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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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( Although the church assembling here can furnish no records to assist us in tracing its origin , yet there are circumstances which render it highly provable that in point of antiquity it may be reckoned one of the oldest Dissenting churches in the county of Dorset , it is observable that among the illustrious band of confessors who , in 1662 , nobly sacrificed their worldly all for the sake of a good conscience , we find enrolled
the names of Benn , of Hammond and of Churchill , two of whom were by the Act of Uniformity silensed in Dorchester and the other in Fordington , a large and populous parish adjoining the town . Of the Rev . William Benn we are expressly told in the Nonconformists' Memorial , that , after his ejectment from
All-hallows , * he continued among his people and preached to them as he could , for which he was often brought into trouble and sometimes imprisoned / But what is still more to our present purpose , we further learn from the same authority that the Rev . Joshua Churchill after quitting Fordington * assisted Mr . Benn in Dorchester and succeeded him there .
Here then we have at least strong presumptive evidence , that a church of Protestant Dissenters was organized in this town in the time and by the labours of those excellent men . In 1680 , Mr . Benn , it is said , died . How long Mr . Churchill survived him cannot be ascertained . A chasm
therefore now occurs m our narrative which we have no means of filling up , yet at the most but a few years , for in 1689 , accordjng to the report of two or three old members who were living in 1773 , the Uev . Baruch No well came to
Dor-Chester , and here he exercised the ministerial office during the long period of fifty years . In 1739 , Mr . Novvell died of the small pox , with the symptoms of which he was taken ill in the pulpit , where he fell backward when he had
nearly finished his sermon . His friends carried him home , and in a few days the disease terminated his ministry and his life . From the testimony of the persons already alluded to , it appears that , though far from possessing popular talents , he was highly esteemed for his piety , candour and benevolence . The successor of
this good man was the Rev . Mr . Kiddle , ; t native of Warwickshire , who after officiating six or seven years , resigned and removed to Warwick , where the greater part of his life was spent in a pastoral connexion with the congregation
commonly called Presbyterian in that town . An anecdote of this minister , which does honour to his memory , ought to be mentioned in tiiis place . While he resided in Dorchester , he was , it seems , much noticed by a gentleman living in the neighbourhood ; who , among oilier marks
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of regard , made Mr . Kiddle a liberal offer of preferment in the Establishment , provided he would conform . But the offer was respectfully declined , and in so acting he exhibited a laudable instance of religious integrity , and the more to be esteemed , as by all accounts he was a person who could not be supposed to be indifferent to those accommodations
which the emoluments of an Establishment would enable the possessor to procure . After the departure of Mr . Kiddle , the congregation was left dependent on occasional supplies for a good while , owing , it is supposed , to the prevalence of opposite sentiments among the members . Two if not three years elapsed before the Rev . Benjamin Spencer was chosen .
He was born in Sheffield , and educated most likely in one of the London Academies . Dorchester in all probability was his first settlement as a preacher , and here his course was soon finished , for on the 17 th of May , 1755 , he died of a dropsy , at the early age of eight and twenty . He was buried in the Meetinghouse . On the demise of Mr , Spencer ,
the next in succession was the Rev . Samuel Phillipps , whose father was at the same time minister at Poole . Where the son began his ministry is not known ; at Dorchester he closed it , together with his life , in the short space of five or six years , being taken off by a fever on the 15 th of April . 1761 , when he had only
attained his 32 nd year . He also was buried in the Meeting-house . The writer of the present sketch thinks it right to state , that on more than one occasion he has heard the names of Spencer ami Phillipps mentioned in terms of much
approbation and esteem by some of the old members of the Society . In the following , that is in the year 1762 , the llev . Timothy Lamb came . He was bom at Wimborne , in this county . His academical studies were pursued in London under Dr . Marryatt . Shortly after
entering on public work , he received an unanimous invitation from the congregation in Deadman's Place , where he was ordained , and where , for some years , he discharged the duties of the pastoral office with general acceptance . But here
being grievously afflicted with an - ditary gout , his friends recommended a removal to the country , hoping , as he himself did , that the country air would prove beneficial to him . Iu that , however , both he and they were in a great measure , if not wholly , disa ppointed . After a . short but delusive respite , the
attacks of the painful malady becain < - more frequent and more severe , making further and still deeper inroads on n ® feeble frame , so that by the time he haa arrived at the meridian of life , or rather before he had reached it , nature ^ a
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630 Obituary . — Rev . Abel Edwards .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 630, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/58/
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