NOTE: a version of this article appeared in the Sep ‘95 issue of the C.F.A. newsletter.

After the 1995 reunion meeting in Charlestown, RI, C.F.A.member Mrs. Thelma (Kenyon) Tarbox of Saunderstown, RI, was interested in finding out more about Elder John's Seventh Day Baptist tradition. Mrs. Tarbox is a faithful member of the First Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church in Ashaway, RI. This is a church that, in a way, can be traced right to Elder John Crandall of Newport & Westerly, RI.

In trying to find out more about this, especially something which could be documented, the three "authors" mentioned above, set out on a search of the available material.

My (EPC's) own grandfather, E. Perry Crandall (1878-1954) had written a brief straight-line genealogy of the Crandall family for his children and grandchildren. It was begun in 1938, but was updated and reproduced several times before his death. He stated therein that Elder John was indeed a Seventh Day Baptist and that meetings were held at his home in Westerly. He did not give any documentation for this.

I (EPC) checked in some material I had here at the house, but came up with very little that was concrete. The 1949 genealogy is not silent, but it is "awfully quiet" on any particulars.

Russ had asked me the initial question, and I responded to him that since most of Elder John's children were Seventh Day Baptists, that he probably was, too. It is noted in the 1949 genealogy that Elder John's first wife was referred to in letters as a "sabbath keeper" (meaning, in that time frame) that she was a Seventh Day Baptist. I also noted that almost all of Elder John's "compadres" in Westerly were Seventh Day Baptist, too, i.e. Tobias Saunders, Robert Burdick, et al. And, "birds of a feather ..."

Then, upon further research, Russ & Thelma came up with the following almost simultaneously!!

A. P. Crandall, in an 1888 family genealogy, cites the same events as John Cortland Crandall does on pages 2 and 3 of the 1949 CRANDALL genealogy ... and says that they came from "Munsell's chart of the Crandall Family".

Both sources quote portions of the letter that Samuel Hubbard writes from Newport to Mr. Edward Stennitt in London. I [Russ speaking] believe that Hubbard is stating that John Crandall, who had died, was a member of the "old church", or the First Baptist Church of Newport. He certainly was. I have searched Arnold's church lists and can not find John listed in either the Newport or the Westerly SDB church lists. I was, at that point, convinced that Elder John was, and always had been, a first-day Baptist.

There were problems at that time with record keeping. I believe that one of those problems had to do with the fact that the Westerly Church did not officially separate from the Newport Church until 1708. However, meetings were being held in Westerly long before that. Since Elder John died in 1676, and the Westerly Church did not officially exist at that time, no record of his membership in Westerly would exist.

According to Westerly And Its Witnesses, Elder John signed the Purchase of Misquamicut in 1661 (p47), was Freeman when the town was incorporated in 1669 (p 52), but was not listed in the "long roll of able pastors" (p61).

Looking at Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America (1910) containing several historical articles by various authors: on page 142, "Among those chosen as conservators ... were Tobias Saunders, Robert Burdick, John Crandall, Joseph Clarke, all Seventh-day Baptists ... ". William L. Burdick writes on page 601, "Elder John Crandall, who had been an elder in the Baptist church and who was one of three to make the first settlement in Misquamicut, is spoken of as keeping the Sabbath and doing valuable work for the truth in New London and Westerly." On page 607, "... son of Elder John Crandall, the first minister in Western Rhode Island." On page 611, "Elder John Crandall, who was an elder in the Baptist church of Newport, John Maxson, and others ... embraced the Sabbath a little later and became pillars in the congregation in ... the First Hopkinton Church". There are several other references to him in this work.

In A Choosing People: The History of Seventh Day Baptists by Don Sanford, on page 90, "On July 16, 1651, ...and John Crandall (who later became a Seventh Day Baptist) ...". On page 115, "A sermon ... in 1738 gave 1665 as the date when a number of members of the church under Mr. J. Clarke settled at Westerly with John Crandall as a preacher and an elder". "Elder John Crandall, Sr., who died in 1676, conducted regular Sabbath services in his home, indicating over thirty years of worship in Westerly prior to the formal organization of the church in that area in 1708."

Thelma adds the following: "... Elder Crandall was one of the first settlers to move to Westerly, RI [then called Misquamicutt], and is credited with being among the few who actually paid the Indians for their land. As a young man, John Crandall embraced the "heretical" belief that the Bible taught baptism by immersion for believers only (as opposed to infant baptism). In later years, he became convinced that it is the Seventh not the First day of the week which the Bible teaches is God's Holy Day for Christians.

"Elder Crandall was not the first of the John Clarke Baptist Church members to change from Sunday to Saturday observance. His son, Rev. Joseph Crandall, married Deborah Burdick, a granddaughter of Samuel and Tacy Hubbard ... Tacy Hubbard was the first convert to the Seventh Day Baptist Church in the new world!

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