He was ill only four days previous to his death, which took place on February 5th, 1819. When it was publicly known in the city that he was no more, hundreds of people went to his house to take a last look of him whom living they had so much loved and respected. And the bitter tears of his surviving relatives, the deep affliction of his friends, and the sorrow of mourning multitudes, bore a sad testimony to his worth as a husband, a father, a friend, a minister, a neighbour, and a christian.
He died on his birthday, when he had attained the age of seventy-one. His much valued friend, the Rev. W. Hull of Norwich, spoke at his interment to a large assembly of sincere mourners, and to a great concourse of spectators. The Rev. Mark Wilks of London, his nephew, preached a funeral sermon on Sunday, February 14th, before a large congregation. The deceased was buried under the pulpit where he had preached the gospel for forty years. Of his family of twelve children, including his four sons, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, none of them and none of their descendants now live in Norwich.
The Rev. John Alexander.
The Rev. John Alexander was the pastor of the Independent Congregation in Prince’s Street for a period of fifty years. He was much beloved by all who knew him for his kindly disposition and genuine piety. Bishop Stanley often spoke of him in terms of the highest commendation as a christian minister. He took an active interest in all the philanthropic and educational movements of the district, and was for some time the Chairman of the Board of Management of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. After his death, on July 31st, 1868, a short memoir of him appeared in the Norfolk News; and this memoir contained nearly the whole history of Prince’s Street Chapel in this city. We give the following extracts:—
“Mr. Alexander was born at Lancaster in 1792. Of his father, the Rev. William Alexander, our deceased friend published an interesting Memoir; and, as showing his own appreciation of the excellencies of his parents, he placed on the title page these lines of Cowper’s:—
‘My boast is, not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The son of parents passed into the skies.’In the same volume we find him thus writing in reference to his early days:—‘The reader will, I trust, perceive that our domestic discipline, union, and affection, together with the sweet influences of religion, rendered us a happy family. The recollections and the love of home, too, and our reverence for holy parents, became a shield of protection to us, and “a way of escape” in the day of evil.’ With an atmosphere like this surrounding his childhood, we wonder not that he became in early life the subject of deep religious convictions. In 1807 he entered a large commercial establishment connected with a household in which ‘the most beautiful domestic order was combined with everything that was pure and lovely in religion.’ This privilege was greatly prized by him, and he ever cherished a grateful sense of the goodness of God in placing him there. During this period he attended the ministry of the Rev. P. S. Charrier of Liverpool, and joined the church under his care. For some time he had cherished a desire, and entertained a hope, in reference to the christian ministry, which was now soon to be realised.
“The celebrated Dr. Edward Williams, one of the tutors at Rotherham College, happened just then to visit Liverpool, and unexpectedly spoke to him on the subject, offering him the advantages of the institution over which he presided. This incident naturally made a deep impression on his mind, and led him very seriously and prayerfully to consider the matter. Of course, he lost no time in communicating his thoughts to his father, who urged on him the greatest caution, saying, ‘God forbid you should take it up, except in compliance with the will of God.’ Nothing daunted, however, by the somewhat discouraging aspect of the ministry set before him in his father’s letters, he intimated to him, in reply to his inquiries, that he retained an unalterable ‘determination to give himself to the work, believing he had been called of God to it;’ and in 1814 he was admitted as a student into Hoxton College. Here the amiable qualities which distinguished him all through life soon endeared him to every fellow-student, and one still surviving speaks of hours spent with him as ‘the happiest, holiest, and most profitable spent under the college roof.’
“In his Thirty Years’ History of the Church and Congregation in Prince’s Street Chapel, he gives us an account of his first visit to and subsequent residence in this city. From that source we learn that early in the year 1817 he received an invitation to preach for a few Sabbaths in the Tabernacle, and that on Friday, April 4th, 1817, (the day on which a fatal steam-packet catastrophe occurred by which many lives were lost), he entered Norwich. On the following Sunday evening he preached from the text, ‘Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.’ The place was crowded; and, says he, ‘The Lord stood by me and strengthened me.’ At the expiration of three Sabbaths he returned to London, promising to visit Norwich again and preach during the whole of the Midsummer vacation. He resumed his labours with very great encouragement at the Tabernacle on July 6th; and some legal difficulty occurring as to the power of appointing the minister, he consented, with the approbation of his tutors, to continue them till the disputed point was settled, which was not till the following December. The legal decision was such as necessitated him to give notice the very day it arrived, that in the evening he should preach his last sermon in the Tabernacle. On that occasion he chose as his text, words which the people believed to have been divinely suggested to his mind, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ That text, it was often afterwards remarked, built the new chapel. The prospect, however, of the toil connected with the establishment of a new church and congregation, and the building of a chapel, was such that he shrank from it, and took his place in the coach to return to London on his way to Kidderminster, where he had been requested to supply, with a view to settlement.
“But so deep was the impression his services had produced, and so warm the interest and affection created, that the people would not part from him. On the day of his departure, a deputation waited on him and pressed on him an invitation to become their minister with such affectionate earnestness, that, says he ‘I felt the appeal to be irresistible, and I promised to lay the whole matter before my tutor and friends, and to make it the subject of serious and prayerful re-consideration.’ The result was that he returned, and for some time preached in the Lancasterian School-room. At length the site on which Prince’s Street Chapel now stands was purchased, and the foundation stone laid on the 16th of March, 1819. It was opened on December 1st in the same year, and thenceforward, for the space of about five and forty years, it continued to be the scene of the living and life-quickening ministry of one whose ‘praise is in all the churches.’ Of the characteristics of Mr. Alexander’s preaching this is not the place to speak beyond saying it was truly evangelical and eminently successful. But he was not the preacher only. He was the faithful pastor, the unswerving friend, and the cheerful companion as well. Hence in times of sorrow or of joy he was a welcome guest, either in the family meeting or at more social gatherings. He carried summer and sunshine with him into every circle, and never left any without leaving a longing in every heart, young and old, for the next visit. When he crossed the threshold, the young loved to caress and to be caressed by him, whilst to the others the cares of life seemed lessened, and the burden lightened, as he spoke to them a few words of loving sympathy or wise counsel, and left them with his soft tones of benediction treasured in their hearts and vibrating on their ears.
“Time rolled on, ever finding him at his work, till thirty years had gone, when his friends gathered round him in St. Andrew’s Hall to testify their high appreciation of his excellencies, and their deep and strong affection for him as their pastor and their friend. On that occasion it was the desire of the people to present a purse to him as a substantial token of their esteem, but there being at that time a debt of £400 remaining on the chapel, he, with that characteristic unselfishness which ever marked him, urgently requested that they would abandon the purse, but remove the debt. But it must not be supposed that Mr. Alexander’s energies were confined to the cause of Christ at Prince’s Street Chapel, or that the members of his church and congregation were allowed to claim him as exclusively belonging to them. This was seen when ten years more of active service had passed, and troops of admirers, from far and near, flocked again to St. Andrew’s Hall to do him honour. On that occasion the Mayor (J. G. Johnson, Esq.,) represented the city, and the Rev. S. Titlow the Church of England, in most eulogistic speeches. The Baptist Churches of the county presented him with an address, whilst brethren of his own denomination, and others, lay and ministerial, seemed to vie with one another in magnifying ‘the grace of God’ in him. The desire entertained ten years before was now carried into effect, and a purse, with an elegant skeleton timepiece, and a memorial engrossed on vellum and framed, were presented to him, and a gold watch and chain to Mrs. Alexander. The timepiece bore the following inscription:—
Presented to the Rev. John Alexander, together with a purse of 500 sovereigns, on his commencing the fortieth year of his ministry in Norwich, by the members of his congregation and numerous other friends, as a memorial of Christian esteem and love.—Norwich, June 3rd, 1856.
From that time the infirmities of age, and the claims of a large congregation, led him to desire help, which was secured for him in the person of an assistant minister. With that help he happily and zealously worked on in his Master’s service through another decade of years, when once more the old Gothic hall resounded with his praises and witnessed another outburst of affectionate congratulation. Having lived to see the jubilee of his ministry, he now resigned the pastoral office, and was presented with an annuity of £200 and a magnificent epergne, on which a suitable inscription was engraved. With trembling emotion the venerable man read his reply and acknowledgment, in which, after recording the goodness of God and the kindness of his friends through the long period of fifty years, he stated that during his pastorate more than a thousand members had been added to the church, two chapels had been added to the one in Prince’s Street, four Sunday Schools had been raised and supplied with a hundred teachers and with nearly a thousand children, and eight members of the church had become ministers of the Gospel.
“Seldom is it the lot of the most favoured ministers thus to be blessed and made a blessing. We shall not attempt to describe what Mr. Alexander was in the pulpit, on the platform, in the committee room, or from the press, nor how he discharged his duties as chairman of ‘The Congregational Union of England and Wales,’ and secretary of ‘The Association for the Spread of the Gospel in the County.’ Much less shall we venture a word on his private or domestic life. We hope another and abler pen will pourtray his character more fully, and hence we content ourselves by adding words written by a friend, ‘His life is his eulogy.’ It was a holy life, a useful life, an honourable life, a happy life.
“The last sermon Mr. Alexander preached was delivered in Prince’s Street Chapel on April 22nd, 1866, from 2 Cor. ii. 14–17. The last time that he spoke in St. Andrew’s Hall was a few months before his death, on the occasion of the mayor’s invitation to the Sunday school teachers, and the last public religious service he attended was in the Old Meeting House on Sunday evening, July 19th, 1868, where his presence was ever as welcome as in his own chapel.
“Of his history since his retirement into private life, little only can be said. At first the ease and seeming uselessness imposed on him by the infirmities of age had a depressing influence on his mind, but latterly this gave place to his wonted calm confidence in God, and his usual joyousness of heart. Occasionally, to the grief of his friends, the decline of his mental powers was painfully visible, but this was often relieved by his still sparkling and felicitous utterances, and his fervent devotional exercises.
“Some lines written in our album so recently as last November will, perhaps, best indicate the state of his mind, and the theme on which it delighted to dwell:—
Amidst the fragrance richly shed,
And beauty blooming in the bowers,
The willow bends its mournful head,
And seems to weep among the flowers.And so in human life we find,
How bright soever it appears,
That grief is rooted in the mind,
And smiles are mingled with its tears.But there’s a garden in the sky
Where mourning willows cannot grow,
Where tears are wiped from every eye,
And streams of joy unmingled flow.“And now the time drew nigh that he must die. For only a few days he was withdrawn from the outer world. During that time it was very evident that constant intercourse was being carried on with heaven. On asking him, two days prior to his death, if the Saviour he had so long and faithfully preached to others was now near and precious to himself, he replied, ‘Oh, what should I do without Him!’ The day before his departure he was much in prayer. His family were all remembered before God, as were also the servants of the household. And very touching were the words in which he sought a blessing on the ministers of the city, and on their work, with whom he had lived in closest and loving fellowship. And so he passed away, spending his last hours, as he had spent his life, in blessing others.
“On Tuesday, the 4th of August, he was carried to his grave amid the lamentations of a vast concourse of his fellow-citizens, and friends from the country, who had known him and esteemed him very highly in love for his works’ sake. The funeral service at the grave was conducted by the Revs. G. Gould, J. Hallett, P. Colborne, and G. S. Barrett, B.A.; but gathered there were clergymen and ministers of every denomination, as well as laymen of all classes, from the mayor to the humblest artisan.
“And so has passed away from our midst, full of days and honours, one, whom it was a privilege to have known, and an impossibility not to have loved. His Christian catholicity, his large-hearted charity, his generous liberality, his untarnished reputation, and his fidelity to Christian truth, together with other virtues that adorned his long life, constrain us to thank God for having given him to Norwich, and, now that He has taken him to Himself, constrain us to say ‘Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!’”
The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. John Stoughton, of London, before a large congregation in St. Andrew’s Hall.
The Gurney Family.
The members of the Gurney family, from an early period, have been distinguished by their station, wealth, and intelligence, both in Norfolk and Norwich. Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney, with selections from his journal and correspondence, were edited by Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, and published by Mr. Fletcher of this city. From these memoirs we derive the following interesting details respecting the family, and the Society of Friends in Norwich.
“The family of Gurney or Gournay is said to have sprung from a house of Norman barons, who followed William the Conqueror into England and obtained a large estate in this country, chiefly in the county of Norfolk. From them descended a long line of country gentlemen, who maintained themselves at Harpley, and West Barsham, in this county, for many generations, and from a very early period had one of their residences in this city. The last of these dying without male issue, about the commencement of the reign of Charles II., the old family estates at that period became dispersed amongst females. The name of Gurney was, however, honourably continued through a descendant of one of the younger sons of an earlier generation, John Gurney, the ancestor of the present family. He was born in the year 1655, and notwithstanding his family connections, commenced life in Norwich in somewhat straitened circumstances. Devoting himself in his youth to the cause of religion, we find him in the year 1678, at the age of twenty-three, already connected with the oppressed, persecuted Quakers.
“The family of John Gurney appear previously to have had some connexion with the Puritans. Henry Gurney, indeed, of West Barsham, the representative of the family in the early part of the 17th century, had a distaste for Puritanism, if, at least, we are to judge from the insertion in his will (proved in 1623) of a special charge to his younger son, ‘That none hould any fantisticall or erroneous opinions, so adjudged by our bishop or civill lawes.’ But Edmund Gurney, rector of Harpley, one of these younger sons, who was a person of influence, became known as a zealous Puritan; he declined wearing the surplice, and was probably among those who took the covenant in 1643. After him John Gurney successively named two of his children. Others of his connexions were also inclined to Puritanism, and some of them, like himself, joined the Society of Friends. In the case of the early Friends generally, their ultimate settlement in those gospel principles by which they became distinguished from others, was preceded by a state of much religious awakening and earnest seeking after God, in which they ‘searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.’
“Through what course of experience John Gurney arrived at his conviction, the scanty materials of his history do not inform us. Let it suffice us to know that what he became convinced of, was precious to him as the truth, and that for it he was prepared to suffer. On the 29th of the ninth month (O. S.), 1682, (so the records of the Friends in Norwich inform us,) ‘Friends being kept out of their meeting house, met together in the street to wait upon the Lord,’ and, being there, John Gurney and another Friend, were violently pulled out from among the rest, as if they had been malefactors, and carried before a justice of the peace, by whom, as they declined giving, on such an account, the required bail, they were committed until the next quarter sessions. In the following year, 1683, he was again imprisoned, for refusing to take an oath, and continued in prison, under successive recommitments, nearly three years. He died in the year 1721, having greatly prospered in his temporal concerns; and, what is far more important, having, according to the testimony of those who knew him, taken particular care in the religious education of all his children, and continued faithful to the end.
“His two elder sons, John and Joseph, were both men of marked character. John was gifted with much natural eloquence, and obtained considerable reputation by the spirit and ability with which he successfully defended the Norwich trade, before a committee of the House of Lords, against some apprehended encroachments. He subsequently received from Sir Robert Walpole the offer of a seat in parliament, which, however, he declined as inconsistent with his religious principles in the then state of the law. Religion had early taken possession of his heart, and about the 22nd year of his age, in obedience to the call of apprehended duty, he had yielded himself to the work of the public ministry of the gospel, in which service he laboured diligently for many years; neither the temptation of prosperity nor the kindness and esteem of great men of this world, being, in the simple and forcible language of the memorial respecting him, ‘permitted to separate him from that truth which the Lord had eminently convinced him of.’
“Besides numerous other descendants, he was the grandfather of Martha Birkbeck, whose daughter Jane became the first wife of Joseph John Gurney. Joseph Gurney, his younger brother, who, towards the close of his life, fixed his residence at Keswick, near Norwich, also became a valued minister of the gospel among Friends. His christian profession was eminently adorned by a life of humility, benevolence, and moderation. He died in the year 1750, after a suffering illness which he bore with exemplary resignation, giving a final evidence of the truth of what he then expressed that it had been ‘the business of his whole life to be prepared for such a time!’
“His eldest son, John Gurney, was a man of great activity and energy, and notwithstanding his extensive engagements in business, devoted much of his time to the interests of his own religious society, to the principles of which he was warmly attached. In the midst of a course of remarkable temporal prosperity, it is instructive to observe the fears which he expresses in one of his private memoranda, lest his increasing opulence should lead away his children from those religious habits and associations in which they had been educated. He left three sons, all of whom married and settled near Norwich. Richard Gurney the eldest, on his father’s decease, in 1770, became the occupant of the family residence at Keswick. John Gurney, the father of J. J. Gurney, had previously to the birth of the latter settled at Earlham. Joseph Gurney, the youngest, resided at Lakenham Grove. The three families were naturally much associated, and exercised an important influence upon each other. At a later period especially, the consistency with which Joseph Gurney, of The Grove, was enabled to maintain his position as a Friend, and as a christian minister, rendered his influence peculiarly valuable.”
John Gurney, of Earlham, is eulogised highly by the editor of these memoirs as generous, ardent, and warm-hearted, abounding in kindness to all, uniting very remarkable activity, both in public and private business, with an acute intellect and extensive information. His wife was Catherine Bell, a daughter of Daniel Bell of Stamford Hill, near London, her mother being a granddaughter of Robert Barclay, the well-known author of the “Apology.” She is described as a woman of very superior mind as well as personal charms, and as a serious christian and decided Friend. She died in the autumn of 1792, leaving her sorrowing husband the widowed parent of eleven children. The following list of the names may be found useful:—