from the Kettering Leader – Friday, August 15, 1924

Glimpses of Rothwell History

By F. W. BULL

The Ponder Family

For two hundred years the family of Ponder evidently played a prominent part in Rothwell affairs.

The first Ponder of which a note exists is one Nicholas Ponder, who died about 1527, but whose will is unfortunately missing from the Northampton Registry. The will of Nicholas Ponder, who died in 1573, is there, however, and it is not unreasonable to suppose he was the son of the first-named Nicholas. This will •was made on 18th August, 1573, and as there is no mention of children it is presumed Nicholas had no issue. He is there described as a husbandman, and proceeds: “I give and bequeath my soule to almigtie God my maker and redeamer and my bodie to be buried in the church of Rothwell. . . I give to the Churche of Rothwell vis. viijd. Item I give to the Schole-house xxd. I give to the Abbey bridge five theaves and to the three other bridges vs. I give and bequeath to be given to the poore in Rothwell on my buriall daye viijs. ivd. I give yearlie for so longe as my yeares last in this ferme to the poore one stryke of malte when they mend the high waies. And I give yearlie also so longe as the lease of my farme endureth iijs. iiijd. to be bestowed on Rogation Mondaie of them that goe about to sett meare stones betwixt meare and meare and neighbour and neighbour.” To his brother William he gives xxs. and to his children vs. each and a shepe apece. To his brother in law William Ley of Thorpe xs. and to his sister his (Ley’s) wife xxs. To his brother John £3 6s. 8d. Other curious bequests are the following:— “To my brother William Ponder my best coate my best doublett my best shirte my best hoose and my best Jerkyn. I give to my brother Ley my second doublett my second shirt.” To his sister Ley he gave his “best hatte to Marie Ley one brass pott that I left bought of my cousin Wall.” He makes his wife Margarie his ful texecutrix and gives her the residue. She proved the will 26th November, 1573.

Coming now to William Ponder, the brother of Nicholas, we find that he made his will on 6th November, 1579. He is described as a yeoman, and proceeds: “I give and bequeath my soule unto almightie God my Maker and Redeemer in whom I rnust be saved by his precious bloode sheddinge and my bodie to be buried in the Church of Rothwell.” To such church he gives vis. viiid. He gave “unto the mendinge of the hygh wayes yearlie one strike of malt unto the end and term of xxi years.”

Then he goes on: “Item I give iiis. iiijd., to be given amongst the people which doe goe about a fields in Rogation weeke commonly called Crossa weeke and that iijs. iiijd. to be payd yearlie for ever by hym or them that shall have the farme in occupation wherein I now dwell.” To Marie Ponder his wife and to John Ponder his brother he gave all lands which he bought of Mr. Udall during their natural lives then to Thomas Ponder his son except a cottage called the Chauntrey House adjoining the Churchyard and that he gave to Owen Ponder his son with another house in Nassington after the deaths of his wife and brother. He refers to the lease of a house and six arable lands at Thorpe Malsor, which he ultimately gave to another son, John, and gives £20 each on their marriage to his daughters Constance and Agnes and further sums of £5. He further willed that bis executors should “give unto Owen my sonne some £5 yearlie to keep him at the Universitie so long as he doth apply his books and shall bave need of the exhibition. To his son Thomas Ponder he gave a Cupboard “that standeth in the wall, the formes, and tables with all the sealinge in the hall and parlour.”

The residue of his estate he gave his wife Marie and his brother John and he made them executors. The will was proved on 3rd June, 1580.

John. Ponder, William’s brother, made his will on 3rd June, 1601. Ha does not appear to have been married, as there is no reference to children or a wife. Ha gave unto his Parish Church xxs. “when they doe begin to build the Steeple,” Legacies were given to the children of his nephews Thomas and Owen and to his sister Margery, who presumably was the wife of William Ley There was also a bequest to Elizabeth Ponder tha daughter of his nephew Thomas of his bedstead in the greate chamber and feather bed with all that belongeth thereto and one paire of sheetes. The residue went to Thomas his nephew, and tha will was proved 7th October, 1601.

Thomas Ponder, the son, of William, made his will 22nd October, 1630. He desires to be buried in the Parish Church of Rothwell neare unto his predecessors, and refers to his sons Thomas and Owen, his daughters Elizabeth, Susan, Annie and Sara. He also refers to Thomas and Mary the children of his son William and also to his brother Owen and sister Agnes Harrison. His cousins John and Elizabeth are also mentioned, The nesidue went to his son William, who as executor proved the will 26th February, 1630.

Then we have the will of Owen Ponder, presumably the son of William Ponder, which was proved 30th April, 1661. He refers to his eldest son Ralph his .second son John, and his youngest son Thomas, and to his wife Dorothy, to whom he gave all his goods and chattels and all his houses for life and towards the bringing up of his children and the finding of such trades as their dispositions stand to. This Owen is probably the Owen Ponder who at the Church Survey of 14th September, 1637 did “confess that sometymes he doth not stand up at the gospell And doth not bow when the blessed name of Jesus is mentioned” and he “being admonished to conform therein for the tyme to come” answered obstinately “that he would not tell whether he would reform or noe.”

There is, too, the will of Ralph Ponder of Rowell Labourer dated 28th March 1663 (proved at Kettering 7th April 1671) who refers to his wife Anne and his daughters Elizabeth, Dorothy and Anne. Also the will of Thomas Ponder of Rowell Gentleman dated 4th March, 1730, in which he mentions his late brother-in-law the. Lord Chief Baron Ward, and his grandchildren, the daughters of his late son-in-law John York, who was Vicar of Rothwell 1690—94, and Rector of Stoke Doyle 1717—30. The will was proved 24th April, 1752, and the inventory was sworn at £408 0s. 1 1/2 d.

Which Ponder was the founder of Ponder’s Charity does not appear from any will. The Commissioners in their report of 1830 state that “six small tenements which were erected in or about the year 1714 by T. Ponder Gentleman were appropriated by him, together with three roods of land adjoining, for the use of the poor widows of Rothwell,” and it seems just possibly that the Ponder in question was the one just mentioned as having died in 1732. Paul Cypher states that in the Lady Chapel is a monumental inscription, scarcely legible, to the memory of Thomas Ponder, the founder of the Almshouses. This stone is still in existence, but the inscription is now indecipherable.

These wills are interesting, as are numerous entries in the Church registers, but it is most difficult to construct a pedigree from them.

John Ponder was a notable member of the family. Exactly what relation he was, however, to the Ponders already mentioned it is at present impossible to say. He was quite a sturdy Puritan. In 1634 or thereabouts he was charged with divers offences connected with religious exercises and opinions which did not accord with the views then current. He was one of the founders of the Independent Church at Rothwell, and was the first elder. He was apparently in a good way of business as a chandler, and issued two tokens, one dated 1655 and the other 1664. These are illustrated, being reproduced from a plate, in Bridge’s “Northants” of the Dash Collection of Tokens. He made a nuncupative will on 7th April, 1665. He is there described as a chaundler, and he thereby gave Dorothy Ponder his wife all his messuage at Rothwell and goods for the purpose of portions for his children, that is to say. his son John £5, son Nathaniel 5s., and to the rest of his children, Susanna, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Dorothy, Sarah, and Thomas to each of them £50 to be paid on days of marriage. His wife was appointed executrix. Dorothy Ponder died soon after, however. She made her will on 22nd May, 1665, in which, after referring to her husband’s will and desiring that its provisions should be carried out and the por¬tions paid, directed that her son John was to receive £45 more.

The burial entries are:—”1665, 10 April John Ponder Chaundler.” “1665 28 May Dorothy Ponder widdow.” It will be noted that Nathaniel Ponder is only left 5s. He was probably well provided for, however, as he is believed to be the London publisher of many of John Bunyan’s works, though the publisher in question is described as the son of John Ponder, of Rothwell, mercer, and was apprenticed to Robert Gibbs, Bookseller, of London, on 2nd June, 1656. He it was who first published the “Pilgrim’s Progress” in 1678 at the sign of the Peacock, in the Poultry, near the Church. The eleventh edition was the last which came out in his name. The twelfth, issued in 1689, bore the name of Robert Ponder. Nathaniel Ponder was, says Dr. Brown, in his “Life of Bunyan,” “knewn among his brother craftsmen of the Stationer’s Company as ‘Bunyan Ponder.’ He was an agreeable man to have dealings with. He had ‘sweetness and enterprise in his air which plead and anticipate in his favour.'” Nathaniel was “also the publisher in 1679 of “A Treatise of the Fear of God”; and “The Life and Death of Mr. Badman” in 1680. He did not escape trouble in respect of some of his religious publications, but he was quite an active Independent, and took steps to obtain licences for several local Nonconformists in 1672.

The Rev. H. Isham Longden, M.A., to whom thanks are due for his assistance, states that on 15th October. 1666, a licence was issued by the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury for “Nathaniel Ponder of St. Dunstans West Citizen and Stationer bachelor about 26 to marry Mary Guy of Isham Spinster about 20, with the consent of her Father.” There is moreover, says Mr. Longden, an entry in the Kettering register of the baptism on 14th May, 1645, of Mary, daughter of Robert Guy Gentleman; while on the 17th October, 1687, there is an entry in the Rothwell register of the burial of Elizabeth Ponder, daughter of Mr. Nathaniel Ponder of London.

Mr. Longden mentions two other Ponders First, Samuel Ponder, who was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculated 1655 and took his B.A. 1659-60. He is spoken of in Calamy as a Northampton man eminent for piety and humility. A Samuel Ponder buried at Rothwell 4th December, 1662, may have been the Samuel in question. Secondly, there is William Ponder, of Clare Hall, Cambridge, B.A., 1629-30, M.A. 1633, who intruded as Rector of Courteenhall 6th May, 1648, and was buried there 18th December, 1660. Whether he was a Rothwell man cannot be stated.

.ROTHWELL TRADESMEN’S TOKENS.

The Tradesmen’s Tokens here illustrated are three out of the five issued by Rothwell tradesmen. They are shown about double the actual size. The centre of the obverse in Ponder’s earlier Token represents a row of candles, while in the centre of the reverse in the 1664 one are the letters “O.B.,” an abbreviation for “obulus”—a halfpenny. The obverse of the Bebee Token has a wheatsheaf.

“Puritans were the hotter sort of Protestants” Percival Wibum

This was a local vicar’s comment about his friends who included wealthy farmers, schoolteachers and other churchmen. These friends were committed to applying biblical, evangelical teaching to the life of their communities, in order to establish godliness of thought and lifestyle. They wanted to root out ‘Romanist superstition and heresy’ for they desired a purity of faith and life, as preached by John Calvin in Geneva -to bring the Kingdom of God to their country.

Men like Dr Dod of Fawsley, who, with the strong support of wealthy neighbours, the Knightley family of Fawsley near Daventry, preached and wrote ‘tracts’ that had national influence, upsetting bishops and Queen Elizabeth herself.

Thomas Brown, founder of the Brownists [unfavourably commented upon by Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night”] is commemorated in St Giles’ churchyard, Northampton. Brown’s influence on those who emigrated to America encouraged them to keep their religious freedom; these emigrants we remember as the Pilgrim Fathers.

However, there were dozens of less well known men who preached reforming sermons, especially on market days in local market towns like Northampton, Oundle and Kettering. They spread the gospel of godliness in local communities, much to the concern of the Bishop of Peterborough and some local leaders.

Northamptonshire’s closeness to the hotbeds of reforming groups – the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and the Inns of Court in London – meant local landowners could appoint likeminded men to local parish churches and as tutors arid schoolteachers. These men drew together in the main towns to encourage one another, disciple each other and keep pushing forward their views at ‘prophesyings’. The authorities viewed this as having a church within a church and saw these men as a threat; especially when there were proposals to have lay elders and deacons to promote godly teaching and life in some parishes. Some Roman Catholic landowners, like the Treshams of Rothwell, reacted strongly and became involved in the Gunpowder Plot [1605]. Most of the populace though, were little Influenced by these ‘hotter Protestants’ unless they had experienced the impact of Puritan teaching in their local parish.

Bishop Scrambler was initially sympathetic and encouraged them but later tried to curb the disturbances that the doctrinal teachings of these reformers caused. On some occasions, Puritan politicians, like the Earl of Leicester, would intervene. The Bishop’s problems increased in times of crisis -bad harvests and even an earthquake prompted the Puritans to call for repentance, prayer and fasting at their market day services. When Puritan clergy were deprived of their appointments they often remained in the locality or moved to an area nearby as schoolteachers. Local Puritans used such men as teachers of their children, to bring them up in the fear and nurture of God’s word. One thing the Bishop did have to acknowledge was that the Puritan parishes were outstanding for pastoral care, standards of behaviour and diligence of preaching and teaching.

Northampton was at the heart of these activities with several Puritan clergy in the town, including at All Saints and St Giles. Close at hand in Weston Favell, Hardingstone and Collingtree were more like-minded brethren who met for the ‘prophesyings’ at All Saints. Along the Nene valley at Earls Barton, Whiston and Doddington were more Puritan leaders and Whiston was a focus of activity [and concern for opponents] because Isabel Catesby, a local landowner, promoted meetings. Puritans who were in parishes with ‘superstitious clergy’ would ride over to Whiston to receive communion and teaching from Percival Wibum. Eleven out of the fifteen market towns had Puritan preachers who used their strategic position to preach biblical truth and lifestyle. There were also dozens of parishes across the county where godly clergy and landowners promoted these doctrines. Even though there were internal disagreements between different Puritans who held varying understandings of scripture, all united to emphasise the need for real change based upon an evangelical Interpretation. This love for gospel truth and godliness of life enriched the local churches and meant that families were brought up to value what the Puritans had grasped and struggled to establish. The Independents, the ‘children of Puritanism’, are evidence of this when at Castle Hill Chapel In Northampton, 1695, the following covenant was made –

‘We, this church of Christ, whose names are underwritten, having given up ourselves to the Lord and to one another according to the will of God, do promise and covenant, in the presence of God, to walk together in all the laws and ordinances of Christ, according to the rules of his gospel”.

Shiels [1] records that it was to this congregation that Philip Doddndge, who was encouraged in his youth by Hugh Clarke, a grandson of the Puritan minister of Oundle, was called in 1729. Doddridge personified the continuation and development of the evangelical! biblical tradition and life within Northamptonshire.

We owe a great debt to these men and women who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, seeking truth and applying it to lifestyle, built on the influence of Wycliffe’s Lollard preachers and became increasingly influential in Northamptonshire. This influence was also felt in London and then over in America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Puritans left ‘ a good deposit in many towns and villages where people searched the scriptures, listened to biblical preaching, catechised their families and were willing to be called to account for their commitment. The influence and inheritance of these men and women was notable and prepared the way for later evangelical Anglican and Non-Conformist preachers, evangelists and missionaries.

The preaching, personal discipling and calls for repentance with prayer and fasting of the Puritans are of timeless significance and remain a challenge in the 21st century.

The Puritans’ dream was to overturn the government of the bishops and rebuild the Church of England on the Presbyterian model of Calvin’s Geneva or John Knox’s Scotland.

The movement was strong in Northamptonshire: it has been said that “there was no county in England where Puritanism gained such a stronghold, or made such an open demonstration of Its objects and methods”.

In 1571, Puritan influence was strong in Northampton with regular religious exercises known as “prophesyings”, and for a century the town was a Puritan hotbed. This may well have been because there was an old strain of opposition to religious orthodoxy which went back to the Lollards. It certainly had a lot to do with the connection between the spread of new religious ideas and the growth of trade; the great fairs in London and the provincial towns were ideal settings for the dissemination of ideas from the continent.

Puritanism was encouraged by Sir William Cecil, Bishop Edmund Scrambler of Peterborough, George Carleton of Overstone and Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley.

Northampton became a nursery of “Independency” or Congregationalism (the religion of Oliver Cromwell). Archbishop Laud remarked, “In no other county In England was there probably the same extreme defiance of rubrics, order and doctrine, as was the case of some of the parishes in Northants”. Greenall comments that this was especially the case in All Saints, Northampton.

John Lawes

Bibliography

Extracts and summaries from the book “A History of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough”. R.L.Greenall 1979

[1] For further details refer to a Northamptonshire Record Society Book ‘Puritans In the Diocese of Peterborough’ by W.J.Shiels [Northampton 1979] ISBN 0 901275 409

Thank God for the Moravians! ……Who? ……Why?

Carey…   Doddridge…   Arnold… all men that God used to extend His Kingdom in Northampton and beyond and who had been influenced by a group of believers based in Germany, led by Count Zinzendorf.

As a community, they committed themselves to pray twenty-four hours a day for every day of the year for the evangelisation of the world and this continued for over 100 years. To reach slaves, two became slaves so that “the Lamb might receive the reward of His sufferings.”

No wonder Carey quoted from their reports to reinforce his case for modern missions to be initiated, in the meeting at Kettering in 1792.

Doddridge corresponded with the Moravians regularly. When his daughter was seriously ill a member of the Moravians came and prayed for her healing and the Lord restored her to Doddridge’s delight. He had seen members of his church joining the Moravian congregation because of the ‘life’ there. Thomas Arnold of Castle Hill was born into a Moravian family and was noted for his ministry to deaf mutes in the town, as well as his preaching.

The Moravians exerted an influence out of all proportion to their numbers and were ‘salt and light’ in Northampton. They preached to the prisoners in the County gaol in the town, where up to 200 prisoners were kept and there are records of 1,500 hearing the gospel in the yard of the gaol (total population of Northampton at

that time, the 1780’s, was about 10,000). They found acceptance because of their charitable work and the influential citizens of the town, such as Mr Thursby of Abington (Thursby Road) invited them into their homes.

They sought to be self-supporting; creating businesses that not only supported them but brought them into intimate contact with people. If the circumstances did not allow this then other Moravian communal settlements with their crafts and industries would support them out of their profits.

Local Moravians were helped financially by the large Moravian Community in Bedford which also sent over preachers who helped found churches in Woodford Halse, Culworth and Eydon in the west of the county. Their lively singing attracted people to their meetings which were held, from 1769, in their church building at 11 St Giles Street (now under the Town Hall extension). They also had a school.

Their mission was evangelism across the world — “we do not wish to draw people away from their own churches but to preach with the divine promised presence the common salvation of lost sinners through the blood of the Son of God”. It was rooted in prayer and evidenced in ‘doing good’ without regard to denomination.

It is little wonder that God used them in challenging Wesley — who was going to evangelise in America before being converted himself. “I went to America to convert the Indians but oh! who shall convert me?” In 1738 the gospel was preached to John Wesley at the Moravian Church in Fetter Lane, London. The famous entry in his journal records: ‘/

felt my heart strangely warmed, / felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’

The Countess of Huntingdon, another prominent Christian who financed preachers and churches in the eighteenth century was also brought to Christ through Moravians. What is the significance of these people who received public thanks, from the mayor and other prominent people for their works in the town?

• They were rooted in prayer.

• Christ was their focus and goal.

• They recognised God’s heart for the world and were therefore mission minded.

• They showed the gospel went hand in hand with ‘doing good’.

• Young people were taught the Bible systematically.

• They sought fellowship with all who loved the Lord and His Word.

• They demonstrated life in their worship.

They were just one group of Christians in late eighteenth century Northampton that acted as a catalyst for change.

God’s principles do not change, though congregations come and go.

He honours dependency on Himself!

The Moravian Church

Led by Count Zinzendorf [1700-1760], began in 1734 a mission work that was to have profound effects throughout the Christian world. They were noted for their prayerful, patient approach as ‘assistants to the Holy Spirit’.

Their German home base was called Herrnhut [the Lord’s watch], famous for being the centre for over 100 years of ‘Prayer Wall’; 24 hour, 7 day a week prayer.

Sixty years before Carey went to India and over 100 years before Hudson Taylor went to China, two Moravian missionaries landed in the Caribbean. Twenty years later in 1752, Moravians were in Algeria, Sri Lanka, China, Iran, Ethiopia and Labrador.

The Moravians were weak in developing leaders, planting churches and their missionaries short on adequate preparation. They had some ‘different’ theological perspectives. If you met them today you might choose to write them off but perhaps this quote sums up what we can team from them:

“The Moravian Church was the first among Protestant churches to treat this (missionary) work as the responsibility of the church as a whole instead of leaving It to societies or specially interested people.” J.R.Weinlick.

Moravian missionaries were purposely sent to the most despised and neglected people and like many missionaries since, faced disease and possible death. In Guyana, 75 out of the first 160 missionaries died from tropical disease. A line from a hymn written by a Greenland missionary expressed their heart:

“Lo through ice and snow, one poor lost soul for Christ to gain; Glad we bear want and distress to set forth the Lamb once slain”.

Their missionary obedience was essentially glad and spontaneous, motivated by a deep passion and love for Christ. This led them to face the most incredible difficulties and dangers with remarkable courage.