John Whitford

John Whitford was probably born in the mid-1730s and may have lived to 1821.  He was originally a Methodist preacher under Wesley (he served as an itinerant preacher for the Haworth Circuit in 1753) before becoming a follower of Whitefield. He appears to have continued to preach as an itinerant among the Independents before assuming pastoral duties at the Independent congregation at Duke’s Alley, Bolton, where he succeeded John Bennet[t] (d. 1759), the founder of the congregation. Nightingale notes that Whitford did not stay long at Bolton, his “unhappy temper destroying his usefulness as a Christian teacher.” Whitford then served at Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, 1762-1766 (where he also conducted a school) before settling at Kipping (Thornton), 1766-1775. He left under some unpleasant circumstances, as recorded in a somewhat gossipy manner by James Ashworth, Baptist minister at Gildersome, in a letter to the Baptist minister John Sutcliff at Olney dated 9 October 1775: “You ask me the reason of Mr Whitford’s leaving Kipping, I do not [know], any further than hearing that the people there are never long satisfied with any man as their minister. I believe they are a restless uneasy Ch.h I have never had much acquaintance with Mr Whitford, and never heard him preach but once, and that was before he came to settle in Yorkshire, perhaps it is 16 years since [c. 1759]. If I remember right I was well pleased with his discourse, according to the judgement I then had. However, I believe he is not in great repute as a preacher, even amongst his independant [sic] Brethren. I believe, according to what I have heard, he is a man of a hasty spirit, soon moved. I suppose the reports that have been spread, of his being fond of women, cannot be proved. I have now told you all that I know materially concerning him.” As Ashworth’s letter suggests, at the Kipping congregation his “resignation became a necessity,” as Miall puts it. Miall notes that Whitford (he spells it “Whiteford”) helped settle the congregation’s dispute over the chapel and during his tenure a new chapel was built in Thornton (243). Caleb Evans, Baptist minister at Broadmead, Bristol, in a letter to John Sutcliff at Birmingham on 30 June 1775, a short time prior to the arrival of both Sutcliff and Whitford in Olney, commented on both the Baptist and the Independent meetings there. Evans writes: “The [Baptist] interest at Olney is considerable, a good house, a large congregation, and were there an acceptable Minisr, a prospect of it’s becoming much larger, an agreeable neighborhd with respect to other churches & Miniss, & many circumstances of a very encouragg nature. With respect to the people, some of them are pretty high in their sentencs, & are perhaps too fond of a doctrinal Ministry, but in the generl, a spirl experimental evangelicl Minisr wd be highly acceptable, & I verily believe ye people would unite cordially in such a man. Mr Sackett  that was lately with them appears to have been useful to many, & his going away was against the will of many yt attended, but the majority by far of the Church Membs could not approve of his being settled amongst them. They tho’t him too rambling, superficl and methodistical. The independt Minr is laid aside & not likely to be able to preach any more,  and shd ye independs be provided with a lively minr whilst the Bapts are destite, it is fear’d the [Baptist] Intert wd suffer greatly – but on the other hand, shd the Bapts be provided first they shd have the advantage.” 

John Drake pastored the Independent meeting in Olney from 1735 until his death on 10 August 1775, only six weeks after Evans’s letter to Sutcliff. Whitford succeeded Drake in 1776. He had known Newton since his time at Bolton in the 1750s, and their friendship continued during his time there. William Cowper, Newton’s friend, was known to have occasionally attended services at the Independent chapel during Whitford’s tenure in Olney. He remained in Olney through 1781, after which he removed to Bicester, Oxfordshire, where he apparently ministered among the Baptists and Independents, and by some accounts continued to preach, plant churches, and support missions until 1821 (possibly the year of his death). By the time the Universal British Directory appeared (1791-98), Whitford does not appear as the Dissenting minister in Bicester (it is a Rev. William Miller), nor among the residents. He may have remained in the area, however, and continued to do itinerant preaching, but his exact whereabouts and activities after leaving Olney are not completely clear. See Joseph Hall, Hall’s Circuits and Ministers. An Alphabetical List of the Circuits in Great Britain, with the names of the Ministers stationed in each Circuit, from 1765 to 1885 (London: The Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1897), iv; James G. Miall, Congregationalism in Yorkshire (London: John Snow and Co., 1868), 243, 249; Benjamin Nightingale, Lancashire Nonconformity; Or, Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of the Congregational and Old Presbyterian Churches in the County. Churches of Manchester, Oldham, Ashton, etc. 6 vols. (Manchester: John Heywood, [1890–1893]), volume 3 (The Churches of Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, &c), p. 19; Timothy Whelan, ed., Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Baptist History Series, Mercer University Press, 2009), 28, 29, 31; and History of the Congregational Church, at Olney (Olney: Cowper Memorial Congregational Church, 1929), 6-7.