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March 3<\/abbr><\/a> \u00b7 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bye-Paths in Baptist History J.J. Goadby Part 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Church at Eythorne, Kent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church at Eythorne, Kent, owes its origin to some Dutch Baptists, who settled in this country in the time of Henry the Eighth. They were, doubtless, tempted to make England their home by the brisk trade that sprang up between this country and Holland, soon after the marriage of Henry with Anne of Cleves (1540). According to a long prevalent tradition, (\u201cuninterrupted and uncontradicted,\u201d says one authority,) Joan Boucher, or Joan of Kent, was a member of the Baptist church at Eythorne. Joan was a lady of some position, and had ready access to the court. Much of her time was spent in visiting her friends in prison, and in relieving, with a bountiful hand, their necessities. For the greater secrecy, she was accustomed to tie religious books in strings under her dress, and so the more readily pass with them into Court. Strype says that she did very much to promote the circulation of Tyndale’s New Testament, then recently published. A great reader of the Scriptures herself, she sought to persuade others to follow her example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Protestant Inquisitors, hearing that she held some unusual views on the physical body of Christ, summoned her to appear \u201cin the chapel of the blessed Mary in St. Paul’s.\u201d Long and tedious examinations followed. Joan was cast into prison. Cranmer, Latimer, and others, here sought to reason her out of her opinions. She remained unmoved, and was therefore \u201cleft to the secular arm to suffer her deserved punishment,” for daring, that is, to think differently from prelates so grave, and a church so recently reformed. Nearly twelve months elapsed before her sentence was executed. Modem writers have sought to throw the blame of her martyrdom on the Council, and thus shield Cranmer from its odium. Others regard as purely mythical the story of Edward’s tears when asked to sign Joan’s death warrant, and Hallam thinks that the tale ought to vanish from history. However this may be, on the 2nd of May, 1550, Joan of Kent was led out to Smithfield. Even at the stake, she was still worried by the slanders and misrepresentations of her enemies, and to Bishop Scorey, who repeated them, Joan answered, with the plain speech that distinguished the age, \u201cYou lie like a rogue. Go, read the Scriptures.\u201d The Bishop might need the advice, for aught that appears to the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series, 1547\u2014 1680), under the date of October 28th, 1552, we have this entry: \u201cNorthumberland, to Sir William Cecill. Wishes the King would appoint Mr. Knox to the Bishopric of Eochester. He would be a whetstone to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a confounder of the Anabaptists lately sprung up in Kent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be historically inaccurate to regard this as the first intimation of the existence of Baptists, as a separate community in England. Apart from the probabilities about the still earlier origin of Hill Cliffe Church, it should not be forgotten that Henry the Eighth had long before 1550 proclaimed to the nation how, \u201clike a good Catholic priest, he abhorred and detested their (the Anabaptists’) wicked and abominable errors and opinions;\u201d that in his second proclamation, he had warned all Anabaptists and Zwinglians to depart out of the country, under pain of death; and that in a third proclamation, when Cranmer was a Protestant archbishop, Cranmer and eight others were authorized to make diligent search for Anabaptist men, Anabaptist letters, and Anabaptist books, full power being put into Cranmer\u2019s hands to deal capitally with each offender. The Baptists, in King Edward’s days, might have lately sprung up in Kent, but these proclamations show that they were not then known for the first time in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One singular fact, perhaps without a parallel, in the history of this ancient General Baptist church at Eythorne, deserves to be mentioned: the names of the pastors, from the close of the Sixteenth Century to the last quarter of the Seventeenth Century, were John Knott. The first John Knott became the pastor of \u00a33rthome somewhere between 1590 and 1600, and the last John Knott removed to Chatham in 1780. One of these Mr. Knotts, it is uncertain which, was a blacksmith, and attracted the notice of the informers by his zeal as a preacher. Whilst working in his shop, some friend brought him word that an officer and a party of men were coming over Eythorne Down to pounce upon him. Knott hurriedly escaped by a back door, and hid himself in an old saw-pit, covered by nettles and other weeds. Presently the informers came into Mr. Knott’s house, where they found his wife, with a child in her arms. On asking for Mr. Knott, the little child, suspecting no danger, cried out, “Daddy’s gone out!” and would, perhaps, have further betrayed its father’s whereabouts, but for a vigorous shaking from the mother, who at length succeeded in making it hold its tongue. While ” the man-takers ” searched about the house and neighbourhood for her husband, Mrs. Knott, with great presence of mind, bustled about the house, and put out the humble dinner for her family. The search proving fruitless, and the men finding the family dinner smoking on the table when they returned, asked Mrs. Knott to give them some refreshment. This she did instantly, and with the greatest cheerfulness. Mrs. Knott\u2019s kindness told favourably upon the informers. They were so well satisfied with her treatment of them, that they left the house, declaring they would make no further search after her husband, nor do anything to distress so good-natured a woman. For that time, at least, Mr. Knott escaped out of their hands. It is also said, probably concerning the same man, that on another occasion his goods were confiscated and put up to auction. So much was he respected by his neighbours, that not one of them would even offer a bid for his goods at the sale ; and the strangers who were present, taking their cue from his neighbours, also declined to purchase them. Mr. Knott’s goods, therefore, remained unsold. It is worthy of record that the Church of Christ in this little village has existed for more than three hundred years without a single unfriendly division, and with a steadfast adherence to the faith and practice of the Primitive Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joseph Jackson Goadby. Bye-paths in Baptist history (Kindle Locations 507-554).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n