USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 17
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"Accept, sir, for Mrs. Armstrong, also the assurance of my remem- brance and my mother's. Miss Gobert, Mr. and Mrs. Sigoigne, Adele and Charles are well, and send their love to your dear children.
"Farewell, sir, believe the esteem and perfect consideration with which all my life I shall remain your very humble servant.
"M. WORLOCK.
"My address is Mme. Mme. Worlock, Cape Francais."
VIII.
The Rev. William Frazer, rector of the St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church from 1788 to 1795, kept a boys' school in Trenton for a considerable time. To this school the sons of many prominent families of Burlington, Philadelphia, &c., were sent. Rev. Mr. Frazer, and after him his widow, kept a diary of daily events, in which may be found mention of very many names, incidents and occurrences which illustrate vividly the social life of Trenton during that period.
The Rev. William Frazer was rector or missionary of the Episcopal Church in Amwell, and on July 2, 1787, was engaged by the wardens and vestry of St. Michael's Church in Trenton "to preach at said church every other Sunday, and agreed to give him the rent of the pews in said church, to be collected and paid quarterly." On the fol-
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lowing 8th of December, 1788, Mr. Frazer accepted the position and was formally inducted, the connection of Mr. Armstrong with the Presbyterian Church beginning about the same time, and the two con- gregations, as well as their respective pastors and families, maintain- ing much of religious as well as social fellowship-greatly promoted by the fact that for many years both ministers were absent from Trenton at other settlements, on alternate Sabbaths, and the people were much in the habit of worshipping together. Entries in the diary like the following serve to show something of the intercourse :
February 3, 1788 .- Went to Trenton in two and a half hours. Day before attempted it, but found it too bad and turned back.
February 23 and 24 .- Mr. Armstrong here. (At Amwell.)
December 8 .- Mr. F. inducted into St. Michael's Church, Trenton.
April 3, 1790 .- Mr. Armstrong called here.
September 16, 1792 .- (In Mrs. F.'s hand, Mr. F. being absent.) Went to Mr. Armstrong's church.
September 17 .- Drank tea at Mr. Armstrong's in company with Mrs. Barton and several other ladies.
September 28 .- Went to Presbyterian meeting.
December 13 .- Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, Woodruff, Lowrey, DeCou, Rogers, Reed, drank tea.
December 30 .- Heard Mr. Armstrong preach a Thanksgiving sermon.
March 20, 1794 .- (Mr. F.) Attended the Presbyterian meeting in the morning and preached in the church in the afternoon to a crowded audience.
January I, 1795 .- Went to the Presbyterian meeting.
January II .- Went to Mr. Armstrong's meeting in afternoon.
I have a sermon of Rev. Mr. Frazer's on Affliction, Job 5: 6, 7, with the following note by his widow:
"The last sermon my dearest and ever beloved Mr. Frazer preached in his church in Trenton in the forenoon of the 28th of June, Samuel Stockton, Esq., being buried in the afternoon and a sermon preached on the solemn occasion by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong.
"This sermon was the first object that presented itself to my view as it lay on my dear husband's desk in his study, the first time I entered that room after his death; and which I could not help thinking was put there for my comfort, as it afforded me great consolation, as it appeared to me that although he was taken from me, he yet spoke comfort to my afflicted heart. R. F."
The sermon was preached in St. Michael's Episcopal Church on June 28, 1795 .- See S. D. Alexander's "Princeton in the Eighteenth Century," p. 270.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NEW BRICK CHURCH-NOTES.
1804-1806
The Trenton congregation, which had so long felt obliged to associate itself with one or other of its neighbors for the support of a pastor, at length found itself able to assume an independent position. According to the under- standing which was had with the Maidenhead Church, when Mr. Armstrong divided his care between it and Trenton, he became the exclusive pastor of the latter in October, 1806. About the same time that congregation accomplished the erection of a new house of worship.
The stone building then in use was nearly eighty years old. The want of a better edifice had long been felt. In 1769 there was a subscription for repairs. It was probably with a view to rebuilding or enlargement that the Trustees, in 1773, proposed to the vestry of the Episcopal Church a joint application to the Legislature for a lottery. The vestry appointed a committee of conference on the lottery, "and to be managers thereof,"* but the project seems to have dropped until 1791 (Nov. 18-23) when "an act to empower the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, and the ministers, wardens and vestry of the Episcopal Church in Trenton to have a lottery for the purpose therein noticed," after passing the Council and being ordered to a third reading in the House, was lost. Another experi- ment in this line was attempted in December, 1793, when the Trustees appointed a committee to unite with the Epis-
* Minutes of Vestry of St. Michael's, February 28, 1773.
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copalians in a lottery for the benefit of the two congrega- tions; but nothing further is said on the subject. However unequivocal the immorality of such an expedient may seem to us, the lottery has been a frequent resource of churches, as well as other institutions, even less than sixty years ago. At the same meeting in which the last lottery suggestion was made, Maskell Ewing and Alexander Chambers were appointed "to take about a subscription paper for the pur- pose of raising money to build a new Presbyterian Church in Trenton." In 1796 the price of building materials was so high that the design was abandoned. It was not until May, 1804, that the successful measures were taken. The building was now represented to be "in so ruinous a state that it can not long continue to accommodate those who worship there, in a comfortable manner." The subscription was headed by four names giving two hundred dollars each. By the twenty-fourth August nearly four thousand dollars had been subscribed, and it was determined to build in the ensuing spring. Moore Furman and Aaron D. Woodruff were appointed to obtain a plan; Benj. Smith, John Chambers and Peter Gordon were the Building Com- mittee or "Managers." It was determined that the size should be forty-eight by sixty feet, in the clear ; with a pro- jection or tower in front of four by ten, with a cupola. The four largest contributors were Abraham Hunt, Benj. Smith, Alex. Chambers and Moore Furman.
The corner-stone was laid April 15, 1805; the old house having been first taken down. The newspaper of the time has this report :
"On the fifteenth instant were laid the corner-stones of the founda- tion of a new Presbyterian Church in this city. The Elders, Trustees, and Managers of the building, with a respectable number of the citi- zens attending, an appropriate prayer was made by the Rev. Mr. Arm- strong, minister of the congregation. The scene was solemn, impres- sive, and affecting. A plate of copper, inscribed April, 1805, with the minister's name, was laid between two large stones at the foundation
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of the southeast corner. The foundation, though much more extensive, is laid nearly on the site of the old church, which stood about eighty years."1
While the building was in progress, Mr. Armstrong preached on every alternate Sabbath in the Episcopal Church, the rector of which (Dr. Waddell) had a second charge at Bristol, as Mr. Armstrong had at Maidenhead.
The new church was opened for its sacred uses August 17, 1806. The pastor conducted the services in the morn- ing, and President S. S. Smith in the afternoon.2
The pastor preached from part of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple: I Kings 8: 22, 23, 27-30. At the next public service in which he officiated, he preached on the conduct becoming worshippers in the house of God, from Hebrews 10:25 and Job 13: II. This subject was pursued in a third discourse on public worship as a duty to God, to society, to ourselves. For the services of the dedi- cation, Mr. Armstrong prepared a prayer; and in the be- lief that on its own account, as well as for its historical associations, it will be read with interest and benefit by the people who worship in a house, which, though not the same as the one then dedicated, was included in the refer- ences of its supplications, I here insert it :
PRAYER.
"Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. There is no God like thee in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart. Thou art our God, and we would praise thee; our father's God, and we would exalt thee.
"Thou art the God who hearest prayer. Where shall we go but to thee, who art the way, the truth, and the life?
"We adore thee for all the mercies and benefits which thou hast conferred on us through our lives. But especially we adore thee for the everlasting Gospel, and those gracious privileges to which we are called in thy Church on earth, and in thy Church in heaven. We adore thee that thy Church is founded on the rock Christ Jesus, and that the gates of hell shall never be able to prevail against it. We
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adore thee for the promise of thy presence to thy Church and people, that where two or three are met together in thy name, thou wilt be with them to bless them. We adore thee, O Lord, that when the place where our fathers had long worshipped was decaying with age, and the congregation of thy people needed room and accommodation in thy house, thou didst put it into our hearts to build a house for thy worship and service, and where thy people may meet and enjoy thy presence. We adore thee that thou hast permitted us to meet to set it apart, and dedicate it to the Lord our God by preaching, prayer, and praise.
"And now, O Lord, our God, we thus offer this house to thee; that thy people may here meet for purposes of reading, preaching, and hear- ing thy word; of prayer and praise; of fasting and thanksgiving; of the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, agreeably to the word of God and the constitution of our Church.
"And now, O Lord, make this house continue to be the habitation of the God of Jacob forever; a place where prayer shall be ever made to thee, and where Gospel worship shall be fixed and stated as long as it shall last for this purpose; and that there never may fail a people and a congregation to worship thee in this place throughout all genera- tions.
"We pray that thou wilt be pleased to give success to the labors of the ministers of the Gospel in this place; accompanying the means of grace with divine power and energy, making the administration of the Gospel effectual to convince and convert, establish and sanctify thy people.
"And now, O Lord, our God, make it good for us that we have built a house for thy worship. But as the most sumptuous works of our hands can not communicate any holiness to the worshipper, make it good for us to draw near to God in the assembling of ourselves to- gether at all commanded, fixed, and proper times in this place. Enable us, thy people of this congregation, and all who may worship with us in this place, collectively and individually, to dedicate ourselves unto the Lord; to present our souls, and our bodies, and our spirits unto the Lord as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, which is our reason- able service; to concentrate our time, our talents, our privileges, and opportunities, with all we have and are, to thy service; that each of us, and each of our families, with all who are near and dear to us, may prepare an habitation in our hearts and souls for God, and that our bodies may be the temples of the Holy Ghost.
"And we do most earnestly pray that all our offenses may be blotted out ; that we may be washed in the blood of Christ; that the vows and offerings, the prayers and the praises which we and our posterity offer up now, and in all future time, may be accepted through the merits and intercession of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and made effectual for our and their salvation.
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"Let thy grace and thy Spirit, O Lord our God, be with us to direct, assist, and strengthen us in all the prayers and supplications that we now and in future may offer in this place. Be graciously pleased to vouchsafe us thy presence herein continually. Hearken, O Lord, to the prayers and supplications of me thy servant, and of these thy people, in all times and in all circumstances, and in all places where we may pray in, or as towards this place; and when thou hearest answer us in mercy.
"If we sin-for no man liveth and sinneth not-and turn and repent, hear and forgive our sins, O Lord !
"If the love of thy people wax cold; if our grace languish, faint, and be ready to expire, give renewed faith, grace, and love.
"Hear us, O Lord, if we pray to be delivered from drought, famine, war, pestilence, disease, or death.
"Hear us, O Lord, if we pray to be delivered from blasting, mildew, and whatsoever might threaten to prevent or destroy the harvest.
"Hear us, O Lord, when we pray for all schools, colleges, and semi- naries of learning ;
"For our nation and country ;
"For all who bear rule and authority over us;
"For peace and prosperity ;
"For all missionaries and missionary labors throughout the world; that the Jews may be gathered, and the fullness of the Gentiles may come in; that the land of Ethiopia and the heathen may be given for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession to Christ Jesus.
"Hear, O Lord, and hasten the time when all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Christ our Lord, and when his knowledge and his righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
"Now, therefore, arise, O Lord God, into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy strength. Let Thy priests, O Lord, be clothed with righteousness, the ministers of Thy religion with salvation. Let Thy saints shout for joy, and Thy people rejoice in goodness.
"Blessed be the Lord God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. As He was with our fathers, so let Him be with us. Let Him not leave us nor forsake us; and incline our hearts to do all things according to His holy will.
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; peace be within these walls, prosperity within this place. For my brethren and companions' sakes I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.
"The Lord bless thee and keep thee!
"The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.
"The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
"And in testimony of the sincerity of our desires, and in humble hope of being heard, let all the people say, AMEN."
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HISTORY OF THE
A sketch of the new Church was made from memory, by the late Dr. F. A. Ewing, who wrote of it :
"Elevation seemed to be the great object to be attained, and so the walls were carried up to a height which would now be thought exces- sive. Its galleries were supported on lofty columns, and in conse- quence its pulpit was so high as sometimes to threaten dizziness to the preacher's head. Above the gallery the vaulted ceiling afforded almost room enough for another church. It had its tower, its belfry and bell, still sweet and melodious,8 its spire, which, had it been pro- portioned in height to the tower supporting it, would have ascended needle-like almost to the clouds. With all its architectural defects, however, it was a fine old building, well adapted to the purposes of speaking and hearing; filled an important office, both to the congre- gation and on public occasions; stood for years the chief landmark to miles of surrounding country, and at last resisted sternly the efforts of its destroyers. Its site, on the southwest corner of the grave- yard, is well defined by the old graves and tombs which clustered close to its northern and eastern sides, and is the only part of the ground divided into burial lots."
Alas! before this manuscript could be brought to the use for which it was prepared, the body of its accomplished writer was occupying a grave in the very part of the church- yard described in its closing sentence.4
The building was of brick, and cost ten thousand eight hundred and twenty dollars. It had seventy-two pews on the floor, divided by two aisles, and thirty-six in the gallery. Forty-six were put at the annual rent of twelve dollars; eighteen larger ones at fourteen dollars. The gallery pews were free, and one side was reserved for colored persons.5
NOTES.
I.
MASKELL EWING, named in this chapter, belonged to what is now the widespread family of Ewing in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. Thomas Maskell, of England, married Bythia Parsons in Connecticut, in 1658. Thomas Stathem, of England, married Ruth
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Udell, in New England, in 1671. Maskell's son married Stathem's daughter. Their daughter was married in 1720 to Thomas Ewing, who had recently come to Greenwich, West Jersey, from Ireland. Their eldest son was Maskell (1721), who was at different times, Justice of the Peace, Clerk and Surrogate of Cumberland county,
-
Sheriff, and Judge of the Pleas, and died in 1796. One of his ten children was the Maskell Ewing, of Trenton. He was born January 30, 1758; in his youth he assisted his father in the clerkship in Green- wich, and before he was twenty-one was elected Clerk of the State Assembly. This brought him to Trenton, and he filled the office for twenty years. He was for a time Recorder of the city, and also read law in the office of William C. Houston. In 1803 he removed to
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Philadelphia, and in 1805 to a farm in Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He represented that county in the State Senate for six years. He died on a visit to Greenwich, August 26, 1825. His son Maskell was born in 1806, was a lieutenant in the army, and has died within a few years.
Among the branches of the Ewing stock was the family of the Rev. John Ewing, D.D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (1779-1803), and pastor of the First Church of Philadelphia. On our session records of September 17, 1808, are the names of "Mar- garet and Amelia, daughters of the late Rev. Dr. Ewing," as then admitted to their first communion, and May 6, 1808, "Mrs. Dr. Ewing" to the same.
II.
Not long after the establishment of the congregation in their new house, two of the oldest Trustees, both corporators of 1788, were removed by death, namely, MOORE FURMAN and ISAAC SMITH. A notice of Mr. Smith has already been given.
MR. FURMAN was one of the successful merchants of Trenton. In the Revolution he served as a Deputy Quartermaster-General. He was the first Mayor of Trenton, by appointment of the Legislature, upon its incorporation, in 1792.
Mr. Furman was elected a Trustee June 12, 1760, and Treasurer in 1762. Soon after that year he removed to Pittstown, and afterwards to Philadelphia. He returned to Trenton, and was re-elected to the Board in 1783, and continued in it until his death, March 16, 1808, in his eightieth year. His grave-stone is in the porch of the present church.ยบ
Though so long connected with the temporal affairs of the congre- gation, Mr. Furman was not a communicant until November I, 1806. He made a written request of Mr. Armstrong that in case he should be called to officiate at his funeral he would speak from the words: "Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." (Psalm 31.) This request was faithfully followed in the body of the discourse, to which the Pastor added as follows :
"This congregation well know his long and faithful services as a zealous supporter and Trustee of the concerns and interests of this Church. In the revolution he was known as a faithful friend of his country, and was intrusted by government and the Commander-in- Chief of our revolutionary army-whose friendship was honor indeed -in offices and in departments the most profitable and the most im- portant. When bending beneath the load of years and infirmities, how did it gladden his soul and appear to renew his life, to see this edifice rising from the ruins of the old one and consecrated to the service of his God! And did you not see him, shortly after its con- secration, as a disciple of his Redeemer recognizing his baptismal
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vows, and in that most solemn transaction of our holy religion, stretch- ing his trembling hands to receive the symbols of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour, and in that act express the sentiment of the words selected by himself for the use of this mournful occasion : 'Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.'"
III.
One of the Trustees elected to supply the vacancies made by the death of Moore Furman and Isaac Smith was Peter Hunt, whose wife was a daughter of Mr. Furman. Mr. Hunt had a large storehouse at Lamberton when it was the depot for the trade of Trenton, and at the time of his death was in partnership with Philip F. Howell. He resided on the estate now occupied by his son, Lieut. W. E. Hunt, of the navy. General Hunt (he was Adjutant-General) died at Charles- ton, S. C., March 1I, 1810, at the age of forty-two, having spent the winter there on account of his health. The Rev. Dr. Hollingshead had a highly satisfactory conversation with him on the day of his death, when he said: "He had no reluctance nor hesitation to submit to all the will of God in the article of death; freely committed his soul into the hands of his Redeemer, and left his surviving family to the care of a holy and gracious Providence."* He was buried, with military honors, at Charleston, after services in the Circular Church, and there is a cenotaph commemorating him in our church porch.7
IV.
The newspapers of the day record the burial, in the Presbyterian ground, of William Roscoe, who died Oct. 9, 1805, in his seventy-third year, "a first cousin of, and brought up by the celebrated Wm. Roscoe, of Liverpool, author of the Life of Leo X., etc. In the Revolution he was express-rider to Governor Livingston, and for many years Sergeant-at-Arms to the Court of Chancery.""
V.
January 18, 1806, a public dinner was given in Trenton to Captain (afterward Commodore) Bainbridge, upon his return from Barbary. The commodore's family were of this locality and church. Edmund Bainbridge was an elder from the united churches of Trenton and Maidenhead in the Presbytery of October, 1794. John Bainbridge was one of the grantees in the church deed of 1698 (p. 15), and that name is still visible on a tombstone in a deserted burying-place in Lamberton, marked, "Died 1732; aged seventy-five years."
* Letter from Dr. H. in Trenton True American, March 26, 1810.
CHAPTER XIX.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY-MR. ARMSTRONG'S DEATH- NOTES.
1807-1816.
Mr. Armstrong had the happiness of seeing the first Theological School of our Church established within ten miles of Trenton, and in the village so much associated with the earlier scenes of his academical and domestic life.1 He was in the General Assembly of 1810, which agreed upon the policy of one central institution; and in that of 1813, which established it at Princeton. With Dr. Alexander and Dr. Miller, the first professors, his intercourse was inti- mate during the few years of life that remained to him after their coming into the neighborhood, and both of them fre- quently supplied his pulpit during his protracted infirmity. It was an additional mark of providential favor that he lived to see the first fruits of the Seminary, and to give his voice for the licensing of its earliest graduates. The last time he appeared in Presbytery was at the session of April, 1815, which was held in Trenton. On that occasion Messrs. Weed, Parmele, Stanton, and Robertson, of the first class, were licensed.2
The records of each session are annually reviewed by a committee of Presbytery. In the meeting of April, 1813, the committee (Drs. Woodhull and Alexander), reporting favorably on the Trenton minutes, add,
"That in one particular especially, the utmost care and attention have been paid to the purity and edification of the Church, and to guard against errors in doctrine and practice."
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This commendatioon refers to an act of the session ex- cluding from church privileges a member who had adopted and was promulgating the Universalist heresy, vilifying the communion to which he belonged, and refusing to attend its worship. In April, 1816, the general approval of the book was qualified by some exceptions as to the sum- mary measures pursued by the session in suspending one of their own number, upon his declining to take their advice to discontinue his service as an elder. Upon this exception the session reversed their judgment, and the elder withdrew from the exercise of his office; but he- appears afterwards to have been reinstated.
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