Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, Baptists

Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, Baptists – Following account taken from W. E. Blomfield, “Yorkshire Baptist Churches in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in C. E. Shipley, ed., The Baptists of Yorkshire: Being the Centenary Memorial Volume of the Yorkshire Baptist Association (Bradford and London: [n.d.], 1912), 53-118.

“Hebden Bridge is the Mecca of Yorkshire Baptists” (98), for Fawcett was the founder of the Yorkshire County Association and the Northern Baptist Education Society (98).   Wainsgate was founded in 1750, much because of the labors of William Grimshaw, the evangelical vicar at Haworth.  Richard Smith came from Barnoldswick to be the first pastor, with William Crabtree signing the book at a member there (99).  John Foster’s parents were members here as well.  Smith died in 1763, and John Fawcett of Bradford succeeded him the next year.  Fawcett was a product of the ministry of George Whitefield’s visits to Bradford.  He attended Grimshaw at Haworth, but eventually settled with the Baptists at Bradford under William Crabtree in 1758 (99).  Fawcett soon began preaching in Bingley where his new wife was from, and thus formed the Bingley church in 1759.  After his removal to Wainsgate in 1764, Fawcett became friends with the Baptist James Hartley of Haworth, Henry Foster, an Anglican curate, as well as the General Baptist Dan Taylor, his near neighbor (100).  They met regularly for study and conversation.  In 1769 he baptized John Sutcliff, then an assistant in Dan Taylor’s school in Birchcliffe (100).  Sutcliff came to live in Wainsgate so he could study with Fawcett before entering Bristol Academy.  In 1772 Fawcett was invited by the church at Carter-lane in London to succeed John Gill, but he turned the offer down (101).  In 1773 he began his school for training ministers, and his first students were Abraham Greenwood, later minister at Rochdale; John Hindle, later at Halifax, and George Townsend of Accrington.  Fawcett took larger quarters at Brearley Hall in 1776.  The Hebden Bridge church was built in 1777 and the majority of the Wainsgate congregation moved there, but a remnant remained which continued on for some time (101).  Fawcett established a Sunday School in 1786, with young John Foster as one of the first teachers (101).  In 1792 he was invited to be President of Bristol Academy after Caleb Evan’s death, but he declined.  He also supported the BMS.