Baptist biography: the glaring failure of Baptist writing

A modern rendition of Andrew Gifford, Sr. (1641/2-1721) based on the portrait of Gifford in Cairns Road Baptist Church, Bristol.

I recently spent 8 to 10 days researching the biography of Andrew Gifford Sr., who has been described as “the Apostle of the West,” that is, the West Country of England.¹

Converted in May of 1658, he was baptized in June of the following year and subsequently became a member of the Pithay Church in Bristol. ² His long preaching ministry, one of sixty years, began two years later in 1661, though he was not called to the pastorate of the Pithay congregation until 1677. Intrepid in his devotion to preaching the gospel, he planted and ministered to numerous congregations throughout the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, and Gloucestershire. And this against the backdrop of state persecution when he and his fellow Baptists, along with other children of the Puritans, were heavily persecuted by the state church.

What struck me as I was putting his bio together was the fact that there is no biography of such a remarkable figure. I had to piece together a biography from a variety of sources.³

When it comes to biography, Baptist scholarship has been focused on three men: John Bunyan, William Carey, and C.H. Spurgeon. I understand why the focus has landed on these three individuals: Bunyan’s ever-popular Pilgrim’;s Progress demanded a life of the author. And we have been flooded with them. William Carey, the pioneer missionary, again brought forth a deluge of bios (I have close to 80 of them—and even wrote one myself, though seeking to set him in the context of his friends and co-workers). And CH Spurgeon, the quintessential Baptist preacher, has again been the subject of innumerable biographies.

This focus on these celebrated figures, while fully understandable, has consumed authorial energy, some of which could have been better spent elsewhere.

I have devoted the past twenty-five years to the life and works of Andrew Fuller. We need the same for John Gill. There is a small renaissance of works about him, but a giant like Gill demands a critical biography (there is none) and a critical edition of at least his major works.

Then, what about Benjamin Keach: we do have an excellent biography by Austin Walker, but no critical edition of his works.

And what of Robert Hall, the celebrated Regency preacher? No biography, no critical edition.

Other biographies that are needed: William Kiffen, the Stennetts, Anne Dutton, Anne Steele, John Collett Ryland, Benjmain Beddome, Caleb Evans, Abraham Booth, Joseph Kinghorn, William Steadman, John Fawcett, Joshua Marshman. That is only the tip of the iceberg.

Instead of retelling old, familiar stories, we need Baptist authors to break fresh ground and open up new vistas.

PS An addendum: in the initial post of this text, I failed to mention that there is a very fine biography of Anne Steele by J. R. Broome: see his A Bruised Reed: Anne Steele, Her Life and Times and also a two-volume study of Benjamin Beddome by Stephen Pickles: see his Cotswold Pastor and Baptist Hymn Writer: The Life and Times of Benjamin Beddome (1718–1795) and Cotswold Pastor and Baptist Hymn Writer: The Divinity of Benjamin Beddome (the latter just released).

1. Joseph Ivimey gave him this epithet: History of the English Baptists, 2:546.

2. For the dates, see John Rippon, A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Reverend Andrew Gifford, D.D. (London: T, Wilkins, 1784), 34, note *.

3. For the details of his life, see Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English Baptists (London, 1814), 2:541–552; [Stephen A. Swaine,] “The Gifford Remains,” The Baptist Magazine 79 (1887): 149‒154, 210‒214, 300‒306, 349‒353; William Doel, Twenty Golden Candlestcks! Or A History of Baptist Nonconformity in Western Wiltshire (1890, Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Wiltshire County Council Libraries and Heritage; Wiltshire Family History Society, 2005), 26‒27, 76‒80; L. G. Champion, Farthing Rushlight: The Story of Andrew Gifford 1700‒1784 (London: Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 2‒10; Robert W. Oliver, “Prologue: Andrew Gifford” in his The Strict Baptist Chapels of England: Volume 5: The Chapels of Wiltshire and the West (London: The Fauconberg Press foe the Strict Baptist Historical Society, 1968), 11‒14; Roger Hayden, “Broadmead, Bristol in the Seventeenth Century,” The Baptist Quarterly 23.8 (October 1970): 350‒351; R. G. Eaves, “Gifford, Andrew” in Biographical Dictionary of British Radicals in the Seventeenth Century: Volume II: G-O, ed. Richard L. Greaves and Robert Zaller (Brighton, Susses: The Harvester Press, 1983), 8‒9; Kenneth Morgan, ed., “The John Evans Listr of Dissenting Congregation and Ministers in Bristol, 1715‒1729” in Reformation and Revival in Eighteenth-Century Bristol, ed. Jonathan Barry and Kenneth Morgan, Bristol Record Society’s Publications, vol. 45 (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton Publishing for the Bristol record Society, 1994), 73, note 15.