Samuel Bourn the Younger
Encyclopedia
Life
He was the second son of Samuel Bourn the elderSamuel Bourn the Elder
Samuel Bourn the Elder was an English dissenting minister.-Life:Bourn was born at Derby, where his father and grandfather, who were clothiers, had shown some public spirit in providing the town with a water supply...
, born at Calne
Calne
Calne is a town in Wiltshire, southwestern England. It is situated at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs hill range, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. He was taught classics at Bolton, and trained for the ministry in the Manchester dissenting academy of John Chorlton
John Chorlton
John Chorlton was an English presbyterian minister and tutor.-Life:John Chorlton was born at Salford in 1666. On 4 April 1682 he was admitted to be educated for the ministry at Rathmell Academy under Richard Frankland. On completing his studies he was chosen as assistant to Henry Newcome, the...
and James Coningham
James Coningham
James Coningham was an English presbyterian divine and tutor.-Life:Coningham was born in 1670 in England and educated at Edinburgh, where he graduated M.A. on 27 February 1694. The same year he became minister of the presbyterian congregation at Penrith...
. His first settlement was at Crook
Crook, Cumbria
Crook is a village and civil parish in the South Lakeland District of the English county of Cumbria, located on the B5284 road between Kendal and Windermere. In the 2001 census the population was 340....
, near Kendal
Kendal
Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...
, in 1711. He carried with him his father's theology, but at his ordination he declined subscription, not from particular scruples, but on general principles; as a result many of the neighbouring ministers refused to concur in ordaining him. Joshua Toulmin
Joshua Toulmin
Joshua Toulmin of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian , Baptist , and then Unitarian congregations...
says 'the received standard of orthodoxy' which was proffered to him was the assembly's catechism.
In 1719, when the Salters' Hall conference had made the Trinitarian controversy a burning question among dissenters, Bourn, hitherto Athanasian, addressed himself to reading Samuel Clarke
Samuel Clarke
thumb|right|200px|Samuel ClarkeSamuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican clergyman.-Early life and studies:...
and Daniel Waterland
Daniel Waterland
Daniel Cosgrove Waterland was an English theologian.Daniel Waterland was born at Walesby Rectory, Lincolnshire, England, and educated in Lincoln and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1703 and MA in 1706...
, and accepted the Clarkean scheme. While at Crook, Bourn dedicated a child (probably of Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
parentage) without baptism, according to a form given by Toulmin.
In 1720 Bourn succeeded Henry Winder
Henry Winder
-Life:The son of Henry Winder , farmer, by a daughter of Adam Bird of Penruddock, he was born at Hutton John, parish of Greystoke, Cumberland, on 15 May 1693. His grandfather, Henry Winder, farmer, who lived to be over a hundred , was falsely charged with murdering his first-born son...
at Tunley, near Wigan
Wigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
. He declined in 1725 a call to the neighbouring congregation of Park Lane, but accepted a call (dated 29 December 1727) to the new chapel at Chorley
Chorley
Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. The town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry...
. On 7 May 1731 Bourn was chosen one of the Monday lecturers at Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, a post which he held along with his Chorley pastorate. On 19 April 1732 Bourn preached the opening sermon at the New Meeting, which replaced the Lower Meeting, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, and on 21 and 23 April he was called to be colleague with Thomas Pickard in the joint charge of this congregation and a larger one at Coseley
Coseley
Coseley is a town located mostly within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands. Part of the Black Country, it lies south east of Wolverhampton and north of Dudley....
, where he was to settle. He began this ministry on 25 June.
He was harassed by John Ward
John Ward, 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward
John Ward, 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward , known as John Ward until 1740 and as the 6th Baron Ward from 1740 to 1763, was a British peer and politician....
, J.P., of Sedgley Park, who sought to compel him to take and maintain a parish apprentice. Bourn twice appealed to the quarter sessions, and pleaded his own cause successfully. Subsequently, on 15 December 1738, Ward and another justice tried to remove him from Sedgley parish to his last legal settlement, on the pretext that he was likely to become chargeable. Toulmin prints his reply. After Pickard's death, his colleague was Samuel Blyth, M.D.
In 1751 Bourn declined a call to succeed John Buck (d. 8 July 1750) in his father's congregation at Bolton. He died at Coseley of paralysis on 22 March 1754.
Controversy
Bourn had a hot temper, and was not averse to controversy, repelling a field-preacher, or attacking quakers in their own meeting-house; and with difficulty was held back by his friend Job OrtonJob Orton
Job Orton was an English dissenting minister.-Life:He was born at Shrewsbury. He entered the academy of Dr Philip Doddridge at Northampton, became minister of a congregation formed by a fusion of Presbyterians and Independents at High Street Chapel, Shrewsbury , received Presbyterian ordination...
from replying on the spot to the doctrinal confession of a young independent minister, who was being ordained at the New Meeting, lent for the occasion. He engaged in correspondence on the 'Logos' (1740-2) with Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...
(printed in Theological Repository
Theological Repository
The Theological Repository was a periodical founded and edited from 1769 to 1771 by the eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley...
vol. i.); on subscription (1743) with the Kidderminster dissenters; on dissent (1746) with Groome, vicar of Sedgley. In his catechetical instructions, founded on the assembly's catechism, he used that manual rather as a point of departure than as a model of doctrine. Although he had a great name for heterodoxy, his preaching was seldom polemical, but full of unction, as were his prayers.
Works
Bourn's publications were:- 'The Young Christian's Prayer Book,' &c.; 1733; 2nd ed. Dublin, with preface by John LelandJohn Leland (Presbyterian)John Leland was an English Presbyterian minister and author of theological works.Leland was born in Wigan, Lancashire on October 18, 1691. He was educated in Dublin, Ireland , and went into the ministry there. He received his Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1739. His...
.; 3rd ed. enlarged, 1742; 4th and best edition, 1748. - 'An Introduction to the History of the Inquisition,' &c. (anon.), 1735.
- 'Popery a Craft, and Popish Priests the chief Craftsmen,' 1735, (a Fifth of November sermon on Acts xix. 25, reprinted in 'A Cordial for Low Spirits,' edited by Thomas GordonThomas Gordon (writer)Thomas Gordon was a Scottish writer and Commonwealthman.Along with John Trenchard, he published The Independent Whig, which was a weekly periodical. From 1720 to 1723, Trenchard and Gordon, wrote a series of 144 essays entitled Cato's Letters, condemning corruption and lack of morality within the...
, 2nd ed. 1763, edited by Rev. Richard BaronRichard Baron (dissenting minister)Richard Baron was a dissenting minister, Whig pamphleteer, and editor of Locke, Milton and others.-Life:He was born at Leeds, and educated at the University of Glasgow from 1737 to 1740, which he left with a testimonial signed by Francis Hutcheson and Robert Simson...
. - 'An Address to Protestant Dissenters; or an Inquiry into the grounds of their attachment to the Assembly's Catechism . . . being a calm examination of the sixth answer ... by a Prot. Dissenter' (anon.), 1736.
- 'A Dialogue betw. a Baptist and a Churchman; occasioned by the Baptists opening a new Meeting-House for reviving old Calvinistical doctrines and spreading Antinomian and other errors, at Birmingham,' &c. Part I. by ' a consistent Protestant ' (anon.), 1737; Part II. by 'a consistent Christian' (anon.), 1739.
- 'The Christian Family Prayer Book,' &c., with a recommendation by Isaac WattsIsaac WattsIsaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, 1738 (frequently reprinted with additions. A prefixed 'Address to Heads of Families on Family Religion' was reprinted by John Kentish, 1803). - 'Address to the Congregation of Prot. Dissenters ... at the Castle Gate in Nottingham,' &c., by a Prot. Dissenter (anon.), 1738 (in vindication of No. 4, which had been attacked by Rev. James Sloss, of Nottingham).
- 'Lectures to Children and Young People … consisting of Three Catechisms. … with a preface,' &c., 1738 (prefixed is a recommendation by Revs. John Mottershead, Josiah Rogerson, Henry GroveHenry GroveHenry Grove was an English nonconformist minister, theologian, and dissenting tutor.-Life:He was born at Taunton, Somerset, on 4 January 1684...
, Thomas AmoryThomas Amory (tutor)Thomas Amory D.D. was an English dissenting tutor and minister and poet from Taunton.-Biography:His father was a grocer and his mother a sister of Henry Grove. He was at school under Chadwick, a local dissenting minister, and learned French at Exeter under André de Majendie, a refugee minister...
, Samuel ChandlerSamuel ChandlerSamuel Chandler was an English Nonconformist minister.-Life:He was born at Hungerford in Berkshire, where his father was a minister. He was sent to school at Gloucester, where he began a lifelong friendship with Bishop Butler and Archbishop Secker; and he afterwards studied at Leiden...
, and George BensonGeorge Benson (theologian)George Benson was an English Presbyterian minister and theologian. According to Alexander Balloch Grosart, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, his views were "Socinian" though at this period the term is often confused with Arian....
, whom Bourn describes as his close friend; appended is the revision of the assembly's catechism, by James Strong, minister at IlminsterIlminsterIlminster is a country town and civil parish in the countryside of south west Somerset, England, with a population of 4,781. Bypassed a few years ago, the town now lies just east of the intersection of the A303 and the A358...
; 2nd ed. 1739; 3rd ed. 1748 (with title, 'Religious Education,' &c.); the third catechism of the set was re-edited by Job OrtonJob OrtonJob Orton was an English dissenting minister.-Life:He was born at Shrewsbury. He entered the academy of Dr Philip Doddridge at Northampton, became minister of a congregation formed by a fusion of Presbyterians and Independents at High Street Chapel, Shrewsbury , received Presbyterian ordination...
as 'A Summary of Doctrinal and Practical Religion.'- 'The True Christian Way of Striving for the Faith of the Gospel,' 1738 (sermon, on Phil. i. 27, 28, at the Dudley double lecture, 23 May).
- 'Remarks on a pretended Answer' to th& last piece (anon.), 1739.
- 'The Christian Catechism,' &c. (anon.), 1744 (intended as a preservative against DeismDeismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
). - 'Address' in services at ordination of Job Orton on 18 Sept. 1745 at Shrewsbury (a charge, from 1 Thess. ii. 10).
- 'The Protestant Catechism,' &c. (anon.), 1746.
- 'The Protestant Dissenters' Catechism ... by a lover of truth and liberty ' (anon.), 1747.
- 'An Answer to the Remarks of an unknown Clergyman' on the foregoing (anon.), 1748 (annexed is a letter from a London dissenter on kneeling at the Lord's Supper).
- 'A new Call to the Unconverted' (anon.) 1754 (four sermons on Ezek. xxxiii. 2).
- (posthumous) 'Twenty Sermons on the most serious and practical subjects of the Christian Religion,' 1755; 2nd ed. 1757. This contained a bibliography by Roger FlexmanRoger FlexmanRoger Flexman was an English Presbyterian minister, known also as a chronological and historical scholar, and published as an indexer and bibliographer.-Life:...
.
Toulmin prints selections from his catechetical lectures on scripture history, and describes the manuscript of a projected work on 'The Scriptures of the O. T. digested under proper heads … according to the method of Dr. Gastrell
Francis Gastrell
Francis Gastrell was bishop of Chester and a writer on deism. He was a friend of Jonathan Swift, mentioned several times in A Journal to Stella, and chaplain to Robert Harley, when Harley was speaker of the House of Commons.-Life:...
, bishop of Chester,' &c.
Family
He married while at Crook (about 1712) Hannah Harrison (d. 1768), of a good family near KendalKendal
Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...
. She bore him nine children:
- Joseph, born 1713; educated at Glasgow; minister first at Congleton, then at Hindley (1746); married (1748) Miss Farnworth (d. 1785); died 17 Feb. 1765; his eldest daughter Margaret married Samuel Jones (d. 17 March 1819), the Manchester banker, uncle of Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron OverstoneSamuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron OverstoneSamuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone was a British banker and politician.-Background and education:Loyd was the only son of Reverend Lewis Loyd and Sarah, daughter of John Jones, a Manchester banker...
. - SamuelSamuel BournSamuel Bourn was an English Dissenter minister.Bourn was the third Samuel Bourn, as second son of Samuel Bourn the Younger, and was educated at Stand grammar school and Glasgow University. In 1742 he became dissenting minister of Rivington, Lancashire, where he enjoyed the friendship of Hugh...
. - Abraham, surgeon at Market HarboroughMarket HarboroughMarket Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...
, Leicester, and Liverpool; author of pamphlets ('Free and Candid Considerations,' &c., 1755, and 'A Review of the Argument,' &c., 1756) in reply to Peter Whitfield, a learned Liverpool printer and sugar-refiner, who left the dissenters and vigorously attacked their orthodoxy. - Benjamin, a London bookseller, author of 'A Sure Guide to Hell' (anon.), 1750, and supplement; he published some of his father's pieces.
- Daniel, who built at LeominsterLeominsterLeominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located approximately north of the city of Hereford and south of Ludlow, at...
what is said to have been the first cotton mill erected in England, an enterprise wrecked by a fire. - Miles, a mercer at DudleyDudleyDudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
. - John; died under age.
Two others died young.