KILMINGTON
CHURCH
By 1650, the group was meeting at Loughwood, a remote woody area on the boundary of the parishes of Kilmington and Dalwood. The meeting house where they met started to be built in 1653, when the church book records the appeal for money to complete the building. The thatched meeting house still exists, substantially as it was in the seventeenth century. It is now maintained by the National Trust, and we hold services there twice a year.
Traditions have been handed down of the persecutions the first Christians worshipping at the meeting house underwent. One says that they arrived one morning for a service to find a huntsman blowing his horn while hounds were scampering around the pews. Another relates how the worshippers arrived one Sunday morning to find an armed soldier at the door, with orders from the magistrate to thrust his sword into the first person attempting to enter. After some hesitation a young woman swept past the soldier “with a shriek”, while he remained motionless. The rest of the worshippers then followed her in.
The earliest records provide a fascinating insight into the life of these early Baptists. They spent the majority of their Sundays together at the meeting house. In 1657, the church book records their timetable
1. The first day’s [I.e. Sunday’s] meetings be begun (as near as may be) aboute seaven in the morninge, and soe continue for the summer season. And the tyme employed as followeth. Vizt.
1. In the tryall of gifts till 9 of the clocke. And that those 2 howers be improved by way of prayer.
2. From 9 in the morninge till well towards 12 in a publique exercise.
3. From one till 3 of the clocke in publique exercise.
4. That after the dismission of those that are nott members the church spend one hower or 2 in communicatinge their experiences; inquiring after persons absent; trying the things heard and dutys neglected.
2. That the next first day seavennight the church breake bread.
A good part of the church book is taken up with disciplinary matters. The list of members at the beginning of the book shows 105 members in good standing, plus another 38 “members sometime belonging to ye church at Dallwood, since cast out and withdrawn from for sin and disorder.” There were many causes of discipline, but one which recurred many times was the absence from meetings, when the absentees pleaded great distances. Inevitably, this caused those living at some distance to start their own meetings, and Loughwood Meeting House thus become the “Mother church” from which the Baptist churches at Chard, Lyme Regis, and Honiton as well as Kilmington started.
If you are interested in reading more about these early days, Kilmington Baptist Church published a book in 2000 to celebrate the 350th anniversary. This is entitled “Backwoods to Beacon”. If you would like a copy, contact us. One of our members, John Whiteley, has also written a couple of articles for the journal of the Baptist Historical Society, which were published in October 1985 (Volume XXXI No. 4) and April 1986 (Volume XXXI No. 6). These articles go into more details about the seventeenth century records of Loughwood Meeting House.
These early Baptists at Loughwood were Particular Baptists - they believed in “particular redemption” - I.e. they were firmly Calvinistic, as opposed to the General Baptists, who believed in a “general redemption”. In those days, the opposition between Particular Baptists and General Baptists was strong, and we have records in the church book of members of Loughwood being disciplined for associating with General Baptists, such as the following in 1654 -
Bro. Phillipp and Bro. Demmige having neglected to assemble with ye church on the first day and at that tyme meett with those persons which hold the doctrines of freewill, fallinge from grace and generall redemption; and doe upon examination profess themselves to be of that judgement, and beinge warned to come to the church that soe scruples touchinge these doctrines might be removed. But doe neglect the same and refuse to heare the church therein...
One of the representatives of Loughwood was present in London in 1688 when the General Assembly of Particular Baptist Churches drew up a Confession of Faith. The following year, the same General Assembly affirmed that “believers are at liberty to hear any sober and pious men of the Independent and Presbyterian persuasion when they have no opportunity to attend upon the preaching of the word in their own assembly.” Thus, we can see that they were closer to other Calvinistic groups than General Baptists. The rift between Particular and General Baptists was not healed until something like two hundred years later.
A particular concern in the early days at Loughwood was finding good leadership. In 1653 they wrote to Brother Pendarves to ask him to become their minister, although he declined. They did not get a pastor until 1669, when they set apart George Allome by “fastinge, prayer and layinge on of hands of the eldership” to be the pastor. In 1654 there were 5 men chose “by the voice and full consent of us all” to be elders, and 5 more as deacons. Sadly, however, four years later, there were no elders remaining and they were seeking others to become elders.
In the eighteenth century, the maintenance of the strictly Calvinistic doctrine was a major preoccupation. The church book has rather less recorded during the eighteenth century, but what is recorded shows a church with declining membership. The most famous minister in the eighteenth century was Isaac Hann, minister from 1730 to 1758. He was well known in the Western Association of Baptists and was involved in setting up the new Baptist Western Association in 1733, specifically on the basis of the strongly Calvinistic 1688 “Confession of Faith”. He played a prominent part in the affairs of the Western Association over the next 40 years, being asked to preach the Association sermon and draw up the annual “Association letter” sent to all churches on many occasions. The Association paid for a plaque to be set up when Isaac Hann died at the age of 88, which still remains on display in the Loughwood Meeting House. Part of this plaque says -
Few ministers so humble were, Yet few so much admired:
Ripened for heaven by Grace divine, like autumn fruit he fell;
Reader think not to live so long, but seek to live as well.”
Sadly, however, despite his renown, the church did not prosper numerically under his ministry. During his 28 year ministry he baptised just 15 people. At the close of his ministry at Loughwood in 1757, the church membership consisted of 26 women and 7 men, and underneath the list, this sad note-
In the same year, five people were baptised by a Mr. Day, and the church book records that -
Finally, mention must be made of his little verse, written after he read of how a woman named Catherine Stubbs had defeated the devil:
“Devil I tell thee without nubbs or jubbs
Thou wert no match at all or Catherine Stubbs;
And if God give the grace to play the man,
Thou wilt come off as bad with Isaac Hann!
For all the arguments she used shall be
The arguments which he will use with thee.
And when thou canst those arguments repel
He must submit to go with thee to hell.
But while his Saviour God doth live and reign
He is secure - gang off with thy cracked brain!”
Samuel Burford then came to the church and “settled” in 1759, but was not chosen pastor until 1763. His leadership lasted until 1786 when Samuel Norman was called from Stogumber to be his assistant. Samuel Burford was feeling his age, and although Samuel Norman was appointed as his assistant, his duties included preaching every Sabbath. For this, the church would pay him £25 a year. By 1789, Samuel Norman must have been feeling the pinch financially. At a church meeting it was reported that he confessed to some “uneasiness in his breast” over his financial situation. The church discussed the matter and decided that he had to accept what the church could collect for him, so that he was to “rise and fall with the church in her subscription”.
In 1792, Samuel Norman left to go to Bampton, and Samuel Burford, now well advanced in age, was left as sole pastor.
A local man, Richard Gill, now came on the scene. He had been baptised in 1788, and had evidently shown some gift for leadership. The church took his gifts seriously, and in 1795, set apart a day of prayer and fasting concerning him. He was then “unanimously called to the work of the ministry and to assist Rev. Mr. Burford”. The eighteenth century was drawing to its close with the church still struggling to maintain its identity, the main emphasis seeming to be on the maintenance of purity of doctrine. Surviving letters sent from the church to the Western Association of Particular Baptists reflect this concern and declining numbers -
The cases of discipline recorded in the eighteenth century include drunkenness, “whoredom”, unbecoming conversation, contempt of church authority, “frequenting of ale houses on the Sabbeth”, an attempted abortion, and wilful lying, amongst many others.
But one case finished happily, and takes the story into the nineteenth century -
The new century dawned with the church’s fortunes at a low ebb, but with Richard Gill now as pastor. The membership was down to 24 in 1806. In 1809, the church book records that Betty Carter was restored to fellowship upon repentance, “having been cast out many years before.” Is it unconnected that following this, there were frequent baptisms and the church membership rose to 64 by 1814?
Richard Gill retired in 1832, the year that building began on the chapel in Kilmington, which is still the building used by the church today. It was opened officially in 1833. Job Stembridge succeeded Ricard Gill as pastor, and soon afterwards, a set of church rules was drawn up.
These rules had much to say about the conduct of church members’ meetings. Women members were expected to attend these meetings, but were not allowed to speak. Men were expected to speak “only in an orderly and Christianlike manner”, and members were expected to “keep inviolate the secrets of the church”. Reading between the lines, these rules seem to reinforce the feeling of uneasiness, as if they were expecting trouble -
Very few cases of discipline were recorded in the nineteenth century before the arrival of Job Stembridge, when the number of cases increased, mostly over non-attendance over a long period. There is something of a mystery over Job Stembridge. In 1842, he resigned the ministry to go to America.. However, “Divine Providence having prevented it, an invitation was given him to continue his ministrations amongst us.” He stayed, but then in 1846, there a short, sad entry in the church book -
Job Stembridge was succeeded by Rev. George Medway in 1857, who stayed until 1876. Rev. Richard Bastable then came from Ilchester, and was the pastor for the next 40 years, seeing in the new century. When Richard Bastable took over, the church membership was 20, but about 130 people attended the recognition services. By 1884 the membership had grown to 34, and continued to grow steadily. Richard Bastable became well known in the village and beyond. He became chairman of the Parish Council,
And was often seen riding his pony and trap to visit people. In 1892, he recorded “Pony died on Sunday morning. I was up with it all the night.” A letter is preserved from the church members to him, accompanying a gift of money to replace the pony. They trusted that “you will soon find another that will carry you on your errands of mercy, and that you may long live amongst us to use it in the Lord’s work is the earnest hope of all those who have cheerfully subscribed.”
The twentieth century opened with the Baptist church in open conflict with the Church of England. The curate in Kilmington, Rev. A. Slipper, appealed in the Church Times in 1901 for help to “forward the work of the Church in a stronghold of dissent.” In 1902, on 9th August, the church book records that “The non conformists joined by a few churchmen celebrated the King’s coronation by a public dinner and tea for all in the parish who cared to come... It was impossible to have a united service much as we should like to have had it after what the curate and those who sided with him had said, having said that all who had not been baptised into the Church had no right to say the Lord’s prayer, to call God their father, they being heathen, and much more in the same spirit. We felt bound to avail ourselves of the conscience clause and take away our children from such teaching.”
Richard Bastable was instrumental in protesting against the Education Bill, which levied a local rate for Church of England Schools. In 1904, he and some other members of the church had goods seized and auctioned to pay the rate. However, in a public relations coup, the church arranged for the public auction to be followed by a protest meeting, with rousing speeches.
By the time Richard Bastable retired in 1916, there were 70 names on the membership list. He was succeeded by Rev. George Robert, who originated from Guernsey and started his preaching career in French. His pastorate continued during the war years, and in 1919 the church asked him to continue until 1922. The church book records in 1919 that: “The Lord helped his people during and immediately after the terrible war. He kept us , and fed us, and enabled us to keep His house in order during those terrible days.” But in October 1919, George Robert had “a slight seizure” and continued pastor, without preaching, until 1920, when he retired. He died in 1921. Richard Bastable who had retired locally then helped out the church until the church called Rev. J. R. Way in 1921, when there were 65 members. He was pastor until 1935.
Rev. Emrys Roberts followed, and officially ceased his pastorate in 1941. However, he continued to live in the manse and work in Kilmington during the war years, when the church was involved in helping evacuee children. Finance was an ever present problem during these harsh war years.
Subsequent pastors have been Rev. Kenneth Furlong, 1945 to 1950, Rev. Reg Spooner 1950 to 1954, Rev. Raymond Waterson, 1955 to 1964, Rev. Andrew Jordan, 1965 to 1969, Rev. Charles Couldridge, 1971 to 1984, Rev. Charles Blizzard, 1985 to 1996, and Rev. Laurie Burn, 1996 to 2006.
2008 sees a new chapter opening with the ministry of Rev. Darrell Holmes.
Traditions have been handed down of the persecutions the first Christians worshipping at the meeting house underwent. One says that they arrived one morning for a service to find a huntsman blowing his horn while hounds were scampering around the pews. Another relates how the worshippers arrived one Sunday morning to find an armed soldier at the door, with orders from the magistrate to thrust his sword into the first person attempting to enter. After some hesitation a young woman swept past the soldier “with a shriek”, while he remained motionless. The rest of the worshippers then followed her in.
The earliest records provide a fascinating insight into the life of these early Baptists. They spent the majority of their Sundays together at the meeting house. In 1657, the church book records their timetable
1. The first day’s [I.e. Sunday’s] meetings be begun (as near as may be) aboute seaven in the morninge, and soe continue for the summer season. And the tyme employed as followeth. Vizt.
1. In the tryall of gifts till 9 of the clocke. And that those 2 howers be improved by way of prayer.
2. From 9 in the morninge till well towards 12 in a publique exercise.
3. From one till 3 of the clocke in publique exercise.
4. That after the dismission of those that are nott members the church spend one hower or 2 in communicatinge their experiences; inquiring after persons absent; trying the things heard and dutys neglected.
2. That the next first day seavennight the church breake bread.
A good part of the church book is taken up with disciplinary matters. The list of members at the beginning of the book shows 105 members in good standing, plus another 38 “members sometime belonging to ye church at Dallwood, since cast out and withdrawn from for sin and disorder.” There were many causes of discipline, but one which recurred many times was the absence from meetings, when the absentees pleaded great distances. Inevitably, this caused those living at some distance to start their own meetings, and Loughwood Meeting House thus become the “Mother church” from which the Baptist churches at Chard, Lyme Regis, and Honiton as well as Kilmington started.
If you are interested in reading more about these early days, Kilmington Baptist Church published a book in 2000 to celebrate the 350th anniversary. This is entitled “Backwoods to Beacon”. If you would like a copy, contact us. One of our members, John Whiteley, has also written a couple of articles for the journal of the Baptist Historical Society, which were published in October 1985 (Volume XXXI No. 4) and April 1986 (Volume XXXI No. 6). These articles go into more details about the seventeenth century records of Loughwood Meeting House.
These early Baptists at Loughwood were Particular Baptists -
One of the representatives of Loughwood was present in London in 1688 when the General Assembly of Particular Baptist Churches drew up a Confession of Faith. The following year, the same General Assembly affirmed that “believers are at liberty to hear any sober and pious men of the Independent and Presbyterian persuasion when they have no opportunity to attend upon the preaching of the word in their own assembly.” Thus, we can see that they were closer to other Calvinistic groups than General Baptists. The rift between Particular and General Baptists was not healed until something like two hundred years later.
A particular concern in the early days at Loughwood was finding good leadership. In 1653 they wrote to Brother Pendarves to ask him to become their minister, although he declined. They did not get a pastor until 1669, when they set apart George Allome by “fastinge, prayer and layinge on of hands of the eldership” to be the pastor. In 1654 there were 5 men chose “by the voice and full consent of us all” to be elders, and 5 more as deacons. Sadly, however, four years later, there were no elders remaining and they were seeking others to become elders.
In the eighteenth century, the maintenance of the strictly Calvinistic doctrine was a major preoccupation. The church book has rather less recorded during the eighteenth century, but what is recorded shows a church with declining membership. The most famous minister in the eighteenth century was Isaac Hann, minister from 1730 to 1758. He was well known in the Western Association of Baptists and was involved in setting up the new Baptist Western Association in 1733, specifically on the basis of the strongly Calvinistic 1688 “Confession of Faith”. He played a prominent part in the affairs of the Western Association over the next 40 years, being asked to preach the Association sermon and draw up the annual “Association letter” sent to all churches on many occasions. The Association paid for a plaque to be set up when Isaac Hann died at the age of 88, which still remains on display in the Loughwood Meeting House. Part of this plaque says -
Few ministers so humble were, Yet few so much admired:
Ripened for heaven by Grace divine, like autumn fruit he fell;
Reader think not to live so long, but seek to live as well.”
Sadly, however, despite his renown, the church did not prosper numerically under his ministry. During his 28 year ministry he baptised just 15 people. At the close of his ministry at Loughwood in 1757, the church membership consisted of 26 women and 7 men, and underneath the list, this sad note-
In the same year, five people were baptised by a Mr. Day, and the church book records that -
Finally, mention must be made of his little verse, written after he read of how a woman named Catherine Stubbs had defeated the devil:
“Devil I tell thee without nubbs or jubbs
Thou wert no match at all or Catherine Stubbs;
And if God give the grace to play the man,
Thou wilt come off as bad with Isaac Hann!
For all the arguments she used shall be
The arguments which he will use with thee.
And when thou canst those arguments repel
He must submit to go with thee to hell.
But while his Saviour God doth live and reign
He is secure -
In 1792, Samuel Norman left to go to Bampton, and Samuel Burford, now well advanced in age, was left as sole pastor.
A local man, Richard Gill, now came on the scene. He had been baptised in 1788, and had evidently shown some gift for leadership. The church took his gifts seriously, and in 1795, set apart a day of prayer and fasting concerning him. He was then “unanimously called to the work of the ministry and to assist Rev. Mr. Burford”. The eighteenth century was drawing to its close with the church still struggling to maintain its identity, the main emphasis seeming to be on the maintenance of purity of doctrine. Surviving letters sent from the church to the Western Association of Particular Baptists reflect this concern and declining numbers -
The cases of discipline recorded in the eighteenth century include drunkenness, “whoredom”, unbecoming conversation, contempt of church authority, “frequenting of ale houses on the Sabbeth”, an attempted abortion, and wilful lying, amongst many others.
But one case finished happily, and takes the story into the nineteenth century -
The new century dawned with the church’s fortunes at a low ebb, but with Richard Gill now as pastor. The membership was down to 24 in 1806. In 1809, the church book records that Betty Carter was restored to fellowship upon repentance, “having been cast out many years before.” Is it unconnected that following this, there were frequent baptisms and the church membership rose to 64 by 1814?
Richard Gill retired in 1832, the year that building began on the chapel in Kilmington, which is still the building used by the church today. It was opened officially in 1833. Job Stembridge succeeded Ricard Gill as pastor, and soon afterwards, a set of church rules was drawn up.
These rules had much to say about the conduct of church members’ meetings. Women members were expected to attend these meetings, but were not allowed to speak. Men were expected to speak “only in an orderly and Christianlike manner”, and members were expected to “keep inviolate the secrets of the church”. Reading between the lines, these rules seem to reinforce the feeling of uneasiness, as if they were expecting trouble -
Very few cases of discipline were recorded in the nineteenth century before the arrival of Job Stembridge, when the number of cases increased, mostly over non-
Job Stembridge was succeeded by Rev. George Medway in 1857, who stayed until 1876. Rev. Richard Bastable then came from Ilchester, and was the pastor for the next 40 years, seeing in the new century. When Richard Bastable took over, the church membership was 20, but about 130 people attended the recognition services. By 1884 the membership had grown to 34, and continued to grow steadily. Richard Bastable became well known in the village and beyond. He became chairman of the Parish Council,
And was often seen riding his pony and trap to visit people. In 1892, he recorded “Pony died on Sunday morning. I was up with it all the night.” A letter is preserved from the church members to him, accompanying a gift of money to replace the pony. They trusted that “you will soon find another that will carry you on your errands of mercy, and that you may long live amongst us to use it in the Lord’s work is the earnest hope of all those who have cheerfully subscribed.”
The twentieth century opened with the Baptist church in open conflict with the Church of England. The curate in Kilmington, Rev. A. Slipper, appealed in the Church Times in 1901 for help to “forward the work of the Church in a stronghold of dissent.” In 1902, on 9th August, the church book records that “The non conformists joined by a few churchmen celebrated the King’s coronation by a public dinner and tea for all in the parish who cared to come... It was impossible to have a united service much as we should like to have had it after what the curate and those who sided with him had said, having said that all who had not been baptised into the Church had no right to say the Lord’s prayer, to call God their father, they being heathen, and much more in the same spirit. We felt bound to avail ourselves of the conscience clause and take away our children from such teaching.”
Richard Bastable was instrumental in protesting against the Education Bill, which levied a local rate for Church of England Schools. In 1904, he and some other members of the church had goods seized and auctioned to pay the rate. However, in a public relations coup, the church arranged for the public auction to be followed by a protest meeting, with rousing speeches.
By the time Richard Bastable retired in 1916, there were 70 names on the membership list. He was succeeded by Rev. George Robert, who originated from Guernsey and started his preaching career in French. His pastorate continued during the war years, and in 1919 the church asked him to continue until 1922. The church book records in 1919 that: “The Lord helped his people during and immediately after the terrible war. He kept us , and fed us, and enabled us to keep His house in order during those terrible days.” But in October 1919, George Robert had “a slight seizure” and continued pastor, without preaching, until 1920, when he retired. He died in 1921. Richard Bastable who had retired locally then helped out the church until the church called Rev. J. R. Way in 1921, when there were 65 members. He was pastor until 1935.
Rev. Emrys Roberts followed, and officially ceased his pastorate in 1941. However, he continued to live in the manse and work in Kilmington during the war years, when the church was involved in helping evacuee children. Finance was an ever present problem during these harsh war years.
Subsequent pastors have been Rev. Kenneth Furlong, 1945 to 1950, Rev. Reg Spooner 1950 to 1954, Rev. Raymond Waterson, 1955 to 1964, Rev. Andrew Jordan, 1965 to 1969, Rev. Charles Couldridge, 1971 to 1984, Rev. Charles Blizzard, 1985 to 1996, and Rev. Laurie Burn, 1996 to 2006.
2008 sees a new chapter opening with the ministry of Rev. Darrell Holmes.
History