|
Matthew Caffyn,
'the Battle Axe of Sussex' by Brian Slyfield
Matthew Caffyn, who was to become one of Horsham's
most remarkable sons, and a major force in the early
General Baptist movement, was baptised at St Mary's
parish church on 26 October 1628, when the register
records the following entry: 'Mathew sonn of Thomas
Caffin by Elizabeth his wife'. Baby Matthew held a
surname that had long been established in Sussex; a
'Rico Caffyn' appears in the Sussex Subsidy Lists for
1327 and 1332, for example, and earlier, in the 13th
century, there was a Robert Caufyn who had 'a cot and
one acre in the manor of Ferrynge'. The name itself,
which of course is still going strong, comes from the
diminutive of the Old French 'cauf', meaning 'bald'.
Matthew seems to have been a late addition to his
family, and as a seventh son was preceded by six other
brothers: John (born 1613), Thomas (1615), William
(1617), James (1619), Francis (1620) and Richard
(1623). So it is likely that the parents were married
around 1611-12.
There is an unsubstantiated family tradition that
Matthew's father, who died in 1651 (and of whom no
local baptism or marriage records can be traced), had
a connection with Hanover, in Germany, and another
that his mother was a direct descendant of a martyr of
the Marian persecution, possibly John Forman, who was
burnt at East Grinstead in 1556.
Thomas Caffyn was in the employ of the Onslow family
(to whom the later Earls of Onslow were related), who
then owned Drungewick Manor, between Loxwood and
Wisborough Green, not far from the Sussex/Surrey
borders – and close to today's Wey and Arun canal. The
then head of the family offered to adopt Matthew, it
is said when he was seven years old, as a companion
for his own son Richard. This would not have been as
formal an arrangement as would be meant today, but it
does suggest that Thomas Caffyn was at one point
employed in a reasonably responsible position with the
Onslows, perhaps as their bailiff, and also that
relations between employer and employee were good. The
Onslow offer may well have been welcome as it might
have relieved the Caffyn purse of a late extra mouth
to feed, and some accounts tell that Thomas Caffyn,
who could also have been a farmer, was not
particularly well off. And so the arrangement took
place, and in due course Matthew and Richard, who must
have been about the same age, were sent to a grammar
school in Kent, possibly at Canterbury.
Drungewick had come into the Onslow family when its
owner since 1605, Richard Threele of Wisborough Green,
married Margaret, the sister of Sir Edward Onslow, and
in 1664 her grand nephew Sir Henry Onslow, MP for
Arundel, who was knighted that same year, is recorded
as being of Drungewick. So it looks as if some time in
the early part of the seventeenth century the estate
passed from Threele to Onslow, and we must imagine
Matthew growing up in this fine old house, with its
oak timbers, panelling and Horsham stone roof. Over
the centuries it passed through many hands, and more
recently has been the home of a member of today's
aristocracy, a well known rock star.
In 1643, when Caffyn was 15, the two boys were entered
at All Soul's College, Oxford (an establishment
founded to take '40 fellows for Holy Orders'), and it
was at this point that we begin to gain an
understanding of his character, and the principled
approach he took, even at a young age, to his emerging
beliefs – beliefs which were to dictate the course of
his life, and lead him on a path of both influence and
controversy at a national level.
Lower, in The Worthies of Sussex, says that as a young
student Caffyn 'was of a sedate and serious turn of
mind, a great student of the scriptures, the oriental
languages and divinity. His views of the doctrine of
the Trinity, particularly as set forth in the
Athanasian Creed, and of infant baptism, led to
discussions between him and the professors'. But this
series of discourses with the University authorities
over the young student's 'new and strange' doctrines
failed to resolve matters to his (or indeed their)
satisfaction. Unable to convince Caffyn as to the
validity of traditional belief, they tried to suppress
his own views, but to no avail, although it is
recorded that he reacted to their challenges
'patiently, clearly and fearlessly' - and when, as
became inevitable, he was expelled from Oxford, he
left 'with an easy conscience'.
Commentators have noted that there is no record of his
university attendance in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses
1500-1714 - which indeed there is not – but this
should be no surprise as the standard reference work
is a matriculation register for the University, and it
is clear that Caffyn did not achieve that distinction.
But nor is there an Onslow entry for the 1640s, which
could of course be for a number of reasons – but it is
a shame not to find confirmation of the latter's
university attendance.
After his brief sojorn at Oxford Matthew Caffyn, now
17, returned to Horsham in 1645, perhaps to his
father's farm, his future uncertain. His once intended
career in the established church was now out of the
question, but it seems that his relationship with his
Onslow patron remained firm, and it was perhaps thanks
to him that he became installed at Pond Farm at
Southwater. He was to remain in the area for the rest
of his life.
Caffyn's time saw a great flowering of non-conformity,
a consequent repression by the Establishment, and as
often as not vehement intolerance between the various
new groups as well. George Fox founded the Quaker
movement in 1647, and Samuel Carpenter (1649-1714),
another of Horsham's outstanding sons and a young
convert to the Society of Friends, joined William Penn
out in America, became a leading merchant there and
played a major part in the foundation of Pennsylvania.
The township of Horsham, near Philadelphia, was named
in honour of him.
There were other, oddly-titled and strange sects, all
in their way born indirectly out of the Reformation,
such as the Muggletonians, the Fifth Monarchy Men, the
Ranters, the Familists, the Seekers and the
Grindletonians. Muggleton, for example, was a London
tailor who became a zealous Puritan much in dread of
Hell Fire, who would, apparently, only listen to
preachers if they had short hair. But these were all
fringe groups, and none lasted the course in the way
that the more solidly-founded Quakers and Baptists
did. But as we will see, there was no shortage of
disputes between these latter two, and fierce pamphlet
wars were much the order of the day.
It is estimated that there were about 59,000 Baptists
in the country early in the 18th century, of which
just under 19,000 were General Baptists (who believed,
with the followers of the Dutch theologian Jacobus
Arminius, that Christ died for all men) and some
40,000 Particular or Calvanistic Baptists (a younger
group, who seem to have developed from among the
underground congregations of London in the 1630s, and
held that Christ died only for the elect). The General
Baptist community began in 1611 when Thomas Helwys led
a small group, which earlier had fled from persecution
to the Netherlands, back to London, and in
geographical terms the movement was later to be found,
in the main, down through the country, south from the
Humber through to Sussex and Kent.
When the Civil War broke out there was a rapid
expansion of the Baptist communities, and by 1653 many
of the leading officers in the regular army (but not
Oliver Cromwell) were Baptists. However formal
persecution returned with the Restoration, and in 1664
the first Conventicle Act made it illegal for more
than five persons over the age of 16 to assemble
together for worship, except according to the rites of
the Book of Common Prayer. A much more severe
Conventicle Act was passed in 1670, whereby a justice
of the peace could convict without evidence if he
believed a conventicle had been held, and in an
unpleasant twist informers were rewarded, in these
cases, with one third of any fines imposed.
The suppression of Baptists and other dissenters
continued until there was a partial step towards
freedom of worship with the passing of the 1689
Toleration Act, which required the registration of
places of worship, and 45 Baptist locations were
registered in Sussex by 1727, most of them rooms or
premises lent or hired, and nearly all of them General
Baptist meetings.
The Baptist community in Sussex was drawn mainly from
middle-ranking stock: yeomen, husbandmen, tradesmen,
artisans and so on, and it is recorded that a meeting
house was registered in Ifield parish in 1713, but
apparently there were only two Baptist families there
in 1724. There were other adherents in the locality,
for example in Shipley, Billingshurst and Slinfold,
and the passing of the Toleration Act now made their
gatherings legal. As for Horsham, it was said that
there were 350 'hearers' in 1717 - but it is likely
that most came from outside the town, as in 1724 only
eighteen Horsham Baptist families were recorded.
Before the General Baptist house of worship in
Horsham's Worthing Road was built (Emily Kensett in
her History of The Free Christian Church, Horsham
takes a date of 1721, but the Victoria County History
of Sussex records that it was registered for worship
in 1719), religious meetings, as elsewhere, would have
been held in private houses. In the early days, when
Caffyn returned to Horsham, the local minister at the
time was a certain Samuel Lover, and before long
Caffyn was appointed as his assistant. Both their
names are appended to a Baptist Confession of Faith,
dated 1660, and again they appear in another, dated
1690 – so Lover was clearly still alive at that time.
Caffyn's campaigning vigour brought about a
significant increase in local adherents, and possibly
before too long he took over the local ministry from
Lover. Emily Kensett puts a date of 1648 to this
event, when he would have been only 20. Certainly by
the age of 25 he was a General Baptist leader, and had
been appointed a 'messenger'. It was noted that he was
one of the few senior members who had received a
university training – albeit one that had been
somewhat truncated.
While he continued to farm at Southwater, at the same
time he was active as a preacher and propagandist in
the towns and villages round about. His missionary
zeal led to him being described, in the militant
imagery of the time, as 'the Battle Axe of Sussex',
and by members of his denomination he was 'cryed up to
be as their battle axe and weapon of warre'. He
engaged in vigorous debate and dispute with the
Quakers, for whom Horsham had become an important
centre (William Penn had a house nearby at
Warminghurst and worshipped at the Blue Idol at
Shipley and elsewhere), and there is a famous account
of an encounter in 1655 when Thomas Lawson and John
Slee, two Friends from the north, disputed doctrine
with him.
Lawson was a man of some breeding and attainment, but
in dealing with Caffyn apparently descended to 'coarse
and dull abuse'. Caffyn had set out his views at a
Quaker meeting at Ifield, near Crawley, and the
discussions were continued at Caffyn's 'own house
neere Southwater' (Pond Farm) on 5 September that
year. The result of their violent disagreement was a
pamphlet by Lawson entitled An Untaught Teacher
witnessed against..... (1655), while Caffyn responded
vigorously the following year with Deceived and
Deceiving Quakers Discovered, their Damnable Heresies,
Horrid Blasphemies, Mockings, Railings ... George Fox
had also been in the area, and at the house of Bryan
Wilkason at Sedgwick, 'where there was a great meeting
and many were convinced', Matthew Caffyn was present
and strongly opposed him.
And so the vigour of debate continued, with neither
side prepared for restraint, either in the written or
spoken word. Caffyn's increasing influence, through
persuasive oratory and skill as a polemicist, was felt
throughout Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire and further
afield, and there are reports of him speaking in many
places, setting out from his Southwater home, Bible
under arm and lantern in hand. There was, for example,
a public debate between Caffyn and the Anglican
minister at Waldron parish church, as a result of
which two local men, Fuller and Miller, were converted
and the latter became pastor to the Baptist
congregation at Warbleton. The vicar of Henfield also
challenged Caffyn to a public debate in Latin, in the
presence of other ministers, hoping to show him up,
but Caffyn's university education stood him in good
stead and he won the day. He was known as 'the Battle
Axe' from then onwards.
Caffyn also fell out in a substantial way with a
certain Richard Haines (1633-85), who had become a
Baptist in 1657 and for a long time had been close to
him and a member of his congregation. Haines, whose
family owned the West Wantley estate in Sullington,
was a remarkable man: a successful farmer, social
reformer, inventor and author of a number of books. He
promoted schemes for the prevention of poverty and the
setting up of 'working alms houses', invented a new
way of cleaning clover seed from the husk, and applied
for a patent for making 'cider-royal' – and published
a book on the subject in 1684. His ventures brought
him into contact with many men of influence, such as
the Earl of Shaftesbury, which met with much
disapproval from Caffyn, who 'sharply rebuked' him,
according to Haines, 'because sometimes, although but
upon occasion, I kept company with Great Persons'. But
Caffyn was less likely to have been jealous of him
than uncomfortable with his involvement in a social
milieu which stood at some distance from the 'truly
pious'.
Caffyn also held that patents were covetous, and after
two acrimonious meetings in 1672, he excommunicated
Haines on the grounds that his greed was a cause of
scandal and reflected badly on the church. The
following year Haines appealed formally to the General
Assembly, and after much wrangling, year after year,
the matter was finally resolved eight years on, when
in 1680 the Assembly reversed the excommunication and
ordered Caffyn to rescind it. The whole business was
written up, in an account that did Caffyn no favours,
by Charles Reginald Haines, the 'seventh male
descendant' of Richard Haines, in 1899.
There was further doctrinal controversy within the
General Baptist movement, of which Caffyn also became
a focal point. In 1691 Joseph Wright denounced him to
the General Assembly for stating, in a private
conversation, certain objections to parts of the
Athanasian creed – which, as claimed by Wright,
amounted to denying both the divinity and the humanity
of Christ – and Wright moved for Caffyn's
excommunication. But his defence satisfied the
Assembly, as it did when the matter was raised again
in 1693, and later in 1698, 1700 and 1702. He took the
Socinian view (after Faustus Socinus, an Anti-trinitarian)
which denied Christ's deity, and when the Assembly
refused to vote for Caffyn's expulsion, a rival
Baptist General Association was formed. So for many
years Caffyn's Unitarian 'heresy' was a continual
source of debate, and during his own lifetime his
adherents became known as 'Caffynites'. A pamphlet by
Christopher Cooper of Ashford quoted one of his
opponents as labelling his views, in the vigorous way
of the times, as 'a fardel of Mahometanism, Arianism,
Socinianism and Quakerism'.
As we have noted, there was much prosecution by the
authorities, and Caffyn was fined, as were others,
under the Conventicle Acts and had his livestock
seized. He was also imprisoned no less than five
times, once for about a year in Newgate, 'where he lay
some time in a loathsome dungeon, and hardly escaped
with his life', until the good offices of the Onslow
family obtained his release. Florence Gregg, in her
romanticised story of his life, Matthew Caffin, but
perhaps in this case drawing on the germ of a family
tradition, held that Caffyn was arrested while
preaching at Horsham and taken to London under armed
escort. He also spent time in Maidstone and Horsham
gaols, and on one occasion, according to Thomas Crosby
in The History of the English Baptists (1738-1740),
was only let out with the help of Sir James Moreton, a
landlord of his at the time.
Caffyn was a frugal man, and managed to support his
growing family with little help from his church. It is
said that during his last imprisonment he was
supported by the industry of his wife, who remained
productive at her spinning wheel.
At some point in his life Matthew Caffyn moved from
Southwater to Broadbridge Heath, where he rented
Broadbridge Farm and Mill, and there he remained until
his death; in 1695, after his own wife was dead, he
was living there with his elder brothers William and
Richard. The farm still exists, down Old Wickhurst
Lane and near the area now occupied by Tesco's
supermarket, but the mill was demolished in 1960. The
farm was being used as a meeting house in 1711, and
was registered for worship in 1713. There is a
tradition that the mill pond was used for baptisms
until 1772, when a baptistry was built at the Horsham
meeting house, and stone steps led down into the pond
to a platform built there for the purpose. It should
also be said that the same baptism story, utilising
the eponymous pond on the premises, is told of
Caffyn's earlier time at Pond Farm, and it is likely,
of course, that both are true.
Caffyn and his wife Elizabeth Jeffrey, from another
General Baptist family, and whom he met while
preaching in Kent, married on 8 February 1653 at
Westerham, and following the family tradition they
were also to have seven sons, together with one
daughter. Their children were Joseph, Daniel, Sarah,
Benjamin, Thomas, Stephen, Jacob and Matthew. Matthew
the younger, the seventh son of a seventh son, was
ordained an elder by his father in 1710, and took over
the Horsham ministry from him, in company with Thomas
Southon; they were the first to preside over Horsham's
newly-built meeting house in 1721. Non-conformist
gatherings were now legal, and steadily increasing
congregations no doubt made a public meeting place,
centred on Horsham, necessary.
Sadly, Matthew Caffyn the elder was not to enjoy the
new building. He had died seven years earlier, in June
1714, in his 86th year, and his wife predeceased him
in 1693. It is said that he was buried under an old
yew tree in Itchingfield churchyard, on the 10th of
that month. But any stone that marked his grave is now
gone, and his only memorial is the fine window
dedicated to him in today's Unitarian church in
Worthing Road, Horsham.
But he has left one other legacy. John Caffyn, in his
excellent Sussex Believers, has made a careful
analysis of the various surnames mentioned in the
Horsham meeting house records before 1800, and among
still familiar local names such as Potter (50
mentions), Dendy (39) and Agate (38), the name Caffyn
stands out, with 84 individual references to family
members aged over 18. All these 17th and 18th century
folk are surely there, in the main, because of the
inspiration of one man – a true paterfamilias - and
the fact that the seeds of his belief were sown and
flourished in successive Caffyn generations is
something he would surely have cherished.
So what kind of man was Matthew Caffyn? We have no
portrait of him, nor a good physical description by a
contemporary. But his qualities are clear – and
formidable. He was undoubtedly brave, determined,
obstinate, forthright, hard working, difficult,
principled, a man of total conviction, even obsession
– all these labels apply. He could also write with
power, and his flair for oratory must have been
something to marvel at. The voice and words of this
charismatic 17th century preacher, fully in command of
the resounding and splendid language of the time, must
have been captivating. Again, while he was not one to
turn the other cheek, and could pursue a theological
argument to the bitter end, his relationship with the
Onslows seems to show that he could also retain
loyalty, and command the affection and respect of
people outside the immediate sphere of his own faith
as well.
Once met, Matthew Caffyn was not easily forgotten. |
