Randall, Benjamin

Randall, Benjamin the founder of the Free-will Baptists, was born in 1749, and converted under the preaching of Whitefield. He-joined the Baptists, but in 1779 was silenced: for holding Armiinian views respecting the atonement and the will. He was nevertheless ordained at Durham, N.H., in 1780, by a, party of seceders, and disseminated his opinions so successfully that in 1781 he was joined by a company who, in 1751, had seceded on similar grounds in North Carolina, called "Separate Baptists," and thus the Church now called Free Baptists was formed. Randall died in 1808.