Thomas Helwys (c. 1575 – c. 1616), an English minister, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the General Baptist denomination. In the early seventeenth century, Helwys was principal formulator of demand that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. Helwys was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant Dissenters under King James I. Early life Thomas Helwys was born in Gainsborough, from Edmund and Margaret Helwys who were descendants of an old Norman family. Edmund had sold his land in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and had taken a lease on Broxtowe Hall in Bilborough parish. In 1590 when his father died, Thomas Helwys assumed control of the estate, but in 1593, left the care of the estate in the hands of his father's friends and began studies in law at Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London. Helwys' family was on the rise in London. Geoffrey Helwys, his uncle, was a successful merchant, an alderman and the sheriff of London. His cousin, Gervase, was knighted by King James before becoming lieutenant of the Tower of London. After completing his studies at Gray's Inn in 1593, Helwys himself spent some time in the capital. Thomas Helwys married Joan Ashmore at St, Martin's Church, Bilborough, in 1595. They had seven children over the next twelve years and lived at Broxtowe Hall. During this time, the Helwys's home became a haven for radical Puritans, Dissenters within the Church of England, and it is likely that Helwys contributed financially to their mission. In 1606, when Archbishop Bancroft was forcing ministers to submit to the Prayer Book, Helwys took part in conference of radical puritans in Coventry discussing whether to quit the Church of England and become Brownists. The conference included John Smyth, John Robinson, Richard Bernard and Arthur Hildersham. Helwys developed a close bond with Dissenter John Smyth and he and his wife became committed members of Smyth's Separatist or Brownist congregation in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The sixty or seventy Separatists in Gainsborough were allowed to meet in secret in Gainsborough Old Hall by the Hall's sympathetic owner Sir William Hickman. Ministry As Separatism was illegal, the Gainsborough and Scrooby