John Martin

John Martin (1741-1820) pastored the Baptist congregation in Grafton Square, London (which later moved to Keppel Street), 1773-1814.  Martin drew the ire of many Dissenters with his Speech on the Repeal of such Parts of the Test and Corporation Acts as affecting Conscientious Dissenters: Intended to have been Delivered before the General Body of Dissenting Ministers at the Library in Red Cross Street, December 22, 1789 (1789).  He followed this in 1791 with A Review of Some Things Pertaining to Civil Government, in which he argued that “every private man is bound, by divine authority, to submit peaceably to the civil power of that country in which he resides or lives, in all cases where his submission would leave him in the enjoyment of a good conscience” (28).  In 1798 Martin had become even more conservative, claiming that a French invasion of England would be widely supported by Dissenters.  His most notorious offense, however, occurred after his appointment as almoner of the Regium Donum (a fund established early in the eighteenth century by the Crown to provide pecuniary support for Dissenting ministers). Angered at Martin’s “political subserviency” in catering to the good graces of the Established church and the Pitt government in order to gain the appointment, the other dissenting ministers connected with the Fund withdrew and left Martin the entire sum (about £1500 a year) to dispense with as he pleased.  Robert Hall warned his fellow Baptists about Martin, noting that “Judas had no acquaintance with the chief priests, till he went to transact business with them” (J. W. Morris, Biographical Recollections of the Rev. Robert Hall, A. M.,   2nd ed. [London: Houlston and Stoneman, 1846], 68). Flower commented on Martin’s “ownership” of the Regium Donum in the Cambridge Intelligencer on 29 July 1797: “It is the glory of the Protestant Dissenters to have such a man their avowed opponent. The Anabaptists, however, or, to speak more correctly, the Antipaedobaptists, come in for something like a compliment from his Lordship, which we firmly believe that respectable sect does not deserve.  But we cannot help asking-Has there been any Renegado, who has forgotten his character and princ­iples, so far as to flatter and sneak to the bishop of Rochester, and by this and other undue means, acquired the sole possession of that instrument of corruption the Regium Donum?  We cannot pursue the subject, but it ought seriously to be inquired into, by those whose character and honour are deeply involved.”