The oldest son of Joseph II and Rebecca Stennett was Joseph III. He was born in western England in 1717 or 1718. He grew to manhood in Exeter and when he was about nineteen his father moved to London. He became his father's assistant at the Little Wild Street Baptist Church on April 2, 1740, and held the position two and a half years. He traveled out to Coate in Oxfordshire at the end of August or the First of September in 1741 to preach the funeral sermon for the late Rev. Joseph Collett 79 of the town. As long as he had to come about 50 miles, he preached a sermon which ran some sixty pages when it was published the next year! In the sermon there is a paragraph on the validity of the use of the human mind:
It is so far from being the design of true religion to eradicate, or entirely suppress the passions of our minds; that when they are under its influence and regulation, they answer most valuable purposes and are greatly subservient to the honour of valuable purposes, and are greatly subservient to the honour of God, the interest of society, and the welfare of our own souls. 80
Apparently he does some thinking about Christianity for in regard to the future life he says, "If the discoveries of nature and reason were fairly consulted, they would give us very considerable light into this matter." 81 He refers to God in theological categories, "infinite, all-wise and omnipotent Creator of all" and about Providence, his mind has made him recognize its "unequal distributions . . . in this world." 82 The next year, he became Collett's successor at Coat (Coate). In the same year he came to Coate, Joseph III edited for publication a discourse which had once been preached by Collett. In Stennett's preface in order to prevent the undermining of the "absolute sovereignty of God," he argues for the providence as both a rational principle and a revealed Doctrine. 83 During his life-long ministry with the Baptist Church at Coate , he was active in the Western Association of Baptists. After years of poor health he died on May 22, 1767 at the age of fifty-one. His funeral sermon was preached by Daniel Turner, the Baptist pastor of Abingdon in neighboring Berkshire. Turner was a Baptist figure for the whole area. He said of Joseph III that
He was a man of real religion. His heart felt, and his life exemplified, the gracious doctrine he preached In his domestic and social capacity, he was, indeed a most affectionate friend; and of great candor and moderation towards those who differ from him in the disputable points of religion. 84
The more noted son of Joseph II and Rebecca Stennett was Samuel, who was Born in Exeter in 1727. Chapter IV of this thesis is devoted to him. When Joseph II died, it is said several children survived, including the two sons mentioned above. Therefore, there are other children of whom no certain record has been preserved, as far as I have been able to find out. 85
Joseph Stennett II (1717? - May 22, 1769) ,
son of Joseph Stennett, Jr. (1692-1758)
He was born Nov. 8, 1717 1 He died "May 22, 1769, in the 52 year of his age." The funeral sermon for him was preached at Coat, Oxfordshire, on June 4, 1769, by Daniel Turner. 2
In the Little Wild Street Baptist Church, London, of which his father was pastor, at the Feb. 28, 1740 business meeting it was agreed that B. Joseph Stennett Jun r be called upon to give the church a Trial of his Gift in the pulpit on March the 16 th in the Evening in order to consider of his qualifications for publick work." On April 3, 1740, "The Church having had a trial of the Gift of Bro. Joseph Stennett Jun r . on the 23 d of the last month they unanimously agreed that God had bestowed on him abilities for publick service in the Ministry, & they accordingly sent him forth in the work of preaching the Gospel." At the meeting of Apr. 2, 1741, it was agreed he could assist the Baptist Church of which David Rees was pastor on account of the latter's illness. 3
The Coate, Oxfordshire, Baptist Church record book has a brief account probably in his own words of his coming there:
Joseph Stennett came to Coate, March 12th, 1742. Translated his Communion from the Church of Ct. Meeting in Wild Street to the Church at Coate, Sept. 18th, 1743. Ordained their Pastor Sept. 21st, 1743. The Ministers engaged were Mr. [Dr.] Stennett, Snr., of London, Mr. Foskett ... Mr. Fuller ... Mr. Jones, of Upton-on-Severn, Mr. Marsum [Marsom]... 4
From the denominational connections, Jones of Upton is Philip Jones pastor of the Baptist Church at Upton and of the Seventh Day Baptist Church at Natton near Tewkesbury. He was a Seventh Day Baptist and had his church membership in Natton. 5 The Stennett father, Joseph (1692-1758), was also a "Sabbath-keeper." 6
Joseph (1717-1769) appears to be the "Mr. Stennet, an eminent baptist preacher, at Cote, Oxfordshire" who married a "Miss Robarts of Abingdon, Berks." on March 28, 1745. 7 The marriage record in London is more detailed: "Joseph Stennett of Aston in the Parish of Bampton in the Bush in the County of Oxford, Batchelor, and Martha Robarts of S t Helen's, in Abingdon in the County of Berks, Spinster, were married March 28, 1745. 8
His father, Joseph (1692-1758), preached a funeral sermon in 1754 at Abingdon for "Mrs. Mary Robarts" in which he spoke of "my near relation to the deceased." 9
The "last days" of Joseph (d. 1769) were spent at his brother Samuel Stennett's home in Hatton Gardens where he died May 22, 1769. He was buried at Bunhill Fields, London. 10 A sermon was preached in his honor by Daniel Turner. 11
A son of same name succeeded him briefly at Coate. 12 If John Stanley may be trusted, the son, "was buried as 'The Reverend Br. Stennett, of Hackney" a year before his mother in the family vault at Bunhill Fields." The Bunhill Fields records show a burial on Sept. 10, 1783, "The Rev d . Mr Joseph Stennett from Hackney in a Grave." His mother would appear to be buried Sept. 9, 1784, "M rs Mary Stennett from Mile end in a Grave. 13 However, the wife of his father above, married in 1745, is Martha. Not having a biography of these people from their time, one must be cautious with the Stanley account which is often inaccurate. A successor at Coate, Thomas Dunscombe, was ordained there Aug. 4, 1773 At the ordination the charge was given by Caleb Evans; in it Dunscombe's predecessors are mentioned: "your truly respectable predecessors .... Joseph Collett ... and the Rev. Mr. Joseph Stennett, son of the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Stennett, of London." "Your former pastors [Collett and Stennett] were eminent men of God, and remarkably owned and blessed amongst you"--Hugh Evans in the ordinauion sermon. 14
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79 If I read correctly the genealogy given in The Private Letter Books of Joseph Collet , this Joseph Collett no relative of Joseph Collett, Esq., who is a friend of Joseph Stennett I.
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80 Joseph Stennett III, The Happiness and Glory of Heaven, Considered as the House of God. and Prepared by his Son (London: 1742), p. 1.
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81 Ibid. , p. 10.
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82 Ibid. , p. 14.
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83 Joseph Collett, The Unsearchable Depths of God's Judgments Considered: (London 1742), "To the Reader." This hard to obtain publication is in microfilm (Reel - 3 #13, SR 127) at the Starr King School for the Ministry, here in Berkley, California.
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84 Daniel Turner, Sermon Occasioned by the death ofback the Mr. Joseph Stennett (Abingdon: 1769), pp. 31f.; Transactions of the British Baptist Historical Society VI (1918-19), 142; Armatage, op. cit. , p. 563; Rippon, op. cit. , 1794-7, p. 380; Whitley, A Baptist Bibliography , I, 163; Payne, Baptists of Berkshire , p. 73. I do not know if Joseph III was married or not. Turner, op. cit. , p. 33 says "The earthly husband, father, brother, friend, is dead." However, he fails to mention otherwise a wife or family and says that his brother, Samuel Stennett of London, attended him on his death-bed (p. 29). As to whether or not Joseph III was a Seventh Day Baptist, SDBs in EA says he was "a faithful keeper and defender of the Sabbath" (I, 101), but there are no source materials to verify the statement and I have found none; lacking source materials, I must doubt that he observed the seventh-day Sabbath.
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85 Ivimey, op. cit. , III, 588. According to The London Gazette (no. 138338, Nov. 17-21, 1795, p. 1234), in 1795 a John Stennett completed bankruptcy proceedings. He was a butcher, dealer, and chapman (merchant) in Long-Alley, Moorfield, in the county of Middlesex, which is just northwest of London. Could this be another son of Joseph III Other than these Stennetts about whom this thesis is written, most of the Stennetts listed in various records live in Lincolnshire.
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N1 Miscellanea qenealegica et heraldica, ed. by Joseph Jackson Howard, ser. 3, III (London: Milchell and Hughes, 1900), p. 87.
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N2 Daniel Turner, Sermon occasioned by the death of the Rev. Mr. Joseph Stennett ... (Abingdon, 1769), title page.
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N3 Little Wild Street, London, Baptist record book which was at the Baptist Church House, London, but presumably has been moved to Regent's Park College Library, Oxford.
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N4 John Stanley, The church in the hop garden (London: Kingsgate Press [1935]), p. 122.
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N5 Upton Church record book.
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N6 ctd Tho. Crosby, The history of the English Baptists, IV (London, 1740), p. 322; John Gill, The mutual gain of Christ ... a sermon occasioned by the decease of the Revd. Joseph Stennett ... (London, 1758), pp. 46-47.
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N7 Gentleman's magazine, XV (March 1745), p. 164.
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N8 Chapel registers in The records of the honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, II ([London] : Lincoln's Inn, 1896), p. 626.
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N9 Joseph Stennett, Christ's care ... (London, 1754), p. 36.
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N10 Stanley, op. cit. , pp. 124-125; Bunhill Fields Registers (Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London), buried May 29, 1769, from "Hatton Garden."
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N11 Turner, A sermon occasioned by the death of the Rev. Mr. Joseph Stennett, late Minister of the Gospel, at Coat ... (Abingdon, 1769) , title page.
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N12 Stanley, op. cit. , p. 127.
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N13 Bunhill Fields Registers, XIV, pp. 94, 144.
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N14 A charge and sermon delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Thomas Dunscombe ... (Bristol [1773] ) , pp. 8, 39.
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