19 Facts About Obadiah Holmes

Obadiah Holmes was an early Rhode Island settler, and a Baptist minister who was whipped in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious beliefs and activism.

Obadiah Holmes became the pastor of the Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island, a position he held for 30 years.

Obadiah Holmes was married at the age of 20, and several years later emigrated from England to settle in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Obadiah Holmes settled in Newport in the Rhode Island colony, and soon befriended John Clarke and John Crandall.

Friends paid the fines for Clarke and Crandall, but when Obadiah Holmes learned of this, he refused to allow them to pay his fine.

The year after this punishment, Obadiah Holmes became the pastor of the Baptist church in Newport, and continuously held that position for 30 years, until his death in 1682.

Obadiah Holmes was an ancestor of the sixteenth United States President, Abraham Lincoln.

Obadiah Holmes sold his holdings in Salem by 1645, removing himself and his family to Rehoboth the same year, and becoming a member of Reverend Samuel Newman's church.

In 1649, Obadiah Holmes took Newman to court for slander, setting damages at 100 pounds.

Newman had accused Obadiah Holmes of taking false oath in court, but later admitted doing this based on the claims of others rather than his own knowledge.

Obadiah Holmes became the leader of a small faction within the church, known as the "Schismatists," and by 1650, he and eight others had separated from the church and were baptized, with Obadiah Holmes becoming their pastor.

In Newport Obadiah Holmes became associated with John Clarke, and John Crandall, and with the Newport church.

The result of the trial was that Obadiah Holmes was fined 30 pounds, Clarke was fined 20, and Crandall five.

Obadiah Holmes returned to Newport and when Dr Clarke left for England in late 1651, Obadiah Holmes succeeded him as minister of the First Baptist Church in Newport, and he held this position continuously until his death 30 years later.

In 1665 Obadiah Holmes was one of 12 persons named in a patent from the Duke of York for the Monmouth grant in East Jersey, which encompassed parts of Monmouth, Middlesex and ocean Counties.

In 1675 Obadiah Holmes wrote a series of accounts about his life, one addressed to his wife, one to his children, and one to his friends and congregants.

Obadiah Holmes was so highly regarded in the Rhode Island colony, that during the devastation of King Phillips War in 1676, the General Court put out a request for the "advice and concurrence of the most judicious inhabitants" of the colony.

Obadiah and Katherine Holmes had nine known children, one of whom, the first John, died in England in 1633, with the remainder growing to maturity.

Obadiah Holmes' daughter Martha, born in 1640, married Captain Richard Stillwell, son of Lt.