RECOLLECTIONS OF SPITALFIELDS 
 AN ITONEST MAN AND 
 HIS EMPLOYERS 
 
 T M E C) D () R li ( X)M PTO N 
 
1^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 BX 7740 .G71 Z21 1894 
 Compton, Theodore, 1816- 
 
 1909. 
 Recollections of 
 
 Spitalf ields : an honest man 
 
Recollections of Spitalfields 
 
 AN HONEST MAN 
 AND HIS EMPLOYERS. 
 
/'<> 
 
 { MAY 16 1918 
 
 Recollections of Spitalfields 
 
 AN HONEST MAN 
 AND HIS EMPLOYERS, 
 
 BEING AN EXTENSION^F THE MEMOIR OF 
 
 JOHN GRAY, 
 
 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1839, 
 
 WITH BRIEF MEMOIRS OF HIS EMPLOYERS, 
 JOHN *^TOWNSEXD AND THOMAS COMPTOX, 
 
 BY THEIR DESCENDANT, 
 
 THEODORE COMPTOX. 
 
 "Godliness with contentment is great gain." — 
 
 I Tim. vi, 6. 
 
 LONDON : 
 EDWARD HICKS, 
 
 MDCCCXCIV. 
 
 J U N. 
 
EDDINGTON AND CADBURY, 
 PRINTERS, SWINDON. 
 
Preface. 
 
 'HE little Memoir of John Gray, published soon 
 
 after his death in 1838, was written at the 
 request of my valued friend John Hodgkin, to whom 
 I had given a verbal account, after the funeral, and 
 who was much impressd with the value of such a 
 simple and homely example of Christian life. 
 
 The Tract, for it was nothing more, passed through 
 several editions, and was abridged and modified in 
 one of the Friends' Tracts at York.* It is now re- 
 written, with some account of John Gray's surround- 
 ings, and with short memoirs of his original masters, 
 John Townsend, and his son-in-law, Thomas Comp- 
 ton; both, in their day, well-known members of the 
 Society of Friends. 
 
 Though such a Friend as John Gray may no longer 
 be found, and yet is hardly ancient enough to be of 
 historical interest, there may be readers who can 
 appreciate such a life of integrity, self-denial and 
 benevolence, though passed in obscurity, and al- 
 together uneventful. 
 
 His virtues walked their narrow round ; 
 
 Nor made a pause, nor left a void. 
 And sure the Eternal Master found 
 
 The single talent well employed. 
 
 * No. 32, The Pious Workman, 1851. 
 
Who is the honest man ? 
 He that doth still and strongly good pursue, 
 To God, his neighbour, and himself most true. 
 
 Whom none can work or wooe 
 To use in anything a trick or sleight. 
 For above all things he abhorres deceit. 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT. 
 
CONTEXTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 THE HONEST MAN" I 
 
 JOHN GRAY 3 
 
 SPITALFIELDS 7 
 
 JOHN TOWNSEND 23 
 
 THOMAS COMPTON 34 
 
 JOHN GRAY AS JOURNEYMAN 46 
 
 NOTES 72 
 
The Quaker of the olden time I 
 
 How calm and firm and true, 
 Unspotted by its wrongs and crime, 
 
 He walked the dark earth through. 
 
 He walked by faith, and not by sight. 
 
 By love and not by law ; 
 The presence of the wrong or right. 
 
 He rather felt than saw. 
 
 And, pausing not for doubtful choice 
 
 Of evils great or small, 
 He listened to that inward voice 
 
 Which called away from all. 
 
 O Spirit of that early day. 
 
 So pure, and strong, and true, 
 
 Be with us in the narrow way 
 Our faithful fathers knew. 
 
 Give strength the evil to forsake. 
 
 The cross of Truth to bear. 
 And love and reverent fear to make 
 
 Our daily lives a prayer. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
THE 
 
 HONEST MAN. 
 
 ' ' What though on hamely fare we dine, 
 
 Wear hoddin' grey and a' that ; 
 Gi'e fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
 
 A man's a man for a' that; 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 Their tinsel show, and a' that ; 
 The honest man, though e'er sae poor, 
 
 Is king o' men for a' that." 
 
 The Scottish poet's ideal of a king of men 
 is sometimes regarded as a mean one. If 
 his honest man were merely one who is not a 
 rogue, the ideal would indeed be mean enough. 
 But the truly honest man, who in all things 
 bears witness to the Truth, is truly a King; 
 for he must rule the kingdom of his own mind, 
 and bring into subjection all his selfish, worldly 
 and carnal propensities, and rule them as his 
 subjects. He must be just and true in all his 
 words and dealings, whether as master or as 
 servant; giving good measure, pressed down, 
 and shaken together, and running over; doing 
 as he would be done by. Such a standard 
 
2 
 
 THE HONEST MAN. 
 
 of honesty, the world, whether commercial 
 or fashionable, is loth to acknowledge as 
 practicable ;"^ though it professes to be honest 
 in trade, and generous and sincere in private 
 Hfe. We may hope there are kings of men to 
 be found amongst the crowds whose chief 
 object is to get gain for themselves, whether 
 they get it by useful services to others, or win 
 it at others' expense; but it is to be feared 
 they are few and far between. 
 
 George Fox wrote in his Journal that his 
 father was "an honest man, and there was a 
 seed of God in him, and the neighbours called 
 him Righteous Christer." George Fox was 
 himself an honest man, who stuck to what he 
 believed to be the Truth, in spite of cruel 
 persecution. He was indeed a king of men. 
 Another honest man and viceroy in his own 
 little kingdom — a humble disciple of George 
 Fox and John Woolman — was John Gray, 
 the subject of the following memoir. 
 
 * It is a common belief that business cannot be 
 conducted on religious principles. See Ecoiio?nic 
 Review and British Friend, 3rd Mo., 1894. 
 
JOHN GRAY. 
 
 At the beginning of the long reign of George 
 the Third there dwelt at Brentford an honest 
 and industrious Brazier and Tin-Plate Worker, 
 named William Gray, "one of the people 
 called Quakers." With an increasing family, 
 numbering in all eleven children, he was often 
 at his wit's end to provide things honest in the 
 sight of all men, including food and raiment 
 for the minds as well as the bodies of his 
 numerous offspring. 
 
 The Society of Friends, afterwards fore- 
 most in the promotion of education, as well 
 as in other branches of philanthropy, had not 
 yet realized the importance of good schools 
 for the children of working men. They had, 
 indeed, opened an elementary school at their 
 work-house in Clerkenwell, and had superior 
 
4 
 
 FAR FROM HOME. 
 
 schools at Tottenham and elsewhere; but 
 none of these were suited to the condition of 
 such families as William Gray's. He found 
 no school available for his children nearer 
 than Yealand in the north of Lancashire — a 
 long and tedious journey at that time, even 
 for experienced travellers. There were then 
 neither railway trains, nor their fore-runners, 
 the fast coaches, which ran two hundred miles 
 in twenty hours.* The only means of convey- 
 ance were costly post-chaises, and the wag- 
 gons, which made their weary way along roads 
 described by Arthur Young as "full of ruts 
 four feet deep, and floating with mud." Such, 
 he says, was the condition of the road between 
 Wigan and Preston, along which William 
 Gray's two little boys travelled, towards the 
 end of their long journey, in the year 1780; 
 the elder boy being seven years old, the 
 younger, John, only five! 
 
 * In 1706 a coach was advertised to accomplish the 
 journey between London and York in four days. 
 In 1772 John Woolman complains of the hard driving 
 of coaches going one hundred miles in twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
DISTANT SCHOOLS. 
 
 5 
 
 In these days of luxurious ease and indul- 
 gence it seems strange that parents should 
 send their children so far from home at such 
 tender ages ; but it is not so surprising, when 
 we consider the difficulties of the journey, 
 that the children, when once sent away, were 
 a long time before they came back. Many 
 never came back at all. Some were taken to 
 a better Home, others went from school to 
 apprenticeship — the " technical school " of 
 that period, and probably the best. William 
 Gray, the elder brother, after seven years at 
 Yealand, was "bound apprentice" at the 
 usual age of fourteen, to serve for seven years ; 
 at the end of which service he was " of age," 
 and free to set up in business. John, the 
 younger brother, remained at Yealand a year 
 or two longer, and was then removed to a 
 superior school at Gildersome, near Leeds, 
 where his future master's sons afterwards 
 began their schooling. 
 
 At Yealand, John Gray's amiable dispo- 
 sition, placid temper and gentle manners, 
 won for him the love of the master and 
 
6 
 
 BOUND APPRENTICE. 
 
 mistress. Always trustworthy and willing to 
 be of service, he would prefer working in the 
 garden and farm to spending out of-school 
 times and holidays in bird-nesting or other 
 rural sports. He became thus more and more 
 attached to country life, and it was a sad 
 disappointment to him, w^hen, soon after his 
 removal to Gildersome school, he was sent 
 up to London to be bound apprentice to 
 Towmsend and Compton, Pewterers and Tin- 
 foil Beaters, in Spitalfields. Thither, in his 
 fifteenth year, in the year 1790, came the poor 
 country lad, sorely against his will, leaving 
 the healthy and varied country life for the 
 confinement of a London workshop. 
 
SPITALFIELDS. 
 
 Though for several generations a notoriously 
 "low neighbourhood," resembling in some 
 respects that of St. Giles's at the other end of 
 London, Spitalfields is not without its points 
 of interest. The name is derived from a 
 Spital or monastery founded in the thirteenth 
 century by Walter le Brun, whose name is 
 perpetuated in Broivn's Lajie. Spital Square 
 is said to have been part of the burial-ground 
 of the priory. At the north-east corner of the 
 Square stood the pulpit where, in the seven- 
 teenth century, "the Spital Sermons" were 
 preached in the open air. Lamb Street, 
 White-lion Street and Red-lion Street, remind 
 us of the age of chivalry and the crusades, 
 while Fort Street, Gun Street and Artillery 
 Lane, recall the old Artillery Ground, since 
 
 B 
 
8 
 
 'SPITALFIELDS. 
 
 removed to Finsbury. Quaker Street^'" and 
 Wheeler Street are intimately connected with 
 Friends, and with Wilderspin's Infant School, 
 which was in this neighbourhood. Friends 
 have been attached to Spitalfields ever since 
 the days of Fox and Penn. Many lived 
 and died here during the Plague, as the 
 records of the Society show. From the 
 Friends' Meeting here arose that of Devon- 
 shire House, now and for many years the 
 central quarters of the Society. Pelham, 
 Wentworth, Dorset and Heneage Streets are 
 relics of more aristocratic connections, while 
 Montague Street and Halifax Street mark the 
 estate of Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax in 
 the reigns of William IH. and Queen Anne. 
 
 Spitalfields Market is as important at the 
 East End as Covent Garden Market in the 
 West: though you will not often find at the 
 former fruits out of season or costly luxuries 
 for the table. Common window-plants may be 
 bought at both markets; for the Spitalfields 
 
 * See London Friends' Meetings, pp. 163-4, 
 Life of Gilbert Latey. 
 
SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS. 
 
 9 
 
 weavers have always had a turn for window- 
 gardening, as well as for pigeons: a taste 
 inherited from their French ancestors. 
 
 The Spitalfields silk manufacture has been 
 celebrated from the time of the Revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes, when religious intolerance 
 drove from France many of her best workmen, 
 and established the silk weavers in Spitalfields. 
 The district was then, and for many years 
 afterwards, comparatively open and suburban, 
 affording space for other manufactures as well 
 as the silk weaving. The weavers had their 
 looms at their own lodgings, in the upper 
 storeys of the houses, lighted by numerous 
 windows with the small panes of glass usual 
 until recent times. They received the silk 
 from the master manufacturers, and brought 
 back the correct weight of the woven fabric. 
 In course of time disputes arose about rates 
 of wages, to settle which Parliament was per- 
 suaded to interfere, and in 1773 and 1792 
 "the Spitalfields Acts" were passed, giving 
 the Aldermen and Magistrates in quarter- 
 sessions power to fix the rates of payment and 
 
lO SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS. 
 
 to enforce penalties upon all who received or 
 paid more or less than the legal rates. This 
 benevolent protective legislation was found 
 to do more harm than good. It encouraged 
 mediocrity, and checked improvement, by pre- 
 venting the employers from rewarding superior 
 skill and ingenuity; so that in 1823 a petition 
 was presented to Parliament for a repeal of 
 the Acts, which, the petitioners alleged, had 
 "kept the London silk-looms in the same state 
 as when first used by the French Refugees." 
 The Spitalfields Acts were therefore repealed, 
 and superior skill was allowed to gain its due 
 reward. But hand-looms cannot compete, 
 in point of cheap7iess^ with those worked by 
 steam power, and as cheapness is unhappily 
 the one thing needful in competitive trade, 
 " distress among the Spitalfields weavers " 
 too frequently occurred; one of the worst 
 times being in 181 6, after the close of the long 
 war, and while the Acts were in force. In 
 that year a meeting was held at the Mansion 
 House by the Spitalfields Benevolent Society, 
 when the large sum of £,^Z->Z^9 was raised, to 
 
JOHN DOLLOXD. 
 
 which the Prince Regent added ^5,000, to 
 relieve the urgent needs of the weavers and 
 their famiUes. Efforts have been made from 
 time to time to revive the trade, by means of 
 state balls and drawing-rooms, where only 
 Spitalfields silks were to be worn. The 
 coronation robes of three successive sover- 
 eigns, and many other royal costumes, have 
 been woven in the attics of Spitalfields ; the 
 latest effort to revive the trade being that 
 of the good Duchess of Teck and her amiable 
 daughter ; but the hand-looms have never 
 been able to compete with the silk-mills for 
 the general trade in cheap goods. 
 
 One of the early French weavers settled in 
 Spitalfields was the father of John Dollond the 
 optician; who was born here in 1706. His 
 early years were spent at the loom, but he 
 devoted his leisure hours and thoughts to 
 mathematical and optical studies, in which he 
 was afterwards joined by his son. He con- 
 tinued, however, in the silk trade till 1752, 
 when he went into partnership with his son, 
 as opticians in St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 
12 
 
 SIMPSON, ALLEN. 
 
 Another eminent man of science connected 
 with Spitalfields was Thomas Simpson, the 
 famous mathematician. He worked, hke 
 Dollond, as a weaver, and in the evenings 
 studied and taught mathematics ; being, I 
 suppose, the founder of the Spitalfields Mathe- 
 matical Society, of which Gompertz, the 
 actuary, was afterwards a member. 
 
 Among the Quaker silk manufacturers were 
 Joseph Green, of Spital Square, who settled 
 there in 17 15, and died in 1742, leaving a 
 widow aged 17; John Row, an elder of 
 Devonshire House Meeting; Job Allen and 
 his sons, Joseph, a minister, and his more 
 distinguished brother, William Allen, F.R.S., 
 who left the silk trade, and was taken into 
 partnership with Joseph Gurney Bevan in the 
 famous chemical business in Plough Court. 
 Joseph, the younger brother, remained with his 
 father, succeeding him, and being in turn 
 succeeded by Peter Bedford — a name well 
 known and respected in Spitalfields. 
 
 * Ancestor of J. J. Green, the genealogist. 
 
FRIENDS OF NOTE. 
 
 13 
 
 Another of Job Allen's sons was Samuel, 
 the father of the late Stafford Allen, a well- 
 known and earnest philanthropist and "ad- 
 vanced " politician, a particular friend of 
 Charles Gilpin, M.P., and Henry Vincent the 
 Chartist orator. 
 
 William Allen left Spitalfields in 1793; but 
 did not forget the place of his nativity. " His 
 first special labour for the poor and destitute 
 was undertaken, as was fitting, at Spitalfields," 
 where, in conjunction with William PhiUips, 
 in the winter of 1797, he estabUshed a soup- 
 kitche7i^ a model, as well as one of the earliest 
 of its kind.* 
 
 Another Spitalfields silk manufacturer was 
 John ShoU, a " convinced Friend," an in- 
 genious man, who aimed at bringing out new 
 designs in figured-silks. One of these was for 
 parasols, with a border representing Penn's 
 Treaty with the Indians. Some of his silk was 
 worn by the Royal family, and some covered 
 an umbrella made for King William IV. In 
 later years John Sholl gave much of his 
 * Friends of a Half Ceiitttry. 
 
14 QUEEN AND QUAKER. 
 
 attention to bees and improved bee-hives'; for 
 taking the honey without injuring the workers. 
 He had the honour of supplying the Queen 
 and Prince Albert with some of his hives, and 
 of personally explaining to them his humane 
 system. Friend Sholl wore a looped-up, three- 
 cornered hat, long locks, buckle shoes and 
 knee-breeches, and the interview would have 
 made an attractive picture for a photographer, 
 or Daily Graphic artist. A son of this in-- 
 genious man, the late James Sholl of Lamb 
 Street, Spitalfields, continued his father's bee- 
 hive business ; but he was better known as a 
 manufacturer of writing ink, with which he 
 supplied the Bank of England, as well as with 
 burnt linseed oil for the ink used in printing 
 the Bank notes. James Sholl retired to Con- 
 gresbury in Somersetshire, where he died. I 
 am indebted to his surviving brother, Nathaniel 
 Sholl of Yatton, for these and other particulars. 
 
 During the great distress among the weavers 
 in 1816, one of the best speeches made at the 
 Mansion House Meeting was that of Mr. 
 Thomas Fowell Buxton, then a resident at 
 
SPITALFIELDS INDUSTRIES. 
 
 15 
 
 the brewery, in which he had been a partner 
 since 181 1. The speech was warmly com- 
 mended by Wilberforce, and may be considered 
 the beginning of Buxton's pubHc career/"' 
 
 Beside the silk trade and the great brewery of 
 Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co., Spitalfields 
 had several other industries: a large timber- 
 yard; the building concern of Joseph Messer 
 (a well-known Friend, with a large family); 
 Cooks' Dye Works (also Friends); Milner's 
 Calendering Mill; and Townsend and Comp- 
 ton's Pewter and Tin-foil Factory. The three 
 last were in Booth Street, in adjoining premises, 
 on what had been an estate of the Earl of 
 Halifax. The premises of Townsend and 
 Compton extended from Booth Street to 
 Heneage Street, and included a large garden 
 at the back, surrounded by lime trees. The 
 dwelling-house had been a country lodge of 
 Lord Halifax, and seemed strangely out of 
 keeping with the squalor of its modern sur- 
 roundings. The rooms were large and wains- 
 coted, with handsome mantel-pieces, and 
 * Memoir of Sir T. F. Buxton. 
 
l6 AN OLD MANSION. 
 
 larger windows than usual in the tiifie of 
 the window tax. The front entrance had a 
 flight of steps surmounted by a porch, and the 
 big front door had a brass knocker, which was 
 carefully polished up, but not by a future 
 ruler of the Queen's Navy."^ A wide staircase 
 rose from the hall to the spacious rooms above, 
 and the offices below were on a corresponding 
 scale. There was a large laundry, with a 
 mangle, and utensils for washing and brewing, 
 where excellent ale' was brewed from pure 
 malt and hops. The kitchen was provided 
 with a bread-oven and boiler, as well as a wide 
 tange, and a smoke-jack turning the spit 
 which had formerly been turned by a turn-spit 
 dog. From the upper windows of the house 
 could still be seen .the skirts of the Forest, 
 from which Lord Hahfax perhaps furnished 
 the spit with venison. Close by arose the 
 
 * It was the handle, not the knocker, that led the 
 diligent boy to wealth and fame ; but the moral is the 
 same : 
 
 He polished up the handle so carefiillee, 
 That now he is the ruler of the Queen's navee. 
 
 Vide H.M.S. Pinafore. 
 
BELLS AND CHLMES. 
 
 17 
 
 lofty height of Christchurch steeple, a massive 
 stone pyramid more conspicuous for size than 
 elegance, contrasting unfavourably in that 
 respect with the neighbouring steeple of St. 
 Leonard's, Shoreditch. Spitalfields, however, 
 could boast of the finest chimes and one of 
 the finest peals of bells in all London. It also 
 kept up the old usage of the Curfew-bell. 
 Every evening, as the clock struck eight, the 
 curfew began to toll — a dismal sound to child- 
 ren unwilling to leave their play and go to 
 bed; but pleasanter, no doubt, to the tired 
 workmen who then closed their twelve hours' 
 work. The chimes were always welcome, 
 though the Sunday tune, like the Curfew, 
 was less pleasing to children than to workmen 
 and men in business. A different tune was 
 played each day of the week: T/ie Easter 
 Hymn on Sunday, The Highland Laddie on 
 Saturday, The Lass of Patie s Mill on Friday. 
 O believe me if all those endearing young char 7ns 
 was another of the tunes, and I think others 
 were John A?iderson, Home, sweet Home, The 
 Lass of Richmond Hill, or Aiild Lang Syne ; 
 
1 8 THE STEEPLE STRUCK. 
 
 but these I am not so sure about as those on 
 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 
 
 These beautiful chimes, and the whole peal 
 of twelve bells, which had rung through the 
 whole of the Georgian Era, were silenced for 
 ever by a tremendous thunder storm which in 
 the dead of night struck the steeple and cast 
 the bells to the ground. A bhnding flash of 
 Hghtning was followed instantaneously by a 
 deafening thunder clap, in the midst of which 
 was heard the crash of the bells as they fell. 
 It was a night not to be forgotten. The 
 twelve bells were replaced by eight or ten new 
 ones, but the chimes were not renewed; the 
 rector, William Stone, afterwards Canon of 
 St. Paul's, did not approve of the Church 
 bells being used for merely secular purposes ; 
 though the Curfew was tolerated, as it set men 
 free from labour. 
 
 As might be expected from the French 
 origin of the Spitalfields silk manufacture, 
 French family-names, and even some remains 
 of the French language, still lingered in the 
 district. Among the French names were 
 
PROTESTANTS. 
 
 19 
 
 Villebois, commonly pronounced Villa-boys 
 or Willow-boys, Leschalas, a plumber, who 
 had an annuity out of the rates, for parish 
 work done, and whose birthday for many 
 years was not hailed by the rate-payers with 
 wishes for "many happy returns." A third 
 name was Desanges, honoured by knighthood, 
 and familiarly known as Sir Francis De 
 Sanjez. 
 
 There was a French-protestant chapel or 
 Meeting-house in Church Street, occupied 
 of late years by the Wesleyans,"^ who seventy 
 years ago, dressed very much like Friends. 
 Nearly opposite was a row of houses with 
 iron-raiUngs in front, and dividing the street 
 from the churchyard. In one of these dwelt 
 two old bachelor brothers, who kept up the 
 primitive Quaker costume, as depicted in 
 Benjamin West's picture of Penn's Treaty 
 with the Indians. Their house was dis- 
 tinguished by its superior freshness of paint 
 and clean windows, and by the new railings 
 
 *' Built in 1743, occupied by Wesley's people early 
 in the next century, and now used by the Bedford 
 Institute, and for other Missions. 
 
20 
 
 peel's police. 
 
 in front of it. For in a riot in opposition to 
 Sir Robert Peel's New Police, when the Police 
 Station in Church Street was attacked, the 
 rioters tore the railings from the Quakers' house, 
 in the belief that they would neither resist nor 
 prosecute/'' The niob, no doubt, included, if 
 it did not largely consist of, the class most 
 likely to claim police attention ; but there 
 were many respectable people who opposed 
 the introduction of a new force, believing its 
 real object was to put down the increasing 
 agitation in favour of political and social 
 reform. Many of the demands then con- 
 demned as revolutionary have since been 
 granted, and others are considered " within 
 the range of practical politics." 
 
 Before the "new police" were set up, the 
 public safety was protected by night watchmen, 
 familiarly called " Charlies," who peram- 
 bulated the streets, and "called the hour," 
 generally adding the state of the weather, as 
 
 * At an earlier date, 1800, a lawless mob threatened 
 the house of Job Allen, crying out, " Here's a Quaker's 
 house ; " but they spared it, perhaps hearing that the 
 Quaker was then dying. See Life of Marjorie Allen. 
 
OLD TIMES. 
 
 2T 
 
 "Past 3 o'clock and a frosty morning." Each 
 watchman had a watch-box for shelter, and it 
 was a common "spree" of gentlemen (?) of 
 the Tom and Jerry style to upset the box 
 when they found Charley asleep in it."^ There 
 was a watch-box at the corner of Booth Street, 
 and hard-by a stall where oysters and roast 
 chestnuts when in season, were sold. That 
 was before the introduction of the com- 
 forting winter institution of " taters all 'ot.'"' 
 Gas lamps were introduced in 1823. In 
 those days droves of ducks were driven 
 through the streets for sale. The driver had 
 a long stick with a hook at the end, with 
 which he caught any particular duck by the 
 neck. My father used to buy ducks in that 
 way and fatten them for the table. 
 
 * See Life in London, by Pierce Egan. 
 
 The last half century has certainly seen a consider- 
 able reformation in the manners of Society, though 
 there is still ample room for ftirther improvement. 
 
22 
 
 ENLIGHTENMENT 
 
 Spitalfields Literature. — Joseph Smithes De- 
 scriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books contains 
 the following names of printers and book- 
 sellers in Spitalfields: — 
 
 R. Hawes, Corner of Dorset Street, Crispin 
 
 Street, 1776. 
 COAKMAN, Church Street, printed a Tract by 
 
 Claude Gay, against Profane Swearing, 1780. 
 E. SiBLY, 29, Brick Lane, printed and sold 
 
 Sermons of George Dillwyn and W. Savery, 
 
 1796. 
 
 The Mechanics' Institute^ was one of Dr. 
 Birkbeck's Institutions. A Lecture on the 
 means of promoting and preserving health, 
 was delivered here in 1835, t)y Thomas 
 Hodgkin, M.D. 
 
 The Bedford Institute is of later date, and 
 more varied uses. It needs no description or 
 commendation here, and forms no part of my 
 Recollections of Spitalfields. 
 
JOHN TOWNSEND. 
 
 The head of the firm to whom John Gray 
 was bound apprentice in 1790, had long been 
 one of the most zealous ministers in the 
 Society of Fiiends. He came from Faringdon 
 in Berkshire, where he was born in 1725, to 
 be apprenticed to a Pewterer and Brazier in 
 Middle-row, Holborn, His master was a 
 Friend, but was so slack in his duty to his 
 apprentices that John Town send had to own 
 in after life that "he was allowed to run riot 
 with gay company," after the manner of 
 London 'prentices in the last century. Yet 
 was he "mercifully preserved from destruction 
 and led to break off his evil courses, until by 
 yielding to the visitations of heavenly love, he 
 became wholly given up to the service of 
 God." A contemporary manuscript, from 
 which these particulars are taken, attributes 
 
 c 
 
24 A LONDON 'PRENTICE. 
 
 to^his bitter experience of the misery of sin 
 and his dehverance by repentance and faith in 
 the Divine Saviour, "the origin of that ardent 
 sympathy which he felt towards young people 
 who had missed their way, and engaged him 
 to labour for their restoration." But even 
 during his apprenticeship, John Townsend 
 seems to have been a truer man than his 
 master. In the latter's absence one day, there 
 came a message from the Bishop of London 
 requesting that some one might be sent to 
 take an order. John Townsend at once 
 waited on the bishop, and behaved to him in 
 the manner of "a consistent Friend," which, 
 instead of giving any offence, seemed to 
 please — perhaps amuse, the bishop. He 
 treated the young quaker with great kindness ; 
 made many enquiries and said he would send 
 word, when he had considered the matter. In 
 due time the message came, and the master 
 was eager to wait on so important a customer, 
 and to remove any ill-effects the apprentice's 
 
 * In the Eliot Papers, John Townsend is mentioned 
 as an adviser in a case of difficulty in 1762. 
 
SETS UP FOR HIMSELF. 25 
 
 manners might have left. Accordingly he 
 addressed the bishop as "my lord," and 
 affected the manners of the world ; but he 
 had mistaken his man. The bishop treated 
 him coolly, and asked who the young man 
 was who came before. "O," said the master, 
 "he is only an apprentice.'' "Well then," said 
 the bishop, " send him to me ; I will give my 
 order to no one else." 
 
 On the completion of his apprenticeship 
 John Townsend set up for himself as a 
 pewterer, at No. 47 Prescott Street, Goodman's 
 Fields, and being free from the bondage of 
 pride and covetousness, he was able, at the 
 age of 26, to take an help-mate unto him, 
 with whose aid he became, in due time, a 
 prosperous man. Having a benevolent and 
 generous mind he often lost money in his 
 endeavours to help others less fortunate — 
 probably less thrifty and industrious — than 
 himself ; but these losses he retrieved by 
 persevering industry and self denial. He 
 soon became an acknowledged minister in the 
 Society of Friends, and in 1757, at the age of 
 
26 
 
 A MINISTER. 
 
 32, he was engaged in religious service in the 
 Midland and Western Counties. He had 
 there, in some places, " an exercising time, 
 Friends being set down in the form of god- 
 liness, and not engaged to seek after the 
 power." i\mong the Mendip Hills in Somer- 
 setshire there seems to have been more of 
 the primitive simplicity. He mentions in 
 his diary a visit to Joseph Clark at Hollotrow, 
 and Joseph Metford at Glastonbury, where he 
 held a large meeting, and "the Lord's power 
 was felt." In Cornwall he went to George 
 Fox's at Fowey, where he says, "I found my 
 friend William Cookworthy, in a poor low 
 state of health, and stayed with him several 
 hours." But in Devonshire he reports that 
 Friends had " got very much into the spirit of 
 the world." At one place he had "to admon- 
 ish ministers not to preach one thing, and set 
 a contrary example in their own conduct." 
 
 These religious services or missions were 
 continued at frequent intervals, and extended 
 to all parts of England, Wales, Scotland and 
 Ireland, and in 1785-7 to North America. 
 
A MINISTER. 
 
 27 
 
 The British Frie7id of iith March 1874, 
 contains a brief memoir of John Townsend, 
 including some account of his travels in 
 America, and an extract from the Testimony 
 of Devonshire House Meeting after his 
 decease in 1801. He is there mentioned as 
 "a kind and tender patron of young people," 
 and "a zealous advocate of the cause of 
 Truth, labouring earnestly for the support of 
 the Testimonies we have from the beginning 
 believed it our duty to bear to the world." 
 His zeal for the Testimonies was conspicuous 
 in America, as will be seen from a letter he 
 received at Philadelphia, and his energy of 
 character and zeal in preaching were displayed 
 on his voyage thither, and commented on by 
 the sailors in their nautical phraseology. He 
 had as companions on this voyage Nicholas 
 Wain, John Storer and Thomas Colley ; the 
 last joining with him in his religious service. 
 He was a tall man, while John Townsend 
 was, like Zacchseus, little of stature. The 
 two ministers used to hold forth on First days 
 and address the crew on all suitable occasions, 
 
28 
 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 each according to his gift, and in his own 
 pecuHar style of preaching. At the close of 
 one of these meetings, the sailors were heard to 
 say to each other, "The little'n would thrash 
 the big'n with his hands tied behind him." 
 
 It would lengthen this memoir unduly 
 to relate all John Townsend's travels, ex- 
 tending from Canada, where his brother was 
 settled, to the Southern States. Travelhng in 
 America was very different in those days, 
 when there were no railways or steamboats, 
 few roads of any kind, and fords instead of 
 bridges. Several times he had to swim his 
 horse across a river to get to a meeting, and 
 then sit in his wet clothes, but nothing 
 damped the ardour of his mind, or prevented 
 his going wherever Truth called him. 
 
 In the midst of his service in America he 
 received the following communication : — 
 
 "From John Hunt, of Evesham, New Jersey, 
 25th 3rd mo. 1786, 
 "To John Townsend, Philadelphia. 
 "Beloved Friend, 
 
 "Feeling myself somewhat indisposed, I left the 
 city this afternoon, and could not pay thee a visit at 
 
AX elder's letter. 
 
 29 
 
 thy lodging, as was proposed al the close of our Select 
 Meeting. 
 
 "The subject that I wanted to have an opportunity 
 with thee about is respecting thy wearing a Red-spotted 
 Handkerchief. It has been remarked that thee has 
 a peculiar Testimony on behalf of plainness and 
 against superfluity and gaiety, and on the educating of 
 children, &c., and I may say thy service has been very 
 acceptable, and there are many well-concerned 
 weighty Friends in our parts, up and down on our 
 continent that do think that wearing of such a Red- 
 spotted Handkerchief will take off the edge and lessen 
 the weight of thy testimony and peculiar service 
 respecting the libertine appearance of our youth, and 
 the injurious liberties allowed them. It is not long 
 since one of the most powerful, eminent, able min- 
 isters that have been raised up in our days, passed 
 through amongst us, and bore his testimony against 
 those scarlet coloured spotted handkerchiefs from 
 place to place, mentioning them in particular, and for 
 my part I have long been pained to see these spotted 
 handkerchiefs so much tolerated amongst ministers 
 and elders, and I think it is clear to me that it will, 
 and does weaken Friends' hands and lay waste their 
 labours amongst our youth. Yea, I have thought that 
 in vain, may we show them our Rules of discipline, 
 and advices against their libertine appearance and 
 conformity to the customs and fashions of the world, 
 whilst our galleries are spread out with those spotted 
 handkerchiefs. 
 
 "I have observed that a Red-spotted Handkerchief 
 is one of the first things that our children begin to 
 crave and tease their parents for, and it is what one of 
 
30 A RED SPOTTED HANDKERCHIEF 
 
 our sons hath been pleading with us to let him have, 
 and he seems now quite strong, and says he thinks he 
 may safely get one, seeing such Friends as thee wear 
 one. Notwithstanding we have this several years 
 laboured with him and kept him from it, and I think 
 I should be as much against admitting them kind of 
 handkerchiefs into my family as ever thee was against 
 the new-fashioned bonnets in thy family. 
 
 "If Friends in the foremost rank cannot condescend 
 to lay by things that burden one another, how can we 
 expect our youth will condescend to us ? I am fully 
 clear that if thee could in condescension to thy friends 
 lay by thy Red-spotted Handkerchief, and get one all 
 of one moderate grave colour, it would be matter of 
 great gladness to very many honest-hearted well- 
 concerned Friends, and the more especially because 
 thy service is like to be so extensive on our continent, 
 and as I said before, thy Testimony so peculiar 
 respecting the well-ordering and governing of families, 
 educating of children, and bringing them up in 
 plainness. 
 
 "Thus concludes thy Friend, who heartily wishes 
 for thy preservation and perseverance in the un- 
 changeable Truth. 
 
 "(Signed) John Hunt." 
 We may be sure that John Townsend 
 readily eased the minds of his Friends by 
 exchanging the red-spotted handerchief for 
 one of a moderate and grave colour. Perhaps 
 he might be colour-bHnd, and, like Dr. Dalton, 
 
WEARISOME MEETINGS. 
 
 31 
 
 see no difference between red and drab. His 
 friend William Cookworthy once appeared in 
 the ministers' gallery in a physician's red cloak, 
 having put it on by mistake without noticing 
 the colour. Itis regretable thatthe red-spotted 
 handkerchief has not been preserved with 
 the letter of the Elders. Though it seems to 
 have been an offensively fashionable article, 
 I have not been able to meet with any other 
 reference to it. 
 
 Modern Friends would probably agree, 
 whilst appreciating the faithfulness and the 
 care of elders and overseers in days gone by, 
 that their attentions might often have been 
 better bestowed. 
 
 John Townsend mentions the long sittings 
 of American Meetings, one at New York 
 holding till 10 o'clock at night, and "another 
 wearisome meeting of seven hours." With all 
 their care about external peculiarities, Friends 
 seem to have had but little of the inward and 
 spiritual Quakerism of George Fox and John 
 AVoolman. John Townsend speaks of visiting 
 " the widow Woolman," whose worthy husband 
 had departed in 1772. 
 
32 A DILIGENT LABOURER. 
 
 He returned to England in 1787, embarking 
 at New York for Falmouth, but " the Captain 
 missing that port" he was landed at Fowey, 
 after a voyage of forty-six days. The very 
 next year he resumed his religious travels in 
 Great Britain, and continued in active service 
 till his death in 1801 : "a bright example of 
 an earnest and diligent labourer in the Lord's 
 vineyard." * 
 
 Maria Webb, in her Penns Penningions^ 
 says that the well-known engraving of 
 Gulielma Maria Penn, which forms the 
 frontispiece of her book, is from the original 
 painting on glass in the possession of the 
 descendants of Henry Swan, of Holmwood, 
 Dorking, who died in 1796. "It was given 
 to him by John Townsend of London, with 
 one of William Penn." 
 
 The Townsends were a Berkshire family of 
 some importance. The old church at New- 
 bury contains tablets to "John Townsend, 
 Esquire, Senior Alderman, died 1789." 
 
 * Memoir by James Jenkins, written soon after John 
 Townsend's decease, but not published. 
 
BERKSHIRE FAMILY. 
 
 33 
 
 Another John Townsend, Esq., died in 1795, 
 and another monument is to "EHzabeth 
 Compton, wife of Richard Compton, and 
 daughter of John Townsend's sister, died 
 1806, aged 27." 
 
THOMAS COMPTON. 
 
 Thomas Compton, the son-in-law and part- 
 ner in trade of John Townsend, was born at 
 Redbridge, in Hampshire, on the 29th May, 
 1749. He was the eldest son of William 
 Compton and Sarah Moxham his wife, and 
 came to London as an apprentice to John 
 Townsend in 1763. After twelve years of 
 diligent service he married his master's only 
 child, and was taken into partnership in 
 the business then carried on in Prescot Street, 
 Goodman's Fields. He was an able man of 
 business, and the business prospered under 
 his management, enabling him to bring up a 
 family of twelve children in comfort, if not 
 affluence, and to set his father-in-law and 
 senior partner at liberty to follow his minis- 
 terial calls. 
 
BOOTH STREET. 
 
 35 
 
 There was little or no competition in those 
 days. Underselling was considered dishonour- 
 able. It was not then admitted that "the 
 part of the buyer is to cheapen, and that of 
 the seller to cheat," as Ruskin puts it. 
 
 As the family increased as well as the 
 business, a larger house and premises were 
 taken in Booth Street, Spitalfields, where, in 
 the mansion already described, Thomas and 
 Mary Compton kept open house and a 
 hospitable table for Friends attending Quar- 
 terly and Yearly ]Meetings, and on other 
 occasions. Among their visitors were the 
 gifted and eccentric Mary Knowles, Lindley 
 Murray the grammarian, David and Moses 
 Ricardo, Claud Gay,* Thomas Horner, the 
 the designer of the great panorama of London 
 at the Coliseum in the Regent's Park, John 
 and Oade Roberts, descendants of the famous 
 John Roberts of Siddington — whose Memoir 
 some young Friends used to consider the only 
 
 * Claud Gay, born 1706, died 1786, was a French 
 refugee, expelled from France as a heretic. He was a 
 convinced Friend, and teacher of the French language. 
 See Piety Promoted, 9th part, 1796. 
 
36 
 
 BOOTH STREET. 
 
 entertaining Friend's Book. "Cousin Betty 
 Moxham," and her niece Elizabeth Metford, 
 of whom Thomas Compton was guardian, 
 were inmates at Booth Street. EHzabeth 
 Metford married her guardian's son, Samuel 
 Compton, and their second daughter Elizabeth 
 Metford Compton married Charles Warner, 
 and her younger sister, Mark Capper; from 
 whom have descended a numerous pro- 
 geny. Another visitor was Thomas Hoyle 
 of Manchester, whose daughter, Elizabeth, 
 married Joseph Compton, who thus became 
 one of the partners in the famous firm of 
 Thomas Hoyle and Sons. Among the 
 American Friends entertained at Booth Street, 
 were Nicholas and Jacob Wain, of Phila- 
 delphia, John Large, Samuel Sansom, and 
 Elliott Cresson, all well-known names in the 
 Quaker city. Nicholas Wain was not only 
 one of the richest and most influential citizens 
 of Philadelphia, but a man of remarkable 
 originality, as well as sincere piety. Many 
 amusing tales are told of his wit and humour, 
 but what is more important, a Friend could 
 
AMERICAN FRIENDS. 
 
 37 
 
 say of him, "As a great man, as a wise 
 man, as a learned man, and as a rich man, I 
 know none possessed of as much child-like 
 humility as Nicholas Wain." Another Phila- 
 delphian was Captain Robinson, of the 
 Electra ; afterwards Captain and owner of the 
 Thames, London and New York liner, before 
 steamers had crossed the Atlantic, or were 
 supposed to be capable of doing so. The 
 sailing ships, with their lofty masts, were truly 
 "things of beauty." Captain Robinson often 
 brought letters and presents from Philadelphian 
 friends, and for twelve successive years never 
 missed dining at Booth Street on Christmas 
 day : a remarkable fact for a sea-faring man. 
 He w^as a man whose words were few and 
 savory, and "an honour to his calling," as my 
 father says in a letter to a Philadelphia friend. 
 Captain Robinson was a great favourite with 
 us boys. He told us that he had sailed as 
 mate under a very particular captain ; who 
 once ordered him to call all hands, and when 
 all were assembled on deck, the captain said, 
 " Each take a handspike apiece." Every man 
 
38 
 
 HANNAH BARNARD. 
 
 being again ready, the captain commanded, 
 "Heave that chaw tobacco overboard !" 
 
 Another American visitor was the occasion 
 of more serious consequences to Thomas 
 Compton and his family, who lost thereby the 
 position they had held among the principal 
 members of Devonshire House Meeting. 
 The visitor was no other than Hannah Barnard, 
 who was hospitably entertained at Booth 
 Street during her "trial," as she called her 
 Appeal to the London Yearly Meeting. In a 
 letter to my father, dated 22 nd October 181 6, 
 she thus wrote : — "Thy father came in the 
 most friendly manner, and took me from my 
 lodgings to his hospitable mansion, where I 
 received incalculable kindness and attention, 
 never to be forgotten while memory holds her 
 empire, and never to be remembered without 
 inexpressible gratitude. I was a stranger and 
 they took me in, and were everything to me 
 that the kindest brother and sister could be. 
 And I once had the pleasure of sitting at 
 their dining-table with eleven of their children. 
 It was, indeed, a gratifying sight." 
 
THOMAS FOSTER. 
 
 39 
 
 Thomas Compton's eldest daughter, Hannah, 
 who in her childhood had been a pet of 
 Mar)' Knowles, and had been taken by her to 
 see King George the Third, was married to 
 Thomas Foster of Bromley Hall ; who was 
 afterwards disowned by Friends, for holding 
 and advocating the unitarian views of Hannah 
 Barnard and Elias Hicks. In Foster s Appeal, 
 Thomas Compton accompanied his son-in-law, 
 and spoke as follows : — "I cannot bear to sit 
 in this Meeting and hear my son-in-law con- 
 demned and disowned, without protesting 
 against such proceedings. I can never 
 approve of the practice which the visiting 
 Friends adopted in this case of questioning 
 the party visited. The Society has never 
 thought fit to compile a Creed, nor have its 
 members ever been called upon to subscribe 
 any Confession of Faith. On such subjects I 
 am decidedly of opinion that the principles of 
 the Society are not fully and correctly known 
 by its members generally. For my own part 
 I acknowledge that my sentiments are similar 
 to those of the Appellant, and they are such 
 as I have held from my youth." 
 
 D 
 
40 
 
 DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Thomas Compton's views of the Trinity 
 were probably as indefinite as those of other 
 Friends at that period. " Christ within'' was 
 the chief doctrine of the Society, and the 
 identity of the Word which was God, and 
 made flesh, with the Man Jesus was a mystery 
 few attempted to solve, and fewer succeeded 
 in solving. Even in the present day, when 
 Friends are anxious to prove that they are and 
 always have been what is called evangelical ; 
 while they disown or shun those supposed to 
 be tainted with Hicksisin^ they are neither 
 agreed nor clear in their own views of the 
 Deity of Christ. They own Him as the Son 
 of God, as well as the Son of Man ; but not 
 as the One only Deity — "The Mighty God, 
 the Father of Eternity." They think of Him 
 as "our Advocate with the Father," by whose 
 intercession, and for whose sake,"^ sins are 
 forgiven to those who believe ; but they do 
 not go with Him up the high mountain, and 
 see Him transfigured, with His face shining as 
 the Sun and His very garments as the light. 
 * K. phrase not to be found in Holy Scripture. 
 
THE ONE DEITY. 
 
 41 
 
 Those whose own views are thus partial and in- 
 adequate should bear with others whose minds 
 may be but little darker than their own, and 
 who. though, at present, as short-sighted as 
 Philip or as Thomas, may hereafter be enabled 
 to see the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who said to Philip, " He that hath seeu Me 
 hath seen the Father" (John xiv. 9). He 
 could not mean the physical sight of the body 
 born of a mortal mother : they had all seen 
 that, and nothing more. The seeing He 
 meant must be that of the Spirit, or inner 
 man, and the Me must be the Divine 
 Word, which ''in the beginning was with 
 God and was God"; by whom "all things 
 were made : in whom is life, and the life is the 
 light of men." — (John i., 1-4). He is the 
 Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, 
 the Beginning and the End (Rev. xxi,, v. 6). 
 "Look unto ]\Ie and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth for I am God, and l/iere is none 
 f/5-(?" (Isaiah xlv., 22.) ''I am Jehovah, and 
 beside ]Me there is no Saviour V (xliv., ii.) 
 A Society or Church worshiping the glorified 
 
42 
 
 CHRISTIAN UNITY. 
 
 Redeemer as the One God and Saviour, would 
 stand upon an immovable Rock, and might 
 be the means of bringing about the much 
 desired union of Christendom, if in addition 
 to the worship of the One God, it ac- 
 knowledged as the one badge and bond of 
 membership, the New Commandment to love 
 one another. " By this shall all men know 
 that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one 
 to another" (John xiii., 34, 35.) " Now abideth 
 faith, hope, love, these three, and the greatest 
 of these is love ?" (i Corinthians xiii, 13.) 
 
 Thomas Compton died in January 181 7, 
 and was followed soon after by his eldest son. 
 His second son, Townsend, who in 1801 had 
 been sent to America on business of the firm, 
 and in 181 1 had married Eliza, daughter of Pim 
 Nevins of Leeds, and been taken into part- 
 nership with his father, now came to live at 
 the business premises in Spitalfields. The 
 old family house was divided, the widow and 
 a bachelor son, a partner in the concern, 
 dwelling in one part, and Townsend, with his 
 wife and three little boys, in the other. 
 
LINDLEY MURRAY. 
 
 43 
 
 On the death of her husband and eldest son, 
 Mary Compton received the following letter 
 from Lindley Murray and his wife, written by 
 the grammarian : — 
 
 "HoLDGATE, York, 
 
 4 mo. , 2)id, iSiy. 
 
 "We embrace the present melancholy occasion- to 
 express to our dear and long respected friend, Mary 
 Compton, our unfeigned sympathy and continued re- 
 gard. Thou hast, indeed, sustained a great and deeply 
 affecting loss, and it must and will be very heavily felt 
 by thee. But the affliction is not without its conso- 
 lation. The good providence of God preserved you 
 together many years and until your children were 
 grown up, and you have received from each other 
 innumerable instances and proofs of the most tender 
 regard. And although Infinite Wisdom has thought 
 fit to put an end to this affectionate intercourse, yet the 
 remembrance of it is a source of gratitude, and calls 
 for humble submission and resignation. The recol- 
 lection of his love, his integrity and benevolence, will 
 always afford a pleasing retrospect, and a comfortable 
 hope that, through Infinite Mercy, you will be here- 
 after happily re-united, never to part again. 
 
 "Please to remember us kindly to thy dear children 
 whose great loss we hope will be improved by them to 
 the best purposes. In their affectionate and dutiful 
 attention to thee thou wult, we trust, in thy present 
 bereaved condition, receive great consolation. We 
 have not heard any particulars of thy dear husband's 
 closing scene. When it may be suitable and thy 
 
44 
 
 SENECA INDIANS. 
 
 health and spirits will admit of it, please to give us 
 such information as thou mayst think proper. 
 *' We remain, dear Mary, 
 
 "Thy affectionate Friends, 
 
 "LiNDLEY & Hannah Murray." 
 
 The house in Booth Street was visited in 
 1818 by some Americans of very different 
 character from Hannah Barnard and Lindley 
 Murray. They were a party of Indians of the 
 Seneca tribe, then inhabiting the country 
 about Niagara, who were brought to England 
 and exhibited, as the Ojibbeways were by 
 CatUn in 1843. They were much noticed by 
 Friends, and came several times to Booth 
 Street, Spitalfields. In a letter dated 26th 
 June, 1818, my father writes: "The poor un- 
 tutored Indians, grateful for past favours, 
 came this morning without their interpreter 
 and shook hands with me. The Chief and 
 Little Bear can make themselves understood 
 pretty well. They were all ushered into the 
 house and plentifully regaled with bread and 
 cheese and table beer. On retiring into the 
 garden they recognized a few plants of Indian 
 corn, and began to hoe them, telling me in 
 
THE INDIANS. 
 
 45 
 
 pantomime that such was the practice in their 
 country. We then went over the manufactory. 
 The lathes and blow-pipes seemed to attract 
 most of their attention; they could not under- 
 stand how^ tin-foil could be made so thin and 
 of such large dimensions, though the whole 
 process was before them. I tried to make 
 them understand that our pewter was used 
 amongst several of their tribes in Canada, and 
 showed them the articles, yet it was clear they 
 themselves were strangers to their use."^ In 
 the warehouse I weighed each of the men, and 
 was surprised to find three of the six weighed 
 exactly alike, 12 stone 11 lb. About noon 
 the poor fellows shook hands and departed." 
 
 * The year after this, 1819, my uncle, John Jowitt 
 Kevins, travelling through the forest from New York 
 to Ontario, picked up a pewter spoon, which had 
 apparently been dropped by some Indian tribe. 
 
JOHN GRAY AS JOURNEYMAN. 
 
 During his term of apprenticeship John 
 Gray's tender conscience was sorely tried by 
 a well-founded suspicion that one of the work- 
 men was in the habit of stealing metal' 
 Always abounding in kindness and charity, 
 and fearful of injuring the reputation of an- 
 other, he hesitated to expose the man, till he 
 could not honestly longer delay. The theft 
 was discovered, but the agitation, combined 
 with confinement to an uncongenial employ- 
 ment, so disturbed the sensitive mind of John 
 Gray that he had to be placed in St. Luke's 
 Hospital. A year's rest and proper care re- 
 stored him sufficiently to complete his recovery 
 at his uncle's farm near Waltham Abbey. He 
 returned to fulfil his term of apprenticeship, 
 and never had any relapse ; but he longed to 
 be again in the country, with fresh air and 
 
TWO JOURNEYMEN. 
 
 47 
 
 rural life, instead of the confinement of a 
 factory in Spitalfields. His fellow apprentice, 
 William Manley, afterwards Recording Clerk 
 to the Society of Friends, had formed a strong 
 and life-long friendship for John Gray, and he 
 advised him to remain where his lot had been 
 cast, and to follow the path of present duty, 
 trusting that the Divine Providence would 
 lead him in the way of true happiness and 
 peace. John took his friend's advice, and re- 
 ceived his reward : not in outward show — for 
 he remained through life a journeymen pew- 
 terer — but in that inestimable income with 
 which neither stranger nor tax-gatherer inter- 
 meddleth. In that position he won the respect 
 and love of his employers and fellow-workmen, 
 and gained an influence for good which all 
 felt and acknowledged. 
 
 There were two classes of workmen, the 
 skilled workmen, called journeymen, who had 
 "served their time,'' and the unskilled 
 "labourers." The wages of the latter were 
 1 8s. a week, those of the former ranged from 
 30s. to 60s. or more, according to the skill 
 
48 
 
 THE WORKING DAY. 
 
 required. John Gray never earned more than 
 30s. a week. 
 
 The hours of labour in those days were the 
 old full measure of twelve. "Are there not 
 twelve hours in the day ? " Punctually as the 
 clock struck six the resident man,"^' who acted 
 as porter, opened the gates, and the men came 
 in and set to work. At nine they had half- 
 an-hour for breakfast, at one an hour for 
 dinner, and at half-past five half-an-hour 'for 
 tea; continuing then till the curfew tolled at 
 eight. They therefore actually worked twelve 
 hours, or half their time, except on Saturday, 
 when they left off and were paid at six o'clock. 
 There was never any discontent, the time 
 passed quickly and pleasantly as the work 
 went on, and the men could talk as they 
 worked. John Gray seldom joined in the talk ; 
 but when the clock struck twelve he habitually 
 
 *The same man came to the house and rang up the 
 servants. Six o'clock was then the hour of rising, and 
 then might be heard the flint and steel striking sparks 
 upon the tinder in the tin tinder-box, from which were 
 lighted the broad brimstone matches, then sold in 
 bunches spread out like a fan. 
 
WORKSHOP TALK. 
 
 49 
 
 said "Mid-day." If any profane or idle words 
 were uttered, he would sigh audibly, and 
 silence followed. Not a man would willingly 
 hurt his feelings. There were religious and 
 political discussions about the time of the 
 Catholic Bill in 1828-9. Some of the old men 
 dreaded a revival of the fires in Smithfield, if 
 Roman Catholics were admitted to parliament 
 and offices of state. Another was shocked at 
 the idea of the earth's revolution, as contrary 
 to Scripture, which said that God made the 
 round world so fast that it could not be moved. 
 But there was much common-sense and some- 
 times wit in the talk, while for morality the 
 workshop might perhaps have compared 
 favourably with many an office of more edu- 
 cated men, or convivial meeting of gentlemen 
 in the days of George the Fourth. 
 
 Mindful of his own duty, and careful to avoid 
 tale-bearing and detraction, John Gray would 
 check any harsh judgment of others. His 
 knowledge of the wretched in his own neigh- 
 bourhood taught him to pity rather than 
 condemn the victims of hereditary vice and 
 
50 
 
 CHARITY. 
 
 bad training. He would say, "We must 
 make allowance for those who have been 
 brought up in the midst of bad examples and 
 without religious restraint, and not judge them 
 hardly, lest we be found at last to have been 
 no better stewards than they." 
 
 The life of an obscure journeyman, passed 
 day after day and year after year, in the same 
 unvaried round, offers little to enliven the 
 pages of biography. His excursions never 
 extended beyond Brentford and Staines, where 
 his relations lived, and whither he always went 
 on foot, to avoid witnessing the ill usage of 
 horses, common in those days.''' Spitalfields 
 had a noted Mathematical Society ; but our 
 friend had neither time nor talents for scientific 
 pursuits, nor had he any leisure for the Spital- 
 fields amusements of window-gardening, and 
 breeding pigeons, birds and rabbits. All the 
 time he had to spare was given to charity and 
 piety. He kept no journal of his outward or 
 inward experiences, for he certainly never 
 dreamed of their being of any interest to others. 
 * John Woolman had a like scruple. 
 
pilgrim's progress. 
 
 51 
 
 Yet as a Christian pilgrim journeying through 
 the wilderness of life from Egypt to the 
 heavenly Canaan, he doubtless knew what it 
 was to be " under the cloud,'" and to be "bap- 
 tized unto Moses in the cloud and in the 
 sea,'' and to "eat the same spiritual meat and 
 drink the same spiritual drink " as the typical 
 Israel; for he ''drank of the spiritual Rock 
 which followed them, and that Rock was 
 Christ,"* The beginning of regeneration may 
 often be dated from some particular time; 
 but no date can be given to John Gray's 
 departure from Egypt, unless it were when, 
 at the end of his apprenticeship, he took 
 his friend Manley's advice, and sacrificed 
 his desire to return to the country. As 
 he silently worked at his lathe other work 
 would, consciously or unconsciously, go on in 
 his soul, until, as he advanced in years, the 
 perpetual serenity of his countenance, happy 
 and innocent as a Httle child's, showed how 
 harmonious was his spirit with that of the 
 Psalm, which sings of the manifold works of 
 * I Corinthians, x. , 3. 
 
52 
 
 SIMPLICITY. 
 
 the Lord, and of man's going forth unto his 
 work until the evening. " My meditation of 
 Him shall be sweet: I will rejoice in the 
 Lord."* In this spirit he lived and worked, 
 and shed a sphere of peace around him, 
 which was felt by all. Anger was quelled 
 by his gentleness and love, who was never 
 angry, nor gave any offence, but was the 
 sympathizing friend and helper of everyone in 
 time of need. 
 
 John Gray never married. It was said that 
 he was once engaged, but the woman died, 
 and he never thought of another. Single life 
 might be best for him. His good friend and 
 neighbour, Peter Bedford, was also a bachelor ; 
 but he recommended me and other young 
 men not to follow what he called his bad 
 example, but to marry as soon as circum- 
 stances allowed. John Gray dwelt in a 
 humble lodging near his work, and lived in the 
 simplest way. Bread and weak coffee, chiefly 
 milk, served for his breakfast and evening 
 meal. At dinner he had meat and a mug of 
 * Psalm civ., 34. 
 
COXSISTEiNXY. 
 
 53 
 
 table beer. In spirits and tobacco he never 
 indulged. Had he found his mug of beer a 
 stumbling-block to a weak brother his self- 
 denying kindness would have given it up ; 
 but Teetotalism only began near the close of 
 John Gray's life. 
 
 Neither niggardly nor lavish, scrupulously 
 clean and neat in his person, he had always 
 the appearance of comfort and prosperity ; his 
 clothing good and ample after the fashion long 
 kept up by the people called Quakers. Until 
 late in life he w^ore the orthodox drab and 
 broad-brim ; but changes of fashion in time 
 affected even consistent Friends, and John 
 Gray's coat, as well as many others, assumed ' 
 the hue of invisible green, while the breadth 
 of brim lessened as breadth of view extended. 
 To the new fashion of trousers, though en- 
 couraged by Joseph John Gurney, he never 
 gave way, contented with the old and cleanly 
 fashion of washable leg-gear. But if John was 
 "consistent," according to the views of his 
 day, in bearing testimony against the vain 
 fashions of the world, he was also consistent 
 
54 
 
 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 in the weightier matter of upholding the laws 
 of charity in Kttle things as well as great. The 
 golden rule of doing as we would be done by 
 — too often forgotten in all stations of life — led 
 our friend to a peculiarity of costume entirely 
 his own. As he worked at his lathe the chips 
 and shavings of the metal fell upon his stock- 
 ings, and cut the hands of the poor old 
 woman who washed them. To avoid this 
 John wore paper gaiters. The woman thus 
 kindly cared for was the widow of a blind 
 workman with whom Gray had formerly 
 lodged. She had washed for him many years, 
 and during her widowhood to the end of her 
 life he took care she did not suffer from want. 
 
 He might often be seen, in his dinner- 
 hour, in some back slum of Spitalfields, 
 hurrying* along with a basin of warm food for 
 some poor object of his compassion. Few 
 knew whence he came, and fewer whither he 
 went. He seldom mentioned the cases he 
 relieved, or asked help from others; but in 
 
 * His rapid gait resembled that of Josiah Forster in 
 his younger days, when in France, where he was nick- 
 named Toiijoiirs Coiirant. 
 
UNSELFISHNESS. 
 
 55 
 
 times of general distress he would invite his 
 shop-mates to contribute what they could 
 justly spare, and he never asked in vain. 
 They knew their help was really needed, and 
 would be wisely used. They knew, too, that 
 John Gray would never ask or accept anything 
 for himself. When an accident had deprived 
 him for some weeks of the use of his hand he 
 refused the customary contribution from his 
 fellows, thanking them and assuring them that 
 he did not need it, and would not take it 
 from their own wives and children. The 
 accident was the loss of a thumb, cut off by a 
 shp of his chisel. The man who turned the 
 wheel of his lathe, saw him suddenly stop and 
 leave the shop, and discovering what had 
 happened, went to the doctor's in a neighbour- 
 ing street and there found the wounded man, 
 with his hand wrapped in his apron, patiently 
 waiting till some one else was served. This 
 man preserved the severed member, and 
 labelled the bottle : The thumb of an honest man. 
 
 There was at that time a poor half-witted 
 lad, nick-named Billy Barlow, whose rags and 
 
 E 
 
56 
 
 SYMPATHY 
 
 tatters and grotesque singing and dancing, 
 brought him a few half-pence from the sym- 
 pathising poor, and more kicks than ha'pence 
 from the idle children then suffered to play in 
 the streets. This poor creature was a frequent 
 subject of compassion with our tender-hearted 
 friend. One day hearing more outcry than 
 usual, and recognising the voice of Billy 
 Barlow, he ran to the rescue and found a 
 crowd of boys pelting the poor creature. Rep- 
 rimanding the boys for their cruelty, he 
 turned to the parents, who were standing by 
 in stupid indifference, or in brutal enjoyment 
 of the ''lark,'' and remonstrated with them 
 for allowing such wickedness. Returning 
 from his mission of mercy, he said with his 
 usual placid smile, "They only laughed at 
 me." 
 
 A diligent attender of the meeting for wor- 
 ship held at Devonshire House on Third-day 
 morning, and of the Monthly, Quarterly and 
 Yearly Meetings, John Gray sacrified no small 
 part of his wages, which were thus reduced to 
 
GENEROSITY. 
 
 57 
 
 about 25s. per week.''= Yet out of this he for 
 many years allowed 7s. a week to a widowed 
 sister, besides being a liberal contributor to 
 the various collections in the Society of 
 Friends for the poor and for schools and 
 general purposes. Having given about two 
 weeks' earnings to Ackworth School, the 
 collector objected to receiving so much more 
 from him than was given by many in affluence; 
 but he replied that he could afford it and was 
 most easy to give the whole sum. Having no 
 wife and family he had no need to accumulate 
 beyond guarding against becoming burden- 
 some in case of sickness or infirmity. His own 
 wants were so few that, notwithstanding his 
 generous gifts and sacrifices, his savings 
 amounted at his death to nearly £,200. 
 With the exception of a legacy of ;^3o left 
 him by John Row^ as a mark of esteem, the 
 whole sum was the fruit of his own labour and 
 
 * I have heard the inconsiderate remark, that this 
 deduction from the wages was illiberal. I believe it 
 was the only course John Gray would have consented 
 to. He would neither take money he had not earned, 
 nor offer to the Lord what cost him nothing. 
 
58 
 
 PECULIARITIES. 
 
 thrift. Ke wasted nothing in drink and 
 tobacco, and never attempted to get money 
 without earning it. Thus he lost nothing by 
 peculative investments, but put his savings in 
 the Savings Bank, always keeping a supply in 
 a drawer for present wants and the relief of 
 poor neighbours. 
 
 John Gray was not only a Friend by birth 
 and education ; he was "a consistent Friend" 
 in all sincerity, accepting the Testimonies 
 adopting the Feculiariiies in child-like faith. 
 They were as binding on his conscience as 
 the Ten Commandments. He regarded them 
 as revealed truth. To use the heathen names 
 of the days and months, to say Sir or Madam, 
 or you to a single person, to take off or touch 
 his hat as a sign of respect, or to wear a collar 
 to his coat — these would have burdened his 
 conscience as acts of " conformity to the vain 
 customs of the world." Yet he did not take 
 in its literal sense the injunction to call no 
 man Master ; on the contrary, he always called 
 his employers Masters, and recognized the just 
 positions of masters and men. The last half 
 
OLD AND NEW FASHIONS. 
 
 59 
 
 century has seen great changes in the Society 
 of Friends. Some of them may be signs of 
 a decHne from the inward and spiritual 
 rehgion of our forefathers to a more outward 
 and visible one ; but few would now wish to 
 revive the external peculiarities of speech and 
 dress. If some of us regret the change in the 
 appearance of the Yearly and Quarterly 
 Meetings, and would like to see again the 
 unique appearance of the "women's side,"' 
 clad in light silk bonnets and scarves, and with 
 faces suggesting companionship with "the 
 shining ones," few would desire to return to 
 the strictness of a hundred years ago, when a 
 Minister sixty years old was dealt with by the 
 Elders for wearing a red-spotted handkerchief. 
 
 Simple as a child, John Gray seldom ex- 
 pressed any opinions of his own : perhaps he 
 seldom had any. The Testimonies of Friends 
 and the convictions of the Spirit were his 
 rules of life ; one, as he believed them to be, 
 with the teaching of the Scriptures of Truth. 
 In this child-like spirit he took his silent part 
 in Meetings for discipline, where the Queries 
 
6o 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 concerning the state of the Society were 
 answered, and other business was done. At 
 one of these Meetings, when asked to take 
 some appointment, he meekly answered, "I 
 feel as a little child." With the innocence of 
 a child he went about the business entrusted 
 to him. If he knew of "an exception to the 
 Queries," such as a Friend indulging in " vain 
 sports" or going to places of diversion, he 
 would faithfully do his duty without fear or" 
 favour. According to Quaker as well as 
 Gospel rules, he would first go to the delin- 
 quent and tell him his fault between themselves 
 alone, and then, when the Queries were 
 answered, he would say, as in duty bound, 
 "I am aware of an exception;" rather than 
 allow an answer to go forth which he knew 
 would be untrue. The difficulty of framing 
 true answers, without reporting or reviving 
 cases of exception, privately known, but not 
 formally before the Meeting, led to the dis- 
 continuance of the practice of answering the 
 Queries ; but that was long after the time of 
 John Gray. When the third generation of 
 
BACKSLIDING. 
 
 6i 
 
 his employer's family fell away from the 
 Testimonies and from the practice of their 
 "consistent" father and grandfather, so far as 
 to go to the Races, to the Epping Hunt, 
 Greenwich and Fairlop Fairs, and even to the 
 Play, then in the palmy days of the Kembles, 
 O'Neil, Kean, Liston, Catalani, Grimaldi, 
 and other celebrities, poor John Gray's spirit 
 was sorely tried. True to his sense of duty, 
 he went boldly but respectfully to his masters 
 and remonstrated with them, with the appeal 
 "I don't know how we can answer the Queries 
 if we know of exceptions." His visits were 
 always kindly received and his character and 
 truth sincerely respected. His masters would 
 cordially grasp his hand, and regret that his 
 mind should be troubled about them ; but the 
 march of intellect had begun, and young men 
 no longer felt bound by the traditions of the 
 elders, or the rules of the overseers, derived 
 from Puritan times. There is nothing neces- 
 sarily immoral or debasing in dramatic 
 representations, any more than in the works 
 of fiction, which were as rigidly debarred by 
 
62 
 
 THE STAGE. 
 
 Friends sixty years ago. All depends -.upon 
 the nature of the plays performed, and 
 the novels written and read. The theatres 
 probably do more harm than good, and the 
 same may be said of sensational novels ; but 
 there are plays, and many more novels, where 
 the good outweighs the evil, and it may be 
 a moral duty as well as a pleasure to encourage 
 the good ; instead of leaving those who "hold 
 the mirror up to nature " to seek support only 
 from the frivolous and depraved. The late 
 pious Bishop Fraser desired to raise the stage 
 to a higher level, and to make it what it ought 
 to be, a means of instruction and moral 
 elevation of the people. And it is hoped that 
 the morality of the Stage has improved of late 
 years, though it cannot boast of a Garrick, a 
 Siddons, or a Jenny Lind. 
 
 The voice of conscience is often silenced 
 by louder calls from the appetite and pocket. 
 John Gray never listened to the voice of 
 Mammon in any plea against Truth and 
 Justice ; nor would he knowingly profit, 
 directly or indirectly, by wrong doing. He 
 
PEWTER. 
 
 63 
 
 might sometimes be over scrupulous, but in 
 keeping within what he believed to be " the 
 limitations of Truth" he enjoyed "a peace 
 above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet 
 conscience ? " 
 
 Pewter goods, under the honest old name, 
 are not much in use now, except in public- 
 houses, where, I suppose, beer is still 
 relished "out of the native pewter;" but 
 in the time of John Gray, the business was 
 extensive and varied. Pewter pots and jugs 
 for beer were a considerable item, but much 
 more was done in plates and dishes, chiefly 
 exported to America, and in hot-water dishes 
 and plates which were much used at home, 
 and are so still to some extent. In the Eliot 
 Papers lately published, we find at p. 55 an 
 extract from a letter written in 1759, saying 
 "y^ collectors of y^ Tyths yesterday took all 
 your Pewter plates and dishes away so that 
 you'll become a Customer to John Townsend 
 for a new sett." Again at page 118, John 
 Eliot is said to have used "a large water plate 
 under that upon which his meat was served." 
 
64 
 
 HAMMER-MEN. 
 
 These plates were hardened by a process of 
 beating with poHshed steel hammers, requiring 
 great practice and skill, and as the " hammer 
 men" would "larn no prentices," their places 
 were not easily supplied. Plates so worked 
 at high wages were necessarily costly, but they 
 were practically everlasting. One of these 
 hammer-men had served under Nelson, and 
 had many yarns to spin about him and 
 Collingwood, who, he said, was preferred by 
 the men to Nelson, who was very severe. The 
 same, however, was said of Jervis, Earl St. 
 Vincent, who was really a humane, as well as 
 a just and pious man. The most profitable 
 branch of the business of Townsend and 
 Compton was the tin-foil manufacture ; the 
 foil being then chiefly used for "silvering" 
 mirrors. Sheets of large size were sometimes 
 required ; some for the mirrors in the Royal 
 Pavilion at Brighton. The gaudy George IV. 
 had his mirrors as well as his robes from 
 humble Spitalfields ! The foil was of pure 
 tin cast into plates about a quarter of an inch 
 thick, then rolled between heavy steel rollers, 
 
SCRUPLES. 
 
 65 
 
 to the thickness of stout card-board, and 
 finally beaten out into foil by polished steel 
 sledge hammers, requiring even more practice 
 and skill than the plates above-mentioned. 
 Tin-foil is now chiefly used for packing various 
 articles sold by chemists, grocers, tobacconists 
 and others. Pewter vessels of different kinds 
 were much used in the Army and Navy, and 
 some called Guinea-basins were so named, 
 not from their price, but their destination to 
 the Guinea coast, where they were most likely 
 used in the African slave trade. 
 
 John Gray would put his hand to none 
 of these things. He would not work on any 
 Army or Navy contract, still less would he 
 consent to share in the gains of oppression 
 and cruelty."^ Beer in his time was universally 
 regarded as a wholesome, almost necessary 
 refreshment, and he could turn a pewter pot 
 with a clear conscience ; but Guinea basins 
 were made chiefly for the slave trade, and he 
 
 * William Allen refused to supply drugs to the 
 Russian Army, or to replenish a medicine chest 
 suspected to be destined for the slave trade. 
 
66 
 
 CONSCIENCE. 
 
 would have nothing to do with that. Beyond 
 washing his own hands of the matter he did 
 not think it his duty to judge others. His 
 masters might feel at liberty to supply the 
 Army and Navy, and even African merchants, 
 with useful articles, not in themselves injurious 
 to either enemies or slaves; for soldiers, sailors 
 and negroes must be fed, and to supply them 
 with the means of feeding decently is not 
 taking part in war or slavery. That was for 
 them to judge.* 
 
 The same charitable spirit influenced him 
 on all occasions. When most of his employers' 
 family had left the Society of Friends, he kept 
 up his kindly and respectful intercourse with 
 them, as opportunities offered, and retained 
 to the end of his life their hearty esteem. 
 Missing one of the younger sons from Meeting 
 for several weeks, he came to see him, fearing 
 he might be giving up divine worship 
 altogether. On learning that he went to 
 church, his mind seemed relieved, and he said 
 
 * Friends did not scruple to give flannel waistcoats 
 to the soldiers sent to put down the "Rebellion" in 
 1745. — W. Beck's Friends, p. 215. 
 
A GENTLE-MAN. 
 
 67 
 
 in his usual kind and pleasant tone, "Well, we 
 are told to iry all things : let us mind we hold 
 fast that ivhich is good.^'' 
 
 Be it remembered that this was a man who 
 had been brought up as at the feet of Gamaliel, 
 according to the strictest sect of the puritans, 
 a very Quaker of Quakers ; yet could he 
 embrace as a fellow-disciple every one who 
 had the true mark of discipleship : " By this 
 shall all men know that ye are my disciples, 
 if ye have love one to another." 
 
 Always a man of few words, and of very 
 humble intellectual powers, his short sayings 
 were often the feeble expression of deeper 
 feeling and thought than strangers might sup- 
 pose. There was an indescribable influence 
 in his presence, which, combined with his 
 gentle manners, and the kindly tone of his 
 voice, won the hearts of all. Mechanic as he 
 was, a scholar only in the school of Christ, he 
 was a true gentleman in the proper sense of 
 the word, a man of refinement, eschewing 
 all that was base and coarse, with a constant 
 regard for the feelings and reputation of others ; 
 
68 
 
 HONOUR AND WEALTH. 
 
 a Christian gentleman, who practised charity 
 in little things and in great, and had the 
 crowning virtue of humility. His honour and 
 wealth were his desire to be least of all and 
 servant of all, in the service of the King of 
 kings — the meek and lowly Saviour of the 
 world — in whose service he shared the work 
 and the joy of those heavenly ministers of 
 His that do his pleasure, hearkening unto the 
 voice of His word. In that service, unob- 
 served of the world, and undisturbed by the 
 praise of men, he enjoyed the blessing of the 
 Lord, which alone maketh truly rich; a bless- 
 ing above all earthly price, beyond all worldly 
 honour, safe from the tongues of envy, and 
 free from the snares of praise. 
 
 Nearly seven times seven years had passed 
 from the date of his apprenticeship; Gray's 
 year of jubilee was at hand. His benevolent 
 crown was bald, and his locks were silvery, 
 though his years numbered but sixty and 
 three. He was still contentedly at work at 
 his old lathe, with his paper gaiters and his 
 shortened thumb ; when a voice whispered to 
 
ACCESSION. 
 
 69 
 
 him, "Friend, come up higher." On Saturday 
 evening, the first of December, 1838, he left 
 work at the accustomed hour, to all appearance 
 in his usual good health. He had received his 
 week's wages, and distributed his weekly alms, 
 including an additional gift to a sick workman, 
 and had gone home to his lodging. He was 
 sitting by the fireside in silent meditation — 
 perhaps reflecting on the close of another 
 week's labour and the coming of the day of 
 rest; perhaps he might remember that the last 
 month of another year had begun, and that he 
 was already in the forty-ninth year of his 
 service, and he might think, too, of the three 
 masters, of three following generations, 
 whose remains he had followed to the 
 grave"^ — however that might be, we may be 
 sure that his heart was filled with love to the 
 Divine Master he had so faithfully served, 
 and whose goodness and mercy had followed 
 him all the days of his life. Sitting thus in 
 
 * John Townsend in 1801, Thomas Compton in 1817, 
 and Townsend Compton in 1834 — the funeral of the 
 last being the day of the burning of the Houses of 
 Parliament in October, 1834. 
 
70 
 
 CORONATION. 
 
 his humble abode, in one of the poor streets 
 of Spitalfields, he was suddenly called to quit 
 his earthly tenement and enter the place pre- 
 pared for him in the mansions of the Father's 
 house. Who can doubt his welcome there ? 
 
 "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: 
 thou hast been faithful over a few things, I 
 will make thee ruler over many things: enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 To rule over many things cannot be the rest 
 of idleness. The joy of the Lord is to bless 
 His creatures. His joy and His glory cannot 
 be augmented by human praises. To wor- 
 ship Him is to do His will, by helping to 
 spread His blessings and the coming of His 
 kingdom, that His will may be done on earth 
 as it is done in heaven. His angels are His 
 ministers that do His pleasure, hearkening 
 unto the voice of His word. His servants 
 are they who join with the angels in that angelic 
 work, and are prepared thereby to become 
 angels when their work of probation here is 
 done. 
 
71 
 
 Restore, O Father ! to our times restore 
 The peace which filled Thine infant church of yore ; 
 Ere lust of power had sown the seeds of strife, 
 And quenched the new-born charities of life. 
 
 O never more may differing judgments part 
 From kindly sympathy a brother's heart ; 
 But linked in one, believing thousands kneel, 
 And share with each the sacred joy they feel. 
 
 From soul to soul, quick as the sunbeam's ray, 
 Let concord spread one universal day ; 
 And faith by love lead all mankind to Thee, 
 Parent of Peace and Fount of Harmony ! 
 
Notes. 
 
 Gilbert Latey (p. 8). — The interesting vol- 
 ume on the London Friends' Meetings, 
 contains an account of the rescue of the 
 Wheeler Street Conventicle from destruction 
 in 1670. Intolerance had already gone to 
 the extreme of pulling down the Friends' 
 Meeting-house at Ratcliff, and Sir John 
 Robinson declared he would do the same 
 with the Quakers in Spitalfields. In this 
 distress Friends turned to Gilbert Latey, the 
 owner of the property, who was absent in the 
 West of England. A respite of three weeks 
 being granted, Gilbert had time to instruct an 
 attorney to prepare a lease of the premises, 
 which he granted to a poor Friend, and put 
 him in as resident, thus making the building 
 a dwelling-house, and exempt from the law 
 
NOTES. 
 
 73 
 
 against conventicles. Robinson, finding him- 
 self outwitted, said, " If your Friends had all 
 been as wise as this fellow, you might have 
 had your other meeting-houses, as well as 
 this." 
 
 George Fox, William Penn, George White- 
 head and many others preached in Wheeler 
 Street. The house was damaged by the great 
 storm in 1703, which swept away the Eddy- 
 stone Lighthouse, and in 1749, "report is 
 made that Wheeler Street Meeting-house has 
 tumbled down." — See London Friends Meet- 
 i?igs, chapter x. 
 
 The bachelo?' brothers mQxiiioned. at page 19, 
 were Charles and William Bratt, dealers in 
 marine stores. William was a collector of old 
 books and had an extraordinary collection of 
 Bibles : his brother was a man of superior 
 abilities, but they lived in much seclusion, 
 though diligent attenders of Devonshire-house 
 meeting. Charles Bratt built a range of tene- 
 ments in Spitalfields, and objecting to the 
 charges of the E. L. Waterworks Co.. for a 
 
74 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 supply of water, he set to work, with the help 
 of a labourer, and dug a well in the courtyard 
 of his premises, erecting pumping machinery 
 to feed a large tank for supplying his tene- 
 ments with water. In a recess in the wall 
 next the street he put a pump, open to the 
 public, and which was m.uch used, for the 
 water was fresh and good ; though the pump 
 was hard to work. A neighbour said to him, 
 " Mr. Bratt, your pump-water is very good— 
 when we get it ; but it is very hard to get." 
 The fact was, the astute Friend had so arranged 
 his apparatus, that the public well-earned the 
 benefits received. For every gallon of water 
 pumped into the public cans, two were raised 
 into the owner's tank. The Water Company, 
 however, finding they had been outwitted, 
 came to terms ; which was the end intended. 
 The public pump was accordingly suppressed, 
 and the reduced water-rate agreed to. 
 
 Thomas Compton was an original proprietor 
 of the East London Waterworks Company, and 
 remained so all his life, leaving his shares to his 
 widow, who held them till her death in 1843. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 75 
 
 \Villia7n Manky (p. 47) in recommending 
 me to read "Sewel's History,'' — told me that 
 when he was an apprentice to m\- grandfather, 
 he used to get up at four o'clock in the 
 morning, to read Sewel, so interesting did he 
 find it. With the working-hours from 6 a.m. 
 till 8 p.m., there were not many in the week 
 for reading. Whether shorter hours of work 
 yield more hours of reading to any good 
 purpose may be questionable, and it remains 
 to be proved whether the present facilities for 
 acquiring knowledge will produce such strik- 
 ing examples of " the pursuit of knowledge 
 under difficulties,"' and such manly characters 
 as we have in the lives of Franklin, Hutton, 
 Brindley, Stephenson, Gifford Livingstone, 
 and many more. 
 
 Friends a?id Thieves. — Peter Bedford's in- 
 fluence with his thievish neighbours is well 
 known. Some of them professed to respect his 
 Friends, but others took advantage of their well- 
 known objection to prosecute, where the law 
 inflicted the penalty of death. In an account 
 of the Yearly Meeting, 1816, in my father's 
 
76 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 handwriting, I find the following — "An evening 
 or two since, as my quondam governor, John 
 Candler of Ipswich, was returning from Meet- 
 ing to the house of his son-in-law, Benjamin 
 Reed, three men attacked him in Wood Street, 
 Spitalfields, throwing him down with violence, 
 as they had done John Bell, John Coleby and 
 John Batger. Death is the penalty of such 
 crimes; but the villains know Quakers will not 
 prosecute, and so they rob them with impunity. 
 Friends are now on the alert, and my old 
 schoolmaster, at the approach of dusk, starts 
 up, no matter what is before the Meeting, 
 and goes home by daylight." 
 
 At the same Meeting, William Allen called 
 attention to the sorrowful fact, " that crimes of 
 the greatest magnitude are committed by 
 children of 9 and 10 years of age, many of 
 whom are condemned to death, for want of a 
 fostering care, and the rights of humanity." 
 
 Such atrocious laws defeat their object. 
 
By the same Author. 
 
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