USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > First church in Newark : historical discourses, relating to the First Presbyterian church in Newark; originally delivered to the congregation of that church during the month of January, 1851 > Part 11
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Mr. Wakeman died on the 8th day of October, 1704, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, after a short min- istry of between four and five years. In his will, dated four days before his death, in which he speaks of him- self as " brought very low under the afflicting hand of God," and not knowing how soon my change and dis- solution may happen," he disposes of his "house and homestead," in case of his wife's decease without issue or re-marriage, "to the use and benefit of the town of Newark," in the hands of seven named trustees, or their surviving substitutes, and manifests his attach- ment to the sacred office, by the following item: "My
of Nov. 11th, 1701 : " Item .- It is agreed upon by vote, that Mr. Wakeman shall have laid out to him sixty acres of upland, and ten acres of meadow, in the bounds of Newark, if it can be found, if he settle among us to be our minister, and Mr. John Curtis is chosen to lay out the land above said.
* The building of the gallery was first ordered by vote, Nov. 1702, but as late as March, 1703-4, a committee was appointed "to contrive and oversee the building of it." Town Records, pp. 134-5.
+ During the ministry of Mr. Wakeman, or about the time of his decease, there died of the old settlers, Samuel Plum, June 13, 1703-4, aged 79; Captain John Curtis, September 17, 1708, aged 62; (See Dr. J. S. Condit's Monumental Inscriptions,) Samuel Rose, 1700; Jonathan Tomp- kins, in or before 1700; Thomas Pierson, senior, and John Baldwin, senior, 1702; Henry Lyon, Francis Linle and William Camp, 1703 ; Mrs. Mary, wife of Azariah Crane, and daughter of Robert Treat, 1704. -S. H. Congar.
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CONGREGATION DESTITUTE.
library of books, I will and bequeath unto the first of my father Wakeman's house and family, who shall be brought up at the University, and be fitted with learn- ing to be serviceable to God and His church, in the work of the ministry." In the introduction, he disposes of himself according to the custom of the times, and manifests his pious feeling in the following words : " Imprimis .- I commit my soul immortal to God who gave it, to glorify Him, and to be glorified by and with Him for ever. My frail and corruptible body, made of the dust, I will to be decently buried, in hope of a glorious resurrection unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ, my only Redeemer and Saviour, who was de- livered for my offenses, and raised again for my justi- fication ; that I may, both soul and body, glorify God for ever. Amen." It affords me pleasure to be able to add, that the precious remains of this beloved min- ister of Christ, are "decently buried" in the rear of this church; to which place they were removed with pious care, and for the sake of greater security, a few years since, having been only once disturbed during a period of nearly one hundred and fifty years .*
After the death of Mr. Wakeman, the congregration remained destitute of a settled minister five or six
* The following is the inscription on the tombstone of Mr. Wakeman. For its La- tinity, it is presumed, neither he nor "the College" is accountable :
" Here lye the Remains of ye Revd. Mr. Jabez Wakeman, the faithful Pastor of ye Church of Christ in this place, who De- parted this life, Oct". 8th 1704. Atatis 26. "Hoc sunt tumulo Wakeman venerabi- lis ossa."
" By him'lies his son, Samuel, died Sept. 29, 1704, Ætatis 2d."
There are two tablets, the lower, and probably the earlier one, is in capitals, and as far as it is legible, reads thus :
"th ye body, Jabesh Wakeman, whas our Revd Pastor, who deceased, Oct. 8, 1704, in ye 26 year of his age."
The Latin is the same as on the other.
111
REV. SAMUEL WHITTLESEY.
years. Mr. Prudden was immediately invited to re- sume the pulpit till some other supply could be pro- cured, and the town voted "to be in the speedy use of means to seek for a man to supply the vacancy of the pastoral office." But no suitable person seems to have been found for a candidate, until after the lapse of a full year, when the town voted that their commit- tee "should make their application to Mr. Samuel Sherman, to preach the Word amongst us for proba- tion." But after a few months some facts transpiring connected with his former history, of the nature of which we are not informed, the negotiations were ab- ruptly terminated, by a vote to have “no further treaty with Mr. Sherman upon the account of a settle- ment among us."*
Theophilus Pierson, younger brother of the second Abraham Pierson, was now appointed "to be the town's messenger to send, to endeavor to get a man upon trial," and a committee of five men appointed, with Mr. Prudden at their head, "to give Mr. Pierson power, direction and instruction in that matter, in the town's behalf."
Mr. Samuel Whittlesey was the next candidate. "It was voted and agreed upon," says the record, under
* " The question was asked the town, says the record, whether they were satis- fied with the information that the Church had from Mr. Sherman's own mouth con- cerning the place from whence he came. It was consented to by vote that they were. Item .- Eliphalet Johnson, Mr. Jasper Crane, Mr. Pierson and Deacon Azariah Crane were chosen by vote to return the town's answer to Mr. Sherman above said.
"Item .- Mr. Pierson was chosen by vote to be the town's messenger to send, to en- deavor to get a man upon trial in the work of the ministry among us. Item .- Mr. Prudden, Mr. Jasper Crane, Deacon Crane, Robert Young and Joseph Harrison were chosen by vote to give all power, direction and instruction in that matter in the town's behalf." Records, p. 138.
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LORD CORNBURY.
date of May 17th, 1706, "to improve Mr. Samuel Whittlesey in the work of the ministry among us for the space of a year." The result of this improvement was a determination, on the part of the people, to seek his settlement among them. Some difference of opinion probably existed at this time, in regard to the proper sum to be assigned for the support of the new minis- ter, and it was voted March 31st, 1707, " that the ma- jor part should rule the minor in fixing the sum for Mr. Whittlesey's salary." Accordingly, the salary was fixed at £65, with the additional intimation that the town "would, and were willing to be helpful to Mr. Whittlesey, in procuring a settlement for him in con- venient season." Mr. Whittlesey saw fit to decline this invitation, and was soon after settled as the second pastor of the Church in Wallingford, Conn. He ap- pears to have occupied the pulpit here somewhat more than a year.
The period in which these transactions took place was one of great political agitation. The Proprietary government finding itself unable to maintain its au- thority and secure the public order, made a formal surrender of its powers into the hands of the Queen, on the 15th of April, 1702, who thereupon commis- sioned Edward, Lord Cornbury, her own cousin, as her Captain-General and Governor-in-chief of the Province of New Jersey, and sent him hither with her instruc- tions to form a new government, embracing both the two former divisions of the Province.
The private character of Lord Cornbury was as mean and contemptible, as his administration of the govern-
113
LORD CORNBURY.
ment was arbitrary and oppressive. "It was no un- common thing for him," says a writer quoted in Smith's History, "to dress himself in a woman's habit, and then patrol the fort in which he resided. Such freaks of low humor exposed him to the universal contempt of the people ; but their indignation was kindled by his despotic rule, savage bigotry, insatiable avarice, and injustice, not only to the public, but even to his private creditors."*
This detested and detestable young nobleman, re- garded it as his special mission in the New World, to promote the interests of the Church of England ; and although the Queen had expressly instructed him "to permit a liberty of conscience to all persons except Pa- pists, so they might be content with a quiet and peace- able enjoyment of the same," his overweening zeal seized upon some expressions having manifest reference to clergymen of the Established Church, whom he was not to allow to preach without either a certificate from the Bishop of London, or a license from himself, and made them the pretext for vexatious restrictions and exactions upon the old and long established Presbyte- rian and Congregational churches.+
It marks sufficiently the oppressive spirit of this ad- ministration, by whose vexatious measures both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, the most peaceful citizens were
* Hist. New Jersey, p. 352.
+ Force's Historical Tracts, vol. iv. No. 4. " It must be admitted," says Graham, Hist. North America, p. 464, "that the colonization of this province was under- taken on an assurance, which the settlers were entitled to credit, of their being com- pletely exempted from the jurisdiction of
the English parliament, both in the impo- sition of taxes and the regulation of eccle- siastical affairs." This pledge of freedom from interference in religious matters was their grand inducement to make the set- tlement. Whence then could the Queen or her officers derive the right to molest them ?
8
114
REV. FRANCIS MAKEMIE.
well nigh stung to open rebellion, that such an item as the following, which I extract from the Newark Town Records, should have found place among the transac- tions of one of the most ancient, respectable and law- abiding congregations in the land. "Oct. 30, 1705- It was agreed upon by vote, to petition my Lord Corn- bury for license, that we may have leave to get and settle a man in the work of the ministry of the Gospel, according to our own persuasion."*
That this precaution was not adopted without rea- son, is manifest from what took place two years after- wards, in the case of Rev. Francis Makemie, a highly respected member of the first presbytery ever estab- lished in this country. This excellent man was seized by order of the Governor, for the alleged offence of preaching in the city of New York without a license, carried about the country, from Newtown, on Long Is- land, through Jamaica to New York, and there thrust into prison, where he was detained six weeks. After a long trial, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty," and when questioned by the court concerning their reasons, simply replied that "they believed in their conscience, they had done the defendant justice," and that he "had not transgressed any law." Thereupon the court ordered the prisoner to be discharged; not however without first throwing upon him the whole costs of the prosecution, including fees to the sheriff for arresting him, and the high sheriff for committing
* The Record adds, " Item .- Mr. Prud- den, Mr. Pierson and Sergeant John Mor- ris are chosen by vote to draw a petition. It is voted that the Clerk of the town shall
personate the town in signing the petition. Mr. Pierson is chosen to prefer it to my Lord Cornbury." Records, p. 136.
115
REV. FRANCIS MAKEMIE.
him to prison, together with £12 12s. to the prosecut- ing attorney-the whole amounting to somewhat more than £80 *- and the impoverished Presbyterian minis- ter was permitted to pursue his journey to New Eng- land, with such funds as might be left him, or as his friends might furnish, musing at leisure, although nothing daunted, on the perils of Presbyterian church extension within the bounds of my Lord Cornbury's government.
In this outrageous transaction, the members of this congregation did not escape their share of annoyance. The persecuted minister had, it seems, found sympa- thizers, if not helpers among them. During his impris- onment therefore, in order if possible to elicit some- thing to his disadvantage, that might be available in the trial, an order was given to Major Sandford, one of the Governor's council, to examine, on oath, Jasper Crane and several others, concerning private conversa- tions supposed to have been held between Makemie and "sundry of his friends," at Mr. Crane's house. The inquisition however, brought to light no dangerous secrets.+
It is a relief to know, that scarcely a year elapsed after this outrage, before the Queen, listening to the complaints of her injured subjects, divested the un- worthy official of his abused power, declaring that she " would not countenance her nearest relations in op- pressing her people."
* Force's Historical Tracts, vol. iv. No. 4, ed. Washington, 1846.
+ Force's Historical Tracts, vol. iv. No.
for the above statement, Mr. Crane's resi- dence is said to be in " New-York-Town in East-Jersey," but there can be no doubt
4. In the edition to which I have referred I suppose as to the place intended.
116
REV. NATHANIEL BOWERS.
But, to proceed with the narrative : On the failure of their endeavors to obtain Mr. Whittlesey, the town resolved to send to New England for a minister .* This had been, from the beginning, the great clerical hive ; and from this source, if from any, the right man might be expected. Theophilus Pierson was accordingly again deputed to undertake this journey and make the necessary inquiries ; and on his return he made report "that with good advice from the elders, he made ap- plication to Mr. Nathaniel Bowers, when he received encouragement, that if the town would signify their desire therein, he would give us a visit."+ On hearing this report, the town at once resolved to accede to the proposition implied in it ; and, to testify their cordial- ity in the matter, ordered a messenger to be sent to meet him at Hudson River, and conduct him to New- ark. After preaching to the people one Sabbath, Mr. Bowers was invited " very unanimously-not one to the contrary," to occupy the pulpit for a year on trial ; and near the expiration of that period, a call was given him to assume the pastoral office, and a committee ap- pointed to make the arrangements for his ordination. In the stipulation for the support of Mr. Bowers, we
"Town meeting, March 21, 1708. Mr. Pierson was chosen by vote to go to New England to endeavor to procure a minister ; and the committee that was before chosen, viz: Mr. Pierson, [Mr. Prudden ?] Deacon Azariah Crane, Mr. Jasper Crane, Sergeant Joseph Harrison, Robert Young and Lieut. Samuel Alling, were appointed to give him his instructions in the management of that affair."
t "June 3, 1709. Upon Mr. Pierson's return he made a report to the town of the
progress he had made in that matter; that with good advice from the elders, he made his application to Mr. Nathaniel Bowers, of whom he received this encouragement; that if the town would signify their desire therein, he would give us a visit; which was put to vote, and very unanimously voted that there should be a messenger sent to Hudson's river, on the 16th June, to wait upon him to Newark." Records, pp. 140-1.
117
REV. NATHANIEL BOWERS.
find the first notice of a parsonage house-perhaps the same which had been given to Mr. Wakeman, and re- conveyed for the use of the town by his will. The salary assigned to him after his settlement was £80, and the use of the parsonage-" he keeping it in re- pair."*
The Rev. Nathaniel Bowers was the fifth pastor of this Church. Of his origin, parentage, education and early history, I have no knowledge, except that he came from New England. As his name does not ap- pear among the graduates either of Harvard College or Yale, he must have been educated in the old coun- try, or not have received a collegiate education.+ The dates of his ministry may be very accurately stated: He arrived in Newark on the 16th of June, 1709, and was installed as pastor of the Church in the autumn of
* The salary here named, was raised " by way of rating," as in the case of Mr. Wakeman; the record says, "according to our former way of rating for the min- ister." But here. there is no room for doubt as to what was meant by that ex- pression ; for a committee. was appointed " on a lecture day," June 28, 1710, "to deliver the subscription to Mr. Bowers, which was drawn up and signed by the greater part of the town, for the payment of his yearly salary ;" and, subsequently, an order is given that "a list of the estates of the subscribers" should be given in to the assessors, for that purpose. After this were appointed annually for the minister's rate ; and from and after the year 1714,
business of raising. money for religious purposes is always transacted at special town meetings, and those meetings are not recorded, like those at which the or- dinary civil affairs of the town are trans- acted, as called "pursuant to an act of Mr. Bowers.
Assembly." Parish and town seem from that date to have become practically sepa- rated, though not nominally.
+ The Rev. Mr. Guernsey, formerly pas- tor of a church in Derby, gives me the following account of a conversation with the late Professor Kingsley, of Yale Col- lege : "Prof. Kingsley says that Bowers, of Derby, went westward, and was met by a delegation of the congregation he went to serve at the New York State line. He did not give his name, nor did he name. the place to which he went. Of his sub- sequent history he knows nothing." The name of the Derby Bowers was John, and period, special assessors and collectors. he removed, as Trumbull says, to Rye ; but the resemblance of the circumstances above stated to those recorded in the New-
when the town charter was obtained, the ark Town Records, leads me to suspect. that the Professor's information had con -. founded two things, and that Nathaniel, of Newark, may have been the man he had, in view. I insert the tradition, hoping it may furnish a clue to the true, origin of
118
SECOND HOUSE OF WORSHIP.
1710. Whether this was his first settlement, as the term " ordination," used in the Records, seems to im- ply, or whether that word may have been used loosely for installation, may be a matter of doubt. His age- already past thirty-five years-would seem to favor the latter supposition. Mr. Bowers occupied the pul- pit a little more than seven years, and was the pastor of the Church about six .* His death occurred in the month of August, 1716, in the 43d year of his age, and his remains lie in the rear of this Church, by the side of those of Prudden and Wakeman.+
.
It was just before the commencement of Mr. Bow- ers' ministry, viz: in the year 1708, that the second house of worship has been usually said to have been erected. Such is the statement of Dr. Macwhorter ; and such also was the apparent testimony of the vane upon the steeple, which bore upon it, within the mem- ory of many now living, the figures 1708. One fact, however, seems strongly to oppose that opinion. The records of the town, covering that period, though they contain several votes relating to ecclesiastical affairs, make no allusion to any such enterprise; and as the statement of Dr. Macwhorter was founded upon tradi- tion nearly a century after the event, and the figures
* During the ministry of Mr. Bowers, or the vacancy which preceded it, a few' more deaths of first settlers appear to have taken place. Samuel Lyon died in 1706 ; Jonathan Sargeant in 1709; Zecha- riah Burwell about 1712. The tomb-stone of John Treat bears the following inscrip- tion : "Here lyes interred the body of John Treat, Esq., aged 65 years, who de- parted this life August the 1st, 1714." Dr. gar.
Condit's Monumental Inscriptions .- Mr. S. H. Congar.
+ The epitaph of Mr. Bowers is as fol- lows: " Here lyeth the body of the Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Bowers, pastor of the church in this place, who died August 4, Anno Domini, 1716, in the 43d year of his age." He left a widow, Hannah, and one son, Nathaniel, who was a seaman .- S. H. Con-
119
SECOND HOUSE OF WORSHIP.
on the vane may have derived their origin from the same source, it seems probable that the true date is somewhere between the 12th of April, 1714, and the 10th of August, 1716, when a vacancy occurs in the records. I am the more inclined to this conclusion, as one of the first entries made subsequently to that pe- riod, is the choice of " two men to seat the three men that were chosen to seat the meeting house,"* showing that, for some reason or other, the important and deli- cate office of "seating," had just been formally dis- charged-the agents in the work alone remaining to be disposed of by still other authorities.
The edifice, to which I now refer, was built of stone, about forty-four feet square, and had a bell in the steeple as early as the year 1735.+ Of this edifice Dr. Macwhorter observes : "It was an exceeding great ex- ertion of the people to erect it, and it was the most elegant edifice for public worship at that time in the Colony, however mean it may now be considered. There were considerable difficulties and contentions in the society to get it as large as it was. It was hardly believed that the inhabitants of the town would ever be so numerous as to fill it." The tradition which he
* The two men referred to are Mr. James Nutman and Lieut. John Morris. "In the old burying ground, on the lot of the Nutman family, is the grave of the Rev. Mr. John Nutman, who died in 1751, aged 48. According to a notice in the New Jersey Historical Collections, p. 380, he was minister of a Presbyterian Church in Whippany, from 1780 to 1745, probably called by the emigrants to that region, the Campfields and Kitchels, and Lindleys, and Cranes, from Newark, who sleep in year."
the old yard where formerly stood Whip- pany Church, said to have been the first settlement made west of the Newark mountains."-S. H. Congar.
+ March 11, 1734-5. A committee was appointed " to take care of the ringing of the bell, and sweeping the meeting house." Two years later, it was voted " that Han- nah Shingleton should sweep the meeting house, provided she sweeps it clean, and for the same wages as it was done for last
120
FIRST CHURCH IN ORANGE.
relates, that " when the walls were knee high, all the inhabitants, men, women and children, could have sat upon the same," does not accord with known facts re- specting the number of people in the town about that time, and must therefore be regarded as somewhat le- gendary. It is said that nearly thirty years elapsed before the inside was entirely finished. This house stood on the west side of Broad street, a little to the north of the spot occupied by its predecessor, and being converted into a Court House after the year 1791, was standing, within the recollection of many who are now living.
On the death of Mr. Bowers, a vacancy occurred in the pastoral office of about two years, during which time, as Dr. Macwhorter relates, a Mr. Buckingham occupied the pulpit, as a candidate for settlement, and created great divisions among the people. Of his his- tory and character, we learn nothing, except the simple statement that in process of time he " returned to New England, where he obtained a settlement, lived useful, and died in reputation."*
It was in the latter part of this interval, that the first separation from the old Church, for the formation of a new congregation, took place. The original boundaries of the township, which extended, as ex- pressed in the deed, "to the foot of the great moun- tain called Watchung," were, by a subsequent purchase of the Indians, as we have before noticed, in the year 1678,+ enlarged to the top of the mountain, embracing
* Dr. Macwhorter's Century Sermon. + March, 1677-8. Newark Town Rec- ords.
121
REV. JOSEPH WEBB.
the territory now occupied by the towns of Orange, South Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Clinton. In the year 1681, an order was given for laying out the highway as far as the mountain .* How rapidly the settlement was extended in that direction cannot ac- curately be determined. As late as the year 1696, only two or three families are spoken of as residing there. But in 1715, Azariah Crane, one of the Dea- cons of this Church, and Edward Ball, one of its ear- liest members, speak of themselves as having been "settled " there many years.+ And in or about the year 1718, the inhabitants of that part of the town having become somewhat numerous, formed a distinct religious organization, which was known at first and for many years as the "Mountain Society," and afterwards as the "Second Church in Newark." It is now the First Presbyterian Church in Orange.
The Rev. Joseph Webb-the sixth pastor-was, as I suppose, a son of the Rev. Joseph Webb, of Fairfield, Connecticut, one of the original founders of Yale College, of which he was many years a trustee, and who died in the year 1732. Mr. Webb was a graduate of Yale College of the year 1715. He was introduced here by a letter from Mr. Andrew, probably the Rev. Samuel Andrew, of Milford, a rel- ative of some of the old settlers of Newark, his father's associate in the government of the College, and its temporary Rector at the time of his own graduation. This letter being read in town meeting and " well ac-
* Newark Town Records.
+ Newark " Town Book."
122
ORDINATION OF MR. WEBB.
cepted," it was voted, December 16, 1718, to agree with Mr. Webb for three-quarters of a year on trial, and "to give him, for the time, at the rate of seventy pounds a year." Whether this became his permanent stipend after his settlement, and whether a parsonage house was furnished him as in the case of some of his predecessors, the record of no further act of the town remains to inform us. His salary, however, was raised regularly, from year to year, by a tax upon estates during his whole ministry. We learn from Dr. Mac- whorter, that he was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia on the 22d of October, 1719," and that the ministers present at his ordination were Messrs. Joseph Morgan, Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, son of Rev. Abraham Pierson, junior,t and Robert Orr. He also states that Mr. Webb was settled here with
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