There were 27 full-time or part-time ministers at Wainsgate between 1750 and 2001. Of these, only three are known to be buried in the graveyard at Wainsgate: the first two ministers, Richard Smith (1750 to 1763) and John Fawcett (1763 to 1777), and James Jack, minister from 1901 to 1906. A fourth minister, Isaac Normington (1800 to 1810) may be buried at Wainsgate but this has not been verified.

There is also a headstone commemorating John Bamber, minister at Wainsgate from 1855 to 1878, although he was buried at Inskip Baptist Chapel, Lancashire.

Three daughters of Mark Holroyd, minister from 1810 to 1835 are buried at Wainsgate, as is the first wife and three children of Jonas Smith, minister at Wainsgate from 1845 to 1847.

There are also three ministers from other nearby Baptist churches who are buried at Wainsgate: John Crook, Peter Scott and Arnold Bingham. John Fawcett jnr, son of Rev. John Fawcett and himself sometimes adopting the title Reverend, is buried in the Fawcett tomb at Wainsgate. Henry Briggs, minister at Roomfield Baptist Church, Todmorden, bought two burial plots at Wainsgate: his infant daughter is buried in one of these, but the other plot may not have been used.

Click on the NAMES to find out more…..

Richard SMITH

Wainsgate’s first pastor from 1750 until his death in 1763.

William GRIMSHAW

Anglican curate at Haworth, evangelical preacher who influenced Richard Smith and John Fawcett.

John FAWCETT

Theologian, author, teacher, composer of the hymn ‘Blest be the Tie that Binds’ and Wainsgate’s second pastor, from 1763 until 1777.

George WHITEFIELD

Anglican cleric, prolific evangelical preacher, plantation owner and slaveholder, he was a major influence on John Fawcett.

John FAWCETT jnr

Son of John Fawcett, dissenting minister, teacher at his father’s academies at Brearley Hall and Ewood Hall and author of the definitive account of his father’s life and works.

Isaac NORMINGTON

Minister at Wainsgate from 1800 to 1810. Possibly buried at Wainsgate, but this is uncertain.

Mark HOLROYD

Minister at Wainsgate from 1810 to 1835, when he emigrated to America.

Peter SCOTT

Minister at Brearley Baptist Church from 1853 to 1865.

John CROOK

Minister at Ebenezer and Hope Baptist chapels, Hebden Bridge from 1841 to 1859.

Jonas SMITH

Minister at Wainsgate from 1845 to 1847.

John BAMBER

Minister at Wainsgate for 23 years, from 1855 to 1878.

James JACK

Minister at Wainsgate from 1901 to 1906.

Henry BRIGGS

Minister at Millwood chapel and Roomfield Baptist Church, Todmorden from 1871 to 1909. Bought two burial plots at Wainsgate.

Arnold BINGHAM

Minister at Brearley and Hebden Bridge.

BAPTIST THEOLOGY

General and Particular Baptists, Arminian theology, Reformed (Calvinist) theology.

AT THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD……

Ministers, funerals and burials.

THE SOLEMN COVENANT OF CHURCH COMMUNION

‘We, a small handfull of the unworthy Dust of Zion, usually assembling for the Worship of God at Wainsgate……‘

Richard SMITH (c1713-1763)

Richard Smith became the first pastor at Wainsgate in 1750. His conversion came as a result of the preaching of William Grimshaw (1708-1763), the evangelical Anglican incumbent of Haworth, and after his conversion he joined Barnoldswick Baptist Church and became a preacher himself.

‘For some time his mind was in a gloomy desponding state, and he was harassed with many disquieting fears respecting his own personal interest in God’s salvation; but he was earnest in prayer, and other means of grace, till at length it pleased God to calm his troubled breast, and to fill his heart with “joy and peace in believing”. Being possessed of strong natural parts, and diligent in his application to study, it was the general opinion of his religious friends that he was designed for public usefulness in the Church of God.’

The first meeting house at Wainsgate was erected around 1750, paid for by private subscriptions: the land for the meeting house, burial ground and minister’s house was donated by a local farmer. At that time there was no place of worship in the township of Wadsworth, and few people had enough schooling to read the Bible themselves. The area was neglected by the Church of England – before the arrival of the mills, the people of the upper Calder valley were no doubt considered too poor to provide a living for a minister. The nearest parish church was at Halifax, with chapels-of-ease at Luddenden, Sowerby Bridge, Sowerby, Heptonstall and Cross Stone: less than a tenth of the population of Wadsworth were communicants of the Church of England. There was a small Methodist meeting house at Heptonstall, and even smaller Baptist meeting houses at Slack and Rodhill End (also known as Rodwell End) – evangelists like Smith preached in the private houses and barns of those wanting to hear him. Wadsworth was later described as:

‘a wild and inhospitable part of the country, where civilization was in low state, and where there is little of the fear and knowledge of God…..among the inhabitants in general, ignorance and vice prevailed in a deplorable degree; there was little appearance of religion; their tempers, dispositions, and habits, partook much of the wildness of the country…..’

John Wesley preached at Stoneshey Gate, Heptonstall in 1747, his first visit to the area, and described the upper Calder valley as:

‘The most beautiful valley in England…..with the most barbarous people’.

As soon as their small meeting house was completed, the people of Wainsgate sent ‘a humble request to the Church at Barnoldswick for RICHARD SMITH as Teacher’. Smith was a conscientious pastor, and worked with zeal and fervour to establish a church at Wainsgate, which became the mother church to others in neighbouring towns and villages. Two other converts of Grimshaw – William Crabtree and James Hartley – were signatories with Richard Smith in 1750 of the Solemn Covenant of Church Communion. Both went on to be distinguished Baptist pastors themselves – William Crabtree at Westgate, Bradford and James Hartley at Haworth. Another convert of Grimshaw’s was John Parker, who late became the sixth pastor at Wainsgate, from 1790 to 1792.

The Solemn Covenant of Church Communion, signed by Richard Smith, William Crabtree and James Hartley, 7th June 1750.

‘In his ministry he had a manner peculiar to himself, of coming home to the conscience, and touching the springs and movements of the soul. His address was full of gravity, and his words as weighty as words could be. A stranger who occasionally heard him once said:

“This man’s words fall on us like mill-stones“

‘In his own deportment he was eminently conscientious, avoiding conformity to the world, and bearing his testimony against the prevailing vices and irregularities of the times in which he lived. In some respects he carried his scruples respecting matters of conscience to a length which few would think it necessary to imitate. It is related of him, that when he felt risings of fretfulness and discontent, he generally visited the poorest of his neighbours, which, next to the truths of Christianity, his experience taught him was the best antidote to these painful sensations’.

(Quotations from An Account of the Life, Ministry and Writings of the late Rev. John Fawcett D.D, by his son John Fawcett jnr, 1818).

Richard Smith suffered from ill health for much of his life: his final illness was ‘long and tedious, and his pain for the most part very severe’. He died (or as Fawcett put it ‘His soul was dismissed from this tenement of clay’) on 24th August 1763 and was buried on the 27th, seemingly the fourth person to be buried at Wainsgate: his gravestone gives his age as 50, although Fawcett’s biography says he was 52. His wife Judith died on 3rd March 1783, aged 66. Their grave (OY125) is marked by a simple table tomb, with an epitaph from Luke 1:6:

‘And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless’.

A pastoral letter, from which the following passages are selected, was found among Richard Smith’s manuscripts. It is undated, but was probably written near the end of his life.

“To the Church of Christ, at Wainsgate, grace, peace, and love be multiplied through Christ our exalted head.

I am standing at the threshold of your door, with my heart to­wards you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. I must shortly give account to him that is ready to ‘judge the quick and the dead,’ as to what I have preached, how I have preached, and whether I  have held fast Christ’s name and the form of sound words which he has committed to my trust. If I have let them slip, with a view to gain to myself, to acquire honour or friendship from men, or from any other worldly motive ‑ how can I hope to give up my account with joy ? how shall I be able to say, ‘I have fought a good fight, I have, kept the faith?’ I am pained to hear that you discover so much indifference to the Gospel, and that you can tamely admit of innovations of a dangerous tendency. You are anxiously concerned when your temporal interest is at stake. Ah! my brethren, does not your conduct in more important matters betray, if not want of knowledge and discernment, what is much worse, want of zeal and love?

Are not you seeking your own more than the things of Jesus Christ? Is not that night of which Dr. Gill speaks coming fast upon us? Does not he who ‘walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks,’ see your Laodicean temper of mind, and has he not something against you, because ‘you have left your first love?’ Let us search and see. Is there that love to Christ, his ministers, his word, his truths, and company, that there once was? Is there that zeal for his cause, his honour, his interest, which was evidenced at your first conversion? Is there that fervency of prayer in your families and closets? ‑ But I forbear; let conscience speak; and if it bear witness against you, ‘let him that hath an ear, hear what the spirit saith unto the churches:,’ ‑ ‘Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works.’

What I have written to you more at large before, I wish you to read with diligence and deliberation; and if things are not as I apprehend, be so kind as to inform me better. Having no other copy, I wish them, along with this, to be returned to me. ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.’ Amen.”

None of the documents or other records (including his gravestone) which mention Richard Smith, use the title Reverend: he is always referred to as Richard Smith or Mr Smith. Most of the other ministers mentioned here used the title Reverend themselves or were referred to as such by others.

Rev. John FAWCETT D.D. (c1739-1817)

John Fawcett was born in Lidget Green, near Bradford. His father, Stephen Fawcett, died in 1751 when John was around twelve years old. Stephen had a small farm, and died leaving a widow and several children. His father, also called Stephen, survived him, but being totally blind (he was known as ‘Blind Stephen’) could not support his son’s family – the farm was given up and the family dispersed.

John Fawcett was apprenticed for six years with a tradesman in Bradford, believed to be a wool comb maker. His apprenticeship required him to work from six in the morning until eight at night, so he was unable to attend school, but he spent many hours late at night reading voraciously – the classics, the Bible, Bunyan’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ and the works of the Puritan Presbyterian minister and author John Flavel.

He was a regular worshipper at an Anglican church in Bradford, but also occasionally attended a Presbyterian chapel, although at the time he knew little about dissenting religious beliefs. Probably the greatest influence on his religious beliefs was hearing the Anglican cleric and evangelist George Whitefield, particularly hearing him preach to a large open-air congregation in Bradford in September 1755.

The impact of Whitefield’s preaching on him was said to be:
‘indescribably great, and remained unabated to the close of his life’

Fawcett kept a portrait of Whitefield in his study, and:
‘The very mention of his name inspired the warmest emotions of grateful remembrance’.

Through Whitefield, John Fawcett was introduced to the ministry of William Grimshaw, and would regularly walk from Bradford to Haworth to hear him preach. After a brief period of attending Methodist and Congregationalist churches, he was baptised as a believer by William Crabtree at the Baptist Church at Westgate, Bradford on 11th March 1758, shortly before his apprenticeship ended. In 1759, still not twenty years of age, he married Susannah Skirrow of Bingley, a few years older than John and a member of the Westgate congregation.

His diary entry for 9th February 1764 says:

‘About a fortnight ago I recieved an invitation from the church at Liverpool, under the care of Mr. Oulton, to go and preach in conjunction with their Pastor: but I believe, if I have a call to anywhere, it will be to Wainsgate. The people there approve of my poor labours, and unweariedly press me to settle amongst them’.

When John Fawcett became pastor at Wainsgate, the church had only about thirty members (who were not entirely of one mind with respect to doctrine), and the local population was small and scattered. Fawcett’s prescence changed things drastically – before long hundreds of people were travelling from miles around to hear the new preacher at the small isolated chapel.

His stipend as minister at Wainsgate was £25 per annum, by all accounts not a great income for such a position, and he took on students, preparing several for entry to the Bristol Baptist College – the oldest Baptist college in the world and, at the time, the only one in Britain. He also preached at several local chapels – Heath, Cloughfold, Bingley, Gildersome, Bacup, Rochdale, Heptonstall Slack, Rodhill End and others.

Fawcett’s fame gradually spread, and in 1772 he made his first visit to London, invited to officiate for Dr. John Gill, an ailing Baptist minister and theologian at Carter Lane, Southwark. He stayed in London for several weeks and preached there more than fifty times. Gill died shortly afterwards, and Fawcett was invited to replace him on a permanent basis. A ministry in London would have been a very attractive prospect to him – his stipend at Wainsgate was still only £25 a year, his accomodation small and inconvenient for his growing family, and there were often unpleasant disagreements within his congregation. He initially accepted the offer, but changed his mind at the last moment (apparently when all of his posessions were loaded onto wagons ready for the journey to London) and decided to stay at Wainsgate.

The American evangelist Ira David Sankey described the scene (probably inaccurately and somewhat melodramatically, since he wasn’t born until seventy years after the event) as follows :

‘The wagons were loaded with his books and furniture, and all was ready for the departure, when his parishioners gathered around him, and with tears in their eyes begged of him to stay. His wife said, “Oh, John, John, I cannot bear this.” “Neither can I,” exclaimed the good parson, “and we will not go. Unload the wagons and put everything as it was before.”

When he started to have second thoughts about leaving Wainsgate, Fawcett had suggested to his congregation that an increase of his stipend to £40 a year could make him decide to stay. They declined to agree to this (perhaps not unreasonable) request, but Fawcett stayed anyway.

It is believed that John Fawcett was inspired by this event to write his best known hymn ‘Blest be the Tie that Binds our Hearts in Christian Love’.

The hymn is usually sung to the tune ‘Dennis’ by Hans Georg Nägeli, but the version recorded by the Wainsgate choir in 1951 was sung to the tune ‘St. Austin’.

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There is plenty more to be written about John Fawcett, and more will be added to this page in the near future. For further reading on Fawcett, a list of sources is included in the Bibliography.

For information about the Fawcett family tomb at Wainsgate, click here.

Left: The Fawcett tomb at Wainsgate. Right: Plaque commemorating John Fawcett in the New Testament Church of God, Necropolis Road, Bradford (photo by Betty Longbottom).

‘As long as life remains, I shall remember both the text and the sermon……..It pleased God graciously, and more particularly than ever before, to work upon my mind and give me a deeper sense of my lost condition by nature’.

George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, where his parents kept the Bell Inn. He studied at Oxford University, which he entered as a servitor (an undergraduate student who received free accommodation and was exempted from paying fees for lectures in exchange for acting as a servant to fellows and other students). He met John and Charles Wesley at Oxford, and after graduating became an itinerant preacher and evangelist. In 1738 he traveled to America where he preached a series of revivals that became part of the ‘Great Awakening’. His methods were controversial, and he became involved in numerous and disputes with other clergymen.

Whitefield received widespread recognition during his ministry – he preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners in Great Britain and the American colonies. He could enthrall large audiences through a potent combination of drama, religious rhetoric, and patriotism.

George Whitefield was a plantation owner and slaveholder and viewed the work of slaves as essential for funding of the Bethesda Orphanage, which he founded in Georgia in 1740. Defence of slavery was common among 18th-century Protestants, especially missionaries who used the institution to emphasize God’s providence, although John Wesley denounced slavery as ‘the sum of all villainies’. By 1776, only one denomination in America—the Quakers—had declared slaveholding a sin.

Whitefield redeemed himself to some extent by campaigning against the cruel treatment of slaves, but “stopped short of rendering a moral judgment on slavery itself as an institution”. He played an important role in the reintroduction of slavery to Georgia in 1751 – between 1735 and 1751 Georgia was the only British American colony to ban Black slavery. Whitefield saw the return of slavery to Georgia as part personal victory and part divine will, and argued a scriptural justification for Black residency as slaves. On his death, Whitefield left everything in the orphanage to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. This included 4,000 acres of land and 49 Black slaves.

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The highly influential English Particular Baptist Preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)was vehemently opposed to slavery: he lost support from the Southern Baptists, sales of his sermons dropped, and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence. In a letter to the Christian Watchman and Reflector in Boston, he declared:

I do from my inmost soul detest slavery… and although I commune at the Lord’s table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind. Whenever [a slave-holder] has called upon me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness, and I would as soon think of receiving a murderer into my church… as a man stealer.

And a classic Spurgeon sermon, The Best War Cry, delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London in 1883, included these words:

A healthy Church kills error, and tears evil in pieces! Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery, but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the Church of God, and when the Church of God addressed herself to the conflict—then she tore the evil thing to pieces!

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Rev. John FAWCETT jnr (1768-1837)

Born on 4th March 1768, John Fawcett jnr was the eldest son of Rev. John Fawcett, pastor at Wainsgate, and his wife Susannah. He married Ann Hargreaves, from Goodshaw-in-Rossendale, Lancashire at St.John the Baptist, Halifax in 1795. The Banns of Marriage record him as ‘The Reverend John Fawcett junr, of Brearley Hall in Midgeley, Dissenting Minister’. The only other record of him having the title ‘Reverend’ is in his father’s will.

John died on 13th July 1837 aged 69, and he and his wife Ann (who died in 1850 aged 76) are buried in the Fawcett tomb at Wainsgate, as are three of their eight children: Esther, who died in 1811 aged 9, John Hargreaves Fawcett who died in 1816 aged 20, and Eliza Ann who died in 1819 aged just 3 weeks. His three surviving sons were all involved in the Baptist church: James Fawcett and Stephen Fawcett were both involved in establishing a Baptist chapel at Brearley, and Rev. William Fawcett became a Baptist minister at Crosby Garrett in Westmoreland and died in Florence.

Rev. Peter SCOTT (c1793-1866)

Born in the Western Isles of Scotland, he spent his early years working as a woodcutter: ‘starting from home early on Monday mornings, carrying with him his week’s supply of oatmeal, he spent whole weeks in the heart of the great fir forests. Hard work, homely fare and lonely days were his lot.’ He studied for four years at Horton Baptist College, Bradford, followed by pastorates at Colne, Shipley and Sutton-in-Craven (from 1847 to 1853).

‘Wherever he had been, he had won golden opinions for himself, and left behind fragrant memories.’

Following the death of James Fawcett he was appointed as minister at Brearley Baptist Church in 1853 and remained there until June 1865. He was well known to the congregation at Brearley, having preached there on several occasions, including at the inaugural service when the church opened in 1846. 

‘In the pulpit he preached with fervour and passion: out of it, he was a brilliant conversationalist, and he had a capacity for making strong and lasting friendships’.

He is also remembered for teaching the members of the church to be ‘self-reliant and helpful’. Rev. Scott never married, and after his retirement lived at the home of his friend Rev. William Haigh at Steep Lane, where he died on 11^th October 1866 aged 73.

His grave (plot A511) is marked by a substantial but elegant memorial, with an epitaph eloquently praising his life and work. The memorial also mentions Caroline, infant daughter of William Henry and Ruth Ibberson of Hope House, Hebden Bridge, who died on 2^nd May 1880, aged 13 months and is buried in this plot, which was bought by the Trustees of Hope Chapel. William Ibberson was pastor at Hope Chapel, Hebden Bridge from 1877 to 1881.

Rev. Jonas SMITH (c1812-1880)

Jonas Smith, born in Kildwick (between Keighley and Skipton) was minister at Wainsgate from 1845 to 1847, and although he is not buried there, his first wife Hannah and three of their children are buried in plot A515. Their son Joseph died in 1846, aged 14 months, but his wife and another son and daughter died after they had left Wainsgate: Hannah died in Bacup in 1862 aged 49, Ellen died in Bacup in 1864 aged 11, and Edwin died in 1870 aged 15, also in Bacup.

After leaving Wainsgate in 1847, Jonas Smith became minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Bacup and stayed there until 1874, when he and some members of his congregation split from Ebenezer, eventually forming Mount Olivet Baptist Church, where he remained until his death on 26th September 1880. The burial place of Jonas and his second wife, Mary, has not been established.

Rev. John BAMBER (c1813-1882)

John Bamber was pastor at Wainsgate for 23 years, from 1855 to 1878, and it was during this time that the chapel and Sunday school were rebuilt, the new Sunday school opening in 1859 and the chapel in 1860.

He was born at Crossmoor, Lancashire, the son of Henry and Ellen Bamber. The 1841 census describes him as a shoemaker, living with his wife Margaret at Inskip, Lancashire and in 1851 they were living in Hunslet, Leeds, and he was a ‘Baptist Minister of the Baptist Tabernacle’. The 1861 census shows them living at Wainsgate: no children are recorded (and none are recorded in the 1841 or 1851 census), but they have a boarder, Alfred Fish aged 12, born in Lancashire and described as a scholar.

Alfred Fish died on 26th August 1869 aged 20, and is buried in a double plot (A543/544) which was bought by John Bamber. Little is known about him – possibly the son of Mary and John Fish, a ‘cotton spinner & manufacturer’ from Oswaldtwistle. Why was he boarding with John and Margaret Bamber – perhaps training to become a Baptist minister?

In 1881 John Bamber, a ‘retired Baptist Minister’ was living with Margaret at Great Eccleston, Lancashire, where he died on 8th May 1882 aged 69. Margaret died at Great Eccleston in 1891, aged 82. Both were buried at Inskip Baptist Chapel and are also commemorated on the headstone marking Alfred Fish’s grave. There is also an elaborate marble memorial tablet in the gallery of the chapel, believed to have been installed in 1904, ‘Erected by the late Mrs Mitchell’s family as a small token of regard’. (presumably Sarah Ann Mitchell of Boston Hill, who died in 1900). The headstone and memorial tablet both have an epitaph from Psalms 37:37:

‘Mark the perfect man and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace’.

Rev. James JACK (1868-1931)

Born in 1868 at Lhanbryde near Elgin, Morayshire, he was minister at Hull Baptist Church when he married Margaret Skene Smith, born in Inverness-shire, in 1899. Minister at Wainsgate from November 1901 to August 1906, he then moved to Bingley, where he was minister at Bingley Baptist Church. Although his pastorate at Wainsgate was relatively brief, the period saw some important events at Wainsgate, including the construction of the new road from Akroyd Lane, the widening of Wainsgate Lane and the installation of the stained glass windows donated by the Mitchell and Appleyard families. Rev. Jack was highly respected and deeply loved by his congregation, and it is said that his decision to leave Wainsgate was greatly regretted.

Rev. Henry BRIGGS (c1846-1920)

Henry Briggs became minister at Millwood Baptist chapel in Todmorden in 1871, and oversaw its move to a new home at Roomfield, where he remained as minister until 1909. He is recorded in the receipt books as buying two burial plots at Wainsgate: plot B185a on 31st December 1876, and plot B324a on 18th September 1903.

The burial register has an entry for 30th December 1876 – ‘Child of Rev. H. Briggs, Todmorden, 10 months’. The child was almost certainly named Flora, the first child of Henry and his wife Mary Ellen (born Hall), and was presumably buried in plot 185a. The grave is unmarked, and no other burials are known to have taken place in that plot.

Plot B324a is also unmarked, and no burials are thought to have taken place in it. The reasons for Henry Briggs buying the plot are unknown: neither he, his wife nor their three surviving children are thought to be buried at Wainsgate.

His epitaph (plot J865) reads ‘He went about doing good’, which is from Acts 10:38:

‘How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him’

His wife Ellen died in 1979 aged 95. Her epitaph reads ‘Safe home at last’.

BAPTIST THEOLOGY

We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) – English Particular Baptist preacher, known as the ‘Prince of Preachers’.

More coming soon…..

AT THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD…..

The Order for The Burial of the Dead

The Priest and Clerks meeting the corpse at the entrance of the Church-yard, and going before it, either into the Church, or towards the grave, shall say, or sing:

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  (John 11: 25, 26)

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.  (Job 19: 25 – 27)

We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (1 Timothy 6:7; Job 1:21)

.  .  .

When they come to the grave, while the corpse is made ready to be laid into the earth, the Priest shall say, or the Priest and Clerks shall sing:

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.

Then, while the earth shall be cast upon the body by some standing by, the Priest shall say,

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed: we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

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Extracts from The Order for The Burial of the Dead from the Book of Common Prayer. Although this is the official prayer book of the Anglican Church, it may possibly have been used by Baptist ministers at Wainsgate, or have been used as a basis for their own liturgy.

The original Order for the Burial of the Dead published in 1662 was preceded by the following note:

Here is to be noted, That the Office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicate, or have laid violent hands upon themselves.

This statement is not included in the current Church of England publication, although it was only in 2017 that canon law was formally amended to allow the full Anglican burial service to be used for the unbaptized, the excommunicated and those that had taken their own lives.

We don’t know what policies the Baptists adopted during their tenure, but since 2005 the burial ground has been open to all.

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The earliest recorded burial at Wainsgate was Martha Whitaker on 7th April 1762, which was during the time when Richard Smith was pastor. Only two more burials are recorded before Smith died in 1763 and was buried at Wainsgate – there is no record of who conducted his funeral.

The surviving records show only fifty burials at Wainsgate between 1762 and 1801 – not a complete record, as is evidenced by the dates on gravestones in the Old Yard. Only three ministers are named in the records as having conducted the burial services:

Mary Sutcliffe of Midgehole, aged 66, was buried on 12th January 1788 by William Wrathall, minister at Wainsgate from 1788 to 1790.

Fourteen burials between 1790 and 1793 are recorded as having been conducted by John Parker, minister at Wainsgate from 1790 to 1792, who in several entries describes himself as a ‘Dissenting minister’.

One burial is recorded by Isaac Normington, Wainsgate minister from 1900 to 1810 – Alice Crabtree, who was buried on 13th December 1800.

The documents listing these early burials are photographed and transcribed elsewhere on this website.

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The main burial register lists burials from 1815 to 2004, when the Baptists transferred ownership to the Historic Chapels Trust. The earlier entries, up to 1878 when George W. Wilkinson became minister, seem to have been copied into the register from other documents, whereas the later entries appear to have been made at the time of burial. There are no records in this register of the name of the officiating minister for any burials until November 1877, apart from two burials which are recorded as being carried out by Mark Holroyd. Both are for the burial of William Wilcock of Green End in plot 249 (father and son?): the first one in 1825 was aged 22, and the second one in 1827 was aged 60.

During Wilkinson’s tenure as minister at Wainsgate (1878-1894), he seems to have officiated at virtually all of the interments, although there are ten burials of stillborn babies in this period, and in each case there is no officiating minister recorded.

Similarly, during the tenure of James Jack, from 1901 to 1906, there are three recorded burials of stillborn babies, and none of them have the name of an oficiating minister recorded. While Joseph Fielding was minister (1921-1930) there were burials of stillborn babies in 1924 and 1928 where no minister is recorded, but also one in 1929 where Fielding is recorded as the officiating minister. During the tenure of Edwin Exall as minister (1934-1942) there was one stillborn burial in 1936 with no minister recorded, and one in 1938 where Exall officiated.

THE SOLEMN COVENANT OF CHURCH COMMUNION

A church covenant is a declaration, which some churches draw up and call their members to sign, in which their duties as church members towards God and their fellow believers are outlined. The idea of a church covenant is an expression of the ‘free-church ecclesiology’ in which the church is mainly a free and voluntary local association of committed Christians, democratically self-managed, distinct and independent from the State. A church covenant or ‘Solemn Covenant of Church Communion’ has become one of the characteristic traits of the Baptist churches.

The Solemn Covenant of Church Communion, signed by Richard Smith, William Crabtree and James Hartley, 7th June 1750.

The transcription below keeps the spelling, punctuation and capitalisation of the original, but the text has been broken up into paragraphs: this echoes the layout of other virtually identical Covenants (Barnoldswick, Westgate Bradford and Cullingworth) and also makes the document more readable.

The Solemn Covenant of Church Communion:

We, a small handfull of the unworthy Dust of Zion, usually assembling for the Worship of God at Wainsgate; and in Obedience to the Command of God; and Conformity to the Example of Jesus Christ and his faithfull Followers, recorded in the new Testament Baptized with Water, in the Name of the Father and of the Son & of the Holy Ghost; having first given our own selves to the Lord, are now met together with one Accord, to give up our selves one to another, by mutual Consent & solemn Covenant, according to ye Will of God: with deep Humiliation for our past sins; and earnest Prayer to God for pardoning Mercy and assisting, preserving & persevering Grace; we say with one Hearts, We are the Lords; and subscribe unto him with our Hands, in manner following namely,

We this day Avouch the Ever-blessed Jehovah, Father, Son & Holy Spirit the One only True & Living God for our New Covenant God, and All-sufficient Portion, and give up our Selves to Him alone, for his peculiar People, in a perpetual Covenant, never to be forgotten:

We Receive & Submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, as our alone Saviour, Prophet, Priest & King; in whom alone we trust for Wisdom & Righteousness, Sanctification & Redemption.

We devote and Consecrate our Selves as living Temples to the Holy Ghost, our Sanctifer, Guide and Comforter, whose gracious Operations, & heavenly Conduct, we desire daily more & more to Enjoy, Experience and Follow.

We take the Holy Scriptures of the Old & New Testaments as the only Ground and Rule of our Faith & Practice desiring thro’ the help of his Grace therein promised, to be in all things Conformable to the holy Will of God therein revealed.

According to the Tennor of which divine Oracles; and depending for performance, only on the divine Help and assistance therein promised; as deeply sensible that we are not sufficient of our selves, but that all our sufficiency both to Will and to do that which is good, is of God; Whose Grace alone is sufficient to enable us to do all the following things, thro’ Christ strengthening us; in a single dependance on whom, and as in duty bound, we now Covenant with God, each for our Selves, and jointly together,

To Worship God in Spirit and in Truth: To observe his Commandments, and keep his Ordinances as he hath delivered them to us:

To be subject to that divine Order & Discipline, which Jesus Christ, our only King & Lawgiver hath appointed in his Church; and not to Forsake the Assembling of our selves together, for the publick worship of God, in its appointed Seasons; but to Continue stedfastly in our Relation one to another; and fill up our places duly in the house of God; and cheerfully maintain his worship therein, to the best of our capacity; untill Death; or, evident Calls of Devine Providence, shall separate us one from another:

to Love one another with pure hearts fervently; and Endevour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; for the honour of our God and our mutuall Good unto Edification.

We will also make it our care, thro the aforesaid help, to walk before the Lord in our own houses with upright hearts; and to keep up the Worship of God therin, by daily Prayer & Praise to God, and diligent Reading the Holy Scriptures, that so the word of God may dwell richly in us.

And as we have given our Children to the Lord by a Solemn Dedication; so we will Endevour, thro Devine help, to teach them the Way of the Lord and command them to keep it; setting before them an Holy Example, worthy of their Immitation; and continuing in Prayer to God, for their Conversion & Salvation.

We will also endevour by the Grace of God to keep our selves pure from the sins and vices of the times & Places wherein we live: and so to be Holy in All manner of Conversation, that none may have Occasion, given, by our unholy lives to speak evil of Gods holy ways.

And all this, under an abiding sence, that we must shortly give up our Account to him, that is ready to judge the quick and the dead; unto which solemn Covenant, we set our hands, in the presence of the allseeing, Heart-searching God, this seventh day of June, in the Year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and fifty.

The signatories to the Covenant are listed as:
1. Richard Smith
2. Abraham Ashworth (crossed out and marked X).
William Crabtree
James Hartley
3. Richard Iveson (crossed out).
4. The fourth name is unclear (possibly John Burrens?) and has been crosed out.

The witnesses to the signing are listed as:
John Sedgfield
Alverey Jackson
Henry Clayton
Richard Thomas
John Tommas

The Solemn Covenant of Church Communion, signed by John Cousin and Ellen Cousin, 30th October 1828.