Yorkshire Baptist Association, 1787 

Yorkshire Baptist Association, 1787. The following account is taken from John Haslam, “The Yorkshire Baptist Association,” in The Baptists of Yorkshire: Being the Centenary Memorial Volume of the Yorkshire Baptist Association, ed. C. E. Shipley (Bradford and London, 1912), 267-318.

Encouraged by the influence of Grimshaw, Whitefield, and Wesley and the Methodist connexional system, John Fawcett sought to do something of the same for the Baptists in Yorkshire and in 1787 67 churches united to form the Yorkshire and Lancashire Association of Baptist Churches.  The first meeting was at Coln in Lancashire on 30 and 31 May 1787, with churches from Leeds, Rawdon, Gildersome, Halifax, Salendine Nook, Hebden Bridge, Wainsgate, Rochdale, Bacup, Cloughfold, Cowling Hill, Sutton, Barnoldswick, Colne, Accrington, Blackburn, and Preston.   Fawcett, in the letter he read to the group on “the Duties of Gospel Churches,” noted that “perhaps England never saw a happier period than the present” (273).  [The writer notes that John Sutcliff’s library came to the college at Rawdon after his death in 1814!  (where are they now?) (280).  He also discusses William Steadman’s move to Bradford in 1804 to succeed Crabtree in the church there and to lead the new Bradford Academy (later Rawdon College).  No mention here of the offers to Hinton of Oxford and Kinghorn of Norwich.]

Concerning politics, he writes that “in the early years of the Association little interest was taken in political questions [not true!].  Very few of the members of our Churches had a vote, and, as Mr. Upton says, they seemed quite satisfied with ‘the wise and benignant legislation’ which gave them the Toleration Act.  They sat under its shadow with thankfulness; likened it, of course, to “‘their own vine and fig tree”’; and scarcely any political questions appear upon the Minutes, or imperiled the happy serenity of the Annual Assembly.   But, as we approach the year 1830, the Pastors and messengers show quite another disposition.  Either politics had invaded the Church, or the Church was girding herself, as she ought, to take her share in politics.  Frequent resolutions appear, intended to strengthen the hands of Lord John Russell and his colleagues in their conflict with religious disabilities, and chiefly in the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, the results of which have been perhaps more favourable to our denomination in Yorkshire and Lancashire than in any other part of England.  Our municipal magnates, mayors, and magistrates have given social status to our body, which it was a grievance for the law to prevent as long as it did.  For the first time, in 1833, the Association entered on this debatable ground, in its Circular Letter, which was on ‘The Principles of Dissent,’ and was written by Mr. Saunders, of Liverpool.   It was followed by a resolution affirming, ‘that the present is a favourable opportunity for calling the attention of the British Legislature to the grievances under which, as Dissenters, and especially as Baptists, we still labour’; and a petition was prepared and presented accordingly, drawn up by Messrs. Steadman, Stephens, Godwin, and Larom, As long ago as 1835 the assembly declared, ‘that the first step fairly to meet the claims of Dissenters should be the passing of a law for the civil registration of births, marriages, and burials, applicable to all classes of His Majesty’s subjects’” (300-01).

In a Circular Letter read by Mr. Clowes at the 1846 Associational Meeting at Bradford, we find sentiments that hearken back (though not noticed by the writer) to the late 1780s and early 1790s.  Clowes wrote that God had placed these churches in the Thermopylae of England’s ecclesiastical liberties, and of her civil liberties too.  He writes, “We are called upon to save the nation’s liberties, and while we seek first the rights of our Lord, He may again add unto us the rights of man.  We must never forget the two fundamental principles--[the exclusive supremacy of Christ in His Church, and the right, or rather the duty, of private judgment.  We must point out the abuses connected with all State establishments.  The State Church is our greatest national sin, and the parent of many others.  Our duty is clear--to protest against the endowment and patronage of religion in any form.  We are men, a component part of the legislature; our opinions are the weightiest part of the legislative power, and we are placed by God in this position, that we should, at the cost of much temporary contempt, misrepresentation, or even persecution, merit the lasting glory of consummating English liberty.  Ours is the duty of an enlightened ministry; it is ours to instruct our fellow countrymen.  You cannot escape contact with politicians in this holy war.  Be not perplexed by the accusation of ‘political dissent.’ Not politics, but duty towards God makes you dissenters, and must until perfect equality is secured.  Be strong.  Teaching of this character produced strong men” [in 1830] (301-02).

A resolution was passed at the meeting which noted, “The Associated Baptist Churches consider it to be their duty as Christians to make their opinions extensively known on matters of civil right, so far as they affect the interests of morality and religion” (302).  In relation to the colonies, they wrote that in them “should be established as the great and leading principle of Colonial government, equality as to rights in all ranks of society--a principle alike dear to every consistent Christian, every enlightened philosopher, and every upright statesman” (302). The writer then notes that for several years after 1846 resolutions were regularly passed and deputations appointed to “prepare memorials to the King, and personally wait upon members of Government to expound their views and to seek redress.  The results of these presentations were reported to the assembly and carefully considered” (303).