Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-07-30
MIR. BAYARD in LINCOLNSHIRE


;on Monday. june goth, Ambassador
Bayard, at Gainsborough, Lincoln
shire, laid the cornerstone of the new
Congregational Church OF that town,
with appropriate ceremonies. The
stone bears the following inscription:
To the glory OF God. This stone,
to the memory Of John Robinson, pas.
tor and exile, was laid by the Hon.
I. ". Bayard, Ambassador in England
Of the United Stares of America, June
29th, 1896"
The American Ambassador, after
laying the stone, delivered an address
in which he said:
We have gathered here, many Of US
from lands far distant, and beyond the
great seas; and many more from Eng
lish homes closer to the scenes, to lay
tho cornerstone Of Memorial Church,
which is intended to be monument
dedicated to the glory and worship of
Almighty God, and the loving memory
OF his faithful servant, John Robinson,
OF Gainsborough- upon Trent, in North
Western Lincolnshire, who not far from
the spot where we stand was born 320
years ago, and whose body was re-
turned to dust at Leyden, in the
Netherlands, in the year Of our Lord
1925, as is there recorded upon the
mortuary tablet in the Church Of st.
Peter and St. Paul in that city
Nothing, as it seems to me, could be
less worthy and more unfit than to
make this an occasion for the vain
glory OF rhetoric, and by interposing
the common places of oratory and
verbal decoration to deprive the noble
simplicity of the life and character of
John Robinson of its own native force
and impressiveness. III we can only
realize or imagine how the man him
self would have felt, if living here TO-
day among us, we shall be in frame
Of mind which will better enable us to
comprehend him and the lesson of bis
life, and appreciate the fruits of his
works, (which do follow him.
lCheers. In such spirit and with
few words which have been asked to
say by the members Of the Congre-
gational Union in my own country, a
request seconded by the reverend
miniHters who represent the Union of
Congregational Churches of Great
Britain. "The emancipation of Eng
| land from Roman domination" be-
| lieve to be Just and true title and
| description of the spiritual movement
OF which on the threshold of tho seven
| teenth century the scanty handful of
simple agriculturists at the neighbor-
ing townlet Of Scrooby, on the river
Idle, near it's junction with the Trent.
was the nucleus. and of which congre-
| cation John Robinson became the pae-
tor, his place of worship being the
hall OF the Manor House Of William
| brewster, who was born at Scrooby,
the only member of wealth in the con-
gregation, and graduate of tho Uni
versity Of Cambridge. or the birth
and parentage of John Robinson,
whose exile began when he was 81
years old, and was life long, there re-
mains but vague history; for, owing
to his enforced separation from this
country, and the prelatical persecu
| tions that at that time desolated the
homes and families of all independent
religious dissentients, but little has
survived of documentary proof of tho
local and personal history of the
period, 80 that l have not been en-
abled to discover even the name OF
residences Of his progenitors or trace
collater relationships. OF his own
career in England-as afterwards In
Holland-happily there is no room for
doubt, and his own hand has left the
written record OF his thoughts and
labors in the cause Of soul liberty" and
emancipation which have borne such
fruits in both hemispheres of the
globe. That he himself styled Lincolnt
shire "his county'', and there pro.
ceeded ut tho call of conscience, after
he had withdrawn from HE ministry
in the National Church at Norwich,
may be held to fix that county as his
place of birth. At the age Of II his
name is found enrolled in the Uni
1 versity of Cambridge, and ON the regis-
ter OF Emmanuel College is entered as
a sizar. March I'd, 1892; took his de-
gree NJ. A. in lG00, and B. D. 1907.
am aware that the Corpus Christi
College.also contains the entry of his
name-John Robinson, Lincolnshire.
admitted 1852, and Fellow 1886, and
perhans the date of his degree Of b. ID.
in 1907 in the register of Emmanuel
may leave an open question as to this
last entry. But ho completed his term
at Cambridge, where his scholarship
gained for him fellowship, and the
highest honors that University could
| poptoW, dut uo Truly WAS, III tu6 WUrut
OF a contemporary, "learned, polished,
modest, and not easily to be paralleled. u
We find that his four years of ministry
at Norwich were filled with unrest and
mental disquietude, and that, in I604,
he withdrew to Lincolnshire, ano
there united himself with a congrega.
tion at Scrooby, who had constituted
themselves into a church by solemn
covenant with God, and with eact
other, "To walk in His ways made
known, or to be made known unto
them, according to their best endeavors
whatever it should cost them"
A From Ashton's Memoir of Robin,
son." and annotations / here trans
cribe: "Scrooby must henceforth bs
regarded as the cradle of Massachu
setts. Here the choice and noblt
spirits, at the head of whom wer,
brewster and Bradford, first learned
the lessons CT truth and freedom. Here
under the faithful minietration of thu
pastors, they were nourished ant
strengthened to that vigorous ant
manly fortitude which braved all
dangers; and here, too, they acquired
that moral and spiritual courage which
enabled them to sacrifice their homes
property, and friends, and expatriat,
themselves to distant lands, rathe
than to abandon their principles anc
yield to the attempted usurpation il
the liberty Of their consciences ;
Cheers. And let us not, / pray you
| allow our senana of amynathy for ailpI