Summary
In Providence, the colony Roger Williams founded on liberty of conscience, Ezekiel Holliman baptized Williams, who then baptized Holliman and about ten others, forming a church of baptized believers. It is the earliest Baptist church in the American record, not the beginning of believer-baptizing churches. Williams left the church within months, but it continues today as the First Baptist Church in America. The church John Clarke gathered at Newport also traces its founding to those years.