Search Britain, Baptist Handbooks 1832-1955 Browse

The Baptist Union of Great Britain traces its origins back to 1813 when an organisation was set up by 45 Particular Baptist churches. Particular Baptists grew from the dissenting Puritan movement in the seventeenth century, becoming known as the Reformed Baptists in 1630. Believing in the Calvinist doctrine of particular redemption, which holds that Christ died for the sins of the elect alone, in 1832 the Particular Baptists reorganised to include the New Connection of General Baptists to form the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

With the belief that Christ died for all humanity, the General Baptists combined with the Particular Baptists through the Baptist Union of Great Britain to publish together the Baptist Handbooks, although in the early years of the publication the guides were published under different names, such as ‘A Manual of the Baptist Denomination.’

By the 1860s publications were printed annually as the Baptist Handbook. The handbooks provided a comprehensive guide to the Baptist denomination in Britain, Ireland and beyond. For example, within the pages of the Baptist Handbooks you can find:
<ul>
<li>Lists of Baptist churches in Great Britain and Ireland, with details of the pastor and secretary attached to each church </li>
<li>Lists of Baptist ministers </li>
<li>Lists of Baptist lay preachers </li>
<li>Lists of Baptist associations in Great Britain and Ireland, with details of the secretary and letter writer attached to each association </li>
<li>Obituaries of Baptist ministers and missionaries </li>
<li>Names of officers and committee members associated with the Baptist Union of Great Britain </li>
<li>Lists of overseas missions, with details of the minister attached to each mission </li>
<li>Photographs of those associated with the Baptist Union of Great Britain</li>
</ul>
Original copies of the Baptist Handbooks are held at the Angus Library and Archive, Regent’s Park College, Oxford. The Angus Library and Archive holds the leading collection of Baptist history and heritage worldwide, and it is home to the Baptist Union of Great Britain’s library and archive.

Edith Gates was the first woman ordained pastor in the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Edith took up her pastorate at Little Tew and Cleverley, Oxfordshire, in 1918, before being ordained in 1922. Follow her long career at Little Tew and Cleverley, which ended in her retirement in 1950, through the pages of the Baptist Handbooks.

The digitisation of the Baptist Handbooks has been made possible thanks to our partnership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Angus Library and Archive, Regent's Park College, Oxford.