Brief Notes on some Letters by William Thompson, Boston (Leicestershire), to George Birley, St. Ives, 1777-94. 

#19--T. To B., 28 July 1790--”what an awful stroke of Providence was the sudden Death of Mr. Robinson!  Do you indeed think he was a Socinian?  Pray who is likely to be his successor at Cambridge?  What circumstances are his family left in?”

#23--T. To B., Oct. 7, 1791--”Is it not rather singular that Mr. Hall should act as a Pastor of the Church at Cambridge, without any form of Ordination at all?  This is an uncommon Case.  But I suppose he has something of Excentricity about him.— And it may be ye the case with the People at Cambridge, as they were so long under the tutorage of Mr. Robinson.”

#26--T. To B., July 21, 1792--”I hear your old friend Mr. Ryland Jun.r  is likely to remove to Bristol, to succeed the late Dr Evans . . . What a pitty but Mr. Birley would be prevailed upon to undertake the instruction of young men, who are approved by the churches as persons likely to be useful!”

#27--T. To B., May 13, 1793-- "What are your thoughts on the state of the French Nation now?  I long to see an end of the present unhappy War.— O when shall the happy period arrive when men ‘shall learn war no more’!—That will be a glorious period indeed.  When shall it commence, think you?”

#28--Letter from Mrs. Jane Thompson to Birley, dated Feb. 22, 1794, announcing the death of Rev. Thompson.

Text:  These letters can be found in D/Hus 1/7 (1-28), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.