The Rev. John Tanner, who was Vicar of Lowestoft many years, died in 1759; he was precentor of the Cathedral of Asaph, Rector of Kessingland, and also commissary and official to the arch-deaconry of Suffolk, (in 1725), which offices he resigned as soon as the infirmities of age rendered him incapable of performing them with that care and exactness he had always shewn in their discharge. Among his many antient acts of charity may be mentioned (exclusive of the active part which he took in the re-building of Kirkley church) his purchasing the impropriation of Lowestoft, for the benefit of his successors; his expending a large sum of money in repairing and beautifying the chancel; and also setting the first example in new-pewing the church. He was the third son of the Rev. Thomas Tanner, vicar of Market Leavington, Wiltshire; was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford; and obtained his preferment through the interest of his brother, Thomas Tanner, who was many years Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich.
Rev. J. Arrow who was instituted to the vicarage of Lowestoft in 1760, was born in London in 1733; was educated at Westminister school, and admitted of Trinity College, Cambridge; was formerly a chaplain to the Royal Navy, which he exchanged for Lowestoft, with Dr. Greet, chaplain to Dr. Hayter, Bishop of Norwich, who had presented him to the same, but was not instituted. The Rev. Arrow died the 22nd of June 1789, aged 55 years, and was buried in the chancel of Lowestoft church. He was a person of a very regular life and conversation; zealous in promoting the interest and welfare of the church; and so very conscientious in discharging the duties of his function, that although very ill, yet he preached twice in the last twenty-four hours before he expired.
The Rev. Robert Potter, prebendary of Norwich, was well known in the literary world as the learned and ingenious translator of the Aschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
SECTION VIII.
OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.
The town of Lowestoft has been much distinguished in religious concerns, for its invoilable attachment to the establishment of the Church of England, as in civil affairs, for its unshaken loyalty to its sovereign. Nevertheless, it is not without its sectaries, which, at different times, have arisen in the town; the principal of which sectaries is that society denominated Independents or Congregational Dissenters. At what time it was that this religious sect first began to make its appearance in Lowestoft is uncertain. Previous to the year 1689, when the learned Mr. Emlyn came to reside in the town, and commenced as minister to the Congregational dissenters, it was but an inconsiderable body, destitute of a regular pastor, and also of a decent structure for the purpose of religious exercises. [143] The congregation of Protestant dissenters at Lowestoft might be considered also, at that time, as a kind of dependent assembly on the Dissenting congregation at Yarmouth; as it was customary for the members belonging to the former congregation to repair to that at Yarmouth at the usual seasons of receiving the holy communion, and was much in the same state of dependence on that society as a chapel-of-ease is on the mother church.
At this early period the Dissenters of Lowestoft had no other building for the public exercise of religion than a barn situate in a lane called Blue Anchor lane, opposite Rant’s score; and they continued in this obscure situation till the year 1695, when a decent structure was erected for religious uses. Probably the Society was much increased after the year 1689, when so distinguished a character as Mr. Emlyn became their minister, and in consequence thereof might be enabled to erect this building. This meeting house was erected in 1695 upon a small piece of ground given for that purpose by Mr. James Ward of this town. The eminent Mr. Emlyn was born at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, May 22, 1663. In August, 1674, he was put to a boarding school at Walcot, near Folkingham, where he continued four years, and on Sundays was the constant auditor of the noted Mr. Brocklesby, the then incumbent of that parish. Mr. Emlyn’s parents were of the established church, and were very intimate with the very learned and worthy Dr. Cumberland, then minister at Stamford, and afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, but being inclined to the Puritans, they choose to educate their son among that sect; for this purpose he was sent, for academical education, in 1678, to Sulby, near Welford, in Northamptonshire, where he continued four years. In 1679 he went to Cambridge; and in 1682 was admitted of Emanuel College, but, returned again to Sulby; and in the same year he removed to Mr. Doolittle’s academy, first at Islington, then at Clapham, and afterwards at Battersea. He made his first essay as a preacher December 19, 1682, at Mr. Doolittle’s meeting house, near Cripplegate. In 1683 he was chaplain to the Countess of Donegal, a lady of great quality and estate in the north of Ireland, but resided then in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, and the year following accompanied the family to Belfast. While in this station he made a journey to Dublin, and during his continuance in that city, preached once before that congregation of which Mr. Daniel Williams and Mr. Joseph Boyce were at that time pastors, in a manner so acceptable to the audience, as gave occasion for that people afterwards to invite him to be their minister. A favourable opportunity for this purpose offered shortly after; for Mr. Williams having quitted the congregation at Dublin, Mr. Boyce made some overtures to Mr. Emlyn relative to his succeeding him, which he declined accepting. Mr. Emlyn still continued his station as chaplain in this family; but in 1688, when the disturbances in Ireland occasioned his patron’s family to leave that Kingdom, he returned to London. On his arrival at that place, and being out of employment, he was invited by Sir Robert Rich, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, to his house at Rose Hall, near Beccles, and was by him prevailed upon to officiate as Minister to the Dissenting congregation at Lowestoft; which place he supplied about a year and a half, but refused the invitation of being their pastor; for as he disapproved of Ministers changing and shitting from one place to another, so he had determined not to accept any pastoral care but where he thought he should settle, and purposed to continue. It was during his residence at Lowestoft, that, reading Dr. Sherlock’s piece on the Trinity, he first began to entertain some scruples concerning the received doctrine in that point of faith. Here also he contracted a close and intimate acquaintance with Mr. William Manning, a Nonconformist Minister at Peasanhall, and corresponded with him during Mr. Manning’s life. As both were of an inquisitive temper, they frequently conferred together on the highest mysteries of religion; and Dr. Sherlock’s book on the Trinity became a stumbling block to both. Manning even became a Socinian, and strove hard to bring his friend into those opinions, but Mr. Emlyn could never be made to doubt either of the pre-existence of our Saviour, as the Logos, or that God created the material world by him.
King James having fled into France, and Ireland being nearly reduced by King William, the affairs of that Kingdom began to be in a more settled state, and the dissenting congregations assembled in larger numbers. This induced Mr. Boyce to renew his application to Mr. Emlyn, to accept, jointly, with himself, the pastoral care of his congregation at Dublin; and to effect his purpose, wrote him a very pressing letter, and sent it to Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, minister at Salter’s Hall, London, who transmitted it enclosed in one from himself, to Mr. Emlyn, at Lowestoft.
Mr. Emlyn being so strongly solicited to accept the office of assistant pastor to the congregation at Dublin, complied with the invitation, and accordingly arrived in Dublin in May, 1691, and continued there until 1702, when his troubles began; for Dr. Duncan Cummins, a physician in that city, suspecting him of heterodox notions, about the Trinity, put Mr. Boyce first upon the enquiry, and went afterwards with him to Mr. Emlyn’s house, where the Unitarian freely confessed his belief “That God the Father of Jesus Christ, is above the Supreme Being, and superior in excellency and authority to his Son, who derives all from him.” Protesting, however, that he had no design to cause strife among them, he offered to leave the congregation peaceably. But, Mr. Boyce, not willing to take such a weighty matter on himself, brought before the meeting of the Dublin ministers; in consequence of which, Mr. Emlyn was immediately prohibited from preaching, and in a few days obliged to withdraw into England. But some zealous Dissenters, having resolved to prosecute him with the utmost rigour, they obtained a special warrant from the Lord Chief Justice to seize him and his books, and went with the keeper of Newgate to execute it upon him. The Chief Justice refused at first to take bail, but at length accepted of a recognizance, from two sufficient persons, of £800 for his appearance. On his trial he was found guilty. He was moved to retract, which he absolutely refused; and was therefore sentenced to suffer a year’s imprisonment, to pay a fine of £1,000 to the Queen, to live in prison till it was paid, and to find security for his good behaviour during life; telling him that the pillory was the punishment due, but because he was a man of letters it was not inflicted. After this he was led round the four Courts to be exposed, with a paper on his breast, signifying his crime. The fine was afterwards mitigated to £70, and this, together with £20, claimed by the Primate, as the Queen’s Almoner, was paid. Thus, after an imprisonment from the 14th of June, 1703, to the 21st July, 1705, and on giving security for his good behaviour, during life, he obtained his discharge. Soon after Mr. Emlyn returned to London, where a few friends gathered a small congregation, to whom he preached once every Sunday; this liberty gave great offence to several clergymen of the Established Church, and complaint thereof was made to Archbishop Jenison; but His Grace, being fully acquainted with the proceedings against him in Dublin, and his accusers not alleging that Mr. Emlyn made the controverted points the subject of his sermons, on the account of his character, was not inclined to molest him. This congregation was dissolved by the death of the principal persons who supported it, and their preacher retired into silence and obscurity, and died July 30th, 1741. Mr. Emlyn was a man of a lively and cheerful temper, of strong parts, and clear way of thinking, of great learning, and abounding in all religious graces; he was a popular and much admired preacher, for he not only had a portly presence, a strong clear voice, and a graceful delivery, but his discourses were, for the most part, rational and persuasive, always concluding somewhat serious and pathetical. He wrote several tracts, which, with his sermons on practical subjects, were collected and printed, in 1754, in three volumes, octavo, to which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings.
During Mr. Emlyn’s residence in Lowestoft, he cultivated the most friendly intercourse with the Rev. Hudson, at that time vicar of the parish; accompanying him in collecting public charities, and would frequently himself with several of his society attend the service of the church, by which means a perfect harmony subsisted between the members of the Establishment and the Dissenters. Nevertheless, his conduct in this respect was not approved altogether by those of his own community. Mr. Emlyn was also intimately acquainted with the Rev. Whiston, vicar of Lowestoft, and a successor of Mr. Hudson; and he was also particularly intimate with Dr. Samuel Clarke, who entertained nearly the same sentiments in religion as Mr. Emlyn and Mr. Whiston.
It is a little difficult to ascertain precisely who the ministers were that officiated at Lowestoft from the departure of Mr. Emlyn to the year 1698. There is an account of one Mr. Manning, who was an occasional preacher in the latter end of the reign of Charles II, or in the time of his brother James; but who this person was, whether he was an ejected minister (as there were several of that name in this country) or some other minister of the name of Manning, does not appear. It is not improbable that he was the Rev. Manning, of Peasanhall, previously mentioned, who was the intimate friend of Mr. Emlyn. Be this as it may, authentic accounts say that the Rev. Samuel Baxter, the eldest son of an ejected minister of Lancashire, settled here as minister to the Dissenters about the year 1698. He left the congregation about the year 1703, and removed to Ipswich. He was succeeded by the Rev. Henry Ward, who left Lowestoft about midsummer, 1707, and settled at Woodbridge, where he died at the close of the year 1734. Mr. Ward was succeeded at Lowestoft by Mr. Samuel Say, in 1707 or 1708. Mr. Say was born in the year 1675, and was the second son of Mr. Giles Say, minister of St. Michael’s parish, in the town of Southampton, but rejected thence by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. But after the grant of liberty of conscience, in the reign of James II, he was chosen pastor of a Dissenting congregation at Guestwick, in Norfolk, where he continued till his death, April 7th, 1692. Mr. Samuel Say, the son, received his first education at Southwark; and having discovered when he was but a young man, a strong inclination to the ministry, his father accordingly took care to have him educated in the best manner he could for that purpose, from his earliest years; and about the year 1692 he entered as a pupil the Rev. Rowe’s academy at London, where he had for his fellow students Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Isaac Watts, Mr. John Hughes, and Mr. Josiah Hort, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam. When he had finished his studies, he became chaplain to Thomas Scott, Esq., of Liminge, in Kent, a gentleman eminent for piety and goodness. Mr. Say continued in this family three years, and was well esteemed by all for his Christian behaviour and exemplary conversation. From thence he removed to Andover, in Hampshire; but in a short time came to Yarmouth, in Norfolk, and soon after that became a constant preacher at Lowestoft. Here he continued eighteen years, labouring in word and doctrine; but not being able all the time to bring the people among whom he ministered into a regular church order, he never settled with them as their pastor. During the residence of Mr. Say, at Lowestoft, the Dissenters had not the sacrament administered here; but after that Mr. Say had preached at Lowestoft in the afternoon, on Sundays, he would ride to Yarmouth, attended by such of the congregation as were so disposed, and there he administered it. Mr. Say left Lowestoft in 1725, being invited to a co-pastorship with the Rev. Samuel Baxter, of Ipswich, where he remained nine years; and from thence was called to succeed Dr. Edmund Calamy, then lately deceased, in the pastorship of the Church of Protestant Dissenters in Westminister. He removed thither in 1734, and continued in his pastoral relation till April 12th, 1743; where, after a week’s illness of a mortification in his bowels he died at his house in St. James’ street, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He was a very ingenious and sensible man; had great candour and good breeding, without stiffness and formality; an open countenance, and a temper always communicative; he was a tender husband, an indulgent father, and of a most benevolent disposition, ever ready to do good, and relieve the wants of the distressed to the utmost extent of his abilities. He was well versed in astronomy and natural philosophy. This is evident from an astronomical and meteorological journal kept by Mr. Say from the year 1713 to 1734; wherein, among the various occurrences related by him, as an account of the great consternation excited among the inhabitants of Lowestoft at what is called the first appearance of the Aurora Borealis. Mr. Say writes: “The market this day is full of discourse concerning a great and unusual light, from seven to twelve last night, seen in Lowestoft, Beccles, and at sea. Women rose out of their beds through fear, others screamed, ships came to anchor fearing an unusual tempest, so dreadfully the sky opened; the angry clouds also seemed, in the imagination of the superstitious beholder, to flash one against another. This curious phenomenon had never been seen either in England or foreign countries from 1621 to 1707, and then only in a small degree; therefore the splendour with which this appeared attracted universal attention. The vulgar viewed it with consternation, and considered it as marking the introduction of a foreign race of princes into this country; so strangely do people perplex and bewilder themselves when they depart from true philosophy, which never fails both to ennoble and enlighten the human mind.” He had also a taste for music and poetry, and was a good critic and master of the classics. Soon after his death a thin quarto volume of his poems with two essays in prose “On the Harmony, Variety, and Power of Numbers,” written at the request of Mr. Richardson, the painter, were published for the benefit of his only daughter, who married the Rev. Mr. Toms, a Dissenting Minister at Hadleigh, Suffolk. The poems are not destitute of merit, but the two essays have been much admired by persons of taste and judgment.