William Smith of Bedford

William Smith was for many years a deacon at the Old (Independent) Meeting in Bedford.   In January 1799, Smith left the church and joined the 3rd Meeting, where the Rev. Thomas Smith, most likely his relation, had previously pastored during the mid-1790s (and where he would return in October 1800). See The Church Book of Bunyan Meeting 1650-1821 [facsimile] (London: J. M. Dent, 1928), f. 239; H. G. Tibbutt, Mill Street Baptist Church, Bedford, 1792-1963  (Bedford, 1964), 3; Cambridge Intelligencer, 2 November 1793, 11 January 1800, and 18 June 1803; John Rippon, ed., Baptist Annual Register, vol. 3, p. 326.