In the preface to the collection of Beddome's hymns, the collator says that as well as hymns and sermons gathered for family use by Beddome himself he had access to hymns provided by "a descendant of the Rev. W. Christian, formerly pastor of the Baptist church at Sheepshead, Leicestershire". These "had been carefully preserved in that family." This then was one of the sources of the hymns.
William Christian (d 1765) had previously been in nearby Markfield but in 1727 he came to Shepshed and Rempston, where he worked alongside and then succeeded the church's first pastor, Joel Stretton. He was a friend of John Ryland in Northampton. His death came rather suddenly at a gathering of ministers on January 1, 1765. His daughter also died the following September. His successor in Shepshed was John Martin, previously of Kimboulton, Huntingdonshire, and then, from 1773, William Guy.
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