The THOMAS COLES COLLECTION
BONAVISTA - 1792

UNITED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL
ARCHIVES C/CAN/NFL: 2. DATE OCT 31, 1792
PRESENTED BEFORE THE COMMITTEE JANUARY 1793

This is Akerman's letter which accompanied this 1792 petition from the
inhabitants of Bonavuista.

TO REV. DR. MORICE? GOWER? STREET BEDFORD SQUARE LONDON

Dear Sir.

Whereas the inhabitants of this Town and District has with great satisfaction
beheld my laudable exertions in doing the duty of the Church at Bonavista and 
supporting the Protestant Religion from a total decay for these nine years past 
and that their children have been baptised in the foundings? of Christ and taught 
the Knowledge and fear of God.--  They have thought it prudent to petition to 
His Lordship and the other members of the Society in granting me a small salary.
-- I humbly request Your Reverance's kind aid and assistance with His Lordship 
and the other good members of the Society in granting their request-- and am, 
Reverend Sir, your most obliging and most humble servant.

Abraham Akerman


BONAVISTA PETITIONERS OCT 31, 1792 USPG ARCHIVES C/CAN/NFL:2 To the Right Reverend Father in God John ( by Divine Commission ) Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and President of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The humble petition of the inhabitants of Bonavista sheweth: That the town of Bonavista, the Capital of this District, has been many years without a Missionary; and that your Lordship's Petitioners beheld with concern the declining state of the Protestant Religion and the rapid increase of Popery, for want of a person to instruct the ignorant, and to m----- unto the minds of the unenlightened, a knowledge of our? Religion and the Duties of Christianity, until Mr. Akerman, voluntarily, and without Reward or Emolument whatever, undertook to do the duty of the Church which he has constantly served these nine years, to the entire satisfaction of the inhabitants of this Town and District-- That our children may be brought up in the knowledge and fear of God. We, your petitioners, ---- humbly beg the sanction of your Lordship and the assistance of the Society, in granting to Mr. Abraham Akerman a small salary, to enable him the better to carry out his present laudable undertaking. Your petitioners beg leave to inform your Lordship that Mr. Ab!raham Akerman has been married for many years and has a wife and four children now living in Bonavista. In consideration of which and of his zeal and attachment to the Protestant Religion, we are induced to implore the aid of the Society : humbly hoping that your Lordship and the Society will take his present situation into your consideration and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. Bonavista, October 31, 1792. Petitioners names rearranged in alphabetical order: Abbott X Hugh Abbott James Abbott John,Sen. Abbott John,Jun. Abbott Stephen Brown William, ( J.P. ) Baker X Willaim Bass Thomas Batt X Joseph Bemister John Bright X Francis Brushet George Budden Joseph Burton John Burton Stephen Burton William Coles William Collins X John Cooney John Clouter X Henry Crocker X George Cross Robert Cummens? X John Curdle James Davis Benjaim? Drodge John Dunden? X Moses Dyke X Richard Edmonds Henry Etsell X William Ford Gerrard (J.P.) Fielden William, Sen. Fielden William, Jun. Fisher John Fling/FlinnX John Fling/FlinnX Thomas Gellett X John Gillingham George Goff George Gosling Edward Gould Luke Green Humber Habgood James Hailey X John (Haley) Hayward Benjamin Hayward X John Hayward Thomas Hayward? William? Hardy John Heasey Thomas Hix(Hicks) X James Hix(Hicks) X Robert Hix(Hicks) X Thomas Hix(Hicks) William Hillear(ier) John Hobbs X Robert Hooper Stephen Ingram X Benjamin Lander John Lander Stephen, Sen. Lander Stephen, Jun. Little X Giles Lovey James Lush X Edward Lush X William March George Mashfield Cornelius (Marshfield) Mifflen Samson Mifflen Soloman Miles Charles Miles William Moulam James (Mouland) Oldford X George Oldford William Pardy John Pardy William Parell X William Peckham John Phevan Robert Philpot John Pladwell William Pollett Thomas? Porter William Pottle Martin Powell Henry Powell Richard Pudner Edward Rolles John Ryder Richard Saint Charles Seaward John Shearing Richard Shearing Samuel Shearing Stephen Short Isaac Singleton Thomas Skeffington James Stagg X Edward Steeds X William Street John Somerstone?X Richard Taylor William Tilly(Telley) John X Tilly X Richard Way Philip Way X William Wheller John Wheller William White Edward White George ????? Robert
Obtained from the Anglican Church Archives, Toronto DATE NOV 20, 1792 Bonavista 20th Nov 1792 Reverend Sir. Last year I had the honor to enclose to you a petition from the principal inhabitants and others of this place to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in Foreign Parts, praying they would grant a small salary to a schoolmaster which we understand has been conferred on the person who did then, and still continues in that capacity. I am now? to return? our sincere acknowledgement for the attention which the Society has been pleased to show to our request, and to assure them that their bounty, as far as depends on us, shall not be improperly applied. Encouraged by the success of that petition I have learnt that a second has lately been (------) thru this settlement, which has for its object to obtain a salary for one Abraham Akerman for officiating as minister , or catechist. Altho I am the Chief Magistrate of this District, no application for very obvious reasons, has been made for my concurrence, or for that of the more respectable part of the inhabitants, which to give the measure a fair appearance, ought certainly to have been done. In fact, this business seems to have been managed with some (-----) for it is only written a few days that I came to the knowledge of it. When Bonavista in respect to the community was at a very low (----) Abraham Akerman who then was, and still is, an inferior servant in the fishery, read the service from the Common Prayer Book in the best manner he could, and at the festival of Christmas, sang carols about the neighbourhood, from which performances, if I am not greatly misinformed, he now continues to draw a dear emolument of thirty pounds a year exclusive of his wages as a servant. The man may be drawing enough in the useful, but humble task where providence has placed him but the nature of things has not left it in his power to merit attention beyond it. The office of catechist made by the appointment of your Society, must, presuppose some (-----) at least. The man for whom this appointment is entrusted cannot, therefore, be recommended as a fit person. The habits of life, as may be naturally supposed from this situation, are too abject to command respect, and he is besides, so grossly illiterate as not to b!e able to read intelligibly. Can a man so unfortunately unmastered as to the acquirement of knowledge be possibly thought competent to discharge the trust which the petition aims to obtain for him? It might be asked (if his performances can be called officiating ) why is he suffered to officiate at all? The truth is no one else as yet offered, and the people of better mind can find no inducement to attend his performances it is thought more proper to have some show of religion than none at all nonetheless silently to suffer this ignorant, low bred man to be placed in a permanent situation with a salary, to which assuredly, he can have no pretensions, would be to connive at abuse and to preclude the hope of having a regular clergyman settled among us. It would be, in fact, to consent that the receivers of cultivated talents be prostituted to gross ignorance - It would be to suffer a benevolent institution to be duped into an appointment which. instead of promoting, would defe!at the very act proposed to be attained by it. I cannot, therefore fidelity, were I knowingly to allow this imposition to pass on the Society, who will now be better able to inform themselves as to the merits of Akerman's petition. As Bonavista as lately much increased in respectability and population, the necessity of a public instructor in the religious and moral duties of life, becomes every year more evident and shall hope that another season will not pass on without some proposal for effecting so desirable an end. I am, with great respect Reverend Sir, Your faithful Humble servant John Bland To Pastor? Morice?
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