Noah Alden Monument

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

Settlers first came to this area of Massachusetts late in the seventeenth century. Jacob Bartlett, a Quaker, and Nicholas Cook, a Baptist, were the earliest inhabitants and are generally known as the town pioneers. On November 27, 1719, at the request of thirty–three petitioners, the town of Bellingham was incorporated. Though a number of the town residents were Baptist, there was no Baptist church in Bellingham. Consequently, those of the Baptist faith were members of Massachusetts’ oldest Baptist church, located in Swansea. Records attest that at a church meeting in Swansea, October 6, 1737: The desire of the brethren dwelling in Bellingham to form themselves into a church state was communicated to the church by their elder which motion was approved of. Their desire being granted, the brethren met to organize a Baptist church. At that meeting, fifteen men signed the new church covenant. A portion of that covenant follows: “We who have hereunto set our names, being in some measure made sensible of our sinful and miserable condition, do solemnly profess our deep humiliation for our many sins and adore the full grace of God in translating us out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ to partake with all them that are sanctified of the privileges of his house and kingdom, and being in some measure made willing to be conformed to Christ do now in the presence of God give up ourselves to the Lord in his everlasting covenant of free grace, taking our Lord Jesus Christ to be our great high priest to justify and sanctify us, and our prophet to instruct and teach us, and our King and Lord to govern and rule us according to his own laws and ordinances that we may do his will and serve him in our generation… we do solemnly join ourselves together in a visible gospel church relation both to Jesus Christ our head and one another as brethren engaging in the strength and help of his grace to attend all the duties that are required of us in this relation… signed at Mendon, the 23 day of the eleventh month in the year of our Lord Christ 1737.

Nicholas Cook, Edward Pickering, Ebenezer Hayward, John Thompson, Joseph Partridge, Eliphelet Holbrook, Samuel Hayward, Eleazer Taft, Benjamin Force, Eleazer Hayward, Peter Thompson, Samuel Thompson, Elnathan Wight, Jonathan Thompson, Joseph Wight

Thus was formed the fourth Baptist church in Massachusetts. Elnathan Wight was the first pastor and was described as a pious and useful man. The first meetinghouse was located on High Street, and the present meetinghouse was built in 1826.

The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. – Psalm 126:3

NOAH ALDEN

Noah Alden was the second pastor of the Baptist church in Bellingham. Born May 31, 1725 in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Noah was the youngest of twelve children. He was the son of John and Hannah White Alden and the great – grandson of John and Priscilla Alden, pilgrims of Plymouth. Noah was converted at the age of sixteen during the Great Awakening. In 1744, he married Joanna Vaughn and four years later the young couple moved to Stafford, Connecticut. Through study, Alden was convinced of Baptist principles. In July of 1754, he was baptized into the membership of the Baptist church in Tolland by the celebrated Shubal Stearns. Alden made publick his call to the ministry and assumed the care of the church when Stearns and company went south. Stearns instructed those that remained to ordain Alden. This they did June 5, 1755. The church in Tolland disbanded ten years later and Alden was asked to preach to the believers in Bellingham. He was installed as pastor here November 12, 1766.

Alden was a laborious itinerant, a distinguished statesman and for thirty-one years the faithful pastor of the Baptist church in Bellingham. In 1767, the church became one of four constituent members of the Warren Association, and Alden was chosen the first moderator. As part of the association, he also served on the grievance committee, a group which rendered aid to the persecuted Baptists of New England. In 1779, Alden represented Bellingham as a member of the Massachusetts convention to help frame a state constitution, and in 1788, he was a member of the convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States. The service which Alden rendered as a statesman helped to build a new country, while the service he rendered to the redeemer helped to build the kingdom of God. Alden assisted in ordaining Elnathan Wight, first pastor of this church. He also ordained Ebenezer Smith, sufferer for the Lord in Ashfield. In 1763, his itinerant preaching in Woodstock, Connecticut, was blessed to the conversion of Biel Ledoyt, who for many years was a useful pastor and leader among the Baptists in that state. Aaron Leland planted many churches in Vermont while also serving for a time as lieutenant – governor of that state. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Bellingham Baptist Church in 1786. His father-in-law and pastor, Noah Alden ordained him to the ministry. In June of 1774, Alden baptized John Leland, that great vindicator of the civil and religious rights of man. It was Leland, the Baptist pastor, who later helped secure the First Amendment to the Constitution. Baptist historian, William Cathcart, records that for many years, Alden was “one of our most distinguished and honored ministers, and his name deserves to be held in grateful remembrance.” Alden and his wife had ten children. He died May 5, 1797 and is buried in the Center Cemetery of Bellingham.

Marker placed by the Baptist History Preservation Society – May 5, 2009

Photographer: Michael Herrick HMDB.org