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 of New Georgia (now Georgia) where, after becoming a Christian in 1773, he began his preaching ministry on plantations along the Savannah River. Liele was ordained on May 20, 1775 and later became pastor of the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia.

When he arrived in Jamaica in January 1783, Liele was in his thirties and he was accompanied by his family members, for whose evacuation to Jamaica, he had secured a loan from Colonel Moses Kirkland, a captain of the British royal militia in Georgia.

George Liele arrived in the company of his wife, Hannah Hunt Liele, and their four children – three sons – John, Paul, and George, Jr., and a daughter named Lucy. The sons were born in 1772, 1774, and 1777 respectively, while Lucy was born in 1780. In other words, when they arrived in Kingston, the children were eleven, nine, six and three years respectively.

When Liele came to Jamaica, Kingston, with a population of 20,000, was the third largest city in the English-speaking Americas, exceeded only by New York and Philadelphia.

Over the first two years that he spent in Jamaica, Liele operated a transportation business that undertook delivery service for the government, thanks to the decision of Sir Archibald Campbell, the Governor of Jamaica, on the recommendation of Colonel Kirkland. Through this means, Liele managed to acquire funds to repay Kirkland’s loan and secure full freedom for himself and his family members.

According to Congregationalist minister and historian, William Gardner, Liele started his public ministry in Jamaica by preaching at Race Course, now National Heroes’ Park. After acquiring a three-acre plot of land in eastern Kingston, Liele and his members started erecting a church building there in 1789, completing it in four years.

The available information on Hannah Liele is sparse. In correspondence with British Baptist minister and publisher, John Rippon, Liele advised that he administered the baptism of his wife Hannah in Savannah, Georgia, and that she and their children were all members of his Windward Road Chapel, Liele added that he had “every satisfaction in life from her [Hannah].”

We have unearthed evidence showing that Liele’s first son, John, later chose his own religious path. After residing in Jamaica for sixteen years, John was admitted through baptism into the membership of The Church of England in Jamaica in the parish of Kingston, what is now called the Kingston Parish Church. His baptism took place on June 30, 1799. In the records of the church, John is described as “a black man aged 27 years” (Jamaica, Church of England, 1664-1880).

 

We also know that, on the eve of his departure for England, Liele prepared his last will and testament, dated February 12, 1822, in which his sense of responsibility to Hannah is clearly reflected. George Liele left his property, including six enslaved persons, to his wife. He identified the names of his “Negro slaves” as Neptune, Anney and her son James, Betsy and her children Indjoe and Nancy, Peggy and Margaret.” Doreen Morrison, Jamaican/British church historian has suggested rather credibly that Liele might have purchased as many enslaved persons as he could afford “in order to rescue them from the harshness of slavery … and to enable them to fulfil their ministries within the church.” In his will, Liele stated that, on the passing of Hannah, the enslaved persons in his household should be granted their full freedom.

According to British Baptist missionary John Clark, Lucy Liele was an active member of the Hanover Street Baptist Church and, in 1830, two of George Liele’s grandsons were attending East Queen Street School. In adulthood, one of these grandsons was to become a member of Jamaica’s House of Assembly, where he served “with skill and patriotism.”

Spare a thought for Liele’s family and the sacrifice they made to enable Liele to fulfil his ministry in an oppressive context. They had to endure several years without George’s company – on the occasions when Liele was imprisoned – more than once for alleged seditious preaching. During his imprisonment, Liele’s wife and family were denied visiting rights and at his trial, Liele was “honourably acquitted. On another occasion, Liele’s creditors had him thrown into prison for not meeting the payment schedule for debt incurred during Liele’s church building programme. Liele’s imprisonment lasted for three years and five months, 1797-1801. Liele’s family also had to survive without his presence when he was away in England over four years, 1822-1826.

So far, little is known about Liele’s visit to England. Thankfully, Noel Erskine, Jamaican/American Baptist theologian, recently explained that, while in England, Liele endeavoured, without success, to gain support from the Baptist Missionary Society to enable him to secure a license to preach in the Windward Road Chapel, that he himself established at the corner of Windward Road and Elletson Road.

It was not long after Liele returned from England that his time on earth would come to an end. Among those attending his funeral was William Knibb, the young British missionary who had commenced his ministry to Jamaica, having arrived here in 1824.

Liele’s church owned a cemetery on Elletson Road called the Baptist Burial Ground. On March 28, 1877, The Gleaner published an article lamenting the “condition of the Wesleyan and the Baptist Burial Grounds on the Elletson Road.” “The fences have fallen down and the grounds are over-run with cashew; they are receptacles for all sorts of rubbish; and hogs and goats roam over them at pleasure.” The Gleaner drew “the attention of the proper authorities” to the situation because, as the writer said, “This is a condition of things that should not be permitted in a civilized community.” The reaction of visitors to Jamaica in 1915 shows that inadequate attention had been given to the Baptist Burial Ground on Elletson Road.

In 1915, the National Baptist Convention (NBC), USA, sent to Jamaica a delegation comprising two of its outstanding leaders – J. G. Jordan and C. H. Parrish – to strengthen links with a group of local native Baptist churches called the Fellowship Baptist Church of Jamaica that was becoming an NBC affiliate. Three of the congregations in this Fellowship were the Elletson Baptist Church – the former Windward Road Chapel; the Fellowship Baptist Church at the corner of East Queen Street and Highholborn Street; and Bethlehem Baptist Church at 109 Charles Street, Kingston. The Jordan-Parrish delegation participated in a meeting at Elletson Baptist Church and visited Liele’s tomb. They expressed concern that “the iron railing around [Liele’s] grave and the brick vault had been razed to the ground.” Instead of considering how to facilitate the repair of Liele’s tomb and instil respect for the earthly resting place of Liele, the two Americans actually collected and took back to America with them “the iron railing which had been torn from around the Lisle grave by sacrilegious hands” as well as “some of the old church furniture,” which Jordan proudly announced in his report to 35^th Fifth Annual in Chicago, Ill, September 8-13, 1915. After telling of the capture of the articles from Jamaica, Jordan concluded, “The story of the struggles of this church [Windward Road Chapel] is pathetic indeed.”

Upon hearing the Jordan-Parrish report on their visit to Jamaica, the National Baptist Convention took the decision to erect a monument in Liele’s honour, outside the Bryan (now First Bryan) Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, USA. If only they had decided to contribute to the restoration of Liele’s burial place and not stoke the fires of controversy between the First Bryan and the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, concerning which of these two churches originated in the church Liele organized in Savannah many years ago.

Let us give thanks to God for the Lieles – George, Hannah, John, Paul, George, Jr. and Lucy. May the memory of their witness and sacrifice continue to inspire us and may their memory live forever.