3 Richard Gough, Anecdotes of British Topography; or, An Historical Account of What Has Been Done for Illustrating the Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1768), p. 205. The same passage appears in the expanded version of this book, Gough’s British Topography; or, An Historical Account of What Has Been Done for Illustrating the Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 1 (London, 1780), p. 437. The two versions of the passage are identical except for punctuation. For this reason, I shall refer hereafter to British Topography without attempting to distinguish between the two versions.

4 John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vol. 6 (London, 1812), p. 272. The short biography by Philip Whittemore and Chris Byrom, A Very British Antiquary: Richard Gough, 1735–1809 (London: Wynchmore Books, 2009), provides some helpful information, but one could wish for a more scholarly study. See also the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, s.v. ‘Gough, Richard’, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/11141 (accessed February 17, 2019).

5 Joyce Ransome, The Web of Friendship: Nicholas Ferrar and Little Gidding (Cambridge: James Clarke, 2011), provides a comprehensive account of the Little Gidding household. Although my focus is not primarily biographical, I will cite Ransome on those points where my discussion overlaps with hers.

6 Thomas Hearne (ed.), Thomæ Caii (Collegii Universitatis Regnante Elizabetha Magistri) vindiciæ antiquitatis academiæ Oxoniensis contra Joannem Caium, Cantabrigiensem (Oxford, 1730), p. 703. In addition to Lenton’s letter to Hetley, Hearne prints a subsequent letter from Lenton to John Ferrar, Nicholas’s brother, disclaiming any part in the production of The Arminian Nunnery (London, 1641), a pamphlet attack that was based on Lenton’s original letter.

7 Hearne (ed.), Vindiciæ, p. 704.

8 But one suspects that Gough was influenced as well by The Arminian Nunnery, which turned Lenton’s report into a scurrilous assault upon the reputation of Little Gidding.

9 John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (ed. Peter H. Nidditch; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), p. 699. Locke’s chapter is only one among many contributions to the eighteenth-century discourse on enthusiasm.

10 For helpful biographical background, see John Walsh, ‘Peter Peckard, Liberal Churchman’, and Ronald Hyam, ‘Peter Peckard, Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner’, in Walsh and Hyam, Peter Peckard, Liberal Churchman and Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner, Magdalene College Occasional Papers 16 (Cambridge: Magdalene College, 1998). See also the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, s.v. ‘Peckard, Peter’, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/21740 (accessed February 17, 2019).

11 Although the original John Ferrar manuscript is now lost, a reconstructed version may be found in Lynette R. Muir and John A. White (eds.), Materials for the Life of Nicholas Ferrar: A Reconstruction of John Ferrar’s Account of His Brother’s Life Based on All the Surviving Copies (Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 1996). Another version of the Ferrar manuscript, printed from a copy made by Thomas Baker, is available in J.E.B. Mayor (ed.), Nicholas Ferrar: Two Lives by His Brother John and by Doctor Jebb (Cambridge, 1855), pp. 1-162. Still another composite presentation of the manuscript materials is given as A Life of Nicholas Ferrar in B. Blackstone (ed.), The Ferrar Papers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938), pp. 9-94. I will refer to the Materials, to the Ferrar Papers, and to other sources to illustrate the nature of Peckard’s authorial interventions.

12 Francis Turner, The Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar. By the Right Rev. Dr. Turner, Formerly Lord Bishop of Ely, in The Christian’s Magazine, vol. 2 (London, 1761), pp. 356-72, 404-26. Another version of the Turner manuscript, printed from a copy made by Samuel Jebb, is available in Mayor (ed.), Two Lives, pp. 163-286.

13 Peter Peckard, Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar (Cambridge, 1790), p. xii.

14 The story of the ransacking of Little Gidding has been carefully analyzed by Trevor Cooper in ‘The Sack That Never Happened: Little Gidding, Puritan Soldiers, and the Making of a Myth’, The Seventeenth Century 31.3 (2016), pp. 261-84. Cooper concludes that the house and church were never ‘sacked’, in the sense of being violently destroyed, but he does allow for the possibility that they were ‘ransacked’. For Cooper’s discussion of Peckard’s Memoirs, which marks the first time the story was told in print, see ‘The Sack That Never Happened’, pp. 267-70.

15 Peckard, Memoirs, p. xiv.

16 Walsh, ‘Peter Peckard, Liberal Churchman’, p. 1.

17 For a comprehensive treatment of the eighteenth-century subscription controversy, including an account of the Feathers Tavern petition, see B.W. Young, Religion and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century England: Theological Debate from Locke to Burke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), ch. 2.

18 The quoted language comes from Peter Peckard, A Sermon, on the Nature and Extent of Civil and Religious Liberty (London, 1754), p. 11.

19 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 7.

20 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 251. Peckard quotes the relevant passage from Gough’s British Topography in his preface (Memoirs, pp. v-x) and then returns to consider the ‘useless enthusiast’ phrase at the end of the main text (Memoirs, p. 253). Peckard twice refers to Gough’s work as Topographia Britannica, without indicating which version he consulted.

21 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 252.

22 Church of England, ‘An Homily Against Idleness’, in Certain Sermons or Homilies Appointed to be Read in Churches in the Time of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory (London, 1864), pp. 550-59 (550)Google Scholar.

23 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 238-39.

24 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 235-36.

25 Peckard, A Sermon, on the Nature and Extent of Civil and Religious Liberty, p. 22. On Peckard’s support for religious liberty, see Walsh, ‘Peter Peckard, Liberal Churchman’, pp. 7-9.

26 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 239, 249. For the corresponding passages in the John Ferrar manuscript, see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, pp. 65, 71; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, pp. 102-103, 108-109.

27 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 238.

28 Peckard’s phrase may owe something to Samuel Johnson’s A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), where Johnson notes that Glasgow ‘is the only episcopal city whose cathedral was left standing in the rage of Reformation’; see Samuel Johnson, The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 9, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (ed. Mary Lascelles; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971), p. 159.

29 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 249-50. Peckard closely follows his manuscript source in narrating the book-burning episode; see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, pp. 60-63; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, pp. 109-11. See also Ransome, Web of Friendship, p. 175, for a discussion of this episode.

30 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 250.

31 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 188, 239.

32 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 251.

33 On the irenic and ecumenical power of this argument, see Gordon Rupp, Religion in England, 688–1791 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), ch. 5; and William Gibson, The Church of England, 1688–1832: Unity and Accord (New York: Routledge, 2001), ch. 6.

34 M. D., review of Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, by Peter Peckard, The Analytical Review (April 1791), pp. 416-20 (420).

35 Anonymous review of Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, by Peter Peckard, The Gentleman’s Magazine: And Historical Chronicle (May 1791), pp. 456-60 (460).

36 Anonymous review of Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, by Peter Peckard, The Critical Review; or, Annals of Literature, 2nd series (August 1791), pp. 373-79 (373-74).

37 Anonymous review of Peckard’s Memoirs, Critical Review, p. 374.

38 Peckard himself had raised the question of gender while describing Nicholas Ferrar as a young man: ‘His constitution was of feminine delicacy, and he was very subject to aguish disorders; yet he bore them out in a great measure by his temperance, and by a peculiar courageousness of spirit which was natural to him’ (Memoirs, p. 24).

39 [Jabez] Hi[ron]s, review of Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, by Peter Peckard, Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal (July 1792), pp. 256-61 (256). The identification of H—s as Jabez Hirons comes from Benjamin Christie Nangle, The Monthly Review, Second Series, 1790–1815: Indexes of Contributors and Articles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955). See Nangle, Monthly Review, Second Series, pp. 29-30, for a brief biographical note and a list of Hirons’s contributions to the Monthly.

40 Hi[ron]s, review of Peckard’s Memoirs, Monthly Review, p. 257.

41 In addition to the four reviews already cited, another piece appeared in The European Magazine, and London Review (November 1792), pp. 348-50. This review covers much the same ground as the reviews previously discussed.

42 See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, s.v. ‘Nichols family’, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/63494 (accessed February 17, 2019).

43 I have consulted James M. Kuist, The Nichols File of ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’: Attributions of Authorship and Other Documentation in Editorial Papers at the Folger Library (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), for attribution in the Gentleman’s Magazine. Kuist’s archival records provide no attribution for the review of Peckard’s Memoirs.

44 On the politics of the Reviews in the 1790s, see Derek Roper, Reviewing before the ‘Edinburgh’, 1788–1802 (London: Methuen, 1978), pp. 172-83.

45 Roper, Reviewing before the ‘Edinburgh’, p. 178.

46 Bibliotecha Mastersiana, A Catalogue of the Genuine and Singularly Valuable Library of Books, of the Late Robert Masters, B.D. & F.R.S. (n.p., [1798]), p. 18; Bibliotecha Farmeriana. A Catalogue of the Curious, Valuable and Extensive Library, in Print and Manuscript, of the Late Revd. Richard Farmer, D.D. (n.p., [1798]), p. 165.

47 Huntingdonshire Book Club Society, Laws and Regulations of the Huntingdonshire Book Club Society, Established at Huntingdon, in the Year 1742 (Huntingdon, 1797), p. 38.

48 Thomas Zouch (ed.), The Lives of Dr. John Donne; Sir Henry Wotton; Mr. Richard Hooker; Mr. George Herbert; and Dr. Robert Sanderson. By Isaac Walton (York, 1796), p. 386 fn. Zouch here borrows Peckard’s phrasing (Memoirs, p. 309) more or less directly. For the text of the prayer, see Peckard’s Memoirs, pp. 314-16. The two other relevant footnotes appear in Zouch (ed.), Lives, pp. 347, 381.

49 Zouch (ed.), Lives, p. 377 fn. See Hi[ron]s, review of Peckard’s Memoirs, Monthly Review, p. 256, for the reference to Nicholas Ferrar as a ‘recluse almost to monachism’.

50 Zouch (ed.), Lives, p. 434 fn.

51 Thomas Zouch, An Address Delivered to the Clergy of the Deaneries of Richmond, Catterick, and Boroughbridge, within the Diocese of Chester, at the Visitations Held June 9th and June 14th, 1792 (Newcastle, [1792]), p. iii.

52 Christopher Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Biography; or, Lives of Eminent Men, Connected with the History of Religion in England, from the Commencement of the Reformation in England to the Revolution, vol. 5 (London, 1810), pp. 69-266 (70).

53 Walsh, ‘Peter Peckard, Liberal Churchman’, pp. 9-12. Walsh focuses on the Evangelical context in ‘The Magdalene Evangelicals’, The Church Quarterly Review 159 (1958), pp. 499-511. See also Peter Cunich, David Hoyle, Eamon Duffy, and Ronald Hyam, A History of Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1428–1988 (Cambridge: Magdalene College, 1994), ch. 7; and Peter Searby, A History of the University of Cambridge, 1750–1870, vol. 3 of A History of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), ch. 9.

54 William Wilberforce, A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity (London, 1797), p. 167.

55 T.M. Macdonogh, Brief Memoirs of Nicholas Ferrar, M.A., Founder of a Protestant Religious Establishment at Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire (Bristol, 1829), pp. 246-48. The first edition was published anonymously. A second edition, listing Macdonogh as editor, appeared in 1837. The title page of the second edition identifies Macdonogh as the Vicar of Bovingdon.

56 Macdonogh, Brief Memoirs, pp. 111-12, 154-56.

57 Macdonogh, Brief Memoirs, p. 54.

58 Macdonogh, Brief Memoirs, p. 113.

59 Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations, vol. 1 (New York, 1845), pp. 69-70.

60 Barnabas Oley, ‘A Prefatory View of the Life and Vertues of the Authour, and Excellencies of This Book’, in Herbert’s Remains. Or, Sundry Pieces of That Sweet Singer of the Temple, Mr. George Herbert, Sometime Orator of the University of Cambridg (London, 1652), sig. Aa12r; italics reversed. The relevant passages from Oley’s preface appear in Muir and White (eds.), Materials, pp. 95-97.

61 Oley, ‘Prefatory View’, sig. Ab1r; italics reversed.

62 Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George Herbert, in The Lives of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robert Sanderson (ed. George Saintsbury; London: Oxford University Press, 1927), pp. 251-339 (310).

63 Walton, The Life of Dr. Sanderson, Late Bishop of Lincoln, in Lives, pp. 341-426 (393, 394).

64 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (ed. Norman Sykes; J.M. Dent, 1906). Law’s discussion of specific devotional practices occupies roughly the second half of the book; see A Serious Call, chs. 14–23.

65 For the treatment of the Psalms, see Law, A Serious Call, ch. 15.

66 Turner, Life, pp. 410, 413. For the original account of ‘watching’ in the John Ferrar manuscript, see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, pp. 55-57; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, pp. 92-93.

67 George Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1776), p. 298. Horne cites the Turner biography as printed in the Christian’s Magazine.

68 On George Horne’s polemical writings, see Nigel Aston, ‘Horne and Heterodoxy: The Defence of Anglican Beliefs in the Late Enlightenment’, The English Historical Review 108 (1993), pp. 895-919. See also the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, s.v. ‘Horne, George’, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/13789 (accessed February 17, 2019).

69 George Horne, The Duty of Contending for the Faith. A Sermon Preached at the Primary Visitation of the Most Reverend John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church, on Saturday, July 1, 1786 (Oxford, 1786), p. 32.

70 Peter Peckard, A Sermon Preached at the Visitation of the Rev. Archdeacon Cholwell, at Huntingdon, May 19. 1772 (Cambridge, 1772), p. 11.

71 George Horne, ‘On the Duty of Self-Denial’, in William Jones (ed.), The Works of the Late Reverend George Horne, D.D., vol. 2 (London, 1831), pp. 422-33 (430).

72 Peter Peckard, Am I Not a Man? And a Brother? With All Humility Addressed to the British Legislature (Cambridge, 1787), pp. 77, 76. In the context of the abolitionist argument, Peckard here laments that self-love has triumphed over benevolence for too many of his contemporaries, who seem to be unmoved by the sufferings of enslaved persons.

73 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 238-39.

74 When Peckard refers to ‘mortifications’ and ‘austerities’, he seems to think primarily about sleep deprivation. On the dietary regime at Little Gidding, see Ransome, Web of Friendship, ch. 5.

75 David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, in L.A. Selby-Bigge (ed.), P.H. Nidditch (rev.), Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 3rd edn, 1975), pp. 167-323 (270).

76 Henry Venn, The Complete Duty of Man: or, A System of Doctrinal and Practical Christianity (London, 1763), p. 444. Venn’s book constitutes an Evangelical response to the High Church view of spiritual discipline as found in The Whole Duty of Man (1658), commonly attributed to Richard Allestree.

77 Turner, Life, p. 417. The John Ferrar manuscript shows Nicholas Ferrar defending his ascetic practices to his mother and his friends; see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, pp. 75-76; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, p. 106. The comparable passage in the Turner biography focuses more pointedly on Nicholas’s mother and her pleas for moderation. Peckard follows the Turner approach.

78 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 240.

79 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 241. The manuscripts offer a similarly glowing portrait of Mary Ferrar, but at an earlier point in the narrative; see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, pp. 66-67; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, p. 41.

80 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 242.

81 Turner, Life, p. 417; Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 245-46. Turner here condenses two statements from the John Ferrar manuscript; see Blackstone (ed.), Ferrar Papers, p. 76; Muir and White (eds.), Materials, p. 106.

82 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 243 fn.

83 Peckard, Memoirs, pp. 244 fn, 245 fn.

84 David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, Arranged According to an Alphabetical Catalogue of their Names, vol. 2 (London, 1798), s.v. ‘Peckard, Rev. Peter, D.D.’, pp. 122-23 (122).

85 Peckard, Memoirs, p. 253.

86 Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (trans. Talcott Parsons; London: Routledge, 1992).