WILLIAM AUGUSTUS SALTER (1812-1879) AND THE USUAL QUESTIONS

I am indebted to a fellow researcher of Baptist history for not only finding but allowing me to see a publication which had become something of a Holy Grail for me. I have been digging into the life of my great great grandfather, the Baptist minister William Augustus Salter, for around five years now. He served the congregations of a number of churches in the course of his life, from his first appointment at the Henrietta Street chapel in London’s Covent Garden to his last, the church in Clarendon Street, Leamington Spa, which he not only led but founded and built.

Rev William Augustus Salter (1812-1879) c1870 as pastor of Clarendon Street chapel, Leamington Spa

I have known for some time that the speeches and sermons made on 5^th October 1836, the day of his ordination at Henrietta Street, had been published. I learned of a copy held by the Angus Library at Regent’s Park College, Oxford; but could not afford the time or train fare to make a speculative trip.

The Angus Library is Britain’s best collection of Baptist publications, founded on the personal collection of Joseph Angus (1816-1902), William Augustus’ brother-in-law. William Augustus and Joseph trained for the ministry together at Stepney Baptist College, and it was when Angus was in 1849 appointed as Principal of that institution that it thrived. Outgrowing its Stepney premises the college moved in 1855 to larger ones overlooking Regent’s Park. Then in 1927, twenty five years after Angus’ death Regent’s moved lock, stock and library to the more studious environment of Oxford.

Regent's Park College quadrangle today (photograph by Tomsett, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikipedia)

A few weeks ago, my colleague mentioned that he was going to be doing some research in the Angus Library and kindly offered to look for the Henrietta Street sermons, which included the Charge to the Minister delivered by Angus’ and Salter’s old teacher Rev W.H. Murch, then Principal of Stepney College. Surely Joseph was in the congregation that day witnessing his friend’s entry into the ministry?

What I hadn’t anticipated was that the Henrietta Street speeches would include one from Salter himself. My great great grandfather’s words! His voice on the page! William Augustus spoke in response to the previous speaker, Rev J.J. Davies, who (according to the Order of Service) “delivered the Introductory Address and asked the usual questions.”

Unfortunately the published speeches do not include the questions themselves! But we are told of their nature. Before asking the “usual questions” of William Augustus, Rev Davies “put the usual question to the church, respecting the circumstances which had led to the present service [of ordination].” A church elder Mr Dawson responded with a history of Henrietta Street chapel, founded in 1817 and suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of its sitting pastor Rev T. Thomas in May 1836. Thomas (with that initial, could he have been Thomas Thomas?!) had effectively been headhunted by Abergavenny Baptist College. My great great grandfather had been filling Thomas’s shoes as a supply-preacher at Henrietta Street for the past three months.

Henrietta Street in 1837 – note the early layout of Covent Garden market (from Cary’s New Plan of London and its Vicinity)

Salter’s own “usual questions” were on the matters of his personal journey to God, his decision to enter the ministry, and his views on Christian doctrine. He replied with admirable piety and brevity on all three counts (occupying four pages of the published version compared to seventeen from Rev Davies). In the first matter, he was drawn to God, and eventually baptised at Camberwell Baptist Church, after starting as a volunteer teacher at the church Sunday school. In the second, he knew from the moment of his baptism that he wanted to be more than merely a member of a congregation: that he wanted to be of public service to God.

In the third, his Confession of Faith shows that he believed in the Holy Trinity, and in the fundamental wickedness of mankind from Adam and Eve onwards. Sin, at the core of our being, was however more to be pitied and repented of than cursed with fire and brimstone. Salvation was possible for all sinners thanks to the sacrifice of the Son of God. It’s a speech full of love for all sinners and for the glory of God.

We can be fairly sure of the names of two others present at William Augustus' ordination: William Brodie Gurney and his daughter Emma. Emma and William Augustus were married less than a fortnight after this service. Joseph Angus married Emma's sister Amelia a little under four years later. And the flyleaf signature of the original owner of the Angus Library copy of the Henrietta Street speeches is none other than Salter's and Angus's father-in-law, W.B. Gurney.

Signature in the flyleaf of the Angus LIbrary copy of his son-in-law's ordination speeches: W.B. Gurney, Denmark Hill

It’s fascinating to read the clear and convinced statements of William Augustus' understanding of doctrine at the age of twenty-five, because they are entirely consistent with the sermons which he preached more than forty years later in Clarendon Street, and which were published posthumously. That loving belief in the possibility of salvation for his fellow men and women made William Augustus Salter a gentle shepherd to all the flocks he tended.

GEORGE FIFE ANGAS (1789-1879) AND THE HONDURAS GAZETTE & COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER

George Fife Angas was a cousin of my 3x great uncle Joseph Angus. The spellings of their surname had diverged with different branches of the family several generations earlier. George is revered, and well documented, as the father of South Australia; but his exploits in Central America are much less well known.

George Fife Angas (1789-1879)

George’s father Caleb Angas was a builder of horse-drawn carriages in Newcastle-upon-Tyne who imported his own mahogany from Honduras. George, the youngest of Caleb’s seven sons, learned the ropes and in 1824 formed a separate shipping company to handle the timber imports. Britain had been granted mahogany-cutting rights by the Spanish authorities in 1786, and the Honduran port of Belize was the centre of their operations, a British colony in all but title. (The area around the port only became an official part of the British Empire, as British Honduras, in 1862; and when it gained its independence in 1981 it reverted to Belize.)

On their outward journeys to Belize, the ships carried all manner of goods for which Angas judged there might be a market among the British mahongany cutters. The arrival of the latest cargo was announced in the port’s English-language newspaper, the Honduras Gazette and Commercial Advertiser. On 3^rd January 1827, for example, a notice declared:

Such was the strength of the British enclave at Belize that, although not yet formally a colony, it had many of a colony’s institutions, including its own magistrates. The Gazette was established in July 1826, primarily as a vehicle for legal notices of one sort or another. Jurors, for example, were summoned to their duty through its pages – a very public summons which, one imagines, made it much easier for the accused to influence his or her jury.

The magistrates took on the editorship of the Gazette for most of its first year of publication before leaving the task in the hands of the newspaper’s printer JamesCruickshank. Eight months later however, as Thomas Pickstock (one of George Angas’s fellow importers) recalled, they “in their wisdom took it out of his hands, by reason of his intemperance, and very properly appointed a Committee for its better Government.” Perhaps it was the pressure of the weekly deadline that got to him [writes this weekly blogger!].

The Honduras Gazette and Commercial Advertiser
[Vol. 1. No. 39.] Belize, Saturday, March. 24, 1827. [Price 1s. 8d.] 
James Cruickshank's second edition as editor

In only the second edition under his charge, Cruickshank reported an alleged theft from the cargo of one of George Angas’s fleet. It appeared that

a negro man named Green … a seaman on board the schooner George Angas, had plundered from the cargo of that vessel, while on her passage from this port [Belize] to Ysabal, some Pracianas and Cambrics, which he sold in the place last mentioned. He however endeavoured to account for his possession of the goods, after a great deal of prevarication, by saying he bought some of them here, but did not know from whom, and that others were given to him by a negro woman slave to sell on her account. He was fully committed to trial at the ensuing April Summary Court.

Ysabel was a Spanish port on the east coast of Texas at its border with Mexico. Cambric is a fine cloth of linen or cotton. I have no idea what a praciana was. Cruickshank carried a report of the trial itself two weeks later.

The schooner George Angas had been freighted [hired] to a Spanish gentleman named Ramoon [sic] to carry his goods to Ysabal. Ramoon had been led to notice the prisoner disposing of merchandise similar to that bought by him. This occasioned him to open several of his [Ramoon’s] packages, which turned out to be deficient in quantity. It also appeared that the goods sold and given away by him [Green] were of the same quality as Ramoon had bought, and the number of pieces missing corresponded precisely with the number found in the prisoner’s possession.

Mr Miller [one of Angas’s partners in trade] who conducted the prosecution on behalf of the firm stated his inability to produce further evidence. He had felt it his duty, he said, to bring the prisoner before the Court, as suspicion rested so strongly upon him. The rest of the crew were at sea, and consequently could not be brought forward as witnesses.

The prisoner in his defence said that he had bought some goods in Belize to sell in Ysabal, but positively denied the possession of the quantity the indictment specified. He further stated that all the goods had been safely landed under the immediate eye of their owner, and that therefore it was impossible for him [Green] to rob the trunks, particularly as the vessel was small and several persons on board. The jury deliberated for a few minutes and returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

Perhaps Green was a careless thief, fencing stolen goods so openly and lucky to be acquitted. Perhaps Ramoon saw a chance of a bogus claim, either against a former slave or against a British trader. It’s interesting that Green was employed on one of Angas’s ships, and I wonder if he ever sailed to Britain; Angas is credited by some for his part in the abolition of slavery in the territory in 1831.

British Honduras: Mahogany being squared for export

(postcard c1890) 

JOSEPH ANGUS (1816-1902) AND THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD

My 3x great uncle Joseph Angus was, like his father in law William Brodie Gurney before him, a central figure in several Baptist institutions in the nineteenth century. Like Gurney, Angus was heavily involved in the missionary work of the denomination as secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society; but like all Baptists, Angus saw education as the key to redemption, to self-improvement and therefore to making oneself more useful in the service of God.

Joseph Angus (1816-1902)

unknown artist

His greatest achievement was as head of Stepney Baptist College which trained young men to be ministers. Angus and his closest friend, my great great grandfather William Augustus Salter (1812-1879), trained there in the 1830s. Angus returned to lead the institution in 1849 and remained in that post until 1893. Under his leadership the college thrived and in 1856 moved from the east end of London to Regent’s Park in the centre of the city.

It continues today as Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and Joseph’s books still form the heart of its Angus Library, the largest collection of Baptist literature in the world. (For example it’s the only place I know that has a copy of the sermon delivered by their old college head Rev WH Murch at William Augustus’s inauguration as minister.)

Rev Joseph Angus (bearded) and Rev William Augustus Salter (seated) on the occasion of the marriage of Salter’s daughter Louisa in 1867 – both men conducted the wedding service

Through his position at Regent’s Park he was invited in 1859 to be an examiner in English at London University, which both he and William Augustus had attended as students. He served for ten years as examiner but seems to have given that up when, in 1870, he was elected as a representative for Marylebone on the new London Schools Board.

It is astonishing that it is still less than 150 years since the education of our children became a public obligation. The Elementary Education Act of 1870 made it possible (but not compulsory) for local boroughs to build schools and insist on the attendance of children. London was unique in creating a single board to oversee all its boroughs, and the LSB was the first directly elected body of any kind (not just education) to serve the whole of the city.

In its original form the LSB lasted only 34 years, but the systems and values established during its lifetime continued to influence the provision of education in London long afterwards. Members were elected every three years, and Joseph Angus served on the Board for 12 of those 34 years in three spells (1870-1873, 1876-1882 and 1894-1897).

The London School Board in session in 1895 during Joseph Angus’s last term as a member – he may be the white-bearded figure in the middle row on the right of the picture

The LSB was absorbed into the new London County Council in 1904; and in 1965 when LCC became the Greater London Council education became the responsibility of the new Inner London Education Authority. The ILEA became a stronghold of the left-wing trade union movement, a thorn in the side of several Conservative council regimes and a political battlefield for competing liberal ideologies. In a move driven entirely by politics rather than educational ideology it was abolished by Norman Tebbit and Michael Heseltine of Margaret Thatcher’s right-wing government in 1990. For the first time in London’s history, education provision was devolved to local borough level, where it remains today.

The present Conservative-led coalition has encouraged the further dissipation of education provision through so-called free schools which opt out of local education authority control. It’s a return to the situation of 1870 where local school boards only topped up the voluntary provision of places by local churches. As I write the government is also calling for the privatisation of child protection services, a shocking abdication of responsibility to our children which Joseph Angus and the other founders of the London School Board would have condemned as I do.

The monogram of the London Schools Board, which built over 400 schools in London and by 1890 provided 350,000 places for school children

SIR RALPH SADLEIR (1507-1587) AND THE ROUGH WOOING

All things are connected, especially in the matter of family trees. I was writing recently about my Angus ancestors, related to me by marriage through my 3x great uncle Joseph Angus. The Earls of Angus built and lived in Tantallon Castle, which holds a tremendously dramatic position on a cliff-edged promontory on the coast east of Edinburgh.

While I was checking my facts about the castle, the name of my 12x great uncle Sir Ralph Sadleir cropped up. I’m related to Ralph through the grandfather of my paternal grandmother, and to Joseph through the great aunt of my paternal grandfather; so it’s rather nice to see both lines colliding some 376 years earlier than they eventually did at the birth of my father.

Sir Ralph Sadleir (1507-1587) painted on a panel in the Old Hall at Everley House, Wiltshire

In 1543 the Scottish royal court was an ants’ nest of intrigue. James V had died at the end of the previous year, and his daughter the infant Mary, now Queen of Scots, was the focus of frenzied political activity. Henry VIII, king of neighbouring England, wanted to negotiate a marriage between the baby Mary (six days old when her father died) and his son Edward, Prince of Wales, a mature five-year old.

Henry saw an opportunity to consolidate his power in the region and simultaneously neutralise Scotland as a traditional ally of his enemy France. He had a number of aces up his sleeve. A month before James’s death Henry had decisively defeated a Scottish army at the battle of Solway Moss, capturing rank upon rank of Scottish nobility. The Scottish earls and lords were well treated in captivity – Henry gave each one a gold chain for Christmas, for example – and many were released early in 1543 in the expectation that they would support Henry’s match-making.

Henry VIII (1491-1547) depicted in 1542

Meanwhile the Douglas family, Earls of Angus, had been living in exile in England since 1529 after staging an unsuccessful coup d’etat against James V with support from Henry VIII (who had also, years earlier, encouraged their attempt to kidnap the young James  and spirit him away to England). Angus’s affiliation to England should not have been a surprise – the 6^th Earl had married James IV’s widow Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII’s big sister. Following James V’s death, the Douglas family returned en masse to Scotland and took up residence in Tantallon once more.

Henry had all these potential allies now placed in the Scottish court. But how could he trust them to act on whatever promises they had made while in captivity or exile in England? Enter 12x great uncle Ralph. Sadleir, the English king’s ambassador to Scotland, was to be Henry’s enforcer. He was a seasoned political worker, having learned his craft under Thomas Cromwell.

Ralph spent most of 1543 adroitly moving between the various factions within the Scottish court, sifting out the political traps being laid for him by many of them. In all of it he used one man in particular as a sounding board: Sir George Douglas, the 7^th Earl of Angus’s brother.

Signature of Sir George Douglas, Master of Angus (d. 1552)

It’s clear that the men knew each other well, presumably from Douglas’s time in exile. Sadleir wrote long reports back to Henry which are peppered with references to discreet walks with Douglas in the gardens of Blackfriars in Edinburgh. In his first, of 20^th March 1543, Ralph writes:

I told Mr Douglas that I longed to speak with him and had much to commune with him from your majesty. … ‘Marry,’ quoth he, ‘I have laboured with all my power to do the king’s majesty service, … wherein I have always pretended outwardly the commonwealth of Scotland, and spake not much of England, because I would not be suspected.’

So two of my ancestral lines were in cahoots over the fate of Mary Queen of Scots! And when Ralph Sadleir had successfully negotiated the Treaty of Greenwich that summer (which agreed peace between the two countries and the marriage of Mary and Edward), he left Edinburgh and went to stay at Tantallon Castle to relax after a job well done.

Tantallon Castle, where Angus and Sadleir relaxed in late 1543

In December Sadleir was recalled from Tantallon to London when the Scottish parliament rejected the Treaty (which had been agreed only by Henry’s tame Scottish nobility). Henry was furious at the thwarting of his marriage plans, and there followed seven years of warfare between England and Scotland, known as the Rough Wooing. Ralph Sadleir was appointed treasurer-general of the English army; and some say that as that army marched north into Scotland, it passed Tantallon by instead of ransacking it, in recognition of the services of the Douglas family.