Prof. Dr John Crawford
An Irish Baptist and Pioneer in Canada
A couple of weeks ago, I was going through boxes of books I had stored from my move from Canada when I discovered this little treasure. I got this, presumably from the library of Dr J.B. Rowell, about 15 years ago: Debate on the Points of Difference in Faith and Practice Between the two religious Bodies Known as the Disciples of Christ and Regular Baptists; Embracing the Subject of Calvinism and the Design of Baptism.
What makes this book interesting to me is that the Baptist representative in the debate was Prof. John Crawford. Crawford has an amazing story, which I researched and wrote a couple of years ago, and will serialise it on this subsack in the coming weeks.
In brief, Crawford was born in the north of Ireland into a Presbyterian home. He was converted to Christ under the ministry of Alexander Carson and subsequently became a Baptist, sacrificing his inheritance. After pastoring in England and in Cork Baptist for a time, Crawford emigrated to Canada in the aftermath of the Potato Famine.
