Robert Aspland
Encyclopedia
Robert Aspland was an English Unitarian
minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland
(1805-1869).
, Cambridgeshire
, 13 January 1782. His attended Soham
grammar school under John Aspland, a relative. In 1794, he was placed first at Islington
, then at Highgate
, and in August 1795 was sent to Well Street, Hackney
, where he stayed till summer 1797.
In April 1797 Aspland was publicly baptised at the Baptist chapel in Devonshire Square, and awarded a Ward scholarship at the Bristol Academy by the Baptist ministry. He was placed under the Rev. Joseph Hughes (afterwards founder of the Bible Society
), then residing at Battersea
withf a small Baptist congregation. Staying only a few months, but long enough to give his tutor reasons for doubting his views on doctrine, Aspland went home to Wicken in the summer of 1798, becoming popular there as the boy-preacher, and reached Bristol on 31 July to find himself assigned to Dr. Ryland, the theological tutor. He proceeded in due course, October 1799, to Marischal College
, Aberdeen; but, his opinions becoming more and more manifest, he was excised from membership at the chapel at Devonshire Square 29 October 1800, and he quitted the university and relinquished his scholarship at the same moment.
, recommended him to the General Baptists at Newport, Isle of Wight
, then unprovided with a minister; Aspland visited them 17 April 1801, and was requested to remain. His marriage followed in May; he became secretary to the South Unitarian Society in 1803; he published a sermon, entitled ‘Divine Judgments,’ in 1804; and he left Newport February 1805 to take charge of a larger congregation at Norton, Derbyshire. Passing through London on his way there, however, he was invited to be minister at the Gravel Pit chapel, Hackney; and going to Derbyshire to be honourably released from his engagement there, he returned to Hackney
for 7 July 1805, taking possession on that day of a pulpit which he retained for forty years.
Aspland established, or aided in the establishment of, several Unitarian periodicals and societies. The first of these was the Monthly Repository
, containing biographical sketches, theological disquisitions, political criticism, &c. This Aspland edited, and he had the opening number ready for February 1806. In the same month he was instrumental in establishing the Unitarian Fund, with himself as secretary. He took an additional secretaryship in 1809, when he succeeded in forming the Christian Tract Society. In 1810 he brought out A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Unitarian Worship, used subsequently in his own chapel, though not without some opposition. In 1811 he became one of the trustees of Dr. Daniel Williams
's charities, and was active in opposing the alteration of the Toleration Act
. In 1812 he was a member of the committee of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, being one of a deputation, which had an interview with the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval
11 May, only two hours before he was shot.
In 1813 Aspland set up the Hackney at Durham House for training unitarian ministers; he was helping also, by letters and sermons delivered and printed, in the agitation for an act to relieve from penalties persons who impugn the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The act received the royal assent 21 July. In 1814 Aspland brought out ‘British Pulpit Eloquence,’ and some sermons of his own. In 1815 he established the ‘Christian Reformer, or New Evangelical Miscellany,’ a work the editorship of which he never gave up. In July 1817 he formed the Non-con Club at his own house, Thomas Noon Talfourd
, Southwood Smith, William Johnson Fox
, and Walter Wilson
being among the members. On 18 December of the same year he was at William Hone
's side in the Court of King's Bench, Guildhall, finding authorities and furnishing hints for his six hours' speech of defence; he had previously visited Hone in prison, providing him with books from Dr. Williams's Library, so that the defence might be prepared.
, Aspland was engaged in controversy on the subject in the columns of The Times
. In 1821 he became trustee of the Presbyterian Fund, and drew up the Christians' petition to parliament against the prosecution of unbelievers, sending it all over the country for signature, till it was presented to parliament, 1 July 1823, by Joseph Hume
. In 1825 Aspland worked at the fusion of the three societies, the Unitarian Association, the Unitarian Fund, and the Unitarian Book Society, into one body, the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
. In 1826 he broke off his connection with the Monthly Repository after an unremunerative editorship of twenty-one years; and in 1827 he edited the Test Act Reporter till, on the bill for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts passing, 9 May 1828, the publication was no longer needed. Aspland also presented and read an address to the throne on 28 July 1830, and another on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.
He was also secretary to the British and Foreign Unitarian Association from 1835 to 1841, and retained the acting editorship of the Christian Reformer till 1844. His health beginning to fail in 1843, he was provided with an associate in his pastorate. On 4 February 1844 he preached for the last time, and after being confined to his house for many months, he died 30 December 1845, aged 63. Aspland published sermons, a Catechism, Prayers, Tracts for the People, and other works, a complete list of which is given in his Memoirs.
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland
Robert Brook Aspland
Robert Brook Aspland was an English Unitarian minister and editor. To be distinguished from his father Robert Aspland .-Life:...
(1805-1869).
Life
Aspland was the son of Robert Aspland and his second wife, Hannah Brook. He was born at WickenWicken, Cambridgeshire
Wicken is a small village on the edge of the fens near Soham in East Cambridgeshire, 10 miles north east of Cambridge and 5 miles south of Ely. It is the site of Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve.-History:...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, 13 January 1782. His attended Soham
Soham
Soham is a small town in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It lies just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket . Its population is 9,102 , and it is within the district of East Cambridgeshire.-Archaeology:...
grammar school under John Aspland, a relative. In 1794, he was placed first at Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, then at Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
, and in August 1795 was sent to Well Street, Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, where he stayed till summer 1797.
In April 1797 Aspland was publicly baptised at the Baptist chapel in Devonshire Square, and awarded a Ward scholarship at the Bristol Academy by the Baptist ministry. He was placed under the Rev. Joseph Hughes (afterwards founder of the Bible Society
Bible society
A Bible society is a non-profit organization devoted to translating, publishing, distributing the Bible at affordable costs and advocating its credibility and trustworthiness in contemporary cultural life...
), then residing at Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
withf a small Baptist congregation. Staying only a few months, but long enough to give his tutor reasons for doubting his views on doctrine, Aspland went home to Wicken in the summer of 1798, becoming popular there as the boy-preacher, and reached Bristol on 31 July to find himself assigned to Dr. Ryland, the theological tutor. He proceeded in due course, October 1799, to Marischal College
Marischal College
Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events...
, Aberdeen; but, his opinions becoming more and more manifest, he was excised from membership at the chapel at Devonshire Square 29 October 1800, and he quitted the university and relinquished his scholarship at the same moment.
Lay preacher and editor
Aspland at this juncture was offered a share in a trade. He knew a prosperous dealer in artists' colours in St. Martin's Lane, London, whose daughter, Sara Middleton, he afterwards married; and taking a part in his future father-in-law's business in the week, he devoted his Sundays to preaching for any London preacher in want of sudden help. Amongst the pulpits thus opened to him was that of the General Baptists (otherwise Unitarians) in Worship Street, City; the pastor of this church, the Rev. John EvansJohn Evans (Baptist)
-Life:He was born at Usk in Monmouthshire, 2 October 1767. After schooling in Bristol he became a student in November 1783 in the Baptist academy there, where his relative Dr. Caleb Evans was theological tutor. During part of the time Robert Hall was his classical tutor. In 1787 he matriculated at...
, recommended him to the General Baptists at Newport, Isle of Wight
Newport, Isle of Wight
Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...
, then unprovided with a minister; Aspland visited them 17 April 1801, and was requested to remain. His marriage followed in May; he became secretary to the South Unitarian Society in 1803; he published a sermon, entitled ‘Divine Judgments,’ in 1804; and he left Newport February 1805 to take charge of a larger congregation at Norton, Derbyshire. Passing through London on his way there, however, he was invited to be minister at the Gravel Pit chapel, Hackney; and going to Derbyshire to be honourably released from his engagement there, he returned to Hackney
Hackney (parish)
Hackney was a parish in the historic county of Middlesex. The parish church of St John-at-Hackney was built in 1789, replacing the nearby former 16th century parish church dedicated to St Augustine . The original tower of that church was retained to hold the bells until the new church could be...
for 7 July 1805, taking possession on that day of a pulpit which he retained for forty years.
Aspland established, or aided in the establishment of, several Unitarian periodicals and societies. The first of these was the Monthly Repository
Monthly Repository
The Monthly Repository was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838.The Monthly Repository was established when Robert Aspland bought William Vidler's Universal Theological Magazine and changed the name to the Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature...
, containing biographical sketches, theological disquisitions, political criticism, &c. This Aspland edited, and he had the opening number ready for February 1806. In the same month he was instrumental in establishing the Unitarian Fund, with himself as secretary. He took an additional secretaryship in 1809, when he succeeded in forming the Christian Tract Society. In 1810 he brought out A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Unitarian Worship, used subsequently in his own chapel, though not without some opposition. In 1811 he became one of the trustees of Dr. Daniel Williams
Daniel Williams (theologian)
The Revd. Dr. Daniel Williams was a Welsh Presbyterian benefactor, minister and theologian.-Early ministry:Williams was born in Wrexham, Denbighshire, and was a cousin of Stephen Davies, minister at Banbury...
's charities, and was active in opposing the alteration of the Toleration Act
Toleration Act
Toleration Act may refer to:* Act of Toleration 1689, in England* Maryland Toleration Act, of 1649...
. In 1812 he was a member of the committee of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, being one of a deputation, which had an interview with the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval, KC was a British statesman and First Lord of the Treasury, making him de facto Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated...
11 May, only two hours before he was shot.
In 1813 Aspland set up the Hackney at Durham House for training unitarian ministers; he was helping also, by letters and sermons delivered and printed, in the agitation for an act to relieve from penalties persons who impugn the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The act received the royal assent 21 July. In 1814 Aspland brought out ‘British Pulpit Eloquence,’ and some sermons of his own. In 1815 he established the ‘Christian Reformer, or New Evangelical Miscellany,’ a work the editorship of which he never gave up. In July 1817 he formed the Non-con Club at his own house, Thomas Noon Talfourd
Thomas Noon Talfourd
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, SL , was an English judge and author.The son of a well-to-do brewer, he was born at Reading, Berkshire ....
, Southwood Smith, William Johnson Fox
William Johnson Fox
William Johnson Fox was an English religious and political orator.-Life:He was born near Southwold, Suffolk. He trained for the Independent ministry, at the dissenting academy known as Homerton College...
, and Walter Wilson
Walter Wilson (biographer)
Walter Wilson was an English biographer of nonconformist clergy and their churches.-Life:He was born about 1781, the illegitimate son of John Walter, the newspaper publisher. He was brought up a Presbyterian, and went to work at East India House as a clerk. In 1802 he went into journalism, and in...
being among the members. On 18 December of the same year he was at William Hone
William Hone
William Hone was an English writer, satirist and bookseller. His victorious court battle against government censorship in 1817 marked a turning point in the fight for British press freedom.-Biography:...
's side in the Court of King's Bench, Guildhall, finding authorities and furnishing hints for his six hours' speech of defence; he had previously visited Hone in prison, providing him with books from Dr. Williams's Library, so that the defence might be prepared.
Founding of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
In 1818 Aspland was compelled by ill-health to give up his Unitarian academy and the secretaryship of the Unitarian Fund. On his recovery in 1819, he brought about the formation of the Association for protecting the Civil Rights of Unitarians; and that being the year of the conviction of R. Carlile for publishing Tom Paine's Age of ReasonAge of reason
Age of reason may refer to:* 17th-century philosophy, as a successor of the Renaissance and a predecessor to the Age of Enlightenment* Age of Enlightenment in its long form of 1600-1800* The Age of Reason, a book by Thomas Paine...
, Aspland was engaged in controversy on the subject in the columns of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. In 1821 he became trustee of the Presbyterian Fund, and drew up the Christians' petition to parliament against the prosecution of unbelievers, sending it all over the country for signature, till it was presented to parliament, 1 July 1823, by Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and Radical MP, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...
. In 1825 Aspland worked at the fusion of the three societies, the Unitarian Association, the Unitarian Fund, and the Unitarian Book Society, into one body, the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
. In 1826 he broke off his connection with the Monthly Repository after an unremunerative editorship of twenty-one years; and in 1827 he edited the Test Act Reporter till, on the bill for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts passing, 9 May 1828, the publication was no longer needed. Aspland also presented and read an address to the throne on 28 July 1830, and another on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.
He was also secretary to the British and Foreign Unitarian Association from 1835 to 1841, and retained the acting editorship of the Christian Reformer till 1844. His health beginning to fail in 1843, he was provided with an associate in his pastorate. On 4 February 1844 he preached for the last time, and after being confined to his house for many months, he died 30 December 1845, aged 63. Aspland published sermons, a Catechism, Prayers, Tracts for the People, and other works, a complete list of which is given in his Memoirs.