Francis Tallents

Francis Tallents (1619–1708) was a non-conforming

Background, early life and education

Francis Tallents was of partly

Francis Tallents was born at Pilsley in the parish of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, in November 1619. His father dying when he was fourteen, Tallents was sent by an uncle, Francis Tallents, to the free schools at Mansfield and Newark.

Academic life and ordination

Tallents studied at

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. The council then sought advice from Baxter, who recommended Tallents. Baxter greatly valued Tallents as a moderate Calvinist. 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.^[14]

The mayor,

If my testimony can do any thing to turne the scales, I do assure you, impartially, that were I loose, I know not one congregacon in England that I would sooner choose. The People are (those that are godly) very serious, sober Christians, as most ever I knew! The Meeting Place very convenient for many to heare with an easy voice. Many godly ministers in the country about ; and the place publique and of great resort and concernment. 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.[15]

Tallents had scruples about the position of Fisher, who wrote to the parish through Richard Pigot, the headmaster of Shrewsbury School, "not his willingness alone, but his earnest desire to have Mr. Tallents settle with them." This decided the matter and Tallents decided to accept. His formal nomination to the post of curate and lecturer was dated 4 January 1653. The Committee for Plundered Ministers added £50 to his income of £150^[6] from the church. This was derived from the impropriate rectory of Oswestry,^[15] formerly held by Lord Craven, whose property had been sequestrated for delinquency.

As a minister, Tallents could be nonconformist even under the

Tallents acted on a larger scale than his own church. An ordinance of 22 August 1654 set up county commissions for ejecting "scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient or negligent ministers and schoolmasters."[18] For Shropshire 21 commissioners were appointed, with 20 "Ministers Assistant." Tallents was one of those appointed. There is no extant record of their proceedings but about six ministers are known to have been dealt with. Some were clearly unpopular with their people, for example, William Gower, a Scot who had been installed at Moreton Corbet after it was taken during the Civil War. The parish register asserts that he was a usurper installed by "Traytors and Rebells" but omits to mention that he was ejected by the Commonwealth too.^[19]

The preaching ministry involved controversy over basic principles of Christian belief. In 1652 a Shrewsbury preacher named Fidge had drawn complaints for seeming to teach

Ejection

At the

After that time he regularly attended worship at St Mary's, only preaching himself at different hours, and thus he escaped molestation. From February 1671 to about 1674 he resided with his pupil, John Hampden the younger, near Paris. On his return he joined with the younger John Bryan (died 1699), in ministering to the presbyterian congregation at Oliver Chapel, High Street, Shrewsbury. An indictment was framed against him for holding a conventicle in December 1680, but he was able to prove an alibi, having spent the whole of the winter in France.

He was under suspicion after

Shrewsbury Academy was a dissenting academy started in Shrewsbury by Tallents in about 1697, which passed to the control of James Owen in 1699. Owen died 1706 and his place was filled by Samuel Benion, M.D. The academy continued to about 1708.^[26]

Death

He died at Shrewsbury on 11 April 1708, aged nearly eighty-nine, and was buried on 15 April in St Mary's Church. He composed his own epitaph.

Works

His 1705 History of Schism involved him in controversy with the nonjuring clergyman Samuel Grascome (1641–1708).

Besides a sermon preached at the funeral of

• ‘A View of Universal History,’ London, 1685, a series of chronological tables which he had engraved on sixteen copper-plates in his own house.
• ‘A Sure and Large Foundation,’ 1689?; a copy of this was given by him to the school library at Shrewsbury, in 1696, but the work is not otherwise known; and
• ‘A Short History of Schism,’ London, 1705. This was answered by ‘S. G.,’ i.e. Samuel Grascome, in ‘Moderation in Fashion, or an Answer to a Treatise,’ &c., 1705. Tallents followed with ‘Some few Considerations upon S. G.'s Large Answer to the Short History,’ &c., London, 1706, and Grascome rejoined in ‘Schism triumphant, or a Rejoinder to a Reply,’ &c., London, 1707.

A manuscript journal of Tallents's travels was in the possession of Job Orton, and then was owned by the Rev. John Brickdale Blakeway in 1825, who used it in compiling the History of Shrewsbury.

Family

Tallents was four times married:

1. in 1654 to Anne (died 1658), daughter of Gervase Lomax;
2. in 1661 to Martha (died 1663), daughter of Thomas Clive of Walford, near Baschurch, Shropshire;
3. in 1673, when she was aged 40, to Mrs. Mary Greenhill (died 1685), widow of William Greenhill, of
   Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex
   .
4. in 1688 to his fourth wife Elizabeth, who was buried at St Mary's on 11 March 1702.

By his first wife only had he issue—a son, Hildersham, who only lived two weeks in 1655, and another son Francis, born on 7 September 1656, admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1672, graduated thence B.A. 1675, M.A. 1679. He became chaplain to Sir D. Gauden, the sheriff of London, was acquainted with Samuel Pepys, and died in early life.

Francis Hutchinson was the son of his sister Mary. 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.^[1]

Works

• Universal History, 1685
• A Sure and Large Foundation
• A History of Schism, 1705
• Some few considerations upon Mr S G's large answer to the Short history of schism; and especially upon the new and bold assertion, that there can be no church, or salvation, ... without a canonical bishop, 1706

Notes