The First Baptist Church in America

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There has been much debate in history about which church was the first Baptist Church in America. Many people claim the it was Roger William's church in Providence, and others claim that it is John Clark's in Newport. We will view different fact's of history and old writings by Baptist historians to see which one was the first Baptist church in America.

The Oldest Baptist Church in America

A correspondent of the Christian Chronicle, writing from Newport, R.I., says of the First Baptist church in that city: "Though usually bearing the date of 1644, it was really constituted in 1638, and is the oldest Baptist church in America. It stands a monument of the preserving care of God; for it is the only church  in all New England that has existed for over two hundred and fifteen years, that has not departed from its original faith; every other church in New England of the same age having gone to Unitarianism. Its founder and first pastor was he distinguished Dr. John Clarke, the Original projector of the settlement on the island; the man who, in 1651, with Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall, was imprisoned in Boston, and condemned to a fine, or to be whipped, for preaching Baptist sentiments in Massachusetts. It was he too, by his own unaided but preserving efforts, who obtained that distinguished character of Rhode Island, the root of our American Liberties - securing perfect liberty of conscience to all. Though this church has existed two hundred and fifteen years, it has had but thirteen pastors, including Rev. S. Adlam; its present successful incumbent; and a large proportion of its present members are descended from those who first constituted the church.

Isaac Backus states on page 45 of his Abridgement to the Church History of New England, that Roger Williams "formed the First Baptist church in America March 1639." He further states on page 48 that the Newport church under John Clarke began in 1644. In his unabridged History of New England, with Particular Reference to the Baptists, Vol. 1, page 123, he says, "about the year 1644."

Backus, justifying the actions of Williams in baptizing without so-called apostolic succession (also known derisively as "se-baptism") quoted Mr. Williams' apology to John Cotton:

As sacrifices and other acts of worship were omitted by the people of God, while his temple lay in ruins; and that they were restored again by immediate redirection from Heaven, so that some such direction was necessary to restore the ordinances of Baptism and the supper, since the desolation of the church in mystical Babylon. [Isaac Backus, An Abridgement of the Church History of New England (1804, reprint ed., Harvard: Harvard Library, 1935), P.45.]

According to Isaac Backus, Roger Williams' Church in Providence disbanded after he could not defend his own baptism. Backus states: "In March, 1639, he was baptized by one of his brethren, and then he baptized about ten more." [Ibid.] Williams then abandoned "such administrations among them."

Thomas Crosby in his History of the English Baptists, said "Roger Williams' church came to nothing." [Thomas Crosby, History of the English Baptists, Vol. 1 (London: sp, 1734), P.17.] Evidence Shows that Thomas Olney picked up the pieces an re-gathered the church at providence. This occurred in July 1639.

About the year 1653, the First Baptist church of Povidence experienced a church split over the controversy of "laying on of hands." Thomas Olney remained the pastor of the "six-principled" First Baptist Church while Wickenden, Dexter and Browne began the "five-principled" new First Baptist Church of Providence. Thomas Olney pastored the old church until his death about 1682.

The old Olney church disbanded according to Callender's discourse on page 61, and the Wickenden, Dexter and Browne congregation lived on as the First Baptist Church of Providence. This is the church that David Benedict testified became a prolific mother of many Baptist communities.

John Comer's papers, the most ancient record of the Baptists in America, may have indicated that the Newport church was the first in America. Unfortunately, as James Willmarth wrote, "the two manuscript volumes [of his diary] of the Rhode Island Historical Society are but a small portion of his writings, for through the centuries lay vandal hands upon manuscripts and unbound memoranda." [James W. Willmarth, Supplementary notes, John Comer's Diary (Providence: Published by the Rhode Island Historical Society, Edited by C. Edwin Barrow, D.D., 1893), P.125.]

John Callender became the sixth pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newport, beginning his ministry in 1730. He made this footnote in his Historical Discourse:

Since this was transcribed for the Press, I find some Reasons to suspect, that Mr. Williams did not form a Church of the Anabaptist, and that he never join'd with the Baptist church there. Only, that he allowed them to be nearest the Scriptural Rule, and true primitive Practice, as to the Mode and Subject of Baptism. But that he himself waited for new Apostles, etc. The most ancient inhabitants now alive, some of them above eighty years old, who personally knew Mr. Williams formed the Baptist Church there, but always understood that Mr. Browne, Mr. Dexter, Mr. Olney, Mr. Tillingast, etc, were the first Founders of that church." [John Callender, Historical Discourse on the Civil and Religious Affairs of Rhode Island (Boston: Kneeland and Green,1734), P.56.]

If Callender is correct, then the first Baptist church in Providence began in 1639. Callender also wrote:

The people who came to Rhode Island, who were Puritans of the highest Form, had desired and depended on the Assistance of Mr. Wheelwrite, a famous Congregational Minister aforementioned. But he chose to got to Long-Island, where he continued some years. In the mean time Mr. John Clarke, who was a Man of Letters, carried on a publick Worship at the first coming." [John Callender, Historical Discourse on the Civil and Religious Affairs of Rhode Island (Boston: Kneeland and Green,1734), P.62.]

Which means they had church services in 1638. I believe they were simply carrying on what they had begun in the New Hampshire wilderness a few months earlier.

Callender, having already confirmed the 1638 ministry of Hohn Clarke on the Island, makes this statement, "It is said, that in 1644, Mr. John Clarke, and some others, formed a church on the Scheme and Principles of the Baptists." The meaning is clear, that the church had already commenced in 1638, and the official forming may have been 1644. He continues by saying, "It is certain that in 1648 there were fifteen Members in full Communion." The meaning here is also clear, the the first official record of any kind  does not appear until 1648. [John Callender, Historical Discourse on the Civil and Religious Affairs of Rhode Island (Boston: Kneeland and Green,1734), P.62.]

Dr. S. Adlam became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Newport, Rhode Island in 1850. He soon discovered that the Warren Association, of which the Newport church belonged, had recently examined the confusion concerning the first Baptist church in Rhode Island and the first Baptist church in America. The Warren Association conclude that the Newport church had formed first. This caused Adlam to set forth his arguments that John Clarke and the church at Newport formed the first Baptist church. At the conclusion of his booklet, The First Church in Providence, not the Oldest Baptist Church in America, the clerk of the Newport church, Asa Hildreth, wrote the following:

The matter of the formation of the First Baptist Church was brought before the Warren Association at its meeting in 1847, and at the annual meeting of the association in 1848 the following votes were passed by that body:

1. That the date of 1638,inserted under the name of the First Baptist Church in Newport, contained in the tabular estimate in the minutes of last year, be stricken out and the date (1644) be inserted, as in the minutes of the years preceding.

2. That a committee, consisting of T.C. Jameson, J.P. Tustin, and Levi Hale., be appointed to inquire into the evidence as to the date of the First Baptist Church in Newport, with instructions to report at the next session of the association.

This committee reported in 1849, that they are of the opinion that this church was formed certainly before the 1st of May, 1639, and probably on the 7th of March, 1638.

This called out a review of the fore-named report by a committee of the First Baptist Church in Providence, whose report is dated August 22, 1850, which led Rev. S. Adlam, who had just settled over the first Church in Newport, to make a thorough investigation of the matter which resulted in his book upon the First Baptist Church in Providence.

It was expected that this book would call out a reply from some one of the First Church in Providence, as there were several very able members of that church professors in Brown University, but as no reply came, Mr. Adlam asked one of their ablest men (I am reliably informed) when his little book was to be answere? He replied: "It is unanswerable." [S. Adlam, D.D., The First Church in Providence no the Oldest Baptist Church in America, (Texarkana: Baptist Sunday School Committee, 1939).]

This was either ignored or overlooked by the historians Thomas Armitage and William Cathcart. Those historians copied from David Benedict, who copied from Isaac Backus. A host of others have followed suit. The Baptists of America are continually pointed to the First Baptist Church of Providence as the first in America. It is high time to stop.

The truth is, Roger Williams baptized no one legitimately, trained no preachers, and birthed no churches. First Baptist of Providence presently (2005) accepts any mode of baptism from any denomination as legitimate and no longer insists an the new birth as a prerequisite for membership.

[Sources quoted from The Baptist History Workbook,2nd ed., James Beller, (Prairie Fire Press, 2005), P.258.]

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