William Goold, Etc.

[bookslover]

As we all know, William Goold (and others) put together sets of works by the Puritans in the 19th century.

Does anyone know anything about Goold himself? Or about how he went about editing these volumes?

Also, in the cases of John Owen, Richard Baxter, and lots of the other Puritans - do all these folks' original manuscripts still exist? For example (just to pick one): does Owen's original manuscript (his handwritten one, of course) of The Death of Death in the Death of Christ still exist, possibly sitting on a high shelf in some obscure library somewhere, with 7 inches of dust on it?

When Goold and the others did their work, did they have access to these manuscripts or did they have to rely on early published copies of these works?

Anyone know anything about any of this?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Here is a bit of information on Goold that I have compiled:

William Henry Goold was a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was a one-time moderator of the RP Synod and later, after his influence helped bring about the union of the Reformed Presbyterian and Free Presbyterian churches, he served as a moderator of the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly (1877). He was a professor of Biblical Literature and Church History with his colleague William Symington at the RP Divinity Hall. He pastored the Martyrs' Church in Edinburgh. He is of course most well known for editing the works of John Owen. He served on a 'Council of Publication,' along with James Begg, Thomas Smith and others, which edited and republished the works Richard Sibbes and Thomas Goodwin, William Gouge's Commentary on Hebrews, Samuel Smith on Psalm 1, Richard Gilpin's Treatise of Satan's Temptations, etc. Goold also edited some British editions of works by A.A. Hodge and served as editor of The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine. He is shown in the famous Disruption Picture a description of which says:

Immediately above Dr Paterson is Mr John Blackie, the founder of the publishing house of that name in Glasgow, and a liberal donor to the Church. And above him is his son, the Hon. John Blackie, Lord Provost of Glasgow. The group of ladies immediately behind the Sheriffs of Midlothian and Fife consists of Mrs Chalmers and her daughters, their order, from left to right of the spectator, being as follows:-Miss Margaret Chalmers' (afterwards Mrs Wood); Mrs Chalmers; Mrs MacKenzie (wife of the Rev. John MacKenzie); Miss Grace Chalmers; and Miss Fanny Chalmers, who is half hidden behind Principal Fairbairn of the Free Church College, Glasgow. Standing behind the first three ladies are the Rev. William Symington, D.D., author of Messiah, The Prince; the Rev. Andrew Symington, D.D. (cousin of the former), Paisley; and the Rev. William Henry Goold, D.D., all of the Reformed Presbyterian or Cameronian Church. Dr Goold took a leading part in the Union of the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Free Church in 1876.

In the context of discussion on whether John Owen returned to Presbyterianism, I have seen Goold described as 'congregationalistic.' William Balfour wrote against some of the views of Goold in Balfour's defense of the Establishment Principle. I'm not sure when Goold died but I found a book title of interest: Jubilee Services of the Rev. William H. Goold : Martyrs' Church Edinburgh, held 5th to 12th October, 1890.

His father, William Goold, was also a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and he died in 1844. I'm not sure if it was father or son who authored one of the Lectures on the Principles of the Second Reformation concerning patronage (1841), but at least one source indicates it was the son.

 

[bookslover]

Very interesting. Thanks for that.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

You're welcome! Here's another bit of interesting info from Alexander Whyte's bio on Thomas Goodwin:

It was in my third year at the University that I first became acquainted with Thomas Goodwin. On opening the 'Witness' newspaper one propitious morning, my eye fell on the announcement of a new edition of Thomas Goodwin's works. The advertised 'Council of Publication', as I remember well, made a deep impression upon me, and it will not be without interest to you to hear their honoured names even on this far-distant day. They were Dr Lindsay Alexander, of this city; Dr Begg, of this city; Dr Crawford, of the University of Edinburgh; Principal Cunningham, of this College; Mr Drummond, of St Thomas's Episcopal Church; Dr William Goold, of Martyr's Church. I entered my name at once as a subscriber to the series; and not long after, the first volume of Goodwin's works came into my hands. And I will here say with simple truth that his works have never been out of my hands down to this day. In those far-off years I read my Goodwin every Sabbath morning and every Sabbath night. Goodwin was my every Sabbath-day meat and my every Sabbath-day drink. And during my succeeding years as a student, and as a young minister, I carried about a volume of Goodwin wherever I went. I read him in railway carriages and on steamboats. I read him at home and abroad. I read him on my holidays among the Scottish Grampians and among the Swiss Alps. I carried his volumes about with me till they fell out of their original cloth binding, and till I got my book-binder to put them into his best morocco. I have read no other author so much and so often. And I continue to read him till this day as if I had never read him before.

 

[polemic_turtle]

I seem to remember reading about the process of printing an acceptable edition of Puritan works which said that they had to compare the various editions initially published since there were so many typos et al in the printed text. They said nothing of originals, so I assume that they're not available today. All of this was probably in Andrew Thompson's bio of Owen in volume 1 of his collected works.