Mr. Wilson served the church as pastor until 1841, when he resigned to accept a professorship in the Union Theological Seminary, then at Hampden-Sidney, in Prince Edward county, Virginia. He was succeeded by Rev. George W. McPhail, D. D., and Rev. A. A. Hodge, D. D. Rev. B. T. Lacy supplied the pulpit for some time prior to the Civil war, but was never the regular pastor of the church. The church has had the following pastors since the war: Rev. Thomas W. Gilmer,[77] Rev. James P. Smith, D. D., Rev. A. P. Saunders, D. D., Rev. Benjamin W. Mebane, D. D., Rev. John W. Rosebro, D. D., and Rev. J. H. Henderlite, who is now serving the church. Governor John L. Marye was a ruling elder of this church for more than forty-seven years, giving faithful and efficient service. THE BAPTIST CHURCH. The Baptists came into notice as early as the year 1768, when John Waller, Lewis Craig and James Chiles, three zealous Baptist ministers, were seized by the sheriff of Spotsylvania county, carried before three magistrates in the yard of the church building, on the charge of "preaching the gospel contrary to law." They were ordered to jail in Fredericksburg, and, while in jail, preached through the iron gratings of the windows and door to large crowds, who assembled to see and hear them.[78] It is said as they marched through the streets of the town to jail, in the custody of the officers of the law, followed by a large, noisy crowd jeering at them, they sang that old hymn by Watts, to the tune of Wyndham: "Broad is the road that leads to death. And thousands walk together there; But wisdom shows a narrow way, With here and there a traveller." And as the sweet, solemn notes fell upon the ears of the curious crowd the jeering ceased, and before the hymn was concluded many persons were melted to tears. The Baptist church of Fredericksburg was organized by Rev. Andrew Broaddus, Sr., the great orator of King and Queen county and later of Caroline county, in the year 1804, who for several years was its pastor. In 1810 Rev. Robert Baylor Semple, in preparing his "History of Virginia Baptists," says of the Fredericksburg church: "They have no resident pastor, but are supplied by Mr. A. Broaddus, who attends them monthly. If there is any objection to Mr. Broaddus's ministry in this city it is that he is too popular with the irreligious. It may be said of him as was said of Ezekiel: 'Lo! thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.' This remark by no means applies to the church, for, although they hear with much pleasure, they practise with more. It is a young and rising church."