Betts, Henry

Betts, Henry an English Baptist minister, was born in 1796 at a village near Mildenhall, Suffolk, and removed with his parents, when he was four years of age, to Norwich. In his religious preference, he was a strong Churchman in his younger days, and was accustomed to direct the shafts of his ridicule openly against the Baptists. On his conversion at thirty-three years of age, after protracted but private conviction, he joined the Baptists, and resolved to devote himself to evangelical labors in one of the worst neighborhoods of Norwich. Twice his preaching-room was enlarged. A church of forty-six members was formed, of which he was chosen the pastor. Here he continued until 1832, when he was called to Great Yarmouth, where his pastorate continued for nineteen years, receiving into the Church during this period 144 persons. He died April 25, 1851. See English Baptist Magazine, 1851, p. 374, 375; (Lond.) Bapt. Hand-book, 1852, p. 47. (J. C. S.)