Author: DRACUP, John
Biography:
DRACUP, John (1722-95: anestry.co.uk)
He was born on 17 Sept. 1772 at Idle, near Bradford, Yorkshire, one of eleven children of Rev. John Dracup (1688-1767), cloth-dealer, furniture maker and Baptist minister, and his wife Mary Rodger (1695-1761), who had married in 1715. Nothing is known of his education. On his marriage, he was recorded as a weaver so probably he did not attend a dissenting academy. His younger brother, Nathaniel Dracup (1728-98), shuttle-maker, was an early convert to Methodism and acquired some fame as circuit missionary and preacher. John married Rachel Helliwell on 6 Nov. 1753, at St. John the Baptist, Halifax. They had two daughters. He became minister of Steep Lane Baptist chapel, Sowerby, near Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1755 but left in 1772 on account of either his changed views on baptism or increasing Methodist influence. He became Baptist minister first at Rodhill End, near Todmore, and then at Rochdale, but was invited back to Steep Lane in 1784, spending in total twenty-eight years there. He died on 28 May 1795, aged 73, at Sowerby, and was buried at his church. His wife died shortly afterwards on 7 June 1795. There is a memorial tablet to them which was erected by subscription. A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1787) was first advertised in the Leeds Intelligencer on 2 July 1754, but does not appear to have been published until much later. (ancestry.co.uk 27 May 2023; findmypast.co.uk 27 May 2023; www.timdracup.com; Julian, 310; Josiah Miller, Singers and Songs of the Church [1869], 279; J. Horsfall Turner, Halifax Books and Authors [1906], 125) AA