Rev. Shubal Stearns

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubal_Stearns]

[Stearns was born in Boston. His family was members of the Congregational church in Tolland, Connecticut, when in 1745 he heard evangelist George Whitefield.[2] Whitefield preached that, instead of trying to reform the Congregational church over doctrinal issues, members needed to separate from it; hence his followers were called the "New-Lights". Stearns was converted, became a preacher, and adopted the Great Awakening's view of revival and conversion. The "New Lights" also came to be called the "Separates", in part because they pointed to 2 Cor. 6:17 "be ye separate", ie, from the mainstream "Old Light" Congregational church.[2]

Stearns' church became involved in the controversy over the proper subjects of baptism in 1751. Soon, Stearns rejected infant baptism and sought baptism at the hands of Wait Palmer, Baptist minister of Stonington, Connecticut. By March, Shubal Stearns was ordained into the Baptist ministry by Palmer and Joshua Morse, the pastor of New London, Connecticut. His church of "Separates", by becoming Baptists, were from then on to be known as the Separate Baptists.

In 1754, Stearns and some of his followers moved south to Opequon, Virginia, at that time on the western frontier. Here he joined Daniel Marshall and wife Martha (Stearns' sister), who were already active in a Baptist church there. During his brief time in Virginia, Stearns and Marshal preached the Gospel with great zeal; they were accused of being "disorderly ministers" by some stalwarts, who complained to the Philadelphia Association, but this charge was dismissed.

On November 22, 1755, Stearns and his party moved further south to Sandy Creek, in Guilford County, North Carolina to build a new church. This party consisted of eight men and their wives, mostly relatives of Stearns. He pastored at Sandy Creek until his death. From there, Separate Baptists spread in the South. The church quickly grew from 16 members to 606.[3] Church members moved to other areas and started other churches.

The Sandy Creek Association was formed in 1758. Morgan Edwards, a Baptist minister who visited Sandy Creek the year after Stearns' death, recorded that, "in 17 years, [Sandy Creek] has spread its branches westward as far as the great river Mississippi; southward as far as Georgia; eastward to the sea and Chesopeck [sic] Bay; and northward to the waters of the Pottowmack [sic]; it, in 17 years, is become mother, grandmother, and great grandmother to 42 churches, from which sprang 125 ministers." Based on the testimony of those who remembered him, Edwards described Stearns as a fervent and charismatic preacher who was capable of inspiring the most powerful emotions in his congregation.

None of Stearns' sermons has survived in writing. His central theme was recounted as discussing the need for followers of Christ to be "born again" from within. At first churchgoers in North Carolina found this a difficult concept. who never thought of their religion as anything more than external.[2]

But, Stearns' style of preaching and emphasis on internal conversion were highly important to Southern religion. He became the model for many other preachers who sought to copy his example, down to the least gesture or inflection of voice. Stearns believed that God pours his spirit like water upon a new believer, requiring no special learning or instruction; and this 'outpouring' swiftly became a flood that spread from Sandy Creek throughout all parts of the southern frontier.[4][5] ]

Stearns was married to Sarah Johnson, but they never had children.

(Note: The last name is also seen as Starnes.)

Elder Shubal Stearns was the first Baptist preacher in North Carolina. There was also a Shubal Stearns III, who was born on Sept. 19, 1683, and died in New Bern, Orange Co. NC ca. 1760---most likely the father of this one. Shubal Stearns IV supposedly was born in Boston, Mass. and died in 1771 in NC, and is buried in Sandy Creek Cemetery. Shubal III was the town clerk of Tolland, Conn. at one time, and changed the spelling of his last name to Starnes. He became the father of Shubal Stearns/Starnes IV, as well as Peter and Ebenezer Stearns/Starnes. Shubal IV joined the "New Lights" religious movement, who were followers of George Whitfield, and who believed in immersion as baptism. In May of 1751, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Ebenezer Starnes, his brother, was supposedly a supplier of rations to the American troops during the Revolutionary War and is buried in Laurens Co. SC. Shubael Stearns married Sarah Johnson in Tolland, CT in 1726.

Elder Shubal Stearns was the first Baptist preacher in North Carolina. There was also a Shubal Stearns III, who was born in Sept. 19, 1683, and died in New Bern, Orange Co. NC ca. 1760---most likely the father of this one. Shubal Stearns IV supposedly was born in Boston, Mass. and died in 1771 in NC, and is buried in Sandy Creek Cemetery. Shubal III was the town clerk of Tolland, Conn. at one time, and changed the spelling of his last name to Starnes. He became the father of Shubal Stearns/Starnes IV, as well as Peter and Ebenezer Stearns/Starnes. Shubal IV joined the "New Lights" religious movement, who were followers of George Whitfield, and who believed in immersion as baptism. In May of 1751, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Ebenezer Starnes, his brother, was supposedly a supplier of rations to the American troops during the Revolutionary War, and is buried in Laurens Co. SC. Shubael Stearns married Sarah Johnson in Tolland, CT in 1726.

Family links:

Parents:

 Shubael Stearns (1683 - 1760)

 Rebecca Sanford Larrabee Stearns (1684 - 1780)

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/stearns-shubal-jr

Shubal Stearns, Jr., Baptist leader, was born in Boston, the son of Shubal and Rebecca Larriford (Sanford?) Stearns. In his youth he moved with his parents to Connecticut and joined the Congregational church at Tolland. Little is known of his early years, but it is apparent from the few extant records that he belonged to a family of solid citizens. His father was one of the town proprietors of Tolland in 1716, the "proprietor clark" in 1722 and 1724, and a selectman in 1724.

Much more is known of young Stearns and his activities after 1745. Stirred deeply by George Whitefield's preaching in that year, he, along with other advocates of the Great Awakening, left the Congregational fold and formed a "Separate" church. For six years this church grew steadily under Stearns's leadership, but the Connecticut Separates and their leader encountered some serious obstacles: Stearns became deeply involved in a crusade to secure the Connecticut General Assembly's recognition of the Separate churches' right to exist, but petitions of 1746 and 1748 were "resolved in the negative" in both houses. In turning down the petition of 1748 the Assembly insinuated that Stearns and the other 324 people who had signed it were revolutionaries, although the document plainly denied that the signers had any intention of promoting revolution. The petition did, however, assert for every Christian an "unalienable Right, in matters of ye worship of God, to Judge for himself as his Conciance Receives the Rule from God." All they wanted, claimed the petitioners, was the religious toleration guaranteed them in the Toleration Act, which Parliament had passed in the reign of William and Mary.

As if trouble with the provincial legislature were not enough, the Separates began to quarrel among themselves in 1751. The major issue was infant baptism. Stearns, coaxed by the New Light Baptist preacher Wait Palmer, renounced infant baptism and was himself baptized by Palmer. On 20 May 1751 he was ordained to the Baptist ministry. Meanwhile, he had organized a Separate Baptist church and served as its minister until 1754, when he became convinced that God wanted him to move "far to the westward, to execute a great and extensive work." Taking a few of his church members with him, he left Connecticut and moved to the backcountry of Virginia. There he "joined companies" with other Baptists led by Daniel Marshall, who was married to Martha Stearns, Shubal's sister. When it became apparent that the opportunities for Separate Baptist evangelism were too limited in the sparsely settled Virginia hinterland, the combined parties of Stearns and Marshall moved two hundred miles south to Sandy Creek in what was then Guilford County, N.C. There, Stearns had heard, were people eager to hear preaching. Shortly after their arrival at Sandy Creek in November 1755, the Separate Baptists established Sandy Creek Baptist Church. From this base of operations the Separate Baptists, making emotional appeals for people to be saved and preaching a diluted Calvinistic theology, formed churches throughout North Carolina and then fanned out into Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Led by Stearns, seven of the Separate churches in North Carolina and Virginia organized the Sandy Creek Baptist Association about 1760. As new churches were constituted, the association grew larger. The Sandy Creek church itself grew from 16 to 606 members in less than fifteen years.

The militant evangelism of the Separate Baptists, which Shubal Stearns launched in 1755, suffered two blows in 1771. In May of that year Governor William Tryon crushed the North Carolina Regulators, many of whom seem to have been Baptists. From the Sandy Creek area there ensued an exodus that drastically depleted the membership of the Sandy Creek Baptist Church. Later in the year Shubal Stearns died. The Separate Baptists would recover from the Regulator disturbance, the death of Stearns, and even the disrupting effects of the coming Revolutionary War, but the movement they had begun was clearly in disarray by the end of 1771. Not until the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would the seeds sown by Stearns and his followers yield their greatest harvests.

On 6 Mar. 1726 Stearns married Sarah Johnson (Johnstone?) of Lexington, Mass. According to the early Baptist historian Morgan Edwards, Stearns "left no issue." He was buried at Sandy Creek.

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: May 26 2020, 4:50:15 UTC