Samuel Kilpin

Samuel Kilpin came out of the Old Meeting at Bedford, the same church from which his relation, William Kilpin, had been called out in 1789. William was ordained at Bedford on 20 October 1790 and served as pastor of the congregation at Cotton-end in Bedford until his untimely death on 20 March 1791 at the age of 28. Samuel’s father, John Kilpin, was a member at the Old Meeting for more than fifty years, serving as a deacon for thirty years. At the time of letter 54, Samuel was still a student at Bristol Academy under John Ryland, but he was already doing supply preaching. He officially began his ministry at Leominster in 1801. From 1812 to 1829, he ministered to the Baptist congregation at South Street in Exeter, where Joseph Stennett had once served. Kilpin was a faithful supporter of the Religious Tract Society and the Baptist Missionary Society.  See H. G. Tibbutt, Cotton End Old Meeting, 1776-1962 (Bedfordshire: Cotton End Baptist Church; Rushden: S.L. Hunt, 1963), 15; Arthur Gabb, A History of Baptist Beginnings with an Account of the Rise of the Baptist Witness in Exeter and the Founding of the South Street Church (Exeter: Horsham, 1952), 36-37, 45; Memoir of Rev. Samuel Kilpin of Exeter, England; with Some Extracts from His Correspondence, to which is added His Narrative of Samuel Wyke Kilpin (New York: American Tract Society, [1835?].