MINUTE BOOK OF THE WIRK.SWORTH CLASSIS. I 79 



It is this day voted that M r Thomns Shelm r dine be continued Moderat' who 

 this day Mod'ating ended (as he began) witli prayer. 



[Here follow twelve blank leaves, and then the entries are in the hand of 

 Scribe Rudyard. The fact of these pages being left shows that there wis no 

 break in the Classis Meetings, but that it was intended to fill in the omitted 

 minutes at some future date — -an intention never realised. The suspension 

 of entries in the regular Minute Book probably arose from the illness and 

 death of Scribe Coke.] 



Wirkesworth Classis 



1 



Those p'sent at the Classicall meeting 



in the county of Darby the 16 day of Januarie 1654 viz. 



Januarie 16. 1654. ) [ 



Ministers Others 



M« 



/ Peter Watkinson 

 Martin Topham 

 Robert Porter 

 John Otefield 

 Thomas Myles 



M r Henrie Buxton 

 Richard Buxton 

 Henry Buxton 

 John Rudyard 



M r Peter Watkinson being this day chosen Moderator in the absence of 

 M r Edward Pole began with prayer. 



This day M r Thomas Ford* Bachelour of arts late Student of Trinitie 

 Colledge in Cambridge appeared before the Classis in order to his ordination, 

 & his sermon being orthodox was therefore approved. The said M r Ford pro- 

 duced one certificate from his neighbouring Ministers concerning his Ministerial 

 abilities and pious conversation, and another that he is to be ordained as an 

 assistant to M r Geo. Crosse in the Chappel of Harleston in the Countie of 

 Stafford which were also approved and he ordered to give an account to the 

 Classis of his Ministerial abilities the next Classical meeting. 



This day M r Richard Chantreyt Bachelour of Arts late student of St. John's 

 Colledge in Cambridge who desireth to be ordained a preaching-presbyter 

 was therefore ordered to preach his approbacon sermon before the Classis at 

 their next meeting the third Teusday in Feb next. 



It is this day ordered that the next Classical lecture be kept at Brassington 



* Thomas Ford was a native of Willington, Derbyshire. He was educated 

 at Repton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He never obtained any benefice, 

 but was preaching at Gresley, Derbyshire, in 1662. Refusing to be silent, he 

 was committed to prison, and spent some time in the gaols of Derby and 

 Stafford. Calamy says of his death, that " by his extraordinary pains upon a 

 day of fasting and prayer he broke a vein, which brought him into a con- 

 sumption, whereof he dyed, in a little village near Burton-upon-Trent, about 

 the year 1677." 



+ Richard Chantry was minister at Weeford, near Lichfield. He was 

 ejected in 1662, and forced by the Oxford Act to remove from the county. 

 He died July 22nd, 1694, at Hartshorn, Derbyshire. 



