Baptist Members of Parliament: A Supplementary note

Abstract

First paragraph: A series of previous articles in this journal has assembled evidence about Members of Parliament who have been Baptists. A list of those who sat in parliaments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries appeared in 1980; an equivalent list for the nineteenth century, published in the following year, was followed by a fuller discussion of the role of Baptist MPs in the period 1847 - 1914; and in 1986 there appeared a list for the twentieth century. Over the years since that time, several correspondents have kindly supplied additional evidence about MPs mentioned and unmentioned in the articles, and in 2004 the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography came out with further information. The present note, which should be read in conjunction with the previous articles, is a summary of the extra material now available. It is arranged in three sections: the first catalogues the eight additional Baptist MPs who have come to light; the second section provides information on two MPs who had close Baptist connections but who properly belong with the previously published supplementary lists of supposed Baptist MPs; and the third supplies amendments to the earlier lists. Each section is divided by century. There must still be errors and omissions, but at least this note makes the series more accurate and complete.