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Archiver > DORSET > 2000-03 > 0952124338


From: Paul Benyon <>
Subject: Re: The Baptist movement
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 22:58:58 +0000


>Hi Listers
>
>Can anyone recommend a good site which gives details of the Baptist movement
>in England please?
>
>Many thanks
>
>Sandy
>
>
>==== DORSET Mailing List ====
>The Dorset GENUKI pages may be found at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DOR/
>
Hi Sandy

There probably is something on line somewhere, but I can't find it:
the following is a very cut down version of what Ancestral Trails has
to say on the subject: the Baptist movement began in the 17th century
and each Baptist chapel was a self-governing body and by 1660 there
were 240 congregations.

As with other non-conformists at about this time there were the usual
splits: in this instance between the General and Particular Baptists:
the former split again a century later between the Old Connection
(later named Unitarian) and the New Connection who merged in 1891 with
the Particulars.

Children were not and are not baptised until they were adults and able
to make up their own mind.

Many Registers of BMD have been deposited with the Public Records
Office at http://www.pro.gov.uk/ After 1754 and Hardwick's Act
Baptists had to marry in Anglican churches until 1837 when they could
marry in a Baptist Chapel as long as there was a registrar present
(who could also be an Anglican minister).

The Dorset Record Office has a few records and has this to say on the
subject:

>Baptist
>
>Each Baptist Church operated as an independent unit holding monthly, quarterly and annual meetings; any association with other churches was on a voluntary basis. The registers relate to the individual church and the geographical area which it served. Baptists do not believe in infant baptism so there is an important distinction between their use of registers of births and registers of baptisms; the latter record adult baptisms.

Not a Dorset site - but very interesting and instructive is the
following site in Wiltshire - History of the Baptist Church
Worshipping at Providence Chapel, Penknap - worth a visit - probably
tell you much that I can't put into an e-mail - I think that there is
also another page on the site which refers to the school:

http://members.tripod.com/~rachbeth/providence.html

Paul
Portland

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