James Ireland Monument

“I sat down and counted the cost, freedom or confinement, liberty or a prison; it admitted of no dispute. Having ventured all upon Christ, I determined to suffer all for Him.”

James Ireland was perhaps the most afflicted Baptist pastor of all the men who were held in the Culpeper Jail in the mid 18th century. There were no modern regulations to prevent rampant abuse of the prisoners incarcerated there, so Ireland regularly suffered violence and mistreatment from the governing authorities for his unauthorized preaching. Although the brick and mortar Culpeper Jail has long since vanished , its reputation has lingered on in the histories of men who paid a very high price for the religious freedom we enjoy today. How ironic that years later a Baptist church would be built on the very site of such unmitigated cruelty! Culpeper Baptist (originally called Mt. Poney Baptist) is currently located on 318 South West Street, but it was first built on the northwest corner of North East and Davis Street (where the Gospel Tabernacle Assembly of God Church sits today).

James Ireland was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States soon after reaching adulthood. His conversion to Christ followed soon after:

“A godly young man, who was concerned about James Ireland’s spiritual destiny and knew of his love of poetry, requested that Ireland compose a poem on a religious subject. Happy to comply with his friend’s suggestion, James composed a poem he titled, “The natural man’s dependency for Heaven.” This composition made Ireland realize that all his hopes for heaven were useless. Convicted and burdened by his sin almost to the point of despair, Ireland began a thorough and diligent study of God’s Word. There he discovered that Jesus was a perfect sacrifice for his sin.” (Thomas Ray, article in the Baptist Bible Tribune, 11/25/2009)

Ireland was prolific in sharing the source of his newfound faith, so much so that he was sought after to speak at various gatherings and churches across Virginia. It was one of these invitations that brought Ireland face to face with the vengeance of the Anglican Church.

“When the 21 year old Baptist preacher went to Culpeper County, Virginia in the fall of 1769, he was told he would be imprisoned. He would state as he went ‘I counted the cost, freedom or confinement, liberty or a prison; it admitted of no dispute. Having adventured all upon Christ I determined to suffer all for Him.’ He would indeed would be arrested. As he stood before the magistrates they would delare that they would hear no more of his ‘vile, pernicious, abhorable, detestable, abominable, diabolical doctrines, for they were naucious to the whole court.’” (Jim Curran, article in Baptist Church History, 1/21/2021)

For the space of five months Ireland endured every imaginable persecution. Unwilling to allow the deplorable conditions around him to blunt his preaching, Ireland turned his jail cell into a makeshift pulpit. At regular intervals, Ireland spoke to a number of people who gathered outside his barred window. His ingenuity was not without its consequences, though:

“Ireland listed some of the abuses inflicted on him:

In spite of the persecution, Ireland wrote letters from his cell which he called, “From My Palace In Culpepper …” (www.johncooperuscongress.com)

Besides these torments, other biographers note how he was almost poisoned, how he was the target of bribed cellmates, how gunpowder was exploded under the jail, and how his hands and arms were cut with knives when they were extended through the window bars as he preached. Considering all he endured, a lesser man would have surrendered and conceded defeat, but not Ireland. The indignities only made him stronger, and, much to the chagrin of the tormentors, even that much more popular.

James Ireland spent the last twenty years of his life as the pastor of the Buck Marsh Baptist Church; later the name was changed to Berryville Baptist Church when the congregation moved their meeting place within the city limits. Adjacent to the church’s previous location, however, was a cemetery where Ireland was supposedly laid to rest in an unmarked grave; when the church relocated, the graves within the cemetery were also relocated to Green Hill Cemetery. Unfortunately, Ireland’s grave was never found during the relocation.

If you happen by the Berryville Baptist Church property today, you will see a cenotaph monument with these words formed in the metal:

Whether it be right in the sight of God
To hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye,
For we cannot but speak the things
Which we have seen and heard. Acts IV:19-20

In gratitude for the blessings of spiritual
religion and freedom of conscience won in part through
his sufferings this memorial is erected
by the Baptists of Virginia on the one hundred and twenty-
fifth anniversary of his death, May 5, 1931