James Bicheno

James Bicheno (1752-1831) joined the Baptist congregation at St. Andrew’s Street in Cambridge when he was in his teens. He entered Bristol Academy in 1776, and began his pastoral ministry at Falmouth in 1778. Between 1780 and 1807, Bicheno ministered to the Baptist congregation at Newbury, where he also operated a school. He continued as a schoolmaster in Newbury until 1811, when he removed to Coate [Cote]. He returned to Newbury in 1819 and served once again as pastor of the Baptist church from 1820 to 1824. He suffered from paralysis after 1824, being unable to speak or move. His chief concern was biblical prophecy, especially in regard to European events from 1789 through the Napoleonic Wars, as evidenced in such publications as Signs of the Times (1793); A Word in Season: Or, a Call to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, to Stand Prepared for the Consequences of the Present War (1795); and The Probable Progress and Issue of the Commotions which have Agitated Europe since the French Revolution, argued from the Aspect of Things, and the Writings of the Prophets (1797). See John Oddy, “Bicheno and Tyso on the Prophecies,” Baptist Quarterly 35 (1993-1994): 81-89; Church Book: St. Andrew’s Street (London: Baptist Historical Society, 1991), 52-53, 56-57, 134-135; Roger Hayden, Continuity and Change: Evangelical Calvinism among Eighteenth-Century Baptist Ministers trained at Bristol Academy, 1690–1791 (London: Baptist Historical Society, 2006), 225.