EARLY HISTOEY OF THE BAPTISTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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��Next the vine extended to Massachusetts, the fourth of the denomination being established in Swansea in ; 1663 the fifth in Boston in 1665. That church still ex- ists, is 214 years old, and among its long list of pastors have been Dr. Samuel Stillman, Dr. Francis Wayland, and oth- ers of eminent talent and virtuous fame.
There was a violent opposition to some of these churches. The horses of minis- ters were disfigured ; mobs were organ- ize to injure them. In one case the doors of a meeting-house were nailed up, and in another an earnest Baptist was public- ly whipped. The minister whipped was Obadiah Holmes. He received thirty lashes from a three-corded whip. He 1 said it was easy to him, and even told the officers on the spot It was as if they had struck him with roses."' Yet his back was so cut that for some time he could rest in bed only on his knees and elbows. Laws were enacted against the Baptists, and there were fines and im- prisonments.
We have the authority of New Hamp- shire's former distinguished antiquarian, John Farmer, Esq., for saying that Dea. John Hariman of Plaistow was the first person of Baptist sentiment in this State. There is strong evidence that his name was Joseph instead of John. He was the grandfathers of the late Elders John and David Hariman, well known in dif- ferent sections of Rockingham, Hills- borough and Merrimac Counties. Mr. Farmer gives no dates, but Dea. Hariman was born about 1723 and died in 1820, aged 97 years. There was no Baptist church in Plaistow while he lived, and probably his religious associations were either in Haverhill or Newtown (now Newton), and most likely Newton, a Baptist church having been formed there some time before there was one in Haver- hill.
This brings us to the first Baptist church organized in New Hampshire — at Newton, in 1755. This town is in the southerly part of Rockingham County and borders on Amesbury, Mass. Its population never has equaled nine hun- dred, and at the time this church was constituted was about four hundred. It was the first church formed in the town.
��About four years later a Congregational meeting was established and a minister settled. But little can be said as to the origin of the Baptist church. Its pastor was Rev. Walter Powers, and it is sup- posed he organized the church. A son of his, named Walter, was ordained pastor of the Baptist church in Gilman- ton, June 14, 1786. In advanced life he had a stroke of palsy, lost his speech, ana, in part, the use of his limbs, and after his property was gone he became a tenant of the poor-house, where he died April 7, 1826.
The church at Newton for years was small and almost alone, none of like faith being near. There were also disa- greeable contentions, as those who re- fused to pay a tax to support the Con- gregationalists after they came, were sued at the law. Mr. Powers continued but a few years and then other supplies were obtained. In 1767 it was voted to raise fifty pounds, lawful money, for preaching. This was about $250, and was rather liberal for an infant, strug- gling society. The church still lives, being now one hundred and twenty years old.
And so there was one Baptist church in the State. It is now necessary to go back a lew years and notice a time of seed-sowing of Baptist sentiments, which resulted, when the fruit appeared, in other Baptist churches about fifteen years after that at Newton was estab- lished.
About 1720 a man at Stratham married a Miss Thurber of Rehoboth, Mass. She was a Baptist, and at Stratham found herself alone in religious sentiments. Towards the close of her life, about 1760, she purchased and distributed in Strat- ham a work by Norcutt on Baptism. She said the time would come when there would be a Baptist church in Stratham. She died; but her prediction was veri- fied.
There was in Stratham a practicing physician. Dr. Samuel Shepard. a native of Salisbury,Mass. Being on a visit to a sick person he took up one of the books Mrs. Scammon had distributed. He was. convinced on reading it that the view of baptism was correct. He was a
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