"The earliest known detailed instance of an initiative from London was connected with the dispatch of John Miles (1621-83) to South Wales in 1649. In that year Miles and his friend Thomas Proud, who had recently come to Baptist convictions, arrived in London from Glamorgan. There they encountered the congregation which gathered in the Glaziers' Hall in Broad Street, soon after the latter had prayed for evangelists to preach 'in those places where the Lord had work to be done'." (pg. 1)
"The next mission sponsored by the London churches so far as is now known was that undertaken by Thomas Tillam in Northumberland. Tillam described himself as 'minister, and a messenger of one of the seven churches in London' when he arrived in Hexham on 27 December 1651. He had been commissioned by the church led by Hanserd Knollys which met in Swan Alley, Coleman Street, London, as they later recalled in a letter: 'we gave him our letter of recommendation, and sent him forth to preach the gospel, and to baptize them that did believe the same; and accordingly, as the Lord did assist and direct him, to be instrumental to set them in an orderly way, wherein they might worship God in spirit and truth..."
"Tillam's ministry was, at first, as fruitful as that of John Miles before him. Only seven months after his arrival, on 21 July 1652, eleven men and five women were baptized as founder members of the church at Hexham." (pg. 4)
"Soon the infant congregation itself sent out its first missionary, to Scotland. Early in January 1653, a letter from Swan Alley recognized the Hexham congregation as 'a visible constituted church of God'." (pg. 5)
http://pbl.oldfaithbaptist.org/Ecclesiology/White%20Particular%20Baptist%20Organization.pdf
Another historian writes:
"In 1649, the Glaziers’ Hall, London church held a day of prayer “to seek the Lord that he would send labourers into the dark corners and parts of this land.” On the next day, John Myles and Thomas Proud appeared in their midst, concerned for the needs of Wales. They were apparently baptized and sent, within a fortnight, back to Wales for the purpose of planting churches. On 1 October 1649, baptisms began to take place, and the Ilston church was organized, having forty-three members by October 1650. Myles engaged in an aggressive plan to bring other churches into existence, so that within a year of the first baptism two more assemblies had been formed, and the first “General Meeting” in South Wales was held on 6 and 7 November 1650. White, citing the Ilston church book, states that the commission given to Myles and Proud by the London church was “to gather a ‘company or society of people holding forth and practising the doctrine, worship, order and discipline of the Gospel according to the primitive institution.’”
"Meanwhile, on 8 October 1652 representatives from churches in Abingdon, Reading and Henley had met together to agree upon matter: requiring inter-congregational collaboration and had decided that this would be profitable for mutual advice, financial support, and 'ye carrying on of the work of God'...This meeting was the first at which the names of individual delegates were recorded and it is noteworthy that one of the two from Kensworth was Benjamin Cox." (pg. 6)
http://www.reformedbaptistinstitute.org/?p=138
With such evidence, how can the Hardshells affirm that the old Baptists were not mission supporters prior to the late 18th century? How can they claim that Andrew Fuller and his contemporaries started the work of sending out missionaries?
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