Joshua Toulmin, Taunton, to John Sturch,[1] Isle of Wight, 8 May 1775.

Taunton   May 8. 1775

Dear Sir,

         I thank you for your kind intention to apprize me of a Service that would be required of me; though I had recd before a message & two Hours before the rect of yours a Letter from Dr Jefferies, this Information did not supersede the utility of your Favour, by which I obtained a more exact Idea of the Nature of the Assembly.  I can not think of preparing a discourse on purpose, & our Brethren must be candid to what I may deliver on the occasion.

         I hope to meet you at Devon, attended with Mrs Toulmin on Tuesday Afternoon,  May the 30th: It would give us both a particular Pleasure to accept your obliging Invitation to the Isle of Wight, & the prospect of your company to London would be an additional Inducement; but I do not see that we can gratify ourselves, it will so break in upon our Time & limit our stay at London; & I shall be afraid of being Windbound.

         My Sermon, for the Ordination is grounded on 1 Thess. 5. 12  it turns almost wholely on the duty of the People, & what I observe with respect to that of the Minister is only with a view to raise the regards of the Laity for the Character & to direct their expectations.  It has been already used for a similar occasion, or I should think on the Service with much more diffidence & timidity than I do.  From our Texts & different views I have reason to suppose we shall not interfere with each other’s Province.

         My Friends the two Mr Jeffries are pleased to hear of you & return their compliments.  Mrs Toulmin joins in Respects to yourself & Mr Clark [& myself], who is with cordial regard,

                     Dear Sir,

                             Your very affectionate Bro:r &

                                         Humb:e Ser:t   Joshua Toulmin

Text: NLW 13566C, fol. 1, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Toulmin’s congregation at Mary Street in Taunton was originally a member of the Western Baptist Association of Particular Baptists.  By 1733, however, Joseph Jeffries, minister at that time, became an Arian and the church ceased participating in the Association, moving into affiliation with the General Baptists. In 1814 a Particular Baptist congregation formed in Taunton, all former members of the church in Wellington.  They called Richard Harsey as their first pastor (he too was a member of the Wellington church) in 1815. John Sturch was the minister at the General Baptist meeting in High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, from 1751 to his death in 1794. His father and grandfather were both General Baptist ministers in London and Crediton, and his son, William Sturch (1753-1838), was an ironmonger in London and never a minister, but nevertheless published many religious tracts, including Apeleutherus; or an Effort to attain Intellectual Freedom (1799). See Douglas Jackman, Baptists in the West Country (Dorchester: Western Baptist Association, [1953]), pp. 41-42.