The Price of Freedom: Nottinghamshire's Thomas Helwys
Adrian Gray
- Regions:
- Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber
- Notice Period:
- Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Historian
- Fee:
- Paid: Minimum £60, around £1 per head if numbers exceed 50.
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 10th January 2023
- Tagged:
- Nottinghamshire | Christianity | Stuarts
Thomas Helwys, from an established Notts family, is one of the counties greatest men - yet also largely forgotten. Perhaps something of a rebel in his early years, he became a puritan radical and funded the escape of the 'Pilgrim generation' from England to the Netherlands in 1607-8.
At first working with John Smyth from Sturton le Steeple, he took the revolutionary decision to become a Baptist and risked his life by returning to England to start the Baptist denomination. He wrote a book of global significance, arguing that all religions should be free from government control, and for this was arrested and died in Newgate gaol.
However Helwys's ideas lived on to influence the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and his Church spread across the World. This talk tells his enthralling life story and explains why he is still so important today.
Views: 1457 | Enquiries: 0About Adrian Gray
I am a Cambridge-educated historian with around 30 published books on a variety of historical topics which you can see on my Amazon author page at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adrian-Gray/e/B0034P9K2M/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1529568674&sr=1-1
I specialise in the counties of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, but I also speak on a number of national issues such as Victorian crime and social history, the history of religious freedom, and the history of education and government inspection (which is a lot more interesting than it sounds!). I am one of the leaders of local community efforts to develop Christian heritage for tourism in Notts and Lincs, hosting coach tours from the USA and also very popular local history walks. I am fascinated by human stories so also do several talks to do with rebellious or scandalous people!
I provide a range of lively and fully-illustrated talks that can be tailored for local needs. You can email me for a full list of talks. I am a skilled presenter having worked as a teacher for many years and also as a tour guide in my home area.
How do you know I am any good? Well, I have a high level of repeat-invitations and can give some examples if you feel you need them.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Adrian Gray
- Freedom of Belief: A Gift to the World from Lincs and Notts
- Mayflower Pilgrims: Why did Their Leaders All come from Notts and Lincs?
- The Top Ten Scandals from Sherwood Forest
- America's Christian Heritage
- Tales from Darkest Lincolnshire
- The Wrays of Glentworth: Radical Gentry in Tudor England
- The 'Black Prince' of Scunthorpe
- East Coast Main Line Disasters
- Thomas Cooper of Gainsborough and Lincoln - Radical, Chartist, Poet, Preacher
- The Christian Heritage of Nottinghamshire
- The Christian Heritage of Lincolnshire
- Dangerous Women of Lincolnshire
- Lincolnshire’s Troublemakers – Hutchinson, Wheelwright and Sir Henry Vane
- Worksop, Witches and a Place in American History: the Life of Richard Bernard
- Love and Cannibals - a Victorian Widow's Journey to the Jungle
- The Capricious River Trent
- The Historical Landscape of Bassetlaw-North Nottinghamshire
- Mayflower Chaos: How the Story of what happened has been used and abused
- Scandals of the Lincolnshire Gentry
- Historical Highlights of the West Lindsey Landscape
- Kyrgyzstan - Mountains and Nomads
- By Train through the Andes
- Tudor Lincolnshire's Greatest Woman: Catherine Willoughby of Grimsthorpe
- The Historic Landscape of Newark and Sherwood
- Changing Life in Lincolnshire 1940-1980
- The Amazing Heritage Railways of Colorado
- Romance and Disaster – the Unfortunate Marriages of the Sherwood Aristocracy
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