In 1793, Edward Williams, then minister at Carr's Lane, Birmingham, wrote a letter to the churches of the Midlands, expressing the need for world evangelization and foreign missions. It was effective and Williams began to play an active part in the plans for a missionary society. He left Birmingham in 1795, becoming pastor at Masbrough, Rotherham, and tutor of the newly formed Masbrough academy. Also in 1793, the Anglican cleric John Eyre of Hackney founded the "Evangelical Magazine". He had the support of the presbyterian John Love, and congregationalists Edward Parsons and John Townshend (1757–1826).