Frome Baptists, Badcox Lane

Frome Baptists, Badcox Lane. The following account taken from Arthur H. Coombs, A History of Badcox Lane Baptist Church, Frome. With Some Account of its Relations to Other Neighbouring Free Churches (Frome: Harvey & Woodland, n.d.). 

The church was meeting as early as 1669, but in 1690 called its first minister, John Sharpe. Sharpe was instrumental in getting the first chapel built in 1712. Around 1740 a new meeting of former members at Badcox was formed in Back Street, after Sharpe’s death, eventually becoming a large church (7).   Thus, in 1748, there were three Baptist congregations in Frome: Sheppard’s Barton, under Henwood and Sedgefield; Badcox Lane, under Thomas Hurn; and Catherine Hill, under James Roberts.  Including the meetings being held in houses, there were as many as 8 Baptist assemblies meeting in Frome at mid-century (7).  Hurn, from the Crockerton church near Longleat, replaced Sharpe when the latter died in 1740. Hurn was somewhat innovative, favoring hymn singing, which began in the summer of 1742, with choir and instruments! (9-10).  He tried to reunite and heal the wounds over those who left with Roberts and went to the Baptist meeting at Starve-acre, which led to 33 leaving and reuniting with Badcox Lane in February 1741. Starve-acre did not close officially, however, until 1765, when the remainder joined once again with Badcox Lane. Hurn was High Calvinist and Particular, and died in June 1749 (13). Hurn was replaced in 1750 by Abraham Larwill of Bampton, Devon; his wife’s membership was from the Pithay church in Bristol; he died in 1760, baptizing over 70 in ten years. He was replaced in 1761 (officially installed in 1763) by John Kingdon (1731-1805), from Wellington and most recently pastor at Hanham, not far from Bristol, who would remain there until 1805. Badcox Lane was one of the founding churches of the Western Association in 1691, and the Association met at Frome 17 times until 1844, with one meeting only being at Sheppard’s Barton. The Association divided in 1824 (they went with the Bristol Association) and again further divided in 1862 (into the Wiltshire and East Somerset Association) (16). By 1789 membership was nearly 300, a large congregation.  A Calvinistic Methodist meeting at Beckington formed in the 1780s, and Kingdon baptized most of them, under the ministry there of John Alford (17), and they soon formed a Baptist church there, growing to 200 members by the early 1800s. Also a Baptist chapel at Road and Chppinslade opened in the late 1780s (17). Coomb argues that had there been a General Baptist Association (Unitarian) near Frome in the mid-18th century, Sheppard’s Barton would have been a member. They were never even moderately Calvinistic, especially under David. It was mostly an independent of all associations until well into the 19th centuries. It joined the new Bristol Association in 1824, now no longer severely Calvinistic in its dogma. Kingdon baptized nearly 400 persons during his tenure at Badcox Lane (21). Kingdon was replaced by Samuel Saunders of Penzance in 1807, remaining until 1826 when he left for Byrom Street, Liverpool. Edward Griffith was the Methodist minister, and their meeting was as large as Badcox Lane (24). Saunders had a new chapel built in 1818. Saunders was replaced in 1826 by Thomas Fox Newman of Bristol College, and he remained until 1831, when he left for Shortwood, Gloucestershire (25). He was replaced by John Dyer, Jr., of the Devonshire Square church in London, and he came in February 1833 (25). William Knibb was in England at the time and spoke at Dyer’s ordination at Frome on 9 April 1833. Dyer would leave Frome in 1836 to become Secretary of the BMS (26). Dyer was replaced by Charles James Middleditch of Ashdon, Essex in February 1837, and he would remain until 1856 (28).