The minute quoted above is also interesting because it contains the first mention of James Spershott, later to become Pastor and writer of the famous ‘Memoirs’ of Chichester.⁹ James, the second son of Charles and Mary Spershott of Shopwyke Manor Farm, Oving, was born in 1710, so he was only 34 when elected as a Deacon at Eastgate Chapel.

Matthew Austen’s pastorate lasted 12 years and an entry in the Church Book on Monday, April 19, 1756 records that since the death of “our most worthy Pastor we had been in an unsettled state, but that we may again form ourselves into a becoming order and enjoy the advantages of a regular Church, yesterday after Divine Service, a Church Meeting was appointed for this day.”¹⁰ They met in the presence of “our worthy Revd. Friend and Messenger of the Churches, Mr. John Geere of Farnham, and unanimously chose Mr. James Spershott and Mr. Isaac Mott to be joint Pastors.” They appointed Mr. James Dearling, Mr. Thomas Geere, Messrs. William and George Smith and Mr. James Drinkwater “to wait on them with this proceeding of the Church, and entreat them to accept the same.” The names of about 52 members follow the Minute.

James Spershott and Isaac Mott obviously accepted the decision of the Church, for on 9th August, 1756, they were ordained Joint Pastors by Mr. Robert Pyall and Mr. Thomas Harrison, Messengers, and “signed by divers of the members.” The Church prospered under these pastors and membership had grown to 141 (36% male, 64% female) by 1763.

In his ‘Memoirs’, Spershott records that on 31st March, 1766, he was living with his wife Martha “in the Manor House of Rumbalds Whyke, close adjoyning the Lavant, near the East Gate of the City of Chichester.” Martha was the daughter of John Smith, one of the three Smith brothers of Chichester. Her grandfather, W. Smith, had been Pastor of Eastgate Chapel from 1714 to 1719, combining this with the trades of barber and cooper. His three sons (William, 1707-64, George, 1713-76 and John (Martha’s father) 1717-64) were nationally famous artists in the mid and later eighteenth century and sometimes called ‘the Sussex Claudes.’¹¹

Spershott’s reference to living ‘close adjoyning the Lavant near the East Gate’ is also of significance. The rediscovery of the truth of believers’ baptism in the 17th Century resulted in the baptising (usually by total immersion) of adults and it was strange for a Baptist Chapel to be built without a baptistry. But who needs a baptistry when a river runs outside your Chapel? For the Lavant stream ran in the open at that time and what better place to baptise new Christians, than in a stream at your doors?

Spershott speaks of the Lavant flooding on a number of occasions (1713, 1763, 1771). Of 1771, he says “The new bridge built over the Lavant without the East Gate before which the water lie open, spread wide and, when the springs were high, flow’d (i.e flooded), from within a few yards of East Gate into the Hornet as far as the Old Poor House, and was so deep in the current that I have seen it above the beds of the waggons. There was then only a narrow bridge of two stone arches from the Hornet to the Pancras for horse and foot people.”¹²

Mr. Mott went from Eastgate Chapel to Ditchling, in 1767; both he and James Spershott petitioned in 1773 for the repeal of the penal laws.¹³

A parcel of land called Dell Hole, in St. Peter the Great, Chichester (near the present Spitalfields Lane), first identified in 1678, was purchased by the General Baptist Society of Chichester in February, 1768. The Conveyance of 26,27 February of that year was “from James Dearling of Chichester, gent., and Thomas Geere of Chichester, mercer, to James Spershott, Minister of the General Baptist Society in Chichester, George Smith, landscape painter, Joseph Randall of Kingsham, gent., Anthony Chitty of Nutbourne, merchant, Richard Drinkwater of Chichester, surgeon, James Austen of St. Pancras, Chichester, grocer, Stephen Austen of the Hornet, Chichester, malster, John Dawes of Chichester, ironmonger and William Wooldridge of St. Pancras, Chichester, common brewer.”¹⁴ It is not clear why the General Baptists purchased Dell Hole field, but presumably it was for the annual income derived from the leasing of it. In September, 1797 it was leased for 14 years “at the annual rent of £20” to James Pritchard of Chichester, soapboiler, but the records seem silent from then until 1887-1892, when there was correspondence concerning the tenancy, resulting in a tenancy agreement in December, 1890 with George Morley of Chichester, market gardener and in March, 1904 with Edmund Turner of Chichester, builder, an agreement which was renewed in March, 1907. Finally a Report and Valuation was made by Stride & Co. on 29th March, 1928.¹⁵

A Church Book dating from 1763 to 1804¹⁶ gives an account of how the profits arising from the leasing of Dell Hole field were disposed of, viz “a lease being let to Mr. John Dearling for the term of 21 years commencing from the feast of St. Thomas 1767 at the yearly rent of 8 guineas, so allowing for King’s Tax, the next £8 being received by the trustees was given to their minister and pastor, Mr. James Spershott, 1767, 1769 to 1788.”

John Caffyn (Sussex Believers p.87) says that William Evershed, co-founder of the Billingshurst General Baptist Chapel, “often took the chair at meetings of Elders at Ditchling, Godalming and Chichester.” The Eastgate Church Book referred to above includes “Mr. Biffin’s Baptist Church Accounts,” amongst which are payments of 15s. in 1798 and 1799 to Mr. Evershed for his journey.

John Jeffrey, who was a minister at Billingshurst, writing in 1804, says of William Evershed: “..... In the year 1761 he was appointed to the office of messenger by the associated Baptist churches of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The appointment being approved by the General Assembly and not objected to on the part of Mr. Evershed he was ordained with the usual form at Horsham on the occasion.

In this situation his activity and amiable disposition rendered him extensively useful. He considered it the duty of his office to endeavour to promote candour, unity and brotherly kindness in the Churches. With this very laudable intention he several times visited those which are situated in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Besides preaching at Billingshurst and Horsham he continued until his death, regularly to visit Ditchling and Lewes once in three months, and Cuckfield, Chichester, Godalming, Horley and Portsmouth, once a year. He was sixty-three years a minister, forty-four a pastor and thirty-eight a messenger ...”¹⁷

A map of Chichester dated 1769 reproduced as illustration 2 by permission of the County Record Office, shows the Eastgate Chapel as ‘Annabaptist,’ revealing how the earlier nickname had stuck.James Spershott died on 19th February, 1789 and ‘The Sussex Weekly Advertiser’ of 2nd March, 1789 recorded the death of “Mr. Sparshot, many years preacher to the Anabaptists Meeting in the City of Chichester.”

⁹The Memoirs of James Spershott (Chichester Papers No. 300) Edited by Francis W. Steer, M.A., F.S.A. 1962
¹⁰Church Book from 1744 Ibid
¹¹See Sussex Archaeological Society Newsletter, December 1984 for a brief outline of the Smith brothers.
¹²The Memoirs of James Spershott Ibid
¹³The Baptist Quarterly. Ibid
¹⁴Conveyance in West Sussex County Record Office Ref. GB1/7/42
¹⁵Records in West Sussex County Record Office.
¹⁶Challen’s Transcripts Vol. 48 Ibid
¹⁷John Jeffrey A Brief Sketch of the Life and Writings of the Rev. William Evershed May 1804. Published in part by the “The General Baptist Advocate” N°. LXXII in December 1836.