Midland Churches: A History of the Congregations on - General ...

John Thomas was <strong>of</strong> Cornish extraction though born in Stockport,
where he became head boy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Grammar School, and gave signs <strong>of</strong>
that natural taste for music, which remained <strong>the</strong> passion and <strong>the</strong> recreation
<strong>of</strong> his life. He graduated at Cambridge, after which he travelled for two
years on <strong>the</strong> Continent, his violin being his constant companion. He <strong>the</strong>n
took Anglican orders, and was for two years curate at St. George's Church,
Manchester, and afterwards <strong>of</strong> Irsden, in Northumberland. His <strong>the</strong>ological
views, always rationalistic, led him to abandon his position in <strong>the</strong> Church
<strong>of</strong> England, and after preaching with much acceptance in <strong>the</strong> New Gravel
Pit Chapel, Hackney, and Clarence Road Church, Kentish Town, where he
left a very favourable impression <strong>of</strong> his piety and his pr<strong>of</strong>essional ability,
he became minister at Dudley in 1860. In 1862, after six months' ministry
at Hastings, he settled at Huddersfield, where he remained in charge <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> Fitzwilliam Street society until his lamented death on 25 October,
I 884.
Of Richard Shaen, Mat<strong>the</strong>w Gibson and John Briggs Lloyd-in his
boyhood one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> scholars <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> author's fa<strong>the</strong>r, first at Bridgend and
<strong>the</strong>n at Colyton, Devon-who have but so recently passed into <strong>the</strong> Nearer
Presence, let not <strong>the</strong>ir gentle shades be disturbed.
An interesting and important record came to light through <strong>the</strong> recent
publication <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> old non-parochial registers <strong>of</strong> Dudley. In <strong>the</strong> register
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Dudley Old Meeting-house is <strong>the</strong> entry <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> baptism <strong>of</strong> George
Parker, son <strong>of</strong> William and Elizabeth Bidder, <strong>of</strong> Moreton Hampstead, on
<strong>the</strong> 6th July, 1806, with a note that in <strong>the</strong> 8th year <strong>of</strong> his age George ParAer
Bidder discoz~ered sztrprisi?zg skill i ~ z mental arithmetic. This George Parker
Bidder was no o<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> great civil engineer and partner with George
and Robert Stephenson, <strong>of</strong> railway fame, and <strong>the</strong> fa<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late George
Parker Bidder, Q.C. The history <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> entry in <strong>the</strong> Dudley Old Meetinghouse
register is not at all surprising when it is remembered that <strong>the</strong> Mr.
Bransby, minister at Dudley at that time, was previously minister at Cross
Chapel, Moreton Hampstead, in Devonshire, where <strong>the</strong>re was no settled
minister, after Mr. Bransby, for about ten years. It was on Mr. Bransby's
occasional visits to Moreton Hampstead that he baptized several infants
<strong>the</strong>re and entered <strong>the</strong>m in his register at Dudley. Whoever would have
thought in those pre-civil-registration times <strong>of</strong> searching <strong>the</strong> registers at
Dudley for a baptism <strong>of</strong> a child in Devonshire ? The Registration Acts
were passed none too soon.
BAYLIES'S CHARITY SCHOOL.
By indenture, dated 6 and 7 September, 1732, Robert Baylies, a lime
burner, <strong>of</strong> Dudley, his bro<strong>the</strong>r Samuel, and his sister Anne,- conveyed to
John Finch and six o<strong>the</strong>rs various lands and messuages in trust, which,
after <strong>the</strong>ir deaths, should enable <strong>the</strong> trustees to "establish and set up a
free charity school in <strong>the</strong> parish <strong>of</strong> St. Edmund, in Dudley, for teaching,
instructing, and clothing 50 poor boys, to be elected and chosen out <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> parishes <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> town and foreign <strong>of</strong> Dudley from such whose parents
should not be able to give <strong>the</strong>m learning." The boys were to be taught
in "<strong>the</strong> new building <strong>the</strong>n lately erected by Samuel Baylies at <strong>the</strong> lower
end <strong>of</strong> his garden, next to Pease Lane "; <strong>the</strong> master to be elected "should
be <strong>of</strong> sober life and conversation, <strong>of</strong> a great government <strong>of</strong> himself and
passions, capable <strong>of</strong> teaching, and one that should understand well th.e
grounds and principles <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Christian religion "; <strong>the</strong> boys were to be
taught spelling, English, reading, writing-, vulgar arithmetic, <strong>the</strong> knowledge
and practise <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Christian religion, and such o<strong>the</strong>r things as should be
most suitable to <strong>the</strong>ir conditions.
Just above <strong>the</strong> signatures <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pious bro<strong>the</strong>rs and sister is written
this final memorandum :-XB. It is <strong>the</strong> will <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m, <strong>the</strong> snid Robert Baylies,
Samuel Bnylies, and sln~ze Bnyli~s, that all such poor boj~s ztho enjoy <strong>the</strong> betzejz'
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> school before-~ventt'oned, called Baylies's Charity School, shall a lways give
<strong>the</strong>ir attendance every Lord's Day at <strong>the</strong> meetifig-house i7z DudZey, at <strong>the</strong> times
<strong>of</strong> Bivzize service, and to that e?zd it is held proj~r for <strong>the</strong>llt to ?tieet at <strong>the</strong> school
at nize O'CZOGK in <strong>the</strong> morniq- afzd at o7ze in <strong>the</strong> afe~noon, afzd so to attend <strong>the</strong>
master thi<strong>the</strong>r; and, last@, ozrr 7uiZZ is that each and every perso~t elected for a
trustee shall be one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> dissenting party, or a low chiirc/'11za7z, and PZO~
o<strong>the</strong>rzoise. "
On I I September, 1733, Robert, Samuel and Anne Baylies, seeing that
<strong>the</strong> yearly income <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> lands and houses "was likely to be <strong>of</strong> consider-
ably greater amount than would suffice for teaching and clothing <strong>the</strong> poor
boys and defraying o<strong>the</strong>r incidental charges, were minded " by a deed
poll to give <strong>the</strong> trustees power to "put out some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> charity boys
apprentices in such trades, and with such sums <strong>of</strong> money and at such ages
as <strong>the</strong> trustees should think fit "; and <strong>the</strong>y fur<strong>the</strong>r ordered that <strong>the</strong> trustees
were to have an annual meeting " on Tuesdzy in Easter-week," when " a
sum not exceeding 10s. should be laid out for a collation."