A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

Luke 14:25-26

April 14, 1660 – Charles II, King of England, issued a declaration at Breda which declared “a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question, for differences of opinion on matters of religion.” Baptists still continued to suffer to some degree. Dorothy Kelly will ever live in remembrance as the one who initiated Baptist existence in Bristol. Dorothy was a Puritan and as such belonged to the Church of England. But the Puritans were reformers who attended the services of their church, but gathered in private homes for prayer and Bible study. Dorothy was widowed and in the same Puritan group was an Anglican minister, a Rev. Hazzard, who proposed marriage and was accepted. Now Dorothy was a Puritan and the wife of an Anglican Preacher, but their home became a meeting house for the Puritans. Their home also became a haven for Pilgrims who sailed from Bristol to America in search of religious freedom and a refuge for those who were escaping religious laws such as not attending communion, less they be fined. Finally Dorothy began attending for the sermon only, leaving before communion. A John Cannes came to Bristol and encouraged the group to leave the Church even if they had to meet in a barn which they did. In 1651 Thomas Ewins, from London was invited to become pastor of the group that had grown to around 160 persons. In 1654 Ewins and others went to London and were immersed with believers Baptism by Rev. Henry Jessy. In turn the others were baptized and the church became the 1st Baptist church of Bristol. Rev. Hazzard never left the Anglican Church. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 204-06. [ C.F: Margaret McLaren Cook, Great Baptist Women (London: Carey Kingsgate Press Limited, 1955), p. 15.]