John and Mary Ann, so W.A.Presland told us, had five sons and three daughters. Of these, one son and one daughter remained firmly attached to the faith of their parents (and grandparents, for John was already the second generation.) Others must, if they want, try to trace the other lines, but I have never done so. In this chapter, I shall concentrate almost entirely on the two who are so well documented in New Church literature. The truth is I suppose that I am not a research student in this matter but simply a collector of snippets to which over the years I have had better access than most of us.

What sort of education did John and Mary Presland give to their children, and how did they get it? There were indeed New Church schools, but the name does not appear amongst the children taught in them although it does appear amongst these who helped run the schools and finance them. There were Dame Schools of course and, for the wealthy, the large public schools. My guess is that the Presland children were taught privately, and in those early days of the New Church there were many who could and would teach privately for a small fee. (See my copy of "Samuel Wilderspin and the Infant School Movement", given me by the publishers, Croom Helm, Ltd., because of a reference to me, and others in the living Church, in the preface. ISBN 0-7099-2903-X. E.g. "One of the most interesting aspects of the English infant school movement is the preponderance of Swedenborgians among the first infant teachers." The author is not a New Church man.)

Certainly too at home the Presland children would be moving in nice surroundings and with people of some standing. I have already referred to Flaxman - a friend evidently of John Presland and probably a fairly regular visitor at 224 Piccadilly and at the King Street house, from his own home in Jermyn Street. Flaxman of course was a distinguished member of the Royal Academy and Professor of Sculpture there, (in my books, there is a copy of H. M. Morris "Flaxman, Blake Coldridge and other men of genius influenced by Swedenborg," published by N.C Press in 1915'" Morris was a fine man, but as a historian he needs to be watched a little.) But I give you a cutting from a "History of the Swedenborg Society 1810 to 1900" by Dr. Freda Griffith (who got an MBE for services to The Swedenborg Society) which may interest you and fill in, more clearly, some facts.

Barthelemon too I have mentioned. A prominent musician of his day, organist at the Chapel Royal in Windsor, F H Barthelemon wrote music far the early New Church - in my study a beautiful leather copy of The New Jerusalem Magazine 1790 contains much of his music, (find him too in "! Ancient and Modern", the hymn book) John Hawkins the engineer, who amongst other things invented the iron frame for the piano - see Scholes "Oxford Companion to Music" for the authority for that statement - and whose 1794 New Church Liturgy has descended through the years to my study - was about Blake, who owed a lot to Flaxman's support, may have been about. Coleridge might have been. Samuel Noble, John Clowes, Joseph Proud were amongst the ministers of the Church - Clowes of course an Anglican rector in Manchester, but certainly known to John Presland at Hawkstone and perhaps in London. The Presland home would have been for these days one of some interest as a centre of the new faith and the New Church in London and the children would have met many interesting characters, I do not doubt. (Perhaps some of them got sickened of it all? It is an ever present danger that in a pioneer's home the pendulum shall swing too much to one extreme or the other!)

I mention Clowes, the rector of St. John's, Manchester. In those days there was a division of opinion - some thought, as John Clowes did, that the teaching of the New Church could grow and be strong within the established Christian Church - "the non-separatists." Others, "the separatists" felt sure a new and distinct organization was inevitable. As at the Hawkstone meetings, both sides worked happily together and respected one another’s conviction. John and Mary I think opened their home to either group, but themselves were firmly of the separatist view. (Witness the way they had their family baptised.) Joseph Proud, mentioned above, was a very able New Church minister, formerly a Baptist minister, who to the end almost of his days drew crowds rarely less than a thousand strong to hear him. He was a prolific writer of hymns, some of which we still use, and in 1790 knocked off, in a few months, a book of 359 hymns for the use of the New Church, all from his own pen. By 1791 a. second edition was called for, and there is a nice copy in my study of that, in a special binding done for the opening of the Church in Birmingham (Few of that edition remain. See S J E Schreck's history of the NC in Birmingham.) My purpose in commenting specially on Proud who wrote much doggerel as well as some useful stuff, is that my cousin Graham has the original of this product of Proud's, which I photocopied many years ago:

[It goes on like this:]

Thy blessings flow to all mankind,
Them we should ever grateful prove,
And do thy will in life and mind,
To show that we thy precepts love.

When at thy temple, holy Lord,
Where we all meet before Thy sight,
Let us receive thy blessed Word,
With infinite and pure delight.

Thy sabbaths, Lord, teach us to keep,
That we may learn thy heavenly way:
Be thou our shepherd, we thy sheep,
Oh may we never go astray.

Perhaps not very good poetry, not Poet Laureate stuff! But I imagine Joseph Proud knocked it off before dinner, to keep little William amused and alert? Willie was born in 1806, so I imagine we are about at 1816, with the family still at Piccadilly and Willie one imagines a rather sickly child. But who were his brothers and sisters with whom Joseph Proud thought his hymn might be sung?

They go like this:-

	Name	Born	Baptised	Baptised by
1	John	1802
2	Samuel	1804	19 Feb 1804
3	William	1806	9 Feb 1806
4	Philip Henry	1807	24 Jan 1808	J Proud
5	Mary Ann	1809	19 Oct 1809	J Proud
6	Sarah	1811	31 Dec 1811	J Proud
7	Thomas	1814	20 Feb 1814	J Proud
8	Ann	1815	28 Jan 1816	Dr Churchill
9	Sophia	1818	15 Mar 1818	M Sibley

All these baptismal dates (with dates of birth) are extracted from registers in the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane. (Document 4501, Lambeth, Waterloo Road..) Interestingly, the same document has an entry 359 "Mary Ann Presland, Adult. Baptised by me Samuel Neale April 14 1823." It also has references to seven baptisms of the children of Samuel and Harriet Presland, born between 1813 and 1820, who were all cousins to John and Mary's children named above.

(Quite recently, a long-lost register turned up at the Finchley Church, and I will do a ps when I have had a chance to examine it. It may remove some queries - to solve which I went to the Public Record office without success.)

Of these children baptised, I know little save, of course, for Thomas and Mary Ann, both of whom as W A Presland (my Grandfather) remarked, stayed firmly within the Church and therefore turn up in the periodicals of the time.

---------------------------

Let us first look at Mary Ann, born October 11th 1809, who married Roger Crompton of Kearsley near Bolton in Lancashire. I think it likely she will have met him in the home of Dr. Henry Bateman, FRCS, who was in general practice at Compton Terrace, Canonbury, as well as being surgeon at the Islington Dispensary and at the Cholera Hospital. (Cf. "Early Worthies of the New Church" by Dr. Bayley, in my bookshelves.)

Present Church, erected 1878.

Present Schools, erected 1874, enlarged 1901.

Interior of Church—Chancel end.
The Church has been beautifully decorated by Messrs. Kendal, Milne, & Co., of Manchester, 1908.

Interior of Church — North end.
Showing the magnificent Organ, erected 1908, by Mr. J. J. Binns, of Bramley, near Leeds. The oak case from the organ erected 1855 has been used, and several of the old stops have been placed in the new organ.

I think that the reasons for the difficulties with the trustees may be simple. Roger and Mary Crompton led the Fletchers into the New Church - the Fletchers even moved into the Crompton house at Kearsley as soon as it became vacant. But the Fletchers were increasingly "big business" with links overseas and into the USA, and in the sphere of a small town in those days probably became autocratic (without knowing it?) That can easily happen to any of us. As late as 1887 a Fletcher was a trustee of the General Conference and on its Council. He probably expected to be unquestioned by the local Church folk, especially as the firm then - and I believe into quite recent times - financially helped the Church. A bad relationship between the trustees and the ordinary worshipper would be set up and. become traditional. When that Fletcher died in 1887, the Conference, a bit blindly I suspect and making rash assumptions, appointed his brother to succeed him as a Trustee of the Conference. That brother was murdered in most unsavoury circumstances within six months - and got no obituary in the Conference!

The wealthy Uncle Roger and Aunt Mary Ann -

uncle and aunt, that is, of my grandfather, the Rev. W. A. Presland, henceforth WAP. WAP's grandfather John, the hatter of Piccadilly, had a daughter Mary Ann who as I say married Roger Crompton. I am guessing Mary Ann met Roger at Dr. Bateman's house, because Roger was a Lancastrian and there seems little reason why Mary should have met him in the North, but he was a great chum of Dr. Bateman and could well afford to travel (possibly even on business) to London. (I know of no photographs of Roger and Mary Crompton.) Roger was of a well-to-do New Church family and had inherited a large paper mill, by the river Irwell, at Stoneclough Brow, near Kearsley and Bolton. It became a flourishing business, with in the mid-19th Century to Dr. Bayley's astonishment machines "which could turn out 12 miles of paper per day." The Cromptons divided their time between their home, Kearsley Vale House - which after it ceased to be used by succeeding owners of the mill as a private residence became, at least until 1973, the club house for the firm's employees - and "a house in Regents Park, London, where they kept an almost princely retinue of servants." The address I have traced and it was "Sunnyside," Upper Avenue Road, Hampstead in 1859. Presumably what is now Avenue Road by the Park?

Roger died in London in 1859 aged 62 and his wife in London in 1863. All their lives they played an active part in the affairs of the New Church, especially at Kearsley. He helped pay for the first building there in 1837 - and virtually paid by his large legacy there for the later Church, pulled down in the last few weeks as I write because a new one had just been opened; he worked in the Sunday School, on the committee and was a Trustee. (It seems a strangely ironic circumstance that the later trustees of that Kearsley Church became very difficult to handle - Charles Newall in his ministry there found them impossible - and I as Secretary of Conference got involved in 1957 in a struggle, which we won, to get rid of all personal trustees in Kearsley in favour of trusteeship by the General Conference as an incorporated body. Whether Roger was difficult I shall probably never know). Roger was too of course a powerful figure in those Victorian days in the district and in local affairs. In his will, he said his paper mill was to be valued by two valuers, one appointed by Roger Fletcher (who was to have the first refusal to buy) and the other by his executers and "as an acknowledgement of the long and faithful service of Robert Fletcher in the management of my said business the goodwill of the business is not to be considered." Fletcher bought - the business prospered, and there are some rather nasty signs that it prospered largely on sweated labour (perhaps it had done under Roger Crompton?) It is a strange fact that few of us are clear-sighted enough to think in advance of our times, and quite a few well known New Church people seem to have been unable to see how their workpeople should be treated. The growth of the trade unions was a good thing in those days.

Note. Roger Crompton's estate ran well into six figures - a great fortune for anyone in the 1859 period. It does look as though he did not use sweated labour anyway.

(That school was built - Mrs. C. H. Presland attended it! - it is listed in 1897 Conference documents as having 459 scholars, for it was no small school, of whom 54 attended Sunday School. "In 1922 the large and massive school building was sold to the Lancashire County Council Education Authority. Certain rooms of the building were still used however up to 1956 for Sunday Schools and other purposes." I have myself attended many meetings there. See R R Gladish "History of New Church education" 3 volumes, in my study. See page 27A.

Reverting to Roger & Mary Crompton, it is interesting to note that they paid for the schooling of their two nephews, John and WAP, as we shall see in a later chapter. Roger incidentally was related, a bit distantly - 2nd cousin or something of the sort - to Samuel Crompton of Bolton, inventor of the spinning mule. (See "Life and Times of Samuel Crompton", 1862, in my study, also "N C Worthies'). He also had some fascinating friends - one called Seddon, (pronounced "Said-Done"!) who drove around in a carriage with a home-made Coat 0f Arms on it and the motto "Dictum Factum" e. g.! (A 1908 History of the New Jerusalem Church, Kearsley, is a fascinating commentary on life in those times. I have a copy.)

Much that I know about the Cromptons comes from my copy of the "150th Anniversary History of Robert Fletcher & Son, Ltd." 69 pp., printed in 1973 - direct descendants of the Stoneclough Mill, now a major paper manufacturing firm, with a prestigious London office at Grosvenor Gardens. (I begged a copy from them!) They are a subsidiary of the vast Imperial Tobacco Co., which in 1915, finding its supply of cigarette paper from France was in danger, took a major financial interest and i. d. c. (in due course) did a takeover. Interesting to note that in 1965 millions were spent in tearing down Roger's paper works as part of a giant project and the then-minister of Labour, Ray Gunter, M. P., did the official opening.

The Roger Cromptons had one daughter Mary. She married a Charles Henry Roberts of Monmouth and they adopted the name of Crompton-Roberts. (I see there is still one of that name in the London Telephone Directory - I must contact!) Mary was cousin of WAP, and remained, all her life I think, a governor of the New Church College. For, with Henry Bateman, (foot page 27) Roger Crompton paid for the first New Church College, then at Islington, sold to go to Woodford, sold to go back to Radcliffe, a few miles from Kearsley which seems poetic justice! Mary, Roger's daughter, paid for a magnificent Memorial Window at the then-prodigious cost of £600, in memory of her parents - we spent money to take it from the Islington College, which was sold to the Polish Catholic Church - and therefore during the second world war was free Polish soil - and we took the
Window to Woodford Green and the new college there. It has never been seen since! My guess is that it was left in one of the many outbuildings at Woodford Green. Why do we do that sort of thing? (We are at present doing it with the Isaac Pitman Memorial Window, which we took out of the Church in Henry Street, Bath, and I'm told no one is worrying about doing anything about it. Oh, dear!) Let us talk now about great grandfather Thomas.

NB One of the Seddon family, which always was known as the "dictum-factum" locally, went to the USA and became a NC Minister there. Died 1865- We have no relationship with the great Latinist!

A view of Kearsley Paper Works from the river on an old invoice heading dated 1861.

My great-grandparents, Thomas and Jane Presland.

Great-grandfather Thomas Presland

Great-grandmother Jane Presland

WAP tells us - see article early in my chapter one - that only Mary and Thomas of the eight children of John Presland the hatter and his wife Mary Ann stayed in the Church. But in chapter one I list nine children, which puzzles me, as we know of the baptism of all save the oldest (and that may turn up yet.) Briefly - John the eldest may have been the one who much worried his parents as he gets left out of the will save for the £1000 and the house. Samuel seems to have had a dilettante interest in the Swedenborg Society but makes no mark on it. William dies young (Philip Henry - I Know nothing about, save we have a Philip Henry Johnson (father of Ian and Pat) coming in due course, Mary Ann is Mrs. Crompton. Sarah, Ann and Sophia I know nothing of, although I have a feeling I have heard one died young.

And that leaves Thomas, great-grandparent of my generation, who marries Jane Johnson. I have yet to pin-point the relationship of Jane to Philip Henry Johnson - we'll get there. Thomas and Jane Presland had a large family - and it would need some delving into Church records or Somerset house files to get all their birthdays and baptismal dates. I suspect they would all be baptised at Cross Street or at Argyle Square Churches, for Thomas and Jane were keen on their Church and strong in their faith. The family goes like this:-

	Name	Birth date	Comments
1	[Unknown daughter]	Unknown	(Still born?) See twice (here and here) WAP.
2	John*	18 Nov 1839	Became a minister.
3	Mary Jane*	4 Aug 1841	Married James Graham.
4	Matilda	2 Sep 1843	(Use of name again in 1853. Why?)
5	Ruth*	11 Jul 1845	Married Rev. Edward Miall Pulsford.
6	Thomas**	11 Jan 1847	Drowned, buried in Brightlingsea old Church (with its great tower).
7	Anne	26 Aug 1847
8	Caroline*	28 May 1851	Married Mr John Foster [?] Howe
9	Sophia Matilda*	19 Aug 1853	Married James Humphreys
10	William Alfred*	12 Aug 1855	Becomes a New Church minister, married Unity Josephine Purcell. This is WAP.
11	Sarah Emily	31 Dec 1857	Dies age 3.

* all so marked, in each case with their married partner, were active in the Church all their lives. (Thomas seems in this respect to have done better than his father!

**This accounts for an insistence with WAP, and his sons, that none of us should play in the sea alone, or go on boats, until we could swim at least adequately. That insistence by WAP saved the life of one of his own sons.

Matilda born in 1843, may have died young - else it would be strange to call another daughter by that name.

Anne I have no knowledge about.

I am intrigued by Thomas Presland - how I wish I had asked WAP more about him. Perhaps one of my generation knows more. He, with his beloved Jane, was so obviously keen on his Church and a man of faith. But, unlike his father and most of his relatives, he seems never to have taken a prominent lead in Church affairs. He was never a "Conference man" or a Swedenborg Society councillor. Yet is it not noteworthy that he and Jane had a family which makes so many links for us - the Presland family with its links is slightly less complicated than the London Underground map.

Was there perhaps some limitation which made him unhappy in public - something physically difficult to cope with? His picture reminds me very much of WAP, but unlike WAP he has left nothing in writing. Why should he? Perhaps he preferred the simple homely things?

By the way, how did I get these photos? 1975 a Muriel Spurgeon wrote to me as "Dear Cousin," from Clevedon, and said she was sister of Foster Humphreys and cousin of Laurence Pulsford and "other members of the Presland family", and would I like to have her collection of pictures. I did not say NO! She was, she said, a granddaughter of Thomas Presland.

Read the obituary. Obituary notices in those days, and until relatively recently, were lengthy and full. Note how Thomas was a widower for many years. Perhaps he just wanted not to be prominent. (I smell the pen of his son, the Rev. John Presland, in this obituary.) As I read the obituary again, for the first time in many years, I feel Thomas was a man who knew disappointment and sadness and yet never failed to hold on to the vital things of his faith. I think we might have liked to know him - and his quietly reserved nature might have taught some of us a lesson!

On Thursday, March 14th 1895, at his residence, 39, Romilly Road, Finsbury Park, London, Mr. Thomas Presland, in his eighty-second year.

In Mr. Presland the New-Church on earth loses one of its oldest members. His father, Mr. John Presland, was one of the original trustees of the Conference; a founder of the Swedenborg Society and of the Missionary and Tract Society; an active worker, indeed, in all the New-Church uses of his time, as is abundantly testified in the obituary notice published in The Intellectual Repository for 1826 written most probably by his friend, the Rev. Samuel Noble.

Thomas, the youngest son of this exemplary New Churchman, was born on the 4th of January, 1814, and baptized at the church in Lisle Street, Leicester Square, by the Rev. Joseph Proud, who was at that time its minister. He was originally intended for the law, but the death of his father at the early age of fifty-three years, leaving a widow and seven children, necessitated a less ambitious career. He was accordingly apprenticed in April, 1828, to the late Mr. James Shirley Hodson, then and for many years afterwards, the printer of the greater part of the New-Church literature published in this country; and on the expiration of his indentures he entered the important office of Messrs. Spottiswoode and Co., in which the Rev. T. C. Shaw was afterwards a partner, where he remained, valued and respected by his employers and colleagues, for more than fifty years, until his retirement about eight years ago.

On the 5th September, 1835, Mr. Presland married Miss Jane Johnson, a life member, like himself, of the New Church, who preceded him into the eternal world on the 16th February, 1876, and in whose memory he inserted in The Intellectual Repository for that year, p. 192, a brief but affecting notice, Of their family of eleven children seven survive both parents; two sons, the Revs. John and William Alfred Presland, and five daughters, the second of whom is wife of the Rev. Edward Miall Pulsford. Notwithstanding many difficulties in rearing and educating so large a household, their home was an almost ideal scene of domestic happiness, because centred in and founded upon conjugial and parental love. To love and honour their mother was the first and constant lesson impressed upon the children by their father’s example, even more strongly than by his precepts; while affectionate helpfulness towards each other, the avoidance of everything untrue, unkind, or coarse, and the cultivation of a disposition to be of use, were the principles inculcated for the general guidance of their conduct. When the kindness of his elder sister, the late Mrs. Crompton, of Kearsley, sent his eldest son to school at Belper under the charge of the recently departed Mr. Robert Appelbee, the father's weekly letter became a treasury of strong and tender counsel, making continuous the sense of his firm yet gentle guidance, and bringing the sphere of home into the school-room and playing field. Each letter, moreover, contained a liberal instalment of some original tale, the extempore narration of which by the father to his children, during a country walk or at the fireside, had been extended - with how much labour and patience who can say ? - to the member of the family in temporary exile. Indeed, the cultivation of simple pleasures- the blameless delights of a rural ramble, the wayside flower, the gambols of a kitten, the strenuous yet friendly conflict of chess, the sweet companionship of healthful books - was always conspicuous in his method: if "method" is the right word for an influence communicated far more by the unconsciously appropriated magnetism of example than by any formal or didactic lessons.

So, too, the love of the church and of the things of the church was instilled simply and naturally. As a matter of course, no question being asked or preference consulted, the children were taken to church by their father every Sunday morning. If distance prevented the little feet from making the journey twice, the evening was devoted to reading from the Word the story of Joseph or Daniel, of David and Goliath, of the raising of the widow's son, the sisters' brother, or of the ruler's little daughter; while New-Church hymns, sung to well-known and dearly loved tunes, brightly varied the simple but useful little services.

Those who only knew Mr. Presland during the last twenty years or so can have little idea of the vivid buoyancy of his earlier manhood. The failure of a near relation having involved the total loss of his patrimony, his active mind, while undeviating in devotion to his regular employment, sought in invention and in literary endeavour the means of improving the prospects of the dear ones dependent on him. Want of capital and of leisure to perfect these extraneous labours led to the disappointment of many a hope, and the patient fortitude with which he sustained these trials won the admiration of those who knew of them. Trust in Providence was at all times the anchor of his heart, holding him secure where a less constant faith might have faltered and succumbed. His old age was the fitting conclusion to the modest simplicity of his life. Never prominent in public affairs - in which respect he was a marked contrast to his father - he established himself, on retiring from business, in the household of his youngest daughter and her husband. Unless prevented by increasing infirmities he attended the morning service at Argyle Square, where he was the oldest member; and when unable to be present he regularly sent his contribution to the weekly offertory. His great delight was in association with his grandchildren; indeed all the little ones of the neighbournood knew and loved him; and since his departure one of his fellow-members at Argyle Square remarked that it is easy to picture the little children in heaven running to greet him with flowers and kisses. Thus he continued, peaceful and contented, until on the 5th of March, he was seized by the prevailing epidemic of influenza which the following day to seek the bed from which in this world he never arose. His sons and daughters rejoice in the conviction that, "in the land of the living," he has rejoined the wife and mother he and they loved so dearly and remembered so tenderly, and that there those whom God hath joined together shall be "no more twain."

You will find a split infinitive in the Argyle Square printed pamphlet. I comment on it because John Presland was quite incapable of doing such a thing - probably got all worked up about it! By the then standards he was a brilliant writer - today probably he would be called a bit pedantic! What if the old is better?

The Camden Road Society of the New Jerusalem Church.

The first public worship of the New Church took place on the 27th of January 1788 at a rented chapel in Great Eastcheap, London. In due course there developed from this two groups which, after in each case various changes of meeting place, became the Argyle Square and the Camden Road Societies of the New Church. These two united after the second world war to become the North Finchley Society.

Only one thing can I add about Thomas, and that is to do with the Jubilee Festival of the Argyle Road Church in December 1894, where he faithfully attended and his son. ('John Presland the third' for my story) had been the minister since 1872. There came into my hands years ago lines written by him – 17 verses, each of four lines, - for his Grand Daughter Lilian Humphreys, aged about 12, to read. (They are in my tin box.) No great poetry at all, but a nice little light shining on the approach of those days to a church jubilee. (Argyle Square Church had been a very successful one, rumours that close links with the Queen attended, and carriages all around the square, which these days is not at all the sort of place we would want to frequent! The Church was blown up in about 1944 by a land-mine, and Camden Road Church combined with it to make the present North Finchley Church). Here then some of the 17 verses:

Three hundred guests came to the feast; It was a pretty sight: The eldest, youngest, biggest, least Were beaming with delight.
And when this merry meal was o'er, Thus opening Jubilee, We hastened to the upper floor, Our pretty Church to see...	(This was the Saturday)
Fair flowers were grouped in rich array, A platform too was there, To which the speakers made their way, Our Pastor in the chair...	(So was this)
I'm told the speeches all were good. They somewhat puzzled me. Their subject was, I understood, The Church’s Jubilee...	(And this)
I can but tell you what I heard. To Church I could not come, For my dear mother gave me word To keep the house at home...	(This was Sunday)
Anthem and hymns were bright and glad,  The sermon á propos A new hymn for its author had The talented Miss Rowe.	(So was this)

------------------------

I can tell you no more about the great-grandparents Presland, but I now tell you about their oldest son, the Rev. John Presland, brother of my Grandad WAP.

------------------------

JOHN PRESLAND,
great-uncle John, the 4th generation in the Church [married Martha Pulsford].

In my files there is the E. J. Broadfield appreciation of him - a most interesting article, and written by a man of some standing. But I prefer to give you WAP's with the personal touch and I doubt if you need both.

John Presland clearly was a great character, but of course he was not alive in my generation's time. (I note with interest that he was the first Minister-Secretary of Conference to work with the 1872 Memorandum and Articles for the General Conference, and I was the last Minister-Secretary of Conference, and I helped demolish them as having done their day.)

But John clearly had a very wide interest and marked ability and he was sure some worker! I came across an Argyle Square Manual for May 1897 at one time, and I commented on it in the Anerley Society's Newsletter.

It goes like this for the Sunday:

10:00 a.m.	Minister's class and Sunday School.
11:00 a.m.	Morning Service.
12:15 p.m.	Holy Supper.
3:00 p.m.	Minister's class and Sunday School.
4:30 p.m.	Teachers' Tea Party.
6:00 p.m.	Conversational meeting for doctrinal study
7:00 p.m.	Evening Service.
8:30 p.m.	Holy Supper - and the Preslands lived in Freegrove Road (as we did in our childhood) and must have walked or gone by horse-bus.

Far be it from me to recommend such use of a Sunday in these days, and with our much smaller strength and demand but it does make you think about what being busy really is. And an acquaintance with the Church archives would show you that men like John Presland did not skimp their preparation or their pastoral work. Phew! Anyway, close this chapter (and let me keep to my date-line) with WAP telling: about his brother John:-

Several of John and William's published books are in my study. All are good, but dated. All out of print. John on "The Creed of the New Church" is verbose but clear indeed. WAP's "Correspondences: the key to Causation and Revelation" was regarded by E A Sutton, M.A., B.D., Principal of the College in my day as "a magnificent classic."

The two ladies? The photographs are marked "unknown". Mrs Roger Crompton? - an obviously expensive Baker Street photographer? Your guess is as good as mine!

In my parents’ home, there was a set of pocket volumes of Shakespeare, beautifully marked for abbreviation purposes. I now know they were John Presland's, & I wonder if they are preserved by one of us.

The Royal Normal College for the Blind, Norwood, was of course the builder of Windermere House, Crystal Palace – the scene in recent years of so many young people's meetings. John was on the Council of that College.

I have a note that Argyle Square Society paid John Presland a stipend of £350 in 1888-1889. A lot of money in deed!

WHAT FOLLOWS IS A SKETCHY AND VERY ROUGH FAMILY TREE SHOWING UNKNOWN AND DISTANT LINKS, I HAVE ONLY DEALT WITH THE LITTLE BIT ON THE LEFT HAND TOP CORNER.