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NEW JERSEY A.H. Brown
Gc 974.9 B8050
Connecticut
istorical Society.
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TRANSTVLIT
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PRESENTED BY
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Gc 974.9 B8050 Brown, Allen H. 1820-1907. An outline history of the Presbyterian Church in West
AN
OUTLINE HISTORY
OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN
WEST OR SOUTH JERSEY,
FROM
1700 TO 1865.
A DISCOURSE
Delivered October 3, 1865, in the First Presbyterian Church, Bridgeton, New Jersey,
BY APPOINTMENT OF THE PRESBYTERY OF WEST JERSEY.
WITH AN APPENDIX FROM 1865 TO 1869.
PHILADELPHIA: ALFRED MARTIEN, 1214 CHESTNUT STREET. 1869.
Allen County Public Litean 900 Webster Street ...
PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801
Copies of this pamphlet will be sent by mail, post paid, on receipt of 50 cents.
ALFRED MARTIEN, 1214 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.
AN
OUTLINE HISTORY
OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN
WEST OR SOUTH JERSEY,
FROM
1700 TO 1865.
A DISCOURSE
Delivered October 3, 1865, in the First Presbyterian Church, Bridgeton, New Jersey,
BY REV. ALLEN H. BROWN, BY APPOINTMENT OF THE PRESBYTERY OF WEST JERSEY.
WITH AN APPENDIX FROM 1865 TO 1869.
PHILADELPHIA : ALFRED MARTIEN, 1214 CHESTNUT STREET. 1869.
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Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by REV. ALLEN H. BROWN, in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
The Presbytery of West Jersey, October 3d, 1865, adopted this reso- lution :
" Resolved, That the thanks of the Presbytery be given to Mr. Brown, for his discourse, and that the matter of printing it be given to a commit- tee consisting of Messrs. Brace, Hubbard and Brown, with power to act in the premises."
The printing has been delayed, partly because no plan was adopted to meet the expense; and partly because the writer believes that the history is incomplete. He consents to the present publication mainly lest the results of many hours of labor may be irretrievably lost.
The authorities consulted or quoted are manuscript Minutes of the Presbyteries of Abington, Philadelphia, New Brunswick, and West Jersey; also Minutes of particular churches. Historical Sermons by Rev. B. S. Everitt, of Blackwoodtown, and Rev. S. Beach Jones, D. D., of Bridgeton.
Papers obtained from the children of Rev. Jonathan Freeman, respect- ing the West Jersey Missionary Society, and reports of its missionaries.
Important papers in possession of Enoch Fithian, M. D., of Green- A wich, &c., &c.
The printed authorities, are :
History of Salem, by Col. R. G. Johnson, 1839.
Historical Collections of New Jersey, 1844.
Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church.
Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D.
Pastor of the Old Stone Church. (Martien, 1858.)
History of Cumberland County, by L. Q. C. Elmer, 1869. Originally in Bridgeton Chronicle, 1865.
Historical Letters in Woodbury Constitution, 1850, by Allen H. Brown.
The Log College, by Archibald Alexander, D. D.
Records of Presbyterian Church, by Presbyterian Board of Publica- tion, from 1706, and others which will be noticed.
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DISCOURSE.
JOHN Vi. 17-20. "And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship; and they were afraid. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid."
To write the history of the Presbyterian Church in West or South Jersey is a pleasant task, but attended with no little difficulty. Instead of pursuing the full history of each church, which would be too great an undertaking, it seems better to attempt the outline history of successive periods, or rather of the succes- sive revivals of missionary zeal. The history of these will involve not only their success, but their failures and the causes of their decline. The survey of the past will suggest also the intimate and reciprocal rela- tion between revivals of religion and missionary zeal, and show how quickly the decline of vital godliness arrests the extension of the Church.
The text is not simply a motto. It is emblematical. Herein may be found an allegory. In that little ship with its chosen twelve, were centred the hopes and destiny of the Church of God for succeeding ages. We need not inquire what would have been the dire results could it have foundered, and its crew perished ? for a sleepless eye watched over it; an almighty hand upheld them, and the eternal purposes of an unchang-
6
ing Jehovah must be accomplished. It may not be fanciful to suppose that the tempestuous sea and the contrary wind represent or illustrate the opposition and persecution, aye, all the adverse currents, against which the Church of God must make headway: that the labor- ious rowing of the disciples for five and twenty or thirty furlongs indicates the necessity of the diligent use of God's appointed instrumentalities to advance the Church of Christ : that the appearance of the Saviour at the moment of their greatest danger and perplexity guarantees to the Church in its greatest extremity, comfort, safety and final success. The disciples had waited in expectation of the Master's coming, but it was now dark and the heavens were growing black with unusual darkness, and since Jesus had not yet come to them, they must launch forth in obedience to his in- structions and in faith upon his promise.
The text allegorically well suits also the history of our own Church for one hundred and sixty-five years, during which, the Spirit of God, coming sometimes as a gentle breeze and sometimes like a rushing mighty wind, has borne it onward and still onward against all opposing influences. Like a vessel, or like an ark propelled by oars, our Church moves slowly, yet surely, while sturdy arms are pulling. When they suspened their labors, the impetus already secured carries it forward with diminishing velocity for a little season. Then it is borne backward by the adverse current, unless with new energy the laborers renew their toil-or a new band of men replace those, who are exhausted and worn out by fatigue. Sometimes dark and furious tempests have driven our struggling bark far backward on its course, and a long, long time has elapsed ere it recovered its former position.
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FIVE PERIODS.
If for convenience we seek to divide the retrospect into periods we reckon,
I. From the beginning of the last century to 1741, when, after, and during the great revival, the Church was divided : a period of forty years.
II. Then from 1741, reckoning seventeen years of separation, and seventeen years of reunion, a period of thirty-four years, we reach the Revolutionary War in 1775. This period was in the main, one of progress and prosperity, and was succeeded by one of darker aspect.
III. From that war, 1775 to 1820, forty-five years elapsed, during which the Church was not so pros- perous.
IV. From 1820 to 1839 or 1840, a new impulse was given. This was accelerated by the formation of the Presbytery of West Jersey.
V. From 1840 to 1865. An outline History of the Presbytery of West Jersey for a quarter-century.
These five divisions will be considered separately.
FIRST PERIOD.
From the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in this country about 1700, to its division in 1741.
An occasional glance at contemporaneous civil affairs, will help us to appreciate the causes which affected the Church's prosperity.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY .- RELIGIOUS DESTITUTION.
The Proprietors of the Province of New Jersey, who had purchased the rights of Lord Berkely and Sir George Cartaret, ceded to the Crown the right of government in 1702. Whereupon Queen Anne united
8
East and West Jersey into one province, and put it and New York under Lord Cornbury .*
William Penn defined the line of partition to be "From the east side of Little Egg Harbor River straight North through the country to the utmost branch of the Delaware River."* The term (New) West Jersey was applied more extensively than in our day, and must have included a large part of Warren and Hunterdon Counties, as well as Burlington and all the southern counties. The population was supposed to be at that time (1702): In East Jersey 12,000-in West Jersey 8,000,-total 20,000; and the militia amounted to 1400 men.
The country around Upper Freehold was in 1706 a wilderness full of savages. Gilbert Tennent would - have been called in 1726 to Norwalk, Connecticut, had not the Fairfield Association interposed their judgment that he ought not to be taken from so desti- tute a region as the Jerseys.+
Deists abounded so sadly in New Jersey, that Joseph Morgan of Freehold wrote a treatise against them [1721]. He says, "Formerly, Presbyterians were scarcely less hated than Papists, but a happy change has taken place, and they are regarded with favor."+
Thomas Chalkley, a travelling friend from England, wrote in 1726, from Cohansey : "I went through the wilderness over Maurice River .... through a miry boggy way, in which we saw no house for about forty miles except at the ferry."}
It was in this period that William Tennent, Sen., came from Ireland, removed to Neshaminy in 1726, and there
* Historical Collections of New Jersey, pp. 20, 29.
Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church, pp. 323, 336, 387.
Dr. Beeseley's Sketch of Cape May County, p. 191.
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established a school, which its enemies in derision called The Log College ;* but which in fact became a theological seminary. The Presbyterian ministers who came across the ocean had enjoyed a liberal education, but there was no college in any of the Middle States, where young men seeking the ministry could obtain the requisite learning. No young man could enter the Presbyterian ministry until the Log College was Instituted, without going to Scotland or New England for his education, and this amounted pretty nearly to closing the door against all candidates who were brought up in the Presbyterian Church. The Church therefore had to depend, for a supply of ministers, on emigration from Scotland, Ireland or New England, and chiefly from Ireland.
Eleazar Wales was directed in 1734 to join with Andrews in writing to the Rector of Yale for a minister to visit the destitutions of West Jersey.+
In 1735 a supplication from Gloucester having been brought into the Synod and referred to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, a similar application was made to the Rector for an approved preacher.
In 1739 the clerk of the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick was directed to " write to Mr. Edwards, of North- ampton, a relation of the necessitous circumstances of divers places in this country in respect of the Gospel ministry, in order to excite him to speak to some pious candidates there to come this way and help us in the Lord's work." But a kind letter was received from Mr. Edwards signifying that there was no prospect of obtain- ing help from them.#
* Log College, p. 42.
į MS. Minutes, pp. 11, and 13.
t Webster, p. 407.
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EARLIEST CHURCHES.
COHANSEY .* As we survey the moral destitution we discover one bright spot in West Jersey. The torch which was lit in Connecticut and borne from Fairfield to the banks of the Cohansey, though sometimes flaming and sometimes flickering, has never been extinguished.
Mr. Andrews, of Philadelphia, in 1708 endeavoring to persuade Joseph Smith to come from Massachusetts and settle at Cohansey, said, "They are the best people in this neighborhood."+
The early records of the Cohansey Church were destroyed by fire. Dr. Hodge in his history makes this one of the three oldest Presbyterian churches in New Jersey .¿ The others were Freehold and Woodbridge. The first mention of Fairfield,§ (or Cohanzie) on the Presbyterial records, was in 1708. The first Presbytery organized was that of Philadelphia in 1705. Rev. B. B. Hotchkin in his account of the origin of Fairfield Church dates its organization back to 1697, or even earlier. Judge Elmer thinks that the church was established not later than 1690.|| Rev. Thomas Bridges is the first minister known to have preached there. In 1695 he came to Cohansey and located lands. He is said to have been called away to Boston in 1702. The first building, a temporary structure of logs, succeeded by a frame edifice, stood in the old New England Town graveyard on the bank of the Cohansey about one mile from the old stone church. In that graveyard sleep the bodies of Rev. Howell Powell, (deceased 1717), Daniel Elmer, (deceased 1755) and William Ramsey, (deceased 1771).
* In old writings often spelled Cohanzie, Cohansie, and Cohanzy.
+ Webster, p. 324. ± Old Stone Church, pp. 20, 21.
¿ The name of the Township.
| Elmer's History.
T The place of Mr Powell's interment cannot be recognized. See " Pastor of Old Stone Church," p. 28.
3 1833 02955 3028
The Old Stone Church of Fairfield, N. J. 1780. See page 37.
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The other churches belonging to the First Period were Greenwich, Cape May, Gloucester, Woodbury, Quihawken, Pilesgrove and Deerfield. Of none of these except Pilesgrove and perhaps Deerfield, can we give positively even the year of their organization. Some few incidents of their early history must suffice.
GREENWICH. The earliest records of Greenwich are supposed to have perished in the fire which consumed the parsonage in 1739. There still exists a copy of a deed of gift [March 24th 1717] whereby Jeremiah Bacon conveys an acre of land for the people called Presbyterians on the north side of the Cohansey, to build and establish a meeting-house for the public worship of God. Mr. Samuel Black is the first minis- ter who is known to have labored at Greenwich. Who supplied the church after Mr. Black until 1728, is unknown. At this date Ebenezer Gould was installed pastor. In 1736 and again in 1739 difficulties occurred, when he removed without being dismissed.
CAPE MAY. The early records of Cape May are lost. John Bradnor was the first pastor .* Mr. Bradnor, a candidate for the ministry from Scotland, was willing to serve them, but had no authority to preach. In this emergency, three of the nearest ministers, Messrs. Davis, Hampton, and Henry, on their own responsi- bility, examined and licensed him in March, 1714. The parsonage was purchased of the Rev. John Bradnor in 1721.+
GLOSTER. The first notice of Gloster is in 1719, when John Clement was employed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia to preach at Gloster and Pilesgrove.#
The ancient city of Gloucester, or Axwamus, was laid
* Log College, pp. 10, 11.
Hist. Collections of New Jersey, p. 128. ¿ Webster, p. 371.
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out by Thomas Sharp in 1689, from Newton Creek to the Sassackon or Little Timber Creek,* with ten streets running East and West, and two North and South, with a market-place and Town Bounds for the gambols of the boys. At that time it contained according to Oldmixon one hundred houses, and thither the young people of Philadelphia resorted for amusement and refreshments. After the public buildings at Gloucester were burned in 1787, and Woodbury was made the shiretown, Gloucester began speedily to decline, and was reduced from one hundred houses to a dozen.
Whitefield preached at Gloucester in April and October 1740.
WOODBURY. Of Woodbury it is recorded that Joel (son of David) Evans was licensed by Philadelphia Presbytery, Sept. 17th, 1741, and supplied Woodbury and Deerfield.t
The minutes of the Session in 1799 state: "Of the origin of this Presbyterian congregation we can ob- tain no certain account. Probably it was formed early in the present century. The original deed for the land on which the church was built was made between John Tatem on the one part, and Alexander Randall and others August 10th, 1721. During that summer the church was erected. The congregation being small remained without a stated pastor, but was occasionally supplied by travelling ministers and others, until Mr. Benjamin Chestnut, the first minister, was ordained in 1752."
The first building stood at the northern edge of the present village of Woodbury, and the site is now used as a burial ground.
* Mickle's Reminiscences of Gloster, pp. 35, 61, 65.
+ Webster, p. 349.
GẦN INCEN SNYDER
Presbyterian Church, Deerfield, N. J. 1771. Remodeled 1859. See page 61.
13
QUIHAWKEN. The earliest notice which we have found of Quihawken or Penn's Neck, is that in connec- tion with Pilesgrove it called David Evans in 1741 .*
PILESGROVE. Although the present church of Pitts- grove, or Pilesgrove, was organized by David Evans in 1741, there are indications of a congregation of some kind seeking supplies during the preceding twenty years, being associated sometimes with Gloster, and sometimes with Deerfield, and finally with Qui- hawken. [See Webster, pp. 371, 505 : 349 and 446. MS. Minutes Presbytery of Philadelphia, Vol. i. pp. 12, 42, 73.]
DEERFIELD. ' Deerfield was a neighbor of Pilesgrove and sometimes a rival. The existence of a house of worship at each of the two places was almost contem- poraneous; but Deerfield first had a house of worship, as is proved by their opposition in 1739 to the erection of another so near as Pilesgrove for fear that it would tend to their own damage.t
Rev. John Davenport,¿ one of the pastors, records in 1795: "About the year 1732 a number of families from different places settled in Deerfield. The remoteness of their situation from congregations in which the gospel ministry was settled, induced them to form a design to build a house for public worship, which design was happily executed in or near the year 1737." " A good and convenient log building," says Colonel Johnson in his history of Salem County.
Supplies were received at different times. When destitute of preaching, the people met together on the Lord's day for public worship. About the year 1740
* Webster, p. 349.
+ See Minutes of Presbytery of Philadelphia, Vol. i. p. 73.
¿ Son of James Davenport, who was the companion of Whitefield.
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Rev. Samuel Blair visited this branch of the Zion of God; a divine energy attended the dispensation of the word; numbers were hopefully brought to the know- ledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Next came the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, whose ministrations were also crowned with success. Next came the Rev. Samuel Finley, whose labors were evidently owned of God. Other ministers visited this little flock and had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing the work of the Lord prosper in their hands ; the finger of the Almighty was visible; a glorious harvest of souls was reaped ; the influences of the Divine Spirit were shed down in rich abundance, and precious additions were made to the Church of Christ.
Such were the churches, so far as we have any know- ledge of them. Few in numbers and widely scattered, they were only partially supplied. In the poverty of men and means, they were joined together at great inconvenience. Thus Deerfield and Pilesgrove were united, though distant six miles: or Pilesgrove with Quihawken, a distance of eighteen miles: again, Glos- ter and Pilesgrove, a journey of twenty miles. Such was the destitution of ministers that just before the great revival and the great division, Old Cohan- sey seems alone to have sustained the stated ministra- tions of the gospel, and had Daniel Elmer for a pastor. Even this church had its share of trials and troubles. From 1708 to 1728, three of its ministers, viz: Exell, Hook and Paris, had fallen under the censure of Pres- bytery, the latter two seriously. Such facts afforded to the New Brunswick party some color of excuse to question the piety of certain ministers of that day.
Too often, ministers who came across the ocean were not men of the best character. They were often mere
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adventurers and sometimes had crossed the Atlantic to escape from the censure incurred, and even presented fraudulent credentials .*
LOW STATE OF RELIGION .- REVIVAL .- SCHISM.
A recollection of some of the prominent facts con- nected with the great revival and schism is necessary to a clear understanding of the condition of the South Jersey churches. It is also pertinent to inquire what was the general state of religion antecedently? The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, by the Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D., in two volumes large octavo, gives a full account. For the benefit of those, who have not access to that work it may be allowable to extract and condense some of its statements. In pages, from the fifteenth to the twenty-fourth, may be found Blair's description of the low state of religion in Pennsylvania: Thompson's concessions in his reply: the author's opinion: Increase Mather's lamentation over the declension of the second generation of Puri- tans: Trumbull's admission to the greater declension of the third and fourth generation, all tending to the same conclusion. In Scotland there had been a gen- eral decay in the power of religion from the revolution in 1688, to the time of which we are speaking. In England the case was far worse. Before the rise of the Methodists, says John Newton, the doctrines of grace were seldom heard from the pulpit, and the life and power of religion were little known.
The ministers composing the Presbyterian Church in this country were sound in the faith, as were also their people, and there were no diversities or contentions
* Log College, p. 42.
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among them respecting the doctrines of the gospel .* But revivals of religion were nowhere heard of, and an orthodox creed and a decent external conduct were the only points on which inquiry was made, when persons were admitted to the communion of the church. Indeed, it was very much a matter of course for all who had been baptized in infancy to be received into com- munion at the proper age, without exhibiting or possessing any satisfactory evidence of a change of heart, by the supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit.
Again, in the Constitutional History, from pages twenty-four to seventy, we are informed that the rise of the Methodists in England, and the extensive revival of religion in Scotland were contemporaneous with the revival in this country. The revival was most general and remarkable throughout New England, where Trumbull estimates, perhaps too favorably, that in the term of two or three years, thirty or forty thousand souls were born into the kingdom of God. In New Jersey the revival began in Freehold in 1730-32, and in eight or ten succeeding years spread through New- ark, Elisabethtown, New Brunswick, and other places. That the revival was genuine but faulty, must be con- ceded. Immediately after this excitement, in New England especially, the state of religion rapidly declined, errors of all kinds became more prevalent than ever. In the Presbyterian Church the same rapid decline of religion does not appear to have taken place.
"In those times there was too little discrimination between true and false religious feeling. There was too much encouragement given to outcries, faintings, and bodily agitations as probable evidence of the power of
* Log College, pp. 16, 17.
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God .* There was in many, too much reliance on impulses, visions, and the pretended power of discerning spirits. There was a great deal of censoriousness and of a sinful disregard of ecclesiastical order. The disastrous effects of these evils, the rapid spread of false religion, the dishonor and decline of true piety, the prevalence of erroneous doctrines, the division of congregations, the alienation of Christians, and the long period of subse- quent deadness in the church, stand up as a solemn warning to Christians, and especially to Christian min- isters, in all times to come. . Yet we are not to forget or undervalue the great good, which was then accomplished. In many places there was little of these evils, especially in New Jersey and Virginia. .... To the Presbyterian Church particularly, the revival was the commencement of a new life, the vigor of which is still felt in all her veins."
In 1839, Whitefield appeared and exerted a power- ful influence.
The revival was the occasion of the schism in the Presbyterian Church.t Two acts of the Synod hastened this event. In 1737 the Synod passed an act against the intrusion of ministers into the bounds of other con- gregations, and in 1738 the act requiring, before licen- sure, a college diploma, or in its stead a certificate from the examining committee appointed by Synod. This the New Brunswick Presbytery disregarded, and hence after much contention and confusion, June 1, 1741, the New Brunswick party withdrew from Synod.
Tennent, Davenport, Blair, and Finley and others, denounced their brethren, and urged the people to leave their unconverted ministers, and establish separ- ate meetings.#
Hodge's Constitutional History, Part II. pp. 100, 101.
+ Ibid. p. 103.
# Ibid. pp. 135, 140.
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" The great schism was not the result of conflicting views, either as to doctrine or church government. It was the result of alienation of feeling produced by the controversies relating to the revival. In these contro- versies the New Brunswick brethren were certainly the aggressors. In their unrestrained zeal they denounced brethren whose Christian character they had no right to question. They disregarded the usual rules of ministerial intercourse, and avowed the principle, that in extraordinary times and circumstances such rules ought to be suspended. Acting upon this principle, they divided the great majority of the congregations within the sphere of their operations, and by appealing to the people, succeeded in overwhelming their brethren with popular obloquy. Excited by a sense of injury, and alarmed by the disorders consequent on these new methods, the opposition party had recourse to violent measures, which removed none of the evils which they suffered, and involved them in a controversy with a large class of their brethren, with whom they had hitherto acted in concert. These facts our fathers have left on record for the instruction of their children."*
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