Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... HISTORY OF BAPTISTS IN SOUTHERN STATES CHAPTER I EARLY TRACES ABOUT the year 1682 a body of respectable and well-to-do immigrants left their homes in the southwestern portion of England, and under the lead of Humphrey Blake, a brother of the famous British admiral, set sail for America. Landing upon the Carolina coast near the present site of Charleston, they proceeded a short distance up Cooper River and built their temporary homes upon its western bank. The respectability of these immigrants led so competent an authority as Grahame, in his "Colonial History of the United States," to denominate them a "most valuable addition" to the Carolina population. From the same source we learn that Mr. Blake so generously shared in the convictions of the dissenters, whose leader he became, that he "devoted his fortune" to the furtherance of the scheme to emigrate to America in order that they might escape threatened persecution, the terrors of which were not a little enhanced by the apprehended accession of the Duke of York to the throne. s Among the colonists who landed near Charleston was Joseph Blake, a nephew of the leader of the party, who though not a Baptist, was nevertheless in profound sympathy with the denomination in its views respecting religious freedom. His wife, Lady Blake, was a most earnest Baptist, as was also her mother, Lady Axtell. Joseph Blake was destined to play a conspicuous part in the future history of the province. Already the friend and trustee of Lord Berkeley, one of the lords-proprietors of the province, he was afterward chosen, together with Paul Grimball, a Baptist, and five others, to revise "The Fundamental Constitution" originally framed by the celebrated John Locke. The conduct of Mr. Blake, from the beginning...
