A History of the Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarian Church, through the lives of its ministers, their assistants, and other notable figures from our history By Maurice Large, formerly Chairperson and Acting Secretary Index The beginnings of the church ............................................................................................... 1 Rev. William Durant, c.1662-1681 ....................................................................................... 1 Rev. Dr. Richard Gilpin c.1672-1700 ................................................................................... 3 Richard Gilpin’s Assistants 1690-1703 ................................................................................ 5 John Pringle (c.1690-1694) ................................................................................................ 5 William Pell (1694-1698) .................................................................................................... 5 Timothy Manlove (1699 – 1699) ........................................................................................ 6 Thomas Bradbury (1699-1703) .......................................................................................... 6 Benjamin Bennet ................................................................................................................. 7 Benjamin Bennet’s Assistants .............................................................................................. 8 Nathaniel Fancourt 1710 - 1719 ........................................................................................ 8 William Wilson 1720 – 1751 ............................................................................................... 8 Samuel Lawrence 1727-1733 ............................................................................................ 8 Richard Rogerson 1733-1760 ............................................................................................ 9 Samuel Lowthion 1751- 1780 ............................................................................................ 9 Robert Hood D. D. 1781 – 1782 ....................................................................................... 10 Rev. William Turner 1781 – 1841 ...................................................................................... 10 William Turner’s Assistants ................................................................................................ 12 Edward Prowitt Assistant to William Turner 1788 – 1802 ............................................. 12 Joseph McAlister Assistant to William Turner 1837 – 1845 ......................................... 13 George Harris 1845 – 1859 ............................................................................................... 13 William Newton 1860 – 1863 ............................................................................................. 16 James Christopher Street 1864 – 1870 ............................................................................. 17 Alfred Payne 1871 – 1883 ................................................................................................. 17 Rev. John Storer 1958-1971 .............................................................................................. 21 Rev. Dr Philip N. Tindall MA, BD, PhD, M Litt. 1972 – 1974 .............................................. 22 Rev. Magnus C. Ratter 1976 – 77 ..................................................................................... 22 James Losh 1763 – 1833 ................................................................................................... 24 Joseph Cowen, 9 July 1829 – 18 February 1900 ............................................................... 26 The John Carr Plate, and Mollie McIntyre’s Legacy ........................................................... 27 The Tyneside Memorial Plaque at Great Hucklow ............................................................. 29 History of the Church: Dean Inge ....................................................................................... 30 James Alexander “Alec” Burns 1907 – 2003 ...................................................................... 31 A Unitarian Olympian ......................................................................................................... 31 The beginnings of the church When Henry VIII split from Rome in 1534 (the year he was excommunicated by the Pope) there began a religious struggle in England that lasted for over 100 years. It led to many people being executed for supporting the ‘wrong’ side, a revolution and the execution of a king, and a Puritan Republic which governed England for 11 years. Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 and began the process which he intended would bring the strife to an end. While it was not the only Act to this end, the Act of Uniformity in 1662 prescribed by law the Protestant faith as practised by the Church of England as the only lawful form of worship, thus making the Roman Catholic faith illegal. The Act required all clergy to swear an oath that they would only conduct worship in the manner prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. Those who refused were kicked out of the church. The unforeseen problem was, of course, that those who were kicked out were not Roman Catholics, they were Puritans and they became known as Nonconformists. Their reasons for refusing to conform were various, and some of them became the Unitarians. In Newcastle in 1662 there were six ministers who were required to conform. Only one did – Richard Prideaux of All Saints. Stephen Dockwray of St Andrew’s died, Samuel Hammond and John Knightbridge left Newcastle (although he conformed later on) and Henry Leaver of St John’s went to live in Shincliffe. Only one minister was left in Newcastle to carry the Nonconformist flag - William Durant. Rev. William Durant, c.1662-1681 Rev. William Durant is regarded as the father of the Newcastle Unitarian Church, one of the oldest non-conformist churches in the UK. The street near the Church of the Divine Unity is named “Durant Road” in his honour. However, very little is known about his background. It was claimed at the end of the seventeenth century that he had taken “one or more degrees” at University College, Oxford, yet he cannot be traced with certainty in University records. There is a record of “Durant, William, of Cornwall, pleb.” who matriculated at Christ Church College on 8th November 1611 aged 18. The details fit, although he would have been 88 when he died. In my view the most likely details are those recorded in the Surman index1 which has a date of baptism of 28th November 1621 and records William Durant as being at Exeter College, Oxford from 1640 but there being no evidence of his graduation. William married Jane, sister of James (later Sir James) Clavering and in the Clavering family records he is referred to as being “of 1 The Surman Index Online, Dr Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies, http://surman.english.qmul.ac.uk. 1 county Devon”. There was an ejected minister in Devon named Nathaniel Durant, and William certainly had a brother, John, who became a dissenting minister in Maidstone in Kent after 1662. Wherever he came from, he first appears in Newcastle in 1645, shortly after the town was captured by the Scots and Charles I was held captive (there is a plaque on the wall of Lloyds Bank in Market Street, Newcastle which commemorates this event). In February of that year he was appointed to officiate at All Saints, then in May he became a Lecturer at St Nicholas’, and in July 1646 he was installed at St John’s. Durant was a Puritan of high repute and well-regarded as a preacher, although at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 he was silenced by John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, on the ground that there was no satisfactory evidence that he had ever been ordained. On 5th July 1647 Durant was appointed Lecturer at All Saints’ where he remained until he was ejected in 1661, the authorities not even waiting for the coming into force of the Act of Uniformity in August 1662. The board in the church’s vestibule records William Durant as our minister from 1672. This is, however, certainly wrong! He lived in Pilgrim Street and had for many years worked in the churches of Newcastle. It is not credible that he did nothing for over ten years after his ejection. 1672 is the date when he received a licence to preach as a non-conformist (or in other words his activities became lawful). But there is much to his life before then. He did not remain alone in Newcastle for long. Richard Pringle, having been ejected from Eglingham, and Richard Gilpin, having resigned his living in Greystoke, Cumberland, soon moved to Newcastle, and Henry Leaver moved back after three years. These four preachers formed the nucleus of what was to become the Nonconformist witness in Newcastle. By 1668 these four preachers were becoming of considerable concern to the Bishop of Durham, John Cosin. He complained that the civic authorities were allowing unlawful conventicles (meetings for religious worship) led by them to proceed without sanction. After complaining about a meeting on 1st November 1668 he continued with information of a second meeting on 25th November and specifically names Durant, Gilpin, Pringle and Leaver as “the four chief leaders and abettors”. Following further warnings from the Bishop, the town authorities acted. In late July 1669 the town sergeant broke up a meeting at Durant’s house in Pilgrim Street at which 150 people were present, and, a couple