My dear Wife,—Myself and fellow prisoners are in good health. I bless God, I am very well satisfied with his dispensations towards me in reference to my landlady's proceedings; so that I am no longer disquieted with them, nor solicitous about them, but patiently wait God's gracious disposal of me. Perhaps infinite wisdom foresees some inconveniency which we are not aware of, and therefore is about to remove us. I am loath to leave the society of my dear brethren, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Southal; but I hope in the end God will so dispose of us, that we shall have cause to say, it is best for us to be where God shall carry us. I know not which way to look; but our "God is a very present help in a time of trouble," and will let us see that it is not our forecast, but his providence, which shall provide an habitation for us. Let us rather beg an improvement than a removal of his dispensations. Remember me to my father, children, &c. Thus, in haste, I remain, &c.
The Mr. Clarke, mentioned in this letter, we suppose to have been Matthew Clarke, the first pastor of the Independent Church at Harborough and Ashley, as he was cast three times into the same prison, and was connected with Mr. Shuttlewood in sufferings, and also in services and enjoyments.
He was obliged frequently to change his abode—sometimes in Leicestershire, sometimes in Northamptonshire, to escape from his foes; acting on the directions given by his Lord, "If they persecute you in one city, flee unto another." After a time he went to reside at Sulby, a place remarkable for its picturesque and secluded situation. The family of the Paynes, at Sulby Hall, then favoured the Nonconformists. Here he appears sometimes to have had a flourishing seminary. A memorandum of his in a pocket almanack states "that six students were added to his academy in one year." The following persons, amongst others, studied under him, and rose to eminence: Mr. Julius Saunders, afterwards minister at Bedworth; Mr. John Sheffield; Mr. Matthew Clarke, son, we suppose, of Mr. Clarke of Harborough, afterwards minister in London; Dr. Joseph Oldfield; Mr. Wilson, the father of Mr. Samuel Wilson, of London; and Mr. Thomas Emlyn. In the memoirs of the last of these it is said, "that his parents chose to bring up their son to the ministry among the Nonconformists; and that for this purpose he was sent, in the year 1678, for academical education to Mr. Shuttleworth (should have been Shuttlewood), at Sulby, near Welford, in Northamptonshire." Here he stayed four years. In the year 1679 he took a journey to Cambridge, and was admitted to Emanuel College, but returned again to Mr. Shuttlewood. These circumstances indicate that Mr. Shuttlewood resided at Sulby a considerable time. It was during this period that he gathered a congregation at Welford and at Creaton. But such was the spirit of the times, and such the dangers to which the Nonconformists were exposed, that at Welford, in the year 1674, they met in a secluded part of the town, on the premises of Mr. Edmund Miles, where they fitted up a place of worship, which was the first Dissenting Meeting House there; but such were the activity and zeal of their enemies, that they thought it prudent to vary their places of meeting, and to set a guard against the inroads of their foes. They might have adopted the language of Nehemiah as their own: "We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch day and night because of them." There was a house occupied by Mr. Charles Hanscomb, secluded in a narrow yard from the main street, and open to a field in the direction of Mr. Shuttlewood's house. Here the persecuted minister and his people often met, one of the number being appointed to watch, while the rest were engaged in worship; so that when the informers were seen to approach notice might be given to Mr. Shuttlewood and his hearers, who escaped by the window into the fields. Sometimes they met in the pastures which surrounded the house at Sulby, amidst the darkness and the damps of night. These were days of trial, when the reality of religious principle was tested and its power appeared.
Mr. Shuttlewood was blest with a robust, vigorous constitution, yet was of a very tender spirit; and the death of one of his children so deeply pierced him as to bring on many bodily complaints, which he carried with him to his grave. His constitution was greatly injured by the sufferings he endured, and also by his preaching at unseasonable hours, and in unsuitable places; so that his health at length rapidly declined, and he died when on a visit to the Church at Creaton, March 17th, 1688, in the 58th year of his age. A humble stone was erected to his memory in the Churchyard, with this brief but honourable inscription:—"Multum dilectus, multum deflendus"—"Much beloved, much lamented".
Now the flock at Welford were as sheep without a shepherd. They had not been formed into a regular Christian Church under the ministry of Mr. Shuttlewood; and for about ten years they were destitute of a pastor, or any stated ministrations of divine truth amongst them. Some of them, during this period, travelled as far as Bedworth, in Warwickshire, upwards of twenty miles, to hear Mr. Julius Saunders. Such was the love these servants of Christ had for the Gospel, that in the dark mornings of the winter season they travelled by the light of a lantern as far as Lutterworth, where they left it till their return in the evening, when it was again lighted to conduct them home. It appears that there were many in those days that would travel as far as their feet would carry them, rather than be entirely deprived of the ministry of the Gospel.
Some extracts from the records of the Church at Bedworth, kindly sent to the writer by the present pastor of the Church, show that there were, in the year 1687, five persons from Welford added to that Church. This was the second year in the history of that Church; and at the close of it the pastor wrote, "thus has God increased us and doubled our numbers, and many of them stars of the first magnitude." William Powers, from Welford, who joined the Church at Bedworth, appears to have been a man of eminent piety. On one occasion Mr. Saunders writes, "It was while brother Powers was earnestly praying the Lord to thrust forth labourers into his harvest, that I was set at liberty from the bond that was on my spirit." In 1688, a female servant in one of the Welford families attending at Bedworth was added to the Church. In the fourth month of that year a Church-meeting is held at Welford, when several persons from Elkington and Cottesbrook are added to the Church. In the last month of this year we find two more from Welford joined to the Church at Bedworth; but the pastor records, that in the third month of the next year "there was great dissatisfaction expressed at a Church-meeting, on account of my going to Welford and preaching there the last Lord's-day, where there seems to be a mighty work of God upon the hearts of many carrying on."
Mr. Saunders wished to devote one Sabbath in the month to the people that met at Welford; but this was strongly opposed by some of the Church at Bedworth, who probably desired to have the pastor always with them on the Sabbath.
One Valentine Drake showed great opposition to the pastor going to preach at Welford; "but the Church," adds Mr. Saunders, "gave me liberty; they declared that it was meet that, as a ruling elder, I should appoint my own meetings to preach." "The trouble was great that I met with, all about going to Welford one Lord's-day in the month." The opponents ultimately prevailed, so that the minister was obliged to give up the services there. "In the 9th month, 1689, a solemn assembly of the Church. The Church refused to cast out Valentine Drake for all that he had done; and he had done much evil. He drew many after him; made a schism in the Church; manifested fiery passions in our Church-meetings; and so far prevailed, that I was necessitated to break off from going to Welford, whereby that great and blessed work that was going on was made to cease. Many that had a hand in breaking it never flourished in their souls after. In those days my hands were weak."
"In 1691, brother William Powers, from Welford, was chosen to be a ruling elder. On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, at Welford, the brethren being assembled together—Mr. Davis, brother Tebbirt, and brother Taylor, from Rowell—I gave brother Powers a charge to fulfil his office; he declared his willing mind to do so, and that he did accept of the office." "Elizabeth Ridgly, of Haslebeech, Northamptonshire, joined this Church, 1687. She was a diligent saint, who came to our Church-meetings seventeen long miles, twelve times in a year, and that on foot." It is supposed the distance was not far short of twenty-seven miles.
Some of the Welford hearers attended at Kettering and at Harborough until the year 1698, when the Rev. John Norris came to Welford. He had been educated to Sheriffhales, in Shropshire. When Mr. Norris came to Welford, the days of liberty and peace had so far dawned upon the Nonconformists that they could no longer be persecuted according to law; and his ministry proving very acceptable to the people, a new Meeting House was built capable of seating 500 hearers, which was opened in the year 1700; and in the same year Mr. Norris formed them into a Christian Church. The first time he administered the Lord's Supper, there were twenty-six members united in celebrating the Saviour's death; but after a few months the number increased to sixty members. The ground on which the Meeting House was built was given by the Paynes, of Sulby Hall; and five of the members of this family united with the twenty-six who first formed themselves into a Church under Mr. Norris.