and galleries, and continued to as- which is their place of worship to semble till the year 1700, when, find. This day; a large substantial building, ing the place inconvenient, they built 40 feet 6 inches wide, and 65 feet a meeting house in Smithford Street, 6 inches long, clear measure.

MINISTERS.

FROM

DIED

REMOVED TO

Dr. Obadiah Grew
Dr. John Bryan
Rev, Jarvis Bryan

Thomas Shewell
William Tong

Dr. Joshua Oldfield

Rer. John Warren

near

Coventry

1672 1689 Coventry

1672 1675 Old Swinford

1675 1690
Leeds, Kent

1689 1093
Knutsford, Cheshire,
in

1690 17:27 Salters’. Hall, Lon.
Christ College, Cam-

dun, in

1704 bridye, in

1692 • London, to succeed
Prestwood,

T. Kentish 1700
Stourbridge 1700 1742
Urtoxeler, Stafford.
shine, in .

1704 1716
Duffield, Derbyshire,
in

1717 • Alcester, in 1723
17:24
Hampstead

1730 17:30 1761 Worcester

1742 1742 1763 1744

1756 1756 1785 Thame, Oxfordshire 1763 1777 Notingham,

1777 1810 Llwyn-rbyl-owen,

Curdigaushire 1810 Ev4sham 1819

Richard Rogerson

John Partington
Francis Blackmore
Ebenezer Fletcher -
Robert Atkinson
Thomas Jacksout
Posthumous Lloyd
Peter Emons
Timothy Davis -

GY

Sir,

July 10, 1819. ration. I find it quoted in Tomasini VIVE me leave to ask if any of de Tesseris Hospitalitatis, Amst. 1670,

your readers, especially those (p. 218,) from a description of Jeruwho have visited Rome, can account salem, (p. 173,) by Adricomins, who for the following extraordinary war

died in 1585, at Cologne, where, in 1613, was published his Theatrum

Terræ Sanctæ. found by the title-deeds that it stands on

The passage, which the site of Leather Hall, where the con

is in Latill, I have thus literally transgregation used to meet prior to the year lated. The author is speaking of the 1700.

field purchased at Jerusalem with the • Ob. Musson appears also to be a reward of Judas's treachery. Dissenting minister al Coventry at the From this field the Empress Helena same time, and probably to the same people; procured as much earth as several for I have seen a work by Dr. Bryan in Ships could contain, to be conveyed verse, entitled “ Harvest Home : being to Rome. This earth was deposited the Summe of certain Sermons upon Job

be ir the Vatican Hill, on a spot now V. 26, one whereof was preached at the Funeral of Mr.Ob. Musson, an aged Godly called, by the natives, Campo Santo. Minister of the Gospel, in the Royally Though in a different climate, its pe. Licensed Rooms in Coventry; the other culiar properties remain, as is shewn since continued upon the subject, by J. B., by daily experience: for, to the exD.D. late Pastor of the Holy Trinity in clusion of Romuns, it is devoted solely that ancient and havourable City. The to the burial of strangers; whose flesh first Part being a Preparation of the Corn is, in twenty-four hours, entirely confor the Sickle. The latter will be the sumed, nothing remaining but their Reaping, Shocking and Iuning of that

bones, Corn which is so Fitted. London: printed

Tomasini was an Italian, who died for the Author, 1674."

† It will be seen by the dates that the in 1670, Bishop of Citta Nova. He congregation had always two ministers to

says, indeed, of Andricomius, and the the period of Mr. Jackson's death, when authors whom he followed, mirum Mr. Emons became sole pastor.

est quod de hoc agro scribunt, (it is. extraordinary what they write of this When Archbishop Laud was prosefield). Yet had there not been some cuted, Peters interested himself much tradition respecting this achievement in his behalf; and it was at liis espe. of the Empress Helena, or some pe cial recommendation that a motion culiar property in the earth of the was made in the House of Commoas Campo Santo, this scholar would to spare bis life, and transport him to scarcely have ventured 10 introduce New England. When Lord George the passage in his very curious and Goring, Earl of Norwich, was in dan. learned work. I cannot refrain from ger of losing his life, Peters himself adding his compliment to our country petitioned the Parliament, and ob(p. 225):

tained bis pardon. For this service “ Britannos hospitibus vocat llora- the Earl made bim a présent of a tius. (Carm. L. ii. O. iv.) At nihil valuable seal; and this he produced hodie ista gente amabilius. Tauta on bis trial, saying that he should culturæ vis est, qua literx animos keep it for his sake as long as he lived. cetero quiu feros emollimot." (Horace On the 9th March, 1648, James, describes the Britons as ferocious to Marquis of Hamilton, was beheaded strangers. Yet, at this day no people for marching an army against the are more courteous. Such is the Parliament; but as Peters had prepowerful effect of cultivation, by sented a petition from Hamilton to the which literature polishes the rudest Speaker, it was imagined he would dispositions.)

have been pardoned. See a Letter adYou have, I think, in some early dressed to Secretary Nicholas, and preVolume an account of the Empress served in Ormond's papers, published Helena's transportation of the true by Carte, which shews the opinion Cross.

the public had of his interest with the OTIOSUS. House. A few months before this,

viz. in December 1647, Henry SoThe Nonconformist.

merset, Marquis of Worcester, died

at the age of 84 in the custody of the No. XIV.

Parliament's Black Rod, and it appears An Essay on the Life and Character that Peters interested himself io liis

of Hugh Peters, Chaplain to Oliver behalf also; and so grateful was the Cromwell and the Parliament, Marchioness for this service, that (Concluded from p. 532.)

when Peters was going to his trial,

she gave him a certificate, written UGH PETERS was so great with her own hand, beginning thus:

a favourite with the Parliament, “I do hereby testify, that in all the that they made an order for £100 sufferings of my husband, Mr. Peters a-year for himself and his heirs; at

was my great friend." | Lord Goring, another time they voted him an addi- the Marquis of Hamilton, and the tional £200 a year. After this they Marquis of Worcester, were all of the gave him an estate, which had been opposite party to that which Peters à part of Lord Craven's, and the whole had so warmly espoused; but to be of Archbishop Laud's private library, unfortunate, seems to have been sufi. valued at £j 10, * besides continu- cient to entitle any man to his good ing to bim his annual stipend as a offices. preacher. These were handsome re

Although Hugh Peters was an wards in those days; yet he says, “I lived in debt, because what I had, doubt but he felt towards the king as

enemy to kingly authority, I have no others shared in,

a Christian ought to have done, and This benevolent man saw how he would have rendered him any service was valued by the Parliament, and in his power; 1 for in bis letter 10 Therefore embraced every opportu- his daughter he says, “ I had access nity of improving his interest with them in behalf of the unfortunate.

* Biog. Dict. IX. 248.

+ See Trials of the Regicides, p. 173. * Respecting Land's books, see Wel. I It has been said that llugb Peters was wood's Menoirs, 12mo, London, 1710, p. the means of preserving the Royal Library 58.

at St. James's entire. Mon. Repos, ll. + See the Last Legacy, p. 103.

520, in a note,

H

" at a

to the king—he used me civilly; I, to keep improper men out of the in requital, offered my poor thoughts church. Of this appointment Peters three times for his safety." And loimself speaks with great modesty in Mr. Whitlock relates, that

his Last Legacy." Butler has, howconference between him and the king, ever, endeavoured to turn the office the king desired one of his own chap- into ridicule. lains might be permitted to come to I do not find any document to shew him, for his satisfaction in some scru- how Peters was engaged in the year ples of conscience, and thereupon the 1650, but on the 20th January, in the Bishop of London was ordered to go year 1651, a committee was appointed to his Majestie.”+ At another time, to remove certain inconveniences in when Charles was in the hands of the the mode of administering the laws of arniy, Sir John Denbiam was entrusted the land; and Peters, together with by the Queen with a message to his Mr. Jobn Rushworth, the historian, Majesty, and he relates that he got Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, afteradmittance to the king by the assist wards Earl of Shaftsbury, and many ance of Hugh Peters. I

other men of rank, were appointed on In January 1649, the king was be that committee. | Upon this cirheaded; and although Peters, by his cumstance I shall merely remark, that frequent addresses to the army, en- Cromwell and his Parliament usually couraged them to proceed in the bu- filled the offices of trust with men of siness of the Revolution, I do not find talent and unimpeachable integrity; that he was employed at the time, or therefore the appointment of Peters was in the least accessary to the actual by the Parliament of England to an deatb of the king. That he was very office of such dignity and importance, instrumental in promoting the views and with such meil, is of itself no of the Republicans there is abundant small praise. Especially when it is evidence, and the zeal which he ma. considered, that the Parliament had nifested in the cause is abundantly ample means of rewarding all whom sufficient to account for the inexorable they chose to employ; § that they revenge with which he was pursued voted Milton one thousand pounds by the Royalists. It is very well for writing his Iconoclastes, || and alknown that he addressed the soldiers lowed him a weekly table for the at Bridgwater, and again at Milford entertainment of learned men and Haven; and that, by a sermon beforeign ambassadors. preached in the Market-place at Tor- The next affair of any importance, rington, he induced many, who had in which Dngh Peters was engaged, hitherto adhered to the king's party, or rather, the next in point of time to leave that party and declare for the which has come to my knowledge, Parliament. It appears also from a was at the instance of the Governletter, written by Rushworth to the ment of Holland. The Dutch having Speaker of the House of Commons, been much alarıned at the repeateil that the gentlemen of Cornwall were defeat of their fleets by Admiral induced to decide for the Parliament, Blake, and the messengers whom by a persuasive harangue which Pe. they had sent to sue for peace having ters delivered to them on Bodmin Downs. § All this, however, may have been done by a man of his sen- * Page 109. timents, with the purest and most

+ See the Third Canto of Iludibras. philanthropic intentions.

I Harris's Life of Cromwell, pp. 289,

291. About the year 1619 or 1650, Hugh

Ibid. Peters was appointed by Cromwell

Il See Richardson's Life of Milton. to be one of the triers for the ministry,

Tolanel's Life of Milton, Note, p. 110, an appointment which was designed 8vo. 2d edition. The munificence of Oli

p. 292.

seni

been unable to appease Cromwell, choice of an engraved representation though they made the most obse. of the four deputies, in the act of prequious subinission, and had offered senting their pelition to Peters, as a to engage that the Dutch Ambassa. frontispiece to that work. The book dors should in future stand uncovered to which I refer, is entitled “ A Jus. in his presence, in the beginning of tificatiou of ihe War against the Uni. the year 1653, the employed Coluuel trd Netherlands, by Henry Stubbe, Dolemau and others to le:

1673." timents of the leading men of the That Hugh Peters, who had upParliament, and gain over Hugh Pe. doubledly a great deal of benevolence ters to plead for them.* This office and right feeling in his con position, Peters undertook, and it seenis he was was actuated by a good priociple ja authorized to offer the sum of three this interference in behalf of the hundred thousand pounds to purchase Dutch, I should have readily sup. the amity of the Parliament and ile posed, if nothing had been recorded Protector. † This attempt, however, respecting it; but Ludlow has indid not succeed, and when ihe niegn. fornied us, that “ In gratitude to the ciation was broken off, the Dutch Hollanders for the sanctuary he had fitted out another large fleet uuder found among them in the time of his Van Tromp, De Wirt and De Ruyter, distress, he was vot a little servicea. and appointed four other deputies to ble to them in composing their dillergo upon another embassy to Englaud. ences with England."* These men arrived on the 2d of July, This business was concluded in the 1653, and “all joined in one petition year 1654, and in the beginning of for a common audience, praying thrice the following year, a melancholy afhumbly that they may have a favour. fair bappeued upon the continent, able answer, and beseeching the God which demanded the interference and of peace to co-operate." I These an- kind offices of the wise and good bassadors, like the foregoing, sought throughout Europe. Hugh Peters, out Peters, and engagedd him to pre- who appears to have been always sent their perition. Hugh Peters re. ready at the call of the unfortunate, ceived it with great affability, and was not backward in his duty, either having delivered it to Secretary Thur. as a nian, or as a Christian minister, loe, that amiable man Jaid it before in this instance. What I refer to was the Council of State, where it was the persecution and massacre of the immediately attended to. After a Protestants in the Valleys of Piedvariety of interviews, peace was at mont. The afflictive story I need Jast concluded, and the ratifications not relate, but I will recommeud the were mutually exchanged on the 2d Perusal of a most interesting work, of May, 1654; a circumstance which entitled “ The History of the Wal. produced such universal joy in Hol. denses, by Wm. Jones, in 2 rols. land, that the goverument ordered 8vo." where a very full account is several medals to be struck on the given of the whole transaction, and occasion. That the Dutch thought of the persuasive and pathetic letters Hugh Peters had sufficient influence which the immortal Milton wrote. to promote the pacification, is demon. by the desire of Cromwell, to every strated by the circumstance of both Court in Europe, in behalf of this deputations having besonight bis assistance; and that the English thought

suffering people. Milton's beautiful

Sonnet, beginning, he bad actually been of service in the business, is, I think, evident from the “ Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints," historian of that war, (who was a was written on this occasion. To the bigh Tory, and had no inclination to eternal honour of Cromwell it is redo honour to Peters,) having made corded, that as soon as he heard of the

persecution, he ordered a collection • Stubbe on the War, quarto, 1673, the sufferers, and that it amounted in

to be made through the kingdom for Part II. p. 81.

+ Life of Admiral Blake, printed for upwards of thirty-eight thousand Miller, duodecimo, London, p. 71.

I Stubbe on the War, quario, 1673, Part II. p. 83.

* Ludlow's Memoirs, III, 6).

a

pounds. In such a labour of Chris- time, however, of his usefulness was tian charity, it is not to be supposed, now drawing towards a close-for in from what has already been related of less than two months after the afore. Pelers, that he could remain unem- said letter was written, his great pa. ployed; no-Ludlow, a contemporary tron and friend, Oliver Cromwell, writer, bas told us, that “ he was a died; and in less than two years afdiligent and earnest solicitor for the terwards, the Royalist party having distressed Protestants of the Valleys of obtained the ascendancy, ibis indefaPiedmont," † aud I trust there is laid tigable and intrepid patriot, who had up for him an abundant reward. spent his best days in instructing bis

Soon after the affair of the perse- countrymen in the nature of their cuted Protestants was concluded, rights, civil and religious, was appreCromwell formed an alliance, offen- hended as a regicide, and closely consive and defeusive, with the French, fiued a state prisoner in the Tower of in which it was agreed that Dunkirk London. should be delivered up to him. In It was expected that Peters would consequence of this agreement, six have been included in the Bill of Inthousand men were sent over to join demnity, and there is reason to bethe French army; and Peters re- lieve that the House of Commons ceived a commission to attend them wished to have saved him; but some thither. The town of Dunkirk, in of the Lords being clamorous, the consequence of this league, was taken Commons consented, and his death from the Spaniards, and on the 26th was determined upon. The charges of June 1658, was delivered to Colo- marle against him, part of which he nel Lockart, Cromwell's Ambassador denied upon bis trial, were “for comat the French Court. On the 18th passing and imagining the death of day of the following month, the Co- the king, by conspiring with Oliver lovel wrote from Dunkirk to Secre- Cromwell, and procuring the soldiers tary Thurloe, expressly respecting the to demand justice; hy preaching diconduct and services of Peters. It vers sermons to persuade the soldiery begins—"I could not suffer our wor- to take off the king, by comparing thy friend Mr. Peters to come away him to Barabhas ; in applying to him from Dunkirk, without a testimony that part of Psalm cxlix. where the of the great benefits we have all re- saints are exhorted · To bind their ceived from him in this place ;" and it Kings with chains and their Nobles concludes with this remarkable para. witli fetters of iron ;'--and by remind. graph : “ It were superfluous to tell ing his hearers of the blood which your Lordship the story of our present had been unjustly shed by the king's condition, either as to the civil go- orders, and assuring them, that if vernment, the works or the soldiery. they would look into their Bibles He, who hath studied all these more they would see " that whosoever than any I know here, can certainly sbeddeth man's blood, by man shall give the best account of them. Where. his blood be shed,' and that there is fore I commit the whole to his in- no exception from this general rule in formation, and beg your Lordship's favour of kings." casting a favourable eye upon such While Peters was in the Tower, he propositious as he will offer to your endured much from depression of Lordship for the good of this garri- spirits, “ fearing,” as be would often son.” 1

say, " that he should not go through From a part of the above letter it his sufferings with conrage and comappears that, during this expedition, fort." The sequel of the bistory will Pelers went twice 1o Berg, and had shew, however, what little reason three or four interviews with the il- there was for these apprehensions. lustrious Cardinal Mazarine respect. During liis imprisonment in the ing the interests of England. The Tower, he employed hinuself in draw.