Diary Extract 24 May 27 1760

Tuesday May 27, 1760, I was affected in conversing with a friend about the distresses with which our church is at present oppressed. The love of many waxeth cold and some have said they will come no more amongst us. Deliver me, O Lord, from such a spirit. May I dwell in thy house to the end of my days. And may it be my constant aim by every means in my power to restore and confirm my lukewarm brethren and while I look upon these things as chastisements for sin, may I endeavour for myself to set about a reformation.

Diary Extract 23 May 25 and 26 1760

May 25 This day six persons were added to our number five of whom came from Leeds. In the evening we established a meeting at our house. May the Lord prosper our undertaking.

May 26 My sins have this day been many and great. I have to complain of wandering thoughts and negligence in private prayer, unreasonable anger and too much levity. In the evening I had much pleasure in reading Clarke's Bible and was blessed with some desires after God and holiness.

Diary Extract 22 May 14 1760

May 14 This morning was set apart for fasting and prayer on account of the present distresses of our Zion. We met in the vestry a little after five in the morning and continued our meeting till nearly eight.

O Lord to thee I here confess

My folly sin and wretchedness

O may my few remaining days

Be all devoted to thy praise

Thy statutes may I keep in mind

Thy law upon my memory bind

These truths may every heart embrace

And praise thee for thy richer grace

Diary Extract 21 May 13 1760

May 13. This day I was much fatigued in body, but something better in mind than the day before. As I have now got a new house, my desire and prayer is that, being possessed of a new heart, I may be enabled, through grace, to perform new obedience. I had much pleasure in family prayer in the evening.

A house of prayer my house shall be,

A temple for my God;

Nor shall allow'd iniquity

Have place in my abode.

Lord help me to perform this resolution!

Extract 20 May 12 1760

May 12, 1760

We have this day been removing our goods to a house in Barker End, more airy and healthy than our former situation:- I desire to be thankful that he who fixes the bounds of our habitations has now brought me to the place where I desired to be. It has been a day of much hurry and toil, so that I have had but little thought about God and heavenly things.

Diary Extract 19 May 11 1760

Lord's Day, May 11

The earth resplendent Phœbus cheers,

And bright the morning light appears;

The fruitful ground, refresh'd with showers,

Unbosoms now the fairest flowers:

Far otherwise, alas! my mind,

To good averse, to ill inclined.

Diary Extract 18 May 4 1760

Lord's Day, May 4 O Lord God of heaven and earth! I come to thee this morning conscious of guiltI desire to acknowledge my transgressions;-I have been wasteful of my precious time; have neglected to examine myself; and have been chargeable with the omission of many other duties. O Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!'

I have this day been hearing what the desire of the righteous' is, and, 'that it shall be granted.'- Proverbs, x. 24. Let this be verified in my experience; and in order to this, may my desires be always such as thou dost approve. Set a watch before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips! Grant that, from this time, my mouth may be as a well of life, and that a stream of righteousness may flow from my lips into whatsoever company I am cast, and may my conduct preach righteousness to all with whom I have to do.

Mr Crabtree delivered his discourse with much energy and animation-but I have still reason to complain of the hardness of my heart. I must take up the lamentation 'My leanness, my leanness, woe is me! How can it be that I have an interest in these benefits, and yet be so unaffected with a sense of it? If it be so, 'why am I thus?' O Lord, who searchest all hearts, thou knowest that I would not deceive myself; I would not pretend to be brought nigh to that from which I am still at the greatest distance. - Thou knowest that my soul longs above all things after what thy servant has this day dwelt upon.

The velvet cap

Late on in his biography Fawcett's son says

Were the writer of these Memoirs to endeavour to trace the remainder of his pilgrimage on earth it would prove that when life is extended beyond its usual span the strength of man is but labour and sorrow. It would exemplify the truth of that description which the wise man gives of the infirmities of old age when the keepers of the house tremble the strong men bow themselves and the grasshopper itself is a burden. A coldness and almost incessant pain in his head obliged him to wear a velvet cap, the weakness in his knees was for a long time so great that he was unable to rise from his seat without help or to walk except for a very short distance without support. He had also repeated attacks of the paralytic kind and was subject to violent bleedings at the nose, these might have a salutary effect as the means of preventing apoplexy to which the stupor and heaviness preceding them indicated a strong tendency but their frequent return occasioned great debility and rendered him incapable for the time of attending to his public labours.

Birth Place John Foster

This is the birth place of John Foster the Baptist Minister and essayist, a former pupil of Fawcett. The house is on Wadsworth Lane outsde Hebden Briidge.

 

Machpelah

 

Fawcett ran a school at Bearley Hall and Ewood Hall, where he also lived, but in 1805 he moved to Machpelah to be nearer Ebenezer Chapel and leaving running the school to his son. It is a handsome building with a built-up arch on the right reminiscent of a small coach house. Before the houses in the row could be built, large sections of the hillside had to be cut away. They all have back yards and steps climbing up the hill, as well as their own water supply from the hillside. Fawcett named the house after the cave mentioned in Genesis 23, which Abraham bought as a burial ground. Fawcett had a vault built at the rear as a private burial place for his wife, who died in 1810. Her body was later removed and reburied at Wainsgate.

Hope Chapel, Hebden Bridge

 

After Fawcett, the need to replace Ebenezer Chapel with a larger building led the congregation to move a few hundred yards to the West and to build Hope Chapel, which was opened in 1858. A separate Sunday School building was opened in 1873 across the road on Cheatham Street. In 1879, further seats were added to accommodate the growing congregation. It was sold in 1961 to the West Riding County Council for a library. Inside the chapel is a memorial to John Fawcett and the church has numerous reminders of this heritage, including a members’ roll book, in which the first entry is Fawcett himself. The church apparently continues today. The chapel is used as a communit centre.

Ebenezer Chapel, Hebden Bridge

 

Ebenezer Chapel, Market Street, Hebden Bridge was built in 1777 as Ebenezer Chapel for Fawcett when he moved from Wainsgate Chapel. It was on the main turnpike road from Yorkshire to Lancashire. The space in front used to be the graveyard. This has shrunk with each widening of the road, but all the gravestones are still under the grass. Fawcett’s daughter’s grave is on the right, near the door. Near this, upright against the wall, is that of John Foster the essayist, who had been a pupil at Fawcett’s school. Wording on the stones reflects the Calvinist beliefs of the Particular Baptists. One gravestone is of a Henry Riley murdered in 1818 ‘because he became poor’. The building served as a chapel until 1858 and has subsequently been the home of the Hebden Bridge Times, an arts centre and antiques shop.

Wainsgate Chapel, Midgley

 

A particular Baptist church was founded in Midgley in 1750 by converts of the evangelical Anglican William Grimshaw in Haworth. The first minister, Richard Smith, came from Barnoldswick. On his death, he was succeeded in 1764 by the young John Fawcett, who had been baptised by William Crabtree, minister of Westgate Baptist Church, Bradford and who had himself become a member at Wainsgate. The need for larger premises and better facilities for his school led to his move into Hebden Bridge in 1777. The present building dates from 1859 and was lavishly furnished at the end of the 19th century. The church closed in 2001 and the premises are in the care of the Historic Chapels Trust. Fawcett is buried in the graveyard.

Diary Extract 17 May 1 1760

May 1, 1760 I have been but little this day in prayer and meditation.

I have found pride and ambition working in my heart.

I have reason to fear that I have sought my own praise more than the glory of God in writing the foregoing verses.

I have been very cold in my evening devotions