Burnley, Lancashire, Baptists

Burnley, Lancashire, Baptist Interest – According to Whitley, Burnley was about five miles to the west of two hamlets, Worsthorne and Haggate, where Dan Taylor (see letter 20) had already begun village preaching. Taylor found the place “wretched,” with “no religion, in or near it.” In September 1779 he hired a house in the market place and procured a license from the Bishop of Chester and opened a General Baptist chapel; shortly thereafter Richard Foulds took over as the church’s first minister, remaining there until 1789. See W. T. Whitley, The Baptists of North-West England (London: Kingsgate, 1913), 158.