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

SUNDAY SCHOOLS 253
breakfasted with him. He owned Hawford at Ombersley, near Worcester,
where he probably became acquainted with the Johnstones, and he was on the
Committee and one of the earliest subscribers to the General Hospital in
Birmingham, and left it £50. He and his father were at the same time
Governors of Lench's Trust, an old Birmingham charity, so as Edward was
connected with most of the philanthropic societies in the town they often met.
After his death, leaving a young widow with four little children, Johnstone helped
her in the management of her affairs. As a Presbyterian, her property was in
danger during the riots. A secluded lane about a mile long led from the house
to the high road between Birmingham and Lichfield, and a report came that a
mob was entering the lane. A neighbour, Mr Lloyd-Davies, who rented Pipe
Hayes during the minority of the Rev. Egerton Bagot, sent over to invite
Mrs Webster to take refuge there, and she at once walked to his house by a
field path with her children, the youngest carried by the maid, Molly, while
the butler carried one of the little boys. The plate chest was lowered into the
small lake in the grounds before they started, and furniture and everything of
value packed away in cellars and hay-lofts. That evening, as she was waiting
for dinner with other guests in the drawing-room, a Colonel, just arrived from
London, who was watching the smoke, coloured with flame, mixing with the
clouds in the direction of Birmingham, quietly observed, " I hope they are well
roasting all the Dissenters." The poor young widow heard it.
The rapid march of the 13th Light Dragoons from Nottingham via
Lichfield to Birmingham is supposed to have saved Penns. They crossed the
top of the lane, followed by numbers from Sutton Coldfield, and the rioters
beat a quick retreat. Although the horses were taken up from grass they
marched fifty-three miles in one day.
One effect of the riots was to strengthen the hands of those who advocated
the education of the working class. In 1784 a meeting had been held in
Birmingham to discuss Sunday schools, started elsewhere,—some say by Mrs
Montagu, others by John Pounds. Those who attended and headed a subscrip-
tion list were Edward Johnstone, still only twenty-seven, the most sanguine as
to their result ; the Rev. C. Curtis, who quoted his brother's famous joke as
to the three R's ; the Revs. John Riland (rector of Sutton Coldfield), Thomas
Price, John Clutton, C. L. Shipley, and J. Turner ; and Messrs W. Bedford,
W. Villiers, T. Simcox, R. Lloyd, W. Holden, I. Westley, and T. Lutwyche.
Within a year 1400 children were admitted to these new schools, and 500 were
catechised in the churches. The masters and mistresses were all paid, and the
scholars were much increased in 1788.
The destruction of property in 1791 was followed by the invariable result
very hard times for the poor, which in 1800 became famine. In 1793 a rumour
spread abroad that malignant fever prevailed in Birmingham. It was contra-
dicted at once by Edward Johnstone and nine other physicians and surgeons.
In 1795 one of the Cabinet, the Duke of Portland, wrote to Mr Heneage Legge
of Aston Hall to commend the prudence and liberality of the upper class in
adopting measures of relief. " It is," he added, "to the exertions and liberality