Mr. Hextal was the next pastor of the Church. He was a native of Broughton, near Kettering; became a member of the Church at Kettering under Mr. Saunders; for which, see the Memorials of the Church at Kettering. He was a student at Northampton under Dr. Doddridge; first settled at Creaton, then at Sudbury, from which place he came to Northampton. We have no record of the time when he entered on his ministry at Castle Hill, and no account of anything that transpired during his ministry; but under the date of April 16, 1775, we have this record: "It was this day agreed, by a majority of eighteen brethren of this Church, to dismiss the Rev. Mr. Hextal from his office as pastor, minister, and teacher." This appears to have led to very painful altercations between the friends of Mr. Hextal and those that were opposed to him, which ultimately led to a separation from the Church and congregation. Those who were attached to Mr. Hextal endeavoured to regain the pulpit for him by a process of law, pleading the right of the subscribers to a vote for the pastor; but this was overruled, as contrary to the deed which gives "the power to the Church (upon giving six days' notice by the deacons) to elect, place, and displace a minister as they think proper." The result was, that Mr. Hextal's friends withdrew, and built the Chapel in King Street, where Mr. Hextal ministered till the close of his life. The names of thirty members are given, as having been first admonished for withdrawing themselves from the Church, and, refusing to return, were declared as no longer standing in this relation to them. The name of Mary Doddridge occurs amongst those who had withdrawn. In 'Orton's Letters to Dissenting Ministers,' we have the following passage, in a letter dated December 26, 1762: "My last letters from Northampton encourage me to hope that Mr. Hextal will be comfortable and useful there." To this, Mr. Palmer, the editor, appends the following note:-- An amiable and respectable minister, who removed from Sudbury on account of dissensions occasioned by a party spirit in electing members of Parliament, and succeeded Mr. Gilbert in the congregation of which Dr. Doddridge had been pastor, where he soon met with equally cruel usage, and was obliged to withdraw to a new Chapel which his friends erected for him, where he ended his days in peace. His great candour and benevolence gave occasion to morose-minded people, who disliked some that espoused his cause, to charge him with a want of orthodoxy; whereas, in point of sentiment, he was in fact higher than the generality of acknowledged Calvinists. Such is the blindness of bigotry. These unhappy circumstances greatly diminished the numbers in the Church. Under date of April 24th, 1777, we find the names of only 64 members, showing a great decrease since the death of Doddridge.