A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

“As usual, I took little or no interest in the election, but when a petition was presented to Parliament against the returned members on the score of bribery, I imagined it to be my place to subscribe to the object, and wrote a letter in the Norwich newspapers stating the grounds of my so doing. Those grounds were in no degree personal, but simply moral and Christian. But the appearance of evil was not avoided. The measure was construed into an act of political partizanship; and I entirely lost ground by it in my own true calling, that of promoting simple Christianity among all classes.”

He had thought of becoming a candidate for the representation of this city, or some other place, in Parliament. After some long conferences with his friends he abandoned the idea and devoted himself to his higher calling. Mr. J. J. Gurney was a well-known Liberal in politics, but he did not often speak at political meetings in this city. His speeches were always short and generally pertinent; and showed good sense accompanied with the seriousness of conviction. On whatever side of any question he spoke he was listened to very attentively, and all parties believed that he delivered the unbiassed opinion of an honest man. His conduct on every occasion gained him the esteem of all friends of civil and religious liberty.

In 1835, he was once more plunged into deep affliction by the long illness and death of his wife. Her health had of late years been much improved, and she had been unremitting in her attentions to his daughter during her illness from typhus fever, without apparently suffering in consequence. The disease was, however, lurking in her constitution, and after some time made its appearance. The fever gradually gained ground, and she sank under it on Nov. 9th of that year. She died happily, amid her mourning friends; and her husband knelt down at her bedside and returned thanks for her deliverance from every trouble!

His journal contains many details of his visits to Manchester and Liverpool, of his journeys in Derbyshire and North Wales, of his journeys in Scotland and the north of England, of his voyage to America, of his journey to Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina, of his journey from Richmond to Washington, of interviews with eminent statesmen, of labours at New York, of a voyage to the West Indies and proceedings there, of a tour on the continent, and of his return home. But we cannot follow him in all his wanderings in many lands, where he went about doing good, promoting benevolent objects and preaching the gospel, his heart being too large to be confined to his native country, much less to his native city. On his return from the continent in 1841, he attended a meeting of the Bible Society, and delivered his last great speech, which occupied two hours, on the state of religion in Europe. A shorthand writer took notes of that address, which was so full of information that it was afterwards published in the Journal of the Bible Society.

Soon after his return home he married Eliza P. Kirkbridge. The event took place at Darlington, on October 10th, 1841, as noted in his journal. After the marriage he delivered an address on the “Victory which is of faith.” The dinner party was cheerful, and concluded with a short religious service. He and his bride parted from their friends, made a short tour, and returned to Earlham, which they “reached in health and great peace, the place comfortable and homeish, and the reception from his dearest children glowing.”

J. J. Gurney signed the total-abstinence pledge at the house of his friend, Richard Dykes Alexander, at Ipswich, on April 8th, 1843. He and his wife attended a great “Teetotal Meeting” held at Norwich, on the arrival of Father Mathew, on September 9th, that year. The lord bishop, Dr. Stanley, was present and requested J. J. Gurney to preside. He did so, and declared himself to be a pledged teetotaller. He spoke fully and carefully on the subject, and the lord bishop afterwards expressed his admiration of the apostle of temperance as the instrument of effecting so much moral good.

As a man of business, Mr. J. J. Gurney was ready, punctual, and attentive. He was very modest, but of a candid and social disposition. Though in large or mixed companies he seldom appeared forward, yet in the society of his friends he was exceedingly agreeable. In private life no man was more estimable as a husband, a father, a neighbour, and a friend. In Norwich and in the surrounding district he was universally honoured and beloved. He was a great reader of the bible, and he was regular and exact in family worship, but he was a stranger to bigotry, no stickler for forms, and no friend to mysticism in matters of religion.

The autumn of 1846 was spent by the philanthropist quietly at home, with the exception of engagements connected with the attendance of meetings of Friends, and with what proved to be a farewell visit to his beloved daughter at Darlington, and to his friends in several places on his way home. He attended a committee of the Norwich District Visiting Society on December 28th in that year, and on his return to Earlham he complained of great exhaustion, feverishness, &c. A few simple remedies were administered, but the uncomfortable symptoms remaining his medical man was summoned on the following morning. He pronounced it a slight bilious attack, and seemed to have no anxiety about the recovery. The philanthropist, however, gradually sank, apparently from exhaustion, and he died on January 4th, 1847, in the 59th year of his age. The news of his death spread a gloom over the city, and the universal lamentations of the citizens proved that they regarded him as a father and a friend, as indeed he had been to thousands of them. The sensation in Norwich and its neighbourhood cannot easily be described, and is probably without precedent in the case of a mere private individual. During the entire interval of seven days between his decease and the funeral, the half-closed shops and the darkened windows of the houses gave ample proof of the feelings of the inhabitants. It furnished the principal topic of conversation in every family, in every private circle, in every group by the wayside. People of all ranks vied with each other in their eulogies of their departed friend. Everyone had his own story to tell of some public benefit, or of some private kindness which had been shown to others or to himself.

The funeral, as might have been expected from this unusual public emotion, was an extraordinary scene. All the shops were closed and all business was suspended in the city. A number of gentlemen, including the mayor, the ex-mayor, and the sheriff, went out in carriages as far as Earlham Hall. The citizens generally formed the funeral procession, and followed the hearse and plain carriages from the hall to the burial place at the Gildencroft. There was no pomp or parade, no mockery of woe. A simplicity in harmony with the character of the departed marked all the arrangements. As the procession moved on towards the city it was joined by an increasing number of the inhabitants, who issued forth in a continuous stream to pay their last tribute to the memory of departed worth. Silently and sadly many stood while the hearse passed slowly by, and many a tearful countenance among the crowd bore testimony to their love for the dead. The procession gradually increased in numbers all the way to the Gildencroft, and after the thousands of people had gathered round the grave a profound silence ensued, which was at length broken by a Friend repeating the verses, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” &c. Another pause then took place, followed by another address, and then the body was lowered into its last resting place. The circle of mourning relatives, including J. H. Gurney and his wife, the surrounding crowd of spectators—persons of all ranks, of all ages, of all communions—magistrates and artizans, clergymen and Nonconformists—representatives, in short, of the whole people of Norwich, now took their last farewell of Joseph John Gurney, and slowly turned towards the meeting house, where a meeting for worship was to be held. The service was deeply impressive, and formed an appropriate conclusion to the solemn occasion. At the Cathedral, on the following Sunday, the good Bishop Stanley preached a funeral sermon before a large congregation. His text was “Watchman, what of the night?” and after enlarging on it, he alluded in a most pathetic and impressive manner to the virtues of the deceased, and we never before saw so many people so deeply moved. The death of the beloved citizen was also publicly adverted to in most of the places of worship in Norwich.

Mr. J. J. Gurney was the author of various works, the most popular being one on the Evidences of Christianity. It is a production more calculated to confirm the faith of a believer than to convert a free thinker who may not admit the possibility of anything supernatural. He also published a work on “The Vows and Practices of Friends;” “Essays on Christianity;” “Essays on the Moral Character of Christ,” and “Love to God;” “The Papal and Hierarchical System compared with the Religion of the New Testament, &c.” His last and best work is entitled, “Thoughts on Habit and Discipline,” an excellent moral treatise.