John Myles organized the earliest Baptist church in Wales, in 1651. During Oliver Cromwell’s rule, Myles’s church occupied the thirteenth-century Church of St. Illtyd, located on a small country lane, at Ilston, near the west end of the Swansea airfield. at the Restoration of the British monarchy, in 1660, officials of Charles II ousted John Myles and his congregation from St. Read more...
Visit historic Gainsborough Old Hall (Lincolnshire), where John Smyth held his Separatist meetings. From here, in early 1608, Smyth and most of his congregation escaped to Holland. Rich in Separatist history, the Gainsborough Old Hall is well worth a two-hour visit. It has a Gift Shop and Tea Shop. copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England Read more...
See the only remaining section of Scrooby Manor House where postmaster William Brewster lived, and where the Separatists organized their church in 1606. This is the church that the future Baptist, Thomas Helwys, sacrificially assisted in their escape to Holland. In 1620, many of these Pilgrims would come to the New World on the Mayflower ship. copyrighted and used by permission from Read more...
Visit St. Wilfred’s Church (Anglican) from which the Pilgrims separated. copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices Featured Image Credit: Richard Croft / St.Wilfrid’s, Scrooby Read more...
At Doddridge Street (NN1 2RN) is Castle Hill United Reformed Church, once known as Castle Hill Church, where the independent Congregationalist, Phillip Doddridge (1702-51), served as pastor. While Doddridge’s compromising endorsements led many young men toward erroneous doctrines, his songs, such as “O Happy Day,” and his classic book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745), are still in use. Read more...
John Collett Ryland Sr. (1723-92) and John Ryland Jr. served the pastorate of Northampton’s College Lane Baptist Church (built in 1697). The church became College Street Baptist Church, in 1863, when the congregation erected a new building on the same site. The church would later close, but, on College Street, one can admire this magnificent building’s classical facade of Corinthian pillars. Read more...
COLUMBIA FALLS – Even against a backdrop of scenery that draws millions of visitors from around the world, God’s Ten Commandments Park is hard to miss. “I tell people when they drive through the Ten Commandments Park they see the glory of God, and when they go into Glacier Park they see the majesty of God and his creation,” founder Read more...
On October 5, 1783, William Carey walked five miles from Piddington to Northampton, for John Ryland Jr. (1753-1825) to immerse him in the River Nene at 6:00 AM. he was baptized on the spot where the modern railway station is now located. The construction of the station necessitated the rerouting of the River Nene. Carey’s baptism took place where the Read more...
In 1789, William Carey and his family moved into a cottage across the street from Leicester’s Harvey Lane Baptist Church, which he shepherded to the time of their departure to India in 1793. The Harvey Lane building no longer exists. When Harvey Lane Baptist outgrew its building, in 1845, the congregation moved to Belvoir Street and changed its name to Read more...
The Baptist church at Thrapston, Northamptonshire, was once shepherded by Reynold Hogg (1752-1843), one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society (1792). With the construction of the present building, in 1787, a small, Congregationalist-Separtist group opened its doors for worship. In 1790, Reynold Hogg became their preacher. In 1797, they organized into a Baptist church and ordained Hogg as Read more...
From 1782 to the end of his life, Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) served the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Kettering. By 1786, the congregation was compelled to enlarge their chapel. With increasing growth, by 1804-5, they enlarged it again – this time to seat nine hundred persons. They replaced that building with the present Lombardian- style edifice, during 1860-61, when Read more...
As faithful members of Andrew Fuller’s church, Beeby and Martha Wallis used their home as an inn for traveling evangelists. Many still call it the “Gospel Inn.” Situated on Lower Street, in the heart of Kettering town center, the historic Wallis House is now the “Carey Mission House,” the featured attraction of “Martha Wallis Court,” a residential facility of the Read more...
In 1787, William Carey received ordination into his first pastorate, the Moulton Baptist congregation, later named Carey Baptist Church. At Carey’s ordination, John Ryland Jr. asked the questions, John Sutcliff preached the charge, from 2 Timothy 4:5, and Andrew Fuller preached a challenge to the members. The congregation was soon compelled to reconstruct and enlarge their small brick building to thirty feet Read more...
Sutcliff’s neighbors in Olney included the local minister of the Church of England, John Newton (1725-1807), author of “Amazing Grace.” Hymn writer and poet, William Cowper (1731-1800), was a member of Newton’s parish, and, at the time of Sutcliff’s arrival, Newton and Cowper were composing their popular “Olney Hymns.” Visit John Newton’s church and tombstone, and the Cowper and Newton Museum and Gardens. Read more...
In 1775, John Sutcliff (1752-1814) commenced his pastorate at Olney Baptist Church, which continues to the present day. In 1785, young William Carey placed himself under the tutelage of Sutcliff and under the watch-care of the Olney church where he held membership. After Carey preached his first sermon to the Olney congregation, the unanimous conclusion was that the young man needed Read more...
In one of the rooms of Carey Baptist Church, in Hackleton, one can see the pulpit from which William Carey once preached in a thatched cottage. In 1809, when the thatched cottage could no longer accommodate the growing congregation, the church moved to a nearby site and erected a “24 feet by 36 feet” chapel. (The thatched cottage eventually suffered Read more...
The Church of St. John the Baptist (Anglican), in Piddington, is where William Carey and Dorothy (“Dolly”) Plackett were married in 1781. (See Chapter 10.). copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices From Wikipedia: Several residents of Piddington and neighbouring village Hackleton were part of the dissenter church movement Read more...
In the porch of St. James Church (Anglican), a plaque commemorates William Carey, missionary to India and father of Baptist foreign missions. A few feet away, just to the right of the porch, the grave of William’s father, Edmund Carey, carries this inscription: “Reader, time is short, prepare to meet thy God.” The Carey cottage, William Carey’s birthplace, stood on what is Read more...
At the University of Cambridge, Christ’s College graduates included Francis Johnson of the Ancient Church and John Smyth of Gainsborough. John Lathrop, second pastor of London’s J-L-J Church, was a Queens’ College graduate. Lathrop’s successor, Henry Jessey, earned his BA and MA degrees at St. John’s College. London Baptist, Hanserd Knollys, received his training at St. Catherine’s Hall. Roger Williams, Read more...
In 1810, the London Baptist Education Society (est. 1752) led in the founding of Stepney Academy, in East London. Moving to the center of Regent’s Park, London, in 1855, Stepney Academy became Regent’s Park College, a constituent College of the University of London. In 1927, Regent’s Park College moved to Oxford, and since 1957, it has been a Permanent Private Read more...
