Rev. Thomas Hancock (1832 - 1903)
This is a call for all information about Rev Thomas Hancock (1832-1903) to be be collected and collated.
I know a limited amount from 'Sermons and Society' Ed Welsby and 'The Victorian Christian Socialists' by Edward Norman, I have two references to him being a young friend of Stewart Headlam.
I also have the text of a sermon preached on 27th February 1887 - 'The banner of Christ in the hands of the socialists'. That you can read on this blog.
There is also the text of a sermon - 'The Church and the public house'
Article - 'What would Jesus do? The "Occupation" of St Paul's Cathedral, February 1887'
Biography from 'Sermons and Society' - Ed by Welsby
Biography – Welsby (1970)
Thomas Hancock was ordained in 1863. He held a succession of
curacies but, because of his political and social views, he was overlooked by
the Church authorities for most of his life and lived from hand to mouth until
1883, when H. C. Shuttleworth made him lecturer of St Nicholas Cole Abbey in
the City. He was a leading figure in the Christian Socialist Movement and was a
prominent member of the Guild of St Matthew. He was a brilliant, complex
writer, a Church historian and a first-class theologian. He was an
uncompromising High Churchman. He preached that the pulpit was the only hope
for social salvation because the so-called ‘free-press’ was controlled by
Mammon and dared not handle the explosive economic and social issues honestly.
Although many of his sermons were complex, they were influential. ‘If every
preacher in London could have been compelled to hold his tongue and come and
learn from Hancock, say, once a month, it would have been well for them and for
the church … The Bishops – what might they have done!’ (Commonwealth)
20/10/24 ***New biographical information from Matt Phillpott ***
Thomas Hancock was born July 19th, 1832, and was
educated at Merchant Taylors’ School (Liverpool). His father, who was an artist
and also a manufacturer of india-rubber, intended him to take a share in the
business, but a mercantile life had no charm for him, so he tried his hand at
journalistic and literary work. It was during this time that the Prize Competition,
originated by Mr Rowntree, came to his notice, and he wrote The Peculium.
This brought him under the eye of Frederick Denison Maurice, one of the judges
of the Essays, and he advised Thomas Hancock to seek orders in the Church,
which he did after some difficulties, as he had no university of college
training, eventually he was ordained by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce at Oxford,
and served as curate till 1875. In 1884, the late Professor Shuttleworth,
offered him the lectureship of S. Nicholas Cole Abbey, in the City of London,
which he held until his death on September 24th, 1903.
The whole of the period from 1875 until his death, Thomas
Hancock did journalistic work for his living, and spent all his available time
in historical research upon the middle period of the 17th century,
on which he was a comparatively unknown, yet first-rate authority. He left
behind him MSS. Notes – books, newspapers, sermons and pamphlets, which run
into thousands and thousands of pages, those referring to the early days of the
Society of Friends being amongst the fullest.
What I am looking for:
Information for a Wikipedia page
Picture
Any further biographical information
Letters, journals, personal writings - I have 3 books of sermons in PDF from Internet Archive
Please email me - rod.w.white@gmx.com with any information.
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