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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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tlje Baptist * going to another place of worship ; the Methodists remained and still continued to occupy the chapel on the terms before-mentioned . About the year 1789 , Mr . Dunkley
died , and the trustees neglecting to appoint a successor , the Methodists from this time to the year 1803 enjoyed the exclusive use of the chapel as a place of worship . During the time they had the possession , they remained in connexion with the
successors of Whitfield , and preached Calvinism in all its purity ^ except in one instance or two at the latter part of this period , when the minister had been procured from the Independents , at the instance of one of the trustees But they afterwards returned to their old connexion . For the last fourteen
or fifteen years donations had been frequently given to some of , the ministers by the trustees , and sometimes in pretty large sums . This was a species of support of tohich the affairs of this people seein to have stood in
need , and which they probably might have long continued to receive , couid they have stooped to a little condescension . But unfortunately for them , they were , some time in the year 1803 , seized with ambitious notions . Some
zealous men , and wise calculators , amongst them , to whom the laws of meum and tmim seemed familiar , insisted that their long occupancy by sufferance , gave them a full claim to
the chape ! and all that belonged to it , and it hecame no longer necessary to receive as a gratuity what they might claim as a right * In conformity to . this opinion they , calling themselves the " Calvinistic Church at Lincoln , "
sent a notice to the acting trustee to produce to them his account of the receipts and expenditure of the funds belonging to the chapel . This was not taken any notice of , and they
were preparing to follow this step by a more vigorous proceeding , when an event of an unexpected nature happened to them , and forced them to alter the nature of the attack .
The trustees , after this refractory spirit had appeared amongst their tenahts , were waiting for the most favourable opportunity for getting rid of them . They soon found ttyis , and on procuring the keys in a peaceable
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way from the door-keeper , ; by the exercise of a little stratagem * they shut them out of the chapel . Finding the attack thus unexpectedly turned against them , the Methodists were puzzled how to proceed . But after
a little delay the matter wasbronght on again by them , in the shape of an information before the magistrates , stating that they had been forcibly kept out of their chapel , &c . This mode of proceeding is founded on an ancient statute made in the times of
turbulence and disorder , providing a summary remedy for persons forcibly dispossessed of their property . But when the hearing came on , the magistrates quashed the information on the ground of the informants , ndt being able to swear that any force had been exercised . It is curious to
observe , that this Calvinistic Church , had their information been regular and admitted by the magistrates , intended to establish their right to the chapel by proving themsely € & Presbyterians ; for which purpose they had mustered from their body three
Scotsmen , who were prepared to make oath to that effect . Finally , they made a third attempt by appealing to the Bo # rd of Deputies in London * to have the least chance of any assistance from whom , it is necessary that
they should belong to some One of the great Dissenting bodies of Presbyterians , Baptists or Independents They chose now , for some reason or other , to state themselves to be of the last denomination . But as the trustees
were able to shew , very readily , that the Rev . Mr . Griffiths , their pastor , who was one of the appellants , an $ l a long line of his predeceases , came from Lady Huntingdon ' s Academy * this application was without effect , and the trustees have been ever * ince in the peaceable possession of the chapel and estate .
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In 1804 , the few that remained of the Presbyterian society , together with several others who had recently adopted Unitarian views , applied to Mr . Belsham and Mr . Wellbeloved , Divinity Tutor of the Manchester College , removed to York , to recommend a minister to them . A gentleman of the name of Howaon , a student
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History of t !* e Presbyterian Congregation in Lincoln . 215 v
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 215, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/3/
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