Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

“The first certain date in their church records is taken from a manuscript of
Mr. Samuel Hubbard in 1648, which says the church was formed about the
year 1644, and by what I have quoted from Winthrop and Hubbard, it appears
as likely to be earlier as later than that time. The entry of the first Baptist
church in Newport, here referred to, was made by John Comer as late as 1725,
and is as follows: ‘Having found a private record of Mr. Samuel Hubbard,
who was a member of the church, by which I find that the church was in being
as far back as October 16, 1648, (but how long before justly I can’t find by
any manuscript, but by private information it was constituted in 1644.)” f903
Prof. Weston, the editor of this edition of Backus’ History, in a note, says of
Callender having given 1644 as the date for the origin of the Newport church:
“There is probably no evidence that Callender or any subsequent writer who
has given the above date, had any authority for it beyond the tradition
preserved by Comer. Backus represents that an earlier date is possible. Many
regard the weight of evidence in its favor. Some have placed it as far back as
1638, supposing that the church was founded by Clarke and his company on
their arrival in Rhode Island. … They reason from the improbability that the
inhabitants of Rhode Island would remain four years without an organized
church, and from the testimony of Winthrop in 1641, that ‘divers of them
turned professed Anabaptists,’ and that there arose a contention and schism
among them. These indications are not without force.” f905
A note to the minutes of the Philadelphia Association, p. 455, reads: “When
the first church of Newport, Rhode Island, was one hundred years old, in
1738.” This dates the beginning of the Newport church 1638.
Both the Newport and the Providence churches were members of the Warren
Association. Prof. Weston informs us, on the authority of its minutes of 1840,
that that Association regarded 1638 as the origin of the Newport church.” f906
The inscription on John Clarke’s tombstone reads that:
“He, with his associates, came to this Island from Massachusetts, in March,
1638, and on the 24th of the same month obtained a deed thereof from the
Indians. He shortly after gathered the church aforesaid and became its pastor.”
f907
The statement of this stone accords with that of Governor Winthrop of that
time, who says that
“Mr. Clarke was a preacher on the Island in 1638, but does not call him
pastor, although in another reference he calls him their minister. Governor
Winthrop also says that a church was formed at Newport in 1639 in a
f908 f904
disorderly way.”
J. R. Graves, after an extended investigation of this subject, concludes: