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John Mason Peck / Shurtleff College

Pioneer missionary, John Mason Peck (1789-1858), saturated Missouri and Illinois with the gospel, evangelizing, organizing churches, and establishing the Baptist movement in the West. At Southern Illinois University Dental School, this memorial plaque highlights his life and legacy:

 

On this site in 1831, John Mason Peck (1789-1858), pioneer Baptist preacher, author, and educator, established the school which became Shurtleff College. In 1817, Peck had left his home in New England with a vision “to bring the lamp of learning and the light of the gospel” into the undeveloped West. He, his wife Sally, and three children endured an arduous four month trip in a small one-horse wagon, setting in Rock Spring, near O’Fallon, Illinois.

There, in 1827, Peck founded Rock Spring Seminary, the first institution of its kind in the State of Illinois. In 1831, the seminary was moved to the growing city of Alton, where, in 1836, the name was changed to Shurtleff College, recognizing the gift of $10,000 from Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff of Boston.

John Mason Peck is well described as a missionary and a teacher, an author and an editor, a geographer and a cartographer, and a promoter of churches, schools, and western settlement. For thirty years, he was undoubtedly one of the strongest advocates of education and righteousness in the entire Mississippi Valley. He traveled hundreds of miles by horseback or wagon, often under most difficult circumstances, while his wife and children bore his long absences with fortitude.

Peck was one of the foremost ministerial opponents of slavery in Illinois and provided great support to Governor Edward Coles’ successful anti-slavery effort in 1824. In 1851, he was honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree from Harvard University. He died on March 16, 1858, and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Photo by Jason Voigt, September 15, 2019 HMDB

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Peck became active in establishing Bible societies and Sunday School associations. Distributing Bibles “silently undermine[d] the opposition to missions” of geographically stable preachers such as Daniel Parker, as well as spread literacy and Christian principles (including temperance and opposition to slavery) among the dispersed rural population. Peck moved to Rock Springs, Illinois in 1822 to farm, and arranged a circuit to visit the various societies which he continued to establish, as well as isolated farms. On one trip, Peck visited Daniel Boone, then nearly 80, and later wrote a book about the frontiersman’s life.

In 1824 Peck’s preaching helped Illinois Governor Edward Coles defeat efforts to revise Illinois’ constitution to permit slavery. Four years later, black Baptists in St. Louis sought to establish their own church, and with Peck’s help they established the African Church of St. Louis (later renamed the First Baptist Church of St. Louis). Of the original 220 members, 200 were slaves. Peck ordained a young freeman, John Berry Meachum, as their pastor.[4] When that church’s members voted themselves out of existence, Peck helped establish the Second Baptist Church in 1833, serving as its interim minister three times in the 1840s.

Convinced that Baptists could not rise without educated preachers, Peck founded a seminary at his Rock Springs farm near O’Fallon, Illinois, but his first attempt to secure a charter failed because of opposition by an anti-mission preacher/legislature. Undeterred, Peck moved his new school to Upper Alton, Illinois. In 1836, after a significant contribution from Benjamin Shurtleff, M.D. of Boston, it became Shurtleff College, which became part of the Southern Illinois University system in 1957.[5] Peck then established the Illinois Baptist Education Society, serving as its first secretary.

The American Baptist Home Mission Society was organized in 1832, under Peck’s influence, with Jonathan Going (sent from Massachusetts at his request the previous year) as the first secretary. This society, like Peck, directed its efforts toward the people of the frontier: Settlers, Native Americans and later former Confederate slaves.

 

Featured Image Credit: Genealogy Trails History Group. Biography of John Mason Peck From Madison County, Illinois. genealogytrails.com/ill/madison/John_Peck.html.

Daniel Marshall Marker

In the median of US 221, near the Appling courthouse, the people of Georgia, in 1903, erected a monument to Daniel Marshall and his “devotion and consecration…to the cause of Christ.” (See Chapter 15.).

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Rev. Daniel Marshall
Born 1706, Died 1784,
Pioneer Baptist Minister,
Established Kiokee, the first
Baptist Church in Georgia in 1772
Erected by the people of
Georgia in 1903, in recognition

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo: Rev. Daniel Marshall Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=95052.

Kiokee Baptist Church

Old Kiokee Baptist Church, founded by Daniel Marshall, is the earliest continuing Baptist church in Georgia. They erected their third (present) meetinghouse, in 1808, with its quaint auditorium, gallery, and hand-hewn pews. The congregation uses this building, at 2520 Ray Owens Road, for special services. For access, contact the church (706-541-1086). Inquire about the Marshall home-site and cemetery.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Kiokee Church, the first Baptist Church to be constituted in Georgia, was organized in the Spring of 1772, by the Rev. Daniel Marshall, one of the founders of the Baptist denomination in Georgia. A meeting house was built, and the Rev. Daniel Marshall became the first pastor, ministering from his headquarters at Kiokee to an ever increasing number of Baptists in the area.
In October, 1784, the preliminary meeting for the organization of a Georgia Baptist Association was held at Kiokee Church. The Rev. Daniel Marshall died November 2, 1784, and some time later the church was moved to Appling and a new brick edifice erected.
Kiokee Baptist Church was incorporated December 23, 1789, as “The Anabaptist Church on Kiokee”, with Abram Marshall, William Willingham, Edmund Cartledge, John Landers, James Simms, Joseph Ray and Lewis Gardner as Trustees.

 

Kiokee is Georgia’s oldest continuing Baptist church. Seventh Day Baptists began the first Baptist church in the state (1759) but the congregation existed only a short while.

It appears evident that Big Stevens Creek Church (South Carolina) established a mission point in Appling. The congregation became a Baptist church in the spring of 1772, probably taking the name “Kiokee” after the creek on which it was located. Legend asserts that “kiokee” was a term common to both the Cherokee and the Creek Indians for whom the Fall Line was a tribal border. It has been suggested that the creek system which is now known as Kiokee came to be so named in order to indicate that the water in the area was “sweet” or drinkable. The venerable Dr. Louie Newton suggested that an alternate interpretation of the term may have been “falls creek.”

Kiokee has the distinction of having had a father, son, and grandson as pastors during the first sixty years of its history. Daniel (1772-1784), Abraham (1784-1819), and Jabez (1819-1832) Marshall set a record which few other churches have known. Few, if any, Georgia pastors have had the extensive evangelistic and missionary ministry of Kiokee’s first two pastors. Daniel preached his way to Georgia after catching his “seraphic fire” under the influence of the Great Awakening. His arrest and trial when he began reaching in Georgia was not unlike an experience in the life of Paul the Apostle. Marshall, the “stammerer,” who was “no scholar” had a warm heart. Though a “Separate” with strong convictions, he reached out with love and affection to his brother of the “Regular” tradition, Edmond Botsford, founder of the Botsford congregation in Burke County in 1773. Abraham preached to thousands on New England tours in 1786 and 1792. The ministry of Jabez was cut short due to his death by measles on March 29, 1832. Collectively their commitment to cooperation was the beginning of a great denomination. It acquired the best characteristics of both groups. The denominational and organizational skills of the “Regulars” were combined with the evangelism and missions passions of the “Separates” to shape the Southern Baptist Convention as we know it today.

There is an equally impressive list of churches whose origins can be traced to Kiokee: Red’s Creek (Abilene), Little Brier Creek, Fishing Creek, Upton’s Creek (Greenwood), Grove, Phillips’ Mill, Bethesda, Clark’s Station, Sharon, Damascus, Marshall, Powelton, the First African Churches of Augusta and Savannah, and the First Baptist Church of Augusta.

The location of Kiokee’s first church building remains unknown. The congregation erected a structure around 1792 called “Marshall’s Meetinghouse.” In 1808, the Old Kiokee building was erected on this site where we meet today. An Appling chapel was built about 1828 and used as a mission of the church until it was destroyed by a tornado in 1875. Legend suggests that this same tornado provides an explanation for the turnbuckles seen in Old Kiokee. The turnbuckles are said to represent the effort of the trustees of that era to pull the top half of the building back around in line with the bottom. The fifth structure was an abandoned Methodist church building known as “St. Mary’s.” It was bought and moved to Appling in 1907 and used until 1937. The sixth meeting house currently serves as a chapel and was erected in 1937. The seventh and current meeting house was completed in 1995.

Taken from the Kiokee Baptist Church website (www.kiokee.org)

 

Featured Image Credit: AugustaGALiving, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Old Baptist Cemetery

In the 700 block of Church Street, the remains of Edmund Botsford (1745-1819), early pastor of Antipedo Baptist (later First Baptist) Church, lie buried in the Old Baptist Cemtery. A marker was placed at Botsford’s grave in 2004.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

In the plan of Georgetown, laid out by 1730, this one acre lot was reserved for Antipedo Baptist by Elisha Screven. A brick building built before the Revolution for the Baptists, Presbyterians, and independents housed the area Baptists who were constituted 1794. By 1804 its congregation had built “a handsome and commodious wooden meetinghouse” on this lot, commanding a view of the whole town from the front.

Old Baptist Cemetery
Among the graves here are those of William Cuttino, Sr., treasurer and builder of the Antipedo Baptist Church and John Waldo, minister and educator. Other early leaders buried here include the Rev. Edmund Botsford, native of England who became minister of this church in 1796; and Savage Smith, president of the church in 1805.

 

Botsford, Edmund a Baptist minister, was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, in 1745. He was converted at Charleston, S. C., in 1766, and licensed to preach in February, 1771. His first congregation was about forty miles from Savannah, but he also preached in Georgia. He was ordained pastor at Charleston; March 14, 1773. Subsequently he served several churches in Virginia, and closed his earthly labors in Georgetown, S. C., Dec. 25, 1819. He published The Spiritual Allegory: — Sambo and Toney: — and A Dialogue between Two Servants. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6 138.

The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. James Strong and John McClintock; Haper and Brothers; NY; 1880.

Featured Image Credit: Photo: Antipedo Baptist Church / Old Baptist Cemetery Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=420681.

Screven Family Cemetery

Founded in 1729 by William Screven’s son Elisha, Georgetown lies sixty miles north of Charleston. The Screven family cemetery is on Prince Street, near the intersection of Prince and Scriven Streets.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Here are buried William Screven (1624–1713) and other members of his family. A native of England, he migrated to Kittery, Me., and was persecuted by New England authorities for non-conformity. He and other members of the Kittery Church came to S.C. by 1696. They settled in Charleston and became the First Baptist Church in the South. He was the first Baptist preacher in the South. His son, Elisha, was a founder of Georgetown.

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo: Screven Cemetery Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=23094.

First Baptist Church of Charleston

First Baptist Church finds its roots in 1696, when William Screven and his twenty-eight member church (est. 1682) moved from Kittery, Maine, and settled near Charleston, as the earliest Baptist church in the south. In 1698, they moved into Charleston, as First Baptist Church, still located on Church Street. Other early Baptist pastors here include Oliver Hart and Richard Furman.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

NPS.gov https://www.nps.gov/places/charleston-first-baptist-church.htm

 

Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia contributors. File:First Baptist Church of Charleston South Carolina.jpg – Wikipedia. 8 Sept. 2012, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church_of_Charleston_South_Carolina.jpg.

Monticello

A short drive southwest of Orange is Monticello, at 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway, Charlottesville, the home of President Thomas Jefferson – principal author of the Declaration of Independence. His tombstone inscription says:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

Featured Image Credit: Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Montpelier

Nearby is Montpelier, home of the two-term, fourth President, James Madison – Father of the Constitution and Architect of the Bill of Rights. It was here that Dolley Madison earned the epithet “America’s first, ‘First Lady’.” Montpelier is at 11350 Constitution Highway, Montpelier Station.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Ron Cogswell on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument

On Washington Avenue, stands the Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument, made from stones sent from churches across the country. It commemorates Jefferson’s Virginia Religious Freedom Statute, promising that “no man shall… suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.” The Statute became the basis for the religion clause of the First Amendment.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

Thomas Jefferson was brilliant.

When President John F. Kennedy spoke at an event for Nobel Prize winners from the Western Hemisphere, he said “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Of all of Jefferson’s achievements, he chose to mark only three on his tombstone, author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Statue of Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.

It took almost ten years from the first meeting in 1777, until the General Assembly passed it in 1786, but eventually religious freedom was protected by the government.

In contrast to the secular view that religious tolerance followed religious apathy, note the wording Jefferson used:

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do;

Jefferson’s Religious Freedom

Jefferson went on to declare, “if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such as would be an infringement of natural right.”

Note the argument of ‘natural law’ – as we observe the Almighty Creator, he had the power to command worship in this dispensation, but chose not to, therefore we should likewise refrain, and allow man to love God freely, and not of compulsion

Inscription:

From a meeting in Fredericksburg, January 3-17, 1777, of a Committee of Revisors appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia, composed of Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe and Thomas Ludwell Lee to “settle the plan of operation and to distribute the work” evolved The Statute of Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson in the document the United States of America made probably its greatest contribution to government recognition of religious freedom.

This memorial marks the site of a celebration on October 16, 1932, by representatives of the leading religious faiths in America, commemorative of the religious character of George Washington, whose boyhood home was Fredericksburg; and of the separation of church and state, as the Virginia “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” was outlined by a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe and Thomas Ludwell Lee which met in this city on January 13, 1777.

 

Featured Image Credit: Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument. www.virginia.org/listing/thomas-jefferson-religious-freedom-monument/4305.

Berryville Baptist Church

Berryville (formerly Buckmarsh) Baptist Church is at 114 Academy Street. John Gerrard (Garrard, ca. 1720-87), in 1772, constituted the Buckmarsh church. James Ireland (ca. 1745-1806) served the Buckmarsh pastorate from 1786 until his death. Ireland’s remains lie in an unknown grave in the Buckmarsh cemetery. A historical plaque marks the site where Buckmarsh Baptist once stood. The plaque is only a few yards north of the VA 7 overpass on US 340 (southbound lane), just north of Berryville. In the 1840s the Buckmarsh congregation moved into Berryville and changed their name to Berryville Baptist. Note: The marker on US 340 gives 1778 as the year Ireland began his pastorate at Buckmarsh, but a James Ireland memorial cenotaph, at Berryville Baptist Church, has a bronze plaque, giving 1786 as the date. The year 1786 is accurate, since Gerrard was pastor until near the time of his death in 1787.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo: Buck Marsh Baptist Church Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=5125.

Pennepack Baptist Church

Pennepack Baptist Church, founded by Elias Keach, in 1688, is the oldest surviving Baptist church in the Middle Colonies. In 1805, at the peak of the Second Great Awakening, during the ministry of Samuel Jones, the congregation erected its present (third) building, constructed from fieldstone collected from the surrounding meadows. Straight-backed box pews occupy the main floor. An elegant, high pulpit enables ministers to look out on level with the balconies on three sides. Attached to the front of the high pulpit, a bronze plaque lists the names of the twelve charter members. In 1885, the church began using a building, a mile away, but in 2006, they returned to the 1805 building, at 87 Krewstown Road, where they still meet. (See Chapter 14.).

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Photo from Church Website

 

 

Monument Text:

In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Baptists from England and Wales settled in the County of Philadelphia. Their gathering as baptized believers led to the formation of the Pennepack Baptist Church.

In 1686, Elias Keach, son of the famed English Pastor, Benjamin Keach, arrived in America. Though unconverted, he presented himself as minister of the gospel. His name secured for him the opportunity to preach and the aforementioned group of believers, in need of a pastor, were among those who gave ear to his message.

Baptist historian Morgan Edwards records the details of this event. He performed well enough till he had advanced pretty far in the sermon. Then stopping short, looked like a man astonished. The audience concluded he had been seized with a sudden disorder, but, on asking what the matter was, received from him the confession of the imposture with tears in his eyes and much trembling.”

The deceiver became the first convert of his own preaching for from this time he dated his conversion! Keach repaired to Elder Thomas Dungan who: at Cold Springs in 1684, founded the first Baptist Church in the colony of Pennsylvania.

Dungan administered the ordinance of baptism to Keach and the young preacher returned to Pennepack.

The Pennepack Baptist Church was constituted in 1688. It is recorded that “by the advice of Elias Keach and with the consent of the following named persons viz: John Eatton, George Eatton and Jane, his wife, Samuel Jones, Sarah Eatton, John Baker, Samuel Vaus, Joseph Ashton and Jane, his wife, William Fisher, John Watts, and Elias Keach, a day was set apart to seek God by fasting and prayer in order to form ourselves into a church. Whereupon Elias Keach was accepted and received as our pastor and we sat down in communion at the Lord’s table.

The same year, 1688, Elder Dungan died, and in 1702, the Church at Cold Springs was absorbed into Pennepack Church. Though not the first established, to “Ye Old Pennepack” belongs the distinction of being the oldest Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. It is also one of the oldest Baptist Churches in America.

 

Featured Image Credit: “Tomestone.” Pennepack Baptist Church, www.pennepackbaptist.org/burials.html.

Welsh Tract Baptist Church

The Welsh Tract Baptist Church, on Welsh Tract Road, originated in 1701, when sixteen people formed the original congregation in Wales. In 1703, they settled on a thousand acre tract of land, granted by William Penn and since known as the Welsh Tract. As the first Baptist church in Delaware and situated a couple of miles south of Newark, they built a log meetinghouse in 1706. In 1746, they constructed their present brick building. In the Battle at Cooch’s Bridge, on September 3, 1777, a British cannon ball passed through the auditorium. Brickwork patches on both sides of the building still mark the event. The historical marker at the nearby battle site reports that this was the “only battle of the American Revolution on Delaware soil and claimed to have been the first in which the stars and stripes were carried.” A plaque at the church reads, “Old Welsh Tract Church – Oldest Primitive Baptist Church in America.” With the 1814 establishment of the Triennial Convention, the Welsh Tract Church, having become hyper-Calvinist, voiced strong opposition ot the Convention’s missionary emphasis. In 1824, the Baptist General Tract Society made its debut. At the establishment of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, in 1832, Welsh Tract reacted by becoming a “mother church” of independent, Primitive (Old School) Baptist churches. The church broke away from mainstream Baptists at every level. Often called “Hard Shell Baptists,” Primitive Baptists opposed missionary societies, Bible societies, theological seminaries, and even Sunday Schools. They mockingly compared evangelistic appeals with Jehu’s invitation, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord” (2 Kings 10:16). Primitive Baptist ministers had little or no formal training, and seldom received a salary. Their congregations have generally used no musical instruments, but they often sing a capella, in four-part harmony, known as Sacred Harp, a style of eighteenth-century folk music. There is often a sort of music in their sermons, as preachers deliver rhythmic, extemporaneous messages in a distinctive singsong voice. Some practice foot washing as an ordinance.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

From Wikipedia: The church continues to have meetings every second Sunday of the month. Elder Chet Dirkes is the present pastor.

 

 

Featured Image Credit: Camerafiend, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

First Baptist in the City of New York

John Gano (1727-1804) was the first full-time pastor of First Baptist in the City of New York (est. 1762). During the War of Independence, Gano served as chaplain to George Washington. In 1891, during the ministry of I.M. Haldeman (1845-1933), the church erected its present building at 265 West 79th Street at Broadway. (See Chapter 16).

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hopewell Baptist Church

Hopewell Baptist Church is on West Broad Street (Hopewell, New Jersey). One of its most notable pastors was Oliver Hart (1723-95). Gravestones in the church cemetery include those of Isaac Eaton and John Hart, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hart was not a member here, but he donated the land on which the building stands. Revolutionary War veterans lie buried here. The appearance of the Hopewell Baptist meetinghouse has not changed since 1822, when the congregation rebuilt it on its original foundation.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

 

http://genealogytrails.com/njer/mercer/baptist_meeting_house.html

 

Featured Image Credit: Hopewell Old School Baptist Meetinghouse. “A Chronological History of the Hopewell Baptist Church.” Old School Baptist Meeting House, 9 Oct. 2023, oldschoolbaptistmeetinghouse.com/a-chronological-history-of-the-hopewell-baptist-church.

Hopewell Academy

Hopewell Academy (est. 1756), a Latin grammar school, founded by Isaac Eaton, pastor at Hopewell Baptist, was the earliest Baptist academy in America. The building is now a private home, but a historical plaque stands near the street. The academy’s alumni included James Manning, founder of Brown University. Other alumni included the “Baptist Whitefield,” Hezekiah Smith, who was a classmate with Manning at Princeton and founding pastor of First Baptist at Haverhill, Massachusetts.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

 

 

Featured Image Credit: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Church of the Pilgrimage

In 1801, the Church of the Pilgrimage broke off from the First Parish Church in Plymouth in the Unitarian Controversy. The Congregationalists formed this church, which later became part of the United Church of Christ. On the front of the church is this plaque:

 

This tablet is inscribed in grateful memory of the Pilgrims and of their successors who at the time of the Unitarian Controversy in 1801 adhered to the belief of the Fathers and on the basis of the original creed and covenant perpetuated at great sacrifice in the Church of the Pilgrimage the Evangelical Faith and Fellowship of the Church of Scrooby Leyden and the Mayflower organized in England in 1606.

“Upon reading of his son’s Christian Baptism, in 1817, Adoniram Judson Sr., of the Church of the Pilgrimage, on the north side of Town Square, became a Baptist and resigned the Congregational pastorate.”

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Giorgio Galeotti, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Church of St. Illtyd

John Myles organized the earliest Baptist church in Wales, in 1651. During Oliver Cromwell’s rule, Myles’s church occupied the thirteenth-century Church of St. Illtyd, located on a small country lane, at Ilston, near the west end of the Swansea airfield. at the Restoration of the British monarchy, in 1660, officials of Charles II ousted John Myles and his congregation from St. Illtyd Church. Baptists fled the area, but strong tradition testifies that Myles and a remnant of his people worshipped secretly in a secluded building, now in ruins, a half mile from the Church of St. Illtyd. For the shortest walk to the site, begin at Gower Inn, in nearby Parkmill. Near the west end of the Inn’s parking lot is a wide iron gate, to the left of which is this bronze inscription:

The path beyond this gate leads to the Ilston Memorial erected in 1928. On the ruins of the meeting place of the Baptist Church founded by John Myles in 1649, the Memorial is built from the original stones.

The “Ilston Memorial” is a stone pulpit, standing among the ancient ruins of the Baptist chapel, formerly a Roman Catholic chapel. To reach the site, follow the path for a delightful quarter-mile walk into the Ilston Valley. At certain points along the way, you will see the stream, known by locals as the “Killy Willy,” running along near the path. Twisting and winding across the valley floor, the Killy Willy cuts across the path in several places, where small, wooden, foot bridges allow you to continue to the medieval chapel called “Trinity Well.” Underneath the chapel’s stone foundation is a spring to which superstitious Catholics once flocked for its promised healing powers. There is no record of when the chapel fell into disuse. The Memorial pulpit holds a carved, open Bible. Underneath the Bible is a plaque with this inscription:

To commemorate the foundation in this valley of the first Baptist Church in Wales 1649-60 and to honor the memory of its founder John Myles. This ruin is the site of the pre-Reformation chapel of Trinity Well and is claimed by tradition as a meeting place of the above Cromwellian Church. This memorial has been erected with the permission of Admiral A.W. Heneage Vivian, C.R.M.V.O. and was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George. M.P.O.M., 13th June 1928.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: Alan Hughes / St Illtyd’s Church, Ilston

Gainsborough Old Hall

Visit historic Gainsborough Old Hall (Lincolnshire), where John Smyth held his Separatist meetings. From here, in early 1608, Smyth and most of his congregation escaped to Holland. Rich in Separatist history, the Gainsborough Old Hall is well worth a two-hour visit. It has a Gift Shop and Tea Shop.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Featured Image Credit: John Spooner, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Scrooby Manor House

See the only remaining section of Scrooby Manor House where postmaster William Brewster lived, and where the Separatists organized their church in 1606. This is the church that the future Baptist, Thomas Helwys, sacrificially assisted in their escape to Holland. In 1620, many of these Pilgrims would come to the New World on the Mayflower ship.

copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices

 

Film under development: http://fandangomedia.co.uk/pilgrim-home/

 

From: https://www.mayflower400uk.org/news/2017/november/scrooby-manor-house-named-in-top-10-travel-tourism-places-2/

 

Today Scrooby Manor House is privately owned and in in the process of being painstakingly restored by David and Julie Dunstan.

Julie said “We are delighted that our home has been recognised for its historic importance not only in England but also in America. One of the remaining original walls of the former palace bears plaques donated by Mayflower descendants dating back over a hundred years and no doubt in 2020, which is the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing to America, there will be an additional plaque to commemorate this historic voyage.”

Although Scrooby Manor House is not accessible to the public, occasional tours of the grounds and exterior of the house can be organised through accredited Mayflower 400 tour guides.

 

From http://www.scrooby.net/page/scroobyManorHouse

William Brewster Senior died in 1590, and was succeeded by his son, William Brewster Junior. From 1606-7 Brewster held Separatist meetings int he manor house.

Around 1636-7 most of the manor house and its outbuildings were demolished following a demolition order granted by Charles I.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooby

 

The Manor House belonged to the Archbishops of York and so was sometimes referred to as a palace. (A nearby former farmhouse is still called Palace Farm.) At the end of the sixteenth century, the house was occupied by William Brewster, the Archbishop’s bailiff, who was also postmaster. His son, also named William, took that post in the 1590s after a job as an assistant to the Secretary of State under Queen Elizabeth I. The junior William became dissatisfied with the Anglican Church as it was developing at the time, acquired Brownist beliefs and attempted to leave for the Netherlands in 1607. After an unsuccessful first attempt, Brewster succeeded in 1608. He eventually went to New England in 1620 on the Mayflower, as one of the people later called Pilgrim Fathers. The Manor House was demolished early in the 19th century, though the leveled area where it stood can still be made out, as can the twin sets of steps (now just grassy banks) that led down to the ornamental ponds. All that remain are a cottage (perhaps intended for a resident official and not open to the public, though it has commemorative plaques), a substantial brick dovecote and the fishponds. Notice boards direct visitors to the best places to view the historic sites which today are private property.

Featured Image Credit: “The Old Manor House, Scrooby P3 by Historic Illustrations.” Fine Art America, fineartamerica.com/featured/the-old-manor-house-scrooby-p3-historic-illustrations.html.