Lives Of Illustrious Shoemakers - free ebook by W. E. (William Edward) Winks

LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS SHOEMAKERS.

BY WILLIAM EDWARD WINKS. NEW YORK: FUNK &amp; WAGNALLS, Publishers , 10 and 12 Dey Street....

7 minute read

Read Chapter

PREFACE.

Time out of mind The Gentle Craft has been invested with an air of romance. This honorable title, given to no other occupation but that of shoemakers, is an indication of the high esteem in which the Craft is held. It is by no means an easy thing to account for a sentiment of this kind, or to trace such a title to its original source. Whether the traditionary stories which have clustered round the lives of Saints Anianus, Crispin and Crispianus, or Hugh and Winifred, gave rise to the sentiment,

4 minute read

Read Chapter

SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL.

On the south side of the choir of Westminster Abbey may be seen a very handsome and costly monument, on which reclines a life-sized figure in marble, representing a naval commander. The grotesque uniform and elaborate wig are of the style of Queen Anne’s time. The commander himself has all the look of a well-bred gentleman and a brave officer. He is a capital type of the old school of naval heroes, stout in person, jolly in temper, but terrible in action, by whom our shores were defended, our co

15 minute read

Read Chapter

JAMES LACKINGTON.

One of the most successful booksellers of the last century was James Lackington, whose enormous place of business at the corner of Finsbury Square, London, was styled somewhat grandiloquently “The Temple of the Muses.” A flag floated proudly over the top of the building, and above the principal doorway stood the announcement, no less true than sensational, “The Cheapest Bookshop in the World.” Lackington was an innovator in the trade, and had introduced methods and principles of doing business w

39 minute read

Read Chapter

SAMUEL BRADBURN.

In the winter of 1740 the press-gang men were busy at their abominable work in most of the maritime and inland towns of England, and, among other places, Chester seems to have sent certain unwilling recruits to make up the rank and file of the army, and replenish the navy of His Majesty King George II. Many are the tales of cruelty which belong to this miserable period in the history of our army and navy. Thousands of able-bodied men were carried away by main force from their peaceful occupation

37 minute read

Read Chapter

WILLIAM GIFFORD.

The field of literature seems always to have had a special charm for shoemakers. If the reader will glance for a moment at the list of names given at the end of this book, this fact will be at once apparent. Half, or more than half, the names given in that list are in some way or other connected with literature. The connection is but slight in many instances, perhaps, and the reputation it conferred only local and temporary. Few of our shoemakers, even though we have thought well to style them “

30 minute read

Read Chapter

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD.

We have now to speak of a shoemaker-poet. The name of Robert Bloomfield, the author of the “Farmer’s Boy,” is known and held in honor wherever the English language is spoken. All classes of readers admire his poetry, although it is not of the highest order of merit. It has, however, a genuine quality which no one possessed of poetical taste can fail to recognize. Its chief features are delightful rustic simplicity and naturalness, faithful reflection of the beauties of nature, and the charms whi

22 minute read

Read Chapter

SAMUEL DREW.

The life of Samuel Drew, the author of a once famous book, “The Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul,” is in some respects as remarkable as that of William Gifford, [32] and in others even more so. For Drew, unlike Gifford, received no collegiate training, nor was he ever favored with the rudiments of education in an ordinary boys’ school. In his childhood he was sent to a school along with his brothers, but his childish indifference to learning and his removal before he was eight years of

33 minute read

Read Chapter

WILLIAM CAREY.

Between the years 1786 and 1789, when William Gifford, just liberated by the generous interference of a friend from the yoke of apprenticeship to a cruel master, was receiving instruction from the Rev. Thomas Smerdon, when Robert Bloomfield, a journeyman shoemaker in London, was preparing in his mind the materials for the “Farmer’s Boy,” and when Samuel Drew, the young shoemaker of St. Austell, was reading “Locke on the Understanding,” and learning to think and reason as a metaphysician, there l

36 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN POUNDS.

In 1837 there lived at Landport and Portsmouth two notable shoemakers. The Landport man combined with his daily task as a shoemaker the delightful occupation of sketching and painting, and obtained a local fame as an artist. The Portsmouth man found in the work of teaching poor ragged children to read and write and cipher his greatest relaxation from the drudgery of daily toil and his purest enjoyment, and has become known, we may safely affirm, throughout the Christian world, as a philanthropis

17 minute read

Read Chapter

THOMAS COOPER.

“The Lord’s will be done! I don’t think He intends thee to spend thy life at shoemaking. I have kept thee at school, and worked hard to get thee bread, and to let thee have thy own wish in learning, and never imagined that thou wast to be a shoemaker. But the Lord’s will be done! He’ll bring it all right in time.” Such were the words with which the worthy and excellent mother of Thomas Cooper gave her consent to her boy’s proposal that he should go and learn “the art, craft, and mystery of shoem

47 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X.

Archbishop Whately once amused a clerical dinner-party by asking the question, “Why do white sheep eat more than black sheep?” When none of his friends could answer the question, the witty Archbishop dryly remarked that one reason undoubtedly was that “there were more of them.“ The question is often asked, ”How are we to account for the fact that shoemakers outnumber any other handicraft in the ranks of illustrious men?” [72] Perhaps this question may be answered in the same way. At all events,

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE COBBLER AND THE ARTIST APELLES.

“Let the cobbler stick to his last.” The reputation of the shoemaker class is not confined to our own country or to modern times. It is pretty much the same in all countries, and reaches back to very ancient times. The proverb, “ Ne Sutor ultra crepidam “—”Let the cobbler stick to his last”—is one of the oldest in existence. Few proverbs are more universally and frequently quoted. It is based on a story which comes down to us from the times of Alexander the Great. Even if the story, as it is tol

2 minute read

Read Chapter

TWO SHOEMAKER-BISHOPS—ANNIANUS OF ALEXANDRIA, AND ALEXANDER OF COMANA.

If the shoemaker has found a place in classic history, it must not be forgotten that he has a place in ecclesiastical history also. In two instances a shoemaker is said to have been taken direct from the stall and elevated to the episcopal chair. No doubt many shoemakers have been endowed with sufficient piety and learning for this sacred and dignified office, and probably not a few have deemed themselves fit, whether they were so or not, to discharge its high functions; but the instances here g

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE PIOUS COBBLER OF ALEXANDRIA.

Quite as good a man, no doubt, if not as fit to fill the episcopal chair, was the pious cobbler of Alexandria , of whom we read that St. Anthony paid him a visit in consequence of a voice from Heaven which said to him, “Antony, thou art not so perfect as a cobbler that dwelleth at Alexandria.” The pious anchorite was in the habit of hearing such voices and obeying them. All the leading events of his life were accompanied by a similar message from heaven, as he deemed it. Accordingly he took his

1 minute read

Read Chapter

RABBI JOCHANAN THE SHOEMAKER.

Speaking of Alexandria reminds us of another worthy of that city, the famous Jewish Rabbi Jochanan Sandalarius , or the shoemaker. Learned Rabbins were common enough in Alexandria from the time of its foundation by Alexander the Great, 332 b.c. , down to its capture by the Arabs in the seventh century a.d. And as it was the custom with even the most learned Rabbins to learn a trade, it can be no matter of surprise that many of the most eminent leaders of thought among the Jews were employed in w

2 minute read

Read Chapter

SS. CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS, THE PATRON SAINTS OF SHOEMAKERS.

Undoubtedly the first shoemakers who obtained anything like a general reputation were the famous brothers Crispin and Crispianus, who are said to have lived in the third century of our era. These saints have been regarded almost ever since that early time as the tutelary or patron saints of shoemakers, who are, to tell the truth, not a little proud of their romantic title, “the sons of Crispin.” We must be careful how we speak of these saints, for it seems to be an open question whether the stor

3 minute read

Read Chapter

THE LEARNED BAUDOUIN.

The eminent French antiquary, Benoit Baudouin , is by far the most learned man who has risen from the ranks of the shoemaker class in France. A native of Amiens, he was born somewhere about the middle of the sixteenth century. His father, who was also a cordonnier in that city, taught him the art and mystery of the craft; but the clever youth soon rose above his lowly circumstances, and became first a theological student, and afterward the principal of the college in the old town of Troyes. Here

1 minute read

Read Chapter

HENRY MICHAEL BUCH—“GOOD HENRY.”

Whether the story of the shoemaker-saints of Soissons be regarded as apocryphal or not, it has undoubtedly had considerable influence for good, either directly or indirectly, over the minds of those who call themselves sons of Crispin. Much of this has been due to the character and work of a man who was evidently inspired by the story of St. Crispin. Through the agency of this man a very important movement was begun in the middle of the seventeenth century, which ultimately issued in a widesprea

3 minute read

Read Chapter

HANS SACHS, THE NIGHTINGALE OF THE REFORMATION.

Before Good Henry’s day two famous shoemakers had appeared in Germany, whose names are now much better known than his: Hans Sachs , the shoemaker-poet of the Reformation, and Jacob Boehmen , the mystic. Hans Sachs was the son of a tailor at Nuremberg, and was born November 5th, 1494. At the age of fifteen he was put apprentice in his native town. His schooling had been but slight, but he managed after school-days were passed to retain and add to the little he had learned. His studies as an appre

3 minute read

Read Chapter

JACOB BOEHMEN, THE MYSTIC.

Jacob Boehmen, or Boehme, was born at the village of Altseidenberg, near Gorlitz, in Prussian Silesia, about a year before the death of Hans Sachs. A shoemaker for the greater part of his life, Boehmen devoted the powers of a remarkable mind to philosophical and religious speculation, and produced works which, notwithstanding their mystical and well-nigh unintelligible character, are declared by some of the best authorities in Germany and England to have laid the foundation of metaphysics and ph

3 minute read

Read Chapter

GABRIEL CAPPELLINI, IL CALIGARINO, OR THE LITTLE SHOEMAKER.

If it be characteristic of Germany that one of her illustrious shoemakers should be a poet and another a philosopher , it is no less characteristic of Italy and Holland that several followers of the gentle craft in these countries should have distinguished themselves as painters . We take three examples from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gabriel Cappellini of Ferrara in Italy was more generally known by the appellation Il Caligarino , or the little shoemaker , a name derived from his

1 minute read

Read Chapter

FRANCESCO BRIZZIO, THE ARTIST.

Francesco Brizzio (or Briccio) was the most eminent of the three painters we have to name who began life as shoemakers. He was born at Bologna in 1574. Up to the age of twenty he worked as a shoemaker, and then, being free to follow his bent, became at first a pupil of Passerotti, who taught him design, afterward of Agostini, who initiated him in the engraver’s art, and finally of Lodovico Caracci, under whom he became so proficient that “by some he has been pronounced the most eminent disciple

1 minute read

Read Chapter

LUDOLPH DE JONG, THE DUTCH PORTRAIT-PAINTER.

Ludolph de Jong, was the son of a shoemaker at Oberschic, a village near Rotterdam, and was born in the year 1616. His father intended to bring his son up to his own humble trade, but having been treated with great severity, Ludolph ran away from home and bade good-by to the cobbler’s stall, and became soon afterward a pupil of Sacht Coen. After two years spent with this master, he also studied under Palamedes at Delft and Baylaert at Utrecht. Seven years of his life were spent in France, where

52 minute read

Read Chapter

SONS OF SHOEMAKERS.

Before leaving the continent of Europe to come to Great Britain for examples, we may here mention one or two instances in which boys who have been brought up amid the humble surroundings of the shoemaker’s home have become illustrious in the field of literature, or science, or theology. Pope John XXII. (1316-1334), whose popedom was distinguished by the existence of an anti-pope , was the son of a shoemaker living at Cahors in France. Jean Baptiste Rousseau (1670-1741), the French poet, author o

2 minute read

Read Chapter

“YE COCKE OF WESTMINSTER.”

Coming now to Great Britain, we are able to select from the records of history and biography illustrations for our purpose which represent pretty nearly all the varieties of English life. Practical philanthropy all men will allow to be one of the most prominent and honorable features of the national character, and to this shoemakers have contributed a good share. Our readers will remember the good work done by Drs. Carey and Morrison, the pioneer missionaries to India and China, and noble old Jo

2 minute read

Read Chapter

TIMOTHY BENNETT, THE HERO OF HAMPTON-WICK.

It would be hard to find a name more worthy of being enrolled in our list than that of the public-spirited and courageous shoemaker of Hampton-Wick in Surrey named Timothy Bennett , [99] who, early in the last century, undertook, at his own cost, to rescue a right of road from loss to the public. This road ran from Hampton-Wick to Kingston-upon-Thames through the well-known Bushy Park, belonging to the Crown. Bennett was grieved to see the right of way infringed by the Crown authorities, and to

2 minute read

Read Chapter

“THE SOUTERS OP SELKIRK.”

The old Border song, sung at public dinners “when Selkirk folks began to be merry”— has made the “Souters of Selkirk” famous throughout Scotland. The origin of the song seems to be lost. Whether it has reference, as the common tradition in Selkirk goes, to the part which a gallant band of Selkirk men played at the battle of Flodden Field, 1513, “when the flower of the Scottish nobility fell around their sovereign, James IV.,” which Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Plummer assert, [102] or to “a bet betw

2 minute read

Read Chapter

WATT TINLINN.

That the souters of that time knew how to fight and win renown by their valor and skill may be gathered from the story which the author of “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” tells us anent the reference to Watt of Liddelside in the fourth canto of the “Lay”: This Watt was a shoemaker and a soldier, and if he had no large field for the display of his skill and valor in the Border skirmishes of his time, he nevertheless deserves a place among his more illustrious brethren of the craft, if only for the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

COLONEL HEWSON, THE “CERDON” OF “HUDIBRAS.”

In the turbulent days of the Stuarts and the Commonwealth, when the lofty were laid low and the lowly were set in high places, it can hardly be matter of surprise that the shoemaker should have had his share of the favors of fortune. The circumstances of the time had led to the adoption of the rational rule of granting promotion by merit. In an army commanded by Cromwell it is not likely that any other rule would be adopted. His two chief requirements were military capacity and moral character.

5 minute read

Read Chapter

SIR CHRISTOPHER MYNGS, ADMIRAL OF THE ENGLISH FLEET.

Christopher Myngs (or Minns), “the son of an honest shoemaker in London, from whom he inherited nothing but a good constitution,” [116] is said to have worn the leathern apron for a short time before he went to sea. Speaking of the men of humble origin who, toward the end of the seventeenth century, made their way to high office by their skill and bravery, Lord Macaulay says: “One of the most eminent of these officers was Sir Christopher Mings, who entered the service as a cabin-boy, who fell fi

1 minute read

Read Chapter

DR. PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGER, PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY, ETC.

In the same age lived another noteworthy man, whose connection with the gentle craft was much more intimate, and, indeed, of almost life-long duration. This man was an astrologer, and blended with his study of the subtle influences of the stars over human affairs the study of medicine. What relation there is between these two things it were hard to tell; but certain it is, that for many years men who were not otherwise fools and knaves believed in this relation; and, combining the two “professio

5 minute read

Read Chapter

THE BROTHERS SIBLY.—EBENEZER SIBLY, M.D., F.R.C.P., ASTROLOGER, ETC.

Here also may be mentioned the once famous Dr. Ebenezer Sibly , the physician and astrologer, and his brother Manoah, who by turns was shoemaker, shorthand reporter, and preacher of the “heavenly doctrines” of the New Jerusalem Church. However great a figure these men may have made in their day, they have managed to drop so completely out of notice that no encyclopædia, biographical dictionary, or magazine [123] the writer has met with contains any account of them. They are said to have been bor

2 minute read

Read Chapter

MANOAH SIBLY, SHORTHAND WRITER, ETC.

Manoah Sibly appears to have been a man of more varied and certainly of much more useful gifts than his brother “the doctor;” but it may well be doubted if he made as much capital out of them. He was born August 20th, 1757. [127] If the writer above quoted be correct in saying that Manoah was a shoemaker, he must have made good use of his spare time, and even of his working hours, for at the age of nineteen he is said to have been teaching Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. During the greater par

2 minute read

Read Chapter

MACKEY, THE LEARNED SHOEMAKER OF NORWICH, AND TWO OTHER LEARNED SHOEMAKERS.

In this connection we may mention a curious instance of learning in lowly life, mentioned in one of a series of interesting articles in the Leisure Hour , already alluded to. The writer says: “In that most entertaining miscellany Notes and Queries (No. 215) we find an interesting account of a very poor Norwich shoemaker named Mackey , whose mind appears to have been a marvellous receptacle of varied learning. He died in Doughty’s Hospital, in Norwich, an asylum for aged persons there. The writer

1 minute read

Read Chapter

ANTHONY PURVER, THE SHOEMAKER WHO REVISED THE BIBLE.

Another curious instance of extensive reading and remarkable linguistic talent, somewhat similar to that of Dr. Partridge and the learned shoemaker of Norwich, is that of Anthony Purver . He was born at Up Hurstbourne in Hampshire in 1702. His parents were poor, and put their boy apprentice to the art and mystery of making and mending boots and shoes. When his “time was out,” he betook himself to the leisurely and healthy employment of keeping sheep, and began to study. His special line in after

3 minute read

Read Chapter

JAMES WOODHOUSE, THE FRIEND OF SHENSTONE.

James Woodhouse stands first on our list in point of time, but not in regard to ability. He evidently owed his little brief popularity to the friendship of William Shenstone, author of “The Schoolmistress.” Shenstone lived at Leasowes, seven miles from Birmingham, in a charming country-house sur rounded by gardens, artistically laid out and cultivated with the utmost care by the eccentric, fantastic poet. Woodhouse, who was born about 1733, was a village shoemaker and eke a schoolmaster at Rowle

1 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN BENNET OF WOODSTOCK, PARISH CLERK AND POET.

The name of Bennet occurs once more in our list, and in this instance, if classed at all, it should be classed with the poets, although it must be confessed that the claim of John Bennet to that honorable title would hardly be allowed in some quarters. This little local celebrity inherited the office of parish clerk from his father, and with it some degree of musical taste, for his father’s psalm-singing is said to have charmed the ear of Thomas Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and sometim

1 minute read

Read Chapter

RICHARD SAVAGE, THE FRIEND OF POPE.

A far better poet but a far less worthy man than Bennet of Woodstock or Woodhouse of Rowley was Richard Savage , the friend of Pope. From beginning to end the story of his life, as told by Dr. Johnson in his “Lives of the Poets,” is one of the most romantic and melancholy biographies in existence. It only concerns us here to say that Richard Savage, the reputed [137] son of Earl Rivers and the Countess of Macclesfield, was, on leaving school, apprenticed to a shoemaker, and remained in this humb

1 minute read

Read Chapter

THOMAS OLIVERS, HYMN-WRITER, FRIEND AND COWORKER WITH JOHN WESLEY.

It is a relief to turn from the thought of Savage to Thomas Olivers , one of John Wesley’s most intimate friends and zealous coworkers. We have seen already how prominent a part another shoemaker played in the Methodist revival; [138] but Olivers is perhaps better known to the general public than Samuel Bradburn, for the latter has left no mark on our literature, while the former has made a name among hymn-writers as the author of several excellent hymns, and of one, in particular, which holds a

4 minute read

Read Chapter

THOMAS HOLCROFT, DRAMATIST, NOVELIST, ETC.[143]

Thomas Holcroft was a much more noteworthy man. At the time of the State Trials he had made a considerable name as a writer of political novels. In his “Anna St. Ives” and “Hugh Trevor” he had exposed the follies and vices of society around him, and had set forth his own political views in a manner well calculated to captivate the fancy of young and ardent reformers. When the trial of Hardy began, Holcroft surrendered himself in court, deeming it base and unmanly to refuse to share the fate of t

4 minute read

Read Chapter

JOSEPH BLACKET, POET, “THE SON OF SORROW.”

At the beginning of this century there were two young shoemakers in London who were spending their leisure time in hard reading and attempts at musical composition. One of them, [237] [238] [239] Robert Bloomfield, a sketch of whom has already been given, [144] is known as widely as the English language itself. The other, Joseph Blacket , made but little stir in the world, and is now well-nigh forgotten. He took to writing poetry at a much earlier age than Bloomfield, who wrote nothing before hi

6 minute read

Read Chapter

DAVID SERVICE, AND OTHER SONGSTERS OF THE COBBLER’S STALL.

David Service of Yarmouth represents a pretty numerous class of songsters of the cobbler’s stall, worthy men in their way, but writers of inferior merit, of whom much cannot be said. Such writers were John Foster of Winteringham, Lincolnshire, who owed the publication of his “Serious Poems,” in 1793, to the kindness of the vicar of the parish; J. Johnstone , a Scotchman, who published a small volume of poems in 1823; the Rev. James Nichol of Traquair, Selkirkshire, who in his shoemaking days “pu

1 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN STRUTHERS, POET, EDITOR, ETC.

John Struthers, a Scottish poet, the friend of Sir Walter Scott and Joanna Baillie, followed the trade of a shoemaker for many years after he had begun to gain a literary reputation. He was born at Kilbride in Lanarkshire in 1776, and learned his trade in his own home, for his father was a member of the same craft. Struthers is best known in Scotland as the author of “The Poor Man’s Sabbath,” a simple, unpretentious poem, which appeared in 1804, and rapidly passed through several editions. [152]

1 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN O’NEILL, THE POET OF TEMPERANCE.

The name of John O’Neill is intimately associated with that of George Cruickshank in the work of temperance reform; for not only did Cruickshank prove himself a friend to the poor shoemaker and poet by illustrating his little poem entitled “The Blessings of Temperance,” but it is with good reason declared that these illustrations and the scenes depicted in the poem itself suggested to the artist the leading ideas worked out in his series of plates entitled “The Bottle.” Some of these sketches, a

4 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN YOUNGER, SHOEMAKER, FLY-FISHER, AND POET.

In 1860 a charming little book on “River Angling for Salmon and Trout” [155] was added to our extensive angling literature by a devout follower of Isaac Walton. The preface showed that it was the work of a Lowland Scotchman, who was accustomed to divide his time between the two “gentle” occupations of shoemaking and fishing, and that this man, John Younger , had an enthusiasm for other things besides making fishing-boots and fishing-rods and lines, and the sport of the river-side. He was a zealo

2 minute read

Read Chapter

CHARLES CROCKER, “THE POOR COBBLER OF CHICHESTER”.

Charles Crocker, who was born in Chichester, 22d June, 1797, was the son of poor parents, who could not afford to send him to school after he was seven years of age, but they were assisted by friends who procured him admission to the Chichester “Greycoat School.” He was sent before the age of twelve to work as a shoemaker’s apprentice. “This arrangement,” he says in the brief sketch of his life which is given in the preface to his poems, [159] “was perhaps rather favorable than otherwise to the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

The name of George Fox belongs to the list of practical philanthropists; for Fox may be said to have given himself body and soul to the good of his fellow-men, and to have lived the life of a martyr to the cause to which he felt called to consecrate himself. He was born in 1624, the year in which Jacob Boehmen died. We are the more inclined to notice this coincidence because the character and work of George Fox suggest a comparison between the two men. Both men were pietists and mystics; but in

4 minute read

Read Chapter

THOMAS SHILLITOE, THE SHOEMAKER WHO STOOD BEFORE KINGS.

The term “calling,” as applied to the trade or occupation a man follows, is, or rather was, originally supposed to indicate a belief that he is called and appointed of God to follow it. This belief underlies the teaching of the Church Catechism. [162] How far it prevails nowadays it would be hard to tell. The term seems to have survived the belief which gave rise to it; for one does not often meet with instances outside the Christian ministry in which men regard their daily avocation as a verita

7 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN THORP, FOUNDER OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT MASBRO’.

The conversion and ministry of John Thorp, a shoemaker at Masbrough, Yorkshire, may be set down among the most extraordinary incidents connected with the eighteenth century religious revival. Thorp’s conversion was an indirect result of the preaching of the Methodists, and occurred in such a singular manner as to make the story worth telling, even if it had led to no other results; but in Thorp’s case the results of conversion were very noteworthy. Southey in his “Life of Wesley“ [165] gives the

2 minute read

Read Chapter

WILLIAM HUNTINGDON, S.S., CALVINISTIC METHODIST PREACHER.

One of the most eloquent and famous preachers in London at the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, when eloquent and famous preachers were by no means rare, was William Huntingdon , whose portrait may be seen in the National Portrait Gallery, South Kensington, London. Huntingdon’s father was a farm laborer in Kent named Hunt. How the name Hunt grew into the more dignified Huntingdon (or Huntington) we cannot tell; probably through some whim of his own, for this eccentric

2 minute read

Read Chapter

REV. ROBERT MORRISON, D.D., CHINESE SCHOLAR AND MISSIONARY.

A maker of wooden clogs and shoe-lasts is hardly a shoemaker, in the commonly understood sense of the term, yet he stands in a very close relation to the gentle craft, and for this reason we may not unfairly claim Robert Morrison of Newcastle as a member of the illustrious brotherhood of the sons of St. Crispin. Dr. Morrison was the pioneer of modern missions to China, and did for the people and language of that country what another shoemaker did for the people of Bengal. The youthful Northumbri

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE REV. JOHN BURNET, PREACHER AND PHILANTHROPIST.

The eloquent and popular minister of Camberwell Green Congregational Church, the Rev. John Burnet , who divided his time and energies between preaching and philanthropic labors, is claimed by the craft as one of the most gifted and useful men who have sprung from their ranks. [175] He was of Highland descent, and was born in Perth, 13th April, 1789. His early education at the High School of Perth must have given him great advantage over most youths of the souter fraternity. How long he plied the

3 minute read

Read Chapter

JOHN KITTO, D.D., THE BIBLICAL SCHOLAR.

Very few illustrious men have been so heavily handicapped in the race of life and the pursuit of knowledge as the eminent Biblical scholar, John Kitto , who was born at Plymouth, 4th December, 1804. [177] Added to poverty, the want of proper food and clothing, he had to endure in early life the deprivation of natural guardians and friends, terrible cruelty from a master under whose care he was placed, and, worst of all, the entire loss of the sense of hearing, so that from the age of twelve to t

5 minute read

Read Chapter

WILLIAM STURGEON, THE ELECTRICIAN.

The name of William Sturgeon , so honorably connected with the science of electricity and magnetism, has a fair claim to be entered on this list. Sturgeon was a Lancashire man, born at Wittington in that county in 1783. All his youth was spent at the shoemaker’s stall. On arriving at manhood he abandoned this quiet, peaceful occupation for the life of a soldier. After two years’ service in the militia he enlisted in the Royal Artillery. Like William Cobbett, he found it possible to read in the m

1 minute read

Read Chapter

THOMAS HARDY, OF “THE STATE TRIALS.”

The “ gentle craft.” has been as prolific of fiery politicians as of peaceful poets. We have to speak now of two men who were connected respectively with the political agitations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the year 1794, when the events of the French Revolution had convulsed the whole of Europe, society in England was stirred to its depths, and grave fears were entertained by the King and his Parliament lest the spirit of revolution should break loose in this country. Such fe

1 minute read

Read Chapter

GEORGE ODGER, POLITICAL ORATOR.

It has been remarked above, that shoemakers, whether “illustrious” or not, have played a prominent part in connec tion with religious and political reform. In proof of this we have only to ask the reader to recall what has been said of Henry Michael Buch, Hans Sachs, George Fox, Drs. Carey and Morrison, and John Pounds, among moral and religious reformers; and such men as Hardy, Holcroft, and Thomas Cooper, in the sphere of politics. The name of George Odger deserves a place also in this list of

3 minute read

Read Chapter

NOAH WORCESTER, D.D., “THE APOSTLE OF PEACE.”

America has her share of illustrious shoemakers. The United States can boast of men worthy to stand on a level with the best examples of merit the gentle craft can produce in the Old World. We select four “representative men” from the long list that might be named, to whom we shall chiefly devote our remaining space. These men show in their character and life-work the best features of the New England type of the American citizen. They are men of sterling moral and religious worth, intense haters

5 minute read

Read Chapter

ROGER SHERMAN, ONE OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Another famous American citizen, contemporary during the early part of his life with Noah Worcester, was Roger Sherman, who was born at Newton, Massachusetts, 19th April, 1721. Until the age of twenty-two he was a shoemaker, and from the age of twenty supported his widowed mother and the younger members of the family, and found the means to enable two brothers to enter the ministry. At this time he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics and astronomy. In 1743 he laid aside the awl, and

3 minute read

Read Chapter

HENRY WILSON, “THE NATICK COBBLER.”

Among the political leaders of modern times Henry Wilson long held a conspicuous place in the United States. His early connection with the gentle craft procured for him the familiar and not unfriendly sobriquet “The Natick Cobbler.” Wilson was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. From his schoolboy days until he entered on political life he seems to have been connected both with shoemaking and farming, but chiefly with the former occupation. Part of his time, viz., from 1832 t

2 minute read

Read Chapter

J. G. WHITTIER, “THE QUAKER POET.”

The last name we have to give in this long, but still incomplete, list of illustrious shoemakers is that of John Greenleaf Whittier , who happily is still living to charm and educate the English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic with his simple, spirit-stirring poetry. Whittier is frequently spoken of in the States as the Quaker Poet . This designation is sufficiently distinctive, for poets are not very numerous in the Society of Friends. Preachers, patriots, philanthropists, orators

8 minute read

Read Chapter