USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 27
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APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XIII.
I. In May, June and August, 1775, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey met in Trenton, May 24th. The President, Hendrick Fisher, of Somerset, was directed to write the ministers of the town to alter- nate in opening the Congress with prayer each morning at 8. Rev. Mr. Spencer officiated on October 4, 1775. A resolution of thanks to Rev. Messrs. Spencer and Panton "for their polite attention and serv- ices" was adopted. "Minutes of Provincial Congress," pp. 170, 198, 254.
2. In the "Life of Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller," by his son, vol. i., chapter xi, fuller particulars are given of the disturbance created in the pastor's family at this period of the war. Mr. Spencer, on being informed by Dr. Witherspoon of the enemy's approach to Trenton, took his family the same night to Howell's ferry, and then to Mc- Conkey's ferry, for two or three weeks, until General Mercer sent him word he was not safe there. "This was the Sunday before the battle of Trenton. He preached that day at Newtown (Pennsylvania). Afterwards, he went on slowly to Fagg's Manor, where he remained until the people of St. George, Delaware, hearing that their former pastor was a fugitive, and being themselves without one, sent for him. He accepted their invitation, and on his arrival found a house ready, well supplied with furniture and provisions, the wood cut, the fires made, and everything prepared for the comfort of his family. Here they remained until the July following, when, St. George's being sickly, and Trenton free from the British soldiery, he returned home."
3. In Dr. Witherspoon's Works (vol. 2, Philadelphia edition, 1800, P. 45I) is a sermon "delivered at a Public Thanksgiving after peace," in which, speaking of "particular acts of barbarity," is this sentence : "I shall therefore omit everything of the kind, except one of the earliest instances of their barbarity, because it happened in one of the streets of this place, viz., massacring in cold blood a minister of the Gospel, who was not, nor had been, in arms, and received his death wound while on his knees begging mercy." It is not said where the sermon was preached.
The proper spelling of the name is Rosbrugh. Rev. John C. Clyde, D. D., Bloomsbury, read an exhaustive paper on him before the New Jersey Historical Society, at Trenton, Jan. 15, 1880, afterward pub- lished under the title of "Rosbrugh, a Tale of the Revolution." Easton, 1880, p. 92.
4. From Sprague's "Annals" I find that the Rev. Mr. Macwhorter was in the camp of Washington, opposite Trenton, at the time of the battle of 1776; and that William Paxton (afterwards D. D.) was in the ranks on that occasion, iii, 210, 554.
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5. Then King street, as the present Greene (Broad) was Queen. The former was also familiarily called Front, and the latter Back street. The "Federal Post or Trenton Weekly Mercury," was printed in 1788, by Quequelle and Wilson, "on the north side of Front St., opposite the English Church," the neighborhood of Rahl's death.
6. This house is advertised for rent in the Trenton Gazette, Decem- ber, 1784, where it is said to have been lately occupied by the President of Congress. It was provided for his use by James Ewing, Moore Furman, and Conrad Kotts, by the direction of the Legislature (August 25, 1784). The lease, which is before me, stipulates also for "the hay- house nearly full of very good hay, with the stables on each side thereof, together with a ten-plate stove belonging to the front part of the said house," but "reserving the use of the road as it now goes to the tan-yard, and so much of the lot as Samuel Phillips may have occasion for, adjoining his shop." The lease was for one year from October 30, 1784, at one hundred and fifty pounds in gold or silver (four hundred dollars). The house was the residence of Stacy Potts, and not a tavern, as is stated in Lossing's "Field Book." It was taken down in 1857.
7. Williams's tavern is also mentioned by the Marquis de Chastellux, at the time of whose visit an addition seems to have been made to the emblems of its sign; for he says it represented a beaver at work with his teeth to bring down a large tree, and had the motto "Perseverando." (Travels in North America, 1780-2). The tree, beaver and legend con- stituted one of the devices printed on the Continental currency of 1776; the money which fell so much below the promise on its face, that in the Trenton advertisements of 1780 may be found offers of a thousand dol- lars reward for an absconding servant-fifteen hundred for a stolen mare-ten thousand for the detection of the incendiary of a barn. The subscription of the Weekly Gazette, of that year, was fourteen dollars by the quarter.
8. To President John Adams' notice of Trenton in 1774 may now be appended that of his son and successor in the Presidency seventy years afterwards. On his passage home to Quincy from Congress, July 1I, 1844, John Quincy Adams made this entry in his journal : "At five in the afternoon we left Walnut street wharf and came to Bristol, twenty miles, and there landed and proceeded in the train of cars through New Brunswick, Elizabethtown and Newark to Jersey City. The sunset between Trenton and New Brunswick was glorious, and equal to anything I ever beheld. As I witnessed the departing luminary, and the peace and quiet and felicity of all around me, I thought of Washington and Trenton and the 25th of December, 1776, and a feeling of inexpressible joy filled my soul." "Memoirs," xii., 70.
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In the year 1774 Governor Franklin reported "The tide in this river (Delaware) goes no higher than Trenton in New Jersey, which is about thirty miles above Philadelphia, where there is a Rift or Falls, passable, however, with flat-bottomed boats which carry five or six hundred bushels of wheat. By these boats, of which there are now a great number, the produce of both sides the river for upwards of one hundred miles above Trenton are brought to Philadelphia." "Archives," x, 438.
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APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XIV.
I. In the minutes of the Trustees of the University, Mr. Spencer is called Elisha. The same mistake is made in the first edition of Thomp- son's History of Long Island, where also his great-grandfather Jared is called Gerard.
2. The Minister was the Chevalier de la Luzerne. The Dauphin was son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and died in childhood. The birth was formally announced to Congress, and by Congress to the Governors of the States. It was celebrated in Trenton, May 24, 1782, when the "town artillery paraded at the market-place," and a dinner was attended by the officers of the State at "the French Arms."
3. In Rev. James F. Armstrong's M'SS. is a fragment like an obit- uary, beginning: "Died on Monday, the 28th ult., Miss Rachel Fur- man, daughter of Mr. Nathaniel Furman, of Trenton, in the twenty- fourth year of her age."
Mr. FURMAN was in the Board from 1780 to 1788. I suppose that it is his death which is published as having taken place April 27, 1831, in his eighty-eighth year. Mr. TINDAL's is an old and respectable fam- ily. The other Trustees are spoken of in detail in other chapters.
4. Daniel Howell's will was proved in 1778; the legacy was payable in two years. He was brother of Hezekiah, John, Abigail, Eunice (Phillips), and Phebe (Phillips). His children were Rhoda, Sarah and Elizabeth. A relative of his, David Howell, died in 1785, leaving three daughters-Prudence, Patience, Charity.
Jethro Yard (as I gather from his will) was a carpenter. He was a son of William Yard.
5. Mr. Jefferson, in his Autobiography, says: "I left home on the sixteenth of October [1783], arrived at Trenton, where Congress was sitting, on the third of November, and took my seat on the fourth, on which day Congress adjourned, to meet at Annapolis on the twenty- sixth." This statement has been followed by his biographers, Tucker and Randall, but Congress was sitting at Princeton, not Trenton.
6. Saltash was granted to sixty-four proprietors in 1761, settled in 1777, and in 1797 the name was changed to Plymouth. Plymouth and Woodstock are in the same county, Windsor. B. H. Hall's "His- tory of Eastern Vermont," p. 113.
7. An advertisement in a Philadelphia newspaper of July 16, 1776, calls on "the good people of this city and province, and of the province of New Jersey, to send all the old sheets and other old linen they can possibly spare, to Doctor Shippen, junior, for the use of the military
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hospitals in New Jersey." The people of New Jersey are requested to send their donations to Doctor Cowell in Trenton, Doctor Bain- bridge in Princeton, Doctor Cochran in Brunswick, Mr. Pettit in Amboy, and the Rev. Mr. Caldwell in Elizabethtown. Dr. Cowell and his brother Ebenezer, the lawyer, both bachelors, lived in a large house on the Pennington road. On a grave-stone in the Presbyterian church-yard we read :
"In memory of Doct. David Cowell, who departed this life Dec. 18, 1783, aged 43 years."
I have seen a letter of David Cowell (the M.D.) to "Mr. Benjamin Cornwill, near Pennington," as follows:
"TRENTON, July 14th, 1782.
"SIR-Agreeable to your request, I have took an opportunity and talked with Jacob Blackwell about your affair and assured him that you are willing to have all your money matters settled by the Tables. The Assembly have made a law for the settlement of all such matters. He says he is willing to the same thing, and on its being done so he will make you a deed agreeable to your bargain. Or if you do not like your bargain on account of the title or any other thing, you shall have your money which you have paid paid back to you by the same Table, on your giving up the premises; so that if you come down I can see no reasonable objection to the whole matter's being finally settled, without cost or trouble, in the very exact way they would be settled were it done by court-to which good purpose you may always command your friend and very humble servant,
"DAVID COWELL."
23 PRES
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APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XV.
I. A candidate who had been examined with Mr. Armstrong, up to this point, was not so successful; and for the sake of illustrating the proper care of a Presbytery in the matter of licensure, and the manner in which it is performed, I copy the minute in this case :
"The Presbytery then proceeded to consider Mr. W.'s examination and sermon; and after the most mature deliberation are unanimously of opinion that they cannot sustain either his examination or his ser- mon as parts of trial, inasmuch as in his examination, although he manifested a competent skill in the languages, yet he appeared almost wholly unacquainted with several of the most important of the liberal arts and sciences, and also greatly deficient in his knowledge of divin- ity; and although his sermon contained some just and pious senti- ments, yet there appeared in it such confusion in the arrangement of the thoughts, such obscurity in expression, and inaccuracy in many of the sentiments, that they cannot consider it as an evidence of his capacity to be useful as a public teacher in the Church of Christ.
"Therefore the Presbytery agreed to recommend to Mr. W., if he choose to prosecute his trials further with a view to the Gospel min- istry, then he apply himself diligently to the study of logic, natural and moral philosophy, and divinity, for one year from this time, as in these branches he appeared to be most deficient; also that he study compo- sition with care, and labor to acquire a more clear and perspicuous method of communicating his ideas. And as they entertain a favorable opinion of Mr. W., for his modest, decent, and humble deportment, will always be ready to give him all due encouragement, provided he make such improvement in the above articles as shall remove the difficulties that now lie in the way of their admitting him into the ministry."
The candidate probably withdrew from this Presbytery; but he must have found some way to licensure, as in 1784 the Presbytery of New- castle began to call him to account for neglecting to preach, and in 1785 dropped him as their probationer, on evidence that he had devoted himself to a secular life.
2. In the archives of the church is the certificate of his licensure dated "Elk Meeting House, Jany 15, 1777," attested by "Jas. Ander- son, Presby Clerk." It states that Mr. Armstrong being under trials in the Presbytery of New Brunswick, he now appears with a letter from Dr. Witherspoon, "Prof. of Divinity and a member of said Presby," certifying that he "had passed the greater part of his trials" "but by reason of the public distress of the State would not proceed to license him and requests this Presby to hear his popular discourse,
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the only remaining part of his trials, and if the way be clear, to pro- ceed to his licensure." They did so, "and considering his circumstances very peculiar, judge their way clear," etc.
3. The following document is in possession of Mr. Armstrong's family: "I do hereby certify that Mr. James Francis Armstrong bore arms in the year 1776, in an expedition formed for the defense of Staten Island against the British troops, and served as a volunteer private in my company of Militia wholly at his own expense, without drawing any of the subsistence due to a Volunteer, from the time the troops were raised until they were regularly discharged.
"PETER GORDON, Qr Master, Trenton.
"November 28th, 1778."
4. "Sine titulo," "in retentis," "pro re nata," "sederunt," "non liquet," "nemine contradicente," "ad futuram rei memoriam," "inter- loquitur," "pro tanto," "in defenso," "in hoc verba," "de novo," and other Latin substitutes for plain English (sometimes even "Janitor" for Sexton), are freely used in the ecclesiastical records of the last century. The old Presbyteries and Synods used to date their sessions in Latin : "Die Jovis," "Die Saturni," "Post Merid. Sessione 5ta. Precibus peractis." They habitually employed the learned tongue to say that after prayer the members named took their seats. Some of the New Brunswick clerks ventured on writing "present after prayer," and "present as before," but in April, 1798, this innovation was checked by the following direction: "Resolved, that the Presbytery in future, for the sake of greater uniformity, make use of the old technical terms ubi post preces sederunt, in recording the first session of their meetings, and at any subsequent session, post preces sederunt qui supra." It was, however, considered lawful to give only the initials of the formula, and many a clerk spent more time and room in an elaborate execution of the capitals U. P. P. S. and U. P. P. S. Q. S., than would have answered for the words in full. The act of the Presbytery was, perhaps, a testimony against the course adopted by the Synod of 1795, when it "Resolved, that the Synod will discontinue the use of Latin terms in their records to express the opening of their session, and their attendance on prayer, and that the same in future be ex- pressed in English."
5. Since this History was published I have seen in MS. a sermon by Mr. Armstrong, marked by him thus: "Delivered in the spring of the year 1779, to his Excellency Gen'l Washington and the Guards at Middlebrook." The army was on both sides of the North river during the winter of 1778-9. More than 7,000 were at Middlebrook under the immediate command of Gen'l Washington. The army left Middle- brook May 29, 1779. Marshall's "Life of Washington," vol. iv., 57.
The text of the sermon was Proverbs 14: 34, and probably had been previously delivered on one of the Fast Days appointed by Synod.
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APPENDIX.
I have placed it in the archives of the church. I also sent an abstract of it to the New York Observer, February 22, 1877.
6. In a Thanksgiving sermon (not dated, but probably at the close of the war) he says: "it will be sufficient to my present purpose to assure you that I have seen the hour of danger when the whole six Southern States were not able to bring 500 men into the field to oppose a victorious enemy."
In the same (on the battle of Bunker Hill), "I have been informed that General Howe never could erase it from his mind; it haunted his pillow and disturbed his slumbers. Whenever he had a battle in prospect, Bunker Hill was painted in his imagination, and he could not be induced to risque an action where there was the least appearance of breastworks, or unless he had such appearances of superiority or advantage as would ensure success. This doubtless gave that wary complexion to all his conduct which gave time to our army to learn experience and discipline."
7. WILLIAM CHURCHILL HOUSTON, Mr. Armstrong's correspondent, and afterwards a parishioner in Trenton, was a native of South Car- olina. After the age of twenty-one he entered Princeton College as a Freshman : while himself a student he assisted in teaching the Gram- mar School. He graduated 1768. In 1769, being then Master of the School, he was elected Senior Tutor of College, and in 1771, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He resigned the chair 1783, at which time he was also Treasurer of the Trustees. Two years before his resignation he had been, after the requisite course of study, admitted to the bar. He removed to Trenton, and had a large prac- tice, notwithstanding his rigid adherence to the determination that he would never undertake a cause which he did not believe to be just. Mr. Houston held several public offices, such as Receiver of Continental taxes (1782-5), and Clerk of the Supreme Court (1781-8). He was five times (first in 1779) elected to the Congresses of the Confederation. He was one of the three delegates of New Jersey to the body of Commissioners which met at Annapolis (1786), which resulted in suggesting the Convention which formed the Constitu- tion. He was appointed a member of that Convention, but declining health seems to have prevented his attendance. In 1788 he left Trenton to try the benefit of his native climate, but before he reached Phila- delphia illness compelled him to stop, and he died at an inn in the village of Frankford. His body was taken for burial to the ground of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. For most of these particulars I am indebted to a notice communicated by my friend, William C. Alexander, Esq., to the New York Observer of March 18, 1858.
"A letter from William Ch. Houston, captain of a company in the 2d Battalion of Foot militia in the county of Somerset, setting forth
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APPENDIX.
that from his connexion with the College, in the absence of Dr. Witherspoon and other circumstances, he cannot pay the due atten- tion to his company, and begging leave to resign his commission." "Minutes of Provincial Congress," 395, 541, 542.
See, also, Maclean's "History of the College of New Jersey," i: 313, 314.
8. For several years the Presbytery met at New Brunswick, Prince- ton, and Trenton in rotation. The efforts to repeal the rule were not successful until April, 1801.
9. The business meetings were not always held in sacred places. This one was "at the house of Francis Witt, in Trenton." At the next stated meeting of the Trustees, "the weather being severe, they adjourned to the house of Francis Witt, inn-keeper." At other times the place was "the house of Henry Drake, inn-keeper."
IO. The actual cost exceeded the estimate by seventy-five pounds.
II. The parsonage deeds may be found in Book AT. 103, 106. The Trustees of "the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton," which was the title taken by the country church upon the separation, were Daniel Scudder, John Howell, Ebenezer Ross, Timothy Howell, William Green, James Burroughs, and Benjamin Johnston. Mr. Kirkpatrick was probably the first occupant of the parsonage. In 1768-70, "Mrs. Sarah Trent" was credited for the rent. The Rev. Dr. How (1816-21) was the last of the pastors who resided in it before it was sold.
In the Trenton Emporium, December 15, 1821, the parsonage is advertised for sale. "The house is of frame, 32 by 30, two stories ; three rooms and a large hall, all of which have fireplaces in them, on the first floor; four chambers with fireplaces in them and a good store-room on the second floor; one room in the garret; a dry stone cellar under the whole, divided into suitable apartments, and a large, convenient frame kitchen in the rear. The lot is sixty-five feet front by one hundred and twenty-five feet deep, having a well-arranged stable and carriage-house, with a hay-loft over both: a well of excel- lent water in the yard and a garden of convenient size."
12. Marquis de Chastellux, "Voyages dans l'Amerique," 1780-2, Paris, 1786, vol. i., 285, speaks of visiting Ringwood, "a hamlet of seven or eight houses, formed of the manor of Mrs. Erskine and the forges she was concerned in. Mr. Erskine had been two months dead. Mrs. Erskine was nearly forty years of age. One of her nephews was at the house, and Mr. John Fell, a member of Congress."
Erskine and the iron works are mentioned in the "Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society," vol. vi., 148, &c.
Rev. A. Messler, D.D., of Somerville, furnished me the following copies of inscriptions at Ringwood, Passaic county, New Jersey :
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"In memory of Robert Erskine, F.R.S., Geographer and Surveyor- General to the Army of the United States. Son of the Rev'd Ralph Erskine, late Minister of Dunfermline in Scotland. Born Sep. 7th, 1735. Died Oct'r 2, 1780, aged 45 years and 25 days."
"In memory of Robert Monteith, Clark to Robert Erskine, Esq., born at Dunblain in Scotland. Died Dec'r 2, 1778, aged 33 years."
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APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XVI.
I. One of Mr. Armstrong's sermons, from I Corinthians 14: 15, was on Singing, and was "Preached by particular request in the year 1786 or 7, at Dr. Woodhull's church in Freehold, Monmouth."
2. Mr. Armstrong's family gave me a paper, in his own handwriting, at the close of which he had written: "The above is a copy of the paper, rules, and articles which were laid before the religious society formed in the Presbyterian congregation in Trenton at its institution, for their free and full discussion, and were unanimously agreed to by said Society somewhere in the beginning of the year 1790. James F. Armstrong."
The week-day evening service, now generally called "Lecture," was at the date of this paper and long afterwards, usually termed "So- ciety."
The paper in full is as follows :
"Associations, Meetings, Conferences, or Societies, call them by what name you please, for religious or moral purposes, have often been attended with the happiest advantage to Society and have often been visited with the divine blessing and the divine presence. Asso- ciations for the promotion of Virtue and Religion and for discoun- tenancing and suppressing vice and immorality have often been pro- ductive of great good to Society in general, and these associations, when united with meetings or societies for the express purpose of humiliation and Prayer to God for spiritual blessings upon Church and Land have been abundantly useful and done much good for the advancement of serious Religion, and these united societies religiously and prudently conducted are often highly beneficial and helpful under the exercises of a faithful Ministry and may tend to promote the com- fort and profit of both Pastor and People in their congregational exercises.
"As those who meet for the purpose of imploring the Father of Mercies for spiritual blessings must also have in view the advantages resulting from both institutions, viz .: For Prayer and the suppressing of Disorders. The principles upon which both are founded and the effects naturally to be expected should be fully and freely discussed- and rules and articles for the good management and government of both shall be laid before those who meet in this Society for their dis- cussion and adoption.
A prayer Society ought certainly to be under the direction and Gov- ernment of those who in the Judgment of Charity are friends to serious Religion, and their lives should correspond with their pro- fession, and whatever exercises are performed should be performed
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by such-at the same time so soon as the Society is well established none ought to be refused the privilege of attending to whom the exercises carried on might be expected to be productive of any good. The attendance upon this Meeting must be purely voluntary-no obli- gations upon any person but such as are imposed by their own opinion or feelings, and if any should attend it only at times,-or if after attending sometimes should choose to absent themselves, no opinion of religious character ought to be formed from such conduct. In short, attendance upon such meetings ought not to be made a term of communion, as it is in some societies-such terms lay an unlawful as well as unchristian burthen upon the conscience, often wound the peace and harmony of Society, and create real disorder and confusion, as well as prevent the good which they may be intended to promote."
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