There is a Sabbath-school connected with this place, consisting of fifty-four children. The school connected with the congregation at Weldon numbers twenty-one children. The present number of communicants is twenty-seven.
In the year 1850, the sum of £55 was left by Mrs. Mary French, partly for the purpose of renewing the trust deeds of the minister's house and the close belonging to this interest, and partly for making improvements in connexion with the premises. The larger part of this sum has already been applied according to the will of the donor.
While we record the pecuniary aid thus afforded to a small body of Nonconformists in these places, who have no wealthy individuals amongst them, and who have to stand against much influence that bears against the advancement of their principles, we trust it is ever borne in mind that the promotion of the cause of pure and undefiled Christianity, the conversion of sinners unto God, and the advancement of believers in divine knowledge, faith, holiness, and love, are the great objects for which a Christian Church is formed and the ministry of the Gospel sustained. Here may these objects be abundantly promoted!
CHAPTER XVIII.
MEMORIALS OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT YELVERTOFT.
In the village of Yelvertoft, which has a population of between six and seven hundred inhabitants, there is a neat Independent Chapel, capable of accommodating near four hundred persons, situated about the centre of the village, with school-rooms adjoining. Passing on to a rather lower part of the village, on the opposite side may be observed a respectable dwelling-house, with garden and orchard, which is the residence of the Independent minister. To be able to go back to the commencement, and trace the onward progress of such a cause, thus situated, must be especially gratifying to those who are now connected with it, while it might be gratifying to all who take an interest in the things that relate to the kingdom of Christ and the highest welfare of men.
It is not more than sixty years since the present Chapel was erected, an Independent minister regularly settled as pastor, and a Church formed on Congregational principles; but in the early part of the last century, occasional services were conducted here by Dissenting ministers, chiefly from Welford, where those residing in Yelvertoft who dissented from the Established Church were in the habit of attending.
In the book containing the records of the Church, we find an account of the earliest efforts made by Nonconformists in this village, and how they led on to the formation of the present interest. This account we shall now present to the reader.