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The SPCK and the American Revolution: The Limits of International Protestantism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2012

Katherine Carté Engel
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Abstract

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) occupied an unusual position in the British Atlantic as an internationally minded voluntary organization rooted in Anglicanism but also able to unite members of different Protestant groups. Its history during the American Revolution provides opportunity to examine the ideal of international Protestantism in the latter part of the eighteenth century. This investigation indicates that, despite many international ties and a strong sense of politically based international Protestant unity during the early decades of the century, members of the SPCK did not experience the Revolutionary crisis that ruptured the British Atlantic as a spiritual separation from their fellows in North America. International Protestant engagement within the SPCK was largely personal in nature, based on the experiences of a few individuals. Though the SPCK's regular publications create the impression of an organization leading an international Protestant community, an analysis of its membership reveals a profoundly English group. Thus, during the Revolution, the SPCK rallied to the British cause without a sense that an idealized Protestant union had been divided by fratricidal violence. This article builds on and supports the transnational perspective put forth by scholars in recent years and suggests that international Protestantism was varied and, in the case of the SPCK, politically limited.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 77 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2012

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References

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9 The literature on Protestantism as a unifying factor among Britons is vast. See Colley's, Linda seminal Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; for a historiographical treatment, see: Clark, J. D. C., “Protestantism, Nationalism, and National Identity: 1660–1832,” Historical Journal 43, no. 1 (2000), 249–276CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ulrike Kirchberger engages this debate most directly (arguing against Laura Stevens) in Konversion zur Moderne? Die Britische Indianermission in der atlantische Welt des 18. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008). See also Travis Glasson, Mastering Christianity.

10 The SPCK's archives are now housed at Cambridge University Library. For the period in question, they consist mainly of published materials, as well as the minute books of regular meetings. A very cursory catalogue of incoming letters was retained, but only a handful of actual letters remain. The analysis in this paper is based on the extant manuscript material and on printed sources. For works on the history of the SPCK, see Brunner, Daniel L., Halle Pietists in England: Anthony William Boehm and The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clarke, W. K. Lowther, The Story of the SPCK (London: SPCK, 1929)Google Scholar; Rose, Craig, “The Origins and Ideals of the SPCK 1699–1716,” in Walsh, John et al. , The Church of England c.1689–1833: From Toleration to Tractarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 172–190CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duffy, Eamon, “The Society of [sic] Promoting Christian Knowledge and Europe: The Background to the Founding of the Christentumsgesellschaft,” Pietismus und Neuzeit 7 (1981), 28–42Google Scholar; William A., and Bultmann, Phyllis W., “The Roots of Anglican Humanitarianism: A Study of Membership of the SPCK and the SPG, 1699–1720,” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 33 (1964), 3–48Google Scholar. The larger history of the revival and evangelical movements is told in W. R. Ward, Protestant Evangelical Awakening. See also Spurr, John, “The Church, the societies and the moral revolution of 1688,” in Walsh et al., The Church of England c. 1689–1833, 127–142Google Scholar. Mentions of the SPCK in this context of the rise of international Protestantism appear in, for example, Ward, W. R., Christianity under the Ancien Regime, 1648–1789 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 133–134CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Noll, Mark A., The Rise of Evangelicalism (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 67–83Google Scholar; Schlenther, Boyd Stanley, “Religious Faith and Commercial Empire” in: Marshall, P. J., ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire: the Eighteenth Century, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 128–150Google Scholar.

11 For the American born Secretary to the SPCK, see Cowie, Leonard W., Henry Newman: An American in London, 1708–1743 (London: SPCK, 1956)Google Scholar.

12 In its theological diversity, the SPCK reflected the wider Church of England of the era. As the evangelical movement continued to grow in Britain, members of evangelical religious activist communities and Anglican communities intertwined. Thomas Broughton, the SPCK's secretary between 1743 and his death in 1777, had strong ties to John Wesley and George Whitefield in the 1730s, though he subsequently distanced himself from that movement. Sir Roger Newdigate, who joined in 1761, was committed to High Church Anglicanism, while philanthropist John Thorton, who joined in 1746 at the age of 26, was connected to evangelical patroness Lady Huntingdon, John Newton, and poet William Cowper. Sir Harry Trelawney, who, like Newdigate was a baronet, joined in 1775, while a student Oxford. He then became a Presbyterian minister, then an Anglican minister, before finally converting to Catholicism in his old age. He seems to have flirted with Unitarianism in between. If he did become a Unitarian, he would have had company in the SPCK, where Thesophilus Lindsey was a member between 1764 and 1773, John Disney joined in 1769, and William Frend was a corresponding member before his eventual expulsion in 1789. Oxford DNB online and SPCK Annual Reports, CUL.

13 The SPG's history during this period has been studied primarily for its role in the bishop controversy, and its efforts in North America have generally been depicted as a failure. See Bell, , A War of ReligionCrossRefGoogle Scholar and Strong, , Anglicanism and the British EmpireGoogle Scholar. For the most comprehensive recent treatment of the SPG, see Travis Glasson, “Missionaries, Slavery, and Race: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 2005.

14 “A Letter from a Member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London to his friend in the Country, Newly chosen a Corresponding Member of that Society” (London: J. Downing, 1709), 4.

15 “A Letter from a Member,” 16–17.

16 Duffy, Eamon, “Correspondence Fraternelle: The SPCK, the SPG, and the Churches of Switzerland in the War of the Spanish Succession,” in Reform and Reformation: England and the Continent, c. 1500–1750, ed. Baker, D. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1979), 251–280Google Scholar; Nishikawa, Sugiko, “The SPCK in Defence of Protestant Minorities in Early Eighteenth-century Europe,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56 (2005), 730–748CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 “A Letter from a Member,” 1709, 22.

18 “A Letter from a Member,” 1709, 19–20. For a full treatment of Halle-SPCK contacts during the first half of the century, see Brunner, Halle Pietists in England. For the SPCK-Halle partnership with regards to the Salzburgers, see Renate Wilson, “Halle and Ebenezer: Pietism, Agriculture, and Commerce in Colonial America” (Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, 1988).

19 “Account of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,” (London: J. and W. Oliver, 1777), 108.

20 The “Account of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge” was published every year. Technically, the Annual Sermon and the “Account” were separate documents, though they were normally joined together and distributed. For this reason, they sometimes appear separately in bibliographic databases and library catalogues. For this survey, I used the “Account” for the years 1770–1790. Quotation, “Account of the Society,” 1770, 4. Printing an annual report was a regular ritual engaged in by many organizations, and the various groups exchanged reports. The SPCK regularly received reports from the SPG, the Associates of Dr. Bray, The Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Working Schools, and the Circulating Welsh Charity Schools, as well as a variety of hospitals. For a wider discussion of this genre, see Stevens, Laura, The Poor Indians, 84–110Google Scholar, and Bickham, Troy O., Savages within the Empire: Representations of American Indians in Eighteenth-century Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 210–240Google Scholar.

21 “Account of the Society,” (London: John Rivington, 1783), 4.

22 “Account of the Society” (London: J. and W. Oliver, 1770), 4–5.

23 Richard Kaye, “A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of Christ-Church, London, on Thursday, May the 23rd, 1776, being the Time of the Yearly Meeting of the Children Educated in the Charity Schools, in and about the Cities of London and Westminster,” (London: W. Oliver, 1776), 23.

24 Anthony Hamilton, “A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of Christ-Church, London, on Thursday, June the 3d, 1773, being the Time of the Yearly Meeting of the Children Educated in the Charity Schools, in and about the Cities of London and Westminster,” (London: J. and W. Oliver, 1778), 9–10.

25 Edward Bentham, “A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of Christ-Church, London, on Thursday, April the 30th, 1772, being the Time of the Yearly Meeting of the Children Educated in the Charity Schools, in and about the Cities of London and Westminster,” (London: J. and W. Oliver, 1772), 22.

26 Kaye, “A Sermon Preached,” 24–26.

27 “The Standing Rules and Orders of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,” (London: 1741), 4–5.

28 See the “Account of the Society” for 1770 and 1777; Bell, , A War of Religion, 222–245Google Scholar. John Barnett, the minister listed in SPCK rolls as being in North Carolina in 1777, had actually deserted his posted in 1771, having been “charged with Crimes, too base to be mentioned.” He served a parish in Virginia between 1771 and 1772. Presumably he was too busy to keep the SPCK up to date on his location, and the SPG, who had employed him in North Carolina, omitted to update its sister organizations records. Van Horne, John C., Religious Philanthropy and Colonial Slavery, 331Google Scholar.

29 “Standing Rules”; “Account of the Society,” 1770. The members were less unified in other ways. The Englishmen who joined the SPCK were often members of the clergy, including many bishops, but a not-insignificant number of other professions were represented as well. Merchants, bankers, physicians, and quite a few postal employees joined. Membership likely accorded both a degree of social standing and also reflected personal interest. Anthony Bacon, for example, a London merchant and iron manufacturer, joined in 1764. Born into a shipping family and raised by his maternal uncles in Maryland, he was deeply involved in Atlantic trade in tobacco and slaves. He served in the House of Commons during the American Revolution, and published several pamphlets on the American conflict. It is possible that Bacon's interest in the SPCK grew out of his experience in politics, or stemmed from relationships formed when he was in Maryland, where one of the Society's founders, Thomas Bray, had spent time. Either way, those explanations would not serve for Thomas Healde, a prominent doctor, lecturer, and author, who also joined. Higher up the social ladder, the evangelically inclined Lord Dartmouth, president of the Board of Trade during the Stamp Act crisis and step-brother of Prime Minister Lord North, was a member. Sir John Hawkins joined in 1775.

30 “Account of the Society,” 1770, 4.

31 This conclusion is based on an assessment of the SPCK minutes, including the acceptance of new members, between 1773 and 1787. For Quaque, see SPCK Minutes, November 2, 1784, CUL.

32 Brunner, , Halle Pietists in England, 25–27Google Scholar.

33 Oxford DNB online.

34 This list of names emerges from the SPCK Minutes, 1773–1787, CUL.

35 Smith-Dampier, J. L., Who's Who in Boswell? (New York: Russell & Russell, 1935, reissued 1970), 156Google Scholar.

36 For treatments that deal with foreign Protestants in England, see Panayi, Panikos, Germans in Britain since 1500 (London: Hambledon Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Cottret, Bernard, The Huguenots in England: Immigration and Settlement, c. 1550 to 1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Tony Claydon, Europe and the Making of England; Andrew C. Thompson, Britain, Hanover and the Protestant Interest.

37 See Oxford DNB online and SPCK annual “Accounts.” See also Susanne Steinmetz, “The German Churches in London, 1669–1914,” in Panayi, Panikos, Germans in Britain since 1500, 49–72Google Scholar.

38 Stevens, Poor Indians. The SPG often complained that slave owners were a prime impediment to their work spreading Christianity. For Wilson's tract in the context of SPG missionary work, and the larger context of SPG work among slaves, see Travis Glasson, “Missionaries, Slavery, and Race,” chapter 3. In an exception that proves the rule, in 1773, Uzal Ogden, a future leader of the post-revolutionary Episcopal Church in New Jersey, visited London for his ordination. He presented the SPCK with fifty-seven copies of each of four tracts, including “An Address to the Youth of America,” but that sophomoric effort did not pertain in any way specifically to the colonies, reinforcing rather than complicating the idea that America as such did not figure significantly in the SPCK imagination.

39 Although it was originally printed by the Associates of Dr. Bray (where Waring was Secretary between 1754 and 1779) in 1770, it did not arrive at the SPCK offices until 1774, and it was not placed in the Society's catalogue until 1781, near the end of the era of the American Revolution. For a full discussion of this tract, see Van Horne, John C., Religious Philanthropy and Colonial Slavery, 293–302Google Scholar.

40 Waring, “Letter to an American Planter,” 8, 20–21.

41 I have found only one reference of someone from the colonies spontaneously contacting the SPCK during the era in question, and that is of a £100 legacy from a “Mr. Merritt” in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 5, 1774. SPCK Minutes, CUL.

42 De la Roche to SPG, November 28, 1771, SPG American Material, Series B, item 174.

43 SPCK “Account of the Society”, 1770–1783; see also, Renate Wilson, “Halle and Ebenezer: Pietism, Agriculture, and Commerce in Colonial America.”

44 “Account of the Society,” 1778, 1779; Associates of Dr. Bray (1785); and Clergy of the Church of England Database, http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/index.html. Record ID 135027.

45 Hallett, A. C. Hollis, Chronicle of a Colonial Church: 1612–1826, Bermuda (Bermuda: Juniperhill Press, 1993), 153–154Google Scholar; Gaustad, Edwin S., “George Berkeley and New World Community,” Church History 48, no. 1, (March 1979), 5–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Lyttelton to Terrick, June 27, 1775, Fulham Papers at Lambeth Palace Library, vol. 17, 39–41, Microfilm reel 9 World Microfilms, 1970–1978.

47 Hallett, , Chronicle of a Colonial Church, 316–317Google Scholar. Lyttelton to Bishop of London, Fulham Papers at Lambeth Palace Library, vol. 15, 78–79, Microfilm reel 8. For disputes with his fellows, see Manross, William Wilson, The Fulham Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 244–45Google Scholar.

48 SPCK Minutes, September 5, 1780; October 3, 1780; August 13, 1782; July 1, 1783; November 4, 1783; December 2, 1783; February 1, 1785; October 14, 1786, CUL.

49 SPCK Minutes, 1780–81, passim. See especially tabulation at December 11, 1781, CUL.

50 SPCK Minutes, November 2, 1773, CUL; “Account of the Society,” 1777.

51 1777 “Account of the Society,” 1777; Urlsperger, “An Address to all Sincere Promoters of the Kingdom of God Resident in England Concerning the Establishment of an Association for Promoting, Vindicating, and Reviving Christianity in its Fundamental Purity in Knowledge and Practice,” (n.p., 1780).

52 SPCK Minutes, October 4, 1774, CUL.

53 Brunner, , Halle Pietists in England, 181Google Scholar.

54 SPCK Minutes, November 26, 1776, CUL. Robert Pool Finch, “Seasonable Reflections Adapted to the Approaching Fast,” (London: W. Oliver, 1776); George Campbell, “The Nature, Extent, and Importance of the Duty of Allegiance: A Sermon Preached at Aberdeen, December 12, 1776, being the Fast Day appointed by the King on account of the Rebellion in America,” (Aberdeen: J. Chalmers and Co., 1777); Robert Pool Finch, “A Sermon Preached in the Church of St. Michael, Cornhill, on Wednesday, February 10, 1779, being the day appointed for a General Fast,” (London: W. Oliver, 1779); William Hughes, “A Sermon Preached at one of the Parish Churches in Northampton, on Wednesday the 10th of February, 1779, being the day appointed by Royal Authority, for a Fast,” (Northampton: Thomas Dicey, n.d.). For a broader discussion of the role of fast day sermons in the American Revolution, see: Langford, Paul, “The English Clergy and the American Revolution,” in The Transformation of Political Culture: England and Germany in the Late-Eighteenth Century, Hellmuth, Eckhart (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 275–308Google Scholar; Ippel, Henry P., “British Sermons and the American Revolution,” Journal of Religious History 12 (1982), 191–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar.