From Ilston to Swansea

 

Ilston, Gower, was where the first Baptist church was founded in Wales during 1649, and the founder of the church was John Miles. 

John was born in 1621, Wales.  Having been educated at Brasenose College, Oxford.  After university, John joined the Glasshouse church, an early Particular Church (Reformed Baptist) congregation.  From 1649 to 1662, John returned to Ilston, Gower and served as a minister.  John also served as a “tryer” for the ,minister for Oliver Cromwell’s government.  After the restoration of the monarchy, ministers adhered to the Book of Common Prayer.

The Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1549, during the reign of Edward VI, and it had been the product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome.  The Book contained the Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Litany, and Holy Communion.  The Book also contained the occasion services in full for the orders of Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, “prayers said for the sick” and a funeral service.  The Book also set out full “propers” – parts of the service which varied from week to week or times during the year.  Old Testament and New Testament readings were presented in tabular format. 

In 1663, John left England for Plymouth Colony.

Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in America from 1620 to 1691. It was given its name by Captain Smith, who surveyed the area

In arriving at Plymouth Colony,  John brought the Ilston Book.  This is the earliest record of a Baptist church in Wales.  John worked with the Congregationalist state church, Rehoboth, before John’s group was told to leave the town.  John and his group, mostly people from Ilston, Gower, founded the town of Swansea and the First Baptist Church located in Swansea, Massachusetts.  This church was one of the older Baptist churches in Massachusetts and equally in the whole of the United States of America. 

 John served as a pastor for a further 20 years, and during King Philip’s War, 1675-1678, John pastored the First Baptist Church in Boston, while fleeing from the Indians.

Today, the Ilston Book is held in the Library of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.  It is not an open library.