Samuel Oughton

Joseph Sturge made representations to the Colonial Office on his behalf and Samuel Oughton was eventually discharged after a period released on bail.

He records "simple but ardent expressions of delight and affection" from "our poor dear people", who welcomed him back to East Queen Street chapel with renewed hope.

He stayed at East Queen Street chapel as pastor for the next twenty years, although not without incident since he promoted a form of moral code that he applied to everyone, including the emancipated citizens whose status he had been invited to improve.

He wrote two books in which he tried to promote a theory, originally popular with some French and English thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment, that a population must 'want' artificial things to create drive and hard work, and therefore increasing wealth.

In such a seductively warm and fertile island as Jamaica, Oughton contended, this might not happen; people might content themselves after reaching a certain standard of living.

One of the Baptists' cherished principles was of church self-government in which everyone was entitled to vote in elections and petitioning, which provided the first opportunity for many in the community to have their voice heard.

Samuel Oughton had to decide between the Baptists' cherished principles of self-government or upholding the literacy entry requirements arising from the hope that education would be "the great leveller".

In the event, he avoided setting a precedent and called for both beliefs to be upheld equally, a route that did successfully lead to self-determination by African congregations.

Samuel Oughton died in London in December 1881 and is buried along with Sarah, each with a memorial plaque, in the Rogers' Family Mausoleum at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.