Obadiah Grew (1 November 1607 – 22 October 1689) was an English nonconformist minister.
Life
Grew was born at
Atherstone
Atherstone is a market town and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. Located in the far north of the county, Atherstone is on the A5 national route, and is adjacent to the border with Leicestershire w ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
on 1 November 1607, the third son of Francis Grew and Elizabeth Denison. He was baptised the same day at the parish church of
Mancetter
Mancetter is a village and civil parish on the southeastern outskirts of Atherstone in North Warwickshire, at the crossing of Watling Street over the River Anker. The population had reduced from 2,449 to 2,339 at the 2011 census. It is situated ...
, Warwickshire. Francis Grew was a layman, originally of good estate but impoverished by prosecutions for nonconformity in the
high commission court and
Star-chamber
The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...
. Obadiah was educated at
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
, under his uncle,
John Denison, and was admitted a student at
Balliol College, Oxford, in 1624, his tutor being Richard Trimnell. He graduated B.A. on 12 February 1629, M.A. on 5 July 1632. In 1632 he was elected master of the Atherstone grammar school.
He was ordained in 1635 by
Robert Wright,
bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. He was probably lecturer at Atherstone, as well as master of the school. At the outbreak of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
he sided with the parliamentary party. Among the thirty parliamentary divines who crowded into
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
for safety in 1642 were
Richard Vines, rector of Weddington, Warwickshire, and Grew, his near neighbour. Both were appointed to preach at St. Michael's Church, which the royalist vicar, William Panting, had deserted. At the end of 1643 the
solemn league and covenant was taken in St. Michael's by all the parishioners. In March 1644 Grew obtained the vicarage from the city corporation. The vestry books of 1645 show some puritan changes; the old
font was replaced by a new one, and the brass eagle was sold. The bells, however, were kept in order.
In 1646 Grew took part with
John Bryan in a public disputation on
infant baptism
Infant baptism is the practice of baptising infants or young children. Infant baptism is also called christening by some faith traditions.
Most Christians belong to denominations that practice infant baptism. Branches of Christianity that ...
at Trinity Church, with
Hanserd Knollys
Hanserd Knollys (1599–1691) was an English particular Baptist minister.
Life
He was born at Cawkwell, Lincolnshire, about 1599. He was educated privately under a tutor, was for a short time at Great Grimsby grammar school, and afterwards ma ...
and another. Towards the end of 1648
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
was in Coventry on his way to London from Scotland; Grew pleaded with him for the king's life. On 10 October 1651 he accumulated the degrees of B.D. and D.D. at Oxford. In 1654 he was made assistant to the Warwickshire commission for removing scandalous ministers. He was a member of the
Kenilworth
Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...
''
classis'', which included over twenty churches. He approved the rising of the 'new royalists ' in August 1659 (see
George Booth) and though threatened by
John Lambert John Lambert may refer to:
*John Lambert (martyr) (died 1538), English Protestant martyred during the reign of Henry VIII
*John Lambert (general) (1619–1684), Parliamentary general in the English Civil War
* John Lambert of Creg Clare (''fl.'' c. ...
's soldiers, then holding Coventry, refused to read the proclamation against Booth, as required by authority. He welcomed the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
.
Unable to comply with the
Uniformity Act of 1662
The Act of Uniformity 1662 (14 Car 2 c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of England. (It was formerly cited as 13 & 14 Ch.2 c. 4, by reference to the regnal year when it was passed on 19 May 1662.) It prescribed the form of public prayers, adm ...
, he resigned his living. His bishop,
John Hacket
John Hacket (Born Halket) (1 September 1592 – 28 October 1670) was an English churchman, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry from 1661 until his death.
Life
He was born in London and educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge. On ta ...
, was anxious to retain him, and gave him leave to preach a month beyond the appointed day (24 August) without conforming; at the end of September he preached his farewell sermon. The corporation seems to have continued some allowance to him. In 1665, when the alarm of the
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
thinned the pulpits throughout the country, Grew, like other nonconformists, began to hold public meetings for worship. The enforcement of the
Five Mile Act
The Five Mile Act, or Oxford Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, was an Act of the Parliament of England (17 Charles II c. 2), passed in 1665 with the long title "An Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations". It was one ...
, which took effect on 25 March 1666, compelled him to move from Coventry. He returned on the indulgence of 15 March 1672, took out a licence, and, in conjunction with Bryan, founded a presbyterian congregation. On the withdrawal of the indulgence (1673) the
conventicle
A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly, and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level ''conventicle'' is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word church, and points to Jesus' promise in M ...
was connived at by the corporation in spite of
Lord Arlington's remonstrances.
On Bryan's death (1675) his brother,
Gervase Bryan, took his place. Grew began to train youths for the ministry, one of his pupils being
Samuel Pomfret. Captain Hickman of Barnacle, Warwickshire, unsuccessfully appeared as an informer against Grew, claiming a fine of £100 in the recorder's court. At length in 1682 Grew, who had lost his eyesight, was convicted of a breach of the Five Mile Act, and imprisoned for six months in Coventry gaol. While in prison, and in his retirement from Coventry after his release, he every week dictated a sermon to an amanuensis, who read it to four or five shorthand writers, each of whom got several copies made for use in twenty clandestine meetings. On 8 January 1685 nearly two hundred persons were imprisoned at Coventry for frequenting these conventicles.
James II's declaration for liberty of conscience (11 April 1687) restored Grew to his congregation, who obtained a grant of St. Nicholas' Hall (the 'Leather Hall') in
West Orchard, and fitted it up as a presbyterian meeting-house. Here Grew officiated till September 1689. He died on 22 October of that year, and was buried in the chancel of St. Michael's.
Family
He married (25 December 1637) Helen (born February 1603, died 19 Oct. 1687), daughter of Gregory Vicars of Treswell, Nottinghamshire, widow of
William Sampson of South Leverton, Nottinghamshire, and mother of
Henry Sampson, M.D. His only son was
Nehemiah Grew
Nehemiah Grew (26 September 164125 March 1712) was an English plant anatomist and physiologist, known as the "Father of Plant Anatomy".
Biography
Grew was the only son of Obadiah Grew (1607–1688), Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Mic ...
; he had also a daughter Mary (died 1703), married to John Willes, M.A., a nonconformist scholar, who though ordained never preached, and retired after Grew's death to his estate at
Spratton
Spratton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northamptonshire. The local government authority is West Northamptonshire. Before changes in 2021 it was governed by Daventry District Council. At the time of the 2001 census, th ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
.
Grew's eldest brother Jonathan (died before June 1646) was father of Jonathan Grew (1626–1711). The latter was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, was preacher at
Framlingham
Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4,016 in 2019. Nearby villages include Ea ...
, Suffolk, and tutor in the family of Lady Hales, first at Coventry, and afterwards at Caldecote Hall, Warwickshire. Bishop Hacket offered him in 1662 a prebend at Lichfield in addition to the rectory of Caldecote, but he declined to conform, kept a school at Newington Green, and finally became the first minister (1698–1711) of the presbyterian congregation at Dagnal Lane, St. Albans, Hertfordshire. He was buried in the abbey church there.
Works
He published:
* His 'Farewell Sermon,' 1663, Acts xx. 32.
* 'A Sinner's Justification,', &c.,1670, 1698, 1785 (in Welsh).
**
*
*
*
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grew, Obadiah
English subscribers to the Solemn League and Covenant 1643
English Presbyterian ministers of the Interregnum (England)
Ejected English ministers of 1662
English Dissenters
1607 births
1689 deaths
People from Atherstone