CARPENTERS'-HALL.

Dr. Fleming was interred in Bunhill-fields, where upon his tomb-stone is preserved the following inscription :

Under this stone are interred the Remains

Of the Rev. CALEB FLEMING,

Many years Pastor of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters
in this Metropolis.

He was distinguished for his piety and integrity,

And his indefatigable attention to the study of the sacred writings.
He was a steadfast assertor of the right of private judgment,
And considered the interposition of human power and authority
in matters of religion,

As the great source of the corruptions of Christianity,

Always animated by a warm zeal for the interests of religious liberty,
He was equally influenced by a firm attachment

To the rights of his country, and of human nature.
He died July 21st, 1779,

In the 81st year of his age.

CARPENTERS'-HALL.

CARPENTERSHALL is situated in London Wall, op

posite the noble building for the reception of lunatics, called Bedlam. About seventy years ago, it was hired by a lunatic of a more dangerous description, who exhibited here, for some considerable time, till the strong arm of the civil power interfered, and some officious magistrate read him a lecture of a less palatable nature, than those which he had been accustomed to deliver. Of this strange adventurer we shall present the reader with some curious particulars, which will supply the want of further particulars respecting Carpenters'-Hall.

JACOB ILIVE.-This singular man was the son of a printer, and himself bred to the same profession; but ap

CARPENTERS'-HALL.

plying himself to letter-casting, he conducted, at the same time, the joint-concern of a foundery and a printing-house. It is said that he knew the letters by the touch; which remarkable circumstance renders it less surprising that he was an expeditious compositor. It was not, however, as a nrechanic that he became known-his ambition led him to be a writer as well as printer of books; and not being sound in his mind, he produced some strange works. In 1733, he published an "Oration," designed to prove, The Plurality of Worlds,--That this earth is Hell, That the Souls of men are the apostate Angels,-That the fire which will punish those who shall be confined to the globe after the day of judgment, will be inımaterial,-And that future punishment will not be eternal. It appears from the preface to this piece, that it was written in the year 1729, without any design of being made public; but the author having read it at various times to his mother, Mrs. Jane Ilive, (E) she ordered in her will, that he should read it publicly, as soon as convenient after her decease. He accordingly pronounced it at Brewer's-Hall, September the 10th, and at Joiners'-Hall, September the 24th, 1783. In this strange performance, the author unveils his deistical principles, and takes no small liberty with the sacred scriptures, especially the character of Moses. Emboldened by this first adventure, our author determined, henceforward, to become the public teacher of infidelity, or, as he calls it, "The religion of Nature." For this purpose, he hired the use of Carpenters'-Hall, where, for some considerable time, he delivered his Diatribes, which consisted chiefly of scraps from Tindal, and other deistical writers. In the course of the same year, our author published a second part

(E) Mrs. Ilive was the daughter of Thomas James, a benefactor to Sion College Library, and descendant of Dr. Thomas James, Librarian of the Bodleian. She died August the 29th, 1733, aged 63 years. It appears from the above oration, that she held sentiments very similar to those of her son.

CARPENTERS'-HALL.

of the above performance, which he entitled, "A Dialogue between a Doctor of the Church of England, and Mr. Jacob Ilive, upon the Subject of the Oration."

The year 1756, proved fatal to Mr. Ilive's liberty, as well as to his lectures. For, publishing "Modest Remarks upon the Discourses of the Bishop of London," (Dr. Sherlock,) which proving not quite so modest as the author promised in his title, he was sent to Clerkenwell-Bridewell, where he was confined from June 15, 1756, till June 10, 1758; after which he attempted no more public lectures. During his confinement, he published, "Reasons offered for the Reformation of the House of Correction in Clerkenwell, &c. 1757." He also projected several other reforming treatises, enumerated in Gough's British Topography. It appears that Mr. Ilive, also, attempted to restore the company of Stationers to their primitive constitution. Besides the above treatises, he published in 1757, a pretended translation of, "The Book of Jasher;" said to have been written by one Alcuin, the name of a British monk, of considerable note. The account Mr. Ilive gives of the translation, is full of glaring absurdities; but the publication, in fact, was secretly written by him, and printed off by night. Mr. Ilive died in the year 1763.*

די

Gough's British Topography, vol. i. p. 637,-Reed's Rise of the Infidel Societies, and Biographical Dict. Art. ILIVE.

CAPEL-COURT, BARTHOLOMEW-LANE.

THIS place is scarcely worth notice, but having inserted

it in our list, we shall just observe, that the Society of Rellyan Universalists, which now meets in Windmill-street, occupied some years ago, a large room on the first floor of a house in Capel-court, Bartholomew-lane. Of the rise of this Society an account has been already given in the life of its founder, Mr. Relly, under the article CROSBY-SQUARE; and we shall have occasion again to mention them when we come to speak of Windmill-street.

FOUNDERS'-HALL, LOTHBURY.

INDEPENDENT.

THE meeting-house at Founders'-Hall is of ancient date,

and was occupied for nearly the period of a century, by a Scots Presbyterian congregation, which was the earliest of that denomination in London. It was collected in the reign of Charles the Second, and continued to assemble at Founders'-Hall, till the year 1764, when they built a new meeting-house, in London Wall. After this, a lease of Founders'-Hall meeting was taken by the Independent congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. Joseph Barber, then assembling at Little St. Helen's. This church, it is well known, originated in a separation from the church a

FOUNDERS-HALL, LOTHBURY.-Independent.

the Three Cranes, of which Mr. Samuel Pike was pastor. Mr. Barber, after preaching upwards of thirty years at Founders'-Hall, upon the expiration of the lease, in 1797, united his people with the Independent congregation at Aldermanbury Postern, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Towle; and upon Mr. Towle's death, in 1806, assumed the sole charge of the united society. At that place we shall make further mention of Mr. Barber. Upon his removal, a fresh lease of the meeting-house, was taken by the Independent congregation at Pinners'-Hall, of which Mr. Crole was pastor; and by this church it is now occupied.

The meeting-house is situated at the top of Founders'Hall Court, and is accessible by means of a flight of stairs, the lower part being occupied for a tavern. The building is of an oblong form, the size moderate, and the whole fitted up with great neatness. There are four galleries, one being raised a tier above the rest. The congregation is in a respectable state, and the church upon the Independent board.

As this church is but of modern date, the history of it is extremely short: we have to record the life and labours of only one pastor, who finished his course but a few years ago. The present minister is the second in succession.

ANTHONY CROLE.-This worthy minister was a native of Scotland, and born in the year 1740, at the village of Fettercairn, in the shire of Kincardine, about twelve miles from Montrose. At seven years of age he had the misfortune to lose his father, who was a serious man; but this