The Minor Family of Somerset

REFN: 291L-08
Both John King, Senior andJohn King, Junior carried on the busin
ess of shag weaving by had looms at Lane House in additon to loo
King afterthe small farm. I have not information regarding th
e local religious revivalwhich appears to have taken place amon
gst the Baptists about the year 1783,nor what influence apparen
tly led some o the King family to forsake the Parish Church an
d assist in the Movement which eventually led tothe found ing o
fthe Butts Green Baptist Chapel, Warley. Before that Chapel wa
s built a placefor meeting was purchased at St. Alban's Roils H
ead Road, Warley in 1783. The site of this building may still b
e seen on the North side of the road between Roils Head Farm an
d Camp End. Isaac King, presumably the yeoman, advancea sum o
f 35 pound towards the purchase, and his name also appears i
n a subscription list for fitting up the rooms, along with the n
ames of John King Senior, and his wife Mary, and others.
On march 10 1784, John King, senior wroteto the Rev John Johnso
n of Liverpool, requesting tobe baptised and the following is th
e substance of Mr. Johnson's reply. Rev. John Johnson Liverpool
, April 13 1784.
Dear Sir, Yours of March 20 I received and have perused. I fin
d you have a desire to be baptised, and that I should baptise yo
u. It is amost serious concern for a soul to confess the grea
t and glorious I AM; to profess to be a saint, a new creature, b
orn of God; to claim a relation to, and union with the Son of Go
d. I am always willing to encourage any to followthe Lamb, bu
t I am never forward to urge any person thereunto. I do not reme
mber in my whole life that I ever did persuade any person to b
e baptised, and without it, it would be a very great profanatio
n to come to the other ordinances. I have refused som, and so
m I have deferred o which I never did repent. But considering t
he few that I have baptised, there have been many thatI have ca
use to repent that I did baptise them, which makes me chuse to b
eexceeding cautious. It is a rare thing to find one that has r
eceived the grace of God in truth. You appear to have had ddp c
ompuntion for sin, but has it been that repentance from dead wor
ks which, is the gift of god unto life, or only anguish of consc
ients for some external pollution? You speak of peaceof consci
ence which you enjoy in Christ, against which I have no objectio
n, provided that it be according to the wise man described in Lu
ke 6:47-48,
Iobserve you describe the design of the ordinances of Christ i
n the theory, but has your soul been intreodueced into the lif
e of these things? The matteris not so much what the ordinance
s may represent, but wheter I come to them in the true spirit o
f the things thereby signified.
In baptism I confess thesinfulness of all my past life, and tha
t the Lord has now opened mine eyes and changed my heart. I con
fess the Lord Jesus Christ as the alone Holy One ofGod, Who i
s all sufficient to take away my guilt and enable me to walk wit
h God the remaining part of my Days. I give my whole self to th
e Lord that He in everything may be my God and that I may be Hi
s child. ....
Butts GreenChapel was built in 1805, the money being raised par
tly by subscription andpartly by a loan from James Bradley of H
alifax. The first deed conveying theproperty to Trustees was e
xecuted in 1831, but thedebt on the building was not entirely cl
eared off until 1847. Amongst Orpah King's papers was a drafto
f instruction to Mr. G. Edwards with regard to the drawing of th
e first Trust deed of which the following is an abstract; "Where
as an agreement has been made between John King, senior of Midgl
ey, shag maker, Joseph Laycock of Warley, farmer, John Chamber
s of Warley cotton manufacturer. John King, juniorof Midgley sh
ag maker, Mary Harrison of the same place spinster, and Isaac Tu
rner of Halifax, finisher of worsted and woolen