History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

LETTERS FROM DR PARR 249
Captain Carver (afterwards Colonel) Ms buried in St. Philip's Churchyard,
in the same vault with his parents, his brother (Colonel Henry Carver), and their
sister (Mrs Steward). The Carvers owned property near Birmingham in the
reign of Edward III., and were engaged on every good work in the town during
the eighteenth century,— as members of the Committees which built St. Philip's,
the Blue-coat School, and the General Hospital, and as Governors of King
Edward's School. The Stewards were Tories ; but the Carvers must have been
Whigs, as they were at the dinner held to commemorate the centenary of the
Revolution of 1688. That dinner probably suggested the one in 1791, but it
appears from Dr Parr's letters to Edward Johnstone that much had been done
to prevent it. One of the Berringtons of Little Malvern, a Romanist family,
being asked to join by Dr Priestley, declined on the ground that " Catholics "
were in better odour with the Government than Dissenters. He might have
added, as he was a priest, that the Revolutionists were sending the Bishops and
clergy out of France, and that they were being received as brethren by the
Anglican Bishops and clergy and given shelter in their houses, while the
Dissenters had nothing to do with them.
Dr Parr speaks of Edward Johnstone in his writings as a skilful physician
and a very enlightened man, and to him (Aug. 10) he wrote of the infatuation of
the county, " Where all ranks approve of the riots. Only two exceptions agreed
with me in lamenting the unsocial pride which prevented the Dissenters from
attaching themselves to any party, and of course excluded them from the
protection of every party. In the London Riots the King said he would do his
duty, though the magistrates had not done theirs. Does he say so now? I
hear on the best authority that great care had been taken by the Sheriff not
to put on the Grand Jury any person suspected of a bias in favour of the
Dissenters. One of his friends told me so. ... I saw the chaplain, who
dined the other day with Sir George Shuckburgh, who, as other men are, is an
open apologist and a secret exulter, and he told the preacher that he had a fine
field, etc. I said I will hear your sermon, and if you utter one word
unbecoming your office I will communicate it to those by whom you will be
chastised without appeal. . . . Are
not these alarming symptoms of the
general temper of the country. The gentlemen, the clergy, the farmers all say,
Why punish the rioters ? Were they not acting for the King ? Is not Dr
Priestley so and so ?
" Dr Johnstone this is most important. Pray meet me on Tuesday at
Solihull or somewhere before the Assizes come on. Indeed, dear Sir, you will
see at last that my judgement on the conduct of the Dissenters is deep and
solid. . . . God bless you. . . . The Chaplain is a sensible, popular,
but Toryish clergyman. I believe he will keep his word and be wise."
1 Carver was invalided from wounds, including the loss of an eye.
"There is something scandalous," wrote Catherine Hutton, "in putting on the Committee
the justices who first lighted the firebrands of the mob. All the Committee whom I know are
the professed enemies of Dissenters except Mr Carver, who I believe is the enemy of no man."
Carver's brother-in-law, Mr Steward, a barrister, was thanked by the Committee for
assisting as a magistrate. He died suddenly in the Court at Warwick while conducting