Cambridgeshire, Congregational Churches c. 1820

Cambridgeshire, Independent Churches, c. 1820 – The following is taken from the “Statistical View of Dissenters in England and Wales,” The London Christian Instructor, or Congregational Magazine, vol. 2 (1819): 183-85; 315-17; 371-75; 437-40; 501-05; 630-32; 696-98; 759-62; 813-14; vol. 3 (1820), 57-59; 113-115; 168-72.

John Audley of Cambridge was an Independent, attending the Green Street Meeting in Cambridge under John Stettle, who pastored there from 1781-1813.  The church had had some Presbyterians and Socinians as well from the previous pastor, but Stettle was very congregational.  John Audley preached his funeral sermon, and for the next two years, July 1813 to June 1815, Audley supplied as pastor of the church.  The church eventually called a Rev. Popplewell, from Marden, in 1815. Audley also preached the funeral sermon for William Bond in April 1794; Bond had been pastor of the combined Independent congregations at Barrington and Great Eversden since 1748, after which the two congregations split (“Statistical View,” 373-74).   A William Richardson from Hoxton Academy took over at Barrington in 1798 and remained until 1801, after which the congregation was supplied by several individuals, including a Mr. Spriggs of Cambridge, but through 1819 it had had no ordained minister there (ibid., 185, 374. 

        The congregation at Great Eversden was supplied by a Mr. Howard, Mr. Aikin in 1796, who was ordained and continued with them until 1804, followed by James Robertson until 1808, and then James Golding of Cambridge, who was ordained in 1811, with Harris of Cambridge, Towne of Royston, Carver of Melbourn, and Dobson of Chisshill assisting (ibid., 374). At Bottisham and Bottisham Lode, John Berridge began preaching and eventually helped found a congregation.  Just before Berridge’s death, Andrew Fuller began preaching at Bottisham Lode and at Bottisham, in a farm house where Fuller’s father lived. The group declined until Thomas Reynolds, a Baptist, began to organize meetings in his house at Bottisham Lode in 1800.  A meetinghouse was eventually opened in 1810, an Independent church organized in 1811, and Reynolds was ordained in 1817.  The group at Bottisham continued to meet for upwards of 22 years in a large barn owned by Mr. Thomas Dennis of Great Wilbraham.  In 1812, a Mr. Richard Kent of Little Wilbraham, began his ministry there, but by 1819 they had not formed into a church (ibid., 175). 

       In the 1780s Berridge also began preaching in a barn in Bassingbourn, which led to the formation of an Independent congregation in 1790, with Samuel Bull as minister (ibid., p. 438).   An Independent church at Burwell was formed in the 1690s, with Thomas Micklin pastoring from 1797-1816. The Independent congregation at Cottenham was formed in 1694, and led by Thomas Barron of Isleham, a Baptist, who grew up with Andrew Fuller, from 1778-1807.  Barron resided at Melbourn, but he also ministered at the Baptist meetings at Melbourn and at Walden, Fulbourn and Wilbraham (ibid., 438, 439, 503).  

      At Linton, a congregational church was formed in the early 1700s, and in 1798 a Mr. Thomas Hopkins, a paedobaptist, came as pastor, and the church increased much under his ministry.  In 1818 a new meeting house was opened which held over 500 seats (ibid., 632).   The Independent church at Fulbourn was led by a Mr. W. Carver from 1792 into the 1820s (ibid., 697).   At Royston, the Old Meeting (Independent) was pastored by Habakkuk Crabb from 1790 to the end of 1794, but some who did not like his ministry pulled out in 1791 to form the New Meeting.  Crabb was succeeded by William Pendered (ibid., 762).   In 1794 Thomas Towne became minister of the New Meeting, where he would remain into the 1820s (ibid., 762).  At Sawston, Rev. Pyne of Duxford and Robert Hall of Cambridge began preaching once a month in the evening in 1793 or ‘94 and those services continued until 1810. At Soham, in 1772 Thomas Adam came to the Independent church, described by Josiah Thompson as “the best scholar and the most intelligent independent minister in the country.” He married a second time in old age to a young wife and had a second numerous family, which greatly impoverished him in later years.  The church consisted of only three female members and a few hearers at the time his death.