The Ilston Book is the earliest record of a

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

church 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 ...

. 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 Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingd ...

near Swansea.

Foundation of the chapel

This "Cromwellian" church was founded in 1649 during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

under the

Calvinistic Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...

leadership of John Myles (aka John Miles) (1621–1683). Thus this earliest Welsh Baptist church stood in the

Particular Baptist Reformed Baptists (sometimes known as Particular Baptists or Calvinistic Baptists) are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation). The first Calvinist Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith ...

tradition.

Transfer of the Book to Massachusetts

In 1663 Myles took the Ilston Book with him when he and the whole congregation emigrated to North America, where they settled in a town they named

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 c ...

, and they founded the First Baptist Church in Swansea.

Brown University

The Ilston Book is held in the Library of Brown UniversityBrown University
Brown University home page at Providence,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

, but is not open to public view. The full list of 261 members up to 1660 is recorded, and shows that they travelled from a wide geographical area in

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

References

* ''The Ilston Book : earliest register of Welsh Baptists'' / transcribed and edited by B.G. Owens (1996) Aberystwyth : National Library of Wales. . * Henry Melville King, ''Rev. John Myles and the Founding of the First Baptist Church in Massachusetts'' (Providence, RI: Preston & Rounds, Co. 1905). * Gwent, Mervyn & Evans, Evan, ''A portrait of Gower'', Swansea : Royal Institution of South Wales; Gower Society, 1952 — has a chapter about Ilston Beck, John Myles and the Ilston Book. Baptists in Early North America, Vol. 1, Swansea, MA, William Brackney with Charles Hartman; Mercer University Press, 2013

External links

{{Gower Peninsula, state=collapsed History of Christianity in Wales Gower Peninsula Welsh manuscripts Baptist Christianity in Wales