In 1840 the Rev. T.S. Escott, parish priest at Gedney, Lincs., refused burial to a child on the grounds that it had been baptized by a WM minister. The Superintendent minister, Robert Bond (d. 1887), took the matter up with the Bishop of Lincoln, who agreed in turn to take the matter up with the incumbent. A letter from Mr. Bond to the latter received a particularly abusive reply. With the bishop's encouragement the matter was taken by the Committee of Privileges to the Court of Arches, which ruled that the clergy were under obligation to bury any who had received non-Anglican baptism. On appeal to the Privy Council this judgment was upheld.

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