Rev. William Gibson, from London, where he received his ordination, was his successor. Elder Gibson is said to have descended from an ancient and highly respectable family in Warwickshire. From his youth he was destined for the church, and consequently he received a classical education in Oxford, that nursery of ecclesiastics. While prosecuting his preparatory studies, he accompanied his fellow-students to see what they denominated "sport," which was, in reality, the public whipping of a poor woman for nonconformity as it respected infant baptism, and the religious observance of the first day. The great patience and apparent piety of the victim, together with the brutality of the sentence, wrought powerfully upon his sympathetic mind, and finally he abandoned the study of logic for that of the Bible, in order to discover what part of the sacred volume authorized such proceedings. This inquiry, to the inexpressible grief of his parents, who saw the prostration of their worldly hopes, terminated in his conversion to Baptist sentiments, and his emigration to America. He filled the office of pastor to the church at Newport until his death, which occurred in 1717, in the 79th year of his age. Joseph Crandall, who had been his colleague for two years, succeeded him. He was an able and worthy minister, although illiterate, and the church prospered under his administration. He died in 1737. Rev. Joseph Maxson, another father in Israel, followed, who died in 1743. Mr. Maxson is said to have been extremely apt and pointed in argument, but he was mainly distinguished for judicious adaptation of means to ends in all his intercourse with the unconverted. This will be illustrated by the following anecdote. He had a neighbour notorious for infidel principles and unchristian conduct, but as such characters generally are, he was entirely ignorant of the Bible, nor could he be prevailed on to read or accept one. Mr. Maxson did not press the matter, but manifested as much unconcern as he could assume. Some time after, our infidel friend was returning home, when near his gate, he discovered a book presenting the appearance of having been accidentally dropped. He took it up; it was a Bible. Upon the blank leaf was written— "'Twas for me, thy soul death tasted, Seeking me, thy worn feet hasted; Let such labour not be wasted." The exquisite beauty of this stanza struck the mind of the scoffer; he thought that certainly his principles could not be shaken by a slight examination of the book, as he wished particularly to discover to what passage such beautiful lines could apply. He did so; the result was his conversion. Rev. John Maxson, their next pastor, was a man of eminent piety. He was not a proficient in the wisdom of this world, but he possessed that without which all learning is vain. He was eminently distinguished for his knowledge and love of the Scriptures. He died in 1778.