Salisbury, Brown Street Baptist Church 

Salisbury, Brown Street Baptist Church -- Brown Street, Salisbury, Baptist Church. The following account is taken from G. A. Moore and R. J. Huckle, The Story of Brown Street Baptist Church, Salisbury, 1655-1955 (Salisbury: [n.d.], 1955). 

William Steele of Broughton was a trustee of the Salisbury church, and when the lease was renewed in 1774 Steele is on the document as one of the persons “intrusted for the congregations meeting in the City of New Sarum aforesaid called Baptists of the first day and seventh day’s persuasions who are distinguished by that name for dissenting from the established Church upon the account of their baptising adult persons only by way of dipping” (16-17).   Moore goes on to add, “This description of the persons worshipping at Brown Street Meeting House is first found, as far as our records are concerned, in a deed dated June, 1734, and we must accept from this wording the fact that there were two Sects of Particular Baptists worshipping in the same building, one sect on Saturdays and the other on Sundays” (17).  However, the 7th day worshippers seem to have dwindled greatly by the late 1770s and thereafter.  Nicholas Minty was a plumber and glazier who ministered to the church for some time (c. 1752-62) prior to Henry Philips.  The Minty’s were a family name common to Salisbury and the church.  Trustees of the church in 1734 included Thomas Atwater of Britford, Wilts., Abraham Frowde of Salisbury, Richard Clarke of Salisbury, Isaac Sutton of Downton, William Bye of Romsey, and William Thornton of Romsey (12). 

    Henry Philips, a Welshman, came in 1766 and remained until his death in 1789 (13).  On two occasions, 1769 and 1782, the Western Association meetings were held at Brown Street (18).  A letter from the Upottery Church in Devon made much of the Dissenters’ toleration under George III:  “… the high priest and metropolitan of all England, with the subordinates of his province, assures the King, in an address to him, that it shall be done with moderation and Christian charity towards them whose misfortune it is to differ rom them – thank them for nothing – they are under restraint – the language of kind and gratious providence to you in behalf of the Dissenters is, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm – so long a s George the third is head o their Church and Jesus the same for ever is head of his Church we need not be afraid. . . . When bloody Mary was Queen of England, bloody Bonner was Bishop of London and Gardener Bishop of Winchester, … but now the successors of bitter persecutors are for moderation and Christian charity and they would insinuate the same into the mind of a true Protestant King that he might think if he please how happy he is to be the head of such Bishops as are so politick as to think it will not be for their honour or advantage to carry it with rigor towards his best subjects for their religions sake whose misfortune it is to differ from them…” (18).  Philips also kept a school in Salisbury.

    John Saffery (1790-1825) grew up in the Baptist church at Portsea, where Joseph Horsey ministered for many years.  During his ministry at Salisbury, more thean 350 persons were added to the church (21). He founded a Sunday School there in 1792, and in 1801, a school that met on Sundays, as well as Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  The church rented the Joiners’ Hall in Salisbury for 1s. a week to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic (22).  Two teachers were usually employed; some names include Thomas Ellyott, John Warren, a Mr. Sworn and Mr. William Targett in 1811.  The school closed in 1821.  Supporting families include Frampton, Attwater, Whitchurch, Keynes, Buckland, Targett, and Marsh (24). 

    In 1795 a new chapel (or ‘meetinghouse’) was built in Brown Street. According to the church historian, ‘The builder was John Hopgood of Downton, and the estimated cost was £700. However, by the time the accounts were settled in 1796, they had mounted up to £800.  It was a fine building, for not only was the former Chapel rebuilt but a new vestry room was added; nevertheless it was not nearly so fine as the one, some thirty odd years later, in the time of the next minister, which will be referred to later” (26). He died on 9 March 1825.   To help defray the cost of the new chapel, Saffery spent much of the fall of 1794 and early 1795 soliciting donations from individuals of Baptist congregations in London and throughout the provinces, having the donors sign their names (and the amount of their donation) in a bound volume which is now a part of the Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. no. 180, B.4, Angus Library. 

    When the new chapel was built in 1828 under P. J. Saffery, John’s son, the trustees included Philip Whitaker of Bratton, Alfred Whitaker of Frome, Philemon Attwater of Nunton, Joshua Whitaker of Bratton, Thomas Marsh, William Long, John Toone, George Buckland, James Butler, John Rowe, Benjamin George, James Bracher, and William Coles of Sarum (27). She writes, “it is clear that the Whitaker family of Bratton, interested in Brown Street because of the Saffery marriage connections, were very ready to play a responsible role in its development” (27).  Isaac New replaced P. J. Saffery in 1837; he was followed by John Wood Todd, 1847-53; and he was followed by Thomas Hands, former BMS missionary in Jamaica, who ministered from 1854-57 (29). William Targett was one of the paid Sunday School teachers between 1810 and 1813 (22).  In 1812 John Saffery traveled to Ireland to help initiate  the Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in Ireland. He traveled to Bradford, Yorkshire, to join Robert Hall and F. A. Cox at the opening of Sion Chapel, Bradford, the year before his death (26).

    Joshua Rowe and Joel Randall were both dismissed from the church in 1804, both going to India to work with Carey. Randall was an engineer, and operated the paper mills at Serampore (26-27).  Maria Grace Saffery is referred to as a ‘minor poet’ and mention is made that she operated a school possibly in Castle Street (21), which she did.  During P. J. Saffery’s tenure (1826-36), Walter Dendy went out as a BMS missionary (28).  The chapel was rebuilt during his time as well. When it was commissioned in 1829, the trustees were Philip Whitaker of Bratton, Gentleman; Thomas Marsh of New Sarum, grocer; William Long of New Sarum, grocer, Alfred Whitaker, Frome, Gentleman; John Toone of New Sarum, surgeon; William Penny, of Hilperton, accountant; Philemon Attwater of Nunton, Gentleman; Joshua Whitaker of Bratton, Gentleman; Josiah George of Romsey, grocer; George Buckland, brightsmith; James Butler, bookseller, John Rowe, grocer; Benjamin George, accountant; James Bracher, ironmonger; and William Goles, linen draper, all of New Sarum (28). Along with the list of trustees was a statement of the creed, which was Calvinistic. The writer notes that the church is no longer ‘Particular Baptist’ but more in line with General Baptists (29).  P. J.  Saffery was succeeded by Isaac New in 1837, who came from Arnesby, Leicestershire. In 1847 he was succeeded by John Wood, who remained until 1853 (30). Thomas Hands, just returned from Jamaica, took over in 1854, remaining until 1857, when he left for Luton.  The Attwater Bequest came in 1752 to the church from Thomas Attwater of Bodenham for church maintenance and pastoral provision. During the 19th c. the care of the bequest was taken over by Philip Whitaker of Bratton, “a relative of Mr. Saffery by his second wife, and thereafter Brown Street seems to have lost sight of it, though Bodenham Chapel received the 8£ interest annually from Mr. Whittaker” (55).