East Anglia: Personal Recollections and Historical AssociationsRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
History
East Anglia: Personal Recollections and Historical Associations
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
East Anglia (England)
He was a member of the church there, and was one of the judges who sat on
the trial of King Charles I. His name stands last on the list of those
who signed the warrant for that monarch’s execution. Corbet fled into
Holland at the Restoration, with Colonels Okey and Barkstead. George
Downing—a name ever infamous—had been Colonel Okey’s chaplain. He became
a Royalist at the Restoration, and was despatched as Envoy Extraordinary
into Holland, where, under a promise of safety, he trepanned the three
persons above named into his power, and sent them over to England to
suffer death for having been members of the Commission for trying King
Charles I. For this service he was created a baronet. The King sent an
order to the Sheriffs of London on April 21, 1662, that Okey’s head and
quarters should have Christian burial, as he had manifested some signs of
contrition; but Barkstead’s head was directed to be placed on the
Traitor’s Gate in the Tower, and Corbet’s head on the bridge, and their
quarters on the City gates.
Foremost amongst the noted women of the Independent Church must be
mentioned Sarah Martin, of whose life a sketch appeared in the _Edinburgh
Review_ as far back as 1847. A life of her was also published by the
Religious Tract Society. Sarah, who joined the Yarmouth church in 1811,
was born at Caistor. From her nineteenth year she devoted her only day
of rest, the Sabbath, to the task of teaching in a Sunday-school. She
likewise visited the inmates of the workhouse, and read the Scriptures to
the aged and the sick. But the gaol was the scene of her greatest
labours. In 1819, after some difficulty, she obtained admission to it,
and soon seems to have acquired an extraordinary influence over the minds
of the prisoners. She then gave up one day in the week to instruct them
in reading and writing. At length she attended the prison regularly, and
kept an exact account of her proceedings and their results in a book,
which is now preserved in the public library of the town. As there was
no chaplain, she read and preached to the inmates herself, and devised
means of obtaining employment for them. She continued this good work
till the end of her days in 1843, when she died, aged fifty-three. A
handsome window of stained glass, costing upwards of £100, raised by
subscription, has been placed to her memory in the west window of the
north aisle of St. Nicholas Church. But her fame extends beyond local
limits, and is part of the inheritance of the universal Church. It was
in Mr. Walford’s time that Sarah Martin commenced her work. Mr. Walford
tells us, in his Autobiography, that the Church had somewhat degenerated
in his day, that the line of thought was worldly, and not such as became
the Gospel. It is clear that in his time it greatly revived, and, even
as a lad, the intelligence of the congregation seemed to lift me up into
quite a new sphere, so different were the merchants and ship-owners of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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