Because the focal-point of this grouping was the Leicestershire village of Barton-in-the-Beans, near Market Bosworth, the federation came to be known as the Barton Society.
Dan Taylor's achievement was to unify the Barton Society's congregations in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, with other Arminian chapels disenchanted with the General Baptist drift towards ’Free Christian’ unorthodoxy.
However, “in order to allow more churches to join, it had reduced its doctrinal basis to the bare minimum in 1832, simply asking for agreement in the sentiments usually denoted as evangelical.
[2] After the so-called 'Down Grade Controversy' resulted in the defeat of those Calvinistic theological conservatives like Charles Spurgeon, who were sceptical of the value of modern Biblical criticism, the path was open to greater unity.
Fittingly for a traditionally non-creedal denomination, no confession of faith was required from either side, Calvinist or Arminian.