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George Liele : Revisiting the Story of a Baptist Pioneer

on September 01, 2023

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Neville Callam is a former General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. Born in a Baptist family in Jamaica, Callam was educated at the United Theological College of the West Indies, the University of the West Indies, and Harvard Divinity School, and was ordained in 1977.

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog celebrates Christians and churches – beginning with Jamaica Baptists – whose stewardship is worthy of emulation. May their legacy inspire and enrich us all.

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Allen, Daniel
Baker, Moses
Bee, John
Burchell, Thomas
Carter Henry, Joslyn
Clark, John
Clarke, John
Compere, Lee
Coultart, James
Dendy, Walter
Dillon, Benjamina
Dillon, J. T.
Duckett, Angus
Duncanson, Terrence
East, David
Edwards, Joseph A.
Edwards, Joseph N.
Finlayson, James
Fraser, A. Oliver
Fray, Jr., Ellis
Fray, Sr., Ellis
Garland Hall, Elizabeth
Gayle, Clement
Gayle, Rubye
Gibbs, George
Gibbs, Luther
Gillett Chambers, Robert
Gordon Somers, Thomas
Graham, Robert
Greaves, Edmund
Hall, William
Harris, Leslie
Helwig, Agnes
Helwig, Sidney
Henderson, George E.
Henderson, George Richard
Henderson, John E.
Hewett, Edward
Johnson, Francis
Killick, William
Kirkham, Frances
Knibb Clan
Knibb Sibley, Inez
Knight, Glaister
Knight, Randolph
Leo-Rhynie, Joscelyn
Lewis, Enid
Lewis, Fergus
Lewis, George
Liele, George
Mann, James
Maxwell, John
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McLaughlin, Eleazer
Merrick, Joseph
Miller, Alfred
Miller, Ann
Millwood, Dennis
Morgan, David
O'Meally, Patrick
Palmer, Edwin
Parsons, Ivan
Price, Edith
Reid, James
Rhynie, Renold E.
Rowe, John
Russell, Cleveland
Russell, Horace
Scarlett, Sylvanus
Stephen James
Stephenson, Arthur
Stephenson, Thomas B.
Stewart, Gabriel I
Stewart, Gabriel II
Swigle, Thomas
Tinson, Joshua
Tucker, William
Washington, Samuel
Webb, William
Whylie, Clarence
Williams, Philip

George Liele : Revisiting the Story of a Baptist Pioneer

Baptists of Jamaica should always remember to offer thanks to God for the pioneering work of visionary, George Liele, and his family. Extant publications have opened a small window on Liele’s family and service. Still, more details about Liele are only now coming into view. In 1983, during the Jamaica Baptist bicentenary, Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) published a book on George Liele by Jamaica Baptist historian, Clement Gayle. Especially since that time, there has been a flood of publications about this internationally significant pioneer African American missioner who started Baptist witness in Jamaica. Liele himself was born into enslavement in Virginia and the year of his birth is estimated to be 1750, 1751 or 1752. He identified his mother’s name as Nancy and his father as Liele. Separated from his parents early in life, George reports that he was told his father was a person of faith. At 14 years of age, while still enslaved, Liele was taken to the Province...

David Aaron Morgan: A Man for Whose Gifts God Generously Provided Employment

David Aaron Morgan The fourth son of Mr. & Mrs. W. B. Morgan; David Aaron Morgan was born in Corn Island, on March 13, 1904. At that time, Corn Island was not yet a municipality of Nicaragua; it was a part of Mosquitia. When his beloved pastor Rev. E. B. James died, Morgan experienced a spiritual awakening and he was baptized by Rev. George Stone on March 30, 1923, in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, which had been formed in 1852 under the leadership of Rev. Edward Kelly from British Honduras (now, Belize). Morgan commenced his working life as a fisherman but soon decided that being a minister of the Gospel was part of God’s plan for his life. Morgan took the bold step of making his way to Jamaica and turning up at Calabar College, and, without appointment, presented himself to the College principal and tutor, asking for an audience. Ernest Price and David Davis were stunned to learn from the young visitor, whom they found in the waiting room at Calabar, ...

Moses Baker: From Barber to Preacher

What is known about Moses Baker’s early life derives mainly from correspondence Baker sent to “a friend” in Leicestershire, England. [1] A mulatto, Baker was not born into slavery; nor was he ever enslaved. He was born a free man in New York, where he grew up and earned a living as a barber. On September 4, 1778, Baker married Susannah Ashton, a dressmaker. The union produced three children – Polly, Charles and John. When the British Loyalists evacuated New York in 1783, the then three-member Baker family – father, mother and Polly – joined the migrants heading to Jamaica. Baker was not willing to risk his family being enslaved or persecuted in the wake of the British withdrawal after the American revolutionary war. While in New York, Baker had had some connection with the Anglican Church, but he was neither a committed Christian nor an ardent church member. In fact, by his own confession, Baker led “a dissolute life” marked by excessive drinking. According to...

James Coultart - A Study in Perseverance

St Ann’s Bay Baptist Church James Coultart hailed from a small community near Dumfries in Scotland and was another of the Bristol College-trained missionaries whom BMS commissioned to serve in Jamaica. While living in Birmingham where he pursued his trade, Coultart developed Baptist convictions and became a member of the Cannon Street Church, where his pastor, Isaiah Birt, recommended his acceptance at Bristol College. BMS designated Coultart a missionary to Jamaica in a service at the Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol. He sailed from England, arriving in Kingston on May 9, 1816 with Mary Ann, his wife. As he began his ministry, which spanned some 20 years, Coultart rented a house from one of the deacons at Liele’s church and served the deve...

William Killick - George Liele's Protege

George Liele, pioneer Baptist missionary to Jamaica, arrived in Jamaica in January,1783, and he breathed his last around 1826, three years after he had returned from a visit to England. Despite the time he spent in prison and on his visit to England, Liele had a direct influence on virtually every single leader of the early Baptist movement in Jamaica, including those whom we have celebrated earlier in this blog. Today, we feature another person, William Killick (or Kellick), who came under the influence of George Liele and who eventually became pastor of Liele’s church in Kingston. Liele administered Killick’s baptism in 1801 and ten years later, Liele presided at Killick’s ordination to the ministry. In later years, Parson Killick, as he was affectionately called, assumed the pastorate of the Windward Road Baptist Chapel. Killick also pastored congregations in the parishes of St Catherine, St David’s, and St Thomas in the East. According to statistics assembled by the Na...

George E. Henderson Faithful and Influential Servant of God

George Edward Henderson In this blogpost, I reproduce the brief story G. E. Henderson told on April 6, 1916, when he joined with many others in the Brown’s Town Baptist Church to thank God for his 40 years of ministry in the community. After this, a few notes on Henderson’s life will be added. “We are gathered together to celebrate the end of my 40 th year amongst you. My mind goes back to many years, when I came along with senior ministers on 1 st April, 1876 to help your then minister, Mr. [John] Clarke, who was with you for forty years. I remember well the turmoil, and I remember having a feeling that God did not want me to remain. When I came, I found the church fallen in membership. Brown’s Town with a congregation of 800, had 523 remaining. Bethany with 700 only had 42 remaining; Sturge Town with 150 had only 23 left. The combined membership [of the churches] amounted to about 588. This was disheartening. I had only come for three months, but three...

Edward Hewett: Man with a Passion for Mission

Edward Hewett Hewett was born in Norfolk, England in 1819. A graduate of Stepney College, now Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, England, Hewett was c ommissioned a BMS missionary to Jamaica. He and his wife, Eliza, arrived in the country in 1842. On arrival, Hewett was invited to serve in the so-called First Baptist Church in Montego Bay, the main church of Thomas Burchell. He declined the invitation and went instead to assume the pastorate of Jericho and Mt Hermon in the parish of St Catherine and St Thomas in the Vale. Unfortunately, Mrs. Hewett passed away on June 9, 1846. This had an adverse effect on Hewett who, shortly after this loss, moved to Mt. Carey and commenced oversight of some of the churches once led by Burchell – Mt Carey, Bethel Town, Shortwood and Watford Hill. On April 13, 1847, Hewett married a second time. His new bride was Miss Estrianna Louisa Burchell, the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Burchell. The spelling of her first name has been su...

John Rowe: British Baptist Pioneer in Jamaica

Rowe was born in Lopen in the county of Somerset, England on September 14, 1788. He trained for the ministry at Bristol Baptist College, whose president then was John Ryland, Baptist minister of Broadmead Church in Bristol and Secretary for ten years of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS). After completing his studies at Bristol, Rowe offered himself for service on the mission field. BMS accepted him and assigned him to Jamaica. Rowe has the distinction of being the very first missionary that BMS sent to Jamaica. He landed in Montego Bay on February 23, 1814 together with Sarah, his wife. Little could they have anticipated what awaited them in the country. This decision to commission Rowe to Jamaica was in response to a request from Moses Baker and George Liele who saw the need for mission workers from Britain, owing to the passage of laws to prevent Black people from preaching and teaching in Jamaica. Rowe was to assist Moses Baker in western Jamaica. After being received...

Gabriel E. Stewart, the Radical – Part II

Liberty Hall, King Street, Kingston During the early 20 th century, patriotic Jamaicans established organizations to promote Jamaicans of all colours, creeds and classes working together for the good of the country. On Emancipation Day 1914, the Jamaica League was founded “to promote patriotic sentiment and mutual interest, to encourage unity of aim and effort among all sections of the community and to stimulate and foster individual and cooperative ventures tending to the intellectual, economic, social and moral improvement of the people of the island.” Branches of the League were established across the island, with the main branch being in Kingston. In 1918, Thomas Gordon Somers, Jamaica Baptist Union minister and outstanding preacher, was president of the League, while Gabriel E. Stewart was the body’s second vice president. Stewart was a strong supporter of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Associat...

James Finlayson: Trailblazer

Penshurst Estate, four miles from Brown's Town in the civil parish of St Ann, was one of the places where enslavers exploited the labour of Africans during the 19th century. Available records show that, between 1809 and 1832, the enslaved population at Penshurst numbered between 23 and 50. One of these enslaved persons was James Williams, whose contribution to the process leading to the end of apprenticeship in Jamaica deserves to be celebrated by all freedom-loving people. Thanks to the vision and kindness of Joseph Sturge, the English Quaker abolitionist, Williams travelled to England when he was only 18 years old and there, he shared a firsthand account of what life was like on slavery plantations in Jamaica before and during the period of apprenticeship. Williams had endured harsh and unjust treatment at Penshurst and his account of the experience of enslaved people in Jamaica was spread widely for the benefit of the British public. Williams’ autobiography, “A Narrative of ...

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