The Trowbridge connection

In his book on John Warburton, J R Broome notes that on Trowle Common in the 1700s a Baptist and his family had lived. This was Thomas Cator (1651-1733) whose daughter Anne married William Steele, the Baptist minister of Broughton in Hampshire, becoming stepmother to his son William and daughter, the hymn writer, Anne Steele. He also notes that Anne was at Trowbridge at school in 1729, at the age of twelve, and no doubt was often on Trowle Common herself at the home of her step-grandparents. Old Thomas Cator died in 1733 at the age of 82. Another Trowbridge connection is that Anne Steele's pastor at Broughton in her later life, 1771-1778, was Nathaniel Rawlings, who had been pastor at Back Street Chapel, Trowbridge, and whose 41 members later formed the nucleus of Warburton's congregation.

Others mention that there was an academy at Trowbridge. It is not known if the school and academy were linked.