Some property his wife possessed, in the county of Chester, it is supposed was sold, to enable Mr. Harrison to purchase the premises on which his dwelling-house and the Meeting House were fitted up. When the barn which formed the humble Meeting House was prepared, at the request of the people Dr. Calamy preached at the opening, and had a numerous auditory. It should here be observed, that the disinterestedness and sincerity of Mr. Harrison were strikingly evinced by his willingness not only to relinquish his clerical stipend, but to hazard his own private property amongst a people who had never been accustomed to make voluntary efforts for the support of the Gospel ministry. He trusted, however, to the great principles for which he made these sacrifices, and to the faithfulness of their glorious Author; and he did not trust in vain. After labouring here about nineteen years, Mr. Harrison removed in the year 1709, and became the minister of an Independent Church at St. Ives, in the county of Huntingdon, where he continued to labour for many years, and died in January, 1726, leaving two daughters to lament their loss.
The property at Pury now passed into other hands; for Mr. Harrison, on leaving, sold it to a gentleman in the neighbourhood of London; reserving, however, to the people the pulpit and other fittings of the Meeting House. The congregation for some time rented the place; but subsequently purchased the whole property, and vested it in the hands of trustees.
The immediate successors of Mr. Harrison did not continue long at Potterspury, and of their labours little is known.
The first of these was the Rev. Mr. Bennett, who, declining to take the pastoral office, soon removed, and was followed by the Rev. Isaac Robinson, who sustained the pastoral office about four years. In 1714, the Rev. Wm. Bushnell was the pastor, and continued to preach here till Michaelmas, 1729, when he left, and removed to Andover, in Herefordshire; and from thence, in 1732, to Nailsworth. He was succeeded at Pury by the Rev. Samuel Taylor.
The minister of whom we have the fullest account, and whose ministry appears to have been most extensively and permanently useful in this Church, though attended with some eccentricities that diminished its value, was the Rev. John Heywood, who came from Lincoln to this place in 1739. "After preaching here for about twelve months, he was ordained September 25th, 1740; on which occasion Mr. Petto, of Floor, began the service with prayer; Mr. Cartwright, of Long Buckby, prayed before sermon; Mr. Hunt, of Hackney, preached the sermon to the people; Mr. Clark, of St. Alban's, offered the ordination prayer, accompanied with imposition of hands; Dr. Doddridge gave the charge; and Mr. Drake, of Yardley Hastings, concluded with prayer."
When Mr. Heywood passed his examination previous to his ordination, he was required to maintain the following thesis in Latin—"The Scriptures a rule of faith." The manuscript, carefully and curiously written, together with the hymn which he composed to be sung at the ordination, remains to the present day, as a proof of his learning and a specimen of his talents. The ordination hymn, and about forty others which he composed for the use of his congregation, were afterwards published, dedicated to Dr. Doddridge, with whom Mr. Heywood was on intimate terms, and to whom he expresses himself as under very great obligations.
At the time of this settlement the Church appears to have consisted of fifty-seven members, of whom fifteen had been admitted by Mr. Harrison, one by Mr. Robinson, twenty-four by Mr. Bushnell, and nineteen by Mr. Taylor.
The following Church covenant was drawn up by Mr. Heywood, which is agreed to by all who join the Church:—
Church Covenant.
1. We avouch the Lord this day to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and sincerity of our hearts.
2. We call heaven and earth, angels and men, to witness this day that we recognize our baptismal covenant, and give up ourselves to God the Father, Son, and Spirit, as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten.
3. We do bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in his ways; to attend upon his word and ordinances of his grace; resolving to cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to him alone, for pardon and salvation.
4. We do sincerely promise, through divine assistance, to make the glory of God our aim and end; to watch against everything that would offend God, grieve his Holy Spirit, and bring a reproach upon the good way of God.
5. We solemnly promise to walk with all our fellow Christians with all humility and tenderness; to love one another, even as Christ has loved us, and given himself for us; to avoid jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; to bear and forbear, to give and forgive, as our dear Lord has taught us.
6. At all times we desire, by the help of divine grace, to watch against everything that would offend our fellow Christians, and promise to be willing to submit to the advice and council of our minister and fellow Christians.
7. We promise to behave with all possible loyalty and allegiance to his sacred Majesty King George, and to pray for him and all his royal family, that God may bless them, and confound all the designs and blast the counsels of all his enemies, both at home and abroad.
8. We promise to cultivate the duties of the closet, and to promote family prayer, that God may dwell with us and bless us, and all that are dear to us. We also promise to abound in the strict sanctification of the Lord's-day, and to bring all we can under the droppings of God's sanctuary. And all this we promise, not in our own strength and power, but in the name and strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whose blood we desire this covenant may be sprinkled.
Such was the active spirit and ardent zeal of Mr. Heywood, that he engaged in an extensive range of itinerant labour, not only in the villages in which his predecessors had preached, but in many and more remote places, where, but for his abundant efforts, the Gospel would have been unknown. He kept a journal of all the places in which he preached. Great prosperity in the Church appeared to be the result of these zealous and faithful labours. Mr. Heywood addressed a pastoral letter, on "the nature and importance of regeneration," to the Church and congregation, which are represented as residing in about twenty places around Potterspury, the names of which are given. In this wide sphere of pastoral labour, Mr. Heywood used to travel for many years on an old grey horse, which often stumbled, and sometimes fell; but he, nothing injured or dismayed, would prosecute his journey with his waistcoat open, and the long ends of his neckcloth streaming in the wind, while his tall lank figure, his slovenly appearance, and his too often despised employment, caused him to be regarded by many as among the most eccentric of men. This impression was doubtless increased by the colloquial style of his village discourses, in which he often condescended to employ the most common provincial expressions. The excellent Mr. Robins, in his memoir of Mr. Strange, of Kilsby, speaks of Mr. Heywood as "that singular gentleman, much more famed for his zeal than for the prudence or propriety of his conduct."