William Stephens

William Stephens (1756-1839) was originally an Independent minister, working for a time with James Haldane in Edinburgh before converting to the Baptist faith. In 1807, not long before the above letter, he became the minister at one of London’s oldest Baptist churches, the church in Little Prescot Street, Goodman’s Fields. His theology was suspect to many of the members (having spent years under the minister of Abraham Booth), some believing him to be a Sandemanian. As a result, thirty-one members seceded to the Baptist meeting in Artillery Street. Stephens left London for Manchester in 1810, and later ministered at Rochdale, continuing to be challenged by the more orthodox Calvinists in the denomination, especially the emerging Strict Baptists led by William Gadsby of Manchester.