An institution which has been justly deemed creditable to Wisbeach, is its Literary Society, formed in 1781, whose members sometime ago were about thirty, and its collection of books, or library, consisted of upwards of a thousand volumes.—Besides this institution, and some reading societies, or book-clubs, Wisbeach can also boast of a Philosophical Society, the President of which is Mr. Wm. Skrimshire Junr. a gentleman much and deservedly respected among his fellow-townsmen. He is allowed to be well qualified for the presidentship of such an institution, from his extensive knowledge of those subjects which it is the aim of the Society chiefly to cultivate; and in some branches of natural history he is said to be eminently conversant. He is a native of the town, as well as one of the most ingenious, intelligent, and respectable of its inhabitants.
Many remarkable personages may be supposed, one time and another, to have appeared among the natives of Wisbeach; but we shall here mention but two of them, and those of very unequal merit.—One of them was Dr. Henry Southwell, late rector of Asterby, and the reputed author of a well known and popular Commentary on the Old and New Testament, commonly called Dr. Southwell’s Family Bible; not a page of which, however, was written by him, being absolutely unequal to such an undertaking, and but a few degrees, if any, above an ideot. [106] But he sold his name to some London booksellers for a certain pecuniary consideration, and they employed one Dr. Saunders, a noted hackney writer, to do the work. They also produced Letters of approbation and recommendation, addressed to Dr. Southwell, from a great number of pretended eminent clergymen, in different parts of the kingdom. The trick succeeded, and the credulous public went taken in, as usual. It was, certainly, a most shameful business, and must be contemplated by all honest men with abhorrence and indignation: but the work brought no small gain to the publishers, for it had, it seems, a great run; and that, with them, would sufficiently sanctify the imposture. It is to be wished it could be said to be the only instance of the kind that occurs in the transactions of modern booksellers. But this is the age of imposition and humbugging, in which not only booksellers, but even ministers of State have sometimes been too fond of acting their parts.
The other person that shall be here named, as a native of Wisbeach, is Thomas Clarkson. He too is a clergyman; but of a character so very different from the former, that no two human beings could well be more unlike each other. His unparalleled exertions in behalf of the oppressed Africans, and for the abolition of the detestable Slave-trade, so long the disgrace and curse of this country, must place his name very high indeed, among the modern sons of Britain—even far above our Burkes, our Pitts, and our Nelsons, as the real friend of his country and his species, and the benefactor of the human race. Compared with such characters, he appears as an angel of light by the side of a group of demons. The honour of giving birth to so estimable and distinguished a person, must justly entitle the town of Wisbeach to no small degree of lasting celebrity. He should, certainly, be placed at the head of those memorable and venerable instruments, who contributed to the abolishment and annihilation of our most shameful, detestable, and horrid traffick in human flesh and blood. But for his vigorous and unwearied efforts, the names even of a Fox and a Wilberforce had never perhaps been known, as the promoters and champions of that honourable and sacred cause. But the virtues he displayed, and the service he performed, on that never to be forgotten occasion, are too well known, and too frequently acknowledged, to need any eulogy that this feeble pen is capable of attempting. Long may he live to enjoy his well-earned fame, and to exhibit still more widely among his contemporaries, by his future writings, the truth and importance of those exalted principles, for which he so nobly and so successfully contended.
The attention bestowed upon Wisbeach by William I, in erecting there a stone castle, has been already noticed. To some of our succeeding monarchs it also appears to have been an object of partiality: we are accordingly informed that Richard I, March 28th, 1190, granted the tenants of Wisbeach-Barton Manor an exemption or freedom from toll in all fairs and markets throughout England. This grant was confirmed, in 1214, by king John, who came to Wisbeach from Lynn in October 1216, as Dr. Brady has proved from original records preserved in the Tower. In the 12th of Henry IV. it was renewed, and again confirmed by writ of privy seal of Henry VI. Afterwards the privilege being forfeited, it was restored through the exertions of Nicholas Sandford, who died in 1608, and was buried in the church, where an inscription, on the brass plate inserted in his tomb-stone, commemorates his singular bounty and patriotism, as having, at his own charge, freed the town from toll.
After Oliver Cromwell had been appointed governor of the Isle of Ely, for his activity in swaying it to the interest of the Parliament, he caused fortifications to be raised near the Horse-shoe on the north side of Wisbeach, to secure the passes out of Lincolnshire, which continued attached to the king. The soldiers stationed to defend them were commanded by Colonel Sir John Palgrave, and Captain William Dodson; and the ammunition, and other warlike stores, were supplied from a Dutch ship, which the Queen had dispatched from Holland for the use of the royalists, but which, very seasonably and conveniently, fell into the hands of their opponents.
In 1643 the burgesses lent 150l. to Captain Dodson, who was then engaged in the siege of Croyland; and on the 25th of March 1644, they delivered to Major John Ireton four muskets, three bandeliers, and two swords, for the service of the Parliament. They also furnished the latter with a loan of 250l. towards raising a troop of horse for the defence of the Isle. This troop seems to have been supported even after the Revolution, as on the 6th of June, 1690, 4l. were ordered to be paid towards the expence of a horse to serve in “the Troop,” and the town-bailiff was directed to defray a moiety of the charge for arms and furniture.
Between the restoration and the year 1672, cities, towns, and even individuals, were allowed to coin copper money for the convenience of trade: the Capital Burgesses of Wisbeach, therefore, in February, 1670, ordered the town-bailiff to expend 20l. in coining halfpence, with the words “A Wisbeach Half-penny,” on one side; and on the other, the impression of the town-seal. In 1722, the poor-house was erected, at the expence of 2000l. borrowed for that purpose by the Capital Burgesses, on their corporation seal:—for being an invisible body, (like other bodies-corporate) whose intentions cannot be manifested or expressed by personal acts, or oral discourse, they could act and speak only by their common seal. [109]
The frequent journeys made by George II. to Hanover, (whither it was supposed he transported a large share of the national treasure,) and his attachment to Lady Kilmarnock, afterwards Countess of Yarmouth, excited the displeasure of some of the inhabitants of this town; and the Rev. Thomas Whiston, curate to Dr. Bell, preached a sermon full of asperity against the King’s conduct. His text was from Proverbs vii, 19–22. “The good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey, he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.” Mr. Whiston seems to have been endued with that talent which gives its possessor a facility in adapting the language and circumstances of distant ages to the occurrences of modern times; of which he gave further proof after the suppression of the rebellion in 1745, and the return of the Pretender into France, when he zealously defended the succession of the House of Brunswick, taking for his text, 2 Kings, xix, 33. “By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.” [110] One would suppose this clergyman to have been in his day somewhat of an uncommon and singular, though not apparently of a disreputable character. He was evidently a patriot and anti-jacobite; and, unlike most of his order, he could discern the errors and misdoings of the great, and even testify against them in a very open and pointed manner. On the prudence and propriety, or expediency of this part of his conduct, different persons, no doubt, would entertain different opinions. What he would have thought, said, or done, had he lived in the present reign, and to this very time, it is impossible to know. Of royal journeys to Hanover, and of female favourites, or mistresses of the sovereign, one may presume he would have seen no cause of complaint. But that the same would have been the case, as to all our state maxims, and public measures, and especially our three last wars, is more, perhaps, than we are warranted to conclude; as it seems rather probable, not to say more than probable, that Mr. Whiston would have discovered in some, if not in all of them, no slight cause of disgust and animadversion. How he would have stood affected toward some of our princes of the blood, or royal dukes, and what texts, or passages of scripture he would have applied to them, or made the groundwork of sermons or addresses to his parishioners concerning them, are questions that cannot now be answered or resolved.
The river Nene, being navigable from Wisbeach to Peterborough, and many other more distant inland parts, contributes much to the commercial importance of the former. There are also passage-boats on this river, which prove very convenient to travellers, in their progress to, or from the great north road.—Before we quit Wisbeach it may be here just hinted, that some of its inhabitants have often been heard loudly congratulating themselves, on the very superior advantages of their town, compared with Lynn and most other boroughs, where the corporation spirit is too apt to encroach and bear hard upon the unprivileged part of the community; but which, happily, never haunts, molests, or disturbs the people of Wisbeach. If that be really the case, they have, certainly, cause for boasting; and we can do no less than hail them on the occasion.—The population of Wisbeach, as ascertained by the late act, amounts to near five thousand: so that it is the most populous town in the county, except Cambridge.