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Old Essex County Courthouse, commonly known as the 1728 Essex County Courthouse, is one of the oldest surviving courthouses in the United States and a remarkable example of colonial architecture in Virginia. Located in the historic town of Tappahannock, the building stands as a lasting witness to the legal, political, and social life of early America. Constructed in 1728, the Read more...
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John Clarke’s tombstone stands in the John Clarke Family Cemetery, on the west side of Dr. Marcus Wheatland Boulevard. The key to the cemetery’s padlock is available at the United Baptist Church office. Adjoining the cemetery, a small park has two Memorials to John Clarke: A plaque on a small rock, and a monument, erected by the Baptist History Preservation Society. Read more...
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In the church cemetery at Bethabara Baptist Church, at 635 Bethabara Church Road, there stands a memorial monument, with detailed script honoring its founder, the celebrated church planter and evangelist, John Waller, who suffered persecution for preaching the gospel without state approval. Copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices ♦ _____ Read more...
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Before you leave Plymouth, head on up to Burial Hill. It’s a steep climb, but there are steps. Inside a white fence is not a grave, but a cenotaph, “a monument to someone buried elsewhere.” Adoniram Judson was the son of a Congregational minister in Plymouth, but he fell in with the wrong friends. While at Brown University, he was Read more...
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Site of one of the most famous trials in the 20th Century, featuring Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. My first visit to the Scopes Trial Museum proved unsuccessful. It was the Christmas season and the County Executive ordered the building closed early for the day. So I took some pictures outside – the statues of William Jennings Bryan and Read more...
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On the back campus of Phillips Academy, one can walk down “Judson Road” and visit the secluded area by the “Rabbit Pond,” where Adoniram Judson, Luther Rice, and other believers kneeled each morning by a huge boulder, prayer for missions, and dedicated their lives to God. On that boulder (affectionately called “Missionary Rock“), citizens of Andover, in 1910, affixed a memorial Read more...
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The grave of Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard College, is in the Old Burying Ground (adjacent to First Church, Unitarian) on Church Street. Harvard forced Dunster out of the presidency for his defense of believer’s baptism by immersion. Harvard never had a greater president. (See Chapter 13.). Copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Read more...
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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...
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John Weatherford (c. 1740–1833), often remembered as Elder John Weatherford, was part of the generation of early Baptist ministers who helped establish and spread Baptist principles in the American South during the late colonial and early national periods. Though not as widely documented as some of his contemporaries, his long life and ministry reflect the steady, grassroots expansion of Baptist Read more...
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The Cheshire Mammoth Cheese stands as one of the most unusual and memorable episodes in early American history, symbolizing both political support and the principle of religious liberty. Created in the small town of Cheshire, Massachusetts, this enormous wheel of cheese became a national sensation and a powerful expression of goodwill toward President Thomas Jefferson. The story begins in 1801, Read more...
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John Leland (1754–1841) was one of the most influential Baptist preachers and advocates for religious liberty in early American history. Known for his plainspoken preaching, independent spirit, and unwavering defense of freedom of conscience, Leland helped shape the emerging nation’s understanding of the proper relationship between church and state. Leland was born in Grafton, Massachusetts, and raised in a Congregationalist Read more...
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The meeting between John Leland and James Madison stands as a notable moment in the early history of American religious liberty. Though surrounded by some elements of tradition and later retelling, the encounter symbolizes a real and consequential alliance between Baptist advocates of religious freedom and the political leaders who would shape the United States Constitution. John Leland, a prominent Read more...
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At Williams College (Congregational), a twelve-foot-high marble monument, called the Haystack Prayer Meeting Memorial, commemorates “The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions 1806,” out of which came Baptists Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. See the section, “Haystack Prayer Meeting at Williams College (1806),” in Chapter 17. Copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Read more...
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The First Baptist Church of North Middleboro represents a significant chapter in the development of Baptist life in New England. Rooted in the religious ferment of the eighteenth century, the church emerged during a time when questions of faith, authority, and liberty were reshaping the spiritual landscape of colonial America. The origins of the church can be traced to the Read more...
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Isaac Backus (1724–1806) stands as one of the most influential Baptist leaders in early American history, particularly known for his tireless advocacy of religious liberty. A pastor, historian, and public spokesman, Backus played a crucial role in shaping the relationship between church and state in the formative years of the United States. Backus was born in Norwich, Connecticut, into a Read more...
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The First Baptist Church in America holds a distinguished place in American religious history as the oldest Baptist congregation in the United States. Founded in 1638, its story is closely tied to the life and convictions of Roger Williams, whose commitment to liberty of conscience helped shape the spiritual and political landscape of the nation. Roger Williams established the church Read more...
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The United Baptist Church in Newport stands among the oldest Baptist congregations in the United States, with roots reaching back to the mid-seventeenth century. Its history reflects not only the development of Baptist life in America but also the broader struggle for religious liberty that helped shape the nation’s identity. The church traces its origins to the 1630s and 1640s, Read more...
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Newport Historical Society is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States, dedicated to preserving and interpreting the rich past of Newport. Founded in 1854, the society has played a central role in safeguarding the city’s heritage, which spans colonial settlement, religious diversity, maritime trade, and the American Revolution. Newport itself was established in 1639 by settlers seeking Read more...
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Ye Olde Yellow Meeting House, located on Yellow Meetinghouse Road, off Route 526, dates to about 1737. Its earliest records, beginning in 1766, are in a 165-page handwritten “Church Book: Giving an Account of ye First Settlement & Progress of the Baptists at Crosswicks, or Upper Freehold.” In 1766, its forty-seven members organized into Crosswicks Baptist Church. In 1773, its Read more...
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The Martyrs’ Memorial in Oxford is one of the most prominent Victorian monuments in England, commemorating three key figures of the English Reformation: Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer. The memorial stands as a striking reminder of the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century and the profound costs associated with doctrinal change in England. The monument was completed in Read more...