On the 27th August, 1736, he was united to the church at Beccles; and on the 8th of the following month was ordained as its pastor, with the laying on of hands.
Mr. Nathaniel Newton, who appears to have been an active deacon nearly forty-four years, died 12th June, 1739, and was buried in the meeting-house.
Mr. Tingey married in March, 1738, and continued at Beccles till his death, but the congregation declined in numbers under his ministry, and some who had adopted antipædo-baptist sentiments withdrew, and formed a distinct church. [177]
Mr. Tingey was generally considered a good preacher; but during the last few years of his life he was induced to involve himself in secular business, which tended to lower him in the esteem of the professing world.
He died about October, 1749, [178a] and was interred in the burial-ground adjoining the meeting-house. A stone was erected to his memory, the inscription upon which, so far as it is now legible, is as follows:—
HERE LIETH THE BODY
OF THOMS. TINGEY,
PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH
13 YEARS,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
. . . 1749, [178b]
. . .
From that time to Midsummer, 1757, the congregation was supplied by Mr. William Lincoln. He had become a student in the academy at Northampton under Dr. Doddridge, in 1745, and came from thence to Beccles. Afterwards he removed to Bury St. Edmunds; was ordained pastor of the congregation assembling in Churchgate street in that town, September 7th, 1757; and died there April 22nd, 1792, at the age of sixty-four. [179a]
After Mr. Lincoln left Beccles, various ministers occupied the pulpit some months; particularly Mr. John Hurrion, a grandson of Mr. Hurrion, first of Denton, and afterwards of Harecourt, London, and son of Mr. Samuel Hurrion, of Guestwick. [179b] He became, in August, 1761, pastor of the Independent church at Southwold, where he died much respected, March 13th, 1793, aged fifty-six.
In the autumn of 1758, Mr. Nicholas Phené, who had been a student in the Hoxton Academy, came to Beccles. He continued here as a supply for about two years, and then went to Rendham, in Suffolk, where he was ordained June 6th, 1761. He again removed in 1764, to Gloucester, and afterwards to Bradford, Wiltshire, and died in 1773.
For many months subsequent to the Michaelmas of 1760, occasional ministers were engaged at Beccles. During several succeeding years, the pulpit was occupied by an individual whose talents and writings have rendered him eminent in the dissenting community. This was Mr. John Fell.