In the village of Brigstock, which contains upwards of 1200 inhabitants, an Independent Church was formed about seventy-four years ago. There was a small band of decided Christians, attached to the principles of Nonconformity, who in the year 1778 united together in the faith of the Gospel, to sustain a Christian ministry and to have the ordinances of Christ administered unto them. This took place with the encouragement and advice of some ministers of Christ in their vicinity, who had occasionally preached unto them, and knew the circumstances in which they were placed; but there are some interesting memorials preserved of events which preceded, and which manifestly prepared the way, under the blessing of the great Head of the Church, for the formation of a regular Christian society in this place. It is stated on satisfactory evidence, that during the time of the Plague in London, a godly tradesman of the name of Leigh retired to this village; and it appears that the piety of this Christian and his family, with the attention they paid to the means of grace among the Nonconformists of the neighbourhood, at Kettering, or at Rowell, with whom they for many years became identified, was gradually the means of awakening the attention of others to the subject of true religion and to the cause of Nonconformity. This presents us with a pleasing example of the useful influence that may be exerted by a Christian household, in exciting attention to the means of grace and the principles of the Gospel in a benighted neighbourhood. As their numbers increased, they attended at different places around them, as it might suit their convenience or their taste, those places being from eight to thirteen miles distant; some of them becoming decided Christians, they united in Christian fellowship with those Churches where they generally attended. Thus things continued until the days of Doddridge's ministry, when some stated services were commenced at Brigstock, of which the following account has been preserved:--