Adoniram Byfield or Bifield (d. 1660) was an English clergyman, one of the scribes to the

Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopt ...

. The surviving minutes of the Assembly, which according to a project to have them published "arguably constitute the most important unpublished religious text of seventeenth-century Britain", run to over half a million words and are almost all in Byfield's writing.

Life

He was the third son of Nicholas Byfield, probably born before 1615. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1620, and graduated B.A. in 1624. He was ordained in 1625 and became

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

of the London church All Hallows Staining in 1629. In 1642 he was chaplain to Sir Henry Cholmondeley's regiment. On 6 July 1643 he was appointed one of the two scribes to the Westminster Assembly, the other being Henry Roborough. Their assistant was John Wallis. The scribes were not members of the assembly of which they kept the record, nor were they at first allowed, like the members, to wear their hats; but in common with the other divines the scribes were entitled to the allowance (irregularly paid) of four shillings a day. For their trouble they received the copyright of the ''

Directory of Public Worship The ''Directory for Public Worship'' (known in Scotland as the ''Westminster Directory'') is a liturgical manual produced by the Westminster Assembly in 1644 to replace the ''Book of Common Prayer''. Approved by the Parliament of England in 16 ...

'' (ordered to be published 13 March 1645), which they sold for £400. It was during the sitting of the assembly that Byfield obtained first the sinecure rectory, and then the vicarage of Fulham. Isaac Knight succeeded him in the rectory in 1645, and in the vicarage in 1657. At some unknown date between 1649 and 1654 Byfield received an appointment to the rectory of Collingbourn Ducis,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, from which

Christopher Prior Christopher Prior, Order of the Bath, CB (2 July 1912 – 14 September 2004) was an eminent Anglican priest: Chaplain of the Fleet from 1966 to 1969 and Archdeacon of Portsmouth from then to 1977. Born on 2 July 1912, he was educated at Keble Co ...

, D.D., had been removed. Byfield was not disturbed at the Restoration. In 1654 he was nominated one of the assistant commissioners for Wiltshire, under the ordinance of 29 June for ejecting scandalous ministers, and was active among them, for example against Walter Bushnell, vicar of

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

, (ejected in 1656). Byfield's assembly practice had made him sharp as an examiner. He died

intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without having in force a valid will or other binding declaration. Alternatively this may also apply where a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of the estat ...

in London, in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, at the end of 1660 or very beginning of 1661. His wife, Katharine, survived him, and administered to his effects on 12 February 1661. Samuel Butler in ''

Hudibras ''Hudibras'' is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediately ...

made him iconic of those zealots for presbytery whose tactics opened the way to independency.

Works

Byfield's most important work consists of the manuscript minutes, or rough notes, of the debates in the assembly, which are almost entirely in his very difficult handwriting. They are preserved in Dr. Williams's Library, and were first edited by

Alexander Ferrier Mitchell Alexander Ferrier Mitchell (1822 – 1899) was a Scottish ecclesiastical historian and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1885. Life He was born at Brechin on 10 September 1822, son of David Mitchell, convener of local ...

and John Struthers in 1874. According to Mitchell, Byfield had published a catechism some years before the assembly met. In 1626 he edited his father's ''Rule of Faith'', a work on the

Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". The creed most likely originated in 5th-century ...

. To Byfield is ascribed ''A Brief View of Mr. Coleman his new modell of Church Government'', 1645. He also assisted Chambers in his ''Apology for the Ministers of the County of Wiltshire'' of 1654.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Byfield, Adoniram Year of birth missing 1660 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests English Presbyterian ministers of the Interregnum (England) Westminster Assembly Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge