History of the Baptist Chapel and NonConformity in

Foxton.Adapted by Carl Bedford from Derek Lewin’s book “The Foxton Story” and other sources.

2020.

Non-Conformity has a long history in Foxton, probably dating back to the time of

John Wycliffe’s ministry as Rector of nearby Lutterworth. It is believed that Wycliffe may

have preached in the church at Foxton and certainly John o’Gaunt, Lord of one of the Foxton

Manors, was his patron so he may have visited him at the Manor House during his ministry.

Several prominent Foxton families supported Cromwell at the time of the Civil War,

including the Iliffes, the Saddingtons, the Goodrichs, the Chapmans and the Lewins and a

member of another, Joshua Spriggs, became Chaplain General to Sir Thomas Fairfax. During

the Commonwealth the then Vicar of Foxton, Jonathan Deveraux, was pronounced to be

‘altogether insufficient’ and ejected from the living. He was replaced by a Presbyterian

Minister named George Boheme who was in his turn ejected at the Restoration.

In a 1669 Parish Return made to Lambeth Palace by the then Vicar of Foxton, John

Perkins, he recorded that “One conventicler of Presbyterians of about 20 in number of the

meaner sort Mr Wilson ejected out of Foxton vicarage for non-subscription being their

teacher. They usually meet in the house of William Chapman, baker and John Lewis former

captaine in Cromwell’s army on Sunday at ye time of divine service”.

It was a group of the Foxton Puritan families who founded the Baptist Chapel in 1716

as an offshoot of the congregation which worshipped at Mowsley which was in turn a branch

of the Baptist Church at Arnesby.

A church covenant, a sort of code of belief and practice, was drawn up and signed by

all members:-

“We a church of Christ meeting at Foxton and Mowsley in Leicester-shire, having

been baptised upon our profession of faith, and given ourselves to the Lord and to one

another according to his will, and to the care (under Christ and in His hand) of our well-

beloved Pastor Benjamin Boyce, we do with him by these presents formally agree to give up

ourselves unto Christ as a church of His to be saved by Him, and do depend upon the

promise of grace in His word, which reveals Him to be the only Saviour sent of God, trusting

that whomsoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

And we hereby own and receive Jesus Christ as the only King that God has set up in

His church, and do covenant and agree as we are by grace and duty bound to walk by all the

rules and laws of him as our Prince and Saviour in all respects, and in our relation as pastor

and members, one towards another, observing all things whatsoever He hath commanded us.

Hoping for His presence and desirous that His glory may be promoted by us and looking up

for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we solemnly subscribe to be the Lord’s.

We also agree that such as may in future be admitted members of this church shall do

the same, by setting to their hands to be His in all that He hath revealed in His word, for the

members of a gospel church to believe and practice.”

Benjamin Boyce became joint pastor of Foxton and Mowsley and his ministry lasted

until his death in 1731, by which time some sixty members of the two churches had signed

the covenant.

In 1731 Joel Streeton, member of a Nottinghamshire Puritan family, came from

Shepshed to become pastor at Foxton whilst continuing to preach at Shepshed once a month.

His pastorate lasted until he died in 1744. Foxton didn’t then have a permanent pastor for

about seven years until in 1751 John Evans began a pastorate which lasted for 30 years.

During the pastorates of Benjamain Bryce, Joel Streeton and probably that of John

Evans, baptisms of church members generally took place at Marston Mill, just over the

border in Northamptonshire. . The Foxton meeting house was situated in an orchard

belonging to William Lewin which had for some years been used by the puritans for burying

their dead. The headstones of some of these puritan families such as Glover, Spriggs, Ponton

and Streeton can still be seen in the far part of the former Chapel Graveyard, which has

recently been bequeathed to the parish by Derek Lewin, himself a descendant of one of these

families.

The chapel congregation had, of course, to provide both for the stipend of their

minister and the upkeep of the meeting house so it was fortunate that several of the members

were persons of substance and that land was either given or left by bequest for their upkeep.

The minister’s dwelling house, garden and orchard were the gift of Mrs Mary Somersby,

formerly of Clipston where members of the Foxton Congregation later formed a daughter

chapel, and they were settled on the Baptist Church by a Deed of Trust dated 4th December,

1750. The property consisted of a house and two tenements adjoining, one of which was

converted into a stable for the use of Pastor Evans.

There was a parcel of land in the open fields of Foxton which had been purchased for

£100 from a Mr Robert Pridmore of Newnham in Warwickshire. The Trust Deed of this land

stated that:- “The settled minister or pastor for the Baptist congregation for the time being is

to be permitted and allowed to occupy the land and premises if he should choose to do so, or

of he should dcline himself to do so, the land is to be let at an annual rent or on lease for a

term not exceeding twelve years and all the profits and proceeds paid to himby the trustees

for his maintenance and support”. This land holding led to the Chapel Trustees being

awarded an allotment of just under nine and a half acres when the open fields were enclosed

under the Foxton Enclosure Act of 1770. The Streeton Family continued to have a connection

with Foxton after the death of Pastor John Streeton because a Samuel Streeton, possibly the

pastor’s son, also received an allotment of land under the same Act.

The Chapel Trustees also held three other small closes within the village envelope

known as ’Blackwell’s Close’, ‘Lewin’s Close’ and ‘Cow Pasture’ and in 1783 a Mr James

Hewardine of Arnesby made a bequest to the Foxton church of £20 and two volumes of Dr

Gill’s “Body of Divinity”. The interest on this money was also intended to supplement the

stipend of the pastor but in 1826 it was decided, however, to use what was left of the bequest

for buying and planting fruit trees in the three small closes.

After the departure of John Evans in 1782, the church was without a pastor until the

arrival of Joshua Burton on 12th October, 1790. Without a pastoral leadership, it would appear

that membership had dropped to only eighteen when Burton arrived and forty years later,

when he died, there were still only about the same number.

In order to increase his stipend, Joshua Burton kept a school at the Manse attended

mostly by farmers’ sons, including those of well-to-do local nonconformist families such as

the Haddons of Clipston, the Bassetts and Hortons from Mowsley and the Goodrichs and

Saddingtons of Foxton. Those from a distance came on horse-back with their mounts being

accommodated by local farmers during the day. Pastor Burton was assisted by his wife and a

young lady and there were about thirty boys altogether.

Joshua Burton was greatly distressed by the slow growth of the cause in Foxton but he

was a man of much wider outlook than just the village. It is said that he would travel

considerable distances on horse-back in order to preach to various other groups. He was also

friendly with the great Baptist missionary, William Carey, who on occasion came to Foxton.

In 1792 Joshua Burton was one of thirteen ministers who met at Kettering and founded the

Baptist Missionary Society.

An extract from an appreciation of Pastor Burton in the church book for 1830 tells us

that:-

“After a long and serious illness, attended by paralysis, Mr Joshua Burton died on 8th

January, 1830, having just entered upon the 84th year of his age. He had been pastor at the

church at Foxton for 38 ears, had sustained a character of unimpeachable integrity, and died

in peace. His personal piety was not characterised by any ardour or intensiveness of feeling,

nor did his public ministrations partake of those qualities; he was content rather with a plain

and unadorned detail of the great leading truths of the gospel, and on these alone he relied

for salvation. His success in the ministry was but small, though attended with patient

perseverance and great fidelity”.

Over the next seven years there were two brief pastorates – those of Mr Bottomley

and Mr Liddell, but neither left any record of his work. In 1837, Rev. James Blackburn came

from Walgrave in Northamptonshire to become pastor and remained until his death in 1863.

An interesting detail from his time at ‘The Manse’ in Foxton is that, although his wife and

family were present, he was absent from the village at the time of the first Census in 1841.

Census research shows that Rev. Blackburn was in fact visiting his sister at Colton, near

Ulverston in the Southern Lake District and such a long journey to visit a relative by someone

of modest means had no doubt been made possible by the new railway lines which were then

spreading throughout the country.

Once again, no record was made but it appears that although the church made little

progress in terms of membership gain towards the end of Rev. Blckburn’s pastorate there had

been signs of renewed interest in church activity. In 1869, six years after Rev. Blackburn’s

death, the membership had only reached twenty, but there were 57 children Sunday School.

The reason for the larger number of children was probably two-fold. Firstly, there was no

Sunday School in the parish church at that time and secondly, and perhaps more importantly,

each Sundy School scholar received one shilling, twice a year for good attendance, from the

interest on a bequest of £1,000 made in 1844 by William Chapman for the upkeep of the

Chapel and the Manse. In those days a shilling was certainly worth having!

William Chapman’s bequest created a problem for the Church Members as it appears

that in his declining years he had lost his reason and was sail to frequently use bad language.

This was deplored by the members, some of whom said that the bequest should not be

accepted. At a meeting called to discuss the matter Pastor Blackburn urged members to

accept it as he said the wil had been made when Chapman was of sound mind and that his

later conduct should not be taken into consideration. The meeting did accept it but only by a

small majority – some saying that in the end it would do the church no good – a prophecy

which was later to prove correct.

Rev. Blackburn’s pastorate ended on a sad note as it seemed that he suffered from a

tumour on the thigh and had to go to St. George’s Hospital in London in order to have it

removed. On the Sunday evening before he went into hospital, he preached what proved to be

his last sermon, taking for his text the words of St. Paul from his letter to the Corinthians:-

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work

of the Lord”.

Mr Isaac Brown, who was present at the service, recorded that many of the

congregation were moved to tears. Although Rev. Blackburn survived the operation, he died

a week later. His pastorate may have appeared not to have been too successful, but it can be

said that he helped to sow seed which was later to grow and bear fruit – for two years after

his death the old meeting house was replaced by a new chapel. Writing about his work in an

obituary, Rev. J.P. Mussell said:- “His views on divine truth were eminently evangelical; he

lived and experienced the preciousness of the gospel which he preached to others. No one

lamented more than he did the stagnant state of mind and of piety in the rural spot which

formed the centre of his endeavours”.

Rev. Blackburn’s successor was Rev. T.H.Carryer fro Leicester, who was first

appointed for only six months but who then remained for thirteen years. His stipend was

initially only £40 a year but he also had the ‘The Manse’ for his home. Not long after he

began his pastorate a new ‘Gothic’ chapel was completed to take the place of the old meeting

house, at a cost of £1,200. When demolition of the old meeting house took place the coffin of

the first pastor, Rev. Bryce, who had been buried in the chapel, was found to be in an

excellent state and was reinterred in the chapel graveyard where his headstone may still be

seen.

The new chapel opened on 18th May 1865. The day began with morning service

conducted by Rev. W. Coleman, an independent minister from Ashley, Northamptonshire,

assisted by Rev. C. Vince of Birmingham and Rev. J.O.P. Mussell of Leicester. A large tent

was erected in a nearby field known as ‘The Park’, in which a ‘cold collation’ was provided

by Benjamin Goodrich of the Shoulder of Mutton Inn. In the afternoon a bazaar was held in

the lower schoolroom and vestry, followed by tea at 5 o’clock in the tent. It was estimated

that about 200 sat down to ‘this refreshing repast’.

The day ended with an evening service at which the congregation was so large that it

had to be held in the open field. The preacher was Rev. Thomas Lomas of Leicester, the

subject being the purifying influence of Christian hope. In the church records both morning

and evening discourses are described as “Characterized by a clear exhibition of Christ as the

Saviour, and illustrated by most homely strung common sense remarks”.

During the course of the day, several donations were given, including £150 from

Alfred Dalby, Barrister, a member of the prominent village family of bakers, who had been a

former pupil in Joshua Burton’s school. Another former pupil, William Buswell of Clipston,

a cabinet maker by trade, made and presented a new communion table and chairs. It is said

that these were copies of furniture he had seen at Oxford University.

There was then a steady growth in church membership from twenty in 1869 to forty

two in 1883, whilst the number of Sunday School scholars increased from fifty seven in 1868

to seventy four in 1881. Several activities were organised for the winter months, including a

mutual improvement class, a Bible class, a shorthand class, a library and, of course, a Band of

Hope since temperance was an important part of non-conformist tradition. Each Spring, the

Sunday School scholars were given a party, called ‘The May Treat’. The church also had a

Mission Fund and a Clothing Club. With such activities it is not surprising that Sunday

School numbers continued to be between fifty and seventy throughout this period. Rev.

Carryer was also very interested in Foxton History and gave well attended lectures on the

subject during his ministry.

Something of general interest to present Foxtonians is that for part of each year, due to the

separation of their parents, Rev. Carryer had two of his nephews and their mother living with

him at ‘The Manse’ and one of these, Alfred Percy Carryer, later wrote an account of his

childhood memories of life in Foxton during the 1860s and ‘70s. By chance his unpublished

manuscript came into the hands of the present writer and is now held in Leicestershire

Records Office, but a copy was retained for the village archives.

Percy Carryer, as he was known, was good at sport – he once tried to get W.G. Grace

to join his school’s cricket club when he came to Leicester to play in a match against a county

side - and as a youngster he tried to teach the other Foxton boys to play Rugby, rather than

football, but apparently had little success in this endeavour. At that time the village children

played their games in the field opposite the Manse which had long been known as ‘Play

Close’ and part of this land later became the Robert Monk Recreation Ground.

Rev. Carryer retired in 1878 and was followed by Rev. W.J. Float. Shortly afterwards

an arrangement was made with Joseph Spriggs, member of a prominent Non-conformist

family and owner of neighbouring ‘Dale Cottage’ for him and his family to exchange

residences with the pastor and also to supplement his stipend by means of a rent payment. It

appears that this arrangement continued for a number of years although Rev. Float himself

left in 1888 in order to undertake mission work.

On Whit Monday 1882, a grand bazaar was held in the barn of Jonathan Horton’s

house, ‘Foxton Lodge’, then next door to ‘The Manse’. Preparations for this event had been in

progress for two years, and it was hoped to raise enough money to pay of the remaining debt

on the new Chapel. The bazaar committee had arranged for all trains from Leicester to stop at

East Langton station from which passengers were transported to Foxton in a variety of traps

and gigs. It is recorded in the church records that:-“All morning traps and brakes poured into

the village and stabling for horses was very difficult to get”. It was estimated that some eight

hundred people were present at the opening by Councillor Edward Wood of Leicester. Tea

was served in marquees erected in the orchard and so great was the run on provisions that a

horse and trap were despatched to Market Harborough in order to purchase more. The event

was deemed to be a great success with £434-10-00 being raised.

At the services on the following Sunday the Pastor, Rev. W.J. Float announced that

they were now worshipping in a building free from debt. Things seemed to be going well for

Foxton Baptist Church, but in fact the early eighties were the high plateau of its life and

difficult time lay ahead. An agricultural depression brought poverty and unemployment with

the result that there was a steady drift of people from the village to the towns, in the hope of

finding work or bettering their condition.

This exodus hit especially hard at the nonconformist churches because their young

people were often the best educated and most ambitious of the village youngster. The

nonconformist code of living encouraged material as well as spiritual improvement and at

this time moving to the town was the only means of making progress.

Foxton Baptist Church was no exception to the general pattern and in his report to the

Leicestershire Baptist Association in 1886 Rev. Float stated:-

“While the membership is the same as last year the congregation is growing smaller

on account of the steady decline in population, while the newcomers (what few there are)

belong in every instance to the Church of England”.

The later years of the century also saw a revitalised Church of England in many

places with a new generation of priests more committed to spiritual matters and the well-

being of their flocks than their predecessors had been. In Foxton, this was certainly the case,

with the new-found enthusiasm being symbolised by the restoration of the parish church.

Thus, the established church now presented a real challenge to dissent for the allegiance of

the village people. The situation was summed up in a report on the state of the village

churches by Rev. W. Bishop in 1887 to the Leicestershire Baptist Association:-

“Between 1850 and 1880 Leicester doubled its size and population. Other towns

increased in similar ration. How was this increase secured? By the influx from villages, far

and near, of the best, strongest, cleverest, most enterprising of the sons of the soil. Better

wages, more lucrative and abundant employment, the fascination presented by the freer,

more exciting life of large towns, and the prospect of making money, drew the ever rising

youth of the rural districts. And with these the very life-blood of the rural Churches was

drained away. The daughters, the candidates, and Church members taken away and the

older, weaker, and poorer alone left behind. During this period too sprang up that revived

and intense religious activity amongst the clergy of the Church of England, that has been

such a marked feature of the national religious life. Nowhere has this been more manifest

than in the villages.

Before, clergymen manifested little or no interest, very often, in the religious good of

their parishioners. Whether they attended church or chapel was a matter of comparatively

little concern. But now all that is gone. The clergy are truly and earnestly active; they devote

themselves with untiring fervour to their Church and parish. Many of them give evidence of

deep, if we sometimes think misguided, piety. We rejoice at all signs of quickened spiritual

life and activity, and we cannot fail to see that many a village community is the better for it.

But in far too many cases we find this revived interest, and religious fervour, is associated

with a narrowness, a bigotry, a crushing persecution that is all but intolerable.

The most unworthy means are employed to fill the church and empty the chapel – to

crush Dissent and strengthen the Established Church. By teaching, which is simply inhuman

often, by boycotting of the most shameful character, or hoodwinked – influenced or

boughtover – threatened or compelled at least to leave the meeting-house, if they do not

attend the ritual of the parish Churches. And with what result? The Sunday Schools of

Nonconformists are frequently reduced to the smallest proportions; the congregations are

lessened and the means and workers are diminished. And then to crown all the terrible

agricultural depression set in. Unkind seasons, uncongenial skies, failing crops, falling

markets and unremunerative prices, combined to reduce or ruin the farmers, to bring more

land into pasturage, to drive away the more wealthy and thrifty, and to leave the labourers

without means of livelihood. And so during their dark and troubled times our village

congregations have been incessantly robbed and reduced, the rural districts have been

depleted of people and the hearts of our faithful village workers have been growingly and

constantly depressed and saddened.”

The division in Foxton between Anglicans and Nonconformists at this time ran very

deep and was reflected in all aspects of village life. Rivalry and bigotry often divided

neighbours and sometimes even families. For example when Harr Marvell, a Baptist, (Derek

Lewin’s grandfather), married Annie Cannon, an Anglican, the wedding was noted tersely in

the chapel records as “Harry Marvell married in Babylon”. Throughout their lives they

worshipped separately in their respective churches.

Division was soon to come to Foxton Baptist Church. On 28th May, 1890, Rev. Robert

J. Peden, a man of very strict Baptist principles, became pastor of the church, Peden, who

was born in Ireland, had been a reporter at the House of Commons for a Dublin newspaper

before his call to the ministry. He was instrumental in the setting up of an enquiry into the

management of the Chapmaqn Charity – a move which was not popular with some members

of the congregation.

The evidence was heard by one of Her Majesties Commissioners in the chapel

schoolroom, and the critiscm he made was that the trustees had spent too much money on

church repairs.

Worse was to come however when, in January 1891, Peden proposed a new set of

church rules designed to keep church affairs exclusively in the hands of those of strict Baptist

persuasion.

Rule 9 stated:- “The unbaptised believers desiring to come to the Lord’s table shall be

permitted to do so subject to the sanction of the church. Such communicants, however, were

not to be regarded as members or to have any privilege of attendance at church meetings or

to possess votes”.

This caused deep division within the church as some members of the congregation

were members of the Independent and Methodist churches of Harborough. As fellow Non-

conformists, they did not see why they should be debarred from playing a full part in the

Foxton church, or relegated to the role of second class Christians. This rule was also out of

step with what was happening in other local nonconformist circles where attempts were being

made to improve relations between neighboring free churches.

Thus the Foxton church was divided between the Strict Baptists who supported Peden

and the others who wanted an open communion to include all shades of non-conformity.

On Sunday 8th October, 1893, those against Peden locked him out of the church, but

on the following Sunday, his supporters broke down the door and he attempted to hold a

service. A court case was started but adjourned, and all that winter the church remained

closed with services being held in the bakehouse which was owned by a church deacon Mr

Isaac Brown.

Subscriptions declined during this period and the church committee informed Peden

that if he remained they could no longer be responsible for his stipend.

Finally, he agreed to submit the case to arbitration, and the secretary of the Baptist

Union, Rev. Dr. Glover heard all parties in the schoolroom of the Harborough Baptist

Church, and came down in favour of the chapel committee. Thus, early in 1894, Peden

terminated his ministry at Foxton. The church was re-opened for worship in March of that

year, but the division had caused about two-thirds of the Sunday School scholars and a

number of the congregation to drift away – seriously weakening the cause.

The story from this point onwards is one of decline. In 1906, the total membership

had fallen to thirteen, and although from time to time special services such as Sunday School

Anniversaries and summer gatherings attracted fairly large congregations, the general trend

towards decline continued. During the inter-war years, there was a continued falling away in

church attendance. Although Sunday School numbers kept up quite well, most of the children

did not keep up their church-going into adult life.

In 1930, the then pastor, Rev. Hunt, decided to formally relax the rule about baptism,

so allowing people to receive “the right hand of fellowship” and become members of the

church by profession of faith.

In the general religious decline the Nonconformists tended to suffer more than the

Anglicans. Their strict code on such matters as teetotalism and the continuing emphasis on

the sermon as the central part of public worship did not appeal to young people who, in a fast

changing society, had other attractions to occupy their weekends.

In 1936, the then church secretary, Mr Harry Marvell, made the following entry in the

church book:- “It is to be regretted that the scholars still leave us but, as things are today,

there is no help for it as it all depends on the influence at home and on the continued

indifference to the claims of the Sabbath”.

However, the early 1930s saw an end to the historic divide between Church and

Chapel members in Foxton with close co-operation and friendship between the then Vicar,

Rev. W.T. Cary and the Pastor, Rev. H.D. Hunt. They took part together in the Annual

Armistice Day Commemoration Service in the parish church, which held the village War

Memorial, with the Vicar leading the service and the Pastor giving the address. Although he

only remained in Foxton for a few years until he retired to Ramsgate in 1934, it was recorded

that the period of Rev. Hunt’s ministry was a very happy one for the village.

The last resident pastor was Rev. G.J. Johnson whose pastorate lasted from 1936 to

1957. The church finally dwindled to a membership of five and closed in August 1980 with

the Chapel and The Manse being sold to become private residences.