Baptist Meeting House – Samuel Stillman

"In 1679, the Boston Baptists built a meetinghouse in the North End of Boston, at the corner of Salem and Stillman Streets. ...In the early 1700s, the small building was replaced by a larger wooden one on the same site. Here the Church flourished, for 43 years (1764–1807) under the leadership of Samuel Stillman." Samuel Stillman kept the doors open for services while the British invaded Boston and is said to have preached against them every single service.

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In 1764, Stillman joined the Reverend James Manning, the Reverend Ezra Stiles, the Reverend Isaac Backus, the Reverend John Gano, the Reverend Morgan Edwards, William Ellery, and former Royal Governors Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward among thirty-five others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University). Stillman received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Brown in 1788.

In 1765 Stillman became minister of the Brattle Square Church of Boston—a position he held until his death. In 1773, Stillman purchased a house at the northern corner of Sheaffe and Salem Streets in Boston's North End. The house stood immediately opposite of that of Robert Newman, a patriot and sexton of Old North Church, known for lighting Old North’s steeple during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. John Hancock, although a Unitarian, was one of his admirers and often rented a pew there so that he could hear him. President John Adams and General Henry Knox also came to hear him preach. In 1802, Samuel Stillman was instrumental in founding the first Baptist Missionary Society in America (now known as The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts).

Stillman was also member of the American Philosophical Society and was politically active as a member of the 1779 Massachusetts Senate Convention for the formation of the State constitution; and also for the 1788 adoption of the United States Constitution. According to editor Frank Moore, Stillman was "a member of the Senate Convention for the formation of the state constitution in 1779; as also for the adoption of the federal constitution in 1788; in the last body he delivered a very eloquent speech in its support and was considered at the time as having contributed much toward its adoption, and confirmed many members in its favor who were previously wavering upon that question. To that constitution he ever after continued a firm, unshaken friend, and a warm approver of the administration of Washington and Adams."

Stillman died on March 11 or 12 1807, after suffering a fatal paralysis. He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground.

What fruitage did these spiritual leaders produce? Mt 7:15-20. Consider John 17:16 vs Acts 20:29, 30. What would Jesus have said seeing this?

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As for the Baptist group that Stillman led, in 1682, under the watch of William Screven, the church organized a spinoff mission in present-day Kittery, Maine; as a result of issues with Congregationalism in the 1690s, the church moved to Charleston, South Carolina and is the modern day First Baptist Church meeting in James Island, South Carolina.

In 1837 they moved to the fourth meeting house on the corner of Hanover St and Union (near Green Dragon Tavern) and then in 1881 moved to the current Location of Back Bay on Clarendon and Public Alley 435

-Source Links-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Baptist_Church_(Boston,_Massachusetts) Ref #2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Stillman

https://archive.org/details/gleasonspictoria0506glea/page/57/mode/1up?view=theater