Persecution of Massachusetts Baptists

This Day in Baptist History Past



March 28, 1665 – The First Baptist Church of Boston was founded which was the 4th Baptist church established in America. The first was by Roger Williams in 1639 in Providence, R.I., the 2nd by Dr. John Clarke in Newport, R.I. in 1639, the 3rd was the First Baptist Church of Swansea, Mass. est.1663. Two names were prominent in the founding of the Boston church, Henry Dunster and Thomas Goold. Dunster was the first President of Harvard College and one of the most eminent men in New England, and he united with the First Congregational Church in Cambridge in 1640. The terrible whipping of Obadiah Holmes brought the matter of baptism to the attention of many colonists including Dunster. He faced the matter of having his newborn son sprinkled, and after careful study came to the conclusion of believer’s immersion only. In 1654 he held a public disputation with nine leading ministers. He died before the church was founded but he laid the ground work. Thomas Goold was one of the leading men in Charlestown and of good standing in character in town and church. As a successful wagon maker, he was one of the leading property owners in the town. In 1655 a child was born to he and Hannah, and they refused to have the child christened. On July 30, 1665, he was excluded from the Congregational church for his Anabaptist leanings. He assumed the leadership of the group which formed the First Baptist Church of Boston and led them for ten years. He endured the pillaging of his home and property. He continued services in and out of prison until his health failed, but the church grew. They could not crush them. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 170-71. [Nathan E. Wood, The History of the First Baptist Church of Boston (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1899), p. 26.]