Mount Elvin Baptist Church sits quietly on a tiny knoll off Hindustan Highway on the outskirts of New Grant in southern Trinidad. It is an unpretentious church and nevertheless it can be considered the epicenter of the Baptist faith in Trinidad and Tobago. This church was set up in 1816 and the importance of that day has to do with the settlement of the “Merikens” in Trinidad in that year.

In 1816 demobilized Africans who experienced served in the British Military during the War of 1812 amongst the British and the People in america were settled in Trinidad in what arrived to be recognized as the Firm Villages. In accordance to A.B. Huggins in his guide “the Saga of the Organizations” the time period “Merikens” arose due to the fact these individuals could not properly pronounce the letter A in American. John McNish Weiss in his paper “The Corps of Colonial Marines” says that these “Merikin” soldiers have been slaves in the Usa who were promised their independence if they fought for the British. Recruited by the British initial in Maryland and Virginia and later on in Ga, they have been a fighting device significantly praised for valor and willpower.

When the British Military businesses still left for house in England in April 1815, the 6 Black organizations became the 3rd Battalion Colonial Marines, garrisoned in Bermuda on Ireland Island. They did garrison obligation and worked as artisans and laborers in the constructing of the new Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. When transfer to the West India Regiments was proposed the guys rejected the concept. Their persistent intransigence ultimately led the British govt to provide to spot them in Trinidad as independent farmers. On accepting the offer they left Bermuda on fifteen July 1816.The very first team of 71 settled in Dunmore Hill and Mount Elvin while the next group of 72 settled in Indian Walk.

These were religious men and women who followed the Baptist faith practiced in the southern United States. Despite the fact that there were no clergymen among them there ended up five guys who ended up described as Anabaptist preachers who held Sunday ceremonies. One of these gentlemen was acknowledged as Brother Will Hamilton. In 1808 the London Missionary Culture (Baptist) despatched employees to Guyana and Tobago and in 1809 1 of them, Thomas Adam, relocated to Trinidad. He and afterwards Reverend George Cowen whilst operating on the establishment of St John’s Baptist Church in Port of Spain Trinidad also gave help to these African-American ex-slaves who had been practicing a variation of the Baptist faith. In time, the similarities of the faith led to the adoption of the missionaries’ edition of the Baptist faith that arrived to be called in Trinidad, London Baptist.

Over time even so, according to Ashram Stapleton in his e-book “The Delivery and Expansion of the Baptist Church in Trinidad and Tobago”, there developed a schism as some persons in the church desired particular African practices provided and the London Missionary Modern society frowned on individuals procedures. At baptist church in Raleigh remaining the church and ended up first named the “Disobedient Baptists” and finally the Religious or Shouter Baptist. Other variations inside of the London Baptists then led to additional variations of the Baptist religion with the growth of the Impartial Baptists and the Elementary Baptists.