Noake's Worcestershire Page 225

KIDDERMINSTER. 225

wrote the history of his monastery, and also attacked the doctrines of Luther. Rev. T. Doolittle, born here in 1630, an author of some repute, and a Nonconformist preacher at Cripplegate, London; Richard Baxter, and his contemporary, Sir Ralph Clare. The great Puritan was not born here, yet the town derived distinction and much benefit from his ministerial labours. He suffered all things short of absolute martyrdom, yet declined a bishopric in favour of his ungrateful charge. Sir Ralph, his neighbour and opponent, was one of the Royalist gentlemen who compounded for their estates, his fine amounting to £298. He lived at Caldwell, near this town, where was a castle, supposed to have been a seat of the Cookseys, and where there is still an old round tower and a subterranean passage or crypt. Sir Ralph and the vicar were as complaisant to each other as two gentlemen of extremely opposite opinions could be, but there was no more love lost between them than was usually cherished by the outrageous factions of those days; moreover the knight was sadly given to profane swearing. The house next the Guildhall, and now occupied by Rea, a shoemaker, is believed to have been Baxter's; it bears his name, and date 1641. His pulpit is still preserved in the vestry of the New Meeting House; a copy of "Saints' Rest," with his writing on the fly-leaf, is among the Corporation records; and an original portrait of him was said to have been in the possession of Mr. B. Fawcett when Nash wrote his history, but I am not aware if this is now in existence. Waller the poet has already been alluded to in connection with this town; then there were - Robert Cooper, who, from being a poor servitor at College, became a good scholar, preacher, author, and mathematician, at close of seventeenth century; Mr. Joseph Williams, distinguished more than a century ago by his theological writings; Job Orton, the pupil and friend of Doddridge; Mrs. Housman, an excellent woman, who left a remarkable diary; Dr. James Johnstone, an eminent physician, who waged vigorous war with the malignant fevers and sore throats of the population;