June2012
12
anglicanlife
GEORGE WILLIAMS MEMORIAL David Davis Columnist
The request to the Governor of Newfoundland in this article follows the age-old form of an appeal to the ruler. In the oldest days these memorials were sent directly to the ruler but as we see here it was directed to the ruler’s representative, Governor Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth. This arrangement was most in keeping when the governor ruled alone and there was no legislature to share the act of governing with a naval officer like Duckworth. The people looked up to the governor as a source of appeal for their personal problems. This tradition continued for a very long time, even after there was a legislature and even into the time of responsible government. The record books at Government House show that people petitioned the governor for personal favours well into the twentieth century. It is unfortunate that in Mr. Williams’ request to the governor we do not have any details in his memorial about his work at Grand Bank and a little about Bay Roberts, that he was the master of small school. This latter fact is confirmed by a list of schools in Newfoundland which the writer found. This informa-
tion was in a report to Governor Duckworth by the Reverend Edward Violet the Calvinistic missionary in St John’s at that time. Mr. Williams is listed as having a school at Bay Roberts but his first name was not given. It is unlikely that there were two Williams in Bay Roberts with schools at this time. Teachers in pioneer societies were viewed by the people as essential to the success of their families’ future, but it was very difficult to find persons who were qualified to teach even at the most elementary level of schooling. Also it must be kept in mind that at that time, the pioneer days in Newfoundland, the percentage of persons in any country who received any other than the most basic level of education were few. Schools were mostly financed on a user pay basis so that many children would have been excluded. Some people would have held that most people did not need an education. Persons such as Mr. Williams could put him forward as having a school which would imply he had some education, either school based or home grown so he could hold church services in the Bay Roberts’ area. Of course in those days priests often had schools; these schools were all small and it
was expensive to life in Newfoundland so all kinds of arrangements were common for school and church. This was a career path that is certainly common in the church to this day although then it was irregular and today it might be a second career with a university education. Here Mr. Williams is trying to touch up the governor for some kind of subsidy to help his financial situation so he can teach and preach in the area of his home. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) is not mentioned as a possible source for funding but the fact that the organization did fund school masters and priests may have been a factor in his memorial to the governor. The governor might have interceded with the SPG. Is there any recollection among the people of the Bay Roberts that there ever was a person named George Williams who might have been a teacher/ lay reader/etc? It has been a long time, but community memories can be long.
THE DOCUMENT His Excellency Sir John Thomas Duckworth, &c., &c., Governor and Commander in Chief in and over Over the Island of Newfoundland &c., The Memorial of George Williams, Bay Roberts Humbly Sheweth That your Memorialist being an Inhabitant of Bay Roberts in Conception Bay has been for the proceeding years in the habit of keeping Devin Worship in that place and for four years at Grand Banks in Fortune Bay according to the Words Established in the Church of England and according to laws and that he is the only resident in that district who undertakes to propagate the Protestant Religion occasionally also visiting the places adjacent known by the names of Bearneed and Spaniard’s Bay in which places the inhabitants amount to the number of nine hundred, In prosecuting his endeavour to instruct the poor people in that part of the Island in the principles of our Holy Religion Your Memorialist has not a Competency Sufficient for the support of himself, a wife & family the only emolument attended to his situation arising from a small school which he keeps for the Education of children and from the voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants of Bay Roberts —— which is but trifling, Feeling, however, a desire to continue his efforts among that part of the community, Your Memorialist humbly solicits the favour of Your Excellency to bestow or procure any emolument that may assist him still to prosecute his desire of imparting that religious instruction to the ignorant which his hitherto has sanctioned and supported by Your Excellency in this Island. Your memorialist feeling himself conscious that his general Conduct will bear the inspection of Your Excellency and that his Character is known by respectable Persons- humble persents. This memorial should your Excellency attend to the above, Your Memorialist will ever pray. George Williams
LET US PRAY The Rev’d Everett Hobbs Columnist
Congregational hymn singing, as we know it, is a recent practice widely used going back just several centuries. The Church has always used hymns in various ways but often the main hymn book was from the Book of Psalms. Congregational hymn singing with a hymn book, organ and choir started becoming more prominent in worship starting in the 17th century. With it there was an increase in the number of hymns written and then the compilation of hymn collections (hymn books). One of
The hymns we sing
the first hymn books written in English was compiled by Benjamin Keach, a Baptist pastor, in 1697 with 37 hymns. It still took a long time for hymn singing in worship to become widely use but Isaac Watts (1674-1748) the ‘Father of English Hymnody” broke down a lot of the resistance with his output. Gradually, congregational hymn singing become more prominent in the Church of England but there was much divergence in the availability and choice of hymns, with numerous collections without a common thread. In 1858, two Anglican priests, William Denton and Francis Murray,
conceived a plan to standardize hymn singing by drawing from collections in use. The result was Hymns Ancient & Modern published in 1861 and containing 273 selections. In time it became the accepted hymnal of the Church of England, although other hymn books were used because there had never been an official one. Canada does have an official hymn book and it was first published in 1909 as The Book of Common Praise. The last revision of Hymns Ancient & Modern was in 1983 but in 2000 it published a new book called Common Praise. Our current hymn book also
Common Praise was published in 1998. The word ‘hymn’ is widely applied and raises the question, what is a hymn? What makes a poem or song a hymn? There are numerous definitions. Under the umbrella of church singing and music, there are other forms, such as chants, canticles, choruses and instrumental music. Today with the internet, television, radio and CDs there are tens of thousands of hymns available for public and personal use. How do we choose hymns for Sunday worship? What makes a ‘good’ hymn? Hymn books are still the
source and standard for many of the hymns we sing. In selecting hymns for worship there are a few things to consider: Sing-ability; Teaching (theology); Composition; Poetic and literary qualities; Understandability; Evoking and expressing feelings and mood; and the context of season and liturgy. Some helpful online sites include the Royal School of Church Music and Anglican Church Music.