him the use of his house, which adjoined the meetingplace in St. Giles'. On one occasion the meeting was disturbed by a “band of rabble" who came to seize the Doctor, but having timely notice of it he escaped their hands. "The good Lord Wharton was there, whom they pretended not to know, and upon his refusing to tell them his name they threatened to send him to prison, but they thought better of it. The place was fined £40 and the minister £20, which his lordship paid."* In 1670, Dr. Manton was imprisoned for his nonconformity. On the failure of his health he spent some time at Wooburn, and died soon after (1677).t The fourth volume of his works was dedicated to Lord Wharton by William Taylor, "who was many years my lord's chaplain, and was himself a person of great integrity and wisdom "; a Nonconformist minister, and one of the original trustees of the Bible Charity.

Among the numerous ejected ministers whom he befriended, several are specially mentioned. Samuel Birch, M.A., who was ejected from the vicarage of Bampton, Oxfordshire, and often arrested for holding conventicles, when "again summoned into the bishop's court at Oxford and severely threatened, upon his appearance as Lord Wharton's chaplain was dismissed." Rowland Stedman, M.A., ejected at Wokingham, Berkshire, died while holding a similar position (1673). Thomas Rosewell, M.A., ejected at Sutton Mandeville, resided at his lordship's request in his house for a year (1673), becoming afterwards pastor of a Nonconformist meeting at Rotherhithe, Surrey. Joseph Alleine, ejected at Taunton, was in correspondence with Lord Wharton (1665), and aided by him in his proposals for the evangelisation of Wales. Lazarus Seaman, D.D., a member of the Assembly of Divines, ejected from the rectory of All Hallows, Bread Street, London, enjoyed

"Life of Dr. Manton," by Dr. Harris.

†Thoresby went to Stoke Newington Church, October 22nd, 1677, to see the funeral of Dr. Manton, "who, being deservedly styled the King of Preachers, was attended with the vastest number of ministers of all persuasions, &c., that ever I saw together in my life." (Diar. I. 7.)

his friendship till his death (1675), and "presented to Lord Wharton his 'Notes on the Revelation.'" Samuel Clark, M.A. (author of the well-known " Annotations on the Bible"), when ejected from the rectory of Grendon Underwood, resided by his favour at Upper Winchendon, where he had his house licensed (1672) for preaching, by Rowland Stedman; and was afterwards minister of the congregation that built (1714) Crendon Lane Meetinghouse, High Wycombe.

To these may be added Dr. Henry Sampson, who was introduced to Lord Wharton (1668) by Oliver St. John, with whom he had become acquainted at Leyden, when studying medicine there, after his ejection at Framlingham, Suffolk, and who took great pains in collecting materials for a History of Nonconformity, of which Calamy remarks:

"If this work had been finished and appeared in the world, it might have been the means of convincing some that Nonconformity had all along had a closer connection with both our civil and religious interest than they are willing to allow, and that the present Nonconformists act, in the main, upon the same principles with those who have been most eminent for serious religion since the Reformation."

In Lord Wharton's mansion at Wooburn, “standing under the shadow of the richly-wooded hills, and adorned by a stately row of poplars," Dr. Bates, Dr. Owen, the justly celebrated John Howe, M.A., formerly chaplain to Cromwell, and other Nonconformist ministers found hospitable shelter in those troublous times; and in the ancient domestic chapel adjoining it they often preached to a company of people collected from Wycombe, Beaconsfield, and other places in the neighbourhood. At the close of the morning service he was accustomed to invite those who were disposed to remain for the service in the afternoon to come into his house and take needful refreshment. Dr. Owen, the most eminent minister among the Independents, when in declining health, was invited to Wooburn "to try the effect of change of air; and also that others of his persecuted brethren, meeting him in this safe retreat, might enjoy

the benefit of united counsel and devotion."

In a letter which he wrote to his church in Leadenhall Street, during his visit (1682), he said: "I humbly desire you would in your prayers remember the family where I am, from whom I have received and do receive great Christian kindness. I may say, as the Apostle of Onesiphorus, the Lord give to them that they may find mercy of the Lord in that day, for they have often refreshed me in my great distress."

In the dedication to Lord Wharton and Anne Lady Wharton of the second volume of Dr. Manton's sermons (1684), signed by William Bates and John Howe, we find it stated :—

"Your deeply inward affection to the excellent author, your most singular and just value for his person, ministry, conversation and memory, as they were too great to be fully expressed, so they are to be wholly concealed and buried in silence. . . Any eye may observe the frequency of your kind visitations, the familiar freedom you gladly allowed him at your house, as at his own house, and that when the season invited you to your pleasant country recess it was also the more pleasant to you if his affairs would allow him there to divert and repose himself with you."

John Howe, in the dedication of one of his treatises to "Anne, Lady Wharton," wrote: "Your ladyship hath been called to serve religion in a family wherein it hath long flourished, and which it hath dignified beyond all the splendour that antiquity and secular greatness could confer upon it." The practical sympathy which he showed with the Nonconformist ministers just named he also extended to others in the north of England. Henry Leaver, who was ejected from St. John's, Newcastle, and died in 1673, " had a close correspondence for many years with Philip, Lord Wharton, by whom and his lady he was much respected." John Gunter, LL.B., after his ejection from the rectory of Bedale, Yorkshire, as before mentioned, was employed by Lord Wharton as his steward in the management of his affairs, particularly of his lead mines in Swaledale; he resided at Healaugh, where he had licence to preach as a Congregationalist (1672), died in London, October, 1688, aged sixty-five, and was buried in the Wharton

vault at Healaugh. His brother, Humphrey Gunter, M.A., who was ejected from his fellowship in Magdalen College, Oxford, was also befriended by Lord Wharton.*

Cornelius Todd (son of Robert Todd, ejected at St. John's Church, Leeds), when ejected from the vicarage of Bilton (to which he had been presented by Thomas, Lord Fairfax, "the hero of the Commonwealth"), "through the kindness of Lord Wharton lived at Healaugh Manor and received 8 per annum during life"; and at the same place another Nonconformist minister, Noah Ward, was accustomed to hold religious services for some years. It may also be here noticed that a son of Lord Wharton's daughter Mary, wife of Mr. Thomas, of Wenvoe Castle, had as his tutor Thomas Cotton, M.A., who was a son of Robert Cotton (an ironmaster of Denby, Yorkshire, and a great friend of ejected ministers), educated at Frankland's Academy, and afterwards an eminent Nonconformist minister in London.

In Westmorland there was little need of his assistance; for most of the ministers under the Protectorate, like Thomas Dodgson, of Ravenstonedale, Francis Higginson, of Kirkby Stephen (presented by Lord Wharton in 1654), and John Dalton, of Shap, fell in with the terms imposed by the Act of Uniformity "not because they favoured Episcopacy, for they did not, but on different motives "t; yet one at least, Christopher Jackson, B.A., to whom reference will again be made,

Humphrey Gunter was tutor to Mayjor Dunch, Esq., of Pusey, Berkshire, who married Margaret, a daughter of Lord Wharton, and whose mother, Anne (daughter of Richard Mayjor, of Dursley), was sister to Dorothy, wife of Richard Cromwell, Protector. His sister was wife of Robert Hickson, an eminent Nonconformist of Leeds. He died in 1691; and the year following (June 22nd, 1692) John Gunter, his son, as the administrator of Humphrey Gunter, surviving trustee of Lord Wharton in the settlement at the marriage of Thomas Wharton in 1673, made an assignment to Sir Edward Harley, Sir Thomas Rokeby, Edward Harley, John White, Thomas Benlows, and William Taylor of several trusts for 200 years in certain lands "for raising £4,000 and for five years in the lead mines in the two manors of Healaugh, in Swaledale."

Preface to the third volume of "The Nonconformists' Memorial," edited by Palmer.

on his ejection at Crosby Garrett, obtained a livelihood "upon a little estate in Ravenstonedale," doubtless as one of Lord Wharton's tenants, "preaching occasionally," and laid the foundation of the Nonconformist meeting there.

THE DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE, 1672.

"It was the most violent blow that had been given to the Church of England from the day of the Restoration; all sectaries now publicly repaired to their meetings and conventicles; nor could all the laws afterwards, and the most rigorous execution of them, ever suppress these separatists or bring them to due conformity."-SIR JOHN RERESBY.

"In spite of King and Parliament," says Wharton, "it pleased the Lord to incline the hearts of many, and these not of the lowest rank, citizens and substantial merchants, to attend their [the Nonconformists'] ministry, and hold them in honour. This the late King [Charles II.] saw, and in his wisdom and clemency, so arranged matters that few suffered the penalty of the law, whereby they and their friends greatly increased in influence. And in 1672, the King by a decree under the great seal granted them the privilege of preaching, and of providing within a fixed time [public] places convenient for the purpose, from which the Papists were excluded.”

The terms of this important "decree," which has been said to be the beginning of English Dissent, were in brief as follows:

"It being evident by the sad experience of twelve years that there is very little fruit of all these forcible courses We think ourselves obliged to make use of that supreme power in ecclesiastical matters which is inherent in us, &c., and declare the execution of all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical against Nonconformists or recusants suspended, and allow a sufficient number of places for such as do not conform to the Church of England in order to their public worship and devotion; but only indulge the recusants of the Roman Catholic Religion in the common exemption from the penal laws, and the exercise of their worship in their private houses only.” (March 15th, 1671-2.)

"I thought then, and think still," says Wharton, "that such liberty would lead to the glory of God and