David Livingstone in Ongar and Stanford Rivers

David Livingstone was 25 years old when he left Glasgow in 1838 to spend 15 months training with the London Missionary Society, based at the Congregational Church in Ongar. Livingstone arrived in Ongar an idealistic young man who had suspended his medical studies to spread the word of God.

The Reverend Richard Cecil, who was minister at Ongar between 1834- 1847, was an accomplished tutor and it was his custom to receive into the cottages at the front of the Church young men who were to be given some preliminary education before taking up college studies for missionary work. The students were taught Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Theology. Cecil was not impressed by Livingstone, describing him as “worthy but not brilliant” and commented that his studying was “steady but not rapid.” He declared that, in his opinion, he would never make a missionary! Livingstone was made to do an extra year by the London Missionary Society before he was allowed to go.

Ongar Congregational Church
© Ongar Churches Together

The Ongar Congregational Church had been founded in 1662 by the ministers and worshippers from St Martin’s church in Ongar, who had been ejected from their church under the Test Act 1661. The rector of St Martin’s at the time was the Revd. John Lorkin. He was ejected for refusing among other things to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer.
In 1838 Livingstone was sent to preach at the at the Independent Chapel in Stanford Rivers, He is said to have suffered from ‘stage fright’ and to have been unable to finish his sermon. He quoted his text and said “Friends, I have forgotten all I had to say” and stepped down from the pulpit. He apologised to his audience, which included a disappointed Rev Cecil, and fled.
It appears Livingstone embraced Ongar, visiting The Royal Oak pub in the High Street at the end of a long day. While accounts by his fellow students describe him as a rather withdrawn man, he fell in love with a local merchant’s daughter, Catherine Ridley. However she did not return his feelings, eventually marrying his friend Thomas Prentice.
A more forceful side of his character, which was to stand him in great stead in later years, showed through when, taking his studies seriously, he set out for London to visit a sick friend and guided only by a compass he crossed over fields, hedges, ditches and streams to reach his destination and returned home in the same manner.
The URC still has the walking stick Livingstone used in Africa.
NOTES on the CHAPEL at STANFORD RIVERS
20 October 1819 a small place of worship, originally a cottage, was opened for the use of dissenters. Sermons were preached at the opening service by the Revd. James Stratten of Paddington and the Revd. Edward Andrews of Walworth. A Sunday school was attached to the chapel. Arrangements had been made for the supply of preachers from Hoxton Academy.
On 27 June 1820 a new chapel, specially built and seating 300, was opened in place of the converted cottage, on the corner of Church Road and Hare Street, Stanford Rivers. Stratten and Andrews were again the preachers at the opening. Two local residents had each contributed £100 towards the cost of the chapel. Supplies were still being sent by Hoxton.

The Chapel at Stanford Rivers, circa 1927
In 1827 the site, chapel, and vestry, with a stable and outhouses, were conveyed to trustees, among whom were Stratten, then of Maida Vale, and Thomas Kingsbury of Stanford Rivers. The trust deed stipulated that the buildings should be used for 'a congregation of Protestant Dissenters usually denominated Calvinists of the Independent Denomination'.
In 1829 the congregation numbered 150 and there was a minister, William Temple. There was a minister in 1846-7 and another in 1850-3. From about 1854 the chapel was served mainly by the ministers of the Congregational church at Chipping Ongar. Isaac Jennings, formerly the minister at Ongar, had charge at Stanford Rivers during his retirement in 1863.
A new trust was appointed in 1877. In 1904 there were 34 Sunday-school children and 2 teachers. The chapel was burnt down in 1927.
Funds were raised to rebuild the chapel, but the work was never carried out and in 1955 the funds were used to build the David Livingstone Congregational church in Harlow.