James Ashworth

James Ashworth (d. 1802) was baptized by his uncle, Thomas Ashworth (see next entry) at Gildersome in 1759. In 1770 he succeeded his uncle as pastor at Gildersome, being ordained there on 8 August 1770. The church flourished and several men were called into the ministry as a result of his preaching, including Luke Heywood in 1776 and Joseph Asquith and John Ross in 1777. While at Gildersome, Ashworth helped found the Yorkshire and Lancashire Association of Baptist Churches in 1787. Along with John Fawcett, Ashworth preached the dedication service for Thomas Langdon’s chapel in Leeds in July 1781. Ashworth remained at Gildersome for 26 years, leaving in June 1797 to become pastor at Farsley. When the church split in 1801, he and some members formed a new meeting at Horsforth; he died there the next year. For more on Ashworth, see John Haslam, History of the Baptist Church at Gildersome, in the County of York (Leeds: Walker and Laycock, 1888); W. E. Blomfield, “Yorkshire Baptist Churches in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in C. E. Shipley, ed., The Baptists of Yorkshire: Being the Centenary Memorial Volume of the Yorkshire Baptist Association (Bradford and London: [n.d.], 1912), 41-77.