Rapidan Baptist Church

Madison County · dedicated 2021 · Shelby Road just south of intersection with Rapidan Church Lane

Rapidan Baptist Church, formed by Elijah Craig, James Reed, Samuel Harriss, and John Waller, was constituted on 14 Jan. 1773. Members of this congregation, like other Dissenters, faced prosecution for refusing to comply with laws that privileged the Church of England, Virginia's established church. Craig was arrested while preaching, as were the other Rapidan organizers, and he continued to preach while jailed in Culpeper. James Madison won the support of many local Baptists in his 1789 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives after assuring George Eve, Rapidan's pastor, that he would support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing religious freedom.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Rapidan Baptist Church

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