DUKE-STREET, PARK.-General Baptist.

we shall in duty be bound to pray for all such that the Lord will restore sevenfold. This is the true case of our affairs. And the profession of our faith we have joined along with it for those well-disposed Christians to see whether they think we are fit to be relieved as holding the fundamental truths of the gospel." Then follow the articles of their faith, which are signed by the minister and ten other persons, and accord with the Calvinistic scheme. The above separation took place in the year 1778, and Mr. Summers removed to Zoar-street, as already stated. There he continued only three or four years, when his church is supposed to have dissolved. After this, he preached only occasionally, and had two or three lectures; as one at Ratcliffe, and another at Hunt-street, Spitalfields. For some years before his death, he kept a school in Shoreditch, where he finished his earthly course.

EDWARD ROWCLIFFE.-In consequence of the above separation, and the number of persons who went off with Mr. Summers, the church in Duke-street was in great danger of breaking up. The few persons who were left behind remained destitute of a pastor for the space of two years, when they chose Mr. Rowcliffe. He had been a member with Mr. Brittain, and was dismissed to the Parkmeeting May 25, 1775. Mr. Rowcliffe continued to serve them in that relation for upwards of twenty years, when he also turned Calvinist, and resigned his charge July 31, 1796. After this, he removed to Southampton, where he was pastor of a Particular Baptist church; but returned again to London, and, we believe, is still living.

JOHN BRITTAIN SHENSTON.-After the church had been destitute for the space of almost three years, Mr. J. B. Shenston, kinsman of the late Rev. John Brittain, and who had pursued some preparatory studies under the Rev. Dan Taylor, was invited to the pastoral office, and ordained

GRAVEL-LANE, SOUTHWARK-General Brptist.

April 25, 1799. About a year after his settlement, his people were deprived of their meeting-house, in consequence of which they removed to Gravel-lane; where we shall take up the thread of our history.*

GRAVEL-LANE, SOUTHWARK.

GENERAL BAPTIST.

THIS place was originally a kind of Assembly, or Club

room, belonging to a public-house. It was fitted up as a place of worship for the use of the General Baptist Society, formerly meeting in the Park, under the care of Mr. John Brittain Shenston; they having been dispossessed of their meeting-house. The present place was opened on the 11th of April, 1800. Messrs. Driver, Jarrow, and George Hampstead, of Haarson, near Cambridge, engaged in prayer; and Mr. Dan Taylor preached from Amos vii. 2. After Mr. Shenston had been settled here about nine years, he followed the example of his predecessor, and became a Calvinist. In consequence of this, his connexion with the people in Gravel-lane was dissolved at Lady-day,

1809.

For most of the particulars relating to the above place we are indebted to the late Mr. Stephen Lowdall, of Queen-street in the Park, an ancient and respectable member of the General Baptist connexion, who died Nov. 18, 1809, at the venerable age of 92. See his funeral sermon by the Rev. John Evans, his pastor.

ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian.

ZOAR-STREET.

PRESBYTERIAN.

THE meeting-house in Zoar-street was erected in the year 1687, at the expense of three hundred and sixty pounds. The original lease bears date January 30, 1687, probably for 1687-8, and was assigned by a Mr. Williamson, the ground landlord, to Messrs. Arthur Shallet, Samuel Warburton, and Ferdinando Holland, three gentlemen whose names are well known as the original projectors of the Gravel-lane Charity-school. The terms of the lease were for forty years, from Christmas, 1687, at the yearly rent of three pounds, clear of all taxes, excepting parliamentary taxes. It describes a piece of ground, and a building erected thereon, and used for a school-house, and a meetinghouse, situated in Southwark Park, near Gravel-lane. By a clause in the lease, it was made renewable by any one of the trustees who should survive the expiration of the term, but in case they all died, the buildings were to fall to the ground landlord. Great care has, therefore, been taken to renew the lease from time to time before its expiration. Since the second renewal of the lease, in 1709, the trustees have been seven in number. The minister of the meetinghouse for the time being was to superintend the concerns of the charity school, and to make collections for its support. For this purpose, an annual sermon was preached here by different ministers in rotation; and when the meeting-house was closed, the service was removed to St. Thomas's. This place some times went by the name of Shallet's meetinghouse, from the worthy person whose name appears in the first indenture. It was a good building, of a moderate size, with three galleries.

The first minister at this place was Mr. John Chester a worthy Presbyterian Divine, who was ejected on the re

ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian.

turn of Charles II. and underwent much persecution on the score of nonconformity. It is probable that Mr. Chester had a congregation prior to 1687, the year of King James's Indulgence. We find him very assiduous in preaching during the time of the great plague, and afterwards as he found opportunity. After his death, the congregation was served by a variety of ministers till the year 1740, when Dr. Marryat, who was then pastor, removed his people to Deadman's-place. There they continued to assemble under different ministers for nearly half a century, and maintained a respectable station amongst the societies of Protestant Dis. senters. Shortly after the settlement of Mr. Humphries, the present pastor, his people built a new meeting-house, in Union-street, at no great distance from the former place. Under that article we shall take up the lives of the different ministers who have served the society.

After the departure of Dr. Marryat's congregation, the meeting-house was let out successively to different persons, and the profits appropriated to the support of the charityschool. About the year 1755, it was occupied by Mr. SAMUEL LARWOOD, one of Mr. Wesley's preachers, who leaving that connexion, settled in London, in 1753, and died Nov. 1, 1756.* For a considerable time past, the meeting-house has been let to a brewer, and the profits arising therefrom devoted to the support of the charityschool.

Before we dismiss this article, it may not be unacceptable to the reader, if we present him with a brief account of the origin of the charity-school that was attached to the meeting-house. The crafty methods employed by King James II. in order to delude the Protestants, and to accomplish his design of bringing in Popery and arbitrary power, are known to most of our readers. Offices of trust and emolument, both in church and state, were disposed of to

* Wesley's Journals, vol. 2. p. 30.

ZOAR-STREET.-Presbyterian.

reputed Papists; the army was officered after the same manner; and seminaries were artfully established for the avowed purpose of instilling popish principles into the minds of the younger part of the nation. One Poulter had opened a school in Southwark with this direct view, and gave public notice that he would teach the children of the poor gratis. In order to counteract his designs, and to afford the poor an easy opportunity of having their children educated in Protestant principles, three worthy gentlemen, Mr. Arthur Shallet, Mr. Samuel Warburton, and Mr. Ferdinando Holland, members of Mr. Nathaniel Vincent's church, embarked in the laudable design of founding the institution, known by the name of "The Gravel-lane Charity-school." It was instituted in 1687, and was the first of the kind in which Protestant Dissenters were especially concerned. From that time to the present it has been gradually increasing both in the objects and in the means of benevolence, and has doubtless been instrumental in rescuing the minds of many from barbarism and vice. The number of scholars at first was forty; it afterwards increased to fifty; from thence to one hundred and forty, and has since been two hundred. The charity has been all along supported by voluntary contributions, by legacies, and by annual subscriptions and collections. Here objects are received without distinction of parties. They are taught to read, write, and cypher, and are instructed in the principles of the Christian religion according to the Assembly's Catechism. The managers have been enabled to give the children Bibles, Testaments, and Catechisms; and to place out some of them as apprentices to useful trades, without any expence to their parents.