Whitchurch

“ A charter of about 1190 shews us the two brothers acting conjointly in regard to the prebend of Whitchurch (in Binegar) . It is an agreement between Thomas archdeacon of Wells and Stephen de Tornaco canon of the prebend of Whitchurch and Roger de Palton, whereby the said Thomas and Stephen his brother grant to the said Roger a watercourse, &c, in exchange for land in Wells. [34] Stephen de Tornaco presents to the parsonage of Binegar a few years later, apparently in the vacancy of the see after Bishop Reginald's death: [35] and we find him as a canon at the election of Bishop Jocelin in 1206. ”

“ Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater (of eccentric memory) , rector of Whitchurch, who by his will, dated in 1825, gave the whole of his own books in the Rectory House at Whitchurch, to be added to the others, and left also the sum of 150l. to the rector to be invested in his name, and the dividends thereof expended by him, together with the money arising from the sale of his lordship's wines and liquors in his cellars at Whitchurch, in the purchase of printed books for the use of the rectors of that parish for the time being. ”

“ Whitchurch, where the old parish church of St. Marcellus is situated, lies in the open valley one mile from the town. It is no longer used as a place of worship, but resembles a chapel or oratory, in which the remains of chiefs and men of learning are deposited. Their blazoned arms and sumptuous tombs are rapidly yielding to the decay incident on damp and negligence. In the porch is a brass plate, engraven with figures of Richard Myddleton, governor of Denbigh Castle in the reigns of Edward the Sixth, Mary and Elizabeth, with the Lady Jane, his wife. ”

“ The town has never been represented in parliament nor noted for any trade except agriculture. In 1228 John Fitz-Alan received the right of changing the day of the market he held at Whitchurch from Thursday to Monday, and in 1362 a fair lasting three days from the feast of SS. Simon and Jude was granted to John Lestrange. Lord Brownlow granted the market rights to the local authority. ”

“ For three hours before sunset the struggle waged round the site of the church, and when at last Percy's army broke and fled, they made for Wem to the north, or the higher, wooded ground to the east. The road to Whitchurch passes through Wem, from which Hawkstone Park may be seen towards the west upon high ground, and the obelisk to Rowland Hill. The scenery upon the route is eminently characteristic of English pastoral life, with farmsteads and cottages nestling in charming seclusion amid a wealth of foliage, or upon the summits of the small undulations which diversify the Shropshire plain. ”

“ GRAFTON, RICHARD (d. 1572) . English printer and chronicler, was probably born about 1513. He received the freedom of the Grocers’ Company in 1534. Miles Coverdale’s version of the Bible had first been printed in 1535. Grafton was early brought into touch with the leaders of religious reform, and in 1537 he undertook, in conjunction with Edward Whitchurch, to produce a modified version of Coverdale’s text, generally known as Matthew’s Bible (Antwerp, 1537) . ”

“ Thus:—
"Malpas Church, which occupies the summit of a gentle hill some six miles from Whitchurch, occurs frequently—as in a full page drawing in the Graphic newspaper for Christmas, 1883; in Babes in the Wood, p. 19; in Baby Bunting, p. 20; and in The Fox Jumps over the Parson's Gate, p. 5.
"The main street of Whitchurch is fairly pictured in the Great Panjandrum, p. 6, whilst the old porch of the Blue Bell portrayed on p. 28 of Old Christmas is identical with that of the Bell Inn at Lushingham, situated some two miles from Whitchurch on the way to Malpas. ”

“ On 13 April 1635 he was instituted rector of Whitchurch in Warwickshire, and he was clerk for the diocese of Worcester in both convocations of the clergy held in 1640. In 1646 he was appointed by the city of Worcester to treat with the parliamentary army respecting the surrender of the place. Afterwards he fled to the king at Oxford, when he was deprived of his church preferment. Later he removed to London, where he acted as almoner and confessor to royalist sufferers. ”

“ It is a splendid folio Bible of the largest volume, and was distinguished from its predecessors by the name of The Great Bible. The title-page represents Henry VIII. giving the “Word of God” to Cromwell and Cranmer, who, in their order, distribute it to laymen and clerics, and describes the volume as “truly translated after the veryte of the Hebreue and Greke texts by þe dylygent studye of dyverse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch.” ”

“ He returned home, and almost immediately afterwards crossed over to England, where he opened negotiations with the Government. After some delay he succeeded in obtaining a grant of a large tract of land forming part of the present Township of Whitchurch, in the County of York. In consideration of this liberal grant he on his part agreed to settle not fewer than sixty colonists on the laud so granted within a certain specified time. ”

“ It is only an American who can feel it; and even he begins to find himself growing insensible to its effect, after a long residence in England. But while you are still new in the old country, it thrills you with strange emotion to think that this little church of Whitnash, humble as it seems, stood for ages under the Catholic faith, and has not materially changed since Wickcliffe's days, and that it looked as gray as now in Bloody Mary's time, and that Cromwell's troopers broke off the stone noses of those same gargoyles that are now grinning in your face. ”

“ There we find the little group of five missionaries, and the two Nez Perces boys that Whitman took with him to New York selecting a spot where the bunch grass grows high and thick. Their hearts go out to God in joyful adoration for His protecting care over them thus far, especially so, because they felt the greatest difficulties had been overcome and they now entered the country for the people of which they had devoted their lives. The sky is bright above them, the sun shines serenely and the atmosphere is light and invigorating. ”

“ In this work of the Missionaries Jason Lee, the chief of the Methodist Missions, was, up to the date of the incident we are to narrate, the most successful of all. He was a man of great strength of character. Like Whitman, he was also a man of great physical strength, fearless, and, with it all, wise and brainy. No other man among the pioneers, for his untiring energy in courting immigration, can be so nearly classed with Whitman.
They were all men, who, though in Oregon to convert Indian savages to Christianity, yet were intensely American. ”

“ If we turn from the volunteer to the regular side of Church work, Whitby still has an almost unique attraction for the student of the religious movement in England. The late Dean Stanley, who loved every phase of the historical development of the life of the National Church, and mourned over the thoroughness of recent restorations, which, as he thought, threaten the entire disappearance of the surroundings and forms of the worship of the Georgian era, would have thanked God and taken courage if he could have visited Whitby Parish Church in 1888, for church and service are a perfect survival. ”

“ He stiffened his arm before Bretzenger, and stayed him. And then the priest stepped quietly to the safe, and pushed its door to with an arm that seemed too weak and frail to stir the heavy steel.
“It looks to me, Michael,” he was saying gently, as if addressing McQuirk alone, “like personal property, and, as I’m the administrator, I suppose [87] I’ll have to take charge of it. If any beside our dead friend own it, let them come forward and prove their claim, and identify their property in open court.” ”

“ Whitby is renowned for its ancient abbey and its beautiful situation on the high and rocky coast of Yorkshire, just where the river Esk finds a way to the sea. The Esk cuts the town into two portions. East Cliff is on the one side, with its hoary abbey and quaint parish church on its summit, towering over the old fishing hamlet which clusters so picturesquely at its base. West Cliff is on the other side, a modern, fashionable seaside resort. Close by are the heather-clad moors with their keen, invigorating air. ”

“ In the year 1830 I was married to Miss Julia A. Jolly who is still living. The fruit of our union was a son, David J. Whitmer, now aged forty-eight, and a daughter, now aged 46 years, both of whom are now living with me. "I first heard of what is now termed Mormonism in the year 1828. I made a business trip to Palmyra, New York, and while there stopped with one Oliver Cowdery. A great many people in the neighborhood were talking about the finding of certain golden plates by one Joseph Smith, Jr., a young man of the neighborhood. ”

“ He, too, passed through the trying scenes incident to the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Jackson county. But after enduring well for a season he left the Church, in 1838, making his home near Richmond, in Ray county, Missouri. Here he lived a quiet, retired life, and reared his family in respectability; his eldest son, David P. Whitmer, rising to some local prominence as a lawyer, and serving one or two terms as mayor of Richmond. To the day of his death—which occurred April 21, 1856—Jacob Whitmer was true to his testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon. ”

“ This is supposed to be a drawback to worship; probably is—must be, where people have been always used to looking all one way. That it really hinders a hearty service, no one would maintain who has attended one in Whitby Parish Church. It was quite full, when I was there, of a congregation largely composed of men, and the majority of these sailors and other working folk. Let any reader who still goes to church make a point of ascending the 190 stone steps which lead up to it from the old town, and looking at the matter with his own eyes, if ever he should be within reach. ”

“ No man, set of men, or sect, not interested in the result of a measure or a crime, will ever use an argument like the one we have quoted from this priest. Dr. Whitman and those about his station had been slaughtered in the most brutal and cowardly manner, by a band of Indians that this priest, his bishop, and associates, backed by the consent and influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company, had brought about through the direct influence of these three men: all of whom knew, and consulted with the Indians as to the commission of the crime. ”

“ Even Daniel Webster, at a moment like this, seems less grand of proportion than does the plain and poor missionary, with "a half pint of seed wheat" in his hand, and words upon his lips which are an enduring part of our history. Only a really illumined man, at that hour, could fitly answer Senator McDuffie, when he said: "Do you think your honest farmers in Pennsylvania, New York, or even Ohio and Missouri, would abandon their farms and go upon any such enterprise as this?" Whitman made answer by breaking the barrier of the Rockies with his own courage and faith. ”

“ Mr. Whitfield used often to put me in mind how singularly favoured I was; my father, mother, and three sisters were like those blessed people, ‘Martha and her sister, and Lazarus,’ whom ‘Jesus loved.’”
“When,” says his biographer, “the clergy were called upon to collect in their respective parishes for the French emigrants, he was not a whit behind the chiefest of them in this business, for which he had the honour of being noticed in an anonymous pamphlet, as if to relieve the distresses of a Papist were to encourage the errors of Popery.” ”

“ Few indeed are the places which bring back more delightful memories or a greater longing to return than Whitby—old, straggling, storm-beaten Whitby—climbing up its steep hill crowned by one of the most unique churches and stateliest abbey ruins in all Britain. The road which takes us from Scarborough to its ancient rival is a wild one, wandering around the black, heather-splotched hills with trying grades which make careful driving necessary. ”

“ In her diary she says, but in no complaining mood: "Situated as we are, our house is the Missionaries' tavern, and we must accommodate more or less all the time. We have no less than seven families in our two houses; we are in peculiar and somewhat trying circumstances; we cannot sell to them because we are missionaries and not traders."
And we see by the record that there were no less than seventy souls in the Whitman family the day of the massacre. ”

“ The good Presbyterians who were a part of the American Board at that time, and were not then at all anxious to share in any honors to Whitman, latterly saw new light in something of the character grandeur of the neglected missionary. They caused a beautiful statue of Dr. Marcus Whitman to be placed in their Witherspoon building at Philadelphia. To the boys and young men, let me say the lesson in this is, that all good things come to the good who wait! Stand true for the right. ”

“ In the wide rotunda, under the enormous dome, thick with billowing gloom, a janitor, the people’s solitary night watch, slept profoundly in his chair, his mouth open, his white beard upon his breast. His gossips had departed. Their deserted chairs stood aimlessly about. He had finished the nightly recital of the strenuous part he had borne in the great rebellion, and he slumbered, his snores echoing in the monstrous inverted bowl above him. [195] The governor ascended to the floor above, and turned down the north corridor. ”