wranglers among his pupils. In 1797, 1798, 1800, and 1807, the Senior Wranglers were also Dawsonians.⁶¹

One of his students at this time was James Inman, born near Garsdale in 1776, who became professor of Mathematics at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, and was long celebrated for applying science to navigation and shipbuilding. Dr Inman also has some connections with Australia, for he sailed as Matthew Flinders’ astronomer, and also with Sir John Franklin (later governor of Van Diemen’s land).⁶²

Towards the end of his life, Dawson may have taught at Sedbergh Grammar School, but there is no positive evidence that he did. From the early days when he first took pupils, so that he could save towards his medical studies, Dawson had taken private pupils, ‘staying two or three months at a time at a farmhouse, and teaching the children of the neighbourhood’.⁶³ He continued to take private pupils, even while he operated his medical practice in Sedbergh. As his fame spread, students came to him in the summer months in preparation for their entry into Cambridge university (e.g. Adam Sedgwick’s father, Richard, in 1756).⁶⁴ The Sedberghian continues to proclaim his fame:

John Dawson was the greatest teacher of Mathematics of his time, for twenty years he practically dominated the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge. In his time the School produced a spate of successes in Mathematics never equalled before and not likely […] to be equalled again. Unluckily there is no proof that he ever actually taught at the School itself. He probably gave all the brightest scholars private tuition, at his ridiculously small fee of five shillings a week; but it has never been proved that he was an Usher on the Staff. In spirit, however, he was one of us.⁶⁵

Since Dawson left no registers of his pupils, it is impossible to prove that William studied under Dawson’s tuition—whether at the Grammar School, or as a private pupil. But, given that he was the source of a steady stream of Sedbergh boys who went on to become leading mathematicians, if he still resided in this district, then it seems more probable that William also sat at Dawson’s feet, than that he was simply another genius who emerged Dawson-like from the Sedberghian fields.

William Cowper the Tutor

Whatever the source of his education, William was clearly adept enough at his studies. For, at the age of seventeen, he took a position as tutor to a clergyman’s family in Northallerton, Yorkshire,⁶⁶ a town with a population of about 2,000.⁶⁷ Although this clergyman has not been identified, Benjamin Walker would be a good guess, being the vicar of All Saints in 1796—the same year that Cowper began tutoring. He was the longest serving Northallerton Vicar of all time (1775–1814) and he and his wife (formerly Isabella Warren) had eighteen children. Four died young, two (Thomas and Charles) became Church of England ministers, one (Francis) a Ripon solicitor, another (Benjamin) a Captain in the Royal Navy, and three others officers in the Army—two Colonels (George; Philip) and a Major General (Forster).⁶⁸ Since most of the children were born before William, his pupils would have been drawn from the youngest: most probably Philip (b.1787) and Forster (b. 1781), and if it was no impediment that the pupil was about the same age as the tutor, possibly even Henry (b.1779) and George (b.1778). Since three of these boys went on to have illustrious military careers, perhaps their family tutor can take some small credit for influencing them in this direction, for when William left the family, it was in order to enlist in the Militia.

COWPER THE SOLDIER

The North York Militia had been disembodied in 1783, but it was re-embodied in 1792 as further trouble with France loomed large. The general meeting had to be held on the last Tuesday before the 24 October, and the annual meeting for the North Riding was at this time held in the Golden Lion Hotel, Northallerton.⁶⁹ In December 1792, the men had been marched from Richmond to Newcastle and Gateshead, and in February were engaged to bring order amongst striking coal-miners at Washington, County Durham; in March to quell about 500 rioting seamen at Shields and Newcastle seeking to rescue the impressed men on the Eleanor; and in November they helped to extinguish a fire.⁷⁰ Their various activities received heightened importance as Napoleon Bonaparte emerged from obscurity by the end of 1793, eventually leading to the announcement in the Leeds Intelligencer of 26 January 1795 that the French intended sending an army of 900,000 men against England, with three equal divisions attacking the South of England, Scotland, and Ireland.⁷¹ Preparations for war had to begin, and the Act of 1794 led to a Court-house meeting at Northallerton on 12 June 1795, where the gentry made many decisions to strengthen the national defence, and subscriptions began to roll in.⁷² After being based at Whitley, then Tynemouth, and Colchester, on 30 December 1797 the regiment, consisting of 775 men, was moved to Hull.⁷³

In the previous year, plans had been made for the embodiment of a Supplementary Militia, the 2nd North York. Commissions were signed and the Duke of York directed twenty men from the senior battalion to become non-commissioned officers in the Junior.⁷⁴ After the regiment marched out of Hull on 23 April 1798, it eventually encamped at West Barn Links, where it was joined by 264 men from the new Supplementary Militia.⁷⁵ The use of the Supplementary Militia probably indicates that danger was felt to be imminent at the time.⁷⁶

William Cowper’s name first appears amongst this Supplementary group in July 1798, when he was a member of the newly embodied company under Captain Hobson, earning as a private man the princely sum of 1 shilling a day.⁷⁷ As a young man, unmarried, who was working under a private arrangement as a tutor, he was not amongst those who were exempted from the ballot,⁷⁸ and, in fact, as a bachelor he was amongst those who ‘appear to have been at a premium’.⁷⁹ On the other hand, he may have volunteered for militia duty. He was probably recruited in Northallerton, the location of the general meetings, and until May 1799 the company was basically stationed at Richmond, broken up by 9 days march in October 1798.⁸⁰

On 8 October 1798 William and his companions arrived in Glasgow, which was ‘in a very disturbed state at the time’ due to the Irishmen who had fled after the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland. The regiment provided patrols throughout the night and sentries, who were often shot at, or pelted with stones, but without serious harm.⁸¹ The main task of the soldiers during their time in Glasgow was to escort French prisoners-of-war to the Castle at Edinburgh.⁸²

Cowper enjoyed some furlough in December-January,⁸³ before returning to his company, which was stationed at Richmond. By taking him from Northallerton to Richmond, William’s service in the Militia brought a delightful personal benefit to his life. As he added his own efforts to the cause of national security, the young man’s mind had also turned to other things. Being at Richmond had enabled him to meet a young girl by the name of Hannah Horner, who was about sixteen.⁸⁴ On the 11 April 1799 at St Mary the Virgin, William and Hannah were married.⁸⁵ About this time the news came through that it was his Majesty’s pleasure that not only the officers, but also the men of the infantry and cavalry, ‘were to wear their hair queued, to be tied a little below the upper part of the collar of the coat, and to be ten inches in length, including one inch of hair to appear below the binding’.⁸⁶ His new bride would perhaps soon find William looking rather dapper!

Just after the wedding, on 26 April Sheldon Cradock was commissioned Captain, and Cowper transferred to his newly-formed company.⁸⁷ They soon received their marching orders, and on 15 June the company set out for Hull,⁸⁸ where they stayed for a further four months. In July, a difficulty arose because ‘the wives and families of several of the militiamen followed the regiment’, which raised the question whether the men were still entitled to money granted to relieve the separation.⁸⁹ If Hannah and William were part of the ‘problem’, then perhaps they were still enjoying each others’ company in this first year of their marriage, in which case, this was also the time that both of them became acquainted with Hull—at least for a couple of months.

But William’s Militia service was about to come to an end. During 1799, two Acts of Parliament had been passed enabling ‘a vigorous prosecution of the war’.⁹⁰ Monetary and other incentives were given for militiamen to enlist as volunteers in the Regular Infantry for five years, or for the duration of the war plus six months. In July these provisions were extended to allow volunteers to the artillery. In response to these new measures, many among the ranks of the North York Militia volunteered, and by December 1799, the resulting deficiencies were supplied from the Supplementary Militia. Given the consequent depletion of their ranks, about the same time the Supplementary Militia were therefore disembodied.⁹¹

William Cowper was not amongst those who volunteered for the Regular Infantry or Artillery. On 19 October 1799, his company had moved to Scarborough, and then, just over two weeks later, on 5 December 1799, Cowper was disembodied.⁹² It is interesting to notice, however, that when his first child, Henry, was baptised on 17 August 1800 (born in June), at St Peter’s Drypool, William was still listed as ‘a soldier’.⁹³ Was this simply that the minister had not kept up with the change in William’s career, or does this tell us that, at least for a time, he continued in some military capacity?

His disembodiment from the Militia meant that he could settle down with his new wife Hannah in Hull, which became their home for some ten years. The birth of Henry bringing the joy of a first baby, no doubt provided some relief to the tense situation of the nation at the time. Hannah was still young herself when she gave birth to the one who would become the first ‘New Hollander’ to qualify before the Royal College of Surgeons.⁹⁴ In due course, William and Hannah were blessed with a second son, Thomas (b. 23 October 1802),⁹⁵ who would similarly take his place as an Australian pioneer, especially in the area of farming and grazing.

THE DISEMBODIED COWPER

But, although these significant family events can be located in this period, an exact account of William’s employment for the four years immediately after his time in the Militia cannot be given. William Macquarie’s account of his father’s early career jumps from his time in Northallerton as tutor, to him serving faithfully for some years as Clerk in the Royal Engineers Department in Hull—refraining from mentioning both his Militia service and the details of his employment subsequent to it.⁹⁶ This is explained by the fact that, at this point in his narrative, W. Macquarie is intent on informing his readers how his father came to enter the ministry. All that Macquarie mentions about this period—and again, because it is crucial part of his father’s preparation for the ministry—is the account of how his father was required to work on Sunday ‘in the employment which he then held’. Upon receiving this request, William was forced to resign because of his Christian convictions about the Sabbath. This event reveals, therefore, that by the time he was in his early to mid twenties, William had already developed sufficient Christian convictions that were held strongly enough for him to take the fairly drastic step of losing his income, with a young family to support. What were the influences, which helped to develop these convictions?

WILLIAM’S CHRISTIAN INFLUENCES

These influences, of course, are an especially important part of the ‘invisible luggage’ brought with Australia’s first parish clergyman. The attitudes, beliefs and convictions that he developed in these early days, as well as the practices of ministry that he observed in, and imbibed from, others, would have been extraordinarily significant in shaping his own philosophy and practice of ministry. These background influences were all the more important to the clergy who served in New South Wales in its earliest period, given their sparse numbers and relative isolation from clerical colleagues. In such a situation, the present would be largely determined by the past.

Many years later, Bishop Broughton declared that William was ‘brought up among very low churchmen, if not dissenters, of the Calvinistic school’,⁹⁷ but it is difficult to know whether this reflects real knowledge or just his own inference from Cowper’s convictions at that time. Unfortunately, as for his educational influences, the identification of the sources behind William’s Christian convictions must remain only suggestive, being reliant on circumstantial evidence.

He was associated with a number of Church of England parishes, the earliest two being St Andrew’s, Sedbergh, where his parents were married and his eldest brother christened and buried, and St Michael the Archangel, Whittington, where William and the other boys were christened. As we have already noted, many Cowpers and Sedgwicks were associated with the Sedbergh church and district over many years. Whittington parish has fewer Cowpers listed in the published registers documenting the period until 1764, but a great many Sedgwicks.⁹⁸ It is difficult to say what kind of ministry William received in his youth through the representatives of the Established Church in these places.

When he was christened here in 1779, Rev. Robert Oliver M.A. had been the vicar for some eleven years already. In 1782, Rev. (from 1811, Sir) Thomas Horton replaced him, freshly graduated LLB from Trinity College Cambridge, and staying until 1791.⁹⁹ Since the Cowpers were at Sellet Hall until 1787, Horton was the minister who presided over William’s spiritual upbringing until about the age of about nine. We do not know the place to which the Cowpers moved in 1787, but if it was nearby and they continued to attend St Michael’s, as William grew from 12 to 15, he would have been under the care of Benjamin Banner M.A, and from 15 to 17, Rev. Thomas Butler, who remained at Whittington from 1793 until his death in 1825. The Whittington church was evidently important to William, even in his adult life, for in commending Rev. William Carus Wilson to his son, he revealed that he himself corresponded with him, at that time the Rector of Whittington (1825 to 1857), from time to time.¹⁰⁰ As the one-time curate and friend of Charles Simeon, who became his biographer, Carus Wilson was a committed evangelical, which may say something about the parish in the late 1820s, but not necessarily about the period in which Cowper was growing up.

Married at St Andrew’s, Sebergh, William’s parents Samuel and Isabella probably both had roots in this area, since the Cowpers and Sedgwicks were both local families. Both families, like the district itself, were very Protestant. In 1774 the vicar of Sedbergh could only think of ‘but one Papist that I know of’ amongst the 1463 persons in the four associated Hamlets.¹⁰¹ The Sedbergh Cowpers were Protestant enough to be suspected of attempting some sordid gain from the Sedbergh School between 1537 and 1544, as it fell to the dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII; and to have family connections with John Bland, one of those martyred under Queen Mary in 1555.¹⁰² In the mid 17th century, several Cowpers (and a Sedgwick) took advantage of the Puritan regulations introduced by Cromwell ‘for ejecting scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters’ to prosecute one of the headmasters of the school, Richard Jackson, for persistent drunkenness, including one notorious bout on the Sabbath day.¹⁰³

The district also had some famous examples of ‘old dissent’, both inside and outside the Church. In the former category, Rev. Giles Wiggington, vicar of Sedbergh, was an ‘extreme Puritan’, taken to court in 1585 and deprived of his living under Whitgift.¹⁰⁴ In the latter category, the area was important in Quaker history, with Sedbergh being the place where the preaching of George Fox in 1652 proved to be a turning-point in the expansion of Quakerism.¹⁰⁵ The tiny hamlet of Brigflatt, 2 miles south of Sedbergh, was a centre of the Quaker faith, and even by 1774 there was a small representation of ‘about 16 families of Quakers’ in Sedbergh,¹⁰⁶ amongst whom John Dawson, the surgeon and maths teacher, was perhaps the most celebrated example.

John Dawson was also recognized for his Christian faith. He was a Quaker who ‘paid much attention to metaphysics and theology’, corresponding with Rev. Thomas Wilson, one of his former students.¹⁰⁷ Although he published little on any subject, one of his two best known treatises is that concerned ‘with confuting Dr Thos. Priestley’s onslaught on Christian faith in his The doctrine of philosophical necessity briefly invalidated (1781)’.¹⁰⁸ Adam Sedgwick later recalled that:

Our old master was a firm believer, and a good sober practical Christian of the old school. His moral influence was felt by all near him, but he loved a good story, and told his rough adventures among his country patients with infinite humour.¹⁰⁹

If William was educated at the Sedbergh School, he would have gained a thoroughly Protestant education within the Established Church tradition. If he learned his Mathematics from John Dawson, as for Adam Sedgwick at a later period, his respect for his teacher would have also inspired a respect for his Master’s ‘old dissent’.

Having so briefly surveyed the potential Christian influences in the environment of Cowper’s youth, we come to the only secure clue to his convictions. It relates to when William was about eight—the time when the family were about to move from Sellet Hall to elsewhere—and it comes from William’s own lips. Just eighteen months before he died, William wrote to his elder brother John, who had probably been living at Garsdale since 1831,¹¹⁰ to accompany the gift of a couple of ‘small tracts’ he had written on the subject of the life to come.¹¹¹ As well as sending greetings to anyone who remembered him from his youth, the old man reminded his elder brother of an incident from their childhood, in which John had bought William a similar Tract from the February fair at Hawes, the elevated Market town to the east of Sedbergh. William still remembered the Tract, which had clearly made a powerful impression upon him:

This morning I believe I entered upon my 79th year, and you, I suppose, are three or four years older. Nearly 70 years ago, I well remember that you went to Hawes’ fair, and there you heard a man crying some small Books, or Tracts, and you bought one which you thought would afford me pleasure, or entertainment. You brought it Home and gave it to me to read, as I was very fond of reading. But, why, at that time you should form an opinion that my mind could be entertained with the matter of such a Tract I know not, but I well recollect that it was a grave Sermon, upon Micah 2 ch 10v—‘Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction’. Since that time I have passed through many changes, every one of which has brought me nearer to that rest which is not polluted, but holy and glorious, and remains for the people of God. Having obtained help of Him, I continue to this day, and have been led to think more and more of the grace and mercy, goodness and love, wisdom and power of God, as manifested in the wonderful plan devised for fallen man’s eternal Redemption, into which the Holy angels desire to look. And I would hope this marvellous and great Salvation has long been happily experienced by you. ‘Behold what manner of love, the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God—herein is love,—not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins, and that we might live through him’—1 John 3 Ch 1 v, 4 Ch 10 v.¹¹²

Huntington’s unpublished biography, written about 1900, not only claims that Samuel was ‘a pious man’, but also that William, as a young man, was greatly affected by Pilgrim’s Progress, and he developed a great thirst for religious knowledge.¹¹³ Loane claimed that William was ‘thoroughly converted’ later in life after he went to Hull and fell under the influence of Rev. Thomas Dikes. That something significant happened in Hull can be drawn from William’s later testimony that since about 1805 or 1806 he had ‘enjoyed an almost uninterrupted assurance of the most comfortable persuasion of my acceptance with God through the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ’.¹¹⁴ Nevertheless, as to the beginning of his awakening, he appears to place great significance on the tract given to him by his brother John when he was a boy.

Whatever the Christian influences in William’s background, W. Macquarie is quite clear that his father did not entertain early thoughts of entering the ministry.

It does not appear that in his early days my father had any inclination towards the ministerial office, nor was his education in any way calculated to influence him in that direction; it was of a purely secular character, except so far as family life may have influenced it. He always manifested a great desire for various kinds of knowledge, and sought it eagerly.¹¹⁵

We have seen that William’s environment held the potential for Protestant influences both from the Established Church and from ‘Old Dissent’. On the other hand, as William was growing up it was still too early for Methodism’s ‘new dissent’ to have reached Sedbergh.¹¹⁶ Despite the success of the evangelical revival further east in Yorkshire, it was apparently a different story in the West and in the Lake’s District. George Whitefield had preached—and been abused—in the district, and after another preacher had been stoned almost to death, the regions from Kendal to Carlisle were known danger zones for the Methodists.¹¹⁷ As William moved gradually eastwards in Yorkshire, however, starting at Northallerton and ending at Hull, the potential for him feeling the impact of the Methodist and Evangelical Revival would have increased enormously.

By the time William arrived in Hull in 1799, Hull was already an important centre of the Evangelical Revival. The Christian convictions, which led him to resign rather than break the Sabbath, were perfectly in keeping with the piety in Hull, for Sabbath observance had long been an important issue in Yorkshire and amongst the evangelicals so well represented in these parts. Various Kings had passed laws for Sabbath observance back as far as King Ena (AD 692), and this concern was renewed in the Reformation period, and especially urged by the Puritan divines. By the time of James I, Sabbath observance was kept so strictly, and to the annoyance of the Roman Catholics, that James issued the infamous Book of Sports, encouraging sport, dances and amusements after the Sunday worship. When the declaration was re-issued under Charles I, Archbishop Laud enforced it with cruelty. Hundreds of clergy were deprived of their livings for refusing to read it from their pulpits, and many emigrated to Holland and New England. In the village of Rowley, Yorkshire, the rector emigrated with the entire village and founded the town of Rowley, Massachusetts. Reacting to Charles I, Parliament enacted the Sunday Observance Act of 1625 and 1627, books were written, and further Acts passed in 1656 and 1677. For the next century little was done with legislation, but the concern for the Sabbath continued in various ways, including the emergence of the Society for the Reformation of Manners whose chief object was the implementation of the laws against desecration of the Sabbath. Although the work of the Society subsided in 1738, it was revived by John Wesley in 1757, and the promotion of Sabbath observance was widely supported by Wesleyans, Dissenters, and many in the Established Church—especially Evangelicals. With impetus from Dr Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and Evangelical sympathiser, a Sunday Observance Act was passed in 1781, which remained effective for 200 years. King George III followed up the Parliamentary action with the 1787 Royal Proclamation ‘for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue and for the Preventing and Punishing of