the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[277] followed in our academical institutions, of directing their attention to the fountain head of scriptural knowledge; to those who were alone entitled to speak with authority, without seeking to impose the shackles and usurped dominion of human creeds and confessions.

Under the influence of this mode of instruction, young Fleming, though brought up a Calvinist, soon parted with the principles instilled by his early education. What his original destination was, or whether this change in his theological views led to any alteration of it, we have now no means of ascertaining; but it appears that, after leaving Mr. Hardy, he was, for several years, engaged in some secular business at Nottingham, possibly his father's trade, till, in the year 1727, he removed to London. In the mean time, he had married the daughter of Mr. John Harris, of Harstaff, in Derbyshire, by whom he had a family of ten children, one only of whom survived him. In London he became intimate with Mr. Holt, who was many years afterwards mathematical tutor at Warrington. From this friend he received assistance and encouragement in his studies, and acquired further improvement in classical literature, as well as an acquaintance with the Hebrew language. Whether this was, as yet, with a view to his finally entering on the profession of a Christian minister, to which, it is said, he had an early inclination; or merely to assist him in acquiring a more accurate acquaintance with those branches of knowledge in which his tastes and habits of mind led him chiefly to occupy his leisure, we are not informed. Nor does it appear in what mode of life he was occupied during the first years of