Gents Mag 1851 part 2 p.520
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introduction | ||
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list, 3rd qtr 19th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 2 p.520
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market cross Sedbergh |
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Market Cross,
Sedbergh
OLD MARKET CROSS, AT SEDBERGH, IN YORKSHIRE. MR. URBAN, - AS our national and local antiquities are fast disappearing, would it not be well to bring before the antiquarian world every instance of their destruction; and, where this has taken place long ago, to collect such accounts as may serve as some index of the past? With this object, I venture to send for insertion in the Gentleman's Magazine an instance of the destruction of a market cross two centuries since; which at the same time may afford some idea of the rancorous spirit which actuated all ranks during the middle of the 17th century, and hold up a vivid contrast to the much happier state of things in the present day. It is extracted from an old work without date, entitled, "The Faithful Testimony of that antient Servant of the Lord, and minister of the everlasting Gospel, William Dewsberry; in his Books, Epistles, and Writings, collected and printed for future Service." He was one of the most eminent of the ministers of the early Quakers, and the above volume I apprehend to have been published shortly after his death, which took place at Warwick, 17 April, 1688, O.S. It commences with "A Testimony concerning that faithful servant of the Lord William Dewsberry, from us who have long known him, and his faithful Travels and Labours and sufferings, in and for the Gospel of Christ," dated London, nineteenth, twelfth month 1689, and signed George Whitehead, Steven Crisp, Francis Camfeild, Richard Richardson, Richard Pinder, James Parkes. Subjoined to this, is the following memorandum: "One remarkable passage I often remember: about the year, 1653, upon a market-day, at Sedbury (Sedbergh) in Yorkshire, as W.D. was publishing the Truth at the Market Cross, and warning the People to turn from the evil of their ways to the Grace of God, and to the Light in their Consciences, &c. some rude persons endeavouring with violence to push him down, and setting their Backs against a high stone Cross, with their hands against him, the pusht down the cross, which with the fall broke in pieces, many being about it; yet it missed the People, and little or no hurt was done thereby, whereas, if it had fallen upon them, divers might have been killed. This preservation I and divers more observed then as a special Providence of God attedning him in his Labour, though I was then but a youth of sixteen years old, or thereabouts, being convinced of Truth above a year before." - G.W.Dr. Whitaker, in his elaborate History of Richmondshire, has surveyed the parish of Sedbergh, with its Saxon fortifications, church, and well-endowed Grammar school, but makes no mention of this ruined cross, so we may fairly conclude that all trace of it has disappeared, or that it was afterwards supplanted by another, Yours, &c. C. J. ARMISTEAD. |
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