Numbers

This paragraph is from Baptists and Britons: Particular Baptist Ministers in England and British identity in the 1790s by John Robert Parnell, B.A., M.A. a dissertation Prepared for a PhD with the University of North Texas, December 2005 available here

Though they continued to represent only a small percentage of the nation’s population, Baptists grew in terms of the number of members. In 1750, approximately 10,000 Particular Baptists resided in England. (Currie, Gilbert, and Horsley, Churches and Churchgoers, 151.) Members of Particular Baptist churches numbered 17,000 in 1790, but the number of members had risen to 24,000 by 1800. (Gilbert, Religion and Society, 37) For comparison, England’s population in 1791 was 7.74 million and by 1801 it was 8.6 million.(William B. Willcox and Walter L. Arnstein, The Age of Aristocracy, 1688-1830 8th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 327.) By Gilbert’s assessment, Baptists made up only 0.5 percent of the population in England aged fifteen and over in 1800. (Gilbert, Religion and Society, 39.) In another calculation, Watts concludes that the Baptist portion of the population, including both Particular and General Baptists, rose from 1.09 percent in England from 1715 to 1718 to 2.95 percent by 1851.(Watts, Dissenters, vol. II, 28-29.) Such growth was especially evident in the 1790s. From 1791 to 1800, the number of registered places for Baptist worship increased, with the registrations of temporary locations rising from eighty-nine to 170 and those of permanent locations from thirty to seventy-four. (Gilbert, Religion and Society, 34.) Although the numbers of Baptist congregations had declined from 1716 to 1773, they rose from the 1770s. (Gilbert, Religion and Society, 35.) According to John Rippon’s accounts in the Baptist Annual Register, a total of 379 Particular Baptist churches existed from 1790 to 1801.(Geoffrey E. Nuttall, “The Baptist Churches and their Ministers in the 1790s: Rippon’s Baptist Annual Register,” Baptist Quarterly 30 (1984): 384.) By 1800 Baptists lagged behind only Methodists and Independents for nonconformist congregations in England. (Watts, Dissenters, vol. II, 23). Rippon reported that during the 1790s every English county except Westmorland had at least one Baptist church. (Nuttall, “Baptist Churches in the 1790s,” 384). People began to see Baptist churches as an attractive alternative to the Church of England. A church only grows if its members recognize its usefulness or relevance in achieving goals. (Currie, Gilbert, and Horsley, Churches and Churchgoers, 7.)

Church Membership Statistics 1743-1795

These statistics are based on what Thomas Brooks reveals in Pictures of the past with some approximation at the end. Congregations were much larger than membership.

Life Story 06

Progress and decline at Bourton
The church continued to grow after 1750 but with some variation. By recourse to the church books (now preserved in the Angus Library archive in Oxford) Brooks analysed the membership figures, observing that although by 1751 there were 180 members, the next 14 years were variable. The Association Letters speak in 1751 of ‘decay’ despite the ‘large auditory’, in 1753 of languor and in 1755 of ‘coldness yet a little strength’ (Bourton Church book 1719-1802). None were added from 1752 to 1754, bringing numbers down to 162. Then in 1755, some 22 were baptised. By 1759 there were 160 members. This too was followed by a dearth until 1764, when some 28 were added. Over 200 baptisms had taken place since Beddome’s coming by 1766 and the number of members had again risen to 196. It had been necessary to undertake a major enlargement of the premises in 1764 and 1765.

[Pic: Baptist chapel 1890 (built 1876)]

Over the next 30 years, however, there was a relative decline with only 53 added by baptism and six by letter. Some 105 died, 12 moved to other churches and two were excluded. One notes in the 1780s references in the church book to poorly attended church meetings and the need to revive the midweek meeting, suggestive of a measure of spiritual languor. At the prompting no doubt of former member John Ryland, in 1784 the church did agree to follow the example of the Northamptonshire Association and join in the concert for prayer but little seems to have come of this as far as Bourton itself was concerned. (For evidence of a post-millennial outlook in Beddome, see Hymn 707; see a further post). In over half of the 30 years, 1765-1795, there were no additions. From 1765-1772 there was only one year that saw any addition. In 1775, 1777, 1783 and 1786 there were again no additions and in 1790-1795, again only one year saw any increase. Brooks says that by 1786 they were down to a hundred members. (Cf note in Holmes, 62). By the time of Beddome’s death there were 123 members on the roll, although congregations apparently continued to be large with five or six hundred attending.