She spread the gospel alongside her husband, Daniel Marshall (1706–84), who is generally regarded as the first great Baptist leader in the state of Georgia.
Without the shadow of a usurped authority over the other sex, Mrs. Marshall, being a lady of good sense, singular piety, and surprising elocution, has, in countless instances melted a whole concourse into tears by her prayers and exhortations!
'Baptist historian George Paschal, in his History of North Carolina Baptists, wrote of Daniel and Martha: “As a result of the labors of this earnest and fervent evangelist, in which he doubtless had the assistance of his saintly and gifted wife, Mrs. Martha Stearns Marshall, great numbers turned to the Lord.”In the late 1750s, the Marshalls founded a Separate Baptist church at Abbott's Creek in North Carolina.
There Martha served alongside her husband and “was noted for her zeal and eloquence,”[1] and she “added greatly to the interest of meetings conducted by her husband.”[2] The first difficulty the new church encountered was that no minister would cooperate with Stearns in ordaining Daniel.
As more women enter the ministry, churches have a greater opportunity to welcome them into their pulpits," said Pam Durso, Associate Executive Director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society.
But to claim that these Baptists ordained women to be gospel preachers is simply not accurate, and it seems to revise history to suit our own purposes.