The First Baptist Church and Society is a historic

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

church in

Swansea, Massachusetts Swansea is a town in Bristol County in southeastern Massachusetts. It is located at the mouth of the Taunton River, just west of Fall River, south of Boston, and southeast of Providence, Rhode Island. The population was 17,144 at the 2020 cens ...

. The congregation, founded in 1663, is the oldest Baptist congregation in Massachusetts and one of the oldest in the United States. The congregation was founded in 1663 by John Myles as the first Baptist congregation in Massachusetts, and Myles brought the

Ilston Book The Ilston Book is the earliest record of a Baptist church in Wales. It is named after the location of a Baptist meeting place near the ruins of the old Trinity well, the site of a pre-Reformation chapel, at Ilston Beck in Gower near Swansea. Fou ...

with him from

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The congregation in Swansea, Massachusetts was located relatively nearby the

First Baptist Church in America The First Baptist Church in America is the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, also known as the First Baptist Meetinghouse. It is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States, founded in 1638 by Roger Williams in Pr ...

in Providence. The current

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

meeting house was constructed in 1848 and is the fifth building occupied by the congregation. The adjacent cemetery dates to 1731. The building and cemetery were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1990.

References

External links

*
Rev. John Myles and the founding of the first Baptist church in Massachusetts
1663 establishments in Plymouth Colony Baptist churches in Massachusetts Churches completed in 1848 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Churches in Bristol County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Swansea, Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-church-stub

See also

References

External links