William Bampton

William Bampton (1787–1830), along with James Peggs, was the first missionary to be sent out by the English General Baptists Missionary Society. Bampton and Peggs served in Cuttack, Orissa (present Odisha) in India. Bampton was the first British Baptist missionary to have started a new station at Puri, Orissa -Baptist Mission was established at Puri, largely due to the efforts of Claudius Buchanan, Vice-Provost of the Fort William College, who visited the town in 1806 - he strongly advocated for an establishment of some Christian institution near the temple, Juggernauth.

Early life

William Bampton was born at Bourne Lincolnshire, in 1787. He spent his childhood at Bourne and Thurlby, a nearby village. After receiving basic education from the village school-masters, Bampton moved to Boston at the age of thirteen. Having been accustomed with his parents to attend on the ministry of Binns, then a Baptist minister at Bourne, he started to attend on the ministry of Daniel Taylor, a pastor of Boston Baptist Church; later, Bampton was baptised and joined the church. In 1808, he began preaching occasionally at Swineshead. From 1809, with superintendence of the affairs of church experience at Boston, Bampton moved to Sutterton in 1811 to work in the ministry as an assistant minister. After three years at Sutterton, he became minister at a Baptist church in Goverton, a village nearby to Sutterton. Bampton sailed to India on 29 May 1821 along with William Ward, James Peggs, fellow-missionary and student at Wisbech General Baptist Academy (now Northern Baptist College), and their wives.

Between 1828 and 1829, he and his wife spent most of their time in Calcutta, mostly due to ill-health; returned to Puri in autumn of 1829, as his health didn't improve [due to diarrhoea], he died on 17 December 1830 at Puri.