Her Book of Sermons Anno Dom 1705.

UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT SERMONS BY A TRAGIC CLERGYMAN. COMPILED INTO A HANDSOME VOLUME BY A RACHEL MILLERD

Manuscript on paper. Arms of Amsterdam watermark. Folio (315 x 195mm). [2], 372, [4 index] pp. A little browned and dusty in places but otherwise fine. Fine calligraphic title-page by Rachel Millerd followed by numerous sermons copied in a neat hand with emendations in places, each life ruled in red and paginated by hand. Bound in early 18th-century panelled calf (neatly rebacked with a new spine, binding a little rubbed and scuffed in places).

 

[?Bristol: 

An attractive and carefully produced volume of 47 unpublished manuscript sermons by the Rev. Thomas Watts, a young Bristol clergyman who died prematurely of a "distemper" in October 1705 (aged 27). The volume was produced by a Rachel Millerd (who begins the collection with a very fine calligraphic title-page) from a group of 150 "left compleat in his study" at the time of his death. Also included in the volume is a long extract from Edward Nokes's funeral sermon for Watts in which he describes their friendship and describes life as a young clergyman in England at the beginning of the 18th century.

 

We have not been able to identify Rachel Millerd (her surname could be read as Willerd but there were a number of people named Millerd or Millard in Bristol in the late 17th/early 18th Centuries (most notably James Millerd who produced two maps and a prospect of Bristol in 1673) and only a very few named Willerd or Willard and they are probably mistranscriptions in any case). She may possibly be the Rachel Millard, daughter of Thomas, baptised at the Church of SS Philip & Jacob in the centre of Bristol on 2 October 1687 - this would have made her aged 17/18 in 1705.

 

In a note before the main text, Rachel Millerd states:

 

"This Book Containeth 47 sermons of ^the Revd^ Thomas Watts, sometime Curate of St Nicholas Church in the Citty of Bristoll, being part of 150 left compleat in his study at the time of his death: He was a man of great Piety, given to studdy & devotion, He departed this Life the 30th day of October in the 27th year of his age Anno Domi 1705 of whom it may be truly said he liv'd well beloved, and died truly lamented."

 

Thomas Watts was most likely the Watts who matriculated at Wadham College Oxford in 1694 and graduated B.A. in 1698. Watts may well have been born in Slindon, Sussex and christened in January 1678. Edward Noaks (who delivered Watts's funeral sermon) is most likely his Oxford contemporary who graduated B.A. in 1695 and M.A. in 1698 from Pembroke College. The transcriber of Watts' sermons, Rachel Willerd, notes that Watts was the curate of St Nicholas in Bristol (in the Paris Register for the church his burial is recorded on 2nd November 1705 and he is described as "late Curate"). Noaks, in his funeral sermon, states that Watts's illness ("his distemper"), was, "not contracted in these parts...for before he left ye schools of ye Prophets he was observ'd to have a decay upon him." (p.369).

 

Watts's sermons are well written and often suggest a powerful orator with a youthful vigour to his preaching style. He reminds his Bristol congregation to look around themselves at their fellow Bristolians and witness the "debauchery" in the streets:

 

"What is ye reason of wars & tumults, treachery & seditions, but covetousnesse revenge or ambition, visit but ye hospitals & see how many maim'd & cripples vice has sent thither, go to ye repositories of ye dead & view how many now lie cold in their graves through vice and debauchery, how many has intemperance & lust sent thither before their times, who had led more sober & pious lives had had many of their days to come, look out into ye streets see ye poverty of some & ye drudgery of others, wch perhaps their own or their forefathers prodigality has brought em to, ..." p.27-8).

 

In another sermon Watts seems to be describing his own reading habits:

 

"How frequent is it for us in ye reading of some poetical draught, to be affected & as it were simpothize wth ye misfortunes of an imaginary heroe, we can sometimes scarce refrain to bestowe our tears upon his lamentations, & as it were to be angry wth ye poet yt he has introduct [sic] some to tyrannize & triumph over him, but wn we come to ye closing up of ye scenes see ye whole plot unraveled, & to see disgrace or honor to be justly dealt about according as every one has deserv'd, how do we admire & applaud ye contrivance." (p.92)

 

Edward Noaks writes in his funeral sermon for his friend:

 

"And now it may be expected here yt I should speak somewt of our deceased friend & Brother, whose memory to flatter I will not, nay my profession & his more especially ingages me yt I dare not, & yet ye innocency of his life & uprightness of his conversation in ye world of wch many here present as well as my self had a personal knowledg, oblidges me not wholly to pass him by in silence." (p.369).

 

Noaks goes on to state (as quoted above) that Watts' illness appeared to have been present before he came to Bristol but he remarks:

 

"I am apt to believe that that intenseness of mind, that application of thought, yt fatigue of business wch he underwent since he took upon him ye sacred imploy might in a great measure forward his distemper & bring him sooner to ye grave. For ye work of ye ministry if conscientiously performed is not so easy an imploy as many take it to be, for there is no mannual labour wtever yt debilitates nature & weakens ye spirits so much as ye constant application of ye mind to study, so yt in all probability he might have lived longer had he bin bred up to any other imploymt. ....." (p.370)

 

Provenance: Old price of 15/- in ink on the front pastedown.

 

Later Provenance: Richard Luckett (1945-2020), Emeritus Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge and formerly Pepys Librarian, small book label on the front pastedown. Luckett's library was dispersed after his death by Forum auctions.

 

 

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Stock Code: 253641