USA > North Carolina > Bertie County > Roxobel > Sandy Run Baptist Church, Roxobel, Bertie County, North Carolina : a history in recognition of its bicentennial, 1750-1950 > Part 1
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SANDY RUN BAPTIST CHURCH Roxobel, Bertie County, North Carolina
A HISTORY in Recognition of its Bicentennial 1750-1950
by John E. Tyler
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FOREWORD
In commemoration of its two hundredth anniversary (1750-1950) I was requested by Sandy Run Baptist Church to prepare a history of this ancient institution. If I have dwelt at length on its origin and early development, it is because these early formative years were years of uncertainty and struggle. These were years when the church was exposed to many influences and ideas. These were years which saw the shaping of the character of the Sandy Run Church. Like any well constructed house, built on a firm foundation, the Sandy Run Church has endured.
In preparing this history I wish to express my appreciation for their assistance to Miss Mattie Livermon, Mrs. Paul Jilcott, Miss Eva Watson, Mr. Malcolm Brown, Rev. George E. Reynolds, members of the staff of the Wake Forest Library, Miss Mary Thornton, in charge of the North Carolina Room at the University of North Carolina, and others who have helped me in obtaining information.
Roxobel, N. C. July, 1950
John E. Tyler
27KL & NHOR LIM
HISTORY OF SANDY RUN BAPTIST CHURCH 1750-1950 by John E. Tyler
The origin of the Sandy Run Church, the oldest Baptist church in Bertie County, is intricately connected with the early growth of the Baptist faith in North Carolina. It is assumed that there were some Baptists among the early settlers in the province, who drifted down from Virginia during the second half of the seventeenth century, seeking the rich and more bountiful lands along the Meherrin, Chowan and other streams which flow into the Albemarle Sound. It is known that the Quakers were well represented and that the Church of England was established by 1701. The first contemporary record of the presence of Baptist in the colony, however, does not appear until 1714.
Under the guidance of Paul Palmer, the first Baptist church in North Carolina was established in 1727 in Chowan County. This church, however, was short lived and was soon scattered. Its first and only local pastor is believed to have been a young preacher named Joseph Parker, who afterwards moved to Meherrin in present Hertford County and yho in all probability took a number of its members with him to begin the church there. In the meantime a church had been established at Shiloh in present day Camden County making it the earliest permanent Baptist church in North Carolina.
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As the little North Carolina colony began to expand in a westward and southward direction from its nucleus about the Albemarle region, we find the Baptist church spreading with the increasing population. In 1722 Bertie Precinct had been formed, as a part of Chowan County, embracing the lands west of the Chowan River, extending northward to the Virginia line, with the Roanoke River forming part of its southern boundary up to Welch's Creek. Therefore, when Joseph Parker moved to Meherrin about 1729 or 1730 he located in what was at that time a part of Bertie Precinct, which, also, at that time was changed to Bertie County. All the while a great number of people were continually moving down into North Carolina from the counties across the line in southern Virginia.
The church which Parker established at Meherrin was the first Baptist church to be founded west of the Chowan River. The church at Meherrin served an area which today includes Bertie, Northampton and Hertford Counties and parts of Gates County. In view of the increasing population, in this area, other churches sprang up in the more thickly populated sections. Therefore, the difficulties of travel were curtailed by the reduction of the distance that the members had to go to reach a meeting house. Such would seem to be the cause for the establishment of what was to become Sandy Run Church, for about 1740 "Joseph Parker and his people at Meherrin dismissed by letter enough of their members to form what was long known as the Bertie Church, but later as Sandy Run". (1) This new church was located some twenty-five miles south of the church at Meherrin and several miles from Sandy Run,
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which flowed into the Roanoke River. This church which first became known as the Bertie Church was, according to George W. Paschal, the Baptist historian, the fourth Baptist church established in North Carolina. With the quick demise of the first church started in Chowan County, it became the third oldest Baptist church to endure.
Several dates have been given for the founding of what we now know as Sandy Run Church. Included are 1740, 1750, 1754-55- 56, 1773. The date, 1750, is most generally given in the minutes of the different associations to which the church has belonged and is the date accepted by it. No doubt, this is because 1750 was the year in which the church presumably received its constitution and became an independent or separate unit. The fact that it was established as an independent body in 1750, however, proves that it existed as a branch of some other church before that date. The dates concerning the founding of the Bertie (later Sandy Run) Church may be summarized as follows:
1740-Founded as a branch of the Meherrin Church. During the following decade it became associated with the Kehukee Church as a branch of that church.
1750-Constituted and established as an independent body.
1754-55-56-Approximate dates re-established under new constitution.
1773-Reorganized by Rev. Lemuel Burkitt.
The site of its first meeting house was located about three miles from Norfleets Ferry on the Roanoke River and about two
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miles from Sandy Run(2) not far from the present town of Roxobel, and in the vicinity of what was known as Bishops Mill Pond. When the first church building was erected is not known. However, it had been built by October, 1761, for at that time John Skinner of Bertie County, who lived in that area, gave to "the Baptist Society" a deed of gift to one acre, "it being the place on which the people aforesaid have built a meeting house for her public worship of God." This property adjoined his own and that of Benjamin Harrell. In a later deed of 1765 the boundary of the edge of the church property is referred to as "the meeting house line".
Northampton County was carved out of Bertie in 1741 and Hertford County in 1759. With the establishment of those two counties, Bertie lost much of its territory. Though, now, located only a few miles from the boundaries of both these new counties, the site of the church, begun in 1740 by some of the congregation for the Meherrin Church, still remained in Bertie County. As the only Baptist church in the reduced boundaries of Bertie, it was known as the Bertie Church. It continued to be known as the Bertie Church until the early nineteenth century. For a number of years after it was constituted an independent church in 1750, it and the Meherrin Church were the only Baptist churches between the Roanoke and Chowan Rivers.
Little is known of these first struggling years of the Bertie Church because there are no records or minutes to tell its story. When it was established many of its members were scattered
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over the county in different neighborhoods. It is possible that Elder Joseph Parker of Meherrin was responsible for its earliest guidance. During the early 1740's there was formed across the Roanoke River from the Bertie Church another Baptist church. This one, founded by William Soujourner, was located at Kehukee in present day Martin County. It and the Bertie Church were to play important roles in the development of the Baptist faith for the remainder of the colonial days and during the early years of North Carolina's statehood. Unlike the Bertie Church, which was evidently formed locally from a larger church territory, the first members of the Kehukee Church, migrated directly from Isle of Wight County in Virginia, because of a "visiting pestilential disease which carried off many of the inhabitants." This Baptist congregation was seeking a more healthy region. The Kehukee Church, from its beginning was a strong organization and under the leadership of its first pastor it developed several prominent preachers.
The Bertie Church on the other hand, apparently had no regular pastor and its organization was rather loose. The proximity of the Kehukee Church to it, however, naturally had its effect and sometime during the period from 1740 to 1750 it appears that the Bertie Church came to look for guidance from the Kehukee Church across the river, rather than from its mother church at Meherrin. No doubt the Kehukee Church began to supply its preachers. One historian says that the Bertie Church became established as an arm of the Kehukee Church, becoming an independent body in 1750. (3)
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Members of the early Baptist churches in North Carolina were of the General Baptist inclination. They were, no doubt, influenced to some degree by Elders Paul Palmer, Joseph Parker, William Soujourner and others who as their pastors and leaders were General Baptist. One contributing factor which should not be overlooked, however, is that many of these first Baptist in North Carolina had moved, or were descended from families who had moved into the colony from counties across the border in southern Virginia, where a number of General Baptist had previously settled. Isle of Wight County, Virginia, particularly, seems to have been the source of many of the first General Baptist in eastern Carolina. As early as 1700 a number of General Baptist from England had settled in Isle of Wight County. From this area apparently some gradually migrated into Carolina. It was also from Isle of Wight County that William Soujourner brought his little band of General Baptist when he established Kehukee Church in 1742. The Bertie Church, like other Baptist churches established in North Carolina before 1755 was originally a General Baptist Church. (4)
In 1660 all the General Baptist in England had sent representatives to London where they put forth a "confession of faith" that they might make known their principles to the new King Charles II. (5) In 1679 they published a new confession called the "Orthodox Creed". It was from these English General Baptist beliefs that the first Baptist churches in North Carolina were descended. Burkitt and Read speaking of the General Baptist Page - 6
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say, "They preached and adhered to the Arminian or Free-will doctrine and their churches were first established upon this system. They gathered churches without requiring an experience of grace previous to their baptism; but baptized all who believed in the doctrine of baptism by immersion and requested baptism of them. The churches of this order were first gathered here (North Carolina) by Elders Paul Palmer and Joseph Parker; and were succeeded by a number of ministers whom they baptized. "
The names of the first ministers of the Bertie Church have not been preserved. No doubt at times it was without a pastor and at times, as already mentioned, probably Joseph Parker or his converts preached here. It can be assumed that the Kehukee Church also supplied some of its ministers.
The earliest minister who had charge of the Bertie Church of whom there is recorded evidence was Thomas Pope. He was born near Blackwater, Virginia about 1728, embraced the principles of the General Baptist and evidently, on moving into Carolina, was baptized by Elder William Soujourner in 1749. (6) He was ordained about 1751. He married Alice Foreman, who was the Widow Ford. (7)
In 1751 Rev. Thomas Pope was pastor at Kehukee and at the
same time was probably supplying for the Bertie Church. Though · several years later when he reorganized it, the members seemed to have been disorganized and pastorless. At this time the effect of the Particular Baptist was beginning to creep into the North Carolina churches, which would bring about a transformation in
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most Baptist churches in the colony, including the Bertie Church. The Particular Baptist were also known as New Lights and later as Regular Baptist. Their confession of faith, which was published in London in 1689 containing thirty-two articles, held to the Calvinist principles, a more rigid doctrine than that professed by the General Baptist.
The movement in North Carolina seems to have first been started by Rev. Robert Williams, who was a native of Northampton County. He had gone into South Carolina in 1745 and there had been trained in the Calvinistic doctrine of the Welsh Neck Baptist.
"Returning about 1750 on a visit to his native county he began to propagate his Calvinistic views. He had a great influence with the General Baptist, especially those of the Kehukee Church." Among his converts there was one William Wallis who also took up the cause. "At the same time Rev. Edward Brown who was at Great Cohara and nearer the Welsh Neck district began to preach Calvinism and seemingly visited Kehukee and, added to what had already been done by Williams and Wallis, won over the pastor, Rev. Thomas Pope" (8), who was also serving the Bertie Church. In order to win the Carolina churches to the Particular Baptist view, Robert Williams and others sought aid from the Philadelphia Association, the oldest Baptist association in America and a stronghold of the Calvinist doctrine. The Association sent Rev. John Gano, who came south in 1754 to investigate. On hearing his story, upon his return, the
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Philadelphia Association moved to send two ministering brothers to North Carolina to proselyte. Paschal in his history says, "It is well to mark the warm missionary zeal of those Philadelphia Baptist and their readiness to make contributions of money to send messengers to rescue their Carolina brethren from error. But for it we should have a very different type of Baptist in eastern North Carolina from that found there today. "
The two men sent on this important mission were Peter Peterson Vanhorn and Benjamin Miller. The first church they visited was Kehukee, where its pastor, Thomas Pope, was already converted to the Calvinist doctrine. There in December, 1755, the Kehukee Church was reorganized after the Particular Baptist order. Shortly thereafter, perhaps in the first months of 1756, Rev. Thomas Pope crossed the Roanoke River into Bertie and re- established the Bertie Church under a constitution which adhered to the beliefs of the Particular Baptist. Paschal in his history . gives a description of how a church made this change from a General Baptist to a Particular Baptist. He says, "the method of reorganization was first for the church in conference to disband whatever organization had previously existed, which in most cases, if we may believe Burkitt and Read, had been very loose. It was the preacher's church, though he had his deacons also in some instances. At the transformation those who desired to come into the new order were required to come under a new examination which was conducted by the approved ministers of the Particular Baptist faith who were present for the purpose. This examination was intended to determine whether the applicant had been
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converted before his baptism and he was expected to satisfy the examiners by a relation of the religious experiences which had led him to seek baptism. With Miller and Vanhorn those examinations seemed to have been conducted with much rigidity. When Miller and Vanhorn left the province their work was continued by Rev. Thomas Pope who reorganized numerous churches under the rigid Calvinist rules. -
After Pope, the next minister connected with the Bertie Church, as its pastor, apparently was James Abington. He was a resident of Bertie County and before he "became religious, he was a man much addicted to sporting and gaming, and very vicious in his life and conversation". He was converted under the ministry of Elder Pope and joined the Bertie Church, of which he became pastor about 1764. As pastor of this church, Abington was "Instrumental in gathering a considerable number of members". He was "a man of bright genius, a ready mind, and a good voice" .
In 1769 the Kehukee Baptist Association, modeled after the Philadelphia Association, was formed. Its first and subsequent meetings were held at Kehukee in Halifax county, therefore its name. Not only did the North Carolina churches join this Association, but also a number of southern Virginia Churches. The Bertie Church was one of the original churches to be represented at the Kehukee Association when it;was first organized in 1769. To this meeting, the Bertie Church sent its pastor, James Abington. Also as delegates it sent Ephram Daniel, Thomas Miers and James Vinson. The next year, in 1770 the delegates were James Page - 10
- his meetings a sermon of Whitefield or Williston. In a short time he began to write his own sermons and engage in public prayer. It is stated that "In this way he was lead by degrees to abandon the purpose he had of entering the profession of law, and became convinced that it was his duty to become a minister". (9) In July 1771 he was baptized in the Pasquotank River by Rev. Henry Abbot. Lemuel Burkitt was seated at the Kehukee Association meeting in 1773 as a delegate from the Shiloh Church in Pasquotank now Camden County and despite his youth was elected clerk of the Association.
Young Burkitt, with Elders Jonathan Thomas and John Moore were appointed by the Association as a committee to investigate the situation in the Bertie Church and advise measures which would be likely to regain a general fellowship in the church. The committee induced the members to undergo a re-examination as to their fitness for membership. A majority of the members were received and the church was re-established under a new constitution in November 1773. At the same time it chose Lemuel Burkitt for its new minister, who was accordingly ordained by Elders Jonathan Thomas and John Meglamre. The Baptist historian, Dr. G. W. Paschal says "For the next third of a century he (Burkitt) was the most influential man among the Baptist of North Carolina and gave direction and character to Baptist development · in the eastern half of the state". This was the man who in 1773 had become pastor of the Bertie Church, a position, he was to hold until his death. The first ruling elders for the Bertie Church upon its reorganization in 1773 were James Vinson,
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Winbourn Jenkins, Jonas Woods, and James Jenkins. The first deacons were James Rutland, Shadrack Dunning, Sander Futrel, Robert Moral, Henry Suton and Jesse Williams. (10) Lemuel Burkett, on moving into the Roanoke-Chowan area first lived in Hertford County. In 1788 he was a delegate from that county to the Hillsboro convention to consider the ratification of the United States constitution. A majority of the convention, including Burkett acting as a committee of the whole, proposed that no actions be taken on the ratification until a bill of rights were added to the constitution. This naturally was passed by the convention and ratification of our federal constitution was postponed until 1789 when it was ratified at the Fayetteville convention.
In 1790, Lemuel Burkitt moved to a farm in Northampton County, close to the Bertie County boundary at Sandy Run. His first wife was Hannah Bell, daughter of Captain James Bell of Sussex County, Virginia and sister to Elder James Bell. Their children to reach maturity were three daughters; Mary, Nancy and Sally, and three sons; Lemuel, Jr., William and Burges. Elder Burkitt's second wife was Prudence Watson, also of Virginia, by whom he had one child who died in infancy.
Under the leadership of its new pastor, the Bertie Church witnessed a great revival which began early in 1774. In that year it sent as delegates to the Kehukee Association, its new pastor, Lemuel Burkitt, and McAllister Vinson, James Lassiter and Jesse Williams. In December of that year Rev. Jonathan Thomas preached
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his last sermon at the Bertie meeting house. His text was from Luke XIV, verse 23: "Compel them to come in that my house may be filled". Burkitt and Read describing the occasion say "There was a large assembly, and but few in the congregation but what were in floods of tears; and many cried out loudly". Elder Thomas went home from Sandy Run complaining of a bad cold and early the following year he died. The work of the revival continued for two years during which time Rev. Burkitt brought nearly 150 new members into the church. In 1777 the membership of the church was 217. (11)
About 1775 some of the members of the Meherrin Church living on or near "Pottacasy" Creek in Northampton County formed a separate fellowship. Under the influence of Rev. Lemuel Burkitt, this group soon became a part of the Bertie Church.
At the time Burkitt took over the Bertie Church and began his revival, the influence of the Separate Baptist was beginning to have its effect on a number of the ministers of the Kehukee Association. According to Burkitt and Read, the Separatist first arose in New England, where some pious ministers and members left the Presbyterian of Standing Order on account of their formality and superfluity. They appeared ip North Carolina as early as 1755.
The Separate Baptist believed in a more evangelistic or missionary spirit than was evident in the Particular Baptist. The Separate Baptist also insisted on a converted membership with a Page - 14
strict examination before approval. The Particular Baptist were supposed to uphold a similar policy, but a number of churches in the Kehukee area had grown lax in this matter and many were slipping back to the old ways of the General Baptist.
It was held by several of the churches of the Kehukee Association that the Separate and the Particular Baptist should be brought together. However, the Separate insisted on a reformation in the Particular Baptist churches before such union would be considered.
Rev. Burkitt had been in sympathy with the Separate Baptist views before he became pastor of the Bertie Church. The revival which he began in 1774 was a result of the Separate Baptist influence. At that time he led the Bertie Church in open conference to declare for a purified church membership, urging that repentance and faith should precede baptism, and that the church therefore exclude those who admitted they had been baptized in unbelief. The church convinced of his arguments, agreed to withdraw fellowship from all churches who maintained a contrary doctrine. It was one of the first churches in the Kehukee Association to undertake this new movement.
Shortly after the Bertie Church had effected this reformation, three churches in Virginia brought about a similar reform in their churches. This breech in the Association which had been widening for sometime, finally resulted in a division in 1775 and for several years theological questions concerning
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salvation were argued at its meetings. Burkitt and Read however say that "it was not many years before all the churches were united again and the name Regular and Separate buried in oblivion. "
In 1784 the Kehukee Association met at the Bertie Church. Before it was to meet at this church again, the association was to be greatly reduced by the creation of two new associations from its territory. By 1790 the Kehukee Association perhaps had reached its maximum growth, having increased to sixty one churches, with a membership scattered over a wide territory in North Carolina and Virginia. In that year the Virginia churches withdrew to form the Virginia Portsmouth Association to be followed in 1793 by the churches south of the Tar River withdrawing to form the Neuse Association. Earlier, in 1789, the Bertie Church also had lost members when the Connaritsa Church, about ten miles away in Bertie County, was constituted.
In 1794 the Kehukee Association met for the second time at the Bertie Church. (12) The membership of the association at this time had been reduced to twenty-six churches as a result of the two divisions. At this meeting, Meherrin, mother church of the Bertie Church, applied for admission. She had remained a General Baptist Church through all the years, but had lately been reformed, and was thus received into the Association.
At its 1791 meeting the Kehukee Association subscribed to the Baptist Annual Register, a periodical, printed in London by
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. in London by John Rippon, and at the same time appointed Elder Lemuel Burkitt correspondent to it for the Association. He undertook this important work and contributed to the publication for some twelve years.
During this period he assembled much valuable information on the religious affairs of the Baptist in eastern North Carolina. A great deal of this material which first appeared in London in Rippon's Register, was later used in compiling his history of the Kehukee Association. In 1803 Elders Lemuel Burkitt and Jesse Read were co-authors of the first history of the Kehukee Association to be produced. This volume was published at Halifax, North Carolina. (13) It is an invaluable record of the early Particular Baptist in North Carolina.
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