William Carter (of Yarmouth)
d. 1658
Lambeth lecturer then Yarmouth Independent; distinct from Carter of St Lawrence Jewry.
Biography
Lecturer at Lambeth and one of the Independents at the Westminster Assembly, distinct from the elder Presbyterian Carter of St Lawrence Jewry. Carter was not one of the five signatories of An Apologeticall Narration (Goodwin, Nye, Bridge, Burroughs, Simpson) but voted consistently with the Independent bloc on polity questions. After the Assembly he was settled with William Bridge at Great Yarmouth as co-pastor of the Independent gathered church there. Died in 1658.
Independent / Dissenting Brethren
A small but articulate minority of Congregationalist divines — the 'Dissenting Brethren' — who pressed for a gathered-church polity against the Presbyterian majority. Their Apologeticall Narration (1644) and their dissents in the Grand Debate over church government shaped the Confession's carefully worded chapters and anticipated the Savoy Declaration of 1658.