Bratton, Wiltshire, Baptists

Bratton, Wiltshire, Baptists – The notes below are taken from A History of the Baptist Church Bratton Wilts. 1662-1962 (n.d., 1962).  

dBaptists were meeting at Earlstoke by 1662, with Edward Froude as the main preacher by the 1670s and ‘80s (also Earlstoke), meeting in the house of Thomas George. A Presbyterian meeting led by William Gough was also meeting in Erlestoke (9).  Gough left for Devizes in 1685 (10).  Baptists began meeting in Bratton as early as 1701, and in 1734 a meeting house was built in Bratton to house a group of Baptists who were meeting at Erlestoke and Westbury Leigh.  The original group was comprised of William Axford, John Aldridge Ballard, Henry Whitaker, John Blatch, Jeffery Whitaker, Edward Froude, and Philip Whitaker (12). John Watts was the pastor at both Earlstoke and the Bratton church. The Western Association was reinvigorated in 1732 and the Bratton church began attending with a representative, with the meeting being held at Bratton in 1735 (14), with a membership around 30.  Jeffrey Whitaker began his school at this time. After 1761 the Association records mention the Bratton church by itself, not in connection with Erlestoke  (14). Watts would remain as pastor at Bratton until 1747, when he died (17).  After Watts, a Mr Weston preached at Bratton until his death in 1766. For about the next ten years the church was supplied by students from Bristol Academy (18).  Main families by the 1770s include the Blatches, Drewetts, Whitakers, Froudes, Ballards.  Mr Cooper, a Trowbridge clothier, begins preaching at Bratton in 1776, and becomes the pastor in 1777 and remains there until 1797 (18-19).  The congregation grew and the meeting house was enlarged in 1786, with the Reeves also appearing in the records now (20). After Jeffrey Whitaker’s death in 1775, his school continued under Thomas Williams and then under Mr Cooper, until 1789, when the school burned down (20).  The latter years of Cooper’s ministry were not that good, as he returned to the clothing trade and moved to Trowbridge, though he still preached in Bratton.  When he left there were only 32 members, a decline. For the next few years after 1797, the church was mostly supplied by students from Bristol Academy and other ministers, including Saffery. During this time Joseph Blatch and Philip Whitaker were the deacons and led the church until a pastor finally arrived. That was Thomas Claypole in 1805, coming from Boston, Lincolnshire. Reeves says the first mention of the Sunday School was in 1818, but as Jane Attwater Blatch’s letters reveal about her daughter Annajane, a Sunday School was obviously operating in the first decade of the 19th c. (see Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 8).  Candidates for baptism were proposed two weeks before the service, so that they could prepare their statement, or experience, and give it before the church for approval. Sometimes the process might take a month from the first proposal, appearance before the church, then baptism and church membership (26). The death of Thomas Williams on 18 September 1817 is recorded in the church book (father of Sophia Williams), having been a member for 30 years and a deacon since February 1813.  Claypole was essentially asked to resign in 1809, the church now convinced there was ‘no probability of his being comfortable among them’ (28).  Robert Edminson was called as pastor on 22 April 1810, after six months probation. He would remain until 1825. He was succeeded by a Mr Aitchison of Downend, who remained until 1842, when he resigned (29). Hugh Anderson was there from 1849-71.