, he cast in his lot with the
former and after two unsuccessful attempts at settlement assisted the
fugitives in forming a colony on the island of Aquidnek (Rhode Island),
procured from the Indians through the good offices of Williams. By 1641
there were, according to John Winthrop, "professed Anabaptists" on the
island, and Clarke was probably their leader. Robert Lenthall, who joined
the Newport company in 1640 when driven from Massachusetts, probably
brought with him antipaedobaptist convictions. Mrs Scott, sister of Mrs
Hutchinson, is thought to have been an aggressive antipaedobaptist when the
colony was founded. Mark Lucar, who was baptized by immersion in London in
January 1642 (N.S.) and was a member of a Baptist church there, reached
Newport about 1644. A few years later we find [v.03 p.0375] him associated
with Clarke as one of the most active members of the Newport church, and as
the date of the organization is uncertain, there is some reason to suspect
that he was a constituent member, and that as a baptized man he took the
initiative in baptizing and organizing. At any rate we have in Lucar an
interesting connecting link between early English and American Baptists.

The Providence church maintained a rather feeble existence after Williams's
withdrawal, with Thomas Olney (d. 1682), William Wickenden, Chad Brown (d.
1665) and Gregory Dexter as leading members. A schism occurred in 1652, the
last three with a majority of the members contending for general redemption
and for the laying on of hands as indispensable to fellowship, Olney, with
the minority, maintaining particular redemption and rejecting the laying on
of hands as an ordinance. Olney's party became extinct soon after his death
in 1682. The surviving church became involved in Socinianism and
Universalism, but maintained a somewhat vigorous life and, through
Wickenden and others, exerted considerable influence at Newport, in
Connecticut, New York and elsewhere. Dexter became, with Williams and
Clarke, a leading statesman in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

The Newport church extended its influence into Massachusetts, and in 1649
we find a group of Baptists at Rehoboth, with Obadiah Holmes as leader. The
intolerance of the authorities rendered the prosecution of the work
impracticable and these Massachusetts Baptists became members of the
Newport church. In 1651 Clarke, Holmes and Joseph Crandall of the Newport
church made a religious visit to