Brewin Grant
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Brewin Grant (1821–1892) was an English Christian minister and controversialist. Initially a Congregationalist, he was required to give up his ministry over his opposition to William Gladstone's policy leading to the Irish Church Act 1869. He then joined the Church of England, and became a priest in the East End of London.
Grant was born at Countesthorpe, Leicestershire on 3 April 1821; his given name was his mother's maiden name. His father, a wool worker, was an admirer of the Baptist minister Robert Hall. The family attended the village Meeting of Baptists and Independents.[1][2] When he was around ten the family moved to Leicester, for the father's work, joining the Gallowtree Gate chapel which was Congregationalist. After two years further schooling, Grant went to work as a bookkeeper for a hosier.[3][4] He was prepared for college entrance, and in 1838 was examined at the home of Thomas Wilson. He was admitted to Highbury College, London.[5]
Grant successfully competed for a Dr Williams Scholarship at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated B.A. in 1843.[6] His first appointment was at Prescot in 1845, successor to Thomas Rogers, and he was ordained there early in 1846.[7] He moved on in 1848 to Highbury Chapel, Birmingham.[8]
Mission
In 1853 Grant left Birmingham to undertake what he called a "three-year mission".[2] It had financial support from Samuel Morley, and was publicised by John Angell James in the pages of the British Banner, where William Logan first raised the idea.[9][10] Grant lectured to working-class audiences across the country, opposing secularism.[11] He had a history of contesting Owenite socialism, and in 1852 had lectured in Bradford with Andrew Reed.[10] Benjamin Godwin, a lecturer in Bradford against atheism, wrote at this time that "the usual weapons of ridicule, sarcasm, vituperation and calumny were becoming useless" against nascent secularism.[12]
Grant has been called "a fast-talking, self-assured exponent of Biblical truths."[13] In 1853 The Westminster Review wrote that "Mr. Grant holds to the opinion that any amount of personal abuse is allowable if based upon truth."[14] The Reasoner, a secularist periodical, wrote of Grant:
...a regular, reverend minister, of respectable private character; who, accredited by his party, pledged by his honour, paid by his friends, and applauded by the British Banner, travels from town to town canvassing our principles and stimulating public inquiry.[15]
The radical bookseller and secularist Thomas Barker of Todmorden commented in 1855 that "when Brewin Grant commenced his three-year mission, we had only one periodical, the Reasoner, and now we have four[...]"[16][17]
Significant public debates included:
- Initial debate on secularism with George Holyoake, six Thursdays from 20 January 1853 at the Royal Institution.[18] The meeting was set up by John Angell James; Holyoake welcomed it, as the Reasoner he edited said, as a publicity opportunity.[13] In Holyoake's view, Grant "had wit, readiness, and an electric velocity of speech, boasting that he could speak three times faster than any one else. But he proved to be of use to us without intending it."[19] He claimed that Grant used the pseudonyms "Young Minister" and "Philo-Brewin" to support his own positions.[20]
- With Joseph Barker in January and February 1855, over ten nights, at Halifax.[21][22]