| Notes |
- "About 1759, Mrs. Turner. of Trowbridge, daughter and wife of clothiers, gave up gay clothes and companions as a young woman and began to attend various dissenting chapels. She turned her attention to Tisbury, her husband's native town, and bought a house there in 1781. She extended her work to Hindon, among other places, and Independent Licences for dwelling houses were granted in Hindon in 1781 (W.C.R.O.). A Congregational Church was formed there in 1810, and a chapel was built in the Dene in 1827, served by preachers from neighbouring villages. When the East Knoyle Congregational Chapel was built in 1854 the one minister usually served both Hindon and Knoyle, but otherwise each chapel retained its independence. Towards the latter half of the 20th century membership began to decline and in 1972 the chapel was formally closed and later sold." [The History of Hindon, Norah Sheard, Shaston Printers]
- Luke & George TURNER were joint owners of a chapel in Hindon 28/11/1842, and a J.L. TURNER ran a Baptist chapel at EK 3/8/1821.
John TURNERs are listed in Dissenters Certificates as follows:
1798: Upton Scudamore
1799: Fisherton Delamere
1836: Coombe Bissett
1846: East Hatch, West Tisbury
There are no references to Joanna TURNER in Dissenters Certificates.
- "...The way in which curates carried the burden was perfectly accepted at the time. Hodgkin's duty in 1783 represented a creditable standard but his services did not necessarily satisfy the spiritual aspirations of all his flock. Some could turn to the old-established Baptist and Presbyterian churches; others moved off independently, and we have detailed accounts of the conversion of two, Joanna Cook and John Clark who, in the 1750s and '60s, found in the established church 'nothing but the husks of formal ritual and feeble preaching'. Both attended the church regularly for some years; Joanna was the daughter of a prosperous clothier and clearly found her affluence a hindrance to her religious tendencies, alternating between balls, cards, plays and the society of the poor but godly. A final conversion came when she found one of her brother's shearmen, spending his meal-hour teaching one child to read the Bible, while he chewed food to feed another one on his knee and his wife lay sick and helpless. He introduced her to a society of poor people who met at each others' houses on Sunday mornings to read and pray.
She was joined by a younger relative, John Clark. Together they attended the sacrament at Trowbridge, 'concluding that the efficacy of it is not destroyed to him that receives it in faith by the unworthiness of him that administers it'. Gradually Clark began to preach in and around the town, avoiding the times of Anglican services until, in 1767, nine members formally united into a separate church. After meeting in a room and then in a cottage, in 1771 they built a chapel, The Tabernacle, largely at the expense of Joanna Cook, who had married Thomas Turner, a like-minded and wealthy grocer and draper. She became a 'laborious shop-woman', but missed no opportunity of counselling the customers. This she found no hindrance to business: 'those who liked her RELIGIOUS conversation, gave her the worth of her goods without using unnecessary words; and those that did not relish spiritual things, but liked her temporals, took the goods off her hands as soon as possible, in order to be out of the hearing of her good advice. And when tradesmen came to show their patterns of printed lines etc. - in order to save precious tirne, and be free of the sin of using idle and unnecessary words - she chose the first pattern that struck her eye; if the cloth etc. were good and proper - and generally found those lines were most pleasing to her customers; - the LORD not permitting her pure motives to be attended with loss.'
Mrs. Turner continued a mainstay of the young church until her death in 1784. She was an exacting benefactress - John Clark preached her funeral sermon: 'She was zealous for inward piety and practical religion, but rather too positive. Having been greatly carried away by dress and gaiety in her younger days, she would scarcely allow anything that had the appearance of ornament.'
Clark remained minister until his death in 1809. He supported himself as a clothier, and died a prosperous man. In 1789 he built Polebarn House and laid out grounds to the south (extending to the far end of the present police station), which included in miniature the amenities of a country-house garden, having a small lake, a temple, and a gazebo. As originally built, the house had a large cupola or belvedere on the top, from which it is said that Clark studied astronomy, and inside was an organ, the case of which is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He published a book of hymn tunes, as well as collections of hymns and longer poems, all in rather pedestrian verse.
Although it eventually settled into fellowship with the Congregational churches, the Tabernacle was regarded as Methodist, then a term of derision, and the members had to undergo the persecution that Methodists attracted. Clark himself was frequently pelted and jeered, and once a bull was let loose on him. When the new church was opened he wrote 'Hundreds of my town's people, of all sorts, croud to hear the word of God: some for the benefit of their precious souls, and some to ridicule and scoff'..." [The Book of Trowbridge, Kenneth Rogers, Barracula Books 1984]
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