Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crewdson, Isaac

by Charles William Sutton

CREWDSON, ISAAC (1780–1844), author of ‘A Beacon to the Society of Friends,’ was a native of Kendal, Westmoreland, where he was born on 6 June 1780, but from his fifteenth year he resided at Manchester, and engaged in the cotton trade. He was a minister of the Society of Friends from 1816 until about 1836. In his ‘Beacon to the Society of Friends’ (1835) he gave utterance to a conviction that the quaker doctrines were in some particulars contrary to Scripture. The book caused an active controversy, which resulted in his secession, along with that of many others, from the society in 1836. He published several other works, including:

1. 'Hints on a Musical Festival at Manchester,' 1827.
2. 'Trade to the East Indies' (referring to West Indian slavery), about 1827.
3. 'The Doctrine of the New Testament on Prayer,' 1831.
4. 'A Defence of the Beacon,' 1836.
5. 'Water Baptism an Ordinance of Christ,’ 1837.
6. 'The Trumpet Blown, or an Appeal to the Society of Friends,' 1838.
7. 'Observations on the New Birth,' 1844.

He also published in 1829 abridgments of Baxter's 'Saint's Rest,' and Andrew Fuller on 'Religious Declension.' Crewdson in his twenty-fourth year married Elizabeth Jowitt of Leeds. He died at Bowness on 8 May 1844, and was buried at Rusholme Road cemetery, Manchester.

[Jos. Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books, i. 462; The Crisis of the Quaker Contest in Manchester, 1837; Braithwaite's Memoirs of J. J. Gurney, ii. 13 seq.; Memoir prefixed to a tract by I. Crewdson, entitled Glad Tidings for Sinners, privately printed, 1845.]

C. W. S.