Henry Dunster: Harvard’s First President a Profile of Baptist Courage
In the early days of our fledgling nation, pressure to conform to the Church of England drove many individuals to the new world. Henry Dunster was one of many who departed England for the freedom and spiritual life available in the colonies, immigrating to the new colonies in the 1640.
Soon after arriving to the new colony, Henry Dunster became the first real president of Harvard College. He was a godly scholar with firm integrity and in fourteen years built Harvard College into a strong institution. Nevertheless, he became a big problem to the college and to the entire Massachusetts Bay colony. The problem centered on his firm stand for believer’s baptism. That may not seem like a big deal to us today, but in the 1600’s, citizenship in the Massachusetts Bay area was only available to one who was both a Congregationalist and a believer in infant baptism. The only permitted church was the Congregationalist Church. Anyone who opposed infant baptism or refused to bring his child for baptism was in great danger of banishment from the colony.
When the courageous Baptist pastor Obadiah Holmes received a whipping in nearby Boston (1651) for holding to believer’s baptism, Henry Dunster was deeply disturbed. Persecution fell on the Holmes as well as Pastor John Clarke and Deacon John Crandall, for simply worshipping the Lord without permission from the authorities. This disturbed Henry Dunster greatly and he knew that freedom of conscience was at stake.
Dunster began to develop a strong sympathy for Baptist thought. Dunster asked himself ‘What evil have these men done?’” Not only did Dunster question the action of the courts, but he also came to an important decision, which he revealed to the colony two years later in 1653.
At that time, he “boldly preached against infant baptism and for believer’s baptism, in a Puritan pulpit.” He stood firm that infant baptism was absent from the first churches and absent from the Scripture. Then, he refused to have his newborn child baptized.
On this account, resignation of the presidency at Harvard was forced on him and he was forced to leave the house he built on the land he himself donated to the school. To make matters worse, eviction from his home came with a cold winter approaching, his wife and youngest child ill. With little sympathy, authorities allowed him to remain until March. Nevertheless, these troubles filled the remaining five years of his life — legal proceedings and court battles afflicted him for his simple decision to believe that the Scriptures teach the baptism of a believer by immersion.1
May God give us the same courage today to stand for the clear and plain teachings of the Bible! If you are not saved, come to Christ today. If you are His child, you need to be Biblically baptized as a believer by immersion in the water, to mightily proclaim the Gospel of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
Matt Recker is the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in New York City.
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- Baptist History in England and America, David Beale. Xulon Press, 2018, (pages 391-402). [↩]