USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 9
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the congregation to ask the Presbytery of New Brunswick to allow Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Enoch Green to supply them as much as they can.
Towards the end of the year ( 1761) commissioners from the Trenton congregation appear to have proposed to the Presbytery some advance on the amount of salary pre- viously offered to Mr. Kirkpatrick. The Presbytery ex- pressed their gratification at the exertion made to this end, but pronounced the "medium proposed" to be insufficient. As the commissioners, however, had given their reason to hope that a still further effort would be made for "said medium's being increased," Presbytery advised Mr. Kirk- patrick to officiate among them until the next Spring meet- ing.
At this meeting (December 1, 1761) President Finley was received from the Presbytery of Newcastle, and he and Mr. Kirkpatrick were deputed to draw up and present an address to Governor Hardy, on his accession to the administration of the Province.
In the spring (April 20, 1762) no better proposals were received from Trenton. The Presbytery confessed great embarrassment as to their course, but finally gave their unanimous advice to Mr. Kirkpatrick to accept the call. He complied with the advice, but no direction was given for in- stallment.
An important measure, however, was taken by the congre- gation, immediately after this meeting, towards encourag- ing the permanent settlement of their minister. This was the purchase of a parsonage. The people bought a lot on the north side of Hanover street, which runs in the rear of the church, sixty-five feet front, and about one hundred and sixteen feet in depth, containing twenty-eight perches of land, on which was a dwelling house. This property was conveyed to the trustees by deed of Stacy Beaks, and his mother, Mary Beaks, a widow, May 3, 1762, for the con-
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sideration of two hundred and seventy pounds, proclamation money, "to be and remain for a parsonage for the Presby- terian congregation of Trenton forever, and the use, benefit and profits thereof, to be held and enjoyed by the Presby- terian minister of Trenton, that shall be regularly called by the Presbyterian congregation of Trenton, and approved by the Presbytery of New Brunswick."
May, 1763, brought another trial of the strength of Kirk- patrick's attachment to Trenton. This was in the shape of a petition from the congregation of Huntington, Long Island, that he should be allowed to settle there as the as- sistant or colleague of the Rev. Mr. Prime, who was disabled by age and infirmities for the pastoral service. The decision of this application was deferred till June, when he was al- lowed to relieve Mr. Prime for two Sabbaths in July. This was followed in August by an application in person by Dr. Zophar Platt, on behalf of the Huntington congregation. To this oral call the Presbytery objected that it was too in- formal and indefinite; there was no liberty from the Pres- bytery of Suffolk, no mention of the capacity in which Kirk- patrick was desired, whether as stated supply, sole pastor, or colleague. Moreover, the Trenton difficulty existed here also; "the Presbytery look upon the proposed medium of support to be insufficient," and, therefore, could not encour- age Mr. Kirkpatrick to make a change. Immediately after- wards, however, upon a petition from Loudon county, Vir- ginia, for a candidate or supply, Kirkpatrick, among others, was directed to "pay a visit there as soon as possible, and tarry a number of Sabbaths at discretion." The Rev. Messrs. McKnight, Hait, Tennents, Senior and Junior, and Guild were appointed to supply his pulpit five Sabbaths.
The Synod of 1763 brought to a final issue a series of investigations into certain erroneous opinions of the Rev. Samuel Harker, and of conferences with him, which had occupied some portion of their attention at every meeting
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since that of 1758, when the case was first brought to the Synod's notice by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, of which he was a member. Finding him the more mischievous and obstinate for their forbearance, the Synod pronounced him disqualified from exercising his ministry. This de- cision coming to the Presbytery, they directed Mr. Kirk- patrick to go as soon as possible to Mr. Harker's congre- gation [Blackriver], "warn them not to receive his doc- trines, or receive his ministrations, vindicate the conduct of the Synod, signify the paternal care of the Presbytery over them, and inquire whether they are resolved to abide under our care; that if so, we may order them supplies." At the next meeting Kirkpatrick reported that he had fulfilled his appointment, and that the congregation were in such a con- fused and divided state they were unable to form a deter- mination.
At the October meeting of 1763 the Trenton congrega- tion is again before Presbytery with an application for the installment of their favorite minister, now in the fourth year of his service as their supply. He declined to accede to the proposition ; but no clew is given to his reasons beyond the statement "that he could not in the present situation of affairs." At the same time he gave no intimation of with- drawing from the place, or of a willingness to yield to any of the numerous invitations that had come to him from other quarters. The Court was perplexed. They declared they could advise neither the people nor their called minister to proceed any further towards the installation, but rather in- clined to the opinion that by mutual consent both parties should allow "things by a natural and easy channel to return to their former state and situation." What follows in the minute does not help to throw light upon the difficulties of the case. "If this advice be complied with by the said par- ties, the Presbytery foresee that a congregation will become a vacancy of whom they had entertained hopes that they might
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have been happily and permanently settled, which is to them a very disagreeable prospect. But if this should finally be the event, the Presbytery do recommend it to the people to pay off the arrears to Mr. Kirkpatrick in proportion to what they have hitherto done; and in the present exigence of affairs do advise Mr. Kirkpatrick to supply the congrega- tion of Trenton at discretion, as much as he and they may agree upon till our next Presbytery."
The charter of the congregation, as we have before seen, vested in the minister, elders and deacons the power of electing trustees. As long as Mr. Cowell lived after the charter was received, he was one of the trustees. There was no election in 1761. In 1762-3 the "Trustees were all laymen. But in 1764 Mr. Kirkpatricck was elected Trustee and Clerk of the Board; an evidence that his relation was not considered that of a transient supply. In those times a formal installment was sometimes dispensed with as un- essential to the constitution of the pastoral connection. In 1736 the Presbytery ratified a decision of their commission (for Presbytery as well as Synod sat in those days in in- terims by commission) that the Rev. William Tennent was to be considered "the proper Gospel minister and pastor" of the congregation of Neshaminy, though he had never been regularly installed, on the ground that he had accepted their call; that in the preamble of their subscription for his salary, they had spoken of him as their minister; that the body of them once owned him as such when the ques- tion was openly proposed to them in the church, and that he had for ten years carried on all parts of the Gospel ministry without opposition. An appeal from this de- cision was carried to Synod in the same year, but the Pres- bytery was sustained; the Synodal decision declaring that, though the omission of a formal installment was not to be justified, it was far from nullifying the pastoral relation .*
* "Records," p. 125.
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The people of Huntington, not discouraged by previous failures, and having repaired the informalities of the year before, renewed their application for Mr. Kirkpatrick at the October session of 1764. At this time his position in Trenton, as inferred from the records, takes a more definite phase. The congregation appeared by their repre- sentatives, and expressed their opinion that Mr. Kirkpat- rick should be either installed or dismissed; but "earnestly desired the former." On the other hand, a paper was pre- sented with the signatures of fifteen members of the con- gregation, charging their minister with using the people ill, especially in his delays about a permanent settlement, and concluding with a disavowal on their part of any further obligations to him as their pastor, or for his future main- tenance.
The Presbytery considered these allegations and pro- nounced them groundless. They likewise assured the mal- contents that the obligations between the congregation and Kirkpatrick remained in force "while he continues their regular minister." They proceeded to say that in the pres- ent confusion the way was not clear for the installment and deferred final action in the premises till their next meet- ing, which was to be held in a few weeks in Trenton. Mean- while, Mr. Kirkpatrick was at liberty to spend two or three Sabbaths in Huntington.
Accordingly, on the 4th December, after ordaining Mr. James Lyon as a minister to Nova Scotia, it was de- termined, when the parties had been fully heard, first, that the opposition of some of the congregation to the settlement of the pastor was without just cause; secondly, that there was no satisfactory evidence that he could be duly sup- ported in the execution of his office, if settled; thirdly, that the way is not clear for the installment; fourthly, that Kirk- patrick was under no obligation to settle in the place ; fifthly, that as the body of the congregation were in his favor, he
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might supply them for the present season; sixthly, that he should be paid his salary and arrears; seventhly, that he should have liberty to preach for vacant congregations ; and, eighthly, if he should wish to leave the bounds of the Presbytery, Dr. Finley was authorized to give him the usual certificate.8
From all this, it appears that no advance or change in the position of affairs was accomplished, and Mr. Kirkpatrick retained his place.
In the Synod, as well as in the Presbytery, the minister of Trenton was a punctual and active member. He was often clerk, and his name is found in connection with much of the prominent business. In the Synod of 1763, he was on the committees for the education of pious students at Princeton, and for the direction and support of mission- aries on the frontiers, and seems to have been generally in request as a practical worker in the financial and judicial transactions of Church courts. On one occasion he is re- corded as having left town without leave; but it was for the two tedious days, in which the roll of Synod was called, that each member might express his opinion on the question, whether a candidate should be required to narrate his re- ligious experience before a judicature, as a ground of de- ciding upon his reception .*
New Brunswick and Metuchin, White Clay Creek and Christiana Creek and Walkill, applied to Presbytery in 1765 for the services of Kirkpatrick, with a view to settle- ment, or as a supply ; but without resulting in any change.
In April, 1766, there came once more a formal call from Trenton, and at the same time one from Amwell. The former of these is spoken of in the course of the proceed- ings as his "re-settlement," probably meaning a renewed effort for his settlement, as his work as pastor, in every thing but the name, had been continued without suspension.
" "Records," p. 317-8.
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Both congregations made their pleas before the Presbytery. It would seem from the Minutes, that, after both the min- ister and people of Trenton had signified their assent that the Amwell call should be prosecuted, both were disposed to retract, when the time of separation approached; for this is the deliverance :
"That there was some degree of imprudence on the part of Mr. Kirkpatrick, or the people of Trenton, or both, in proceeding so far in their call, without the advice of Presbytery, and that, after they had jointly and severally given encouragement to the people of Amwell to invite him among them.
"As the above congregations are places of importance, and equally dear to the Presbytery, and said congregations, together with Mr. Kirkpatrick, have submitted the final determination of the affair to the Presbytery, they do therefore judge, upon the whole, that it is most expedient for Mr. Kirkpatrick to accept the call from Amwell."
But neither was this the close of this protracted business. Mr. Kirkpatrick's dilemma was not relieved by the decision he had invoked. The matter went on undecided for another month, when a new influence interposed. The Synod met in May, in New York. In the course of their meetings, the Presbytery held a session. At this, two members of the Presbytery of Philadelphia-the Rev. Andrew Hunter, and William Ramsey-were present, and in their capacity as correspondents, urged the reconsideration of the vote in April. They apprehended the most serious consequences to the interests of religion in Trenton, if Kirkpatrick should be removed. They pleaded, that from the happy union of "all societies" in the last call, and the extraordinary ex- ertions that had been made in view of its acceptance, a happy prospect opened of "an important congregation being gathered there," if he was settled among them. "But if not, that the hearts of the people would be so sunk and discouraged, that they would be effectually prevented from future applications, especially considering the unhappy prejudices they have contracted against the Presbytery,
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for the aforesaid judgment." "It was therefore earnestly overtured by these brethren" (and Mr. Kirkpatrick, if not the reporter, was the recorder of their language), "that the matter should be reviewed, in order to prevent the ruin of that growing society, which, on account of its situation, etc., is really important ; and the rather, as the number of ministers present at said determination, was but small."
The subject being thus opened afresh, the Presbytery, at six o'clock in the morning of the following day, resumed the discussion, and consented to adjourn to the next month at Trenton, and there reconsider their decision. The con- gregations of Amwell and Trenton were to be notified of the opportunity of being heard.
On the 24th June, the parties were again present; and the judicatory, perhaps tired of the subject, turned the whole responsibility upon the candidate, by putting both calls into his hands, and requiring him to make his own choice. Thus constrained, Kirkpatrick decided for Am- well, and the Presbytery immediately appointed the second Wednesday of the following August for his installment there, which was accomplished.9
Kirkpatrick had but a short career left. In 1767 he was elected a Trustee of the College of New Jersey. He was among the supplies for Trenton for that year. He was Stated Clerk of Presbytery, and Clerk of Synod, a member of the Commission of Synod, one of the Synod's deputation to meet the Consociated Churches of Connecticut at New Haven in September, for a plan of union, in view of the prospect of the establishment of Diocesan Episcopacy in America by the Church of England.10 In 1768 he supplied five Sabbaths in Trenton; is again on the Synod's Com- mission; a delegate to the General Convention or Union meeting with the Connecticut Consociation at Elizabeth- town; in May a correspondent for the Presbytery with the Rev. Job Prudden in Connecticut, and in October for the
8 PRES
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Synod with ministers of Dublin, according to a system of intercourse with foreign churches. In 1769 he was Mod- erator of the Synod in Philadelphia, and a member of the Presbytery's committee to draft a memorial to obtain funds for the College at Princeton. This memorial is recorded on the minutes. Among its statements is this: "It is with pleasure they observe some very eminent departments of a civil nature already filled with the sons of this College, and that in the year 1767 not fewer than eighty of them were ministers dispersed through the several colonies ; since which time there has been a considerable addition." In the archives of the Assembly is a copy of this memorial in a printed folio-sheet, signed by Mr. Kirkpatrick as Moderator. There is also preserved in the same collection, and in the same form, with his signature as clerk, the Synod's circular of 1767, recommending congregations to provide glebes for their pastors-a greater care for widows, orphans and the poor, the avoidance of law-suits, the appointment of masters to teach the catechism and psalmody, the disuse of spirituous liquors at funerals and the establishment in each congrega- tion of a society for the reformation of morals.
In 1769 Kirkpatrick was both Treasurer and Clerk of Presbytery. On the 15th of June of that year his familiar name appears for the last time among its living members. He died in Amwell on the eighth of September, not yet forty-three years of age. His body was buried in front of the pulpit of the First Church of Amwell, or "Old House," between the villages of Ringoes and Reaville. The church has been since taken down and a new one built at Reaville, but the tomb remains in its first position, and is thus in- scribed :
"Here lieth the body of the REV. WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK, Late Pastor of this church, Who died in the 43d year of his age.
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Reader, wouldst thou know his character for thy good? Think what a Man, a Christian, a Minister of the Gospel, A Friend, a Husband, a Father, a Master should be; For in imitating this pattern (if justly drawn) thou shalt imitate him, and with him shalt with distinguished honor attain to the resurrection of the just."
"Near him" (says a correspondent of The Presbyterian), "lie the remains of a daughter who survived him, and whose name is found on the records of Amwell First Church as a member in full com- munion. We give the inscription on her tombstone:
"In memory of HANNAH, daughter of the late Rev. William Kirkpatrick. Pastor of this church, Who died August 7th, 1786, in the nineteenth year of her age.
The dust beneath Proclaims this solemn truth :
The young are fading, Frail's the bloom of youth ;
Life's a short dream, A false and empty show, And all is Fleeting vanity below.
O reader ! speak, Can you believe too soon,
The fairest morn of life Will not insure the noon."
"Mrs. Margaret Kirkpatrick, his widow, was afterwards married to the Rev. John Warford, who having been called by the Amwell people April 3, 1776, was ordained and installed their pastor. The man of God, who is the subject of this sketch, fulfilled his course in about eleven years; but short as that course was, it left an abiding impression in the region where he closed his labors. Testimony to this effect has been frequently given to the writer by a highly intelli- gent parishioner, who was born in 1760, and lived to enter his ninety- first year. There is now living [1857] a venerable mother in Israel, aged ninety-seven, who, though only eight or nine years old at the time, has a distinct recollection of Mr. Kirkpatrick's personal appear- ance. She describes him as being above the ordinary size, but not corpulent ; grave, dignified, and commanding in his aspect, and of most engaging address. But by no survivor was he more loved and revered than by a slave, whom he owned to the time of his death, New Jersey
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being then a slave-holding State. This slave lived to be about one hundred years of age. To old Cato his master was the model of a man and a Christian minister, and but for his greater love to the Lord Jesus Christ, his profound veneration and deep-rooted affection might have been looked upon as idolatry."11
I am sorry to find, not only in the Records of our Trus- tees, but of the Presbytery, that there was, both before and after Mr. Kirkpatrick's death, some irregularity and delay in the discharge of his salary.12 Insufficiency of stipend and unpunctuality in receiving it have long been among the trials of pastors, especially of those settled in rural districts, where the people, accustomed to maintain their own families from their farms, or by barter, have an inadequate idea of the necessity of money to those who have nothing else to live upon. In the times of which I am writing, these evils frequently engaged the attention of the Presbytery, and for awhile reports of such delinquencies were statedly called for and acted upon. In regard to Mr. Kirkpatrick's case, inasmuch as the subject stands upon the Records, it ought to be said that, according to the church books, it appears that there was a difficulty in determining the claims for arrears due on the last six months' salary, and that the committee of the Trustees, appointed for the purpose, could not get access to the accounts of Mr. Kirkpatrick, so as to ascer- tain what amount, or whether, in fact, any remained unpaid. The subject was dismissed from Presbytery with the conclu- sion, "that all has been done that can conveniently be done relating to the Trenton arrears." One source of the diffi- culty probably was that the salary was collected by a com- mittee in each church, who may have handed their collec- tions to the minister without the agency of the treasurer. Thus in March, 1765, is a minute in the Trustees' book :
"Appointed to collect the six months' salary for Mr. Kirkpatrick : "In town: John Ely, Hezekiah Howell.
"In the country : Isaac Green, Richard Palmer."
CHAPTER X.
TRUSTEES TRENTON AND MAIDENHEAD.
1764-1769.
From Mr. Cowell's death, until Mr. Kirkpatrick's re- moval, the Trenton Board of Trustees remained unchanged, at the annual elections, except that in 1762 the name of Obadiah Howell appears in the place of Mr. Cowell's; in 1764, the names of Mr. Kirkpatrick, James Cumines, and Abraham Hunt, come in the places of Arthur Howell, Joseph Yard, and Moore Furman; in 1766, the names of Joseph Reed, Jr., Samuel Tucker, and Daniel Clark, suc- ceed those of Mr. Kirkpatrick, William Green, and James Cumines. In 1764, John Chambers, John Hendrickson, and Joseph Green, were elected Elders; in 1765, Benjamin Yard, Hezekiah Howell, and William Tucker were elected, apparently to succeed them.
JAMES CUMINES, or Cumine, or Cumins, died February 21, 1770, aged sixty-six. He bequeathed ten pounds to the Trustees, to be invested for the support of the pastor. This was not payable until the death of his wife, at which time the rest of his property was to be divided among James, William, Samuel, and Joseph, sons of William Cumines, of Nottingham, Chester county, Pennsylvania. A Mrs. Jean Cumins signed the call of Mr. Spencer, in 1769.
ABRAHAM HUNT was, for many years, the most promi- nent and opulent merchant of the town. He was in the Board from 1764 till his death, at the age of eighty-one, October 27th, 1821, a space of fifty-seven years. He was
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regular in his attendance at the meetings, down to 1818. In that year he made his will, bequeathing one hundred dollars to this church, and the same amount to the Epis- copal. Mr. Hunt was Postmaster of Trenton, both before and after the Revolution. His grandson, Mr. Wesley P. Hunt, has in his possession one of his commissions, dated January 10, 1764, by which "Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft, Postmasters-General of all his Majesty's Provinces and Dominions in the continent of North America," appoint Abraham Hunt, Deputy Postmaster in Trenton, for three years; and another, dated October 13th, 1775, also for three years, from "Benjamin Franklin, Post- master-General of all the United Colonies on the continent of North America."
The tradition is now on record, that Colonel Rahl was spending a late evening at Mr. Hunt's house, in Christmas festivities, the day before the battle of Trenton, in which he fell, and that his hilarity caused him to leave unopened a note that warned him of the approach of Washington's army .* Mr. Hunt was the father of Pearson, Wilson, John W., and Theodore Hunt. Of his first wife, Theodosia, who died March 4, 1784, at the age of thirty-nine, her tomb- stone declares: "Such was the cheerful, uninterrupted benevolence of her heart, such was the gentleness and purity of her manners, that she never made an enemy, nor ever lost a friend. To know her once, was to love her forever." His second wife was Mary Dagworthy, who died April 4, 1814, in her sixty-sixth year.
JOSEPH REED, JR., is well known in American history, in connection with the public positions enumerated in the title of the two volumes of his "Life and Correspondence," as. "Military Secretary of Washington at Cambridge, Adju- tant-General of the Continental Army, Member of the Con- gress of the United States, and President of the Executive
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