The Calcutta Missionaries held their services in a large hall in the house of Peter Lindeman, undertaker, from 1803 until land was bought for a new chapel in Lall Bazar. Peter Lindeman was among the Trustees nominated in the Deed for this purchase, along with William Carey, Joshua Marshman, William Ward, and others. On 6th April 1806 a Declaration of Trust was drawn up under which the new chapel, to be called The New Calcutta Chapel for Divine Worship of All Denominations of Christians, would be erected. Peter Lindeman’s quarters in Cossitollah were never popular as a place for worship since people objected to “wade Sunday after Sunday through a range of coffins and other emblems of mortality”.
On 30th November Mr Ward noted that the congregation had grown too large to be accommodated in Mr Lindeman’s house. An Armenian worshipper, with the help of a fund of Rs. 240 collected by the congregation, enlarged a part of his house into a makeshift chapel. The native members of the congregation moved to these quarters, on Chitpore Road, on 25th January 1807, and the preaching here was done in Bengalee. Saturday prayer meetings continued to be held at Peter Lindeman’s until at least April 1810.
Edward Steane Wenger notes of Peter Lindeman: “He was a good Christian man. Though he was never formally connected with this Church, he attended the meetings at the Chapel regularly after it was opened and used to distribute alms there. He was always full of praise and, on one occasion when the carriage he was in upset, he praised God that things were not worse. He died on 13th February 1856 at the age of 83 years and is buried in the Scotch Cemetery." For a history of the Lall Bazar Baptist Church in Calcutta, see: http://tinyurl.com/pmsaxkw
Shalmi Barman
