USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 24
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IO. In Mr. Riker's work there is also given a history of the Sacket family, which appears to have been that with which the two grantees of the name, and also the clergyman hereafter mentioned, were con- nected. Simon was a family-name.
II. The Ewing Church of 1795 was begun that year, but not finished until October 7, 1797. The first sermon in it was by Mr. Rue, October 15, 1797. (See sermon by Rev. David Judson Atwater at the last service in that church, March 3, 1867, previous to its being removed for a new one.) The new stone church was dedicated November 20, 1867. Dr. J. Hall preached, Ps. 96 : 9.
12. Mrs. Esther McIlvaine, who died in Ewing, October, 1860.
13. For fuller history of Hopewell, see "A History of 'the Old Pres- byterian congregation of the people of Maidenhead and Hopewell,
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more especially of the First Presbyterian Church of Hopewell at Pennington, N. J." By George Hale, D.D., Philadelphia, 1876.
14. Pennington "was first named Queenstown, in honor of Queen Anne." "The settlement of the village began near 1708." "As early as 1747 it began to be called Pennington." "The old congrega- tion was known in its earliest history as 'the people of Maidenhead and Hopewell.'" Hale, p. 47.
15. The Presbytery of East Jersey was formed by the Synod in 1733, by dividing the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1738 the Presby- teries of East Jersey and Long Island were united as the Presbytery of New York. In a subsequent day of the same sessions (May 25, 1738), the Presbytery of New Brunswick was formed out of the Presbytery of New York. Its bounds were "all to the northward and Presbytery of New York. Its bounds were "all to the northward and also Staten Island, Piscatua, Amboy, Boundbrook, Basking Ridge, Turkey, Rocksiticus, Minisink, Pequally, and Crosswicks." (Printed "Records," pp. 104, 134, 136.) This left our churches in the Pres- bytery of Philadelphia.
16. In 1886 I found in possession of Mrs. Cook, of Trenton, a volume of Records of Hopewell Church, which Dr. Hale had not seen until I showed it to him, with various items from 1730 to 1785. I made a memorandum of these, the most important being a list of com- municants of "Trenton" (Ewing), from 1733 to 1737, at the end of the Session book of the First Church (1806 to 1838), pp. 263-9, which see.
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CHAPTER III.
I. In that inexhaustible entertainment for the local antiquary, "Wat- son's Annals of Philadelphia," is a history and engraving of the house occupied by Col. Trent in Philadelphia from 1703 to 1709. It is the house still standing (1858) at the corner of Second street and Norris' alley, and was first inhabited by William Penn; (Annals, Edition of 1850, vol. i., 164.) In a Trenton newspaper of 1840 I have marked this announcement : "Died at her residence near this city, December 20, 1840, Mary, widow of Nathan Beakes, in her 79th year-the last per- son that had borne the name of Trent."
In Hills' "History of the Episcopal Church in Burlington," I find reference as follows: "I waited on the Governor on Sunday morning with Mr. Trent, the chief man in the church." (Letter of Talbot to the Bishop of London, October 12, 1715), p. 14I.
From Trenton, September 20, 1723, Daniel Coxe and William Trent write to the Secretary of the S. P. G. about the church in Burlington, p. 173.
A facsimile of Trent's signature is in the "New Jersey Archives," Ist series, vol. v., p. 77.
2. A facsimile of Stacy's signature is in the "New Jersey Archives," Ist series, vol. v., p. 317.
3. The deed is in the possession of our trustees. It is recorded in book AT., p. 108. The grant is described as "a certain piece or lot of land lying on the north side of Second street, that goes to the iron- works in Trenton, containing in length 150 feet, and in breadth 150 feet ; with all the mines, minerals, woods, fishings, hawkings, huntings, waters, and water-courses." The iron-works were about a mile east- ward of the church.
4. The original is with the trustees; it is recorded in book AT., p. 114. There is a tradition that Andrus gave the lot for the church. The church first went by the name of "Anderson's Meeting-house," but Andrus was offended about letting of pews. The fourth and fifth generations in descent from Enoch Andrus, (Anderson,) are now mem- bers of the city church.
5. Enoch Anderson is mentioned in a letter of Theos. Severns, Tren- ton, May 29, 1750, in "New Jersey Archives," vol. vii., p. 546, as "a person intended to be appointed sheriff of Hunterdon county by your Excellency, upon which Mr. John Coxe replied 'the Governor dare not do it.'"
In the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of June 15, 1758, is the following : "To Be Sold. The House and Lot of Land wherein Enoch Anderson,
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Deceased, lately lived; as also several other Lots of Land, situate in Trenton, in the county of Hunterdon, belonging to the Estate of the said Enoch Anderson. The Titles to the same are indisputable. Any Person or Persons inclinable to purchase the same, or any Part thereof, by applying to John Anderson, in Maidenhead, or to Abraham Cott- nam, in Trenton aforesaid, may be informed of the Conditions, &c."
In the present church-porch is a grave-stone, "In memory of Enoch Anderson, who departed this life April 15th, 1756. Aged 59 years." In the church-yard hedge is the grave of "Margaret Anderson; 1733." Among the oldest is that of Robert Archbold, who died September 2, 1734. Aged 25 years.
In the minutes of the Philadelphia Synod, September 19, 1733, is this record : "Upon a supplication of the people of Trenton, presented to the Synod by the committee of the Synod, it was recommended by said committee that the commission of the Synod do allow something out of the fund to Trenton, as to them shall appear needful, when they are settled with a minister: which overture being read was approved by the Synod nemine contradicento."
6. In the records of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Sept. 19, 1734, "a letter from the people of Trenton desiring care to be taken to pro- cure a minister for them was read; but nothing was or could be done to purpose about it at that time."
7. A letter from William W. Cowell to J. Hall, dated Wrentham, Mass., Nov. 16, 1871, says :
"Hon. Ezra Wilkinson is collecting materials for a history of this town: and as the descendant of Joseph Cowell he purchased the old homestead in the town where his sons Joseph, David and Ebenezer lived, and where the first Joseph, the second Joseph, Samuel, son of Joseph II, my father William, the son of Samuel, all lived and died, where I was born and lived some thirty years, and where my sister now resides, and where seven generations of the Cowell race and name and blood have gathered from time to time."
"Joseph Cowell married Martha Fales in 1701, and lived the first nine years of his life in the then town of Dorchester, but which was soon annexed to Wrentham. In fact it was within two miles of the old homestead and some twenty-five miles from Dorchester proper. The record of his marriage, the birth of all his children, including my great- uncle David, do not appear at all upon the records of that town, but upon the records of Wrentham."
Mr. W. W. Cowell sent me the engraved family-tree: the root, "John Cowell came from England"; the main stem, "Joseph settled in Wren- tham, U. S., A.D. 1690"-father of David, Ebenezer and Joseph.
David L. Cowell wrote me in 1874, from Brockton, "that David Cowell was born December 12, 1704," as recorded in the Wrentham records. "Whether the spot on which he was born was really within
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the limits of Dorchester and subsequently annexed to Wrentham, or whether it was only supposed to have been in Dorchester until a more accurate survey decided that it belonged to Wrentham, I cannot posi- tively say. I have, however, seen an old list of taxpapers, dated as early as 1704, where his name appeared as of Wrentham. * *
** It would seem that it would be more appropriate to credit his birthplace to Wrentham."
8. Cornelius Ringo's name is in the advertisement quoted on p. 64.
A meeting of the inhabitants of Hunterdon county was held "at the house of John Ringo in Amwell," July 8, 1774, Samuel Tucker in the chair, expressing loyalty to George III, but protesting against inter- ference with colonial rights, and appointing a committee to unite with the other counties in choosing delegates to Congress. The committee were, Samuel Tucker, John Mehelm, John Hart, Isaac Smith, Charles Coxe, Joachim Griggs, Benjamin Brearley, Abraham Hunt, John Emley. "Minutes of Provincial Congress and Council of Safety of New Jer- sey," Trenton, 1877, p. 13.
9. I have a writ of summons, dated Sept. 6, 1720, commanding Henry Venhook (Verbrook?), Francis Kaine and Hezekiah Bonham, junior (see p. 15), and Hezekiah Bunill to appear at the next General Quarter Sessions of the Peace at Trenton, witness, John Porterfield, "one of our Justices of the Peace of the county (Hunterdon)": Signed Wm. D. Yard, clerk, and addressed to Nathaniel Moor, constable. The seal is a crown and legend, "Tout pour-" the rest illegible.
IO. An article in the New York Observer, a few years ago, said, "In the register of baptisms by the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Rev. Jedediah Andrews, are found the names of Richard Scudder and his nine children, living on the river five miles above the 'Falls of the Delaware,' as the site of Trenton was then called. Richard Scudder had come from Long Island in 1704, and purchased a tract two miles in extent on the Delaware river, a por- tion of which is still possessed by his descendants. Rev. Jasper Scud- der McIlvaine, for some years missionary of the Presbyterian Board at Shantung, China, is the seventh in lineal descent from Richard Scudder and William McIlvaine, one of the first elders of the First Church of Philadelphia."
Rev. Jasper Scudder McIlvaine, who died in China in 1881, was a grandson of Jasper Smith Scudder, the Treasurer of the First Church, Trenton, in 1859, and died in 1877.
II. Andrew Reed was possibly the first postmaster of Trenton. (See note on p. 63.)
12. "Boaz" is so written in the will, but Prof. Henry Reed, of Phil- adelphia (grandson of General Joseph), writes to me, October 27, 1876: "His mother's name being Theodosia Bowes, who was a daughter of Francis Bowes."
APPENDIX. 303
"Lieutenant-Colonel Bowes Read" is mentioned in "Minutes of Provincial Congress," pp. 470, 573, 575.
For Andrew Reed's daughter, Mrs. Montgomery, see page 135.
13. In "The Presbyterian," of August 17, 1861, is an obituary of Upton Reid, who died in Harford county, Maryland, July 17, 1861, aged 81 years. "He was the sixth of nine children of Clotworthy Reid and Mary Alexander, of County Antrim, Ireland."
"His mother died when he was five years of age, and his father when he was thirteen. He came to this country when very young. For some years he lived in Chester county, Pennsylvania, but for more than forty within a mile of where he died." Rev. A. B. Cross, of Baltimore, writes me that "the above Clotworthy Reid and Mary Alexander were married January 18, 1770, and he died May 2, 1793, aged forty-three."
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14. Ralph Smith's name follows that of Andrew Reed, and Samuel Johnson that of Cornelius Ringo. Both are in a list of subscribers of the "Province of New Jersey," to the first edition of Edward's "Life of Brainard," 1749. In a letter of Theophilus Severns to Gov- ernor Belcher, Trenton, May 29, 1750, he relates conversation of Johr Coxe, unfavorable to the Governor "when I was in company with Mr. John Coxe, Judge Nevill, Ralph Smith and others."
15. "Mr. Thomas's interest in Trenton had been bought by Robert Lettice Hooper for £2,900 sterling-thought a good sale." Letter of Governor Belcher, June 8, 1751, "Analytical Index."
16. "The papers of Lewis Morris," vol. iv. of Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, pp. 9, 325, etc. Morris's rent in Trenton was sixty pounds ($160), the landlord expending £200 "in putting of it into repair and building a wing for a kitchen to lodge servants." "The lessee might cut his fire-wood, but not of timber-trees." "Our house is good," writes the Governor in 1744, "and not one chimney in it smokes. I have not yet got into ploughing and sowing, having but little ground, and that but ordinary, and much out of order, but shall try a little at it, when I get it into something better fence, which I am doing."
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CHAPTER IV.
I. Mr. Tennent's warmth was undoubtedly increased by his belief that the cautiousness of the Synod in regard to the scholarship of candidates arose from a want of confidence in the accomplishments of the pupils of the Neshaminy Academy, established by his father. The arts and sciences were not thought to be as well taught there as the classics. Thus, Dr. Alexander remarks that the schism "was actually produced by the Log College." (Log College, p. 57.) Rowland was educated there, and, of course, by the Synod's rule, was subject to examination.
2. The old congregation were represented by Enoch Armitage, Thomas Burrowes, Edward Hart and Timothy Baker; the "new erection" by Benjamin Stevens, John Anderson, Samuel Hunt, and Joseph Birt. "We had the privilege," wrote Rowland, "minister at Hopewell," "of Maidenhead meeting-house [1738], and my people built a meeting- house in Hopewell. There is another town [township] lying contiguous to Hopewell, which is called Amwell. They petitioned for a part of my time, viz., one Sabbath in three." William Tennent writes in Octo- ber, 1744: "About four weeks since I gathered a church, and celebrated the Lord's Supper at a new erected congregation in the towns of Maidenhead and Hopewell." ("Gillies' Collections," ii., 137, 323.) This was a mile west of Pennington, and was but a temporary secession, both parties reuniting afterwards in the old church, probably in 1766.
3. The unhappy personal effects lingered still longer. Dr. Green was ordained in Philadelphia in 1787, and says: "The arrangements for my ordination had been made with a view to mingle, and, if possible, to harmonize the old side and the new side members of the Presbytery. For although twenty-nine years had elapsed, since in 1758 the rival Synods had become united, two Presbyteries of Philadelphia had existed, composed severally of the litigant parties ; and the aged mem- bers of both sides had retained something of the old bitter feelings towards each other." ("Life," p. 154.)
The church where Dr. Green was ordained and installed had the less favorable associations for the purpose mentioned, as it was the one built by the exertions of Gilbert Tennent, for a people described by Dr. Franklin as "originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield." In com- pliance with the philosopher's advice, Tennent "asked of everybody; and he obtained a much larger sum than he expected, with which he erected the capacious and elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch street." (Franklin's Autobiography: Sparks, i., 168.)
4. The custom in Newark as late as 1791. Whitehead's Perth Am- boy, p. 319.
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5. The Friends were also traveling about from meeting to meeting during this period. From "John Griffith's Journal," London and Phil- adelphia, 1780, pp. 55 and 56, we take these items :
"About the latter end of the year 1744-I went into West Jersey to visit the following meetings, as I found my mind drawn thereunto, viz. : Haddonfield, Chester, Evesham, Mt. Holly, Ancocas, Old Spring- field, Trenton and Burlington quarterly meetings."
"In the fifth month (1746) I visited the county of Bucks, and had meetings at Middletown, Smith, the Falls," etc.
6. The sessions of the Commission appear to have been opened as formally as those of the Synod. I have before me, in a pamphlet, "A Sermon preached before the Commission of the Synod at Philadelphia, April 20th, 1735. By E. Pemberton, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the City of New York." The dedication "to the Reverend Com- mission of the Synod," refers to its having been "preached in obedience to your commands."
7. The address to the Governor, signed by Cowell, and the Gov- ernor's reply, are in the Pennsylvania Gazette of June 9, 1743.
8. The Synod's "Fund" was for such "pious uses" as were desig- nated from time to time.
The "Analytical Index" gives the heads of several communications that passed between Governor Franklin and the Royal authority in England in reference to a petition of the Presbyterian clergy in New Jersey, for a charter for the Widows' Fund. See index under dates of May II, 1772; February 27, April 10, June 2, October 18, 1773. The charter was granted.
9. It may have been expected that some notice should be found in this chapter of the celebrated case which was before the Supreme Court at Trenton, in 1742, in which the Rev. William Tennent was arraigned for perjury, on account of the evidence he had given to prove that the Rev. John Rowland was far from Hunterdon county when Bell, assuming his name, stole a horse. But I trust that an authentic account of that whole affair will soon be furnished by a more competent hand, and I believe that it will be made to appear that there is no foundation for the story of the supernatural mission of witnesses from Maryland to Trenton. A paper to this effect, by Mr. Richard S. Field, has already appeared in the "Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society." (Vol. vi., p. 31.)
An article upon "The Trial of the Rev. William Tennent," by Hon. Henry W. Green, in the "Princeton Review," July, 1868, concludes : "We assert, therefore, with perfect confidence, that his deliverance was not effected by supernatural means, and that the attendance of the witnesses was not procured by a dream."
2I PRES
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CHAPTER V.
I. Among the debits of the Treasurer's book, in account with the Trenton parsonage, are frequently to be found such items as, "to hoops for the well-bucket," "for cleaning the well," "to a rope for the well."
2. In a letter of 1730-I, quoted in Whitehead's History of Perth Amboy (p. 155), the writer remarks that in 1715 "there were but four or five houses in the thirty miles between Inian's Ferry (New Bruns- wick) and the Falls of Delaware; but now the whole way it is almost a continued lane of fences and good farmers' houses, and the whole country is there settled or settling very thick."
3. The barracks are frequently mentioned in the minutes of the Provincial Congress. January 13, 1776, "The prisoners of war, now in the barracks at Trenton" are ordered to be removed by the Com- mittee of Observation, "in order that the Continental forces may occupy the said barracks." February 2, Abraham Hunt and Alexander Chambers were requested to value the blankets in the barracks, and appropriate them to the use of the Continental forces. At the same session Alexander Chambers and William Tucker were appointed barrack-masters, and instructed to repair the barracks for use. It was as early as 1758 that the Colonial Legislature provided for barracks at Trenton and four other points, each capable of holding 300 men. A full relation of the particulars is given by a member and trustee of our First Church, Adjutant-General William S. Stryker, in the "Pro- ceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society," January, 1881.
In a letter of Governor Franklin to the British Secretary of State, 1766, the statement is made that many of the king's troops "acknowl- edge that they are better accommodated here than they had ever been at barracks in Europe." See "Archives of New Jersey," first series, vol. ix., p. 577.
In the Pontiac War, 1763-4, the persecuted Christian Moravian Indians, on their way from Pennsylvania to New York, were allowed quarters at the barracks in the towns through which they passed. "They spent the first night at Bristol and the second in the barracks at Trenton. Here (Joseph) Fox and (William) Logan took leave of them." "The Indians spent eight days in the barracks at Amboy." De Schweinitz's "Life of Zeisberger," chap. xv.
4. Items collated since the completion of the text of chapter v., are as follows :
"I have seen several of the principal towns of the government, and have not seen one that has in it 200 dwelling houses." Governor Belcher, in "New Jersey Archives," vol. vii., p. 66 (1747).
"Trenton, with 130 houses. Near to this lie the valuable copper
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mines, for the use of the one-third of which Governor Morris within eighteen months, in 1755, paid five thousand pounds." Israel Acrelius, in "Description of Swedish churches of New Sweden," Stockholm, 1759, reprinted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
"Two other large and thriving towns, which make much more use of the post, * * viz., Trenton and Brunswick." Dr. Franklin, Deputy Postmaster-General, April 23, 1761. In "New Jersey Archives," ix., p. 267.
In the "letter addressed to the Abbe Raynal," by Thomas Paine, in answer to the Abbe's account of the American Revolution, Phila- delphia, 1782, referring to the battle of Trenton, he says of the town: "Trenton is situated on a rising ground, about three-quarters of a mile distant from the Delaware, on the eastern or Jersey side, and cut into two divisions by a small creek or rivulet." "The upper division, which is to the northeast, contains about seventy or eighty houses, and the lower about forty or fifty. The ground on each side this creek, and on which the houses are, is likewise rising, and the two divisions present an agreeable prospect to each other, with the creek between, on which there is a small stone bridge of one arch."
Rev. Manasseh Cutler's description (1787) in "Proceedings of New Jersey Historical Society," 1873. P. 93, is as follows: "We made our first stage to Trenton (from Princeton, via Maidenhead), thirteen miles, at Vandegrift's tavern, at the ferry. This town is spread over a considerable space of ground. There are parallel streets that pass through the body of the town, and are connected by cross streets at right angles. There are no considerable buildings. The town is at a small distance from the Delaware river, and is situated on a river (Assanpink creek), that comes in from the northeast and unites with the Delaware at this place. There is only one small meeting-house and one church in this town. I therefore conclude that the people are not much disposed to attend public worship, for the two houses, I presume, are not sufficient to hold one-third of the inhabitants. Over the river in the compact part of the town is a spacious stone bridge, supported by arches built with stone and lime, and with a high wall on each side handsomely laid. At the foot of the bridge are mills for grinding and bolting wheat. These mills are contained in a very large stone building three stories high, and are remarkable for the prodigious quantity and excellent quality of the flour which is ground in them every twenty-four hours. The houses in this, and indeed in all the towns in New Jersey, are built in a style very different from that of New England. But I think it far less elegant, and by no means so good an effect on the eye. The want of large meeting-houses and towering steeples is a great defect. Neither are the houses so spacious or so well-built."
"This town, with Lamberton, which joins it on the south, contains upwards of 200 houses, besides public buildings. In the neighborhood
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of this pleasant town are several gentlemen's seats, finely situated on the banks of the Delaware and ornamented with taste and elegance." From "An Historical, Geographical, Commercial and Philosophical View of the American United States," by W. Winterbotham, London, 1795, four volumes.
In the same words "Guthrie's Geography," first American edition, Philadelphia, 1794-5, with the addition of "and about 2,000 inhabitants." Both say, "The inhabitants have lately erected a handsome court- house, 100 feet by 50, with a semi-hexagon at each end, over which is a balustrade."
Also in "Nathaniel Dwight's Geography," Hartford, 1795. "Q. What is the capital of New Jersey? A. Trenton; it is the largest town in the State, though it does not contain more than 200 houses."
In Goldsmith's "Easy Grammar of Geography," Philadelphia, 1811 : "Trenton, which is the seat of justice, contains but about 2,000 in- habitants."
5. There was a Sir John St. Clair in Braddock's army, who arrived in January, 1755; was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 22d Regiment, and Deputy Quartermaster-General for all the forces in America. In 1762 he was made a full Colonel. On the list of the wounded at the defeat (July 9, 1755) he was put down as "Sir John Sinclair, Baronet, Dep. Q. M. Gen." (Winthrop Sargent's History of Braddock's Expedition : Pennsylvania Historical Society, pp. 136, 143, 285.) The death of "Hon. Col. Sir John St. Clair, Bar't.," is announced in the newspapers of the day as having taken place at Elizabethtown, December, 1767. There was a "Captain Rutherford" with St. Clair in the Expedition. From some references and correspondence, it would appear that Sir John was a petulant officer. See "Letters and Papers relating to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania," principally from papers of the Shippen family, privately printed. Philadelphia : pp. 36-8, 61, 151. In one letter Sir John speaks of "Betsey-I mean, Lady St. Clair."
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