London Ferrill

London Ferrill, also spelled Ferrell, (1789–October 12, 1854) was a former enslaved man and carpenter from Virginia who became the second preacher of the First African Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, serving from 1823 to 1854. During his 31 years of service, Ferrill attracted and baptized many new members in the growing region; by 1850, the church had 1,820 members and was the largest of any congregation in the state, black or white.

Of mixed race, Ferrill had been apprenticed as a carpenter when young. His wife, a free person of color, purchased his freedom and moved to Kentucky by 1812. In Lexington, Ferrill successfully worked with the city's black and white leaders and became highly respected. His funeral procession numbered 5,000 people, the largest in the city after that of the white statesman Henry Clay. Ferrill led the first black church west of the Allegheny Mountains; it was the third oldest black Baptist congregation in the United States and had been founded in 1790 by enslaved preacher Peter Durrett, also from Virginia.