Bannister Flight

Bannister Flight was the son of Thomas Flight (d. 1800), a long-time deacon in the Baptist church at Maze Pond, Southwark.   As a young man Bannister, along with Joseph Gurney and George Flower, Benjamin Flower's father, subscribed to John Ryland, Jr.’s, Serious essays on the truths of the glorious Gospel, and the various branches of vital experience (1771). Flight and Benjamin Flower also subscribed to John Collett Ryland’s Contemplations in 1778 (“Lists of the Subscribers”). The Flights, like the Gurneys, were early supporters of the Sunday School Society and one of the leading families at Maze Pond during the ministry of James Dore.  Though he grew up in the church, Bannister did not join Maze Pond until 7 October 1792 (Maze Pond 2.f.17).  He would later play a significant role in Flower’s defamation suit against Clayton in 1808. See Plan of a Society Established in London, Anno Domini 1785, for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday-Schools in Different Counties of England (London: Sunday School Society, 1789), 25; Maze Pond Church Book, vol. 2, 1784-1821, Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, f. 17.