William Gadsby

GADSBY, William.  b. Attleborough, Nuneaton, 3 January 1773; d. Manchester, 27 January 1844. Gadsby came from a very poor family (his father was a road-mender), and was uneducated. He had an unsettled childhood, but was converted at the age of 17. He attended an Independent chapel at Bedworth, but then joined the Strict and Particular Baptists at Coventry, and was baptised in December 1793 at the Cow Lane chapel. He continued to work, first as a ribbon weaver and then as a stocking weaver at Hinckley, Leicestershire. He joined the Baptist church there, and, with some trepidation began to preach in 1798. His first sermon was at Bedworth, followed by others in a decrepit barn at Hinckley, and...