William Talbot (1717–1774)

William Talbot (18 May 1717 – 2 March 1774),[1] often called "Talbot of Kineton" after his first living Kineton in Warwickshire, was an evangelical clergyman of the Church of England.

Early life

The son of Sherington Talbot of the 38th Foot and his wife Elizabeth Medget(t), and grandson of William Talbot the Bishop of Durham, he was the elder brother of Sir Charles Henry Talbot, 1st Baronet.[1][2] He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1737, graduating B.A. and M.A. in 1744.[3]

Talbot of Kineton

Talbot was ordained priest by Thomas Secker, then Bishop of Oxford, at the end of 1745.[4] A friend of Sanderson Miller, Talbot is thought by Hawkes to have owed him his appointment to the Kineton living.[5] Miller made changes to Kineton Church, for Talbot, in a Gothic Revival style, in 1755–6.[6]

In 1757 Talbot was one of group of evangelical preachers invited during the summer season to Cheltenham, by William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth.[7] At this period he was also under the influence of Lady Huntingdon, and spent time as a peripatetic "field preacher", to be found with Martin Madan in Northamptonshire as reported by James Hervey.[8][9] His friend Thomas Haweis, then recently ordained, gave his view of Talbot's conversion of the late 1750s to evangelical views in writing to Samuel Walker of Truro in 1759:

"His living is nothing in value, but most laborious in service. He took it merely with a view to do good, having that desire in great simplicity, before he could be at all said to be evangelical, which he has been about a twelvemonth or more. He had always a doctrinal knowledge of the scheme, but till then, no inward experimental acquaintance with it."[10]

Talbot supported Miller when in the throes of mental illness in the 1750s.[11] It was Talbot who arranged for Miller's care during his breakdown of 1759, first with Robert James. Miller was then taken to an asylum in Hoxton, thought to be a referral from James to Isaac Schomberg. Talbot's actions were resented by Miller, and their friendship ended.[12]

In 1762, Talbot stepped into a dispute between Haweis and John Hume, Bishop of Oxford. The intervention was unavailing, as was an appeal to Thomas Secker, by then the Archbishop of Canterbury, by Haweis; and he had to leave Oxford where his Methodism was unacceptable for London.[13][14] As a tactic, Talbot and his ally Joseph Jane were probing the powers of the bishops to restrict curacies: Haweis had held one at St Mary Magdalen's Church, Oxford, and Talbot offered himself in his place.[15]

Later life

Talbot was presented to St Giles' Church, Reading, around 1768, where he succeeded James Yorke; this was an exchange of livings, and it took place after Secker had presented Talbot to the London church All Hallows, Thames Street. Yorke was the same time Dean of Lincoln.[16][17] The Secker and Talbot families were close.[18]

In Reading, Talbot continued with a pastorate of the same kind as in Kineton.[2] Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet, a friend from this time, found his views those of a "moderate Calvinist".[19] Talbot died on 2 March 1774, at the house of his friend William Wilberforce, uncle of the abolitionist Member of Parliament; his death was attributed to a fever caught on a pastoral visitation.[18][20]

Evangelical legacy

Talbot's successor at St Giles was William Bromley Cadogan.[17] Opposed to the views of John Wesley, and regarded by Richard Cecil as a Calvinist of High Church views on polity, Cadogan was subsequently much influenced by Talbot's widow Sarah in the direction of a similar evangelical approach as parish priest.[21] It was after a difficult start, in which Talbot's curate John Hallward was dismissed by Cadogan; he was found a living at Shawbury by Sir Richard Hill.[22][23]

Charles Parsons, who had worked as a servant for both Talbot and Wilberforce, became the first nonconformist minister in Kineton.[24]

The Jonathan Britain case

As a prison visitor in Reading, Talbot became involved in the case of the forger Jonathan Britain, executed in 1772. In 1771 one of Britain's victims asked Talbot to visit Britain, held then in a compter called Abbey Gateway, attached to St Laurence's Church, Reading, and so in a different parish. Setting aside protocol, Talbot saw Britain, an unrepentant fantasist. His involvement continued to the point of Britain being brought to trial in a different city.[25]

Talbot wrote a book defending his conduct in the matter, which had aroused public comment.[26][27] Britain had been employed in Bristol as an usher in the mathematical school run by Benjamin Donne. Talbot's actions in following up forgeries in Reading to a prosecution in Bristol have been presented as vindictive.[28] Britain, who had become a soldier, had attracted attention by relating treasonous activities, including a plot to assassinate the king.[29]

Family

Talbot married Sarah Eyles, daughter of John Eyles.[1] His support for the antiquarian and biographer George Ballard brought a dedication of Ballard's work Memoirs of British Ladies to Sarah;[30] she and Ballard corresponded.[31] Sarah outlived her husband, on good terms with William Romaine and John Newton, and visited by Henry Venn and Rowland Hill. She died in 1785.[9][32][33]

In literature

Talbot is mentioned in Richard Jago's long poem of 1767 on Edge Hill, Warwickshire, not far from Kineton to the south.[34]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Arthur Collins (1779). The Peerage of England. 3 vols. p. 401.
  2. 1 2 Samuel J. Rogal (1999). A Biographical Dictionary of 18th Century Methodism: T - V. Mellen. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-7734-8024-7.
  3. ↑ s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Talbot, William (3)
  4. ↑ "CCED: Persons Index 37795 Talbot, William". Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Sanderson Miller; William Hawkes; Dugdale Society (2005). The diaries of Sanderson Miller of Radway, together with his memoir of James Menteath. Dugdale Society in association with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-85220-084-1.
  6. ↑ Howard Colvin (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. John Murray. p. 550. ISBN 0 7195 3328 7.
  7. ↑ With Downing, Martin Madan, Stillingfleet and Samuel Walker of Truro. The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle. 1815. p. 394.
  8. ↑ Charles Hugh Egerton Smyth (1940). Simeon & Church Order: A Study of the Origins of the Evangelical Revival in Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century. CUP Archive. p. 206. GGKEY:LQFYXGW3NNZ.
  9. 1 2 Childs, W. M. (1910). "The Town of Reading During the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century". Reading: University College. p. 57. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Edwin Sidney (1838). The life and ministry of the Rev. Samuel Walker, formerly of Truro, Cornwall. Seeley. pp. 479–80.
  11. ↑ http://www.banburymuseum.org/Cake%20and%20Cockhorse/VOL_04/V04NO06.pdf p. 91
  12. ↑ Sanderson Miller; William Hawkes; Dugdale Society (2005). The diaries of Sanderson Miller of Radway, together with his memoir of James Menteath. Dugdale Society in association with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. pp. 41 and 374. ISBN 978-0-85220-084-1.
  13. ↑ Charles Smyth (29 January 2015). Simeon and Church Order. Cambridge University Press. pp. 208–9. ISBN 978-1-107-45882-6.
  14. ↑ Welch, Edwin. "Haweis, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12642. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  15. ↑ Paul Langford (1998). A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783. Clarendon Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-19-820733-7.
  16. ↑ Sarah Markham (1984). John Loveday of Caversham, 1711-1789: the life and tours of an eighteenth-century onlooker. M. Russell. p. 438 note. ISBN 978-0-85955-095-6.
  17. 1 2 Charles Coates (1802). The History and Antiquities of Reading. J. Nichols & Son. p. 351.
  18. 1 2 John Fletcher (2008). "Unexampled Labours": Letters of the Revd John Fletcher to Leaders in the Evangelical Revival. Epworth. p. 155 note. ISBN 978-0-7162-0605-7.
  19. ↑ Edwin Sidney (1839). The Life of Sir Richard Hill, bart. p. 528.
  20. ↑ Countess of Huntingdon's connexion (1866). The Countess of Huntingdon's New Magazine [afterw.] The Harbinger. p. 147.
  21. ↑ Chamberlain, J. S. "Cadogan, William Bromley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/46765. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  22. ↑ Charles Hugh Egerton Smyth (1940). Simeon & Church Order: A Study of the Origins of the Evangelical Revival in Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century ... CUP Archive. pp. 207–. GGKEY:LQFYXGW3NNZ.
  23. ↑ Charles Hugh Egerton Smyth (1940). Simeon & Church Order: A Study of the Origins of the Evangelical Revival in Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century ... CUP Archive. pp. 216–. GGKEY:LQFYXGW3NNZ.
  24. ↑ John Sibree; Moses Caston (1855). Independency in Warwickshire; a history of the congregational churches in that county, by J. Sibree and M. Caston. pp. 269–70.
  25. ↑ Dearing, John. "The Priest and the Con Man (PDF)" (PDF).
  26. ↑ Charles Coates (1802). The History and Antiquities of Reading. J. Nichols & Son. pp. 357–60.
  27. ↑ William Talbot (1772). The Rev. Mr. Talbot's Narrative of the Whole of His Proceedings Relative to Jonathan Britain.
  28. ↑ Latimer, John (1893). "The Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century". Internet Archive. Printed for the author by Butler & Tanner. pp. 398–9. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  29. ↑ Steve Poole (2000). The Politics of Regicide in England, 1760–1850: Troublesome Subjects. Manchester University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7190-5035-0.
  30. ↑ "The Learned Lady in England 1650-1760.". Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  31. ↑ "Early Modern Letters Online : Person Talbot, Sarah (Mrs) (fl. 1746-52)". University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  32. ↑ Charles Coates (1802). The History and Antiquities of Reading. J. Nichols & Son. p. 356.
  33. ↑ Samuel Burder; George Jerment (1827). Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women. pp. 275–80.
  34. ↑ Thomas Gray; Richard Jago (1822). The Poems of Gray, and Jago. Press of C. Whittingham. p. 211 note 28.
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