| Notes |
- John Lester's wife is believed to be Elizabeth Coulson for the following reasons:
1. The only marriage found for John Lester to an Elizabeth is to Elizabeth Coulson at Hornsey. The date fits in with the birth of their children. However, a witness was Elizabeth Lester. Was this his aunt?
2. John and Elizabeth Lester were living with her mother Elizabeth in 1851 and 1861 although the latter's surname is given as Wilson in one case and Harwood in the other. (Wilson was her father's name - he was living with them in 1851, and it is likely that Harwood was her mother's name). In 1841 a John Wilson was living with an apparent daughter Elizabeth Coulson and an apparent granddaughter Matilda Coulson.
3. There was a marriage on 10/08/1802 at St. George the Martyr, Southwark between Robert Coulson and Elizabeth Wilson. This tallies with Elizabeth Lester's quoted age and the baptism of an Elizabeth Coulson, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Coulson on 23/06/1805 at St. Mary Whitechapel, Stepney. (1861 census says she was born at Hoxton, though).
4. In 1841, 1851 and 1861, various 'servants' of the name Coulson were living with the Lesters. Some of these appear to be children of Robert and Elizabeth Coulson. One of them was Matilda - see 1841 census.
[A baptism of Elizabeth Harwood (daughter of Thomas Harwood and Elizabeth) took place at St. Andrew's, Holborn on 05/10/1806.]
Said to be descended from Dr. Richard Baxter (1615-1691). The only evidence for this at the moment is that a son of Robert and Elizabeth Coulson was named Robert Baxter Coulson (baptised 29/08/1821 at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch).
(IGI has baptism of Richard Baxter, son of Lorence and Anne Baxter at Gnosall, Staffordshire 30/11/1615 although the biography given below states that he was born at Rowton in Shropshire). He was a Presbyterian divine, ordained in 1633 and a military chaplain during the Civil War. He was a prolific writer of devotional literature. Baxter disliked the growth of sectarianism in the Commonwealth and contributed to the change of feeling that led to the Restoration. He accepted the position of royal chaplain and refused a bishopric but the uncompromising conscience that had led him into Presbyterianism and then to criticism of it now brought him trouble. As a nonconformist he endured petty persecution; this became severe under James II - he was sentenced to imprisonment in 1685 and vilified by Judge Jeffreys. He enjoyed some peaceful years under the rule of William and Mary. Baxter's best - known works are "The Saint's Everlasting Rest" (1651), "A Call to the Unconverted" (1658), and his moving and intimate tribute to his beloved wife who died in 1681, "A Breviate of the Life of Margaret Baxter" (1681). His own account of his turbulent life, "Reliquiae Baxterianae" was published in 1696.
There is a house adjacent to St. Leonard's Church at Bridgnorth which was occupied by Richard Baxter from 1640 to 1641 when he was the curate there.
She died at 122 Roman Road, Mile End. Death registered by H. Lester (?) of 15 Manchester Road, Cubitt Town.
1851 Kelly's Directory lists a Mrs. Elizabeth Lester at The School, Norfolk House, Stepney Green.
Alternative date of birth is between 04/1806 and 04/1807 (1871 census gives age 64).
1841 census implies birth 04/1805 to 04/1806.
Death certificate implies birth 11/1804 to 11/1805.
In 1871 Census, house in which she was living was shared with Charles Manzi, a picture frame maker. This census says that she was born in Yorkshire which contradicts all the other censuses.
Was a resident of Hornsey at the time of her marriage (see banns)
Richard Baxter 1615 - 1691
While many have celebrated the music of Mozart (1756-91) and the ministry of John Wesley (1703- 91), our time should not be allowed to pass without recalling the life and labours of Richard Baxter (1615-91). While few would question a Wesley celebration, many might need persuading where Baxter is concerned. However, there are equally compelling reasons to remember Baxter as well as Wesley. Quite simply, as a saintly, energetic, dedicated, brilliant and large-hearted servant of Christ, Richard Baxter is arguably the greatest of all the Puritans - a giant among giants! He is probably the most effective pastor-evangelist this country has ever known. Certainly, what Spurgeon was to the 19th, and Wesley (together with Whitefield!) was to the 18th, Baxter was to 17th century England. His pen-productions proved just as famous as his pulpit ministry at Kidderminster. Indeed, Baxter's writings are still being published 300 years on; his style remains surprisingly lucid and lively when some of his contemporaries are obviously dated. Baxter's "Saints Everlasting Rest" (1649), "Reformed Pastor" (1656) and "Call to the Unconverted" (1658) still retain their power to grip and edify the late 20th century reader.
Who then was Richard Baxter? He Was born at Rowton Shropshire in 1615. His parents were godly folk yet lacking the means to educate an obviously gifted son. Young Richard was deeply influenced by the writings of puritan authors like William Perkins and Richard Sibbes. Following an early conversion, he had an immense thirst for knowledge. Although he never attended university, he probably mastered more information through the years than many a college professor! A private education led to ordination by the Bishop of Worcester in 1638 and a brief curacy at Bridgenorth. For all his zeal, his parishioners were a "hardhearted" people. A loyal son of the Church of England with nonconformist sympathies, Baxter's attachment to puritanism was heightened by the "Romanizing" measures of Archbishop Laud.
Baxter accepted an invitation to a living at Kidderminster where he was to exercise an extraordinary ministry for nearly twenty years. With the advent of the Civil War, he supported the Parliamentary cause. His life being threatened by the Royalists of Worcestershire, he withdrew to Coventry where he became a chaplain. After the decisive Battle of Naseby (1645), Baxter served in Colonel Whalley's regiment. His experience of religious sectarianism during these years disturbed him deeply. His special dread was the alarming growth of antinomianism - a stress on the doctrines of grace at the expense of practical godliness. These developments profoundly influenced Baxter's conception of the Christian life.
On leaving the army in 1647, Baxter was seriously ill. While convalescing at the home of Sir Thomas Rouse at Worcester, he conceived his first two books - "Aphorisms of Justification" and the "Saints' Everlasting Rest". They were published in 1649 soon after resuming his parish ministry. Baxter never enjoyed robust health. He says, "In my labours at Kidderminster after my return I did all under languishing weakness, being seldom an hour free from pain....." But how God blest the prayers and preaching of Richard Baxter! Although the parish church was large, Five galleries were added before long. The town witnessed an astonishing spiritual and moral reformation. In Baxter's words, "On the Lord's Days there was no disorder to be seen in the streets, but you might hear an hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons as you passed through the streets. In a word, when I came thither at first there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and when I came away, there were some streets where there was not passed one family.....that did not......."
There was a heavenly unction and fervour about Baxter's preaching. None could hear him without being deeply affected. Burdened for souls while gripped with persistent pain and weakness, he tells us that he preached, "as a dying man to dying men....." When Baxter preached of Christ, faith, repentance, holiness, heaven and hell, his vivid and impassioned eloquence left none doubting their reality. Not surprisingly, Baxter deplored lifeless preaching: "Nothing is more indecent than a dead preacher, speaking to dead hearers the living truths of the living God!"
Baxter was not only famous for his evangelistic and pastoral work. Grieved at the sectarian fragmentation of the times, he is also remembered for his attempts to unite Protestant Christians. Believers of all denominations regularly worshipped at Kidderminster parish church and his 'Worcester Association' successfully united ministers on essential gospel truths. What then was Richard Baxter's churchmanship? As a conservative Puritan, he believed the Church of England needed further reformation and he spoke warmly of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. However, he thought some of the Presbyterians - with whom he had most sympathy - too 'hierarchical'. Independents and Baptists he thought too 'ultra' in many things. They encouraged fragmentation and pride. However, Baxter loved all true godly men, whatever their views about church order and baptism. He liked to call himself a 'catholic Christian' and a 'mere nonconformist' who would as soon be a 'martyr for love as any article of the creed'.
Richard Baxter also proposed a solution to the major theological division of the day, the Calvinist - Arminian debate. While he believed Arminians were in error at many points, he believed that many Calvinists were guilty of an 'ultra-orthodox' overreaction. As the Huguenot theologian Amyraut had argued in France, so Baxter argued in England that a biblical balance was to be observed between the paradox of God's hidden purposes and His revealed promises. While Baxter urged the truth of sovereign divide election, he also maintained a designed sufficiency in the death of Christ for all mankind. In arguing his case from plain texts in the Bible, Baxter pointed out that John Calvin and several members of the Westminster Assembly also taught universal atonement.
While Baxter was sympathetic with the Parliamentary cause, he was unhappy with many features of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. In his view, the excessive liberty of the new order was no just alternative to the tyranny of the old. Baxter's essential conservatism blinded him to the scheming duplicity of Charles I, so after the Lord Protector's death, he welcomed the prospect of the Restoration. But when Charles II promised to grant religious liberty, many, including Baxter, were utterly deceived. Once it became clear that the Church of England was to be restored with all its strictness, Baxter soon realised his duty. Although the king offered him the bishopric of Hereford, Baxter refused. Shortly before the infamous Act of Uniformity came into effect on 24 August 1662 - which led to the ejection of around 2,000 sound, godly, evangelical ministers - Baxter bid farewell to the Church of England in a sermon at Blackfriars. He was to become the leading figure among the ejected clergy.
In September 1662 Baxter married Margaret Charlton, a young woman whom he had led to Christ at Kidderminster. He was 47 and she only 23. Many tongues wagged and eyebrows were raised, for Baxter had criticised clergy who had married. However, it was a marriage made in heaven. The couple were ideally suited and Margaret was to prove a great comfort and encouragement to Richard until her early death in 1681.
Baxter was living with his wife and mother-in-law at Acton in Middlesex when the terrible plague sent many to an early grave during the hot summer of 1665. However, Baxter and his family were preserved. The great fire of London occurred the following year, 'one judgement on the back of another' as one historian wrote. Notwithstanding these events Baxter preached and pastored when he could. He was also busy with his books. "The Divine Life" was published in 1664 and "Reasons for the Christian Religion" appeared in 1667.
Baxter shared in the cruel persecution and sufferings of the Nonconformists. He was imprisoned for a week at Clerkenwell in 1669, and for nearly two years at Southwark in 1684 - 6, aged 70! This second term of imprisonment is associated with his trial at the hands of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, occasioned by the publication of Baxters "Paraphrase on the New Testament" (1685). Because of his textual comments, the author was accused of libelling the Church of England. The trial was a forgone conclusion. The Lord Chief Justice wasn't very interested in truth or justice. The sick and aged Baxter was repeatedly shouted down when attempting to speak. Scurrility knew no bounds when Jeffreys abused the saintly Baxter. "This is an old rogue" cried the judge, "and hath poisoned the world with his Kidderminster doctrine!" Baxter was reviled as "an old schismatical knave. a hypocritical villain!" When further attempting to explain his views, the Lord Chief Justice burst forth, "Richard, Richard, dost thou think we'll hear thee poison the court? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave; thou hast written books enough to load a cart, every one as full of sedition, I might say treason, as an egg is full of meat. Hast thou been whipped out of thy writing trade forty years ago, it had been happy..." Such is how Christ's enemies treat his faithful servants!
Baxter was released from prison on 24 November 1686. The Lord's aged warrior still had plenty of fight left in him, so he moved to Charterhouse Yard to assist the ministry of his friend Matthew Sylvester. More theological and devotional books flowed from his pen. Indeed, Baxter had written enough books 'to load a cart' - 141 in all. His final offering was "The Certainty of the World of Spirits" a work typical of the other-worldliness of one who lived and laboured that others might enjoy 'everlasting rest'.
Baxter lived to see better days. With the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688, Protestant William and Mary ascended the throne. Baxter continued preaching until the end. After his last sermon, he crept home to his bed, utterly exhausted. There was a glory about Baxter's last hours. To his friends Dr William Bates and Dr Edmund Calamy he declared in a whisper, "I bless God I have a well grounded assurance of my eternal happiness, and great peace and comfort within." When reminded of the good his books had done, the dying saint repliedy, "I was but a pen in the hand of God; and what praise is due to a pen!" As his agonies intensified, he admitted, "I have pain, there is no arguing against sense, but I have peace, I have peace." Baxter's final words were spoken to Matthew' Sylvester: "The Lord teach you to die." And so, on 8 December 1691, Richard Baxter entered that rest which remains for the people of God.
(Reproduced by kind permission of Dr Alan C. Clifford,
Director Norwich & Norfolk School of reformed Theology)
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1805 - 1873 (~ 68 years)
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