As has been demonstrated by Michael A. G. Haykin, friendship and personal relationships played a pivotal role in the advancement of the Particular Baptist cause in the long eighteenth century. The founding of the Baptist Missionary Society and the initial sending of William Carey depended upon a close network of personal relationships that rallied for the cause of taking the gospel to distant lands. As the founding secretary of the BMS, Andrew Fuller depended on an ever-expanding network of friends and benefactors to provide support for the BMS and her missionaries. Christopher Anderson (1782–1852), a Scottish Baptist, would be drawn into the circle of BMS supporters as a potential missionary, denominational leader and pastor, possible replacement of Fuller as secretary, and even a detractor who supported the missionaries on the field in their dispute with the BMS.
Brian Stanley has noted that the controversy between the BMS and the Serampore mission “has been largely neglected by historians.” However, the conflict between those who “held the rope” and those who “entered the pit” stands as an important part of the story of early Particular Baptist missions. Because of the personal nature of the founding of the BMS, the controversy would pit brother against brother and father against son. Christopher Anderson, once considered a candidate to succeed Fuller as secretary of the BMS, would strongly side with the Serampore missionaries, becoming the first secretary of an alternate committee that would support the Serampore mission from 1827 to 1837. This paper argues that Anderson’s decision to side with the Serampore missionaries rested on his “strong personal attachment” to the missionaries themselves.