William Brock

William Brock (1807–1875), was the first minister of Bloomsbury Chapel in Central London (1848–72), an abolitionist, biographer and supporter of missionary causes. Early years William Brock was of Dutch descent; his ancestors came to England as pilgrims or asylum seekers to escape religious oppression in Holland in the 16th century. He began working life as a watchmaker in Hertford at a shop owned by a Mr Field. He lodged nearby with a lay village pastor, whose enthusiasm tempted him to try his skill in such voluntary pastoral work. In due course, Brock gave up his watch-making to become a pastor. He applied to the Baptist College, Stepney, from where he graduated a few years later. He was offered employment at St Mary's Church in Norwich. Here he stayed for fifteen years, though not infrequently travelling to London to support meetings of the non-denominational Missionary Society, which gradually evolved into the non-denominational but largely nonconformist London Missionary Society. His links with both Anglicans and Nonconformists may have helped him, in 1848, to be appointed minister of the first purpose-built central London Baptist Chapel - the Bloomsbury Chapel - whose establishment had hinged partly on overcoming objections from the Anglican establishment. Ministerial life At his Bloomsbury Chapel, which served Central London north of the River Thames, Brock's hearty, low-key, oratorial style was in marked contrast to that being developed at the Baptist chapel on the South Bank by the "crowd-pulling" evangelist, the Rev. Spurgeon. At an ordination service for a missionary, to which both had been invited, Spurgeon noted how extraordinarily different they were: he found Brock's delivery to be "massive, ornate, rich in words, too ponderous for our tongue, and in terms which would have suited none but himself", but, he generously added "it was ’homely, hearty, intense, overwhelming; it did our soul good".