WY26 Elijah Baker
The Eastern Shore faithful have long fought for religious freedom. Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Protestant denominations in the United States have their earliest roots on the Shore.
On Easter Sunday, 1776, Elijah Baker preached what was the first Baptist sermon on the Eastern Shore about one mile from this spot. His revolutionary act highlights the Freedom of Religion we enjoy today. The King’s religion was the Church of England, which was the sole legal religion prior to our Nation’s independence.
Elijah Baker, the pioneer of the Baptists on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, in 1742. He was baptized in 1769, by Elder Samuel Harris. Illiterate though he was, he immediately began to speak in public. While preaching in Gloucester, Virginia, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Thomas Elliott, a former resident of the Eastern Shore, who desired that his brethren in the flesh might be saved. Accordingly, in the spring of 1776 the two set sail and arrived on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on Easter Sunday. They went immediately to an Established Church in which a clergyman was to preach that day. After waiting for some time, and finding the minister did not come, Mr. Baker told the people that he would preach for them if they would go down to the road.
We would infer from this that the use of the established church was denied them. The novelty of the scene excited the people and they went. Mr. Baker had no other pulpit other than a horseblock which he mounted, and delivered the first sermon preached by a Baptist on the Eastern Shore.
A few weeks later Baker and his brother, Leonard, returned. The parson of the Anglican Church “gave notice” that he would prove the Baptists to be in error at church service. Baker continued to preach in homes, barns, and outdoors for over a week. He also preached in Accomack.
His continued efforts led to his being charged for preaching without a license on May 27, 1778. He was imprisoned at in the Old Debtor's Prison in Drummondtown, now called the Town of Accomac. Baker was released on a £100 bond with the help of local resident William Gibb who loaned half. After continuing to preach thus violating court order, Baker was reimprisoned because Gibb asked to be discharged from his £50 bond. Baker continued to preach from his prison window and was sometimes pelted by apples and stones, though some continued to come listen. By the time of his death in 1798, Elijah Baker established eighteen Baptist churches on the Delmarva Peninsula.
- From the Northampton250 Tour