NJHUNTER-L Archives

Archiver > NJHUNTER > 2003-02 > 1046095746


From: "msouders" <>
Subject: [NJHUNTER] Re: [Baptists & Drakes
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:18:26 -0500
References: <03022319593401.01016@linux>


More on the topic of the Baptists. This may be beside the point or even
redundant, but I haven't seen it in this discussion of the origins of
Baptistown, so I offer it here:
The numerous Drake family of NJ had originally settled in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, near the Piscataqua River (there was also a group of Native
Americans with this name or one close to it - writing this from memory).
They were Baptists as were some of their neighbors.
Eventually, they left or were exiled from their Puritan region and came to
NJ, to Piscataway, named for the area they'd left.
The noted NJ genealogist, Rankin, was an authority on the Drake family and
at the archives at the Alexander Library at Rutgers, there is a file cabinet
full of his research on them. I myself haven't done very much research on
them and may need to be corrected on some of these facts but it's one way
Baptists came to NJ. I've wondered what 17th century Baptists were like?
Were they an English-speaking equivalent to Anabaptists from Europe?
Marilyn

> I was reading more history (Isn't that half of the fun of genealogy?) this
> time on Kingwood Twp. at
>
> http://twp.kingwood.hunterdon.nj.us/township_history.html
>
> and noted this bit:
>
> "The beginning of the 18th century, about 1720, brought the Baptists who
> settled Baptistown. Among them was Isaac Woolverton, William Fowler,
> Elizabeth Warford, John Burtis, Ann Lawrence, and Mary Green. The Brays
also
> came to this area as Baptists. These families fanned out settling the
areas
> near the river and toward Barbertown."
>
> Which of course raises the question, where did these Baptists move from?
>
> It this perchance a link to the early Piscataway, NJ and Scotch Plains
> Baptist churches suggested in the Woolverton stuff I saw some time back?
>
> Mike Miller
>
>
> ==== NJHUNTER Mailing List ====
> Visit the Updated Hunterdon County GenWeb page at:
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~njhunter
>
> ==============================
> To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records,
go to:
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237
>

This thread: