USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Brandywine > History of the Presbyterian Church in the Forks of Brandywine, Chester County, Pa. (Brandywine Manor Presbyterian Church), from A.D. 1735 to A.D. 1885 : with biographical sketches of the deceased pastors of the church and of those who prepared for the Christian ministry under the direction of the Rev. Nathan Grier > Part 1
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D.
BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO
THE LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY SCC 10173
33
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nismioty 223 1
place of chon 223
HISTORY
BRARY OF PRINCE 1
JAN 20 1932
LOGICAL SI ARY
OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN THE
FORKS OF BRANDYWINE, CHESTER COUNTY, PA., (BRANDYWINE MANOR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,)
FROM A.D. 1735 TO A.D. 1885,
WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF
THE DECEASED PASTORS OF THE CHURCH,
AND OF THOSE WHO PREPARED FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE REV. NATHAN GRIER.
BY JAMES M'CLUNE, LL.D., MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
" The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers: let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." -- I KINGS viii. 57.
PHILADELPHIA : PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1885.
PREFACE.
THE preparation of the following work has been delayed by the difficulty of obtaining authentic data, no regular records of the Church having been kept until a comparatively recent period. The delay, however, has enabled the writer to state some interest- ing facts which otherwise would have been omitted, and to continue the work to a later period. The authorities on which he has mainly relied are given at the close of each article.
For the information of those who may not have an opportunity to consult works on Ecclesiastical History, brief historical notices of the Puritans, the Huguenots, the Scotch, and the Scotch-Irish have been prefixed.
In order to prevent them from being forgotten, or to make them better known, several matters but re- motely associated with religious organizations have been stated in foot-notes and appendices.
The writer thankfully acknowledges his obligations to the ministers of the Gospel and others who aided his researches and assisted him in plaeing on record a number of remarkable incidents connected with a " Pioneer Church" which has received many tokens of Divine guidance and approval.
J. M.
PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 1885.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Academy, Brandywine .
173
Academy, Howard
174
Academy, New London (Appendix)
232
America, discovery of .
9
Bequests
198
Black, Rev. Samuel
57
Boyd, Rev. Alexander .
130
Boyd, Rev. Adam
65
Buchanan, Rev. James .
131
Bull, Rev. Levi, D.D. .
128
Carmichael, Rev. John
79
Central Presbyterian Church, Downingtown
169
Coatesville Presbyterian Church .
159
Davidson, Rev. Patrick
119
Dean, Rev. William
73
Elders, Ruling
106
Fairview Presbyterian Church
166
Graveyards
215
Grier, Rev. John F., D.D
135
Grier, Rev. John H.
140
Grier, Rev. John N. C., D.D.
99
Grier, Rev. John W.
142
Grier, Rev. Matthew B., D.D.
144
Grier, Rev. Nathan
90
Grier, Rev. Robert S.
137
Grier, Rev. Thomas
122
Happersett, Rev. Rees, D.D.
151
Heberton, Rev. William
34
Hood, Rev. Thomas
126
Huguenots
14
Kennedy, Rev. William
134
Knight, Rev. Joshua
.
124
5
Collins, Rev. Britton E.
148
Honeybrook Presbyterian Church
163
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Legislators
Liggett, Rev. John A., D.D.
178
MeCachran, Rev. Robert
37
Meeting-House, Second
41
Meeting-House, New
47
McColl, Rev. John
35
M'Conaughy, Rev. David, D.D., LL.D.
118
Moore, Rev. David W.
177
Nyce, Rev. Benjamin M.
149
Parke, Rev. Samuel
138
Parsonage
193
Pew-Holders, 1792-96
201
Physicians
211
Pinkerton, Rev. John
157
Pinkerton, Rev. William .
155
Puritans
11
Quay, Rev. Anderson B.
146
Ralston, Rev. James G., D.D., LL.D. .
153
Scotch and Scotch-Irish
17
Seceder Meeting-House
52
Session-Houses
196
Sextons .
115
Sunday-Schools
188
Temperance Societies
204
Templeton, Rev. William H.
156
Theological Students
116
Thompson, Rev. John C.
176
Trustees
114
Umstead, Rev. Justus .
152
Walker, Rev. Richard .
150
.
Wallace, Rev. Matthew G.
121
White, Rev. Robert
132
Woods, Rev. William
. 117
145
Meeting-House, First
39
Meeting-House, Manor
210
PASTORS
OF
BRANDYWINE MANOR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
FIRST PASTOR.
REV. SAMUEL BLACK, installed November, 1736 ; pastoral relation dissolved July, 1741.
SECOND PASTOR.
REV. ADAM BOYD (Old Side), installed August, 1741; pastoral relation eeased October, 1758.
THIRD PASTOR.
REV. WILLIAM DEAN (New Side), installed May or June, 1745 ; died July, 1748.
FOURTH PASTOR.
REV. JOIIN CARMICHAEL, installed April, 1761; died November, 1785.
FIFTH PASTOR.
REV. NATHAN GRIER, installed August, 1787; died March, 1814.
SIXTH PASTOR.
REV. J. N. C. GRIER, D.D., installed November, 1814; resigned April, 1869.
SEVENTH PASTOR.
REV. WILLIAM W. HEBERTON, installed October, 1869; pastoral relation dissolved October, 1872.
EIGHTH PASTOR.
REV. JOHN McCOLL, installed July, 1873; present pastor.
7
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
THE believer in a Superintending Providence, and especially the Christian, cannot fail to perceive the wise arrangements of Deity in the period at which America became generally known to the inhabitants of the Eastern Continent. If it had been discovered when the darkness of the Middle Ages enshrouded Europe, when the feudal system was strong in its enormity and an intolerant church held unlimited sway, superstition, oppression, and bigotry would have been increased and strengthened. The credulous monk, the lord and his vassal, and the " persecutor of heretics" would have peopled the Western shores of the Atlantic, and re-acted on a wider arena scenes which History blushes to record.
On the other hand, if this continent had not been discovered until a few centuries more had passed, thousands and tens of thousands who found refuge and a home in its wilderness solitudes would have perished by the sword or on the scaffold. The relent- less cruelty of rulers and prelates would have crushed the advocates of Truth. But God in His wisdom had determined otherwise. He had decreed that the crimes of Europe should be a source of blessings to America ; that those who had been subjected to fines,
9
10
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
imprisonment, mutilation, and banishment for His name's sake should lay the foundations of a Great Republic, which would afford a home to the exile from every land and protection to men of every creed ; that here a Christian nation should arise throughout whose wide domain the sound of the loom and the anvil and the hum of business would cease on every returning Sabbath,-a nation which would annually present to the world the sublime spectacle of its Chief Magistrate calling on its citizens to unite in giving thanks to Him, the Author of All Good, for blessings so freely bestowed, and so generally enjoyed.
Will it, then, be irrelevant to advert, briefly, to the history of some of those who, like Hagar, were driven by persecution into the wilderness; those whom the Angel of Mercy comforted and sustained during the whole period of Colonial weakness and despondency, and whose descendants have become more numerous than the posterity of Ishmael, but with the hand for not against every man?
Although every Protestant denomination has con- tributed to give tone and character to the civil and religious polity of our country, yet those to whom we as Presbyterians are chiefly indebted for liberty of conscience, for our doctrinal standards and our form of church government are the Puritans, the Hugue- nots, the Scotch, and the Scotch-Irish. Of these in order.
THE PURITANS.
THE storm of religious persecution which swept with increasing violence over Europe during the Seven- teenth Century forced thousands of her best citizens to flee to other lands. The arbitrary measures of James I. of England caused the Pilgrims to seek a refuge first in Holland and finally on the bleak shore of New England.
This colony, so feeble in the beginning, was rapidly increased by the despotie conduct of his son, Charles I., who abetted measures which the timidity of his father led that monarch to reject. The religious intol- erance of Archbishop Laud, and the disturbed con- dition of the mother-country until Charles perished on the scaffold, added yearly to the population of the New England colonies.
But while their numbers were rapidly increasing, and they had built towns, subdued portions of the wilder- ness, and gathered around them the comforts of civil- ized life, they were not unmindful of the interests of learning and religion. In less than thirty years after the landing at Plymouth they had originated a system of public schools, established a college, now the oldest and best endowed in our country, and erected nearly fifty churches in which divine service was held every Sabbath.
11
12
THE PURITANS.
During the able sway of Cromwell England enjoyed comparative quiet, and emigrants to the American colonies were few. Four years, however, had not elapsed after the death of the Great Protector before the Act of Uniformity drove upwards of two thousand Puritan clergymen from their pulpits, and placed such men as Baxter, Flaval, Howe, Allein, Calamy, Char- nock, and Bunyan under the ban of ecclesiastical censure. Fines and imprisonment alike awaited the divine who proclaimed the truth and those who as- sembled to hear him. Under such circumstances, all that could obtain the means to do so sought a home among their brethren on this side of the Atlantic, and joyfully added to the wealth, intelligence, and prosper- ity of a country where there was " freedom to worship God."
These oppressive measures, which continued until the accession of the Gustavus Adolphus of England, William III., peopled the Eastern States with those who have made the sterile soil of New England a land of plenty and the fixed abode of enterprise, activity, and intelligence.
But the benefits which the first settlers of New England conferred on the land of their adoption have not been confined within its narrow limits. Wherever the descendants of the Pilgrims have found an abiding place, whether in the valleys of the Ohio, the Mis- souri, and the Mississippi, or on the shores of the Pacific ; whether as miners, husbandmen, or manufac- turers, they have carried with them their ancestral love of freedom, and their reverence for the precepts of the Bible. The printing-press, the school, and the
13
THE PURITANS.
church have followed in the wake of their advance; the wilderness has given place to cultivated fields, and cities have grown with magic speed beneath their plastie hands.
If, as Hume has observed, the precious spark of liberty was kindled and preserved by the Puritans,- and to them the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution,-the citizens of a republic which spans a continent are indebted to those God-fearing men and their descendants for much of the civil and religious liberty which they enjoy .*
* Neal, " Hist. of the Puritans ;" Baird, "Religion in America ;" Bancroft, " Hist. of U. S. ; " Sanford, " Puritan Revolution ;" Calamy, " Account of Ejected Ministers."
THE HUGUENOTS.
OWING to the zeal and ability of Calvin, Beza, Co- ligny, and their coadjutors, aided by the patronage of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, the principles of the Reformation became widely known and were eagerly embraced by many of the inhabitants of France. And although the bigoted opposition of her rulers and the fiend-like massacre of St. Bartholomew for a time diminished their number and forced many of them to obtain safety by flight, yet at the elose of the six- teenth century they were sufficiently numerous and powerful to extort from Henry IV. the Edict of Nantes. This Edict guaranteed to the Protestants the free ex- ereise of their religion. That it was often violated by the successors of Henry, even before it was formally revoked, the history of France during the Seventeenth Century fully attests. Nowhere in Europe did the spirit of religious intolerance exhibit greater malice or give rise to greater atrocities than in the persecution of the Huguenots, as the French Protestants were gener- ally called.# Hunted like wild beasts, exposed to
* It is reckoned, says President Edwards, that there were martyred in this kingdom, France, for the Protestant religion, thirty-three princes, one hundred and forty-eight counts, two hundred and thirty- four barons, one hundred and forty-seven thousand gentlemen, and
14
15
THE HUGUENOTS.
ignominy, torture, and death, they were fortunate who found in foreign lands the exile which their cruel rulers sedulously endeavored to prevent. England, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and other portions of Europe, not only afforded them an asylum, but gladly welcomed them, and those countries owe many of the mechanic arts which have increased their wealth and importance to the orderly and industrious strangers.
But the thousands of Frenchmen who were forced to abandon their native land did not find safety and a home in Europe only. A large number of them crossed the Atlantic, and sought a peaceful abiding- place among those who had planted the standard of civil and religious freedom in the Western wilderness. The colonists of New England and New York wil- lingly received and aided them, but the milder climate of the Carolinas being more congenial to those who had been reared amid the fertile plains and vine-clad hills of France, a majority of them became citizens of what are now the Southern States. There they dis- seminated and practised the religions principles which had caused their exile, and contributed, by their in- dustry, skill, and sobriety, to increase the wealth and prosperity of the country which they had made their home.
Many who have held high positions in our govern- ment, and who have discharged the duties of important trusts with uprightness and ability, could trace their lineage to the persecuted Huguenots. At the present
seven hundred and sixty thousand of the common people, all within thirty years.
16
THE HUGUENOTS.
time the Presbyterian churches of New England, New York, and especially of the Carolinas, number among their most useful and influential members the descendants of the countrymen of Calvin, Beza, Mor- nay, and Saurin .*
* Marsh, " Hist. of the Huguenots;" Browning, " Hist. of the Huguenots ;" D'Aubigne, " Hist. of the Reformation."
THE SCOTCH AND THE SCOTCH-IRISH.
ALTHOUGH the Puritans and the Huguenots did much towards forming the religious character and implanting a love of liberty in the breasts of those who made America their home, they were not the only laborers in the important work. There were others who aided, by also diffusing a reverence for truth and a fear of God, the real foundations of national greatness.
The Scotch and the Scotch-Irish, as those who came from the North of Ireland were called, emi- grated to this country in large numbers, bringing with them their strong attachment to learning and the doctrinal standards of the Presbyterian Church.
The Scotch had been subjected to every variety of suffering, not merely on account of their opposition to the dogmas of the Church of Rome, but because they refused to subscribe to the doctrines and forms of Episcopacy. The High Commission appointed by Charles II. exercised Inquisitorial powers, and even equalled the dread tribunals of Spain and Portugal in acts of oppression, malice, and cruelty.
In consequence of these arbitrary measures many went from Scotland to Ireland, and others sought safety on this side of the Atlantic. But it was not until the beginning of the Eighteenth Century that
17
18
THE SCOTCH AND THE SCOTCH-IRISH.
the Scotch and their descendants in Ireland emigrated in large numbers to America.
Driven from their homes by fanatical zeal and ecclesiastical tyranny, they naturally directed their course to the only two colonies, Maryland* and Penn- sylvania, in which toleration prevailed.
In 1729, upwards of six thousand emigrants from Scotland and Ireland arrived in this State, and from that time until the middle of the century as many as twelve thousand, it is said, came over every year. A majority of them made their way into the interior, and, on account of the early frosts in the valleys and the water being less pure, they generally settled on the higher lands.
Their principal business was farming, though they were far from being skilful husbandmen. When the productiveness of the soil had been exhausted by fre- quent tillage, instead of resorting to fertilizers, they cleared the timber from another portion of their lands. If this resource also failed, they sought local- ities where the unimpaired soil of the wilderness gave a return for labor which their former possessions had ceased to afford. They therefore became the pioneers in the settlement not only of this State and of Maryland, but also of a large portion of Central Virginia and the western counties of North Carolina.
Moving in the van of civilization, with the muskel in one hand and the are in the other, they had scarcely
Trinitarians only were tolerated in Maryland. No enactment abridging religious liberty has ever been placed on the statute books of Pennsylvania.
19
.
THE SCOTCH AND THE SCOTCH-IRISH.
repressed Indian hostility or subdued a small part of the wilderness, when they organized the church and the school. The meeting-house was generally built of unhewn logs, and a smaller, but an equally rude, structure, served, in most instances, for a session-house and a school-house. But in these rustic church edifices men proclaimed the words of Truth whose learning and whose familiarity with the Scriptures would astonish the graduates of our theological semi- naries, while the "schoolmaster from Ireland" faith- fully imparted the elements of knowledge. No daily mail nor weekly newspaper kept them in communica- tion with the rest of the world. The wilderness was their home. The broad Atlantic rolled between them and the land of their fathers. Want and danger were continually present. Nevertheless, their much- worn Bibles showed that, amid all their loneliness and privations, they sought and obtained consolation from the Holy Book which has brought joy to many a mourner and removed the shadow from many a hearth-stone.
During the struggle for National Independence, no one whose ancestry could be traced to Scotland or the North of Ireland was found among the adherents of royalty. Their patriotism and unflinching bravery were so well known that Washington, in the midnight hour of the Revolution, expressed his determination, if all other resources failed, to make his last stand among the Scotch and Scotch-Irish of the frontiers.
These races have furnished eight Chief Magistrates of the Union, twenty Governors of States, and up- wards of thirty Presidents of American Colleges.
20
THE SCOTCH AND THE SCOTCH-IRISH.
They gave us Wayne, Mercer, Montgomery, Irvine, Knox, St. Clair, Sullivan, and Morgan, of the Conti- mental Army; the statesmen Hamilton, Madison, and Webster; the orators Patrick Henry, Calhoun, and MeDuffie. To them the Presbyterian Church is indebted for the Tennents, the Blairs, the Smiths, the Allisons, Finley, Rodgers, Witherspoon, and others prominent in the annals of the struggles and the triumphs of the Church in America during the greater part of the Eighteenth Century.#
* Chambers, " Irish and Scotch-Irish Early Settlers;" Proud, " Ilist. of Pennsylvania ;" Gordon, " Hist. of Pennsylvania ;" Hodge, " Hist. of Presbyterian Church ;" Webster, " Hist. of Pres. Church."
HISTORY
OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN
"THE FORKS OF BRANDYWINE."*
THE first European settlers in what are now the Western and Central parts of Chester County were, with a few exceptions, natives of Wales. The name of a neighboring mountain and the names of several townships in this county and those adjoining would sufficiently prove this, even if history and tradition were silent.+ Some of these immigrants came on account of their attachment to the principles of Penn ;
* The term " the Forks" in early colonial annals refers not only to the point at the immediate confluence of two rivers, but to the ter- ritory included between the two streams for some miles above. Thus, "the Forks of the Delaware" comprises nearly the whole county of Northampton ; " the Forks of the Susquehanna," the tract for some distance above Northumberland. (Day, " Hist. Col. Penna.") In this instance the Forks appears to have included all between the head waters of the Brandywine and the confluence of its two branches.
t Tredyffrin, Uwchlan, and Nantmeal in Chester County ; Caernarvon and Breeknock, in both Berks County and Lancaster ; Cymry (Cumru) in Berks County.
21
22
HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
others, to enjoy the religious freedom accorded to all. Among them were several Presbyterian families, and as early as 1710 the records of Presbytery make mention of the church in Tredyffrin, or the Great Valley Church.
This section, however, which was known by the name of Caln," had but few inhabitants for several years afterwards.+ The first township officer, a con- stable, was elected in 1720. From that date, however, and especially in 1729, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish arrived and settled in considerable numbers. They were nearly all Presbyterians, or in sympathy with the Presbyterian form of church government. At first they were too few and too much scattered to organize churches, and therefore depended, for the most part, on occasional visits from the pastors of the Welsh Presbyterian churches who could address them in English.
Among those who itinerated through this section at that period, and preached in a grove or in private houses on the Sabbath, was David Evans, subsequently pastor of the church at Tredyffrin .¿
In October, 1824, the Rev. Adam Boyd was in- stalled pastor of the churches of Octoraro (Upper
* It was divided into East and West Caln in 1728.
+ See Appendix P.
# Samuel Evans, a son of David Evans, succeeded his father at Tredyffrin, but relinquished his charge without the consent of Pres- bytery, and was disowned by the Synod in 1751. Ilis son Israel served as chaplain from 1777 to the close of the Revolutionary war, and died in 1807. He published several sermons. His great-grand- father was a minister in Wales.
23
IN " THE FORKS OF BRANDYWINE."
Octoraro) and Pequea. As these were frontier churches, Mr. Boyd, in compliance with the directions of Presbytery, visited and preached in portions of the country where Presbyterians had settled, but where no church had been organized. Many of the residents of these places in time came to be regarded as mem- bers of his congregation, and contributed to his support. This appears to have been the case with those who were subsequently organized as a church in this place, for, at a meeting of the Presbytery of Donegal, held at Octoraro, June 5, 1734,* the following record was placed on the minutes : "The people at the Forks of Brandywine, being a part of Mr. Boyd's congregation, put in a supplication to the Presbytery for liberty of erecting a meeting-house for Mr. Boyd to preach in when sometimes he comes to them, which was granted."
It ought perhaps to be stated, in this connection, that the Synod or Presbytery for the limits of the authority of each were not well defined at that time, and for several years afterwards claimed and exercised the right to say where and when a meeting-house should be built. If one was erected without their consent they refused to send supplies or install a pastor ; and even went so far as to censure any member of either body who conducted divine service in a building erected without their approval. A case of this kind occurred at New London, where the
* All dates in the last century before September, 1752, are Old Style, or cleven days earlier than they would be by the present method of reckoning time, New Style.
HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Presbytery ordered the doors of a meeting-house which had been built to be closed. This caused several appeals to the Synod and the Presbytery to reverse their decision, gave rise to much angry feeling, and delayed the organization of the church and the settlement of a pastor for several years. The exercise of such authority to the same extent at present would be deemed arbitrary, but then it seems to have been, and still is, in a measure, necessary, in order to prevent the erection of buildings and the organization of churches unable to support a stated ministry. But, to return to the history of this Church.
Having received permission to build a meeting- house, and, as they supposed, to organize as a distinct congregation, the members obtained a triangular lot of ground containing six and a half acres, built a house for public worship, elected elders, and applied to Presbytery at its meeting in April (4), 1735, held at Chestnut Level, for supplies. At the same time an application was made by the congregation of Octoraro "desiring the subscription of these people (those in the Forks of Brandywine) may be continued for Mr. Boyd's support." The Presbytery, after hearing the statements of the parties, came to the following, among other, conclusions :
"First. That the said people (the people in the Forks) had quite mistaken the matter in deeming themselves already erected, whereas it is not so; only they were granted leave to build an house for their more convenient enjoying the visits of Mr. Boyd."
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