James Dyer

James Dyer (1743-97) served as the Baptist minister at Devizes, 1782-97. He was converted through the ministry of Charles Cole (1733-1813), Baptist minister at Whitchurch, and was the father of John Dyer (1783-1841), later minister at Plymouth, Reading, and secretary of the BMS. James married the daughter of George Barton, member of the Baptist church at Broughton, where the Steeles worshiped. The other minister mentioned here, Daniel Miall (1747-1833), was the assistant minister to the Baptist congregation in Meeting-house Alley, Portsmouth.  He joined the congregation in 1773 during the ministry of John Lacy. Miall was called to the ministry in 1774, and began preaching regularly in the West Country, becoming Lacy’s assistant at that time and later serving as Joseph Horsey’s assistant. Miall was active in promoting village preaching, assisting John Shoveller in starting a new Baptist meeting in Green Row, Marylebone, Portsmouth, in 1800. Miall would assume the pastorate at Meeting-house Alley after the death of Horsey in 1802, with Shoveller later serving as his assistant.  Miall resigned in 1829 in poor health and died on 25 February 1833, aged 87. See Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English Baptists, 4 vols (London: Isaac Taylor Hinton, 1830), vol. 4, 612-14; P. Ridoutt, The Early Baptist History of Portsmouth (Landport: G. Chamberlain, 1888), 76-91.