Baptists in Cople

In 1844 the house in occupation of John Nicholson was registered by Nicholson himself, Edward C. Thomlinson, Thomas Minney and Richard Barcock [ABN1/2 and ABN2/376-377]. That this was a Baptist meeting is shown by the Ecclesiastical Census of 1851.

The census was undertaken on Sunday 30th March 1851 and included all churches, chapels and preaching-houses of every denomination was undertaken in England and Wales. The local results were published by Bedfordshire Historical Records Society in 1975 as Volume 54, edited by D.W.Bushby. The return for Cople included a Baptist Methodist meeting in a cottage, obviously a large one as it could accommodate about 50 people. The tenant of the cottage, Sarah Nicholson, reported that: "Meetings are held at different intervals varying from one to three months and then not on Sunday but on some week day". She reported average attendance in the preceding twelve months to be 50.