The last letter Mr. Church wrote to Banbury, from Birmingham, was to arrange some matters about his family following him up to London; and appears to have been written in great hurry and confusion. I have made but one extract from that, which is as follows:—He says to Mr. T. Gardenner, to whom he wrote, “They have been, (alluding, I suppose, to some persons from Kingham, having been at Warwick) and brought the accounts hither, and have set all the people in such confusion about me, so that a dear _friend of mine_, _who was apprehensive_ for my personal safety, set off from thence, late as it was, and arrived here (Birmingham) at a very late hour, and his coming has thrown the whole family where I am into such confusion and disorder, that it was judged prudent for me to leave the town immediately, which I shall do accordingly, without delay. Look after my wife and the dear children, send her up by the first coach to London; she knows where to find me in town.”
I shall now give some account of the proceedings of the people at Banbury, as to drawing up the statement to be sent up to London, and the reason why it was kept back, after it was drawn up and written out by me, at the request of the people there. In the first place, every letter was copied verbatim, in the regular order in which they had passed between Mr. Church and them. To these was annexed a preliminary address, in the name of the principals of the congregation; the particulars already mentioned were stated, the various charges alledged, and then the conclusion they drew from the whole, which was couched in the following terms:—“We do not pretend to charge Mr. Church with having actually, and in the full extent of the thing, been guilty of the odious offence laid to his charge; but from the whole tenure of his conduct, his letters, and the various things that appear in evidence, we are constrained to believe, that he has discovered a most detestable propensity that way; and if what you receive in these documents are not sufficient proof to you of the same; if you choose to be at the expense of it, we can send you up a whole coach load of living witnesses to the same facts.”—Thus far the business had proceeded: all the papers were drawn up in order, and it only remained for them to be properly signed by the parties who were principally concerned in the investigation, particularly by the deacons of the church; in order to this they were read at a meeting of those parties, and generally approved. Messrs. J. and T. Gardenners, actually and readily signed their names to them; but Mr. Lambart, the acting deacon, positively refused to give his signature, and without it they could not be properly considered as the Churches act. At this, the other parties were very much displeased, but could not prevail on Mr. Lambart, by any means, to sign his name. The reason he alledged for not doing it was this, Mr. Church was indebted to him sixteen or seventeen pounds, and he said, that if those papers appeared in London against him, his friends there must all forsake him; and then he, Mr. Lambart, must loose his money, which he could not afford to do; and, therefore, until he had got that he would sign nothing against him; though, when he had got his money he did not care if Church was hanged; this much I heard Mr. Lambart assert. This caused a demur, and though the other parties all wished the papers to go, they could not without Mr. Lambart’s name, for the reason mentioned above. After some deliberations and consultations, it was represented by some, that they were likely to get into a deal of trouble if those papers were sent to London: that if Mr. Church was taken into custody, and had to undergo an examination, that they should have to attend as witnesses; and as they could not foresee all the inconveniences that might ensue both to themselves and also to Church; and as they had now done with him as their Minister, they finally agreed to suppress the papers, and leave him to get on in London in the best manner he could.