I was recently surprised to find a number of Pagenton siblings born in Malmesbury in the last decades of the 18th century were baptised in the Moravian Church. An investigation established that there was a small Moravian community in Malmesbury. The Church, in disrepair, is currently subject to restoration and will become part of the Athelstan Museum.
The Moravian movement is the oldest free church in northern Europe, and was founded in Bohemia and Moravia in 1457. In 1742 John Cennick, a follower of George Whitefield and who knew the Wesleys in Bristol, spent 1740 – 45 as an itinerant preacher in North Wiltshire, establishing a religious society in Malmesbury and invited the Moravian Brethren to take charge of the congregation in 1745.
Advertisements
