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Ayliffe, Richard

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Ayliffe, John, Ll.d.

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an English Congregational minister, was born at Basingstoke, Hants, June 2, 1790. He was converted in his twelfth year, and in his fifteenth was apprenticed to an ironmonger in the town of Buckingham. He joined the Congregational Church in his eighteenth year. At the close of his apprenticeship, he entered Dr. Bogue's academy or seminary at Gosport. "About the termination of his studies, the Lady Barham was desirous of introducing an evangelical ministry into the borough of Stockbridge, Hants. By the advice of his venerated tutor, Mr. Ayliffe, in 1814, undertook the commencement of the work. in which he continued till his death." This was really a mission work, and every-kind of opposition was manifest. He had no chapel, and service was conducted in a hired room, often amid much confusion and noise; personal violence was threatened against the young pastor and. all who gave heed to his teachings. By his efforts, however, aided by the liberality of the lady already alluded to, a chapel was erected in 1817, and endowed for the Protestant Congregational Dissenters. From 1814 to, 1854 he labored here unobtrusively and patiently, sowing the seeds of everlasting life, "warning every man, teaching every man;" and his labors were not without success, for what was, at the commencement of his work, a barren wilderness, showed at the close some: resemblance to a garden adorned with fruits and flowers. He was of retiring habits, and his name was very seldom seen or his person known. After forty years of service, he died in peace, March 24, 1854. See (Lond.) Cong. Year-book, 1855, p. 2034.