to South Petherton, in Somersetshire. A place having been fitted up for Divine worship, Mr. Herdsman, in conjunction with other students, laboured in it with considerable success. In process of time, a church was formed, and Mr. Herdsman received an unanimous call to the pastoral office, which he accepted with much fear and trembling. His ordination soon after took place, a new place of worship was erected, and Messrs. Reader, Ashburn, English, and others engaged in the service. CHAPTER XLIV. Chapels of Lady Huntingdon in London-Ewer-street Chapel, Princess-street, Westminster Opened by Dr. Peckwell-Letter from Lady Huntingdon— Mr. English-Mr. Beck-Mulberry Gardens Chapel-Mr. Charles Stewart Eccles Mr. Coughlan-Mr. John Clayton-Mr. George Burder-Letter from Mr. Toplady-New Mulberry Gardens Chapel-Mr. Isaac NicholsonMr. Stoddart--Spafields Chapel-Richmond Theatre-Letter from Mr. Toplady-Letter from Lady Huntingdon-Northampton Chapel opened— Opposition of Mr. Sellon-Consistorial Court-Mr. Berridge's advice-Letter from Lady Huntingdon-Lord Dartmouth-Mr. Thornton-Spafields Chapel re-opened by Dr. Haweis-Queries sent to Mr. Sergeant Glynn-Letter from the Recorder of London to Lady Huntingdon. AT a very early period of her religious course, we find the benevolent and ardent mind of the Countess directed towards the spiritual wants of London, that emporium of error and dissipation. At her house in Park-street, and subsequent residence at Chelsea, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Romaine, Mr. Fletcher, the Messrs. Wesley, Mr. Berridge, Mr. Madan, Mr. Venn, Mr. Jones (of St. Saviour's), and other eminent ministers of Christ, proclaimed all the words of this life to the highest personages in the land. At her Ladyship's earnest recommendation, the residences of Lady Gertrude Hotham, in New Norfolk-street, Grosvenor-square, and Lady Fanny Shirley, in South Audleystreet, were opened, and in their spacious drawing-rooms these apostolic labourers proclaimed the truth to numbers of the nobility. Her liberal heart next devised the plan of hiring or erecting chapels for the accommodation of the poorer classes. In the beginning of 1770, her Ladyship took the lease of a chapel in Ewer-street, which had been occupied for a long series of years by a society of Quakers, and supplied it for some One of these, a Mr. time by students from her own College. Causton, preached there about nine months; but, complying with her Ladyship's wishes, he went over to America in 1772; and Mr. Smith, another student, preached at this place until removed by death. Mr. William Crawford being requested by the people to preach his funeral sermon, a way was prepared for his settling amongst them.* About the year 1773, a large and commodious meeting house in Princess-street, Westminster, becoming vacant by the removal of the congregation under Dr. Kippis to another place, erected upon a much more contracted scale, in consequence of the diminution of the society,† it was repaired and enlarged by the pious munificence of Lady Huntingdon, aided by the zeal and liberality of some persons of respectability, who had the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom much at heart; and opened by Dr. Peckwell in April, 1774. Speaking of this chapel in a letter to Mr. Hawkesworth, dated April 2, 1774, her Ladyship observes:- "I am going to the College, with the Lord's leave, and from thence shall send you the best help I can. Dear Mr. Peckwell is ready in heart, but a large chapel of mine, holding more than three thousand, is to be opened this next week; and this being in the heart of Westminster, requires our most eminent ministers to follow up that preparation of heart the Lord has wrought, and another I am going to erect in Wapping. The Lord has sent us Mr. Haweis to join our This connexion took place in 1776, and in the following year the present building was erected. Mr. Crawford being of the Particular Baptist denomination, a regular society was formed here upon similar principles, but it was agreed to allow mixed communion. There is a small burial-ground behind the meeting-house. Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Elliott, two respectable clergymen, occasionally preached there; and some of the ministers supplying at the Tabernacle at Tottenham-court Chapel lent their assistance. Having become a Dissenting congregation, her Ladyship's attention was directed to a larger field of usefulness, where her ministers and students could preach with a greater prospect of success. In the early stages of non-conformity, when talent and respectability characterised its leaders, and an attachment to principle the people, this was one of the most flourishing societies amongst the English Presbyterians. It was first collected in the reign of Charles II., not long after the passing of the Act of Uniformity, by the learned Mr. Cawton, chaplain to the pious Lady Armine, who was one of the ministers ejected by that statute. Mr. Vincent Alsop, Mr. John Shower, and Dr. Edmund Calamy, were successive pastors of this church. Happy would it be for the cause of our common Christianity, were the same glorious truths that characterised the ministrations of the early non-conformists taught with similar faithfulness in some modern congregations! With the falling off of the congregation there was an equal declension from the doctrines taught by the earlier pastors of this society. At length, it became necessary to erect a place of worship upon a much smaller scale, where, notwithstanding the pains that are taken to uphold the cause of what is, by a perverseness of lan gnage, called " Unitarianism," the success is by no means apparent, and the society seems fast hastening to a dissolution. Connexion; and indeed he is a most blessed and extraordinary minister. Yet pray on we must for more labourers in our harvest, for truly it is great, and the labourers are few." For some years this chapel was supplied by a rotation of ministers of the Established Church, many of whom preached with much acceptance. Mr. Toplady occasionally laboured in this sphere of usefulness with much utility; as also Mr. Shirley, Mr. Glascott, Mr. Pentycross, Mr. Jesse, and Dr. Haweis; and many by their instrumentality were savingly converted. After some time Dr. Peckwell became the stated minister, and the name was changed to that of " Westminster Chapel:" "I am happy (says the Countess) in having dear Mr. Peckwell settled in London; his zeal and eloquence are so great, and he is so abundantly owned of God in the conversion of souls. Whilst he itinerates, the chapel will be supplied with the College services. Dear Mr. Toplady hath been much owned of God there, and Mr. Haweis, Mr. Jesse, and Mr. Glascott likewise. The congregation is very numerous, and many of the mighty and noble, as well as the poor, gladly hear the word, to some of whom it has proved the savour of life." The late Mr. English, of Woburn, and Mr. Beck, minister of Bury-street meeting, were among the supplies here, which is remarkable for the number of ejected ministers, who have presided over it. Under Dr. Watts there was a very considerable revival in the congregation, and he had a large and respectable audience; but Mr. Beck's hopes were not fulfilled. The "Mulberry Gardens Chapel" is the next in succession. It was some time in the year 1773 that the Rev. Lawrence Coughlan, an episcopally-ordained clergyman, who had just returned from Newfoundland, and was then preaching in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, first directed her Ladyship's attention to this scene of her labours. In a letter to one of her students, (the late Rev. John Hawkesworth,) dated October 1773, she says, "I am treating about ground to build a large, very large chapel at Wapping, in London." The lease was for twenty-one years; and during the building of the chapel Dr. Peckwell, assisted by Mr. Coughlan, the Rev. C. Stewart Eccles, an Irish clergyman who had returned from Georgia, and others, with several of her students, continued to preach under the Mulberry Trees with great acceptance and success. The Rev. John Clayton, having finished his academical course at Trevecca, under the patronage of Lady Huntingdon, had now commenced preaching in her Ladyship's chapels, and also in the Tabernacle connexion. Having obtained an established reputation as a preacher, Lady Huntingdon appointed him to supply the Mulberry Gardens, where his ministry was much approved. About the period of which we are now writing, the Rev. George Burder also occasionally preached at this place.* He had been a stated communicant at the Tabernacle, and had just then began his ministerial career in the Methodistical way, by preaching in the open air, "which (says he) I have never seen reason to repent-I believe it is the best way still—and I rejoice that I began, at first, to go without the camp, bearing his reproach." The chapel was not opened till the close of the year 1776, and the delay was principally owing to some unpleasant differences relative to the choice of a resident minister. Mr. Top lady was then living in London, and was consulted by her Ladyship on the best means of terminating this painful controversy. His letter, detailing the particulars of the dispute between Mr. Coughlan and the managers appointed by her Ladyship, is dated October 29, 1776, from which we select the following extracts: "I have had a long interview with Messrs. Young and Gibbs, who have perused and taken a copy of the rough draught of the lease sent by your Ladyship. Since that period, I have requested to see them again; but four or five days are now elapsed without their coming. I would repeat my call on them at one or both of their houses, but I know, by experience, that I should run a very great risk of not meeting with them. "From the conversation I had with them, they really strike me as upright, undesigning men, who have taken much pains to have a fixed stand for the Gospel at the Mulberry Gardens, and who have met with little more than slander and misrepresentation in return. They aver, that they never had the remotest wish of rendering the Chapel a Dissenting Meeting; that they would never consent to such a perversion of it from its original purpose; that they earnestly desire the whole management of the spiritualities may be vested entirely in your * Mr. Burder's first serious impressions were received at Tottenham-court Chapel, where he frequently heard Mr. Whitefield and Captain Scott; he also occasionally heard Mr. Romaine with much profit. It is a singular circumstance, that Mr. Clayton and Mr. Burder were at this period scarcely determined whether to take their lot with the Dissenters or not. They had found abundantly more of the power of God with the Evangelical clergymen and with the Calvinistic Methodists; and they were rather inclined to enter into the Church, under the apprehension of obtaining a more extensive field of usefulIt seems Mr. Clayton was at one time upon the eve of receiving episcopal ordination; but, upon further investigation, was led to dissent for reasons that appeared to him of sufficient weight. He afterwards became pastor of the Weigh-house meeting, one of the oldest and most respectable of the Dissenting churches in London; and Mr. Burder was pastor of Fetter-lane meeting, which has always ranked amongst the most ancient of the congregational persuasion, and in which both his father and brother were active and useful deacons for many years. ness. Ladyship; and that it may be conducted on the same plan as your other chapels, where a rotation of ministers is kept up. They further add, that the sole reason why the building is at a dead stand (for so it still remains), is, Mr. Coughlan's visit to them, informing them, that, by your Ladyship's authority, he was to be stated minister of the chapel when finished.' Upon which, when the people heard of it, they peremptorily refused, and at this very day refuse to advance any further subscriptions; and, moreover, insist upon their past subscription money being returned to them, as they are determined that neither Mr. Coughlan nor Mr. Latless (who went with him on the above occasion,) shall be fixed as a minister over them. If I may presume to give my judgment, I am most clearly of opinion that a people who have expended, and are expending, a considerable sum of money for erecting a place of religious worship on the plan of the Gospel, ought not to have Mr. Coughlan rammed down their throats, supposing him to be ever so good a kind of man. I am by no means convinced that they ever made any proposal to Messrs. Young and Gibbs respecting the transfer of the chapel from your Ladyship's patronage to their con nexion. I have been twice at Mr. Keene's house, but he was, both of these times, from home. I shall take the first opportunity of putting the question to him. "Mr. Coughlan has been thrice with me. I do not heartily fall in with all he says. He will have it that Young and Gibbs are Dissenters. They solemnly deny that charge; and I firmly believe them. He denied to me, and called God to witness the truth of the denial, that he ever proposed himself to Young and Gibbs as the designed minister of the chapel in debate. On the contrary, they declare themselves ready to make affidavit of it before any magistrate or bench of magistrates in London. What shall we say to these things? I would not be rash or uncharitable; but I am prodigiously mistaken if Mr. Coughlan is not the snake in the grass; or the Jonas, who, for some hidden ends of his own, has raised the whole of the present storm. "Allow me likewise, without offence, to decline, most tenderly and most respectfully, letting my name stand on any instrument wherein Mr. Parker has anything to do. I have known him well; and he is among that particular sort of good men whom I hope to meet in Heaven, but with whom I must beg to be excused from having much personal intercourse on earth." Mr. Several letters passed between Lady Huntingdon and the managers relative to the Mulberry Gardens Chapel. Coughlan defended himself with much ingenuity, and deprecated the idea of ever having entertained an idea of becoming minister of the chapel. "Such contradictory statements," observes her Ladyship," are puzzling, and leave a melancholy uncertainty of the truth and fidelity that ought to sway every honest heart." On the 8th of November, Mr. Hall, her Ladyship's attorney, called on Mr. Toplady, desiring such information as was in his power to give concerning the chapel. "At his |