Benjamin Watkins was born into a Virginia Episcopalian home in 1755. That was the year that Shubal Stearns and Daniel Marshall began preaching Baptist doctrine in Virginia and the Carolinas. Benjamin’s mother was left a widow when he was small, but despite family poverty, she raised him surrounded with morals and love. While these were good, they did not fill the void which only Christ could satisfy. When he was nineteen, Benjamin Watkins was born again, and in 1776 he was baptized. Seven years later he began traveling throughout the region preaching Christ. Somehow the Lord protected Brother Watkins, and he was never caught or arrested by the authorities. There was plenty of opportunity for this, however. His journals indicate that he never tried to hide either the Truth or himself. He openly preached an average of three times a week for forty-eight years. His messages were serious, but evangelical, and with what was described as a unique style.
His last Sunday on earth, at the age of seventy-six, he preached twice. One message was entitled “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The following Wednesday, he was too weak to attend the church meeting, so some of the brethren gathered around his bed. He assured everyone present that he was resigned to the Lord’s will, looking forward to seeing his Saviour, which he did on July 19, 1831. Unlike many of his friends, Benjamin Watkins was not called by God to suffer any jail time, but he was called to be faithful. He was true to his calling.