‘TUE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 


No. XVI.1 
APRIL, 
: 1797. [Vor. IIL. 


ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AS Mr. CRACKNELL, who has fur- 
nifhed feveral Numbers of your Mif- 
‘cellany with Lifts of Diffenting Con- 
gregations, does not, by any intimation 
he has dropt, appear to be acquainted 
with the circumftances from whence the 
formation of thofe lifts originated, nor 
with the authority on which they reft ; 
it may be acceptable tothat gentleman, 
and to many of your readers, to be made 
acquainted with the hiftory of the rife 
of the accounts he has promitéd to detail 
to you. | 
’ have, in my poffeffion, a MS. fimi- 
lar to that from whence he copies. Both 
Mr. Robinfon and myfelf, I conceive, 
owed our books to the obliging commu- 
Mications of the fame gentleman, as we 
both, I know, contributed materials to- 
wards the formation of thofe lifts. 
When fome diffenting minifters of 
London fet on foot, inthe year 1772, an 
application to parliament, fur relief, in 
the matter of fubfcription, and withed 
to be joined by their brethren in the 
country in the profecution of this ob- 
ject, they foon found, that the protefant 
diffenters knew little of one another ; 
and thar thofe of one part of the king- 
dom, and even in the metropolis, were 
very little acquainted with the num- 
ber, or ftate, of the focieties in other 
parts. 
It fuggefted itfelf to the rev. Jofiah 
_ Thompfon, a refpeétable minifter of the 
Baptift denomination, then refident in 
London, and now at Clapham, toopena 
correfpondence with fome of the bre- 
thren in different counties ; to obtain as 
accurate an account,as could be procured, 
of the congregations and minifters, in 
their’ refpeGtive neighbourhoods. As 
the ground-work of his enquiries, and 
Montuiy Mae, No. XVI. 
every county. 
of the information he folicited, he fent 
lifts of the congregations, in all the 
counties of England, taken by Mir. 
Neal, inthe year 1715, or 1716. 
Among others, to whom he applied, 
with fuccefs, were. Mr. Robinfon and 
myfelf. I inftituted the like enquiries 
through the county of Somerfet, and that 
of Devon; and, by means of the minif- 
ters of the refpective cong: egations, or 
of fome particular correfpoadents, who 
entered, with {pirit, into Mr. Thomp- 
fon’s defign, efpecially the lateMr. Bad- 
cock, then at Barnftaple, in Devon, I 
had the picafure of tranfmitting fome 
ample communications to him. ‘ 
Mr. Thompfon beftowed on his pur- 
fuit, fome years of induftrious applica- 
tion, and carried on, with a view to it, | 
an extenfive correfpondence. From {ome 
places, he received no return to his en- 
quiries, except county lifts. From others, 
he colleéted not only thefe, but narratives 
of the origin, and revolutions of {focie- 
tics; and fome curious particulars: of 
thefe, I have been able, in feveral in- 
ftances, to avail myfelf, in my new edi- 
tion of Mr. Neal’s ‘¢ Hiftory of the Pu- 
Ritans.2 ae 
When he had obtained materials for 
the purpofe, he drew out a complete 
view of the number of congregations in 
He had thefe lifts tranf- 
cribed, in an alphabetical order, and was 
fo obliging as to fend copies of them, 
bound in ruled books, with red forrels, 
to feveral friends, whom he conceived he 
fhould gratify, or whofe attention to his 
enguiries he fhould repay, by fuch com- 
munications. JI was favoured with one 
of thefe books, in the year 1774; and I 
have no doubt, that the MS. parchafed 
by Mr. CRackneELti, was a like pre- 
fent to Mr. Robinfon. 
My copy exhibits, in one column, the 
number of all the diffenting congrega- 
K tlons 
