Collection on Thomas Haweis

A Guide to the Collection

Biographical Note

Thomas Haweis was born to Thomas and Bridgeman (Willyams) Haweis in Redruth, Cornwall, England on January 1, 1734. His father died in 1744, leading him to relocate with his mother to Carnanton, where they lived with her widowed brother and his son. Haweis attended Truro Grammar School under George Conon and then apprenticed briefly to a surgeon. After being converted under the preaching of Samuel Walker, Haweis felt called to ministry. He studied at Oxford beginning in 1755 and obtained ordination as a deacon in 1757. His first appointment was as Curate of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Oxford. Although his Evangelical preaching raised controversy, Haweis was ordained a priest the following year. By 1762 he had gained many political enemies in Oxford. John Hume, the newly appointed Bishop of Oxford, expelled him from the city, promising to appoint him to another location of his choosing.

Haweis went to London and met a sympathetic friend in Martin Madan, who offered him a position as Assistant Chaplain in the Lock Hospital, a center for the treatment of venereal diseases. Through Madan he learned of an open position at the parish of All-Saints, Aldwincle, in 1764. This position he took and held for the rest of his life. Controversy continued to dog him: John Kimpton, who sponsored the position and had fallen into debt, attempted to oust him. Madan and others defended Haweis, while Kimpton was saved from debtors’ prison by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, who purchased the sponsorship of Aldwincle herself in 1768.

During the same period, Haweis courted Judith Wordsworth, a widow he had known when he ministered at Lock Hospital. They married on January 3, 1771. He returned to college studies at her insistence and earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from Cambridge in 1772, followed by an M.D. in 1776. Their marriage was happy but brief: Judith died unexpectedly in 1786.

Lady Huntingdon appointed Haweis Chaplain in 1774. When she reluctantly joined her churches with the Dissenters in 1783, it was against his advice, and he left her service. In 1788, Haweis remarried; his second wife, Jennett Payne Orton, had been a close friend of Lady Huntingdon and helped effect a reconciliation. Lady Huntingdon sponsored a missionary venture to Tahiti at Haweis’s request, with Haweis himself undertaking the education of the two candidates. He attempted to send his missionaries with Captain William Bligh, of Bounty fame, but the two men could not obtain ordination and refused to go without it.

When Lady Huntingdon died in 1791, Haweis served as a trustee and executor of her estate. He then returned to Aldwincle and resumed efforts to send missionaries to Tahiti. Thomas Haweis was one of the founders of the London Missionary Society, which in 1796 sent the ship Duff to Tahiti on its first missions voyage; subsequent journeys suffered setbacks and the project was never entirely successful.

Thomas Haweis’s second wife, Jennett, died in 1799. Three years later he married Elizabeth “Bessy” McDowall, who survived him. In 1808 Haweis retired to Bath, where he died on February 11, 1820. He was buried in Bath Abbey.

His publications included The Evangelical Expositor (1766-1767); A Familiar and Practical Improvement of the Church Catechism (1775); A Scriptural Refutation of the Arguments for Polygamy (1781); Carmina Christo (1792); A Plea for Peace and Union (1795), Missionary Instructions (1795), A Memoir Respecting an African Mission (1795); An Impartial and Succinct History of the Rise, Declension, and Revival of the Church of Christ ( 1800); The Church of England Vindicated from Misrepresentation (1801); and A View of the Present State of Evangelical Religion (1812).

Sources:

Julian, John. “Thomas Haweis” in John Julian, ed., A Dictionary of Hymnology. Volume I. New York: Dover Publications, 1957.

Wood, Arthur Skevington. Thomas Haweis: 1734-1820. London: Published for the Church Historical Society [by] S.P.C.K., 1957.

Wood, Arthur Skevington. “Thomas Haweis” in Donald M. Lewis, ed., The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography. Volume 1. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1995.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Thomas Haweis papers at Bridwell Library consist of six letters written by the Rev. Thomas Haweis, 174 pieces of correspondence received by him, and related documents that he left to his son, the Rev. J. O. W. Haweis, who arranged and bound the collection in 1872, adding some materials that were created after his father’s death. These manuscripts and engravings contain insights into the personal and professional lives of the Haweises from the 1760s to the 1820s. Topics of special interest represented in the collection include the early years of the Missionary Society (later known as The London Missionary Society) and Thomas Haweis’s position with Lady Huntingdon.

Restrictions

Access to Collection:

The collection is open for research use. Patrons must sign the Acknowledgement of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.

Publication Rights:

Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the Bridwell Library.

Copyright Statement:

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Thomas Haweis papers, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from two sources in 2004: Pickering & Chatto, London, and Humber Books, South Humberside, England.

Processing Information

The Thomas Haweis papers were originally inventoried and arranged as a single series by Wanda W. Smith prior to 2006. In 2012 the collection was rehoused, re-Fileed, digitized, and re-arranged as two series.

Processed by Timothy S. G. Binkley in 2012 with assistance from Rachel Tillay. Biographical note written by Heather M. Oglevie.

Finding aid written by

Timothy S. G. Binkley and Heather M. Oglevie.

Encoded by

Ada Negraru, 2012

Detailed Description of the Collection