USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 14
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Dr. Spencer preached at the opening of Presbytery at Freehold, October 21, 1783. He was present in that court for the last time, in Pennington, June 15, 1784, when he was appointed to preach at the ordination and installment of Mr. William Boyd, at Bedminster, on the nineteenth October. This proved to be within a few weeks of his de- cease, but his failure to take the part assigned to him was not owing to his final illness, for that was an inflammatory fever of a few days' continuance. He died December 27, 1784, in the full support of the Christian hope. His re- mains lie on the western side of the church yard under a tomb inscribed as follows :
"Beneath this stone lies the body of the REV. ELIHU SPENCER, D.D., Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, and one of the Trus- tees of the College of New Jersey, who departed this life on the twenty-seventh of December, 1784, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
"Possessed of fine genius, of great vivacity, of eminent and active piety, his merits as a minister and as a man stand above the reach of flattery.
"Having long edified the Church by his talents and example, and finished his course with joy, he fell asleep full of faith, and waiting for the hope of all saints.
"MRS. JOANNA SPENCER,
"Relict of the above, died November Ist, 1791, aged sixty-three years.
"From her many virtues she lived beloved and died lamented. The cheerful patience with which she bore a painful and tedious disease threw a lustre on the last scenes of her life, and evinces that with true piety death loses its terrors."
The late Dr. Miller declares that the eulogy of Spencer's epitaph is not exaggerated :
"His piety was ardent, his manners polished, attractive, and full of engaging vivacity; his public spirit and activity in doing good inde- fatigable, and his character as a preacher singularly prompt, popular, and impressive. To all this may be added that in the various relations of life he was peculiarly amiable, exemplary, and beloved."
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The venerable father who wrote these sentences was con- nected by marriage with Dr. Spencer's family; for the widow of Dr. Miller is the granddaughter of Dr. Spencer. by the marriage of the Hon. Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant to Margaret Spencer. The late Hon. John Sergeant, the Hon. Thomas Sergeant, and the late Elihu Spencer Ser- geant, Esq., of Philadelphia, were children of the same marriage. Dr. Spencer's ancestors came from England to Massachusetts early in the seventeenth century. Of the five brothers who established the family there, one was a forefather of the late Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer, of New York; from another brother was descended, in the seventh generation, the late. Rev. Ichabod Smith Spencer, D.D., of Brooklyn; and General Joseph Spencer, whose name often occurs in the Revolutionary history, was an elder brother of our pastor.
Dr. Spencer bequeathed to his five surviving daughters, and the children of a deceased one, three thousand acres of land in Saltash, Vermont,6 and to his son, John Eaton, one thousand acres in Woodstock, Vermont. There still remains in the possession of his descendants a lot of ground in the city of Trenton, which has in the lapse of time be- come more valuable than all the Vermont acres.
NOTES. I.
GOVERNOR WILLIAM LIVINGSTON resided three years in Trenton, and was, undoubtedly, a regular attendant on Dr. Spencer's ministry. His previous life had brought him into prominence as an ecclesiastical con- trovertist. His ancestors were of the Dutch Church in New York, but the Governor had early united with the party which, for the sake of having English preaching, had merged into the Presbyterians. The dispute, which arose in 1751, between the adherents of the Church of England and the other churches in reference, at first, to the claims of the former to have the College (then King's now Columbia,) which was founded in that year, under their control, was warmly espoused by Mr. Livingston in defense of those who were threatened with exclu-
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sion. He wrote largely and vehemently for his side in "The Inde- pendent Reflector" and "The Watch-tower." He entered into the sub- sequent controversy on the attempt to establish the English episcopacy in America, and in 1768 published a letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, which was reprinted in London. His opposition, it should be noted, was not to the liberty of any church, but to the proposal to establish a particular denomination in the Colonies, as in England, Mr. Liv- ingston must have departed from his habits in those days, if he were not punctual in his pew at Trenton; for, according to his biographer : "Actively engaged during the week, in discharging the duties of a laborious profession, [the law,] or in an angry warfare in defense of his civil and religious rights, three times on every Sabbath, surrounded by his numerous family, he went up to that church, [Wall Street,] formerly contemned and oppressed, but for which his exertions had procured respect ; of which he was one of the brightest ornaments and chief supports."
In his first address to the Legislature, as Governor, (September 13, 1776,) Mr. Livingston had used the expression, "setting our faces like a flint against that dissoluteness of manners and political corruption which will ever be the reproach of any people." From this phrase and the religious tone of the whole passage, the Governor was for some time nicknamed "Doctor Flint." This gave rise to an amusing con- tretemps at a dinner-table in New York, when Fisher Ames, addressing Livingston, said unconsciously: "Doctor Flint, is the town of Trenton well or ill-disposed to the new Constitution?"t
II.
In December, 1783, died DAVID COWELL, M.D., who has been men- tioned in a previous chapter as a student in Princeton College at the time of the death of his uncle, the pastor, who bequeathed him an annuity of twenty pounds for three years. Upon his graduation, in 1763, he studied medicine in Philadelphia, took his degree and came to Trenton, where he practiced until his death. For two years he was senior physician and surgeon in military hospitals. Dr. Cowell undertook to draft an outline of his will while suffering under an attack of quinsy, and within a few hours of its fatal termination. Unable to articulate, he hastened to make a rough outline of his inten- tions, which he doubtless hoped to have had put into form by another hand; but he was compelled, by the force of the disease, to have the paper copied in the incomplete terms in which he had drawn it. It began : "I, Doctor David Cowell, being of sound judgment, but not able to talk much." One of the first items was, "my negro man, Adam,
* Sedgwick's Memoir of Livingston, chap. iv.
+ Sedgwick, chap. vii.
12 PRES
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and the whole affair to the Presbyterian Congregation." In equally brief and informal phrases stood a hundred pounds to "the Grammar School in Trenton"-the same amount to the College of New Jersey, and "to the Congress of the United States of America, one hundred pounds, if they settle themselves at Lamberton." He appointed Major William Trent one of his executors, and made John Trent, probably a son of the Major, his residuary legatee. As he drew towards the close of his painful task he throws in a hurried remark: "Had not I been on many public matters, it's likely I should had a more particular will before this time." By the time the copy was ready for his signa- ture, he must have felt unable to write, for it was subscribed by his "mark." But having the pen in hand, he seems to have made a last effort, and having made the customary cross between his Christian and surname, scribbled the incoherent or illegible sentence: "But I believe I am not quite so clear to me as my own D. C. our connection is now dissolved." Ebenezer Cowell, Jr., entered a caveat against the probate of the will, but after taking evidence, the Surrogate admitted it. The documents of the Trustees do not discover whether the legacy of the negro became available. "The whole affair" appended to it was probably a law-point; for in the New Jersey Gazette of 1780, there are inserted, first, an advertisement by Dr. Cowell, of a negro man to be sold, or exchanged for a boy; and immediately under it, another, cau- tioning all persons against making any such purchase or exchange, as the man was entitled to his freedom, and ending with an expression of his hope for
"That freedom, justice, and protection which I am entitled to by the laws of the State, although I am a negro.
"ADAM."
These missives are followed by the Doctor, with a denial of Adam's averment; and this by a rejoinder in Adam's name, which in turn is answered by Cowell, who alleges that the negro is acting under the instigation of two very respectable citizens, whom he names.
The New Jersey Gazette of the week announces Dr. Cowell's death as having taken place early in the morning of December 18, 1783, and his burial on the following day, in the Presbyterian church-yard, at- tended by the "Trustees, tutors, and students of the Academy in pro- cession, and a very large concourse of respectable inhabitants." An ad- dress was made at the grave by the Rev. Dr. Spencer. After men- tioning the legacy to the Government, the Gazette adds: "The above is the first legacy we recollect to have been given to the United States, and is respectable for a person of moderate fortune." In the same paper Dr. John Cowell advertises that he has been prevailed upon by the friends of his deceased brother to establish himself in Trenton as a physician. But he had a short time, as his gravestone marks his death "January 30, 1789, in the thirtieth year of his age."7
CHAPTER XV.
THE REV. JAMES FRANCIS ARMSTRONG-PREVIOUS HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
1750-1790.
Dr. Spencer's successor in the Trenton churches was the Rev. James Francis Armstrong, and the history of his pastorate will be introduced by a sketch of his previous life.
Mr. Armstrong was born in West Nottingham, Mary- land, April 3, 1750. His father, Francis Armstrong, was an elder of the church in that place. Part of his education was received at Pequea, but his chief training was at the celebrated school founded by the Rev. Samuel Blair, at Fagg's Manor, or New Londonderry, Chester county, Penn- sylvania, where President Davies, Dr. Rodgers, and Dr. Finley had preceded him as pupils. When Mr. Armstrong was in the school it was under the Rev. John Blair, a younger brother of its founder, afterwards chosen as Vice- President and Professor of Theology in Princeton College.
In the autumn of 1771, Armstrong entered the junior class at Princeton, and had the advantage of residing in the family of President Witherspoon. Several of his class- mates are now known from the public stations they were called to fill; such as Governor Henry Lee, of Virginia, Governor Morgan Lewis, of New York, Governor Aaron Ogden, of New Jersey, President Dunlap, of Jefferson College, President Macknight, of Dickinson, President John Blair Smith, of Hampden Sidney and Union, and President William Graham of Liberty Hall (Washington College), Virginia. Aaron Burr, the unworthy son of the Princeton
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President, was one of his contemporaries in college. Mr. Armstrong himself had the ministry in view when he en- tered college, and accordingly, upon his graduation in the autumn of 1773, he commenced a theological course under Dr. Witherspoon. On the sixth June, 1776, he was recog- nized by the Presbytery of New Brunswick as a candidate for the ministry. It was not easy at that period of Ameri- can history for Presbyteries to assemble in full number, and the only members present at this meeting, which was held in Princeton, were President Witherspoon, Rev. William Tennent, Rev. Elihu Spencer, and Mr. Baldwin, an elder of the Princeton Church. The subject assigned for Mr. Armstrong's exegesis was, "De veritate Christianæ relig- ionis," and I Timothy I : 15 the text for a sermon. On the first of the following August, at Amwell, those exercises were heard and sustained. His trials were continued at Basking Ridge in October, when he passed the examination on scholarship and theology, and was directed to prepare a sermon on Romans 12: 2, to be delivered at the next meet- ing, which was appointed to be held in Shrewsbury, in December.1 But great events happened between the June and the December of 1776. According to the minutes, the "appointment could not be fulfilled, as the enemy were on their march through this State." Another minute of the same session (April 23, 1777) postpones the prosecution of a plan for the education of poor and pious youth, on account of "the great difficulties of the times, arising from the ravages of the British army within our bounds." In consequence of this confusion, the regularity of Mr. Arm- strong's progress as a candidate was interrupted, and acting upon the best advice, he was transferred to another Presby- tery, in the manner stated as follows :
"The Presbytery [of New Brunswick] is informed by one of the members present, that in November last, about the time that the British army made an irruption into New Jersey, Dr. Witherspoon
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gave Mr. Armstrong a letter of introduction to the Presbytery of Newcastle, informing them of the progress he had made in his trials, and of the difficulties in the way of the Presbytery's meeting to receive his popular sermon in December last, according to appointment; in consequence of which letter the Presbytery of Newcastle admitted him to finish his trials before them, and licensed him to preach as a candidate for the Gospel ministry."
He received his license as a probationer in January, 1777.2
Even before that date (which was the month of the battle of Princeton ) the war had approached so near the region of his residence, that Mr. Armstrong thought it to be his duty to unite with its armed defenders, and took a musket in a company of volunteers commanded by Peter Gordon, Esq., afterwards an elder with him in the session of the Trenton Church.3 This was, probably, only for an emergency; but he felt that his patriotic ardor could be indulged in a better consistency with his duties as a Christian minister, by serv- ing as a chaplain in the American army. With that view the Newcastle Presbytery admitted him to ordination in January, 1778. When this was reported to the Synod in May, the higher court hesitated about approving an ordina- tion which appeared to be sine titulo, that is, before his be- ing called to some particular charge. The misapprehension arose from the absence of the official records; upon the production of which, in May, 1779 (when Mr. Armstrong took his seat), the Synod made this minute :
"By the report now made by the Newcastle Presbytery, it appears that there was a mistake in the report of last year respecting Mr. Armstrong's ordination; that he was not ordained sine titulo, but in consequence of his having accepted a chaplaincy in the army."
The Newcastle records, as furnished me by their obliging clerk, the Rev. Mr. Dubois, are as follows :
"December 2, 1777, Mr. James Armstrong, a probationer of this Presbytery, being chosen chaplain for General Sullivan's brigade or
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division, applied for ordination to the work of the Gospel ministry, having produced a certificate of his moral conduct from General Sulli- van. The Presbytery, after examining Mr. Armstrong at some length upon experimental and systematic divinity, were satisfied with his answers, and having had a good report of his labors, appointed Mr. Armstrong to deliver a discourse at our next meeting, with a view to his ordination."
The ordination took place at Pequea, the place of his early education, January 14, 1778, and the official record of it gives these particulars :
"Mr. Armstrong having accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, as received in our Church, as the confession of his faith, and the Directory for Discipline, Worship, and Govern- ment as the plan for substance constituted by Christ; and given satis- factory answers respecting his views in entering upon the Gospel ministry, and to other questions, the Presbytery conclude that we have clearness to set him apart to the work of the ministry. And, accord- ingly, after a sermon preached, suitable to the occasion, by the Rev. Mr. Robert Smith, he was solemnly set apart to the Gospel ministry, with fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands. The charge was given by the Rev. Mr. Foster, and Mr. Armstrong now becomes a member of Presbytery, and having received the right-hand of fellowship, takes his seat."
In consequence of the unsettled life into which he was thrown by the duties of the chaplaincy, and by other inci- dents of the state of the country, it was not in Mr. Arm- strong's power to maintain the punctual correspondence with his Presbytery, required of all its members. In 1784 offi- cial inquiry was made of him on this account, and his rea- sons were received as satisfactory. He retained his connec- tion with the Newcastle Presbytery until his dismission to that of New Brunswick, April 26, 1786.
The minute of his appointment appears in the Journal of Congress, of July 17, 1778:
"In consequence of a recommendation, resolved, that the Rev. James Francis Armstrong be appointed chaplain of the Second Brigade. of Maryland forces."
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Before receiving his commission he had accompanied the troops on the Southern campaign, and probably remained in the service until the decisive victory of Yorktown, Octo- ber, 1781. During this period Mr. Armstrong communi- cated to the New Jersey delegates in Congress his observa- tions of current events, and from a few of those addressed to the Hon. Wm. Churchill Houston, I introduce some passages, showing at once a glowing and intelligent interest in the cause of his country, and a strong abhorrence of the evils of the most justifiable war.6
"Wilcock's Iron Works, Deep River, North Carolina, July 8, 1780. We have marched five hundred miles from Philadelphia, ignorant as the Hottentot of the situation or numbers of the enemy. Though it was long known that we were marching to the assistance of the South, not the least provision was made to hasten or encourage our march. Wagons to transport the baggage, and provisions to subsist the troops, have both been wanting. We have for some time depended upon the precarious and cruel practice of impressing horses from post to post. We have also been driven to the disagreeable alternative of permitting the men to murmur and languish for the want of meat, or seizing cattle on the march; not knowing whose property they were unless the owners came to camp to complain of the injury. Horrid war! Heaven's greatest curse to mankind! We are told things will grow better, the further we proceed south; but the hope must be pre- cariously founded which depends upon the complaisance of Gen. Lord Cornwallis. I would not write such plain truths, did you not know that I am not given to despondency; and I have the same providence to call forth my hopes, which exerted itself so miraculously when Howe was in New Jersey."
"River Peedee, Masque's Ferry, August 3, 1780. What the troops, officers, as well as privates have suffered is beyond description. The corporal of Gen. Gist's guard has returned for the second time to-day from the commissary's without being able to draw any provisions, and declares to me that for seven days they have only drawn two days' beef, but not a particle of meal or flour. The eye of the most rigid justice must wink at plunder in such circumstances; and such is the scarcity which reigns upon the Peedee, that provisions cannot be ob- tained even by unjustifiable methods. Apples have been the only support of the troops for several days at a time. Indeed I thought it impossible for human nature to have subsisted so long as I have known it to do upon green fruit. Fortunately green corn has suc-
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ceeded apples, but, without some less precarious and more substantial supplies, the effect must be dreadful. The hopes of final success never forsake me for a moment, but everything discouraging dwells around our little army. We have not much, I believe, to fear from the enemy, but troops must be more or less than men who can long endure what we now suffer."
He wrote as follows of the panic then prevailing in the Southern States, and the injury done to the American cause by the conduct of the militia :
"The march of Howe through Jersey spread not half the terror which has been inspired by our defeats at the South. Those who escaped spread universal terror. All was conquered, ruined, undone! Even the dominion of Virginia must fall! And, by the by, had Clinton entered it with his army, they must have made a temporary submission, at least until our army could have marched to their assistance. We scarcely meet a man who has not taken the oath of allegiance to his majesty of Britain, or given his parole that he would be neuter, and give himself up a prisoner when called upon. The common people of the Carolinas are not to blame. Looking upon every thing as lost, what could they do? The appearance of an army with lenity would, in a short time, have called all such to the American standard, were they not prevented by the militia, who take them prisoners, use them unmercifully, plunder and destroy their effects, and leave their helpless women and children in the utmost distress; so that many of them have left their families and carried off their negroes and cattle, some to the enemy and some to escape the route of our army. We have passed whole neighborhoods deserted by the inhabitants, and the few who remain trembling alive from the horrid accounts which have been spread of our army as a number of banditti, plundering all before them, and hanging forty or fifty at a time of those who had taken the oath to the King: though false, very laughable."
A letter dated at Hillsborough, the headquarters of the army, October 16, 1780, is resumed after a few lines, on the thirty-first of the same month. The explanation of the interval fixes the beginning of the disorder which afflicted Mr. Armstrong during the remainder of his life:
"The blank between the dates has been filled up with the most violent pains through my bones. To what species they belong, I can find no one wise enough to inform me. They have at times been so
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violent, that insensibility by the use of opium has been my only resource for rest. They seem to be pretty well removed, but an attempt to ride on horseback has once or twice brought them back again, which makes me unwilling to renew the experiment until their light flying parties completely take themselves off."
"I am highly delighted," he remarks to his correspondent, "with your sentiments on universal liberty. They have long been mine. I was instructed in them before I could reason."
The last letter of the campaign which is extant, is dated at Charlotte, December 8, 1780, when Gen. Greene had just taken the chief command. In it he says :
"There is not a single department of our army which has, for some time past, maintained the least regularity, unless we are permitted to call it regular confusion. Think then what must be the situation of our present Commander-in-Chief, with few regulars, and those in such circumstances as often to stagger my faith whether desertion be a crime, especially in a person of no more refined sentiments than a soldier of the common level, and with militia whose conduct has been one cause of our common disasters. The want of provision, which lays the foundation for the distressing necessity of permitting the troops often to cater for themselves, has prostrated every idea of discipline, and given the reins to the most licentious conduct. An unremitting supply of food alone can restrain, and in time correct our dangerous manners. General Greene has already taken measures which promise everything. The heads of the Roanoke, Dan, Catawba, and the Rocky river, which have hitherto been considered as useless in the creation, are to transport our provisions from Virginia."
"I have made an observation since I came South which I did not advert to before. The inhabitants of a State necessary for its defense in time of war, or even on a sudden invasion, must treble or quadruple the number immediately necessary for the field. With- out establishing this proportion, when those necessary to cultivate the land, the timorous, the disaffected, and delinquents of all orders, whom it is out of the power of government to bring to the field, are laid aside, no country can defend itself. This appears to me to be the condition of Virginia and North Carolina, unless the blacks are called in to their assistance. I really pity the gentlemen of Virginia, of enlarged and liberal minds. They are as good theoretic politicians as any on the continent; but when they meet in Assembly and make the best laws in the world for the defense of a State, there are not white subjects sufficient in the State for the laws to operate upon.""
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