by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/5/20
To some of those who joined the Society in its early days Christian Socialism opened the way of salvation. The "Christian Socialist" was established by a band of persons [John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow] some of whom were not Socialist and others not Christian. It claimed to be the spiritual child of the Christian Socialist movement of 1848-52, which again was Socialist only on its critical side, and constructively was merely Co-operative Production by voluntary associations of workmen. Under the guidance of the Rev. Stewart D. Headlam its policy of the revived movement was Land Reform, particularly on the lines of the Single Tax. The introductory article boldly claims the name of Socialist, as used by [Frederick Denison] Maurice and [Charles] Kingsley: the July number contains a long article by Henry George. In September a formal report is given of the work of the Democratic Federation. In November Christianity and Socialism are said to be convertible terms, and in January, 1884, the clerical view of usury is set forth in an article on the morality of interest. In March Mr. H.H. Champion explains "surplus value," and in April we find a sympathetic review of the "Historic Basis of Socialism." In April, 1885, appears a long and full report of a lecture by Bernard Shaw to the Liberal and Social Union. The greater part of the paper is filled with Land Nationalisation, Irish affairs—the land agitation in Ireland was then at its height—and the propaganda of Henry George: whilst much space is devoted to the religious aspect of the social problem. Sydney Olivier, before he joined the Fabian Society, was one of the managing group, and amongst others concerned in it were the Rev. C.L. Marson and the Rev. W.E. Moll. At a later period a Christian Socialist Society was formed; but our concern here is with the factors which contributed to the Fabian Society at its start, and it is not necessary to touch on other periods of the movement.
-- The History of the Fabian Society, by Edward R. Pease
Stewart Headlam
Born: Stewart Duckworth Headlam, 12 January 1847, Wavertree, Liverpool, England
Died: 18 November 1924 (aged 77), St Margaret's-on-Thames, Middlesex, England
Movement: Christian socialism; Anglo-Catholicism
Ecclesiastical career
Religion: Christianity (Anglican)
Church: Church of England
Ordained: 1869 (deacon)1871 (priest)
Stewart Duckworth Headlam (1847–1924) was an English Anglican priest who was involved in frequent controversy in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Headlam was a pioneer and publicist of Christian socialism, on which he wrote a pamphlet for the Fabian Society, and a supporter of Georgism.[1] He is noted for his role as the founder and warden of the Guild of St Matthew and for helping to bail Oscar Wilde from prison at the time of his trials.
The Guild of St Matthew was an English high-church Christian socialist association led by Stewart Headlam from its establishment in Bethnal Green on 29 June 1877 to its dissolution in 1909. While the guild never had a membership of more than about 400 people, it was "the pioneer Christian socialist society of the revival period in Britain", breaking the ground for other Christian socialist organisations yet to come, such as the Christian Social Union. Kenneth Leech described it as "the first explicitly socialist group in Britain". For many years, it published the periodical The Church Reformer.
-- Guild of St Matthew, by Wikipedia
Early years and education
Headlam was born on 12 January 1847 in Wavertree, near Liverpool, the elder son and third of four children of Thomas Duckworth Headlam, underwriter of Liverpool [and his wife Latitia née Simpson (1822-1869).]
Legatee of £500 under the will of the Hon. James Stewart and awardee in two awards on the Islington estate in St Mary, Jamaica with his brother T. Duckworth Headlam, and the Rev. John Twells and Philip Twells (all of whom q.v.), who were possibly trustees for similar awards to the Headlams' sisters, Eliza and Dora.
The 1830 Chancery suit of Stewart v Garnett [Hon. James Stewart vs. Rev. James Garnett Headlam] between the owner of Islington, Robert Stewart, and Elizabeth Garnett and others, implies a family connection between Rev. James Garnett Headlam and the estate. The will of the Hon. James Stewart left £500 each to 'the children of my daughter-in-law' Thomas, James, Robert, Dora and Eliza Headlam.Stewart v. Garnett, 3 Simons 398, March 1830. Will of James Stewart, "late of Jamaica:" "I give, devise and bequeath one moiety of the rents, issues and profits of my estate, named Islington and Cove's Pen, ... to be divided equally amongst..." At the time of his death, March 25, 1824, the testator was "seised of a real estate called Islington ... in Jamaica, containing 700 acres of land, with buildings and machinery for carrying on the manufacture of sugar and rum, and also of a pen called Cove's Pen, being an appendage of the Islington estate, also in the same parish, containing 300 acres, and that the testator was also at his decease possessed of or entitled to 246 negroes on his estate called Islington, and 25 negroes on Cove's Pen."
-- Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, edited by Helen Tunnicliff Catterall (Mrs. Ralph C.H. Catterall), Cases from the Courts of England, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1926, University of Florida Digital Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries
Elsewhere in the summary of the case the 'daughter-in-law' appears to be referred to as Dorothy Headlam and two of the children as James Garnett Headlam and Thomas Duckworth Headlam. LBS has inferred that Dorothy Headlam was the Hon. James Stewart's step-daughter Dorothy Brooming Headlam nee Colburne, the daughter of John Colburn[e] and Ann Mary Law.
In 1861 Rev James Garnett Headlam was living unmarried at 2 York Terrace Tunbridge Wells aged 58 born Bath with his sister Eliza aged 53, also unmarried, 'fundholder' (born Liverpool). In 1881 his address was given as York Road Tonbridge, and he was shown as aged 73 a clergyman with Eliza aged 67 'dividends', other details the same. Will of James Garnett Headlam of 8 York Road Tunbridge Wells who died 09/02/1891 was proved 20/03/1891 by his nephew and niece, the children of T. Duckworth Headlam.
Caribbeana shows Robert Stewart, son of the Hon. James Stewart, marrying Mary [sic] Headlam of Ryton Grove. LBS is sceptical of this.
Sources
T71/856 St Mary Nos. 135 and 136, where he is given as Rev. J.G. Headlam. There was no entry for him in the CCEd [database online] when accessed 22/06/2011.
Reports of Cases decided in Chancery 1832 Volume 3 p. 402, 1830 Stewart v Garnett. The parents of Thomas Duckworth Headlam are shown as Thomas and Dorothy Blooming [sic] Headlam in Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online] and Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Dorothy Brooming, the widow of Thomas Headlam of Aigburth Liverpool died at Marlow Buckinghamshire Jan 4 1836 [Gentleman's Magazine 1836 Vol. 5 p. 331]. At the baptism of her son Robert Neadlam [sic] at St Michael Aigburth on 05/11/1815 she was described as 'formerly Colburne', http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Aig ... -1839.html [accessed 22/06/2011].
1861 and 1881 censuses online (where he is transcribed as James Garrett Headlam); National Probate Calendar 1891.
Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. III 'Stewart of Trelawney Jamaica', pp. 272-3.
-- Rev. James Garnett Headlam, Profile & Legacies Summary, 1803 - 9th Feb 1891, by Legacies of British Slave-ownership, ucl.ac.uk
His parental home was strictly evangelical, though not narrow or severe, but Headlam rejected with horror the doctrine of eternal punishment.[2]
From 1860-65 (ages 13–18) Headlam attended Eton College. There he was influenced by a teacher, William Johnson, who was a disciple of the Christian Socialism of Frederick Denison Maurice and Charles Kingsley.[3]
When he attended Cambridge University, Headlam was taught by the Professor of Moral Theology, F. D. Maurice, the primary influence in his life.[3] Headlam came to agree with Maurice that God's Kingdom on earth would replace a "competitive, unjust society with a co-operative and egalitarian social order."[4]
Maurice's teaching and example shaped Headlam's life, starting with his decision to be ordained.[5] Years later, Headlam told colleagues in the Fabian Society: that he had been delivered from "the belief that a large proportion of the human race are doomed to endless misery" by Maurice's teachings.[6] Maurice instilled a "Christian humanism" in Headlam. In his Fabian Society Tract on "Christian Socialism," Headlam wrote, "I learnt the principles and was familiar with the title of 'Christian Socialism' from Maurice and Kingsley."[5]
Ordination and parish ministry
After Headlam took his degree from Cambridge in 1868, his father arranged with an Evangelical cleric, Herbert James, to give further training before ordination. But Headlam was not open to the teaching. James said, it was "impossible to budge" Headlam from his convictions based on Maurice's teachings.[7]
Headlam received another years training under Charles Vaughan who recommended him for ordination as a deacon and found him a curacy at St John's, Drury Lane, London.[8] Headlam was ordained deacon by Bishop John Jackson in 1869 and in 1871 as priest.[9] His ordination as a priest was delayed by Jackson because of his reservations about Headlam's beliefs.[2]
Headlam had five parish assignments, but he was dismissed from all of them. He was never "beneficed" and after being "constantly dismissed" with no curacy he could hold services only when friendly clergy invited him.[10]
St John's Church, Drury Lane: 1869–1873
Hedlam's first curacy was at St John's Church in Drury Lane.[3] William Graham Maul was the vicar from 1855 to 1882.[11]
Maul and Headlam had much in common. They were both friends of the Christian socialists F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley who had attracted them to Christian socialism.[8]
At St John's, Headlam's special ministries were "church catechist" and making pastoral visits.[8] The parishioners to whom Headlam ministered included "working people, actors, actresses, and artisans".[3] Among these people, there were "music-hall dancers". These parishioners, Headlam observed, were "the victims of prejudice" and often "cold-shouldered" by other parishioners.[12] Headlam, who was "notorious for his defence of the down-trodden of every sort," set out to remedy the situation by making dancing socially acceptable.[13]
Headlam recognized that social acceptance of dance depended on "an appreciation of ballet as an autonomous aesthetic form". He adopted a threefold strategy to accomplish this goal: (1) provide an "authoritative exposition of the dance technique itself", (2) form the Church and Stage Guild, and (3) formulate a theology of dance.[14]
In spite of what they had in common, Headlam fell foul of Maul who asked him to leave the parish in 1873. It was not only, or even mainly, a matter of dogma. He outraged respectable Victorian society by his public championing of the poor and his denunciations of the uncaring rich.[2]
St Matthew's, Bethnal Green: 1873–1878
In 1873, Headlam left Drury Lane for St Matthew's, Bethnal Green.[3] Bethnal Green was an area of extreme poverty and Headlam was assigned to the most impoverished area.[15]
The rector of the church, Septimus Hansard, was another Christian socialist who influenced the ideas of Headlam.[4] Working with Hansard gave added "practical content" to Headlam's "socialist ideas".[5]
The clergy usually lived outside St Matthew's parish, but Headlam "rented a flat in a working-class building."[16] Although Headlam lived "among" his people, he did not live "like" them. His "independent means" enabled him to furnish his rooms in an "individual style."[17]
By 1875, "men and their needs now became the centre of [Headlam's] Christianity".[5] Living near the church Headlam saw the "degradation and suffering" of the workers. Having seen this, Headlam told the St Matthew's congregation that when people are "not fed so as to grow up and healthily", it is a "witness against the Church" that she has "neglected her primary duty".[18]
Poor attendance at church; good attendance at theatres; Headlam's defence
St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, was noted for poor attendance. "The poor of Bethnal Green spent their Sunday mornings sleeping and the remainder of the day at the dancing room, the music hall, or the beer shop." "Headlam was determined to win them back for Christ, beginning with the young people." He made Sunday School more interesting and made it coeducational.[16]
Headlam also went to see the "cheap theatres" his parishioners attended rather than church services. This research was documented in a pamphlet.[19] The problem for Headlam was that his "defence of the Music Hall and the ballet as being worthy occupations and uplifting pastimes" was an "anathema" to the puritan and political climate.[13] In the face of opposition, Headlam gave a lecture on "Theatres and Music-Halls"[14] in which he expounded a positive Christian view of theatre and the theatrical profession. The speech inflamed Headlam's opponents and led to his bishop removing him from his curacy at St Matthew's.[3]
The Guild of St Matthew
See also: Guild of St Matthew below
Inspired by Maurice's Christian socialism Headlam was determined to do all he could to reduce working class suffering. Disturbed by the appalling living conditions of his parishioners Headlam used his sermons to attack the wide gap between rich and poor. He presented Jesus Christ as a revolutionary and when John Jackson, the Bishop of London who had long been concerned about Headlam's teaching, heard about this, he threatened Headlam with dismissal. Headlam refused to change his views.[20]
In his efforts for the working class, in 1877, Headlam founded the Guild of St Matthew and led it to national prominence.[3] Its original purpose was to increase attendance at early Eucharist.[21]
Headlam challenged workers to unite to strike down "the customs and circumstances" that make them "mere hands" for the production of goods. He not only issued verbal challenges, Headlam worked with the trade union movement, especially the Women's Trade Union League. However, Headlam had no specific proposals until he read Henry George's Progress and Poverty (D. Appleton & Co., 1879). From then on George replaced Maurice as the major influence in Headlam's thinking.[22]
1878: Dismissal and marriage
Early in 1878, Headlam was dismissed from St Matthew's.[21] His socialism was only one of Headlam's conflicts with authorities. The immediate cause of his dismissal was his "lecture in praise of the theatre and music halls."[9] In June, he received a testimonial of 100 guineas raised by supporters.[23]
Given the fact Headlam that "could never keep a job", it was fortunate that his father and grandfather were underwriters in Liverpool. From them, he inherited private means on which to live when unemployed.[24]
On 24 January 1878, Headlam married Beatrice Pennington at St. Augustine's Church, Queensgate.[25] The marriage was dissolved in a very short time.[26] He discovered his wife was a lesbian.[27]
Headlam was left with no prospect for employment, but in 1879 he was offered a curacy by John Rodgers, vicar of St Thomas's Charterhouse.[27]
St Thomas's Charterhouse: 1878–1880
In 1878, Headlam became a curate at St Thomas's under the vicar, the Revd John Rodgers. Rodgers was "the most understanding incumbent" under whom Headlam would serve and even defended him in letters to Bishop Jackson.[28] While at St Thomas's, Headlam continued his defence of theatre and ballet by forming the Church and Stage Guild.[29] The death of Rodgers on 25 October 1879 ended Headlam's curacy at St Thomas's. Rodgers had served on the London School Board as Headlam was to do later.[30]
St Michael's Shoreditch: 1880–1882
Headlam's curacy at St Michael's Shoreditch was brief because the parishioners strongly opposed his positions.[9]
From 1882 until its demise in 1903, Headlam sat on the London School Board. He took an active role in the promotion of evening classes for adults, especially as chairman of the Evening Continuation Schools Committee from 1897.[31]
St George's Botolph: 1884
A trial curacy in 1884 ended when Headlam, at a rally, called for the abolition of the House of Lords.[9]
In 1884, Headlam used own money to buy and later to finance a newspaper, The Church Reformer: An Organ of Christian Socialism and Church Reform, that became virtually the voice of the Guild of Saint Matthew.[21] The Church Reformer was published for eleven years. It supported land reform as advocated by Henry George.[31]
End of parish ministry
After leaving St. George's Botolph in 1884, Headlam asked Bishop Jackson for a general licence to officiate in the diocese, but Jackson refused. Jackson's successor Frederick Temple also refused.[9] Although his licence was eventually reinstated in 1898, he was never again to hold permanent office in the Church of England.[31] After being "constantly dismissed" with no curacy, Headlam was reduced to holding services only when friendly clergy invited him.[10]
Beginning with his ordination, Headlam's "beliefs and actions" led to constant conflict with his ecclesiastical superiors and removal from curacies until he finally "abandoned of the idea of a parish ministry." From then on, Headlam "devoted his time propagating Socialism" through his Guild of St. Matthew (until its demise in 1909) and membership in the Fabian Society and membership on the London County Council.[15]
Politics
In 1873, after leaving St John's, Headlam received a curacy from Septimus Hansard, the rector of St Matthew's Church in Bethnal Green in London's East End, where poverty was the intrusive fact of social life. His response, in the form of a synthesis of ideas going back a generation to the Oxford Movement with socialist thinking, was startling although not entirely original. He attributed it in part to Charles Kingsley, but more especially to F. D. Maurice, whose incarnational theology he embraced while a student at Cambridge University. He added to the ideas of these early Christian Socialists a profound commitment to the creeds and to sacramental worship which he drew from the Anglo-Catholic ritualists whose work in the London slums he deeply admired. He was also a harsh critic of evangelicalism, condemning it as individualistic and otherworldly. He befriended working-class secularists and their leader, Charles Bradlaugh, even as he fought secularism itself. He also championed the arts in a broad sense, including the theatre, at a time when many clergy regarded it as morally suspect, and more scandalous still, the music hall, and ballerinas danced in flesh-coloured tights. Politically, from the time he left Cambridge, Headlam regarded himself as a socialist of sorts. While he was in Bethnal Green his politics took a more radical turn, and in the years that followed he joined his socialism to an enthusiastic support for Henry George's 'single tax', a policy that was gaining support in the Liberal Party. Yet because of his belief in individual liberty and his hostility to political sectarianism, he remained a member of the Liberal Party. He was elected to the London County Council as a Liberal Party–backed Progressive candidate for Bethnal Green South West latterly in opposition to Labour candidates. These ideas formed a heady mixture and his preaching of it, in a form often directed frankly against 'the rich', kept open the quarrel with Bishop Jackson and would inspire yet another with Jackson's successor, Frederick Temple.
Guild of St Matthew
Headlam formed the Guild of St Matthew on 29 June 1877 (St Peter's Day). It began as a guild within St Matthew's Church, Bethnal Green, East London.[32] However, in addition to parishioners, the Guild included other "London curates with radical views", so it soon grew to forty members.[9]
The Guild's initial purpose was increasing attendance at early Eucharist. Its stated objects were: (1) better observance of the "rules of worship" in the Book of Common Prayer, (2) removal of prejudices against the sacraments, and (3) promote "friendly intercourse, recreation and education" among its members.[33]
When Headlam was dismissed from St Matthew's in 1878, he took the Guild with him.[9] No longer merely a parish guild, the Guild became organised on a national basis with local branches[21] The Guild's aims widened to include "the promulgation of those elements in Christian social doctrine that would ameliorate the conditions of the poor through the creation of a just and equal society."[9]
As a national organisation, the Guild linked Christian Socialists and Anglo-Catholics.[34] This combination was incorporated in the Guild's three objectives:
1. "to get rid, by every possible means, of existing prejudices, especially on the part of 'secularists' against the Church, her sacraments and doctrines, and to endeavor to justify God to the people."[35]
2. "to promote frequent and reverend worship in the Holy Communion, and a better observance of the teaching of the Church of England as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer."[35]
3. "to promote the study of social and political questions in the light of the Incarnation."[35]
The work of the Guild got off to a slow start as an extra-parochial society. However, by 1884 its work was in "full swing". The Guild published a list of 24 lecturers willing to speak on 130 subjects. At its annual meeting, the Guild adopted resolutions endorsing socialism and Henry George's "theory of Land Nationalization". Headlam and other Guild members put their words into action by working in the English Land Reclamation League.[36]
In 1884, Headlam used his own money to buy and edit a newspaper, The Church Reformer: An Organ of Christian Socialism and Church Reform, which became "virtually (though never officially) the mouthpiece of the Guild".[21] The Church Reformer went bankrupt and published its last issue in December 1895.[37]
In the early 1890s, the Guild reached its peak membership of 364, of whom 99 were Anglican priests.[38] Writing on behalf of the Guild, Headlam, in 1890, appealed that the "evils of poverty" be not "alleviated by Christian charity, but that they may be prevented by Christian justice."[39]
In the Guild's doctrines, the goals of Christian justice included "(a) to restore to the people the value they gave to the land" where they worked, "(b) to bring about a better distribution of the wealth created by labour", and (c) "to give to the whole body of the people a voice in their own government", and (d) "to abolish false standard of worth and dignity".[40]
The Guild's 1892 annual report showed that the old battle against secularism ended with the death of Charles Bradlaugh in 1891. Most of the activity of the Guild was redirected toward "election campaigns".[41]
In the 1893 annual meeting, whether to characterise the Guild as "socialist" was discussed with a decision in the negative. As explained by Headlam, although the Guild was composed of "socialists who claim that socialism is Christian", to use the name officially would be "misleading and confusing both to friend and foe".[42]
In spite of Headlam's resistance to the term, scholars characterise the Guild of St Matthew as "socialist". Kenneth Leech says that the Guild was "the first explicitly socialist group in Britain"[43] and Peter d'Alroy Jones describes the Guild as "the pioneer Christian socialist society of the revival period in Britain."[44]
Before 1895, dissatisfied members usually withdrew and joined the larger Christian Social Union. In this year, increased dissatisfaction with Headlam as warden of the Guild resulted in a "large defection".[45] In spite of dissatisfaction and defections in the membership, Headlam acted as warden of the Guild throughout its existence and his beliefs were reflected in its "proceedings and policies". He did not consult with others and acted as if the Guild should act according to his ideas. Headlam's arrogating control of the Guild constituted the primary reason for the dissatisfaction and defections.[46]
In 1909, the Guild of St Matthew ceased to exist.[44]
Norman describes the Guild as "a clerical, sacramentalist, Anglican and Socialist organization, existing largely for propagandistic purposes.[21] Regardless of the immediate effects of its propaganda, the Guild molded "the radicalism of a number of Christian Socialists" who in the following decades played roles in the Anglican church's "social discourse. These people included Conrad Noel, Percy Dearmer, J. G. Adderley, P. E. T. Widdrington, F. L. Donaldson, C. W. Stubbs, Charles Marson, and Frank Weston.[47][48]
'Church and Stage'
See also: Antitheatricality § 19th and early 20th century
Headlam, in his lecture entitled Theatres and Music Halls and delivered on 7 October 1877 at the Commonwealth Club, Bethnal Green, said many religious people would think him wrong to speak of theatres and music halls except in condemnation; and even more would think him wrong to do so on a Sunday night. He recalled two women, members of his congregation in Drury Lane, who kept their profession as actresses a secret for many months, fearing that he, as a clergyman, would despise them. Conversely, he declared a deep respect for all those who "minister to our amusements" and said their work was as sacred as any other. In the introduction to the second edition of his published lecture he said, "I hold as an eternal truth that the Incarnation and Real Presence of Jesus Christ sanctifies all human things, not excluding human passion, mirth, and beauty."
He also believed good theatre could teach morality. "I defy anyone to see one of Shakespeare's great tragedies fairly well acted without having most tremendous moral lessons brought home to him," Furthermore, he believed even unsophisticated entertainment could be beneficial and that theatregoing, in moderation, had "a brightening, educating effect". To "gloomy religious people" he said, "you do much more harm by a sweeping condemnation of a place than by a discriminating judgment. Recognise the good in any place or person, and then you have a right, and a power too, to go against the evil with some chance of success".
More recently, he had come to see that even music halls had value. Managers were not to blame for the faults of their clientele, be they coarse or low, or loose women; the fault lay rather with "modern civilisation". He was, however, critical of the quality of music hall songs.
John Jackson, Bishop of London, responding to a summary of the lecture in The Era, wrote to Headlam, "It is, of course, vain to argue with one who prefers so unhesitatingly his own judgment backed by the approval of actors and proprietors of Music Halls to that of his Incumbent and his Bishop, neither of whom can well be considered Puritan: but I do pray earnestly that you may not have lo meet before the Judgment Seat those whom your encouragement first led to places where they lost the blush of shame and took the first downward step towards vice and misery."[49]
At St Thomas's on 30 May 1879, Headlam continued his defence of popular theatre, and especially the ballet, by forming the Church and Stage Guild.[29] Within a year it had more than 470 members with at least 91 clergy and 172 professional theatre people. Its mission included breaking down "the prejudice against theatres, actors, music hall artists, stage singers, and dancers."[50]
Fabian Society
In his Fabian Society Tract No. 42, Headlam wrote that the Christian Church "is intended to be a society not merely for teaching a number of elaborate doctrines . . . ; but mainly and chiefly for doing on a large scale throughout the world those secular, socialistic works which Christ did on a small scale in Palestine.".[3]
In December 1886, Headlam joined the Fabian Society and for several years served on the society's executive committee. In 1888, he and Annie Besant were elected to the London School Board as members of Progressive Party, a broad coalition of London liberals, radicals and socialists. In 1902 the Conservative government abolished school boards across England and transferred their responsibilities to the county councils. Although this was a reform designed in large part by his fellow Fabian, Sidney Webb, and endorsed by the Fabian Society, Headlam, like many others on the Left, denounced it as undemocratic. The new Education Act spared the London School Board, but only temporarily. It was also abolished in 1904. Despite his expectation that he would be able run as a Progressive candidate for the London County Council that year and be given a seat on the education committee, the Progressives did not nominate him, perhaps because of pressure from Webb and his allies. It was not until 1907 that he was elected to the council where he continued to be a tireless advocate for working-class children and their teachers. In the same year he published The Socialist's Church. He continued as a political figure for the rest of his life.
Oscar Wilde's bailer
On 3 April 1895 the first trial of Oscar Wilde began. This trial ended with a jury deadlocked on most of the charges. A second trial was scheduled in three weeks. During the interim, Wilde could be released if his bail requirements were met.[51]
Bail for the three weeks of freedom "on his own recognizance" between criminal trials was set at a total of £5,000.[52] Headlam, who did not know Wilde personally, put up half the £5,000 bail required for Wilde's release. Headlam stated his motive as "concern for the arts and freedom".[53]
At his second trial, Wilde was found guilty, and sentenced to two years of hard labor.[54] When Wilde was released after serving his sentence, Headlam was there to meet him at six o'clock in the morning on 19 May 1897.[55]
'Homosexuals in Headlam's life'
Headlam did not condone homosexuality.[56] However, his willingness to help Wilde may have been connected with the fact that "others close to him had been caught in similar sexual tangles". Headlam's own short-lived marriage in 1878 had been to a lesbian, Beatrice Pennington.[20][57]
Headlam's close relations with other homosexuals included his Eton master William Johnson and his friend C. J. Vaughan.[58]
Post-curacy years
Beginning with his ordination as a deacon in 1869, Headlam was repeatedly in conflict with his ecclesiastical superiors that led to removal from curacies until he finally "abandoned of the idea of a parish ministry" in 1884. However, he continued to be active in social reform until shortly before his death in 1924. Central to Headlam's activity was his work within the voluntary organisations of his Guild of St Matthew (until its demise in 1909) and the Fabian Society.[59]
Church
Headlam addressed the 3rd Lambeth Conference in 1888 arguing that Christian socialism is biblical, but the bishops gave him "little heed".[60]
In January 1898, Headlam was granted a general licence to preach by the new Bishop of London, Mandell Creighton. From then until his dying days, Headlam celebrated Mass every Sunday at All Souls Church in Haliburton Road.[20]
This complicated interrelationship of family connections by no means exhausts the links between the families that made up the Cecil Bloc as it existed in the period 1886-1900, when Milner was brought into it by Goschen. Nor would any picture of this Bloc be complete without some mention of the persons without family connections who were brought into the Bloc by Lord Salisbury. Most of these persons were recruited from All Souls and, like Arthur Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, Baron Quickswood, Sir Evelyn Cecil, and others, frequently served an apprenticeship in a secretarial capacity to Lord Salisbury. Many of these persons later married into the Cecil Bloc. In recruiting his proteges from All Souls, Salisbury created a precedent that was followed later by the Milner Group, although the latter went much further than the former in the degree of its influence on All Souls.
All Souls is the most peculiar of Oxford Colleges. It has no undergraduates, and its postgraduate members are not generally in pursuit of a higher degree. Essentially, it consists of a substantial endowment originally set up in 1437 by Henry Chichele, sometime Fellow of New College and later Archbishop of Canterbury, from revenues of suppressed priories. From this foundation incomes were established originally for a warden, forty fellows, and two chaplains. This has been modified at various times, until at present twenty-one fellowships worth £300 a year for seven years are filled from candidates who have passed a qualifying examination. This group usually join within a year or two of receiving the bachelor's degree. In addition, there are eleven fellowships without emolument, to be held by the incumbents of various professorial chairs at Oxford. These include the Chichele Chairs of International Law, of Modern History, of Economic History, of Social and Political Theory, and of the History of War; the Drummond Chair of Political Economy; the Gladstone Chair of Government; the Regius Chair of Civil Law; the Vinerian Chair of English Law; the Marshal Foch Professorship of French Literature; and the Chair of Social Anthropology. There are ten Distinguished Persons fellowships without emolument, to be held for seven years by persons who have attained fame in law, humanities, science, or public affairs. These are usually held by past Fellows. There are a varying number of research fellowships and teaching fellowships, good for five to seven years, with annual emoluments of £300 to £600. There are also twelve seven-year fellowships with annual emoluments of £50 for past Fellows. And lastly, there are six fellowships to be held by incumbents of certain college or university offices.
The total number of Fellows at any one time is generally no more than fifty and frequently considerably fewer. Until 1910 there were usually fewer than thirty-five, but the number has slowly increased in the twentieth century, until by 1947 there were fifty-one. In the whole period of the twentieth century from 1900 to 1947, there was a total of 149 Fellows. This number, although small, was illustrious and influential. It includes such names as Lord Acton, Leopold Amery, Sir William Anson, Sir Harold Butler, G. N. Clark, G. D. H. Cole, H. W. C. Davis, A. V. Dicey, Geoffrey Faber, Keith Feiling, Lord Chelmsford, Sir Maurice Gwyer, Lord Halifax, W. K. Hancock, Sir Arthur Hardinge, Sir William Holdsworth, T. E. Lawrence, C. A. Macartney, Friedrich Max Muller, Viscount Morley of Blackburn, Sir Charles Oman, A. F. Pollard, Sir Charles Grant Robertson, Sir James Arthur Salter, Viscount Simon, Sir Donald Somervell, Sir Arthur Ramsay Steel-Maitland, Sir Ernest Swinton, K. C. Wheare, E. L. Woodward, Francis de Zulueta, etc. In addition, there were to be numbered among those who were fellows before 1900 such illustrious persons as Lord Curzon, Lord Ernie, Sir Robert Herbert, Sir Edmund Monson, Lord Phillimore, Viscount Ridley, and Lord Salisbury. Most of these persons were elected to fellowships in All Souls at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three years, at a time when their great exploits were yet in the future. There is some question whether this ability of the Fellows of All Souls to elect as their younger colleagues men with brilliant futures is to be explained by their ability to discern greatness at an early age or by the fact that election to the fellowship opens the door to achievement in public affairs. There is some reason to believe that the second of these two alternatives is of greater weight. As the biographer of Viscount Halifax has put it, "It is safe to assert that the Fellow of All Souls is a man marked out for a position of authority in public life, and there is no surprise if he reaches the summit of power, but only disappointment if he falls short of the opportunities that are set out before him. (1)
One Fellow of All Souls has confessed in a published work that his career was based on his membership in this college. The Right Reverend Herbert Hensley Henson, who rose from humble origins to become Bishop of Durham, wrote in his memoirs: "My election to a fellowship, against all probability, and certainly against all expectation, had decisive influence on my subsequent career. It brought me within the knowledge of the late Lord Salisbury, who subsequently recommended me to the Crown for appointment to a Canonry of Westminister.... It is to All Souls College that all the 'success' [!] of my career is mainly due." (2)
It would appear that the College of All Souls is largely influenced not by the illustrious persons whose names we have listed above (since they are generally busy elsewhere) but by another group within the college. This appears when we realize that the Fellows whose fellowships are renewed for one appointment after another are not generally the ones with famous names. The realization is increased when we see that these persons with the power to obtain renewing appointments are members of a shadowy group with common undergraduate associations, close personal relationships, similar interests and ideas, and surprisingly similar biographical experience. It is this shadowy group which includes the All Souls members of the Milner Group.
In the nineteenth century, Lord Salisbury made little effort to influence All Souls, although it was a period when influence (especially in elections to fellowships) was more important than later. He contented himself with recruiting proteges from the college and apparently left the wielding of influence to others, especially to Sir William Anson. In the twentieth century, the Milner Group has recruited from and influenced All Souls. This influence has not extended to the elections to the twenty-one competitive fellowships. There, merit has unquestionably been the decisive factor. But it has been exercised in regard to the seventeen ex-officio fellowships, the ten Distinguished Persons fellowships, and the twelve re-elective fellowships. And it has also been important in contributing to the general direction and policy of the college.
This does not mean that the Milner Group is identical with All Souls, but merely that it is the chief, if not the controlling, influence in it, especially in recent years. Many members of the Milner Group are not members of All Souls, and many members of All Souls are not members of the Milner Group.
The fact that All Souls is influenced by some outside power has been recognized by others, but no one so far as I know has succeeded in identifying this influence. The erratic Christopher Hobhouse, in his recent book on Oxford, has come closer than most when he wrote: "The senior common room at All Souls is distinguished above all others by the great brains which meet there and by the singular unfruitfulness of their collaboration.... But it is not these who make the running. Rather is it the Editor of The Times and his circle of associates — men whom the public voice has called to no office and entrusted with no responsibility. These individuals elect to consider themselves the powers behind the scenes. The duty of purveying honest news is elevated in their eyes into the prerogative of dictating opinion. It is at All Souls that they meet to decide just how little they will let their readers know; and their newspaper has been called the All Souls Parish Magazine." (3) The inaccuracy and bitterness of this statement is caused by the scorn which a devotee of the humanities feels toward the practitioners of the social sciences, but the writer was shrewd enough to see that an outside group dominates All Souls. He was also able to see the link between All Souls and The Times, although quite mistaken in his conclusion that the latter controls the former. As we shall see, the Milner Group dominates both.
In the present chapter we are concerned only with the relationship between the Cecil Bloc and All Souls and shall reserve our consideration of the relationships between the Milner Group and the college to a later chapter. The former relationship can be observed in the following list of names, a list which is by no means complete:
Name / College / Fellow of All Souls
C. A. Alington, 1872- / Trinity, Oxford 1891-1895 / 1896-1903
W. R. Anson, 1843-1914 / Balliol 1862-1866 / 1867-1914; Warden 1881-1914
G. N. Curzon, 1859-1925 / Balliol 1878-1822 / 1883-1890
A. H. Hardinge, 1859-1933 / Balliol 1878-1881 / 1881-
A. C. [Arthur Cayley] Headlam, 1862- / New College 1881-1885 / 1885-1897, 1924-
H. H. Henson, 1863- / Non-Collegiate 1881-1884 / 1884-1891, 1896-1903; 1939
C. G. Lang, 1864-1945 / Balliol 1882-1886 / 1888-1928
F. W. Pember, 1862- / Balliol 1880-1884 / 1884-1910- Warden, 1914-1932
W. G. F. Phillimore, 1845-1929 / Christ Church 1863-1867 / -
R. E. Prothero, 1852-1937 / Balliol 1871-1875 / 1875-1891
E. Ridley, 1843-1928 / Corpus Christi 1862-1866 / 1866-1882
M. W. Ridley, 1842-1904 / Balliol 1861-1865 / 1865-1874
J. Simon, 1873- / Wadham 1892-1896 / 1897-
F. J. N. Thesiger, 1868-1933 / Magdalen 1887-1891 / 1892-1899, 1929-1933
-- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, by Carroll Quigley
Education
Headlam became increasingly involved with "educational reform".[31]
Education was one of the two top priorities for Headlam in post-curacy years. He had long viewed education as essential for social transformation, So in 1882, he was elected to the London School Board, an activity that he continued the rest of his life. The London School Board was absorbed into the London County Council in 1903, so Headlam ran for and was elected to the London County Council for the Progressive Party in 1907 as a way of continuing his work in educational reform. He sat on the council until his death.[61]
Land Question
The "Land Question" was the other issue that occupied Headlam in his mature years.[62] The Land Question was about "the use and ownership of land" and "landlordism" and many remedies were proposed.[63]
Lectures offered by the Guild of St Matthew emphasised "the land question as fundamental" for Christian socialists.[45] After reading Henry George's Progress and Poverty (1886), Headlam asserted that "Land Nationalization is a necessary corollary of Christian Socialism."[64]‹See TfM›[failed verification]
In 1906, Headlam began the Anti-Puritan League, but it gained only few members.[53]
In 1907, Headlam published The Socialist's Church.
Vindication
After years of conflict with and dismissals by his ecclesiastical superiors, Headlam was vindicated at the end of his life.
In October 1924, during his terminal illness, Headlam received a letter from Randall Davidson the Archbishop of Canterbury.
My dear Headlam,
I hear a report that you are unwell. I hope that it is not serious and work can go on, for I fear that your absence in some circles, educational and other, would be bad for 'affairs' in the country. You, at least, whatever be said about the rest of us, have been consistent in your devotion to the cause or causes for which you care. God keep and bless you.
Most truly yours, Randall Cantaur
Headlam immediately replied with a "heartfelt letter of thanks". He later commented, "Now I feel I can say that I have won."[20]
Death
Within a month, more heart attacks led to Headlam's death at his home, "Wavertree", Peter's Road, St Margaret's-on-Thames, Middlesex, on 18 November 1924.[31]
His funeral was held at All Souls in St Margarets and he was buried at East Sheen Cemetery on 24 November.[20]
Retrospection
"Despite Headlam's energy, his rebellious character and his unusual combination of socialism with Christian sacramentalism deprived him of much permanent influence either in the church or in the political world. His practical achievements were limited. He was a prophetic figure, whose passion for social justice was to inspire the small group of Anglican clergy exploring the political application of Christian social concern in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."[31]
Works
• The Church Catechism and the Emancipation of Labour (London: 1875)
• Theatres & Music Halls: a Lecture Given at the Commonwealth Club, Bethnal Green, on Sunday, October 7, 1877 (Westminster: Women's Printing Society, 2nd Ed; rprt Forgotten Books, 2015)
• Priestcraft and Progress: Being Sermons and Lectures (London: Hodges, 1878)
• The Service of Humanity and Other Sermons (London: J. Hodges, 1882 )
• The Sure Foundation: An Address Given before the Guild of S. Matthew, At the Annual Meeting, 1883 (London: F. Verinder, 1883)
• Lessons from the Cross: Addresses Given on Good Friday (London: F. Verinder, 1886)
• The Aggressive Archangel: a Sermon (London: F. Verinder, 1887)
• The Theory of Theatrical Dancing with a Chapter on Pantomime: Edited from Carlo Blasis' Code of Terpsichore with the Original Plates (London: F. Verinder, 1888)
• The Laws of Eternal Life Being Studies in the Church Catechism (London: William Reeves, 1888; rprt Elibron Classics, 2005)
• The Function of the Stage (London: F. Verinder, 1889).
• The Ballet (London, 1894)
• Christian Socialism: A Lecture Fabian Tract No. 42 (London: The Fabian Society, 1894.)
• The Guild of St. Matthew: What it is and who should join it (London: Guild of St Matthews, 1895.)
• Classical Poetry (London: 1898)
• The Place of the Bible in Secular Education: An Open Letter to the Teachers under the London School Board (London: S. C. Brown, Langham, and Co., 1903)
• The Meaning of the Mass: Five Lectures and Other Sermons and Addresses (London: S. C. Brown, Langham and Co., 1905; rprt Forgotten Books, 2015))
• Preface to The Mother Kate, Old Soho Days and Other Memories (London: Mowbray & Co., 1906; rprt Leopold Classic Library, 2015))
• Socialism and Religion Fabian Socialist Series, No 1 (London: Fifield, 1908.)
• Fabianism and Land Values: A Lecture delivered to the Fabian Society on October 23, 1908 (London: Office of the English League for the Taxation of Land Values, 1908)
• The Socialist's Church (London: G. Allen, 1907).
Publication information not found
• The Secular Work of Jesus Christ and His Apostles: An Address to the Society of Secularists.
• Salvation Through Christ: A Sermon Preached for the Guild of St. Matthew (London: F. Verinder)
• The Clergy as Public Leaders: A Paper Read before the Junior Clergy Society of London
• Some Old Words on the War
References
Citations
1. Haggard 2001, p. 87.
2. Levin 1993.
3. Sachs 1976.
4. Simkin, John (2014) [1997]. "Stewart Headlam". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
5. Norman 2002, p. 102.
6. Jones 1968, p. 13.
7. Orens 2003, p. 13.
8. Orens 2003, p. 17.
9. Beeson 2013, p. 32.
10. Jones 1968, p. 96.
11. "Obituary for 1895". The Eagle: A Magazine Supported by Members of St John's College. Vol. 19. Cambridge, England: E. Johnson. 1896. p. 199. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
12. Beukel 2005, p. 145.
13. "History". London: St Matthew's, Bethnal Green. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
14. Beukel 2005, pp. 145–146.
15. Beeson 2013, p. 31.
16. Orens 2003, p. 20.
17. Jones 1968, p. 145.
18. Orens 2003, p. 21.
19. Stanton, Theodore (2 September 1886). "Free Thought in England". The Index. 18 (871). Boston, Massachusetts. p. 113. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
20. Day, Martyn (14 April 2009). "The Turbulent Priest from St Peters Road". St Margarets Community Website. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
21. Norman 2002, p. 104.
22. Orens 2003, pp. 21, 50.
23. "The Headlam Testimonial". The Era. 23 June 1878. p. 14.
24. Jones 1968, p. 100.
25. "Marriages". London Evening Standard. 29 January 1878. p. 1.
26. Norman 2002, p. 103.
27. Orens 2003, p. 37.
28. Orens 2003, pp. 37–38.
29. Jones 1968, p. 102.
30. The Sunday Magazine for Family Reading. Vol. 9. London: Isbister and Company. 1880. p. 860.
31. Morris 2004.
32. Woodworth 1903, pp. 100–101.
33. Norman 2002, p. 104; Woodworth 1903, pp. 100–101.
34. Hennel 1977, p. 525.
35. Woodworth 1903, p. 104.
36. Woodworth 1903, pp. 114–115.
37. Jones 1968, p. 155.
38. Beeson 2013, p. 33; Norman 2002, p. 104.
39. Headlam, Stewart D. (1890). The Guild of St. Matthew: An Appeal to Churchmen. London. p. 13. Quoted in Woodworth 1903, p. 114.
40. Woodworth 1903, pp. 115–116.
41. Woodworth 1903, p. 120.
42. Woodworth 1903, pp. 122–123.
43. Leech 1989, p. 3.
44. Jones 1968, p. 99.
45. Woodworth 1903, p. 123.
46. Norman 2002, pp. 104, 106.
47. Norman 2002, p. 104; Porter 2004, p. 234.
48. Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, Issues 325–326 (Columbia University Press, 1930), 231.
49. Headlam 1877, p. v.
50. Condon 2007, p. 148.
51. Linder 2007.
52. Harris 2007, p. 154.
53. Beeson 2013, p. 33.
54. "Oscar Wilde Arrested – April 6, 1895". This Day in History. History. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
55. Jones 1968, p. 148.
56. Orens 2003, p. 124.
57. Jones 1968, p. 147.
58. Orens 2003, p. 120.
59. Beeson 2013, pp. 31, 33.
60. Orens 2003, p. 97.
61. Morris 2004; Norman 2002, pp. 113–115.
62. Norman 2002, p. 115.
63. Cragoe & Readman 2010.
64. Woodworth 1903, pp. 160–161.
Works cited
Beeson, Trevor (2013). Priests and Politics: The Church Speaks Out. London: SCM Press.
Beukel, Karlien van den (2005). "Arthur Symon's Night Life". In Tinkler-Villani, Valeria (ed.). Babylon or New Jerusalem? Perceptions of the City in Literature. DQR Studies in Literature. 32. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-420-1873-0. ISSN 0921-2507.
Condon, Joey A. (2007). An Examination into the History and Present Interrelationship between the Church and the Theatre Exemplified by the Manhattan Church of the Nazarene, the Lambs Club, and the Lamb's Theatre Company as a Possible Paradigm (MA thesis). Kansas City, Missouri: University of Missouri–Kansas City. Retrieved 19 December 2017 – via ProQuest.
Cragoe, Matthew; Readman, Paul, eds. (2010). The Land Question in Britain, 1750–1950. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230248472. ISBN 978-0-230-24847-2.
Haggard, Robert F. (2001). The Persistence of Victorian Liberalism: The Politics of Social Reform in Britain, 1870–1900. Contributions to the Study of World History. 77. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-31305-9. ISSN 0885-9159.
Harris, Frank (2007) [1910]. Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions. Ware, England: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-84022-554-9.
Headlam, Stewart D. (1877). Theatres & Music Halls: A Lecture Given at the Commonwealth Club, Bethnal Green, on Sunday, October 7, 1877 (2nd ed.). London: Women's Printing Society. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
Hennel, Michael (1977). "The Oxford Movement". The History of Christianity. Berkhamsted, England: Lion Publishing.
Jones, Peter d'Alroy (1968). Christian Socialist Revival, 1877–1914: Religion, Class, and Social Conscience in Late-Victorian England. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press (published 2015). ISBN 978-1-4008-7697-6.
Leech, Kenneth (1989). The Radical Anglo-Catholic Social Vision. Discussion Papers. 2. Edinburgh: Centre for Theology and Public Issues. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
Levin, Bernard (1993). "Headlam, Stewart Duckworth (1847–1924)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
Linder, Douglas O. (2007). The Trials of Oscar Wilde: An Account. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1023971.
Morris, Jeremy (2004). "Headlam, Stewart Duckworth (1847–1924)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37527. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8.
Norman, Edward R. (2002). The Victorian Christian Socialists. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Orens, John Richard (2003). Stewart Headlam's Radical Anglicanism: The Mass, the Masses, and the Music Hall. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
Porter, Andrew (2004). Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700–1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Sachs, William L. (1976). "Stewart Headlam and the Fabian Society". Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. 45 (2): 201–210. ISSN 2377-5289. JSTOR 42973507.
Woodworth, Arthur V. (1903). Christian Socialism in England. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
Further reading
Bettany, Frederick George (1926). Stewart Headlam: A Biography.
Leech, Kenneth (1968). "Stewart Headlam". In Reckitt, Maurice B. (ed.). For Christ and the People: Studies of Four Socialist Priests and Prophets of the Church of England Between 1870 and 1930. London: SPCK. OCLC 575522841.
External links
• Profile on the St Margaret's Community website
• Profile on the Headlam Genealogy website