USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Freehold > History of the "Old Scots" church of Freehold from the Scotch immigration of 1685 till the removal of the church under the ministry of the Rev. William Tennent, Jr > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02918 5243
Gc 975.202 F874s Smith, Henry Goodwin, b. 1860. History of the "Old Scots" church of Freehold
The "Old Scots" Burying Ground Looking Northeast. The Probable Site of the Church and Boyd's Stone in the Foreground.
THE HISTORY
OF
THE "OLD SCOTS" CHURCH
OF FREEHOLD
FROM THE SCOTCH IMMIGRATION OF 1685 TILL THE RE- MOVAL OF THE CHURCH UNDER THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. WILLIAM TENNENT, JR.
BY HENRY GOODWIN SMITH, Minister of the Freehold Church.
FREEHOLD, N. J. TRANSCRIPT PRINTING HOUSE 1895.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
CONTENTS.
THE SCOTCH IMMIGRATION OF 1685 PAGE.
5-12
The Condition in France. In England. In Scotland. Argyle's Revolt. Persecutions of the Summer. Lord Neil Campbell's Ex- pedition. Pitlochie and the " Henry and Francis." The Settle- ment in Monmouth County.
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH 13-18 The Site. The Graves. The Accepted Date, 1692. The County Record of 1705. The Apprehension of Opposition from Cornbury and Morris. The Qualifying of John Boyd.
THE FIRST PRESBYTERY MEETING 19-23
The First Page of the Minutes. The Beginning of American Presbyterian Church History. McKemie. Andrews. Hampton. No Elders Present. The Ordination.
REV. JOHN BOYD, 1706-1708 24-29
His Past. His Ministry Prior to Ordination. His Examina- tion. His Ordination. His Three Overtures in Presbytery. His Mission Work. Contemporaneous Events. His Tombstone. Its Inscription. Its Condition. Its Proper Preservation.
REV. JOSEPH MORGAN, 1709-1729 30-38
His Early Life and Prior Settlements. His Qualifying. His Connection With the Dutch Church. With the Presbytery. His Inventions. His Publications. His Tract on Church Unity. The Charges Against Him. Missionary Activity. His Later Life.
REV. JOHN TENNENT, 1730-1732 39-47
His Early Life, Conversion, Training, Licensure. Condition of The Freehold Church. Walter Ker's Effort. The Ordination. His Ministry and Success. His Death. His Tombstone. Hts Writings. Summary of His Life.
THE REMOVAL OF THE CHURCH. 48-52
Reasons for the Removal. Fear of Division. Change in Location of Settlers. Decay of The "Old Scots" Meeting-House. Wil- liam Tennent, Jr. John Woodhull, D. D. Walter Ker's Grave.
APPENDIX.
CHAPTER I.
THE SCOTCH IMMIGRATION OF 1685.
The Condition in France. In England. In Scotland. Argyle's Revolt. Persecutions of the Summer. Lord Neil Campbell's Expedition. Pit- lochie and the "Henry and Francis." The Settlement in Monmouth County.
At no time since the days of Calvin and of Knox was the outlook for the Reformed faith darker in Great Brit- ain and France than in the year 1685. In that year Louis XIV. was persuaded to revoke the Edict of Nantes, which for over eighty years had been the shield of toler- ation for the Protestantism of France. Six hundred thousand Huguenots sought exile, fleeing from the per- secutions of the " dragonnades," and enriched Holland, England and America with the industry, character, and faith which a century later proved to be the sorest needs of the land from which they had been so ruthlessly ex- pelled.
Early in the year, on the death of his brother Charles, James II. ascended the throne of Great Britain, and in defiance of the past opposition to his succession on ac- count of his Romanist views, openly avowed himself a Catholic. The ritual of the Roman church was celebra- ted at Westminster in Holy Week, the court soon as- sumed a papist complexion, the Capital silently acqui- esced, but in the West of England and in Scotland discontent ripened in a few weeks into revolt. Had lead- ers appeared with characters and reputations that would have fairly represented the Protestant sentiment of the
6
THE "OLD SCOTS" CHURCH.
land, the revolution might well have been anticipated, which three years later brought William of Orange to the English throne. But Duke Monmouth, the vain, luxurious, natural son of Charles II., strove in vain to rally the pure, stern piety of England and of Scotland to the blue banner of his Protestant uprising in the West, and died as a traitor to the King's person and the " King's religion,' which gained a passing strength by the failure of this so-called " Protestant rebellion."
The Scottish contingent of Monmouth's revolt was led by the Earl of Argyle. Landing his forces in May on the coast of Cantyre, he endeavored to win to the venturous cause the persecuted Presbyterian element of Western Scotland. The cautious Scotchmen doubted the right of Monmouth's claims to the throne, they dis- liked his volatile character, and they had not forgotten his part in the slaughter of their brethren at Bothwell Bridge. They remembered also Argyle's "moderate " policy in the past, and his vote in Council, which but four years before sealed the fate of the martyred Cargill.
The cross of blazing yew, quenched in goat's blood, sent as the ancient war-summons through the glens of Argyleshire, was obeyed by only a portion of the great clan of the Campbells.
The harryings and slaughters of the long cruel years of Charles II. had broken the strength of Scotland's Covenant; the noblest of her leaders were imprisoned, exiled, or preparing to fly to the colonies, and the heads of this movement, Monmouth and Argyle, brought no assurance of help to the Covenant. The faint-hearted band of insurgents dispersed at the first opposition, and Argyle was beheaded in Edinburgh in June, two weeks before Monmouth's death in the Tower.
7
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1685.
That summer of 1685 witnessed the " bloody circuit " in West England, when the ferocious Jeffreys hung or exiled a thousand for participating in Monmouth's cause. In Scotland, Claverhouse raided the districts of Dumfries and Galloway, making the abjuration of the Covenant the alternative to imprisonment or death. In the month of May, Margaret Wilson and Margaret Mc- Laughlan were drowned in the tidewaters of Blednock, singing their psalms of praise until the waters sealed their lips.1 Burnt Island prison and Dunnottar Castle heard the piteous prayers of hundreds of suffering Presbyterians, who refused to renounce their allegiance to Christ as the Head of His people.
Macaulay [History, i., 504, 5] says that "Through many years the autumn of 1685 was remembered as a time of misery and terror." "Never, not even under the tyranny of Laud, had the condition of the Puritans been more deplorable than at that time."
Out from this blackness of darkness that enveloped Scotland, the Covenanters looked westward for deliver- ance and light. Tidings of the free life of some of the colonies where toleration of religion was observed came to them as a bright vision to those that dream. The chartered provisions for religious freedom in the colony of East Jersey attracted them especially to that portion of the new continent. The interest in the proprietory rights of the colony held by many prominent and excel- lent Scotchmen gave added inducements for emigration thither. The harbor of Leith was alive with the parties of Quakers and Covenanters who turned their stern, saddened faces westward in faith and hope and prayer.
After Argyle's death many of the clan of the Camp- bells were hung or sentenced to be deported to the colo-
8
THE "OLD SCOTS" CHURCH.
nies. Hearing the threats of the Council to extermi- nate the clan, Lord Neil Campbell, brother of the unfor- tunate earl, purchased a proprietory right in the colony of East Jersey, and in the autumn of the year fled to America, leading over several scores of adherents of his brother's cause and of the persecuted faith. He was re- ceived with marks of distinction by the East Jersey pro- prietors upon the field, and in the following year was appointed Deputy Governor of the province. In the quaint chirography of James Emott, of Amboy, clerk of the province, is the list of Campbell's emigrants of 1685, and among their number we may find names of those who, a few years after, reared the Church of their Coven- anted faith on " Free hill " in the county of Monmouth.2
Toward the close of the year there arrived at Perth Amboy the "Henry and Francis," a vessel ".of 350 tun and 20 great guns," the pest ship containing the stricken remnant of the sad expedition organized by George Scot, laird of Pitlochie. Few pages of history are fuller of mingled misery, horror and moral grandeur, than the records of these persecuted followers of Pitlochie. Sen- tenced to death for attending conventicles and refusing allegiance to the Papist James, they were lying in the summer of 1685, tortured and mutilated, in the prisons of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Stirling and Leith. Pit- · lochie, who had been fined enormous sums and thrice imprisoned for his Presbyterian principles, obtained for them a commutation of sentence to banishment for life. Collecting from the stifling dungeons this wretched crowd of men and women, with ears cropped, and noses slit, and cheeks branded, he embarked with them in September only to lose his life upon the passage, his wife and some seventy of his fellow-sufferers also perish-
9
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1685.
ing from the pestilent ship-fever. On this voyage of horrors, with the memory of persecution and tyranny behind them, with the plague carrying away three and four from their number daily, with the hardships of the untried wilderness before them, their indomitable spirits rose above all these miseries that encompassed them and they sent back to Scotland the protest against the injus- tice that banished them from their "own native and covenanted land, by an unjust sentence, for owning truth, and holding by duty, and studying to keep by their covenanted engagements and baptismal vows, whereby they stand obliged to resist, and testify against all that is contrary to the word of God and their coven- ants." Concerning their attitude toward King James they say "their sentence of banishment ran chiefly be- cause they refused the oath of allegiance, which in con- science they could not take, because in so doing, they thought they utterly declined the Lord Jesus Christ from having any power in his own house, and practical- ly would by taking it, say he was not King and head of his church and over their consciences; and on the con- trary, this was to take and put in his room a man whose breath is in his nostrils, yea, a man that is a sworn ene- my to religion, an avowed papist, whom by our covenant we are bound to withstand and disown." [Wodrow, History, iv., pp. 331, 332.] This declaration of al- legiance to the supremacy of spiritual truth over all earthly powers, rings in our ears like the challenge of a trumpet peal; clear, strident, and inspiring.
Their sufferings were intensified by the inhuman treatment received upon the voyage. "When they who were under deck attempted to worship God by them- selves the captain would throw down great planks in or-
IO
THE "OLD SCOTS" CHURCH.
der to disturb them." The captain also proposed taking the wretched cargo to Virginia or Jamaica and offered to dispose of them "in bulk."
Wodrow states that the emigrants found but inhospi- table treatment from "the people who lived on the coast side " but received many acts of kindness from the in- habitants of a town "a little way up the country." This place of their first sojourn was probably Woodbridge, where the sufferers found a Puritan settlement of New Englanders. Many of them came over to Monmouth county, after litigation with John Johnstone, Pitlochie's son-in-law, on whom the command of the expedition de- volved at the leader's death. Mr. Johnstone, according to Wodrow's account, sued many of them as " Redemp- tioners " for four years service, according to the agree- ment in Scot's "Model " for those who went over with- out remuneration. As seventy-two of the passengers were said to be " presents to the Laird " being " priso- ners banished to the plantations " the demand does not seem an unjust one. Johnstone obtained a plantation in Monmouth named "Scotschesterburg," and rose to prominence as a political leader of the "Scotch " party in the colony.
Although these two expeditions of 1685 were the most notable of those days they were not the first or only or- ganized parties of Scotch immigrants. In the year 1682, the twenty-four proprietors, a number of whom were Scotchmen, on coming into possession of the soil of East Jersey, offered many inducements to settle in the new colony. Among those who came over in this first year of general immigration, we find the names of William and Margaret Redford, born in the years 1642 and 1645, who lie buried in the " Old Scots " graveyard,
Back of Wilhem Body of Pastei
Redford Acho canuscile of William
From, north Bridamla sdford \Who came
hle March the fosse Departed this life
The Tombstone of the Oldest Covenanters Buried in the " Old Scots " Ground, who Came in the First Year of Scotch Immigration.
II
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1685.
under a double stone, reproduced in the accompanying cut. The years of their respective births are the oldest recorded in the grave-yard.
In 1684, Scot of Pitlochie published his " Model of the Government of East Jersey in America," showing its advantages as a "retreat where, by law, a toleration is allowed no where else to be found in his ma-
jesty's dominions." Barclay of Ury, the grand old Quaker Governor of the colony, together with Lawrie and Drummond, his Deputies on the field, with motives of mingled compassion and business interest, organized many parties of harassed Scotch Quakers and Covenan- ters, who on their arrival at Perth Amboy, the port of the colony, soon found their way to the broad plains of Middlesex and Monmouth counties.3
The famous emigrant ship, the " Caledonia,"4 is sup- posed to have made her first voyages at this early period, and other well-known Covenanters, such as Walter Ker,5 pillar of the Freehold Church for half a century, are known to have come in the year 1685.
On entering Monmouth county, the Presbyterian Im- migrants found the neighborhood of the Navesink neck already in the possession of the Monmouth patent men, among whom at first the Baptist element predominated. The Shrewsbury settlement was largely of Quakers, many of whom were brought to the established church through the agency of the persuasive and energetic George Keith. The Covenanters would naturally seek a locality where they might form a community of their own and might dwell together in fellowship. Some of them settled near the present town of Matawan, where before the year 1690 was a hamlet known as New Aber- deen.6 The larger portion of them advanced somewhat
I 2
THE "OLD SCOTS" CHURCH.
farther into the interior and in the large district known then as Freehold found peace and plenteousness after their sufferings and wanderings. Freehold obtained its first character as a community from the Covenanter im- migrants of 1682-1685.7
" This is the era at which East Jersey, till now chief- ly colonized from New England, became the asylum of Scottish Presbyterians," says Bancroft, [Colonial His- tory, chap. xvii.] "Is it strange, " he continues, " that Scottish Presbyterians of virtue, education and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with religious enthu- siasm, hurried to East Jersey in such numbers as to give to the rising commonwealth a character which a century and a half has not effaced." "Thus the mixed charac- ter of New Jersey springs from the different sources of its people. Puritans, Covenanters, and Quakers met on her soil; and their faith, institutions, and preferences, having life in the common mind, survive the Stuarts."
CHAPTER II.
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH.
The Site. The Graves. The Accepted Date, 1692. The County Record of 1705. The Apprehension of Opposition from Cornbury and Morris. The Qualifying of John Boyd.
Some six miles to the north of the present town of Freehold, on a wooded eminence, overlooking rolling, fertile fields, lies a neglected acre which should be a cherished spot to all Presbyterians of our land, and also to all interested in the beginnings of the colonial his- tory.8 It is the site of the " Old Scots " Church of Free- hold, reared by the exiles of 1685 for their worship of God after the simple manner forbidden in their own " native and covenanted land." The view presented in the accompanying cut shows a portion of this "God's Acre," with the church site in the foreground. Of the building itself, no memory, tradition, or trace remains, except the slight depression in the soil, which would in- dicate the humble dimensions of a structure perhaps some twenty feet square.9 Close under its eaves were laid the remains of its first minister, Rev. John Boyd. Eight yards to the southwest, under a horizontal stone that is sinking in the turf, lies the body of Rev. John Tennent, who, like Rev. John Boyd, died in his youth after two years of ministry with the church.
Around this central site lie the rude stones of the old Scotch pilgrims and their children, of Archibald Craige, one of Lord Campbell's company, of John Henderson, son probably of him of the same name who signed the
14
THE "OLD SCOTS " CHURCH.
protest on Pitlochie's ship, of Formans of the generation following John Foreman of the "Henry and Francis," and others of the names of Clark, Redford, Wall and Ward, belonging to the Covenanter generation, others still of the names of Amy, Crawford, O'Harrah, Pease, Patten, VanDorn, and Freeiser of the generation of the sons and daughters born in the new world.10
The generally accepted date for the erection of the church building, or the organization of the church soci- ety, is the year 1692.11 The only basis apart from tradi- tion appears to be a Mss. letter from Freehold by Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., dated April 23rd, 1792, which stated that " The Church was formed about an hundred years ago, chiefly by persons from Scotland." [Hodge's History, i. 56.]
Taking into consideration the tenacity of the Coven- anters' religious convictions, and the liberty of worship bought by their exile, it seems improbable that many years could have passed before they assembled in " con- venticles," unharassed by fear of dragoon or blood hound, sword or gibbet. The strenuous labor of reclaiming the soil to productiveness would not turn those worthies of faith from confessing that they were pilgrims and so- journers seeking the better and heavenly country, and in their assembling themselves together, after the plain customs of the church of Knox, these loyal Scotchmen would find both their clearest duty and their highest joy. It would be at variance with their character and circumstances to suppose a later date than 1692 for the beginning of the little kirk, the appointment of elders or " assistants," and the rearing of the building, made of logs or rough-hewn timbers. For a period of fourteen years without a settled minister to conduct the services
15
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH.
and administer the sacraments, the neighboring Coven- anters doubtless gathered upon the Lord's day, read the Scriptures, sang their metrical versions of David's Psalms, catechized the children, and joined in prayer led by John Craig or Walter Ker or John Henderson, adoring the God of Deliverance for their escapes from perils and tribulations, and invoking the continuance of his covenant of grace to their children and to generations yet unborn.12
The Scotchmen would be joined in these services by some of their fellow Presbyterians from Holland and from France, who came to the region in the later years of the century, and formed strong affiliations with the Scotch, uniting in fullest sympathy with their Calvinis- tic doctrines and in fellowship in sufferings. The names of DuBois, La Rue, shortened to Rue, and Perrin, or Perrine, indicate the Huguenot parentage of some of the early settlers. Concerning the Dutch immigration more will be said in the chapter on Rev. Joseph Morgan, who was pastor of both the Scotch and Dutch churches of Freehold.
The first authentic statement concerning the early history of the church is contained in the early records of the courts of the County of Monmouth.
This is the action taken by four representative Pres- byterians in the county who desired the "recording " of their Meeting-house by the court. A fac-simile of this request, of the consequent action of the court, and of the application of the Rev. John Boyd for leave to " quali- fy " is given.
The record reads as follows :- At a Court held on Fourth Tuesday of December 1705. John Bowne, Pres- ident.
16
THE "OLD SCOTS " CHURCH.
Richard Salter, Obadiah Bowne, Anthony Woodward, George Allen, Jeremiah Stillwell, Assistants.
At ye request of John Craig, Walter Ker, William Bennet, Patrick Imly, in behalf of themselves and their breathren, ye protestant desenters of freehold called Presbiterians, that their Publick meeting house may be recorded. Ordered by this Cort, that it be Recorded as followeth. The Meeting House for religious worship,be- longing to the Protistant discenters, called ye Presbi- terians of ye Town of Freehold, in ye County of Mon- mouth, in ye Province of New Jarsey, is scituate, built, lying and being at and upon a piece of Rising grownd, commonly known and called by the name of free hill in sd Town.
Mr. John Boyd, Minnister of the sd Presbiterians of freehold, did also Parsonally appear, and did desire that he might be admitted to qualify himself,as the law directs in that behalf.
Ordered that further consideration thereof be referred until the next Court of Quarter Sessions."
The reason for the " Recording " of the church pro- perty may well have been an apprehension of some act of injustice or extortion on the part of Lord Cornbury who was then governor of New Jersey and New York. His administration of affairs in New York was disgrac- ed by a series of illegal acts toward dissenting churches and ministers. In New York City, in Westchester county, and on Long Island, Puritan church buildings were turned over to the established church, and both ministers and congregations were forced to conform or to retire.
Although there was no establishment of the Episco- pal church in the Jersies, to give color to any similar
Pikant Salle Vratial Bonne Anthony Heat wave
-2m
bromiah Stilwell €
It & iquest of all John Jwaig Watter Ron Pelican abrick boly in half of Romolos & then Ervalbring priok tant dronten of innhold later lasbilenians that there publick~ meeting house may 8 2 29 Ordine by the part of It to Ricordi as follows It
" licking Yous for Bolidgous Worship Belonging to the Poohistant Discenters fallo a Co bitorions of y tours of Freshold Iny County of Menshould in y Province of Na larry is Scituate Guill lying & Bring at & woon a process of Biring around on tells hill Commonly known &fuld by the nate by f shift In 98 town
all" John Boy Man ka of IK Do Castelorians of fx: hole We also Personally Appears os de Jovice that Re might &o Domitted to qualify himof as the law directs in that behalf.
Andreed that further consideration thaty & RA untill the next court of Quartiofoptions.
Ora by this found that Birjains Bonds hin Constable of Fa Kets & find for not going for attredame at this found in y Sum of fonty Shillings Current Maisy of the provinces with cost to Be Bound by diste f by the Storf woon his yours and Rattles that the Showif Rav. the I Love of the next bolions to the
The Earliest Official Record of the "Old Scots " Church and John Boyd. From the Monmouth County Records of the Court Held on the Fourth Tuesday in December, 1705.
I7
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH.
action, the cautious Scotchmen wished to avail them- selves of every safe-guard.13
The spreading upon the court records of the position of the meeting house, and the acknowledgement by the legal authorities that it was the property of " ye desen- ters called ye Presbiterians " gave a certain legal secur- ity of title, being an endorsement by the constituted authorities of their ownership and their rights to own.
, Assuming the church to have been in existence since 1692, a reason why thirteen years elapsed before making the record, may be found in the fact that up to the year 1704 the court of the county had been, almost with- out interruption, under the power of Lewis Morris, a zealous churchman, who showed his ecclesiastical pre- ferences, however, more in bitter opposition to dissent than in any earnest efforts to propagate Episcopacy. In the year 1704, the county courts fell into the hands of the Patent men of Middletown, many of whom were Bap- tists. The Presbyterians, therefore, took the earliest occasion practicable to secure from their fellow-dissen- ters upon the bench the legal recognition of their pos- sessions.
The zeal and success with which George Keith had in the last few years been leading the Quakers of Shrewsbury and Freehold into the communion of the established church, was an added cause for alarm and for energetic action on the part of the Presbyterians, who remembered that Keith had begun his varied eccles- iastical career in the Kirk of Scotland.
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