CHAPTER IV.
MEMORIALS OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT MARKET HARBOROUGH.[3]
If a stranger were passing through the small but respectable town of Market Harborough, on the road to Leicester, with the intention of observing what was most worthy of notice, he would see on the right of the principal street, in the upper part of the town, a handsome structure, of considerable dimensions for the size of the place. On the front of the building he might notice the inscription—"Independent Chapel." If an intelligent traveller, he would think, Surely this was not the first origin of Independency here! This must have been erected for a body of some standing in the town. On inquiry, he would find that there had been an old Meeting House, which had stood at the top of the lane leading for Great Bowden for more than 150 years, during the whole of which period a numerous and respectable body of Dissenters had assembled in it; but that the building, with its plain walls, its high pews, its deep galleries, its antique pillars, and irregular form, had been entirely taken down; and this Chapel, in a more eligible position, had been raised by the present congregation. And he might be informed that it was nobly done; for after the most liberal subscriptions, amounting to £1600, a moiety of which was lost by the failure of the bank in which they were deposited: (in consequence of this, an appeal was made to the public, the result of which about made up the loss sustained:) the whole amount that remained to complete the cost was raised on the day of opening; the sum expended in the erection of the Chapel exceeding £3000.
From this introductory statement, we shall lead the reader back to the early history of this cause.
In looking backward for 190 years, we find that by the "Act of Uniformity," passed in the year 1662, Mr. Thomas Lowry was ejected from the Church in this place. Though we have no record of his life or his labours, beyond the statement "that he was a native of Scotland, and had a living in Essex before he came to Harborough," yet by his Nonconformity he teaches us that he had embraced principles which led him to refuse to bow to the dictates of men in the things of God, and which prompted him rather to sacrifice his worldly interests than what related to truth and a good conscience.
The probability is, that some of the people to whom he had ministered would become Nonconformists with their pastor; but whether he obtained any opportunities of preaching to them after his ejectment is not known. Subsequent events lead us to the conclusion that the principles of Nonconformity must have obtained a number of adherents in Harborough and its vicinity; because we find that, eleven years after the passing of the "Act of Uniformity" (i.e., in the year 1673), Mr. Matthew Clarke became the stated pastor of an Independent congregation here. This brings before us the first clear and certain information relative to the early history of this cause in Harborough.
A short distance from Leicester lies the village of Narborough, where, at the restoration of Charles II., Mr. Matthew Clarke was the rector; the living being worth at that time about £120 per annum. His father and grandfather had both been ministers in the Church. He was educated, under the best masters, with a view to the profession—first, in the Charter House, in London; afterwards, under Dr. Busby, at Westminster; and under Dr. Temple, at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a diligent student; became eminent for his scholarship: but what was still more important, he became early devoted to God; associated himself with some students who were remarkable for piety, and who engaged in such exercises as tended to prepare for the work of the Christian ministry, for which they were designed. He obtained the degree of M.A.
He was presented to the living of Narborough in 1657. After pursuing his labours there for five years, he was ejected as a Nonconformist. He was earnestly pressed to conformity by Mr. Stratford, the patron of the living, but could not by any means bring his conscience to a compliance with what the law required. For conscience' sake he was a sufferer. Devoted to his work, he took every opportunity of preaching the Gospel in Leicestershire and parts adjacent. He was watched narrowly by some furious justices of the peace; and though he had the happiness often to escape, yet he was three times a prisoner in Leicester Gaol, for the crime of preaching the Gospel! After dwelling for a time in a lone house in Leicester Forest, and being driven from thence by the "Five Mile Act" to Stoke Golding, he was invited to Harborough, where he came and settled in 1673; and had a large congregation. This appears to have been the first and the permanent settlement of Protestant Nonconformists of congregational principles in this place.
In connexion with Harborough, Mr. Clarke also took the charge of a congregation meeting at Ashley, a village about five miles from the former place; and during the whole course of his subsequent ministry he regularly preached at Ashley in the morning, and at Harborough in the afternoon, every Lord's-day. His ministry appears to have been highly valued, and to have been eminently successful; at the close of it the Church numbered 202 members, a very large proportion of them living in the villages surrounding Harborough—some of them a number of miles distant. In the character of Mr. Clarke were combined unbending integrity and conscientiousness, with great kindness of spirit and manner. Of the first we have proof in his decided Nonconformity—in his willingness to suffer rather than to sin—in his following the path of duty, whatever might be the dangers to which it exposed him—in his steady pursuit of all the labours of his calling until laid aside by his last affliction—in his firm resistance of acts of injustice and oppression, as shown when, being convinced that the King's tax on his salary was unjust, he firmly and successfully refused payment: of the latter we have proof in his affectionate regard to the truly pious wherever he beheld them—in the peaceful temper which he breathed—in the kind and profitable intercourse he promoted between his brethren—and in the conciliatory spirit he manifested towards those who were the enemies of the Gospel, or of the cause he supported.
Mr. Clarke had one son, named after him, who for a time became an assistant to his father in the work of the ministry at Harborough. The venerable father contrived, amidst all that he suffered for conscience' sake (and he drank largely of the bitter cup), to take peculiar care of the education of his son, whom he early instructed in the learned languages, together with several young persons who were studying under his tuition for the ministry.