Our Beginnings: A Risky Faith
Winthrop Baptist Church was born out of conviction, courage, and a deep commitment to religious freedom.
In 1729, a small group of men and women began meeting in the home of Job Bulkley on Cedar Swamp Road to worship in the Baptist tradition. At the time, practicing a faith outside the Puritan establishment was dangerous.
On a bitter day in February 1744, fourteen members of the group were arrested for holding a Baptist meeting on a Sunday. They were marched through a snowstorm to New London and imprisoned—just months after the General Court repealed the Act of Toleration. Once released that spring, they returned to Winthrop and began organizing what would soon become a church.
Formally Established in 1744
On July 15, 1744, the First Baptist Church of Saybrook was officially formed, with Job Bulkley, William Wilcox, and Amos Potter serving as its founding leaders and first deacons. That same year, the church became a founding member of the Stonington Union-New London Baptist Association.
The first meetinghouse was built on the current property in 1773. In 1867, the congregation purchased a building from the Deep River Methodist Episcopal Church and moved it to the location where it still stands today.
Our Building’s Evolution
In 1966, a fellowship hall was added, followed by a 1989 expansion that created additional classroom and office space. While our church home has grown and changed over the years, it has always remained a center of spiritual life and community service for the Winthrop section of Deep River.
A Legacy of Connection
Though we officially retain the name The First Baptist Church of Saybrook, we are known in the community as Winthrop Baptist Church—a name that reflects our neighborhood and longstanding local presence.
We’re proud to be one of the oldest Baptist churches in Connecticut and the mother church of both Deep River Baptist Church and the former First Baptist Church of Chester.
Today, we are active members of the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut and the American Baptist Churches USA, and we continue to serve locally and give globally.
A Church Born in Rebellion — and Still Rooted in Conviction
Winthrop Baptist Church wasn’t founded for comfort. It was founded by people who risked imprisonment to worship according to their conscience. Their act of civil and spiritual disobedience in 1744 reminds us that the freedom to follow God faithfully is never something to take for granted.
That rebellious spirit—the kind rooted in integrity, not anger—still pulses through this place. We are not a loud church, but we are a brave one. For nearly three centuries, we’ve remained a congregation that chooses community over conformity, welcome over walls, and grace over judgment.
Our story may have started with snow and shackles, but it continues with open doors, open hearts, and a quiet kind of courage that still matters today.