In 1654, Glover was appointed one of the ministerial assistants to the county commissioners for scandalous ministers. His name frequently appears in the parish documents of his time. After his ejectment he remained for some time at Finchingfield. In 1668? one John Marshall was presented to the archdeacon, for 'not coming to divine service and sermon, preached in the parish church on Sundays and holidays, appointed by law, and for not receiving the sacrament at Easter last;' and at the same date, one Margaret Warde was excommunicated for similar offences. In 1669, Glover, who is then described as of Finchingfield, is reported to Sheldon as having a 'conventicle' there. On the passing of the Conventicle Act he removed to Bishop's Stortford, where he still continued to exercise his ministry, as May 2, 1672 (p. 340), we find him licensed to be a Presbyterian teacher in his own house, in that town, and as usual, a license was granted on the same day for it to be a Presbyterian meeting house. Calamy says that he died at Bishop's Stortford of a consumption.*

The little flock that used to gather round the Faircloughs at Sculpions, and the conventicle' that adhered to Glover after his ejectment, evidently continued to meet after the removal of their teachers. The times were troublous, and the persecution they endured was severely trying, but as their 'day so' also 'was their strength.' Tradition states that when the storm was at its height, a congregation was accustomed to assemble in the dead of the night, and in the depth of winter, at Rivetts, a farm in that part of the parish which adjoins Stambourne, and there the devoted Henry Havers used to preach to them. In 1672, under date of May 2, we find the house of Thomas Matlock licensed to be a Prefbyterian meeting

earth, exhibited in the life of that great and able Divine and painful labourer in the Word, S. M., sometime, &c. Written by way of letters to a friend. Sic populus vult decipi. Lond., 1680. Newc. ii. 265; Wood, Fast. ii. 31; Ath. ii. 38; Jour. H. of C. ii. 497, 31; N. and Q. Dec. 4 and Dec. 18, 1858; Whitelock

Memorials i. 363, 377, 379; ii. 48, 110, 250, 417; Kennet, Register, 451; Mor. ii. 370-372.

Cal. Acc. 307; Cont. 474; Lands. MSS. 459; Lambeth MSS. 639; Returns of 1669, p. 345; Conventicle Act, p. 344; License Book, S. P. O. P. 340.

house. In 1704, we find a congregation here, the minister of which was John Barker, who preached to them for several years. Finchingfield was then associated with Castle Hedingham; Barker preaching at the former place two Lord's days, and at the latter on the third, during the whole period of his ministry. He removed to Colchester in 1707, and having remained there for some time, he first succeeded Matthew Henry, at Hackney, and subsequently became one of the ministers at Salter's Hall. The succeffor of Barker, at Finchingfield, was Isaac Fuller, who had been private chaplain to Paulett Warne, of Badmondisfield Hall, Wickham Brook, Suffolk. During his miniftry the congregation enjoyed a great degree of prosperity. It is returned in 1716 as containing four hundred persons, twelve of whom are said to have had votes for the county, and ten of whom are described as 'gentlemen.' Fuller resigned in November, 1724. He was then succeeded by Mr. Doughty, of whom a contemporary speaks as a 'good man and an excellent preacher.' Finchingfield now seems to have been associated with Stebbing, which connection continued until the death of Doughty, in 1755. A Mr. Griffiths succeeded him, who removed to Hitchin in 1771, about which time Daniel Mann became the minister. Thus far the congregation had assembled in an hired building. It should appear that at the close of Mann's ministry this building had to be abandoned, and the congregation was for a time dispersed. In 1779, a meeting house was erected, and shortly afterwards a widow of the congregation, at her decease, endowed it with the whole of her little property, in aid of the maintenance of a minister. A son of Joseph Fuller, then pastor at Halsted, now became the minister, but shortly left and was succeeded by Thomas Spencer. In 1785, John Pickersgill succeeded; after remaining there for twelve years, he removed to London, and the vacancy was filled up by the election of Joseph Houlton, who continued from 1797 to February, 1813. John Blackburn, one of the authors of the MSS. so frequently quoted in these pages, then became the pastor.

On his removal to Pentonville, Blackburn was suc

ceeded by the Rev. Thomas Bunter; Bunter by the Rev. Robert Ferguson, now LL.D.; Ferguson by Henry Chriftie; and Christie by the present paftor, the Rev. T. B. Sainsbury.* FINGRINGHOE.-Thomas Greggs. This vicarage had been sequestered from Joseph Long, who was also vicar of Great Clacton. Depositions were taken against him at Colchester, April 1, 1644, when evidence. was given that he has two livings, and is now non-resident (at Fingringhoe); (is) cruel in exacting his tithes; an innovater; would not give the sacrament but to those who come up to the rails; a common alehouse haunter, obscene in his discourse, and a usual swearer by his faith.' He did not, however, also lose the vicarage of Great Clacton, as we find him still there in July, 1645, and also in 1650, at which last date the return for that parish is, 'Mr. Joseph Long is vicar.' In the 'True and exact relation of the several informations, examinations, and confeffions of the late witches,' already referred to more than once in these pages, there is the following account of the evidence given by Long against Anne Cooper, one of his parishioners, who was afterwards executed at Manningtree:-'This informant saith that Anne, the wife of John Cooper, of Clacton aforesaid, being accused for a witch, confessed unto this informant that the said Anne was guilty of the sin of witchcraft, and that she hath had three black impes called by the name of Wynowe, Jesso, and Pano; and this informant saith, that the said Anne told him that once she cursed a colt of one William Cottingham's, of Clacton aforesaid, and the said colt broke his neck presently after, going out of a gate. And the said Anne further confessed unto this informant, that she offered to give her daughter, Sarah Cooper, an impe in the likeness of a grey kite, which impe (she) called Tom-boy. And this informant saith, that the said Anne, about twenty years since, falling out with Johan, the wife of Gregory Rous, of Clacton, sent one of her impes

• License Book, S. P. O. 17431; Baker's MSS. Notes on Calamy; Visitation Book of the Archdeacon; Returns of 1716, p. 353. For the remainder

of this information I am indebted, partly to the Morison and Blackburn MSS., but chiefly to my friend, the Rev. T. B. Sainsbury.

to kill their daughter; and that to his own knowledge, about the same time, the said child was strangely taken sick and languishing, within a short time she died.' Long recovered his vicarage of Fingringhoe at the restoration, and died at Clacton, as the Rev. J. Norton, the present vicar, kindly informs me, March 9, 1662. There is an inscription to his memory on a flat stone in the chancel of the parish church.

Owen Reeve was the immediate successor of Long, at Fingringhoe, a man never approved by the assembly.' He was therefore discharged June 20, 1666, and so also were the sequestrators who had put him in. The committee for the county then appointed new sequestrators, and on June 20, Thomas Lawson was elected to the vacancy. In July, Henry Tonstall, the son of Sir John Tonstall, of East Donniland,. and the then patron of the living, petitioned for the union of the two parishes, in order to the better maintenance of an efficient ministry. This was accordingly done, and May 4, 1647, the House of Lords issued an order for the institution of Thomas Lawson to the rectory of Donniland, also on the presentation of Tonstall. Lawson continued to hold both livings until after 1650, when he removed to Denton. It should appear that it was then that Greggs succeeded to the sequestration at Fingringhoe. The Rev. C. Brettingham, the present vicar, obliges me with a copy of the entry of the baptism of Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Greggs, and Margaret, his wife, May 28, 1654. What became of Greggs after his ejectment, under the act of 1660, I have not been able to ascertain. *

FORDHAM.-John Bulkley. This living was sequestered from John Alsop, who had been instituted July 3, 1633, but under what circumstances I have not been able to discover. Alsop's immediate successor was the celebrated John Owen, who was here in 1644, as appears from the examination of Cock, at St. Giles', Colchester. In May, 1646, there is the following

Cal. Acc. 307; Cont. 475; Cole MSS. xxviii. 85; Add. MSS. 15670, 232, 311, 385; Jour. H. of Lords xx.

174; Lands. MSS. 459; N. ii. 267; Long, ante p. 298; Tonstall, p. 293; Lawson, infra.

entry in the minutes of the Committee for Plundered Ministers: "Whereas, the rectorie of the parish church at Fordham was, by order of this committee, sequestered from Mr. Alsopp to the use of Mr. Owen, who, upon report that the said Mr. Alsopp was deceased, hath accepted of the presentation of the church of Coggeshall, in the said countie, and is minister thereof, and in regard that it is not determined of the said Mr. Alsopp's death, and it is considered that he is yet living, this committee did, by their order of the 20th of May instant, upon the petition of divers of the said parish, for the settling of Mr. Richard Pulley in the said Mr. Owen his stead, order the said Mr. Owen to have notice thereof, to the end that the said committee might be satisfied whether he had left the same; who appearing this day, this committee have left him to his election to return to the said chappell of Fordham, or to continue at Coggeshall. It is, therefore, ordered that the rectorie and profits thereof shall from henceforth stand sequestered to the use of the said Richard Pulley, who is required to officiate the cure of the said church as rector till further notice taken in the premises.' Pulley accordingly succeeded. It should appear that he was the son of Richard Pulley, of Leighs, by his first wife, Dorothy, and as his father officially acted under the county committee for sequestrations, his appointment would seem to have taken place under his influence. Walker's statement, that he was sequestered at Fordham, in 1644, is clearly wrong: nor is there any evidence of his having been sequestered at all. Indeed it is not likely that one who had passed the Assembly of Divines, and been appointed twice over by the committee themselves, would be the sort of person to be sequestered almost immediately after his institution. It is also to be observed, that not only was he of the Classis,' but that, in 1648, he appears as one of those who subscribed the 'Testimony,' and as 'minister of Fordham.' Pulley would seem to have removed here from Thundersley, as a Richard Pulley resigned that rectory before May 2, 1646. Pulley had left by 1650, and at that date, the Rev. E. R. Berens, the rector of Wickford, kindly informs me that the name of Richard Pulley appears in the parish register,