Congregationalism in Flitwick

Edwin Welch researched the history of registrations in Bedfordshire for Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 75 Bedfordshire Chapels and Meeting Houses [published in 1996] and found the that in October 1813 the dwelling house occupied by Joseph Dillingham at Daniel [Denel] End was registered by Samuel Hobson of Maulden, minister, Richard Goodman and William Howson of Flitwick. Hobson was a Congregational minister trained at Newport Pagnell Academy [Buckinghamshire] [ABN1/1; ABN2/157]. Evidence from the religious census of 1851 shows, however, that, by then, the meeting was for Baptists, with whom Congregationalists were close.

The house of James Jellious or Jellis was registered in March 1821 by Jellious himself, Thomas Hobbs, William Howson and Jeremiah James. Howson’s presence suggests this was a new location for a Congregationalist meeting, perhaps replacing Joseph Dillingham's house. In 1827 the house of Jeremiah James of Denel End was registered by James himself, William Housand [i.e. Howson] and Richard Goodman [ABN1/2, ABN2/226 and ABN3/3]. By the time of the 1851 religious census there seems to have been no Congregationalist church in Flitwick.