Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 195
I was misled by the authority of great names, and if this is my
only mistake I am thankful.
I regret that I was unable, at the commencement of this article,
to make the following statement
The subject of baptism was not the chief cause of uneasiness
in Mr. Lothrop's church in London, in Scituate, or in Barnstable.
Every cause of trouble or inquietude that occurred, he seems to
have named and made a special subject for prayer at the frequent
fasts which he observed. If the mode of baptism was a subject
of such deep dissention as to rend his church, it is most surprising
that a man who noted the most trivial events should not have
recorded one of so vital importance as this. Mr. Lothrop could
not record events that did not occur, and that is the true solution
of the question.
The difficulties in the London church occurred ten years after
Mr. Lothrop left ; that is, diiring the time that his successor, Mr.
Jessey, was the pastor. Mr. Jessey, as already stated, became a
baptist, and his church was the first baptist church in England.
Mr. Lothrop's "Queries respecting baptism" were written in Barnstable
about the year 1644, and published by some of his old
friends remaining in London very soon afterwards. Mr. Lothrop^
sent some of his children to England to be educated, and had
maintained a correspondence with old and new friends in London.
They would naturally write to him for his opinions on a subject in
which they felt a deep interest. This is not only a legitimate inference
from known facts, but the dates show beyond controversy
that the division, or rather the transformation of the First
Independent church in London to the First Baptist, occurred not
during the ministry of Mr. Lothrop, but ten years after he left.
This view enables us to explain satisfactorily the apparently contradictory
statements in Neale, Crosby, .and other writers on the
ecclesiastical history of the times.
Respecting Mr. Lothrop's church in Scituate^ I cannot endorse
all the statements of Mr. Deane, for it is evident that the
mode of baptism was not the chief nor one of the causes of dissension
among his people. I regret to be obliged to differ from
so respectable and generally so reliable an authority. Mr. Lothrop
names many minor causes of dissension and trouble, but does
not directly nor indirectly refer to baptism as one of the causes.
Contemporaneous authorities do not name it,—do not furnish
any collateral evidence in its support, and it therefore seems to be
folly to attempt to perpetuate the error that "the mode of baptism
was the chief cause of dissensions in Mr. Lothrop's church."
In Barnstable, the mode of baptism caused no dissension.
The subject is referred to only once on Mr. Lothrop's records.
"John Allen and Elizabeth Bacon marry ed, alsoe by him
(Thomas Hinckley) Oct. 10, 1650, both Anabaptists." At that