Indeed this is scarcely a mere matter of inference, as the reader may judge for himself from an entry, still remaining in the books of the Corporation. It is as follows:—Bridgnorth. Aᵒ Dⁿⁱ 1644. “At the Court Leete held in the said Town of Bridgnorth, the VIIᵗʰ day of May. Aᵒ Caroli Augᵗ XXº Richard Synge and Willᵐ Bradley, gent, being Bayliffs. At this Leete it was moted by the Bayliffs and others, That forsomuch as Mr. Gilbert Walden, the late publiq Preacher of the said Town, is recesste and gon out of the said Town, and hath deserted his place ever sithence aboute a moneth before Easter last. That one Mr. Thomas Laughton, Master of Artes, a Preacher (who is recommended to the place by Sʳ Lewis Kirke, Knight, Governoʳ of the said Towne, and whoe hath supplyed the place since Mr. Walden’s goeing away) shold be accepted by the Town in the said Mr. Walden’s place, to be publiq Preacher of the said Town, wᵗʰ the profitte and allowance thereunto belonginge; unto wh. all that were here present at this Leete agree, and nominate him, the said Mr. Laughton, publiq Preacher of the said Town, with all such proffits and allowance as the said Mr. Walden had of the Town’s allowance in that behalfe, Soe as he preach two Sundayes at the High Church, and the third at the Low Church, as Mr. Walden did. And this to be further confirmed at a Common Hall, yf it be desired.” The Parliament were not unmindful of Gilbert Walden, but in reward for his desertion of the Royalists, placed him again in his office as Minister of Saint Leonard’s, and restored to him all its emoluments. But far happier were they who stood firm in the evil day, and had the Christian courage to brave the consequences—and with such sainted men as Hall, and Usher, and Hammond, and Jeremy Taylor, submitted to the penalties of sequestration, poverty, imprisonment, and exile, rather than desert what they believed the cause of God and of His Truth.