Shep's Place Family Tree

The following are notes taken from this small religious tract book ‎(published and sold at the depository, 56, Pater-noster-row.)‎

"Mr. Samuel Pearce was born at Plymouth, on July the 20th, 1766. His father was a respectable silversmith, and many years a deacon of the Baptist church in that place.

When a child, he lived with his grandfather ‎[in Tamerton Foliot near Portsmouth]‎, who was very fond of him, and endeavoured to impress his mind with the principles of religion. At about eight or nine years of age, he came home to his father, with a view of learning his business."

After that the book says that Samuel became a very naughty boy ‎("his evil propensites began to ripen...")‎ in the company of other naughty ‎("sinful pursuits")‎ boys. However at the age of 16, he turned to God at the Baptist church at Plymouth after a sermon delivered by Mr. Birt.

In November 1786 he entered on the work of the ministry, and "soon after went to the academy at Bristol under the superintendance of Dr. Caleb Evans."

"Towards the latter end of 1789, he came to the church in Cannon Street, Birmingham...After preaching to them awhile on probation, he was chosen to be their pastor. His ordination was in August, 1790...In this early stage of his ministry, redemption by the blood of Christ appears to have been his chosen theme."

"About a month after this ‎[September 30, 1791]‎, he was married to Miss Sarah Hopkins, daughter of Mr. Joshua Hopkins, of Alcester--a connexion which appears to have been all along a source of great enjoyment to him. The following lines addressed to Mrs. Pearce when he was on a journey a little less than a year after their marriage, seem to be no more than a common letter: yet they show, not only the tenderness of his affection, but his heavenly-mindedness, his gentle manner of persuading, and how every argument was fetched from religion, and every incident improved for introducing it:--

Chipping Norton, August 15, 1792

"I believe, on retrospection, that I have higherto rather anticipated the proposed time of my return, than delayed the interview with my dear Sarah for an hour. But what shall I say, my love, now to reconcile you to my procrastinating my return for several days more? Why, I will say, it appears I am called of God; and I trust the piety of both of us will submit, and say, "Thy will be done."

It was not long after his settlement at Birmingham, that he became acquainted with Mr. Carey, in whom he found a soul nearly akin to his own. When the brethren in the counties of Northampton and Leicester formed themselves into a Missionary Society at Kettering, in October, 1792, he was there, and entered into the business with all his heart...."

Samuel Pearce was very keen to go to India or other overseas missions.

‎(page 33)‎ "To-night, reading some letters from brother Carey, in which he speaks of his wife's illness when she first came into the country, I endeavoured to realize myself not only with a sick, but a dead wife. The thought was like a cold dagger to my heart at first; but on recollection, I considered the same God ruled in India as in Europe; and that he could either preserve her, or support me, as well there as here."

Samuel studied the Bengalee language. "Night studies, often continued until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, it is feared were the first occasion of impairing Mr. Pearce's health, and brought on that train of nervous sensations with which he was afterwards afflicted. Though not much accustomed to converse on the subject, he once acknowledged to a brother in the ministry, that, owing to his enervated state, he sometimes dreaded the approach of public service to such a degree, that he would rather have submitted to stripes than engage in them; and that, while in the pulpit, he was frequently distressed with the apprehension of falling over it. Night studies NEVER should be indulged in."

‎(page 39)‎ " But on coming home, the sight of Mrs. P. replaced my load. She had for some time been much discouraged at the thoughts of going. I therefore felt reluctant to say anything on this subject, thinking it would be unpleasant to her; but though I strove to conceal it, an involuntary sigh betrayed my uneasiness. She kindly enquired the cause. I avoided at first an explanation, till she, guessing the reason, said to this effect: I hope you will be no more uneasy on my account. For the last two or three days I have been more comfortable than ever in the thought of going. I have considered the steps you are pursuing to know the mind of God, and I think you cannot take more proper ones....if they advise your going, thought the parting from my friends will be almost insupportable, yet I will make myself happy as I can, and God can make me happy anywhere.

Should this little diary fall into the hands of a man having the soul of a missionary, circumstanced as I am, he will be the only man capable of sharing my peace, my joy, my gratitude, my rapture of soul....

Samuel's fervent desire to go was not endorsed by the BMS.

‎(page 45)‎...Thus, about a month afterward, when his daughter Louisa was ill of a fever, he thus writes from Northampton to Mrs. Pearce:
Northampton, Dec. 13, 1794.
"I am just brought, on the wings of celestial mercy, safe to my Sabbath's station. I am well; and my dear friends here seem healthy and happy: but I feel for you. I long to know how our dear Louisa's pulse beats: I fear still feverish. We must not, however, suffer ourselves to be infected, with a mental fever on this account. Is she ill? It is right. Is she very ill....dying? It is still right. Is she gone to join the heavenly choristers? It is all right, notwithstanding, our repinings....Repinings! No; we will not repine. It is best she should go. It is best for her: this we must allow. It is best for us. ...Let us submit, my Sarah, till we come to heaven...

On May 31 1796 Samuel went to Dublin to preach for the summer.

A letter to William Carey
Birmingham, Aug. 12, 1796
"O my dear brother,......Yet I am truly with you in spirit. My heart is at Mudnabatty, and sometimes I even hope to find my body there: but with the Lord I leave it. He knows my wishes, my motives, my regret."

‎(page 66)‎ To Mrs. Pearce, on the dangerous Illness of one of his Children.
Portsmouth, Jan. 29, 1798
"Ignorant of the circumstances of our dear child, how shall I address myself to her dearer mother. With a fluttering heart and a trembling hand, I, in this uncertainty, resume my pen. One consideration tranquillizes my mind, I and mine are in the hands of God....

I am most kindly entertained here by Mr. and Mrs. Shoveller; and, except my dear Sarah's presence, feel myself at home. They have had greater trials than we can at present know. They have attended seven children to the gloomy tomb...

In a house directly opposite to the window before which I now write, a wife, a mother, is just departed! Why am I not a bereaved husband? Why are not my children motherless? When we compare our condition with out wishes, we often complain: but if we compare it with that of many around us, our complaints will be exchanged for gratitude and praise!

‎(page 68-9)‎ Early in October, 1798, Mr. Pearce attended at the Kettering ministers' meeting...On his return, he preached at Market-Harborough; and riding home the next day in company with his friend, Mr. Summers of London, they were overtaken with rain. Mr. Pearce was wet through his clothes, and towards evening, complained of a chillness. A slight hoarseness followed. He preached several times after this, which brough on an inflammation, and issued in consumption. It is probably, that if his constitution had not been previously impaired, such effects might not have followed in this instance.

His own ideas on this subject are expressed in a letter to Dr. Ryland, dated Dec. 4, 1798; and in another to Mr. King, dated from Bristol, on his way to Plymouth, March 30, 1799.

To Mr. Summers he says: "Ever since my Christmas journey last year to Sheepshead, Nottingham, and Leicester, on the mission business, I have found my consitution greatly debilitated, on consequence of a cold caught...I have since been too tender to encounter a single shower without danger; and the duties of the Lord's-day which....I could perform with little fatigue, have since frequently overcome me.....I have sometimes concluded I must give up preaching entirely; for though my head and spirits are better than for two years past, yet my stomach is so very weak, that I cannot pray in my family without frequent pauses for breath, and in the pulpit it is labour and agony..."

To Mr. ‎[Thomas]‎ King he writes,"Should my life be spared, I, and my family, and all my connexions will stand indebted, under God, to you. Unsuspecting of danger myself, I believe I should have gone on with my own exertions, till the grave had received me. Your attention sent Mr. B. ‎(the apothecary)‎ to me, and then I first learned what I have since been increasingly convinced of--that I was rapidly destroying the vital principle. And the kind interest you have taken in my welfare ever since has often drawn the grateful tear from my eye."

Samuel gave his last sermon on Dec. 2, 1798 after which he wrote to Dr. Ryland. Dec. 9, 1798. Lord's-day Evening.

"My dear brother,...The day after I wrote to you last, my medical attendant laid me under the strictest injunctions not to speak again in public for one month at least. He says that my stomach is become so irritable, through repeated inflammations, that conversation...would be dangerous:--...he intimated my life was in great danger. He forbids my exposing myself to the evening air, on any account, and going out of doors, or to the door, unless the air is dry and clear, so that I am, during we now have in Birmingham ‎(very foggy)‎, a complete prisoner...."

"About this time, the congregation at Cannon Street was supplied for several months by Mr. Ward, afterwards the missionary to India." Ward wrote to a friend on Jan. 5, 1799: "I am happy in the company of dear brother Pearce. I have seen more of God in him, than in any other person I ever knew. Oh how happy should I be to live and die with him! When well, he preaches three times on a Lord's-day, and two or three times in the week besides. He instructs the young people in the principlesof religion, natural philosophy, astronomy, &c. They have a benevolent society, from the funds of which they distribute forty or fifty pounds a-year to the poor of the congregation. They have a sick society for vising the afflicted in general; a book society at the chapel; a Lords-day school, at which more than two hundred children are instructed. Add to this, missionary business, visiting the people, an extensive correspondence, two volumes of mission history preparing for the press, &c. and then you will see something of the soul of Pearce. He is everywhere venerated, though but a young man; and all the kind, tender, gentle affections, make him as a little child at the feet of his Saviour."

In February he rode to the opening of a Baptist meeting-house, at Bedworth; but did not engage in any of the services...Soon afterwards, writing to Andrew Fuller, he says:--"The Lord's-day after I came home I tried to speak a little after sermon. It inflamed my lungs afresh, produced phlegm, coughing, and spitting of blood. Perhaps I may never preach more."

In March 1799 Samuel went to Plymouth. He must have gone via Bristol because it was there that he wrote to Mr. King to become an executor of his estate.

Letter to Ryland fr. Plymouth May 14, 1799.
..."I have suffered much in my health since I wrote to you last, by the increase of my feverish complaint, which filled me with heat and horror all night, and in the day sometimes almost suffocated me with the violence of its paroxysms. I am extremely weak; and now, that warm weather which I came into Devon to seek, I dread as much as the cold, because it excited the fever."

To Mr. Pope, from Plymouth May 24, 1799.
..."My complaint has issued in a confirmed, slow, nervous fever which as wasted my spirits and strength, and taken a great part of the little flesh I had when in health, away from me."

To Dr. Ryland from Birmingham July 20, 1799
"...We had a pleasant ride to Newport on the afternoon we left you, and the next day, without much fatigue, reached Tewkesbury; but the road was so rough from Tewkesbury to Evesham, that it wearied and injured me more than all the jolting we had had before put together. However, we reached Alcester on Wednesday evening, stopped there a day to rest, and last night ‎(Friday)‎ were brought safely hither, blessed be God!"

To Mr. Birt, from Birmingham. July 26, 1799
"...My voice is gone so that I cannot whisper without pain; and of this circumstance I am at times most ready to complain. For, to see my dear and amiable Sarah look at me, and then at the children, and at length bathe her face in tears, without my being able to say one kind word of comfort,--Oh!!...."

To Andrew Fuller. Aug. 19, 1799
"The doctor has been making me worse and weaker for three weeks. In the middle of the last week he spoke confidently of my recovery; but to-day he has seen fit to alter his plans: and if I do not find a speedy alteration for the better, I must have done with all physicians, but Him who 'healeth the broken in heart.'"

Samuel Pearce died on 10 October 1799.

Samuel Pearce apparently was brought up by his grandfather in Tamerton Foliot near Plymouth. Sarah Hopkins' home was in Alcester, which is 7 miles west of Stratford.