“Sir, The honour his Grace the Duke of Newcastle has done me, by your Letter of the 16th. instant, is extremely obliging. But his Grace’s readiness to oblige has enhanced these obligations beyond expression. I must therefore humbly beg my noble friend’s assistance how to acknowledge them as I would, as well as to receive, the royal favour so frankly promised. Meantime I beg his Grace to believe that my breast is full of all the gratitude that is possible to be expressed.
I am with very great esteem, Sir,
Your obedient humble Servant
G. H.”
It may be here just added, that though Lidderdale could not boast of the generosity or munificence of the Townshends, the case was somewhat otherwise with Hepburn, as appears from the following copy of a Letter dated July 11th. 1756, from him to the then Lord Townshend. The copy, probably in the handwriting of one of his daughters by the last marriage, is as follows—
“My Lord, The singular testimony of your Lordships regard (which I lately had the honour to receive from Mr. Case) has, like the Sunbeams of Summer to a decayed plant, giveing (given) warmth and springly vigour to the winter of my age. A warmth, my Lord, which has filled my breast with greattitude (gratitude) that will last as long as blood circulates in the veanns (veins) or the heart continues to beat in the breast of,
My Lord, Your Lordship’s ever obliged, most obedient,
And most thankful humble servant.
G. H.”
When the kindness of Dr. Maxwell, in settling upon his uncle Hepburn the very handsome annuity of 200l. a year, was noticed above, it should have been also observed that the nephew had very great obligations to the uncle, and owed perhaps almost every thing to him in regard to his good fortune or advancement in the world. The following Letter from Hepburn to the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, where Maxwell was in the meantime stationed as a surgeon in the army, may serve to throw some light upon that subject.—
“My Lord, The honour I have had for many years of being known to, and sometimes taken notice of by your grace at Houghton in Norfolk, has fixed in me such a firm opinion of your grace’s humane disposition, that it is without the least diffidence I now presume to write to your Grace, in behalf of Mr. Maxwell, a surgeon, the bearer. His near relation to me, My Lord, claims indeed my endeavours to serve him; but much more his own merit. However as consanguinity too often occasions partiality, I choose, my Lord, and think it much more equitable to leave him to produce vouchers for his character from among the military officers of the best rank in Ireland, where he has served near twenty years—Let this have the honour to introduce him to your Grace, as my nephew. Let the merit of whatever boon he may beg of your Grace (if any) depend upon the voice of those Gens D’honneur who have been so long constant witnesses of his behaviour and practice.—And now, my Lord, as in full assurance of your Grace’s good nature I have ventured upon this Letter, so ’tis in your Grace’s Goodness, I only can hope for pardon, and beg leave to subscribe myself, Lynn Jan. 12. 1739–40. My Lord, Your Grace’s &c. G. H.”
15. John Rastrick M.A. In the order of time, or seniority, his name in this list ought to have preceded several of the former ones, as he was many years older than even Pyle and Hepburn; and in point of learning and piety, or real respectability of character, he was probably not inferior to any one that has been yet named of the former inhabitants of this town. He was born in 1649, at Heckington near Sleaford, in Lincolnshire. Of the situation, or circumstances of his parents we are uninformed. They probably ranked among the reputable yeomanry of that place. Their son, being designed for the ministry, may be supposed to be placed at a proper age at one of those seminaries in the country where youth are prepared for the university. Having acquired the rudiments of classical learning, he was sent to Trinity College in Cambridge, where he finished his academical education and obtained the degree of M.A. He then went into orders; but when that was, we have not learnt. He probably officiated afterwards as curate for sometime; but that could not be long, for he became vicar of Kirkton, near Boston, in 1674, when he was about 25 years of age. No sooner had he settled at Kirkton than he felt the arduousness of the charge he had undertaken. His congregation was large, and the parish of great extent. How much his mind was improved with these considerations, and how anxious he was lest he should fail in the due execution of his office, will appear from his own testimony on the subject, in a Letter to a friend:
“The number and distance of the inhabitants, (says he) gave me a very sensible concern, and I was very uneasy under the burden that lay upon me: I knew not what to do for so many souls, that were also most of them so remote from my dwelling, nor how to discharge my duty in a place, that (as a learned, pious, and worthy clergyman, my friend told me) was as large as some of the dioceses of the primitive church. Catechising, and preaching to such as would come under them, was not all I had to do. But I could not forbear being concerned with such as would bring their children to baptism, or offer themselves to the Lord’s Table, how to carry it, and answer the Church’s expectations, with satisfaction to my mind, and fidelity to my highest trust. In catechising and preaching, I could suit myself, my doctrine, and discourse to the condition of the people; but (by the rules and orders of my publick station) in administering sacraments and applying the seals, (especially baptism) I saw I must treat them all alike. Yet if catechising and preaching be to prepare men for sacraments for themselves or theirs, it undeniably supposeth, that the latter are not to be given to such in whom the former hath no effect, nor to their children. Qualifications for privileges I knew were necessary, but where those were wanting, it was impossible I should apply these without a relucting mind: and therefore whatever I might have been in the capacity of a lecturer, or bare preacher, yet as a pastor it could not be, that I should be unconcerned in acts of discipline and government, and in judging of my own ministerial performances of that kind.”
Such is his own account; and there is no reason to doubt of its correctness.—Having carefully formed an idea of his line of duty, he set himself in good earnest upon acting up to it; but here he met with insuperable difficulties, which troubled and plagued him exceedingly, and forced him at last, to resign his living [1052] and quit the church of which he had been many years a minister, and which he would probably have continued still to be, had he been permitted by his ecclesiastical superiors to act with honesty and a good conscience, which they however were no way disposed to allow him to do. Thus was he forced to resign his vicarage of Kirkton; after he had held it 14 years, while numbers of sporting, fox hunting, and loose living incumbents were suffered to retain their situations with impunity and without the least check or remonstrance. But though he quitted the ministry, he did not immediately withdraw from the communion of the established church, for we find him communicating sometime after at Frampton, where his friend Ishmael Burroughs was curate, who himself afterwards left the church and became pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Wisbeach, where he continued the remainder his days. We are not sure that either he or Rastrick engaged in the ministry among the Dissenters, or even actually joined them, till after the Revolution, when the Toleration Act made it perfectly safe for them so to do. It does not appear at what time Burroughs undertook his charge, or entered upon his ministry at Wisbeach; but it appears that Rastrick entered upon his ministry and took the charge of the Presbyterian congregation at Lynn in 1701, [1055] for we find that he was minister here 26 years; and he died in 1727. The commencement of his ministry here was therefore 14 years after he had resigned or quitted Kirkton, and perhaps 30 years or more after the commencement of his public ministry: so that at the time of his death he had been in the ministry between 50 and 60 years. How and where he spent his time during the interval between his quitting Kirkton and his settling at Lynn, we have not been able to discover. Wherever it was, he spent it no doubt, in a manner worthy of himself, or of that integrity and goodness of character which he so uniformly and so well sustained through life. Old members of that congregation used to say, 30 years ago, that he settled here as successor to a Mr. Williams, who, as far as we can find, was the only minister of that society during the 25 years, that intervened between the death of Mr. Horne and the arrival of Mr. Rastrick. Of this Mr. Williams we have not been able to obtain any further information. Where he came from, what was his character, how long he was settled here, what became of him, whether he died here or removed elsewhere, must of course be all left among the uncertainties. When Mr. Rastrick came to settle at Lynn, he had been 14 years in a state of separation from the Church, and therefore a kind of dissenter. The Presbyterian was the denomination he appeared most to approve, and it was that which he afterwards joined: but he had too much moderation, and too little of a sectarian spirit to be admired by any existing party. Dissatisfied with many things in the Church, he was far from approving of all things he saw among the dissenters. This made him often think and say (as he tells us) that, as things then stood in England, “he was neither fit for Church nor Meeting.” That this unprejudiced or unbiassed disposition of his should not insure to him the admiration or esteem of his new friends or connection, but would tend to lower rather than exalt him in their estimation, and so prove prejudicial to his interest among them, must not be deemed very strange or wonderful; especially as he was pretty free in expressing his disapprobation of what he thought amiss. That such was the case appears from his own testimony: “My conscience beareth me witness, (says he) That in my more private station in all the places where I have served, I have not been sparing both in preaching and practice, to express myself, and set myself against the corruptions and errors of Dissenters, tho’ it has been so much to my hindrance and disadvantage in outward or worldly respects.” In another place he says, “In the mean time, I hope (in the strength of Christ) to abide in the true catholic and apostolic christian faith and church, and in the true protestant reform’d religion: and (as to the church of England so called) a mere nonconformist, not addicting myself to any faction, sect, or party of christians, as such, under what denomination soever.” All this is very honourable to his memory: and it may help in some measure to account for a person of his learning and talents remaining all the residue of his days the minister of a comparatively obscure and poor congregation, (as this at Lynn, at best, certainly was,) while many respectable and opulent congregations were in want of such pastors, or were supplied by men of far inferior abilities and attainments. The same may also help to account for those difficulties and trials he afterwards experienced from his congregation, or from certain individuals that composed a part of it. Such troublers or disturbers a moderate, liberal-minded minister is pretty sure of finding in most dissenting congregations. A thorough-paced bigot, or sectary, has a far better chance of escaping them, or at least of obtaining their countenance and co-operation. Rastrick kept his mind open to conviction; as appears from the change which took place in his sentiments in the latter part of his life, when he embraced the opinions which distinguished Clarke and Jackson among the churchmen, and Peirce and Hallet and others among the Dissenters. It is somewhat remarkable that both Pyle and he were then proselyted to those opinions; so that the Church and the meeting here became equally heterodox. This change in his sentiments appears to have extended further than what related to the athanasian trinity, and to have soon divided the congregation into two parties, one approving and the other disapproving of his ministry. [1058] It is probable that much, if not most of his discomfort here sprung from this source. This difference of opinion, however did not, in his time, produce separation; for they all continued, as far as we can learn, to attend on his ministry, while he lived, notwithstanding their diversity of sentiments. The malcontents not only were Athanasians, but appear to have been also strongly tinctured with Calvinism, and even with Antinomianism; which indeed has been thought to be little, or rather nothing more than “Calvinism run to seed.” To them it is no great wonder that Mr. R’s ministry proved unacceptable, or that they should cause him some disquietude and unhappiness. That such was really the case, may be inferred from his very Epitaph; and it is further corroborated by oral tradition, as well as by the contents the prefer to a MS. volume of his, left by him ready for the press; though, for some reason, to us unknown, it never was published; and it has been now many years in the possession of the present writer. This volume was certainly far more worthy of publication than thousands that have been published since, and that are still daily publishing. It is entitled, “Plain and Easy Principles of Christian Religion and Obedience; or, The Necessity of keeping Christ’s Commandments, in order to our preserving an Interest in his Favour, Demonstrated from John 15. 10. By John Rastrick M.A. sometime vicar of Kirkton near Boston in Lincolnshire, and now minister of the gospel at King’s Lyn in Norfolk.” [1059] It is a sensible and notable performance, and contains many striking and curious thoughts, [1060] especially in the appendix, where the trinitarian controversy, and that relating to the person of Christ are more particularly adverted to and discussed. We are assured that he intended to publish this work himself; but being by some means prevented, he left instructions at his death for his son to do it afterwards: which yet he did not do, despairing perhaps of its convincing, or having any good effect on the malcontents, and fearing it might irritate them further, and so preclude the possibility of re-union, or a restoration of harmony in the congregation. But whatever consideration it was that prevented the publication of this volume, it is certain that harmony was never restored, or a re-union effected between these two parties: the discontented or antinomian party went off afterwards, in the son’s time, and formed a kind of Independent Society, which after assuming various shapes, and undergoing divers changes, produced the Baptist congregation here, which now meets at the new chapel in Broad Street. Mr. Rastrick died in 1727, at the advanced age of 78. [1061] He lived, as did also his son afterwards, in that house in Spinner Lane, now occupied by Mr. Dennis, behind which stood the chapel, both of which, if we are not mistaken, were his own property. He left behind him several things in MS. some of which, beside the volume above noticed, are now in the possession of the present writer. The whole is written in a very small hand, and with singular neatness, for he, as well as his son, was an admirable penman. He was doubtless an eminent scholar, and reckoned a very good mathematician, which is not unlikely, as he was cotemporary and of the same college with Barrow: nor is it very probable that that generation of Dissenters had among them many if any names of superior learning and respectability.
Of his writings not much went through the press, which we may presume had not been the case had he lived in later times, or under more auspicious circumstances. Of his printed works the present writer has not heard of any except the following: 1. “An Account of the Nonconformity of John Rastrick, A.M. sometime vicar of Kirkton, near Boston, in Lincolnshire; containing the occasion and circumstances of his secession from that place. In a Letter to a Friend.” [It was printed in London, in 1705; and the friend to whom it was addressed was Dr. Edmund Calamy.] 2. “A Sermon at the ordination of Mr Samuel Savage, at St. Edmund’s Bury, April 22. 1714. With an exhortation to him at the close.”—3. “Two letters to Mr. Ralph Thoresby of Leeds, giving an account of a great number of Roman coins found at Flete in Lincolnshire, and other antiquities found at Spalding, &c. and printed in the Phil. Trans. No. 279, p. 1156, &c.—4. “A supplement to the latter, printed in the same work, No. 377, p. 340.”—His unprinted, or unpublished works appear to have been much more numerous and considerable; but they got into different hands after the son’s death, and most of them perhaps have been since lost. Some of them were in the possession of the son’s successors Messrs. Mayhew and Warner, and some in that of the late Dr. Lloyd. What became of them we know not. The two following articles with some other loose papers came into the possession of the present writer—1. The MS. volume before mentioned, entitled “Plain and Easy Principles of Christian Religion and Obedience; or the necessity of keeping Christ’s Commandments, in order to our preserving an interest in his favour, demonstrated.” [It would make a duodecimo volume of 250 or 300 pages, and may be called an ingenious and elaborate piece, written out with great care and singular neatness.] [1063] 2. “A Short Catechism; containing the chief heads of the christian religion, and faith of Christ.” It is carefully and neatly written like the other MS. volume, yet it does not appear to have been intended for the press, but rather as a present, or new-year’s gift to his children, the name of one of whom, Hannah Rastrick, is prefixed to it in her father’s hand writing.—The smaller MSS. are some of them in prose and some in verse, for Mr. R. like one of our present mathematicians, [1064a] would sometimes leave those profound or severer studies, and amuse himself with writing little poems; but with this difference, that these productions of the former were only meant for the amusement or gratification of his own children and family, or the small circle of intimate and particular friends, and not for the inspection and admiration of the public at large, like those of the latter. [1064b] Without attempting to draw any further parallel or comparison between our present or former race of mathematicians, we shall here close our memoir of the venerable John Rastrick.
16. William Rastrick. He was the only son, or at least the only surviving son of the former: and he was every way a son worthy of such a father. In point of genius and learning, virtue and piety, or real respectability or exemplariness of character, he has always been understood as nothing inferior to him, or to any one of his contemporaries either in this town or in all this part of the kingdom. The very servants, and all those who were most intimate in the family, and who had therefore the best opportunity of knowing and judging of his private and real character, always deemed and spoke of him as one of the best of men and most exemplary of christians. Knowing how much his father had been teazed and tried by one part of the congregation, he never would undertake the pastoral charge: but used to exchange with the Presbyterian minister at Wisbeach, at those times when the Lord’s Supper was to be administered here; which must have been very inconvenient to a man of his retired and recluse habits. Like his father he exceeded any of our townsmen of his time in many branches of knowledge, especially the mathematics. His superior skill and judgement would accordingly be resorted to on such difficult occasions as required extraordinary scientific expertness or accuracy. In how many instances his townsmen were indebted to his superior attainments, it is impossible now to say: but the best plan of the town that has yet appeared, with different views of it and of some of its principal buildings, drawn by him, may be reckoned among those instances. Except such productions we know not of any thing else of his that has been published: nor do we know of any thing from his exquisite pen that is now extant beside his Account of the Ejected Ministers, in latin. Of this notable production there are now in existence at least three copies; two in his own hand writing, one of them deposited in Dr. Williams’ Library, in London, and the other in St. Margaret’s Library, in Lynn: the latter written with almost inimitable neatness. The third copy is a fair transcript of the latter, in two different hands, and in the possession of the present writer. It is entitled, “Index Eorum Theologorum Aliorumque No. 2257. Qui propter Legem Uniformitatis, Aug: 24 An. 1662, ab Ecclesia Anglicana secesserunt, Alphabetico ordine ac secundum gradus suos depositus. Cura ac opera Gulielmi Rastrick.” Then follow, by way of motto, Zech. i. 5. in Hebrew; Heb. xi. 38, in Greek; a passage from Erasmus in Latin; and one from Locke, in English. At the bottom of the page stands 1734, denoting, as it would seem, the year in which the MS. was written. Mr. W. R. lived after that about 18 years, and died in the first week of August 1752, just 25 years after his father; near to whose grave, if not within the same, his remains are supposed to have been deposited. He was buried on the 9th of that month, as appears by the parish register.