“In the summer of 1829 our family was at Kingstown, and dear Francis Hutchinson at Bray. We saw each other occasionally, and spoke of the things of the Lord. But where he went on Sunday at that time I cannot tell. I attended the Scotch Church at Kingstown, where all who were understood to be new-born were welcome. But on returning to Dublin in the November of that year, Francis Hutchinson was quite prepared for communion in the name of the Lord, with all, whoever they might be, that loved Him in sincerity, and proposed to have a room in his house in Fitzwilliam Square for that purpose. He did so, designing however so to have it, that if any were disposed to attend the services of the parish Churches, and Dissenting Chapels, they might not be hindered; and he also prescribed a certain line of things, as the services of prayer, singing and teaching, that should be found amongst us on each day.
“Edward Cronin was prepared for this fully. I joined, but I do not think with at all the same liberty and decision of mind, and several others also were ready, and just at this time, we first knew William Stokes. Thus we continued from November, 1829.”
We are at last on solid ground. The meeting thus formed was permanent, and after about six months found a public location in a hired room in Aungier Street. The causes of this important step are variously stated. Boase, apparently following Miller, attributes it to a great increase in the numbers of the Brethren, consequent on the publication of Darby’s tract; but of this Bellett and Cronin know nothing. Bellett was averse to the change; Hutchinson was reluctant; Darby was absent from Dublin; Cronin and Stokes were eager for it; but the real initiative lay with a young man of five and twenty, who was destined to play a considerable part in the history of Brethrenism. This was John Vesey Parnell, afterwards Lord Congleton. “He became,” Bellett tells us, “very familiar with Edward Cronin, and in the month of May, purposing to let the Lord’s Table in the midst of us become somewhat more of a witness,
