Fonds MC 160 - Papers of the Martin, Sapey, Ellis and Robinson families of Norwich and elsewhere

The son of William Sapey and his wife Lucy Martin, between the ages of 7 and 11 he attended a Church School in St Augustine's, Norwich, then after various jobs (including pageboy to a dentist) he became an umbrella maker, and opened an umbrella shop then a baker's in Norwich. Both these businesses failing, he accepted Baptist appointments, first as an itinerant preacher then pastorates at Hethersett, 1888-1890, Claxton, 1893-1904, in London at Shaftesbury Avenue, 1904-1906, at Brixton Tabernacle, Stockwell Road, London, 1906-1920, and York Road, Great Yarmouth, 1912-1932. He underwent religious conversion at the age of eight and gradually turned thereafter to Strict Baptism, decisively accepting it during the Hethersett pastorate. His daughter, like himself, was of exemplary piety. In 1905 she married Charles William Ellis, an engineer in his father's agricultural works at Thurton. After his father's death in 1906 Ellis managed the business for eight years but it ultimately failed and the Ellises joined the Sapeys at 70 York Road, Great Yarmouth; four daughters of the marriage survived. She was known as an active member of the Strict Baptist Communion, a speaker at Free Church Meetings, and Secretary of the local branch of the Women's Liberal Association.