friar lane baptist chapel: site of william carey's ... · friar lane baptist chapel: site of...

Friar Lane Baptist Chapel: Site of William Carey's Deathless Sermon


Nottingham, England

Friar Lane Baptist Chapel and Pulpit of William Careypen and ink drawing by William Kiddier

On Wednesday, May 30, 1792, at Friar Lane Baptist Chapel, Nottingham,

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England, William Carey delivered an epoch-making sermon based on Isaiah 54:2-3:

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

In this sermon to the Northamptonshire Baptist Association, Carey called on his Baptist colleagues to enlarge its tent through missionary outreach to the heathen. With this sermon, the catalyst for the establishment of a Baptist mission society became an actuality. Earlier in the spring of 1792, Carey had published his pamphlet An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (Leicester: Ann Ireland, 1792), in which he presented an argument in support of Christians' duty to promote missionary efforts to peoples who had not heard the Christian message. In 1836, Eustace Carey said of his uncle William and the sermon, "he proceeded to take up the spirit of the passage in two exhortations . . . 1. Expect great things from God; 2. Attempt great things for God." For the minutes of this meeting, see "Minutes of the Northamptonshire Association, Assembled at Nottingham, May 29, 30, 31, 1792," in The Baptist Annual Register, for 1790, 1791, 1792, and Part of 1793, ed. John Rippon (London, 1793), 418 (record of sermon), 419 (record of plan to establish a missionary society). The history of the Friar Lane Baptist Chapel building holds its own charming story. Now destroyed, the site where the chapel sat originally was home to Baptists as early as the mid-17th century. By 1724, a Baptist layman, George Eaton, purchased the building for ₤100. Later in 1776, the building was enlarged at a cost of ₤175 in order to accommodate the growing numbers of Baptists in Nottingham. The last service the Baptists held in the chapel occurred on August 13, 1815; there number included 201 people who moved to a chapel in George Street. The Scotch Baptists purchased the Friar Lane building. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the building continued to be used as a meeting house for Baptists, and it came into use as a shop for an antiquities dealer. In February, 1903, an iron plaque was affixed to the building as a reminder of William Carey's sermon that changed Protestant Christianity, and all Baptist worship stopped on the site by 1906 when the building was on the verge of collapse. In 1931, a Theosophical Hall opened on the site, and the iron plaque remained. Twenty-five


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years after the Theosophical Hall was demolished, there was a second unveiling of an iron plaque commemorating Carey's famous sermon. Following below are news articles from a variety of sources. These articles and images offer details of the Friar Lane Baptist Chapel and its significance for the life and work of William Carey.

"Lest We Forget! A Reminiscence of the Founder of Baptist Missions"The Baptist, 1904 Famous Nottingham Chapel's End--"Cradle of Modern Missions" in Friar-lane--Pulpit that Fired the WorldNottingham Journal, 28 July 1928 Newspaper Source, 1958 Guardian Journal, April 5, 1960

All Newspaper Articles

Courtesy Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham, United Kingdom

John Thomas Godfrey and James Ward. History of Friar Lane Baptist Church, Nottingham.Nottingham: H. B. Saxton, 1903.

Old Baptist Chapel, Friar Lane, 1903frontispiece Interior of Baptist Chapel, Friar Lane(this pen and ink drawing originates from Mr. William Kiddier) Discussion of William Carey and his "Deathless Sermon"Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Trustees of Friar Lane Baptist Chapel, 1814Page 53 Page 54 External Building Plaque, 1903, Commemorating Carey's Sermon--55


http://www.nottinghameveningpost.co.uk/index.jsp


Plaque Cameo

All History of Friar Lane Baptist Church, Nottingham, Images Courtesy of Nottingham City Libraries, Local Studies, Nottingham, United Kingdom

The Center for Study of the Life and Work of William Carey, D.D. (1761-1834) gratefully

acknowledgesRonald Ellis, Derby, England, for his work in retrieving and scanning all images posted on this

page.

Carey Center Home Page

Created: May 8, 2003 Modified: May 22, 2003


http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/coun/department/leisure_com/libraries/services/localstudies.asp

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An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens

An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.

in which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings,

and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, are Considered.

by

WILLIAM CAREY

(Leicester, England: Ann Ireland, 1792)

In 1792, Carey published an eighty-seven page manuscript, popularly known as his "Enquiry." The book contains an introduction, and five sections (i.e., chapters). In part as a result of this book, the "Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen" (later renamed the Baptist Missionary Society) formed itself in the home of Mrs. Beeby Wallis (the Widow Wallis House), Kettering, England, on October 2, 1792.

In attendance were fourteen people, including William Carey, Leicester; John Ryland, Northampton; Reynold Hogg, Thrapstone; John Sutcliff, Olney; Andrew Fuller, Kettering; Abraham Greenwood, Oakham; Edward Sharman, Cottisbrook; Samuel Pearce, Birmingham; Joseph Timms, Kettering; Joshua Burton, Foxton; Thomas Blundel, Arnsby; William Heighton, Roade; John Ayres, Braybrook; and William Staughton, Bristol; the last of whom was a theological student at Bristol Academy (Bristol Baptist College), Bristol, England.

In the Introduction of the Enquiry, Carey sets forth the question of

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An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens

Carey Center Home Page

Created: December 19, 2000 Updated: March 5, 2003

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Memoir of William Carey, D.D.

Eustace Carey

Memoir of William Carey, D.D.: Late Missionary to Bengal;

Professor of Oriental Languages in the College of Fort William, Calcutta.

With an Introductory Essay by Francis Wayland, D.D.,

President of Brown University. Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1836.

Eustace Carey was a nephew of William Carey. The Baptist Missionary Society sponsored Eustace's missionary service to India, 1814-1824. The Baptist Missionary Society requested that Eustace Carey write the Memoir "from my relationship to Dr. Carey, and from my supposed intimate conversancy with the history of their Eastern Mission" (Preface, p. iii). Eustace Carey goes on to say that he has "endeavored, throughout the work, to exhibit the Christian and the missionary, rather than the philosopher and the scholar" (Preface, p. iii). Included in the Memoir is William Carey's "Journal" and numerous letters that Carey sent to a diverse group of family, friends, and supporters. Although Eustace Carey quotes the "Journal" and the letters, he also interweaves into the narrative his own unique interpretation of William Carey. This book was the first American memoir of William Carey's life, highlighted by Dr. Francis Wayland's introductory essay. Wayland, a leading Baptist in America, was pastor of First Baptist Church, Boston, Massachusetts, 1821-1826. The next year, he went to Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and in addition to teaching philosophy, he served as the university's fourth president (1827-1855). For a brief

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