USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Historical discourse delivered on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Upper Octorara Presbyterian Church : Chester County, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1870 > Part 2
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During the Irish rebellions in the reign of Eliza- beth, the province of Ulster, embracing the northern counties of Ireland, was reduced to the lowest ex- tremity of poverty and wretchedness ; and its moral and religious state was scarcely less deplorable than its civil. Soon after the accession of James I., his
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quarrels with the Roman Catholics of that Province, led to a conspiracy against the British authority. O'Neill and O'Donnell, two Irish lords, who had been created earls by the English government-the former the Earl of Tyrone, and the latter the Earl of Tyr- connel-arranged a plot against the government. Its detection led these chief conspirators to fly the coun- try, leaving their extensive estates-about 500,000 acres-at the mercy of the king, who only wanted a pretext for taking possession. A second insurrection soon gave occasion for another large forfeiture, and nearly six entire counties in the province of Ulster were confiscated and subjected to the disposal of the crown. But it was a territory which showed the effects of a long series of lawless disturbances. It was almost depopulated, its resources wasted, and the cultivation of the soil in a great measure abandoned. The state of society-such as existed-was in keep- ing with the physical aspect of the country.
It became a favorite project with the king, to re- people those counties with a Protestant population, who would be disposed to the arts of peace and indus- try; the better to preserve order, to establish more firmly the British rule, and to introduce a higher state of cultivation into that portion of his domains. To pro- mote this object, liberal offers of land were made, and other inducements held out in England and Scotland for colonists to occupy this wide and vacant territory. This was about the year 1610. The project was eagerly embraced, companies and colonies were formed, and individuals without organization were
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tempted to partake of the advantageous offers of the government. A London company-among the first to enter upon this new acquisition-established itself at Derry, and gave such character to the place, as to cause it to be known and called the city of London- Derry.
The principal emigration however, was from Scot- land. Its coast is within twenty miles of the County of Antrim in Ireland, and across this strait flowed from the north-east, a large population distinguished for thrift, industry and endurance; and bringing with them their Presbyterianism and rigid adherence to the Westminster standards. They settled principally in the counties of Down, Londonderry and Antrim ; and have given a peculiar and elevated character to that portion of the Emerald Isle.
This was the first Protestant population that was introduced into Ireland; and the Presbyterians of Scotland, who thus furnished the largest element, have maintained their ascendency to the present day, against the persevering efforts of the government church on the one hand, and the Romanists, by whom they were surrounded, on the other. The first Pres- byterian church established in Ireland, was in the county of Antrim, in 1613.
The province, in consequence of this influx of popu- lation, greatly revived and continued for some years to advance in prosperity. The towns were replen- ished with inhabitants, the lands were cleared, and houses erected throughout the country.
But it was a day in which the throne of Britain
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was governed by bigotry and despotism. Persecu- tions of an oppressive nature began in Ulster in 1661, and every expedient-short of utter extirpation-was tried, to break down the attachment of the people to their Presbyterian polity; but, as is always the case, these persecutions only attached the people the stronger to their faith. Many ministers were deposed and forced to return to Scotland.
The tide however presently changed. Persecutions ceased in Ireland and the scene was transferred to Scotland. The latter Stuarts-Charles II. and James II .- blind to the dictates of justice and humanity, pursued a system of measures best calculated to wean from their support their Presbyterian subjects, who were bound to them by national prejudice and had been most devoted to their kingly cause, and to whose assistance Charles II. owed his restoration to the throne. Sir James Grahame, better known as Claver- house, was sent to Scotland with his dragoons, upon the mistaken mission of compelling the Presbyterians to conform in their religious worship to that of the establishment; and from 1670, until the accession of William and Mary, the Presbyterians of Scotland worshiped in hidden places, and at the peril of their lives.
The attempts to establish "the Church of Eng- land" over Scotland, and destroy the religious system so universally established and so dearly cherished by that devoted people, was pursued by the Charleses and James II., by persecutions as mean, cruel, and savage as any which have disgraced the annals of
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religious bigotry and crime. Many were treacher- ously and ruthlessly butchered, and the ministers were prohibited under severe penalties from preaching, baptizing or ministering in any way to their flocks.
Worn out with the unequal contest, these persist- ent and enduring Presbyterians, having suffered to the extreme of cruelty and oppression, abandoned the land of their birth and sought an asylum among their countrymen who had preceded them in the secure re- treats of Ulster; and thither they escaped as best they could, some crossing the narrow sea in open boats. They carried their household gods with them, and their religious peculiarities became more dear in their land of exile, for the dangers and sor- rows through which they had borne them.
This is the race-composed of various tribes, flowing from different parts of Scotland-which fur- nished the population in the north of Ireland, famil- iarly known as the Scotch-Irish. This term Scotch- Irish, does not denote an admixture of the Scotch and Irish races. The one did not intermarry with the other. The Scotch were principally Saxon in blood and Presbyterian in religion; the native Irish Celtic in blood and Roman Catholic in religion; and these were elements which could not very readily coalesce. Hence the races are as distinct in Ireland at the present day, after the lapse of two centuries and a half, as when the Scotch first took up their abode in that island. They were called Scotch-Irish, simply from the circumstance that they were the descendants of Scots, who had taken up their resi- dence in the north of Ireland.
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I may observe, that the term "Scotch-Irish,"- although expressive-is purely American. In Ire- land it is not used. There, in contra-distinction to the native or Celtic Irish, they are called Scotch.
These people, by their industry, frugality and skill, made the region into which they thus moved, com- paratively a rich and flourishing country. They im- proved agriculture, and introduced manufactures, and by the excellence and high reputation of their pro- ductions, attracted trade and commerce .to their markets.
The government however, soon began to recognize them, in the shape of taxes and embarrassing regula- tions upon their industry and trade. These restric- tions, together with an extravagant advance in rents by landlords whose long leases had now expired, oc- casioned much distress, and the people were brought to a state of degrading subjection to England, and many of them reduced to comparative poverty.
Their patience was at length exhausted, and these energetic and self-willed Scotch-Irish, animated by the same spirit which subsequently moved the Ameri- can mind in the days of the Revolution, determined no longer to endure these oppressive measures, and they sought by another change of residence to find a freer field for the exercise of their industry and skill, and for the enjoyment of their religion.
Ireland was not the home of their ancestors; it was endeared to them by no traditions, and num- bers of them determined to quit it, and seek in the American wilds a better home than they had in the old world.
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Accordingly, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, they commenced to emigrate to the Ameri- can colonies in large numbers. The spirit of emigra- tion-fostered no doubt by the glowing accounts sent home by their countrymen who had preceded them- seized these people to such an extent, that it threat- ened almost a total depopulation. Such multitudes of husbandmen, laborers and manufacturers flocked over the Atlantic, that the landlords began to be alarmed, and to concert ways and means for prevent- ing the growing evil. Scarce a ship sailed for the colonies, that was not crowded with men, women and children. They came for a time principally to Penn- sylvania; although some of them settled in New England, and others found their way to the Caro- linas. It is stated by Proud, in his history of Penn- sylvania, that by the year 1729, six thousand Scotch-Irish had come to that colony, and that be- fore the middle of the century, nearly twelve thous- and arrived annually for several years. In September 1736, alone, one thousand families sailed from Belfast, on account of the difficulty of renewing their leases.
They were Protestants, and generally Presbyte- rians-few or none of the Catholic Irish came until after the Revolution. The settlement of this latter class in this country, is comparatively of modern date.
Extensive emigrations from the northern counties of Ireland, were principally made at two distinct periods of time. The first,-of which I have been speaking-from about the year 1718 to the middle
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of the century; the second, from about 1771 to 1773, although "there was a gentle current westward be- tween these two eras."
The cause of this second extensive emigration was somewhat similar to that of the first. It is well known that a greater portion of the lands in Ireland, are owned by a comparatively small number of pro- prietors, who rent them to the farming classes on long leases. In 1771, the leases on an estate in the county of Antrim-the property of the Marquis of Donegal-having expired, the rents were so largely advanced, that many of the tenants could not comply with the demands, and were deprived of the farms they had occupied. This aroused a spirit of resent- ment to the oppression of the large landed proprietors, and an immediate and extensive emigration to America was the consequence. From 1771 to 1773, there sailed from the ports in the north of Ireland, nearly one hundred vessels, carrying as many as twenty-five thousand passengers, all Presbyterians. This was shortly before the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, and these people, leaving the old world in such a temper, became a powerful contribution to the cause of liberty, and to the separation of the colonies from the mother country.
These Scotch-Irish emigrants landed principally at New Castle and Philadelphia, and found their way northward and westward into the eastern and middle counties of Pennsylvania. From thence, one stream followed the great Cumberland Valley into Virginia and North Carolina, and from these, colonies passed
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into Kentucky and Tennessee. Another powerful body went into western Pennsylvania, and settling on the head waters of the Ohio, became famous both in civil and ecclesiastical history, and have given to the region around Pittsburgh, the name it so well de- serves, of being the back-bone of Presbyterianism.
The first settlement in this region of country, was made by the Scotch-Irish about the year 1718. They gradually spread over the whole western portion of Chester County, from Maryland and Delaware on the south, to the chain of hills known as the Welsh mountain on the north; and the greater portion of the population of this district of country at the pres- ent day, are their descendants. These early emi- grants planted the Presbyterian churches at Upper Octorara, Faggs Manor, Brandywine Manor, New London and Oxford, in this county; and these churches abide in strength to the present day.
It is said to be a hard thing to kill a Presbyterian Church, and this is exemplified not only in those planted in this county, but throughout the country. Of course, this is only true as a general rule. Pres- byterian churches may-from emigration and other causes-become weakened and eventually cease to exist, but it will be found on examination, that they are more tenacious of life than those of any other de- nomination. 1378389
Such is a brief sketch of the early history of the people known as the Scotch-Irish, and of their emi- gration and settlement in this country.
This race, "in energy, enterprise, intelligence, edu-
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cation, patriotism, religious and moral character, the maintenance of civil and religious liberty, and inflex- able resistance to all usurpation in church and state, were not surpassed by any class of settlers in the American colonies."
In the struggle for popular rights, they were ever found on the side of the people, and the maintenance of freedom in religious worship, was with them a car- dinal principle.
Pennsylvania owes much of what she is to-day, to the fact that so many of these people settled within her borders. Probably not less than five millions of people in America, have the blood of these Scotch and Scotch-Irish in their veins, and there is not one of them, man or woman, that is not proud of it, or that would exchange it for any other lineage.
"The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain," says Bancroft, "came from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." A large number of them were signers of the Declaration of Independence, and throughout the revolution they were devoted to the cause of the country. Such a thing as a Scotch-Irish tory was unheard of; the race never produced one. It was the energy and devotion of this people that sustained the army in the field in the many dark hours of that contest, and which under the guidance of Providence, carried this country suc- cessfully through the struggle for freedom.
When the subject of the dissolution of all connec- tion between the colonies and the mother country was before the Continental Congress, it was John
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Witherspoon, a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman, and a descendant of John Knox, who is reported to have said, "That noble instrument on your table, which secures immortality to its author, should be sub- scribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He who will not respond to its accents, and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions, is unworthy the name of a freeman. Although these gray hairs must descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather they would descend thither by the hand of the public executioner, than desert, at this crisis, the sacred cause of my country!"-words which were potent in securing the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Many of the most eminent men in the nation are, and have been of this race. It has furnished five Presidents of the United States, seven Governors of Pennsylvania, a majority of the judges of this state, and a full proportion of the legislators, state and national, and of those who have occupied other high official positions.
In the church, we may well be proud of the names of those who have ministered at her altars. A race, which has produced such men as John Witherspoon, the Tennants, father and sons, Samuel and John Blair, Francis Alison, the Duffields, the Alexanders, Robert Smith and his sons, Samuel Stanhope Smith and John Blair Smith, has proven that it is not of ignoble blood, and that it is second to none on the face of the carth with which it may be compared.
The race is noted for its firmness, perseverance and
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undaunted energy in whatever it undertakes, and those characteristics have aided in carrying it succes- sively through many a conflict. Whatever an indi- vidual with Scotch blood predominating in his veins undertakes, he generally performs, if in his power.
When John Knox was laid in his grave, the Earl of Morton-thenrecently appointed regent-whostood by, is said to have pronounced his eulogium in these, or similar words : "There lies he, who never feared the face of man." And what was true of John Knox, may be said of the race, "It never shrinks from re- sponsibilities, and it fears not the face of man."
Its character for firmness-perhaps it might be called stubbornness-is somewhat facetiously, but well illustrated in the prayer of the Scotch elder, who besought the Lord that he might be always right, adding, "for thou knowest Lord, that I am very hard to turn," or, as expressed in the Scottish dialect, "ye ken Lord, that I am unco hard to turn."
We will now turn from this cursory glance at the history of the race to which most of us belong, and direct our attention to that of this Church, which as already observed, was founded by emigrants from the province of Ulster, and which has been mainly main- tained by their descendants.
The township of Sadsbury, in which this church is situated, was organized at a very early day. Origi- nally, it extended indefinitely westward, but by the erection of Lancaster county in 1729, the Octorara creek became its western boundary, and that portion of the township west of the creek, became known as
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Sadsbury township, in Lancaster county. The name is English. It was originally settled by both Quak- ers and Presbyterians, and the population ever since, has been of a mixed character.
This congregation was formed-as near as can now be ascertained-in the year 1720. As there is no record of its organization, we can only approximate the time when the people first assembled on this spot for religious worship. This is believed to have been in the fall of the year 1720-one hundred and fifty years ago.
It was originally known as Sadsbury. The first minister who preached here was the Rev. David Evans. Mr. Evans had been pastor of the congre- gation of the Welsh tract, in New Castle county, Delaware, but difficulties arising between him and some of his people, the pastoral relation was dis- solved. This was in May, 1720. He then, as ap- pears from the minutes of Presbytery, supplied the people of Tredyffrin, now known as the Great Valley church, and was also sent by the Presbytery to the region now called Octorara, Forks of Brandywine and Conestoga, extending to Donegal and even beyond. The whole territory thus included, was missionary ground, and Mr. Evans preached in various places in the different settlements which had been formed. In June, 1721, he was directed by the Presbytery to supply the same people, and a letter was directed to be written by Mr. Cross, to the people at Tredyffrin, and "the people at Sadsbury, upon the western branches of Brandywine," and the people at Cones-
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toga. In August, 1721, Mr. Evans reported to Pres- bytery that he had supplied the people of Tredyffrin, and Sadsbury, and Conestoga. Mr. Cross also re- ported, that he had written to the people of Sadsbury according to appointment. Mr. Evans was again ap- pointed to supply the people at Tredyffrin, and di- rected. "to allow every fourth Sabbath day to the people at Sadsbury." In September, 1721, the name of Octorara first appears upon the minutes of Presby- tery. It is recorded that "a letter from the people of Sadsbury (alias Akterara), to this Presbytery being read, was referred to the committee on bills and overtures."
This is the last time that Sadsbury is mentioned as the name of this congregation; thereafter it is called Octorara. The first syllable of the name Octorara, would seem originally to have been pronounced Ac, as in the early minutes of Presbytery it is spelled Akterara, Ackterara, Acterara, Actarara. We indeed, sometimes hear it so pronounced at the present day.
The name "Upper Octorara," was first given to this church about the year 1727, to distinguish it from Middle Octorara, in Lancaster County ; and from the church now called Lower West Nottingham, in Mary- land, which was originally known as "Mouth of Octo- rara," and subsequently as "Lower Octorara."
Mr. Evans continued to supply this congregation until March, 1723, when Rev. Daniel Macgill was ap- pointed to have the oversight of it. He supplied it until his death on February 10, 1724. In April, 1724, Rev. David Evans was again directed by Pres-
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bytery, to "supply ye people of Actarara with preach- ing every fourth Sabbath." He did so until July 1724, when he ceased to act in that capacity.
The congregation was directed by the Presbytery "to gratify the ministers sent to them, and not let them go home unpaid." They would seem from this injunction, to have been a little remiss in the per- formance of the duty they owed to those who were sent to break unto them the bread of life.
Mr. Evans, who was thus the first minister to this congregation, was a native of Wales, from whence he emigrated about the year 1701, graduated at Yale College in 1713, was ordained in 1714, and besides thus supplying Octorara for a time, was pastor of the Great Valley Church in Tredyffrin township for about twenty years. He afterwards accepted a call to a church in New Jersey, where he labored until his death, about the year 1750. He was recording clerk of the Presbytery of New Castle from its organiza- tion, March 13, 1716-7, until September 23, 1721, and his penmanship, as exhibited in the records of Presbytery, was in the extreme curious. His edu- cation and attainments were of a high grade. In 1748, he published a work, entitled "Law and Gos- pel; or, Man wholly Ruined by the Fall, and Recov- ered by the Gospel," being the substance of several sermons preached in 1734, at Tredyffrin from Gal. iii. 10, and Rom. i. 16. He was an eccentric and high spirited man, excitable and somewhat vascillat- ing in his course.
Mr. Macgill, who, as already stated, ministered to
4
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this congregation for about one year, was a native of Scotland, and came to this country about 1712, in September of which year he was received as a mem- ber of Presbytery. He is said to have been some- what austere in his manners, but a good preacher and a learned man. The following advertisement, which is nearly all that has been rescued concerning him from the river of oblivion, is deemed worthy of pre- servation as an item of the olden time: "1722, Ran away from the Rev. D. Magill, a servant clothed with damask breeches, black broad-cloth vest, broad- cloth coat of copper colour and trimmed with black, and wearing black stockings." In reading this adver- tisement describing the dress of the servant, we may well exclaim, "If the servant was not greater than his master, what must the master have been?"
The Rev. Adam Boyd, who was the first regular pastor of this Church, was born in Ballymena, county Antrim, Ireland, in 1692, and came to New England as a probationer in 1722 or 1723. While there, he preached at Dedham. After remaining there for a time, he concluded to return to his native country, and was furnished by the celebrated Cotton Mather -who esteemed him well-with a certificate of his good character in this country, dated June 10, 1724, He, however, had formed an attachment to a daughter of Rev. Thomas Craighead, one of the pioneers of the Irish Presbyterians of New England, and, relinquish- ing his design of returning home, came to Pennsyl- vania, whither Mr. Craighead and his family had shortly preceded him, bringing with him the com-
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mendatory letter of Cotton Mather, as well as creden- tials from Ireland, and was received under the care of New Castle Presbytery. The following is the minute of Presbytery on the occasion of his recep- tion : "July 29, 1724. The testimonials of Mr. Adam Boyd, preacher of the gospel, lately come from New England, were read and approved, and he being interrogated by the moderator, whether he would submit to this Presbytery, he answered that he would, during his abode in these parts." Mr. Craighead had been received as a member of Presby- tery on January 28, 1723-4.
A copy, in Cotton Mather's hand-writing, of the letter given by him to Mr. Boyd, has been preserved among the Mather MSS. in the library of the Ameri- can Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, Massachusetts. It reads thus :
"BOSTON, N. E., June 10, 1724.
"Our worthy friend, Mr. Adam Boyd, being on a return to Europe, it is hereby certified, on his behalf, that for the years of his late sojourning in these parts of the world, his behaviour, so far as we understand, has been inoffensive and commendable, and such as hath justified the testimonials with which he arrived hither. And we make no doubt that he will make a report of the kind reception which he and others of his and our brethern com- ing from Scotland and Ireland hither, (whereof more than two or three are at this time acceptably exercising their ministry in our churches,) have found in this country, that will be very contrary to the misrepresentations which some disturbers of the peace have given of it.
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