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Bibliography of Rev. Obadiah HOLMES
(Abt. 1607-1682)
The English Immigrant and "Baptist Martyr"

Obadiah Holmes was one of my earliest English ancestors in America, arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with his wife, Katherine, and oldest children, in 1638. Later, about 1650, he moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where he spent the remainder of his relatively long life. Of all the ancestors I've found so far, I consider him to be one of the most interesting, an opinion shared by many people for more than three-hundred years.

To the best of my knowledge, no ancestor of mine has been more written about than Obadiah Holmes, largely on account of his so-called "martyrdom," a severe whipping that he received in Boston, in 1652, which was the result of Puritan intolerance. As of February 2025, I have found nearly fifty books and magazines, along with some newspaper articles, spread out over parts of four centuries, in which he is either a principal subject or at the very least, mentioned in passing. Some contain bare bones genealogical data, others are detailed accounts of key events in his life, the whipping in particular. A chronological list of these publications, in year order, can be seen below.

If you know of a public domain published source, available in digitized form online, which you think should be added to this list, please let me know by email: docbutler@yahoo.com. Be sure to provide a link to the publication.

BOOKS / MAGAZINES and JOURNALS / NEWSPAPERS

List of Books in which Obadiah Holmes is a principal subject or is mentioned:
In Chronological Order of Publication

• John Clarke, Ill Newes from New England (London, England: 1652)

• Daniel Neal, The History of New England, vol. I (London, England: 1747), pp.298-303.

• Thomas Hutchinson, A Collection of Original Papers Relative to the History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay (Boston, Massachusetts: 1769), pp.309, 404.

• Isaac Backus, A History of New England with Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians Called Baptists, Vol. 1 (Boston, Massachusetts: 1777)

• Joseph B. Felts, The Annals of Salem from Its First Settlement (Salem, Massachusetts: 1827), pp.184, 532

• James D. Knowles, Memoir of Roger Williams, Founder of the State of Rhode Island (Boston, Massachusetts: 1834), pp.238-245.

• Leonard Bliss, Jr., The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts (Boston, Massachusetts: 1836), pp.27, 30-1, 34, 39, 41, 46, 63, 180, 205-6.

• Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, Vol. I, Court Orders (Boston, Massachusetts: 1855), pp.125, 147, 150-1,156, 162.

• John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. I, 1636-1663 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1856), pp.302, 326-7, 336-7, 394.

• John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. II, 1664-1677 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1857), pp.537.

• John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. III, 1678-1706 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1858), several mentions of John, Jonathan, and Joshua Holmes (sons of Obadiah).

• J. R. Graves, ed., Trials and Suffering for Religious Liberty in New England (Nashville, Tennessee: 1858), pp.83-148, 187, 198, 213. This is written in the style of a novel.

• H. F. Uhden, The New England Theocracy (Boston, Massachusetts: 1858), pp.110, 114, 116.

• Joseph B. Felt, The Ecclesiastical History of New England (Boston, Massachusetts: 1862), p.25-7, 48, 63, 72, 79.

• Francis Baylies, A Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. II (Boston, Massachusetts: 1866), pp.iv, 199-200, 210-11, 242.

• Town Records of Salem, Massachusetts, vol. 1, 1634-1659 (Salem, Massachusetts: 1868), pp.80, 87, 94, 112, 117, 133-4, 137.

• Isaac Backus and David Weston, A History of New England with Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians Called Baptists, Vol. 1 Second Edition, with Notes (Newton, Massachusetts: 1871)

• John Russell Bartlett, ed., Letters of Roger Williams, 1632-1682 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1874), pp.210, 213-4, 330, 362 (Williams calls Holmes his "dear friend").

• Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Freehold, New Jersey: 1874), p.1.

• Henry Martyn Dexter, As To Roger Williams and His Banishment (Boston, Massachusetts: 1876), pp.118-122, 145

• George Washington Greene, A Short History of Rhode Island (Providence, Rhode Island: 1877), p.30

• Cyrus Macy Tracey, Standard History of Essex County, Massachusetts (Boston, Massachusetts: 1878), p.249.

• William Cullen Bryant, A Popular History of the United States, Vol. II (London, England: 1878), pp.106-112 (p. 110 whipping illustration)

• D. Hamilton Hurd, compiler, History of Bristol County, Massachusetts (Philadelphia: 1883), pp.464-6.

• A Descendant, compiler, The Chad Browne Memorial (Brooklyn, New York: 1888), pp.10, 33, 135, 145, 150-2, 158.

• John Osborne Austin, The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island (Albany, New York: 1887), pp.24, 46, 99, 103-4, 106. 119 (other Holmes family mentioned mentioned on these and other pages).

• Henry Melville King, A Summer Visit of Three Rhode Islanders to the Massachusetts Bay in 1651 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1896)

• John Fiske, Colonization of the New World, vol. XXI (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York, New York: 1902), pp.237-9.

• John Fiske, The Beginnings of New England (Boston, Massachusetts and New York, New York, 1902), pp.218-9.

• William Nelson, The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries (New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois: 1902), pp.146-8,152, 160, 189, 191-2, 266.

• Louise Brownell Clark, The Greenes of Rhode Island (New York, New York: 1903), pp.72, 135.

• Col. C. T. Holmes, The American Family of Rev. Obadiah Holmes (Columbus, Ohio: 1915).

• Rhode Island Court Records, 1647-1662 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1920), pp.15,48-9.

• Rhode Island Land Evidences, vol. I, 1648-1696 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1921), pp.57, 98, 135 (John Holmes mentioned too, on other pages)

• George Crawford Beekman, Early Dutch Settlers of Monmouth County, New Jersey (Freehold, New Jersey: 1921), pp.61, 87-8, 103, 114-6, 119-20, 139.

• Joseph Dillaway Sawyer, The Romantic and Fascinating Story of the Pilgrims and Puritans, vol. III (New York, New York: 1925), p.120.

• History of Monmouth County, New Jersey, vol. II (New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois: 1922), pp.78,495.

• Sidney Perley, The History of Salem, Massachusetts, vol. II (Salem, Massachusetts: 1926), pp.53, 58, 141.

• Sidney Perley, The History of Salem, Massachusetts, vol. III (Salem, Massachusetts: 1928), pp.30.

• Henry Wyckoff Belknap, Trades and Tradesmen of Essex County, Massachusetts, vol. II (Salem, Massachusetts: 1929), p.20.

List of Magazines and Journals in which Obadiah Holmes is mentioned:
In Chronological Order of Publication

• Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. III (Providence, Rhode Island: 1835), pp.251, 255.

• James N. Arnold, ed., The Narragansett Historical Register (Hamilton, Rhode Island: 1883), pp.143, 272, 322.

• James N. Arnold, ed., The Narragansett Historical Register (Hamilton, Rhode Island: 1885), pp.293-5.

• The British Quarterly, January and April 1883, vol. LXXVII, American Edition (New York, New York: 1883), pp.143, 145.

• The Essex Antiquarian, vol. VI (Salem, Massachusetts: 1902), pp.97, 100.

• The Jerseyman, vol. 9 (Flemington, New Jersey: 1903), pp.25-8.

• C. T. Holmes, "The English Ancestry of Obadiah Holmes," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. LXIV, July 1910 (Boston, Massachusetts: 1910), pp.237-8.

• New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1910, vol. LXIV (Boston, Massachusetts: 1910), pp.237-9.

• New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. LXXII, July 1918 (Boston, Massachusetts: 1918), pp.224.

• Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vol. XV, No. 1, January 1922 (Providence, Rhode Island: 1922), p.105.

List of Newspapers in which Obadiah Holmes is mentioned:
In Chronological Order of Publication

NOTE: There are quite a number of newspapers which have repeated the story of how Obadiah Holmes was whipped by Puritans in Boston in 1651. I have only listed papers that provide a complete biography, genealogical data, or additional information that repetitive stories do not usually include.

• "Memoir of Rhode Island, 1651," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, March 12, 1833, p.4

• "Memoir of Rhode Island, 1654," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, July 3, 1833, p.4

• "Memoir of Rhode Island, 1655," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, July 24, 1833, p.4

• "Memoir of Rhode Island, 1656," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1833, p.4

• "Memoir of Rhode Island, 1658," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, September 4, 1833, p.4

• "Biography of Obadiah Holmes," The Rhode Island Republican, Newport, Rhode Island, January 14, 1835, p.1

• "Oldest Baptist Church in America," The Camden Weekly Journal, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 1853, p.1

• "An Interesting Discovery," The Daily Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, March 27, 1868, p.4

• Edwin Salter, "First Families of Monmouth," The Monmouth Inquirer, Freehold, New Jersey, July 9, 1885, p.1 (includes a biography that was also published, using more or less the same words, in the September 6, 1888 edition of The Monmouth Democrat.

• Edwin Salter, "First Families of Monmouth," The Monmouth Inquirer, Freehold, New Jersey, July 16, 1885, p.1

• Edwin Salter, "First Families of Monmouth," The Monmouth Inquirer, Freehold, New Jersey, July 23, 1885, p.1

• Edwin Salter, "Early Settlers of Monmouth County," The Monmouth Inquirer, Freehold, New Jersey, November 19, 1885, p.1

• "Clocks of a Century Ago," The Dallas Daily Herald, Dallas, Texas, February 10, 1887, p.6

• "Boston's Whipping Post," The Weekly Thibodaux Sentinel and Journal of the 8th Senatorial District, Thibodaux, Louisiana, September 16, 1893, p.6

• Hight C. Moore "Where Holmes Was Whipped" The Baptist Courier, Greenville, South Carolina, August 6, 1914, p.2

• Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur "Baptists and the Separation of Church and State," The Baptist Courier, Greenville, South Carolina, February 20, 1919, p.1

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