The Reverend Thomas W. Woolsey was born in November 1719 in Bedford, Westchester County, New York. Records indicate that he may have been reared in the Dutch Reformed Church and per-haps was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church as an adult.1 Woolsey married Elizabeth Waters, and after being widowed married Sarah Pierce. While still living in New York, he became a Baptist.2

At the age of 52, Woolsey moved south to Viriginia with his family and several other Baptist families, among whom were the Bishops, Coles, Thomases, and Wheelers.3 Land records indicate that Woolsey and his Baptist party eventually settled around 1771 on the South Fork of the Holston River near the present-day hamlet of Adwolfe, VA.4 He was received into the membership of Smith and Linville’s Creek church near New Market, VA by transfer of letter from a Baptist church in New York and was subsequently ordained a Baptist minister in 1772 by Rev. John Alderson.

Rev. Woolsey appears to be the first Baptist minister active in Southwestern Virginia, and he may be the first minister of any denomination active in this area. Court records of Washington Co., VA from May 15, 1781, reveal that Rev. Thomas Woolsey was formally certified as a regular Baptist min-ister by Jonathan Bishop, John Pierce, and Hellens Dungins.

While uncertain of all the reasons for the migration of these Baptist families, it is likely that their desire for religious liberty was part of their motivation in moving to the frontier. In much of Coloni-al America, Baptists as well as those from other minority denominations were forced to be part of the established church in their region. Baptist ministers were often prohibited from preaching, con-ducting weddings, and performing baptisms. Baptists in Virginia were required to attend the Angli-can church, to have their children baptized as infants in that church, and to pay taxes to support the state church. Those who dissented or acted in opposition to the state church were often fined or im-prisoned. On the frontier, early Baptists found some freedom from this religious persecution.

The call for liberty, including religious liberty, was at the core of the American colonies’ battle for independence from England. Historically, Baptists have stood on strong theological and moral ground in their fight for religious liberty for all people. Religious liberty in essence is the right to worship or not worship God according to individual conscience. True worship can never be forced but must be freely given by
the worshiper. Advocates of religious liberty deplore the establishment of
any prescribed religion or of any religious test by the state.

In 1780, near the end of America’s initial fight for liberty, the British were gaining ground in their southern advance from South Carolina into North Carolina under the command of British Major Patrick Ferguson. When the call for patriots to check this advance went out, Rev. Woolsey

Baptists in other colonies, such as Anglican-controlled Virginia, would also meet with persecution. In 1768, in a courthouse in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Lewis Craig became the first Baptist to be convicted in a court of law for illegal preaching. Between 1768-1777, twenty-nine more Separate Baptists in Virginia would be imprisoned, whipped, or executed for preaching without a license.

along with five Baptist laymen, Levi Bishop, Matthew Bishop, Capt. Joseph Cole, Hugh Cole, and James Pierce, became part of a group of over one thousand patriots known as the Overmountain Men. Col. William Campbell of Washington Co., VA assembled volunteers from Southwestern Vir-ginia on the Muster Grounds near Abingdon, VA.

On October 7, 1780, the Overmountain Men, un-der the command of Col. Campbell, surprised the British who were atop King’s Mountain, SC by attacking them from all sides and subduing them in only one hour. “Sir Henry Clinton aptly de-scribed the situation when he said it was ‘the first link of a chain of evils that followed each other in regular succession until they at last ended in the total loss of America’.”5

Woolsey’s dedication to the patriot cause may be seen in that he cut his son, Zephaniah, out of his will. While the reason for Thomas’s snub of his son is uncertain, it is believed that father and son fell out over the fact that Zephaniah had Tory leanings as evidenced by his support of Francis and William Hopkins, notorious local supporters of the English crown.6

Woolsey is buried at River Bend Cemetery, the old Maiden Cemetery, near the site of his pioneer home. His grave is believed to have been marked only by a crude stone until around 1910 when the current stone was erected by the Britton family who lived nearby. The stone simply reads: “Rev. T. W. Wolsey; A Pioneer Baptist Minister; Died – 1794.”

While Rev. Thomas W. Woolsey and his fellow Baptist pioneers in Southwestern Virgina are not well-known today, it is clear that they were patriots of the American Revolution as participants with the Overmountain Men in the fight for American liberty at King’s Mountain. Baptists today must not easily surrender the liberties for which these patriot pioneers fought. As Baptists, we must continue to guard religious liberty for all people. We must fight against any establishment or favoritism on the part of our government for or against any religion or even for no religion at all. We must muster for religious liberty to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy this fundamental freedom for all people.

William S. Simpson, Virginia Baptist ministers, 1760-1790: a biographical survey (Richmond, VA: W.S. Simpson, c1990-2002, 2004),
Garnett Ryland, unpublished research notes of Garnett Ryland c. 1959 based on his review of the minutes of Smith and Linville’s Creek church, pp 20-21. Ryland’s notes are available in the archives of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, Richmond, VA. The original and a typed copy of Smith’s Creek Minute Book of the Church meeting on Smith’s Creek, 1756-1774, and on Lynville Creek, 1775-77, 1787-1818 is available in the archives of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA.
St. Clair’s Bottom Primitive Baptist Church,” unpublished church history posted inside the church.
Jack and Rubinette Niemann, eds., Washington County, Virginia Surveyors Record 1781-1797, copied by Rhonda Robertson, 1998 and Indexed by Jack & Rubinette Niemann (Historical Society Washington Co., VA, 2004), 68; In the archives of the Historical Society of Washington Co, VA in STA.VA.Wash.351.
William Cox, Battle of Kings Mountain Participants: October 7, 1780, reprint (Abingdon, VA: Historical Society of Washington County, VA, 1972), 8.
Gordon Aronhime, “Thomas Wolsey—Bristol Area’s First Minister,” Bristol Herald Courier, February 17, 1963

Rev. Dr. Bill Bryan serves on the Religious Liberty Committee of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. BBryan@AbingdonBaptist.org

JACS IS GOING ON THE ROAD

“A Resilient Faith: Japanese American Baptists in World War II” is now available as a traveling exhibit. You can host the exhibit in your space as part of a special event, as an focus for an educational program, or simply as a way for your audience to learn more about this defining experience for the Japanese American community and American Baptists’ role.

For more information contact Jenny Manasco, Digital Collections Specialist, J.Manasco@ABHSarchives.org