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 3
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The name of the town appears to have been at first Milford,+ but was soon changed to Newark, in honor,
* Newark Town Records, pp. 3, 4. Mr. on the south, was that of the elder Pier- Treat's home lot was on the south-east son. (See Town Book of Surveys.) corner of Broad and Market streets; op- + Scott's "Model of the Government," Whitehead p. 274. In Smith's History of New Jersey, Second River is called Mil- ford or Newark River, p. 159. posite him, on the north-west corner, was Deacon Ward's, afterwards pur- chased, and probably occupied by Rev. Abraham Pierson, Jr., and adjoining him,
21
THE NAME NEWARK: FIRST CHURCH.
as is supposed, of its first minister, who preached for a time in Newark in England, before he came to this country. Its etymology is NEW-WORK, not NEW-ARK, as some have supposed ; the former being a simple Eng- lish translation of the Latin words Novum opus, by which the founder of Newark Castle chose to distin- guish his then new enterprise .*
The First Church in Newark appears to be the old- est fully organized Church of Christ of any denomina- tion within the State of New Jersey. There were small Swedish Churches on the banks of the Dela- ware, but these were on the west side of the river, within the boundaries of Delaware and Pennsylvania. A few Dutch congregations may have existed tempo- rarily in some parts of the State, but except the old First Dutch Church in Bergen, I cannot learn that any remnants of them now survive; and that, though justly claiming the priority by a few years over all others, in the occupancy of this ground, had no minis- ter, and of course but an incomplete organization until after the lapse of several generations.+ The settle-
* See McCulloch's Gazetteer article, nished me by the Rev. Benjamin C. Taylor, "Newark." It may be observed, in con- firmation of this etymology, that, in the old manuscript volume called "Town Book," which is believed to be an original record in the hand-writing of Robert Treat and other first settlers, the last syl- lable of the name is always written with an o, Neworke or Nework. New-Ark and Nova-Arca must be regarded as an affect- ation of more modern times. It first ap- pears, I think, about the time of Dr. Mac- whorter.
+ Of this first Christian light-bearer on the soil of New Jersey, I extract the fol- lowing account from notices kindly fur-
D. D., its present pastor. " The Reformed Dutch Church at Bergen, New Jersey, was constituted, as nearly as can be ascertained, about the year A. D. 1663, perhaps a little before that date. The writer has seen a certificate (still in the possession of a de- scendant of the family,) of the moral and religious character, and ecclesiastical stand- ing of one of the early settlers of the town, by the Burgomasters of the city of Wagen- ing, in Holland, dated November 27th, 1660; and is credibly informed that a re- cord exists in the Dutch language, in the office of the Secretary of State of the State of New York, in which the then Governor
22
EARLY CHURCHES.
ments of Shrewsbury, Middletown and Piscataway, though nearly contemporary with that of Newark, had no churches till a much later period.
The only organization for divine worship in the English language, which could bear a comparison with this in point of age, is the venerable sister Church of Elizabethtown. But this can furnish no historic proofs of its existence prior to the year 1682, when the Church in Newark had erected and completed its house of wor- ship, and been in full operation with its pastor and other officers-indeed most of the time with two pas-
of the Province, reported to the States- General of Holland, that the inhabitants of Bergen, in the Colony of New Jersey, had consented to be taxed for the building of a house of worship. The document refer- red to is dated A. D. 1663. In 1664, the registers now in possession of the pastor commence. At that date there were nine male and eighteen female members in full communion, whose names are recorded. It is believed to be almost certain that this is the fifth duly organized Reformed Dutch Church in the United States, and the first Christian Church in the present State of New Jersey.
"From 1664 until 1680, the public wor- ship of God was conducted in a log edifice. During the period of sixteen years, the means of grace seem to have been greatly blessed, in which time one hundred and twenty-four were added to the communion of the Church. In 1680 the congregation erected their first church edifice, and the people as before continued to have the preaching of the Gospel and administration of the ordinances, principally by the clergy of the Reformed Dutch Church at New York, whose names are recorded as present when members were admitted to full com- munion. And I have seen a letter dated in 1682, from one of the early pastors of the Church in New York, in which he states the administration of the ordinance of the Supper was always on Monday, the duties
of the pastorate in the city not admitting of Sabbath absences. So that but seldom on the Sabbath could the Word be preach- ed to them. Nevertheless, the stated Sab- bath services were maintained. The clerk of the Church, as he was called, (or the chorister,) read the prayers in the Liturgy of the Church, and some appropriate ser. mon selected for the occasion-of course all in the Dutch language. This system of public service continued for at least eighty-seven years, doubtless because of the difficulty of obtaining a pastor who could preach in the Dutch language, the number of such in the country being very small.
"In 1750, a call was presented to Mr. William Jackson, then prosecuting pre- liminary studies under the direction of Rev. John Frelinghuysen, of Raritan, (now Somerville,) and he was sent to Holland to complete his education, and receive ordi- nation from the Classis of Amsterdam." Then with a true Dutch quietude, hardly surpassed in the best days of the renowned Wouter Van Twiller, did this worthy peo- ple patiently wait four years and three months for their pastor elect, who was greeted by them on his return, and duly installed in Sept. 1757, by a committee appointed by the Classis, ninety-four years after their organization as a Christian Church.
23
CHURCH IN ELIZABETHTOWN.
tors, a senior and a junior-during a period of fifteen years .*
It is true the settlement of Elizabethtown was com- menced somewhat earlier than that of Newark, but it was commenced and carried on in circumstances much less advantageous for the speedy establishment of religious institutions. It must be remembered, that up to the month of August, 1665, only four families, if so many, some say only two,t had found a residence there, and the next accession to their numbers was that of Governor Philip Carteret, and his thirty Eng- lish gentlemen and servants-a company not likely to coalesce readily with the first four in the establishment of Puritan worship and ordinances. It is only nine months after this arrival that we find thirty families, all New England Church-members from the same neighborhood, already settled, and met to devise plans for the carrying on both of civil and ecclesiastical af- fairs, in common with another party of the same char- acter, who were ready to come and join them for the
* The earliest notice of ecclesiastical affairs in Elizabethtown, yet discovered, is to be found in the East Jersey Proprietary Records, viz: that " Rev. Seth Fletcher, minister of the gospel at Elizabethtown," died in the month of August, 1682. His marriage contract with Mrs. Mary Pier- son, of South Hampton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Long Island, is dated May 30, 1681. (Mr. Whitehead.) The next minister, Rev. John Harriman, could not have been settled earlier than 1684.
+ "Four families, if so many," is the expression used in the Bill in Chancery, and the complainants in that bill add, that from "memorials" then recently discov- ered, " they have reason to believe, and do
expressly charge, that no other Christian person whatsoever was settled on any part of the lands in question, than John Ogden and Luke Watson, before Governor Carteret's arrival." (p. 66) This may be regarded as a partizan statement; but the defendants in their reply, without contra- dicting it, content themselves with stating what they have heard and believe took place "at or soon after the arrival of Gov- ernor Carteret." It seems probable, there- fore, that they could point to no memorials proving a more extensive settlement prior to that period. Dr. Murray, in his Notes on Elizabethtown, p. 22, says " there were here but four houses, and those but log huts."
24
CHURCH IN NEWARK.
same purposes, on the banks of the Passaic. Mean- while, however, and probably about the same period with the emigration to Newark, came other companies and individuals in considerable numbers, from the same region, and took up their abode at Elizabeth- town. But these emigrants found the ground there pre-occupied ; and other influences than theirs having already acquired prevalence-influences with which they found themselves in conflict for many years after- wards-they must have been subject to serious embar- rassment in attempting to realize their best religious purposes. The probability that a regularly organized Church could have existed there as soon as in Newark is, therefore, exceedingly small.
It was the good fortune of this community, to have become a Church almost as soon as it became a settle- ment. The settlers were perfectly homogeneous,* both in the beginning and for many years afterwards, and were banded together before they came, for the support of religious institutions. Indeed, the old Church in Branford, organized there twenty years ear- lier, was probably transported bodily, with all its cor- porate privileges and authorities. Its old pastor was conveyed hither at the expense of the town ; its dea- con continued his functions without any signs of re-ap- pointment ;+ its records were transferred, and it im-
* I find but two names among the first company which indicate a different origin from the rest. Robert Dalglesh, or Dou- glass, according to Dr. Macwhorter was a Scotchman, and Hans, Hants, or Hauns Albers, though probably of Dutch extrac- tion, was a settler in Milford, Conn., as
early as 1645. (See list published by Lam- bert, p. 90.)
+ I have no positive proof that Dea- con Ward was a deacon before he came hither, but inter it from the fact that he is so denominated immediately after.
25
ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH.
mediately commenced " Church work," and its pastor was invested with his office and salary on the new spot, without any ceremony of organization or installa- tion. It is true that several of its members were left behind, but they no longer claimed to be a Church ; and hence there was no Church in Branford after the removal, till a new one was organized there several years subsequent .* The settlers who came hither from other towns, probably transferred their ecclesiastical relations to this pre-existing organization, and the Church of Branford being thus transplanted to a new locality, and having received an accession of new con- stituent elements, became, after the example of the Church in Hartford and several others in New England, the First Church of Newark, and thereupon started forth upon a new, and as it since has proved by far the largest portion of its career. This Church may, there- fore, be regarded as having had two beginnings, the first in Branford, in the year 1644, which is its proper organic origin ; and the second, when it became fairly removed to Newark, and its pastor resumed his func- tions here in the beginning of October, 1667.+
* Trumbull's Hist. Conn. vol 1, p. 277. + It is scarcely to be doubted that reli- gious worship was statedly maintained in Newark from the beginning of the settle- ment. The number and character of the settlers sufficiently indicate this. But the disposition of the early Puritans to carry with them wherever they came, "the Church and the godly minister," gives us no sure evidence of the precise date of the organization of their permanent con- gregations. In the old mother Colony of New Haven, the people waited fourteen months, " praying, fasting, inquiring and
debating to get wisdom" for their intended work. Meanwhile, "the town was cast into several private meetings, wherein they that dwelt most together, gave their accounts one to another of God's gracious work upon them, and prayed together, and conferred to mutual edification." See Ba- con's Hist. Disc., p. 19. That the Church in Newark was able to complete its organ- ization so soon after the commencement of the settlement, and so much earlier than its sister Churches in this Province, must doubtless be attributed to the peculiarly favoring circumstances above detailed.
26
ABRAHAM PIERSON, SENIOR.
The first pastor of this Church, as we have already intimated, was the Rev. Abraham Pierson. He was born in Yorkshire, England, graduated at the Univer- sity, of Cambridge, in the year 1632, and having been ordained, as is supposed episcopally,* and preached for some years in his native country, came to Boston in the year 1639, and joined the Church there. In the year 1640, a portion of the inhabitants of Lynn, near Boston, where he seems for a short time to have resided, "finding themselves straitened," as Governor Winthrop represents the case, determined to remove to Long Island, and calling Mr. Pierson to become their minister, they were organized into a Church state before they left Lynn, and after an ineffectual attempt to settle on the west end of the island, removed to the east end, and became the first settlers of the town of Southampton. In the year 1644, being dissatisfied with the annexation of his little Colony to the juris- diction of Connecticut,+ he removed, as I have already said, after a ministry of about four years, with a por- tion of his Church to the town of Branford,¿ and there
* See Dr. Macwhorter's Century Ser. who had been ordained by bishops before mon, p. 8, Trumbull's Hist. Conn., vol. 1, coming to New England, though the va- lidity of their episcopal ordination was not called in question, were subjected to an additional form of setting apart usually denominated ordination, on their taking charge of a Congregational Church. (See Felt's Annals of Salem, p. 574.) p. 280. The following notice of Mr. Pier- son, is taken from a memoir of Hugh Pe- ters, by Joseph B. Felt, published in the New England Hist. and Geneal. Register, April, 1851, p. 233. "November, 1640, he (Peters) attends the formation of a Church at Lynn, composed of individuals who had + Cotton Mather says, "It was after- wards found necessary for this Church to be divided. Upon which occasion Mr. Pierson referring his case to Council, his removal was directed into Branford over the main." (Magnalia Book iii, ch. 8.) emigrated thence and settled on Long Is- land. On the same occasion he takes part in the ordination of Abraham Pierson, as their guide in the spread of Gospel knowl- edge and influence." N. B. There is no contradiction between this statement and + Trumbull's Hist. Conn., vol. 1, p. 148. that given above, since those ministers
27
PIERSON AS MISSIONARY.
uniting with others from the town of Weathersfield, organized a new Church, of which he was the pastor in that place about twenty-three years.
During his residence in Branford, he was distin- guished by his great zeal and success in the instruction and conversion of the native Indians. The Commis- sioners for the United Colonies of New England, a con- federation formed at New Haven in 1643, in co-opera- tion with a society in England incorporated by act of Parliament six years later " for carrying on and promot- ing the Gospel of Christ in New England," were in pur- suit of vigorous measures for this object. Among the missionaries whom they employed, the names of the gentleMayhew and the apostolic Eliot have acquired an almost world-wide renown. To these, that of Abraham Pierson eminently deserves to stand next. What they were in Massachusetts, such was he in the regions of Connecticut. As early as the year 1651, we find him spoken of as studying the language and " continuing with much seriousness therein," that he may the better be able to treat with the ignorant children of the forest " concerning the things of their peace." Shortly after, we hear of him, not only as preaching to the Indians, but preparing a catechism for them in their native language. It was first written in English ; and under date of September 17, 1656, we find the follow- ing notice of it in the proceedings of the Commission- ers for the Colonies: " A letter from Mr. Pierson of Branford, dated the 25th of August, was read; and some part of a catechism by him framed and pro- pounded to convince the Indians by the light of na-
28
INDIAN CATECHISM.
ture and reason that there is only one God who hath made and governed all things, was considered. And the Commissioners advised that it be perfected and turned into the Narragansett or Pequot language, that it may be the better understood by the Indians in all parts of the country ; and for that purpose they spoke with and desired Thomas Stanton"-a young man whom they had trained at Cambridge to fit him for an interpreter in the Indian service-" to advise with Mr. Pierson about a fit season to meet and translate the same." This catechism was designed for the special benefit of the natives of the south-west portions of New England ; Mr. Eliot's, which was prepared a short time earlier, having been intended for those of Massachusetts, whose dialect was somewhat different. It was intended at first to send the manuscript to Eng- land for publication, but on conference with the society there, it was thought best that the work should be done in America. It was printed in the year 1660, by Mr. Green, to whom the Commissioners paid forty pounds for that service. Mr. Pierson had a regular salary for his labors in the Indian department from the Commissioners, in the same manner as Eliot and Mayhew and some others. At first it was £15, then £20, afterwards £30; and it was not till the year but one before he left Branford that we find it " abated," for some cause not given, to £15. The proceedings and correspondence of the Commissioners contain abund- ant evidence of the high estimation which both they and the Society in England entertained of his labors. Twice, in the early part of his course, they made ap-
29
PIERSON'S CHARACTER.
propriations of money to aid him in his preparations for the work; and more than once we find special ap- propriations awarded to him for his extraordinary pains .*
Mr. Pierson's character, both personal and ministe- rial appears to have been of a high order. He exerted no small influence, not only over his own flock, but among the people generally in the Colony of New Haven. The elder Winthrop, a personal acquaintance, and the best of authorities on such a point, pronounces him a "godly learned man." Cotton Mather says of him, " Wherever he came he shone."+ We may perhaps, form some notion of his habits of study from the ex- tent of his library, which appears, from the inventory of his estate still in existence, to have contained four hundred and forty volumes, valued at one hundred pounds, or about one-eighth of his entire estate.}
The salary assigned to this good old man, on his coming to Newark, was ample for the times, and marks
* Hazard's State Papers, vol. ii, pp. 178, 186, 303, 313, 321, 326, 366, 378, 390, 392, 403, 404, 414, 431, 442, 443, 458. Trumbull says, Hist. Conn., vol. 1, p. 464. "The Rev. Mr. Pierson, it seems, learned the Indian language, and preached to the Connecticut Indians. · A considerable sum was allowed him by the Commissioners of the United Colonies," &c. In the year 1653, when an agreement was to be made with the aboriginal inhabitants, "Mr. Pier- son and his Indians were employed as in- terpreters, and Mr. Pierson and John Brocket witnesses to the mutual covenant. (See Bacon's Hist. Disc. p. 347.)
+ Mather's account of him commences thus: "'Tis reported by Pliny, but per- haps 'tis but a Plinyism, that there is a fish called Lucerna, whose tongue doth
shine like a torch. If it be a fable, yet let the tongue of a minister be the moral of that fable. Now such an illuminating tongue was that of our Pierson." (Mag- nalia, B. iii. ch. 8.
# The nett value of his estate, as ap- pears from the inventory at his decease, was £822. When he came to Newark it was estimated at £644, the largest in the company except Robert Treat's, which was £660. The library, with the exception of a few volumes, given as tokens of love to his other sons, was bequeathed at Mr. Pier- son's death, to his eldest son, Abraham Pierson, Jr., and may have contained a portion at least of the volumes afterwards contributed by the latter to found the col- lege at New Haven. (See Trumbull, vol. 1. p. 473.
30
MINISTER'S SALARY.
the pious faithfulness and liberal spirit of the men who brought him here, and still adhered to him to the end of his life. Besides receiving his proportion of the lands as other planters, the sum of eighty pounds was given him the first year for the erection of his house,* together with the expenses of his transportation, and "the dig- ging and finishing of his well;" and thenceforth he was to receive eighty pounds annually, in two semi- annual instalments,t and to be free from all ordinary taxes during life, except the proportion charged on his estate "for ways and drainings in the meadows," and the never-to-be-forgotten Lords' half-penny.}
It would be pleasant, could we summon to our view the persons and characters of the active men who then stood round their aged pastor, and sustained him with their prayers and sympathies, and received the bread of life here at his hands-the men who laid out these
* A house which cost £80, must have try houses, though there were a few built been one of superior elegance as the times of brick or stone. But such houses could not have cost £80. Governor Winthrop's house in New Haven, in 1657, was sold for £100, and "it was one of the best in the town," says Dr. Bacon, " distinguished as it was for 'fair and stately houses.' " were. Samuel Groome, writing from Eliz- abethtown in 1683, says, "The houses at Amboy," viz., three which he had recently built to begin a great city, which was then to be built there, "are thirty feet long and sixteen feet wide; ten feet between joint + Dr. Macwhorter says in his Century Sermon, " The common salary which they allowed their minister, was about £30 a year, and this was frequently raised with great difficulty, and ill paid." This is certainly a mistake, either of the writer or the printer. The smallest salary ever given to a settled pastor, was Mr. Prud- dens, of £50. None of the rest fell short of the sum above named. and joint : a double chimney made with timber and clay, as the manner of the country is to build : will stand in about £50 a house." (Smith's N. J., p. 175. Gawen Lawrie, writing to a friend in Lon- don, says, " A carpenter with a man's own servants, builds a house. They have all materials for nothing except nails. The poorer sort set up a house of two or three rooms after this manner. The walls are # It is added in the agreement, that he is to have "a pound of butter for every milch cow in the town." This has been stated by some as an additional perquisite. But it seems to have been only one of the " species" in which the sum of £80 was to be paid. (Newark Town Records, p. 8.) of cloven timber, about eight or ten inches broad, like planks, set one end to the ground and the other nailed to the rais- ing, which they plaster within." This, we are told by another writer of the same period, was the style of most of the coun-
31
DEACON WARD-JASPER CRANE.
broad streets* and gave us these beautiful parks,t and whose spirit still lives in institutions to which they gave the first impulse. But of most of them, their names and the general spirit of their corporate acts is nearly all that we can rescue from oblivion.
There was Lawrence Ward, the first deacon of the Church-an old man, probably-whose name appears among the original settlers of the town of New Haven, and who came to Newark from Branford with the Church of which he was an officer ; a plain, unpretend- ing man, as I imagine, possessing a moderate estate, and useful to the new Colony in various services requiring trust-worthiness and discretion. He died sometime in the year 1669.
There was Jasper Crane-also an original settler of New Haven, and a member of the Church in Branford -whose name heads the list of subscribers to the Fundamental Agreement, and who figures largely in
* John Barclay and others, (see Smith's that in the rear of them; together with New Jersey, p. 187,) writing to the Pro- that which lyeth in the middle street towards the landing place, and that which lies against Aaron Blatchley's, and John Ward's, and Robert Dalglesh's; which is to be and remain as Town Commons." (Newark Town Records, p 24.) prietors in Scotland, in 1684, says of the towns in this region, "Their streets are . laid out too large, and the sheep in the towns are mostly maintained in them ; they are so large that they need no trouble to pave them." There may have been no N.B. The land before William Camp's, is now a part of the South Park. need once, but times change.
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