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is, if you perfectly love this lady, you will not be afraid to grant her a settlement." It is needless to add, the person left him mortified indeed.*

As Mr. Towle was a firm and consistent Protestant Dissenter, and attached to his principles from the fullest conviction, he could not endure to hear them spoken of contemptuously, without animadversion. When duty called him, he was not backward in testifying his zeal as to this particular; an opportunity for which presented itself upon the following occasion. Having heard that the celebrated Mr. Romaine had thrown out some severe reflections upon the Dissenters, Mr. Towle determined one day to wait upon him, for the purpose of conversing upon the subject. This he did; and having made some observations and complaints, Mr. Romaine replied, "I do not want to have any thing to say to you, Sir."-" If you will hear me, Sir," rejoined Mr. Towle," will tell you my name and profession :-I am a Protestant Dissenting Minister."-" Sir," said Mr. Romaine, "I neither wish to know your name, nor profession." Mr. Towle bowed, and left him. But some little time after, Mr. Romaine returned the visit. "Well, Mr. Towle," said he, "I am not come to renounce my principles; I have not changed my sentiments; I will not give up my preference to the Church of England, &c. but I am come as a Christian, to make some apology. I think my behaviour to you, Sir, the other day, was not such as it should have been." They shook hands, and parted friends; both agreeing to maintain their respective sentiments, with, a mutual esteem for each other's person.† The above anecdote, while it gives us a high opinion of Mr. Towle's zeal and steadfastness to principle, places in a very conspicuous light the humility of Mr. Romaine.

Mr. Kingsbury's Sermon on the death of Mr. Towle.-Gent, Mag, for
December, 1806,-and Private Information.

VOL. II.

+ Cadogan's Life of Romaine, p. 91.

4 B

ALDERMAN BURY POSTERN.-Independent.

Mr. Towle's publications consist of a sermon, preached at Thaxted, in Essex, at the ordination of the Rev. John Fell, 1770; and five funeral orations, viz. for the Rev. Mordecai Andrews, 1750; Dr. Zephaniah Marryat, 1754; the Rev. Edward Hitchin, 1774; Dr. Samuel Morton Savage, 1791; and the Rev. Nathaniel Trotmau, 1793. Mr. Towle married about the year 1746, to Miss Brent, of Rotherhithe, with whom he received a considerable fortune, which he afterwards improved.

Upon Mr. Towle's tomb-stone, in Bunhill-Fields, is the following inscription:

Here lies the body of

Mr. THOMAS TOWLE,

Late of Mansell-street, Goodmans-Fields, Gent.
Who departed this life, March the 23d, 1745, Æt. 71.
Also, the body of
THOMAS TOWLE,

Grandson of the above-mentioned Mr. Thomas Towle,
Who died Dec. the 14th, 1750, aged 1 year and 8 months.

Also,

The Rev. THOMAS TOWLE, B. D.

Who departed this life

Dec. the 2d, 1806,
Aged 83.

BAXTER COLE.-This learned Divine was a native of Essex, and pursued his academical studies under Dr. Marryat, at Plasterers'-Hall. His first engagement was in a school at Peckham; and at the same time he became morning-preacher to the congregation in Rope-makers'-alley, of which Mr. Towle was pastor. This situation he quitted in 1765, upon the building of the new meeting-house, and went to Wymondham, in Norfolk, where he preached for a few months, till May, 1766, when he gave up that, also, and never undertook any pastoral charge. Henceforward he employed his time wholly in literary pursuits. He was a close student, and during the summer-time used to rise with the

ALDERMANBURY POSTERN. Independent.

sun. Nevertheless, he never published any thing of his own, but was employed as the industrious and ccurate editor of several performances of others. The excellent Mr. Howard, who honoured him with his friendship, submitted some of his publications to Mr. Cole's revisal; and he superintended the printing of the last edition of Dr. Lardner's works, for which he had a peculiar esteem. About the year 1793, he was engaged to undertake the editorship of the Protestant Dissenters Magazine, for which office he was judged by all concerned in that publication, peculiarly well qualified; and it was a great loss to the public that, in consequence of returning and increasing infirmities, soon after he had accepted the proposal, he was obliged at first to postpone, and very soon totally to relinquish all concern in that publication. His health and spirits being somewhat revived, he determined upon a visit to his friends in his native country, and died suddenly at Sible-Hedingham, at the house of Mr. James Finch, for whom he had a particular regard, and who had ever shewn him the truest friendship. This event took place October the 13th, 1794, when, as it is supposed, he was nearly seventy years of age. The property he had saved by great frugality, he bequeathed to his poor relations. Mr. Cole was a firm Dissenter, of the Independent denomination; of great frugality, and a strenuous assertor of civil and religious liberty. He was a man of considerable learning, of the strictest integrity, and true piety.

JOSEPH BARBER.-This venerable minister pursued his studies for the ministry under Mr. John Kirkpatrick, a Dissenting minister and tutor at Bedworth, in Warwickshire. His first settlement was with an Independent congregation at Brentwood, in Essex, from whence he removed to Basingstoke, in Hampshire. In the year 1760, Mr. Barber accepted an invitation to remove to London, to take charge of a newly formed church, consisting of such persons as separated from Mr. Pike's church at the Three Cranes, in con

ALDERMANBURY POSTERN.---Independent.

sequence of that gentleman having embraced in part the tenets of Sandeman. The worthy Mr. Godwin, and his church, having kindly granted to this infant society the use of their meeting-house at Little St. Helen's, on the afternoon of the Lord's-day, Mr. Barber commenced his ministerial services in London at that place, and continued to preach there till the year 1764, when Founders'-Hall meeting becoming vacant, in consequence of the removal of Mr. Lawson's congregation to London Wall, his people took a lease of that place, and continued to assemble there till the year 1797, when the lease being expired, the congregation, which was somewhat reduced in numbers, did not think fit to renew it, but, upon an invitation to that purpose, determined to form an union with the congregation at Aldermanbury Postern, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Towle, then likewise in a declining state. The union was solemnized Nov. 19, 1797, and was publicly recognized on the 23d of the same month, in the following manner: Mr. Goode began with prayer and reading the scripture; Messrs. Towle and Barber, both declared publicly their cordial ap. probation of the union formed between their respective churches; Dr. Fisher preached upon the nature, faith and joy of a Christian church, from Col. ii. 5. Messrs. Clayton and Kello, engaged in prayer; and Dr. Stafford pronounced the blessing. Henceforward these two aged ministers divided the work between them, till Mr. Towle was disabled, almost two years before his death. Since that time Mr. Barber has had various ministers to assist him. Many years ago, was chosen into the Merchants' lecture, upon a Tuesday morning, at Pinmers'-Hall; but this service, on account of increasing infirmities, he lately resigned. Since the death of Mr. Towle, Mr. Barber has become the father of the Dissenting ministers in London. His long standing and respectable character have justly given him weight in his denomination, and called him to officiate frequently upon public occasions. Some of these services, upon funeral and other

LORINERS'-HALL.—Extinct.

occasions, he has published: as a sermon on the death of the Rev. Nathaniel Trotman, 1793; another on the death of the Rev. Thomas Reader, of Taunton, formerly his fellow-student, 1794; a funeral sermon for the Rev. Richard Winter, 1799; an oration at the interment of the Rev. William Ford, Jun. 1784; another at the interment of Dr. Stafford, 1800, &c.

LORINERS'-HALL.

EXTINCT.

THE company of Loriners, or Leather-Cutters, though

an ancient fraternity, was not incorporated till the reign of Queen Anne, A. D. 1712. Their hall, situated over against the north end of Basinghall-street, was occupied for many years by the Dissenters for a meeting-house; but like many of the other city halls, it passed through various hands, and no distinct history of it is now to be obtained. The earliest mention that we find of Loriners'-Hall, in connexion with the Dissenters, is in 1699, when it was taken by a newly formed congregation of Particular Baptists, who separated from the General Baptist church in White's-alley. The occasion of this division was the exclusion, for misconduct, of Mr. JOSEPH TAYLOR, from the pastoral office in that church. As it may be matter of surprise to some persons, that a Particular Baptist society should grow out of one of the General persuasion, it is explained by Mr. Taylor embracing the tenets of Calvin; his example being followed by those persons who adhered to him. The General Baptists always disowned them as a church; but they were afterwards acknowledged by the Particular Baptists. Mr. Taylor. did

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