John Edmonds

John Edmonds (d. 1823) and his two brothers, Edward and Thomas, were called to the ministry out of the Baptist church in Cannon Street in Birmingham. Edward (c.1750-1823), after a short stint as pastor at Wooton-under-Edge, moved to the church in Bond Street, Birmingham, in 1785, where he remained until his death in 1823 at the age of 73. His son, George Edmonds (1787?-1868), gained notoriety in Birmingham for his radical, “popular” politics. Thomas Edmonds served as pastor of Baptist congregations at Sutton-in-the-Elms (1786-1794), Upton-on-Severn (1794-1806), Bridgnorth (1806-1813), and Leominster (1813-1834). John Edmonds came to the Baptist church at Guilsborough shortly after a new chapel was built in 1781. As a result of the church’s success, coupled with the general distrust that developed in late 1792 by conservative advocates of the established church who sought to link all religious dissenters with republican politics, Edmonds and his congregation experienced persecution and the destruction of their building by a mob in late December 1792. John Rippon provided the following account of the ordeal: “. . . but after many  virulent expressions which had dropt from individuals in various companies, and after part of a brick wall belonging to the meeting-house had been outrageously pulled down, of which these innocent people took no notice:  on Dec. 25, 1792, they were alarmed at the cry of fire, and soon discovered that their place of worship was in flames:  they made immediate efforts to extinguish them, but the thatch on the roof rendered their efforts ineffectual. They advertized fifty guineas reward for the apprehension of the incendiary or incendiaries, and his Majesty and the ministers of state offered two hundred pounds more, but in vain.”  John Edmonds remained at Guilsborough until at least 1811. In 1823 he was serving as pastor at the Long Buckby church, not far from Guilsborough. See John Rippon, ed., Baptist Annual Register, vol. 2 (1794-97), 9; my thanks as well to John Briggs for information on the Edmonds.