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 … Continue reading Earliest Free Will Baptist Documents