Baptists whipped for not taking “test oath”.

Thomas E Kresal

September 24, 2019

Baptist History, heritage and Distinctives – Baptists whipped for not taking “test oath”.

John James, William Fulsher, Francis Ayers, Lemuel Harvey, Nicholas Purefoy, and John Brooks, ‘first day Ana-Baptists’, were all whipped on Sept. 06, 1741, and were bound over to keep the peace, and required to give bonds for their good behavior, and also to take the test oath.

This was according to the New Bern Journal of New Bern, N.C. The dusty records in the Register’s office show that in 1741 the Baptists applied to erect a church building, but instead of granting permission, they were whipped and jailed by the Episcopalian authorities.

This was in spite of the fact that Colonial Americans were under the protection of the English Toleration Act of 1689.In Every Colony from Maine to N.C. the Baptists and other non-conformists had suffered persecution except for the Baptist state of Rhode Island.

Geo. Wash. Paschal, History of North Carolina Baptists (Raleigh: General Board N.C.Baptist St. Con., 1930), 1:187-89.

Thomas E. Kresal from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 488-89.