Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pardoe, William
PARDOE, WILLIAM (d. 1692), baptist divine, was apparently a native of Worcester, where, on 6 May 1650 and 13 Aug. 1652, his name appears as an assistant sequestrator (Cal. State Papers, Committee for Compounding, p. 237; and Committee for Advance of Money, p. 106). Before 1660, however, he had joined the baptists, and in that year signed the ‘Briefe Confession or Declaration of Faith set forth by many of us who are falsly called Anabaptists.’ He travelled about at this time, preaching in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, and neighbouring counties, and was at length apprehended and put in prison at Leicester in August 1675. From the gaol he corresponded with his friend Lawrence Spooner of Curborough, who was afterwards converted and baptised by him. During his imprisonment Pardoe commenced writing ‘Ancient Christianity revived; being a Description of the Doctrine, Discipline, and Practice of the Little City Bethania. Collected out of her great charter, the Holy Scriptures, and confirmed by the same, for the satisfaction and benefit of the house of the poor. By one of her Inhabitants, who desireth to worship God after the way which some men call heresie,’ London, 1688. The book was afterwards finished in Worcester gaol. It was dedicated to his ‘much esteemed friends of the baptist churches of Leominster, Worcester, and Lichfield.’ On 1 Oct. 1683 a large meeting was held at Spooner's house. Pardoe was apparently present, but informers were there, and some of the worshippers were imprisoned for some weeks.
Pardoe became pastor of a baptist church in Lichfield about 1688. The letter, undated, in which he speaks of preaching at Dudley, and of a severe illness at Bristol, which ‘makes him think his travelling will not be long,’ was probably written earlier. He died in August 1692.
Pardoe is spoken of as a ‘worthy, humble, self-denying preacher,’ useful and very successful as a minister. His sentiments were identical with those of the particular baptists, except that he accepted universal redemption. Besides ‘Ancient Christianity revived,’ he wrote while in Leicester gaol (June 1675) another devotional work, entitled ‘The Mariner's Compass.’
Another William Pardoe, of Worcester, who was probably a relative, was several times imprisoned between 4 July 1670 and 29 May 1685 as a quaker at Worcester, and in 1681 was distrained upon for goods of the value of 100l., which were afterwards redeemed by a person unknown to him (Besse, Sufferings, ii. 69, 77, 83, 84, 89).
[Four of Pardoe's letters to Lawrence Spooner were printed from the originals in the Baptist Magazine, 1810–11, pp. 56, 289, 413, 503; Spooner's Manuscript Journal (published by a descendant, Samuel James, in An Abstract of Gracious Dealings, &c.), 10th ed. London, 1842, pp. 71, 73, 74, 78, 81, 82, 96; Wood's Hist. of Gen. Bapt. p. 156; Ivimey's Hist. of Baptists, ii. 208, 580; Whiston's Memorials, ii. 575; Taylor's Hist. of Gen. Bapt. i. 236; Crosby's Hist. of Engl. Bapt. iii. 114.]