Virginia Baptist Ministers

enjoy the benefits of those civil and ecclesiastical privileges for which their fathers so long toiled and suffered. To fill such a period, and to perform his part well in it, he was, by nature and education, and the grace of God, eminently qualified. John Kerr was born in Caswell County, North Carolina. August 4th, 17S2, a little subsequently to the stirring scenes attendant upon the passage of the British army through the Southern States under Lord Cornwallis. His father, of Scotch descent, was an eminently pious man, of the Baptist persuasion ; and his mother, connected with the Graves family of that region, was no less distinguished for excellence and energy of character. Under the tuition of such parents it might well be supposed that his youthful years were passed in a manner well suited to the cultivation and development of those qualities which would prepare for future usefulness. In early boyhood he is said to have evinced a readiness for the acquisition of knowledge, while his sprightly manners and amiable disposition made him a favorite with all. His education was not thorough, but superior to most of those by whom he was surrounded. His conversion occurred at an early age. He had engaged in conducting a school, when his mind became interested in spiritual things. The following reference to his early religious exercises is made by Rev. J. B. Jeter:? "About the year 1800 there was, in the adjoining County of Orange, a Presbyterian congregation, un...