Abstract
Sandemanianism gained its toe-hold in London around 1760, when the first community arose from the plethora of dissenting congregations that jostled with one another in the side streets of the City and competed for the rapidly expanding population. The staid established Church was often felt to be out of touch with people’s lives and religious needs, whereas the dissenting chapels were more welcoming and offered many inspiring preachers and a range of religious experiences. In the mid-eighteenth century there were numerous Methodist, Quaker and Baptist meeting houses and also a number of Independent congregations that formed round individual preachers.1 It was principally from these Independents that Sandemanianism gained its first influential converts, probably because it was seen as offering not just a form of Christianity based firmly on the Bible, but also a substantial organisational structure which Independent congregations often lacked. Paradoxically, Independent preachers were the very people whom Robert Sandeman had severely chastised in his influential and widely read Letters on Theron and Aspasio (1757).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
W. Wilson, The history and antiquities of dissenting churches and meeting houses in London, Westminster, and Southwark; including the lives of their ministers from the rise of non-conformity to the present time (four vols, London, 1810). See also the Wilson manuscripts in Dr Williams’s Library, London.
D. Maxwell, ‘Some personal reminiscences’, Hull Literary Club Magazine, 1 (1899), 144–5.
J. R[orie], Letter on the differences which have arisen in the churches originally established by Mr. John Clas (Dundee, 1886); ‘Correspondence book’: Dundee MS, 9/4/2(59); Various correspondence and rolls among EMH and Ferguson manuscripts.
R. Mudie-Smith, ed., The religious life of London (London, 1904), p.173, gives numbers of people entering the two meeting houses on an appointed Sunday. His figures make no distinction between communicants and auditors. Moreover, the numbers for morning and evening worshippers are added, thus the census taker probably counted many of the same people twice.
I have not been able to discover the source of this sketch, which was published in W. Jerrold, Michael Faraday: Man of science (London, 1891), p.98. If it was produced specifically for this book, it was probably based on the artist’s memory, since the Sandemanians left the building three decades earlier. The hall appears rather too large and the man in the foreground looks suspiciously like Faraday.
Anon., ‘Paul’s Alley, Barbican, 1695–1768’, Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society, 4 (1915), 46–54; W. Wilson, ‘Collection on dissenting ministers and churches’: Dr Williams’s Library, Ms.63.A, 1.58.
J.E. Ritchie, The religious life of London (London, 1870), p.316; ‘Memorandum’: Islington Public Library, MsYB208.
Anon., ‘Faraday memorial’, Electrical Review, 59 (1906), 867;
J. Kendall, Michael Faraday: Man of simplicity (London, 1955), p.172.
Acts 1:15 & 4:4. J. Barnard, The nature and government of the Church of Christ [1761], reprinted in The Church of the living God (Perth, 1855), p.9.
G.L. Sandeman, The Sandeman genealogy (Edinburgh, 1950), p.ix. This invaluable work is based on a manuscript by David Peat that was extended and published by John Glas Sandeman in 1895. The Sandeman coat of arms was first registered in 1780.
M.L. Barnard, ‘Edward Barnard and Sons, goldsmiths and silversmiths of the City of London’ (unpublished BA dissertation, Sheffield City Polytechnic, 1983), p.21. My account is largely based on this useful dissertation.
Cornelius Varley subsequently became a devout Baptist. See A.T. Story, James Holmes and John Varley (London, 1894), p.300.
A. Blaikley, ‘Reminiscences of Alec Clydesdale’, pp.56–7: Typescript deposited in the Royal Institution; R. Ormond, Early Victorian portraits (two vols, London, 1973), vol.1, pp.168–70.
D. and F. Irwin, Scottish painters at home and abroad 1700–1900 (London, 1975), pp.203–4. None of Faraday’s 1852 papers include in their titles the phrase ‘magnetic lines of’ as shown in Bell’s portrait. It was probably meant to be ‘On the lines of magnetic force’, which Faraday presented at the Royal Institution on 23 January and was subsequently published in condensed form in Proceedings of the Royal Institution, 1 (1851–4), 105–8 and ERE, 3, 402–6.
A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904 (four vols, London, 1905).
G.C. Williamson, ed., Bryan’s dictionary of painters and engravers (three vols, London, 1930).
Faraday to Mr [John?] Leighton, 28 July 1828: Smithsonian Institution, Dibner Library, Ms Faraday 57; Faraday to John William Parker, 19 August 1831: Correspondence, 200. [Gerrit Moll], On the alleged decline of science in England, by a foreigner (London, 1831).
S.P. Thompson, Michael Faraday, his life and work (London, 1901), p.286.
Copyright information
© 1991 Geoffrey N. Cantor
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cantor, G. (1991). The London Sandemanian Fellowship. In: Michael Faraday: Sandemanian and Scientist. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13131-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13131-0_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-58802-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-13131-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)