Francis Tallents
[1] He was the eldest son of Philip Tallents, whose own father, a Frenchman, accompanied Francis Leke (MP), a Derbyshire Protestant politician and soldier,[2] to England after saving his life.
[3] In 1642 he travelled abroad with his pupils, and stayed for a time at Saumur, then an important centre of Huguenot teaching,[4] where the Academy taught a moderate and inclusive Calvinism, known as Amyraldism.
Through Robert Boyle he knew about the activities and ideas of the Invisible College, a circle of natural philosophers who had a universalist and utopian outlook.
[5][6] In October 1649 he was appointed unus e predicatoribus ab Academia emittendis - one of the twelve graduates, chosen annually from the University, who, under an ordinance of Elizabeth I had power to preach without episcopal licence.
[7] In the summer of 1652 Tallents was invited by the mayor and aldermen, and urged by Richard Baxter, to become lecturer and curate at St Mary's, Shrewsbury.
[11] Subsequently, Humphrey Mackworth, the governor of Shrewsbury, was instructed to expel from the town preachers who stirred up "sedition and uproar" among the people.
The next year brought the culmination of the Third English Civil War, when the Scottish army camped at Tong, Shropshire, held at bay by Mackworth, on its way to defeat at the Battle of Worcester.
The initial choice was John Bryan, who was the most distinguished preacher in Coventry,[13] but his churchwardens prevailed on him to stay, supported by Richard Baxter.
In 1670 he described his friend as Mr. Francis Talents, an ancient Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge, and a good Schollar, a godly, blameless Divine, most eminent for extraordinary Prudence, and moderation, and peaceableness towards all, who in our Wars lived at Saumours in France and is now there again.
Sir, you know that the maine part of the comfort of a minister's life lyeth in the Piety, Stability, and Encouraging Obedience of his People.
Tallents was opposed to this and decided to continue hearing the promises and pronouncing the couple married, reducing the JP to silence beside him until the time came to validate the ceremony.
An ordinance of 22 August 1654 set up county commissions for ejecting "scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient or negligent ministers and schoolmasters.
In 1656 Tallents moderated a debate over infant baptism at Ellesmere, Shropshire[5] This pitted Thomas Porter, the incumbent at Whitchurch,[20] against a Mr Haggar, a Baptist, described by Calamy as an Anabaptist.
Jones was a staunch Presbyterian, although he had remained in Shrewsbury while it was under Royalist rule, and even hosted Prince Rupert in his home.
The Corporation Act of December 1661 gave Newport and Ottley an opportunity to mount a coup against the dominant group in Shrewsbury, as it demanded office holders explicitly abjure the Solemn League and Covenant.
[22] In March the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry made a gift to the king consisting of money voluntarily subscribed by the clergy.
However, Newport did not wait for the act to become effective, immediately turning out Presbyterian ministers of the Fourth Classis, the north-eastern area of Shropshire where he was dominant.
On 1 September Newport arrived in Shrewsbury to enforce the Act of Uniformity definitively, accompanied by John Hacket, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and Sir Edward Littleton, a Staffordshire JP and MP.
On his return he joined with the younger John Bryan (died 1699), in ministering to the presbyterian congregation at Oliver Chapel, High Street, Shrewsbury.
He was under suspicion after Monmouth's rebellion in 1685, and was lodged in Chester Castle, but was soon released, and on James II's progress to Shrewsbury in September 1687 he joined in the presentation to him of a purse of gold in recognition of the Declaration of Indulgence.
Tallents directed his historical studies, and employed him (about 1680) in taking the manuscript of his View of Universal History to Edward Stillingfleet, William Beveridge, and Richard Kidder, for their corrections before it was printed.
Calamy, Edmund, An account of the ministers, lecturers, masters, and fellows of colleges and schoolmasters who were ejected or silenced after the Restoration in 1660, by or before, the Act of Uniformity ; design'd for the preserving to posterity the memory of their names, characters, writings, and sufferings, J. Lawrence, London.
Owen, Hugh, and Blakeway, John Brickdale, A History of Shrewsbury, Volume 2, Harding and Lepard, London, 1825, accessed 13 November 2013 at Internet Archive.
Sylvester, Matthew (ed), Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, T. Parkhurst, J. Robinson, J. Lawrence, and J. Dunton, 1696, accessed 13 November 2013 at Open Library.
