![]() | CITY OP WORCESTER. 369 the site of the present one; but in 1859 the present handsome classical structure was raised, at a cost of nearly £6,000. Minister, Rev. J. Bartlett. - Baptists were established here about 1658 under the pastorate of Thomas Fecknam, but the society was broken up at the Restoration, and the members suffered severely till the Toleration Act brought them peace. The old chapel at the corner of Silver Street, where Robert Hall and John Foster have preached, is now converted into a warehouse for hops, and the present Gothic structure was erected in 1863-4 in Sansome Walk, at a cost of about £5,000. Minister, Rev. H. E. Von Sturmer, M.A. - Quakers, of all dissenting bodies, experienced the greatest rigour of the times; but they were themselves the " sticklebacks " of society in the seventeenth century, and notably routed the Baptists in this city. George Fox was imprisoned in Worcester gaol, and suffered greatly for refusing to take up arms against the King here. The oldest book of the society commences in 1673. The Quakers first met at the house of Robert Smith, and also at Edward Bourne's, a physician ; and when the door of the house where they assembled in Cucken Street was locked by order of the Mayor, they performed their devotions in the street, and were at once taken to gaol. The first mention of a stage coach in this city was when the officers went up to London with Fox in 1674. Their chapel was afterwards in Friar Street, and the present one in Sansome Walk was erected in 1701. - John Wesley was at Worcester as early as 1760. At one time he preached in St. Andrew's Church, at others in a barn in London Road, a room in the Butts, and the Riding School in Frog Lane. Persons still living remember how crowds of poor people would go out to meet Wesley's carriage and welcome him to the city. Whitfield also preached here. A chapel was erected in New Street in 1772, but in 1795 they purchased an old chapel in Pump Street, belonging to a branch of the Independents. A new one was erected in 1796, and the present one in 1813, at a cost of £6,500. Dr. Adam Clarke preached at the opening. Present ministers, |