(extracted from the List of Ministers, pp 187-9)
From the list of abbreviations for the List of Ministers starting on p187 (qv), we see that Free was ordained as a Congregationalist. (I'm not going to expend valuable life-span by trying to establish their particular position as regards theology and governance, but I will have a quick rant at the unspeakable Henry VIII, Mary I and the dreadful bunch of Stuarts who unfortunately succeeded Elizabeth I. If England and Scotland had been blessed by a straightforward Protestant reformation, how much happier our collective history would have been – even for Catholics themselves. Here endeth the rant.)
It's puzzling as to how Free (a Congregationalist) came to be appointed as minister of St Cuthbert's (Anglican) church in Millwall. But God is a seasoned campaigner in such matters, and all was ultimately for the best.
The point I had been intending to make is that Free, following his graduation from the University of Glasgow in 1884, immediately enrolled as a theology student at Hackney College in East London, from which he graduated, and was ordained, in 1887.
This venerable institution has had a long and mind-bendingly complicated history – we must just focus on the theological Hackney College, known as such after 1871, and even after it moved to Hampstead in 1887.