There was also a Mr. Richard Thorpe, ejected from Barby, a village about a mile from Kilsby. Such was his high attainment in the exercise of prayer, that none of the ministers in those parts were thought to excel him. The youth of the village stood in great awe of him, so as to be kept from profaning the Sabbath, as had been too common there. He was so much taken up with spiritual things, that he left all his worldly concerns to the care of a faithful servant. After his ejectment, he preached in his own house on Thursdays without molestation. The separation of these eminent men from the Established Church, and their labours in this vicinity, were the means of bringing some to be decided Nonconformists; but their number for many years was too small to constitute a separate Church, for the support of a pastor, so that they travelled on the Sabbath to attend the Dissenting ministry at Long Buckby and Daventry, and invited the ministers of these places to preach a week-day lecture at Kilsby, in a house licensed for this purpose. Their numbers gradually increased; the room became too small for them; they purchased another house, and fitted it up as a place to be appropriated to religious worship. This was in the year 1738. When this was done, the ministers of Daventry and Buckby engaged to preach to them alternately on the Sabbath morning. The number of hearers still increased, so that early in the year 1750 they built a gallery for the further accommodation of the people. At this time they had attained to such a degree of strength as to indulge the thought of having a stated pastor over them. In the latter part of this year, with the hearty concurrence of the ministers by whom the lecture had been preached, they invited Mr. Thomas Strange to minister amongst them, with a view to a settlement. After a suitable trial, the following invitation to the pastoral office was presented to him:-- _Kilsby, June 1st, 1752._ DEAR AND REVEREND SIR,--We, a Church of Protestant Dissenters in and near this place, have through a remarkable kind providence enjoyed the benefit of your labours for upwards of twelve months to our entire satisfaction, and we hope, through the blessing of God, to our advantage. And, sir, as your religious sentiments, piety, zeal, and ministerial ability afford an encouraging prospect of your usefulness, it appears to us very desirable that you would now, sir, enter into the relation of a pastor to us, in which request you may depend upon our unanimity, and our endeavour to make your situation comfortable and useful, by our constant prayers and all other means proper to us as private Christians, who are, sir, your cordial friends and most humble servants. (Signed by thirty-two names.)