The Infamous Life of John Church, the St. George's Fields Preacher / From His Infancy Up to His Trial and Conviction, With His Confession, Sent in a Letter to the Rev. Mr. L--, Two Days After His Attack on Adam Foreman, at Vauxhall, With Clerical Remarks by the Same Gentleman; to Which Is Added, His Love Epistles to E**** B****. Together With Various Other Letters, Particularly One to Cook, of Vere-Street Notoriety.

Transcribed from the 1817 Hay and Turner edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
HAY AND TURNER’S GENUINE EDITION, Entered at Stationers’ Hall.
Sent in a Letter to the Rev. Mr. L—, two days after his Attack on Adam Foreman, at Vauxhall, with Clerical Remarks by the same Gentleman; to which is added, his
Love Epistles to E B .
Together with various other Letters, particularly one to Cook, of Vere- Street Notoriety.
London: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HAY AND TURNER , 11, NEWCASTLE STREET STRAND; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.
1817.
PRICE FOUR PENCE .
It has been justly remarked, by a celebrated writer, that “a sudden rise from a low station, as it sometimes shews to advantage the virtuous and amiable qualities, which could not exert themselves before, so it more frequently calls forth and exposes to view those spots of the soul which lay lurking in secret, cramped by penury, and veiled with dissimulation.”
John Church, the subject of the following pages, was found, when an infant, on the steps, or near the porch of a church (some say that of St. Andrew, in Holborn;) and the overseers of the parish not being able to discover who were his parents, or by whom he was thus abandoned, had him sent to the Foundling Hospital, where he received that name, which bears the nearest analogy to the place where he was found. Here he remained until he was nine years old, when a complaint to the Governors having been made against him by the nurses, that he was addicted to improper and disgusting practices, it was thought prudent to apprentice him out at that early age, to obviate the possibility of the contagion spreading amongst the rest of the boys who partook of the bounties of that charity. From his evident illiteracy, and from the badness of his writing, it is certain that he must have quitted the Hospital at an earlier age than usual, because, in general, none leave it who are not good scholars. He was accordingly placed out as an apprentice to a Gilder, in Blackfriars Road. Before the expiration of his indenture, he married and quitted the service of his master. Shortly afterwards, he worked for a composition ornament maker, in Tottenham Court Road. This immaculate Minister of the Gospel here commenced his religious career, and, under the assumed garb of sanctity, took upon him the office of a teacher to the Sunday School, at that time established at Tottenham Court Chapel. Thinking that preaching was a better trade than that which he was employed in, this precious teacher, together with two other young men, hired a garret in the neighbourhood of Soho, where they used to learn the method of addressing themselves to a congregation. An old chair was the substitute for a pulpit. He now began (to use his own expression) “ to gammon the old women .”—Good fortune happened at length to procure him the notice of Old Mother Barr, of Orange-street, who, being interested in his behalf, allowed him the use of a room of hers, in which he treated her and a few other choice labourers in the field of piety with his rapturous discourses.. From this he used to hold forth more publicly. His virtues and acquirements now recommended him to one Garrett, of notorious memory, who obtained him a living at Banbury. It was at this place that he became obnoxious. Having made several violent attempts upon some young men while at that place, he was driven out from thence, by the trustees of the chapel in which he preached, and ordered never to show his face there again. He hastily decamped, leaving behind him his wife and children; and the police officers having been sent in pursuit, their searches proved fruitless, and it was a long time before he was heard of. He once more retired into the country, but was called from his solitude, to use his influence in town, by a man of his own disgraceful kind, named Kitty Cambric , and well know at the Swan, in Vere Street . It is proper to observe here that some of these wretches assume the names of women, and that they are absolutely married together, as will be shown presently, from Church’s having been the parson who performed the blasphemous mock ceremony of joining them in the ties of “ Holy Matrimony .” He now settled himself at Chapel Court, in the Borough, when his old friend Garrett, publicly charged him with a wicked and diabolical offence, as the law says, “not to be named amongst Christians,” and he was obliged to run away from this accusation. By some fortuitous event he at length got possession of the Obelisk Chapel, where he began to deliver his doctrines to those who were foolish and ignorant enough to attend to his fulsome and incoherent exclamations. Several young men, whose names are known to the writer, who were accustomed to hear him, were obliged to leave him in consequence of his having used them in a manner too indecent to be mentioned or hinted at. E. B. a respectable tradesman, residing in the Borough of Southwark, has informed the writer of the present article, that this parson, or rather this monster, when be was about to preach, would frequently say—“Well, I am going to tip ’em a gammoning story; my old women would believe the moon to be made of green cheese if I was to tell them so; and I must tell them something.” The writer has also been informed, from credible authority, that Church was a constant attendant in Vere-street, and that the gang of miscreants who met at the public-house there, some of whom stood in the pillory about seven or eight years ago, had nominated him to be their Chaplain , and that he officiated in that capacity. By virtue of his functions in this situation, he was often employed in joining these monsters in the “indissoluble tie of matrimony!!!” They were absolutely wedded together. One evening, when Church visited this infamous place of resort, one of the gang observed, “Here’s Parson Church. Aye, Parson, how d’ye do? Have you come to see our Chapel?”—Church replied, “Yes, and to preach too.”