by means of the Davises, usually called the giants ; those
stout brothers had been prevailed on to oppose him ;
but after they had heard him preach, they became well
affected towards him, and threatened to chastise any
that should disturb him. In Fauquier the mob were
very outrageous, but did no mischief, though his friends
feared they would have pulled him to pieces.
A certain man, whose wife had been baptized by Mr.
Major, determined to kill him on sight, and w r ent to
meeting for that purpose. He sat down in hearing.
35O Biography of Daniel Marshall.
intending to catch at some obnoxious expression, which
might fall from the preacher, and under that pretence
to attack him. But God produced a different result ;
for the man, instead of executing his design, became so
convicted that he could not keep on his feet ; and was
afterwards baptized by tiie man he intended to murder.
Another actually attacked him with a club in a violent
manner. Mr. Major being remarkable for great presence
of mind, turned to him, and in a solemn manner said,
" Satan, I command thee to come out. of the man.'*
His club immediately began to fall, and the lion became
as quiet as the lamb. These are a few of the many oc-
currences of this kind, that took place in the long life of
this valuable man.
The way that Mr. Major's gifts were noticed was, in
his reading printed sermons at private meetings. The
people were so affected, that they procured the sermons
for their own reading, but were soon convinced that he
had read what was not in the book.
So much was he esteemed in the latter part of his life,
that he had serious apprehensions, that he must be too
much at ease for a gospel minister ; or in other words, it
seemed as if the expression, Wo be unto you when all men
speak well of you, applied to his case. In the midst of
these thoughts, he accidentally heard a man lay to his
charge one of the most abominable crimes. At first he
felt irritated ; but recollecting his previous reflections,
lie was soon reconciled. Towards the close of his long
and useful life, he was much afHicted with the gravel, of
which disease he died when he was about eighty years
old. Semple, Edwards.
DANIEL MARSHALL. The following account of this
eminent servant of God, was drawn by his worthy son,
Rev. Abraham Marshall, who succeeded his father in the
pastoral station at Kioka. It was first published in the
Georgia Analytical Repository, and afterwards in the
History of the Virginia Baptists. It is now transcribed
and presented to the reader in its original epistolary form.
" In giving a biographical sketch of my honoured
t.-.ther, \ve rnuat look back to the distance of almost a
Biography of Daniel Marshall. 351
century. His birth was in the year of our Lord 1 706,
in Windsor, a town in Connecticut. He was religiously
educated by respectable and pious parents, and being
hopefully converted at about twenty years of age, joined
the then standing order of Presbyterians, in his native
place. The natural ardour of his mind soon kindled into
the fire of holy zeal, and raised him so high in the es-
teem of his brethren, that they called him to the office
of a deacon. In the exemplary discharge of his duty,
in this capacity, he continued near twenty years. Dur-
ing this time, in easy circumstances, he married and lost
a wife, by whom he had a son named after himself, Dan-
iel, who is still a useful member of society. At the age
of thirty-eight years, our worthy parent was one of the
thousands in New-England, who heard that son of thun-
der, the Rev. George Whiteiield, and caught his seraph-
ick fire. Firmly believing in the near approach of the
latter-day-glory, when the Jews with the fulness of the
Gentiles, shall hail their Redeemer, and bow to his gen-
tle sceptre, a number of worthy characters ran to and fro
through the eastern States, warmly exhorting to the
prompt adoption of every measure tending to hasten that
blissful period. Others sold, gave away, or left their pos-
sessions, as the powerful impulse of the moment deter-
mined, and without scrip or purse, rushed up to the head
of the Susquehanna, to convert the heathens, and settled
in a town c.alled Onnaquaggy, among the Mohawk Indians.
One, and not the least sanguine of these pious missionaries,
was my venerable father. Great must have been his faith,
great his zeal, when, without the least prospect of a tem-
poral reward, with a much-beloved wife, and three chil-
dren, he exchanged his commodious buildings, for a mis-
erable hut; his fruitful fields and loaded orchards, for bar-
ren deserts ; the luxuries of a well-furnished table, for
coarse and scanty fare ; and numerous civil friends, for
rude savages ! He had the happiness, however, to teach
and exhort, for eighteen months, in this place, with consid-
erable success. A number of the Indians were, in some
degree, impressed with eternal concerns, and several
became cordially obedient to the gospel. But just a
the seeds of heavenly truth, sown with tears in this un-
promising soil, began to appear in their first fruits, the
352 Biography cf Daniel Marshall*
breaking out of war among the savage tribes occasioned
his reluctant removal to Conegocheague, in Pennsylvania.
After a short residence in this settlement, he removed
to a place near Winchester, in Virginia.
" Here he became acquainted with a Baptist church,
belonging to the Philadelphia Association ; and as the re-
suit ofa close, impartial examination of their faith and
order, he and my dear mother were baptized by immer-
sion, in the forty-eighth year of his life. He was now
called, as a licensed preacher, to the unrestrained exer-
cise of his gifts ; and though they were by no means
above mjediocrity, he was instrumental in awakening at-
tention, in many of his hearers, to the interests of their
souls.
" Under the influence of an anxious desire to be ex-
tensively useful, he proceeded from Virginia to Hugh-
warry, in North-Carolina, where his faithful and inces-
sant labours proved the happy means of arousing and
converting numbers. Being so evidently and eminently
useful as an itinerant preacher, he continued his peregri-
nation to Abbot's Creek, in the same State, where he was
the instrument of planting a church, of which he was
ordained pastor, in the fifty-second year of his age, by
his brothers in law, the Rev. Messrs. Henry Leadbetter,
and Shubaei Stearns. Soon after receiving this honour,
my reverend father, in one of his evangelical journies into
Virginia, had the singular happiness to baptize Col. Sam-
uel Harris, with whom he immediately afterwards made
several tours, and preached, and planted the gospel in
several places, as far as James-river. It was but a few
years after his ordination, betore, induced by appearances
of increasing usefulness, he took an affectionate leave
of his beloved charcre, and settled on Beaver Creek, in.
South-Carolina.
" In this place, likewise, a large church was raised
under his ministry, and, till brought to a good degree of
maturity in divine things, was an object of his tender
and unremitted care and solicitude. At the direction of
Divine Providence, as he conceived, and as subsequent
events have proved, his next removal was to Horse Creek,
about fifteen miles north of Augusta.
" The fruits of his labours in this place remain in a
Biography of Daniel Marsbail. 353
respectable church, some of whose sons, raised up under
his care, have successfully diffused the light of divine
truth through various benighted regions. From Horse
Creek my aged father made his first visits to this State.
On the second or third of these, while in prayer, he was
seized, in the presence of his audience, for preaching in
the parish of St. Paul^ and made to give security for his
appearance in Augusta, the Monday following, to answer
to this charge. Accordingly he stood a trial, and, after
his meekness and patience were sufficiently exercised, was
ordered to come no more as a preacher into Georgia.
In the words of an Apostle, similarly circumstanced, he
replied, " Whether it be right to obey God or man, judge ye."
Consistently with this just and spirited reply, he pur-
sued his successful course, and on the first of January,
1771, came with his family, and took up his final earth-
ly residence at the Kioka. The following Spring the
church here was formed, and is famous for having
furnished materials for several other churches. For
this purpose many common members have been dismiss-
ed, and several ministers have been ordained. Among
these are the Rev. Messrs. Sanders Walker, Samuel New-
ton, Loveless Savage, Alexander Scott, and the writer of
this article. Through God's blessing on the ministry
of her indefatigable founder and pastor, this church
continued to lengthen her cords and strengthen her
stakes, breaking forth on the right hand and on the left,
till our beloved country was unhappily involved in the
horrors of war. No scenes, however, from the com-
mencement to the termination of hostilities, were so
gloomy and alarming as to deter my father from dis-
charging the duties of his station. Neither reproaches
nor threatenings could excite in him the least appearance
of timidity, or any thing inconsistent with Christian and
ministerial heroism.
" As a friend to the American cause, he was once made
a prisoner and put under a strong guard ; but obtaining
leave of the officers, he commenced and supported so
heavy a charge of exhortation and prayer, that, like Dan-
iel of old, while his enemies stood amazed and con-
founded, he was safely and honourably delivered from
this den of lions.
VOL, 2. 4.5
Biography of Daniel Marshall
"Even the infirmities of old age, and the evident ap-
proach of the king of terrors, were not sufficient to shake
his faith or hope, nor, in the least perceivable degree, to
abate his zeal.
" A few months previous to his decease, rising in his
pulpit, which he had frequently besprinkled with his tears,
and from which he had often descended to weep over a
careless auditory, he said, " I address you, my dear hearers.,
with a diffidence which arises from a failure of memory, and
a general weakness of body and mind, common to my years ;
but I recollect, he that holds out to the end shall be saved,
and am resolved to finish my course in the cause of God."
Accordingly he attended publick worship regularly, even
through his lingering mortal illness, till the last Sabbath
but one before his dissolution. In his family he invaria-
bly performed his usual round of holy duties, till the
morning immediately preceding his happy change. Fully
apprized of this as at hand, and perfectly in his senses,
he expressed distinctly and emphatically, his steady and
increasing confidence of future bliss.
" The following, taken by me, in the presence of a
few deeply-affected friends and relations, are his last
words :
" Dear brethren and sisters, I am just gone. This night
1 shall probably expire ; but I have nothing to fear. I havf
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith ; and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right-
eousness* God has shewn me that he is my God, that I am-
bis son, and that an eternal weight of glory is mine !"
" The venerable partner of his cares, (and I may add,
faithful assistant in all his labours) sitting bedewed with
tears, by his side, he proceeded, " Go on, my dear wife, t
serve the Lord, Hold out to the end. Eternal glory is before
us /"
"After a silence of some minutes, he called me and said,
" My breath is almost gone. I have been praying that I may
go home to-night. I had great happiness in our worship this
morning, particularly in singing, which will make a part of my
exercise in a blessed eternity."
" Now gently closing his eyes, he cheerfully gave up
his soul to God, with whom, I doubt not, he walks,
" high in salvation, and the climes of bliss.'* This sol-
emn event took place at the dawn of the 2d day of
Biography of Eliakim Marsha!!. 355
November, 1784, in the 78th year of his age. A suita-
ble discourse to his memory was delivered by the late
Rev. Charles Bussey."
The name of Mr. Marshall's first wife does not appear
from the papers respecting him. His second was Martha
Stearns, sister of the famous Shubael Stearns. By his
first wife he had Daniel, by his second, Abraham, John,
Zaccheus, Levi, Moses, Solomon, and Joseph ; and daugh-
ters Eunice and Mary. These children are all yet living
in Georgia, at no great distance from the place in which
their venerable father finished his earthly course. They
all possess a competency of worldly things, and a num-
ber of them are members of the Kioka and other
churches.
Mr. Marshall, after all his sacrifices for the cause of
Christ, was always blessed by a bountiful Providence
with a sufficiency of the meat that perisheth, and left
behind him an estate of considerable value. His son
Abraham inhabits the mansion, from which he was re-
moved to the house not made with hands.
ELIAKIM MARSHALL was a nephew of Daniel, and a
native of Connecticut ; but the time or place of his birth
I have not learnt. He was converted under the ministry
of Mr. Whitefield in the New-light Stir, and remained a
Pedobaptist minister about thirty years. He became a
Baptist in 1786, and died at Windsor, near Hartford,
1 75) 1 . He was through life esteemed a preacher of piety
and talents. He was also often a member of the Con-
necticut Legislature. As he became a Baptist but about
five years before his death, he was not much known
among- the denomination ; but on account of some cir-
cumstances which attended his conviction of Baptist sen-
timents, his biography appears worthy of being recorded.
While Abraham Marshall, of Georgia, was on his way to
visit New-England in 1736, at Philadelphia he fell in
with Mr. Winchester, of whom he inquired respecting
his relatives in Connecticut. He informed him what he
knew ; and among other things observed, that Eliakim
Marshall, of Windsor, was a man of a sound judgment, a
retentive memory, and a tender conscience. " Well,"
356 Biography of Eliakim Marshall.
replied Abraham, "if this be his character, I shall expect
to baptize him before I return ; for if he has a sound
judgment, he will understand my arguments in favour
of believers' baptism, and against that of infants ; if he
has a strong memory he will retain them ; and if he
has a tender conscience, they will have an influence on
his mind. With a firm persuasion, that he should lead
his relative into the water, he prosecuted his journey to
Connecticut. We have seen, in the history of theKioka
church, that this Abraham Marshall was only three years
old when his father went from Connecticut, among the
Mohawk Indians. He was of course unknown to any
of his relatives here ; but he was received among them
cordially, and treated with respect, and he made Elia-
kim's house his home. He kept in mind what Mr.
Winchester had told him of this cousin ; but he resolved
that he would not be forward to introduce the subject of
baptism, nor press him too hard at first. Eliakim fre-
quently expressed a desire to hear what his new relation,
as he called him, had to say in defence of the opinions in
which they differed ; but Abraham waved the matter
for a time. At length, from slight skirmishes, they, by
mutual consent, entered with all their strength into the
baptismal controversy, in which Eliakim had been a man
of war from his youth, and now manifested a strong
assurance of victory. He began with Abraham's Co-venanf,
and mustered all the arguments usually brought in de-
fence of Pedobaptism. Abraham, on the other hand,
opposed his whole system, as destitute of Scripture proof,
and adduced his reasons for his different belief. At the
first onset, this old Pedobaptist divine, as he afterwards
acknowledged to a friend, had but two arguments left
for the support of his system ; and continuing to lose
ground, while striving with himself to regain it, in the
next attack he was completely defeated, and in a short
time after confessed his conscience could not be easy till
he was baptized. But a trouble arose on account of his
wife, who was much opposed to this change in his sen-
timents. He mentioned this circumstance to Abraham,
and requested his advice. He replied that his youth did
not qualify him to prescribe duty to a man of his years ;
^ but," said he, " 1 will mention two passages of Scrip-
Biography of Silas Mercer. 3.57
ture, which my father frequently made use of in difficult
cases, which are these. / conferred not with fash and blood.
What thy hand findetb to do, do it with thy might. The ten-
der conscience of this aged convert urged him on to duty;
and, according to Abraham's expectation, he was baptized
by him the day before he left the place. A large con-
course of people, supposed to be two or three thousand,
collected to witness the administration of the solemn
rite. The venerable candidate addressed them in a most
melting manner : " I was awakened," said he, " under
the preaching of Whitefield, about forty years ago, at
which time my mind was solemnly impressed with this
sentiment, God is wisdom ; he, therefore, knows all my
thoughts, and all I do. I was in the next place impress-
ed with this sentence, God is holiness, and must, therefore,
hate all in me, which his wisdom sees is wrong. I was
in the third place impressed with this solemn thought,
God is power ; this struck me like thunder, and brought
me to the ground." So saying, he burst into tears, and
in a moment the tears were flowing from a thousand
eyes. " After labouring a few days," continued he,
" under these weighty impressions, the soothing decla-
ration, God is love, relieved my distress, removed my
fears, and filled me with unspeakable joy." He expa-
tiated largely on the interesting event of his conversion,
and the most solemn attention pervaded the great as-
sembly.
SII.AS MERCER was born near Currituck Bay, North-
Carolina, February, 1 745. His mother died while he was
an infant ; his father was a zealous member of the Church
of England, and carefully instructed him in the catechism,
rites, and traditions of that communion. From enrly
years, young Silas was religiously inclined; but it was not
till after he arrived at manhood, that he was brought to
the knowledge of salvation through a divine Redeemer.
He was for a long time embarrassed and bewildered with
that legal system, which he had been taught in his mother
Church, and so deeply rooted were the prejudices of his
education, that it took him long to learn that salvation
is not of works. But he at length gained clear and
consistent views of the gospel plan, and was, through hi*
358 Biography of Silas Mercer.
long ministry, a distinguished and powerful defender of
the doctrine of free, unmerited grace.
Until after his conversion, Mr. Mercer was most
violently opposed to Dissenters in general, and to the
Baptists in particular. He would on no account hear
one preach, and endeavoured to dissuade all others from
attending their meetings. He most firmly believed what
his father and parson had taught him, that they were all
a set of deceivers, that their heresies were dangerous if
not damnable, and that to hear one preach would be a
crime of peculiar enormity. He knew, however, but
little about them, only that they had separated from the
Church, and ought therefore to be opposed and avoided.
For these reasons he continued a violent opposer to them,
and zealously to defend the Church ; but his ingenuous
mind could not long be restrained by the shackles of
tradition, without examining things for himself; he
therefore began a course of inquiries, which gradually
undermined his traditionary creed, and led on to the
Baptist ground. He first resolved to follow strictly the
Rubrick of the Church, both in doctrine and discipline ;
and finding it enjoined immersion, unless the weakness of
the child required a milder mode, he had two of his
children dipped. The first a son, in a barrel of water at
the priest's house ; and the other a daughter, in a tub,
whicft had been prepared for the purpose at the Church.
The son was named Jesse, who is now a worthy minister
in Georgia ; he was baptized again, on a profession of his
faith, and is of course an ^wj-Baptist. Mr. Mercer was
also struck with the neglect of discipline in the Church ;
he saw with pain that persons grossly immoral in many
respects were admitted to their communion, and became
convinced that things ought not so to be. Hervey's T he-
ron and Aspasio started him from the Arminian system,
and set him on a train of reflections, which issued in a
thorough conviction of the doctrine of the gospel. He
laboured for a time to reform the church; but finding
the building was too far gone to be repaired, he receded
from it with reluctant steps, and became a Baptist when
he was about thirty years of age, and continued from
that time to the end of his life an ornament to their
cause, and a skilful defender of their distinguishing
tenets.
Biography of Silas Mercer. 359
Few men, perhaps, have had more severe conflicts in
renouncing the prejudices of education, than Mr. Mercer.
His kind but bigotted father threw in his way obstacles,
which he could not at first surmount ; the church priest,
and the whole Episcopal fraternity around him, used the
most assiduous endeavours to prevent him from going
amongst the heretical Baptists. The first minister of the
denomination he ever heard preach, was a Mr. Thomas,
at that time a successful preacher in North-Carolina. It
was with much reluctance, and with many fearful appre-
hensions of the dangerous consequences, that he was in-
duced to attend the meeting. But in spite of all his
prejudices, the preacher drew his attention, and led him
to think he was not such a dangerous deceiver as he had
always before supposed. This was on Monday. The
next'Lord's-day, the priest being absent, and his father
being clerk, performed as usual the duties of his office.
As yet none of the family knew that Silas had been to
the Baptist meeting. After the service of the day was
over, a person asked him, in the hearing of his father,
how he liked the Baptist preacher ? He was much con-
fused, and knew not what to answer ; but his conscience
obliged him to express some degree of approbation. At
which the old gentleman burst into tears, and exclaimed,
" Silas, you are ruined \" and out he went, hastily home.
Silas, alarmed, took hastily after him, to soothe his grief,
and appease hh> resentment. The offended father and
offending son were so deeply affected with the trifling
a flair, that they forgot their wives, and left them to go
home alone. The charm was now broken; and from this
period Mr. M, began to entertain more favourable views
of the people he had hitherto so much censured and des-
pised. Not long after this, he removed to Georgia, and
settled in what is now Wilks county, where, about 177-3,
he was baptized by Mr. Alexander Scott, united with the
church at Kioka, by which he was almost immediately
approbated to preach. At the commencement of the
American war, he fled for shelter to Halifax county, in
his native State, where he continued about six years, all
of which time he was incessantly engaged in preaching
as an itinerant in different places around ; and it is found,
by his journal, that, take the whole six years together, he
preached oftener than once a day j that is s more than
360 Biography of Silas Merctr.
two thousand sermons in the time. At the close of the
war, he returned to his former residence in Georgia,
where he continued to the end of his days. In this
State, he laboured abundantly with good effect, and was
the means of planting a number of churches in different
parts of the country. He was justly esteemed one of the
most exemplary and useful ministers in the southern
States. His learning was not great, but having a desire
that his young brethren might obtain greater advantages
than he had enjoyed, he had set up a school at his house,
procured an able teacher, and was in a promising way to
promote the interests of learning in the churches around
him ; but in the midst of his benevolent plans and dis-
tinguished usefulness, he was, after a short illness, remov-
ed from the scene of his employments, in 17^6, in the
52d year of his age.
The following portrait of Mr. Mercer's character, is
found in Mr. Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists,
page 82. " Mr. Mercer, both in countenance and man-
ners, had considerably the appearance of sternness ; and