USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 5
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at Newark; on Wednesday, at two in the afternoon, at New Brunswick, and hope to reach Trent-town that night. Could you not meet me there quietly, that we might spend one evening together?" He was advertised in the Phila- delphia papers to preach, at Trenton on the 13th and 14th September, 1754.5
Mr. Cowell was an active member of Synod. In 1738 he was on a committee to meet at Hanover, to adjust a diffi- culty between two parishes. At the same session he was placed on a committee of seven to examine candidates for the ministry. This committee had charge of the students in the Presbyteries to the north of Philadelphia, and a cor- responding one had charge of those to the south. In 1743 he was Moderator, and elected on the Synod's commission for the year. For before the present constitution of our church was adopted, the Synod followed the usage of the General Assembly of Scotland, in annually appointing a convenient number of its members to sit as a commission in the interval of its stated convenings, and perform any Synodal business that required immediate dispatch.6 The Moderator of 1743 was also added to a committee to an- swer a communication from Governor Thomas, of Penn- sylvania, in regard to a pamphlet by the Rev. Alexander Craighead, which the government considered seditious, and which the Synod disavowed, both as to its sentiments, and as having any jurisdiction over its author.7
In 1749 the Synod of New York sent a delegation to the Synod of Philadelphia, with a proposal that each Synod should appoint a commission to meet and deliberate upon a plan of reunion. This movement towards reconcilation was acceded to by the sister Synod, and on the 25th of May they appointed a commission of nine members, of whom Mr. Cowell was one. The united meeting was ap- pointed to be held in Trenton, on the first Wednesday of the ensuing October. The meeting took place accordingly
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on the 4th and 5th of October, and Mr. Cowell was chosen to preside. The negotiations initiated at this meeting were prolonged in various shapes until May 29, 1755, when a commission of conference was again appointed by the Synod of Philadelphia, and Mr. Cowell was one of its seven members. They met in Philadelphia on the same afternoon. He was also on a committee of five, in 1756, to answer a minute then received from the other Synod; and on another committe to obtain a charter for the Wid- ows' Fund from the Messrs. Penn, the Pennsylvania Pro- prietors, and also on the Synod's Commission and Fund.8 In May, 1757, another joint conference was held at Tren- ton, of which Mr. Cowell was a member. He was on the Commission of the Synod, and Committee for the Fund, for 1758, in which year the two Synods were at length combined under the title of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia.
At the first meeting of the new Synod (May 30, 1758) Mr. Cowell and Mr. Guild (of Pennington) were trans- ferred from the Presbytery of Philadelphia to that of New Brunswick, and from that time the respective churches have retained the connection. The last mention of Mr. Cowell's name on the Synod's records is under the date of May 22, 1760, when, although not present, he was placed on a com- mittee to dispose of the fund for the relief of poor and pious youth in the College of New Jersey.9
CHAPTER V.
TRENTON IN 1748-EPISCOPAL CHURCHES-TRENTON NAMES AND PLACES-1722-1768.
1746-1760.
On the sixth of September, 1746, at the instance of Governor Morris, Trenton was, by royal charter, constituted a borough-town. Thomas Cadwalader was the first Chief Burgess; Nathaniel Ward, Recorder, with twelve Bur- gesses. But in April, 1750, the inhabitants having found that the disadvantages of incorporation preponderated, sur- rendered the charter through the hands of Governor Bel- cher .*
For the sake of the impression it may convey of what the town was at this period, I will here make an extract from the journal of a traveler who saw it in the year 1748. This writer was Peter Kalm, Professor of Economy in the University of Abo, in Swedish Finland; who visited North America, as a naturalist, under the auspices of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. It was in honor of his botanical researches that Linnæus gave the name of Kalmia to our laurel. Under the date of October 28, 1748, Kalm enters his observations as follows:
"Trenton is a long, narrow town, situate at some distance from the river Delaware, on a sandy plain. It belongs to New Jersey, and they reckon it thirty miles from Philadelphia. It has two small churches, one for the people belonging to the Church of England, the other for the Presbyterians. The houses are partly built of stone, though most of them are made of wood or planks, commonly two stories high, together with a cellar below the building, and a kitchen underground,
* The Charter is in book AAA of Commissions, p. 266: the surrender on p. 306.
(57)
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close to the cellar. The houses stand at a moderate distance from one another. They are commonly built so that the street passes along one side of the houses, while gardens of different dimensions bound the other side. In each garden is a draw-well.1 The place is reckoned very healthy. Our landlord told us that twenty-two years ago, when he first settled here, there was hardly more than one house; but from that time Trenton has increased so much that there are at present near a hundred houses. The houses were, within, divided into several rooms by the partitions of boards. The inhabitants of the place car- ried on a small trade with the goods which they got from Philadelphia, but their chief gain consists in the arrival of the numerous travelers between that city and New York, for they are commonly brought by the Trenton yachts from Philadelphia to Trenton, or from thence to Philadelphia. But from Trenton further to New Brunswick, the trav- elers go in the wagons which set out every day for that place. Several of the inhabitants, however, likewise subsist on the carriage for all sorts of goods which are every day sent in great quantities either from Philadelphia to New York, or from thence to the former place, for between Philadelphia and Trenton all goods go by water, but between Trenton and New Brunswick they are all carried by land, and both these conveniences belong to people of this town.
"For the yachts which go between this place and the capital of Penn- sylvania (Philadelphia), they usually pay a shilling and sixpence of Pennsylvania currency per person, and every one pays besides for his baggage. Every passenger must provide meat and drink for himself, or pay some settled fare. Between Trenton and New Brunswick a person pays 2s. 6d., and the baggage is likewise paid for separately.
"On the road from Trenton to New Brunswick I never saw any place in America, the towns excepted, so well peopled. An old man, who lived in the neighborhood, and accompanied us for some part of the road, however, assured me that he could well remember the time when between Trenton and New Brunswick there were not above three farms, and he reckoned it was fifty and some odd years ago."2
When it is said that the landlord told Kalm that in 1726 there was hardly one house in Trenton, either the Swede did not understand the Jerseyman, or the host spoke at random; for if as early as 1719 the courts sat in Trenton, it is not probable that such a selection would be made seven years before there was "hardly a house."
The statistical guesses or reports of travelers are not to be relied on, especially if the reporters do not speak the language of the country. The Rev. Andrew Burnaby, an
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English clergyman, describes Trenton, in 1759, as "contain- ing about a hundred houses. It has nothing remarkable : there is a Church (of England), a Quaker's and Presby- terian meeting-house, and barracks for three hundred men."* These barracks, which are now in part occupied by the "Home for Widows," were erected in 1758, simul- taneously with those at New Brunswick and Elizabethtown,3 Elkanah Watson, who was here in 1777, says: "Trenton contains about seventy dwellings, situate principally on two narrow streets running parallel."; In the travels of the Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, in 1795-7, Tren- ton is said to "contain about three hundred houses; most of which are of wood. Those of the high street are some- what better in structure than the rest, yet still but very moderate in their appearance."} In the same year an Eng- lish visitor says: "Trenton contains about two hundred houses, together with four churches. The streets are com- modious, and the houses neatly built."§ Melish, in 1806-7, makes it "a handsome little town, containing about two hundred houses."| The Rev. Mr. Burnaby "went to Sir John Sinclair's, at the Falls of Delaware, about a mile above Trenton, a pleasant rural retirement."4 Sir John Sin- clair's knighthood was of the order known in English heraldry as a Baronetcy of Nova Scotia. He was the first occupant of the mansion that afterwards belonged to "Lord" Stirling, and then to Mr. Rutherford, a short distance west of the State House, and on the river. The three families were connected. The house was subsequently tenanted by Robert Lettis Hooper, and the walls of "the
* Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America etc., in 1759 and 1760.
+ Memoirs, p. 9.
# Travels; Translated by Newman. London, 1799, i. 594.
§ Travels through the States of North America, etc., in 1795-7. By Isaac Weld, Jr. London, 1799.
Il Travels, i. 143.
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Green House," remained to give name to the site long after the dwelling itself had been demolished. A correspondent of the Trenton "Federalist," of March 30th, 1802, states that the first ice-house in the State, "in our recollection, was erected by Sir John St. Clair (so written), about the year 1760."5
I would here enlarge the notices already given incidentally of the foundation of the Episcopal Church in Trenton and its vicinity. I have mentioned the building erected on the ground conveyed by Hutchinson in 1703, and its occupation at intervals, if not jointly, by the Presbyterians. In Humphreys' "Historical Account of the Gospel Propaga- tion Society," we have the following statement :
"Hopewell and Maidenhead are two neighboring towns, containing a considerable number of families. The people of Hopewell showed a very early desire of having the Church of England worship settled among them; and in the year 1704 built a church with voluntary con- tributions, though they had no prospect then of having a minister. The Rev. Mr. May was there some short time, but Mr. Talbot, from Burlington, often visited them. This church was for ten years vacant. In 1720 the Rev. Mr. Harrison was appointed missionary there, with the care of Maidenhead, but soon wrote the Society word that he was not able to undergo the fatigue of constantly riding between two places, and in 1723 he removed to a church in Staten Island."
In the Society's "Account" for 1706, it is said: "Many other public letters were continually sent over, by which it appeared that the inhabitants of Hopewell and Maidenhead were building a church, and desired a minister and some subsistence for him." In 1709 Mr. Talbot writes from Burlington : "Poor Hopewell has built a church and have had no minister yet."6 In a manuscript, headed, "State of the Church of England in America in 1705," probably a copy of some English document, it is said that a minister is wanted "at Hopewell, between Crosswicks and Maidenhead, where they are building" a church; and one "at the Falls, thirty miles above Philadelphia, where a church is building."
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
In collating these notices, Hopewell and the Falls would seem to indicate different localities; and if the former be the name of the "Old Church" of our map, in Chapter II., the latter may denote some other place-perhaps in Pennsylvania-to which the general neighborhood title of the Falls may have been applied.7
In 1749 a lottery "for finishing the church at Trenton," was drawn in Pennsylvania. Of the Trenton Episcopal Church, however, we find nothing definite until June, 1750, when the Rev. Michael Houdin is reported in the Society's Accounts as "invited by the inhabitants of Trenton and other places in New Jersey to go and officiate among them." Upon this he addressed a letter to the Society, dated Tren- ton, November 1, 1750, which begins: "Having my resi- dence at New York, I heard of repeated complaints made by gentlemen and principal inhabitants of this place, Allen's Town and Borden's Town, it being for many years past destitute of a Church of England minister; and, without any sort of application of mine, about five months ago some of them were pleased to press me by letter to come amongst them. * When I waited on them I really found they were destitute indeed, there not being a minister of the Church of England nearer than Burlington." The Ab- stracts of the Society for 1753 say : "The Rev. Mr. Houdin, having for some years officiated at Trenton and the neigh- boring places in the Province of New Jersey, among the members of the Church of England, upon such slender sup- port as they in their poor circumstances could afford him," the Society appointed him their "itinerant missionary to officiate in Trenton and the parts adjacent."
Michael Houdin, whose name has been usually given nearer to its pronunciation, as Udang or Eudang, in which latter form it actually appears in the first minutes of the Vestry of St. Michael's Church (April 30, 1755)-born in France in 1705-was originally a priest in the Church of
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Rome and Superior of a Franciscan Convent in Montreal. He renounced that faith and entered the Episcopal Church in New York in 1747, and thence came to Trenton as the Society's "itinerant missionary in New Jersey," on a salary of fifty pounds. In 1759 Houdin accompanied General Wolfe to Quebec, as his guide; and in October "intreats the Society that his absence from his mission may not bring him under displeasure, as he was in some measure forced to it, in obedience to the commands of Lord Loudon and the succeeding commanders, who depended much on his being well acquainted with that country." After the reduction of Quebec, Houdin asked leave to return to his missionary post, but General Murray retained him in the army. He complained that he had lost much by the death of Wolfe, "who promised to remember his labor and services." From Canada he appears to have been sent as missionary to New Rochelle, Westchester county, New York, where were many French refugees. He died there in October, 1766 .* The Rev. Mr. Treadwell was the successor to Houdin. In May, 1769, the Rev. William Thomson produced to the Vestry the Society's letter appointing him to the mission of "Tren- ton and Maidenhead," to which the Wardens gave their approbation. 8
The nearest newspaper offices accessible to Trenton for half a century after its foundation were those of Philadel- phia. Through all that period the want of a local press and the obstacles to correspondence kept the affairs of the town in their native obscurity. Such notices and advertisements, however, as are found in the Philadelphia journals afford some idea of the population and business of Trenton, and give some names of its early inhabitants, not otherwise to be found. From a cursory inspection of a series of Brad-
* Anderson's History of the Colonial Church of England. London, 1856, vol. iii. Bolton's History of the Episcopal Church in Westchester County. New York, 1855, P. 453-471. O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York. Vol. iii. 955.
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ford's Weekly Mercury, and Keimer's and Franklin's Penn- sylvania Gazette,* I have made the following miscellaneous notes. A number of the names are among the signatures of Mr. Cowell's call in 1736.
November, 1722 .- William Yard, of Trenton, advertises the escape of a negro servant.
August, 1723 .- Joseph Peace' offers for sale two dwelling houses belonging to Peter Pummer, near Trent's Mill. Inquiry to be made of Mr. Peace, at his residence in Trent Town.
September, 1723 .- A line of transportation for goods and passengers is advertised as running between Trenton and Philadelphia, once a week each way. The agent in Trenton was John Woolland. The office in the city was at the celebrated "Crooked Billet."
March, 1728 .- A large stone house, with a good smith-shop, to be sold at vendue at the house of William Hoff.
December, 1729 .- John Severn's stable and seven horses burnt.
October, 1731 .- For sale a plantation, adjoining the town of Tren- ton, 130 acres; also one three miles above Trenton, near the ferry above the falls, one mile from Yardley's old mill, and three from his new one, 500 acres. "Inquire of Capt. James Gould, at Trenton, and be further informed."
December, 1731 .- A bolting-house and store, belonging to Benjamin Smith, took fire, "but was seasonably prevented."
June, 1732 .- Enoch Anderson, "at the Falls' ferry."
July, 1732 .- Enoch Anderson, Junior, sub. sheriff.
August, 1732 .- The house of Ebenezer Prout, "near this place," was struck by lightning. William Pearson was hurt, a boy killed.
September, 1732 .- Eliacom [kim] Anderson, "now living at Trenton ferry."
February 1732-3 .- A fresh carried away the dam of the iron works, also the dam of the grist-mill, bridge and dyeing-house.
September 19, 1734 .- Notice is given of the establishment of a post office at Trenton, "where all persons may have their letters, if directed for that county; also where they may put in their letters directed to any parts, and due care will be taken to send them." The postmaster was Andrew Reed, and the office was at the house of Joseph Reed.10
The first advertisement of uncalled-for letters, which I have seen, is under the date March 25, 1755, and is as fol- lows :
* In the Philadelphia Library is a series of the Mercury from 1719 to 1746, and of the Gazette from 1728 to 1774. The latter appeared at first under the ex- traordinary title of The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Penn- sylvania Gazette.
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"A list of letters now in the post office at Trenton.
C William Carnegie, near Kingston, John Clark (Attorney,), Trenton.
H John Hyde, Hopewell. M
Joseph Morton, Princetown.
P Richard Patterson, Princetown. S John Stevens, Rocky Hill. V Ares Vanderbelt, Maidenhead.
"Letters not taken up within three months from this date will be sent to the General Post Office at Philadelphia."
September, 1734 .- Isaac Harrow, an English smith, has lately set up at Trenton a plating and blade-mill, where he makes axes, car- penters' and coopers' tools, tanners' and skinners' knives, spades, shovels, shears, scythes, mill and hand-saws, frying-pans, etc., "likewise all sorts of iron plates, fit for bell making or any other use."
May, 1736 .- Application for a stone house and a lot of three quarters of an acre, to be made to Cornelius Ringo in Trenton. It "lies in a. very convenient part of the town for any manner of business, being near the mill."
February, 1737 .- There will be a stage-wagon from Trenton to. Brunswick twice a week and back; will set out from William Atlee's and Thomas Hooton's, in Trenton.
October, 1737 .- Servants absconded from Benjamin Smith and Richard Noland.
November, 1737 .- A Scotch servant-man absconded from Mr. Warrell.
January, 1738 .- Servant absconded from Joseph Decow.
August, 1739 .- To be let, the grist-mills at Trenton, with two tene- ments adjoining, now in the tenure of Joseph Peace.
December, 1739 .- Andrew Reed receives subscriptions in Trenton for Whitefield's Sermons and Journals, to be published by Franklin.
March, 1740 .- William Atlee proposes to continue to keep a store with John Dagworthy, Junior, until his partnership with Thomas Hooton is settled.
II, May, 1744 .- To be sold, by Benjamin Smith, a corner lot; also a stone house, fronting King street; sundry lots on Queen street.
September, 1745 .- To be sold, "the iron plating works, smith's shop, and all the tools and moulds for making frying-pans, dripping-pans,
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etc., said works being now fit for use;" also a good dwelling-house- all of the estate of Isaac Harrow, deceased. Apply to Anthony Morris, Philadelphia, or William Morris, Trenton.12
January, 1745 .- For sale, dwelling, malt-house, brew-house, and all utensils, and a quarter of acre of land in King street, estate of William Atlee. Enquire of James Atlee, Trenton, or Thomas Hooton, Trenton ferry.
March, 1746 .- Sundry lots offered by William Morris and William Morris, Junior, on both sides of Hanover street 45 feet front and 147 feet deep.
October, 1746 .- A fair for three days will be held in the borough town of Trenton for cattle of all kinds, goods, wares, and merchandise.
1746 .- William Morris, Junior, at his store opposite to John Jen- kins's, advertises rum by the hogshead, and salt by the hundred bushels.
June, 1748 .- Enoch Anderson offers for sale a house "fronting the street that leads directly to New York," also "two lots opposite the Presbyterian meeting-house, on one of which is a very good stable."
April, 1750 .- House of William Douglass, at Trenton landing.
1750 .- For sale by Benjamin Biles, a well-accustomed tanyard, with vats enough for 800 hides, and dwelling adjoining the tanyard, on the west side of King street, near the middle of the town.
May, 1750 .- Thomas Cadwalader offers 900 acres of woodland, a mile and a half north of the town, watered by fine streams, "one of which the Trenton mills stand on." Also a plantation of 700 acres, on the Delaware, where William Douglass now lives, north of Trenton about two miles, adjoining the plantation where Mr. Tuite lately lived; also a large corner brick house in Queen street, in a very public part of the town; also 25 acres of pasture land in the upper end of Queen street.
June, 1750 .- For sale, plantation, 447 acres, late in possession of Alexander Lockhart, Esq., between three and four miles from Trenton, on Scot's road, and adjoining the old meeting-house lot, and the plan- tation of Charles Clark, Esq. Enquire of John Cox, Trenton.
April, 1751 .- John Evans, cooper.
January, 1752 .- James Rutherford's house robbed.
April, 1752 .- Elijah Bond's stable and fourteen horses, and some adjoining houses burnt.
September, 1753 .- For sale, Nathaniel Moore's mills and plantation, six miles above Trenton, 400 acres; apply to William Clayton, or William Pidgeon, Trenton.
1754 .- Several men for sale by "Reed and Furman."
May, 1754 .- Tickets in the lottery in Connecticut for the benefit of College of New Jersey, for sale by Rev. Mr. Cowell, and Reed & Furman.
July, 1754 .- Edward Broadfield has removed from Bordentown to Trenton.
5 PRES
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1756 .- The Philadelphia and New York line. John Butler's stage starts on Tuesday from Philadelphia, to house of Nathaniel Parker at Trenton Ferry, thence over the ferry to house kept by George Moschell, where Francis Holman will meet John Butler, and exchange pas- sengers, and proceed on Wednesday, through Princeton and New Brunswick to Perth Amboy, where will be a boat to proceed to New York on Thursday morning.
13 1757 .- Subscriptions for the New American Magazine, about to be published in Philadelphia, may be left with Moore Furman, Postmaster of Trenton.
April, 1758 .- Andrew Reed, of Trenton, advertises tract of 200 acres at Amwell, and in Trenton two good stone houses, with garden, well, etc., one of which now lets for £8 Ios. per annum, and the other, having a cooper's shop on the lot, for f12; also three lots on the west side of King street, 45 by 140.
April, 1758 .- William Douglass, sign of the Wheatsheaf, or at the house of John Cummings, is authorized to enlist a regiment of one thousand men for the King's service.
July, 1758 .- For sale by executors, the seat of Joseph Warrell, Esq., late' deceased, well known by name of Bellville, on the Delaware, three-fourths of a mile from Trenton, with gardens, orchards, etc. Also a plantation of 300 acres, within one-fourth of a mile of the above, on the Delaware, with a patent for a ferry.
May, 1759 .- Robert Lettis Hooper has laid out lots 60 by 181, for a town in Nottingham township, beginning on the Delaware at Trenton ferry, running as the road runs to the grist mills opposite Trenton, thence down the stream of the mills to the Delaware, thence down the river to the ferry, being the head of navigation, "where there is a considerable trade extended from the city of Philadelphia, and great parts of the counties of Hunterdon, Morris, Middlesex, Somerset, and Bucks, in Pennsylvania, deliver their produce," and rafts of timber, staves, etc., come from 120 miles up the river. Offered for sale, or on lease for sixty years. Apply to advertiser or his sons Robert L. Hooper and Jacob Roeters [or Rutters] Hooper, "living at his mills opposite to Trenton."
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