It is remarkable that the influence of the General Baptists should reach the Rector, James Sicklemore, of such a remote part of Sussex as Singleton, near Chichester, as early as 1648, and that Chichester had its first Baptist community at about that time, meeting first at a house in South Street, until the erection in 1671 of a chapel off Eastgate Square.⁵ James Sicklemore, who had been born in Heathfield in eastern Sussex in 1604, went to St. John’s College in Cambridge, where he gained a Bachelor’s Degree in 1626. There had been much Puritan influence in Cambridge and perhaps he was already questioning the baptism of infants when he became Rector of Singleton in 1638, after being a schoolmaster at Cuckfield, Sussex, and Charlwood, Surrey.

James Sicklemore was renowned for his learning and piety and objected to the maintenance of ministers by tithes levied upon the parishioners, so gave away the greater part of his income to the poor. It seems that it was in 1640 that he refused to baptise infants because after the summer in that year the records show that there was a sudden drop in these baptisms.

It is known that one Samuel Oates of the Bell Alley General Baptist Church in London was preaching in Sussex in 1645 and it has been conjectured that it was he who changed James Sicklemore’s earlier simple opposition to infant baptism, while remaining in the Church of England, to positive membership of the General Baptist church.
In 1981, Miss Jean T. de Marney of St. Albans wrote a fascinating account of the life and times of this remarkable man⁶ and she kindly donated a copy to the present Chichester Baptist Church. Extracts are included in Appendix I.

Thomas Crosby⁷ says “Tho’ after the change in his principles he continued in his parish, yet he frequently preached in other places, more particularly at Swanmore and Portsmouth ... from this beginning sprung up the two baptised congregations at Chichester and Portsmouth.” The reference to Portsmouth⁸ in Crosby’s account is of particular interest as the historical connection with Chichester was recognised 300 years later when money from Portsmouth was donated to help build a new church in Chichester and further reference is made to this in a subsequent chapter.

A manuscript dated 3rd December, 1883⁹ says, “The Baptists were a religious community in Chichester in the time of Charles II. A Col. Austin, who took part in the Rebellion and was at Chichester with the Parliamentary Force, an ancestor of Mr. Jacques, and an ancestor of Mr. Wooldridge, were of the community.”

⁵T. G. Willis. Records of Chichester 1928 P.293.
⁶Miss Jean T. de Marney. Thoughts on an Inscription in Singleton Church – James Sicklemore, 17th Century Rector 1981 (Extracts in Appendix 1) Subsequently published in “The Sussex Genealogist and Local Historian” Vol. 2 N°. 4 March 1981.
⁷Thomas Crosby. The History of the Baptists (1738-40)
⁸For accounts of the first General Baptist Church in Portsmouth (St. Thomas’s Street) see H. J. Fox ‘Pilgrimage’ 1952 and Ernest Tatford ‘Forward’ A Brief History of Tangier Road Baptist Church, Copnor, Portsmouth 1987.
⁹W. H. Challen’s Transcripts Vol. 48 Manuscript dated 3rd December 1883. Author unknown