Baptists in the new world

Hi Barnabas -

I will cite from a book I have and am very fond of called "A History of Baptist in Virginia" written by Reuben E. Alley published by the Virginia Baptist General Board:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Baptists were among colonists who came to Virginia from England before the close of the seventeenth century. Like other English dissenters they were generally disposed to conform in their religious worship and activities with restrictions imposed by the colonial government. Evidence is lacking that they made protests against prevailing laws, disturbed the peace, or that they suffered from acts of suppression by colonial authorities. That they made adjustments easily in order to live at peace with the Established Church might account for the lack of reference to them in the records of that period. Specific information about a group of Baptists in Virginia was made by Thomas Story, a prominent English Quaker, who in an account of his visits to America recorded: ‘On the 23d (January 1699) being the First of the Week, we had a meeting at York City, at the borne of Thomas Bonger, a Preacher among the General Baptists; and it was the first Meeting of our Friends that had been there.' This entry clearly implied the existence at York City, now Yorktown, of a company of General Baptists to whom Bonger preached. The account by Story also told about an unmolested meeting in the home of Bonger, thereby providing evidence that Baptists observed the Act of Toleration which granted dissenters limited privileges of worship upon their signing oaths of allegiance and conformity. Further, it is of interest to notice the cordial relation that existed between Baptists and Quakers, both groups being dissenters and recipients of toleration granted by the English Par-liament and made partially effective in Virginia by an act of the House of Burgesses.

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[ February 21, 2002: Message edited by: Clint Kritzer ]