JONES Samuel, Sr.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: May 1771, Isle of Wight County, VA

Notes:

History of the American Baptists - Virginia
History of American Baptists- VirginiaBy David Benedict 1848 FIRST COMPANY, FROM ENGLAND.

We cannot learn that any of the original settlers of Virginia were baptists, nor do we find any of this denomination in this country until more than a century after its settlement. The accounts of their origin in the State vary in elates and some other little matters; but the following statement, I believe, is the most correct; and circumstantial which can be obtained at this late period.

In consequence of letters from Virginia, Robert Nordin and Thomas White were ordained in London, in May, 1714, and soon sailed for Virginia; but White died on the way, and Nordin arrived in Virginia, and gathered a church at a place called Burley, in the county Of the Isle of Wight. There were probably a number of baptists settled in this place before the arrival of Nordin, by whose request, and for the service of whom, he and White were ordained and undertook the distant voyage; but who, or flow many these were, or how long they- hall been there, are inquiries which we cannot answer.

Mr. Nordin continued preaching at Burley and other places until he died in a good old age, in 1725. Two years after his death, viz., in 1727, Casper Mintz and Richard Jones, both preachers, arrived from England, and settled with the church at Burley, and Jones became their pastor. Both of these ministers were living in 1756, as appears by a letter which this church sent at that time to the Philadelphia Association. by the year 1729, as appears by- a letter sent by Rev. Paul Palmer, from North Carolina, to Rev. John Collier, of Newport, Rhode Island, there was, besides the church at Burley, another in the county of Surrey. Respecting these churches, Mr. Palmer wrote as follows:

"There is a comely little church in the Isle of Wight county, of abort thirty or forty members, the elder of which is one Richard Jones, a very sensible old gentleman, whom I have great love for. We see each other at every yearly-meeting and sometimes more often. There is another church in Surry county, where my brother Jones lives, I suppose about thirty more.

How tenor these churches, continued in existence I cannot exactly learn. Respecting the one in the county of Surry, no information can be obtained except what is found in Mr. Palmer's letter. The one in the Isle of Wight, we halve good reason to believe, continued on the ground where it was first established between forty and fifty years, when. according to Morgan Edwards' account, it was broken up, partly by sickness, and partly by the removal of families from hence to North Carolina, where they gained many proselytes. and in tell years became sixteen churches.

They were all General Baptists; but in a few years after their settlement in North Carolina, they began to embrace the Calvinistic sentiments, as will be seen in the history of the baptists in that State. In 1756, the church at Burley sent the following letter to the .Philadelphia Association:

"The church of Jesus Christ, in Isle of Wight county, holding adult baptism, &c., to the Reverend and General Assembly or Association at Philadelphia, send greeting: We, the above mentioned church, confess ourselves to be under clouds of darkness concerning the faith of Jesns Christ, not knowing whether we are on the right foundation, and the church much unsettled: wherefore we desire alliance with you, and that you will be pleased to send as helps to settle the church, and Certify what may be wrong, and subscribe ourselves, your loving brethren in Christ, Casper Mintz, Richard Jones, Randall Allen, Joseph Mattgum, Christopher Atkinson, Benjamin Atkinson, David Atkinson, Thomas Cafer, Samuel Jones, William Jordan, John Allen, John Powell, Joseph Atkinson. Dec. 27, 1756."

This is the last account I can find of this church; what was done by the Association in their case I do not find. Messrs. Miller, Vanhorn, and Gano traveled frequently into Virginia and North Carolina about this time, for the purpose of regulating the disordered churches, and it is probable that in some of their journeys they visited this one, which made such an honest confession of their deplorable state.

It does not appear that this company of baptists suffered any persecution or civil embarrassments, from the time of their settlement it Virginia to that of their dispersion. They probably obtained legal licences for their assemblies, in conformity to the act of toleration.

As this community appears to have soon transferred from Virginia to North Carolina, the reader is referred to the history of the Baptists in that State, where a more particular account of them will be given.

Will:
Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850 about Samuel, Sr. Jones
Name:      Samuel, Sr. Jones
Location:      Isle of Wight
Notes:      This probate record was extracted from microfilmed copies of the original Will Book.
Remarks:      Samuel Jones, Sr. Appraised by Henry Harrison, John Jordan, Francis Wrenn.
Description:      Decedent
Book_Date:      8-80
Prove Date:      May 1771

Samuel married SHAW Sarah in 1727. Sarah (daughter of SHAW Matthew, Jr. and PITT Elizabeth) was born in 1710; died in 1753. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850 about Samuel, Sr. Jones
Name:      Samuel, Sr. Jones
Location:      Isle of Wight
Notes:      This probate record was extracted from microfilmed copies of the original Will Book.
Remarks:      Samuel Jones, Sr. Appraised by Henry Harrison, John Jordan, Francis Wrenn.
Description:      Decedent
Book_Date:      8-80
Prove Date:      May 1771