A Yorkshire Story

Abstract

"EBENEZER Baptist Church, Scarborough, possesses among its records an autobiographical fragment prepared by its first· pastor, William Hague, in 1816, when he was 79 years of age. What follows is based upon this account (a copy of which was kindly lent to me by Mr. R. C. Peart), with some supplementary information from a number of other sources. Personal stories of this kind are the stuff out of which history is wrought, and they frequently show that some of the accepted generalisations are not quite accurate. The eighteenth century was certainly not as dead religiously as has sometimes been suggested. Nor was Baptist extension confined to the New Connexion and the Northampton Association."