resisted extreme Calvinism, and was denounced by the Independents as a Socinian. Some of his controversial writings led to a violent dispute between the Presbyterian and Independent ministers of London, and occasioned the disruption of the "happy union" which had been formed between the two bodies in 1691. Not content with attacking his orthodoxy, some of his Independent adversaries aspersed his morals. Mr. Williams appealed to the body of the Dissenting ministers to scrutinize his life and character. After a searching inquiry, protracted for several weeks, a committee, which had been appointed to investigate the charges, pronounced Mr. Williams "clear and innocent of all that was laid to his charge." In 1709, he received the diploma of a Doctor in Divinity from the University of Edinburgh and that of Glasgow. He was permitted to live through the dark and threatening days of Queen Anne, and had the happiness of presenting an address of congratulation to George I. on his peaceable accession to the throne. He died, after a short illness, Jan. 26, 1716, in the 73rd year of his age. He had been twice married, first to an Irish, afterwards to an English lady, and by each marriage had acquired a considerable fortune. During his life, he had used his "worldly estate" with moderation, that he might be the more useful to others after his death.* Dr. Calamy observes that the charitable uses to which he devoted the bulk of his estate were various in their kinds, and much calculated for the glory of God and the good of mankind; and had certain legal defects in his will been amended, the disposition of his property would have been incomparable. After providing for the settlement of his wife's jointure, and leaving a number of legacies to relations and friends, amongst whom were many ministers, it was provided that £150 should be paid to the Society for the Reformation of Manners; £100 for the education of youth in Dublin; £40 to the poor of Wood-Street congregation, Dublin; £50 to the poor of Hand-Alley congregation; £100 to poor French refugees; £20 to the poor of Shoreditch parish. To St. Thomas's Hospital and the workhouse in Bishopsgate Street, he gave the reversion of an estate in Cambridgeshire. To the Presbyterian meeting-house in Burnham, Essex, he gave his houses in that town. To the College of Glasgow, he left, for the purpose of educating certain students of South Britain, £100 and two estates in Hertfordshire and Essex. The sons of Presbyterian ministers, if equally eligible, are to be preferred by his Trustees as candidates for the bursaries. To the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland, he gave £100 and an estate in Huntingdonshire. To the New-England Society, he left an estate in Essex, to provide religious instruction to the Negroes in the West Indies, and for the conversion of the American Indians. The Trustees appointed under the will were directed to open and support schools in certain towns of Wales, and in Chelmsford in Essex,-to maintain an itinerant preacher in Ireland, to pay small annuities to the Academy at Carmarthen, and to the Presbyterian chapel at Wrexham,-to reprint and distribute, from time to time, the works of the Founder,-to preserve his Library for public use in a freehold edifice to be purchased or built for that purpose, and to appoint and remunerate a Librarian. The Trustees were directed to apply the surplus of his estate, in certain definite proportions, to the See the terms of his will. following objects:-the distribution of Bibles and Catechisms to the poor; to the relief of ministers' widows and poor ministers; to apprenticing poor children educated in the schools at Wrexham, &c.; to aiding students for the ministry; and to ministers in North and South Wales. With the liberality which is the characteristic of the English Presbyterians, Dr. Williams laid down no creed for his Trustees or beneficiaries, and desired his Trustees to exercise their own judgment with respect to his will, and "to be the sole judges of what might be doubtfully or darkly expressed." Twenty-three Trustees were appointed by Dr. Williams to carry his will into effect. They included several of the most eminent Presbyterians residing in London in 1711, when the will was signed, e.g. Rev. Matthew Henry, Rev. Thomas Reynolds, Rev. William Lorimer, Rev. Benjamin Robinson, Rev. Jeremy Smith, Dr. Joshua Oldfield, Dr. Edmund Calamy, Rev. William Tong, Rev. Z. Merrell, Dr. John Evans, Dr. William Harris, Rev. Isaac Bates, Rev. James Read, and Rev. George Smyth. The long list of Trustees chosen to fill up vacancies, exhibits many honoured names. To mention only a few, there are, 1729, Drs. Newman, Wright, Grosvenor, Avery, Earl, Hughes and Thomas Hollis ; 1738, Rev. Moses Lowman; 1739, Dr. Lawrence; 1744, Dr. Samuel Chandler; 1758, Dr. George Benson; 1761, Dr. Richard Price; 1762, Rev. Hugh Farmer and Dr. Kippis; 1770, Dr. Caleb Fleming; 1774, Dr. Abraham Rees; 1785, Rev. Hugh Worthington; and, 1794, Samuel Rogers. Great difficulties were experienced by the first Trustees in carrying the Founder's will into effect. It was not till 1727 that they were able to begin the building of the Library. The sum allowed by the Court of Chancery for the edifice proved insufficient; and, after some delay, it was completed by means of the benefactions of the Trustees and their friends. The Trustees held their first meeting at the Library, Dec. 8, 1729. The spacious rooms contain the library of the Founder, also the collections of Dr. Bates* and Dr. William Harris, and large additions made by Rev. Mr. Davies, Rev. Thomas Rowe, and many others, and by the periodical votes and the donations of the Trustees. The entire collection is now supposed to contain about 17,000 volumes. The number of separate works is about 22,000, of which 9000 probably are pamphlets. The present nett income of the estates is about £1516 per annum. Dr. Williams's foundations have rendered large services to religion, learning and the cause of religious liberty. Many useful, and some distinguished ministers have been educated by the aid of his funds: Thomas Urwick, George Walker, Ebenezer Radcliffe and Newcome Cappe may be mentioned. The Library has been thrown open to all who have required to consult its treasures. A distinguished literary journal, not much given to find any thing praiseworthy in Nonconformist Dr. Bates was a learned bibliographer, and his library abounded in rare and curious works. In the department of religious tracts, the Library at Redcross Street is particularly rich. The second volume of the Catalogue (pp. 438) is devoted exclusively to this department. † Art. on Public Libraries, British Quarterly Review, August, 1847. VOL. V. 2 P institutions, has thus expressed itself respecting the liberality of the Trustees: "No public library in England is so liberally conducted as this. Books are lent from it, at the discretion of the Trustees, to any part of the country. The Advocates Library at Edinburgh, and many upon the continent, offer the same accommodation to men of literary research; but in England this example of the Dissenters has not yet been followed."* Another service rendered by Dr. Williams's foundations was eloquently expressed by Dr. James Lindsay in his Oration delivered on the occasion of the Centenary of the Founder's death:-"The house in which we are now assembled, built in compliance with our Founder's will, has become, through the liberality of the Trustees, the place of public business to the collective body of Dissenters in this great city;-a place in which noble stands have often been made against ecclesiastical usurpation; in which generous efforts have originated to promote the extension of religious privileges to men of all persuasions;-a central point, round which the friends of religious freedom in every part of Britain rally, and from which even recently a spirit has gone forth, by which the bigots and persecutors of another country are abashed, at least, if not finally overcome.”† It was on many accounts gratifying to Mr. Aspland to be called on to share the responsibilities of Dr. Williams's Trust. He was nominated by the Rev. Jeremiah Joyce, on the occasion of the removal of Rev. N. T. Heinekin from Brentford to Gainsborough, and took his seat at the Board, June 24, 1811. The Chairman of the Board on that occasion was Rev. Thomas Belsham, who read to the newly-admitted Trustee the solemn concluding words of the Founder's will, in which he invokes the blessing of God upon its faithful execution, and entreats all concerned honestly and prudently and diligently to employ to those ends what he designed for the glory of God and the good of mankind. At the time of Mr. Aspland's admission, the Trust consisted of the following members: + The reference was to the proceedings of the London Ministers, designed to stay the persecution of the French Protestants. The Three Denominations no longer meet in one body. The Presbyterians continue to meet in the Library at Redcross Street. The same privilege would have been freely granted to the other Two Denominations. But when they incorrectly styled themselves the Three Denominations, notwithstanding the separation and the recognition by the Crown of the Presbyterians as a separate body, the privilege ceased, and they have since assembled at the Congregational Library. Amongst Mr. Aspland's associates in the Trust, there was no one with whom he was more frequently united, both in sentiment and action, than Dr. Thomas Rees. From that kind friend the Editor of this Memoir has received the following letter respecting the Trust and Mr. Aspland's share in its administration. "Brixton, March 26, 1849. "My dear Sir,-You will, I am sure, believe that no light consideration could deter me from complying with your request, to furnish some account of your excellent and revered father in his capacity of a Trustee of Dr. Williams's charities. There are, however, circumstances which render such an undertaking on my part a matter of some difficulty and delicacy. Those charities are under the management of more than twenty gentlemen of high character, all equally intent on the faithful discharge of their official duties. It might, on this account, be deemed somewhat invidious to select for special notice and commendation an individual member of the body, as having the appearance of disparaging the merits of his associates, and placing their services in an unfavourable contrast. But I need not fear a sinister interpretation of this kind being put upon my language. I estimate too highly the candour and generosity of my respected colleagues to believe them to be capable of taking offence at any terms of praise applied to the character and labours of an associate, who, while living, was held by them in high esteem, the value of whose co-operation they justly appreciated, and whose eminent services were, on frequent occasions, the subject of their eulogium. "Mr. Aspland held his appointment for nearly forty years, having been admitted in 1811, two years subsequently to my own introduction into the Trust. He had at this time attained a position of great respectability, and established a high reputation, among the Presbyterian ministers of London, not alone by his professional services in the pulpit, but also by his active labours in religious and charitable institutions belonging to the Dissenters. The intellectual and moral qualities which had procured for him these distinctions, naturally recommended him to the favourable notice of Dr. Williams's Trustees, who gladly availed themselves of an early vacancy to introduce him into their ranks. "Ardent in temper, and active from disposition and habit, Mr. Aspland was not a man to remain idle at his post. He promptly applied himself to * The gentlemen afterwards associated with Mr. Aspland in the Trust were Elected Clerical 1812 John Lane 1814 Alex. Crombie, LL.D. John Jones, LL. D. 1831 James Yates, M. A. Elected 1832 Edward Tagart 1833 George Kenrick 1835 Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. learn the nature and the objects of the charge he had undertaken, and forthwith embarked with alacrity and zeal in the various labours it appeared to impose and from this time forward, through the whole of his life, he was distinguished as one of the most assiduous and efficient members of the Trust. "The extent and the value of Mr. Aspland's services cannot be fully understood and duly appreciated without a knowledge of the numerous and varied duties attached to the office of Trustee. A brief enumeration of the principal matters may furnish some notion of their nature and importance. "The general business relating to Dr. Williams's charities comprehends, first, the charge and management of the property, chiefly landed estates, from which are derived the funds destined for their support; and, next, the application or appropriation of those funds to the benevolent objects they were appointed to promote. These objects comprise, among others, the maintenance of the public Library in Redcross Street-the education of divinity students in the University of Glasgow-the support of schools for the instruction of the children of the poor-the distribution of books on practical religion—the advancement of the Dissenting interest in Wales-the assistance of poor Dissenting ministers and the widows of such, &c., &c. "The chief part of the business relating to these objects is transacted by the Trustees at large, at stated periodical meetings. But for the greater convenience and facility of disposing of matters of detail, much that relates to each department is referred to the management of standing committees. Whether, then, Mr. Aspland appeared at the general meetings or at those of any of the committees, on most of which he was appointed, he always occupied a prominent position as a regular, diligent and influential member. 'Numerous as were the claims on his time, from his professional engagements, or from requisitions to take a part in public proceedings in the Dissenting body, having reference to their civil rights or religious liberties, in which his assistance was frequently courted, he took his full share of the labours arising out of the several branches of the Trust. When questions arose as to the management of the property, he was generally present to join in the deliberations and to aid by his opinion and counsel; and on more than one occasion he was named one of a deputation to visit and examine the estates. Upon these deputations it was my happiness to be one of his associates; and I can bear my testimony to the admirable judgment and ability with which he discharged the duties of his mission. "In the administration of the funds of the charity, the maintenance of the Library ranks among the objects of chief importance. Apart from the functions of the Librarian, which are distinct and weighty, the committee entrusted with its direction are charged with duties of considerable consequence. To them pertain the general superintendence of the Library, and the selection and purchase of books and manuscripts for its augmentation. In these occupations Mr. Aspland took deep interest and rendered great assistance. His studious habits, his varied erudition, and his extensive bibliographical knowledge, imparted great weight to his opinion and judgment in this department, and rendered his co-operation eminently valuable. "A few years ago, the Library committee had to prepare a new Catalogue of the books. For the satisfactory accomplishment of this object, it was necessary that the entire collection should be carefully examined and collated. This labour was assigned, for convenience, to a small sub-committee, of whom Mr. Aspland was one; and his colleagues had the benefit of his presence and active co-operation through the whole of the troublesome task. "The provision made by Dr. Williams for the education of divinity scholars at Glasgow, constitutes an important part of his charities. The selection of the students, and the determination of the qualifications for admission, rest with the Trustees. It has been their great aim to render these scholarships as serviceable as possible to the promotion of sound learning among those who are appointed to them, and they have with this view applied themselves |