Baptist Records, Hetton-le-Hole

[Billy Fish]

Does anyone know whether there was a  Baptist Community active in Hetton-le-Hole during the 1850's and if so are any records available?

[stanmapstone]

In the 1851 Directory there is only a Primitive Methodist Chapel

Stan

[Wearsider]

In 'Fish in a tree', Chapter 10, that you can read on Bill Greenwell's website at http://www.billgreenwell.com/fish_tree/chapter_ten.htm there is a note that William Greatrex founded a new Baptist Community at Hetton-le-Hole some time in the early 1800s and that in 1836 four people in their early twenties were baptised.

Wearsider. 

[Billy Fish]

Thanks to both of you.
I'd seen Bill Greenwells site on the internet last week when I was doing a google search. That was the only site that I could find but after reading it it loooked like he has used some resource materials to do his research, I was wondering whether any of this was online anywhere or better still the birth and marriage registers for the Hetton Baptists.

[BillG]

The information I found was in the Sunderland Sans Street Baptist History/ Register, although there are one or two references to the Hetton Baptists in trade directories. Nothing online, I'm afraid (and I think the Sans Street records have been archived somewhere since). I don't think there was a burial ground for the Hetton Baptists at the outset. And I haven't come across any BMD records - they may well have used the local church. My great x 4 grandfather married at Holy Trinity in Sunderland, even though he was a Baptist in Sans St at the time.

Bill

[stanmapstone]

From 1753 until the introduction of Civil Registration from 1st July 1837, a legally valid marriage had to be in a C of E church, except for Quakers and Jews.

Stan

[BillG]

Yes, you're quite right of course. Silly thing for me to say.

When I say on my site that four people were baptised:

In 1836, four people in their early twenties are baptised: Robert Greenwell, George Greenwell, Ann Henderson, Jane Redman - which is to say, the first George Greenwell's sons, and their wives-to-be.

I mean that they were baptised as adults in Sunderland at Sans Street, not in Hetton. Sorry for any confusion. Hostility to infant baptism was a defining characteristic of Baptists, of course.

Bill

[BillG]

William Greatrex is listed in Pemberton Street in 1841, aged 68, in Hetton-le-Hole. So it would seem quite likely that there was still a small Baptist community there.

Mckenzie & Ross (1834) say (under 'Hetton Township') 'In the village there are four places of worship, belonging to the Baptists, and the Wesleyan, Primitive, and Kilhamite Methodists.'

Bill

[Billy Fish]

Thanks for the replies Bill and welcome to RootsChat!

I've been trying to find further information on the Wilkinson family who moved to Hetton in the 1840's from the Notts/ Derby area where they appear to have been keen Baptists.

I've got all the family details from Census records but have been unable to find any BMD details from Church records. It's a shame there's no online records as I don't live in the North East anymore (moved back to the ancestral roots in the east midlands!) Establishing the maiden names of wives is a bit of a chore when there's various options on freeBMD and no back up data online.

Coincidently the family were living in Pemberton Street in the 1861 Census, twenty years after William Greatrex was there!