1. Baptist beginnings

The first General Baptist Church was established in England in the year 1612 in Spitalfields London and a later church known as Particular Baptist in 1638, again in London.

The late Rev Dr Joseph Brewer BA, BD, in his book 'An Outline History of the General Baptists of Loughborough 1760 to 1975' (available from the writer of this history of the Barrow upon Soar Baptist Church) writes, "that they were not aware of any General or Particular Baptist churches being established in Loughborough before the year 1750". See biographical notes on the following page.

General Baptist churches in the Midlands wens largely the fruit of the Evangelical Revival which swept England under the influence of the Wesleys and Whitefield and in particular the Countess of Huntingdon.

The late Rev Dr Brewer continues to write, "Religious life in the 18th century was at a low ebb and even many of the clergy were indifferent to the need to proclaim the gospel. John Newton, a clergyman of the Church of England is recorded as saying of this time: 'I am not sure that in the year 1740 there was a single parochial minister who was publicly known as a gospel preacher in the whole kingdom" 1 and in this regard the villages were in a worse state than the towns. The evangelical doctrine Justification by Faith which had been revived during the Reformation had given way to Latitudinarianism which made little of salvation wrought by Christ on the Cross".

"It was at this time that David Taylor, a servant of the Countess of Huntingdon living at Donington Park, Leicestershire, was converted by the evangelical message and began preaching in the locality. Under Taylor's preaching Samuel Deacon of Ratby, later Pastor of the Baptist Church at Barton, among others, responded to the gospel. Some time later Joseph Donisthorpe, a blacksmith and clock maker at Normanton, through the study of the scriptures came to see the way of salvation as justification by faith and began preaching in his own home".

"1 Adam Taylor: 'History of the General Baptists' Vol 2 p2