Sermon published by John Brine

A sermon preached to deacons by the Hyper-Calvinist John Brine appeared that year. London minister Brine lived 1703-1765

Birth of John Fell Congregationalist Minister

John Fell  was born 22 August 1735 in Cockermouth (he died 6 September 1797 at the Homerton Academy). He was an English congregationalist minister and classical tutor

His father, Daniel Fell, was a schoolmaster, clerk to the dissenting congregation and occasional village preacher. Fell was apprenticed to a tailor, and after serving his time obtained a situation in London. His bent was towards the dissenting ministry, and by the help of the King's Head Society he was placed in 1757 at the Mile End academy under John Conder, DD. The classical tutor was John Walker, DD, an excellent scholar, who took a great fancy to Fell, and gave him private instructions. On leaving the academy he was for a short time assistant in a school at Norwich. In 1762 he was invited to take charge of an independent congregation at Beccles, Suffolk. He preached there for several years, but declined the pastorate, the church not being organised to his satisfaction.

In May 1770 he succeeded David Parry as minister of the congregational church at Thaxted, Essex, where he was ordained on 24 October. This was his happiest settlement; his congregation grew, he lived on intimate terms with successive rectors of the parish and with Rayner Hickford, the Saxon scholar; and he had time for literary and theological pursuits and for private tuition. One of his young tutees during this period was Richard Sharp with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, Sharp writing the Introduction to Fell's 'Grammar' (1784) = see below. Fell's writings in reply to Hugh Farmer are able, but acrimonious. In 1787, on the retirement of Benjamin Davies DD he accepted the post of classical tutor in his alma mater, and removed (September 1769) to Homerton Academy. It soon became apparent that Fell could not get on well with his students. His apologist speaks of a spirit of insubordination in the academy prior to his appointment. Matters went from bad to worse till at the annual examination in June 1795 charges and counter-charges were brought forward. After much deliberation the governing body, in March 1796, insisted on Fell's retirement, either at midsummer or Christmas. His friends drew up a protest, which the majority declined to record. Fell left the academy at the end of January 1797, and was succeeded by John Berry.

Doubtless Fell had faults of temper; he offended some by a rigid orthodoxy, others he estranged by his republican sympathies. Through the exertions of a London merchant Fell was provided with an annuity of £100. A committee of eight laymen raised some £200 as remuneration for a course of 12 lectures on the evidences. Fell had delivered four of these to crowded audiences in the Scots Church, London Wall, when his health gave way. He died unmarried on 6 Sept. 1797 at Homerton, and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 15 Sept., a funeral oration being delivered by Joseph Brooksbank. The funeral sermon was preached at the Old Jewry on Sunday evening, 24 September, by Henry Hunter, DD of the Scots Church.

Works

Confession of Faith, printed with the services at his ordination, 1770, 8vo.

Essay on Love of one's Country, 8vo (Hunter).

Genuine Protestantism, &c., 1773, 8vo (three letters to the Rev. Edward Pickard of Carter Lane, on subscription)

The Justice … of the Penal Laws … examined, &c., 1774, 8vo.

A Fourth Letter … on Genuine Protestantism, &c., 1775, 8vo (in reply to Joshua Toulmin, DD).

Dæmoniacs. An Enquiry, &c., 1779, 8vo (against Farmer).

"Remarks on the Appendix of the Editor of Rowley's Poems", published in Hickford's Observations, &c., 1782, 8vo.

An Essay towards an English Grammar, &c., 1784, 12mo.

The Idolatry of Greece and Rome, &c., 1785, 8vo (against Hugh Farmer).

Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, &c., 1798, 8vo, two editions same year; third edition, 1799, 8vo (the course was completed by Hunter).

Hunter also mentions reviews of Horne Tooke's Diversions of Purley (1786), and Nicholas Savary's 'Letters on Egypt' (1786), but does not say where they appeared.

James Keir

James Keir was born in 1735. He is best remembered as a chemist and industrialist, but he was also an author, translator, geologist, metallurgist and military captain. He was an important member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

A George II Farthing

 

Birth of Samuel Glasse

 

Samuel Glasse (1735–1812) was an English cleric and Fellow of the Royal Society. He was of High Church views, in the circle of William Jones of Nayland, a Hutchinsonian, and a loyalist of the unrest in the 1790s.

The Spirit Duties Act

The Spirit Duties Act 1735 (commonly known as the Gin Act of 1736) was an Act of Parliament of Great Britain establishing a retail tax on gin and annual licenses for gin sellers. Designed to curb gin consumption, the law was widely disobeyed and then repealed in 1743.

Background

Gin consumption in the UK increased markedly during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries during the so-called Gin Craze. As consumption continued to grow, gin began to be blamed for a variety of social ills including crime, prostitution and mental illness.

Pushed forward by social reformers such as Joseph Jekyll, The Gin Act of 1736 attempted to curb gin consumption by instituting a 20 shilling per gallon excise tax as well as a £50 annual license (equivalent to £8K today) for all gin sellers. Passed in 1735, it was set to take effect in September 1736. The law proved immensely unpopular and provoked public rioting. King George II issued a proclamation requiring compliance with the law and an end to public disorder against it. After just a year, though, enforcement began to wane and the public began to defy the law more openly. It is said that only two of the annual licenses were ever purchased. Moonshine also became widespread as people produced their own gins, sometimes using dangerous ingredients such as turpentine and sulphuric acid.

By 1743, gin production had actually increased to an all-time high of 8,000,000 imperial gallons and enforcement of the law was considered impossible. The financial strain of the War of the Austrian Succession also played a role as the government sought a solution which would generate more income. The act was repealed by the Gin Act of 1743 which set much lower taxes and fees.

A George II Crown

 

Death on stage

On May 10 Irish actor and dramatist Charles Macklin (1690-1797!?) unintentionally killed his fellow actor Thomas Hallam after a dispute over a wig during a performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. He was later tried and convicted of manslaughter. There is a memorial to Macklin in St Paul's, Covent Garden.

George Hadley and Trade Winds

We have mentioned George Hadley very briefly before. On May 22 he published the first explanation of the trade winds of the world.

Hadley (1685–1768) was an English lawyer and amateur meteorologist who proposed the atmospheric mechanism by which the trade winds are sustained, which is now named in his honour as Hadley circulation. As a key factor in ensuring that European sailing vessels reached North American shores, understanding the trade winds was becoming a matter of great importance at the time. Hadley was intrigued by the fact that winds which should by all rights have blown straight north had a pronounced westerly flow, and it was this mystery he set out to solve.

The trade winds or easterlies are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, strengthening during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase. Trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world's oceans for centuries and enabled colonial expansion into the Americas and trade routes to become established across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In meteorology, they act as the steering flow for tropical storms that form over the Atlantic, Pacific, and southern Indian Oceans and make landfall in North America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar and eastern Africa. Shallow cumulus clouds are seen within trade wind regimes and are capped from becoming taller by a trade wind inversion, which is caused by descending air aloft from within the subtropical ridge. The weaker the trade winds become, the more rainfall can be expected in the neighboring landmasses.