While investigating the local history of a meeting house in the town of Cockermouth, in Cumbria, England, I came across a reference to a "Brief Memoir of the Late Isaac Brown, Esq. of Cockermouth, Cumberland." in the Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, June 1823.
An excerpt of this memoir is below, and refers to "four worthy confessors on the memorable Bartholomew-day of 1662". I presume this is referring to the Great Ejection of 1662, where Puritan ministers who had not agreed to conform to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer were ejected from the Church of England.
What I'm unclear about, is what the text is referring to when it says the neighbourhood "witnessed" the four ministers. Is it just referring to the fact that these ministers preached in the neighbourhood, was there some kind of ceremony on that Bartholomew's day, or something else? If this is referring to a ceremony, was this just a local occurrence or more widespread?
With the martyrs and men of God celebrated by inspired history, we can associate, though of course of a humbler rank, those of the Puritanic and Nonconformist race; for to them the united voice of public testimony has applied the language of the Apostle, "of whom the world was not worthy." In this honourable connexion stood the deceased friend and "father in Israel," whose life is here the subject of instructive consideration.
Isaac Brown was paternally descended from some of the very earliest Nonconformists in the county of Cumberland. The family estate was at Scales, in Leath Ward, the immediate neighbourhood of which had the honour of witnessing no fewer than four worthy confessors on the memorable Bartholomew-day of 1662: John Rogers, of Croglin; George Nicholson, of Kirkoswald; Simon Atkinson, of Lazonby; and William Hopkins, of Melmerby. On the ministry of these eminent men, the family of the Browns attended in public and private; and participated alike in their adverse as well as prosperous circumstances.
