The Westminster Assembly meets

The Ordinance of 12 June 1643

On 12 June 1643 the Lords and Commons passed “An Ordinance for the calling of an Assembly of Learned and Godly Divines, to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the settling of the Government of the Church” [spelling modernised]. Its preamble declares that “many things remain in the Liturgy, Discipline and Government of the Church, which do necessarily require a further and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained”, and that such a government should be settled “as may be most agreeable to God’s Holy Word, and most apt to procure and preserve the Peace of the Church at home, and nearer Agreement with the Church of Scotland, and other Reformed Churches abroad” [spelling modernised].¹

The Ordinance named those to be summoned. M’Crie counts them: “The list of names in this Ordinance amounts to 151 in all, namely, 10 Lords and 20 Commoners, as lay-assessors [members of Parliament sitting with the divines], and 121 Divines.” It appointed “William Twisse, doctor in divinity”, to “sit in the chair, as prolocutor [chairman] of the said Assembly”.²

The Assembly was to advise, not to rule. The Ordinance provides that it shall not give to its members, “nor shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise any Jurisdiction, Power, or Authority Ecclesiastical whatsoever, or any other Power than is herein particularly expressed” [spelling modernised]. Members were allowed “the sum of four shillings for every day” of their attendance.³

The first meeting

The Ordinance summoned the members to meet “at Westminster in the Chapel called King Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, on the first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty-three” [spelling modernised].⁴

John Lightfoot, one of its members, recorded the day in his journal: “On Saturday the 1st of July, Anno Domini, 1643, the members of the two Houses of Parliament, that are named in the ordinance for members of the Assembly, and many of the divines there named, and a great congregation besides, being met in the Abbey Church in Westminster, Dr. Twiss [Twisse] the appointed Prolocutor of the Assembly, preached unto them upon these words, John xiv. 18, ‘I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.’”⁵

“After sermon, all the members of the Assembly present, went into Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, where the names being called, the appearance of names that day, was sixty-nine; or thereabouts.” Hetherington, Symington and a newspaper of the day quoted by Mitchell give the same number. The ordinance was read, and the members adjourned to the following Thursday.⁶

Robert Baillie wrote later that “They did sit in Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, in the place of the Convocation [the assembly of the English clergy]; but since the weather grew cold, they did go to Jerusalem Chamber, a fair room in the Abbey of Westminster” [spelling modernised].⁷

Commissioners from the Church of Scotland

At Edinburgh on 19 August 1643 the General Assembly gave “full power and commission to Master Alexander Henderson, Master Robert Douglas, Master Samuel Rutherford, Master Robert Baillie, and Master George Gillespie, ministers; John Earl of Cassilis, John Lord Maitland, and Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston, elders” [spelling modernised], to go to England and there “to propone [propose], consult, treat, and conclude with that Assembly … in all matters which may further the union of this island in one form of kirk government, one Confession of Faith, one Catechism, and one Directory for the Worship of God” [spelling modernised].⁸

Symington records that “Two of this number, Mr. Douglas and the Earl of Cassils, never attended.” Henderson, Gillespie and Lord Maitland were received into the Westminster Assembly on 15 September 1643. Hetherington writes that they were received “with great kindness and courtesy, and welcomed in three successive speeches, by the Prolocutor, by Dr. Hoyle, and by Mr. Case”. Lightfoot notes that Henderson in reply “laid open the sensibleness [feeling] of the Scots of our condition, and their readiness to aid us”.⁹

Baillie and Rutherford followed, and were admitted on Monday 20 November 1643. Baillie wrote home that “no mortal man may enter to see or hear, let be [let alone] to sit, without an order in writing from both Houses of Parliament. When we were brought in, Dr. Twisse had a long harangue for our welcome, after so long and hazardous a voyage by sea and land, in so unseasonable a time of the year” [spelling modernised]. Symington writes that they were introduced “a month afterwards”; Hetherington, that they set out “about a month afterwards”.¹⁰

Those who sat in the Assembly

Scottish editions of the Confession of Faith print the list of those who attended, explaining that “Many of the persons who were called by the foresaid Ordinance of the Lords and Commons (in that broken state of the Church) to attend the Assembly appeared not; whereupon the whole work lay on the hands of the persons hereafter mentioned.” Each member took this vow: “I A. B. do seriously promise and vow, in the presence of Almighty God, That in this Assembly, whereof I am a member, I will maintain nothing in point of doctrine, but what I believe to be most agreeable to the word of God; nor in point of discipline, but what may make most for God’s glory, and the peace and good of this church.”¹¹

The divines, with their charges, as printed in the edition of 1855 (the Prolocutor was the chairman, the Assessors his deputies, and B.D. is Bachelor of Divinity):¹²

• Dr William Twisse of Newbury, Prolocutor
• Dr Cornelius Burges of Waterford [Watford in the Ordinance], Assessor
• John White of Dorchester, Assessor
• Dr William Gouge of Blackfriars, London
• Robert Harris of Hanwell, B.D.
• Thomas Gattaker of Rotherhithe
• Oliver Bowles of Sutton, B.D.
• Edward Reynolds of Bramston
• Jeremiah Whitaker of Streton
• Dr Anthony Tuckney of Boston
• John Arrowsmith of Lynne
• Simeon Ashe of St Brides
• Philip Nye of Kimbolton
• Jeremiah Burroughs of Stepney
• John Lightfoot of Ashley
• Stanley Gower of Brampton Bryan
• Richard Heyrick of Manchester
• Thomas Case of London
• Dr Thomas Temple of Battery
• George Gipps of Ayleston
• Thomas Carter
• Dr Humphrey Chambers of Claverstoun
• Thomas Micklethwait of Cherryburton
• John Guibon of Waltham
• Christopher Tesdale of Uphusborne
• Henry Philps
• George Walker, B.D.
• Edmund Calamy, B.D., of Aldermanbury
• Dr Lazarus Seaman of London
• Joseph Caryl of Lincoln’s Inn
• Dr Henry Wilkinson, senior, of Waderston
• Richard Vines of Calcot
• Nicholas Profit of Marlborough
• Stephen Marshall, B.D., of Finchingfield
• Dr Joshua Hoyle, late of Dublin
• Thomas Wilson of Otham
• Thomas Hodges of Kensington
• Thomas Baillie of Mildenhall, B.D.
• Francis Taylor of Yalding
• Thomas Young of Stownmarket
• Thomas Valentine, B.D., of Chalfont St Giles
• William Greenhill of Stepney
• Edward Pele of Compton
• John Green of Pencomb
• Andrew Pern of Wilby
• Samuel de la Place
• John de la March
• John Dury
• Philip Deline
• Sidrach Simpson of London
• John Langley of Westuderly
• Richard Clayton of Showers
• Arthur Sallaway of Seavernestock
• John Ley of Budworth
• Charles Herle of Winwich, Prolocutor after Dr Twisse
• Herbert Palmer, B.D., of Ashwel, Assessor after Mr White
• Daniel Cawdrey of Great Billing
• Henry Painter, B.D., of Exeter
• Henry Scudder of Colinborn
• Thomas Hill, B.D., of Tichmarsh
• William Reynor, B.D., of Egham
• Dr Thomas Goodwin of London
• Dr William Spurstow of Hampden
• Matthew Newcomb of Dedham
• Dr Edmond Staunton of Kingston
• John Conant of Lymmington, B.D.
• Anthony Burges of Sutton Coldfield
• William Rathband
• Dr Francis Cheynel of Oxen
• Dr Henry Wilkinson, younger, of Oxford
• Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D., of Cogshal
• Edward Corbist of Marton College, Oxford
• Samuel Gibson of Burley
• Thomas Coleman of Bliton
• Theodore Backhurst
• William Carter of London
• Peter Smith
• John Maynard of Mayfield
• William Price of Paul’s Church in Covent Garden
• John Whincop of St Martins in the Fields
• William Bridge of Yarmouth
• Peter Sterry of London
• William Mew, B.D., of Eslington
• Benjamin Pickering of East Hoatly
• John Strickland of St Edmonds in Sarum
• Humphrey Hardwick
• Jasper Hicks of Lawrick or Lanrake
• John Bond
• Henry Hall, B.D., of Norwich
• Thomas Ford of London, afterwards of Exeter
• Thomas Thorogood of Massingham
• Peter Clerk of Kerby Underhill
• William Good
• John Foxcroft of Cotham
• John Ward
• Richard Byfield of Long-Ditton
• Francis Woodcock
• John Jackson of Marske

The same list closes with the commissioners from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Assembly’s scribes:¹³

• Ministers: Alexander Henderson of Edinburgh; Robert Douglas of Edinburgh; Samuel Rutherford of St Andrews; Robert Baillie of Glasgow; George Gillespie of Edinburgh
• Ruling elders: John, Earl of Cassilis; John, Lord Maitland, afterwards Duke of Lauderdale; Sir Archibald Johnstoun of Waristoun
• Scribes: Henry Robrough; Adoniram Byfield; John Wallis

Hetherington, counting from the editions of his day, notes that “There are one hundred and two divines named in the common editions of the Confession of Faith; but several of these there named were not regular in their attendance.” He writes that “generally, the attendance appears to have ranged between sixty and eighty.”¹⁴