A HISTORY OF LONDON the Baptist list is very defective, only four meetings being named, whereas the printed lists" of ministers present at Conferences in 1689 and 1692 show that of Calvinistic Baptists alone there were five congregations in the City, three in Southwark, and at least four in the out-parishes ; vhile of General Baptists *° there were three in the City, two in Southwark, and four within the Bills of Mortality — making in all eighty-six dissenting congregations (exclusive of Quakers) within the metropolitan area. In 1695 the United Ministers commenced a fund ' to encourage the Preaching of the Gospel in England and Wales,' by grants to necessitous ministers. A few years later, owing to the dissensions above related, separate Presbyterian and Congregational Funds were constituted under distinct management. Most of the meeting-houses of this period were in alleys, courts, and other situations not dangerously obtrusive, and their architecture of a homely, domestic type. Seats were assigned at a fixed rental to persons or families who contributed to the cost of the building, and precautions were sometimes taken against possible claims to ownership. The trust deeds often contained provisions in case Nonconformist worship should again become illegal. Many of the City companies rented their halls to Dissenters for use on Sundays, sometimes to two congregations on different parts of the day. Even before the Revolution the Armourers', Curriers', Embroiderers', and Founders' halls were let to Presbyterians ; the Cutlers', Girdlers', Pew- terers', and Plasterers' halls to Independents ; the Joiners' to Baptists ; the Glovers' and Pinners' to both Baptists and Independents ; and the Dyers' to unspecified Nonconformists." In the i8th century, beside the continuance of several former tenancies, the Curriers', Embroiderers', Tallow Chandlers', and Turners' halls were occupied by Baptists ; the Founders' and Brewers' by Independents ; the Loriners' by Baptists and Independents ; and late in the century the Coachmakers' Hall was occupied by a Universalist congregation, and the Carpenters' (for a very short time) by a Deistical lecturer. Many references are found to the Salters' Hall and Haberdashers' Hall congrega- tions, but these occupied meeting-houses built on sites granted by the companies adjacent to their respective halls. Many Nonconformist ministers had seen no serious objection to the practice of occasional conformity, and many laymen since the Indulgence had thus complied with the terms of the Corporation Act, and become members of various municipal corporations. To others, including most of the Independents and nearly all the Baptists, the practice was highly offensive. Sir Humphrey Edwin, a member of the Independent church meeting in Pinners' Hall, being lord mayor in 1697, went in state to his usual place of worship, and was reviled by a clerical writer for the ' horrid crime ' of carrying the City sword to ' a nasty conventicle.' °- In 1701 another Nonconformist, Sir Thomas Abney, was lord mayor ; his compliance with the terms of the Corporation Act was criticized by Daniel Defoe,*' and defended by John Howe, formerly Cromwell's domestic chaplain, and now pastor of the congregation in Silver Street, of which Abney was a member." In the first " Reprinted by Ivimey, Hist, of Bapt. , 507. '" Taylor, Hist, of Gen. Bapt. i, 329-49.
- ' W. Wilson, op. cit. passim ; Hughson, Hist. ofLond. passim.
'- Nichols, Defence of the Ch. of Engl. 127, &c. ^ Inquiry into the Occ. Conf. of Dissenters. " Some Considerations of a Preface to an Inquiry, &c. 384
