Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

“After all the investigations I have made, I have come to the conclusion that
the date of the Newport church is 1638, and any other date is altogether
arbitrary.” f909
The Canadian Baptist, of August, 1885, says:
“The church in Newport is probably the oldest Baptist church in the United
States. It is now known that a church was in. existence there in 1638, of which
John Clarke was pastor.”
The Newport Daily News says:
“The first positive date we have in the history of the first Baptist church of
Newport is 1648, with a reference to the fact that certain persons were
members of the church in 1644. There is no reason to suppose that if this was
the date of the organization of the church it would not have been mentioned in
this connection. There is no record of the demise of Dr. Clarke’s church or of
the formation of any other in these years. There is every reason to believe that
the present church is the one founded by Dr. Clarke in 1639, or, perhaps,
1638. The first meeting house was built very soon after the organization of the
church at the place now known as the ‘Green End.’”
The Central Baptist, of St. Louis:
“It now appears from the histories of the first Baptist church, New-port,
Rhode Island, and the First Baptist church, Providence, the one prepared by
Rev. C.E. Barrows, pastor of the Newport church, and the other by Dr.
Caswell, that the former church was founded in 1638. … These histories are
the most authentic yet prepared, and seem to demonstrate that Roger Williams
was not the founder of the first Baptist church in America.”
I will now notice only a few of the many fountains of American Baptist
streams, which were independent of Roger Williams. Morgan Edwards thus
gives the origin of Delaware Baptists:
“To come to the history of this modern church we must cross the Atlantic and
land in Wales, where it had its beginning in the following manner: In the
spring of the year 1701, several Baptists, in the communities of Pembroke and
Caermarthen, resolved to go to America; and as one of the company, Thomas
Griffith, was a minister, they were advised to be constituted into a church;
they took the advice; the instrument of their confederation was in being in
1770, … the names of their confederates follow: Thomas Griffith, Griffith
Nicholas, Evan Richmond, John Edwards, Elisha Thomas, Enoch Morgan,
Richard David, James David, Elizabeth Griffith, Lewis Edmond, Mary John,
Mary Thomas, Tennet David, Margaret Mathias and Tennet Morris. These
fifteen people may be styled a church emigrant.” f910
Thus, Delaware Baptists originated from an emigrant Baptist church from
Wales.