The Chesterfield County Museum, at 6813 Mimms Loop, is a replica of the 1749 courthouse where magistrates, during 1770-74, sentenced seven Baptist preachers to jail for preaching Christ without state-church approval. Where the jail once stood, there now stands the Religious Freedom Monument, a grantie memorial with a bronze tablet inscribed to the memory of those Baptist preachers. See the section, “Virginia Read more...
From Marker: Eleazar Clay (1744-1836) led the establishment of the first Baptist church in Chesterfield County, known as Chesterfield (Baptist) Church, Rehoboth Meeting House, or Clay’s Church, in 1773. He also supported the Baptist preachers imprisoned for breaching ecclesiastical law in the county jail in 1771. Ordained as a minister in 1775, Clay preached for more than 50 years, Read more...
