Benjamin Godwin

Godwin was born on 10 October in Bath in 1785. His mother was about forty, but he was given the biblical name Benjamin because his father was 70 and a keen Baptist. His father had been married before and Benjamin had two adult siblings. His family were poor but he was sent to a Dame school until his education and upkeep was undertaken by the charity that ran the Bluecoat School in Bath When Godwin finished school he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. ==Sailor==

Godwin was unhappy during his apprenticeship and this resulted in the fifteen-year-old running away with a friend on a ship bound for the Mediterranean. During the journey Godwin reported that he gained a close relationship with his god. Godwin jumped ship in Palermo and he was able to find work as a cabin boy bound for London. However, in Menorca the whole crew of his ship was impressed into the Royal Navy on Godwin's 16th birthday, serving onboard the HMS Généreux. Godwin continued to serve in the British navy during the War of the Second Coalition until the Treaty of Amiens was signed. Godwin and the rest of crew were dismissed at Spithead on 27 July 1802. ==Cobbler and evangelist==

Godwin renewed his religious interests attending his family's Baptist Church with his, much older, half-sister. He also lodged with his half sister and her husband. He initially tried his hand at building with his brother-in-law before realising that his poor skills as a cobbler were superior to his ability to be a builder. In line with the Baptist faith, Godwin confirmed his faith when he was baptised with five other adults. Through the church he met Elizabeth Hall, but she refused to marry him until he could support her. "Betsy" Hall was unimpressed by Godwin delivering a sermon, until he had given three successful sermons in Bath. Others were also impressed and Godwin was offered a part-time position as an evangelist at Aylburton in Gloucestershire. Betsy was satisfied and they were married on 14 August 1806 and they were given the use of a cottage in Aylburton. Here they set up a home and they established church meetings. Hearing that he had been mischievously drafted into the militia, Godwin left Aylburton in 1807. Godwin was sure now that he wanted to be a minister and he was given a probationary year looking after a Cornish congregation at Chacewater. Here he was mentored by the nearby minister at Redruth. Betsy had to remain in Bath as the money was poor, but Godwin's was helping at the local school and completing his own education. It was Godwin who decided to leave when the year was completed to join his wife; and to become a minister. ==Minister==

Godwin and Betsy spent a year at Chipping Sodbury, but he modestly refused an offer of becoming their pastor and took up another offer in Dartmouth where he could not only preach but also learn and teach. His ordination as a minister for Dartmouth was in 1812. Within his new congregation were Calvinistic Baptists who debated with Godwin and his Particular Baptist views. Godwin was a Baptist but gave his support to the evangelical ideas of Andrew Fuller and his Baptist Missionary Society. In Dartmouth, the Godwin's daughter, Mary, died of whooping cough, but they also had a son on 23 December 1814 who they named John Venimore Godwin. He worked well with his Anglican counterpart raising money for missionary work, but he was disappointed to find that he was gaining some of his diminishing congregation. Godwin was paid well but the money failed to arrive on time. ==Tutor in Bradford==

Godwin arrived at his new position in Bradford in 1822. Here he was employed as a teacher of classics by William Steadman who led the Horton Academy in Bradford. The academy was training Baptist ministers and Godwin had initially turned down an offer to join the staff. Steadman had persevered as he was impressed by Godwin's first published sermon. Horton Academy was teaching adults and Godwin was concerned that his education was not sufficient. This proved not to be the case and he enthusiastically introduced new classes in maths, physics and geography. Godwin was however not preaching. ==Minister and tutor in Bradford==

In 1824 a new Sion Chapel was built in Bradford and Godwin became its minister on 31 October 1824 when he had the honour of Robert Hall giving a sermon. Godwin and his talks would have been just the right kind of activity needed for the planned Bradford Mechanics' Institute Library. The new building was encouraged by Godwin and the new facility was designed to assist in adult education. It opened in 1832. and in Boston, Massachusetts (in 1836). Godwin relented, but within a few months he again felt that he was not enjoying the support he deserved. He had given up his role at the Horton Academy to concentrate on his ministry but still he heard criticism. Godwin resigned again and despite having nowhere to go he did not give in to those who asked him to retract again. ==Peacemaker in Liverpool==

Godwin was at a loose end and he became involved in a schism between the Baptist Missionary Society and the missionaries in charge of the mission to Serampore in India. Godwin and his wife moved to Liverpool where he was given £150 a year to be secretary to the committee set up to solve the problem. The latter organisers were known as the "Serampore Three". The ten-year-long schism arose because the mission at Serampore had been set up with a degree of independence from the main society. Following the death of long-serving and successful missionary society secretary Andrew Fuller it was decided to formalise the ownership. The new missionary society secretary required everything to be explained and documented. By this time the elder missionaries had in their ownership a number of buildings which they held in safe-keeping. Some saw that this could be interpreted as personal profit although no one made this accusation. The problem arose because these missionaries saw the request to transfer the ownership as a slur on their character. Godwin's role was employed in Liverpool to talk his way around Britain explaining the misunderstandings that were in circulation and to try to arrange a visit to the splintered missionaries in India. Godwin acted outside his remit and he organised a difficult two-day meeting in November 1836 which agreed a merger between the two splintered groups. With no schism Godwin had no job. With a feeling of great success he was again out of work. ==Minister in Oxford==

In 1838 Godwin became the Baptist minister in New Street Church in Oxford. In the March of that year he started the first of 58 autobiographical letters which he would continue to write until December 1855. The convention unanimously accepted his paper which condemned not only slavery but the religious leaders and communities who had failed to condemn the practise. The convention resolved to write to every religious leader to share this view. The convention called on every religious communities to eject any supporters of slavery from their midst. Godwin was included in a large commemorative painting of the 1840 convention where he can just be seen behind the head of Joseph Sturge who organised the conference. The painting now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Godwin was meeting and mixing with the international anti-slavery activists. He was invited to meet French abolitionists in Paris the following year. ==Selected publications==

• The Substance of a Course of Lectures on British Colonial Slavery: Delivered at Bradford, York and Scarborough, 1830 • Paper presented to the General Anti-Slavery Convention, 1840 • The Philosophy of Atheism Examined and Compared with Christianity. A course of popular lectures delivered at the Mechanics’ Institute, Bradford, on Sunday afternoons, in the winter of 1852-1853, 1853 ==References==