Samson Occom Fundraising Trip to Britain Part 4 (Final)

This article first appeared in In Writing

Samson Occom 1723-1792 Mohegan Pastor His fund raising trip to the British Isles 1765-1767 in the company of Nathaniel Whitaker that led to the founding of Dartmouth College. Part Four.

On tour in the west, July 25-October 23, 1766

At the end of July, Occom and Whitaker headed west. From this point on there is no Occom diary so it is difficult to be sure where they were when. It has been said of their itinerary, “its specifics cannot be reconstructed”. We get a general idea from letters and the carefully kept accounts that list most places visited and how much individuals and churches and individuals gave.

The trip west can be divided into two parts in that having come back to London by October 24, they headed off again in some haste on October 29, urged by Whitefield, and continued on this second trip into the new year.

The first trip included Abingdon, Berkshire on July 28 (preaching for Baptist Daniel Turner 1710-1798) and probably Bristol, Bath and the Somerset towns of Frome (including John Kingdon c 1731-1801 and the Baptists), Glastonbury, Bishops Hull near Taunton, Wellington and Bridgwater; then in Wiltshire, Bradford on Avon (Baptist Richard Haynes d 1768, Congregationalist Scotsman John Skirven d c 1771, ther Anglicans and others); in Gloucestershire, Gloucester and Chalford (Nicholas Phené) and perhaps Kidderminster, Worcestershire, where they would have preached for Presbyterian Benjamin Fawcett 1713-1780, a friend of Newton.

In Devon, they visited Barnstaple, Bideford, Topsham (preaching for Independent Aaron Pitts d 1771), Chudleigh (preaching for Indepenendent Joel Orchard d c 1771), Culmstock, Cullompton, Exeter (preaching for Arian controversialist Micaiah Towgood 1700-1792) and Plymouth (preaching for Baptist Philip Gibbs d 1800).

Some specific Lord's Day dates we have for Bristol are these from printed sermon extracts. Each time but one the preacher is Occom.

August 10 Tucker Street Meeting (These people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my people Isaiah 43:21)

August 17 Tucker Street Meeting (And it repented the Lord, that He had made man on the earth, and aggrieved Him at His heart Genesis 6:6)

August 17 Callow Hill Meeting (Looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour JESUS CHRIST Titus 2:13) by Whitaker

August 24 Broadmead Meeting (And these shall go away into everlasting Punishment But the Righteous into Life eternal Matthew 26:46)

September 7 Pithay Meeting (My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me John 10:27)

We know that on September 18 they were in Westbury and Tuesday, 23, Warminster, both in Wiltshire, and in Croscombe and Shepton Mallett, Somerset, 20 miles further west. By October 24 they were back in London.

On tour in the west, October 30-December 31, 1766

After spending a week in Bath preparing, they headed down to Devonshire again, where they visited Crediton (and preached for Anglicans and Presbyterians), Ashburton, Totnes, Dartmouth and Kingsbridge.

They then came back to Bath and were there and in Bristol for two weeks, probably December 1-14. Between Monday, December 15 and Lord's Day, December 21, they visited Wilton and Salisbury, Wiltshire and Blandford Forum, Dorset. It was then

Monday 22 Sherborne, Dorset (21 miles north west of Blandford)

Tuesday 23 Yeovil, Somerset (six miles west of Sherborne)

Wednesday 24 South Petherton, Somerset (10 miles further west again)

Thursday 25 Martock, Somerset (just over three miles further south west)

Lord's Day 28? Crewkerne, Somerset (seven or eight miles more south)

Monday 29 Beaminster, Somerset (seven miles south of Crewkerne) and Bridport, Somerset (another six miles south)

Tuesday 30 Dorchester, Dorset (15 miles east of Bridport) and Wareham, Dorset, another 18 miles east (preaching for Independents Simon Reader c 1716-1789 in Wareham and Joseph Lamb in Dorchester)

Wednesday 31 Poole, Dorset (nine or ten miles east of Dorchester, preaching for Olney born Independent Edward Ashburner 1734-1804 and Presbyterian John Howell 1719-1804)

On tour in the south, January 1-13, 1767

We know their itinerary, more or less, for January 1-14, 1767, when they were in Hampshire.

Thursday 1 Ringwood and Romsey (preaching for Baptists Joseph Horsey 1737-1802 and James Fanch 1704-1767 and others)

Lord's Day 4 Occom went the 10 miles across to Broughton to preach for William Steele (1689-1769) father of hymn writer, Anne Steele (1717-1778). Occom himself was the author of a number of hymns.

Monday 5 Winchester (16 miles further on again). Just Occom again

Tuesday 6 Southampton, 13 miles south of Winchester (preaching at Above Bar for Independent William Kingsbury 1744-1818)

Wednesday 7 They headed to the Isle of Wight and took meetings in Newport (for the Anglicans and General Baptist John Sturch d 1764)

Friday 9 Portsmouth and Gosport (preaching for Presbyterian Thomas Wren 1725-1787 and Congregationalist Thomas Williams 1725-1770)

No doubt they also visited Basingstoke and Whitchurch, both in Hampshire, at this time. On Tuesday, January 13, they headed back to London, arriving in the early hours of January 14.

London and on tour in the north, January 14-July 31, 1767

They then spent an extended period in London laying plans and in March set out on a trip north that would eventually bring them to Scotland.

Places visited en route to Coventry, which they reached on March 26, appear to include Hitchin, Olney, Kettering, Northampton (March 16) then Wellingborough and Welford (probably preaching for Independent Samuel King c 1715-1788) and after Coventry

Warwick (preaching for Independent James Kettle 1716-1806)

Evesham (preaching for Presbyterian Paul Cardale 1705-1755)

Bromsgrove (preaching for Baptist James Butterworth d post 1794 Phillips Jenkins)

Pershore (preaching for Baptist John Ash 1724-1779 and others)

Tewkesbury (preaching for Baptist John Haydon 1714-1782 and others)

Upton (preaching for seventh day Baptist Philip Jones 1736-1770)

Hooknorton (preaching for Baptist Benjamin Whitmore 1728-1804)

Bourton-on-the-water (preaching for Baptist Benjamin Beddome 1717-1795, as mentioned in the Bourton church book)

Cirencester (preaching for Anglican Samuel Johnson)

Worcester (on April 19 for Baptist John Poynting 1719-1791, Independent Thomas Urwick 1727-1807 and Presbyterian Francis Blackmore d 1760).

By April 27 they seem to have been back in Kettering. It was probably at this time that they also visited Leicester, Loughborough, Hinckley, Oakham and Uppingham in Rutland, Derby (preaching for Presbyterian Thomas White) and Manchester, arriving in Liverpool by May 2, which Whitaker called “a pool of error and wickedness”.

They appear to have reached Edinburgh by May 1767. Other places visited en route to Scotland no doubt include Nantwich (where they preached for Presbyterian John Houghton c 1730-1800), Lancaster, Preston and Carlisle. On June 9 they were called back to London by the board but that took some time to expedite.

They spent June 12-17 in Glasgow. They also appear to have visited St Andrews, Dundee and Dumfries. By July 8 they were back in Edinburgh. On July 19 they arrived in Ireland but did not stay there long as they had missed the church's synod and a man from Rhode Island was already there soliciting funds for another project.

No doubt it was on the way back to England that they visited places like Morpeth (preaching for Robert Trotter 1729-1806 and the Presbyterians), Newcastle, Sunderland, Darlington, Whitby, Hull, York, Leeds (where givers included Lady Ingham 1699-1768, wife of Moravian Benjamin Ingham 1712-1772), Wakefield, Halifax (givers there including the Independent church pastored by Titus Knight 1719-1793), Sheffield, Nottingham and Lincoln,

On tour in the east, August 1-October 31, 1767

There was a third brief trip to nearby Hitchin in August but in September and October they covered places in the east of the country, places such as Halstead, Braintree and Bocking, Thaxted, Castle Hadingham, Coggeshall, Clavering and Dedham, all in Essex, then in Suffolk - Sudbury, Woodbridge, Long Melford, Bury St Edmunds, Wattisfield, Southwold (Hurrion), Nayland, Wrentham (Sweetland), Stowmarket and Ipswich (on September 28) – and in Norfolk - Great Yarmouth, Denton, Norwich (Dr Samuel Wood, d 1767, etc), Bungay and Hadley (Mr Tom's). It was probably on this trip that they visited Boston and Stamford in Lincolnshire and Cambridge.

Berkshire and Kent, November, 1767

On November 9, we know they were in Watford, Middlesex, preaching for Baptist Samuel Medley (1738-1799) newly installed there and a friend of Gifford. They also covered High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and Reading and Newbury, Berkshire. Later in the month they were in Kent, in Tunbridge Wells on the 26th and in Ashford, Appledore, Tenterden and Canterbury too.

The return home, 1768

Whitaker and Occom appear to have fallen out increasingly towards the end of the trip and returned to America on separate vessels. Whitaker appears to have left England for Boston on March 2, 1768, arriving. He arrived on June 6, a long journey of more than three months.

In September, 1768 Occom wrote to Robert Keen explaining how he had been sick for much of his journey home but had recovered. He was taken ill two or three days into the voyage and was seriously unwell for the first four weeks of an eight week journey. He must have arrived in Boston around April 29 or May 6. He began his ride home the next day. His wife had been ill but by the time of writing, she was improving.

From a financial point of view, the trip had proved successful with £12,000 being raised, including 200 guineas from King George III himself.

From other points of view, things were not so good. On his return Occom learned that Wheelock had failed to care for his wife and children while he was away. Furthermore, Wheelock moved on to New Hampshire where he used the funds raised to establish Dartmouth College (named for the English earl) for the education of the sons of American colonists, rather than Native Americans as had originally been envisaged.

In 1764, Occom had opposed the sale of tribal lands and was involved in the “Mason Controversy,” a long lasting dispute over land between colonists and Mohegeans. The Mohegans formed an alliance with the Mason family to plead a case for the governor of Connecticut to give back the lands to the Mohegans. When Occom came back to Mohegan territory, he expressed his support for the Mason family and the Mohegans which caused the missionaries to make threats to take away his preacher's license and stop financing his missionary work. The colonists also started to spread rumours about Occom, that he was an alcoholic and that he converted to Christianity just to look good. In a 1769 letter, Wheelock wrote to Occom about the rumour that he was an alcoholic. The rumour hurt Occom's reputation after the success of the fundraising trip to England. Wheelock suggested that Occom truly did not care for Christianity. He even raised the idea that his conversion was false and could not be trusted as a preacher. The stereotype of the drunken Indian was foisted on Occom and inevitably undermined his work. Wheelock benefited from the defamation of Occom as it bolstered his authority.

Benjamin Beddome on Friendship Part 2 (Final)

This aricle originally appeared in Banner of Truth Magazine

When one thinks of friendships among Baptist ministers in the eighteenth century, one instinctively thinks of Fuller, Sutcliffe and Ryland, who ‘held the ropes’ for Carey. Beddome does not seem to have had a close ministerial friendship of that sort, although in The Baptist Register John Rippon refers to the younger man who preached Beddome's funeral sermon, Benjamin Francis (1734–1799), as his ‘affectionate friend’ and, as Stephen Pickles notes in his new biography of Beddome (Rippon, Obituary Beddome, Baptist Annual Register: Including Sketches of the State of Religion Among Different Denominations etc., Vol. 2 (Dilly, Button & Thomas, 1794), 326; Stephen Pickles, Cotswold Pastor and Baptist Hymnwriter: The Life and Times of Benjamin Beddome (1718-1795) (James Bourne Society, 2023), he was clearly a very friendly person.

Beddome had several good friends in the congregation at Bourton, including his father-in-law Richard Boswell (d. 1783), gentleman William Snooke (1730–1799) and, later, Snooke's brother-in-law, Richard Hall (1728–1801). Their father-in-law, Benjamin Seward (1705–1753) of Bengeworth, was likely another good friend of Beddome’s. Beddome, sometimes accompanied by his wife, would often take tea at her father’s or Snooke’s, or at one or other of the homes of the wealthier church members.

When he was a student in Bristol, Beddome had come to know Sarah Evans (1713–1751). His friendship with Hugh Evans (1712–1781) and especially Sarah (née Browne) began then. Their friendship was referenced by her son Caleb Evans (1737–1791) in a funeral address he gave for his stepmother Ann. ( Caleb Evans, God the everlasting portion of his people. Sermon occasioned by the death of Mrs Ann Evans, wife of the Rev. Hugh Evans, MA ... Preached Broadmead, Bristol …, 1776). Beddome took Sarah's funeral and wrote an epitaph for her grave.

Henry Keene (1727–1797) was another friend. Keene was a coal merchant and a well-respected deacon in the Maze Pond church, London. A warm letter written in November 1772 from Beddome to Keene is preserved in a Calendar of Letters assembled by Isaac Mann (1785–1831) held at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

John Ryland's father, usually referred to as John Collett Ryland (1723–1792) to distinguish him from his better-known son, was born in Bourton on the Water and spent his formative years in the area. Six years younger than Beddome, the two became friends when, in 1740, Ryland was one of about forty converts in a revival that marked the early period of Beddome's ministry. Beddome baptised Ryland in October 1741, and when the latter began to show an interest in becoming a minister, a strong friendship blossomed between the two. As mentor, Beddome ‘led him forward to the work of the ministry with the fostering hand of a wife and kind parent.’ (Rippon, The Gentle Dismission of Saints from Earth to Heaven. A Sermon [2 Tim. 4:6] Occasioned by the Decease of ... J. Ryland, Sen. ... Preached First at His Funeral at Northampton and ... in London, 1792, 37, 38). As to their friendship, Beddome called Ryland Sr his ‘dearest friend’ and the two kept in contact well after Ryland left Bourton and moved to Bristol; he later became a minister in Warwick and then in Northampton. (William Newman, Rylandiana: reminiscences relating to ... J. Ryland of Northampton [With extracts from his diary, etc] 1834, 137-39).

Beddome was no doubt a good friend also to several others in the congregation who went on to become ministers themselves, notably men like John Reynolds (1730–1792), Nathanael Rawlings (1733–1809), and Richard Haines (d. 1767).

In the second part of the sermon previously referred to, Beddome speaks about the duty of friendship highlighted in the verse he preaches: He that hath friends should show himself friendly. ‘Act agreeably to the connexions formed,’ says Beddome, ‘and the confidence reposed in him.’ He goes on,

Though the forming of friendships is a matter not of necessity but of choice, yet, when they are formed, it is highly incumbent upon us that we should so regulate our temper and conduct as may best tend to their continuance and improvement.

The duty of friendship

Beddome says four things about this:

We should take care that our inward sentiments and feelings perfectly agree with our outward professions.

Undissembled integrity becomes the man and adorns the Christian. Extravagant professions of regard and large promises of help and assistance are to be avoided, as also are lavish praises and commendations; for these, however gratifying they may be to a weak man, will rather be disgusting to a wise one. We should never speak more than our hearts feel, or enter into engagements which we may possibly want both an ability and inclination to perform. This is the character that David gives of men in a very degenerate age: They speak vanity everyone to his neighbour, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.

We should not be shy in using our friends, or backward in receiving kindnesses from them.

He quotes Edward Young again, ‘Reserve will wound it, and distrust destroy.’ He goes on,

It is as much an act of friendship without hesitation to accept a favour, as readily to confer one; and the not doing so at proper and convenient seasons has begotten a jealousy and suspicion that we would not lay an obligation upon another because we are so loth to come under one ourselves; but a real friend should be willing to do both. He should give and receive advice, admit frequent visits and repay them, inquire into the grievances of another and tell his own, partake of the bounty of his friend, and let require. Mutual sympathy, and a readiness to communicate to each other's wants, is necessary among friends: Have pity upon me, O my friends! says Job. Friendship is a profession of love, and love should not only be professed, but acted upon.

We should prefer the interests and welfare of their souls to that of their bodies:

Thus did Christ, the friend of publicans and sinners, when he was upon earth, and thus should all his followers do; and surely those will be most indebted to us for our friendship, whose everlasting felicity is promoted by it.

He then says, firstly,

We should pray for our friends; thus did Job for his, though by their uncharitable invectives they had greatly added to the weight of his afflictions, and his prayers returned into his own bosom. Yet he obtained a blessing both for himself and them. If we can do nothing else for our friends, we can pray for them; and whatever else we have done, or can do, this should not be neglected.

And secondly,

We should faithfully reprove them when they do amiss. Not to do this is represented as an evidence of hatred: Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him: and therefore to do it is an instance of the greatest love, and a wise and good man will esteem it so. Let the righteous smite me, says David, and it shall be an excellent oil. But then we must do it in a friendly manner, secretly, and not so as to expose him; with meekness and tenderness, and not so as to irritate and provoke him; and at the most convenient season, when he is most likely to bear it, and be benefited by it.

We should carefully avoid all those things which may either break the bonds of friendship, or weaken them:

We should not, by divulging his secrets, abuse the confidence that our friend has placed in us. We should guard against envy if providence has exalted him above us; and of coldness and neglect if he is sunk into a state of inferiority to us. We should also shun the company of those who are given to calumny and detraction, for Solomon tells us that a whisperer separateth chief friends; and, lastly, if by any notorious miscarriage, or unmerited provocations, they have forfeited our friendship, we should remember that we still owe them common charity, if prudence prohibits our former familiarity with them. Religion should restrain us from turning our love into hatred.

Conclusion

The sermon closes with two reflections.

First,

What need of grace have we to enable us to act up to this, or any other character that we sustain! The duties of friendship, you see, are not few or easy; we should therefore implore the assistance of divine grace, that we may rightly perform them. Nor should we, as has been wisely said, make choice of many intimate and bosom friends; for a multiplication of friends will involve a multiplication of duties, and, consequently, of difficulties.

Second,

Let those who are so happy as to have Christ for their friend be particularly observant of this rule with respect to him. O let us cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with him, set a proper value upon his friendship, give him the uppermost place in our hearts, make him the frequent subject of our conversation, avoid every thing that is offensive to him, frequent those places where we may meet with him, and long to be for ever with him!

We should be thankful for our friends, if we have them. As Michael Haykin has observed, writing about William Carey, whom Beddome once wanted to succeed him at Bourton on the Water, ‘True friendships take time and sacrifice, and Western culture in the early twenty-first century is a busy world that as a rule is far more interested in receiving and possessing than sacrificing and giving.’ (Michael A. G. Haykin, The Missionary Fellowship of William Carey, 2018, 10). The observation is no doubt correct. The duties of friendship have never been few or easy, and we need divine grace to rightly perform them. Let us be good friends to all, then, and especially to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother.