No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Oliver Heywood and his Congregration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The ministerial career of the presbyterian divine Oliver Heywood, spanning as it did the years from 1650, when as a young man still technically too young for ordination he first accepted the call of the congregation at Coley chapelry in the parish of Halifax, until 1702 when on 4 May he died there, a patriarchal figure respected and admired by fellow ministers and congregation alike, was considered by contemporaries and has subsequently been thought of by historians as an exemplary study of the pastoral tradition within old Dissent. His career illustrates how one man could lie at the centre of a network of nonconformist divines, patrons and adherents scattered throughout West Yorkshire, South Lancashire and Cheshire and also demonstrates the ambivalent and shifting relationship between Dissent and the Established Church in the latter half of the seventeenth century. These insights into both the internal and external relationships of Dissenters depend mainly on the corpus of Heywood’s writings, not his published works but his autobiographical notes, diaries and memoranda books published just over a century ago, and it is these writings which form the basis of this paper. To begin with though we can turn to the diary of the antiquary Ralph Thoresby who attended Hey wood’s funeral on the 7 May 1702 and recorded the event as follows:
rode with Mr Peter’s to North Owram to the funeral of good old Mr O. Heywood. He was afterwards interred with great lamentations in the parish church of Halifax. [I] was surprised at the following arvill, or treat of cold possets, stewed prunes, and cheese, prepared for the company, which had several conformist and non-conformist ministers and old acquaintances.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1986
References
1 There have been a number of biographies of Heywood. J. Fawcett, The Life of the Rev. Oliver Heywood, with Historical Sketches of the Times in which he lived; and Anecdotes of some other Eminent Ministers … (2 ed Halifax 1809); R. Slate, Select Nonconformist Remains (Bury 1814) and J. Hunter, The Rise of the Old Dissent, exemplified in the Life of Oliver Heywood, one of the Founders of the Presbyterian Congregations in the County of York, 1630-1702 (London 1842) are the fullest accounts. The collected works of Heywood were published by W. Vint ed The Collected Works of the Rev. Oliver Heywood (5 vols Idle 1825-7).
2 Turner, J. Horsfall ed The Rev. Oliver Heywood B.A. 1630-1702; His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (4 vols Bingley 1881-5) and also idem, The Nonconformist Register… generally known as the Northowram or Coley Register (Brighouse 1881)Google Scholar. This and Vint above print many of the manuscripts in BL.Add.Mss.45963-81.
3 Hunter, J. ed The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1677-1724) (2 vols London 1830) 1 p. 362.Google Scholar
4 Discussed by Haller, W., The Rise of Puritanism (2 ed New York 1957).Google Scholar
5 Turner, Horsfall, Heywood 1 pp. 256–9.Google Scholar
6 Collinson, , ‘The English Conventicle’ see above pp. 249–54.Google Scholar
7 Turner, Horsfall, Heywood 3 pp. 145–6 Google Scholar mentions the monthly conference and other ‘private meetings’ among his ‘constant hearers’ in 1676.
8 Ibid. 2 p. 260.
9 Fisher, H. ed The Note Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly 1671-1693, extracts from the Church Book of Altham and Wymond houses 1649-1725 (Chetham Society NS 33, 1894)Google Scholar. Jolly was a close friend and frequent visitor to Heywood.
10 Collinson, , ‘English Conventicle’ pp. 223–60.Google Scholar
11 Turner, Horsfall, North Owram Register pp. 17–106; Heywood 2 pp. 129–82.Google Scholar
12 J. Hunter, The Rise of the Old Dissent pp. 69-70, 94, 389, 391.
13 Sheils, S., ‘Aspects of the history of Halifax 1480-1557’ (Unpub. York MA thesis 1982) p. 60.Google Scholar
14 J. Hunter, Old Dissent p. 70.
15 Kitching, C.J., ‘Church and chapelry in sixteenth century England’ SCH 16 pp. 279–90.Google Scholar
16 Strype, Grindal p. 281.
17 Newton, J.A., ‘Puritanism in the diocese of York (excluding Nottinghamshire) 1603-40’ (Unpub. Ph.D. London 1955) pp. 218–38.Google Scholar
18 Collinson, P., ‘Lectures by Combination: structures and characteristics of church life in seventeenth-century England’ BIHR 48 (1975) p. 212.Google Scholar
19 Francois, M.E., ‘The Social and Economic Development of Halifax 1558-1640’ Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 11 pt. 8 p. 257.Google Scholar
20 Everitt, A., The Pattern of Rural Dissent: the Nineteenth Century (Leicester 1972) p. 45; Hey, D., ‘The Pattern of Nonconformity in South Yorkshire, 1660-1851’ Northern History 8 pp. 92–4.Google Scholar
21 The lists are found in Hensall Turner, Heywood 2 pp.17-36.
22 Hunter, Old Dissent pp. 99-105, his brother attempted the same at nearby Illingworth chapelry with similar difficulties.
23 Horsfall Turner, Heywood 2 pp. 22-4.
24 Ibid. p. 31, 3 p. 109.
25 This size makes the membership similar to that of other early eighteenth-century churches such as that of Philip Doddridge at Northampton, Everitt, Rural Dissent p. 13 n. 1; the numbers of hearers could often be much greater, see G. Nuttall, ‘Dissenting Churches in Kent before 1700’ JEH 14 (1963) pp. 175-89. The proportion is based on the hearth tax returns and accords with the Compton Census figures for the whole of Halifax parish, Bodl.Lib. Tanner Ms. 150, fol.
26 Collinson, P., ‘The Role of Women in the English Reformation illustrated by the life and friendship of Anne Locke’ SCH 2 pp. 258–72; Thomas, K. ‘Women and the Civil War Sect’s in Aston, T. ed. Crisis in Europe 1560-1660 (London 1965) pp. 317–40.Google Scholar
27 Horsfall Turner, Heywood 2 pp. 17-36; 4 p. 185.
28 See MacFarlane, A., The Family Life of Ralph Josselin a 17th-century clergyman (Cambridge 1970); Hill, C., ‘The Spiritualization of the Household’ in Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England (London 1964) pp. 443–81; Houlbrooke, R.A., The English Family 1450-1750 (London 1984) pp. 147–9 Google Scholar for Heywood’s own mother.
29 The list of those members signing the covenant of 1655, for example, refers to those members who had died or had removed from the congregation in the 21 years since the covenant. Other sources suggest that about 40 names are missing and some of these clearly are likely to include spouses of named members, Horsfall Turner, Heywood 1 p. 171.
30 Ibid. 2 pp. 34-5.
31 Ibid. p.36, there are nine others who have the same surname and some of these were certainly brother and sister.
32 Ibid. p. 34.
33 Ibid. 4 pp. 142-3.
34 Ibid. 2 p. 108.
35 Ibid. p. 86.
36 Borthwick Institute, York, orig. wills July 1696; Horsfall Turner, Heywood 2 p. 18. M. Spufford, Contrasting Communities (Cambridge 1969) pp. 300-06.
37 PRO, E179/210/394A, I am grateful to Mr Ronan Bennett for supplying me with this information and for discussion of the Halifax material.
38 Hunter, Old Dissent pp. 356-8.
39 These are all deposited at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York.
40 There is some problem with the sources here as in 1678 Heywood gives an account of his income showing that he received from ‘my hearers at my house’ £ 34 11s. 6d. and that he had a further £34 13s. sd. by way of legacies and ‘others abroad’, Horsfall Turner, Heywood 2 p. 189. It may be that what he terms legacies come from sums left by the greater patrons for the generality of nonconformist ministers, sums which Heywood was often entrusted with distributing, and that most of the amount came by way of gifts from individual supporters; ibid. 3 pp. 275-6.
41 BIHR, Probate Register 48 fols. 499V-500; orig. will, October 1696.
42 See for example Cross, M.C., Urban Magistrates and Ministers; Religion in Hull and Leeds from the Reformation to the Civil War (Borthwick Papers 67 1985) pp. 22–5; and Clark, P., ‘The Ramoth-Gilead of the Good: urban change and political radicalism at Gloucester 1540-1640’, Clark, P., Smith, A.G.R. and Tyacke, N. eds The English Commonwealth 1547-1640 (London 1979) pp. 181–4.Google Scholar
43 Leeds, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, MD 225, e.g. 1674, 1676, 1686, 1687, 1696, 1699.
44 Horsfall Turner, Heywood 2 p. 22.
45 Ibid 1 pp. 171-3 discusses the division of 1655, characteristically Heywood claimed to have had more trouble at this time from the over zealous than from the lukewarm and was critical of those who sought ‘an unwarrantable groundless separation’.
46 The literature is extensive and the best guide to the shortcomings of these sources and the approach they encourage is P. Collinson, ‘Towards a Broader Understanding of the Early Dissenting Tradition’ reprinted in his Godly People: Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism (London 1983) pp. 527-62. For a nice contrast between a local study based on those sources and one based on a wider range of material see the same author’s ‘Magistracy and Ministry: a Suffolk Miniature’ and ‘Cranbrook and the Fletchers: Popular and Unpopular Religion in the Kentish Weald’, reprinted in the same collection.
47 Horsfall Turner, Heywood 4 p. 141.
48 Ibid. 3 p. 170. See M. Spufford ‘Can we count the “Godly” and the “Conformable” in the Seventeenth Century’ JEH 36 (1985) pp. 428-38 for some pertinent remarks on the relationship between these two groups. It would be foolish to deny that there was periodically considerable friction between Heywood and his conformist neighbours, particularly in the years immediately after 1662 and around 1684, Horsfall Turner, Heywood 1 pp. 179-87; Hunter, Old Dissent pp. 320-6. He did however attribute the undisturbed nature of his ministry, at least in part, to the leniency of the local magistrates and constables, Horsfall Turner, Heywood 4 pp. 70, 72. He was often in trouble with the church courts but, at visitation, only isolated presentments were made against his followers and it was more often the wardens of Coley who were prosecuted for not making presentments of non-communicants, BIHR, V.1667/CB.1 fol. 76; V.1682/CB. fols, IIov-IIIv; V.1684-5/CB.1, fols 55V-56V.
49 See Hill, C., ‘Occasional Conformity’ in Knox, R.B. ed Reformation, Conformity and Dissent (London 1977) pp. 199–220.Google Scholar
50 Turner, Horsfall, Heywood 1 pp. 141–2.Google Scholar
51 Ibid. 4, pp. 80-1. After 1688, if not before, this good will was reciprocated. Thoresby records a visit made to Heywood’s chapel by the vicar of Halifax who ‘with fervency, uttered these words “the Good Lord bless the word preached in this place”’. Hunter, Thoresby’s Diary 1 p. 256.