ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



under the ministry of John Spencer,*^ probably that ' Captain Spencer ' who 

 according to the report of 1669 was preacher to a Hertford 'meeting of 

 Anabaptists to the number of 400 and upward.' *^ The report, which is 

 obviously incomplete, further mentions conventicles at St. Albans where 

 the congregation of fifty persons met occasionally at various places, at 

 Watford, where ' some of considerable estates ' were among those who met 

 at the house of John Crawley, a joiner, and at Redbourn.^" These con- 

 venticles were, of course, illicit, and that at Redbourn seems to have 

 disappeared shortly afterwards."" The return, however, makes no mention 

 of the meeting at Pirton, for which the house of Thomas Carter was licensed 

 in 1672, the licensed teachers being Robert Collinson, Thomas Silby and 

 Thomas Vaux." A return of 171 5 reports Baptists at St. Albans, Bishop's 

 Stortford, Barnet, Berkhampstead, Codicote and Rushden, Hitchin, ' King's 

 North ' near Hemel Hempstead, Marlowes, Markyate Street, Tring, 

 Theobalds, Ware and Watford,'" and shortly afterwards a conventicle was 

 noted at Wheathampstead."^ Within the next ten years further meetings 

 had been formed at ' Bedenham,' ' Pond ' and Coney Street and Braughing." 



The congregation which had met for many years under the protection 

 of the Joscelins" of Hyde Hall, Sawbridge worth, had dispersed 'a consider- 

 able number of years ' before 1 772,'° and most of the congregations 

 mentioned in 171 5— 17 seem to have come to an end at an early date, the 

 only survivors in the 1 9th century being those at Barnet, Berkhampstead and 

 Tring." The church at Tring joined the New Connexion in 1801," as did 

 the church of Berkhampstead in 1809"; the latter is now, however, a 

 member of the Baptist Union."" 



The history of Wesleyanism in Hertfordshire is somewhat curious. It 

 was not until some twenty years after the establishment of the society that 

 John Wesley visited Hertford. He had evidently heard that the place would 

 offer him little encouragement, though his meeting was undisturbed ; at 

 the close of it he wrote that he doubted not but ' much good may be done 

 even here.' " His subsequent visits had some effect, but before December 

 1772 'the servants of God quarrelled among themselves till they destroyed 

 the whole work,' even preaching being discontinued."" Wesley was bitterly 

 disappointed, and never afterwards mentioned the town without com- 

 miseration."^ In 1775 and twice in 1778 " he was back preaching at 'poor 

 desolate Hertford,' and on one occasion he added that ' they heard me with 

 something like seriousness.' "' He also preached at Barnet, where he had in 

 the evening ' a larger congregation than ever, and a greater number of 

 communicants.' Encouraged by such results he asked ' Will this poor barren 

 wilderness at length blossom and bud as the rose ? ' "" Wesley's forebodings 



^' Urwick, op. cit. 507. *" Turner, Orig. Ree. of Early Noncoitf. \, 84. *^ Ibid. 92-3. 



'" The two Baptist congregations established here by 1884 were of modern growth (Urwick, op. cit. 301-2). 

 " Bate,op.cit. App. vii,p.xxxi. ^^ Add. MS. 32057,fol. 8/5. ^' ' Speculum Dioecesis' (Alnwick Tower, Line.) 

 '^ T. S. James, Hist, of the Litigation and Legislation respecting Presbyterian Chapels and Chantries, 663. 

 *^ Carter had lived with Sir Robert Joscelin after his ejection from the rectory of Graveley (Calam) . 

 'Nonconformists^ Mem. [1802], ii, 304). 



*^ Urwick, op. cit. 687, quoting Josiah Thompson's MSS. (Dr. Williams's Lib.). 



*' Minutes of the General Assembly (Baptist Hist. Soc), i, p. lix. For Barnet cf ibid, ii, 37, 48. 



58 Ibid, i, p. lix. =^ Ibid. 36 n. «" Ibid, ii, 332. " Joum. (ed. F. W. Macdonald), iii, 153. 



«2 Ibid. 494 (18 Dec. 1772). *' Ibid, iv, 39 (13 Jan. 1775). 



" Ibid. 115, 143 (9 Nov., 30 Oct. 1778). «5 Ibid. 143 (30 Oct. 1778). «« i\^^^_ ,,5 (^ Nq^ 1778). 



355 



