Christopher Anderson, Olney, to John Sutcliff, “care of M.r Mellor, Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Yorkshire,” 19 July 1805.

Olney 19th July 1805.

Dear & esteemed Brother

         The day after you left home a letter came from Mr Fuller which Miss Johnstone thought it best to open, thinking he would mention to you in it the days he required assistance at Kettering—he does so—the 1st & 2nd Lord’s days in August. There has not yet any line come from MrsFuller. You will excuse me copying the whole of his letter—the principal intelligence is as follows— “Collected at Lincoln 8 Guineas—At Hull & Cottingham (4 miles off) £153.—Scarboro £40. At Alnwick £20. did not call at Newcastle—Mr Fyshwick being absent.—” Arrived at Edinh Saturday Evening 11 o’clock—had a cold ever since the Association which is much against me. Mr Haldane’s book will be sent you—perhaps some Sandemanianism in it. “To be sure (says Bro: Fuller to Mr R. H.) after all this minute attention to Scripture rules, we shall hear in a little time how surprized you are at yourselves in having so long stuck fast by Infant Baptism!”—“I have so many places to preach at during the ensuing week & so large a Circuit, that I have little hope of being with you at the Leeds Meeting”—Dr S. goes with me hence on Tuesday (letter dated 4th July) morning the 9th by Dunfermline—Kirkaldy—Dundee—Montrose—Aberdeen—on ye Lords day in Perth—Stirling—Glasgow &c. &c. &c.  He is afraid the Glasw Collections will not be so large owing to the News about the French Fleet arriving in the West Indies. But hopes in one place & anor to get his usual Sum—Sent home already £310 Stg. i.e in the faith of the Tab. Collection being £100. had collected already £220—(and I observe by the Newspaper the collection was £126!)   He had called on Mr McLean & talked over many things very amicably. Informed him that altho he had given up the idea of askg him for 2 years—did not know but that he would do it yet.

         I preached on Wednesday Evening after you went, & last Evening—Mr Wake came on Saturday—left this on Tuesday Afternoon—Mr Sharman is come—I preach at Stoke Lds day Evening—(they applied)—and intend if the Ld will to be at Kettering the days Mr Fuller mentions—Mr Robertson leaves this on Wednesday next for Bristol—I have not received any letters from Scotland since you left us—Mr Hillyard called just now to see if I could preach Lds day Evening—but as I am engaged for Stoke I could not. Your letter dated Saturday did not arrive here till Yesterday Morning!  We were anxious to hear from you, how you had got forward—but it relieved Miss Js  mind &c.—The “two manuscripts” were sent away, before your letter arrived—also the parcel directed to Mr Wheeler—Miss Johnstone desires her love to you both & all friends—She is well & Mary apparently in her ordinary—If any interesting News come from Scotland I shall let you know—May the Lord be present with you, to render your Sowing pleasant & useful & may grace & peace be multiplied to you and your affectionate Bro: who remains with much esteem yours &c. in 

                                                                                 the LORD.

                                                                                   Christr Anderson 

Text: Eng. MS. 372, fol. 44a, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. On the back page is written in Sutcliff’s hand: “Rec. July 1805.” Christopher Anderson (1782-1852) was a Baptist minister at Edinburgh and strong supporter of the BMS. Richard Fishwick, Esq. (1745-1825) was a leading Baptist layman in the north of England during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Robert Haldane (1764-1842), along with his brother James, was a prominent figure in the evangelical revival of Scotland in the late 1790s and early 1800s, as was Dr. Charles Stuart (1746-1826). At the time of this letter, Haldane was pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Edinburgh, a leading congregation of the New Congregational Churches of Scotland, formed in 1799. Haldane was still a paedobaptist at this time, which explains Fuller’s comments. Haldane did not accept baptism by immersion until 1808, at which time his church adopted Baptist polity. Sandemanians were a sect that originated in Scotland under the leadership of John Glas (1695-1773) and his son-in-law, Robert Sandeman (1718-71). In 1730 Glas, an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, withdrew from the Scottish church and began an independent sect, known in Scotland as Glassites. Eventually, through the efforts of Sandeman, the sect spread to London and America, where Sandeman died in 1771. As a result, in England and America the sect became known as Sandemanians. Among the group’s major tenets was the complete separation of church and state; a belief in a “reasoned faith” (as opposed to emotion or “religious affections”) as the only grounds for a true relationship with God and the attainment of salvation; and the re-instituting of certain New Testament practices, such as the love feast, foot washing, a limited community of goods, and church governance by bishops, elders, and teachers. See Brian Talbot, The Search for a Common Identity: The Origins of the Baptist Union of Scotland 1800-1870, Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol. 9 (Carlisle UK: Paternoster Press, 2003), 73-114; William W. Lawson, “Robert and James Haldane,” Baptist Quarterly 7 (1934-35), 283.

Anderson traveled extensively for several months in 1805, arriving in London in the middle of May to stay for about a month, largely to promote BMS activities, during which time he also visited Bristol. In mid-June he went to Olney to spend time with Sutcliff, attending the Midland Association meeting at Dunstable on his way. His stay with Sutcliff was “as pleasant as it was profitable to him,” Hugh Anderson writes. “Literary advantages, indeed, there were not many; but the conversation and remarks of his revered tutor were valuable, the opportunities he had of public address were numerous, while the free criticisms on his written exercises by his fellow-students, who were not more in number than an ordinary family circle, could not fail to keep in check the self-esteem which his growing popularity in the villages and neighbouring towns might create.”   He kept a journal of his travels the month before this letter was written, preaching in Bedford at Hillyard’s church; then at Lavendon; entertaining John Ryland on 2 July in Olney; and preaching in Olney on 7 July. According to his journal, he was in Birmingham on the 19th, but according to this letter, he was actually in Olney. Fuller returned on 14 August from Scotland with nearly £1300. Anderson eventually left Olney for London on 30 October 1805. An account of Fuller’s journey through Scotland that summer raising funds for Carey’s translation work at Serampore can be found in Morris’s Memoir of Fuller. The total amount collected by Fuller and others in Scotland and the north of England appeared in the Periodical Accounts. See Hugh Anderson, Letters of Christopher Anderson (Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy, 1854), 59-61, 33-36; Morris, Memoirs, 129-53; Periodical Accounts, vol. 3, pp. 146-150.

Others included above include Thomas Hillyard (d. 1828), Independent minister at Olney, and possibly John Wheeler, who was baptized in the Northampton church in 1798 and later called to preach. In 1805 he led a group from College Lane into forming a meeting at Bugbrooke, where Ryland and Fuller had often preached. One reference may be to James Robertson (1778-1861), from Inchture, Perthshire, was one of Haldane’s first students in 1798. He ministered in a Congregational church briefly at Aberdeen before settling at Stuartfield in 1800. Eventually, he immigrated to America, ministering in Vermont (1832-36) and later in Canada (1836-61). The reference could also be to George Robertson (1778-1854), who was a Haldane convert who studied under Greville Ewing at Glasgow before becoming a Scottish congregational minister in the church at Inverkip, near Greenock, from 1800 to 1807. He then ministered at Paisley (1807-15), Orkney (1814-34), and finally at Thurso, Caithness (1833-47). See See Ernest A. Payne, College Street Church, Northampton, 1697-1947 (London: Kingsgate Press, 1947), 27; American Congregational Quarterly (1862), 214; James Ross, A History of Congregational Independency in Scotland.(Glasgow: J. MacLehose, 1900) 218, 252-53, 254; Congregational Year Book (1855), 234.