INTRODUCTION. Xlll. 



descendant of the Kev. Bernard Gilpin, famous in 

 tlie history of the Protestant Reformation as 

 ' The Apostle of the North.' Of the youth of 

 our Author very little is known. Having been 

 designed by his parents for the ministry, he was 

 sent to Queen's College, Oxford, where he 

 graduated as a Bachelor of Arts, November 24th, 

 1744. He was ordained two years later, namely, 

 in October, 1746 ; and the same year was ap- 

 pointed a stipendiary curate by the Rev. James 

 Parish, vicar of Irthington, a parish adjoining his 

 native village of Scaleby. He occupied this 

 curacy for less than two years, and, in May, 1748, 

 he proceeded to Oxford and took his M.A. degree. 

 During the four following years he held, at least, 

 two curacies, one in the diocese of Winchester, 

 and the other in that of London ; but, curiously 

 enough, his biographer has been unable to ascer- 

 tain the names of the parishes in which these 

 appointments were held. In 1 762 Gilpin gave up 

 the Ciurch for a time, and accepted an appoint-' 

 ment as principal assistant in the school of the 

 Rev. Daniel Sanxay, at Cheam, in Surrey — after- 

 wards succeeding, on the retirement of Mr. 



