Sarah Pullen Gardner (c. 1710-78) joined the Baptist congregation in Maze Pond, Southwark, on 28 February 1737, and not long thereafter married Ebenezer Gardner (c. 1710-71), who had joined the congregation in 1730 and opened his first bookshop in Bartholomew Close in 1735.  In Bartholomew Close were two other print shops operated by individuals who were either already known or would shortly become known to Ebenezer Gardner through either religious or familial connections: John and Mary Lewis, soon to be followers of Whitefield and later the Moravians, and Thomas Gardner (c. 1712-65), who may have been Ebenezer's brother. No birth records can be found for either Ebenezer or Thomas Gardner, suggesting they were dissenters, and quite possibly Baptists, as Ebenezer clearly was by 1730. Thomas had served his apprenticeship (there is no record of Ebenezer's apprenticeship, if he had one) under Joseph Downing, also of Bartholomew Close, where his path would have crossed with that of John Lewis (1697-1755), another apprentice of Downing. Thomas Gardner would operate in Bartholomew Close between 1735 and 1739, relocating at that time to the Strand, opposite St. Clement's Church, where he enjoyed a prosperous business (some 152 imprints) until his death in 1765. His business was succeeded by his wife, Lucy (d. 1789) (she appeared on three imprints involving the novelist Eliza Haywood), and his son, Henry Lasher Gardner (1743-1808). 

Ebenezer and Sarah Gardner remained in Bartholomew Close until 1737, when they moved to Coleman Street near the Old Jewry, then to Milton’s Head, near Aldgate (1740-1746), The Ship in Lombard Street (1747-1750), Temple Bar (1751) (near the shop of Thomas Gardner and Anne Dodd, Jr.), and finally to Gracechurch Street, near Cross Keys Inn (1752-1771). Ebenezer's early career was dominated (24 titles, 1735-47) by the writings of the Baptist woman, Anne Dutton (1692-1765), selling many of those works with John Lewis (they sold 20 titles together by 1755). For unspecified reasons in the church book, by late 1743 Gardner had grown restless with the Baptists, separating from the Maze Pond congregation in January 1744 to join with another denomination, most likely among the Independents or among the followers of Whitefield at the Moorfields Tabernacle. Whatever his reasons for leaving Maze Pond, Ebenezer Gardner continued to print works by Baptists and other evangelical writers (he appeared on nearly 90 imprints), a tradition continued by his wife, Sarah, after his death in 1771. Unlike her husband, Sarah did not leave Maze Pond in 1744 (an unusual circumstance for a dissenting couple at that time to worship not only in two different congregations but also two different denominations). She appeared on 31 imprints between 1760 (when her husband was still alive) and 1775, three years before her death. Her titles are almost exclusively works by dissenting writers, including nine titles by her pastor, Benjamin Wallin (1711-82); she sold those works in a similarly exclusive manner, nearly always with other evangelical dissenting booksellers, such as the Particular Baptists George Keith, Joseph Johnson (Keith's former apprentice), William Lepard, Benjamin Tomkins, and Joseph Dermer; the Independents Thomas Field James Buckland, and Edward and Charles Dilly; and other dissenting sellers, such as John Payne, Johnson's partner for a short time, George Kearsley, and Reuben Bishop. For information on Thomas Gardner, see Patrick Spedding, “Thomas, Lucy, and Henry Lasher Gardner, Opposite St. Clement’s Church in the Strand, 1739-1805,” Script & Print 39:1 (2015), pp. 21–58; for the accounts of the memberships at Maze Pond of Ebenezer and Sarah Gardner, see Maze Pond Church Books, 1722-43, p. 1, and  1744-83, pp. 184, 186, 456, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.