Our story

William Webber (1747-1809)
The seed that has grown and become Webber Memorial Baptist Church was unquestionably planted in the year 1767. William Webber, then twenty years of age, heard Colonel Samuel Harris preach and became converted. Webber was baptized by Rev. John Waller and shortly thereafter, ordained to preach. He became united with the Lower Spotsylvania Church. He was fearless in his proclamation of the Gospel and was one of the first six religious “exhorters” in Chesterfield and Goochland.
In 1770, Lower Spotsylvania sent him, with John Anthony, into Chesterfield County to preach. There they were seized and imprisoned on the charge of “preaching the Gospel with no authority but from above.” No license, Webber and Anthony preached from the prison door and through the barred windows. Soldiers stationed outside the window slashed their hands with knives or swords when he extended them while preaching.
Upon finally being released in March 1771, they moved to Cumberland and Powhatan. After the formation of Powhatan Church, William Webber went on to Middlesex County where he joined John Waller and his associates. They were again imprisoned and despite the beating of drums and other means employed to silence them, they continued to preach from the windows of the jail. During this imprisonment, Webber became gravely ill and the county court was petitioned by sympathetic friends to release the two. Waller had also written to the Urbanna officials to the effect that Webber was “in a very low state of health” and in danger of “launching off the shores of mortality”
They were released on September 26, 1771, and William Webber returned to his home in Goochland County, not to die, but to carry on his work. It was fitting and proper that William Webber became the first pastor of Dover Meeting House since it was due almost entirely to his dynamic efforts in religious freedom that the church actually evolved.
In 1783 the Lower District, made up of twenty-two churches and six hundred members, organized and elected William Webber as Moderator. At the first meeting the Association memorialized the Virginia Assembly to amend the law “so that the full and impartial liberty of all denominations may be indubitably served.” It was through the efforts of William Webber as lobbyist that the Assembly was memorialized to enact this amendment.
1799-1800 marks the years of the Great Revival for William Webber. The London Baptist Annual Register reported that he baptized one hundred and seventy coverts during this time.
On February 29, 1809, William Webber, sixty-two years of age was called home to glory.
What a legacy to follow....

Join us every Sunday as we gather to worship together at 10:30am