and talents. VVhether he was incumbent or assistant curate of Oldham is not clear. Chiefiy owing to his exertions, a communion on professed tolerant principles was set on foot at Oldham, and as he had been elected by the congregation, he disclaimed the sanction of the classical assembly of Manchester. As he offered a free admission to the sacrament to all who had given satisfaction of a truly Christian life and conversation, independently of the concurrence of the Presbytery, his conduct excited the greatest indignation in the classis. At first they expostulated with him, but he paid little or no attention to them. He merely engaged to lay before the assembly certificates of the soundness of his doctrine, which promise he never performed. Lake was only curate of Oldham for two years. Several subsequent years of his life are not distinctly accounted for. About March 1659 or 1660, he was presented to the vicarage of Leeds, but being opposed by the friends of the competing candidate, Mr. Bowles, of York, he was compelled to have recourse to the aid of a party of soldiers to effect his institution. He resigned the living of Leeds, in 1668, and became rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate-street, London. In 1668, he was presented by Edmund Ashton, Esq., of Chadderton, to the valuable rectory of Prestwich, and was made canon residentiary of York. Whether the reverend gentleman had been introduced to the notice of the Derby family whilst rector of Prestwich, or had been previously known to them for his loyalty, I know not, but in the year 1682, he was appointed by William, Earl of Derby, to the bishopric of Sodor and Man. His services to the royal cause had been made known to Charles the Second. In early life whilst a student at St. John's College, Cambridge, he was included in a general arrest of the loyalists, but effecting his escape he joined the forces of Charles the First, at Oxford, and served in the royal army four years, during which period he was present at the taking of Basing House, and Wallingford, in 1645. Owing"to these circumstances he was created S.T.P.

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