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Stockton , and from which , being of the Established Church , the office of mayor of the borough had not unfrequently been filled . His father was a leading member of the congregation of Protestant Dissenters , the services of which were , for many years , conducted upon a
neutral principle , including various shades of religious sentiment . The subject of the present obituary does not appear to have embraced any very decided theological opinions until the accession of the Rev . B . Evans to the ministry in that
place , whose ingenuous avowal of the principles of Unitarian Christianity , whilst it offended the prejudices of several of the weaker brethren , contributed to settle and establish a consistent , rational faith in some of the more enlightened . From this time Mr . Crowe continued in the
steady and fearless profession of a creed * ' every where spoken against . " In the last attempt made by the Dissenters to obtain the repeal of the Test and Corporation laws , he acted as one of a meeting of deputies at Newcastle-upon-Tyne , and Mr , Pitt ' s treatment of their claims
finally dissolved the warm attachment which Mr . Crowe had felt towards him upon his first entrance into political life- In relation to this great question , Mr . Crowe never experienced that apathy which has so extensively circulate ^ amongst Protestant Dissenters , and he therefore
hailed the recent symptoms of a disposition to sleep no longer under the operation of proscriptive and stigmatizing enactments . Though liis property and the influence of his character qualified him to take the same lead as his ancestors in the civil
affairs of his native town , the existence of that profanation , called the sacramental test , effectually precluded his offering himself as a candidate for the office of mayor , whilst it was not unfrequently
filled by persons whose qualifications were nominal in every point of view . Thus , upon a small scale , we see exemplified the baneful operation of intolerant laws in excluding from opportunities of social usefulness men whose talents and
public spirit would otherwise have ensured to them the suffrages of their fellow-citizens . The cause of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade found in Mr . Crowe an early and an active partisan . His zeal and exertions on this subject are amongst the earliest and most salutary recollections of the present waiter .
The dawning . s of liberty in Fiance were hailed by the deceased with that enthusiasm experienced by every warm friend to the interests of his species ; and his sympathy , with the cruel persecutions which Priestley , Winterbotham , Palmer , and other excellent men underwent during the reign of anti-jacobinism , was
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cordial and -sincere , andy as might have been expected , rendered him for a time an object of suspicion , if not of dislike , amongst his ultra loyal neighbours . An incident which occurred about this time may illustrate the manner in which political feeling intercepted the ordinary courtesies of life towards those whom the soi-disant friends of government chose to brand with disaffection . The
workmen employed by Mr . Crowe , in pulling down an old house , discovered in a chimney , a bag containing nearly , £ 100 in old English coins ; the occurrence was soon reported to the Bishop of Durham , by whom the money was claimed in the
character of the Lord of the Manor , as treasure-trove * With the exception of some few pieces , which Mr . Crowe , in ignorance of the bishop ' s rights , had previously distributed to friends as curiosities , and which he offered to reclaim , the whole contents of the bag were immediately transmitted to the bishop , whose wonted munificence was , however , on this occasion , restrained to a dispensation with the offer to reclaimnot extending to the return of a single
coin for Mr . Crowe ' s own use . It was not assigned to the deceased to sustain the parental relation in its natural sense , but it pleased Providence to call forth his exemplary prudence and his affectiouate counsels for the benefit of
many who } et live to bless his memory , not only as the faithful guardiau of their temporal interests , but as the main source and spring ( under the Divine blessing ) of every thing estimable and honourable in their character and principles . Such was his striking regard to justice , and his zeal
iu whatever he undertook , that he was very frequently placed in situations of trust , and on one occasion , was unexpectedly appointed au executor of the will of a gentleman of large property , whose only previous connexion with him arose out of a matter of arbitration in
which Mr . Crowe had decided in favour of the opposite party . Indeed most truly descriptive of the predominant habit of his mind arc the lines of Virgil , < i Justissimus uniis Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissinms aequi . " To his continued zeal and attention the present . small but improving society ot Unitarian Dissenters in Stockton , is , in a great measure , indebted for its existence . Under very difficult circumstances ,
in many respects resembling those m Which the Wolverlmiiipton congregation lias long been placed , the Stockton Unitarians were for a time compelled t /> make use of a large room , in which Mr . Evans , after a long secession from the
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308 Obituarys- ^ MrsJam e * Crowe *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 308, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/52/
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