he actually consecrated others, by his own authority, contrary to the canons of the Church: consequently these consecrations were not recognized by the legitimate Nonjurors; nor could they have been allowed by the deprived Bishops, supposing the schism to have occurred at an earlier period. The particulars of this separation were given in a previous chapter. In the year 1780, Price and Cartwright were consecrated by Deacon alone, Garnet was consecrated by Cartwright in 1795, and Boothe at a later period by Garnet. Boothe's was the last consecration. As they refused to take the Oaths, they were Nonjurors; but in many important particulars, as will be shewn in the concluding chapter, they were as much at issue with the regular body as with the National Church.
Cartwright resided at Shrewsbury, practising as a surgeon, and died in the year 1799. Before his death, he had become, says Mr. Hallam, "A very loyal subject to King George: a singular proof of that tenacity of life by which religious sects, after dwindling down through neglect, excel frogs and tortoises: and that even when they have become almost equally cold-blooded." On his deathbed, he declared his conformity to the National Church, in the presence of the Curate of the Parish. Mr. Hallam adds, "I have heard of similar congregations in the West of England still later."[1] I have been informed by a gentleman residing in the West of England, that a Nonjuring Clergyman was living so late as the year 1815. Boothe, the last of the irregular Nonjuring Bishops, died in Ireland in the year 1805.
Before the death of Gordon and Cartwright, the last Bishops of their respective lines in England, the
- ↑ Hallam, iii. 341.
