CHAPTER VI.
MEMORIALS OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT WELFORD.
In the extra-parochial district of Sulby, about a mile from the village of Welford, was founded in the twelfth century a monastery for a certain order of monks. It was handsomely endowed, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The site is now occupied by farm buildings. But as another illustration of the changes which occur in this mutable world, there resided, 180 years ago, in some part of that abbey, a man who would not conform to the dictates of his fellow men in the things of God—"a man of worth, a man of letters too;" one eminent for learning, talent, piety, usefulness; who laid the foundation of two Dissenting interests in the county of Northampton, and kept a Dissenting academy at Sulby, or a seminary for the education of young men, several of whom became eminent Dissenting ministers. This person was the Rev. John Shuttlewood, A.B. He was born at Wymeswold, in the county of Leicester, January 3rd, 1632, of respectable parents, who sent him to the Grammar-school at Leicester, and afterwards to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he obtained the degree of A.B. He was ordained to the ministry in 1654, not by episcopal ordination it would appear, but in the method more generally adopted in the days of the Commonwealth, in the congregation of Raunston, with an honourable testimonial from the classical presbytery of Wirksworth, in the province of Derby.
The deep humility, piety, and devotedness of his spirit were manifest by a solemn dedication of himself to God, drawn up about this time in Latin, of which the following is a translation:—
O my God, on account of my sins thou hast afflicted me with thy judgments! Thou art just, O Lord! in all thy dispensations towards me, because I have grievously offended against thee. I have followed the world; I have too much indulged the flesh; and I have been very often overcome by Satan. To thee I give up myself, to live to thee. And now, before God, the searcher of hearts, I promise and engage to leave my worldly concerns to the companion of my life; to renounce the flesh with its affections; and to study the good of the souls which thou art committing to my care. Now, O Lord! do thou so strengthen and fortify me by the Spirit of grace against all these my enemies, that I may obtain the victory over them. And that I may seriously perform these my good resolutions, let this paper, signed by my name, be a witness against me, if I lie before thee.
John Shuttlewood.
A man of such a spirit we should expect to find among those who refused to conform to the terms prescribed to the ministers of the Church, soon after the restoration of the second Charles. On this account he was ejected from the living of Raunston and Hoose, and afterward exposed to great suffering for his Nonconformity, and his attempts to conduct the worship of God and preach his word in a way his conscience approved. In the year 1668, when he was uniting with some others in singing a Psalm, one Mr. B., with thirty or forty horsemen, with swords drawn and pistols loaded, came and seized him with many that were worshipping with him. Several of both sexes were beaten and driven into the field, and there dismissed upon promising to appear the next day before a justice of the peace. Mr. Shuttlewood was conveyed to Leicester Gaol, where he was a prisoner for some months. After the "Conventicle Act" passed, he was again seized by one Charles Gibbons, a notorious persecutor and profane swearer—taken by him from one justice of the peace to another; and warrants were issued to distrain upon him for £20, upon the owner of the house where he preached for £20, and 5s. apiece on others.
In 1674 Mr. Shuttlewood was living at Lubenham, a village about two miles from Market Harborough. There his house was entered when he was conducting divine service; a warrant was obtained to distrain upon him for £40, when seven of his milch cows were taken and sold.
A short letter is preserved which was written to his wife from Leicester gaol, which shows the exemplary resignation, meekness, and faith with which he passed through his trials. It was written February 20th, 1668.