the purchase of the Raleigh Street and Ebrington Street premises. In December 1845, Wigram wrote to the Plymouth elders formally withdrawing his fellowship from Ebrington Street and revoking his loan of the Raleigh Street chapel. The use of Raleigh Street was given to Darby and his supporters, resulting in two local brethren assemblies at odds with each other. Both parties continued with the dispute and were eager to explain their position to other brethren assemblies which were springing up throughout the country. In 1846, while Newton was travelling around London holding private meetings, partly to answer charges against him by Darby, a brethren assembly in Rawthorne Street, London, where Wigram was leader, requested Newton to attend a meeting, so that the charges against him could again be looked into. Newton, backed by the Ebrington Street meeting, declined their persistent requests to attend, and was subsequently excommunicated by Rawthorne Street. In 1847 the Darby party discovered that Newton, first in an article printed in 1835, had taught heretical doctrine on the Person of Christ. The article appeared as a rebuttal of Edward Irving's heretical teachings on the Person of Christ, which had gained popularity. Newton believed that Christ, though perfect, experienced sufferings before the day of Crucifixion, not for the sake of others, but due to his association through his mother with Adam and his descendants, and more specifically with the apostate nation of Israel. So Christ, according to Newton, suffered hunger and pain and had a mortal body. Darby and his supporters seized the chance to condemn Newton as a heretic. Although Newton apologised and retracted his "Adamic error", and withdrew for consideration his views on the sufferings of Christ, some of the elders at Ebrington Street began to lose confidence in him. Darby was not satisfied at this, allegedly due to the lack of repentance shown by Newton or as Henry Groves, the son of Anthony Norris Groves, another eminent Brethren leader said, that Darby was "bent on ruling" and wanted to be rid of his rival. Darby's persistence in the matter and Newton's refusal to retaliate, but rather to "turn the other cheek", allowed Darby to win over the elders who had supported Newton, leaving him isolated. In December 1847, Newton permanently left the brethren movement and moved to London, where he established an independent meeting. The feud led to the division of the Plymouth Brethren in 1848,