About Us

History of the Society

In April 1908 the Assembly of the (then) Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland unanimously resolved to “approve the proposal to form a Baptist Historical Society and trust that this important denominational work will receive practical and general support.”
    
The purpose of the society was to gather records of British and Irish Baptists, publishing Transactions of the meetings, promoting county histories and to gather members and scholars in conferences, Summer Schools and other events to reflect on Baptist history and identity primarily in the Isles, but also in the English-speaking world.

Fifty people met in Baptist Church House in Kingsgate, London, with Principal George Gould of Regent’s Park College as President and the Revd Dr W T Whitley taking the minutes and assigned to edit the Society's then publication, Transactions.

By October 1908 and the publication of the first issue of Transactions, there were 115 members. The Society developed from those first meetings and soon British and North American Colleges were subscribing to the publication.

Soon, stimulated by the Society, regional histories were appearing for the north west, in Yorkshire and in London. Whitley produced a Baptist Bibliography. There were outings to some key Baptist sites.

In 1923 a new journal, The Baptist Quarterly, was introduced and this publication continues until today, enjoying great appreciation in scholarly circles and being available in many University and College libraries and, of course, to members of the Society.  

From 1968 onwards there has been a series of Summer Schools/Summer Conferences of a residential nature with a theme and a mixture of longer papers by noted scholars, but also offering the opportunity to present shorter papers by those establishing themselves as students of Baptist history and identity.

(For a more indepth history see Faith Bowers, ‘Centennial History of the Baptist historical Society 1908-2008’, Baptist Quarterly 42 (January and April 2008).)  

The Society has also ventured into more popular publishing ventures with education packs, leaflets and, more recently a series of commissioned videos on Baptist identity.

Current membership stands at over 200 individuals and the Baptist Quarterly continues to be available around the world on subscription in both printed and electronic formats.

If you are interested in Baptist history and identity in the British isles, north America and Australasia, the Baptist Quarterly and the Baptist Historical Society present a unique community of reference and we invite you to join us.

The current president is The Revd Keith G Jones MA PhD FRHistS

A record of the officers of the society is here.