John Waller and Lewis Craig
By Stephen HawkinsIn 1767, an unassuming Baptist preacher names Lewis Craig was brought before a Virginia grand jury for preaching the gospel. One of the members of the grand jury was Mr. John Waller, a man historian John Taylor described bluntly as “very wicked.” The stakes of this particular trial were high: no Baptist had every been imprisoned in the state for practicing his religion, but the increasing bureaucratic legislature had begun outlining ”illegal” religious beliefs and practices in an effort to quell all but the established Anglican (or Episcopal) church.
One afternoon when Walker and the rest of the jury were in recess, Craig confronted them at a local tavern and, after securing their attention, proclaimed, “I thank you, gentlemen of the grand jury, for the honor you have done me. While I was wicked and injurious, you took no notice of me, but since I have altered my course of life, and endeavored to reform my neighbors, you concern yourselves much about me.” Baptist historian Robert Semple relates, “When Mr. Waller heard him speak in this manner, and observed the meekness of his spirit, he was possessed of something that he had never seen in man before. He thought within himself, that he should be happy if he could be of the same religion with Mr. Craig.” Later that week Craig was acquitted of all charges.
Waller then began to attend church meetings with Craig. For eight months thereafter, under the burden of his sins, he prayed and fasted intermittently until he was, according to Baptists chronicler Lewis Little, “sufficiently confident to become a candidate for baptism.” John Taylor notes that, under the influence of Lewis Craig, Waller went on to become “one of the most successful preachers that was ever in Virginia.”
The story of Lewis Craig and John Waller doesn’t end there. Though they were once on separate sides of a courtroom battle over the freedom of religion they found themselves allies in a similar battle just a year later.
In June of 1768, Waller, Craig and three other Baptist ministers were arrested by the sheriff of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and charged with disturbing the peace by worshipping God contrary to establishment religious laws. For forty-three days they were imprisoned in a small Fredericksburg “gaol” awaiting trial. They were the first Baptist ministers to be imprisoned in the state of Virginia.
Little writes that “during [Waller’s] imprisonment the people flocked to the gaol windows, to whom he preached, and made very serious impressions on the minds of eleven heads of families and many of their domestics, and others. The mob did everything in their power to drive the people away, singing obscene songs, breeding riots &c, but all in vain.” Unable to tolerate the incessant preaching coming from the jailhouse, town officials released the minister without bail.
In mid-July, Waller, Craig and the others reported to Williamsburg to defend their preaching of the gospel in what turned out to be an unusually brief trial.
Interestingly, one of the advocates of the ministers’ freedom was the future patriot Patrick Henry. Henry, a talented attorney, is alleged to have stood up in the august courtroom and declared, “did I hear an expression, as of a crime, that these men, whom your worships are about to try for a misdemeanor, are charged with, -- with – what? --preaching the gospel of the Son of God? -- Great God!” To which the magistrates, humbled by the ludicrous nature of the charges, were reportedly speechless. Though the lengthy polemic commonly attributed to Henry is probably apocryphal, most historians agree that he did have a hand in defending the group of ministers.
The lives of Waller and Craig demand more attention than one page can afford, but one lesson easily derived from even a glimpse at their interaction is that words and demeanor matter. As a result of two direct sentences spoken by Lewis Craig in a Virginia tavern, John Waller was transformed “from a very wicked man” to a “successful preacher,” an imprisoned martyr, and a symbol of America’s rising tide of religious freedom. And in turn, through Waller’s words, even uttered from behind prison bars, several new families were led to the Lord.
========================== From The Pillar magazine, Spring, 1996, "Mining the Archives," p. 6. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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