USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 8
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This would reconcile the tradition with the newspaper paragraphs, and appears to identify the body. It is part of the old report, that one of the interments was by torch-light. Mr. Cowell's memorandum shows, that Mr. Home's funeral sermon was on Sunday, and was a second service on that day. On the removal of the site of the church in 1839, the vault was a second time examined, before it was carefully closed, but neither the inscription nor arms upon the mould- ering plate that was found in it, could be deciphered. That could scarcely have been a family vault, in which any con- nections of such enemies as Morris and Cosby would be associated .*
* Governor Cosby's wife was a daughter of Lord Halifax. Their eldest daugh- ter was married to a younger son of the Duke of Grafton. See "Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany," I : 442.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE TRENTON CHURCH- TRUSTEES.
1756-1760.
It was during the pastorate of Mr. Cowell that the first charter of incorporation was obtained, and his name stands first among the corporators. The date of this instrument is September 8, 1756. It runs in the name of George the Second, through the Provincial Governor Belcher, and in- corporates
The Rev. David Cowell, Charles Clark, Andrew Reed, Joseph Yard, Arthur Howell. William Green, Alexander Chambers,
and their successors, by the name of "The Trustees of the Presbyterian Church of Trenton." The charter follows the phraseology of others given to our churches under the same administration,* in the preambulary acknowledgment that "the advancement of true religion and virtue is absolutely necessary for the promotion of the peace, order and pros- perity of the State, and that it is the duty of all Christian Princes and Governors, by the law of God, to do all they can for the encouragement thereof"; and also that "the known loyalty of the petitioners, and the Presbyterians in general, to us, their firm affection to our person and gov-
* See Murray's "Elizabethtown," p. 62. Stearn's "Newark," p. 193.
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ernment, and the Protestant succession in our royal house, gave the petitioners hopes of all reasonable indulgence and favor within the same colony, where the religious rights of mankind are so happily preserved, and where our equal grace and bounty to all our Protestant faithful subjects, however differing in opinion about lesser matters, has hitherto been so sensibly felt and enjoyed."
Of the lay members of the first Board of Trustees I herewith furnish all the information within my reach.
CHARLES CLARK came to Trenton from Long Island, and occupied a farm in the township near the country church. He is recorded as present at every meeting of the Trustees from 1757 to 1775. On the night of the battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776, he met his death by falling into the fire of his own hearth.1 In 1777 his son, Benjamin, was elected a Trustee in his place. Another son, Daniel, was in the Board with his father from 1766 to 1788. At the annual meeting of 1777, "Daniel Clark and Benjamin Clark informed the Board that their father, Charles Clark, Esq., deceased, had left the congregation twenty pounds, to be put at interest, the interest to be an- nually applied towards the support of their minister. They produced the will of their late father, and paid the twenty pounds to Mr. Alexander Chambers, who put the same to interest to Mr. John Howell, at six per cent."
Benjamin died November 25, 1785, in his fifty-fifth year. The Gazette of the week says: "He served in the magis- tracy with reputation, both before and since the Revolu- tion. The estimation he was held in by the neighborhood was manifest from the numerous and respectable attend- ants on his funeral, and his loss will be sensibly felt, not only by his family, but by the Church, and the county in which he lived."
Of ANDREW REED, the next on the list of Trustees, I have given all I know in a previous chapter. There are
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stones in the Trenton church-yard marked Sarah, wife of Andrew Reed, March 15, 1739; Ann, daughter of Andrew Reed, July 4, 1757, æt 14; and three infant Reeds, Francis, September 12, 1747; Thomas, February 7, 1754; Andrew Jr., July 7, 1758.
JOSEPH YARD belonged to a family which appears among the earliest settlers of Trenton, and spread into numerous branches .? It is said that there was a doubt whether the name of Yard had not a superior claim to that of Trent for the new locality. Our trustee came from England with his four brothers, Benjamin, William, John and Jethro. Benjamin was an elder of this church in 1765, and it is probably his death which is recorded as having taken place in October, 1808, in his ninety-fourth year. Joseph acted as trustee until 1762, and was Clerk of the Board.
ARTHUR HOWELL's name appears on the minutes of May 8, 1762, for the last time. On the sixth of Decem- ber of that year his will was before the surrogate. His "trusty and beloved friend, Obadiah Howell," was one of his executors.
WILLIAM GREEN was in office until 1764. This family, like the Howells and Yards, is too ramified to be traced for any object of the present work.
ALEXANDER CHAMBERS, the last-named corporator, be- longed to a family which has its fifth and sixth generations to represent it at this time. I avail myself of a paper pre- pared by Mr. John S. Chambers, to furnish all the informa- tion necessary to my purpose.
"John Chambers, the ancestor of the Chambers family of Trenton, came to America from the county of Antrim in the north of Ireland, about the year 1730.
"His tombstone stands near the present church edifice in good pres- ervation, by the inscription on which it appears that he died September 19th, 1747, at the age of seventy years.
"He had several children, of whom his son Alexander continued to live in Trenton. Alexander was his second son, and was born in Ire-
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land in the year 1716. He was one of the first trustees named in the Charter of the Presbyterian Church of Trenton, given from the King through Governor Belcher, and held the office from September 8th, 1756, until his death, September 16th, 1798, a period of forty-two years, during all which time, as is shown by the Trustees' Book of Minutes, his name is recorded as present at every meeting of the Board. He was elected Treasurer of the Board May 6th, 1766, and performed the duties of that office till August Ist, 1796, a period of thirty years, when he resigned on account of his advancing age. He was also chosen President of the Board on the 5th of May, 1783, which office he filled till his death, a period of fifteen years.
"He was by occupation a turner, spinning-wheel and chair-maker. He built the brick house on the corner of State and Willow streets, for many years used as a store, and known as Chambers' Corner, and carried on store-keeping in the old mud house built by his father, which stood adjoining.
"He died September 16th, 1798, at the age of eighty-two, and lies- buried near his father in the churchyard. The first bequest in his will is in these words:
"'Item. I give unto the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, Thirty Pounds, to be put at interest, and the interest to go towards the sup- port of a minister, said Thirty Pounds to be paid to the Trustees one year after my decease.'
"Alexander Chambers left several children. Two of the sons, John and Alexander, remained in Trenton. John carried on the trade of his father at his own shop at the head of town in Warren street. Alexander converted the brick house built by his father on the corner of State and Willow streets into a store, and carried on an extensive business for many years. He was the first to establish Bloomsbury as a port for sloops, and built a wharf and storehouse there about the year 1803; the transportation business having been previously con- ducted at Lamberton, about a mile below.
"On the 7th of August, 1799, about a year after the death of his- father, he was chosen a Trustee, and so continued till his death in 1824, a period of twenty-five years. John S. Chambers, son of the last-mentioned John Chambers, was chosen a Trustee November 24th, 1823, and so continued till his death in November, 1834, a period of eleven years; for the last two of which he was also President of the Board, having been elected to that office October 13th, 1832."
To this I may add that the son of the last-named, who furnishes this paper, is the present Clerk of the Board. There was a John Chambers in the eldership in 1760-4.3 My correspondent says :
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"I have not yet ascertained who the elder, John Chambers, was. It is evident from the dates he could not have been the ancestor who first came over, as I at first supposed."
According to the terms of the charter, the seven trustees were to hold their office until the first Tuesday of June, 1757, when and thereafter the trustees were to be elected by "the Minister, Elders, and Deacons of the said Presby- terian Church and Congregation." This unpopular feature of ecclesiastical corporations passed away in due time, to- gether with the loyalty to the house of Hanover; but the minister, elders and deacons continued, until after the in- dependence, to elect the trustees, of whom the minister himself was usually one, and also President of the Board. As such, he was constituted by the charter keeper of the books, seal and all papers of the corporation .* In 1760 the pastor was Treasurer as well as President.
In 1760, June 12, John Chambers, John Hendrickson and Stephen Rose were "chosen elders," and on the same day is this entry on the trustees' minutes: "Memorandum, that it is agreed by the congregation now met, that the Presby- terian Congregation of Trenton shall annually meet on the first Tuesday in June to choose elders, and that then the minister, elders and deacons shall proceed to the choice of trustees of said Presbyterian church." From this provision, and occasional subsequent records, it seems that there was for a time a departure from the principle of our church that the lay-eldership, like the clerical, is perpetual, and is not open, even as to the exercise of the office, to repeated elec- tions, as is the custom of our sister Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Dutch. It must be remembered that this was nearly thirty years before the constitution of our American Church was framed.
* The original Charter is still preserved. It is recorded in Book Q, p. 163, State House.
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In 1760 the name of Moore Furman appears in the Board in the place of Andrew Reed. In 1762 Obadiah Howell filled the vacancy made by the death of Mr. Cowell. A personal notice of Mr. Furman will come in more appropri- ately under a later date. OBADIAH HOWELL was a trustee until 1770. He lived on a farm which is still in the family on the Scotch road on the borders of Trenton.
CHAPTER IX.
MINISTRY OF THE REV. WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK-HIS HISTORY.
1760-1766.
Soon after the Rev. Mr. Cowell's withdrawal from the pastorate, and before his decease, the attention of the people, perhaps at his suggestion, was turned towards Mr. WIL- LIAM KIRKPATRICK as his successor.
Neiher the place nor time of Mr. Kirkpatrick's birth is known. Judging from his age, as given without dates on his grave-stone, he was born about 1726. He probably had not a liberal education at the usual age, as he was at least thirty years old when he took his Bachelor's degree at Princeton.1 This was with the class of 1757, which was graduated in the year after the college was removed from Newark to Princeton, and in which its distinguished Presi- dent, Aaron Burr, died. Among his classmates were the young men afterwards eminent Governor Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Alexander Macwhorter, D.D., and in the class next below his were John V. and William Tennent, sons of the Rev. William Tennent, Jr. It was in the March of that year that the College was blessed ( accord- ing to the language of Gilbert Tennent) with "an extra- ordinary appearance of the divine power and presence there."2 In the next year (June 13 and 14, 1758), at the meeting of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, which was the first after the union of the Synods of New York and Philadelphia, and when Messrs. Cowell and Guild had been
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transferred to it from the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Kirk- patrick3 and Macwhorter were taken under trials as candi- dates for the ministry. Upon their preliminary examination the Presbytery pronounced themselves "well pleased that they can with so great freedom encourage them in their design." The theme for Kirkpatrick's exegesis was "an certitudo subjectiva salutis sit de essentia fidei justificantis"; his trial text was Rom. 3 : 28. On the 25th of the next month the Presbytery met at Princeton, when no other business was attended to but the hearing and approving of the compositions of the two candidates, and giving them texts for further exercises. These were heard on the 15th August, at Princeton; Kirkpatrick's second trial text was Philippians 4 : 5; and the course of trials being completed, they were licensed, and both of them were immediately sent out to supply vacant congregations till the Fall Presbytery. Kirkpatrick's appointments were to Oxford, Forks of Dela- ware, Greenwich, Bethlehem, Kingwood, and wherever else he should find opportunity. In October he was appointed to the same circuit, with Shrewsbury added to the places named.
In the early part of 1759 he wrote the following letter to Dr. Bellamy, of Connecticut :*
"NEWARK, Feb. 12, 1759.
"REV. AND WORTHY SIR: I think, if I remember right, I came under a promise of writing to you, which, if made, I am now about to fulfill.
"I remember we had some conversation about George's Town on Kennebeck river when I was with you. I have since seen a man who once lived on the spot, who seems to be an intelligent, sober man, and his account of that people discourages from thoughts of settling there. He says they are a remarkably contentious, brawling, difficult people, and that no minister can have any comfort, or be long useful with them. I have' had an invitation from the Presbytery of New Castle, (of which Mr. Finley is a member,) to come under their care, and · settle among them, should Providence open a way for it. Likewise I
* In the manuscript collections of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Phila- delphia.
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have had a probationary call from a place under the care of our own Presbytery, (viz., New Brunswick). And another of the same kind from a congregation near Elizabethtown in York Presbytery bounds. I have not yet seen my way clear to accept of an invitation from any of these places, but continue to itinerate among the small vacancies towards the frontiers of this Province. If any door of more extensive usefulness opens with you, I would be very glad if you would take care to inform me; my inclinations lead me much to New England. If you can send a letter to this place from whence I write, or to Mr. Hazard's in New York, directed to me at Princeton, it will soon come to hand. However the matter stands, I would be very glad of a letter from you, at least before the sitting of our Presbytery, (the third week in June).
"I am lately informed that some of the trustees of our College have sent a messenger yesterday to Mr. Davies, a third time to invite him to the Presidentship of our College, after two former denials-we wait the event. Mr. Green presides pro tempore. I have lately heard from good Mr. Finley that he is well.
"Religion is here at a low ebb. Truth is fallen in the streets, and equity can not enter. Christians fallen from their first love, and vice triumphant. A spirit of deadness prevails. How long, Lord, how long?
"But being in great hurry, I can not add any more, but salutations to Mrs. Bellamy, best respects to Mr. Wells and Mr. Day, with affec- zionate duty and regard to yourself from
"Rev. sir, your unworthy son and servant,
"WM. KIRKPATRICK."
In June, 1759, the united congregations of Bethlehem and Kingwood brought a call for Mr. Kirkpatrick. There was also a request or "supplication," as such petitions were called, from the people of Tohikan (or Tehicken or Tini- cum) that he should supply their pulpit. But the Synod, which in those days often exercised what are now con- sidered Presbyterial prerogatives, had, in its sessions a month before, made other arrangements for the Presby- tery's probationer.+ It "ordered, that Messrs. Macwhorter, Kirkpatrick, and Latta, take a journey to Virginia and Caro- lina, as soon as they can this summer, or ensuing fall, and spend some months in those parts"; and the Synod "fur- ther considering the destitute condition of Hanover, and the uncertainty of their being supplied, if suppliers are left to
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their own discretion, respecting the time of their going to Virginia," directed that Kirkpatrick should be at Hanover by the third Sabbath of July, to be followed by the two other licentiates in September and November; and their respective Presbyteries were counselled to "take care that these gentlemen fulfill this appointment, and neither pre- scribe nor allow them employment in our bounds, so as to disappoint this our good intention." The direction of their work was to lie with the Presbytery of Hanover, which be- longed to the same Synod. Deferring to the superior au- thority, the Presbytery took no order upon the Tohikan supplication, but directed their two probationers to supply vacancies as far as they could before their journey South.
In view of their mission, the Presbytery determined to hasten their ordination. They gave to Kirkpatrick for his trial sermon the text, "The poor have the Gospel preached to them"; and for a Latin exegesis, the perseverance of the saints.5 These were presented at Cranbury, July 4, 1759, and both Kirkpatrick and Macwhorter were ordained on that day. After all, none of the three fulfilled the Synod's appointment; but whatever were their reasons (Macwhor- ter's was his call to Newark), they were admitted to be sufficient by the Synod, at their annual meeting in 1760. Mr. Kirkpatrick, in the meantime, had declined the Bethle- hem and Kingwood call; and had received one from Han- over, Virginia.
The Trenton congregation now first signified their in- clination to him. On the day (March II, 1760) on which the Presbytery released Mr. Cowell from that charge, they were petitioned to send Mr. Kirkpatrick to supply the pulpit, and he was accordingly directed to preach there "as many Sabbaths as may consist with his other obligations between this and the next Presbytery."
But another and different kind of field was inviting him. The French war, though near its close, was still calling out
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the loyal colonists to the frontiers. Kirkpatrick, through his associations with Hanover Presbytery, may have caught the martial spirit of such sermons of Davies, as the one we read "on the curse of cowardice," preached "at a general muster, May 8th, 1758, with a view to raise a company for Captain Samuel Meredith," or the one "preached to Cap- tain Overton's independent company of volunteers." But in the French and Revolutionary wars our clergymen re- quired no special stimulus to accompany the troops, at least as chaplains. All we know of Kirkpatrick's engagement is derived from this entry on the minutes of his Synod, May 21, 1760:
"'Tis allowed that Messrs. Alexander McDowel and Hector Alison go as chaplains to the Pennsylvania forces, and that Mr. Kirkpatrick go with the New Jersey forces, the ensuing campaign.""
That his absence was not expected to be long, is intimated by the recommendation subjoined by the Synod, "that Mr. Kirkpatrick pay a visit to the people of Windham on his return." If he went at the time mentioned, he was back in season for the meeting of Presbytery in Princeton, Febru- ary 3d, 1761, at which he was clerk.
Supplications were made to Presbytery from various quarters for his services as a supply, or as a candidate for settlement; and on the 28th April, 1761, a regular call was presented from the Trenton congregation. No further order was taken in regard to it at that meeting, but it was probably with a view of affording an opportunity of making up his mind, that the Presbytery appointed Mr. Parkhurst, a new licentiate, to supply four Sabbaths at Trenton, and deferred giving Kirkpatrick any appointment till the meet- ing in the intervals of the next Synod.
At that Synod (May, 1761) we find Mr. Kirkpatrick one of a committee of nine to whom was referred the considera- tion of what was to be done for the better support of John
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Brainerd, who had left Newark at the solicitation of the Indians, made destitute by the death of his brother David, and had become his successor in the mission. Crosswicks, a place hallowed in the memory of the whole Church by these associations, is but eight miles from Trenton, and Mr. Kirkpatrick appears to have had the leading of the business devolved on him, as, though last-named on the committee, the overture, urging an addition to the mission- ary force as well as the funds, is minuted as coming from him. The Synod, however, concluded that as, after all their inquiry, no new missionary presented himself, they could do no more than direct a hundred and fifty pounds to be raised for Mr. Brainerd for the ensuing year. Two years after this (May, 1763), when the Synod appointed Messrs. Brainerd and Beatty to visit "the distressed frontier inhabi- tants and to report their distresses," and also what oppor- tunities were opened for the Gospel among the Indian na- tions, Mr. Kirkpatrick was made the alternate of either who might fail.7
Between the hours occupied by the Synod at the session of 1761, the Presbytery had a special meeting, in the pro- ceedings of which Mr. Kirkpatrick was an interested party. The minutes, drawn probably by his own hand, as he was clerk, are thus :
"Applications were made from Elizabethtown, Brunswick, and Deer- field for the labors of Mr. Kirkpatrick till our next Fall Presbytery. The Presbytery conclude to leave the disposal of his time entirely to himself, as he is supposed to be best acquainted with the necessity of these vacancies; and the Presbytery advise these vacancies not to insist upon his tarrying long among them, unless they design to put in a call for him; as they declare this to be their design, and he appears disposed for settlement."
It would seem from this, though there is no record to the effect, that the Trenton call had not been accepted. Neither was it declined. From the complexion of the pro-
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ceedings all through these years, and from the subsequent transactions, I should judge that Mr. Kirkpatrick preferred Trenton, but that the congregation were so backward on the point of salary or other arrangements, that he held the matter in suspense. Perhaps the minute last copied was ingeniously worded by himself so as to suggest motives to the people of Trenton to be more in earnest, if they wished their call to be preferred above the others that were coming in at every Presbytery. That that people supposed they had a special claim upon him, is seen in the tenor of the pro- ceedings of a special meeting summoned for August II, 1761, at Trenton, to dispose of a fresh invitation.
"A call was brought in by Capt. Samuel Morris and Capt. Wm. Craighead, commissioners from the congregation of Hanover, in Vir- ginia, soliciting the settlement of Mr. Kirkpatrick among them as their minister, which was objected to by the congregation of Trenton; and the Presbytery, having deliberately heard and maturely considered the arguments and reasons offered by both parties, and having likewise had a declaration by Mr. Kirkpatrick of his sentiments and inclina- tions relative to the case, came to the following conclusion, namely, that, although they would gladly concur with the congregation of Han- over in their call, yet as they can not think it their duty to appoint Mr. Kirkpatrick contrary to his own inclination and judgment to settle among them, they judge that it is inexpedient to present him the said call."
It appears, therefore, that he continued to serve the Trenton congregation without installment; but took his share with the other members of the Presbytery and Synod in giving an occasional Sabbath to the numerous vacancies in their extended bounds. Among the places thus visited by him from time to time were Mount Holly, Hardwick, Smithfield, Springfield, Blackriver, Burlington, Bristol, Am- well, Williamsburgh (Virginia), Second Church, Philadel- phia, Bound Brook, Tehicken. At one time (November 2, 1763), the Presbytery of Philadelphia, being applied to by the Rev. Gilbert Tennent for a supply for his pulpit during a winter, on account of his ill health, the Presbytery advised
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