Thursday 31 March 2016

John Skinner

This plaque is found in the Old Baptist Chapel at Ryeford, Herefordshire. Put up in 1870, it memorialises the first pastor John Skinner who was ejected in 1662 from the parish church in the next village Weston Under Penyard. It includes this poem by Isaac Watts
 
Let Caesar's dues be ever paid
To Caesar and his throne;
But consciences and souls were made
To be the Lord's alone.

Despite its bold assertions, the idea that he was one of the ejected is refuted in an interesting article here from the Baptist Quarterly.