The Missionary Connection
A Brief Sutcliff History
Past Ministers

The missionary connection

Our church has a fascinating history involving some notable missionaries...

  • 1662 John Gibbs is ejected from his living in Newport Pagnell and, with John Bunyan, has a great influence on the Baptist movement.
  • 1669 Widow Joan Teare opens her house to Baptists. In 2 years the group is 200 strong.
  • 1672 The widow dies and the Act of Indulgence enables the congregation to meet in her barn on the current church site.
  • 1689 Acts of Toleration allow Baptists to buy the barn.
  • 1694 Barn rebuilt as a Meeting House.
  • 1765 During William Walker’s ministry, Northamptonshire Baptist Association is formed.
  • 1766 The Association holds its 2nd meeting at Olney, accommodation next door in the Bull.
  • 1775 John Sutcliff starts his ministry. From Yorkshire, trained at Bristol. Good friend of local curate, John Newton.
  • 1782 William Carey, a cobbler in Hackleton, walks to Olney to listen to Association sermons.
  • 1783 Carey baptised by Ryland in the River Nene.
  • 1784 Sutcliff launches "Call to Prayer" with Andrew Fuller and John Ryland: 1 hour prayer meeting the first Monday of every month, praying for revival.
  • 1785 Carey wants to become a minister; advised by Sutcliff to become a member at Olney to receive teaching. His 1st attempt at preaching not well received.
  • 1786 Carey tries a second time and is better received. Has ministry at Moulton and then Leicester but feels called to work overseas.
  • 1792 Baptist Missionary Society formed by Sutcliff, Fuller, Ryland and others. Raise £13 2s 6d to set the work in motion.
  • 1793 Carey sent to India where he works until his death in 1834. The 3 local ministers act as his ‘ropeholders’.
  • 1798 Sutcliff sets up an academy for prospective missionaries and ministers at 23 High Street, next door to his own home. His extensive library is well used.
  • 1814 Sutcliff dies.
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Sutcliff Baptist Church – a brief history.

The actual origins of Baptist worship in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire are shrouded in history, but we have many items of evidence which have survived. We understand, for instance, that John Gibbs, a Baptist leader from the town was a signatory to a “remonstrance” presented to Parliament in 1657, when Oliver Cromwell, who had become Lord Protector after being a leader of the Parliamentarian armies fighting the Royalists, was petitioned by Parliament to become King. The first main documents in existence, though, came about as a result of the Conventicle Act passed in Parliament in 1664, which instituted punishment for anyone over the age of 16 attending a religious meeting not conducted in accordance with the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer. In 1669 Archbishop Sheldon, the head of the Anglican Church in this area, requested all his local clergy to report any “unlawful religious assemblies” in their locality, and received a report that there was “One Anabaptist meeting in Olney at the home of Widow Teares: number about 200 ‘meane’ people, led by Mr. Gibbs, one Bredon and James Rogers, lace buyers, and one Fenne, a hatter”. Records of the local courts (Assizes) are in existence, showing that many Baptist dissenters from Olney were among those fined for being absent from the Anglican Church services for 3 or more weeks or “meeting in unlawful assembly at Olney”. At the Midsummer session of the court in 1684, for instance, 27 people (men and women) were each fined 6 shillings and eightpence (approx. 60 cents or a labourer’s wages for a week), one 10 shillings (approx 1 dollar), and one £1 (approx. 2 dollars). A number of these people still have descendants living in the town. The place where the dissenters met was a barn in the centre of the town, but when opposition became too great they would meet in Three Counties Wood, just outside the town. As its name suggests, this was a place where the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire met. Since the police were only allowed to operate in their own county, worshippers could see them coming and move quickly over the border into another county.

In 1689 the Act of Toleration was passed by Parliament, which relieved the situation and made it possible for dissenters to have their Chapels officially licensed, and John Bunyan (the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, whose imprisonment for many years probably resulted in part from his preaching at Olney) applied for and obtained a preaching licence for “Joseph Kent, his barn at Olney”. It is not certain exactly when the original building was constructed, but the land was purchased in 1694 and there is a stone in our present building dated 1694 (which has obviously been moved from its original location). The upper stone levels are the work of Victorian restorers. It seems that the barn had very little in the way of foundations, and for this reason we are loath to interfere too much with the basic structure of the main sanctuary, and we often wonder where the water goes when we take the plug out of the baptistry! It seems that, as is so often the case, the Baptist cause in Olney flourished when up against opposition, but entered on a period of decline “taking things easy” once the opposition was no longer there. In the early days the Olney cause shared a Pastor at times with the local town of Newport Pagnell and at other times with various villages in the vicinity. In particular, John Gibbs covered Newport Pagnell and Olney until his death in 1699. Our Church Archives make interesting reading. In the early 1700s a Mr. Maurice led an exodus of members to join the local Congregational Church, and in 1738 a sizeable group of the members “were dismissed to become a separate Strict Baptist Church”, but in 1763 twenty-six men and forty-eight women signed a very strict Church Covenant in which they are referred to as belonging to the Particular Baptist denomination. In 1766 Olney Baptist Church joined a new Association of Baptist Churches in the area set up to give mutual support. This Association has been “revamped” a number of times since, the latest only a few years ago. The Archives of these early years are fascinating, containing many detailed reports of Church meetings. On many occasions they prayed for rain and then gave thanks when it arrived. In February 1788 they sought God’s help when fever hit the town (apparently cholera was rife at the time), and in June they gave thanks that it had gone, but they again needed rain. Members were constantly being disciplined by the Church meetings for breach of the Church Covenant, mostly for immoral behaviour. (What would they have thought of the morals of today!!!).

1775 was a very significant year for our Church, since it was the date on which John Sutcliff settled in Olney, subsequently to become Pastor for thirty-nine years. During this period he set up an academy or seminary in two adjacent houses close to the church, and under his tutelage a number of prominent Baptist preachers developed. Of these, the most well known were William Robinson, who became the first “home grown” missionary to Serampore in 1806, and William Carey whose vision of a calling to evangelise the heathen led to him becoming instrumental in the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and becoming its first missionary in 1793. (It was Olney Baptist Church which had actually commissioned him to be a Minister after considerable discussion as to his suitability!!). The financial accounts for the period are also interesting to us today. For instance, in its first year of its existence the Baptist Missionary Society received donations from our Church totalling ten pounds, fifteen shillings, 6 pence and three farthings (our coinage was much more fun when we had 20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling and 4 farthings to the penny and could really confuse visitors from other countries!! The only problem was that those of us who had to use calculators had to remember the decimal equivalents such as 7 shillings and 6 pence = 0.375 pounds). We learn that in 1858 gifts were made for those affected by the Indian Mutiny and for “the poor saints in Lancashire due to cotton failure”. We find, too, gifts for the families of reservists called up in the 1900 Boer War, and in 1915 gifts to causes connected with the war in France. All this among great concern on occasions about the cost of repairs and repainting and very special arrangements for an occasional social evening. In 1894 the premises were altered quite extensively and in 1986, after an arson attack by a young man who also set fire to other buildings in the town, an extension was added at the rear, providing a new hall, kitchen and toilets. The hall is named in memory of Peter Gravett, who was Pastor here for 25 years up to 1987. Completed in 2015, this was extended with a larger extrance area, larger hall, meeting areas, cafe area, new kitchen and toilets.

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Past Ministers of the Baptist Church of Olney, named in memory of John Sutcliff from 1814.

Pastorate Name
1660-1669 John Gibbs
1694-1710 William Bere
1711 Joseph Palmer
1712 Matthias Maurice
1718 ??? Williamson
1720 John Carter
1732-1738 Moses Deacon of Walgrave
1741-1742 Francis Walker
1743-1747 Charles Rogers of Northampton
1749-1773 William Walker
1775-1814 John Sutcliff
1818-1834 James Simmons (1st Pastorate)
1835-1839 John James
1840-1841 John Davies
1842-1858 James Simmons (2nd Pastorate)
1858-1860 Richard Hall
1860-1865 Frederick Timmis
1866-1870 Thomas Holyoake
1872-1892 Joseph Allen
1893-1898 Morten Joslin
1899-1917 Jacob Samuel
1918-1921 Reginald Cameron
1922-1925 George Girvan
1925-1931 Maurice Hewett
1933-1936 A.W. Smith
1938-1942 A. Ernest Evans
1942-1948 Angus M. Grainger
1949-1954 Kenneth W. H. Howard
1955-1962 Alfred Butler
1963-1987 Peter Gravett
1988-1995 Duncan Keys
1996-2007 David Dewey
2008-2019 Ian Field
2021- Stuart Macdonald

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