History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 54

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 54
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 54

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Such is a mere outline sketch of his early life till the time of his settlement over this church. A few weeks after his installation (Feb. 5, 1805) he married Henrietta, daughter of Shepard Kollock, and sister of his predecessor in the pastoral office. Dr. Hat- field makes the following remarks respecting his min- istry :

" In the faithful and laborious discharge of the duties of his office as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of this town he continued for a period of twenty-eight and a half years, greatly favored of God and honored of man. The sttendance on his mioistrations steadily increased until it reached the full capacity of the church edifice; so that in Feb- ruary, 1820, treasures were adopted for the gathering of a Second Pres- byterian Church. The number added to his church during his minis- try on profession of faith was 921, and on certificate 223; in all 1144. The baptisme Quoibered 1498, of whom 282 were adults. This marked success in his work was brought about by repeated outpourings of the holy spirit upon the congregation. The most remarkable of these sea" eoos were the years 1807-8, 1813, 1817, and 1826. In 1808 the additions to the church by professiou were 111 ; in 1813, the year of hostility, 100; in 1817, 167: and in 1826, 138. Other sexsone of refreshing but not 80 general were enjoyed, adding to the church, on profession, in 1820, 59 ; and in 1831, 44. The number of communicants in 1804 was 207; in 1820 660.

" In the year 1818 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred upon him by the University of North Carolina and by Union Col lege. He was in high repute, both as a preacher and an author. As a trustee of the College of New Jersey, and as a director of the theologi- cal seminary at Princeton, he rendered the most important services to the canse of education and of religion. Calls were extended to him at different times during his ministry in this town from the Collegiate Re- formed Dutch Church and the Wall Street Presbyterian Church, both of the city of New York, and from the Presbyterian Church of Princeton, N. J. Overtures were made to him, also, from other quarters, but were not entertained. He was chosen a professor in the theological seminary at Allegheny, l'a., and in the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia. He was also appointed secretary of the Board of Missions.

" In pastoral labors he ranked among the most useful ministers of the church. Every portion of his extensive charge was regularly visited at set seasone every year; Bildle classes, embracing a very large proportion of the youth in his congregation, were regularly tanght. Sunday- echoola were introduced in 1814-16 and vigorously conducted, while all the benevolent operations of the church found in him an earnest and powerful advocate." 2

1 Hatfield'e Elizabeth, p. 610.

2 Dr. McDowell died in Philadelphia, Feb. 13, 1863. See Sprague's Memoir.

REV. NICHOLAS MURRAY .- The pastorate left va- cant by the removal of Dr. McDowell in May, 1833, was almost immediately supplied by the Rev. Nich- olas Murray, who was installed June 23, 1833, and remained until Jan. 1, 1861, a period of nearly twenty- eight years.

He was born in County Westmeath, Ireland, Dec. 25, 1802, his parents being Roman Catholics, pos- sessed of considerable means. But he determined to emigrate to this country and leave the inheritance to his brother, and accordingly embarked, arriving in New York in 1818 with only twelve dollars in his pocket. He first found employment at the printing- house of the Harpers, and was soon induced to listen to the preaching of Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, who cured him of his popery, and he became a proba- tioner in the Methodist Church, and soon after a member of Dr. Gardiner Spring's (Presbyterian) church. Here he soon developed gifts which led some of his friends to urge upon him a preparation for the ministry ; and he began his study of the lan- gnages in the winter of 1821-22, but soon after (as a beneficiary of Dr. Spring's church) entered the acad- emy under Gen. Hallock, at Amherst, Mass., and in the autumn of 1822 the freshman class of Williams College. He graduated under the presidency of Rev. E. D. Griffith, D.D., in 1826.

It is related that after first entering college Mr. Murray's style of writing was very stilted, and that Dr. Griffith took occasion to correct him in his own peculiar and effective manner. Criticising a composition of Murray's full of high-flown rhetoric, the doctor, reading sentence after sentence, would ask, " What do you mean by that, Murray?" The blushing author would say he meant so and so, giving his answer in plain and vigorous English. " Well, say 80, Murray," was the doctor's reply, as he would draw his pen through the turgid sentences, erasing a good share of the words. Murray in after- life said that that criticism made him a writer. It taught him that if he had anything to say to say it in a plain, natural, and simple manner, using only such words and figures as would appropriately clothe his thought. It is needless to say that he became the master of a very pure and vigorons style, and that few men of his time excelled him as writers. He be- came most widely known by a series of twelve essays on popery with the signature of "Kirwan," which appeared in the columns of the New York Observer from Feb. 6 to May 8, 1847. They were addressed to Bishop Hughes, and were published directly after in book form with an immense circulation here and beyond the Atlantic. A second series followed, com- mencing with Oct. 2, 1847. A sermon on the " De- cline of Popery and its Causes," preached " in reply to Bishop Hughes," Jan. 15, 1851, in the Broadway Tabernacle of New York, was published widely. Having revisited his native land and extended his travels to Rome in 1851, on his return he published a

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THE CITY OF ELIZABETH.

series of letters entitled " Romanism at Home," ad- the national church in the colonies. "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" had recently been incorporated, and their first mis- 1 sionaries to America, George Keith and John Talbot, had been appointed and sent out. Keith had been dressed to Chief Justice Taney, which appeared in 1852. His other publications were " Parish and other Pencilings," "The Happy Home," "Men and Things as I saw them in Europe," "Preachers and Preach- ing," and some other pamphlets. Concerning his |in America, and from 1685 to 1688 had been surveyor- ministry here Dr. Hatfield says,,

" He commanded the respect and reverence not only of his own peo- ple but of the whole town. In the Presbytery his influence was second to none. His counsels were highly valued also in the Synod and Gen- eral Assembly of the latter, of which he was chosen moderator in 1849. In the conflicts that resulted in the division of the Presbyterian Church in 1837-38 he took an active part, and cast his lot with the Old School portion, carrying his church and Presbytery with him. Large acces- sions of converts, particularly in 1834, 1836, 1842-43, and 1858, attested the faithfulness of his ministry. His labors resulted io a steady growth of the congregation in oumbera and effectiveness, so that at the close of his ministry he could say, Jan. 1, 1861, ' A glorious meeting in the First Church to-day. The first time in all its history it was declared out of debt with a balance in the treasury, with a yearly income to meet all its expenditures, and about four thousand dollars in funds for the poor and to keep the graveyard in repair .. "

Notwithstanding he received repeated and urgent calls to many large and influential churches in the chief cities of the Union he uniformly declined, " preferring to live and die among his own people, greatly to their satisfaction and delight." He died suddenly on the morning of the 4th of February, 1861, of what was pronounced acute rheumatism of the heart, having been attacked in robust health on Friday, February 1st. The whole community was deeply affected by the event, and at the time of his funeral all business in the city was suspended. 1

REV. EVERARD KEMPERSHALL, the present pas- tor of the church, was installed Sept. 18, 1861. He was formerly pastor at Buffalo and Batavia, N. Y. During his ministry, now of twenty years' standing, large accessions have been made to the membership, and the church is enjoying a high degree of pros- perity.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE CITY OF ELIZABETH .- (('ontinued.)

St. John's Church (Protestant Episcopal) .- In the second year of the reign of Queen Anne, Lord Cornbury was sent to the province of New Jersey as royal Governor. Among the instructions which he received was the following in respect to matters of religion :

"You shall take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your Government, the Book of Common Prayer as by Law established read each Sunday and Holy-day, and the Blessed Sacrament administered according to the Rites of the Church of Eng. land." 2

It is altogether probable that the Governor received this instruction in accordance with a plan which had just been set on foot in England for the extension of

general of East Jersey. He was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, born in 1638, and, although brought up a Presbyterian, became a preacher among the Quakers on his return to England. His commanding abilities and scientific attainments (bred as he was at the Uni- versity of Aberdeen ) gave him great influence among the Quakers, and made him the leader of the ortho- dox party among them. In 1700 he left them, and was ordained a priest by the Bishop of London. He returned to America in June, 1702, and traveled ex- tensively for nearly two years, principally among his old friends. Here in this town and its vicinity he had numerous acquaintances, and of course it was not difficult to gather for him an audience among his old neighbors and friends. At the house of Andrew Craig, a fellow-Scotchman (with whom probably he had been acquainted at home before they came to America in 1682), he was hospitably entertained, and there, Friday, Nov. 3, 1703, he preached from 2 Pet. i. 5, on the Christian graces. On the same occasion he baptized the four children of Mr. Craig. The next day, he says, " I baptized the children of Andrew Hemton [Hampton], eight in number. He and his wife are come over from Quakerism to the Church. And November 3d I baptized seven children of a widow woman there." At the end of six weeks he returned, and at the invitation of Col. Townley per- formed divine service at his house twice on Sunday, December 19th.

This was the first occasion, doubtless, of a separate service of public worship on the Sabbath since the set- tlement of the town, a period of thirty-nine years. (Governor Carteret, as Dankers informs us, went "often to New York and generally to Church." Others may have done the same.) It must have been quite a trial to Mr. Harriman and his people to have a rival interest in the town. But the establish- ment of an Episcopal Church was a foregone conclu- sion. The Governor, Lord Cornbury, had just been holding his first General Assembly for four weeks at Amboy, and had certainly prepared the way for such a movement in the several towns of the province. On the previous Sunday (the 12th), and on Christmas- day following, Keith preached at Amboy; on the 12th " at my Lord Cornbury's lodgings, where he was present." 3

It was about the winter of 1705-6 that the first Episcopal congregation of this town was gathered, and the foundations of St. John's Church laid. This

1 See Memoir of Dr. Murray by Rev. S. Treoaus Prime, D.D. Also Dr. Sprague's Sermon.

2 Leaming and Spicer, p. 638. Smith's N. J., p. 252.

3 Humphrey's S. P. G. F., pp. 4-15, 24, 34, 75. Whitehead's P. Amboy, pp. 16-21, 211-12. Sprague's Annals, v. 25-30. Clark's St. John's, pp. 15-16. N. Y. Col. Docmts., iv. 1021. Keitb's Journal, in P. Ep. Hist. Suc. Coll., i. 44, 45. Dankers' Journal, p. 346.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

work was principally effected by their first minister, the

REV. JOHN BROOKE .- No record appears of his early life. He is believed to have been the John Brooke who took his Bachelor's degree at Emmanuel College,1 Cambridge, in 1700, and his Master's degree in 1704. Having been admitted to orders in the Church of England, he was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts one of their missionaries to America. About four weeks after his arrival he wrote as follows, Aug. 20, 1705 :

" I arrived safe io East New Jersey July 15, and thence went to my Lord Cornbury, our Governor, who, after he had perused your letter, advised me to settle at Elizabeth Town aud Perth Amboy. There are five Independent Ministers in and about the places I preach at, and the grentest part of the people are followers of them. But I question not (thro' God's blessing), but if you please to permit me to have only Eliza- beth Town, Amby, and the adjacent Towns under my care, and to allow me enough to subsist upon without depending upon the People, that I shall gain a considerable Congregation in a very few years. As for those that are of the Church of England already, their number is very inconsiderable, and I expect nothing from them for some years seeing they are like to be at au extraordinary charge in buikling of a Church at each place.

The erection of St. John's appears to have been undertaken about a year later ; for Mr. Brooke writes, Oct. 11, 1706, "I laid the foundation of a Brick church at Elizabeth Town on St. John the Baptist's day, whose name it bears. It is fifty feet long, thirty wide, and twenty-one high,-it hath nine windows,- one in the East end, ten foot wide and fifteen high, two in each side, six foot wide and ten high, and four ovals-of the East window, one in the west end, and one over each door, which are near the west end. The church is now covering, and I hope to preach in it in six weeks or two months. Wee shall only get the outside of our church up this year, and I am afraid it will be a year or two ntore before we can finish the inside, for I find these hard times a great many very backward to pay their subscriptions." Col. Richard Townley gave the ground for the church and burial-place, and the edifice was erected chiefly through his care and diligence.2

The manner in which the society got along before the church was ready for occupancy is shown in the following extract from a letter of Mr. Brooke, dated Oct. 11, 1706, in which he also alludes to the Rev. Mr. Harriman, who died suddenly of apoplexy, as hay- ing been struck with death for his opposition to Epis- copacy, a superstition which even a good man at that day might have sincerely entertained :

"Col. Townley's houss (wherein I preacht at first) in half a year's time grew too little for my congregation, and the best place we could get to meet in was a barn, which in harvest we were obliged to relin- quish, wherenpon the Disseuters, who presently after I came were des- titule of their old teachers (one of them being struck with death in their meeting-house as he was railing against the church, and the other being at Buston), would not suffer me upon my request to officiate in their meeting-house unless I would promies not to read any of the prayers of the church, which I complied with upon condition I wight read the !

1 Founded in 1584.

2 Clark's St. John's, p. 26. Prot. Ep. Ilist. Coll., i. 70.

psalme, lessons, epistle, and gospel appointed for the day, which I did and said all the rest of the service by heart, the doing of which brought a great many to hear ms who otherwise, probably, would never have heard the service of the church, and (through God's blessing) hath taken away their prejudice to such a degree as that they have invited me to preach in their meeting-house till our church be built. Their teacher begins at eight in the morning and ends at ten, and then our service begins, and in the afternoon we begin to at two. The greatest part of the Dissenters generally stay to hear all our service."

Mr. Hatfield says, referring to this letter, " The early hour at which public worship was held, eight o'clock A.M., deserves notice. This must have been an established custom. It is not probable that they gave up their ordinary hours of service to accommo- date a rival interest." In any view the old church manifested a generous spirit towards their Episcopal neighbors in sharing their sanctuary with them as they did for some time.

Mr. Brooke seemed to have labored very conscien- tiously and diligently in his vocation. He performed no small amount of missionary work. "Upon my arrival here," he says, " instead of a body of church people to maintain me, I only met with a small hand- full, the most of which could hardly maintain them- selves, much less build churches or maintain me. Upon which, being almost discouraged to find the church had got so little footing in these parts, I re- solved heartily and sincerely to endeavor to promote her so much as in my power, in order to which 1 began to preach, catechize, and expound twelve, fourteen, sometimes fifteen days per month (which I still do), and on other days to visit the people, through which means, by the blessing of God, my congregations in- creased everywhere, so that I found very great neces- sity for churches."

Towards the building of five churches and printing a tract he contributed fifty pounds, and besides he says, --

" It hath cost wie above £10 in riding about the Provinces of New York and Pennsylvania, and this to get subscriptions. I could not have given near so much out of your £100 per annum had not I bren very well stocked with cloaths I brought from England and had had some Dioney of my own. For I ride so much I'm obliged to keep two horses, which coet me £20, and one horse cannot be kept well under £10 or £1I per annum. 'Twill cost a man near £30 per annum to board here, and sure 'twill cost me much more who, pilgrim-like, can scarce ever be three days together at a place. All cloathing here is twice as dear at least as 'tis in England, and riding so much makes me wear out many more than I ever did before. The Ferries which I've frequently to cross, and everything else I've occasion for here, are very chargeable, and I've nothing to defray all my charges but what I receive from your Society ; neither can I expect anything from my people before their churches be finished. To ask anything [from them] yet would be a means to deter peuple from joyning with me, and would be looked upon as offensive. I've so many places to take care of that I've scarce any time to study ; neither can I supply any of them so well us they should be. I humbly beg, therefore, you'll be pleased to send a minister to take the charge of Elizabeth Town aml Rahway upou him, nud I'll take all the cars I can of the rest." 3

The secretary of the society, Rev. Dr. Humphreys, said of him,-

" Mr. Brook need exceeding diligence in his cure, and was pleased to find the best of all sorts of people coming over to the Church of Eng- lund. He exerted himself and at times used to perform Divine service

3 Clark's St. John's, pp. 20-22.

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THE CITY OF ELIZABETH.

at seven places, fifty miles in extent, namely, at Elizabethtown, Rahway, Perth Amboy, Cheesequnkes, Piscataway, Rock Hill, and in a congrega- tion at Page's. This duty was very difficult and laborious."1

The ministry of Mr. Brooke came to an abrupt ter- mination in November, 1707. The Rev. Thorowgood Moore, of Burlington, had, by his faithful rebuke of Lord Cornbury's disgusting immoralities, drawn upon himself the wrath of the Governor, by whom he was arrested and imprisoned at New York. . Mr. Brooke deeply sympathized with his afflicted brother, and when in prison visited him. Mr. Moore escaping, and Mr. Brooke being sought for by the enraged Gov- ernor, they resolved to proceed to London, and lay their grievances before the proper authorities at home. They embarked at Marblehead, Mass., in November, 1707, for England, but the vessel was lost at sea, and all on board perished.2

Mr. Brooke seems to have been greatly esteemed and much lamented. The Rev. Mr. Talbot says of him and Mr. Moore, they are " the most pious and industrious missionaries that ever the honorable So- ciety sent over." "Honest Elias Neau," as Col. Morris called him, said of them, they

" Were assuredly au honor to the mission, and labored with much vigor for the enlargement of the Kingdom of our glorious Redeemer, aud we may say, without prejudice to the rest, that they were the glory of all the missionaries the illustrious Society has sent over hither. The purity and candor of their manners preached as efficaciously as their mouthe, insomuch that we cannot sufficiently lament the loss of these two good servante of God, whose crime was for opposiog and condemu- ing boldly vice and immorality."

His people, years afterwards, spoke of him as their " worthy and never to be forgotten pastor, whose labors afforded them universal satisfaction." 3

He left a widow, the younger of the two daughters of Capt. Christopher Billop, whose residence and large plantation at the southern extremity of Staten Island gave to it the name of Billop's Point, which it still retains. Subsequently she became the wife of the Rev. William Skinner, of Amboy, but died with- out issue.

After the departure of the Rev. Mr. Brooke for England, November, 1707, the church was without a minister for nearly two years, being supplied occa- sionally by the Rev. John Talbot, of Burlington. At length, in the summer of 1709, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel appointed and sent out the

REV. EDWARD VAUGHAN, who arrived in the autumn and commenced his ministry. He was from the west of England, and a brother of the Rev. Robert Vaughan, rector of Llantewy and vicar of Llantris- sent, Monmouthshire, Wales, and of Jane, the wife of Thomas Godden, of Leather Lane, near Holborn, London. His prospects were by no means flattering. Writing from Amboy, Dec. 4, 1709, he says,-

"I believe that the most inveterate enemies of our mother church would recant their pernicious notions were there a faithful pastor iu every town to instill better principles into their minds; here are a vast unumber of Deists, Sabbatarians, and Eutychians, as also of Independ- ants, Anabaptists, and Quakers, from which absurdities Mr. Brooke brought a considerable number of them to embrace our most pure and holy Religion, and I hope that my labors also will be attended with no less success, end observe that those late converts are much more zealous for promoting the interests of our church, and more constant in the public worship of God, than those who sucked their milk in their in- fancy."

Referring to the decease, in August, 1709, of the Rev. Mr. Urquhart, of Jamaica, he adds,-

" Whose cure 7 have l een solicited to supply, Unt declined it in obedi- ence to the Society'e instructions, whose leave and approbation for my removal to that cure I umust humbly beg for these following reasons : Ist. That there is not one family in Elizabeth Town that can accommo- date me with an ordinary lodging excepting Colonel Townly, who, upon the account of some difference with Mr. Brooke (though a gentleman of an unblemished character), hath declared never to entertain any mis- sionary after him. Secondly. That my salary of £30 per annum will not afford me a competent subsistence in this dear place where no con- tributions are given by the people towards my support, and where i nm continually obliged to be itinerant and consequently at great expenses, especially in crossing Ferries."+

Mr. Vaughan seems not to have obtained the de- sired leave, but proceeded to cultivate diligently the field assigned him. At the expiration of a year, Dec. 4, 1710, he informs the secretary t 1 &t

" These people have not contributed anything towards my subsistence since I came amoogst them, sod, indeed, to desire it from them, or to show an inclination for it, would very much tend to the die-service of the Church, in causing our proselytes to start from us rather tbau bear the weight of such hurthens, which to their weak shoulders and poverty Would seem intolerable. I frequently visit the Dissenters of all sorts in their houses, and I experimentally find that an affable even temper with the force of arguments is very prevalent to engage their affections and conformity to holy mother the Church, which I do assure you is considerably increased by late converts from Quakerismi and Anabap- tismn."5

It is mainly from this periodical report to the so- ciety that his life and labors are to be sketched. He writes, Sept. 12, 1711, a few months after the decease of Col. Richard Townley (the main pillar of St. John's at that early period), as follows :

" I presch to them in the fore and afternoou of every Lord's day, and administer the blessed Sacrament monthly to twenty-eight or thirty communicants. I have baptized since my arrival to this government seventy-two children, besides eleven adult persons, unfortunately brought up in dark Quakerisol and Anabaptism, and are now so happy as to be members of the Church of Christ, whose worship they constantly fre- queut with great devotion and seeming delight." 6

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 54

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224