USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Old times in old Monmouth > Part 18
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I seriously declare that the reconciling this order of the Church to the minds of people in the American colonies, is of more
difficulty and trouble to the Missionary than almost all their work and business besides. And I am well assured that many of the Sectaries dislike nothing in the Church so much as that; and some I am apt to think, do stand out from our Com- munion purely upon that account and for no other reason.
I had many tedious arguments with my people upon this head. I also made it the subject of some of my discourses in the pulpit, till by one means or other, I at length brought them to a better under- standing thereof and to be in a good de- gree satisfied with it.
After sometime they began to bring their children to Baptism, and when some had led the way, the rest followed, and pre- sented those of their children which were under years of maturity, to be received in- to the Church and I christened thirteen in one day. After this it went on regular- ly. Parents had their children baptized as soon after they were born as conveniently could be done and one whole family, the man (whose name was Joseph West) his wife and nine children were baptized all at one time.
By frequent exhortations to the elder sort and often calling upon them to con- sider how they deferred a thing of that consequence to their salvation. I prevail- ed with many to take upon themselves the baptismal engagement, to whom I gave all necessary instruction both to inform their understanding and prepare their minds thereto.
The Churches which I served were well filled every Sunday and divers families that lived out of the county came to Divine service from several miles distance and were very constant devout attendants .- Besides these some of the Dutch Church often made a considerable addition to the number of my hearers.
I had three churches immediately in my charge, each of them situated in a ditfer- ent township, which had regular duty in such proportion as were agreed upon and subscribed to at a general vestry meeting soon after my coming there. The names of the townships are Freehold, Shrewsbury and Middletown. I also officiated at Allen- town in Upper Freehold while that church was destitute of a minister, which was af- terwards supplied by Mr. Michael Houdin, a convert from the Church of Rome, and a worthy clergyman, now the Society's missionary. These four townships com prised the whole county although 40 or 50
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miles in length and in some parts of it con- siderably wide. I also did occasional duty at other places as will be farther men- tioned.
This mission to Monmouth County had been very early recommended to the So ciety but was not presently established. Dr. Humphrey's in his Historical account makes mention "that Colonel Morris, a gentleman of character and considerable interest in New Jersey (the same who was afterwards governor of the province) did in a letter in the year 1703 very earnestly solicit Dr. Beveridge (late Bishop of St. Asaph, a member of the Society) to send a missionary to Monmouth county in East Jersey where a considerable body of ( hurch people had formed themselves into a gath ered church and had promised all the help their narrow circumstances could afford their minister. The Society were not then able to support a missionary there, but the Reverend Alexander Innis, happening to be in those parts took the care of that peo- ple upon him. After a worthy discharge of his functions he died ;" and by his last will and testament appointed ten acres of land lying in Middletown to the service of God, which is the ground whereon the church now stands. Since that Mr. Wil- liam Leeds became a benefactor to the church by making over his house and plan- tation to the society for the use and habi- tation of a missionary to be appointed to preach the gospel to the inhabitants of Middletown and Shrewsbury.
As to the church buildings I have found them all much out of condition, especially the church at Middletown, which was be- gun to be built, but the year before I came there, and had nothing done on the inside, not even a floor laid. So that we had no place for the present to assemble in Divine worship, only an old house which had formerly been a meeting house
I had now a great and very difficult task of it to bring people to the communion. They that were conformable to this sacred ordinance were in very small numbers. Many persons of 50 or 60 years of age and someolder had never addressed themselves to it. In this case it appeared to me that their will was less in fault than their judg- ment, which hung so much on the side of fear, that it overbalanced the sense of du- ty. I took all possible pains to satisfy their scruples, gave them frequent opportuni- ties of the communion, and by the blessing of God gained most of the ancient people,
besides many others, who gave due and de- vout attention to it ever after.
That. I might lay a good foundation for the children and build them up in sound christian principles I began to catechize ; at first only asking questions in the Church catechism, but after a while I changed the method with them, so as still to keep the words of the catechism but raised other questions to the several clauses and mat- ters contained therein to try what they un- derstood of it ; and by this means led them further into the sense and meaning of every part of it.
The number of my catechumens began now to increase and several of riper years presented themselves with a seeming ear- nestness to receive the benefit of this in- struction. So I carried it further and put Lewis' Exposition into their hands and ap- pointed them a day about once a month to come to the Court House and say the parts which I set them to get by heart, and this course I continued till some of them could recite it from end to end.
There were others willing and desirous to be put forward in the way of godly. knowledge who had not so good memories. To these I propounded two or three ques- tions at a time upon some point of doc trine which they were to prepare them- selves to answer the next meeting and to have the Scripture proofs written down to be then also produced. To this they ap- plied themselves with great industry and gave extraordinary instances of their good understanding as well as diligence.
When the others had no more of Lewis's catechism to learn 1 made them repeat the Thirty Nine Articles of religion and then taught them to divide these into questions and answers, and they gave me in month- lv the texts they had collected in proof of them.
In the interim I was not unconcerned for the poor negroes who wanted enlight- ening more than any, and therefore spake to their Masters and Mistresses to be at the pains to teach them the Catechism. And thus was taken good care of in some pious families and I catechized them in the Church a certain Sunday, and sometimes at home and after due instruction, those whom I had good assurance of I received to baptism, and such afterwards as be- haved well I admitted to the communion.
Speaking here of negroes I will mention the case of one in whom it pleased God to give an example of his influencing favor under circumstances of a condemned crim-
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inal. This man was a servant at a place called Crosswicks, to a Quaker and had been convicted of a rape. He after his ap- prehension, and also at his trial did seem to be a very hardened wretch. According to the strictness of the laws, a negro is to be executed immediately after sentence ; but the Judges were pleased to be so far favorable as to allow him the space of a fortnight to be prepared for death ; which Christian indulgence gave me an opportu- nity to perform those offices to him which by the blessing of God and with the assist- ance of a neighboring clergyman, worked upon him by degrees, and at length brought him to a true repentance. For some time he held in a very obstinate temper, but when it begun that I could get anything from him, I found he was not wholly ig- norant in the principles of christianity ; and as he became more disposed to seri- ousness, his readiness of apprehension and aptness to learn made it easy to supply to him the further knowledge of religion. which, if he had considered sooner, might have prevented his coming to that untime- ly end. One particular in my dealing with him I shall speak of, as it may suggest a useful hint to those whose office may call them upon a like occasion and which prac- tice I can from other experience recom- mend.
I took out of the Psalms such yerses as are proper to a penitent sinner ; which I made him repeat verse by verse after me, every now and then bidding him raise up his mind and thoughts to Heaven and con- sider that he was speaking to Almighty God. By this means putting the best words of devotion into his mouth, the most per- tinent to his use; also holding up his at- tention ; calling him to awe and reverence the poo. criminal was drawn out into a sort of involuntary confession of his guilt, and the sense of his soul soon correspond- ed with what his tongue uttered and he felt in himself, those affections which worked duly and properly after they had thus been excited. Being thoroughly in- structed and grounded in the christian faith and there being no room to doubt the sincerity of his repentance, three days be- fore his execution 1 baptized him and on that day gave him the communion.
In the year 1746 the Church at Middle- town which had stood useless, being, as I have before mentioned, only a shell of a building. had now a floor laid and was oth- erwise made fit to have divine worship per- formed in it. The congregation of this
church was but small and as the service could not be oftener than once a month, it was morally impossible to increase the number much, especially as there was a weekly meeting of Anabaptists in that town, so that it was the most I could pro- pose to prevent those that were of the church from being drawn away by dissent- ers.
After necessity had been answered its de- mand in the fitting up of one church, ex- pediency came next to be consulted for the finishing another, viz: St. Peters in the township of Freehold, which had been built many years but was never quite com- pleted. The ground on which the church stands was the gift of one Mr. Thomas Boel, who had been a Quaker, but was brought over with many others of that per- suasion by Mr. George Keith, one of the Society's first Missionaries, who himself had been one of that people but became a very zealous member and diligent servant of the church and was a person well learned. After his return from abroad he had the living of Edburton in Sussex and published his journal of missionary travel.
The situation of St. Peters church at To poncmes, which is distant from any town, is however convenient enough to the congre- gation and was resorted to by mai y fami- lies in Middlesex county living within the several districts of Cranberry, Machepo- neck, and South River ; their missionary, my friend and brother Mr. Skinner gladly remitting to me the care of them, which he could not well attend to by reason of a wide and often dangerous Ferry over the Raritan which divides Middlesex county.
I was therefore willing to give them all possible attendance and did often meet them and baptize their children and ap- pointed certain days to preach at those places and there also catechize.
At a town called Middletown Point I preached divers times, the place being re- mote and few of the settlers having any way for convenience of coming to church.
The inhabitants of Freehold township. were at least half of them Presbyterian. The church people and these interspersed among each other. had lived less in charity and orotherly love than as becomes church- es. But they began on both sides to think less of the things in which they differed in opinion than of those in which they agreed. And when bickering and disputing were laid down, which was done at last, with the full consent of both parties, another strife arose from a better spirit in the way of
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peace, to provoke love and to do good works, in which neither side was less forward than the other.
The Church of England worship had at Shrewsbury been provided for by the build- ing ofa church, before there was any other in the county ; but this church was now too small for the numerous congregation. People of all sorts resorted thither and of the Quaker which are a great body in that township, there were several who made no sernple of being present at divine service and were not too preeise to uncover their heads in the house of God.
I went sometimes to a place called Man asquan almost twenty miles distant from my habitation where, and at Shark River, which is in that neighborhood some church families were settled who were glad of all opportunities for the exercise of Re- ligion. I baptized at Manasquan two Ne- gro brethren, both servants to Mr. Samuel Osborne an eminent and very worthy mem- ber of the church, in whose family they had been taught good christtan principles. The honest men were so gratified that each of them offered me a Spanish dollar in ac- knowledgment and would have thought themselves more obliged if I had not re- fused their presents.
From Manasquan for twenty miles furth er on in the country, is all one pine forest. I traveled through this desert four times to a place called Barnegat, and thence to Mannahawkin, almost sixty miles from home and preached at places where no foot of minister had ever come. Only at Mannahawkin, one Mr. Neill, a dissenting minister, who is now a presbyter of the Church of England (then living at Great Egg Harbor) visited Mannahawkin.
In this section I had my views of heath- enism ju-tas thoroughly as I have ever since beheld it. The inhabitants are thinly scattered in regions of solid wood. Some are decent people who had lived in better places, but those who were born and bred here, have neither religion nor manners and do not know so much as a letter in a book.
As Quakerism is the name under which all those in America shade themselves that have been brought up to none. but would be thought to be of some religion ; so these poor people call themselves Quakers, but they have no meetings and many of them make no distinction of days, neither observ- ing Lords Day nor the Sabbath ; only some New England families were then lately set- tled there who were called Culvers and had
a form and manner of their own which they held too sacred (though perhaps rath. er it was too monstrous) to be communica- ted and did not admit others into their as- semblies. As for those who had removed thither from other parts of the country, they seemed very sensible of the unhappi- ness of their sitnation, living where they had no opportunity for the worship of God nor for the christian education of their children. I would have taken this difficult journey oftener, finding that some good might be done among them but having too much duty to attend to in other parts of my mission I could not do it.
Ås people were desirous of having a Schoolmaster and spoke of making up among themselves a competency for one, I proposed it to Mr. Christopher Robert Reynolds, the Society's schoolmaster at Shrewsbury ; and those parts being within that township, it was not inconsistent with his appointment. He was willing to go and set up school there, and accordingly went down and taught a year, employing his dil- igence to good effect.
But his employers living so far asunder that they could not send their children to school all at one place, he was obliged to be often shifting and to go from one house to another, which was such a fatigue and labor to him, being in years and an infirm man, that he was not able to continue it and returned to Shrewsbury his former station.
In my journeying through this part of the country I had many conferences and disputes with the people. Some of them were willing to see their errors and others were as obstinate in defending theirs. And though ignorant minds and prejudiced cannot easily be made to apprehend the nature and necessity of the christian ordi- nances yet it pleased God that I brought some to a true sense of them and I gained a few to the communion, and baptized, be sides children seventeen grown persons, of which number was Nicholas Wainright nearly 80 years of age.
I had now seen a great change in the state of my mission within the space of three years, through the grace of God ren- dering my labors effectual to a good end ; in particular as to the peace and unison which the church members, after having been much at variance among themselves, were now returned to, and the ceasing an- imosities betwixt them and those of other societies ; for these I account the most val- uable success that attended my ministry.
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After this the churches continued to flourish and in the latter end of the year 1750, having then been above five years in America upon this mission, I wrote to the venerable and honorable society a letter requesting of them to grant me a mission to the coast of Guiney, that I might go to make a trial with the natives and see what hopes there would be of introducing among them the christian religion. The summer following I received an answer to that let- ter from the Rev. Dr. Bearcroft, acquaint- ing me that the Society had concluded to support me in the design of that voyage and would appoint another missionary in my stead for Monmouth county. And the next September Mr Samuel Cook of Cai- us college arrived with his proper creden- tials and I delivered up my charge to him.
Having took my leave of the congrega- tion I set out on the 13th of November 1751 for New York, from thence to go upon my voyage to Africa, and at Elizabeth- town waited on Governor Jonathan Bel- cher Esq., who succeeded Colonel Morris, to pay my respects to him before I left the province.
November 24th 1751 I preached both in the morning and the afternoon in the Eng- lish church in New York of which Rever- end Mr. Barclay is the worthy Rector and the next day went on board a brigantine called the " Prince George," Captain Wil- liam Williams, bound for the coast of Africa.
METHODISM IN OLD MONMOUTH.
The Pioneers of the Society-Bishop As- bury at Freehold, Allentown, Long Branch, Squan, Kettle Creek, Goodluck &c-Rev. Benjamin Abbott's visit dur. ing the Revolution.
We have reason to believe that the pio- neers of Methodism visited the county within a very few years after the principles of the society were first proclaimed in America, and that occasionally some preacher would hold forth in some of our churches, school houses or private houses as early as 1774. Some uncertainty exists as to where the first preachers held ser- vices in the county, owing to the fact that the early heroes of Methodism were not always very precise in giving the names of places where they preached, dates and other particulars interesting to the histo- rian of the present day. The most com- powerful ministry, one of which is as fol- plete and satisfactory journal is that of the | lows :
faithful, zealous, untiring Bishop Francis Asbury, which is the more remarkable as it is doubtful if any minister of any denom- ination ever performed as much labor as he did in travelling and preaching. We append extracts from his journal relating to his labors in Monmouth. But other preachers had preceeded him. Rev. Wil- liam Watters the first Methodist travelling preacherof American birth wasstationed in our state-in 1774, and he may have visited our county, though he makes no mention of it in his journal. That earnest, sell sacrific- ing minister of the gospel, Rev. Benjamin Abbott visited old Monmouth in 1778. Mr. Abbott in his journal speaks of preaching at various places in that part of old Mon- mouth now composed within the limits of Ocean county, among which were Manna- hawkin, Waretown, Goodluck and Toms River. But after leaving Toms River, he omits to name places : he merely uses such expressions as " at my next appointment, &c.," without naming where it was. He- probably preached at Freehold and other places within the limits of the present county of Monmouth. At some future time we shall endeavor to find room for so much of his journal as may relate to old Mon. mouth.
Though it is somewhat uncertain who were the first Methodist preachers in the county, yet the probabilities are that some, if not all the following named persons preached here before Abbott's visit in 1778, viz: Captain Thomas Webb, Reverends Philip Gatch, Caleb B, Pedicord, William Watters, John King, Daniel Ruffand Wil- liam Duke.
Rev. John Atkinson in bis " Memorials of Methodism in New Jersey," says:
" The Methodist Society of Monmouth ( Freehold ?) must have been formed at an early period, probably about 1780, as in that year Job Throckmorton of Freehold Was converted under the ministry of Rev. Richard Garretson and became a member of the Society. He was one of the first members in that region. The Methodists were much persecuted there at that time. His house was a home for preachers, and very likely Asbury was entertained at his dwelling during his visits to Freehold .- Everitt, Freeborn Garretson, Ezekiel Coop- er, Ware, and others were accustomed to stop at his house. He was accustomed to relate incidents of Rev. Benjamin Abbott's
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"On one occasion meeting was held in the woods, and after Freeborn Garretson had preached, Abbott arose and looked around over the congregation very significantly, and exclaimed : " Lord. begin the work ; Lord, begin the work now! Lord, begin the work just there ! pointing at the same time towards a man who was standing beside a tree, and the man fell as suddenly as if he had been shot and cried aloud for mercy."
In 1786 Trenton circuit probably in- cluded Trenton, Pemberton, Mount Holly, Burlington and Monmouth, Reverends Robert Sparks and Robert Cann preachers. In 1787 Rev. Ezekiel Cooper and Rev. Na- thaniel B. Mills were the preachers. In 1788 Rev's John Merrick, Thomas Morrell and Jettus Johnson were the preachers.
BISHOP ASBURY IN OLD MONMOUTH .- Ex- TRACTS FROM HIS JOURNAL.
September 14th 1782. I came to New Mills (now.Pemberton in Burlington coun- ty ). I passed through Monmouth in Up per and Lower Freehold ; here lived that old saint of God, William Tennent, who went to his reward a few years ago.
Friday September 9th 1785. Heard Mr. Woodhull preach a funeral discourse on " Lord thou hast made my days as a hand- breadth." In my judgment he spoke well.
(The Mr. Woodhull above referred to by Mr. Asbury, was probably the Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., who succeeded Rev. Mr. Tennent at the old Tennent Church, and who died Nov. 22d, 1824, aged 80 years.)
Saturday September 10th, 1785. I had liberty in preaching to the people of Mon- mouth on Joshua 24-17 and felt much for the souls present. (Freehold then was often called Monmouth and Monmouth Court House.)
Friday September 22nd, 1786. We dined at Amboy and reached Monmouth at night.
September 23rd, 1786. I preached life and love at Leonards. The people here appear very lifeless. I had lately been much tried and much blessed.
Tuesday September 26th, 1786. I had many to hear me at Potter's Church, but the people were insensible and unfeeling.
(This Potter's Church was at Goodluck in Ocean County, and built by a benevo- lent resident of that place named Thomas Potter. Its singular history will be given in speaking of the Universalists' society.)
From Goodluck, Bishop Asbury pro- ceeded to Batsto, Burlington county. In October, 1790, he preached at Crosswicks, Allentown and Cranbury. Of his next visit to this county he says :
Monday September 5th, 1791. I rode through much rain to Monmouth, N. J., where I preached to a considerable con- gregation on " The just shall live by faith ; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." There is some stir among the people ; at Long Branch within eighteen months, as I am informed, nearly fifty souls have professed conver- sion.
Sept. 6th, 1791. I found the Lord had not left himself without witnesses at Kettle Creek.
Sept. 7th, 1791. At P --- s Church (Pot- ter's Church?) I learn some were offended. Blessed be God, my soul was kept in great peace.
From there Mr. Asbury proceeded to Little Egg Harbor.
October 28th, 1795. We came to Mon- mouth ; we would have gone to Shrews- bury but time and our horses failed us. I learn that the ancient spirit of faith and prayer is taking place below. I was shock- ed at the brutality of some men who were fighting ; one gouged out the other's eye ; the father and son then both beset him again, cut off his ears and nose and beat him almost to death ; the father and son were tried for a breach of the peace and roundly fined ; and now the man that has lost his nose is come upon them for dam- age. I have often thought that there are some things practiced in the Jersie's which are more brutish and diabolical than in any other of the states ; there is nothing of this kind in New England ; they learn civility there at least
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