To the united Munificence of the COMPANY OF STATIONERS, and other numerous Benefactors, who when a calamitous Fire, Jan. 30, had in one night destroyed the effects by his Father's merits, and the indulgence of Three Honourable Speakers; at near LXX years of age, left this tablet to suggest Ex voto Patroni optimi, amicissimi, J. NICHOLS. MDCCLXXVIII. Two letters, which the elder Mr. Bowyer received after his loss, having already appeared in this Magazine; we shall add to them a short one from a very eminent non-juring divine : "DEAR SIR, I MOURN for your misfortune; I hope our loving God will sanctify it to you, and that your great loss will in the end be your great gain. I don't question but you are more a Christian than not to bear this, or any other worldly loss, with such patience as becomes our holy profession, and the disciples of our blessed Lord and Redeemer. I pray God bless you and your family; and blessed be his holy name who saved you from perishing! The bearer, Mr. Brydon, is my good friend and benefactor; and knowing him to be a real honest man, I recommend him to you, to serve you in what he proposes, which I hope will be for your advantage. My wife and I give our humble service to you and your worthy spouse. I pray God comfort you both. I am, upon your account, Dear Sir, Your sorrowful, but sincerely loving friend. Jan. 31, 1712. R. ORME." The ground of the assertion that Mr. Bowyer was "a candidate for a Fellowship," is the following letter in his own hand, in which (it appears by a memorandum) he was assisted by the Rev. Mr. Francis Roper (fellow of St. John's). "Rev'de Prases, EST profectò in agendis gratiis nescio quid adeò suave et jucundum, ut animo non prorsùs degeneri difficile sit eas non persolvere. Hinc quanquam nostri Beneficii beatus Author ex hisce oculis longius amoveatur, incumbit tamen eadem grata necessitas; et aliquid referendum est, nè pectus quasi immemori beneficio laboret. Quibus verò potiùs referendum est, quàm iis quibus acceptum tulimus? Sic quoties ministri cœlitùs delabuntur, qui humanis miseriis suppetias afferant, sunimo cultu reveremur, et periculum est, nè nimiâ religione Numinis vicarium prosequamur. Quoties de Angelis, de Calis, fit mentio, ignosce mihi, si defuncti Amici subeat recordatio. Eheu! Infandus renovatur dolor, et vulnera nostra planè recrudescunt. At, at, simul ac tecum mihi esse sermonem intueor, spes aliqua lætior effulget: ignosce etiam mihi, si pro amico abrepto in vivis alter præsens esse videatur. Hoc sanè ingens mihi præbet solatium: tandem quadriennii ferè labores hic exantlati satis superque mercedis receperunt. Jam licèt nostrum nomen titulis illis, quos ab almâ matre plerique ejusdem ordinis filii solent expetere, non sit insigniendum, mihi tamen acilis ferit assuetæ gloriæ jactura, tam novis, tam insolitis honoribus cumulato. Jam quascunque terrarum partes licebit videre, ubicunque enim spiritum hunc traxero, gratè perpetuò sum prædicaturus, iis ædibus me vixisse, apud quas, ex aliorum exemplis, confirmare possum nè maxima quidem merita suis præmiis * Young Ambrose Bonwicke, who died May 5, 1714, aged 23. carere, et ex mel ipsius exemplo, nè minima quidem carere plusquam suis. Non potes, Rev'de Præses, non animo advertere, quantum me reprimam nè tuas laudes aggrediar; nolo enim nunc primùm id mihi indulgere, quod tibi displiceat; liceat tamen hoc si non in tuum nomen, saltem in Rev'di Viri decus proferri, ipsum plus quàm duplici dono nos cohonestâsse, quibus legavit non solùm largitionem amplam, verùm etiam patronos amplissimos. Extabit olim hinc aliquis, qui defunctum suum patronum, te vivum amicum, pulchriore forsan oratione, non gratiore animo, sit elaturus: utcunque tamen dicendo felix sit, hoc saltem invidebit; dum ipse patroni dona solum participat, nos tanti patroni consuetudinem sæpius participâsse. De hâc gloriâ ego quidem serio triumpho; de eloquentiâ suâ triumphet ille. Quòd si insuper patrocinio tuo, Reverende Præses, nos dignatus fueris, non erit quod futuro cuiquam Ciceroni invideam. Ut igitur nos, quod facis, amplectaris, foveas, per insitam tibi benevolentiam, per sacros præclarissimi Viri manes, petit, orat, obtestatur, Favoris tui studiossissimus et Cultor devotissimus 1778, Sept. Oct. Nov. and Dec, GUL. BOWYER, 1719." XIII. Anecdotes of the SACHEVERELL Family *. JOHN SACHEVERELL, of an ancient family in Notting hamshire, grandfather to the famous Dr. Henry, was eldest son to the Minister of Stoke-Underham, in Somersetshire, a man of great reputation, who had many children. Two of them, John and Timothy, were bred ministers. They were both of St. John's college, Oxon; and were both silenced on Bartholomew-day, 1662, the former at Wincanton, in Somersetshire, and the latter at Tarrant-Hinton. Mr. John Sacheverell, whose memory is precious in the West of England, had first the living of Rimpton, in Somersetshire, which he quitted before the Restoration of Charles II. and afterwards that of Wincanton in the same county. He had there but thirty pounds per ann. certain The early history is taken from a pamphlet published in 1711. allowance, with a promise of an augmentation of thirty pounds more from London; of which augmentation he received only one half year. His pains in this place were very great; he had considerable success in his ministry; and his conversation was unblamable and exemplary. He was three times married. By his first wife he had only one child, Joshua, whom he sent to King's college, Cambridge. By his second he had no children. By his third, he had two other sons, Benjamin and Samuel, and a daughter. The youngest of the sons was educated under Dr. Olliffe, rector of Dunton, Berks, and was three years a student in Pembroke college, under Doctor Hall. The third wife, (who survived him) was daughter to counsellor Hussey, of Shaftesbury, and widow of Mr. Henry Derby, an attorney. She brought him a copyhold estate of 601. a year at Stalbridge, which he returned to her two daughters by the former husband, leaving his library to his son Joshua*, and twelve-pence only to each of his other children. He constantly rose early, and spent the morning in his study, and the afternoon in visiting his flock, and discoursing with them about religious matters, till the Saturday, which was entirely spent in preparing for the sabbath. That day was usually thus employed: He began his public worship with a short prayer in the morning, and then read a psalm and a chapter, and briefly expounded them; and after singing a psalm, he prayed and preached for an hour and a quarter. In the afternoon he began at one, himself repeating his morning sermon, and examined young people as to what they had remembered; then prayed and preached for about an hour and a half; and afterwards the repetition of the evening sermon, and examination of young ones about it, concluded the public service. On the very day of King Charles the Second's coronation, he preached a Sermon upon 1 Sam. xii. 25. " If ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your King." The observation which he chiefly insisted on was this: That wicked men, continuing in their wicked actions, are the greatest traitors to the King, and the State wherein they live. Several went out of the church in the midst of the sermon; and the rabble got together, and in the markethouse impannelled a jury from among themselves, and represented a formal trial of the preacher, and afterwards drew * Joshua (whom Bisset styl's a Dean) is said to have been disinherited by his father, for his strict adherence to the established church. him in effigy, with a book in his hand, which they called his catechism, upon a hurdle, through the town to the top of a hill, where a great bonfire was prepared. The effigy was hanged upon a pole, in order to be burned; but the wind driving the flames away, the effigy remained untouched, and was shot at by several with a great deal of fury; and at length fell into the flaines where it was consumed. It was the observation of many in those parts, that several who were the most active in this frantic sort of diversion, which was accompanied with a great deal of profaneness and debauchery, had some one or other remarkable calamity that befel them soon after, and some of them died very miserably. An account thereof was then published in one of the books of prodigies, and the names of several of them are still remembered; and though perhaps there was then, and there is in general even now, too great a forwardness in some, in the transports of their zeal, to represent those things as divine judgments, which befal men of a party opposite to their own, yet calamities that are uncommon, sharp and peculiar pains coming on a sudden, without any visible. cause, and attended with a peculiar horror and desperation, and that in the case of several, are such visible evidences of a divine hand, that no man can with any shadow of reason pretend that they ought to be overlooked. A little after he was indicted at the assizes, for continuing the exercise of his ministry, without reading the Common Prayer. When he was allowed to speak for himself, he declared, that, if he had been required by authority to read the Common Prayer, he would either have done it, or immediately have quitted the living. He behaved himself so well, that the Judge expressed himself to this effect to those who were about him: "Have you no other man then in your county to single out for a pattern of your severity?" Upon hearing all matters, the Jury brought him in, Not Guilty; and he was acquitted. After his being silenced by the Bartholomew-Act, he retired to Stalbridge, where he had an estate in right of his wife. Being afterwards taken at a meeting in Shaftesbury, to gether with Mr. Bamfield, Mr. Hallet, Mr. Ince, and some other ministers he and they were sent together to Dorchester Gaol, where he remained for three years. In this imprisonment, he and the rest of them took it by turns to preach out of a window to a considerable number of people, that stood to hear on the other side of the river. In this confinement he contracted such an indisposition, that of a |