Baptists in Early North America--Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists

BAPTISTS IN EARLY NORTH AMERICA—NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND, SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS, VOLUME III covers the period 1664 to 1808, from the date some members of Newport's first Baptist church began meeting for worship on the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) through the first 137 years of their life as the Newport Seventh Day Baptist Church. Transcriptions of the church's first three record books (1692-1808) are preceded by extensive excerpts from the manuscripts and letters of Samuel Hubbard, one of the founding members; these document the origins in John Clarke's Newport Baptist church and the influences from Sabbathkeeping Baptists in mid-seventeenth century England. The record follows the covenant community, nurtured in colonial Rhode Island's unique religious freedom, from Newport's pioneer period through its Golden Age as a major colonial seaport and its devastation during the Revolutionary War.