CRANDALL, JOSEPH (1770-1858)

CRANDALL, JOSEPH, visiting Baptist missionary; b. Tiverton, R.I., 1770, s/o Wilbur (or Webber) Crandall and Mary Vaughan; m., 1st, 1797, Rebecca Sherman, of Salisbury, N.B., and 2nd, 1811, Martha Hopper, of the same place; d. Salisbury, 19 Feb 1858.

Joseph Crandall emigrated from Rhode Island with his parents and grew up in Chester, N.S. He was ordained in 1799 and organized a Baptist church in 1800 at Salisbury, N.B. He established his permanent home there but travelled extensively for a number of years as an itinerant missionary and was the first Baptist preacher to reach many of the outlying settlements of New Brunswick. Because of the part he played in fathering the Baptist denomination in the province he was known to his followers as "Father Crandall."

During the first decade of the 19th century Crandall made several visits to the Miramichi, conducting services at private homes up and down the river. No Baptist congregations were formed in this period, but he was the first of a number of visiting evangelists to prepare the way for the founding of Baptist churches, beginning with the Miramichi (later the North Esk) Baptist Church, which was organized on the Northwest branch in 1819.