Field House, Rimington: Good Advice from 1819

At Field House, a farm across the fields from the chapel, is an inscription carved into a stone tablet on the building’s frontage. Dating from 1819, just three years after the founding of the chapel, it reads:

Repeat no grievances but study to be quiet and Mind your own business. 

I've consulted our membership records for the time, and William Rushworth appears not. He may have been an adherent rather than a member, or he may have worshipped elsewhere, such as at the parish church at Gisburn. Alternatively, he may not have attended church at all. I wondered if it was a reference to the Bible or just a plain-talking piece of folk wisdom. I looked into the matter and found the following texts:

And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. 1 Thessalonians 4:11

This is so obviously referred to in the inscription, it’s almost a quotation. Regarding the repetition of grievances, however, I became more stuck. The closest I could find is

A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. Proverbs 29:11

and

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Colossians 3:13: 

I don’t know if William Rushworth was a Christian, but his advice is sound and it would do many a church member good to heed his words.