North Pamunkey Baptist Church in Orange County will soon boast its own highway marker, courtesy of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
The church, founded in 1774, had its two founding pastors thrown in jail for preaching without the permission of the Church of England, the established church in the colony of Virginia. Ministers Elijah Craig and Aaron Bledsoe started the congregation and quickly transitioned to fighting for religious freedom during the Revolutionary War.
A local advocate for religious freedom, Founding Father James Madison, supported the Baptist ministers in their fight for liberty. Madison was a proponent of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, authored by his friend and fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.
North Pamunkey Baptist Church had many enslaved members prior to the Civil War, who left after Emancipation.
The current church building near the community of Lahore was completed in the 1850s and is still used for worship today.
North Pamunkey Baptist Church is one of two churches in the state being recognized for its impact on Virginians and religion in the 18th and 19th centuries in the most recent round of highway markers. The other is Third Street Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Richmond.
The full text of the North Pamunkey Baptist Church marker, to be erected at 15109 Pamunkey Lane, reads:
"Baptist ministers Elijah Craig and Aaron Bledsoe organized this congregation in 1774 as their denomination grew in VA. Both men had earlier been imprisoned for preaching without permission from the established Church of England. They and others in the community petitioned for religious freedom during the Revolutionary War while also providing support for the patriot cause. Bledsoe, pastor here for 32 years, was one of several prominent local Baptists whose political support James Madison won in the 1780s by promising to secure religious liberty. The present sanctuary was completed in the 1850s. Many enslaved people were members of the church before the Civil War but departed after Emancipation."
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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