unto your honour for him, besechinge your honor to take notice, and to make due triall of him and his cawse, so that the truth being fownd owte, justice maie take place; Your honor will defend the innocent in his innocencee, putt an end to his tonge, many wearisome and daingerous trobles and be a patrone unto him in all his good and honest actions; so shall we be bound to thancke God for you, and pray for you for ever. Signed by Robert Cooke Alias Clarencieulx Roy d'Armes, Robert Claye, preacher, and fourteen others." "Dr. Thomas Temple, brother of Sir John Temple, the Irish Master of the Rolls, was instituted to the Vicarage of Battersea in 1634, and continued there during the civil wars; he was one of the ministers appointed by Cromwell to assist the Committee for displacing ignorant and insufficient School Masters and Ministers. He was likewise one of the Assembly of Divines and a frequent preacher before the long Parliament. Several of his sermons are in print. Mr. Temple was succeeded in the Vicarage of Battersea by the learned Bishop Patrick, who was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, and was domestic Chaplain to Sir Walter St. John, by whom he was presented to this benefice. Several of his tracts were published while he was Vicar of Battersea and are dedicated to his patron. He resigned the Vicarage in 1675. He was a zealous champion of the protestant religion, both by his writings and in conversation, particularly at a conference which he, in conjunction with Dr. Jane, held in the presence of James the Second with two Roman Catholic Priests, in which he had so much the superiority over his opponents in argument, that the King retired in disgust, saying that he never heard a good cause so ill defended or a bad one so well. At the Revolution he was rewarded with the Bishopric of Chichester, and was afterwards translated to Ely. He died 1707, and left behind him a numerous collection of printed works; consisting of sermons, devotional and controversial tracts and paraphrases on the Scriptures, which are held in great estimation and which were continued by William South." "Dr. Thomas Church, of Brazen Nose College, Oxford, who was instituted to the Vicarage of Battersea in the year 1740, distinguished himself much in the field of controversy in which he engaged against Westley and Whitfield, and Middleton: for his successful attacks on the latter and his defence of the miraculous power during the early years of Christianity. The University of Oxford gave him the degree of D.D. by diploma. He was too zealously attached to his religion to let the opinions of Lord Bolingbroke pass unnoticed notwithstanding he had been his patron. His publication on this subject however was anonymous, it was called 'An Analysis of the Philosophical Works by the late Lord Bolingbroke,' and came out in 1755. He died in 1756, aged 49."