56 RELIGION, COLONISING AND TRADE
other places, and began to punish offenders and put
the law in more strict execution, which God Almighty
prosper.” The first meeting of the founders of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the
eldest of the missionary societies of the Church of
England, was held on March 8, 1698-9 ; and it would
seem that the entry in Evelyn’s diary referred to this
Society, unless he had in mind what a late secretary of
the S.P.C.K.! described as its ‘direct antecedents.’
These were religious societies founded in London and
Westminster in connexion with the Church of England
about 1678, and societies for reformation of manners,
including both churchmen and nonconformists, about
1691. It is interesting to recall that Part I of the
* Pilgrim’s Progress > was first published in 1678, and
Part II in 1684. In 1701 the S.P.C.K. gave birth to
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, to which the work of providing clergy
for the plantations was handed over. Under date
May 3, 1702, Evelyn entered in his diary, Being
elected a member of the Society lately incorporated for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, I sub-
scribed £10 per am. towards the carrying it on.’
The most prominent among the founders of the
S.P.CK. was Dr. Thomas Bray.? He was born in
v A Chapter in English Church History, S.P.C.K. Minutes and Cor-
tespondence, 1698-1704, edited by the Rev. Edmund McClure, M.A.,
Preface.
* See the account of Dr, Bray given in the History of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1698-1898, by W. O. B. Allen and
Edmund McClure, pp. 15-16, etc.” See also Public S piret illustrated in
the Life and Designs of the Reverend Thomas Bray, D.D., late Minister of
St. Botolph Without, Aldgate, London, 1746, B.M. Biographical Tracts,
London, 1719-46, 491, c. 18. The author was Samuel Smith,
L.L.D., Rector of All Hallows, London.