Mr. Gear's removal, and a difference of opinion concerning the candidates which were recommended and heard, led to considerable altercation and painful division of feeling. The following ministers supplied the pulpit as probationers: Mr. Johnson, from Highbury; Mr. Wooldridge, from Gideon Chapel, Bristol; Mr. Hewlett, late of Newberry. Mr. Slye, of Potterspury, was unanimously invited to visit Harborough as a probationer; but, having no desire to remove from his people, refused.
Mr. Wild, late of Gainsborough, and educated under Mr. Joseph Fletcher, of Blackburn, was recommended to the friends at Harborough by Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool. In May, 1831, Mr. Wild was invited to spend three or four Sabbaths, at the expiration of which time he received an invitation to the pastoral office; but conceiving the time he had spent among them too limited to form a just opinion of the people and the suitabilities of the place, he engaged to spend a month or five weeks more before he gave his final answer to the wishes of the people. Mr. Wild accepted the invitation, and his recognition as the pastor took place November 9th of the same year. Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool; Scott, of Rowell; Toller, of Kettering; Roberts, of Melton; Chater, of Kibworth; Hewlett, of Lutterworth, engaged in the services of the day.
Mr. Wild's ministry here was of short duration, and attended with the want of unanimity and peace; so that in the year 1835, perceiving the continuance of dissatisfaction, with no prospect as he thought of party feeling abating, and consequently little hope of future comfort and usefulness, he sent a notice of his intention to resign, which was read by Mr. Hobson, of Welford, on Lord's-day, January 11th, 1835, his ministry having continued about three years and a half.
The present pastor (Mr. H. Toller) is the fifth surviving son of the late Rev. T. N. Toller, of Kettering. He pursued a course of preparatory study under Mr. Walter Scott, late of Rowell; and afterwards was a student at Coward College, London. At the expiration of his studies, he was invited as a probationer to Harborough, and ultimately to take the pastoral charge, which he accepted, and was ordained October 27th, 1836. His brother, Mr. Thomas Toller, of Kettering, delivered the charge—Mr. Edward Mial, then of Leicester, the introductory discourse; and Mr. Mursell, of the same place, preached to the people.
Though the Church and congregation could not be considered in a happy, prosperous state, when this settlement took place, yet they gradually attained to a condition of peace and prosperity to which they had for some years been strangers.
In the ninth year of Mr. Toller's ministry the present Chapel was built, to which we have referred at the commencement of this account. On the day of opening, large assemblies were collected together, and a noble spirit of liberality was manifested. Dr. Reed, of London, preached in the morning, from Num. x. 29; Dr. Leifchild, in the evening, from Rom. v. 9. Mr. Alexander, of Norwich, preached on the next Sabbath. The whole amount collected at these opening services was £199. 1s., and donations were presented of sufficient amount at once to set the Chapel entirely free from debt. All this made it a season of gladness and of lively interest to the people.
Since this effort they have gone forward with renewed vigour and united energy. The number of members added to the Church during the present pastorate is 179. The present number of communicants is 163. The general Sabbath-school connected with the place contains 150 children. In the Infant-school, conducted on the Sabbath, there are 80 children. For the use of the latter, a room has been recently erected over the general school-room, with class-rooms for the elder children, at a cost of £230, the whole of which has been paid. Occasionally services are conducted, chiefly on Sabbath evenings, by several members of the Church, in five villages in the vicinity of Harborough.
The whole aspect of things in this Christian society now presents a happy illustration of the sentiment, that a united people, under a faithful pastor, will go on and prosper.