Rev. William Bagshawe, of Ford Hall, co Derby

William Bagshaw or Bagshall (1628 – 1702) was an English presbyterian and nonconformist minister, known as the "Apostle of the Peak".

He was born at Litton, Derbyshire, in the parish of Tideswell, 17 January 1628, the son of William Bagshaw of Hucklow. He received his early education at country schools, and met puritan ministers, Rowlandson of Bakewell and Bourn of Ashover. He entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1646. He preached his first sermon in the chapel of Warmhill, in his native parish. From Tideswell he moved to Attercliffe, in Yorkshire. Here he occupied a twofold post, being assistant to the Rev. James Fisher of Sheffield, and chaplain in the family of Colonel John Bright. He received presbyterian ordination in 1651 at Chesterfield, and after some time was presented to the living of Glossop.

After the Restoration and the Act of Uniformity 1662 he gave up his living and retired to Ford Hall near Chinley, in an adjacent parish. He lived as a country gentleman, attended the parish church, but continued to preach and regularly conducted a service on Thursday evenings in his own house. After the Declaration of Indulgence of 1672, he felt free to preach regularly in his former parish and in the neighbourhood. He lectured at Ashford, Malcoffe, Middleton, Bradwell, Chalmarton, and Hucklow. When the Declaration was recalled by Charles II, he continued to preach secretly. There were several ineffective warrants issued against him. While James II's 'Declaration for Liberty of Conscience' was in force, and again through the beginning of William and Mary's reign, he was an incessant preacher. He died on 1 April 1702, and was buried at Chapel-en-le-Frith.

His Life and Funeral Sermon was published by John Ashe (1704),the main source of information concerning him.

He left manuscripts (fifty volumes) but little survived. His published books are all short. Their (abbreviated) titles are:

   * 'Waters for a Thirsty Soul, in several sermons on Rev. xxi. 6.' London, 1653.

* 'Of Christ's Purchase,' to which is prefixed his 'Confession of Faith.'
* 'Rules for our Behaviour every Day and for sanctifying the Sabbath, with Hints for Communicants.'
* 'The Ready Way to prevent Sin,' on Prov. xxx. 22, with 'A Bridle for the Tongue,' on St. Matt. X. 36.
* The 'Miner's Monitor.'
* The 'Sinner in Sorrow and the Humble Sinner's Modest Request.'
* 'Brief Directions for the Improvement of Infant Baptism.'
* The 'Riches of Grace,' three parts.
* 'Trading Spiritualized,' three parts.
* 'De Spiritualibus Pecci: Notes concerning the Work of God, and some that have been walkers together with God in the High Peak of Derbyshire,' a biographical work (London, 1702).
* 'Principiis Obsta,' 1671.
* 'Sheet for Sufferers.'
* 'Matters for Mourning' — posthumous.
* 'Essays on Union to Christ,' which appeared after his death.
Further notes:-Rev. William Bagshawe 1628- 1702. “The Apostle of the Peak”

Married Ann Barker daughter of Peter Barker of Darley Dale on 16th June 1650.

It was at Lytton Hall that the Apostle of the Peak was born on the 17th of January, 1628. We rather fancy that his religious proclivities were fostered by his mother, who was an Oldfield, and aunt - if we mistake not - to that John Oldfield who was shut out from the Church on that black August day. At an early age Bagshawe was sent to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he took his degree before he was eighteen. Having determined to enter the Church, he studied theology under Rowlandson of Bakewell, and Bourne, of Ashover. How Bourne was driven from Ashover in 1642, on account of his Presbyterian doctrines; how he was rewarded by the Puritan Government with the Rectory of Waltham, and that of Ayleston, County Leicester, where he died; how he was a famous preacher at Paul's Cross and St. Sepulchre's; how he tried to smash up the Quakers and got it warm from George Fox, and how he conformed to the Act of Uniformity, unlike his pupil, in 1662, we may show in a future article. Bagshawe became an assistant minister at St. Peter's, Sheffield, and three years later was ordained at Chesterfield. His first sermon was preached in the old Church of St. Margaret, Wormhill. His first and only living was at Glossop, which he held for eight years. When persecution came, all the nobility of his character was at once apparent. Then was seen how deeply he had grafted his teaching in the hearts of the people.

His labours were among the poorest and most neglected in the wildest parts of the Peak district. From Chinley to Monyash no weather was too severe, no moorland cot too far removed. They built him chapels at Malcalf, Chinley, Ashford, and Ford. A little anecdote told by Ashe will illustrate how successful were his labours during the six-and-twenty years which elapsed between his expulsion from Glossop and the Act of William III., which gave toleration to the Nonconformists. There was a home of a cobbler that Bagshawe had frequently to pass, and the divine invited the "man of the last" to attend his gatherings. He received as reply: "I have no time to spare, for I have a wife and family to maintain". Having ascertained what would be the pecuniary loss of the man if he came, he gave him the money. The next time the divine came that way, he found he was being followed by the cobbler. "What, are you going? I thought thou couldst not spare time to hear preaching because thou hadst a wife and family to maintain, and I cannot afford to pay thee every time". "You shall never pay me any more. I'll never stay behind again. It was the best money I ever addled".

The officials who were sent to arrest him for his preaching never sought to execute their warrants. The fact that when he died they buried him in the chancel of the church at Chapel-en-le-Frith, shows the respect of Episcopalians as well as Dissenters. Of the many theological works of which he was the author (rather more than fifty, we believe) his Spiritualibus Pecci is, perchance, the most valuable, as it furnishes us with the names of those Derbyshire men who, like himself, were Nonconformist clergymen, whom persecution failed to deter from their labours of piety and charity. There are two, if not three, of the divine's works in the Sheffield Free Library, published about 1695, while he was yet living, and, what is so interesting, by a firm of that town. Many admirers of Bagshawe forget a fact which knits him closer to our affections. From his entering,the Church he gave offence to his father, and forfeited, by so doing, the most valuable portion of the property that would otherwise have been his. And yet he requested his father "to charge the estate, that was to be left to himself, with a sum of money for the use of his sister Susannah, as an addition to her fortune, although his share of the property was not a third in real value of what was devised to one of his younger brothers". The father, sensible of his partiality, replied, "Son, I have left you too little already". But as Clegg (the biographer of Ashe) observes, there has been a blessing on that "little", which has increased amazingly, while the greater estates are gone. They passed to the Riches of Bull House. It is worthy of note that one of the nieces of the apostle became the maternal ancestor of the Beaumonts, of Bretton Hall, Yorkshire; of the Smiths, Lords Carrington; and of the Burnabys, of Baggrave Hall, County Leicester. Private documents at Ford show there has been a fast friendship between the family and the noble house of Cavendish, Dukes of Devonshire, for the last two centuries; and we find a grandson of the divine riding into Derby with a party of eight hundred strong, to plump for Lord Charles, at the election of 1734.