Joseph Stennett - Family
Joseph and Susanna Guill Stennett had a large family. It was one that was hard hit by deaths. The oldest daughter died in 1700 or perhaps a little later at the age of twelve. Her "great virtues and understanding had much endeared her to" her father and her death was a severe blow to him. 256
I surmise that the next child was George, for he is listed just ahead of Joseph Jr. on the membership list in the Pinners' Hall Record Book, and Joseph Jr. was born in 1692. George was converted when quite young and was a sincere Christian. He died in 1709 at the age of about nineteen. His funeral sermon was preached on September 17 of that year by John Piggott, a neighboring Baptist minister. 257
Joseph, Junior was born on November 6, 1692. As he is to become the leading member of the family in his generation, the next chapter of this thesis is devoted to him.
If I make the right historical reconstruction from some inferences, there is a son Edward. A member of the Pinners' Hall Church was Martha Batt who married a Stennett then a Fowle. In the Will of Mary Hall who died October 27, 1714, there is a five pound bequest "To Mr. Batt for Edward Stennett youse." This is to late for the first Edward Stennett, so I suggest the bequest was to Batt, to give his son-in-law, a Stennett. As the woman had a second husband and we have no other reference to that Stennett, I suggest that he died before he was mentioned on any other historical material now extant. Death rates were very high in that time. 258
Another child is the boy for whom Joseph wrote the poem, on "the death of my little Benj. An infant." 259 In would seem that Joseph saw fit to name another son for this one that died. Benjamin Stennett appears as pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist Church at Ingham in Norfolk, having succeeded John Rudd who left that pastorate about 1736. About 1747 a dispute arose as to which day, Saturday or Sunday was the Sabbath. As a consequence, Stennett gave the meeting-house, the minister's dwelling-house and about three acres of land, including the burial ground to the use of the Baptist church meeting there. Stennett left in 1748. I have been unable to locate any other information about this man. 260
There is supposed to have been a son of Joseph by the name of Samuel. However, the only reference to him come from the twentieth century. 261 Lacking any early reference, the only historical judgment possible is that he appears to have been born two centuries too late to have been a reality.
As there is no systematic listing of the children of Joseph and Susanna, it is possible there are children about whom no historical references have survived. From what we do know of the family, at least three children died during the lifetime of the father, who in turn died in his "forty-ninth year." Infant mortality was high in the eighteenth century, but in his family, premature death did not stop with the infants.
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New information since the Thesis
Joseph Stennett 1663-1713 (son of Edward & Mary Stennett) and Susanna Gill [Guill] Stennett. They were married July 29, 1688. N1 She was the daughter of George Gill, a French Huguenot refugee to England. She was a sister of the second wife of Dr. Daniel Williams who founded the Dr. Williams's Library in London. N2
Their known children:
"His ... eldest daughter [died] at the age of twelve years" about the time that Mordecai Abbott died (1700). N3
George. Died 1709. Funeral sermon for him was preached on Sept. 17, 1709 by John Piggott, The extravagant mirth of youth expos'd ... (London, 1709). George is in the Pinner's Hall Church book as no. 63 in the men's list (p. 268) right before Joseph Stennett, Jr. He appears to have been reared in that congregation for Piggott said of George that he "was well known to you in this Assembly. "George "consecrated himself very early to the Service of the Sacred Trinity in Holy Baptism." Just before he died he spoke to "one of his Brothers with more than ordinary earnestness, exhorting him more than once to forsake his Sins." N4 The circumstances indicate he was a son of Joseph and Susanna, not of Edward and Mary.
Joseph, Jr., was born Nov. 6, 1692. He is no. 64 in the Pinner's Hall men's list. Died 1758. The next chapter.
"A Male Childe of Joseph Stennett Liueing at ye signe of ye Indian Queen in goldsmith Row in [St. Vedast, London] parish was Borne yed day of March 1703 (i. e., 1704) ." N5
"Asher Stennett ye son of Mr Joseph Stennett, Liueing at ye signe of ye Indian Queen in Goldsmiths Row in [St. Vedast, London] parish, was Buried in ye New ground ye 12th day of May 1704." N6
Benj. Joseph Stennett wrote a poem on "the death of my little Benj . an infant." N7
Benjamin. His parents after the death of "Benj. an infant" above evidently reused his name--a practice common at that time. He was Pastor of the Ingham Baptist Church which apparently included Seventh Day and First Day people. What one assumes is his first marriage was on June 2, 1714, to Judith Morton. N8 See various places in my narrative history of Seventh Day Baptists in England, and a separate listing for his marriage to Elizabeth Ridley and of their children: There is a separate biography of him. Since this Benjamin is an uncle of Dr. Samuel Stennett he must be a son of Joseph Stennett, Sr.
In the National Library of Wales there is a letter of 29 July 1707 from Joseph Stennett to his wife who was at Wallingford with their son Joseph, Jr., and "Molly"--if I read the handwriting correctly. With Joseph, Sr., in London is "our little Betty [who] is now pretty Well." N9
[ Seventh Day Baptist in Europe and America , I (Plainfield, N. J., 1910), p. i01, lists a Samuel Stennett I as a son the first Joseph Stennett. In Charles H. Greene's notebooks at the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society there is a sketch of Stennett genealogy this Samuel has been clearly added at a later time to the list. I suspect that Mr. Greene heard of Samuel Stennett (1780-1841) who wrote two books, put him in the wrong place in the list, and imagined a scenario for a brief life. Mr. Greene probably did not have the information available to put Samuel (1780-1741) in the right place. Both Dr. Corliss F. Randolph and Miss. Evalois St. John of the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society warned me to always verify Greene's material. In my long acquaintance with Stennett historical material I have never verified "Samuel. I."]
There were four surviving children when Joseph died in 1713. N10
Oscar Burdick, Nov. 22, 1999.
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Joseph Stennett I (1663-1713), bibliography in more or less chronological order by first edition. Many of these are reprinted in his Works (London, 1731-2). The Works are now available for download in a link from the index.
1695. The groans of a saint ... a sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. John Belcher,minister of the Gospel,
April 1, 1695. London, 1695. Reprinted in 1702. edition of the next book.
1685. Advice to the young . ...London, 1695. Second ed. corrected to which is added, a funeral discourse on 2 Cor. v. 4
[for John Belcher]. London, 1702.
1697. Hymns in commemoration of the sufferings of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Compos'd
[for John Belcher]. London, 1702. for the celebration of his Holy Supper. London, 1697,
37 hymns. Second ed. enlarged, London : J. Marshall,
1705 , xi [i.e. , xl],64 p.,46 hymns. [Another] second ed. enlarged, London: W. and J. Marshall,
1705, xl, 64 p., 46 hymns.[Another] second ed. enlarged, London: W. and J. Marshall, 1705,
Third ed. enlarged, London, 1709, xli, 68 p., 50 hymns; half title on p. [xliii] , "Sacramental
hymns." [Another] third ed. enlarged, London, 1713 , xli , 68 p . , 50 hymns; half title on p. [xliii],
"Sacramental hymns." Reprinted on pages [101] -128 of Nicholas Brady and Nahum
A new version of the Psalms of David ... , [London], 1720.
1697. A poem to the memory of M r . Timothy Cruso, late minister of the Gospel ...
By J. S. London, 1697. Cruso was another minister who preached at Pinner's Hall. The Cruso
family name was may have been used by Daniel DeFoe in his The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
1700. A version of Solomon's Song of Songs. Together with the XLV Psalm.
London, 1700, xxiv, 40 p. Second ed., corrected, London, 1709, xxiv, 25-64 p.
1702. A poem to the memory of Mr. Nathanael Taylor, late minister of the Gospel, by J. S. London, 1702.
1702. A poem to the memory of His Late Majesty William the Third . By J. S. London, 1702.
A manuscript of much of this is in the SDBHS.(At least some of this is included as an addendum AH.) Third ed., 1702. Author identified in advertising
in his 1709 book below. Reprinted by his grandson, Dr. Samuel Stennett, with the latter's
A sermon in commemoration of the Great Storm ...
Samuel identifies Joseph Stennett as the poem's author, and writes of his veneration for his grandfather.
1704. An answer to Mr. David Russen's Book, entitl'd Fundamentals without a Foundation . ...
Russen's book, Fundamentals without Foundation ... was published in London in 1703, the preface being dated
1702. In turn Stennett was replied to by Jeremia Thomson, vicar of Shoteswell,
Infants proper subjects of baptism ... London, 1709.
1704. A sermon preach'd on ... the 7th of September 1704: ... Thanksgiving for ... the late glorious victory ... at Bleinheim
Blenheim]. ... London, 1704. Second ed., London, 1704.
1706. A sermon preach'd on ... the 27th of June 1706 ... Thanksgiving ... for the late glorious progress
Her Majesty's Arms and those of her Allies in Flanders and Spain.
London, 1706, 36 p. Another edition, London: H. Hills [1706?], 24 p.
1707. A sermon preach'd on the first of May, 1707 ... Thanksgiving for the Happy Union
of England and Scotland . London, 1707. Two printings, one in 32 pages, the other in 16 pages.
1709. A sermon preach'd ... February 17, 1708/9 ... for the many and great successes of the confederate
arms this last campaign . London, 1709. Mentions in its advertisements his Hymns ... Holy Supper
2d ed., so the third ed., 1709, of those hymns was presumably printed later this same year.
1712. Hymns compos'd for the celebration of the Holy Ordinance of Baptism . London: J. Darby, J. Baker, and J. Clark,
1712. Second ed., London: J. Darby, J. Clark, and R. Ford, 1722. Also an undated second edition, London,
John Marshall. Also a reprint, London: George Keith, 1769 (at Brown University) , and in Benjamin Wallin,
Evangelical hymns and songs (Boston [Mass.], 1762), 141-55.
1713. The rest of the people of God. A funeral sermon ... [for] the Reverend Mr. John Piggott,
late minister ... preach'd March 29, 1713 London, 1713. Second edition, London,
1713. Reprinted in Piggott, eleven sermons ... (London, 1714)
1731-2. Works . 4 v. London, 1731-2. A biography of Joseph Stennett written by Dr. [John] Ward of Gresham College,
London, is at the beginning of vol. 1 (Edmund Calamy, The Nonconformist?s memorial ... corrected by
Samuel Palmer , (London, 1775), 226). A fifth volume was intended to be a reprint of his
An Answer to Mr. David Russen?s Book ... but copies remained of the original printing so it
was not reissued. Vols. 2-3 have alt="spacing" / at Pinners Hall for a Mr. Hill, who would appear to be Thomas Hill a member who died that
month (PH, [251]).In 4.220-1 is a poem "To my friend Mr. ____ on his philosophical dream";
this also appears in Moral reflections in a real dream (London, 1708) , A2r. That in turn is in
An exact account of two real dreams ... the first ... 1708 ... the other ... 1714. the author being
then in India (London, two printings in 1725), 3-4. Stennett and Joseph Collet (a Baptist) were both
in the Dic Ipse club or study group; Since Collet was with the East India Company in the Far East
1711-20 it is likely the dreams are those of Collet (Collet, op. cit . xii-iii, 29, 51-2, 59, 105, 143, 190)
His sermons upon the Sabbath were not yet published according to a 2 Sept. 1753 letter (Seventh-day Baptist memorial, 2.1 (Jan. 1853), 37-8); nothing further is known of them. The sermons in his Works are largely noncontroversial--the Sabbath is promoted briefly in a sermon on the moral law- -2.483-4.
Translations by Joseph Stennett:
Casas, Bartholomew de Ia, Bishop of Chaiapa. An account of the first voyages and discoveries made by the Spaniards in America.
containing the most exact relation ... of their unparallel'd cruelties on the Indians. ...
London, 1699. Translator identified as Stennett in his 1707 book above, p. [2], and in his _____, I Biography, 14.
Plato. The works of Plato abridg'd ... by M. Dacier translated from the French, by several hands
2 v. London, 1701, and later editions. Listed as translated by Stennett (Stennett, Works , I, Biography, 14.)
A possible publication:
An elegy on ... Mr Francis Bampfield. The Second Part by J. S. (London, 1684).
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Joseph Stennett - Footnotes - family
256 Joseph Stennett, Works , I, B19; Ivimey, op. cit. , II, 490.
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257 Pinners' Hall Record Book , p. 260 (5); John Piggott, Sermons (714), pp. 470ff. The title of the George Stennett sermon was "The extravagant Mirth of Youth expos'd from the Consideration of a Judgment to come." The sermon, however, praises George's piety.
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258 Pinners' Hall Record Book pp. 254, 245, 257 (2). There could be an objection that Edward was not on the membership list of this church. I suggest, perhaps this is the brother whom George exhorted on his dying day "to forsake his sins." (Piggott, op. cit. , p. 472.) Martha Batt must have been an ironic person, for according to The Old Church Book ... Mill Yard on June 7, 1702 (p. 127), some messengers came from a Mr. White's church inquiring about Martha Batt he who wants to join their church for they do not sing at the Lord's Supper. Then she marries the son of a man who writes communion hymns! I admit that my reconstruction calling for this second Edward Stennett differs with the Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society , III, 94 which makes this the first known Edward in the Mary Hall will, for "no other Edward is known? However, my theory, I think, has broader research as its base.
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259 Joseph Stennett Works , IV, 244ff.
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260 This account is compiled from Ivimey, op. cit. , IV, 522; John Browne, History of Congregationalism ... In Norfolk and Suffolk (London: 1878), pp. 554f.; Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society/ VI (1918-19); 115; cf, The Sabbath Observer , April-June,.1937; p. 137. The first of these sources says "Joseph Stennett," but the others say "Benjamin Stennett." Besides, Joseph II is a minister in London at that time, and Joseph III is at Abingdon in Berks, Both much to far away for a double pastorate.
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261 SDBs in EA I, 101. He must be confused with the Samuel who is a son of Joseph, I insist that a twentieth century statement of this nature should have had an eighteenth century statement in back of it; such I cannot find.
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N1 Saint James Dukes Place, London, parish register .
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N2 Joseph Stennett, Works , I (London, 1732), (first seq.), pp. 10-11.
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N3 Ibid. , p. 19.
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N4 Pigott, Eleven sermons ... (London, 1714), pp. 470-472.
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N5 The registers of St. Vedast ... London , ed. by Willoughby A. Littledale, I (London, 1902) ( Publications of the Harleian Society, Registers , v. 29) , p. 239.
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N6 The registers of St. Vedast ... London , ed. by Willoughby A. Littledale, II (London, 1903) ( Publications of the Harleian Society , Registers , v. 30) , p. 256.
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N7 Joseph Stennett, Works . IV (London, 1732), pp 244-246
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N8 Allhallows Wall, London, parish register (in the Guildhall Library).
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N9 National Library of Wales, letter in MS 11095E.
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N10 Ibid. , (first seq.), p. 36--the epitaph is in English in the Baptist magazine' X (1818), p. 330. Also see the previous section.
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