USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 11
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to accept of it, and returned it to the commissioner." Im- mediately another call was presented from Cather's (after- wards Thyatira) and Fourth Creek settlements, in North Carolina, for Mr. Spencer, and to this he returned the same unfavorable answer.6 It appears that the same calls were introduced into Synod by the committee for overtures, who also reported a supplication for supplies from the inhabit- ants between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers; "particularly for the removal of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Macwhorter to settle among them;" two other supplications for supplies from Bethel and Poplar Tent, in Mecklenburg county; the same from New Providence and Six-mile Spring; a call for Macwhorter from Hopewell and Centre congregations ; and supplications from Long-lanes, in South Carolina. The Synod proceeded to meet, as far as was in their power, the numerous opportunities opened through their judicious measures, by appointing six ministers to visit North Caro- lina, and each of them to tarry half a year in the most destitute neighborhoods.
Next year Sugar Creek, Fishing Creek, Bethel, the Jersey Settlement, Centre congregation, Poplar Tent, and Rocky River united in a petition "for one or more of the Rev. Messrs. Spencer, Lewis, Macwhorter, and James Caldwell to be sent there, promising that the sum of eighty pounds be paid by any of these congregations in which he shall choose to spend half of his time, and another eighty pounds by the vacant congregations he shall supply." The record proceeds : "This petition being read, the several gentlemen mentioned in it were interrogated whether they would comply with this request, to which each of them returned a negative answer." Petitions for supplies were poured in at the same meeting from various sections of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, but all the Synod could do was to nominate seven ministers to make journeys throughout those districts, as their other engagements would permit.
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In his notes on this mission of the Synod, Mr. Foote, after mentioning that the report of the two deputies has not been preserved, remarks:
"We are not left at a loss for the names of part of the congrega- tions whose bounds they adjusted, as in that (1765) and the succeed- ing year, calls were sent in for pastors from Steele Creek," Providence, Hopewell, Centre, Rocky River, and Poplar Tent, which entirely sur- rounded Sugar Creek, besides those in Rowan and Iredell. These seven congregations were in Mecklenburg, except a part of Centre, which lay in Rowan (now Iredell), and in their extensive bounds com- prehended almost the entire county." "This mission was fulfilled to such entire satisfaction, that these gentlemen were importuned to set- tle in Carolina, and Mr. Macwhorter was ultimately chosen President of the College erected at Charlotte. From the term of this visit we may consider the bounds of the old churches in Orange and Concord Presbyteries as settled, and the sessions as generally duly organized. Previous to this, the settlements acted independently in their religious matters.">
In January, 1765, the Rev. John Rodgers, the pastor at the town of St. George's, Delaware, accepted a call from the first church in the city of New York. Both Mr. Rodgers and the congregation appear to have considered Mr. Spencer as a desirable successor; for in Synod on the 20th of May, 1765, "at the request of the Rev. Mr. Rodgers, and of the congregation of St. George's, Mr. Spencer is appointed to supply that congregation four weeks before Mr. Rodgers removes from them." In the following September, the proper steps having been first taken in the Presbytery of Lancaster, to which St. George's belonged, that congregation and Apoquiminey,8 which was connected with it under Mr. Rodgers, presented their call, and upon Mr. Spencer's expressing his acceptance, he was transferred from New Brunswick to Newcastle-the bounds of Newcastle and Donegal having been changed for a single year, and the names of Lancaster and Carlisle substituted, but the original ones being now restored. On
* Foote: North Carolina, ch. xiv. xxiv.
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the seventh January, 1766, Spencer was received by New- castle, and took his seat, together with Mr. Valentine Dushane as the elder of St. George's. On the seventeenth of the following April he was installed over the united con- gregations.9
Mr. Spencer was one of the witnesses of the serene and happy close of the life of President Finley, which took place in Philadelphia, July 17, 1766. On the day before that event, Mr. Spencer said to him: "I have come to see you confirm by facts the Gospel you have been preaching." In reply to his friend's inquiries, the dying minister said he felt full of triumph: "I triumph through Christ. Nothing clips my wings but the thoughts of my dissolution being prolonged. Oh! that it were to-night! My very soul thirsts for eternal rest." Mr. Spencer asked him what he saw in the future to excite such strong desires. "I see," said he, "the eternal love and goodness of God; I see the fullness of the Mediator. I see the love of Jesus. Oh! to be dissolved, and to be with him! I long to be clothed with the complete righteousness of Christ." At his request Mr. Spencer prayed : "Pray to God," said he, "to preserve me from evil-to keep me from dishonoring his great name in this critical hour, and to support me with his presence in my passage through the valley of the shadow of death."
The Rev. Mr. Dubois, the present Clerk of the Pres- bytery of Newcastle, has kindly furnished me with the an- nexed notes from the books in his charge.
"Between April 16, 1766, and March 22, 1769, there are a number of long minutes, the substance of which is that overtures were made to have the congregations of Drawyers and Pencader10 united with St. George's and the Forest; that the Presbytery seeing that this would require too much labor for one minister, agreed to it on condi- tion that they would procure an associate pastor, to which they all consented. But either a suitable associate could not be found, or the plan did not work well, and accordingly, at the suggestion of Drawyers and Pencader that 'the said union was not for the edification of the
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Church,' and 'the people of St. George's and the Forest making no objection against having said union dissolved,' it was dissolved March 22, 1769.
"The same day-'A petition, by a representative from the Forest congregation, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Spencer, was made to the Presbytery, requesting that they would confirm a line lately drawn between them and the congregation of St. George's, and also give the people of the Forest congregation leave, according to terms stipulated in their subscription for the Rev. Mr. Spencer, to try to raise their subscription, in order to obtain more of the labors of their minister ; the Presbytery grant the petition, so far that the Forest congregation may try their strength, according to said line, and that both they and St. George's lay their subscriptions before this Presbytery at their next meeting, at which time the Presbytery will more fully judge of, and settle the whole affair.'
"This is not referred to again, and seems not to have been done, but soon after comes this minute:
"October 19, 1769. 'The Rev. Elihu Spencer informs the Presbytery that the place where he now lives does not agree with his own and his family's constitution, so that his health has been much impaired, and, should he continue there, is likely to be wholly destroyed; there- fore he is under the disagreeable necessity of requesting a dissolution of his pastoral relation to the congregations of St. George's and the Forest. A commissioner from St. George's agrees with Mr. Spencer respecting the necessity of his request; upon the whole, the Presbytery judge that they have clearness to dissolve Mr. Spencer's pastoral rela- tion to the aforesaid congregations, and hereby do dissolve it.'
"After this he was not present at any of the meetings, and I can find no mention of him, until at a meeting in Philadelphia, during the sessions of the Synod, he was present, and this minute occurs :
"May 16, 1771. 'Mr. Spencer, having removed out of the bounds of this Presbytery into the bounds of the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, requests a dismission from us in order to join them, which is granted.' "
In a Philadelphia newspaper of the day, it is mentioned that Mr. Spencer preached at the funeral of the wife of the Rev. Joseph Montgomery,11 of Kent county, Maryland, March, 1769, in the Presbyterian church, Georgetown.
It was on the eighteenth of October, 1769-the day be- fore his separation from Delaware-that the congregations of Trenton and Maidenhead obtained permission from their Presbytery to call Mr. Spencer; and although he was not
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dismissed by Newcastle, nor received by New Brunswick, until the spring of 1771, he was elected a Trustee of the Trenton church and President of the Board, May 7, 1770. His salary was fixed to begin from October 17, 1769, which was probably the time of his taking charge of the congre- gation.
Until his actual reception in Presbytery he is only "re- quested" to open a subscription for the college in Trenton, Hopewell and Cranbury. After that he is "ordered" to do it. From the year 1752, till his death, Mr. Spencer was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey.12 He was on the committee in the first year of his office to negotiate with the people of Princeton in view of establishing the College there. The short distance between Princeton and Trenton, and his relation to the College, often secured, as in the case of his predecessor, Cowell, and successor, Armstrong, ex- changes of pulpit services. The record of one such visit is preserved in the blessing it was instrumental in bringing to a student who became an eminent minister. This was James Feuilleteau Wilson, who was a member of the Col- lege in 1772, when there was a general awakening on the subject of religion among the students. Wilson for some time decidedly, and even rudely, resisted every effort to draw his attention to his spiritual condition, and was the more averse in consequence of his prejudices as a member of the Church of England. But it was one evening while Mr. Spencer was preaching in the College Hall that his conscience became deeply, and for a time, hopelessly affected. After gaining relief, he became a humble, zealous Christian. Upon his graduation, in 1773, he went to London, where his father resided, intending to take orders in the English Church, but further reflection and inquiry led him to return to Princeton, and to the study of theology under Dr. With- erspoon. After the interruption of his course by the war, during part of which time he studied and practiced medi- cine, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Orange, and
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became pastor of Fourth Creek (the church established by Mr. Spencer ) and Concord, in North Carolina. He died in 1804. Two of his sons were in the ministry .*
* Foote's North Carolina, chap. xxv.
CHAPTER XII.
DR. SPENCER'S CONGREGATION.
1769-1773.
The town and country congregations of Trenton still preserved their union. The people of Maidenhead had their distinct corporation, but shared the services of the same pastor with Trenton. Each of the Trenton houses had its own spiritual officers. Thus May 6, 1771, Samuel Hill and Ebenezer Cowell were chosen "Elders for the town;" Jacob Carle, John Howell, and Timothy Hendrickson, "for the old house," and Benjamin Smith "a deacon for Tren- ton." The Trustees acted for both. Thus, at the meeting just mentioned, it was "ordered by the Board that the Treasurer pay eight pounds out of the interest due on the fifty pounds left to the congregation by the Rev. Mr. Cowell, deceased, to the Rev. Mr. Spencer, to make up the Old House subscription for the year 1770, and that the members belonging to Trenton meeting-house have liberty to apply the like sum out of the interest aforesaid, on the like occasion."
The subjoined document will show the relation in which Mr. Spencer stood to the three congregations. The signa- tures will serve to record the names of the heads of the families in the town charge as they existed in November, 1769, and a few years afterwards.
"Whereas it is mutually agreed between the townships of Trenton and Maidenhead, to raise one hundred and fifty pounds as the annual salary of the Rev. Mr. Elihu Spencer, during such time as he shall be and remain as their settled minister, and to preach one Sabbath in
(139)
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the town meeting-house, one Sabbath in Maidenhead meeting-house, and every third Sabbath at the old house in the upper part of the township of Trenton, and so to continue one third part of the time at each meeting-house; and whereas, the congregation belonging to each of the meeting-houses aforesaid, have agreed to raise by way of subscription, the sum of fifty pounds, as their part and share of the annual salary aforesaid, we, the subscribers, being desirous to en- courage and support the ministry of the Gospel, and as members of, and belonging to the meeting-house in the town-spot of Trenton, do hereby severally promise and engage to pay unto the Trustees of the Presbyterian congregation of Trenton the sums by us herein respec- tively subscribed ; to be paid half-yearly, in two equal payments during each and every year the said Mr. Spencer shall be and remain their settled minister, and preach alternately one third part of his time at each house as aforesaid. In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands with the several sums subscribed this eighteenth day of November, Anno Dom., 1769:
Samuel Tucker,
Godfrey Wimer,
Alexander Chambers,
Lott Dunbar,
Benjamin Smith,
Hugh Campbell,
John Chambers,
John Reeder,
Ebenezer Cowell.
William Von Veghter,
William Tucker,
Samuel Anderson,
Benjamin Yard,
Richard Howell,
Elijah Bond, William Bryant,
James Mathis, William Pidgeon,
A. [Abigail] Coxe,
Archibald Wm. Yard,
George Creed, (June, 1770,)
David Pinkerton,
R. L. Hooper, (Sept. 1770,)
James Paxton,
Jeremiah Anderson,
Abraham Cottnam,
Samuel Hill,1
Hezekiah Howell,
Robert Singer, (Sept., 1771,)
Isaac Decow, Micajah How,
John Courtnay, (1771,)
Mrs. [Jean] Cumines,
John Chambers, Jr.,
Dunlap Adams,
John Ely,
Joseph Higbee,
Lewis Case,
Hannah Merseilles,
Abraham Hunt, (1772,)
Isaac Pearson, (1770,)
Joseph Clunn,
Daniel Coxe,
Andrew Wilson,
John Wigton, David Bright,
John James,
John Clunn,
Henry Drake,
Isaac Smith,
Craghead Ryle, (1773,)
Hugh Runyon,
Samuel Bellerjeau, Richard Collier,
Job Moore, (1770,)
Benjamin Woolsey,
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Richard Tennent,
James Ashmoor,
William Reeder,
John Fitch,
Samuel Ellis,
Mrs. Livesey,
James Wilson,
Joseph Brittain,
William Smith,
Samuel Henry,
Robert Booth,
Andrew Reed,
Elizabeth Bell,
John Yard,
George Brown,
Stephen Lowrey."
The Trustees at the date of this agreement were Charles Clark, Alexander Chambers, Abraham Hunt, Joseph Reed, Jr., Samuel Tucker, Obadiah Howell, and Daniel Clark.
Of the names thus brought before us, which have not already been the subject of notice, I proceed to give such particulars as I have been able to find, and as are consistent with the general purpose.
JACOB CARLE (elder in 1771) died on his farm in 1800. He left sons, John and Israel; a grandson, Jacob; daugh- ters, Hannah, wife of Aaron Vancleve, and Elizabeth, wife of John Van Mater. In a minute of the Trustees, March 31, 1787, it was "agreed that Mr. Jacob Carle, or his son, Captain Israel Carle, attend Mr. Armstrong to the Presby- tery." In the church porch is a stone marking the death of Eliza, wife of Israel Carle, March 12, 1790, aged 29 years. Carle is a Huguenot name; Jean Carle was minister of the French Protestant church in the city of New York in 1763 .*
BENJAMIN SMITH'S name will be commemorated in a future chapter.
EBENEZER COWELL was a brother of the pastor, and his residuary legatee.2 He was chosen an elder for the town church, May 6, 1771. In 1782-4 he was a member of the "Committee of the West Jersey Proprietors," with Joseph Reed, Jr., Jonathan D. Sergeant, Clement Biddle, and Daniel Ellis. He died May 4, 1799. His wife, Sarah, died in 1774. His children were John, Ebenezer, Joseph,
* Documentary History, vol. iii. p. 489.
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Robert, Eunice, and Sarah (Bowlsby). The eldest of these was a physician, and died in 1789. A "Robert Cowell" died very suddenly, July 5, 1808; and a "Joseph Cowell" died September 30, 1808, aged 63; and at Broadway, Warren county, July 30, 1829, died, "Eunice Cowell, at an advanced age, formerly of Trenton."
WILLIAM TUCKER was brother of Samuel Tucker, the trustee, and died January 16, 1790, aged 55. His wife's name was Mercy; his sons William and Ellet; his daughter Mary, who was married to James B. Machett, a native of Trenton, and a member of the congregation. Mrs. Machett died at St. Charles, Missouri, July 20, 1833, in her 7Ist year; Mr. Machett, at the same place, August 1, 1833, in his 80th year.
ELIJAH BOND was probably an Episcopalian, but one of a number who had pews in the Presbyterian Church as well as their own.3 By his will, proved in 1786, he bequeathed five hundred pounds to St. Michael's Church, the interest of which was to be paid to the minister, in addition to his salary, provided one should be appointed and should offici- ate within seven years after his decease.
In the Trenton Gazette of June, 1784, Elijah Bond ad- vertises at public sale a farm on which Major William Trent had lately resided, within two miles of Trenton, and containing about seven hundred acres. This property is in the vicinity of Lamberton, and was purchased by Barnt De Klyn, and in November, 1785, the mansion was destroyed by fire. It is not much out of place in this connection to mention that Mr. De Klyn, who was a member of our church, was of a Huguenot family, born in Boston, October 31, 1745, and died on his farm, September 1, 1824. A daughter of Mr. De Klyn-the widow of General John Beatty-is among the living members of our church.4 In October, 1857, this venerable lady, "as a memorial of love to this church," presented a valuable silver flagon, inherited
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from her parents, which, according to her desire, the session accepted for the use of the communion table, and to be kept without alteration.
WILLIAM BRYANT was a physician, and in his more ad- vanced years, associated with him in practice the well- remembered Dr. Belleville.5 Dr. Bryant was a son of Captain William Bryant, of Perth Amboy, whose tomb- stone in that town records that he made fifty-five voyages between New York and London, and died in 1772, at the age of 88. His wife survived him. "It is presumed," says Mr. Whitehead, "that they left two children-one son, Dr. William Bryant, who was living at Trenton in 1776, and thence supplied his mother's wants; and one daughter, Mary, who crossed the Atlantic with her father in early life, and resided some time in London, where she became acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Watts, under whose instruc- tions she received those religious impressions which in after life 'brought forth fruit abundantly,' being eminent for her piety and benevolence. She became the wife of the Hon. Wm. Peartree Smith, of New York, and subsequently of New Jersey-a scholar and a Christian."*
ARCHIBALD WILLIAM YARD was one of the sons of Joseph Yard, the Trustee. He died March 8, 1810, at the age of 78. BENJAMIN, another subscriber, was Joseph's brother.
Mrs. ABIGAIL COXE and DANIEL COXE were of the family of that name which was one of the earliest and most re- spectable among the large land-owners. Their more im- mediate membership was with the Church of England, and their loyalty to the mother country survived the Revolu- tion. In the case of Coxe vs. Gulick, in 1829, it was con- tended that on the third July, 1776, Daniel Coxe, resid- ing in Trenton, was a subject of Great Britain, that he with- drew from the State in 1777, at the time of his decease lived
* History of Perth Amboy, p. 145.
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under the British Government, and never acknowledged allegiance to New Jersey .*
DAVID PINKERTON6 is supposed to have died in 1781, leaving a family of children named David, Jane, Ann, John, Samuel, Joseph, William and Mary, to whom, with his wife, he bequeathed his "shop-goods, cows and horses," dwelling house and lot, "with my two orchard lots and meadow lot, and my little farm where Joseph Roberts lives. * I thus take my leave of a troublesome world." The witnesses of his will were three of his co-signers in the congregation- Howe, Moore and Woolsey. Another of them, Decow, was an executor, and a fifth, Paxton, was the Surrogate before whom it was brought to probate. Mr. Pinkerton's son and namesake was a clerk in the Trenton Bank, and is remembered for his passion for fishing in the Delaware after bank hours. The only stone in our yard that bears the name of Pinkerton is that of a child (John) who died February 9, 1769. In August, 1794, there was a John Pinkerton, Jr., "intending shortly to remove to Philadel- phia."
JOSEPH PAXTON was the Surrogate just named. In the portico of the church are memorials of Paxtons, namely, Joseph Paxton, who died September 15, 1750; aged 48. (The Rev. Mr. Cowell was one of his executors.) Jane Paxton, June I, 1768; 27 years. Children of Paxtons 1747-8.
ABRAHAM COTTNAM was a magistrate. In April, 1778, his executors (Robert Hoops, his son-in-law, and George Cottnam, his son) advertise for the recovery of his dockets, taken from the office of Ebenezer Cowell, Esq., when the enemy were in Trenton. They offer for sale what had probably been the testator's residence, "Dowsdale, near Trenton, on the Hopewell road." His will, which was
* Halsted's Reports, v. 328. Sabine's American Loyalists, p. 232. Whitehead's. Perth Amboy, p. 201. Field's Provincial Courts, p. 185.
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proved in February, 1776, directs his body to be "laid in Trenton church yard, as near to my first wife and children as may be convenient, with as little expense as possible, consistent with decency." Robert Lettis Hooper and Benjamin Smith were two of the witnesses of his will, and Hon. Daniel Coxe was an executor. He desired and entreated his friend, William Pidgeon, Esq., to assist the executors with his advice. His wife was a daughter of Joseph Warrell, Sr.7 He gave to his son, Warrell Cottnam, all his law books, including those which he claimed under the will of Joseph Warrell, Esq., the elder, and to the same "his mother's family-pedigree roll by her mother's side, being of the Bradshaw family."
The senior Warrell here alluded to, was Attorney-General in the administration of Governor Morris, and died in 1758. He left his own pedigree-roll to his son; his wife's to Mrs. Cottnam. David Cowell and Peter Kemble were witnesses to the will.
Joseph Warrell, Jr., died in Trenton in 1775. His will directed that his body be buried as near as possible to his parents, in the Trenton church yard, but if he should hap- pen to die a considerable distance from Trenton, "I will that by no means my estate shall be put to the expense of a conveyance thither." His grave is in our ground, near the church, and is thus inscribed :
"In the memory of Joseph Warrell, Esq., who departed this life March 6th, 1775; aged 36 years. This stone is erected, not from pomp, or pageantry, but from true affection.
"For other thoughts employ the widowed wife; The best of husbands, loved in private life,
Bids her with tears to raise this humble stone, That holds his ashes, and expects her own."
HEZEKIAH HOWELL. "An aged and respectable inhabi- tant," of this name, died October 15, 1800.
ISAAC DECOW was for a time the High Sheriff of Hunter- don.8 Isaac Decow, Alderman, died June, 1795, and was IO PRĘS
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buried in the Friends' Meeting ground. Perhaps it was an ancestor of the family, of whom Dr. Franklin's Auto- biography makes mention, when he says that among the principal people of New Jersey, with whom he made ac- quaintance in 1727, when he was printing paper money for the Province, was "Isaac Decow, the Surveyor-General, a shrewd, sagacious old man, who told me that he began for himself when young by wheeling clay for the brickmakers, learned to write after he was of age, carried the chain for surveyors, who taught him surveying, and he had now by his industry acquired a good estate; 'and,' said he, 'I foresee that you will soon work this man [Keimer] out of his business, and make a fortune in it at Philadel- phia.' He had then not the least intimation of my intention to set up there or anywhere."
MICAJAH How was the second who bore the name of the old prophet. The first, a shoemaker, died in 1740, who had a son Samuel, and a kinsman, Israel Hewlings. Of this family was the Rev. Thomas Yardley How,9 for a time Rector of Grace Church (Episcopal), New York, who had a share in the celebrated church controversy with Hobart, Linn, Beasley, Mason, Miller and others in the early part of the present century. The Trenton newspaper of January 14, 1799, announces the death of Micajah How, Esq., formerly Sheriff of the county of Hunterdon, and one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. In July, 1807, Dr. William Innesly, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, was married to "Mary, daughter of the late Micajah How, Esq., of this place." January I, 1831, died, "Mary, wife of Dr. Inslee, and daughter of Micajah How, Esq., deceased, formerly of Trenton."
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