William Coward

William Coward (1648–1738) was a London merchant in the Jamaica trade, remembered for his support of Dissenters, particularly his educational philanthropy. Life After a period in Jamaica, where he built up an estate (see Sugar plantations in the Caribbean), he retired to Walthamstow in 1685, and built an Independent meeting house there, with Hugh Farmer as the first minister. He became known for strict household arrangements, his doors being closed against visitors at 8 pm. He was spoken of as eccentric in his old age and he had a very public quarrel with Thomas Bradbury. Coward instituted a course of 26 lectures On the most important Doctrines of the Gospel, in the church of Paved Alley, Lime Street; they were published in two volumes in 1730-1 and became known as the "Lime Street Lectures". A total of nine preachers took part, among them Abraham Taylor and John Gill. (This was not the first lecture series Coward had sponsored: the first was at Little St. Helen's in 1726.) A third course took place at Bury Street, St. Mary-Axe, in 1733, this last set being printed in 1735. These lecture series retained their influence a century later, Samuel Miller writing that "The Lime Street and Bury Street Lectures, contain some of the most able, useful, and pious disquisitions of the English dissenting divines." In the spring of 1734 he contemplated founding a dissenting academy at Walthamstow, for the education of children of Dissenters for the ministry, and the post of professor of divinity was offered to Philip Doddridge, after hesitations over whether Taylor should have the position. The scheme itself came to nothing, although Coward continued, while alive, to assist the poorer ministers and to aid in the teaching of their children. He died at Walthamstow on 28 April 1738, aged ninety.