USA > North Carolina > Craven County > New Bern > History of the Presbyterian church in New Bern, N.C. : with a resume? of early ecclesiastical affairs in eastern North Carolina, and a sketch of the early days of New Bern, N.C > Part 4
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" ANGUISH CULBREATH, [Seal.]
" JOHN MCPHERSON," [Seal.]
Endorsements show that this bond was proved by oath of A. McNeill in open court and admitted to record, August Inferior Court, 1760. A duplicate was afterwards executed and proven, with some change of signatures.
But now Episcopacy and Royalty, in the persons representing the king, enforce the subscription and test acts, as the follow- ing entries on the Minutes of the court, January term, 1759, show :
"The Rev. James Campbell came into open court, and took . the test-oath prescribed by law, and subscribed the test."
"Court adjourned till 3 o'clock. Court met according to adjournment. Present: William Dawson, Samuel Howard, Arthur Donnally and James Thornton, Justices."
"The Rev. James Campbell in open court read and subscribed such of the Articles of the Church of England as the law re- quiries."*
* Centenary Addresses, mentioned before.
41
REV. HUGH MCADEN.
The test-oath was this: "I-(A. B.)-do declare that I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever."
The act of toleration permitted the following of the Thirty- nine Articles to be excepted to-a part of the 20th, about de- creeing rites, etc .; the 27th, on baptism; the 34th to 36th, of traditions, homilies, and consecration of clergy. t
All this squints wonderfully towards an established Church.
Mr. Campbell preached in both Gaelic and English every Sabbath, and this practice prevailed in a few congregations down to a few years before our late war. His connection was with an independent Presbytery in South Carolina, where Pres- byterian churches had been organized as early as 1682 and 1686. About 1773 he united with Orange Presbytery. He was an ardent and outspoken patriot, though the Highlanders, under a sense of the binding obligation of their oaths, fought against the colonies in the disastrous battle of Moore's Creek. Mr. Campbell was threatened with a bullet through his head, unless he kept quiet. He even refused to baptize the children of royalists !
Neu. Hugh MeAden,
Already spoken of, was of Irish parentage, through born in Pennsylvania. He was graduated at Nassau Hall in 1753; licensed in 1755, and ordained in 1757, by New Castle Presby- tery, and dismissed in 1759 to Hanover Presbytery, which swept indefinitely southward from Virginia. His journal indi- cates that, in 1755, the uneasy year of Braddock's defeat, he made a missionary tour over North and South Carolina, partly in company with Rev. Andrew Bay, who had been commis- sioned for a preaching service in Carolina by the Synod of Phil- adelphia and New York, and was several times ordered to visit New Bern. Mr. McAden (or "McCadden") preached on the Neuse, Contentenay, Pamlico, and Tar rivers, and in Edgecombe County sometimes in Presbyterian churches, and sometimes in
+ Neil's Puritans, Vol. II. 345, 483 ; Schaff's Creeds, I. 619-Burnet : Mac- aulay.
3
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NORTH CAROLINA.
Baptist, to mixed congregations of Presbyterians, Churchmen, Baptists, and Quakers-good and honest Quakers-as he terms them. The Baptists were very kind and liberal. Great reli- gious destitution prevailed everywhere. One Sabbath, April 4, 1756, he remained at Mr. Thomas Little's, near Salter's Ferry, Pamlico. He had not heard a Presbyterian minister in the twenty-eight years he had lived in Carolina; so he kept Mr. McAden until Wednesday, and gathered the neighbors to hear another sermon. Presbyterians were scattered through this section, but there were no organized churches.
At Mr. Dickson's, the Clerk of Duplin County, he preached to a considerable congregation, chiefly Irish. These people made out a hearty call for his pastoral services, as did also "the Welch Tract," before mentioned, and promised him a proper support. This call antedated that of Mr. Campbell, given as the first, because we have it in its entirety. In 1759, Mr. McAden returned and settled amid the Presbyterians of Duplin and New Hanover, and on the Neuse. Here he labored for ten years, respected and beloved by all. He was a man of thoughtful face, in the prime of life, polite, and of easy manners. Doubtless he sometimes visited and preached in New Bern, the neighboring city and seaport of the section. Ill health caused him to remove to Caswell County, where he died, on January 20, 1781, and was buried in the grave-yard of Red House Church, near Milton. McAden and Campbell were the noble and blessed patriarchs of Presbyterianism in Eastern Carolina and in other portions of the State. Let their names be held in continued honor.
Robinson and Stanford.
After some years of precarious ministerial supply, these congregations, in 1793, secured the services of Rev. John Robinson, who remained with them to their edification until 1800, when he removed to Fayetteville. Rev. Samuel Stan- ford, of Orange Presbytery, succeeded him, and conducted a classical academy at the Grove. This school, or one near their homes, was maintained for many years by succeeding pastors
43
CLASSICAL SCHOOLS.
with great advantage to the citizens. Mr. Stanford wore out his strength and days in serving the people of Duplin, and passed to his reward in 1828. He was officially in New Bern, as will hereafter appear, at an ordination and installation in 1808. The annual introduction from 1754 of hardy, intelli- gent and industrious Scotch gave enlarging and stimulating work to faithful pastors in these fields. In the single year, 1764, a thousand families of Irish or Scotch-Irish Presbyte- rians passed through the Northern colonies to this State. La- borers for the harvest, by divine blessing, increased too, so that before, and just after, 1800, the following clergymen were reaping the ripened sheaves : John McLeod, Dougal Crawford, William Bingham, John Robinson, James and Robert Tate, W. D. Paisley, John Anderson, - McCaasa, Colin Lindsay, Samuel Stanford, Angus McDiarmid, John Gillespie, Murdock Murphy, Allan McDugald, James K. Burch, David Kerr, An- drew Flinn, William Leftwich Turner, Malcolm McNair, and William Peacock. A goodly company this of soldiers of the cross, with a cheering band of candidates pursuing their studies preparatory for the Master's great work of saving souls .*
Classical Schools.
The Lords Proprietors discounted printing-presses and learn- ing. In an interesting address delivered at Chapel Hill, in 1827, by Hon. Archibald D. Murphy, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, he says there were few books in the colony. The library of a common man consisted of a Bible and a spell- ing book. The lawyers had a few law books, and the minis- ters a few on theology, and sometimes a few Greek and Roman classics; for they, particularly the Presbyterian ministers, were generally the school-masters, and with them the poor young men who wished to preach the Gospel or plead the law, re- ceived their humble education. Even after the Revolution, when he was a student at Dr. Caldwell's famous classical school, he says, "The students had no books on history or miscella- neous literature. . .. I well remember, that after completing
* Foot's Sketches of North Carolina, 80, 131, 170, 301, 490, 501, &c.
44
NORTH CAROLINA.
my course of studies under Dr. Caldwell, I spent nearly two years without finding any books to read, except some old works on theological subjects. At length I accidentally met with Voltaire's History of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, an odd volume of Smollett's Roderic Random, and an Abridgment of Don Quixote. These books gave me a taste for reading, which I had no opportunity of gratifying until I became a student in this University, in the year 1796. Few of Dr. Caldwell's students had better opportunities of getting books than my- self." 'A few libraries of value had been sent into the colony ; e. g., that at Bath, worth £100; and those of Rev. Messrs. Gordon, Adams and Urmstone, and the one bought by Mr. Moseley. But they were all lost, and did little good.
A few roving teachers, with a monopoly of learning and love of whiskey, wandered about. Three months constituted a term, and two terms completed one's education. There was an occasional pedagogue of this class in Craven County. About the close of the Revolution, a noted Scotchman taught in this county. His name was James Alexander Campbell Hunter Peter Douglas. He would flog a whole class because they spelt "corn" as he pronounced it, "kor-run." History fails to tell whether he flogged them'for not remembering his name.
In the North Carolina Gazette of July 24, 1778, I find this
" ADVERTISEMENT.
"Mr. Joseph Blyth has opened school in the public schoolhouse, and will teach Latin, English, Arithmetic, Geography, Geometry, Trigonome- try, and several other of the most useful branches of the Mathematics,: according to the best and most approved methods. Gentlemen and ladies who favor him with their children may depend he will be diligent, and pay proper attention to their education.
"NEW BERN, July 24."
In the same paper is an advertisement of Mr. George Har- rison's school, opposite Mrs. Dewey's, for instruction in the English and French languages.
Judge Martin is mistaken in saying that when the Revolu-
45
CLASSICAL SCHOOLS.
tionary War began there were but two schools in North Caro- lina. Others have fallen into similar errors.
Great attention was paid to establishing schools in Presby- terian settlements. It was esteemed a mark of vulgarity not to be able to repeat the Shorter Catechism. So diligent efforts were made to teach all children to read, and few grew up unable to do so. Rev. James Tate, a Presbyterian minister from Ireland, opened a classical school in Wilmington in 1760. In 1785, Rev. William Bingham, also from Ireland, preached in Wilmington and thereabouts, and sustained himself by a classical school, which attained great éclat, was afterwards maintained elsewhere, is now owned and conducted by his grandson, near Mebaneville, N. C., and is perhaps the largest, most successful and most celebrated classical and military in- stitute in the South. Such schools were numerous, notwith- standing some different statements by persons not fully in- formed, after the Revolutionary War, under the management of Presbyterian clergymen. Rev. Dr. Caldwell, in Guildford, educated lawyers, statesmen and clergymen. Five of his pupils became governors of States, a number rose to the bench, many were physicians, and fifty became preachers. It used to be said that Dr. Caldwell made the scholar, and Mrs. Caldwell, by her motherly zeal and piety, made the preacher. Dr. Hall, from "Zion Parnassus," sent forty-five students to the pulpit. There were Hall's famous "Clio's Nursery," and his "Academy of Sciences," with its philosophical apparatus; Patillo's classi- cal school in Granville; the celebrated " Crowfield" Institute ; " the Grove " in Duplin, and the Wilmington schools. Nor must the memorable. " Queen's Museum," in Sugaw (Sugar) Creek congregation be forgotten. Established probably in 1766, it was twice chartered by the Colonial Legislature, but each time the charter was revoked by the king and council, and the second time by proclamation. It flourished, however, with- out a charter, refused because these Presbyterians would not put a member of the established Church of England as master of their own school. This was the explicit proviso made in the charter of the New Bern Academy, and accepted. The king's
46
NORTH CAROLINA.
fears that the college would become the fountain of Republi- canism were perhaps quickened into reality by his repeated re- jection of the charter, for Queen's Museum became the rally- ing point for literary societies and political clubs, preceding the Revolution; and in its hall were held the significant and decisive debates preceding the adoption of the Mecklenburg Declaration. But 1777 brought the coveted charter to this seminary as " Liberty Hall." All these institutions did inesti- mable service in their day. The historian of these immortal epochs and toils tells how deeply Presbyterian women were concerned to secure an education for their sons, as illustrated by the exclamation of Mrs. Skillington. Looking upon the shell of the old family log-house, within rifle-shot of Poplar Tent Presbyterian meeting-house, she said, "Many a day have I worked for Charley with these hands, when we lived there, to help him through college; and I don't mind the work, for we all loved Charley." *
Wherever a pastor was located, the custom was to have a classical school. Patillo and Hall wrote text books, for there were few then attainable. Only two schools were incorporated be- fore Queen's College, viz. New Bern and Edenton. Royal provi- sion had been made to give a salary of twenty pounds to any who would come to the colony as lay-reader and teach school; and the Assembly passed an act before 1759, according to Judge Martin, to raise a fund for common schools. Still schools were scarce. Little favor seems to have been bestowed on edu- cational work, until the light of Geneva and the Culdee prin- ciples of Lindisfarne and Iona beneficently shone in North Carolina. Thus the classic muses and winsome graces were. brought into chastened fellowship with clear-eyed Christian virtues, and the State was lifted to elevated heights of refine- ment, comfort, progress and piety. These vital forces gave power to those wielding them, and their benign reign still blesses the good old North State. This grand educational movement may be said to have its crown of honor in those times, in the establishment of "the University of North Caro-
* Foote's Sketches, Chaps. 35 and 36.
47
OLD PRINCETON COLLEGE.
lina"-opened for students in 1795,-and its thorough organ- ization by that noble educator and Presbyterian divine, by uni- versal consent, the father of this useful and famed institution, -the Right Reverend Joseph Caldwell, D. D. For forty years this illustrious scion from Huguenot stock presided over its destinies, and was its inspiring genius, successfully combating the serried assaults of infidelity, and leading the institution in a career of healthy and increasing prosperity, with great honor to himself, and incalculable advantage to the Commonwealth. It is an interesting fact, too, that the ladies of New Bern and Raleigh presented the University with mathematical instru- ments, and promised that its welfare should ever enlist their hearts and hands.
Old Princeton College.
It is appropriate to insert here a picture of Old Nassau Hall, Princeton, N. J., where so many laborers in Eastern Carolina and the New Bern Church were educated. This historic Hall has been modernized, and now forms the centre of the magni- ficent buildings of this great University.
OLD PRINCETON COLLEGE.
NEW BERN.
THIS preliminary survey brings us to the presentation of such particulars as are accessible about the settlement and history of this city, and the beginning and progress of the Presbyterian Church herein.
The Huguenots.
Wonderfully and intimately are French Huguenots inter- woven in the beginnings of our national history. The first Protestant settlement in the United States-nay, on the North American continent,-was that made by Jean Ribeaut (sent out by Admiral Coligni) in Carolina, in 1562. Disembarking, they first worshipped God; then set up, not superstitiously a Papal cross, but a stone pillar, inscribed with national lilies, and named the territory Carolina, after their king." So when, in later years, their brethren settled at New Paltz, N. Y., after unhitching their teams, their first act was to read the forty- sixth Psalm, and then on bended knees in faith and prayer, to consecrate themselves and their posterity, and their wilder- ness home, to their covenant God. The first child, Jean Vigné, born in New York City, and the first, Sarah Rapelyea, born in Albany, were Huguenot children. Priscilla, the his- toric Puritan maiden, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, and abides with immortal beauty and renown, with Miles Standish and John Alden, in the radiance of Longfel- low's poetic genius, was Priscilla Molines, daughter of William Molines, the Huguenot. The first church organized on Man- hattan Island was the Reformed Dutch, composed of Hugue- not refugees and Dutch, in 1627. The Dutch Church was
* Bancroft's U. S. History, Vol. I. page 62.
49
THE HUGUENOTS.
modeled on that of France, and both were Presbyterian ; and the Hugnenot Governor, Minuit, was one of its two ruling elders. T'he first Presbyterian preacher und the first Presbyterian con- gregation in North Carolina, were Richebourg and his colony -the first body of settlers on the Trent. The first church or- ganized in the Carolinas was the old Huguenot Church, founded in Charleston in 1681-82. This noble stock was among the first settlers in South Carolina, and we will trace them at an early day in our State.
One-fourth of the invading army of William of Orange, when he entered England in 1688, were Huguenots, and his veteran commander-in-chief was the Huguenot, Frederick Ar- maud de Schomberg. Moved by gratitude and sympathy, King William favored their settlement in his new dominions in America. Large numbers came to Virginia, and an exten- sive colony entered upon ten thousand acres of land, twenty miles above Richmond, on the James River, where the extinct Manakin Indians had lived. From this colony, in 1690, a body emigrated to the Pamlico River, near Bath, and spread out thence as far as the Neuse River. The whole population of North Carolina was then 5,000. About 1707, another nu- merous band of these Calvinistic Huguenots from Manakin (or Manikin) town settled on the Trent River, where the old county bridge stood, two miles above the site of New Bern; and they spread through Onslow, Jones and Carteret, where French names still perpetuate this advent. Lawson writes thus: "Most of the French who lived at Manakin town on James River are removed to Trent River, in North Carolina, where the rest were expected daily to come to them when I came away, which was in August, 1708. They are much taken with the pleasantness of that country, and, indeed, are a very industrious people. At present they make very good linen cloth and thread, and are very well versed in cultivating hemp and flax, of both which they raise very considerable quantities, and design to try an essay of the grape for making of wine." Williamson says of this colony, "They were sober, frugal, in- dustrious planters, and in a short time became independent citi-
50
NEW BERN.
zens." Carroll's Hist. Collections (Vol. I. 101) says that Governor Ludwell had instructions in 1692 "to allow the French colony of Craven County the same privileges and liberties with the English colonists." Jealousies existed be- tween the French and English, so that the French were re- fused representation in the Legislature. It was so under Governor Archdale in 1695.
Claude philippe de Richebourg.
In his History of Virginia, John Esten Cooke says (p. 309), after noting how near Oliver Cromwell, Queen Henrietta Maria, and Charles II., were to becoming residents in Virginia : " What was better for the country was the arrival in 1699 of the good Claude Philippe de Richebourg with his colony of Huguenots, who settled at Manakin, on the upper James River, and infused a stream of pure and rich blood into Vir- ginia society." Not entirely satisfied with their situation, a part of this colony, led by their noble, godly, exiled pastor,. Richebourg, migrated to the Trent River. Richebourg was a decided French Presbyterian, of unobtrusive manners, fervid piety, exalted character, and devotion to the cause of Christ. His life was filled with toils, poverty, hope, faith and charity, and his example of suffering patience encouraged his refugee banished countrymen bravely to bear their multipled hard- ships. Unsettled by the horrid Tuscarora massacre of 1711, he and some others of the Trent colony moved southward to South Carolina, and settled on the Santee River. For two or three years he seems to have been without charge, and in straitened circumstances. He then succeeded the aged Rev. : Pierre Robert, as pastor of the Huguenot Church on the San- tee River. Although this church had conformed to the "Es- tablished Church," Mr. Richebourg never accepted Episcopal ordination. Though the charters of Charles II. from policy granted liberty of conscience, great pressure was brought to bear on French Protestants and others, to bring them into con-
* Foote's Huguenots, pp. 526-534 ; Howe's Presbyterian Church in South Carolina; Rev. C. S. Vedder, D. D., Huguenots of South Carolina, etc.
51
CLAUDE PHILIPPE DE RICHEBOURG.
formity with the Church of England. Subjected to many an- noyances and disabilities; denied membership in the Legisla- ture; the organization of their Church and ministry, the legal- ity of their marriages, and the legitimacy of their children im- pugned, while they were too poor to sustain their own ordi- nances with regularity, but were offered support for both Church and minister by the Government; some of these congre- gations slowly yielded their cherished convictions. Many, however, stood firm, and conquered at last.
De Richebourg died, serving the Santee Church, about 1717. His will breathes the spirit of true Christianity, and exhibits this faithful servant of the cross still resigned to the dispensa- tions of Providence, steadfast in the faith, and triumphant at approaching death. This will was long preserved in Charles- ton, S. C. Recently I searched for it in the Probate-Judge's. office in that city. The general index recorded its existence and location; but alas! with many other priceless treasures, re- moved inland for safety, the unbound package containing it had been consumed in the great fire, kindled by General Sherman in fated Columbia.
Surveyor-General Lawson * testifies thus about these French Protestants: "They live as decently and happily as any plan- ters in these southward parts of America. The French being a temperate, industrious people; some of them bringing very little of effects, yet, by their endeavors and mutual assistance- amongst themselves-(which is highly to be commended)-have outstripped our English, who brought with them larger for- tunes, though (as it seems) less endeavor to manage their talent to the best advantage. 'Tis admirable to see what time and industry will, with God's blessing, effect." An effort was made to introduce silk-culture, and eggs were shipped to Caro- lina; but they hatched during the voyage, and. there being no- food for their support on board the ship, they all died. "Mon- sieur Philip de Rixbourg," says Lawson, "assured me, that their intent was to propagate vines, as far as their present cir- cumstances would permit."
* Lawson's Hist. N. C., pp. 28-30, 141, 187.
MAY · 7 1953 48764
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST LATTER
52
NEW BERN.
With regard to their religion he remarks, "They are all of the same opinion with the Church of Geneva, there being no difference among them concerning the punctilios of their Chris- tian faith; which union hath propagated a happy and delight- ful concord in all other matters throughout the whole neighbor- hood, living amongst themselves as one tribe or kindred, every one making it his business to be assistant to the wants of his countryman, preserving his estate and reputation with the same exactness and concern as he does his own, all seeming to share in the misfortunes, and rejoice at the advance and rise of their brethren." They were true Presbyterians in their forms of worship, their government, and the order of their clergy ; and in their creed followed their renowned countryman, JOHN CALVIN. In polite and elegant manners, severe morality, wise charity, frugal and successful industry, they were evidently far above the English settlers. Bancroft well says: " The children of the French Calvinists have certainly good reason to hold the memory of their fathers in great honor." The admixture of Huguenot blood in our body politic has been an admirable blessing. It has been compared to the gold which the Rus- sians cast into the molten mass of metal for the great bell of Moscow. Though they did not in numbers so greatly increase American population, or alter its salient features, yet they did give a finer tone to character, and a richer melody to the drama of living; the refinement of elegant courtesy to society, and lofty chivalry for right and liberty. There is power in noble traditions, and enduring life in the blood of the true, the pure, and the brave. Who does not feel this, as his pulse throbs with honest exultation at the mere mention of such monumental . names as those of the Huguenots, Henry Laurens, the first Presi- dent of the Continental Congress ; Matthew Fontaine Maury, the High Priest of the seas, pathless before he marked their high- ways; Gabriel Manigault, who at seventy-five years of age laid his fortune at the command of his State-South Carolina-and his struggling country; Francis Marion, prince of partizan leaders in the war of liberty; and many others, whose fame lives as a diadem for their admiring land? Though, in the
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