Revd. William Carver
brother of BENJAMIN Carver
brother of BENJAMIN Carver
Image above from the National Gallery ~ https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/26163/rev-william-carver-1770-1825-clergyman-melbourn-cambridgeshire
Mr. William Carver was born on 11th. August 1770 at Kirtling, near Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, and trained for the ministry at Homerton College.
He was himself the son of Ann Dunton and a Congregational minister, the Rev. John Carver, Rector in Bedfordshire and later at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, from 30th. October, 1770 until his death in 1797.
William Carver, was an innovative man, following an Independent congregational career path, and it was said in his obituary, that “Rev. William Carver” endured ‘heavy trials in his early life, peculiarly distressing to his affectionate sensibilities, which he bore with fortitude and patience’. This could be a reference to the family trials of Captain John Carver and the arrest of Benjamin Carver in 1791.
William Carver, was a schoolteacher and a founding member of Melbourn Independent chapel and school and pastor from 1791-1825. His “Ordination Service” at Melbourn was held on 6th March 1792. Revd. John Carver was one of the two men who addressed the assembly at William's Ordination Service at Melbourn on 6th March 1792.
Shortly afterwards, on the 19th March 1792, he was married at Islington, his wife Mary Baker giving him great support in his ministry and school initiatives.
Children:
William Crole CARVER: 1794
The given middle name “Crole”, maybe, in respect of his step-grandfather, the Revd. Anthony Crole (1740-1803), who appears to have married his grandmother, after the death of Thomas Baker (1740-1771), and been significant comfort to his mother, Mary Baker.
References to William Crole Carver, his acreage ~ 265 acres after enclosure 1839; 8 score of sheep before enclosure i.e. right of sheep walk on common property; ~ found in "Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle" edited by Richard M Smith. The work includes a chapter titled "The nineteenth-century peasantry of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire/ DENNIS R. MILLS. Inheritance and succession".
Mr. William Carver recognised the importance of teaching the Christian faith to boys and girls of the village, and these began to form an important part of his flock. Mr. Carver founded a boarding-school in Melbourn as early as 1792. This school came to have a very high reputation amongst wealthier Congregational families in the whole country, and catered for 90 boarding scholars. With day-scholars, as many as 200 boys were taught each year. The majority of these boys can be expected to have attended Melbourn church every Sunday, and by 1820, it was decided to enlarge the size of the building to accommodate the large congregations.
In this respect it must be remembered that public schools at this time were still barred to Nonconformists.
A report dated 1819 gives this impressive account of the progress of the church :
The meeting-house has recently been enlarged, so as to accommodate about 800 persons, and it is well-filled on Sabbath days. There are two schools connected with this place of worship ..... one of boys who are taught on the Lord’s Day afternoon, and another of girls who meet on Thursday afternoons'.
Mr. Carver prided himself upon being able to turn out gentlemen as well as scholars, and spared no pains to train the boys in good and useful habits.
Towards the end of his life, Mr. Carver suffered more frequently from the headaches to which he had been prone since his youth, and an alarming attack first occurred in the pulpit, from which he had to be carefully escorted by friends in the congregation.
His son also referred to ‘one paralytic attack caused by his chaise being run down by a wagon, when he miraculously escaped being crushed beneath the wheel'.
Mr. Carver's deterioration in health caused him much concern, for he was ‘fearful of becoming decrepit, and a burden to others’, and he resigned from the pastorate at the end of 1824. His health and spirits in the last six months of his life remained high, but he realised that the end was close when he became seriously ill on 1st August 1825 and went into a coma. He died on 3rd August 1825, aged 56 years.
A large congregation attended the Funeral Service, including the local Baptist and Parish clergy, and the pall was borne by six Congregational ministers. His body was interred in a vault beside the church, his wife being buried alongside him in later years.
Many of his former pupils were present, and a collection was organised by them to erect the memorial tablet which hangs on a wall in the present sanctuary :
For thirty two years he was the Pastor of the Church and Congregation assembling in this place. He established in this village a large and respectable school over which, during the same period, he presided with equal fidelity and talent.
As a scholar he was distinguished by his extensive learning, as a man by his amiable disposition and as a Christian by his sincere piety.
This tablet is erected by his former pupils, to testify the respect which they entertained for him as their master and the affection with which they regarded him as their friend'.
William Carver was succeeded as school master by his gifted son, William Crole Carver who carried on the good work in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.
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Ordination Service at Melbourn on 6th March 1792, his text being 1 Tim. 4 v.l.
Table/Extract source:
Album of the Wellingborough, Northamptonshire Congregational Churches (page 46);~Wellingborough Batch Listings on http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/fs-nth.htm
- C146146 Births 1790-1809 5 Mixed (352) NO / Cheese Lane Independent
- C074731 Births/Bapts 1790-1837 276 Single/Yes. Surname.
See Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle Vol. 3 (1825)... A moderate Calvinist.
-- England -- History. "Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle" edited by Richard M Smith. The work covers the 19th. Century peasantry of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, England by Dennis R Mills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. First edition (stated). Hardcover. Series: Cambridge studies in population, economy, and society in past time,
1. Contents:
The nineteenth-century peasantry of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire/ DENNIS R. MILLS. Inheritance and succession.
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