Baptists were one of the earliest Independent congregations in England. They had two central beliefs that differed from the official teachings of the Church of England. First, 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. 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, and within wider groupings, arguments and divisions were frequent.
The Baptists were present in Wymeswold before 1651, because in that year Richard Ley and William Frank represented the congregation at a conference held in the Midlands. We have only fragments of evidence for them over the next 50 years. In the late 1670s and early 1680s, Baptists met several times a week at Rempstone, which was part of the same church association as Wymeswold. These meetings, called conventicles, were illegal at the time and participants could be fined or imprisoned. With the Act of Toleration of 1689, a public meeting place was founded quite speedily at Wymeswold. In 1700, an episcopal Visitation recorded that there were 25 Baptist families in the village. In 1701, the pastor of Nottingham took a letter from the church at Wymeswold under the minister William Suthenwood to the General Baptist Association meeting in London.
'The Quakers' - old Baptist Meeting House
But within a few years, arguments over theology broke out among the Baptists nationally, which divided among General, Strict and Particular Baptists. General Baptists believed that all people who believed in Christ would be saved and had a relatively open membership; Strict Baptists believed in a closed membership, that only the baptised could join; and Particular Baptists followed a hard-line Calvinist view that only a pre-chosen few would be saved (election and predestination). These disputes affected the community at Wymeswold, which split in two; in 1712 Baptists were distinguished between 18 ‘Universal’ or general and 7 'Particular’ Baptist families. The General Baptists joined together with the church at Mountsorrel in 1715, which seems to have ceased meeting around 1762. The Particulars have not left any documentation.
At Wymeswold itself, the General Baptists met in private houses. 71 Brook Street is known as 'The Quakers'. It was a private house and also the 17th and 18th century meeting place of the Baptists. The burial ground to the side of the building contains gravestones dating from 1715 to 1840, although only a few headstones are in the correct position.
Revival came a few years later. The New Connexion (Association) of General Baptists was founded in Leicestershire in 1770 and preaching began in 1771. In 1780, there was a revival in the district around Quorn. In 1781, two new churches were founded in the district, Loughborough and Leake-Wymeswold, with their surrounding villages. The Leake-Wymeswold circuit had 154 members at its foundation, with 27 in Wymeswold. Richard Thirman was the first pastor. The size of the circuit was such that in 1798 a second minister was employed, John Bissill, who settled his residence at Wymeswold from 1800; he took over Leake and Wymeswold from 1801 and was replaced by Thomas Hoe in 1803. A surge of members occurred in 1811, and in 1817 the circuit had 236 members.
Indenture of land sale on which the General Baptist chapel was built, 1781
In 1781-2, the Wymeswold Baptists built their own chapel in 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. It was reopened on 21 October at a special service were Rev. J. Tansley preached and on the Monday the Rev. J. Bateman preached in the afternoon. Afterwards, 200 sat down to tea. The services raised over £30, which, with subscriptions and proceeds of bazaar, brought the total amount up to £110 11s. 6d.
The chapel was 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. Non-members could be buried there, but they had to pay more than members for the opening of the grave and for the minister to take the service. In 1836, the Baptists purchased a pall for burials in their cemetery; its use was free to members, but non-members again had to pay a fee for its use. In 1870, the fees were five shillings[25p] for full members, seven shillings [35p] for congregation members, ten shillings [50p] for other people, and three shillings and sixpence [17.5p] for children under 12 years of age. The erection of headstones also required payment of a fee. In 1873, non-members also had to pay two shillings and sixpence [12.5p] for the minister’s fee. Multiply by just over 100 for 2025 comparable costs e.g. five shillings would now be £100.
Baptist chapel of 1781 (rear), with extension of 1847 (front)
Finance was always a problem in a gathered church such as Wymeswold General Baptist chapel as chapel costs and the salary of ministers depended largely on collections and donations. Some income was obtained by renting out pews to families and there were fees for burials and, after 1838, marriages. But most income depended on the congregation. In August 1838, the council discussed difficulties in meeting the current expenditure. There were several members who did not contribute anything, despite their being thought capable of doing so. Therefore, the chapel council instituted a weekly collection of at least one penny from every member [equivalent to just under one pound in 2025], unless they made representation to the council.
Life as a Baptist Church Member in Wymeswold
Worship in the Baptist chapel took the form of morning and evening services based around Bible readings, hymn singing, prayers and above all a sermon. Baptists were strong on music. In the early 19th century, the chapel had singers and musicians to lead worship. We do not have an inventory of instruments, but council meeting records show that a bass viol was purchased in 1827, and strings for the violoncello in 1835. The congregation seems to have sung at least some of the time in the traditional way of ‘lining out’ (a line was sung by the worship leader, then repeated by the congregation, all the way through a psalm or hymn), because in 1857 there was a debate as to whether this should continue (the answer was ‘yes’). For the centenary anniversary in 1881-2, a harmonium was purchased. Although no record of the purchase has been found, an organ was probably acquired in the late 19th century.
Periodically, there would be baptisms of people who wanted to join the church. These were full immersion baptisms and were followed by the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion). People would apply for baptism and undergo a course of instruction. After that, it would be decided whether they were ready or suitable. If so, they would take part in one of the periodic group baptism ceremonies to become full members of the chapel. Only members could participate in communion. For example, on Sunday morning, 11 March 1860, four people were baptized and admitted to the Lord's table in the afternoon.
An important part of the Wymeswold General Baptist chapel was its Sunday or Sabbath school. The school was established in 1806. Its work was funded through special collections at services and its own annual anniversary event when there were guest preachers and activities for the children. At the May 1867 anniversary, there was a special service and sermon, where the children sang in chapel accompanied by Mr Collington on the violin and Mr Green on the harmonium. On the Monday, the children had their annual treat – tea and games – followed by tea for teachers and friends in the school room.
From the 1850s, we see the appearance of social events in the chapel council records. One such event held in 1853 was a dinner for 40 Friends, organised at one of the inns in Wymeswold, with tea provided in the schoolroom afterwards. On Christmas Day 1860, a tea meeting was held for members of the church and congregation, at sixpence a head. Much of this activity was related to fundraising for the chapel. In 1868, there was an ‘anniversary’ or special fete day, to raise funds for the repair of the minister’s house. On the second Sunday of October, Mr Irving of Melton was invited to preach and on the Monday, there was a tea meeting. Collections, entry costs for the tea, and any donations, went towards the funds. In 1870, the church held a centenary anniversary for the founding of the Loughborough circuit, and a special fund was created for donations. The Wymeswold Baptist congregation continued to flourish across the second half of the 19th century. In 1864, Leake and Wymeswold had 232 members, 6 baptised. 267 sabbath scholars and 72 teachers.
What made the General Baptists stand out in a diverse religious community such as Wymeswold? A distinctive element of the non-conformist churches was the requirement for formal membership in order to access the full range of religious provision. To count as a member of the Baptist church, it was essential to participate in believer’s baptism. Members of one chapel sometimes transferred to another when they moved house or work. Such a transfer involved a person or family applying to their own chapel to be ‘dismissed’ (released) and to a new chapel to be accepted as a member. A testimonial letter from their former church council or minister was also necessary for the transfer.
A second distinctive feature of the stricter churches such as the General Baptists was discipline. The church considered that it had a duty to uphold morality and good behaviour of its members. Any misdemeanour could result in expulsion from the congregation, many such examples of which in the Wymeswold records. For example, in 1815, Mary Woodroofe and William Hardy were excluded for fornication; in 1835, William Haddon was excluded for disorderly conduct; in 1838, Sarah Moore was expelled for illicit communion before marriage as was Elizabeth Cross in 1850. Further, there were village social activities which were considered inappropriate for Baptists. In July 1837, the church council discussed whether it was appropriate for church members to be members of Oddfellows’ clubs and in In 1842, the church council stated that it considered it ‘unbecoming and disorderly’ that members attend cricket matches. Musicians could be particularly troublesome. In June 1863, after some of the chapel singers played or sang in the village band at Whitsuntide; they were rebuked and consequently seem to have left the chapel. In July, they were invited back providing they acknowledge that they had done wrong, but in the meantime Friends (the title or form of address given to members)Whyman and Collington were asked to lead the singing and to moderate the instrumental music.
A third feature of Independents such as Baptists was a tendency to have theological disputes. Even among the ordinary people who made up Wymeswold General Baptist chapel, complicated theological arguments took place. An important dispute within the General Baptist Church in England was over the nature of Christ and the Trinity. The orthodox view was that the Trinity was one being with three persons, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Another branch of Christianity, called Unitarian, believed only God the Father was divine and that Jesus was a human prophet on earth. In the 18th century, strict Protestants such as the Baptists sometimes moved towards Unitarian beliefs. This happened in the East Leake-Wymeswold circuit in 1813. Part of the congregation began to preach and support Socinian views (a form of Unitarianism) and as a result four members were expelled. A second cause of dispute was over the nature of baptism. Baptists disapproved strongly of infant baptism, or ‘sprinkling’ as they called it. In Wymeswold in 1835, the church council stated that they considered it ‘unscriptural and disorderly’ that any General Baptist should have their children ‘sprinkled according to the custom of the Established church’; in 1842 both Moor and Harscaff families were expelled for participating in infant baptism rites.
The organisation of the Baptist church was congregational, each congregation choosing its own ministers and leaders. The Wymeswold church was part of an assembly or circuit, with East Leake, Rempstone and Hoton. Each chapel had elders and they, plus other members, combined to form was a common council across the circuit whose meetings alternated between the different chapels. In 1874, the individual chapels created combined trustees for the Leake and Wymeswold chapel properties. In addition, each church had deacons who were its pastoral workers. In the case of Wymeswold there were four deacons, reduced to three in the 1880s. Deacons were elected by ballot. The Baptists organised regular home visits of the congregation by deacons and other council members.
Ministers of the Baptist church were appointed by their congregations. As Wymeswold was in association with East Leake, Rempstone and Hoton, they shared one or sometimes two ministers. The chapels also called upon the services of a wide range of other ministers in the area, for special services. In 1806, a church council meeting agreed unanimously ‘to give Brother Hoe a call to be our own stated regular minister’. Every member of the church was to be asked whether they approved this proposal, or not, and a small team of council members was delegated to take names and votes. Not everyone agreed with the council’s suggestion; Mr and Mrs Cross sent a letter in which they stated they would withdraw from the church unless Thomas Hoe was prohibited from preaching. In 1838, a committee was formed of nine members to discuss whether Mr Bott should be invited as minister. The committee consisted of one man per village church (Wymeswold, East Leake and Rempstone) making six, and three women. Mr Bott’s duties were to take three services over two weekends, and two services during the week, with a remuneration of £70 and 3 weeks of summer holidays per year. In 1849, this was modified for Mr Lawton, who was to preach 3 times on a Sunday and twice during the week.
The ministers generally stayed a few years before moving on. A typical career is that of the aforementioned Rev Edward Bott. He was born at Belton, Leicestershire where he passed his boyhood until he was old enough to learn a business. In 1825, at the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to a watch and clock maker, first at Nottingham, and then at Loughborough. In the spring of 1829, he was baptized in his eighteenth year, having meanwhile become a teacher in the Sunday-school. After ‘engaging’ at prayer meetings he began to practice speaking, and the composition of sermons. Encouraged by contemporaries and older friends, he undertook a preaching service in a neighbouring village. This was followed by other successful efforts, and he was advised to seek admission into the Education Society, to be trained for the regular ministry. After his studies in the Loughborough Institution he was invited to the ministry by one of the nearest vacant churches - at Leake and Wymeswold, where he had often ‘supplied’ while a student, and where he was ‘fully known.’ After holding the office ten and a half years he resigned. From Leake and Wymeswold he went to Berkhamsted for fourteen and a half years, then to Hepstonstall Slack, West Yorkshire, before retiring in 1883.
A number of Wymeswold Baptist ministers went on to become missionaries in India. For example, in the 1830s, Isaac Stubbins offered himself for foreign mission service and was accepted by the relevant committee, at whose request he spent time at Wymeswold, where he received special instruction from the Rev. Charles Lacey, who was at the time at home, on furlough from Orissa. The Rev. Bailey, minister in Wymeswold in 1867, became a missionary in India in 1870.
On the national scene the non-conformist population grew steadily from 1881 to 1906 and thereafter to begin to decrease. This decline set in earlier in Wymeswold. When the church membership register was updated in 1889, only 20 members were recorded. In 1892 the General and Particular Baptists merged.
The East Midlands Baptist Association (EMBA) frequently put pressure on smaller Baptist chapels to amalgamate with others nearby. In 1896, the Leicester Committee of the EMBA ‘recommended that a grant be made in aid of the salary of a pastor, under whose care the Churches of Wymeswold, Willoughby and Broughton might be grouped, so soon as funds permit’. This restructuring of the chapels took place and supported financially, a few months later the Wymeswold group appointed A.H. Coombs B.A. as its pastor, at a salary of £90. £30 of this was supplied by the EMBA and £10 by the Baptist Union from its Home Work fund.
The history of the congregation and the chapel for much of the 20th century is little known because the relevant documents have disappeared. In 1964 the chapel was converted into a private house thus ending over 200 years of continuous Baptist worship in Wymeswold.
The General Baptist Magazine, published annually during the 19th century, has a number of obituaries of Wymeswold Baptists which allow us to know something about the lives of the church’s prominent members. We can see how the Baptists were part of a circuit and worshipped in a closely tied group of churches in the area. Here are some examples taken from the Magazine:
William Merriman was born on 21 January 1798. In 1836 he was married to the youngest daughter of Mr Wale, formerly of Oakley Wood near Loughborough, by whom he had 6 children. At Wymeswold, and Wymeswold Lodge, Leicestershire, he spent his quiet and peaceful life, attending the Established church before, and the General Baptist chapel after, his marriage. He was baptized along with fourteen others on Sunday, March 23, 1845. ‘Love for the public worship of God was perhaps the most prominent feature of his character. He was generally in his place in the sanctuary, and apparently found it good to be there. The last two years of his life were years of suffering, but be attended the sanctuary till within a few weeks of his death on 6 February 1860. He was buried in the graveyard adjoining the General Baptist Chapel, Wymeswold, and his funeral sermon was preached to a numerous congregation from Romans viii. 1.
Samuel Wale, of Wymeswold Woulds, was born at Oakley Wood, a few miles from Loughborough, on 30 June 1797. His parents were consistent and honourable members of the Particular Baptist church in the neighbouring village of Shepshed. At an early age he was the subject of religious thoughtfulness and impression. In the fifteenth year of his life Mr. Wale was baptized by the Rev. J. Mills, pastor of the Baptist church, Shepshed. Mr. Wale removed from Oakley Wood to Wymeswold, and was married to Miss Pepper, of Woodthorpe, by whom be had one son. He was received into the General Baptist Church, Wymeswold, 5th August 1838. He was elected to the office of deacon, in which office he continued to his death. Having removed from Wymeswold to the occupation of a farm on the Woulds, two miles from the chapel, notwithstanding the distance of his residence from the chapel, he frequently attended divine service twice on the Sabbath, while his intelligence and piety made him of great service at the prayer and enquirers' meetings. He died 31 May 1859 and was buried in the graveyard adjoining the General Baptist Chapel, Wymeswold.
Mrs Stevenson was born in 1779, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Butt, of Stanton-on-the-Wolds, Nottinghamshire and was one of ten children. Though feeble as a child she survived all her brothers and sisters and lived to the age of 82. She was blessed with a pious mother, who was a member of the General Baptist church, then embracing Leake and Wymeswold, Hose and Broughton. From her childhood she accompanied her mother to the Wymeswold Baptist chapel. She was baptized in the year 1795, when sixteen years of age. She frequently attended the chapel twice on the Sunday, and as Wymeswold is four miles from Stanton, she would walk sixteen miles to and from the services in the same day. In the year 1801 she was married to Mr. William Stevenson, by whom she had eight children. In 1817 they removed to a farm called the ' Turn Post Farm,' situated about a mile from Wymeswold. They continued to reside here till 1846, when they retired from business and removed to Wymeswold, where they both ended their days. Mr. Stevenson died 14 February 1857; Mrs. Stevenson died 2 August 1861. Her death was hastened by a serious fall which produced violent and protracted pain. Mrs. Stevenson was buried by the side of her husband in the graveyard adjoining the General Baptist chapel, Wymeswold.
William Roper was born at Hathern on 30 April 1808. Hie parents were poor and when very young he was sent to work in the fields. When about sixteen he engaged himself as an agricultural servant in a pious family at Wymeswold, Mr. and Mrs. Wale, with whom he lived. They were members of the Baptist church, and under their kind instruction and care he was soundly converted. In the year 1821 he removed to Long Whatton, and there took part in the choir and at prayer meetings and was baptized the same year by the Rev. J. Derry. He married Sarah Tugby, a member of the church, in 1826. He removed to Hathern, where he spent the remainder of his long and useful life.
Thomas Hoe died on 12 February 1881 in his native village of Wymeswold. His father was for many years the greatly respected pastor of the General Baptist church. Hoe was educated at the academy at Loughborough, then under the care of the Rev. Thomas Stevenson, senr. After a three years' course of study, he was invited to take the charge of the church at Spalding. For thirteen years he filled the pulpit with signal ability and growing acceptance; and the church was largely augmented in numbers. Owing to failing health, however, he was compelled to retire from the ministry. Subsequently he took the care of the church at Broughton and Hose, in 1852, for about four years. Ultimately, his health not improving much, he retired wholly from pastoral duties, and, having private resources, lived quietly first in the village of Woodhouse Eaves, and after that at Wymeswold.
Thomas Whittle Marshall was born at Wymeswold on 26 August 1817. His parents removed to Loughborough in 1821, leaving him in the care of his grandfather and grandmother, under whose roof he was brought up until his own removal to Loughborough early in the year 1829. While at Wymeswold he was sent first to a small dame-school, and then to the Free School. He also attended the General Baptist Sunday school, upon leaving which he was presented with ‘Pike's Persuasives to Early Piety,’ as a reward for good conduct. He became a minister and in 1845 preached a baptismal sermon at Wymeswold, after which the pastor of the church baptized nineteen candidates.
