USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > Warwick in Bucks County > History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, Pa., 1726-1876 > Part 14
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After graduating, Mr. Prior took charge of the Acade- my at Easton, Pennsylvania, in which position he re- mained one year. Then he entered the office of Judge Joel Jones, as a law student, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1829, and immediately commenced legal practice. While thus employed he was one of the counsel for the defendants in a suit before the Court of North- ampton Co., brought by some Englishmen against the owners of a whole township of land for possession of the tract under some ancient claim. This involved the rights of a large number of persons to their homes, and was for- tunately decided for the American holders. After prac- ticing law two years he was appointed to one of the
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public offices of Northampton County by Governor George Wolff, in which position he remained till the expiration of the Governor's second term. The legal profession be- ing distasteful to him he had little desire to return to it. For years his thoughts had been turned to the sacred ministry, and Providence had now clearly opened the way for his entrance upon its holy and self-sacrificing duties.
He had united with the Presbyterian Church of Char- tiers, Washington County, Rev. John McMillan, D. D., Pastor, while he was in College, but at this time he was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Easton, under the pastoral care of Rev. John Gray, D. D., with whom he began to study theology, and at the end of a year he was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presby- tery of Newton, and being called to the Pastorate of the Lower Mount Bethel Church, N. J., he was there ordained to the full work of the ministry by the same ecclesiasti- cal body. He remained one year with the Mount Bethel Church, when he accepted a call to the Second Presbyte- rian Church, Southwark, Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1837. Here he prosecuted the work placed in his hands three years with diligence and success. During this time sinners were converted and led to unite with the people of God, and saints were established in the faith.
At the termination of this period he resigned his con- nection with the Presbyterian Church, influenced by a variety of considerations, partly of a domestic nature, and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. After the usual preliminaries he was ordained a Deacon, and subsequently a Priest, by Bishop Onderdonk. In the year 1843 he received an invitation to go to Milwaukee,
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Wisconsin, and about the same time was called to the Rectorship of St. David's Church, Manayunk, which is now within the consolidated City of Philadelphia. He concluded to accept the latter, and remained in that field of labor five years. By the blessing of God the parish grew and prospered. The membership was more than trebled, and the congregation increased in a correspond- ing ratio; and the Sabbath School became large, number- ing between three and four hundred children; the result of faithful, earnest toil.
In the year 1848, having occasion to visit a brother clergyman in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, he was in- duced to take charge of a Female Seminary there, simul- taneously receiving an invitation to the Rectorship of St. James Church, Schuylkill Haven, which is four miles distant from Pottsville. He left Manayunk in the au- tumn of that year, and entered upon the duties of the Seminary with those of the Parish at Schuylkill Haven. The following circumstance shows the desire of the peo- ple of this church for his services. Not long after taking up his residence at Pottsville, he was standing one day at the foot of a steep hill not far from the open shaft of a coal mine, when a heavy timber becoming accidentally loosened from its place rolled violently down upon him and broke his leg with a severe compound fracture. He was confined to the house by this accident several months, and felt devoutly thankful that his life, which had been in such fearful danger, was spared. During all this time, which was before the commencement of his duties at Schuylkill Haven, the congregation, though it was sug- gested that they should call some one else, waited for the
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recovery of his strength, that he might minister to them in holy things. The school in Pottsville succeeded be- yond the most sanguine expectations of its patrons and friends, and was quite remunerative to its Principal. Find- ing his health greatly impaired by excessive work, at the expiration of five years he gave up the Seminary, and confined himself to the exercise of the ministry of the Word. To his principal and central charge at Schuylkill Haven, he added two Mission stations. These varied labors continued till the year 1860, when in consequence of advancing age and family afflictions, resulting in the death of his wife, he resigned his parochial charge, pur- posing to exercise in the future the duties of his sacred profession, as Providence might give him opportunity, without pecuniary recompense. With the weight of more than seventy years upon him he preaches statedly in St. John's Chapel, in Pottsville, connected with which is a membership of sixty communicants and a large and flour- ishing Sunday School. This is a Mission Chapel of the chief Episcopal Church in Pottsville. Mr. Prior resides with his only daughter, Mrs. Charles M. Atkins, and per- forms much benevolent work as a manager of the Benevo- lent Association of the city.
He married Miss Isabella Adams, only child of Dr. Adams, an eminent physician in the North of Ireland. She was a highly educated, accomplished, and refined lady.
REV. JACOB BELVILLE, D.D.
Rev. Jacob Belville, D. D., was born December 12, 1820. He became a member of Neshaminy Church in
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1833, in one of the precious revivals with which the com- munity was blessed during the pastorate of his father. He graduated with honor at the College of New Jersey, Princeton, in 1839, and soon after pursued a course of theological study at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was settled for a time at Phoenixville, Pa., as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and also in Maryland. Re- ceiving and accepting in 1849 a call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of Hartsville, Bucks Co., Pa., which was composed of the part of the Neshaminy Church that withdrew from the original church in 1838, he was installed in that charge, and remained its Pastor ten years. In 1850 being associated with Mrs. McElroy, a lady from Lambertville, N. J., in establishing a Female Seminary at Hartsville, he purchased the beautiful prop- erty in that village, which had formerly belonged to Rev. James P. Wilson, Jr., and gave it the name of " Roseland Female Seminary." After a year or two he became sole proprietor of this institution, and it continued under his direction until 1863. During the last two or three years of his residence at Hartsville, he ceased his labors as Pas- tor of the Church on account of a failure of his voice. Having for the most part recovered his health, in 1864 he accepted a call to the pastoral care of the Presbyterian Church in Holmesburg, one of the suburbs of Philadel- phia, where he remained three or four years, when he was called to the church in Mauch Chunk, Pa., and in 1873 he became, by invitation, the Pastor of the First Presby- terian Church in Pottsville, Pa., where he still resides. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from La- fayette College at Easton, Pa.
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REV. JOHN L. BELVILLE.
Rev. John L. Belville, a brother of Rev. R. B. Belville, was born at or near New Castle, Delaware, in 1801. While a young man he resided four and a half years in the fam- ily of his brother, at Neshaminy, being engaged in study and in active labors upon the farm. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of New Castle, Del., and was married in 1828 to Miss Elizabeth Long of Ne- shaminy. About this time he removed to Dayton, Ohio, and was subsequently settled as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Bellefontaine, Ohio, and at other places. When the infirmities of years required, he resigned the duties of the pastorate, though he was usefully engaged in occasional preaching as long as his strength permitted. He is now living among his children in Dayton, two of his sons being lawyers in that city. He is reckoned on the Minutes of the General Assembly among those who have been honorably retired from active work in the ministry, but attends meetings of Presbytery when his health permits.
REV. BELVILLE ROBERTS.
Rev. Belville Roberts was born in the present Town- ship of Warrington, Bucks Co., Pa., within the bounds of the congregation of Neshaminy; his father, Jonathan Roberts, being one of the elders of the church. He was deprived of the influence of a pious father's example when . quite young, that good man being taken away by death when he was in his fifth year. Yet, he says in regard to him : "My religious impressions and my course of life
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were determined by the grace of God through the in- fluence of parental example. I do not remember a word that my father ever spoke to me. I do not even remem- ber the cast of his features ; but I do remember him dis- tinctly as bowing down with all of us in family prayer ; and after my father's death I remember how my mother took up the priestly task, and would regularly read the Scriptures, and then bowing down with us would agonize for our conversion and salvation." Soon after the decease of his father the homestead farm was sold, and the family scattered. He lived with his mother till he was sixteen years old, and then with neighbors two years as a farm hand. In respect to his early training he says :
"My education during this period of my boyhood was not regarded with much interest, nor attended to with care. Like other farm lads in that community it was my lot to work at home or on some adjoining farm for nine months of the year, and attend the common school three months in the winter. Yet, in those early years there was in my mind a growing desire, which developed into a fixed purpose, to obtain an education."
His widowed mother and his brothers, dependent upon their own exertions for a maintenance, had not means sufficient to give him the advantages he desired, and having some relatives in Michigan he determined to go to that State. He went to Tecumseh, and entered the academy in that town, with a view of preparing for the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. It will be inter- esting to many of his friends to see the account of his struggles for an education, in his own language, as follows:
"I then began with enthusiasm my course of prepara-
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tory studies, entering the class to which I was assigned. I studied with my class, and at the same time studied with an advanced class. Thus by close application and hard work, often fourteen hours of the day, I was enabled to en- ter the University one year in advance of those with whom I started. To support myself during this first struggling period, I obtained a little upper room over one of the stores in the place, and lived on about seventy-five cents a week. My bill-of-fare was not extensive ; it did not take much time in cooking, nor in washing dishes, for I did not have many courses. Then again I boarded with my brother-in-law, A. Taylor, and worked morning and eve- ning for my board. During vacation I would store up quite a little sum by handling the scythe and cradle in the hay and harvest fields.
"I entered the University at Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1848, and taking the full course graduated in 1852. All through these four years I easily maintained the struggle against poverty-by energy, industry and will. My diary shows how many cords of wood were sawed and split and piled at the Professors' houses during the fall and winter months of those years, and also the long weary days of toil in the harvest fields.
" In the fall of 1852 I entered Union Theological Semi- nary, New York City. In this city the struggle for maintenance or support was transferred from the ex- ertion of the physical to the intellectual part of our being. I easily found opportunities to teach and to sing, which brought me in a better income than the labor of my hands. After three years of study, of anxious prepara- tion, of gladness and joy in that I was numbered among
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those in the school of the prophets, I was dismissed with my class to begin our great life work as co-laborers with God in building up his kingdom.
"When I had completed my course of theological study, I found myself so worn and exhausted that I did not at once take a pastoral charge. I was invited to the church of Stillwater, N. Y., and labored there for nearly two years, during which we experienced a precious revival of religion.
" My first settlement as Pastor was at Rochester, N. Y., in Calvary Church, where I remained four years ; then on account of sickness we removed to Freeport, Illinois, and remained there four years. During the pastorate at Free- port we had the pleasure of witnessing another powerful work of grace. Finally, broken down in health, we re- moved from the West to the East."
Mr. Roberts, after leaving Illinois, was located for a time in charge of a church in Wheeling, West Virginia, though his health at the time was feeble, and at length he was compelled to suspend preaching altogether. He came to Norristown, Pa., bought a lot, built a house, and gradually recovered his physical vigor by out-door exer- cise, and freedom from responsibility. Being invited to preach for the 2nd Presbyterian Church in Norristown, he was soon chosen as Stated Supply, and then Pastor. This Congregation being very feeble parted with their church property in the Borough, and ultimately decided, under the leadership of Mr. Roberts, to build a house of worship in Bridgeport, opposite Norristown, on the south side of the Schuylkill. They have succeeded by the blessing of God in erecting a beautiful sanctuary, and
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hope to see a large congregation of devout worshippers ere long regularly assembling within its walls.
ROBERT C. BELVILLE.
Robert C. Belville, son of Rev. R. B. Belville, was born in 1828, and was about eleven years old when his father resigned the pastoral charge at Neshaminy and removed to Chester County. He is still remembered by many of the congregation as a bright, intelligent boy. Engaging in business in Trenton, N. J., he was appointed, while yet a young man, Clerk of the Court of Mercer County, and subsequently Clerk of the U. S. District Court, for the District, of which Trenton is the centre. These offices he filled with credit and honor to himself and great ac- ceptance to the Judges and members of the Bar of the State of N. J. He was a high toned gentleman and one of the most popular men in that State.
On the 16th of August, 1875, he set out with his wife for a tour of rest and recreation to the coast of New Eng- land. At New York they went on board a steamer for Fall River, Mass .; but before the boat left the dock, Mr. Belville, supposing he had a few minutes to spare, went on shore to send a telegraphic dispatch. Returning in haste, he discovered that the steamer had loosed its moor- ings, and was a few feet from the wharf. He made a leap to reach the deck of the boat, but fell into the river and was drowned. Thus, on the same day he left his home full of cheerful anticipations, he met with an untimely accident which caused his death, and that happy home
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was darkened with fearful sorrow. A few months after- wards his son, William Belville, was appointed to fill the vacant place in the U. S. Court, no doubt partly as a token of the high appreciation in which his father's services were universally held.
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CHAPTER XVII.
CLOSE OF THE PASTORATE OF REV. R. B. BELVILLE.
Rev. Mr. Belville was an eloquent preacher, a firm de- fender of the doctrines of the Calvinistic system, yet earn- est in enforcing practical duty upon his hearers. He was endowed with a lively imagination, and a warm emo- tional nature, and possessed a command of rich and ap- propriate language. In the pulpit and the social prayer and conference meeting his ministrations were usually well adapted to move the heart, inform the mind, and arouse the conscience. He was able in prayer ; on funeral occasions his services were peculiarly acceptable ; and in sickness and affliction, in joy and sorrow, he was a wel- come visitor in the homes of his people.
In 1837 his health became impaired. Nervous debility manifested itself in disease of the throat, which often prevented his using his voice in public. He obtained the
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assistance of different clergymen in the supply of his pul- pit, but permanent restoration to health appearing to him at a distance and uncertain, he announced to the Session in February, 1838, that he thought it best for the church and congregation, and for himself, to tender to Presbytery at its spring meeting his resignation of the pastoral charge among them. They stated to him in reply, that they had heard with pain and grief of his proposed resigna- tion, and that they, and as they believed, all the congre- gation, were anxious he should defer it at least till autumn, in the hope that the summer might effect his recovery. In May, however, he felt constrained by the advice of physicians, and by his own convictions of duty, to renew his request to the Session and people, to unite with him in an application to Presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relation he had sustained to the church for twenty-five years. They urged him still to postpone ac- tion upon the matter until the Fall, and in the meantime they suggested that he could correspond with the Profes- sors of the Theological Seminary in Princeton in regard to obtaining a supply for the pulpit for several months. In consequence of this correspondence, Rev. George Ely, a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, N. J., was secured as a regular supply, and he remained with the church most of the summer .*
* Upon completing his engagement with Neshaminy Church, Mr. Ely was invited to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Churches of Hamilton Square and Dutch Neck, Mercer County, N. J., where he labored successfully sixteen years ; when his health failed, and he was released from the care of that field. It was hoped that rest
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In 1837 the number of Elders having been reduced by death to three, one of whom, Gideon Prior, was aged and infirm, it was deemed important that an addition of four or five persons should be made to the Session. At a meet- ing of the congregation, February 22, 1838, it was deter- mined by vote that five persons be chosen to the office of Elder, and the Session nominated Wm. M. White, Wm. Jamison, Joseph Carrel, James Weir, and Hugh Mearns, who were all elected unanimously. Joseph Carrel not deeming it his duty to accept the office, the others were ordained as Elders on the second Sabbath of April follow- ing. This was about a year after Mr. Belville was dis- qualified by a bronchial affection from preaching. The subject of electing his successor was much discussed by the people, and the nomination of the individuals ulti- mately chosen and ordained Elders was probably in- fluenced in a considerable measure by considerations pertaining to the choice of another Pastor.
On the 29th of September, Mr. Belville again expressed to the Session his desire that he might be released from all pulpit and pastoral duty, and that his relation to the
and entire relief from ministerial work might prove the means of his restoration to physical vigor, but Providence had ordered other- wise, and he continued to decline until his death, which took place at Hartsville, Pa., at the house of his brother-in-law, Rev. Jacob Bel- ville, August 14, 1856. He married Miss Catharine Belville, daugh- ter of Rev. R. B. Belville. His son, George Ely, and his daughter, Rebecca Ely, subsequently became members of Neshaminy Church, the latter of whom married Rev. James L. Amerman, Pastor of the Reformed Church, Bergen, N. J. His eldest son, Belville Ely, be- came a merchant in Cuba, West India Islands.
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church might be severed. They reluctantly concurred in his request, and the congregation were summoned to meet on October 1st to act upon his resignation, when no further opposition to its acceptance was made.
At the meeting of the Second Presbytery of Philadel- phia, in Burlington, N. J., October 2d, 1838, the following communication and request was made in writing by Mr. Belville :
DEAR BRETHREN :- I am under the painful necessity of asking your permission to resign to your care the beloved charge, with which I have been happily connected, now for more than twenty- five years.
The painfulness of this act is much alleviated by the fact that the separation arises from no disaffection nor dissatisfaction on either side; but from my inability to perform a Pastor's duties, in consequence of a distressing disease in my throat, which has con- tinued now for eighteen months without any prospect of relief.
R. B. BELVILLE.
Mr. William M. White appeared in Presbytery and presented the following written communication from the congregation of Neshaminy, viz. :
" At a meeting of the congregation of Neshaminy, held in the church, Oct. 1, 1838, William R. Blair in the chair, and Charles Long, secretary, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted :
Whereas, our beloved Pastor, Rev. R. B. Belville, has for the last eighteen months been afflicted by a disease which has rendered him incapable of performing pastoral duties; and
Whereas, he has made known to us his determination to seek the dissolution of the relation which he has sustained to us so long
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and so happily, and has earnestly requested our concurrence in this painful measure; therefore,
Resolved, That while we deeply sympathize with him in his affliction, and feel that in parting with him, and being deprived of his valued services as a minister of Christ, we shall endure a severe bereave- ment, we cannot, nevertheless, consistently make opposition to his judgment in the matter, but shall endeavor to submit to the decision of Presbytery in the case, viewing it as a dispensation of divine Providence, in which we are bound to acquiesce.
Resolved, That we entertain a grateful sense of the laborious and faithful manner in which our esteemed Pastor has discharged his duties among us for upwards of five and twenty years, and shall follow him with our best wishes and kind feelings whithersoever a kind Providence shall direct his steps ; and we will hope to see in the light of heaven that this mysterious event has been in mercy to the parties immediately concerned, and for the glory of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
On motion, Resolved, That William M. White and Samuel Craven, be the Commissioners to forward these proceedings to Presbytery.
WILLIAM R. BLAIR,
Attest, C. LONG, Secretary." Chairman.
The Presbytery proceeded to consider the above ap- plication of Mr. Belville, when it was resolved that while the Presbytery deeply sympathize with their beloved brother and the congregation in the affliction with which they have been visited, they feel that the indi- cations of Providence are plain.
Resolved, That the pastoral relation of the Rev. Robert B. Bel- ville to the congregation of Neshaminy be, and it is hereby dis- solved, this dissolution to take effect on the 1st day of November ensuing.
JOHN MCDOWELL, ? Clerks. C. VAN RENSALEAR, Moderator.
JOHN MASON.
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Mr. Belville remained at his home near the church till the Spring of 1839, when, having sold his farm to Capt. Charles Dixey, of Philadelphia, he removed to Lancaster Co., Pa., where he resided four years, hoping still to re- gain the use of his voice. He then purchased a property near St. George's, Delaware, to which he removed in 1843. In 1845 he went to Cincinnati as a Commissioner to the General Assembly. At the close of its sessions he visited Dayton, Ohio, where some of his relatives lived ; but dur- ing this visit he was taken sick of bilious fever, and died after an illness of one week; aged fifty-five years. His remains lie interred in the Cemetery at Dayton.
The following inscription is on his tomb :
HERE REST THE REMAINS OF
REV. ROBERT B. BELVILLE.
He was 25 years Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Neshaminy, Bucks Co., Penn. Beloved and eminently useful among the people of his charge. Being obliged by ill health to give up the Pulpit, he removed to the State of Delaware in 1843, and came to Cincinnati as a Delegate to the General Assembly of 1845 from the Presbytery of New Castle. After the adjournment of the Assembly, while on a visit to his friends in this place, he was called by death to the General Assembly of the first born above.
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