9. Thomas Littel, D.D. He is supposed to have settled here, as one of our officiating clergy, pretty soon after the revolution; but whether as vicar and principal minister of the town, or as Lecturer, or in an inferior station as the Vicar’s curate, we cannot positively say. It is certain however that he soon succeeded as vicar or chief minister of the town, and continued in that situation for a great many years. Though a Doctor in Divinity, he is supposed not to have stood high among his brethren and contemporaries as a scholar, a preacher, or as a divine; but there were traits in his character that were of no unamiable cast, especially in regard to his attention to the edification of the common people. In more recent times he would probably have been deemed a methodistical clergyman, which is not mentioned here as dishonourable to his memory, but rather the contrary, as it is the opinion of the present writer, that if a reasonable portion of methodism were imbibed by the clergy, it would render their ministry more popular, and prove of material advantage to the lower orders of their auditors. In Dr. Littel’s time, a great many of his hearers, of the poorer classes, as it would seem, became desirous of improving themselves in religious knowledge; and the course that appeared to them most likely, or the best for attaining that object was to establish private meetings for free discussion, or serious conference. Whether they had been led to this from something of the kind that existed among their dissenting neighbours here, we are not able to say; but it is certain that such exercises are much more common among dissenters than among churchmen. However that was, it seems they were not disposed to put the plan in practice without consulting Dr. Littel, who was then vicar of St. Margaret’s and chief minister of the town: and it does not appear that he urged any material objection, or gave them any serious discouragement. But he was aware that it would not be safe or proper for him to countenance such a measure without the privity and permission of his diocesan. He accordingly applied to Dr. Moore, who then filled the see of Norwich, and who, in his answer, dated September 10. 1697, appeared no way hostile to the measure, provided it were properly conducted; though he said, however friendly he might be to the design, yet he did not find he had any power by law to constitute and authorize such assemblies. Nevertheless he consented to allow the experiment to be here tried, under certain regulations. This episcopal letter is on the whole a very curious document, and not dishonourable to his lordship’s memory; but it is too long for insertion here. He cautioned them to avoid all discussions about state affairs, and whatever might tend to give umbrage to government; and he advised them to meet in small rather than large companies: which advice was probably adhered to. However that was, the intended measure was soon put in practice. For six or seven years the meetings seem to have been kept in private houses, under certain general regulations. But in 1704 the plan was further matured, new rules of conference were drawn up, [1010] and the meetings afterwards were generally if not constantly kept in the Vestry of St. Margaret’s Church, till the death of Dr. Littel, which happened in 1732. The Society then languished and dwindled away, so that in the year 1744 it was reduced to six members, whose names were Colins Banister, James Cowell, Joshua Edwards senr. Adam Holditch, John Lee, and William Rayns: It appears to have been dissolved soon after, having existed about fifty years; and for a long time no memorial of it remained, except in some old papers which fell into the present writer’s hands accidentally. This Society had formed a library, a catalogue of which it also in this writer’s possession. What became of the books at last, does not appear. We know of nothing more creditable to the memory of Dr Littel, than the countenance he afforded to those serious people. It is supposed that his successor in the Vicarage of St. Margaret did not also succeed him as the patron of this Institution.
10. Thomas Pyle M.A. Of the birth-place and the early part of the life of the rev. T. Pyle, whose name is still mentioned with veneration by the few who remember him as a preacher, we have not been able to obtain any account. So rapid is the neglect or the forgetfulness of oral tradition! From his epitaph we learn indeed that he was born in 1674. About the year 1698, he was examined for ordination, at Norwich, by the celebrated and truly honest William Whiston, at that time chaplain to bishop Moore, who has stated in the interesting Memoirs of his Life, that Dr. Sydal and Mr. Pyle were the best scholars among the many candidates whom it was his office to examine. It is probable that he was ordained upon the title of one of the curacies of St Margaret’s parish, as he married, in 1701, a Mrs Mary Rolfe of an affluent and respectable family in Lynn, and in the same year he was appointed by the Corporation to be minister or preacher of St. Nicholas’ Chapel. He published some political Sermons in the years 1706, 1707. and especially in the year 1715. In these discourses he vindicated and enforced those principles to which we are indebted for the expulsion of the Stuarts, and for the elevation of the Brunswick family to the throne. About the same period he became generally known as the author of a very useful Paraphrase on the Historical Books of the Old Testament, and another on the Acts, the Epistles and the Revelation of the New Testament. Soon afterwards he enlisted himself as a writer in the Bangorian Controversy, and was a strenuous and able advocate of the civil and religious principles of Bp. Hoadly. He appears to have been on terms of particular friendship with some of the greatest and best men in the Church of England, such as Dr. Sam. Clarke, Mr. Jackson of Leicester, Dr. Sykes, Bp. Hoadly, Dr. Herring, afterwards abp. of Canterbury; and equally so with some eminent dissenting ministers, particularly Dr. Sam. Chandler and Mr. Rastrick of Lynn. Many years after his death his youngest son, the rev. Philip Pyle, published several volumes of his “Sermons on plain and practical Subjects.” His writings are characterised by a perspicuity and manly sense, rather than by any elevation of style, or by a graceful negligence; and yet in the delivery of his sermons, so impressive was his elocution, that both in the metropolis and in the country, he was one of the most admired preachers of his time. The flowing lines were sent to him on his Sermon preached at Lincoln’s Inn, May 4th. 1735, on Gen. III, 19.
What sounds are these! What energy divine,
What master-strokes in every precept shine!
While from thy lips the warm expression breaks,
What heart but melteth as the preacher speaks!
Thy voice is nature, and thy diction clear,
It strikes like music on the listening ear.
—“Vain foolish man to murmur at thy fate,
The bounteous hand of heaven still leaves thee great;
Still makes thee first of beings here below,
Still gives thee more of happiness than woe.
To lazy indolence this world may seem
A barron wilderness; an idle dream;
Thistles and brambles to the slothful eye,
But roses to the hand of industry.
’Tis sordid avaries, with her sneaking train,
Ambition, who torments herself in vain,
Th’ unnumbered lusts that prey upon the mind,
Fix the primeval curse on human kind.
By their brow’s sweat their bread the labourers earn,
But then no passions in their bosoms burn:
Soon as the evening shade the day-light close,
Unbroken slumbers crown their soft repose;
And when the morning dawn salutes their eyes,
Anteus-like, with double vigour rise.
No stings of conscience! no remorse from sin!
They feel the noblest paradise within;
Content serene, that sunshine of the soul,
With her warm beam invigorates the whole;
Her blossom, health! her fruit, untainted joy!
Nor pain nor death her relish can destroy;
In unpolluted streams her pleasures flow,
No weedy passions in her bosom grow.”
—Thus faintly have I sketch’d thy glorious plan;
Which fills, improves, adorns the inward man.
Still urge thy generous task, to cleanse the mind,
Till from the dregs of passion ’tis refin’d;
To prune each vice, each folly of the age,
Each wild excrescence of this earthly stage.
Tho’ old in goodness, to the world resign’d,
Still want thy heaven to give it to mankind.
Religion’s friend! and virtue’s strongest guard!
That heaven alone such merit can reward,
Its joys approach no tongue but thine can tell;
Doubt not to taste what thou describ’st so well.
With such talents, and with such connections, it cannot easily be accounted for, that Mr. Pyle should remain during so long a life in a situation of comparative obscurity. Sir Robert Walpole was the member for Lynn; and both the political and religious opinions of Mr. Pyle were calculated to recommend him to queen Caroline, who then impartially dispensed the dignities of the Church. Perhaps the spirit of the man was not thought sufficiently accommodating for an introduction to a court; or, like the late Dr. Ogden of Cambridge, from some deficiency of external polish, he might be deemed not producible. A passage in Abp. Herring’s Correspondence with Mr. Duncombe seems to be decisive on this point. “Tom Pyle is a learned and worthy, as well as a lively and entertaining man. To be sure his success has not been equal to his merit, which yet, perhaps, is in some measure owing to himself; for that very impetuosity of spirit, which, under proper government, renders him the agreeable creature he is, has, in some circumstances of life, got the better of him, and hurt his views.” [1015a] From whatever cause, with the exception of a Prebend of Salisbury, which he received from Bp. Hoadly, he was only in succession Lecturer and Minister of Lynn St. Margaret, and vicar of Lynn All-saints—all truly but a poor and paltry pittance for such a man, and from a church which had such immense abundance of good things to bestow; most of which too were actually bestowed on far unworthier objects.—The following Letters which passed between Mr. Pyle and Abp. Herring are highly characteristic and interesting.
“My Lord,
In the universal acclamation of joy for your Grace’s promotion to the Primacy of all England, may the feeble voice of an old man be heard, the short remainder of whose life, will pass off with a pleasure that nothing could have given, but seeing at the head of the Church, a Prelate so affectionately attached to the interests of Truth, Virtue, and Liberty.
I am, my Lord, your Grace’s most dutiful Servant.
Tho: Pyle.”
Your kind wishes for me give me spirit, and make my heart glad, for in good faith, I have been teazed and terrified with this exaltation; and thus much I will venture to say for myself, it sha’nt make me proud, it sha’nt make me covetous, it sha’nt make me ungrateful or unmindful of my Friends, but it frights me, and I fear has robbed me of the most precious thing in life, which is Liberty, but I will assert as much of it as I can, and not be for ever bound to the trammels of a long tail and ceremony, which my soul abhors.
I saw S—. Ch—r the other day. I really affect and honour the man, and wish with all my soul that the Church of England had him, for his spirit and learning are certainly of the first class; and I regard him the more because he resembles you and your manner. You talk of age and all that, but if I may judge from your letter, your eyes are good, your hand is steady, and I am sure your heart is warm for your friends, and those good things you mention, Truth, and Virtue, and Liberty, but that sort of warmth will certainly go to the grave with you and beyond it.
I am, Dear Sir, your affectionate Friend,
Tho: Cantuar.” [1017]Kensington. 17. Dec. 1747.
From the part which Mr. P. took in the Bangorian Controversy, and the terms of particular friendship on which he was known to live with Bp. Hoadly, we may be very sure that there subsisted between them a frequent correspondence. Copies of two of the letters that passed between them are now in the hands of the present writer. He has no reason to suppose that they ever have been published, or are likely to be so, unless they appear on this occasion. Thinking it highly probable that a sight of them cannot fail of gratifying many of his readers, he takes the liberty without further ceremony to introduce them in this place; not at all apprehensive that their contents will any way disparage the memory of either of the memorable personages by whom they were originally written,
“My Lord,
You may remember that when by your kind aid the affair of M—m was concluded in my Son’s favour, I presented my humble (and said it should be my last) petition to you, begging of you to be pleased to bestow on him a living that might consist with M—m, and that you were so good as to promise to give him any living you had not then engaged to dispose of otherways.—An incident has lately arisen of such a nature, as, I am sure will excuse my repeating the above-named request to your Lordship, with the utmost earnestness.—My Lord, Mrs. Bilk the D. of N—ch’s W. with her husband’s good liking, and out of the esteem she has long had for me and mine, and especially for my son Ph—. has been pleased to propose him as a H. for her niece, the only child of Mr. Arrowsmith: such a proposal from one who can and will make a considerable addition to the very good fortune that the young lady’s father can give her, is a great proof of her esteem for my son, who has been much with her from his childhood: and what she requires on my part is that I use my interest in your lordship, and mention her as joining with me to beg of you to confer a handsome living on my Son. This will crown all the instances of your beneficence towards me.—I want words to express the joy with which a happy success in this affair would carry me thro’ the small remainder of my life, and make me yield it up to its bounteous Author; or to describe the tearing anxiety that would accompany a disappointment from your refusing what I humbly ask.—Wherefore I beg of your lordship to make me feel the beginning of that satisfaction I have already in view by such a reply to this petition as may be pleasing to the excellent friends I am herein concerned with, and so highly obliged to, and to the heart of an old servant who has loved you all his life, and served you as well as he could (would to God it had been better) & will love you till death and beyond it. I am,
my Lord, yours &c. T. P.”
“Dear Sir,
6. Feb. 1752,
You cannot rejoice more sincerely at any good that falls on any part of your family than I do: tho’ you may feel it more paternally. In answer to what you propose, I first say that I was 75 years old on the 14th of last November. What may happen God only knows. But if it shd be both physically and morally in my power to serve your Son, you may depend upon it without the force of the strong expression you make use of. For my own inclination will in such case do it. And the regard I have for the D. of N—ch (and his lady, tho’ unknown, only by report) and for Mr. Arrowsmith, to whose faithful services and exemplary behaviour I was long ago a witness at Stretham, will not at all abate but increase the inclination. I cannot suppose that by what you say you can mean such a living as would make void M—lksham which your son told me was worth 250l. per ann. for that would be to [1020] . . . entirety a valuable living very hardly obtained; but one that would be an handsome addition to his income. And this must be one within the canonical distance. Nor do I suppose that the chapter of Salisbury will ever enter into measures for an exchange of Mlkshm &c. I wish you would tell me freely what you understand by an handsome living, assuring you of my sincere disposition to do any thing in my power agreeable to your own wishes. I have without doubt several good livings in my patronage. But you must remember that when you mentioned your request for your son Ph. first, I told you of engagements, and I now tell you that since that, I have not had one vacancy, as far as I can recollect, of a living in Wilts of about 130l. per annum. I think myself obliged to speak plainly, that nothing may be expected from me that I cannot pretend to perform. I have, and have had, for some years, two absolute engagements upon me for two of my best livings or such of a secondary sort as will be accepted of till better fall. And I am very sure, you are not the man that would say a single word to me towards the immorality of falshood or breach of promise. And I have the very same opinion of the goodness of heart of those worthy persons who have entered into this affair with you. As to actual vacancies, it is our duty not to wish for any by death. And they are very uncertain, and improbable to happen during the remainder of my life, tho’ my health is surprisingly better than it was in my younger days. With all these considerations of my age, and the precarious condition of all human affairs, if you will take my word, you will find me if alive, as sincere a Friend, as you yourself can wish to find.
Your affectionate &c. B. W. [1021]
Mr. Pyle, as was said before, obtained the lectureship, and became the preacher at St. Nicholas’ chapel, and one of the ministers of the town in 1701. In that situation he continued till 1732, when he succeeded Dr. Littel as vicar of St. Margaret’s. This situation he held till 1755, being no longer capable of discharging the duties annexed to it. He accordingly gave in his resignation, both to the Dean and Chapter of Norwich, and also to the Mayor and corporation of Lynn, early in the Summer of that year. How his resignation to the former was worded we know not, but his resignation to the latter, of which we have obtained a was expressed in the following words: and addressed to the elder Cary, then in the second year of his mayoralty.—