sen the veneration for ecclesiastical authority." As the "serious schism" referred to above led to the foundation of the first Baptist Church within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on New Meadow Neck in Old Swansea, it is worthy of record here.
The leader in this church revolt was Obadiah Holmes, a native of Preston, in Lancashire, England. He was connected with the church in Salem from 1639 to 1646, when he was excommunicated, and, removing with his family to Rehoboth, he joined Mr. Newman's church. The doctrines and the discipline of this church proved too severe for Mr. Holmes, and he, with eight others, withdrew in 1649, and established a new church by themselves. Mr. Newman's irascible temper was kindled into a persecuting zeal against the offending brethren, and, after excommunicating them, he aroused the civil authorities against them. So successful was he that four petitions were presented to the Plymouth Court, one from Rehoboth, signed by thirty-five persons ; one from Taunton, one from all the clergymen in the colony but two, and one from the government of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Bay Colony had heard of the ongoings and the undoings at Seekonk, and the General Court sitting in Boston under date of October 18, 1649, John Endicott still governor, sent the following letter to the Plymouth General Court:
"Honored and Beloved Brethren, We have heard heretofore of divers Anybaptists, arisen up in your jurisdiction, but being but few, we well hoped that it might have pleased God by the endeavors of yourselves, and the faithful elders with you, to have reduced such erring men again into the right way. But now to our great grief, we are credibly informed that your patient bearing with such men hath produced another effect, namely, the multiplying and increasing of the same errors, and we fear maybe of other errors also, if timely care be not taken to suppress the same. Particularly, we understand that within these few weeks there have been at Seacuncke (Seekonk) thirteen or fourteen per-
