William Button

William Button (1754-1821) was born in Sussex and then lived with his family in Southwark (they attended at Carter Lane under John Gill). As a young boy he was sent to J. C. Ryland’s academy in Northampton 1762; he  was later baptized there and while a student was a member of John Ryland, Jr.'s, Secret Prayer Society, along with John Dunkin of Southwark and Benjamin Flower of Cannon Street, London, both of whom were also students at Northampton at that time. Upon completing his studies at Northampton, Button returned to London and eventually joined the Unicorn Yard congregation under under William Clarke, with whom Button would further his studies with the prospect of becoming a Baptist minister.  Button was called to the ministry by the congregation at Unicorn Yard on 15 August 1773, and preached at Hitchin shortly after the death of Samuel James, but he declined the church's invitation to be their minister due to the church's position on open communion. Despite his rejection of the church, he would marry Anna James, the daughter of the deceased pastor, in 1776. He returned to Unicorn Yard in January 1774 and began preaching for a group that had splintered from Carter Lane after the arrival of John Rippon to replace the legendary John Gill. Button's Calvinism at that time was more narrow than Rippon's (and more in line with Gill), and in May 1775 he became pastor of the newly formed Baptist meeting at Dean Street, Southwark, where the new congregation settled. Button remained at Dean Street until 1815. Besides his pastoral duties, Button also operated a successful printing business, first in Charles Street (1778-1787) and t Newington Causeway (1787-93) in Southwark, before moving in late 1793 to 24 Paternoster Row (and later to 31 Paternoster Row), working primarily with his son, William (d. 1822) until the demise of the firm in 1819. Button's major publications were Remarks on a Treatise, entitled, The Gospel of Christ Worthy of All Acceptation; or, The Obligations of Men Fully to Credit and Cordially to Approve Whatever God Makes Known, by Andrew Fuller. Wherein the Nature of Special Faith in Christ is Considered, and Several of Mr. F.'s Mistakes Pointed Out, in a Series of Letters to a Friend (1785); and National Calamities Tokens of the Divine Displeasure: A Sermon Preached at the Meeting House Dean Street, Tooley Street, Southwark, on February 28, being the Day Appointed for a General Fast (1794). See Unicorn Yard and Carter Lane Church Books, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford; also Isaac James, "Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel James, M.A.," affixed to his edition of his father's An Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God with Several Eminent Persons (Bristol, 1824), 156-57; Timothy Whelan, "John Ryland and School: Two Societies in Northamnpton Boarding Schools, Baptist Quarterly 40 (2003), 90-116. For the most complete account of Button's life and career, see Jeff Straub, "William Button 1754-1821," in The British Particular Baptists, vol. 4, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin and Terry Wolever (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2019), 293-317.