John Webster Morris

John Webster Morris (1763-1836) was a printer by trade (a vocation he maintained throughout his ministry), He began preaching at Clipston in 1784, not far from Carey’s church in Moulton. He joined the BMS committee in 1793, and later edited and printed the BMS’s Periodical Accounts from 1798 to 1809.  He also printed and edited the Biblical Magazine from 1801 through 1803, after which it became the Theological and Biblical Magazine, which he published and edited from 1804 to 1807. His magazine served as the bridge between Rippon’s Baptist Annual Register, which ended in 1802, and the Baptist Magazine, which began in 1809. In 1802 he removed to the Baptist church in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. After the death of his wife, he developed personal problems mostly as a result of substantial indebtedness. He left the pastorate in 1810, but continued to write and print religious works, as well as preaching on special occasions, much to Fuller’s dismay. Fuller wrote to William Ward on 16 July 1809 that “Poor Morris … is ruined. His pride and extravagance since he has been at D. is beyond anything. He must have sunk the greater part of £1000 in those few years … And now he acts dishonourably to his creditors … and yet goes about preaching!” Among his publications are the Memoirs of . . . Andrew Fuller (1816) and Biographical Recollections of the Rev. Robert Hall (1833). See Ernest A. Payne and A. Rattray Allan, Clipston Baptist Church (Northampton: Billingham & Son, 1932), 10-12; Fuller to Ward, 16 July 1809, MSS. BMS, vol. 1, Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford.