NONCONFORMISTS IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

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BAPTISTS

More information on Baptist History can be found here.

Northamptonshire was the focus of substantial growth in this group of Dissenters during the mid 18th century.  Most well documented are the origins of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association in 1763, from which the Baptist Missionary Society traces its origins.

Early Baptist Churches in Northamptonshire

However there were differences among the various churches and by the 1830's three distinct groupings could be identified.

• The Missionary Baptists, sometimes know as "Fullerites" most of whom became members of the Baptist Union in 1832 and trace their origins to John C. Ryland, Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff, and William Carey.

If you want to know more about some the background to some of these people a good place to start is the Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney, Buckinghamshire.  John Sutcliff, John Newton and William Cowper were together in Olney from 1780-1810. Olney was the intellectual focus of the Missionary Baptists together with Andrew Fuller from Kettering, John C. Ryland from Northampton and Robert Hall of Arnesby. 

• The Strict Baptists who practised closed communion, subsequently most of these churches have become members of the Grace Baptist Churches.

Charles Vorley was minister of Carlton Baptist Church from 1797 to 1837.

• The Gospel Standard Baptists or "Gadsbyites" (as they were later known) were led by William Gadsby, John Warburton and John Kershaw with high-calvinist beliefs and practised closed communion.