Reverend Thomas Larkham

Referred to varyingly as “one of the stormiest petrels of a stormy era”[21] and “a Man of great Piety and Sincerity”[22], much has been documented of the life of Thomas Larkham of Tavistock, most recently by Susan Hardman Moore in her excellent edition of his diary, The Diary of Thomas Larkham, 1647-1669.[23]  In the introduction, Hardman Moore writes,

“Thomas Larkham is long dead, but lives on in Tavistock folklore with a divided reputation.  For some, he is a rascal vicar who turned religious life upside down in Cromwell’s time.  For others he is something of a hero, founder of the Christian community which today is Tavistock United Reformed Church. … Up in Cumbria too, Cockermouth URC remembers Larkham and takes pride in its history: a banner over the church gate is emblazoned with the date of its foundation, ‘1651’.  The Tavistock and Cockermouth URC congregations are two of only a handful in England which have a continuous history from the ‘parish congregationalism’ of the 1650s. Thomas Larkham pioneered both these local reformations.”[24]

The Early Years 1602-1626

Thomas Larkham was born at Lyme Regis, “the Pearl of Dorset”, a small seaport town in West Dorset, England in the final year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  He was the eldest of four children born to Thomas and Jane Larkham.  Little is known of Larkham’s early life.  He was born into the mercantile class, as his father described himself as a “linen draper”[25], a merchant of cloth made of flax and hemp.  Lyme Regis became a major English port during the 16th and 17th centuries, so it’s possible the elder Larkham was engaged in trade in the Mediterranean, West Indies and Americas.[26]

Thomas Larkham’s parents had means to provide their son with an education, and he entered Cambridge at the age of nineteen, where he took his B.A. from Trinity Hall in 1621-1622.

On 10 June 1622, he married Patience Wilton after the birth of their first child, Thomas, who was baptized at Crediton on 16 March 1622.[27]  The wedding took place at the Parish Church of Shobrooke.  Patience Wilton was the daughter of George Wilton, a well-to-do[28] schoolmaster at Crediton.  Larkham was not yet 20 years of age and she was six years his senior.[29]

On 25 September 1625, Larkham was appointed Chaplain of the Sandford Chapel in Crediton, and licensed as preacher throughout the dioceses of Exeter, London, and Bath and Wells.[30] Larkham took his M.A. from Cambridge in 1626. 

Two more children of Thomas and Patience Larkham were born during this time, a son, John, baptized 10 October 1624 who died in infancy on 7 July 1625, and a daughter, Patience, baptized on 26 February 1625.[31]

Vicar of Northam 1626-1640

Larkham was ordained Vicar of Northam, near Bideford in north Devon, on 26 December 1626, a position he held for the next thirteen years.  Five more children were born to Thomas and Patience Larkham at Northam, two of whom survived early childhood.  A son named William was baptized on 8 June 1628 and died at 4 ½ years of age on 25 January 1633; son George (probably named for his maternal grandfather, George Wilton)  was born 20 April 1630 and baptized 2 May 1630; daughter Jane was baptized 11 February 1631; an infant son was baptized 10 November 1633 and probably died in infancy; and a daughter, Ane (or Anne) was baptized 14 June 1635 and died in infancy on 18 November 1635.[32]

In Northam, Larkham’s religious views on church sacraments and mandatory tithes were considered controversial and they eventually got him into trouble.  A petition was circulated against him by his detractors and in 1639 “delivered into the king's own hand, with 24 terrible articles annexed, importing faction, heresie, witchcraft, rebellion, and treason.” He claimed he was “put into Star-chamber and High Commission,” and was proceeded against in the Consistory Court at Exeter “under a suit of pretended slander for reproving an atheistical wretch by the name of Atheist.”[33]

It’s believed Larkham left with his family for New England before 19 January 1640 when the next Vicar of Northam was appointed. Certainly, he was absent from England by April 1640.  His father, whose will was written 29 August 1638, died in early 1640. [34]  The will was proved and administered 8 April 1640 by Thomas’ younger brother Michael Larkham following the “renunciation of the executorship of Thomas Larkham”[35] probably because he was enroute or already in New England.

In New England, Larkham went first to Massachusetts, “but not being willing to submit to the discipline of the churches there, came to Dover, a settlement on the river Piscataquis, Maine (now New Hampshire)”.[36]  Dover was renamed Northam after Larkham’s vicarage in England. 

During his two years in New England, his ideas were considered controversial and he developed a tempestuous relationship with the local minister, Hansard Knollys, whom he ousted. Larkham “received all into his Church, even immoral persons, who promised amendment. He baptized any children offered, and introduced the Episcopal service at funerals.”[37] Larkham was outspoken and voiced his opinion on religious and civil matters to which he disagreed.  This led to great discontent and even outright physical fighting with Knollys and his followers, as recounted by Belknap:

“… [Knollys] excommunicated Larkham. This bred a riot, in which Larkham laid hands on ·Knollys, taking away his hat on pretence that he had not paid for it; but he was civil enough afterward to return it.

Some of the magistrates joined with Larkham, and forming a court, summoned Underhill, who was of Knollys's party, to appear before them, and answer to a new crime which they had to allege against him. Underhill collected his adherents: Knollys was armed with a pistol, and another had a bible mounted on an halbert [halberd or pikestaff] for an ensign [banner]. In this ridiculous parade, they marched against Larkham and his party, who prudently declined a combat, and sent down the river to Williams, the governor, at Portsmouth, for assistance. He came up in a boat with an armed party, beset Knollys's house, where Underhill was, guarded it night and day till a court was summoned, and then, Williams sitting as judge, Underhill and his company were found guilty of a riot, and after being fined, were banished the plantation. The new crime which Larkham's party alleged against Underhill was, that he had been secretly endeavoring to persuade the inhabitants to offer themselves to the government of Massachusetts, whose favor he was desirous to purchase, by these means, as he knew that their view was to extend their jurisdiction as far as they imagined their limits reached, whenever they should find a favorable opportunity.  The same policy led him with his party to send a petition to Boston, praying for the interposition of the government in their case.”[38]

Commissioners from Boston were sent to arbitrate and they found both parties at fault. Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was particularly critical of Thomas Larkham and even validated allegations that he fathered an illegitimate child with his housekeeper.[39]  (No record of the birth of this child can be found.  Some sources state Larkham admitted to be the father, a statement for which there appears to be no verification. Possibly the allegation was politically-motivated.)[40]

Larkham departed New England for England with his eldest son Thomas on 14 November 1642, leaving behind his wife and three younger children.  He later described them “as dry bones[41] and diverse years after; yet did the Lord bring them altogether again here in England.”[42], [43]

Mrs. G.H. Radford suggests Larkham and his son returned to England “from Portsmouth, N.E., to Madeira, and there found a ship to bring them to England”.[44] In the paper she wrote on Larkham, read at Plymouth July 1892, she states,

“In what ship Larkham and his son embarked is not certain, nor whither she was bound, but it is a curious coincidence that the paragraph after that relating Larkham’s downfall in Governor Winthrop's History, speaks of the arrival ‘at Boston of a small ship from the Madeiras with wine, sugar, etc., which were presently sold for pipe staves and other commodities of the country, which were returned to the Madeiras, but the merchant himself, one Mr. Parish, said divers months after.

The passage[45] connecting Larkham with the Madeiras is as follows:

‘With his index expurgatoris (a trick which perchance he learnt of the Jesuites in Medera [sic] when New England was too hot for him), no less than four of our names which subscribed the reply he expungeth at a clap’ etc.”[46]

Larkham is next found in the records at East Greenwich, Kent, on May 31, 1645.  The report of the “Committee for Prundred Ministers” records the following complaint about Larkham by the local minister, Mr. Spratt,

“Whereas the Vicarage of the Parish Church at East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, is and standeth sequestered by order of the Committee, from Dr. Creighton to the use of Thomas Spratt, a godly and orthodox divine, and complaint is made into this Committee that one Thomas Larkham intrudeth himself into the said Church to preach there, against the consent of the said Mr. Spratt and without any order. This Committee doe hereby inhibit the said Mr. Larkham from his said preachinge there as aforesaid, and doe require him to forbeare any further to disturbe, molest, or interrupt the s’d Mr. Spratt in the discharge of the duties of the s’d place according to the s’d sequestration.”[47]

The complaint was resolved by allowing Larkham to preach on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, and Mr. Spratt would preach in the morning.

Larkham’s son Thomas possibly met his wife, Mary Covert, during this time in East Greenwich. It’s known from Larkham’s diary that Mary Covert had a brother or cousin, Richard Covert.    A Richard Covert is named as son and executor of the will of Richard Covert “of East Greenwich, Kent, Citizen and Merchant Tailor of London”, written August 28, 1638 and proved August 30, 1645.[48]

Soon thereafter, Larkham accepted an appointment as chaplain in Sir Hardres Waller's regiment in Cromwell’s Parliamentary Army.  The regiment went to Ireland.  Hardman Moore suggests “Larkham’s wife and family may have stayed at Crediton while Larkham (and his son-in-law Miller) served with the parliamentary army.  Larkham’s will, 1669, mentioned ‘my mansion house at Crediton’”. [49] Larkham’s daughter, Patience, married Lt. Joseph Miller[50] who also served in the Parliamentary Army.  Their son Thomas was born at Crediton on June 9, 1648.[51]

Of this appointment, Larkham stated that he was “chaplain to one of greatest honour in the nation, next unto a king, had his residence among ladies of honour, and was familiar with men of greatest renown in the kingdom, when he had a thousand pounds worth of plate before him.”[52]

It was during this time that his eldest son, Thomas died in the East Indies[53]. In his diary, he wrote,

“Thomas mine Eldest sonne Died Feb 14^th 1648 & left [M]ary his wife ^a widdow^ & one sonne & one daughter viz Thomas & Mary”[54]

Little is known of Mary Covert.  It’s assumed that she and her daughter Mary died shortly the death of Larkham’s eldest son.  The grandson, Thomas “Tom”, referred to by Larkham as an orphan, came to live with his grandparents after 1648, and was raised by them.  There are many entries in Larkham’s diary about his grandson.

Larkham was dismissed from his appointment as chaplain of Waller's regiment on 15 November 1649.  In his diary he states he had “differences about their irreligious carriage.” It’s believed he was dismissed following a court-martial, in which he was found guilty of inciting to insubordination. He appears to have secured another military post, because he wrote of receiving money in 1651 at a “muster in Carlisle for my men;” and on 11 June 1652 he received eleven days' pay from Ebthery at Bristol, “they being about to take ship,” perhaps for Ireland.[55]

Larkham came to Tavistock in April 1647-48 with the Parliamentary Army, where Sir Hardres Waller had his headquarters.  The vicarage of Tavistock had been vacant since October 21, 1643 when the prior vicar left for Plymouth. It is presumed that Larkham succeeded to the Tavistock vicarage before 1649 because the report by the commissioners visiting Tavistock on October 18, 1650 noted that Larkham was elected by the inhabitants and presented by the Earl of Bedford, 'who as successor to the abbey held all the great tithes and the right to present.'

It wasn’t long before conflict broke out as a result of Larkham’s opinions on tithes and administering of the sacraments.  He referred to his critics as ‘profane ones’, who ‘gnash their teeth to see Christ’s ordinances on foot in public, and themselves laid by as reprobate silver; they began to quarrel at my preaching and to join shoulder to shoulder against the new Church (as they were pleased to call us…)”.[56]

As tension increased with his detractors, in 1651, Larkham departed with his son George, recently graduated from Oxford, on a trip north to Cumberland.  The Larkhams were warmly received at Cockermouth where Thomas Larkham was hailed as a ‘blessed instrument of God’.  He shepherded the formation of a new church in fall 1651, with George Larkham and George Benson, Vicar of Bridekirk, as founding members.[57]

In 1652, Larkham made his way back to Tavistock having received a letter from more than sixty people from the congregation there pleading for his return.  George Larkham stayed at Cumberland.  When Larkham arrived back in Devon, he learned his enemies had locked him out of the church.[58] 

He wrote in his diary,

“Thus farre the Lord hath holpen me and hath delivered me from all my fears, troubles and dangers. By him I have leaped over many walls and have skipped over many craggy mountains. I remember thy great name in England and thy poor despised handful in Tavistock. This present first of June I write these lines. This day twelve month I had the doors of the parish church shutt up against me by Hawsnorth, a sad trooper in the Kings army, chosen the Saturday before to be churchwarden, and confirmed by Glanville and others. I have been this year exceedingly persecuted by arrests, in the Committee for plundered ministers, by enditement for a supposed Riott with divers of my brethren to the expense of at least £50 charges. Yet, out of all the Lord hath delivered me; blessed be his name.”[59]

A Full Household

While at Tavistock, there were many diary entries of the concern, love and affection Larkham bore his children and grandchildren.  At a time when his children had married and were raising families of their own, tragedy put Larkham in the role of caregiver once again in his 50s.

Larkham’s grandson, Tom Larkham (son of his eldest son Thomas who died in the East Indies in 1648) was living in Tavistock with his grandparents by April 1650, having been orphaned by both parents by this date.  Tom Larkham, probably born between 1645 (Larkham and his son arrived in East Greenwich in 1645) and 1647 (his father died February 14, 1648 in the East Indies) was raised by his grandfather.  This was not always an easy calling for Larkham.

On August 18, 1654, Thomas Larkham wrote of his grandson, who was probably between 7 and 9 years of age:

“This very Day August 18^th 1654 There was a trial in the court of Tavistocke betweene Thomasin Smith and my grandchild Thomas Larkham for driving and beating her Sow[.] It was God’s pleasure for ends best knowne to his Wisdome to suffer me to be foiled in this action &c[.] With this fatherly Whip beginneth the three & fiftieth yeare of mine age.  But my hope is that His holy Majesties s[h]all bringe good out of this afliction and all others which mine unworthy walking have caused his fatherhood to lay uppon me.  But the deriding of thy Church, waies and Worship by Everleigh the steward of the court & others O Lord forget not.  Hallowed be thy name.”[60]

The husband of Larkham’s daughter, Patience, died in Ireland May 8, 1656.  Larkham wrote in his diary,

“Joseph Miller Lieutenant in Ireland Died May the 8^th 1656 & left mine eldest daughter Patience ^a widow^ & one son & 3 daughters living viz Thomas, Mary, Jane, and Anne”[61]

A month later, he wrote:

“June 21, Saturday My Eldest daughter Patience Miller came to my house at Tavistock from Ireland a widow, D.G / D,M”[62]  

While this initial visit was temporary, by fall 1656, Patience Miller and her two of her children, Thomas and Jane, were living in Tavistock with the Larkhams and their grandson Tom.  The two young cousins, Tom Miller and Tom Larkham were close in age and possibly more like brothers.  This relationship would factor significantly later in their lives.[63]  Their grandfather Larkham was likely a key influence in the lives of his two fatherless grandsons as a role model and provider.  While Larkham clearly reared young Tom Larkham, his diary ledger indicates that he also contributed significantly to the upbringing and schooling of Thomas Miller.

With a household including himself, his wife, his grandson Tom, his daughter Patience and her children Thomas and Jane, by September 1656, Larkham was anxious about the family members’ dependence upon him:

“And nowe Righteous Father I come unto thee in my greate distresse and troubles.  I have A family to care for consistinge of sixe persons with My Daughter Patience and her sonne 2 poore Sisters of Mine expect helpe whom I have often holpen heretofore & would now againe.”[64]

Scurrilous Pamphlets

By 1657, Larkham’s relationship with his religious opponents had escalated and become public.   He attacked his adversaries in a tract entitled ‘Naboth, in a Narrative and Complaint of the Church of God at Tavistock, and especially of and concerning Mr. Thomas Larkham.’  The five parishioners on which the tract was targeted responded in “The Tavistock Naboth proved Nabal: an Answer to a Scandalous Narrative by Thomas Larkham, in the name, but without the consent, of the Church of Tavistocke in Devon, etc., by F. G., D. P., W. G., N. W., W. H., etc.’[65]

In their response, the parishioners denounced Larkham's affection for sack (fortified wine) and bowls (a form of lawn bowling), alluded to his published attacks on tithes, and revived the allegation of immorality in New England Larkham.   Larkham referred to this as ‘a heape of trash, full fraught with lies and slanders.’ He countered with a pamphlet called ‘Judas Hanging Himself,’', and his enemies countered back with ‘A Strange Metamorphosis in Tavistock, or the Nabal-Naboth improved a Judas’.[66] 

A weekly lecture was established in Tavistock by Larkham’s rivals in October 1659, at which nearby ministers officiated. Despite his resistance, the council of state ordered the justices living near Tavistock to continue the lectures, and to question witnesses regarding the alleged crimes and misdemeanors against Larkham. Following the trial on April 17^th, Larkham was ordered to allow others to preach in the parish church. The justices met on October 19th to determine whether Larkham had been legally appointed to the vicarage of Tavistock. On Sunday October 21^st Larkham resigned the benefice. Despite this, he was arrested on January 18, 1661, and he spent eighty-four days in prison at Exeter.[67]

On this date, he wrote in his diary:

“I was made a prisoner by Col. Howard and had a guard of six soldiers put into my house, and the Monday following was conveyed by sixty troopers to the Provost Marshall at Exeter, and returned not until April 11^th. Eighty four days in all. Divers men and women sent tokens of their love to me, the which I wrote out and cannot now find. The Lord grant that it may be for the furtherance of their profit and abound to their account respectively. Thou Lord knowest them by name and what they did in the way of communicating with mine affliction."[68]

Following his release from prison, Larkham returned to Tavistock to live with his daughter Jane and son-in-law, Daniel Condy.[69]

The Act of Uniformity and the Great Ejection of 1662

On May 19, 1662, the parliamentary Act of Uniformity was enforced.  The act prescribed the form of public prayers, administration of sacraments, and other rites of the Established Church of England, following all the rites and ceremonies and doctrines prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer.  More than 2,000 clergymen, including Thomas Larkham and his son George, refused to take the oath and were ousted from the Church of England in what became known as the Great Ejection of 1662. This created the concept of non-conformity, with a substantial section of English society excluded from public affairs for well over a century.  Thomas and George Larkham were among the “nonconformists”.[70]

On August 18, 1662, the deadline to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity, Larkham wrote in his diary:

1662

August the Eighteene beginneth the one and Sixtieth yeare of mine age

The saddest weeke that England ever saw

Witnesses slaine by virtue of a Law.

Many fall off in this sad day of trial,

God’s cause meets now with many a deniall.

All proved not gold that glister’d and was specious,

All are not found to have that faith that’s pretious.

Yesterday ended Godly men’s preaching

That do refuse traditions of men’s teaching.

Enter the Mattins of Bartholomew

Lord keepe thy poore saints from the bloody crew.

Let not the cruell make it suche a day

as ‘twas  in 72 O Lord I pray.

Bury in Christs grave sinnes with his dolours

Reduce poore souls that have fled from their colours

Lord make amend of this sad dismall story,

And let thy praying people see thy glory.[71]

In 1664 Larkham left the ministry and became a partner with Dr. Peter County, an apothecary and physician in Tavistock.  Larkham successfully carried on the practice after Dr. County's death[72] with the help of his grandson, Thomas Miller, who came to Tavistock on October 26, 1664 to help with the apothecary shop[73]  and his daughter Patience.[74]

By May 29, 1665, Larkham learned of his excommunication:

“This day it was told me that yesterday the 28^th of May yong Preston of Maritavy officiating at Tavestocke pronounced me Excom: by authoritie from yong Fulwood now Ar[ch] Deacon at Totnes.  Consider O Lord these fooles and pitty them for they know not what they doe.  Suffer not thy greate name to be (SO) taken in vaine.[75]

The Five Mile Act of 1665

In October 1665, the Five Mile Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, was passed.  The act forbade clergymen identified as nonconformists from living within five miles (8 km) of a parish from which they had been expelled, unless they swore an oath never to resist the king, or attempt to alter the government of Church or State.[76]  Once the act was in force, Larkham was prevented from staying in Tavistock.  He gave up the apothecary shop on January 18, 1666 (1665/66).[77]

According to the Tavistock Congregational Church,  

“Mr Larkham was suffered peacefully to preach under the very shadow of the church he had left, protected by the powerful influence of the house of Russell[78]. He was at one time threatened with imprisonment if he went beyond his own house but the threats were never put into execution.”[79]

By this time his grandsons, Tom Larkham and Tom Miller were frequently abroad, involved in trade in the West Indies, Virginia and the Carolinas.  When he wrote his will on June 1, 1668, he mentioned that Tom Larkham had recently returned from Barbados. Thomas Miller, was involved in the tobacco trade in Virginia and later in Albemarle, Province of Carolina.  In his diary Larkham wrote:

“Where[a]s I laid out about freeing of Tobacco for T. M. (Thomas Miller) and for charges about bringing it to Tavistocke 13. 17. 04.

I have received for Tobacco & the caske in which it was brought from Virginia 141i. 01. 03.”[80]

In August 1668, Larkham once again moved in with his daughter and son-in-law, Jane and Daniel Condy.

His final entry in his diary, dated November 17, 1669, was for his customary sixpenny trim at the barber, one month before his death on December 20, 1669.[81]  His burial on December 23, 1669 was recorded in the Tavistock Register:

“Burials December 1669.  23 M^r Thomas Larkham buried.”[82]

Of his burial Edward Windeatt wrote,

“It would seem that an attempt was made to prevent his burial in the church; but the steward of the Earl of Bedford interfered, and he was buried in the part of the chancel which belonged to the house of Russell.”[83]

Thomas Larkham’s will was written 1 June 1668 and proved 9 March 1669. He names his son George Larkham “mine only son living late a  publique preacher” to whom he bequeathed “all  my land and  right of reversion in them both  at Crediton and  Tavistock”; his grandson Thomas Larkham “son of my eldest son who is lately returned from  the  Barbados who hath been very chargeable to me from  the time  of his birth and by the unkindnesses and  bad  dealing of his mothers relations and his miscarriage which I hope he begineth to see and yet dare not  be  too  confident of him  for  the  time  to come” to whom he bequeathed “my best silver bowle and my ring which hath my seal in it”; his grandson Thomas Condy to whom “if he be a student” he bequeathed “at least one third  part according to their valuation by indifferent men,  of my said books”; his wife Patience to whom he bequeathed “the rent of Mills in Dolvin during her life if she  lives  so long  live,  but  if she  outlive them  she  shall be maintained by the rents of my lands, but if she dies, the lives continuing, the  annuity shall be divided between my  two daughters Patience and  Jane” and “Residue to  use  my  wife  while  she  liveth and  after to be divided  between  the    children  of   my   children  equally everyone a little as far  as it will reach, with  my blessing on them  and  it.”; his daughter Jane; his daughter Patience “my undone daughter” to whom he bequeathed “My apothecary ware  and  utensills” provided the bequest “be managed by George  Larkham my son  and  Daniel Condy  my son  in law both  or either of them  for and her use that her husband may not have the  wasting of it as he hath of the rest of her estate and  I desire my son  and  son-in-law to be instead of a father friend and  husband to her and her poor children that shall be living after my death or such  of them as they think fit objects for their help: if any of them prove lewd, let them  be cast off”; and his son-in-law Daniel Condy.[84]

The works of Thomas Larkham include:

1. ‘The Wedding Supper,’ l2mo, London, 1652, "with portrait", engraved by T. Cross. Dedicated to the parliament.

2. ‘A Discourse of Paying of Tithes by T. L., M.A., Pastour of the Church of Tavistocke,’ 12mo, London, 1656. Dedicated to Oliver Cromwell 

3. ‘The Attributes of God,' &c., 4to, London, 1656, with portrait, British Museum. Dedicated to the fellows, masters, and presidents of colleges, &c., at Cambridge. [85]

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