See A Historical Sketch of Thomas Helwys from the Helwys Society Forum.
See The History of John Smyth and Thomas Helwys.
Thomas Helwys, one of three founders of the General Baptist movement in England, wrote a tract in 1611 (the same year as the first publication of the King James Version of the Bible) that probably uses the name Free Willers for Baptists, except in mockery, for the first time in history. Recent research would suggest that the present Free Will Baptist denomination can be linked historically to Helwys and those early Baptists.
His tract was titled, “An advertisement or admonition, unto the congregation, which men call the New Frylers (Free Willers), in the lowe Countries written in Dutche.” As far as can be determined, this was the first use of the name in the literature of the modern period.
During research in a historical collection in Rochester, New York, this author discovered two Free Will Baptist documents hidden in a microfilm reel that was, by title, limited to Baptist history. The first, dated 1660, was titled, “A Loving Salutation of all People Who Have Any Desires After the Living God: but especially to the Free-Will-Anabaptists.” Its author, I. Bevan, evidently had been a part of the group at one time but now, as an opponent, was calling them to leave the movement and join him in his new Calvinistic faith.
The second document dated January 1659, and titled, “A declaration of a small society of baptized believers, undergoing the name of Free-Willers, about the city of London,” gives evidence that these early Baptists believed in adult baptism and that they accepted the name by which they were known. This early declaration of a General Baptist faith (salvation for all who respond to the gospel) was signed by Henry Adis, Richard Pilgrim, and William Cox.
While other documents are being discovered every year, at the moment it seems that these three documents are the first to use the term “Free-Willers” as a title for that group of General Baptists that later would give rise to the Free Will Baptist denomination in America.
About the Writer: William F. Davidson was professor of Church History at Columbia International University, in Columbia, South Carolina. Dr. Davidson is an alumnus of Peabody College, Welch College, Columbia Bible College, Northern Baptist Seminary, and New Orleans Baptist Seminary. The Ayden, North Carolina, native also served as pastor of Free Will Baptist churches in Kentucky and Virginia.
