“Two or three times the mob came to destroy our Temple, upon the supposition that we were against Church and King, as the Unitarians were supposed to be, and the last time the mob came by thousands, with wood under their arms to burn our Temple; I rush’d in amongst the crowd, to the ring leader, explained to him that we had no connection with Dr. Priestley or that Party, and that we wished no ill to the Church, or the King, and putting a guinea or two into their hands (N.B.—this was given by Mr. Hand’s brother), they went away with ‘Huzza to the New Jerusalem for ever.’ Thus the temple escaped destruction. After the mob was dispersed and peace restored, we were quiet and successful as before” (Joseph Proud, unpublished Memoir, 1822. In Early History of the New Church in Birmingham, by E.J.E. Schreck, 1916, 32).

This dramatic attack on the New Jerusalem Temple in Birmingham—the first building in the world erected specifically for New Church worship—took place in 1791 (see last week’s New Church History Fun Fact, “First New Church Place of Worship in the World.” The attack took place less than a month after the Temple’s dedication during what later became known as the “Priestley riots.” Joseph Priestley, a scientist and Unitarian clergyman, was one of the principal targets of the riots due to his well-known admiration for the French Revolution. A dinner held on July 14th to commemorate the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille had been the immediate cause of the rioting.

Joseph Priestley had first come into contact with members of the Birmingham society at the dedication services held on June 19th. The various services throughout the day had attracted a great deal of attention in Birmingham, and Priestley, like many others, attended. Robert Hindmarsh, one of the early leaders of the New Church in England, later wrote that Priestley was “an attentive hearer, who afterwards expressed his surprise, and indeed satisfaction, at the proceedings of the day. He was invited to tea by Mr. Samuel Hands, an active and zealous member of the Church, at whose house a number of friends were assembled to give the doctor a meeting” (Robert Hindmarsh, Rise and Progress of the New Church. In Early History of the New Church in Birmingham, by E.J.E. Schreck, 1916, 29).

The lively religious debate that followed, principally involving Hindmarsh and Priestley, led Priestley to write his Letters to the Members of the New Jerusalem Church, advancing his arguments against their doctrines. He was scheduled to meet with “the minister [Joseph Proud], and the heads of the society, on Friday the 15th of July” to discuss his Letters, but on the 14th Priestley’s house and library were destroyed by rioters, including the manuscript which he had planned to deliver to the printer. He did have a copy of his first draft, which was in the possession of a friend, and he proceeded to rewrite the document after relocating to London soon after the riots (see Early History of the New Church in Birmingham, by E.J.E. Schreck, 1916, 31).

Joseph Proud wrote a pamphlet in response to Priestley, and later Robert Hindmarsh “published a longer and more thorough-going answer to Priestley the next year. The great demand for his Letters to Priestley made a second edition (1822) necessary” (Schreck, 32).

Illustrations: Early History of the New Church in Birmingham, by E.J.E. Schreck, 1916.

For more about the “Priestley riots,” see Eugene Schreck’s Early History of the New Church in Birmingham (1916).

NOTE TO OUR READERS: NewChurchHistory.org is now fully searchable! Queries will return results from all articles and books, photo albums in the New Church History Image Project, and the entire archive of “New Church History Fun Facts.”