John Rippon
John Rippon [1]
an English Baptist minister of distinction, was born in Tiverton, Devonshire, April 29, 1751, and was the son of a Baptist minister. He pursued his studies at Bristol, and for many years was the successor of the Rev. Dr. Gill in the pastorate of the Baptist Church on Grange Road, Southwark. The testimony of Dr. Rippon with regard to the stand taken by the Baptist ministers of London and vicinity in the War of the Revolution is interesting. "I believe," he remarks, in a letter to Pres. Manning, of Brown University, dated May 1, 1784, "all our Baptist ministers in town except two, and most of our brethren in the country, were on the side of the Americans in the late dispute. But sorry, very sorry, were we when we heard that the college was a hospital, and the meeting houses were forsaken, and occupied for civil or martial purposes. We wept when the thirsty plains drank the blood of your departed heroes, and the shout of a king was among us when your well-fought battles were crowned with victory. And to this hour we believe that the independence of America will for a while secure the liberty of this country; but that if the continent had been reduced, Britain would not long have been free." Dr. Rippon died Dec. 17, 1836. (J.C.S.)
