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Intriguing. Is this sort of use of Presbyter (or Presbytery, if it was a typo on your part or the author's) common Baptist usage, then or now, in Alabama?

Really old annuals of the Indiana Baptist Convention (Predecessor to ABC/Indiana-KY used the term "Elder" in its annual to describe pastors much the way we do in the UMC. They listed that pastors as "Elder Smith, Elder Jones" etc.

I've wondered for years why that was dropped for "Rev." when Elder/Presbyter is the more Biblical term. And I've wondered for years why Presbyterians want to have "lay elders" when it appears the NT usage is more likely for clergy. But that is a whole other thread.

Rvaughn, I suggest you contact Gary Burton, a pastor and local historian near Montgomery, Alabama who has done extensive research on Caesar Blackwell. His email is garyburton1@charter.net

Thanks, Bruce. I notice Gary is the author of the article at The Free Library (which may have originally appeared in Baptist History and Heritage).

I think the Primitive Baptists still use Elder that way. I have run into a few Baptist churches, though, that have an order of Elders separate from the Pastors, more like in Presbyterian polity, e.g. I think the First Baptist Church of Lynden, Washington. I am interested in this terminological issue, "Presbyter(y)" among Baptists, though. I apologise for raising it in this thread about the Alabama BC's ordained slave, so I think I'll start a separate thread for it.