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    places is they bad done before , he resolved on preaching , pVaying , and administering the Lord ' s Supper to them fri separate soci < ti ^ s . Oii e of these met at one Thuriow ' s house > * at Cambridge , another at Barrington , another at Cloptoh , ctic at Evcrfcden , one at Guyhorn , one at Watdrbeach , & c . See . bnt as this was too much for one man to

    go through , immediately after his ejectment in 166 a , he called as general a meeting as the times would permit , at Eversden , and informed the church of his design , desiring them to chuse four

    of their number elders to assist him . Accordingly they chose the Rev . Jos . Oddy , M . A . lately ejected from his fellowship of Trinity College and from his vicarage of Meldrith ; the Rev . Messrs . Corbin , Waite , and Bard , for

    ciders of their church . The pastor and elders divided their circuit and laboured among their people till the next year , 1663 , when Mr . Holcroft was imprisoned in Cambridge castle , by Sir Thomas Chichely , for preaching at Great Evcrsden ; Oddy , for preaching at Meldrith ; Corbin and Waite shared the same fate , and Bard

    escaped it only by flight * While their pastors ami elders were thus separated from their flock , the people continued to meet for religions worship in their several separate societies : sometimes they spent their time in fasting , reading the ftbly scriptures , and social prayer . At

    other times , some ejected minister preached privately to them , and now and then the jailer allowed Mr . Holcroft to go out in the night to preach and administer the Lord ' s Supper to them : besides all this , the people had frequent letters from their pastors in prison , one of which entitled " A JVord U the Saints from the

    VPatch Totver" was published by Mr . Holcroft in 1688 . Persecution operated now as at all 6 ther times , it multiplied the people . They had regular meetings , many additions , and , their pastor being absent , they exercised discipline themselves , and ctit off two or three elders , Wai fcp and Bard : the first was soon after admitted a member at Bedford , and the last v / as

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    received into the church at QJqey , Bucks They were charge ^ with forsaking the congregation after their release . After five years imprisonment , Mr . Ocldy was set at liberty ., as after nine years Mr . HoJcroft was ; but both were soon imprisoned again for preaching as before . Mr . Holcroft ^ last imprisonment was for thfcee years .

    After their enlargement , which wa > first in 1672 and last in 1675 , they prosecuted their plan "with greater vigour than ever , preaching at Cambridge in spite of a drum , which the gownsmen beat in the meeting to interrupt their worship , and all over the county , travelling quite through the fen towns , and being followed by such multitudes , that

    they were often forced to preach abroad , Mr . Oddy continued an itinerant in thi 3 county till his death , which happened May 3 ^> 1687 . He was buried at Oakington , f near Cambridge , in a small burying . ground adjoining the churchyard , and given by Mr . Holcroft for that purpose to his church , in the hands of trustees .

    Hitherto Mr . Holcroft had been considered as pastor of all the congregations in the county ; but about two years after Mr . Oddy's decease , that is in 1689 , two events fell out which produced the establishment of these congregations into separate churches . One was Mr , Holcroft ' s illness ; for while he

    was in prison great numbers of people visited him , to whom he frequently preached , and as the excessive heat of the place was too much for him , he often preached in his waistcoat , and

    thereby caught such colds as destroyed his health . -After his release , his prodigious zeal for the salvation of souls struggled with and surmounted his illness for some years ; but at length a weakness of nerves enfeebled his whole

    frame , and he fell into a melancholy which rendered him useless to his people as a preacher . At " the same tirne , 'the act of toleration gave the Nonconformists their liberty > and these two events contributed to settle the churches of this county . Mr . Holcroft continued to dechne till

    * Scanderet was fined 10 / . by the Mayor for preaching there-+ Oakington is a village four miles north-west ! of Cambridge . "F | ie piece of gronia 4 is Y ^ Y- ft 1 ***^ - T ^ S tombs were covered wfrh ne & les , ctcter bu *] icB * £ ; c . and tlieiins ^ riptijpns ilkgfbk - ti 11 jthey were cleared aw- & y and the tojtibar pkaifed the beginning of 1774 . ^ ^ Tne 1 fcYices are goxre and & neighbouring cottager has t * kfn it into his garden . Dr . Conder it is said is the VHjst ^ e , ' . '

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    Protestant Dissenting CMrches in Cambridgeshire . 623

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1810, page 623, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1708/page/3/