The Rev. Samuel Oughton Baptist missionary to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 1836-1866, and colleague of William Knibb

William Knibb

William Knibb , English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica, is chiefly known for his work to free slaves.-Missionary in Jamaica:...

 was an ardent slavery abolitionist who became an outspoken advocate of black labour rights in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 during the gradual abolition of slavery in the late 1830s and thereafter. He was briefly imprisoned in Jamaica, during 1840. Originally associated with James Sherman's

James Sherman (minister)

The Rev. James Sherman , was a Congregationalist and abolitionist; a popular preacher at The Castle Street Chapel in Reading from 1821 to 1836 and the Surrey Chapel, Blackfriars, London from 1836-54. He was successor at the Surrey Chapel to Rowland Hill...

 Independent Congregational

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 Surrey Chapel

Surrey Chapel

The Surrey Chapel was an independent Methodist and Congregational church established in Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London on 8 June 1783 by the Rev. Rowland Hill. His work was continued in 1833 by the Congregational pastor Rev. James Sherman, and in 1854 by Rev. Newman Hall. The chapel's design...

, and from time to time invited back by Sherman, he was closely associated with the Baptists in Jamaica, who were largely organised along Congregational lines and amongst the predominantly African-Caribbean population, following their founding by George Lisle

George Lisle (Baptist)

George Liele Liele, or Leile, or George Sharp was an African American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of the First African Baptist Church, in Savannah, Georgia . He became the first American missionary, leaving in 1782 for Jamaica; this is twenty years before Adoniram Judson...

 a former slave from America.

Early life in Jamaica

Samuel Oughton's work for the Baptist Missionary Society

Baptist Missionary Society

rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...

 in Jamaica, soon became well known. Arriving in 1836 from the Surrey Chapel in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, his posting was initially to help Thomas Burchell

Thomas Burchell

Thomas Burchell was a leading Baptist missionary and slavery abolitionist in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century. It is not uncommon for Jamaican parents to name their children 'Burchell'; indeed it is almost as popular a Christian name as Manley.Burchell, along with James Phillippo , William...

, a relative by marriage. However, by 1839 he was invited by the largely African congregation in Kingston to be their pastor at the prominent East Queen Street chapel.

This was a key time in the emancipation of Jamaican slaves. After 'legal abolition' began in Jamaica with the home government's Emancipation Act of 1833, conditions were little better for many Africans in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 for some decades; particularly under the dreaded 'indentured apprenticeship' system of forced labour which was taken to extremes by the Planters, some masters and their overseers compelling the use of treadmills.

The abuses of indentured apprenticeship were finally abolished on 1 August 1838, following a campaign led by Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge , son of a farmer in Gloucestershire, was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of...

, with support from the Baptists, the Anti-Slavery Society

Anti-Slavery Society

The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...

, and longstanding abolitionists such as William Allen

William Allen (Quaker)

William Allen FRS, FLS was an English scientist and philanthropist who opposed slavery and engaged in schemes of social and penal improvement in early nineteenth century England.-Early life:...

. Even so, emancipation was no paradise; the Planters frequently harassed tenants (see Free Villages

Free Villages

Free Villages is the term used for Caribbean settlements, particularly in Jamaica, founded in the 1830s and 1840s independent of the control of plantation owners and other major estates.-Pioneering the concept:...

, and sought to drive down wages when they could. Oughton once famously remarked to his flock in the parish of Hanover:
For a time (during 1840) he was imprisoned by the Jamaican authorities for his outspoken views against liberties being taken by magistrates against African women. Back in Britain, Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge , son of a farmer in Gloucestershire, was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of...

 of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society passed on Oughton's descriptions of the horrendous labour practices suffered by Africans in Jamaica, which Oughton continued to communicate whilst in prison. Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge

Joseph Sturge , son of a farmer in Gloucestershire, was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of...

 made representations to the Colonial Office on his behalf and Samuel Oughton was eventually discharged after a period released on bail. He records simple but ardent expressions of delight and affection from our poor dear people who welcomed him back to East Queen Street chapel with renewed hope. In 1841 Oughton was able to write my affection for the people, and theirs for me, seems to grow stronger by the day.

The Baptist returns at about this date show Samuel Oughton, assisted by George Rowse, to be responsible for three 'sub stations', two 'day schools', two 'Sunday schools', and, besides Rowse, two further teachers - Miss Simpson, and W.Spraggs.

Oughton's moral code

In the 1844 elections Oughton was active in promoting African candidates, and most of his congregation were of African origin. He stayed at East Queen Street chapel as pastor for the next twenty years, although not without incident since he promoted a form of moral code that he applied to everyone, including the emancipated citizens whose status he had been invited to improve.

The legal status of one Baptist chapel was often slightly different from another since they had grown up in many ways. At one time George Lisle

George Lisle

Sir George Lisle was a Royalist leader in the English Civil War. Lisle's execution without trial, following the siege of Colchester, came to be regarded as a serious miscarriage of justice and Lisle himself was seen as a martyr to the Royalist cause.The known facts suggest that Lisle came from...

's chapel was his personal responsibility, and he was imprisoned for an outstanding debt on its construction. The more appropriate scheme of ownership was through some form of trust deed. Whilst Oughton supported the congregation's right to appoint trustees at one Chapel where this issue arose, the wish of his own congregation to do likewise at the East Queen Street Chapel became a cause of controversy since it had a different constitution. Oughton also faced a problem because all its trustees but one had died before dutifully appointing others, and so it became inquorate. Just as he had exposed wrongdoing by the magistrates, and been prepared to suffer imprisonment for a time, he would not be party to illegal ownership arrangements at his chapel whatever the price. A number of his congregation would have been happy with this however, and put pressure on the remaining trustee to exceed his legal authority. Oughton's firm moral standards upset them; he again had to pay the price of unpopularity, just as when he had upset sections of the white population earlier.

In the 1860s Oughton departed from religion and education slightly, though in his inimitable moralistic way. He wrote two books in which he tried to promote a theory, originally popular with some French and English thinkers in 'The Enlightenment' period, that a population must 'want' artificial things to create drive and hard work, and therefore increasing wealth. In such a seductively warm and fertile island as Jamaica, Oughton contended, this might not happen; people might content themselves after reaching a certain standard of living.

The Jamaican Baptists and emancipation

The Baptist missions on Jamaica were closely involved in emancipation and reform. The mission was founded by the African George Lisle

George Lisle (Baptist)

George Liele Liele, or Leile, or George Sharp was an African American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of the First African Baptist Church, in Savannah, Georgia . He became the first American missionary, leaving in 1782 for Jamaica; this is twenty years before Adoniram Judson...

 a former slave from America. Their churches on Jamaica promoted the slave Samuel Sharpe

Samuel Sharpe

Samuel 'Sam' Sharpe, or Sharp, National Hero of Jamaica was the slave leader behind the Jamaican Baptist War slave rebellion. Samuel Sharpe was born in the parish of St. James...

 (1801-32) to Deacon at the Burchell Baptist Church

Thomas Burchell

Thomas Burchell was a leading Baptist missionary and slavery abolitionist in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century. It is not uncommon for Jamaican parents to name their children 'Burchell'; indeed it is almost as popular a Christian name as Manley.Burchell, along with James Phillippo , William...

 in Montego Bay, and later the African Paul Bogle

Paul Bogle

Paul Bogle was a Jamaican Baptist deacon and is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay Protests, which agitated for justice and fair treatment for all in Jamaica. Leading the Morant Bay rebellion, he was captured and hanged on October 24,1865 in the Morant Bay Court...

 (1822-1865), believed to have been born free, to Deacon in Stony Gut, north of Morant Bay.

There was progress, too in encouraging political and social involvement of women. Positions of responsibility such as assistant class leader, class leader, and above, were open to all who had the necessary reading and writing skills; men and women. One of the Baptist's cherished principles was of church self-government in which everyone was entitled to vote in elections and petitioning, which provided the first opportunity for many in the community to have their voice heard. This was one of the earliest routes through which the labouring poor began to have political influence. Progress was sometimes painfully slow, however, particularly for those who sought immediate self-government. At Samuel Oughton's chapel, Eleanor Vickars, an African assistant class-leader whose father is believed to have been a deacon, successfully stood for election as class-leader but did not meet the literacy requirement necessary for confirmation of her appointment. Samuel Oughton had to decide between the Baptist's cherished principles of self-government or upholding the literacy entry requirements arising from the hope that education would be 'the great leveller'. In the event, he avoided setting a precedent and called for both beliefs to be upheld equally, a route that did successfully lead to self-determination by African congregations.

It has been noted that female literacy was strongly encouraged by the Baptist Missionary Society

Baptist Missionary Society

rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...

. In 1841 the Baptist Herald and Friend of Africa was able to report thirty-six female teachers and over 2,000 girls in day schools. Back in Britain a training school for female teachers was also established; at Kettering

Kettering

Kettering is a market town in the Borough of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It is situated about from London. Kettering is mainly situated on the west side of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene which meets at Wellingborough...

.

Burial

Samuel Oughton's second wife, Sarah (1819-1882), was sister of the wealthy British doctor and baptist, Nathaniel Rogers MD

Nathaniel Rogers

Nathaniel Rogers M.D. , was a doctor of medicine who qualified at Edinburgh University in 1832 and practiced in Malton, Yorkshire in his early career, later moving to London and then, during semi-retirement spent his winter seasons at Exeter. He is known more widely as the donor of stained glass...

. Samuel Oughton died in London in December 1881 and is buried along with Sarah, each with a memorial plaque, in the Rogers' Family Mausoleum at Abney Park Cemetery

Abney Park Cemetery

Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and...

 in Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

. Samuel's first wife was Hannah, a niece of Hester Burchell who was the wife of Thomas Burchell

Thomas Burchell

Thomas Burchell was a leading Baptist missionary and slavery abolitionist in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century. It is not uncommon for Jamaican parents to name their children 'Burchell'; indeed it is almost as popular a Christian name as Manley.Burchell, along with James Phillippo , William...

.