fellow-countrymen, would not shrink from the purchase, though I were to fall the victim to episcopal_tyranny.

In 1821, I came into possession of part of a conventual chapel called Davington church, in Kent. This chapel had been built partly under the same roof with a priory, founded by Faulk, A.D. 1153, for twenty-four French nuns,* to whom, among other lands, he gave the manor of Davington, for their support and maintenance.+ Their whole income amounted to no more than 217. 13s. 10d. In the reign of Edward III. the poverty of the prioress and nuns was so great, and though the members were reduced to sixteen, they were obliged to present a petition to the king, representing their incapability of meeting his dues. The priory afterwards became so insignificant, that, in the reign of Henry VIII., there was neither prioress nor nuns in it, so that it became escheated to the crown.§

The manor, Sire, was afterwards sold, with all its buildings, and has for centuries been in possession of laymen. In 1625, Richard Milles was permitted to preach in the chapel, by the king's letters patent. In 1700, the estate fell, for a short period, into the hands of a clergyman, named

* Tan. Mon. p. 215.

† Somn. Cant. p. 133. Southouse Mon. p. 147. § Jacob's Hist. of Fav. p. 114. || Rym. Foed. vol. xviii. p. 647.

¶ Rot. Esch. ejus. an. pt. 5., also Hastead, pages 130, 661.

Sherwin, who occasionally performed service in the remaining part of the chapel.* Religious duties have since been permitted, at the will and pleasure of the owner of the estate, as may be seen from a register kept by the late impropriators; to which, in 1822, I affixed my signature as clerk, curate, and incumbent.† The chapel has never been subject to the control or jurisdiction of any Protestant bishop, archdeacon, or other ordinary.‡

For seven years previous to my possession of this chapel, no service had been performed in it. The building was hastening rapidly to ruins, and was used as a workshop, and for the timber and

* Philpot, p. 180.

It is the disposition of some men to confine the sense of a word by their own narrow views, to suit their bigoted notions, and to answer their interested purpose. It may therefore be necessary, from a remark lately made to me, relative to these signatures, to direct the attention of those high churchmen, who so bountifully exercise that "charity which thinketh no evil," to Todd's Johnson, for the definition of these terms. If such charitable gentlemen choose the authority of a lawyer in preference to a lexicographer, they may turn to "Blackstone's Commentaries," for the term clerk-vol. i. b.i. chap. 11. They will there find that the term is not confined to a minister or teacher in orders, as their limited minds conceive. The terms were used in strict adaptation to their true import, and in conformity to my character, as lessee of the property, and as assistant minister or curate to the impropriator, to whom the freehold of the chapel belonged.

Hastead and Ect. Thes.

b

materials of the farm, to which the remaining part of the priory is now appropriated.

I, your Majesty's dutiful subject, called on the late Archbishop (Sutton), and informed him of my intention to restore the building for divine service; and I left the palace, with the impression that I should be ordained by his Grace.

I expended several hundred pounds in repairing this church; but, unhappily, about this time I unintentionally offended his Grace, and the neighbouring clergy, by successfully advocating the cause of the persecuted Queen Caroline. Party spirit grew high, and I was peremptorily refused ordination, on the ground (as the Archbishop said) of the building's not being within the pale of the Establishment. I made my case known to the Bishop of Norwich, who also refused to ordain me on Davington.

Having spent my property on this building, and finding, in Eusebius Pamphilius, that the primitive bishops-Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, and Theoctystus, Bishop of Cæsarea— commended Origen for preaching and expounding in the church, before he was ordained to the ministry;* and as it was a natural conclusion of the mind of your Majesty's faithful petitioner, as well as a position of infallible truth, that where there is no law there is no transgres

* Euseb. b. vi. c. 19.

sion, I immediately took the oaths of allegiance, as a clerk or teacher, required by the "Toleration Act," to qualify myself legally to assist in the religious duties of this place. I read parts of Rogers's "Lectures on the Church Liturgy," every Sunday evening, for a year, to the most crowded and respectable auditories ever before or since witnessed in that neighbourhood; but, unfortunately, to the great envy and annoyance of the surrounding clergy. This induced me to desist, and to write to the Archbishop, stating, that I was aware how extremely easy it was for men to mistake my motives and to misrepresent my design; that I felt sorry to give any occasion to let my good be evil spoken of; and as I had desisted from taking any part of the duties, and intended to obtain a degree at Cambridge, I begged to know if, with my degree and episcopal ordination, I could re-attend Davington church, without incurring his Grace's displeasure. The copy of this letter, and his Grace's answer, with several honourable testimonials of high respectability, given me on leaving Kent, are now in my possession.

I beg further humbly to state to your Majesty, that on the receipt of this letter I immediately sold my interest in the church, but, unfortunately, to an unprincipled clergyman, from whom I never obtained a shilling. The loss of this property obliged me to withdraw my name from the boards of my College. I was soon after, in 1824, re

spectably introduced to his Grace the Archbishop of York, under whose eye I lived till 1827, when his Grace recommended me to return to Cambridge to complete my Terms, and condescended to write me the following letter, dated Feb. 13:

"SIR,

"On receiving from you the intelligence of your having taken your degree at Cambridge, I shall have great pleasure in endeavouring to obtain for you a nomination to a curacy in this diocese.

"I am, Sir,

"Your obedient humble servant,

"TO JAMES ABBOTT, Esq.

"Sneaton Hall."

"E. EBOR.

I, your Majesty's petitioner, was received back to my old college, and the Head Tutor (Mr. King), to whom the whole affair of my former connexion with Davington was known, in a letter, dated February 13th, 1827, to Colonel Wilson, late Member for York, writes-"I think it but just to Mr. Abbott to observe, that his conduct in college, during 1822 and 1823, was highly proper and decorous; and that I always considered the conduct of his enemies, in pursuing him and hunting him down, as harsh and uncalled for."

I obtained my degree last year, and have sent to