Church and Family History Research Assistance
for Primitive Baptist Churches in the State of Delaware
Delaware was one of the original thirteen states of the Union. Churches were established here long before the American Revolution.
CHURCHES:
WELSH TRACT (NEW CASTLE)
Welsh Tract Church, meeting two miles from Newark, was organized in the spring of 1701, by sixteen Baptists in the counties of Pembroke and Caermarthen, in South Wales, with Thomas Griffith, one of their number, as the pastor. They embarked at Milford Haven in June 1701, and landed at Philadelphia September 8th, 1701, holding worship services aboard ship on the way. They first settled, about Pennypack, where they continued for about a year and a half, and where their membership increased to thirty-seven. Then they procured land in northern Delaware in a tract which had been purchased from William Penn, and moved there in 1703, and built a small meetinghouse, which stood until 1746, when the present stone building was erected. The Welsh Tract Church was one of the five charter member churches which organized the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1707.
Pastors of Welsh Tract Church included Elders Thomas Griffith, Elisha Thomas, Enoch Morgan, Owen Thomas, David Davis, John Sutton, John Boggs, Gideon Farrell, Stephen M. Woolford, Samuel Trott, William K. Robinson, Thomas Barton (1839-1870), G. W. Staton, William Grafton, and Joseph L. Staton (up to the 1880's). We do not have at hand the names of later pastors.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Barrow, Bentley, Bettridge, Boen, Bomish, Boulton, Bowen, Brewer, Butler, Chamberlain, Church, Dater, David, Davis, Devonallt, Douglas, Eaton, Edmond, Edward, Edwards, Emson, Evan, Evans, Forman, Freeman, Griffith, Griffiths, Grinwater, Harry, Hart, Herbert, Hiatt, Hollinsworth, Howell, Hugh, James, Jenkins, John, Jones, Jorman, Lewis, Marpole, Matheas, Mathew, Melchor, Miles, Miller, Milos, Morgan, Morris, Nicholas, Osboorn, Osisson, Owen, Paine, Parson, Phillip, Pierce, Price, Rees, Rentfro, Richard, Robinet, Roos, Ryddarch, Seruy, Snowden, Sorensee, Stephen, Stout, Swift, Thager, Thomas, Tilton, Todd, Truax, Underwood, Vansant, Wallis, Wild, Wilds, William, Witten, Wood, Young (surnames from 1701 to 1739 only).
THE SOUNDS (SUSSEX)(1779)
BROAD CREEK (SUSSEX)(1781)
BRYN ZION (FORMERLY DUCK CREEK)(KENT)(1781)
Bryn Zion Church, formerly Duck-Creek, was organized about 70 miles south-west of Philadelphia. The meeting-house was built of brick in 1771, on a lot of one acre, given by John and Philemon Dickinson. The Baptists who settled here included James Hyatt, Nathaniel Wild, David Evan, Evan Rees, David Rees, James Howel, Evan David Hugh, Joshua Edwards, and others. Most of these came from Welsh Tract Church. In 1735, Elder Hugh Davis, of Great Valley church, preached to them at Bryn-Zion meeting house; other meetings were held at the home of James Hyatt. Ministers from Welsh Tract Church conducted services here for many years, until their number increased to thirty. They then petitioned Welsh Tract to become a distinct church. This was accomplished by the help of Elders Boggs and Fleeson, as a presbytery, on November 24, 1781; and in 1786 the church was received into the Philadelphia Association.
COW MARSH (KENT)(1781)
Organized on July 18, 1781, the Baptist Church at Mount Moriah, also called Cow Marsh Baptist Church, was the fourth Primitive Baptist congregation formally constituted in Delaware. For many years members met in area homes. In 1793, Job Meredith conveyed two acres of land to Joseph Flood upon which a church was built the following year. Joseph Flood conveyed the property in 1796 to the trustees of the Baptist Church at Mount Moriah. Additional land was purchased in 1858 to enlarge the burial ground. The first church served the Willow Grove area until 1872, when the structure was torn down and a new building erected. In 1926, John Meredith, descendant of Job, donated more acreage to the church. Regular services ceased in the 1980s. The Cow Marsh Primitive Baptist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 1976.
MISPILLION (KENT)(1783)
GRAVELLY BRANCH (SUSSEX)(1785)
FIRST WILMINGTON (NEW CASTLE)(1785)
Wilmington Church was organized in October, 1785, by a presbytery composed of Elders Fleeson, John Boggs, Abel Griffith, and Eliphaz Dazey. The charter members were Thomas Ainger, James MLaughlin, Thomas Williams, Henry Walker, Joseph Tomlinson, John Redman, Robert Smith, John MKim, Curtis Gilbert, Sarah Stow, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Mattson; and to these twelve, must be added four more; who had been baptized elsewhere: John Stow, Elizabeth Way, Thomas Stow, and Abigail Ainger. The church was received into the Philadelphia Association the following year.
Early pastors of Wilmington Church included Elders Thomas Ainger (ordained here in 1788), John Boggs Sr., Gideon Ferrel, John Ellis, Joseph Flood, and Daniel Dodge.
BETHEL (NEW CASTLE)(1786/1839)
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