DISTRICTS.
1. Aylmerton & Felbrigg. | |||
| £ | s. | d. |
Mrs. Fuller |
| 4 | 0 |
Mrs. Knights |
| 4 | 0 |
Mr. Daniel |
| 4 | 0 |
Smaller subscriptions |
| 6 | 0 |
2. Alby & Aldboro’. | |||
Mr. Springall |
| 12 | 0 |
Rev. Mr. Shuckburgh |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Clarke |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Hacon |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Press |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss Press |
| 6 | 0 |
3. Beeston. | |||
Smaller subscriptions |
| 2 | 0 |
4. Baconsthorpe & Bodham. | |||
Miss Mayes |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss S. Mayes |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Bumfry |
| 3 | 0 |
Mrs. Beales |
| 6 | 0 |
5. Beckham. | |||
Cook Flower, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
Mr. Fuller |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Sayers |
| 6 | 0 |
6. Cromer. | |||
Miss Earle |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Betts |
| 6 | 0 |
7. Cromer. | |||
Mrs. Sharpe |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Goodwin |
| 12 | 0 |
Mrs. Bunnett |
| 12 | 0 |
Miss Press |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss Pank, Lodge |
| 6 | 0 |
8. Cromer. | |||
Mrs. J. Rust |
| 6 | 0 |
| 6 | 0 | |
Mrs. Hogg |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Sidle |
| 6 | 0 |
9. Cromer. | |||
Miss Peele |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss Field |
| 6 | 0 |
10. Cromer. | |||
Mr. F. Pank |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. E. Heath |
| 12 | 0 |
11. Gimingham &Trimingham. | |||
12. Hanworth. | |||
Miss Mayow |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss U. Mayow |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Press |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Press |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Amis |
| 6 | 0 |
13. North Repps. | |||
Miss Gurney |
| 12 | 0 |
Miss Buxton |
| 12 | 0 |
Miss Richardson |
| 6 | 0 |
14. North Repps Hall. | |||
T. P. Buxton Esq. | £1 | 10 | 0 |
Mrs. Buxton | £1 | 10 | 0 |
A. Johnston, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
Mrs. Johnston |
| 12 | 0 |
Mr. T. F. Buxton |
| 12 | 0 |
Mr. C. Buxton |
| 12 | 0 |
Miss Buxton |
| 12 | 0 |
Mrs. Cook |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Hyde |
| 4 | 0 |
M. Kealey |
| 4 | 0 |
E. Rix |
| 4 | 0 |
M. Holmes |
| 4 | 0 |
S. Bourne |
| 4 | 0 |
15. Overstrand and Sydestrand VillageAssociation. | |||
Miss Gurney | £2 | 2 | 0 |
Miss Buxton | £2 | 10 | 0 |
Mrs. Cubitt |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss Carr |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Cross |
| 6 | 0 |
M. J. Cross |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss Emery |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Moore |
| 4 | 0 |
Mrs. Field |
| 4 | 0 |
Miss Field |
| 4 | 0 |
Miss M. Field |
| 4 | 0 |
Mr. R. Curtis |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. J. Curtis |
| 4 | 0 |
H. Roper |
| 4 | 0 |
L. Rushmore |
| 4 | 0 |
E. Goodwin |
| 4 | 0 |
E. Greenaker |
| 4 | 0 |
S. A. Nichols |
| 4 | 0 |
John Spinks |
| 4 | 0 |
Stephen Rogers |
| 4 | 0 |
John Howes |
| 6 | 0 |
Smaller subsns. | £2 | 10 | 0 |
16. Roughton. | |||
17. Runton. | |||
H. J. Johnson, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
Miss Johnson |
| 6 | 0 |
Miss E. Johnson |
| 6 | 0 |
| 6 | 0 | |
Mrs. Yearham |
| 3 | 0 |
Mrs. Bumfry |
| 3 | 0 |
Mr. Wright |
| 3 | 0 |
Miss Wright |
| 3 | 0 |
Mrs. Baker |
| 3 | 0 |
Mrs. Covell |
| 3 | 0 |
Miss Carr |
| 3 | 0 |
Miss Ellis |
| 3 | 0 |
Smaller subscriptions |
| 7 | 0 |
18. South Repps. | |||
Mrs. Weeds |
| 6 | 0 |
19. Saxthorpe & Corpusty. | |||
Mr. Kelly |
| 4 | 0 |
Mr. Goldsmith |
| 4 | 0 |
20. Sheringham. | |||
The Hon. Mrs. Upcher |
| 12 | 0 |
H. Upcher, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
Mrs. Upcher |
| 12 | 0 |
Mrs. E. C. Buxton |
| 12 | 0 |
Arthur Upcher, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
Mr. Overton |
| 12 | 0 |
Mr. Long |
| 6 | 0 |
Rowland |
| 4 | 0 |
21. Stody. | |||
Alice Pigott |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Ladle |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Paul |
| 4 | 0 |
Smaller subscriptions |
| 11 | 0 |
22. Weybourne. | |||
T. F. Buxton, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
S. Hoare, Esq. |
| 12 | 0 |
The Hon. Mrs. Upcher |
| 6 | 0 |
Mrs. Copling |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Arms |
| 6 | 0 |
Stephen Eades |
| 6 | 0 |
Mr. Pigott |
| 6 | 0 |
REPORT.
We, the committee of the Ladies’ Bible Association for Cromer and its neighbourhood, consider it our duty to lay before our subscribers, the prefixed statement of the condition of our charge; and in doing so, we think it may be expedient to accompany the same with some extracts from the slight records which we have kept of our proceedings, since Nov. 1827, when our friend, Mr. J. J. Gurney, now on a christian mission in America, first called us together.
We may premise that in our note of the first year, (1828,) we find the need of the society indicated by the fact, that in one outlying district, a poor woman had lately given three shillings for the tattered remains of a bible. The announcement of the formation of our association, and of the facility which it afforded for obtaining bibles, was received with pleasure throughout the neighbourhood. Many parents were desirous to avail themselves of the opportunity of providing bibles for their children, and even some solitary old couples who could not read themselves subscribed, that they might have a bible in the house for their neighbours to read to them.
The young people were generally found eager to subscribe. All the girls (but one) of one school gave their names as soon as the plan was proposed to them, and several having supplied themselves with bibles, continue as free subscribers, and take much interest in reading the monthly extracts. It was pleasant too, to see the desire of children in various places, to devise a way to earn their own subscriptions. One little girl, who had a hen, set aside the first chickens for the payment of hers, and an errand boy volunteered to run some additional miles, to obtain a few pence for his.
Some interesting particulars of the effect of passages of the word of God upon individuals, have occasionally been related in conversation with the collectors. On one of these applying to a young man, the latter said, that though he had a bible, he would willingly subscribe five shillings for another, (as a gift we suppose, to some friend,) and he proceeded to say, that when very young he was very thoughtless, and, for a length of time, had feared neither God nor man. Being alone one day in his father’s house, he saw a bible lying on a window seat; he opened it in a careless manner, and his eye was caught by a verse of awful denunciation against sinners. He could not bear it, and flung the bible into a corner of the room, and went out. The words still haunted him, and, on his return after some time, seeing the bible still on the floor, he picked it up, and opening it again, observed a passage containing, as he said, “a promise, a blessed invitation.” His attention was happily attracted, he read on, and from that time, formed a habit of reading the scriptures, which has proved, as he thankfully acknowledged, a blessing to his soul.
We may now mention an instance of the utility of reading the bible freely and undauntedly to others. A gentleman, who had been in the practice of reading in the cottages, went into one for this purpose on the evening of a fair held in the neighbourhood. He found the old woman on whom he had called gone to bed, but five or six rough-looking men were sitting round the fire, and hesitatingly he asked, if they would let him read a chapter to them. They, with at least equal hesitation, assented, and our friend asked for a bible. They brought him first a Latin testament, but at last a large bible was brought from another cottage, and he read to them the 26th chapter of St. Matthew’s gospel, and spoke to them on the injunctions there given. They all became attentive. One of the men who had been a smuggler, and much addicted to drinking, and who would probably have finished his evening by intoxication at the fair, appeared particularly struck by what he then heard. On his going home, his wife was astonished at his altered demeanor, but dared not speak to him; his daughter, however, asked him, “what he had been doing?” On which, he answered her in his uncouth way, that he had “been praying and would pray again, for so the gentleman had told him from the book.” The man entirely changed his habits from this time. The following harvest he was seen by the same gentleman, coming out of a farm house with a party of fellow-labourers, and his kind friend spoke to him, fearing he had as formerly indulged himself. The poor man replied, “I have been doing, sir, what I never in my life did before, I have refused a pint of beer, for I did not want it;” and his companions confirmed his words. His resolution was put to a severer test the next summer, for being lame he was set to keep the birds from a field directly opposite one of the new public-houses. “Was it not a temptation to you?” said the same gentleman. “A sad temptation, sir, and very hard it is; but I have resisted and kept out.” The poor man’s conduct to his family was equally improved; and we have perhaps the more pleasure in giving this little history, as it happened that the bible, which was rendered the instrument of convincing this poor man of the error of his ways, was furnished by our association.
We must here acknowledge that it in the spirit with which subscriptions are offered, and the prayers with which they are accompanied, which give value to the little collections, and we trust that the prevailing motive in most of the givers, is the honest desire to spread the knowledge of that gospel which they have themselves learnt to prize. It is however pleasant, when such a desire is expressed. Thus on one of our districts being lately revisited with a view more especially to the promotion of free subscriptions, a fisherman came forward with his twopence a month, saying. “May a blessing go with it; and perhaps even that, may be the means of saving one soul.” A poor woman too, on giving her offering, said to the collectors, “If I have to work ever so hard, I will have the penny ready when you come again; for I will pay it for the sake of the cause.”
One more instance of the same kind, we cannot refrain from giving as related by a beloved and lamented young member of our committee, who laboured diligently during her brief career, to lead others to the knowledge of those promises of the Redeemer, of which we may thankfully believe she has experienced the blessed fulfilment.