USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 10
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* Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution.
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Council of Pennsylvania." In 1767 he was Deputy Secre- tary of the Colony of New Jersey .* He was also (1777) elected Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, but declined the office. Mr. Reed was born at Trenton, August 27, 1741. Of his father, Andrew Reed, who was one of the original Corporators and Trustees, I have already made mention. Joseph Reed graduated at Princeton, in 1757; studied law with Richard Stockton, and was admitted to the bar in 1763. He then went to London, and prosecuted his pro- fessional studies in the Middle Temple, until 1765, when he returned and commenced practice in Trenton. Accord- ing to a letter of 1766, his family in Trenton, at that time, consisted of himself, his father, sister, two brothers, his half-sister (Mrs. Charles Pettit), and her three children. In the same year he writes: "There are sixteen courts which I am obliged to attend from home, oftentimes near a whole week at each, besides attending the assizes once a year through the whole province, which contains thirteen counties." His dwelling, according to an advertisement of the property, in 1779, was near the market-house, hav- ing nearly two acres of ground attached to it, extending two hundred feet on Market street, and commanding a beautiful view of the Delaware, including the Falls.
In 1770, Mr. Reed re-visited London, and was married to a daughter of Denys de Berdt, after which he took up his residence in Philadelphia, and his public life thence- forward was identified with his adopted State.1
Mr. Reed was a Trustee of the congregation from 1766 to 1769. On his removal to Philadelphia, he attended the Pine Street (third Presbyterian) Church. His biographer says: He "was firmly attached to the Presbyterian Church,
* Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, by his grandson William B. Reed, 2 vols., 1847. Memoir of the same, by Professor Henry Reed, in Sparks' Ameri- can Biography, vol. viii. The Life of Esther de Berdt [Mrs. Joseph Reed], by W. B. Reed; privately printed. Colonel Reed's commission is in "Documents, Colonial History of New Jersey," 1886, vol. x., pp. 5, 6.
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in which he had been educated." In one of his publications, he said of it: "When I am convinced of its errors, or ashamed of its character, I may perhaps change it; till then I shall not blush at a connection with a people, who, in this great controversy, are not second to any in vigorous exertions and general contributions, and to whom we are so eminently indebted for our deliverance from the thraldom of Great Britain."
In the Pennsylvania Packet of April 22, 1779, is an address, presented to President Reed, from the officers of the Scots' Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, applauding his administration. The Pine Street congregation, for whom Mr. Reed had acted as counsel, in settling a differ- ence about property with the Market Street, or First Church, presented him with a pew. It was to the pastor of Pine Street, that the direction of Mr. Reed's will re- ferred in saying: "If I am of consequence enough for a funeral sermon, I desire it may be preached by my old friend and instructor, Mr. Duffield, in Arch street, the next Sunday after my funeral."
When John Adams was attending Congress in Philadel- phia, he often attended the Arch and Pine Street churches with Mr. Reed. Thus in his diary of 1774: "September IO [which was Saturday, and preparatory to the com- munion], rambled in the evening with Jo. Reed, and fell into Mr. Sproat's meeting [Arch street], where we heard Mr. Spence preach. September II. Mr. Reed was so kind as to wait on us to Mr. Sproat's meeting." "October 24, 1775. Heard Mr. Smith, of Pequea. This was at Duffield's meeting." Mr. Adams pronounced Sproat to be "totally destitute of the genius and eloquence of Duffield."*
Colonel Reed was with General Cadwalader's division when Washington crossed the Delaware, in 1777. In 1782
* Life and Works of John Adams, vol. ii. In 1777, Mr. Adams boarded with the family of Mr. Sproat.
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he was one of the professional representatives of Pennsyl- vania, before the Commissioners of Congress, who met at Trenton to decide the dispute between that State and Con- necticut, in regard to the Wyoming lands.2 In one of his letters he writes of having received a letter "under cover of Mr. Spencer," then the pastor at Trenton. He was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey from 1781 until his death. In 1783, visiting England for his health, he was associated with Dr. Witherspoon, who went out in the same vessel, on a mission to obtain subscriptions for the College abroad. He died in Philadelphia, March 5, 1785.3
SAMUEL TUCKER served in the Trusteeship from 1766 to 1788, and for most of the time was Clerk of the Board. He held many public stations. He had been Sheriff of Hunterdon, and when as a member of the Provincial As- sembly of 1769 he took an active part in the investigation of alleged professional abuses of lawyers, there was a re- crimination in regard to his own fee bills as Sheriff .* He was President of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. which sat in Trenton from October 4 to 28, 1775, and officially signed the Constitution which it framed, July 2, 1776. On the 4th September of that great year, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court. He was also for a time Treasurer of the new State, and in that relation there will be occasion to introduce his name hereafter. In 1776 he was Chairman of the Provincial Committee of Safety,4 but in the subsequent panic he took advantage of the offer of British protection .; Perhaps some of this weakness was attributable to the family connection of Mr. Tucker-his wife being an English lady. It is said that Mr. Tucker and John Hart (afterwards a signer of the Declaration) were competitors for the Assembly, in 1768; Tucker was supported by the Episcopalians, Methodists and
* Field's Provincial Courts of New Jersey, p. 169.
t Journal of Assembly of New Jersey, Dec. 17, 1777. Sedgwick's Life of Gov. ernor Livingston, p. 194.
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Baptists ; Hart by the Presbyterians. "During the first and second days of election, Hart was ahead, but on the third, one Judge Brae, coming up with a strong reserve of Church of England men, secured Tucker's return."*
Mr. Tucker died in 1789. By his will he left fifty pounds to "the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church of Trenton and Lamberton," as it is named in the will, to distinguish the town from the country church; the interest was to be paid annually "to the minister, to attend divine service in the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, towards his support." He left thirty pounds to the Episcopal Church. His will made judicious provision for the emancipation of his slaves, either immediate or at a conditional time; as, upon learning a trade, adding a legacy of money to that of liberty.
Mrs. Tucker's maiden name was Gould.5 In 1766 she inherited from Elizabeth Gould, of Exeter, Devonshire, some property, which, by her own will, in 1787, she be- queathed to her nieces, White and Murgatroyd.
Mr. and Mrs. Tucker were buried in the old grave-yard described already as lying inclosed but desolate, in the midst of cultivated fields. The two large stones that cover their graves are the only ones in the little inclosure that remain unmutilated. The inscriptions are as follows :
I. "Underneath this stone lie the remains of SAMUEL TUCKER, EsQ., who departed this life, the 14th day of January, 1789, aged 67 years, 3 months, and 19 days.
"Though in the dust I lay my head, Yet, gracious God, thou wilt not leave My soul forever with the dead, Nor lose thy children in the grave."
2. "In memory of ELIZABETH TUCKER, the wife of Samuel Tucker, Esq., of Trenton, and daughter of James and Ann Gould, who departed this life on Sunday, the 13th day of May, 1787, aged 57 years, 8 months, and 14 days.
* Sedgwick's Livingstone, p. 143.
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"This life's a dream, an empty show, But the bright world to which I go Hath joys substantial and sincere; When shall I wake and find me there? Then burst the chains with sweet surprise. And in my Saviour's image rise."
At the meeting of Presbytery, in the fall of the year in which Mr. Kirkpatrick left Trenton, the congregation ap- plied for supplies, "and in particular for the Rev. Mr. Mc- Knight, in case of his dismission from his present charge which, they inform us, they have heard is probable." This was the Rev. Charles McKnight, who was the pastor of Allentown, but who at the same meeting was, at his request, dismissed from that charge. At that time, also, a call for him was presented from Shrewsbury, Shark River and Middletown Point, which he subsequently accepted.
The people next turned their attention to Mr. Jonathan Edwards, son of the eminent President of Princeton Col- lege, and himself afterwards distinguished as President of Union College, at Schenectady. Mr. Edwards graduated at Princeton after his father's death, and in 1767 was em- ployed there as tutor. He had been licensed by the Litch- field Congregational Association in 1766, but in April, 1767, he applied to be taken under the care of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, which was done, and among the vacancies assigned to him was Trenton, which he was directed to supply for three Sabbaths. On the 20th October, 1767, a call was brought for him from the congregation. As Mr. Edwards was not present, the matter was deferred, but "in the meantime the Presbytery cannot help expressing their pleasure to see such a harmony among said people in the call aforesaid, and that they have exerted themselves so far for the support of the Gospel; and we assure said people we will concur with them in their prosecution of said call; and we appoint Mr. Edwards, to supply at Trenton as much as he can do, till our spring Presbytery."
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The exertion, for which the people are commended, refers to a subscription for the support of the pastor-elect, which accompanied the call, and the lack of which-added, per- haps, to the want of the same unanimity in the people-had been the main cause of preventing the installment of their late minister. The application, however, was ineffectual, and on the 19th April, 1768, the entry is :
"Mr. Edwards, having been chosen a Professor of Languages, etc., in the College of New Jersey, and being now employed as a tutor there, could not see it to be his duty to break his connections with the college aforesaid; and therefore, as he would not accept the call from Trenton, it was returned."8
The College was often looked to for ministers. Just before calling Mr. Edwards, Trenton was one of three vacant congregations that applied for Mr. James Thomp- son, a recent licentiate, to supply them statedly, "but Mr. Thompson's connections with the College of New Jersey as a tutor so embarrass him that it appears inexpedient to the Presbytery to lay him under any positive appointment, but only recommend it to him to supply as much as he can at these places, at discretion." (Minute of June 23, 1767.)
In the year 1769 the two congregations of Trenton united with the Maidenhead congregation in an arrangement by which one pastor could serve the three societies. There must have been some strong necessity, financial or other- wise, for a measure that would reduce the share of each congregation from one-half of a minister's care to one- third. The first evidence of the union is in a minute of October 18:
"A petition was brought into the Presbytery, from the congrega- tions of Trenton and Maidenhead, signed by the respective elders, requesting them to invite the Reverend Mr. Spencer, a member of the Presbytery of Newcastle, to settle among them; which the Presbytery unanimously complied with."
CHAPTER XI.
THE REVEREND ELIHU SPENCER, D.D .- HIS PREVIOUS HISTORY.
1721-1769.
ELIHU SPENCER, thus introduced into our history, was a son of Isaac and Mary (Selden) Spencer, and was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, February 12, 1721. He entered Yale College in 1742, and commenced Bachelor of Arts in 1746, in the class with President Stiles and John Brainerd. The families of Spencer and Brainerd were doubly con- nected, for Hannah Spencer, a sister of Dr. Spencer's grand- father, was the grandmother of David and John Brainerd; and their sister, Martha Brainerd, was the wife of General Joseph Spencer, brother of Elihu. In the Life of David Brainerd, President Edwards relates that when David was on his deathbed, his youngest brother, Israel, came to see him; "but this meeting," he says, "was attended with sor- row, as his brother brought him the sorrowful tidings of his sister Spencer's death at Haddam.1 A peculiarly tender affection and much religious intimacy had long subsisted between Mr. Brainerd and his sister, and he used to make her house his home whenever he went to Haddam, his native place."
Mr. Spencer had entered college with the design of preparation for the ministry, and soon after his licensure he was chosen by the American Correspondents, or Com- missioners, of the Scottish Society for propagating the Gospel in New England and parts adjacent, as a suitable missionary to the Indian tribes. At this time David Brain-
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erd was the most prominent evangelist among the Indians, and it was partly owing to his favorable opinion that young Spencer was engaged for the same work. Under date of September, 1747, in the Life of Brainerd, it is said that, "Brainerd having now, with much deliberation, considered the subject referred to him by the Commissioners, wrote them about this time, recommending two young gentlemen of his acquaintance, Mr. Elihu Spencer, of East Haddam, and Mr. Job Strong, of Northampton, as suitable mission- aries to the Six Nations.2 The Commissioners on the receipt of this letter, cheerfully and unanimously agreed to accept of and employ the persons whom he had recom- mended."
But upon David's death, in 1747, his brother John be- came the principal agent of the Society, and it was with him that Mr. Spencer and Mr. Job Strong spent a winter (1748) in studying Indian languages, and otherwise avail- ing themselves of the Brainerd experience. Jonathan Ed- wards was himself an active friend of the Indians, and after his removal from Northampton, in 1750, accepted, at the same time, a call to the church at Stockbridge, and an appointment of the Boston Commissioners as missionary to the Indians living in that part of Massachusetts Bay. Spencer passed a summer with Edwards, and accompanied him to Albany to witness a treaty with the aborigines, many of whom spent their winters about Stockbridge, and the rest of the year near Schoharie, beyond Albany. What it was to travel from Stockbridge to Albany a century ago, may be learned from the Rev. Gideon Hawley's nar- rative of such a journey in 1753 .* Mr. Hawley was a teacher and minister of the Indians, under Edwards' in- structions, and says of the great metaphysician: "To In- dians he was a very plain and practical preacher; upon no
* In Massachusetts Historical Collections, and in the Documentary History of New York (vol. iii, p. 1033).
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occasion did he display any metaphysical knowledge in the pulpit."
Thus prepared, Spencer was ordained in Boston, Sep- tember 14, 1748, and went to the Oneida tribe-the chief of the Six Nations of the Mohawks, or Iroquois. His sta- tion was at Onoquaqua (afterwards Unadilla), at the head of the Susquehannah, one hundred and seventy miles south- west of Albany, and one hundred and thirty beyond any white settlement. One of the results of his mission was a vocabulary of the Oneida language, which he prepared. Hawley says he "could not surmount the obstacles he met with." These obstacles are indefinitely described elsewhere, as difficulties connected with his interpreter, and other causes frustrating his usefulness. He soon withdrew from the mission, and going to Elizabethtown he received a call from the Presbyterian Church left vacant by the death of President Dickinson. Having accepted the call he was re- ceived by the Presbytery of New York, and installed Feb- ruary 7th, 1749. Recording that date in his family Bible, he writes: "This day was installed E. Spencer, and took the great charge (onus humeris angelorum formidandum) of the ministry in Elizabethtown; ætatis suæ 28. The Lord help me." Mr. Spencer gave part of his time to Shrewsbury. In 1848 two men were living in that town, one in his ninety-seventh, the other in his eighty-ninth year, who remembered Mr. Spencer, and showed the house he occupied on his visits .* He took his place in Synod, Sep- tember, 1750, at their meeting at Newark, and was placed on a committee of five for drafting proposals for a reunion with the Synod of Philadelphia. He was often on the commission for the interim. In 1753 he was on a commit- tee to settle difficulties in what was then our only church
* Letter of the Rev. Rufus Taylor, of Shrewsbury, to the Rev. Dr. Miller. In October, 1750, Mr. Spencer was married to a daughter of John Eaton, of Eatontown, in the neighborhood of Shrewsbury.
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in the city of New York; the subject of discord being the introduction of Watts's Psalms the use of anthems, and prayer at burials .* In 1753, Spencer was appointed to take his part in supplying Mr. Tennent's pulpit in Philadelphia, during his absence in Europe for the College, the Synod directing at the same time that, "Mr. Spencer's congrega- tion be supplied in his absence the whole of the time, at the request of his excellency, the Governor" (Belcher).
When Mr. Davies was preparing for his voyage with Tennent, in September, 1753, he saw much of Spencer. After passing a night at his house in Elizabethtown, and proceeding the next day to Newark, Davies writes in his journal: "The Governor insisted that I should preach for Mr. Spencer next Sunday come se'nnight, that he might have an opportunity of hearing me." On the following Saturday he "sailed to Elizabethtown: was pleased with the company of my brother Mr. Spencer, and Mr. James Brown." The next day Davies preached; and on Tuesday returned to Philadelphia to meet the Synod, in company with Messrs. Spencer, Brainerd and Brown, "and spent the time in pleasing conversation, principally on the affairs of the Indians."
At the Synod of October, 1755, various petitions having been presented from North Carolina, "setting forth their distressing circumstances for want of a preached Gospel among them," the Synod resolved to extend what relief was in their power, and appointed Mr. Spencer with Mr. John Brainerd to take a journey thither before winter, and supply the vacant congregations for six months, or as long as they should think necessary. This is a specimen of the manner in which Synods then exercised their authority over settled ministers, and of the manner in which congregations yielded to the necessity which called for the missionary
* See "Alexander Cumming," in Dr. Sprague's Annals, vol. i. 462. "Records," Sept. 26, 1754.
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services of their pastors. No objection from any of these quarters prevented a compliance with the Synod's direc- tion; the entry of September, 1756, being that "the diffi- culties and dangers of the times rendered it in a great degree impracticable for Messrs. Spencer and Brainerd to answer the end of their appointment to the southward, and for that reason said appointments were not fulfilled." The difficulties were those which arose from the French and Indian incursions. At the same session "the Synod agree that an address be prepared and presented to Lord Loudoun, Commander-in-Chief of all His Majesty's forces in North America, and they do appoint Messrs. Aaron Burr, Elihu Spencer, David Bostwick, and Caleb Smith, or some one of them, to prepare and present it, in the name of this Synod, on the first proper opportunity."
In 1756 Mr. Spencer was released from Elizabethtown, having accepted an invitation from the church at Jamaica, Long Island, in the Presbytery of Suffolk, vacant by the removal of Mr. Bostwick to New York. After a ministry of about two years there, as stated supply, he embraced an offer from Governor Delancey, of New York, of a chaplaincy to the troops of the Province then detailing for the French war. The Synod made provision for the Jamaica pulpit, "in case Mr. Spencer shall go out as chap- lain with the New York forces."3 I do not know the nature or duration of his services in this connection, but "Jamaica, July 2, 1759," is the date of a published letter of his to Dr. (afterwards President) Ezra Stiles, on "the state of the dissenting interest in the Middle Colonies of America ;" and "Shrewsbury, November 3," of the same year, is the date of a postscript added to it. In May, 1761, he was received by the Presbytery of New Brunswick from the Suffolk Presbytery,4 and was clerk at another meeting in the same month in Princeton, and in August in Trenton. In October he was appointed to supply three Sabbaths at
9 PRES
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Amboy Southward, Middletown Point, and neighboring places; in April, 1762, the same places, "as much as he can;" in October, 1762, and May, 1763, one-fourth of his time at South Amboy; and in April, 1764, four Sabbaths along the seashore towards Egg Harbor.
The day on which the Synod of New York provided for Mr. Spencer's absence with the army (May 27, 1758), was the last but one of the separation or schism. The two bodies assembled in Philadelphia, May 29, and constituted "The Synod of New York and Philadelphia." The num- ber of our ministers in all the Colonies was then nearly one hundred. Mr. Spencer first appeared in the new organiza- tion in May of the next year, when he was again put on the Synodal Commission. In the session of 1761 he was Moderator, and was added by the house to a committee ap- pointed to devise means for obtaining funds to support John Brainerd in his Indian mission. As has been already stated in the notice of his predecessor, it was Mr. Kirkpatrick who reported an overture from this committee, upon which it was determined to raise one hundred and fifty pounds for the maintenance of Mr. Brainerd another year. Mr. Spencer opened the sessions of 1762, in the First Church, Philadelphia, with a sermon from Acts 20: 28. The matter of the Rev. Mr. Harker's heretical opinions, the issue of which has been mentioned in the course of our notice of Mr. Kirkpatrick, came before this meeting, in consequence of Harker's having, "without the approbation of the Synod, printed a book containing his principles," and Mr. Spencer was first on a committee to examine and report on the pub- lication, which was next year condemned.
We have seen that Dr. Macwhorter was associated with Mr. Kirkpatrick in college; that they were candidates and licentiates together, and with Mr. Latta were commissioned to itinerate in Virginia and North Carolina.5 The same excellent man was also connected with Mr. Spencer on
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another important mission. The Synod meeting in Eliza- bethtown in May, 1764, learning that many congregations in the South, particularly in North Carolina, needed a proper organization, deputed Messrs. Spencer and Mac- whorter to visit that region, as general overseers and coun- sellors for the welfare of the Church. They were to form and regulate congregations, adjust their bounds, ordain elders, administer the sacraments, instruct the people in discipline, direct them how to obtain the stated ministry, and do all things which their inchoate or feeble condition required; not failing to assure the people everywhere of the Synod's interest in them, as the highest judicatory of the Church, and its readiness to do all in its power for their assistance. Under the date of May 16, 1765, we have the Synod's record as follows: "Messrs. Spencer and Mac- whorter fulfilled their mission to the southward. Mr. Macwhorter's pulpit was supplied during his absence, and the Presbytery of Brunswick were satisfied with the care taken to supply Mr. Spencer's people." Mr. Macwhorter contracted a disease during this journey, from which he did not fully recover for two years. A journal of this apostolic tour would be of great interest and value. The influence of two ministers of such piety, prudence, and talents must have been as happy as it was welcome. The effects of their visit are partly developed in the proceedings of their Pres- byteries and Synod after their return. In Synod a commit- tee, at the head of which were Doctors Alison and Finley, were appointed to converse with the two missionaries, not only with reference to their expenses, which Synod had assumed, but "for the settlement of Gospel ministers in Carolina." At a meeting held by the Presbytery during the same session of Synod at which they made their report a call was presented for Mr. Spencer from the people of Hawfields, Eno, and Little Run, in North Carolina; but "upon the whole he declared he could not see his way clear
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