Edward Elwall, born 9 November 1676, died 29 November 1744, was a

mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader ...

and grocer, born at

Sedgley Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...

near Wolverhampton. He was a Unitarian and a Sabbatarian Baptist; that is, his day of rest and worship was the seventh day, the biblical Sabbath, rather than the first day of the week, the “papal pagan Sunday,” as he called it, which is kept by orthodox Christians. The people of Wolverhampton referred to him as ‘Jew Elwall,’ because of his

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

-keeping. He is said to have occasionally attended the Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church in London. In 1727 Elwall published his Unitarian beliefs in ''A true testimony for God and his sacred Law; being a plain, honest defence of the First Commandment of God, against all the Trinitarians under Heaven: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods but me.’''

Trial

The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

clergy charged him with blasphemy and heresy, for which he was brought to trial at the

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

Summer

Assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

1726. The judge appears to have sought a means to acquit Elwall, because, at the start of the trial the judge, unusually, raised the

legal technicality The term legal technicality is a casual or colloquial phrase referring to a technical aspect of law. The phrase is not a term of art in the law; it has no exact meaning, nor does it have a legal definition. It implies that strict adherence to the ...

of whether or not Elwall had been provided with a copy of the indictment; he hadn’t. The judge asked Elwall if he wanted the case postponed until the next

, but Elwall took the hint and declined. He was allowed to plead his case, after which the case was dismissed on the aforementioned technicality, without being referred to the jury. Elwall’s trial and acquittal were frequently referred to by Unitarians throughout the eighteenth century, as an intimated legal

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

that might ward off their own arrest.

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

, for example, published several editions of Elwall’s account of the trial, and added it as a supplement to his much published ''Appeal to the serious and candid professors of Christianity.'' Denying the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

was illegal. Priestley, along with anyone who avowed Unitarian beliefs remained liable to arrest and confiscation of property until the Toleration Act was extended to Unitarians by the

Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 The Act 53 Geo 3 c 160, sometimes called the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813, the Trinitarian Act 1812, the Unitarian Relief Act, the Trinity Act, the Unitarian Toleration Bill, or Mr William Smith's Bill (after Whig politician William Smith), ...

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Like many

Dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...

s, Elwall objected to the

Tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

system that maintained the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. In the seventeenth century, some

s had advocated their Comprehension into the Church of England, and by implication their inclusion in the

system. Others, like the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

simply refused to pay

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

s, and went to prison for it. Elwall was one of the first to go as far as advocating

Disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

. In 1738 he published a tract: ''The True and Sure Way to Remove Hirelings out of the Church''.E Elwall; ''The true and sure way to remove hirelings out of the church, by freeing mankind from the forced maintenance of priests ... With an answer to my beloved friend Thomas Chubb’s dissertation, concerning the time for keeping the sabbath ... And a short remark on Daniel Dobel’s late book upon the same subject''; London, printed for the author, 1738 In this he wrote: “As Christ has declared that his kingdom is not of this world, so there never ought to be any worldly force to bring men into it, nor any forced maintenance to support it. All must be free and not forced. We read of Christ's whipping the buyers and sellers out but never in. All Christ's followers must be volunteers. He calls and they follow.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elwall, Edward 1676 births 1744 deaths People from Sedgley People charged with blasphemy