The pastor they called the saint

February 27, 2004

KINGHORN ROAD
(Colman Road)

JOSEPH Kinghorn, sage and saint, was the much respected minister of the Baptist Church in Norwich from 1789 until his death in 1832.

The new St Mary’s was opened in 1812. It was destroyed by fire in 1939 and then bombed in the Norwich Blitz of 1942.

He was a minister clever enough to keep his nose out of dangerous politics who became a popular man of the church and a leading city citizen.

The Rev Kinghorn was born at Gateshead in 1766 and after working as a clerk, became a pastor at Fairford in Gloucester but he only remained there for less than a year.

In March 1789, he arrived in Norwich, where he was ordained to the pastorate of the historic St Mary’s Baptist Church where he stayed for many years.

He built up a large and devoted congregation and in 1812 a new chapel was opened for public worship.

According to the Norwich Mercury (now the Evening News): “The building is calculated to contain 700 to 800 persons and great care has been successfully bestowed upon the general arrangements.”

It went on: “The style of the architecture is pure, plain and light, the seats are spacious, the roof lofty and the chapel warm, though well ventilated.”

The report described how Rev Kinghorn delivered a sermon with “unaffected zeal” to the numerous congregation whose attention was exemplary.

The old church was said to be “altogether both within and without one of the handsomest Baptist meeting houses in the kingdom.”

Kinghorn came to be revered as a sage and a saint. The church grew and prospered under his leadership.

He was described as a learned pastor and the people loved him.

A book was later written in his honour. It published hundreds of the letters that he wrote during his lifetime. The weather was a constant topic and in the winter of 1700 he described how it was so cold that the beer had frozen!

He died in September 1832 and was buried in the vestibule of St Mary’s Church.

On September 10, 1939, one week after the start of the Second World War, the old sanctuary at St Mary’s, built by Kinghorn and then refitted by John Howard Shakespeare, was destroyed by fire.

A great effort was made to rebuild it but then, in the Blitz of 1942, not only the church but the adjoining school buildings were blown up.

It wasn’t until 10 years later that St Mary’s was finally rebuilt again.

What's in a Name homepage