A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



It must be understood that so far we have been dealing only with Par- 

 ticular or Calvinistic Baptist churches, whether these were Supralapsarian or 

 Sublapsarian. It seems quite clear that the old General Baptists or Arminian 

 or non-Calvinistic Baptists of the seventeenth century never obtamed a toot- 

 hold in the county at aU. The articles of the earliest Baptist Association in 

 Lancashire, that of 17 19, P^ove clearly that the churches were exclusively of 

 the Particular Baptist type. This association comprised the following 

 churches : Rawden or Heatton, Rossendale, Liverpool, Sutton, Barnoldswick, 

 Rodhill End. This association survived, in the form of an annual meeting, 

 till after 1740. Some time between that year and 1755 the division between 

 High and Low Calvinists (Supras. and Subs.) led to the formation of separate 

 associations.*'^ It may have been the Sublapsarian association which de- 

 veloped or degenerated into a mere annual lecture preached at different 

 places under a loose organization, which is referred to in 1772 and 1775 as 

 'the churches in association in Lancashire and Yorkshire.' In 1776 this 

 annual lecture was held at Preston, and there, in response to the wider move- 

 ment amongst the Baptists throughout the country, it was proposed to form 

 a more organic and coherent association. Accordingly, the meeting at Colne 

 in May, 1787, is spoken of as the first meeting.*''' In 1790 this association 

 met at Manchester, and in 1804 it started the Baptist Academy at Bradford. 

 The association endured in its original form until 1837, when a change was 

 made by which the Yorkshire churches became a distinct association (still 

 existing), while Lancashire was united with Cheshire in a Lancashire and 

 Cheshire association, also still existing. In one or other of these forms all 

 these local associations now form part of the present Baptist Union of Eng- 

 land — a union of (then) Particular Baptist churches which was founded in 

 I 8 I 2, and which, after nineteen years of inchoate existence, was firmly and 

 broadly established in 1832. 



The levelling and comprehensive work which the Baptist Union of 

 Great Britain and Ireland has accomplished will be incomprehensible without 

 a hasty glance at the parallel history of the General Baptists, for in the pre- 

 sent Baptist Union the old terms of division and strife, which had been such 

 potent solvents, are ignored. 



General Baptists, believing an Arminian type of dogma as opposed to 

 Calvinism, existed in the seventeenth century, and obtained a footing in that 

 century in Yorkshire at Sowerby and Sheffield, even if they did not do so in 

 Lancashire. Their annual meeting, known as the General Assembly, met 

 annually in London, and for 253 years has met practically without break. 

 In 1697 the doctrinal differences in the General Assembly over the 



merely a 



'" Sutton and Barnoldswick were Yorkshire churches, a fact which indicates that the association was not 

 ,^wvly a Lancashire one. The church at Bacup was not admitted to it on account of some irregularity. 



'" ;^^'^"' '755 ^^^ "^^. associations were composed as follows, each one covering in part both Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire, and some touching other counties : 



Stt/r:3i;/./jnj«.— Wainsgate, Sunderland, Whitehaven, Bradford, Haworth, Juniper Dye House, 



Bacup (old meetin ■», and Liverpool (Sunley Street, Mr. Johnson). This association met at Bacup in 1755 



or 1756, and at Bradford in 1757. It was dissolved before 1760. 



SuiIa/>sarian.—Kiwden, Nantwich, Liverpool (Dale Street, Mr. Oulton), and Bacup (new meeting). 



In 1757 this association met at Liverpool, and in the following year at Bacup, and again at Liverpool 



in 1761. 



*» The association included the Baptist churches of Leeds, Rawden, Gildersome, Halifax, Salendine 

 Nco;, HcbJen Bridge, Wamsgate, Rochdale, Bacup, Clough Fold, Cowling Hill, Sutton, Barnoldswick, Colne, 

 Accnngton, Blackburn, and Preston. 



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