A HISTORY OF LONDON design to vote in the Body of Presbyterian or Baptist Ministers.' ** This appears to have resulted from an agreement come to by the ministers of the three denominations on ii July 1727 — 'That no persons be allowed to join with the Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers in any public Act but such as are approved by one or other of the Three.' *^ The ' General Body of the Three Denominations ' thus organized, though limited to the metropolitan area, was for above a century and a half the best and most effective repre- sentative of Nonconformity as a whole ; its importance being deemed the greater for its acknowledged right of approach to the throne. In course of time its representative character was minimized, not only by its local limita- tion but by the upgrowth of new religious communities which originated in the great Methodist revival. Under altered conditions too, the right of approach has become a thing of mere historic and sentimental interest. The three Boards, though still flourishing, are valued chiefly as fraternal associa- tions ; for practical purposes they have been since 1896 quite overshadowed by the Metropolitan Federation of Evangelical Free Churches. Another valuable organization arose in the decade following the consti- tution of the Baptist and Independent Boards.^' On 9 November 1732, a general meeting of Protestant Dissenters was held in Silver Street meeting- house to consider the prospect of obtaining a repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. A committee was appointed, which reported to an adjourned meeting that the project was inopportune, an opinion which, after full consideration, they reaffirmed to a meeting of deputies from congregations in or within 10 miles of London. It was felt desirable, however, to have a permanent representative body to superintend the civil concerns of Dissenters, and at a meeting held in Salters' Hall, on 14 January 1735—6, it was resolved that two laymen should be chosen by each congregation of the three " Trans. Cong. Hist. Soc. ii, 50-51. " The most eminent London ministers at this time were, Presbyterians : — S. Chandler, D.D., Old Jewry ; N. Lardner, D.D., Jewry Street ; Obadiah Hughes, D.D., Maid Lane, Southwark ; S. Lawrence, D.D., Monkwell Street ; S. Wright, D.D., Carter's Lane ; and Thomas Emlyn (Arian), Old Bailey. Inde- pendents : — Peter Goodwin, Ropemakers' Alley ; John Hurrion, Hare Court ; John Guyse, D.D., New Broad Street ; Timothy Jollie, Miles Lane ; Richard Rawlin, Fetter Lane ; and Jeremiah Tidcombe, Rat- clifF. Baptists : — John Brine, Curriers' Hall ; Samuel Dew, Great Eastcheap ; S. Wilson, Prescott Street ; James Foster, D.D. (Arian), Paul's Alley, afterwards Pinners' Hall, reputed the most eloquent preacher of his day ; and John Gill, D.D., Horsleydown, afterwards Carter Lane, Tooley Street, whose massive learning was unsurpassed by that of any Nonconformist of the century. A manuscript (deposited by S. Palmer) in Dr. Williams's Library, written in 1730, comparing the Pres- byterian and Independent congregations of that date with those of 1695, states that fourteen congregations had increased, fifteen declined, twelve had been dissolved, ten new ones had been formed, the rest remained much as formerly. About thirty meeting-houses had been enlarged or rebuilt, giving an increased accommodation of 4,000. The ministers are thus classified : — Presbyterian, — eighteen Calvlnists, thirteen Arminian, twelve ' of the middle w.iy ' ; Independents, — twenty-seven Calvinists, three ' inclined to Antinomianism,' two nondescript ; Baptists, — nine ' C.ilvinist or Antinomians,' seven Calvinists, six Arminians, three Socinians, two Seventh-Day Baptists, of whom one was Calvinist and one Arminian. Of the 102 ministers thus reviewed, eighteen were colleagues or assistants, and two served congregations outside the Bills of Mortality ; so that the number of congregations in the metropolitan area was eighty-two. In Maitland, Hisl. ofLond. ii, I 189, is a list of places of worship registered under the Toleration Act in 1738. The area is ill-defined, including part of the Tower Hamlets and northern suburbs, but not all within the Bills of Mortality. There are enumerated twenty-eight Presbyterian meetings, twenty-six Independent (three of them formerly Presbyterian), thirty-three Baptist, and eleven Quakers ; together with twenty- one French Protestants and eight other foreign churches, seven Roman Catholics, three Nonjurors, two ' French Prophets,' two Muggletonians, 'Orator' Henley's Oratory, and three Jews' Synagogues. Of the congregations in the 1730 list three had ceased to exist ; but ten others are omitted, probably by oversight, as some of them are known to have flourished many years later. On the other hand four Presbyterian, two Independent and eleven Baptist meetings are now first mentioned, most of them in Southwark and the Tower Hamlets. " S,ketch of Hist, and Pnc. of Deputies . . . of Protestant Diss. 1814 ; of. W.Wilson, op. cit. iii, 381. 388
