Obadiah Holmes

Obadiah Holmes (1610 – 15 October 1682) was an early Rhode Island settler, and a Baptist minister who was whipped in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious beliefs and activism.

Born in 1610 near Manchester, England, he grew up in a family where several of his brothers were sent to college at Oxford, but he was somewhat wild in his youth, and saw his rebelliousness as being a cause of his mother's death.

In July 1651, these three men, while visiting an elderly friend in Lynn, Massachusetts, were apprehended, tried, and given exorbitant fines for their religious practices.

[4][6] In a 1675 writing about his early life, Holmes is very revealing about his character as a youth, writing, "Three sons they [his parents] brought up aright to the university at Oxford but the most of their care was to inform and to instruct them in the fear of the Lord and to that end gave them much good counsell [sic], bringing them often before the Lord by earnest prayer, but I the most rebellious of all did neither harken to counsel nor any instruction, for from a child I minded nothing but folly, and vanity...

"[4] In 1638, Holmes, with his wife and possibly son Jonathan, sailed from Preston on the River Ribble in Lancashire to Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

[7] Soon after landing at Boston in the summer or early fall of 1638, he and his family made their way up the coast and settled at Salem.

[8] The young Salem settlement encouraged Holmes and his co-workers in the development of what may have been the first glass factory in North America, by giving them a loan of 30 pounds.

[9] He 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.

"[9] Members of the court indicting Holmes included Governor William Bradford, Captain Miles Standish, and John Alden, gentleman.

[10] As a consequence of the court action, he and the others left Rehoboth to settle in Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

In 1651 William Witter, an elderly member of their congregation living in Lynn, Massachusetts, was too infirm to come to Newport, so the three men visited him on 21 July.

[9] While Mr. Clarke was preaching to Witter and a small group assembled at his house, two constables arrived, arrested the three men for their religious beliefs and activity, and had them imprisoned in Boston the following day.

[14] Writing later about the event, Holmes related "...having joyfulness in my heart, and cheerfulness in my countenance...I told the magistrates, 'You have struck me as with roses.

"[15] Much later, Rhode Island's Governor Joseph Jenckes wrote, "Those who have seen the scars on Mr. Holmes' back (which the old man was wont to call the marks of the Lord Jesus), have expressed a wonder that he should live.

[6] Jonathan, thought to be born in England, married Sarah Borden, and was active in colonial affairs, becoming Speaker of the House of Deputies.