John Dyer

John Dyer (1783-1841) was the son of James Dyer, Baptist minister at Devize. The younger Dyer was the first full-time secretary of the BMS. He was influenced as a teenager by William Steadman, both at Broughton and Plymouth, and began preaching in Plymouth and later at Reading. He was elected to the BMS Committee in 1812 and in 1818 became the BMS Secretary, moving (though not without some controversy) the headquarters to London. Shortly thereafter, however, difficulties developed between the Home Office and the Serampore Mission concerning the management of funds and various other matters of jurisdiction. A split occurred between the two groups in 1827, a rift not remedied until 1838. Dyer was very much a centralized bureaucrat, never visiting any of the foreign missions. He died on 22 July 1841, and was succeeded by Joseph Angus as Secretary of the BMS. See Ernest A. Payne, The First Generation: Early Leaders of the Baptist Missionary Society in England and India (London: Carey Press, [1936]), 120-126; idem, “The Diaries of John Dyer,” Baptist Quarterly 13 (1949-1950), 253-259.