Theophilus Lindsey

Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808), after resigning his living in the Church of England following the failure of the Feathers Tavern Petition in 1772, became one of the leading Unitarians (“rational dissenters”) of his day and founder of the influential Unitarian congregation in Essex Street, London, where he ministered from 1778 to 1793.  He authored several defenses of Unitarianism, including his controversial reply to Robert Robinson’s Plea for the Divinity of Christ (1776) entitled A Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Time, with some Account of the Obstructions it has met with at Different Periods (1783).  Mary Scott dedicated her poem, Messiah (1788) to Lindsey, who acknowledged her dedication in a letter to her brother, the Unitarian minister Russell Scott, on 22 December 1787: ‘We should have been happy in a better account of your sister's health. I shall rejoice to see her poem in print: for I really can hardly ever judge of any thing well when in M.S: tho’ her sentiments and muse recommended themselves greatly to me. I am sure the omission of my name was right. The dedication of the profits that shall arise from the sale, every one must approve...’  Lindsey also followed Benjamin Flower’s journalistic career as a political commentator and reformer from the commencement of the Intelligencer in 1793.  He wrote to his friend William Tayleur in Shrewsbury on 5 August 1793: 

Of all the Provincial Papers, there is scarce any so bad as the Cambridge One; hostile to every good principle civil and religious.  It has long been thought of to set on foot another; but never undertaken till just now … It is conducted by Mr Benjamin Flower, Printer; who has lately settled at Cambridge for the purpose.  I have no doubt of your having read his large Octavo Vol. on The French Constitution, with Remarks &c with high approbation.  This bespeaks his qualifications for such a work.  But I must add concerning him, from such little knowlege ; that I do not know a christian of a more enlarged mind or of more excellent dispositions.  And though he is not rich, I am persuaded, that he would not traduce any one, or falsify a fact to gain the greatest riches.  The paper will be sent to any part of England, for 16£ a year, or 4£ a quarter.  I take it in.  It is sent to me here.  Some few of my friends have been induced by me to have it sent them, and like it much.  You will encourage a good work and a most worthy man by ordering it, and if there be not particular objection I wish you would do it, and also recommend it to Mr Holbrooke, who will be glad to see also what is going on at Cambridge.   His address is to Mr Benjamin Flower, Printer, Bridge Street, Cambridge ... Should you chuse it, I wd write to Mr Flower to send you the Cambridge Intelligencer … (MS., Lindsey Letters, Vol. 2, John Rylands University Library of Manchester; transcription courtesy of G. M. Ditchfield) 

Benjamin Flower agreed with Lindsey and others on more frequent elections and a broader suffrage, but he did not advocate, as some did, annual parliaments and universal suffrage. He recognized the need for compromise and patience and a more united effort among the reformers in combating Pitt and his administration (Cambridge Intelligencer, 27 May 1797).  Even when the reform movement was experiencing significant retrenchment among its followers and persecution by the government, Flower nevertheless continued to support the Corresponding societies, even if he did not agree with all of their positions (Cambridge Intelligencer, 4 July 1795 and 24 August 1799). Though denounced as a Jacobin by the conservatives, Flower was not always cheered by the radicals for his “middle” position. Some of his friends became disillusioned when he turned against the French government under Napoleon for having abandoned the original ideals of the French Revolution and the constitution of 1791.  Lindsey did not agree with Flower on this point, commenting to Christopher Wyvill, political reformer and Anglican divine from Yorkshire, on 5 November 1797:

The conduct of ye French Directory in condemning some of their members and so many others to banishment without trial, has divided the friends of liberty in these parts.  B. Flower in the Cambridge Directory condemns them a’l’outrance.  Messrs Godwin and Holcroft it is said embrace that sentiment and have published it in squibs in the Papers.  All my friends are of a contrary opinion, particularly Mr W. Belsham, whom I name as a judge in such points.  I profess I had never a doubt of their being justifiable in it, as I had long known of the trains that had been laid to bring abt a counter-revolution, and the restoration of Monarchy, which by this vigour beyond the law they prevented burning[?] …  (MS., North Yorkshire Record Office, ZFW 7/2/112/4; transcription courtesy of G. M. Ditchfield). 

Flower’s influence in the counties outside of London, however, was undeniable, convincing Lindsey that Flower could play a key role in efforts by the radicals to end the war with France and enact political reform in England.  Writing again to Wyvill on 9 November 1797, Lindsey proposed that instead of issuing some pamphlets against the war, the more effectual method would be

to send 50, a 100, or more of Mr Flower’s Cambridge Intelligencer, to Publicans, Farmers and others into different parts; and to engage him, wch he wd most gladly undertake, from time to time to insert in his paper, such essays and information as you would wish to convey, which would not fail to answer the end proposed, and would produce the effect you wish gradually, and without suspicions, and is what may be began, and act immediately.

As to his being so vehement against the conduct of the present French Directory in banishing so many without a hearing, it is on this account the better, that it shews his perfect good principle and honesty in it; it is a conduct that recommends him to many partisans of the present government; but nothing is capable of warping him from those sentiments and right principles which we all wish to be universal, and which he invariably and weekly circulates as far as he can through the Kingdom.  (MS., North Yorkshire Record Office, ZFW 7/2/112/8; transcription courtesy of G. M. Ditchfield)

Lindsey wrote numerous defenses of Unitarianism, including A Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to Our Own Time, with Some Account of the Obstructions it has met with at Different Periods (1783) (a reply to Robert Robinson’s Plea for the Divinity of Christ). He also wrote An Apology on Resigning the Vicarage of Catterick, Yorkshire (1774) and its sequel in 1776. Hannah Lindsey, wife of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808), prominent Unitarian minister and political reformer, mentions this visit in a letter to her brother, the Rev. Francis Blackburne, on 30 September 1799:  “He [Lindsey] is just gone to Newgate to talk with Mr. Flower about y.r business, with whom he left y.r letter a few days ago, & the result I shall inform you of at his return” (Cambridge UL, ADD. MS. 7886, f.137). On 11 May 1799, she informed her brother of Flower’s arrival at Newgate the week before:

You will be sorry for Ben Flower tho’ he was often so violent in his article of remarks: his punishment is very arbitrary, and excessive; the business taken up, as is believed without even the privity of the Bishop, and to disgrace, rather than favor him.  To put a stop to the Paper was the main object, but that will not be accomplished immediately, tho’ it will be attended with increased expence & difficulty.  He is well lodged in Newgate, & in good spirits: His brother [William] has been to see him, who on account of their different politics, has been hostile: How easy it wd be for his rich Uncle, worth [£]600000 Mr Fuller a banker & near 90 years old, to remove all pecuniary inconveniences by the gift of but 1000: This same man to avoid paying so much to the 10 pr Cent tax, has by a deed of gift vested 18000 for charitable uses.

The prisoners in the Kings Bench, Mr W[akefield]: especially is reconciling himself to his fate, whatever be the length of his confinement: men who have a true religious principle upon any system bear suffering the best: Messrs Johnson, & Flower, can all look to the Maker for support & comfort.  Neither are they without the kind attentions of many worthy friends.   (Cambridge University Library, ADD. MS. 7886, f.136)

For more on Theophilus Lindsey and his early appreciation of Flower’s work with the Cambridge Intelligencer, see “Lindsey,” Appendix 7, in Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould Flower, 1794-1808 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2008); for Lindsey's boigraphy, see G. M. Ditchfield, Theophilus Lindsey: From Anglican to Unitarian (London: Dr. Williams’s Trust, 1998); for his correspondence, see G. M. Ditchfield, The Letters of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808), 2 vols. (London: Boydell Press, 2007, 2012).