Worcester Baptists 

Worcester Baptists – William Belsher came from Bristol in 1796 and recorded a history of the church in the Church Book.  He succeeded John Poynting, who died in 1791.  A Brother Dawson supplied for the church in 1795 before Belsher’s arrival in December of that year (171).  The old chapel was torn down and a new one built that year in Silver Street, and opened on 27 July 1797, with Samuel Pearce, James Smith, and Butterworth preaching (172).  Belsher remained until 1817, when Henry Page became the pastor.  He too had been at Bristol, and he resigned in 1827, dying in France in 1833.  He was succeeded by Thomas Waters of Pershore, who resigned in 1838 (173). See John Noake, Worcester Sects, or A History of the Roman Catholics & Dissenters of Worcester (London: Longman, 1861).