Thomas Meredith (Baptist leader)
| Thomas Meredith | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
July 7, 1795 Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | November 13, 1850 (aged 55) Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Baptist pastor |
| Known for | Founder and editor of the Biblical Recorder newspaper |
Thomas Meredith (July 7, 1795 – November 13, 1850) was an influential Baptist pastor, one of the founders of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) in the United States, and the founder and editor of the Biblical Recorder newspaper.
Meredith was born in Warwick Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the son of a prosperous farmer. He attended Doylestown Academy, a famous classical school, and then the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in January 1816. He had originally planned to become a lawyer, but while at university he became a Baptist, and in 1817 he went to North Carolina as a missionary after a year of theological training. In 1819 Meredith married Georgia Sears, and the couple eventually had eleven children. Between 1819 and 1837 Meredith was pastor of churches in New Bern (1819–1821), Savannah (1822–1825), Edenton (1825–1835), and again New Bern (1835–1838) rising steadily in stature within the North Carolina church.
Meredith was in demand as a speaker. William Carey Crane, an eminent theologian, said his sermons "did not sway men so much by touching appeals as by presenting the truth to them with irresistible power." Meredith was one of the founders of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention in 1830, the author of its constitution and of a letter to Baptists in the state that explained the organization’s purpose and importance. Later he became secretary, vice president and President of the convention.
Meredith felt the education of young people was of great importance, and the second article of the BSCNC constitution defined one of the main purposes of the Convention as "the education of young men called of God to the ministry." He was a strong supporter of Wake Forest Institute (now Wake Forest University), launched in 1834, and the first president of its board of trustees. He was invited to become a professor of mathematics and moral philosophy at Wake Forest, but declined. Unusually for the time, he supported the higher education of women, and called for the Convention to establish "a female seminary of high order." Nothing was done at the time, but eventually the Baptist Female University was chartered in 1891, opened in 1899, and in 1909 renamed Meredith College in his honor.
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