Editor's note: The following is from the history book from which these Circular Letter notes were taken. A background of the New Hampshire Baptist Association is given: ". . . . In New Hampshire, at Brentwood, there was a thrifty, growing Baptist church, and in connection with this church the churches in Berwick and Sanford organized in 1776 a conference, called, according to Millet, 'the Brentwood Conference.' Out of this conference, of which Dr. Shepard of Brentwood and Rev. William Hooper of Berwick were the principal promoters, grew the New Hampshire Association in 1785."
"When Associations were first organized in this country the isolated condition of the churches, the difficulty and expense of communication whether by messengers or by mail and the entire absence of religious periodicals invested the Circular Letter with an importance and an authority of which but the shadow remains. Its chief office was instruction on important questions of the day; encouragement was but an incidental function." -- George B. Peck, Rhode Island, 1874
Unfortuantely the editor does not have copies of the orignal Circulars.
New Hampshire Association
A Partial Index of the Circular Letters1789 -- Rev. William Hooper prepared the Circular Letter. In the letter the low state of religion in the churches is lamented. Of the eight churches then comprising the association, five-- Berwick, Wells, Sanford, Coxhall (Lyman) and Shapleigh -- were in the District of Maine, and Brentwood, Northwood and Gilmanton were in New Hampshire.
1790 -- the New Hampshire Association met June 9th, at Gilmanton, N.H. Among those present at the association was Rev. Thomas Baldwin of Canaan, N.H., and with Zebadiah Richardson he prepared the Circular Letter, exhorting Christians to love and good works.
1791 -- Reference was made in the Circular Letter to "the glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit" in different parts of the land.
1793 -- In the Circular Letter, written by Rev. John Peak, there is this reference to the state of religion in the churches: "Trust prevails, our churches revive, converts are multiplied, additions are daily made to the churches of such as we hope shall be saved, and the spirit of persecution is not suffered to rage as heretofore."
1795 -- A Circular Letter was read and approved, but as the author failed to hand it to the clerk, the clerk inserted in the Minutes one prepared by himself (no additional info given).
1797 -- The high standard of Christian living set before the churches at this time is indicated in the Circular Letter of the association in 1797.
1798 -- This is a statement in the Circular Letter: and at this meeting at Berwick there was "a sound of abundance of rain.""Let us not be content with a nominal profession only, but let us ever be found walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; that they who are of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us. May it ever be our steady and uniform endeavor through grace, as parents and children, ministers and people, to fill our stations with usefulness and duty. Take encouragement to persevere in our holy warfare in the midst of abounding errors and profaneness, from a consideration of the excellency of the Christian religion." ================= [Henry S. Burrage, D. D., History of Baptists in Maine, 1904, pp. 55-62.]