William Creak

William Creak was a London tea-dealer, first as a partner with a Mr. Anstie and then with a Mr. Worstead before entering into business on his own at 69 Cornhill (Wakefield’s [1787], 42; Lowndes’s [1799], 47).   Benjamin Flower thought about joining in business with Creak in 1781, shortly before Creak finished his apprenticeship. The new firm was to be called Flower, Creak, and Worstead, with offices in Cornhill (Flower, Statement xvi).  Creak, a Baptist, joined the congregation at Unicorn Yard, Southwark, in July 1774 (Unicorn Yard f.223).  He began to absent himself from communion after dissension arose in the church over the resignation of William Clarke (f.57), who left Unicorn Yard in 1784 (after serving there for 22 years) to assume the pastorate of the Baptist meeting in Bampton, where Eliza Gould and her family attended.  At a church meeting on 27 January 1785, a report was read in which Creak had informed the church’s messengers that he would return “when those differences were accommodated” (f.258). Creak continued to absent himself and was accordingly admonished by the deacons (f.259). Eventually he was advised to seek dismissal to another church of like faith and order (f.262).  He chose to do nothing, however, and the church reluctantly removed him as a member (f.264).  Whether Creak moved his membership to another Baptist church is unknown, but he appears to have remained an active Dissenter, subscribing to the Sunday School Society in 1789 (Plan 22) and to Flower’s edition of Habakkuk Crabb’s Sermons in 1796.