Baptism by immersion was often performed in the River Welland, although these two on a cold November day sound particularly unpleasant. However, the minister got wet too!
On Sunday morning last the religious ceremony of a baptismal immersion in the river again took place at Stamford, and attracted an immense crowd of spectators. The minister on this occasion was the Rev. J. F. Winks, of Loughborough; and the persons who underwent baptism were Mrs. Brownlow Westmorland (a young woman who is parted from her husband), and a servant-man named Edward Bull. The ceremony took place between 10 and 11 o’clock in the morning at Lamb’s bridge, the part of the river Welland before selected for such an exhibition, but certainly a very dirty and disgusting spot, and rendered particularly so on Sunday, by the swoln and turbid state of the water at that time. Singing and prayer preceded the descent into the river: the Minister also for some time with great earnestness addressed the assembled multitude in explanation of the rite he was about to perform, until a visible perspiration stood upon his head and face; and in this state of mental and bodily excitement he stepped into the water, sounding his way with a stick as he proceeded, until himself and his proselytes were up to their middles in a powerful stream. He then pushed them backwards and they were for an instant lost in the river; but by his aid they were replaced on their feet, and were suffered to make the best of their way to the shore, in one of the coldest and most comfotless winter mornings that can be imagined.
The Stamford Mercury, 20th November, 1829.