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in authority under him, and giving custom to whom custom, honour to whom honour, tribute to whom tribute is due. We do further declare, that we are not against taking oaths, nor using arms in defence of our king and country, when legally called thereto; and that we do approve and will obey the laws of this province. And further, we do bind ourselves to follow the patterns of our brethren in England, to maintain order, government, and discipline in our church, especially that excellent directory of Rev. Francis Stanley, entitled "The Gospel's Honour, and the Church's Ornament," dedicated to the churches in the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, and Cambridge. We also engage, that all persons upon joining our society, shall yield consent to and subscribe this our solemn league and covenant. Subscribed by us whose names are underwritten, this 10th day of July, 1742."

Mr. Sator bore an excellent character, and may be. considered not only the founder of this society, but of the Baptist interest in Maryland. His assistance in building the place of worship, and his gift of land to the minister, are mentioned as peculiar marks of his liberality.

This church immediately increased very fast, and began to spread over the country, and soon extended over to Opeckon and Ketockton in Virginia; insomuch that in four years the number of communicants amounted

to 181.

Mr. Loveall became the pastor of the church at its beginning, and continued still to act in that capacity; but by many accounts, he was a man of great blemishes of character, and his misconduct soon checked the growth of the church at Chesnut Ridge, and caused it to disperse and dwindle away. He was a native of Cambridge, England; came to America when young; and was baptized in New-England in 1725; probably in Newport; for it appears by Mr. John Comer's Journal, that he was in that town in 1729, and had then begun to preach. And being desirous of travelling into the Jerseys, he, by his request, received a letter of introduction to the churches there, signed by James Clark, Daniel Wightman, and John Comer, who certified that they then "knew nothing, but that his conduct and conver

sation was agreeable to the Gospel of Christ." But it was not long after that he was found to be a man of bad character, having been guilty of some shameful acts of uncleanness, a sin which most easily beset him; and that his real name was Desolate Baker.* He was ordained at Piscataqua, New-Jersey, 1730, but never officiated there in a pastoral capacity; for the foul blemishes of his character were soon discovered by the church, which had been too hasty in ordaining him. After causing much confusion at Piscataqua, he came to Maryland in 1742, and the same year became the minister of the church whose history we are now relating. In 1746, he went to Virginia, and raised the Mill-Creek church, from which he was shortly after excommunicated for his misconduct, and returned to Chesnut Ridge, where he resided in 1772, in the 78th year of his age, an unhappy proof, that ministerial gifts and a good life and conversation do not always go together.

The church of Particular Baptists was at first called Winter Run, which appellation has since been exchanged for Harford, the name of the county in which it is situated. In 1772, besides the main establishment at Winter Run, it consisted of three other branches, one near Chesnut Ridge, which met for worship in the house belonging to the General Baptists, the second was at Petapsco, and the third near Winchester. These branches have, probably, since become distinct churches, although they do not bear the names which are here given them. In this church, which was so extensive in its bounds, there were, at the date above mentioned, 138 communicants. It originated from the General Baptist church at Chesnut Ridge, in the following manner: About the year 1747, some of the members of that church, being inclined to the sentiments of the Particular Baptists, invited their ministers to preach amongst them, who continued their visits until fourteen persons had embraced their sentiments, and these were constituted into a church in 1754, by the assistance of Benjamin Griffiths and Peter P. Vanhorn, and was the same year received into the Philadelphia Association. It is an old and respectable

* John Comer's Diary, a letter from Nathaniel Jenkins, to the church at Piscataqua, dated Dec. 1730.

church, and was, for upwards of 50 years, under the pastoral care of the late venerable John Davis. Mr. Davis was born in Pennepeck, in Pennsylvania, Sept. 10, 1721; was called to the ministry and ordained at Montgomery in the same State, 1756, and the same year came to Maryland, and took on him the pastoral care of this church, where he continued until his death, which happened in 1809, when he was in the 88th year of his age. He was own cousin to the late famous Benjamin Francis, of England. All that I can learn of him is, that he was a man of peculiar piety and usefulness, and no one who knew him, mentions his name without affixing some appellation expressive of his peculiar excellence. When he first arrived in Maryland, he was very roughly treated; for the people of the neighbourhood, the magistrates and the court, publickly affronted him, and used indirect arts to drive him out of the country; but in a short time, the men who were his bitterest enemies became his affectionate friends, and treated him with honour and respect.

The Harford church has been the mother of a number of others; for the churches which bear the following names, 1st Baltimore, Taney Town, Gunpowder, and Sator's, were taken from it.

About 1770, some preachers from Virginia, particularly Richard Major and the Fristoes, William and Daniel, began to preach in the south-west borders of the State; their labours were attended with success; many were baptized, who united with the churches in Virgin ia, belonging to the Ketockton Association, and in this way the foundations were laid for the oldest churches in that region.

Respecting the remaining churches, in that part of Maryland, which, by way of contradistinction, is called the Western shore, I have obtained no information worth detailing, excepting of those in the city of Balti

more.

The 1st church in Baltimore was constituted in 1785, with 11 members, all of whom, excepting Mr. Richards, were dismissed from the Harford church. The constituents were Rev. Lewis Richards, David Shields and wife, George Prestman and wife, Richard Lemmon, Al

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exander M'Kim, (now a member of Congress,) Thomas Coal and wife, William Hobby, and Eleanor Thomas. These members had kept up a meeting in Baltimore, for a number of years before the church was organized, and were regularly supplied with preaching once a month, by Mr. Davis, the pastor of the church with which they stood connected, until their present pastor removed and settled in the city.

Mr. Richards was born in 1752, in the parish of Llanbardarn vowr, Cardiganshire, South-Wales. He made a publick profession of religion at the age of 19, and joined a society of Independents, and was shortly after introduced to the attention of the famous Lady Huntington, and studied a short time in the college which was under the patronage of that remarkable woman. He, however, suspended his studies there, with a view of pursuing them at the Orphan House in Georgia, and embarked for America with a number of his fellow students, the names of whom, and many particulars respecting them, are related in the biography of Rev. Joseph Cook. Mr. Richards was baptized by Dr. Richard Furman, at the High Hills of Santee, South-Carolina, in 1777, and was ordained the same year, in Charleston, by Rev. Messrs. Hart and Cook; and after travelling about a year in different parts of South-Carolina and Georgia, removed to Northampton county, Virginia, on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeak Bay. From this place he removed to his present station in 1784, a few months before the church over which he presides was constituted.

Some time before the constitution of this church, a number of persons had purchased a lot in the city, containing half an acre, on which the congregation have since erected their present place of worship, which is a neat brick building without galleries, 60 feet by 40. They have also erected, on the same lot a very commodious brick dwelling-house, two stories high, for the use of their minister.

The origin of the 2d church in Baltimore, is somewhat singular, and is thus related by Rev. John Healey, their present pastor:

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In 1794, Mr. Healey and wife, Matthew Hulse and wife, and William Lynes and wife, all members of the General Baptist church of Friar Lane, Leicester, England, having resolved to go to America, covenanted, before their departure, to remain together as a religious society, and to maintain the worship of God among themselves, in the distant country to which they were bound. They landed in New-York, in October, 1794, and tarried in that city through the following winter. The succeeding spring they removed to Baltimore, and immediately commenced their meetings in a warehouse, which had been occupied as a place of worship by the Episcopalians. In this, and in other places, they continued to assemble until 1797, when they had acquired sufficient ability to erect a decent brick building 40 feet by 27, with a vestry 10 feet wide, which is attached to one end of it. It stands in that part of the

city, called Fell's Point.

About the time the meeting-house was built, there remained of the constituents of the church, only Mr. Healey and his wife; for Lynes and his wife went off to the Methodists soon after they came to Baltimore, and Hulse and his wife had died with the yellow fever. But others had united with the little establishment, which, in the same year the meeting house was built, began to travel in a church capacity.

As Mr. Healey and his associates were General Baptists, they were, on that account, for a time, exposed to many suspicions and much embarrassment; for the Baptists, in these parts, are, generally speaking, strongly Calvinistick. And between this church and the first in the city, there was no fellowship for a number of years. But the differences between them have gradually subsided, and a full and happy union has been formed.

This church, in 1809, had some peculiar trials with a number of its members who went off from them in a manner which they considered disorderly, and united in forming a church which was founded that year by Rev. William M'Pherson. Mr. M'Pherson was formerly one of Mr. Haldane's connexion, in Scotland; but he became a Baptist soon after he came to America. Some further account of the church, which he founded in this

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