Thomas Grantham (Baptist)


Thomas Grantham was an English General Baptist minister. He had access to Charles II of England, and made petitions on behalf of Baptist beliefs.

Early life

Grantham was born at Halton Holegate, near Spilsby, Lincolnshire; by trade he was a farmer. In 1644 a nonconformist congregation had been formed in the South Marsh district, between Spilsby and Boston, Lincolnshire, and one of its tenets was the rejection of sponsors in baptism. Four persons seceded from this congregation in 1651, having become Baptists. Grantham joined them, was baptised at Boston in 1653, and in 1656 was chosen their pastor. He gathered a congregation which met in private houses at Halton and elsewhere, but after considerable opposition he obtained a grant of Northolme Chapel, at Thorpe Northolme, near Wainfleet. Grantham's key convert was John Watts, a man of some property, who had received a university education, and became pastor of a baptist congregation meeting in his own house. By the efforts of Grantham and his evangelists a number of small congregations were formed in the south of Lincolnshire, holding Arminian sentiments, and so distinct from the Calvinistic Particular Baptists.

Under Charles II

Grantham's name is not appended to the original edition of the Baptist "brief confession". But he seems to have drawn up shortly after the "narrative and complaint", which was signed by 35 General Baptists in Lincolnshire. Grantham and Joseph Wright of Westby were admitted to present the "narrative" to Charles II, with a copy of the "brief confession" and a petition for toleration. Thomas Venner's insurrection of Fifth Monarchy Men in January 1661 raised fears of Anabaptist outbreaks. Two addresses to the throne were then drawn up by Lincolnshire Baptists. The second of these was presented by Grantham to Charles, who expressed himself as well disposed.
Grantham soon came into conflict with the authorities. Twice in 1662 he was arrested. The first time he was bound over to appear at the next assize at Lincoln; he was again arrested at Boston, his Arminian preaching having led to the rumour of his being a Jesuit. He was thrown into Lincoln gaol, and kept there some fifteen months, till at the spring assize of 1663 he and others were released, pursuant to a petition drawn up by him and presented to the king on 26 December.
In 1666 Grantham became a "messenger," a position originally created by the older Baptists for the supervision of congregations in a district. Grantham developed the office into an itinerant ministry-at-large to "plant" churches. On 7 March 1670 he issued proposals for a public disputation with Robert Wright, formerly a Baptist preacher, who had conformed at Lincoln; but neither Wright nor William Silverton, chaplain to Bishop William Fuller, would respond. Under the Conventicle Act 1670 Grantham was imprisoned again for six months at Louth. Soon after his release he baptised a married woman. The husband threatened him with an action for damages, for having thereby assaulted her. The indulgence of 15 March 1672 did not meet the case of the Lincolnshire Baptists; accordingly Grantham had another interview with the king on their behalf, and obtained an ineffectual promise of redress. He suffered several imprisonments during the remaining years of Charles's reign.

Later life

In 1685 or 1686 Grantham moved to Norwich, where he founded a General Baptist congregation in White Friars Yard. In 1686 he founded a similar congregation in King Street, Great Yarmouth; in 1688 he baptised persons at Warboys in Huntingdonshire; in 1689 he was allowed to preach in the town hall of King's Lynn, and founded a congregation there.
Grantham's closing years were full of controversies with other dissenters in Norwich, especially John Collinges and Martin Fynch. With the established clergy of the city he was on better terms; John Connould, vicar of St. Stephen's, was a good friend, from a theological correspondence. On 6 October 1691 John Willet, rector of Tattershall, Lincolnshire, was brought up before the mayor of Norwich, Thomas Blofield, for slandering Grantham at Yarmouth and Norwich. Willet admitted that there was no foundation for his statement that Grantham had been pilloried at Louth for sheep-stealing. Grantham paid Willet's costs, and kept him out of gaol. He died on Sunday, 17 October 1692, aged 58 years, and was buried just within the west door of St. Stephen's Church. A crowd attended the funeral; the service was read by his friend Connould. Connould was buried in the same grave in May 1703. A long memorial inscription was later placed in his meeting-house, probably by his grandson Grantham Killingworth.

Views

Grantham, as the leading theologian of the General Baptists of the seventeenth century, was an Arminian. Yet he differed from the Anglican Arminians of his day in that he advocated more reformed doctrines of human depravity, the inability in spiritual matters apart from the convicting and drawing grace of the Holy Spirit, penal substitutionary atonement, and justification by the imputed active and passive obedience of Christ, as well as a more reformed view of sanctification. His view of perseverance also differed from other Arminians of his day, in that Grantham believed salvation could be forfeited only by apostasy from Christ through unbelief, a condition from which one could not recover. Like the other General Baptists, Grantham advocated more interdependence of local congregations in a via media between congregational and connectioning approaches to church polity. These associations had more power than in most later Baptist associations, though the individual congregation was ultimately self-governing and could disagree with the findings of associations and messengers. The stronger view of interconnection between local congregations melded with Grantham's conception of the officer of messenger, to which he was ordained. Messengers were seen as having duties similar to the apostles, yet without the extraordinary gifts and authority of the original apostles. Thus messengers engaged in evangelism, and apologetic activities, advising churches, mentoring and ordaining ministers, helping to resolve congregational conflicts. He advocated the imposition of hands on the newly baptized, believed in anointing with oil for healing, and, like most General and Particular Baptists of his day, believed in the singing of psalmody only by single voices as a part of public worship. Grantham also believed strongly in the Baptist doctrine of religious liberty or liberty of conscience, being one of the most prolific authors on the concept in the seventeenth century. His views on Scripture and tradition were similar to those of John Calvin and Balthasar Hubmaier, in that he had a high esteem for the church fathers and quoted them widely yet held to a standard Reformed and Anabaptist sola Scriptura approach to the sufficiency of Scripture. His debates with Anglicans, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Roman Catholics were widely read and quoted in the seventeenth century and evinced his unique Arminian Baptist theology.

Works

Grantham published:
Among his unpublished manuscripts were The Baptist's Complaints against the Persecuting Priests, 1685, and Christianitas Restaurata, of which the title seems borrowed from Servetus; both are quoted by Thomas Crosby for their biographical matter. William Richard in 1805 could not gain access to Grantham's manuscripts.