1,430 in all,* of these sacramental certificates, that were deposited with the court of Quarter Sessions. The earliest dates from January 13th, 1673, and the latest on December 30th, 1828. Colonel Colvile took much trouble with these certificates, and had calendars prepared that gave the date, name, officiating minister, and parish of each; there is also an index of the names of the officiating ministers, 312 in all. The great majority of these certificates are filled up on forms printed on parchment. The nature of these hateful certificates is now SO generally forgotten, that it will be of interest to give the oldest of the Derbyshire ones in extenso :

We William Osburne Minister of the Parish & Parish Church of St. Peeters Darby & James Oakes Churchwarden of the same Parish & Parish Church, do hereby certifie that John Taylor of Castle Greasley in the County of Darby upon the Lords Day commonly called Sunday the Thirteenth day of January immediately after Divine Service & Sermon, did in the parish church aforesaid receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the usage of the Church of England. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Hands the said Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Seventy and Three.

William Osborne, Minister of the Parish & Parish Church of St. Peeter aforesaid. James Oaks X his mark, churchwarden of the said Parish & Parish Church. Christopher Beckes of Darby aforesaid gen. and William Hagge of Darby aforesaid gen. do severally make Oath, that they do know the said John Taylor in the above written Certificate named, & who now present hath delivered the same into this court: And do further severally make Oath, that They did see the said John Taylor receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the Parish Church of St Peeters in the said certificate mentioned; & upon the Day, & at the time in the said certificate, in that behalf certified & expressed. And that they did see the Certificate above written subscribed by the Persons above named; And further the said Christopher Beckes & William Hagge do say upon their prospective Oaths, That all other matters or things in the said Certificate recited, mentioned, or expressed, are true, as they verily believe.

Jurat in Curia.

Christopher Beckes.
William Hagge, his X mark.

Some of the certificates are on paper and are written throughout. These often vary a little in style and phraseology. On Plate VII. a fac-simile is given of the first of these paper certificates. The last certificates, nine in number, presented in Derbyshire, were handed in at the Epiph. Sessions, 1829, relative to receipt of the sacrament, on December 30th, 1828. They testified to the communicating of H. Sacheverel Wilmot, William Harrison, Cornelius Howe, John Barber, George Allen, John Drinkwater, Jonathan Lee, junr., Daniel Ash, and Francis Beeston.

This total does not in the least degree represent the true sum of the Derbyshire sacramental certificates that were put in during the century-and-a-half that the Acts prevailed. The Quarter Session records of this kind, notwithstanding their number are very imperfect and probably do not represent the half of the certificates presented. Many certificates, too, would be presented before the borough courts of Derby and Chesterfield, others at the manorial courts, a few at the assizes, and a larger number than all before the different courts of ecclesiastical process.

The Toleration Act.

A great step in advance towards religious liberty was now made by the measure which has always been popularly known as the " Toleration Act." It exempted Dissenters from the operation of the Elizabethan religious statutes, compelling attendance at church, on condition of their taking an oath, or, in the case of a Quaker, making a declaration against Papal rule and supremacy; Dissenting congregations were allowed to meet for worship, provided their place of worship had been certified before the Bishop of the diocese or before the justices in session; registered meeting houses were to be protected from disturbance the same as churches; all dissenting preachers were required to take the oaths and subscribe all the Articles of religion (excepting the 34th, 35th, and 36th), before Quarter Sessions, or otherwise be liable to the Conventicle and Uniformity Acts of Charles II.; but all Papists and Unitarians were wholly excluded from the benefits of this measure.

At the Trans. Sessions, 1689, eighteen "Protestant Dissentinge Preachers" took the oaths and were licensed in accordance with the new Act. Sixteen of the number were Presbyterians. The following are the names of these the first legally qualified Nonconformist preachers of Derbyshire, with a few brief particulars* :—

Daniel Shelmardine was the son of Thomas Shelmardine, who was minister of Crich, and subsequently of Matlock, whence he was ejected in 1662. His son Daniel was born at Crich, on New Year's Day, 1637, and was educated at Repton, and Christ's College, Cambridge. He was ordained by the Wirksworth Classis, on April 21st, 1657, when only twenty years of age-" Mr. Daniel Shelmardine, Bachelor of Arts, being a man well known to this Classis, desiring ordinacon, had this Thesis given him vizt An scripturæ sunt perfectæ." His father was present on this occasion; he was one of the most regular members of the Classis, and frequently acted as Moderator. Daniel was ordained to the ministry of Barrow-on-Trent, whence he was ejected in 1662 The Barrow registers record that he "dyed at Findern, in the Parish of Mickleover, on Sunday night,

The information relative to these preachers is chiefly taken from Calamy's Ejected Ministers, from the minute book of the Wirksworth Classis, and from the Churches of Derbyshire.

Oct. 22, 1699, about sun setting, and was buried in Finderne Church by Mr. Ward, then minister of Mickleover, who preached his funerall sermon on Tuesday 24 following His text was upon 1 Cor. 15, 35. Mr. Moore (then living at Derby), a Nonconformist minister preached another funeral sermon the same night by candle-light in the meeting House at Finderne upon ye samne occasion. His text John 5, 28, 29."

Tymothy Seddon was nephew of Robert Seddon, a prominent Presbyterian of Lancashire birth, who held the living of Kirk Langley during the Commonwealth.

Robert Moore, of a Nottingham family, and of Clare Hall, Cambridge, preached first at Belper during the Commonwealth, and was afterwards ordained by the Chesterfield Classis as minister of Brampton, when he was ejected in 1662. "In the time of Monmouth, he (with many peaceable ministers and others) was sent prisoner to Chester Castle. He was afterwards one of the pastors of the congregation in Derby, where he died in June, 1704."

Samuel Crompton was the second son of John Crompton, M.A., who was ejected from the vicarage of Arnold, Notts., in the year 1662, and who died at Mapperley, in January, 1669. Samuel became a Presbyterian minister at Doncaster; from him are descended the Cromptons of Birmingham.

John Oldfield and Nathaniel Oldfield were the sons of John Oldfield, who held the rectory of Carsington, prior to the Commonwealth, and then conformed to Presbyterianism. Calamy praises him warmly for personal piety and quiet disposition. "The people among whom he laboured were very ticklish and capricious, very hard to be pleased in ministers, and yet they centered in him, and his name is precious amongst them." He published several sermons and lectures. Readers of Mrs. Gaskell's inimitable novel, North and South, will recollect the quotation from his eloquent address on his ejection from Carsington, in 1662. After his ejection, Oldfield chiefly resided at Alfreton, where he died June 5th, 1682. There is a brass plate to his memory in Alfreton Church. In his preface to the list of ejected or silenced ministers, Dr. Calamy apologises for saying nothing of those who had held up to the ministry since the Act of Uniformity, but adds a score of names, including the two Oldfields, of whom he says, "that tho' they had mostly a private Education, they were yet Men of that worth, that neither Oxford nor Cambridge would have needed. to have been asham'd to have produc'd them."