▶Date of birth:  January 1794        Place of birth: Oundle, Northamptonshire

▶Father:  Thomas Haynes     Mother:

▶Spouse(s):  Sarah Burden      Date(s) of marriage:  21 July 1825     Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Congregationalist minister)

▶Lifestory: Thomas Haynes was an active Congregationalist minister who worked for many years in Boston, Lincolnshire and led Evangelical protests against Government measures when he moved to Bristol, before retiring, still contributing widely to the Church, to Cheltenham. He was born in Oundle, Northamptonshire in January 1794, from a long line of Nonconformist ancestors. He was the son of Thomas Haynes. Haynes was educated at boarding and grammar schools, and at the age of seventeen converted to the Congregational Baptist Church.

In 1814, when he was twenty, he was a member of the Independent Chapel in Fetter Lane in London, where he was involved in Sabbath-school work, the visitation of the sick, and in giving talks on religious and social matters. Intending to be ordained, he entered the theological training school at Hoxton College, and while he was there he was invited to take posts in Manchester and at Norwood in south London, but he declined these offers.

Haynes accepted the pastorate of Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1819, and was presented when his new chapel, the Independent Chapel in Grove Street was opened. Haynes remained in Boston for sixteen years, marrying in 1825 to Sarah, youngest daughter of Jos. Burden, of Boston; the couple had two daughters. He was an active pastor in Boston, known as a popular preacher, and when he came to leave in 1835 he was presented with a case of seventy-five books of divinity, history, and general literature from his grateful congregation.

He left Boston to take up the Pastoral Office at the Brunswick Chapel in Bristol. At Bristol he took a particular interest in education and social issues, in 1843 leading Bristol protests against Sir James Graham’s Factory Bill; he was also a prominent evangelical, eager to see evangelical clergy of different groups working together. As such, he heartily supported the Evangelical Alliance, attending meetings in Bristol and elsewhere.

But by 1850 his health had deteriorated and he was encouraged to leave his office as Minister. In doing so, he retired to Cheltenham, and threw himself into nonconformist activities in the town as far as he could without assuming clerical office. In 1851 he lived with his wife and daughters at 6 Keynsham Place, Cheltenham. He preached widely, at the Salem Chapel in Cheltenham, the New Baptist Chapel at Cambray when it opened, and attended numerous meetings of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Bristol and Gloucester Congregational Union, and other organisations. In the summer of 1862 he and his wife moved to 16 Priory Terrace in the town, and from there the following year they moved into Pittville, residing between 1864 and 1867 at 7 Selkirk Parade (now 59 Prestbury Road). In 1864 he conducted a marriage service at Cheltenham’s Congregationalist Chapel.

It was said of Haynes that he “preached upwards of 200 sermons in Cheltenham, Bristol, Worcester, Gloucester and elsewhere”. “In personal appearance he was commanding, his dress and bearing those of a polished gentleman; and though his manner was thought by some to be a little haughty, he was known to his friends as thoroughly cordial, kind, and faithful.”

His wife died at Bath Place in Cheltenham in 1867, and in 1871 he lodged with his daughter at 1 York Terrace; he survived his wife by many years, dying in the town at 30 The Promenade in 1883, at the age of eighty-nine.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  16 Priory Terrace, Cheltenham      Moved from Pittville to: (deceased in Cheltenham)

▶Date of death:  27 February 1883      Place of death: 30 The Promenade, Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:  3 March 1883       Place of burial: Burial Ground, Cheltenham

▶Notes:   Nonconformist 8 March 1883     ID: 8191

Contributor(s):  John Simpson