Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

announcement caused among the Archbishop's old friends and neighbours in Gloucester, many of whom claimed credit for having "always said it would be so," years and years before the Kentish prophetess !

His primacy was not marked by any important ecclesiastical events, nor did he occupy his position with the distinguished ability of some of his predecessors. Testimonies, however, are not wanting that while avoiding other spheres of activity he worthily fulfilled the duties of his own. His calmness, charity, and moderation tended greatly to the promotion of peace and order in the Church; and words originally addressed by a Churchman to Dr. Doddridge have been applied to Dr. Moore. "The appellation of peacemaker is infinitely more honourable than that of pastor, bishop, archbishop, patriarch, cardinal, or pope, and attended with a recompense infinitely surpassing the richest revenues of the highest ecclesiastical dignity." Though gaining no fame as a politician, scholar, or author, he effectually secured the good opinion of his contemporaries, who speak of him as doing honour to his appointment: while Raikes and others often describe him as "the very respectable Archbishop of Canterbury." His published works consist of but two sermons; one preached before the Lords on the 30th January, 1777, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I.; the other on the Fast Day, 1781.

A writer in 1800, in a brief biographical sketch, remarked: "Dr. Moore has been kind to his relatives, which shows that his elevation has not placed him beyond the most amiable feelings of humanity." Facts which were well-known to the people of Gloucester are here referred to. Interesting stories were long current of his hearty and generous consideration for his kindred in the old city, and of his occasional visits to the old home. One of them tells how during one of these occasions his brother reminded him of the expertness in the business which he had shown when a lad, and jocularly suggested that his hand had lost its cunning, by asking if he

had not forgotten how to dress a calf. The Archbishop replied that he could dress one then as well as ever, and proposed to give demonstration of his ability. Arrangements were quickly made, and, doffing such portions of his clerical attire as impeded free action, the Primate performed his task so expeditiously and neatly as to prove the truth of the proverb, "early learned not old forgot.”2

By his marriage with Miss Eden, sister of Lord Auckland, he had four sons, two of whom entered the Church, and of his care for their interests the magazine writer, already quoted, gives an amusing illustration. "Of course," he says, "the Archbishop enriched his family; they all did it in those days, no journals existing to denounce them. People still living tell how at a hotly disputed election fifty years ago it was announced on big placards that a certain meeting at Maidstone would be addressed by the following learned and reverend divines: a Canon of Canterbury, the rector of this, the vicar of that,' &c., &c., numbering some half a dozen. They were really all comprised in a son of Archbishop Moore, who held many preferments, and some Whig opponent had thus satirised the fact, and done his best to raise prejudice against him.'s As some set off, we are assured that "the Archbishop was personally a generous man, and his family made good use of the wealth which flowed towards them too freely.

His life closed at his palace in Lambeth, where, after a Primacy of nearly twenty-two years, he died January 18th, 1805, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was buried at Lambeth, and his funeral was one of unusual pomp.

All accounts agree in representing the Archbishop as a man of fine presence-a no small advantage in any profession, an especially great one in the Church, and one which in part accounts for his success. The writer before quoted, referring to a full length profile portrait of him in Lambeth Palace, says, "The late Archbishop told me that, according to tradition, he was so painted because a large wen had grown on

the other side of his face. It may be so; but only yesterday I saw at Madame Tussaud's Hamilton's picture of the marriage of George IV. In that picture, the Archbishop is actually in the same attitude as in the Lambeth picture, and I feel sure the latter portrait is a replica of the other."

NOTES.

1.-"One Hundred Years Ago"; English Illustrated Magazine, January, 1886.

66

2. On the death of the father in 1775 the business was carried on by his son George till his death in 1792, and then by his daughter Jane, familiarly known in the city as 'Jenny More," and described by one who still well remembers her as a funny little old woman.' The tablet in the Cathedral was erected by her executrix according to her directions. She was succeeded in the business by her foreman, the late Mr. Denton.

66

[ocr errors]

3.—It is added that a similar joke was played by Sydney Smith on a rich Canon of Christchurch, Oxford, who being about to travel to Bath, asked Sydney, in an evil hour, to bespeak dinner for him at Hungerford. The jocose canon ordered dinner for the Canon of Christchurch, the Rector of Staverton, &c., &c., about eight in all, which the victim found all ready on his arrival.

DR. JOSEPH WHITE.

[1746-1814.]

[HERE are many interesting points of similarity between. the early life of the remarkable man who is the subject of this sketch, and that of John Canton. Natives of the same parish, both were the sons of working broadcloth weavers, both were brought up to the loom, both pursued their studies under similar circumstances of difficulty and discouragement, both met with kindly help, and both eventually were eminently successful.

Brief notices of JOSEPH WHITE, D.D., are found in several works; one of the fullest being in an old periodical entitled "The Gloucestershire Repository," published at Stroud in 1822. The writer appears to have drawn his information from original sources, and compiled his narative with care and accuracy, having obtained much assistance from Mr. George Harmer, a descendant of Dr. White's uncle, mentioned in the memoir. The present Rector of Melton, in Suffolk, the Rev. C. S. Harris, M.A., F.R,A.S., has also collected a variety of information concerning our worthy; and has obligingly lent me his MSS. From these and some other quarters the following particulars have been gathered.1

On his maternal side, Dr. White was descended from an ancestor whose eventful history is worthy of record. Mordecai Harmer, a Protestant native of Ireland, in the middle of the sixteenth century, had to leave that country on account of religious persecution. He sought refuge in Gloucestershire and purchasing a little property at Randwick,

took up his abode there, and became clerk of the parish. On the accession of Queen Mary and the restoration of popery, he was a marked man, his well-known piety and zeal drawing upon him the notice of the popish authorities. An attempt was accordingly made to seize him, the officers breaking into his house by night. The design was frustrated by his escaping, without his clothes, through the thatched roof of his cottage, running up the hill behind, and gaining shelter in a wood. Here his wants were supplied by his daughter, and after a few days he left his place of concealment and travelling to Oxford obtained employment as a mason's labourer. It was not till after Mary's death that he ventured to return to his home. He was at once reinstated in his office, and immediately proceeded to clear away the rood and other symbols of popery from the fine old parish church, where they had been in use during his absence. Altogether he held his office for forty years, during twenty of which he was blind; and at length died full of days and much lamented.

Dr. White's mother was a direct descendant from this venerable man. Her husband, Thomas White, was a broadcloth weaver, and their son Joseph was born at or near the hamlet of Ruscombe, now in the parish of Whiteshill, but which then formed part of the parish of Stroud, about 1746.

Thomas White was a man of singular attainments for a weaver, being a respectable Latin scholar and having also some knowledge of Greek. He brought up Joseph to work with him at the loom, and in the intervals of labour often entertained the boy by reading to him passages from old Latin authors, and translating them into English as he went on. The lad thus acquired an early passion for literature, and having an active mind soon gained considerable knowledge of the Latin language. His father now found it necessary to discourage these studies as they interfered with the operations of the loom. Joseph, however, kept his book pegged to the wall and took every opportunity to glance at its pages,

« VorigeDoorgaan »