James Wild was born in Middle Green, Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire, on the 31st January 1788 to Thomas Wild I and Hannah Weekly.  He was the 4th of eight children. Whilst the Wild family are from Middlesex James' mother was from Buckinghamshire. James' parents are both buried in Harmondsworth cemetery in Middlesex - the cemetery for Sipson This is probably because the Wild family rented a farm in Langley and I guess that Thomas I moved to Langley to run this farm and married there. Then when his father died he moved back to Sipson and took on the family farm.  

James was a butcher by trade, owning a shop in George Street, Richmond.  He is recorded as living in George Street from 1827 until the late 1840’s when he retired to Parkshot in Richmond.  It is a reasonable assumption that he plied his trade for most, if not all, that time.  He served an apprenticeship in London, probably in the Marylebone area.  I have not been able to trace the details of this apprenticeship but if it followed normal practices of the time he would have started his apprenticeship around the age of 15 in 1803.  As he married in 1808 we can assume that he had completed his apprenticeship by that date.  Whilst it is not a given it is reasonable to assume that he served as an apprentice to a butcher.  It is worth noting at this point that records kept by James’ nephew, Thomas Wild II, show that James purchased calves from him on a regular basis, presumably for sale in his shop.  It is therefore not difficult to imagine that James’ father had in turn supplied meat to a London butcher and taken the opportunity to have his son taken on as an apprentice.  After all, even then, it was not what you know but who you know. 

Despite living in London and Richmond (in the mid 19th century these were two distinct locations) he must have kept links with his home area of Harmondsworth and Langley.  His first wife was a local girl from Colnbrook, Langley Marish, Elizabeth Rayner.  The Rayners were another farming family in the area and the Wilds and Rayners intermarried for many generations.  The earliest Wild and Rayner marriage I have recorded was some time in the mid 17th century and the last was of my great grandfather to an Elizabeth Rayner in 1906.  He also retained ownership of land in Harmondsworth which he rented out to his nephew Thomas to who he left it in his will. 

James and Elizabeth had five children; James who married Harriet Phipps and was to become a police constable, Richard who probably died as a child, Elizabeth who didn't marry, Hannah who married Charles Dearle and Richard who married Mary Ann Bishop and carried on his father’s business in George Street.

Elizabeth (Rayner) died in 1831 aged 43.  James re-married in 1835 to Elizabeth Pickle who survived him, dying in 1872.  They had no children. 

The Wild family have always been non conformist, holding to the Baptist faith.  James’ great grandfather, my 7th great grandfather, was issued a document in 1708 permitting him to hold meetings for dissenting worshippers in his house in Sipson, Middlesex.  James would have been brought up in the same faith and his daughter says as much in an obituary; “Like many of the Lord’s children, he was early convinced of sin; in fact, when quite a child.”  He came to a personal faith during his apprenticeship while he was attending a Strict Baptist Chapel in Blandford Street, which is in the Marylebone area of London.  After he completed his apprenticeship and set up business in Richmond he and his wife attended the Strict Baptist Chapel in Brentford, across the Thames, in Middlesex.  The Baptists believe in adult baptism by full immersion as opposed to Anglican child baptism and both James and Elizabeth were baptised in about 1825 whilst members of the chapel in Brentford. 

A small aside here: the pastor of Brentford chapel at the time was John Andrews Jones.  He was a well known minister of the Strict Baptists and appears in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  One of my cousins has researched my grandmother’s side of the family and found that J. A. Jones is my 4th great grandfather on my paternal grandmother's side. This means that the man who was to become my 4th great grandfather baptised the man who was to become my 4th great granduncle. I found this quite an amazing coincidence. But there was more. During my research on Rev. Jones I found that the first church he had pastored was in Ringstead in Northamptonshire the home of my maternal grandfather's family. I contacted the Baptist chapel in Ringstead where Rev. Jones had been the pastor and one of the members, Agnes Burton, was kind enough to research my family links with the village. Her research showed that that branch of the family did indeed have some connections with the Baptist church at the time that Rev. Jones' had been the pastor. So John Andrews Jones has influenced three branches of my family tree!

I believe it was around this time that James had the idea of opening a chapel in Richmond.  It seems he had a problem finding a site but after a couple of ‘false starts’ he opened his chapel under the name of Rehoboth in Kew Lane, Richmond on the 17th April 1829. 

The chapel was founded, as was to be expected, on Strict Baptist principals (external link for more information).  The name Rehoboth had been suggested by J. A. Jones and means literally ‘broad place’ or ‘a place for all’

The membership when it opened was small – himself, Elizabeth his wife and one other, a Mr. James Martin.  The sermon at the opening was preached by James’ then pastor Mr. J. A. Jones.  It wasn’t until 1832 that the church called its first pastor, Mr. James Page.  The salary they offered, and which was accepted, was £60 per year plus a suit of clothes.  This is roughly equivalent to £4,300 a year today…plus the suit!  It seems that the congregation flourished with people traveling from Kingston to attend.  These people later left to form their own chapel. 

James retired in around 1848 and his son, Richard, carried on the business.  James then suffered a stroke in 1850 which it seems affected both his general health and speech.  He remained involved in the church though and died on the 30th July 1853.  His last attendance at the church had been at the beginning of that June for the anniversary service.

James left most, if not all, his property in Richmond, including the chapel, to his son Richard. 

The chapel continued to flourish but in December 1860 there occurred the first of two incidents which were to push the congregation to the edge of extinction.  There was a major disagreement of doctrine.  This was not specific to the congregation in Rehoboth but was happening within the Strict Baptist association as a whole.  It was concerning 'The eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.'  I won’t go into this but you can follow this external link for more information.  This caused a split in the congregation and those members who did not believe in 'The eternal Sonship left/were asked to leave, and joined another chapel. 

The second incident took place in 1875 and was a falling out with the owner of the chapel.  No name is given but as we know the chapel was left by James to his son Richard the conclusion is obvious.  For reasons not stated in the history I have it seems Richard was asked to step down from a position of authority or privilege in the church.  His response was to alter the terms of the lease on the building…a somewhat un-Christian response.  The congregation were unable to meet the terms and although the terms were apparently illegal they decided to back down and moved their meetings to a rented hall. 

Trouble again arose in the congregation and in May 1878 the church was officially dissolved.  This however, was not the end of the church.  A few of the members resolved to continue meeting together which they did in the rented hall.  In August of 1878 Richard asked if they would like to meet in Rehoboth chapel again and the congregation agreed.  Richard also undertook to pay half the remaining rent on the hall they were using.  Unfortunately, reading between the lines, Richard probably had ulterior motives for this.  Part of the terms of the trust for the chapel building stated that it could not be used for any other purpose until Richard died.  Thus it was something of a millstone for him, but with a congregation meeting there at least it was producing some income for him.  Unfortunately the relationship between congregation and landlord soured again and Richard steadily raised the rent.  In 1895 Richard died and the congregation had to leave.  Rehoboth chapel was sold in 1897 and became an auction room.  The area where it stood has now been completely redeveloped into office accommodation.   

The congregation reformed into a Strict Baptist church and purchased a plot of land in Jocelyn Road, Richmond, and built their own chapel which they called Ebenezer.  It is still there today and a congregation of Strict Baptists still meet.

I feel James would be happy to know that a Church descended from the first congregation of himself, his wife and one other still meet in Richmond.  He may be sad that Rehoboth is gone but real church is not about bricks and mortar; it has been, and always will be, about the people.

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