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Castle Hill United Reformed Church

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. William Wilberforce’s reading of Rise and Progress became one of the instruments, in 1784, leading to his conversion. More than two hundred students passed through Doddridge’s Academy for Dissenters, during its twelve years of existence (1740-52). The building that housed the Academy still stands on Sheep Street, a ten-minute walk from the church.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: George Vertue, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

College Street Baptist Church

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. College Street Baptist records reside at the Northamptonshire Record Office.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

In 1784, John Sutcliff attached a notice to the Circular Letter to the churches of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association calling them to prayer on the first Monday of every month that God would grant revival to their communities and that God would “spread the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe”.  In response to their years of faithful prayer, God used a man named William Carey whose efforts in India as a missionary began the modern missions movement.

John Sutcliff has put it so well: “Surely we have love enough for Zion to set apart one hour at a time, twelve times in a year, to seek her welfare.”

https://collegestreetbc.org/tag/john-sutcliff/

 

Archive.org – History of the College Street Baptist Church

 

Featured Image Credit: Historic England. “BAPTIST CHURCH, Northampton – 1039728 | Historic England.” Historic England, historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1039728?section=comments-and-photos.

William Carey Baptism

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 station’s “platform one” ends. In 2011, for the 250th anniversary of Carey’s birth, a William Carey plaque was unveiled here at the railway station.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

A plaque celebrating missionary William Carey has not been re-erected more than three months after it was removed during building work.

The plaque was unveiled on platform one of Northampton railway station in 2011.

When approached by the BBC, Network Rail said it was “looking into the whereabouts” of the memorial, but later said it was in storage.

It said it was talking to The Carey Experience tour and London Midland to find an appropriate place for it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-32515596

 

Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia contributors. File:New Northampton Station 2015.jpg – Wikipedia. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_Northampton_station_2015.jpg.

William Carey Museum at Central Baptist Church

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 Belvoir Street Baptist. In 1940, Belvoir Street Baptist and Charles Street Baptist (planted by Harvey Lane in 1831) merged to form the United Baptist Church, at the Charles Street faciltiies. In 1983, the United Baptist Church and the Victoria Road Church merged to form the present Central Baptist Church, still at the Charles Street address. Meanwhile, in 1915-16, the William Carey Cottage, on Harvey Lane, became the Carey Museum, or “House of Memories.” Due to street additions in the 1960s, the Carey Museum suffered demolition. A Holiday Inn now occupies the site. Across from the hotel’s main entrance is a commemorative plaque to Carey. Today, the William Carey Museum, in Central Baptist Church, displays the artifacts once housed in the Carey Museum at Harvey Lane. At the top of De Montfort Square, just off New Walk, there is a statue of Baptist preacher, Robert Hall Jr. (1764-1831), who served the Harvey Lane pastorate during 1807-26. (See Chapter 10.).

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Steve Cadman from London, U.K., CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Reynold Hogg / Thrapston Baptist Church

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 pastor. He served here for seventeen years. The remains of Reynold and his wife, Ann, lie entombed underneath the church. Inside the auditorium is a Commemorative Tablet. The congregation still uses this two-storied, brick building. Town records indicate some mid-nineteenth-century renovation.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: “Rev. Reynold Hogg, 1752 – 1843. Baptist Minister by Ridley | National Galleries of Scotland.” National Galleries of Scotland, www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/104038.

Fuller Baptist Church

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 the church’s name changed from Kettering Baptist to “Fuller Baptist Church.” It can accommodate about a thousand people. Its Heritage Room displays Andrew Fuller’s pulpit, communion table, desk, and sermon notes, along with Widow Wallis’s teapot. Tombstones in the small graveyard at the rear of the premises include those of Andrew Fuller and Beeby and Martha Wallis.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Such was his international standing, he was offered honorary doctorates by both Yale and the College of New Jersey – now Princeton – although he turned them down….

While he wrote a number of influential works before his death in 1815, his early sermons and other documents have survived only as shorthand notes.

They remained inaccessible until Dr Steve Holmes, head of the School of Divinity at St Andrews University found one headed in longhand “Confessions of Faith, Oct. 7 1783”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-47028244

 

Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia contributors. File:Andrew Fuller.jpg – Wikipedia. 1846, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Fuller.jpg.

Carey Mission House

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 elderly. The room in which fourteen men met, on October 2, 1792, to form the Baptist Missionary Society, still contains the table and chairs they used. The meeting concluded with a missionary offering. Fuller Baptist Church has Andrew Fuller’s silver snuffbox he passed around the table for the offering. Near the street is a bronze memorial plaque. Across the street is the Chesham House, home of Thomas Gotch, the merchant for whom Carey made shoes while at Moulton.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: “Carey Mission House Plaque.” Read the Plaque, readtheplaque.com/plaque/carey-mission-house-plaque#gsc.tab=0.

Carey Baptist Church (Moulton)

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 square. In 1870, the church enlarged the structure to its present size. In 1958, they added the William Carey Memorial Hall, whose renovation in the 1990s included a multi-panel mural, depicting the story of Carey’s life and work. Church rooms underwent renovation in 2002, and the year 2009 witnessed major refurbishment of the auditorium.

Next to Carey Baptist Church is the Carey Cottage, where the trough he had used to soak his shoe leather is still set in the wall. Part of the cottage is a museum that includes Carey’s pulpit. On the exterior wall, a tablet inscription reveals that Carey lived here from 1785 to 1789. It pays tribute to Carey as “shoemaker, schoolmaster, preacher, scholar, and missionary pioneer.”

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Our History. www.careybaptist.org.uk/Groups/304135/Our_History.aspx.

John Newton Grave

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.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

Learn more at 5 Minutes in Church History

OCH Notes:

St. Peter and Paul Church in Olney is the site of the reinterred remains of John Newton, and of a commemorative stained glass window.

Daily Mail:

A centuries old church has been given the green light to celebrate the life of a former slave ship captain who became an abolitionist and wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.

The mediaeval Grade I listed church of St Peter and St Paul’s in Olney, Buckinghamshire, has had plans approved to set aside a memorial space in honour of John Newton.

Newton – who lived from 1725 to 1807 – was a slave trader who earned his living from the profits of slavery before becoming an abolitionist and turning to the church as a ‘reformed sinner’.

He is said to have fought for abolition with politician William Wilberforce, as an opponent of the slave trade – and was at one point a minister at the Olney church, which dates back to the 14th century.

Featured Image Credit: Contemporary portrait, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Alternate photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada – Stained-Glass Image of John Newton – Amazing Grace Writer – St. Peter and Paul Church – Olney – Buckinghamshire – England – 02  – CC2.0

Olney Baptist Church

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 more time before they could ordain him. They promised to hear him again. Operating a little theological academy in his home, Sutcliff prepared Carey for the ministry. In 1786, Sutcliff led in Cary’s ordination, and the Olney church commissioned him to preach.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Picture of Baptist Church at Olney, England, 1900. baptisthistoryhomepage.com/england.olney.b.c.picture.html.

Carey Baptist Church (Hackleton)

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 demolition.). In 1813, they had seventy-six members. There were 129 members, in 1862, when they added a Sunday-School room and a vestry. The present edifice of Carey Baptist Church dates to 1888-89.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: “Walk 160: Quinton, Piddington, Horton and Hackleton Circular.” Northamptonshirewalks, 12 Sept. 2023, northamptonshirewalks.co.uk/about/walk-160-quinton-piddington-horton-hackleton-circular.

William Carey Wedding Chapel

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 in the 18th Century. William Carey lived in Hackleton, where he worked as an apprentice shoemaker, and later briefly in Piddington with his wife Dorothy Placket, before departing on his voyage with the Baptist Missionary Society to Bengal. The couple were married in St John the Baptist Church, Piddington in 1781. Initially Dorothy had refused to accompany William on his voyage, but with all decided and farewells written, the missionary party were denied a licence to travel on a vessel of the East India Company by the company directors. The opportunity then arose to travel in a Danish East Indiaman, and Dorothy was finally persuaded to leave Piddington and join her husband and son, Felix.[3]

 

Featured Image Credit: Cj1340, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

William Carey’s Father’s Grave

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 now Carey Road, at Pury End, a hamlet, half a mile outside Paulerspury. In 1965, the cottage suffered demolition, to make room for modern homes. A memorial cairn, built from the original stones, is all that remains of the Carey cottage.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

From Wikipedia:

St James Church in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, where Carey was christened and attended as a boy, has a William Carey display. Carey Baptist Church in Moulton, Northamptonshire, also has a display of artifacts related to William Carey, as well as the nearby cottage where he lived.[54] Harvey Lane Baptist Church in Leicester, the last church in England where Carey served before he left for India, was destroyed by a fire in 1921. Carey’s nearby cottage had served as a ‘Memories of Carey’ museum from 1915 until it was destroyed to make way for a new road system in 1968.[55] The artifacts from the museum were given to Central Baptist Church in Charles Street, Leicester. Angus Library and Archive in Oxford holds the largest single collection of Carey letters as well as numerous artefacts such as his Bible and the sign from his cordwainer shop. There is a large collection of historical artifacts including letters, books, and other artifacts that belonged to William Carey at the Center for Study of the Life and Work of William Carey at Donnell Hall on the William Carey University Hattiesburg campus.[56]

 

Featured Image Credit: Ian Rob, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

University of Cambridge

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, founder of America’s First Baptist Church, was a Pembroke College graduate. Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard, earned his BA and MA in Magdalene College. An excellent place to begin is the Cambridge Visitor Information Centre, at The Guildhall, Peas Hill CB2 3AD.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Andrew Dunn, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Angus Library and Archive at Regent’s Park College

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 Hall of the University of Oxford. The Angus Library and Archive at Regent’s Park College holds priceless treasures of Baptist history. Henry Jacob, founder of the J-L-J Church, received his BA and MA degrees from Oxford’s St. Mary Hall College. Jacob also served as music director at Oxford’s Corpus Christi College.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Roger Davies / Refectory at Regent’s Park College, Oxford

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields, at 38 City Road, was the Burying Ground for Dissenters. Here stand the tombs of key players in Baptist history: John Rippon, Joseph Ivimey, John Gill, and John Bunyan. Important Baptists whose tombstones here have been destroyed over time include Henry Jessey, Hanserd Knollys, William Kiffin, and Vavasor Powell. See also the tombstones of notable non-Baptists, such as Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, Isaac Watts, “Father of English Hymnody,” and Susanna Wesley, mother of nineteen children, of whom the most eminent were John and Charles. Just across the road from Bunhill Fields is the Wesley House.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Learn more about William Kiffin in this interview with Dr. David Saxon on VCY.tv

 

Featured Image Credit: GrindtXX, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Clink Museum

On London’s Clink Street, the Clink Museum stands at the ruins of this infamous prison, where John Greenwood, Henry Barrow, and Francis Johnson (of the “Ancient Church”), along with Henry Jacob, and John Lathrop (forerunners of Particular Baptists), all suffered incarceration, during 1587-1634.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Admin. “Clink Prison Museum London | UK School Trips.” UK School Trips, 4 Nov. 2024, www.ukschooltrips.co.uk/clink-prison-museum-london.

Church of St. Sepulchre without Newgate

Inside the Church of St. Sepulchre without Newgate, at Holborn Viaduct, a hand bell known as the Execution Bell, resides in a glass case, situated near the entrance of a blocked-up tunnel that once connected the church with Newgate Prison. At midnight prior to execution days, the church’s bellman would walk through the tunnel and into the prison. Standing outside the cells of condemned prisoners, he would ring twelve double tolls of the bell and chant their condemnation. The church is also rich in its own history. John Rogers, once a vicar of this church, had been the first Protestant burned at the stake, during the reign of Mary Tudor. The remains of Captain John Smith, early leader at Jamestown, Virginia, lie buried in the church’s cemetery. Inside the church is a brass plaque dedicated to this famous explorer.

 

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Doyle of London, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Luther Rice Grave

Luther Rice preached his final sermon at Pine Pleasant Baptist Church (est. 1831). His remains were laid to rest here in the churchyard, at 457 Pine Pleasant Road. Under a distinctive canopy, his tomb has a marble slab with a biographical inscription.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

From Wikipedia:

Luther Rice (25 March 1783 – 27 September 1836), was a Baptist minister who, after a thwarted mission to India, returned to America where he spent the remainder of his career raising funds for missions and advocating for the formation of a unified Baptist missionary-sending body, which culminated in establishment of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also raised funds to establish The Columbian College (now The George Washington University) in Washington, DC.[1]

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo: Luther Rice (1783-1836) Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=41033.