Baptist Chapel on Wysall lane

Baptists were one of the earliest Independent congregations in England, splitting away from the main Church of England. Those identifying as Baptists today may differ widely from one another in what they believe and how they worship. Baptists are traced back to Dissenters from the Church of England. A nonconformist church was formed in Gainsborough led by the cleric John Smyth. The Gainsborough congregation and the Scrooby congregation went into exile in Amsterdam in 1608 before Thomas Helwys returned the congregation to England, where he formulated a distinctive philosophical request that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have liberty of conscience.

Baptists spread across England, where the General Baptists considered Christ's atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect (in which there is no consensus who is included). The Second London Confession of Faith of 1689 is the greatest creedal document for Particular Baptists, whereas the Orthodox Creed of 1679 is the one widely accepted by General Baptists.

Wymeswold had an active General Baptist congregation from at least the 1600s, meeting first in private houses and later in a various chapels, the chapel built on Wysall Lane has multiple links to our family. They had two central beliefs that differed from the official teachings of the Church of England. They supported ‘believer’s baptism’, that is the baptism of people old enough to make their own commitment to Christ, not infants, as was normal in the other churches, which causes issues for family historians researching children's births. In 1609 Smyth wrote a tract titled "The Character of the Beast". In it he expressed two propositions. First, infants are not to be baptized and second, unbelievers are to be admitted into the true Church by baptism." His conviction was that a scriptural church should consist only of regenerate believers who had been baptized confessing faith and past sins. They rejected the doctrine of infant baptism. Secondly, they believed that each church congregation should decide its own beliefs and govern its own affairs and not be part of a formal hierarchy. Independent churches often joined together in associations, but each one retained its autonomy within the wider group.

Baptists had worshipped in Wymeswold since at least 1650 and in 1760 the Loughborough Circuit was formed with just 15 members, two or three of whom were from Wymeswold. During the next ten years this number grew to 240 and by 1782 there were 444 members. There have been various Nonconformists meeting houses and chapels in the Wymeswold over the years covering the various nonconformists beliefs, including the Anabaptists, Quakers, Baptists, General Methodists and Primitive Methodists. Many of the nonconformists risked persecution in England for their beliefs and stand against the main church, enduring imprisonment, fines, physical violence and social ostracism, which probably ultimately fuelled their determination for religious liberty.

An Indenture of land sale on which the General Baptist chapel was built was drawn up and in 1781-82 the Wymeswold Baptists built their chapel in Wysall Lane. Our family on the Sheppards and Woottons side have strong links to the Baptist Chapel on Wysall Lane. The land was purchased for £10 from William and Mary Tompson, part of an orchard that lay to the north of their house and property. The chapel consisted of a ground floor meeting house with pews and a pulpit at the front and an upstairs gallery. There was a full-immersion font pool in the floor known as a ‘baptistry’, boarded over for daily use. As membership grew the building was expanded. In 1811 the vestry was made bigger. The chapel was enlarged in 1815 and in 1847 the school rooms were added.

In a 1832 census of Sunday schools, the General Baptists had 140 scholars with the largest Sabbath school in the village. In 1838, the chapel purchased a licence so it could celebrate marriages. By 1851, the General Baptists had the largest congregation of the four Wymeswold churches, with 200 morning attendees on census day, and the largest worship space by seats available. The chapel was painted and repaired in 1860 and in 1866, a new gallery for the choir was erected. The roof was repaired and the interior renovated in 1877 with new seating and other improvements added. It was reopened on the 21st October with a special service being held. 

The chapel is surrounded by its own burial ground. The original cemetery was on the south side of the building. In 1830, a piece of land was purchased to the north of the chapel from Joseph Sheppard, which was used to extend the burial ground, another link to our family.

Ellen Smith describes in her books on Wymeswold how religious her Grandparents Joseph & Mary Wootton were (my Great Grandparents), they disliked any of the children reading anything other than the Bible on a Sunday. Joseph fell out with the Church Vicar over how he was using a lottery to make money for the church and so Joseph and Mary became staunch Baptists. Their daughter Sarah Ann Wootton became the organist for the church and worshipped there later with her husband Harry Sheppard. His parents also were Baptists too, William and Betsy Sheppard, they are both buried in the chapel cemetery. Also buried there are my 5th Great Grandparents Thomas Wootton and his Wife Mary, as are  two of their Daughters, Ann and Hannah.

Sources : Various including www.hoap.co.uk & wymeswold.com

*If you wish to see the Headstones goto the dedicated Headstones page.