America
Noah Worcester, D.D., “The Apostle of Peace.”
America has her share of illustrious shoemakers. The United States can boast of men worthy to stand on a level with the best examples of merit the gentle craft can produce in the Old World. We select four “representative men” from the long list that might be named, to whom we shall chiefly devote our remaining space. These men show in their character and life-work the best features of the New England type of the American citizen. They are men of sterling moral and religious worth, intense haters of tyranny and slavery, and war and intemperance, “sound as gospel“ in their political principles, ”clear as Wenham ice” in their transparency of character.
We are fain to believe that every intelligent person in the United States knows the name of Noah Worcester, the “Apostle of Peace,” as he has been very justly styled. Every intelligent person also on the British side of the Atlantic ought to know something of this good man. He was one of the world’s reformers, and commenced a movement which is destined to deepen and widen in its influence until it becomes universal, and changes for the better the entire condition of mankind. We allude to the establishment of the Peace Society of Massachusetts—the parent of numberless similar societies in America and Europe. “I well recollect,” says Dr. Channing,182 “the day of its formation in yonder house, then the parsonage of this parish; and if there was a happy man that day on earth it was the founder of this institution. This Society gave birth to all the kindred ones in this country, and its influence was felt abroad. Dr. Worcester assumed the charge of its periodical, and devoted himself for years to this cause, with unabating faith and zeal; and it may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more than he to spread just sentiment on the subject of war, and to hasten the era of universal peace. He began his efforts in the darkest day, when the whole civilized world was shaken by conflict and threatened with military despotism. He lived to see more than twenty years of general peace, and to see through these years the multiplication of national ties, an extension of commercial communications, an establishment of new connections between Christians and learned men throughout the world, and a growing reciprocity of friendly and beneficent influence among different States, all giving aid to the principles of peace, and encouraging hopes which a century ago would have been deemed insane.”
Noah Worcester, born at Hollis, New Hampshire, November 25th, 1758, was the son of a farmer, and until the age of twenty-one worked on the farm. His father’s means were limited, and the education of the family was stinted in consequence. When hostilities commenced between the American Colonies and Great Britain, young Worcester, then only about eighteen years of age, became a soldier and fought at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. It is said that his disgust with the vices of soldier life, and horror at the awful sights of the battle-field, drove him from the army and made him forever afterward a hater of war and an advocate of peace. Returning to farm life, he divided his time between outdoor labor and shoemaking, which occupation he followed when the darkness of night time or the cold of winter prevented his working in the fields. He also betook himself earnestly to the work of self-education. Like many another shoemaker, he made his work-room his study. The materials for the improvement of his mind lay all round his bench—books, pens, ink, paper, etc. An early marriage increased the difficulties of his situation as a poor student, yet he managed by dint of extraordinary application to improve himself and become fit for the ministry before he had reached the age of thirty. His first church was small, and his salary amounted to only two hundred dollars (£45.) Many of the members were poor, and the conscientious pastor could not allow them to pay their share to his support. On this account he often gave up as much as a quarter of his salary in the year, getting through as best he could by a little farming and a good deal of shoemaking. When times were bad he turned his “study” into a day-school and taught the children of his parishioners for nothing. “His first book was a series of letters to a Baptist minister, and in this he gave promise of the direction the efforts of his life were to assume.” Its aim was to promote unity among men of different denominations. Later on he published a remarkable book, which made no small stir in its day, entitled “Bible News Relating to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;” and a second on the same subject, under the title “Letters to Trinitarians.” “These works,” says Channing, “obtained such favor, that he was solicited to leave the obscure town in which he ministered, and to take charge in this place (Brighton, Mass.) of a periodical at first called the Christian Disciple, and now better known as the Christian Examiner.”183
At length he issued, in 1814, the famous pamphlet by which his name became known and honored among Christian men and lovers of peace throughout the world. It bore the title “A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.” No more effective tract was ever printed. It was translated into several of the languages of Europe. The impression it produced in America led to the formation of the “Peace Society of Massachusetts.” Worcester’s views on war were identical with those of the Society of Friends. “He interpreted literally the precept, ‘Resist not evil,’ and believed that nations as well as individuals would find safety as well as fulfil righteousness in yielding it literal obedience.... He believed that no mightier man ever trod the earth than William Penn when entering the wilderness unarmed, and stretching out to the savage a hand which refused all earthly weapons in token of peace and brotherhood.” So absorbed was he in this great theme, that he declared, eight years after his famous pamphlet was issued, that “its subject had not been out of his mind when awake an hour at a time during the whole period.” He died at Brighton, Mass., in his eightieth year, 31st October, 1838. It was his wish to have written on his tombstone the words, “He wrote the ‘Friend of Peace.’” Dr. Channing’s testimony to Dr. Worcester’s character is the highest one man can bear to another. He says, “Two views of him particularly impressed me. The first was the unity, the harmony of his character. He had no jarring elements. His whole nature had been blended and melted into one strong, serene love. His mission was to preach peace, and he preached it, not on set occasions or by separate efforts, but in his whole life.... My acquaintance with him gave me clearer comprehension of the spirit of Christ and the dignity of man.”
Worcester received his degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College, and his diploma of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard.
Roger Sherman, One of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Another famous American citizen, contemporary during the early part of his life with Noah Worcester, was Roger Sherman, who was born at Newton, Massachusetts, 19th April, 1721. Until the age of twenty-two he was a shoemaker, and from the age of twenty supported his widowed mother and the younger members of the family, and found the means to enable two brothers to enter the ministry. At this time he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics and astronomy. In 1743 he laid aside the awl, and left his native place to settle at New Milford, Connecticut, where he joined his elder brother in keeping a small store. His accomplishments very soon led to his appointment as surveyor of roads. While holding this office he began the study of law, and made such progress that in 1745, at the age of twenty-four, he was admitted to the bar. In 1748 he began to supply the astronomical calculations for a New York almanac. His life as a legislator commenced with his membership of the Connecticut Assembly, where he held a seat during several sessions. The appointment of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas was given him in 1759, and again in 1765, at New Haven, whither he had removed four years previously. He was made an assistant in 1766, and held the office for nineteen years. The judgeship was not resigned until 1789, part of the time since his appointment having been spent on the bench of the Superior Court.
Roger Sherman’s connection with the American Congress was long and highly honorable. He became a Congressman in 1774, and served his country faithfully in that capacity for nearly twenty years till the time of his death, at which time he held a seat in the Senate of the United States. He was appointed also as a member of the Council of Safety. During the last nine years of his life he was Mayor of New Haven. For many years he held the honorable office of treasurer of Yale College.
In the year 1766 Sherman was placed on the Commission appointed to draught the Declaration of Independence, and he was one of those who afterward signed the Declaration. Having been one of those who framed the old “Articles of Confederation,” and a very useful member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, his services in obtaining the indorsement or ratification of the Constitution by his own State Convention (i.e., of Connecticut) were of the utmost value.
The foregoing statements will sufficiently show how well the quondam shoemaker of Massachusetts earned the noble name of Patriot. Few men in his day did more solid and lasting public work. Although he was a man of remarkably cool, deliberate judgment, he was none the less an enthusiast in the cause of political freedom and independence. During the War of Independence he urged his compatriots by every means in his power to resist the English claims to impose taxation upon the colonies. He never swerved for a moment from the view he first took on the crucial question of “taxation without representation,” but always avowed his firm conviction that “no European Government would ever give its sanction to such unfair legislation.” His rectitude and integrity were unimpeachable, and his “rare good sense” made him a man of mark even among the noteworthy men of the first Federal Congress. Mr. Macon used to say of him, “Roger Sherman had more common-sense than any man I ever knew;” and Thomas Jefferson was wont to declare that Roger Sherman was “a man who never said a foolish thing in his life.” To this opinion of his judgment and mental qualities may be added a valuable estimate of his moral and religious character. Goodrich184 says that Sherman “having made a public profession of religion in early life, was never ashamed to advocate the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, which are often so unwelcome to men of worldly eminence. His sentiments were derived from the Word of God, and not from his own reason.”
The life of this man of “patriot fame”185 came to an end July 23d, 1793. His good name is in no danger of being lost to posterity, for in addition to his own personal claim to immortality, he gave “hostages to fortune” in a family of fifteen children, one of whom, his namesake, died in 1856 at the patriarchal age of eighty-eight.
Henry Wilson, “The Natick Cobbler.”
Among the political leaders of modern times Henry Wilson long held a conspicuous place in the United States. His early connection with the gentle craft procured for him the familiar and not unfriendly sobriquet “The Natick Cobbler.” Wilson was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. From his schoolboy days until he entered on political life he seems to have been connected both with shoemaking and farming, but chiefly with the former occupation. Part of his time, viz., from 1832 to 1837, he was a thorough-going son of Crispin, working on the stool from daylight till dusk. From 1837 to 1840 he was still connected with the trade, but in the more ambitious position of a “shoe manufacturer.” In the year 1840 he devoted himself to the life of a politician. The office of President of the Massachusetts Senate was held by him in 1851 and 1852. Three years after this he became a senator as a representative of the same State. This honor he held for seventeen years, that is, till 1872. In 1861 he was made Colonel of the Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers. The highest office to which he attained was that of Vice-President of the United States, which post he held from 1872 to 1875, the year of his death. Henry Wilson was held at the time of his death in general and hearty esteem for the valuable services which he had rendered for thirty-five years to his country. Like many another famous son of St. Crispin, The Natick Cobbler was a friend of freedom and a sworn foe to all kinds of tyranny. For many years he stood side by side with the best men in the Northern States, fighting the battle of liberation for the slaves, and at last was permitted to rejoice with them in the triumph of the good cause.
One is very much tempted to multiply instances of men like Wilson, who, having begun life as shoemakers, found their way into the Congress of the United States. Seven such men at least have sat in Congress during the present century.186 It may also be mentioned here that Franklin in his Autobiography speaks of a member of the Junto, a “William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but loving reading, who acquired a considerable share of mathematics,“ and ”became surveyor-general;” and that Philip Kirtland, a shoemaker from Sherrington, Buckinghamshire, who settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1635, was the founder of the immense trade in boots and shoes for which that city has obtained an unrivalled name throughout the States.
J. G. Whittier, “The Quaker Poet.”
The last name we have to give in this long, but still incomplete, list of illustrious shoemakers is that of John Greenleaf Whittier, who happily is still living to charm and educate the English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic with his simple, spirit-stirring poetry. Whittier is frequently spoken of in the States as the Quaker Poet. This designation is sufficiently distinctive, for poets are not very numerous in the Society of Friends. Preachers, patriots, philanthropists, orators, and writers of prose are numerous enough, but poets are very hard to find in this intensely earnest and practical religious community.
Like his coreligionists in every generation since the days of George Fox and William Penn, Whittier is “right on all points” relating to social and religious reform. The assistance his vigorous, thrilling lines have given to every philanthropic movement in the United States is beyond calculation. For many years he was the Hans Sachs or Ebenezer Elliott of the Liberation cause, giving similar help by his songs to the work of emancipation in America to that which the German gave to the cause of Protestantism on the continent of Europe, and the Englishman gave to the labors of the Anti-Corn Law League in Great Britain.
His father was a farmer at Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the poet was born in 1807. He remained on the farm until he was nearly nineteen years of age, and divided his time between field-work and shoemaking. In 1825 he was sent to a college belonging to the Society of Friends. Four years after this he became editor of The American Manufacturer, which office he held for only twelve months, and then resigned in order to take the management of the New England Weekly Review. In 1832 he went back to the old home, worked on the farm, and edited The Haverhill Gazette. Twice he represented Haverhill in the State Legislature. All through life he has been a strong and consistent anti-slavery advocate, and at various times has been made secretary of societies and editor of papers whose aim has been the abolition of slavery. About 1838-39 he became the editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman, an ardent anti-slavery paper. It required no small amount of courage to advocate freedom for the slave in those days. On one occasion Whittier’s office was surrounded by a mob, who plundered and set fire to the building. His published works in prose and verse are very numerous, beginning with the “Legends of New England” in 1831, and coming down to volumes of verse like “The King’s Missive, Mabel Martin, and Later Poems,” etc.,187 published within the last few years. Through all his writings there runs a healthy moral tone, and his poetry is no less distinguished for purity of sentiment than for sweetness of numbers and true poetic fire. No man in New England, nor, indeed, in the States, has earned a better title to the thanks and esteem of his fellow-countrymen than the “Quaker Poet,” who began the hard work of life by blending the duties of the farm with the occupation of a shoemaker. Whittier College at Salem, Iowa, was established and named in his honor.
Whittier has never forgotten his connection with the gentle craft in early life; nor has he been ashamed to own fellowship with its humble but worthy members. What he thinks of the craft itself, and of the spirit of the men who have followed it, may be learned from his lines addressed to shoemakers in the “Songs of Labor,” published in 1850:
TO SHOEMAKERS.
Ho! workers of the old time, styled
The Gentle Craft of Leather!
Young brothers of the ancient guild,
Stand forth once more together!
Call out again your long array,
In the olden merry manner!
Once more, on gay St. Crispin’s Day,
Fling out your blazoned banner!
Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone
How falls the polished hammer!
Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown
A quick and merry clamor.
Now shape the sole! now deftly curl
The glossy vamp around it,
And bless the while the bright-eyed girl
Whose gentle fingers bound it!
For you, along the Spanish main
A hundred keels are ploughing;
For you, the Indian on the plain
His lasso-coil is throwing;
For you, deep glens with hemlock dark
The woodman’s fire is lighting;
For you, upon the oak’s gray bark
The woodman’s axe is smiting.
For you, from Carolina’s pine
The rosin-gum is stealing;
For you, the dark-eyed Florentine
Her silken skein is reeling;
For you, the dizzy goatherd roams
His rugged Alpine ledges;
For you, round all her shepherd homes
Bloom England’s thorny hedges.
The foremost still, by day or night,
On moated mound or heather,
Where’er the need of trampled right
Brought toiling men together;
Where the free burghers from the wall
Defied the mail-clad master,
Than yours, at Freedom’s trumpet-call,
No craftsmen rallied faster.
Let foplings sneer, let fools deride—
Ye heed no idle scorner;
Free hands and hearts are still your pride,
And duty done your honor.
Ye dare to trust, for honest fame,
The jury Time empanels,
And leave to truth each noble name
Which glorifies your annals.
Thy songs, Hans Sachs, are living yet,
In strong and hearty German;
And Bloomfield’s lay, and Gifford’s wit,
And patriot fame of Sherman;
Still from his book, a mystic seer,
The soul of Behmen teaches,
And England’s priestcraft shakes to hear
Of Fox’s leathern breeches.
The foot is yours; where’er it falls,
It treads your well-wrought leather,
On earthen floor, in marble halls,
On carpet, or on heather.
Still there the sweetest charm is found
Of matron grace or vestal’s,
As Hebe’s foot bore nectar round
Among the old celestials!
Rap, rap! your stout and bluff brogan,
With footsteps slow and weary,
May wander where the sky’s blue span
Shuts down upon the prairie.
On beauty’s foot, your slippers glance
By Saratoga’s fountains,
Or twinkle down the summer dance
Beneath the crystal mountains!
The red brick to the mason’s hand,
The brown earth to the tiller’s,
The shoe in yours shall wealth command,
Like fairy Cinderella’s!
As they who shunned the household maid
Beheld the crown upon her,
So all shall see your toil repaid
With heart and home and honor.
Then let the toast be freely quaffed,
In water cool and brimming—
“All honor to the good old Craft
Its merry men and women!”
Call out again your long array,
In the old time’s pleasant manner:
Once more, on gay St. Crispin’s Day,
Fling out his blazoned banner.
Footnotes
1 See Campbell’s “Lives,” etc., vol. iv. p. 247.
2 Sir Cloudesley Shovel sat for several years as member of Parliament for the city of Rochester. In the Guildhall of that city there is an interesting portrait, representing the gallant sailor as Rear-Admiral. A tablet states that the hall was painted and decorated by his desire and at his expense, 1695-6. The portrait from which our engraving is taken is by Michael Dahl, and was originally at Hampton Court. It was presented by George IV. in 1824 to Greenwich Hospital. Sir C. Shovel at the time of his death was one of the governors of Greenwich Hospital.
3 “Bibliomaniacs” will be interested to learn the price of certain books at this date, 1775. Lackington says: “Martyn’s ‘Dictionary of Natural History’ sold for £15 15s., which then stood in my catalogue at £4 15s.; Pilkington’s ‘Dictionary of Painters,’ £7 7s., usually sold at three; Francis’s ‘Horace,’ £2 11s. At Sir George Colebrook’s sale the 8vo edition of the ‘Tatler’ sold for two guineas and a half. At a sale a few weeks since, Rapin’s History in folio, the two first vols. only, sold for upward of £5.”
4 “History of Booksellers,” by H. Curwen, p. 73. Chatto & Windus.
5 Articles of Peace with the United States were signed Nov. 30th, 1782; and the Peace of Versailles, between France, Spain, and England, was made Jan. 20th, 1783. It is to this, no doubt, that Lackington refers.
6 “History of Booksellers,” see above, p. 74.
7 “The shoemaker happily abandoned his last.” It may be interesting to note that the writer’s copy of this curious book once belonged to Henry Thomas Buckle, author of “The History of Civilization.” On the fly-leaf are memoranda of Wesleyan and Jonsonian anecdotes which Buckle had evidently made for his own use.
8 Mrs. Bradburn was the daughter of Samuel Jones, of Wrexham.
9 This incident will remind readers of the following account given by Bunyan of a similar incident in his early life: “One day, as I was standing at my neighbor’s shop-window, and there cursing and swearing, after my wonted manner, there sate within the woman of the house and heard me, who, though she was a loose and ungodly wretch, protested that I cursed and swore at such a rate that she trembled to hear me.... At this reproof I was silenced and put to secret shame, and that too, as I thought, before the God of heaven.”
10 2 Cor. 5:17.
11 There was surely a Scriptural reason for this feeling. See Luke 15:7, 10, and Heb. 1:15.
12 Acts 13:2.
13 See Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”
14 “Religion in England under Queen Anne and the Georges.” By John Stoughton, D.D., vol. ii. pp. 158, 159. Hodder & Stoughton.
15 Bradburn’s mother died during his first year’s ministry. In connection with this event he mentions a circumstance which enabled him to be resigned to the bereavement, and which many readers will regard with unusual interest. “God spared her life, nearly twelve years, in answer to a prayer which I offered up when she seemed to be dying, in which I begged that she might live twelve years exactly. I was then very young, and could not bear the thought of losing her, but imagined I should be able to part with her after those years.”
16 Bradburn’s lodgings.
17 “Life of Samuel Bradburn.” By T. W. Blanshard. P. 68. Elliot Stock, 1870. A most interesting biography of the famous Wesleyan preacher.
18 Bradburn’s Life, see above, pp. 85, 86.
19 Bradburn’s Life, pp. 177, 178.
20 Ibid., pp. 183, 184.
21 Bradburn’s Life, pp. 233-235.
22 Bradburn’s Life, pp. 228, 229.
23 2 Kings 6:5.
24 Proverbs 31:21.
25 The “Della Cruscan school.” See below.
26 The name Cruscan was taken from the Florentine Academy, by Robert Merry, the founder of this school of mawkish and affected poetasters.
27 “History of Booksellers.” H. Curwen. Chatto & Windus. P. 175.
28 Ibid., pp. 180, 181.
29 Quoted in “The Lives of Eminent Englishmen.” Fullarton & Co., Glasgow, 1838. Vol. viii. pp. 317, 318.
30 Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” stanza xxi.
31 “Lives of Eminent Englishmen.” Fullarton & Co., 1838. Vol. viii. p. 245. See also “Views Illustrative of Works of Robert Bloomfield,” by E. W. Brayley. London: 1806, p. 17.
32 See Chapter IV., William Gifford.
33 Athenæum, No. 2770, Nov. 27, 1880, p. 719.
34 Samuel Drew, M.A., the self-taught Cornishman.” By his Eldest Son. P. 102. London: Ward & Co.
35 “Baptist Jubilee Memorial.” London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1842, p. 83.
36 “Memoir of Dr. Carey,” by the Rev. Eustace Carey. London: Jackson & Walford, 2d edition, 1837, p. 16.
37 J. C. Marshman, in “The Story of Carey, Marshman, and Ward;” London, J. Heaton & Sons, 1864, p. 6. See also an account of Carey’s life and work in “The Missionary Keepsake and Annual,” by Rev. John Dyer; London, Fisher & Co., 1837; and “The Life of Dr. Carey,” by the Rev. Eustace Carey; London, 1837.
38 “The Story of Carey, Marshman, and Ward,” p. 4.
39 It ought to be said that in 1808, about a year after the death of his first wife, Carey married Miss Rhumohr, a Danish lady of good family and education, who proved a most congenial companion and helper in his work. He was three times married: his third wife, who survived him, was an excellent partner for a missionary.
40 The first Sunday-school was opened in Gloucester in 1780.
41 Viz., 1789.
42 The text of this discourse was Isaiah 54:2, 3: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”
43 Quarterly Review, Feb. 1809, p. 197. This generous article on “The Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society” is known to have been written by Southey. See below. Some idea of Thomas’s passionate zeal may be formed from certain expressions in the letters sent home after Carey and he had arrived in India. He says, “Never did men see their native land with more joy than we left it; but this is not of nature, but from above,” etc. See p. 223 of same article.
44 Quarterly Review, Feb. 1809, p. 197.
45 Ibid.
46 “Carey, Marshman, and Ward,” by J. C. Marshman. London: J. Heaton & Son. 1864.
47 “Carey, Marshman, and Ward,” p. 137.
48 Quarterly Review, Feb. 1809, pp. 224, 225.
49 Viz., Krishnu, who was baptized at the same time as Carey’s son Felix. The ceremony was performed at the Ghaut, or landing-stairs of the Mahanuddy, in the presence of the Governor and a crowd of Hindoos and Mohammedans.
50 John Clark Marshman was the son of Dr. Marshman, Carey’s colleague at Serampore.
51 “Anecdotes and Stories,” by Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D.D. London: Houlston & Wright, pp. 156, 157.
52 Gen. 5: 24.
53 Acts, 10: 1, 2.
54 “A Memoir of John Pounds.” Foord, Stationer, Landport; p. 9. The writer is indebted to this brief memoir for most of the facts stated in this sketch. He is also indebted for information to the courtesy of Rev. T. Timmins, Portsmouth, pastor of the congregation of which John Pounds was a member.
55 “Memoir of John Pounds,” p. 10.
56 Ibid, p. 10.
57 Rev. T. Timmins, Portsmouth, in a letter to the writer.
58 See closing sentences of preface to “Purgatory of Suicides,” by Thomas Cooper, early editions.
59 “The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself.” Hodder & Stoughton, 1872; p. 7.
60 See above, p. 96.
61 This seems to be a test of proficiency in the trade. Bloomfield’s brother says, “Robert is a ladies’ shoemaker;” and stories are told of his receiving, after he became famous as a poet, many orders from the nobility for ladies’ boots.
62 Thomas Miller, afterward known as a poet and novelist, and for his charming descriptions of rural scenery, was an intimate friend of Cooper from childhood to old age.
63 “Life of Thomas Cooper,” pp. 60, 61.
64 “Life of Thomas Cooper,” p. 67.
65 These lines stand first among the minor pieces in “Cooper’s Poetical Works.” London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1877.
66 The Children’s Magazine (next to the Teacher’s Offering the first magazine for children published in this country), the Christian Pioneer, the Child’s Magazine. He was also editor of the Baptist Reporter for many years.
67 “Life of Thomas Cooper,” p. 262, also pp. 356-367.
68 “Life of Thomas Cooper,” p. 316.
69 Ibid p. 335.
70 The charges of atheism and atheistic advocacy made against Thomas Cooper have often arisen from confounding Thomas Cooper the sceptic with Robert Cooper the infidel. See “Life of Thomas Cooper,” p. 357.
71 See letters to Thomas Cooper in “Kingsley’s Life and Letters.” London: Henry King & Co., 1877, pp. 183 and 221, etc.
72 Among others, Coleridge observed that shoemakers had given to the world a larger number of eminent men than any handicraft. The philosopher was rather partial to shoemakers, from the time when, as a boy at Christ’s Hospital, he wished to be apprenticed to the trade of shoemaking.
73 It is used by Pliny, who died a.d. 79.
74 Eccles. Hist., Book ii. cap. xxiv.
75 Ibid., Book iii. cap. xiv.
76 Annianus is regarded in some countries as the patron saint of shoemakers. Campion’s “Delightful History of ye Gentle Craft.” Northampton: Taylor & Son, 2d ed., 1876, p. 25.
77 Pressense’s “Early Years of Christianity.” London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1879, vol. ii. p. 355.
78 Dr. Smith’s “Dict. Christian Biog.,” art. “Gregory Thaumaturgus.” In this article Gregory is called a charcoal-burner. Probably, like many other shoemakers, he followed more than one vocation.
79 December, 1881.
80 4:11.
81 Acts 5:38, 39.
82 On the beach at Lidde, near Stonend, “there is yet to be seene,“ says Weever, in his ”Funeral Monuments,“ ”an heap of great stones which the neighbour inhabitants call St. Crispin’s and St. Crispinian’s tomb, whom they report to have been cast upon this shore by ship-wracke, and from hence called into the glorious company of the saints. Look Jacobus de Voraigne, in the legend of their lives, and you may believe perhaps as much as is spoken. They were shoemakers, and suffered martyrdom the tenth of the kalends of November (25th October), which day is kept holy to this day by all our shoemakers in London and elsewhere.“—Quoted in ”Crispin Anecdotes,” Sheffield, 1827, p. 18.
83 For the legends of these saints, and much curious information respecting the craft and its guilds in early times, the reader may consult Lacroix, “Manners, Customs, and Dress in the Middle Ages;“ ”Histoire de la Chaussure,“ etc. That quaint old book, ”The Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft,” by T. Deloney, 1678, gives the story of the princely and saintly brothers in its English dress, and it is one of the strangest tales even in legendary lore. This story, Deloney tells us, accounts for the term “gentle craft” as applied to shoemaking, and explains the saying “a shoemaker’s son is a prince born.” The Princes Crispin and Crispinian becoming shoemakers sufficiently accounts for the former term, for
“The gentle craft is fittest then
For poor distressed gentlemen;”
and the marriage of Crispine to Ursula, the daughter of the Emperor Maximinus, and the birth of a son to the Prince, will explain the latter. See the stories and ballads thereanent in Campion’s “Delightful History of the Gentle Craft,” Northampton, Taylor & Son, 2d ed., 1876, pp. 25-35. A most interesting and valuable little book on shoes and shoemakers in ancient and modern times.
84 Vol. ii. pp. 305, 306. London, Longmans, 1848.
85 Another memorial of the saints, of a very different character, was the semi-sacred play entitled “The Mystery of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian,” which used to be performed on St. Crispin’s Day by the Guilds or Brotherhoods of Shoemakers in Paris and elsewhere.
86 “Biographie Universelle.” Paris, 1811.
87 Ibid.
88 “Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique,” tom. ii.
89 “Nouvelle Biographie Generale.” Paris, 1853, tom. iv. p. 786.
90 Butler’s “Lives of the Primitive Fathers, Martyrs, and Saints,” 1799, p. 532.
91 This society flourished until the outbreak of the French Revolution, 1789, when it was suppressed.
92 If this were a history of the craft and trade of shoemaking, attention might be called to the genuinely illustrious shoemaker, Nicholas Lestage of Bordeaux. This clever artisan having made a remarkably fine pair of boots, presented them to the king, Louis XIV., on his visit to Bordeaux, shortly before his marriage to the Infanta of Spain. The fortunate son of Crispin was made shoemaker to his Majesty, and rose rapidly to wealth and favor at court. In 1663 he presented to his royal patron the famous boot “without a seam,” which was spoken of as a “miracle of art,” and of which it was declared that “the name of a boot would fill the world.” About a dozen years after Lestage succeeded in making this wonderful seamless boot, a small book of poems was written to commemorate the extraordinary achievement. Among other extravagant things said about “cette admirable chaussure,” it was affirmed that “neither antiquity nor the sun had ever seen its equal,” “that man was not its inventor,” and its structure was truly divine!” etc.
93 Vol. iv. p. 423.
94 This book once belonged to Henry Crabb Robinson: see H. C. R.’s Diary, etc., vol. i. pp. 400, 401, for the above quotation.
95 Lanzi’s “History of Painting.” London: Bohn, vol. iii. p. 200; and Bryan’s “Dictionary of Painters.” London: Bohn, p. 138.
96 Lanzi’s “History of Painting.” London: Bohn, vol. iii. p. 126; Bryan’s “Dictionary of Painters.” London: Bohn, p. 114; and Pilkington’s “Dictionary of Painters,” p. 95 (1770 ed.).
97 Sons of shoemakers have often become famous. See the list given below, which might be greatly extended.
98 For this and one or two other examples of noted shoemakers the writer is indebted to a series of most interesting articles entitled “Concerning Shoes and Shoemakers,” in the Leisure Hour, 1876.
99 Born 1676; died 1756. Bennett is placed out of his chronological order because it seems most fitting that he should follow the benevolent Castell.
100 Selkirkshire, otherwise called Ettrick Forest.
101 Berwickshire, otherwise, called the Merse.
102 See “Border Minstrelsy.”
103 Scott’s “Border Minstrelsy,” foot-note.
104 Note IV. to Canto IV., “Lay of the Last Minstrel.”
105 Risp and rive, creak and tear.
106 To twitch the thread as shoemakers do in securing the stitches.
107 “Biographical History of England,” vol. iii.
108 The author of “Crispin Anecdotes,” p. 127, says, “Praise-God Barebones was a shoemaker, but from all the writer can learn he was a leather-seller; and Bloomfield is reported as saying that Secretary Craggs was a chip of leather. On what authority it is hard to say. His father, the postmaster-general, is more likely to have been in such a position; but his trade was that of a country barber.”—Grainger, Noble’s continuation, vol. iii.
109 Pepys’ Diary, note, January 25th, 1659-60.
110 Part I. Canto II., 409-430, etc.
111 Part I. Canto II., 409-430, etc.
112 Part I. Canto III, 118, 119.
113 Quoted in Chambers’s “Book of Days,” August 15th. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh.
114 Evelyn’s “Diary” of this date.
115 Pepys, see above.
116 Grainger’s “Biographical History of England,” vol. iii.
117 “History of England,” vol. i. p. 316 (People’s Edition).
118 Grainger’s “Biographical History of England,” vol. iii. Grainger has an interesting note concerning Myngs, which we cannot forbear copying: “I am credibly informed that when he had taken a Spanish man-of-war and gotten the commander on board his ship, he committed the care of him to a lieutenant, who was directed to observe his behavior. Shortly after word was brought to Myngs that the Spaniard was deploring his captivity and wondering what great captain it could be who had made Don——, with a long and tedious string of names and titles, his prisoner. The lieutenant was ordered to return to his charge, and if the Don persisted in his curiosity, to tell him that ‘Kit Minns’ had taken him. This diminutive name utterly confounded the titulado, threw him into an agony of grief, and gave him more acute pangs than all the rest of his misfortunes.”
119 See the “Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits of Naval Commanders,“ etc., in the ”Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital,” Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1881, p. 10. The editor of the catalogue states that “this portrait and those numbered 7, 8, 47-49, 102, 105, 107, 110-112 form the series of valuable pictures mentioned in Pepys’ ‘Diary,’ as follows:—‘To Mr. Lilly’s the painter’s, and there saw the heads—some finished and all begun—of the flagg-men in the late great fight with the Duke of York against the Dutch. The Duke of York hath them done to hang in his chamber, and very finely they are done indeed. Here are the Prince’s (Rupert), Sir George Askue’s, Sir Thomas Teddiman’s, Sir Christopher Myngs’, Sir Joseph Jordan’s, Sir William Berkeley’s, Sir Thomas Allen’s, and Captain Harman’s, as also the Duke of Albemarle’s; and will be my Lord Sandwich’s, Sir W. Penn’s, and Sir Jeremy Smith’s.’”
120 Sutor ultra crepidam feliciter ausus. See Lackington’s Life, p. 45.
121 Elias Ashmole appears to have been given to astrology and alchemy; see his “Way to Bliss,” a work on the Philosopher’s stone, published 1658.
122 The Tatler, April 11, 1709. Steele and Congreve assisted in the joke. Congreve pretended to take the side of Partridge by defending him against the charge of “sneaking about without paying his funeral expenses!“ See Timb’s ”Anecdote Biog.” vol. i. pp. 24 and 154.
123 In regard to Manoah Sibly, see below.
124 “Crispin Anecdotes,” p. 85. The plates in E. Sibly’s works are by Ames, a Bristol name a century ago. His portrait in the 1790 edition is by Roberts.
125 His birth is set down as occurring 20th November, p.m., 1752.
126 They were published at two guineas.
127 The Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, Mr. James Speirs, has obligingly supplied the writer with most of the facts given above, which are taken from an obituary of M.S. in the Intellectual Repository, a Swedenborg magazine for 1841. Mr. Speirs says that Manoah Sibly was “presumably” born in London, but see above.
128 The exact correspondence in title and date between this book and the first edition of E. Sibly’s similar work creates a suspicion of error in the name.
129 “Maunder’s Biographical Treasury.” London: Longmans.
130 Quarterly Review, January, 1831, p. 76.
131 Charles Lamb, “Album Verses,” 1830, p. 57.
132 London, 1675 and 1725.
133 See Campion’s “Delightful History,” p. 51.
134 The author of “Crispin Anecdotes” mentions another shoemaker who was made Lord Mayor of London, viz., Sir Thomas Tichbourne, who was Mayor in 1656, during the Protectorate.—“Crispin Anecdotes,” p. 127.
135 One is ready to ask who but a shoemaker could have gone so heartily into the rollicking fun of the shoemaker’s room, or asked such a question as the following:—“Have you all your tools; a good rubbing pin, a good stopper, a good dresser, your four sorts of awls, and your two balls of wax, your paring knife, your hand and thumb leathers, and good St. Hugh’s bones to smooth your work?” It may be remarked here that St. Hugh is another patron saint of the craft. Hugh, son of the king of Powis, was in love with Winifred, daughter of Donvallo, king of Flintshire. Both were martyrs under Diocletian. St. Hugh’s bones were stolen by the shoemakers, and worked up into tools to avoid discovery. Hence the cobbler’s phrase, “St. Hugh’s bones.” See Deloney’s “Entertaining History.”
136 See Southey’s preface to “Attempts in Verse, by John Jones,” London, 1830; and article thereon in Quarterly Review, January, 1831, p. 81.
137 For an able discussion of the question, “Was Richard Savage an Impostor?“ to which the writer, Mr. Moy Thomas, says, ”Yes,” see Notes and Queries, 2d Series, vol. vi.
138 See Life of Samuel Bradburn, President of the Wesleyan Conference.
139 See a book of unusual interest, “Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers,” ed. by Rev. I. Jackson. Wesleyan Book-Room, London, 3 vols. 1865.
140 “Life of Wesley,” vol. iii. p. 108. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1870.
141 Toplady wrote the fine hymn “Rock of Ages,” etc.
142 “Helmsley” has been set down to Olivers; but Mr. Benham says it was composed by Martin Madan, Cowper’s uncle, author of “Thelyphthora.” See Cowper’s “Poems,” Globe Ed., Intro., p. 34.
143 “Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft, written by Himself, and Continued to the Time of his Death from his Diary,” by W. Hazlitt. The Traveller’s Library, vol. xvii. 1856.
144 It may be thought by some readers that Bloomfield’s brothers, George and Nathaniel, ought to have a place in our list of illustrious shoemakers. George, in his correspondence with Mr. Capel Lofft, Robert’s patron, showed himself a man of good sense and a fair writer. See preface to Bloomfield’s Poems. But Nathaniel, the author of a little volume of poems, edited by Capel Lofft, 1803, entitled, “An Essay on War,“ in blank verse, and ”Honington Green, a Ballad,” was not a shoemaker. He was a tailor, though not a few writers have made Byron’s mistake of classing him with “ye tuneful cobblers.”
145 Blacket’s “Remains,” preface, vol. i. pp. 62, 63. London, 1811.
146 Blacket’s “Remains,” preface, vol. i. pp. 2-7.
147 Editor of Blacket’s “Remains,” Letters, pp. 9, 10.
148 That these generous friends labored to some purpose may be judged from the fact that after Blacket’s little legacies and funeral expenses were paid, £97 10s remained over for the benefit of his child. “Remains,” p. 101.
149 “Crispin Anecdotes,” pp. 87, 88.
150 Ibid.
151 “Campion’s Delightful History,” p. 81.
152 Of “The Sabbath,” a writer in the Quarterly Review, January, 1831 (p. 77), says it is “a poem of which unaffected piety is not the only inspiration, and which but for its unfortunate coincidence of subject with the nearly contemporary one of the late amiable James Grahame, would probably have attracted a considerable share of favor, even in these hypercritical days.”
153 “Imperial Dictionary of Biography.” Glasgow: Blackie & Co.
154 “The Blessings of Temperance, Illustrated in the Life and Reformation of the Drunkard: a Poem by John O’Neill, etc., forming a Companion to Cruickshank’s ‘Bottle,’ with etchings from his pencil.” London: W. Tweedie. 1851. Fourth edition.
155 Kelso: Rutherford. Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons.
156 Glasgow, 1834.
157 “Autobiography of John Younger, Shoemaker, of St. Boswell’s.” Kelso: J. & J. H. Rutherford, 1881.
158 6th May, 1882, p. 564.
159 “The Vale of Obscurity, and Other Poems,” by Charles Crocker, 3d edition. Chichester: W. H. Mason, 1841.
160 It is perhaps best, on the whole, not to speak of living men in such a work as this. An exception has, however, been made to such a rule in the rare instances of the famous politician, poet, and preacher Thomas Cooper, and the American poet Whittier. If the writer did not feel the necessity of adhering, in the main, to this rule, it would be easy enough for him to cite many instances in proof of the statement that the literary reputation of shoemakers is being well sustained in the present day by writers in prose and poetry, who either have been or still are working at the stall. Most Scottish sutors, one would think, have heard of the author of “Homely Words and Songs” and “Lays and Lectures for Scotia’s Daughters of Industry” (Edinburgh, 1853 and 1856). London craftsmen know and honor the names of J. B. Rowe, a political writer and poet, and John B. Leno, the editor of “St. Crispin,“ and author of the ”Drury Lane Lyrics,“ ”Tracts for Rich and Poor,“ and ”King Labor’s Song-Book” (London, 1867-68; see also “Kimburton, and Other Poems,” London, 1875-76); and the shoemaker of Wellinborough, John Askham, by his “Sonnets of the Months,” “Descriptive Poems,“ and ”Judith” (Northampton: Taylor & Son, 1863, 1866, 1868, and 1875), has made a reputation which is not entirely confined to his own locality, nor to the members of the craft to which he belongs.
161 All the writings of George Fox were published after his death. See below.
162 See answer to the question, “What is thy duty toward thy neighbor?”
163 “Select Miscellanies.” London: Charles Gilpin. 1854, vol. iv. p. 135.
164 “Journal of Thomas Shillitoe,” vol. i. p. 21.
165 “Bonn’s Standard Library,” p. 305.
166 Rotherham and Masbro’ are one town, only separated by the River Rother.
167 “Masbro’ Chapel Manual” for 1881, whence many of these particulars are taken. See also Miall’s “Congregationalism in Yorkshire.”
168 Dr. Edward Williams became president in 1795. He edited the works of Jonathan Edwards, and was the author of a once famous controversial treatise on “Divine Equity and Sovereignty.”
169 “Crispin Anecdotes,” p. 18.
170 “Crispin Anecdotes,” p. 18.
171 “Imperial Dictionary of Biography,” vol. iv. Edinburgh: Blackie & Son.
172 Vol. i. p. 402.
173 The eminent Baptist minister of St. Andrew’s Chapel, 1761-1790, predecessor of Robert Hall.
174 Huntingdon wrote his own epitaph, part of which reads—“Beloved of his God but abhorred by men. The Omniscient Judge at the Great Assize shall ratify and confirm this, to the confusion of many thousands; for England and its metropolis shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.”
175 See Campion’s “Delightful History,” p. 83.
176 “Congregational Year-Book” for 1863, pp. 214-216. To the obituary notice given in the Year-Book I owe the facts given in this sketch.
177 “Memoirs of John Kitto, D.D.,” by R. E. Ryland, M.A. Edinburgh: William Oliphant & Sons, 1856.
178 Magneto-electricity was discovered by Oersted in 1820.
179 A story is told of Sir Robert Peel which is worth repeating here. A deputation of working-men once waited on Sir Robert to lay the wants of the trades’ societies before him. The two speakers selected by the deputation were shoemakers. On learning this interesting fact, the statesman turned to the sons of Crispin and said, half in earnest and half in jest, “How is it that you shoemakers are foremost in every movement? If there is a plot or conspiracy or insurrection or political movement, I always find that there is a shoemaker in the fray!”
It is a singular fact that the shorthand notes of Hardy’s trial were taken down by another illustrious shoemaker—Manoah Sibly (see above). There is a printed copy of these notes in the British Museum, published 1795.
180 H. C. Robinson’s Diary, vol. i. pp. 26, 27.
181 “The Oracle,” vol. vi. pp. 154, 237. London: 155 Fleet Street.
182 Sermon entitled “The Philanthropist, a Tribute to the Memory of the Rev. Noah Worcester, D.D.” Channing’s Works, People’s Edition, vol. ii. p. 251, etc. Belfast: Simms & M’Intyre, 1843.
183 Written in 1837.
184 In “American Biographical Dictionary.” Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co.
185 See the allusion to Sherman in Whittier’s lines, given below.
186 These are Roger Sherman and Henry Wilson, already noticed, and Daniel Sheffey, Gideon Lee, William Claflin, John B. Alley, and H. P. Baldwin. In answer to the question, “What shoemaker has risen to political or literary eminence in the United States?” a writer in the Philadelphia Dispatch, besides speaking of the four remarkable men we have selected as examples, says, “There are other famous names of graduates from that profession. Daniel Sheffey of Virginia learned the trade, and worked at it many years, and from 1809 to 1817 represented his district in the Congress of the United States. His retort to John Randolph of Roanoke, who taunted him on the floor of Congress with his former occupation, was, ‘The difference, sir, between my colleague and myself is this, that if his lot had been cast like mine in early life, instead of rising, by industry, enterprise, and study, above his calling, and occupying a seat on this floor, he would at this time be engaged in making shoes on the bench.’... Gideon Lee, a mayor of New York City, and a member of Congress from about 1840 to 1844, was a working shoemaker, and afterward a leather dealer. William Claflin, an ex-governor of Massachusetts and a member of Congress, worked at the shoemaker’s trade when young, and is now at the head of a very large shoe-manufacturing firm. John B. Attey, an ex-member of Congress from Massachusetts, was in the shoe trade, as was also H. P. Baldwin, ex-governor of Michigan, and ex-member of Congress from that State.”
187 In a review of this last volume of Whittier’s poems (Macmillan & Co.), a writer in the Athenæum (February 18th, 1882) gives the following just estimate of Whittier’s character and merits as a man and a poet: “The poems in this collection... show that delicate apprehension of nature, that deep-seated sympathy with suffering mankind, that unwavering love of liberty and all things lovable, that earnest belief in a spirit of beneficence guiding to right issues the affairs of the world, that beautiful tolerance of differences—in a word, all those high qualities which, being fused with imagination, make Mr. Whittier, not indeed an analytical and subtle poet, nor a poet dealing with great passions, but what he is emphatically, the apostle of all that is pure, fair, and morally beautiful.