Robert Norden

  • 1714 General Assembly of Baptist in England commissioned Robert Norden as a ”Messenger” to America. He applied in Prince George County Court for license. He made his home in Prince George County along with his wife.

  • 1714 Initial Baptist planting in America, came to South-side of the James River, Prince George County, Surry County, and Isle of Wight County in Virginia.

  • 1699 Baptist records mention in York City, now Yoråktown, meeting at a Quaker Meeting house. Both groups were dissenters and recipients of toleration. There was a “cordial relationship that existed between Baptists and Quakers.”

  • The Canterbury Baptist Church, Kent County, England sent funds for ”propagating the gospel” in Virginia in 1713/14.

  • The Baptist had a three-fold order of ministers: Messengers, Elders, and Deacons. “Messengers were officers on the denomination, whereas the Elders and Deacons were officers of the local congregation.”

  • Norden, as a Messenger, devoted himself to cultivate the Baptist faith by traveling over the area to teach, and conduct meetings with small groups in homes. He made his home in Prince George County, and his area included Surry, Isle of Wight and neighboring communities.

  • Norden died in 1725.

David Barrow

1753-1819

  • David Barrow joined the Baptist Church about 1770 in Brunswick County, Virginia where he was born.

  • Started preaching the gospel at 18 years of age.

  • Ordained by Baptist around 1772 at 19 years old. Married the same year.

  • In 1727 the first Baptist society was formed in Burley (Burleigh) (Burewells Bay) in Isle of Wight. Richard Jones was the first ordained Elder. Later in 1774 constituted as Mill Swamp Church with Elders David Barrow and Edward Mintz.

  • Mill Swamp Church was called the “Mother Church” as it established churches at Smithfield, Moore’s Swamp, Tucker Swamp, Western Branch, Bethesda and others.

  • Barrow served as minister in Isle of Wight County, Virginia from 1774 to 1797 at Mill Swamp Baptist Church, Black Creek, and South Quay along with Elder David Mintz.

  • In 1779 visiting Western Branch at Shoulders Hill Road, Nansemond County, mission of Mill Swamp, Barrow and Mintz “were dragged to the Nansemond River dipped until nearly drowned…order to depart and never return”. They did return and a church was established. Perseverance.

  • Barrow served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

  • “Barrow’s antislavery conviction was unusual.” He freed both his slaves in1784 and often spoke out thereafter about the evils of slavery.” He became an antislavery activist.”

  • He served as moderator of the “Virginia Portsmouth Association” before he moved to Kentucky.

  • “He made two preliminary trips to Kentucky and moved there permanently in 1798. Kentucky had a “freer climes.”

  • “After a life of twenty odd years’ usefulness in Virginia, Barrow moved to Kentucky where he quickly distinguished himself as a man of talents, piety, and usefulness.”

  • Said he left Virginia “partly because he could not prosper there without slaves.”

  • Barrow was “an eminent pioneer preacher among the Baptists of Virginia and Kentucky, and a man of great ability, both as a preacher and a writer.”

  • He served as minister of Mt. Sterling Church in Montgomery County, Kentucky.

  • He organized the Kentucky Abolition Society.

  • He started a school in 1801 called Lulbegrud School on the Lulbegrud Creek in Montgomery County, Kentucky.

  • He exchanged letters with retired President Thomas Jefferson concerning slavery which are a part of Jefferson’s records.

  • He published a book against slavery.

  • He died in Kentucky in 1819.

Daniel Marshall

  • Native of Connecticut.

  • Daniel Marshall, made a declaration of faith under the preaching of George Whitefield, a Methodist evangelist.

  • Felt called to minister to Indians. War in his area caused family to PA, then on to Berkley County in Virginia.

  • Settled at Sandy Creek in Guilford County, North Carolina.

  • Marshall and his minister leader Stearns “believed in the direct leadership of the Holy Spirit.” Their Baptist church in Sandy Creek, NC grew in great numbers.

  • Sandy Creek, NC became a center of revival spread of the gospel north and south by their preachers. Marshall “was delegated to spread the gospel in adjacent parts of Virginia”.

  • He expanded his ministry of evangelism to other parts of south-side Virginia. Sandy Creek became a part of the “Great Awaking in Virginia”.

  • Marshall and Samuel Harris spread revival north to Culpepper, VA with their “zeal and energy”.

  • “People sometimes came from a distance of a hundred miles” for their preaching. “Hundreds of men at times camped on the grounds in order to stay through the meetings” and “sometimes the floor would be covered with persons who had been “struck down under conviction of sin””.

  • In 1760 Marshall led in constituting a church called Dan River Baptist in Halifax County, and many other Baptist churches.