USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > Warwick in Bucks County > History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, Pa., 1726-1876 > Part 8
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A passport, given to Mr. Beatty by Governor Penn, of Pennsylvania, son of William Penn, with reference to the mission he was about to enter upon, commences thus :
" Whereas, the Rev. Mr. Charles Beatty hath informed us, that he proposes to go on a voyage to the West India Islands, in order to solicit benefactions for a public seminary of learning, in a neigh- boring province, and hath requested my passport and recommen- dation; These are to certify, that the said Mr. Beatty hath resided many years in this Province, within a few miles of this City, and during the last war from a spirit of loyalty and love to his country he exposed himself to great dangers as a volunteer, and served in
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the capacity of a Chaplain to the Provincial forces, and that he is a minister of undoubted reputation for integrity, candour, and mod- eration. Now," &c.
This was dated April 14, 1772, and a similar document was given by Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, in which he uses like terms, of about the same date.
Mr. Beatty and Mr. Witherspoon sailed from Philadel- phia May 12, and arrived at the Island of Barbadoes June 6th. "He writes on the 15th to his daughter Betsey, who had charge of the family, with ' honest Peggy Scott and his man Elijah, who had charge of the planta- tion.' He says that he was well received by the Governor and principal citizens, but the prospects were somewhat discouraging. He died at Bridgeton, on that Island, of yellow fever, August 13, 1772,* and his grave is there in a strange land." Dr. Sproat, of Philadelphia, preached a funeral sermon on his death, when intelligence of it reached there, and he was widely lamented as a pious, able, devoted, and highly useful minister of the Gospel.
" He published
I. A sermon preached at Fairfield, N. J., 1756, at the ordination of Rev. William Ramsey, entitled, 'Double Honor due to the Laborious Gospel Minister.'
II. Journal of a two months' tour among the frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania, 1768.
III. A letter to the Rev. John Erskine, D. D., in regard to the Indians being descendants of the Ten Tribes.
IV. Further remarks respecting Indian affairs."
* Record of the Beatty Family, by Dr. C. C. Beatty.
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Most of his preparations for the pulpit were made with- out writing, and scarcely any of his discourses have come down to our day. Yet he was a popular and effective preacher. "The daughter of Dr. Sproat, of Philadelphia, said, that no minister who assisted her father was more universally acceptable, both to that congregation and to others; and that her father was always pleased to have his services among them." In Presbytery and other ecclesiastical bodies he was honored by his brethren in the ministry by being frequently chosen a member of impor- tant committees and in other ways. He took a promi- nent part in the proceedings of the Synod, both before and after the reunion of the "Old and New Sides," and was usually on the Synodical Commission, on the Committee for the College of New Jersey, and for the Fund for the relief of aged and indigent Ministers, and the Widows of deceased Ministers.
" The following remarks were made by Mr. Grier, an aged member of the Presbyterian Church of Deep Run, Bucks Co., Penn., to Rev. C. C. Beatty, in the spring of 1822.
"The first sermon I ever heard in America was from the Rev. Charles Beatty of Neshaminy, the last I have heard is from his grandson of the same name. I landed at Philadelphia, a youth of twenty years of age, and having some relatives in Neshaminy went immediately. there. The day after my arrival was the Sabbath, and I went with my friends to hear Mr. Beatty preach. He was greatly esteemed by his congregation. When he came into the meeting-house I observed that he stopped and spoke to several persons on his way to the pulpit, and
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learned afterwards that his object was to inquire where there was sickness, trouble, or any particular circum- stances, so that he might offer prayer for the especial case. He was a very lively and animated speaker, used no notes, and his eye was passing constantly and searchingly over every part of the assembly. It was said that he could then detect at once the absence of any of his congregation, or the presence of any stranger. Of the latter part I had some knowledge; for immediately after the close of the service he came up to me and said, "Young man, I per- ceive you are a stranger in these parts.' I told him that I had just arrived from Ireland. 'You have done well,' said he; 'this is a better country for you ; and if you are industrious, steady, and God-fearing, you cannot but suc- ceed.' This was more than fifty-five years ago, and I never saw him again, having soon after left that neigh- borhood ; but I have not forgotten his manner and words, and the impression they made upon me. Being desirous of hearing his grandson, I have come out, though with difficulty, and may never hear another sermon."
Dr. Beatty adds, that it so happened that Mr. Grier never was out again, and died soon after.
Mr. Beatty took much pains with the training of his children, and gave them the best opportunities he was able to provide for their intellectual and moral culture, teaching them himself at home and sending them to such schools as were within his reach, and they all derived great benefit throughout life from his care and instruc- tion.
He resided for many years on a large farm, which he owned, a short distance south of the meeting-house, which
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is now owned by Mr. John M. Darrah. But toward the close of his life he purchased fifty-seven acres at the Cross Roads, now the village of Hartsville, on which he built a substantial stone house, which, having been repaired and remodelled at two or three different times, is now standing and is occupied as a residence by Mr. William Long. The joists and other timbers in it are perfectly sound, though more than a hundred years old.
CHAPTER XI.
CHILDREN OF REV. C. BEATTY.
Mr. Beatty was married June 24, 1746, to Ann Reading, daughter of John Reading, of Amwell, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey. Her father inherited from his parents a large tract of land adjoining what is now the town of Lambertville, N. J., where she was born. They were Quakers, but being anxious that their children should have a better education than America could afford, John, with others, was taken to England, and there became a Presbyterian. On his return to this country he attached himself to the Presbyterian Church, and continued warmly interested in its welfare through life. His parents are buried in Buckingham, Bucks Co., Pa. He was a member of " His Majesty's Council " for the Colony
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of New Jersey many years, and its Vice-President ten or twelve years. At the death of Governor Hamilton, in 1747, the government rested upon him until the arrival of Gov. Belcher; and at the death of Gov. Belcher he be- came acting Governor a second time, 1757, and continued in the office until June, 1758, when he was superseded by the arrival of Francis Bernard, who had been appointed Governor by the King of England. From this fact Mrs. Beatty's father is called Governor Reading.
Mr. and Mrs. Beatty had eleven children, two of whom died very young.
I. Mary Beatty, the oldest child of Rev. C. Beatty, born, 1747, was married to the Rev. Enoch Green, of Deerfield, West Jersey. Her husband, being Chaplain in the army of the Revolution, took camp fever and died, Dec. 20, 1776. Toward the last part of her life she resided with her daughter in Philadelphia, and was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, under the pastoral care of Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D., and of Rev. Albert Barnes, " to whom she was much attached and by whom she was much revered as a mother in Israel." She was a warm patriot, and during the whole of the Revolution she re- fused, on principle, to use tea, though she was very partial to that beverage. She died, May 2, 1842, in the 96th year of her age, and her remains were laid in the burying ground of the Presbyterian Church, corner of Fourth and Pine streets, Philadelphia.
II. Christianna Beatty, the second child of Mr. Beatty, was born at Neshaminy, June 17, 1748, and was partly educated, like her elder sister, in New York, and it is said that she died there, but the date of her death is not known.
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III. John, Mr. Beatty's third child, and eldest son, was born Dec. 10, 1749, and was named for his maternal grandfather, Gov. John Reading. He graduated at Princeton in 1769, being in the first class graduated under President Witherspoon. He subsequently studied medi- cine with Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, in 1770 and 1771, and began the practice of his profession at Hartsville, within the congregation of Neshaminy, in 1772, but soon after moved to Princeton, N. J. In the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle with Gt. Britain, he was ap- pointed Captain, joined the army, and remained connected with it five years. In 1776 three of his brothers were in the American army besides himself, making four of Mr. Beatty's sons who were all officers in the service of their country during the war of Independence. Probably the same could be said in regard to very few families.
John Beatty rose to the rank of Major, but was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Washington, on the northern part of Manhattan or New York Island, Nov. 16, 1776, and suffered a rigorous confinement within the British lines until May, 1778, when he was exchanged. After his health, impaired by his captivity, was sufficiently restored, he was appointed Commissary Gen- eral of prisoners with the rank of Colonel, and continued thus engaged until April, 1780, when he resigned and was honorably discharged from the service. He resided at Princeton, and represented New Jersey as delegate to the Continental Congress in 1783-85, and also in the Federal Congress 1793-95. He was at one time a member of the Legislature of New Jersey and Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1795 he was elected Secretary of
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State of that Commonwealth, and remained in that office ten years. During this time and subsequently he lived at Trenton and South Trenton, and was President of the Trenton Delaware Bridge Company in 1803; and in 1804 laid the foundation stone of the first pier of the bridge, which still stands firm and strong after the lapse of seventy years. The erection of this bridge, connecting the two States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and on what was then the main travelled route from New York to Philadelphia, was regarded as a great work, being on a new principle, and attracted much attention throughout the country. "It was deemed both in America and Gt. Britain a great achievement of civil engineering and architecture." During the last eleven years of his life he was President of the Trenton Banking Company, and for nearly twenty years he was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey. A member and ruling Elder in the Presby- terian Church of Trenton, he died in the hope of the Gospel, May 30, 1826, aged 77 years.
The Epitaph on his tomb, written by Chief-Justice Ewing, is as follows :
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF GENERAL JOHN BEATTY, BORN, DECEMBER 10, 1749; DIED, MAY 30, 1826.
Educated as a physician, he became early distinguished for benevolence, assiduity and skill. In the War of Inde- pendence, in important military stations, he faithfully served his country. By the public voice he was called to the discharge of eminent civil offices. In the State and
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National Legislatures repeatedly a representative, always active and influential. For many years a ruling Elder of this church. In every walk of life amiable, honorable, and useful. He crowned the virtues of the citizen, the pa- triotism of the soldier, and the sagacity of the statesman by the pure piety and sincere religion of the devout and humble Christian.
IV. The fourth child of Rev. C. Beatty was Elizabeth, born March 26, 1752. At the death of her mother she was about fifteen years of age, and three years later, by the marriage of her older sister, she was left in charge of her father's family, which duty she performed with exem- plary diligence, fidelity and skill. After her father's death the family was somewhat scattered, and the younger boys were placed at Mr. Long's to board for a season, about a mile north-west of Neshaminy Meeting House. She soon made her home with Mrs. Green, her sister, but was married at the house of her brother, Dr. John Beatty, October 25, 1775, to Philip V. Fithian, a young minister of more than usual promise, who was appointed a Chaplain in the army in 1776, and died of dysentery, brought on by exposure in camp, October 8, the same year.
His widow was married March 4, 1780, to a cousin of her former husband, Joel Fithian, Esq., of Cumberland Co., N. J., where she subsequently resided ; he died in 1821, and she survived him till 1825. They had five children. He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church in Greenwich, and she was pious, intelligent, and exem- plary in all her conduct.
V. Martha, the fifth child of Rev. C. Beatty, was born
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January 24, 1754. Nothing is known particularly in reference to her death ; but it is supposed that she died in early childhood, and was buried in the churchyard, then used for a burying ground, near the north-west corner of the present meeting-house. She is the only one of Mr. Beatty's descendants who has been buried at Nesham- iny.
VI. His sixth child, Charles Clinton Beatty, was born Feb. 10, 1756, and named for his father and his father's maternal uncle. He was two years at Princeton College, and graduated there in 1775. Like most of the other young men of the time he was warmly in favor of the independence of the country, and its separation from England. The following is an extract from a letter written by him, and dated January, 1774 :
"Last week, to show our patriotism, we gathered all the steward's winter store of tea, and having made a fire in the campus, we there burnt near a dozen pounds, tolled the bell, and made many spirited resolves. But this was not all. Poor Mr. Hutchinson's effigy shared the same fate with the tea, having a tea canister tied about his neck."
The death of his father about the time of his entering College had a powerful effect upon his mind, and led him to reflection upon his need of an interest in Christ, and hopefully to the consecration of his heart to God. He had in view more or less decidedly the ministry of the Gospel, but the war with Gt. Britain being in progress, he was prompted by the ardor of youth and the love of liberty to enlist in the military service of his country. He was commissioned an officer in a Pennsylvania regi- ment, and went with Gen. Wayne, in the expedition to
-
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Canada, in the early part of 1776. He was at Ticonde- roga in November, when that officer, then a Colonel, had command of the Fortresses of Ticonderoga and Indepen- dence, and returned in the Spring, probably to the South. The following account of his death is given by Dr. C. C. Beatty, who says that he then had the rank of Captain.
" When in the neighborhood of Chester, Pennsylvania, he met, while out in the field, a countryman who had a very handsome fowling piece, or rifle, which he purchased and brought into his quarters. While showing his pur- chase to his brother officers, one of them holding the piece, not knowing it to be loaded, presented it at Captain Beatty and said, 'Beatty, I will shoot you,' drew the trigger and it went off, shooting him through the heart, so that he instantly fell dead upon the floor. The utmost consternation seized upon all present, and the unfortunate officer, who was his most intimate friend, became frantic with grief and horror. But it was all over. Though this gentleman lived to old age, he could never hear even an allusion to this sad event without the most over- whelming emotion. This event occurred some time in the spring of 1777, at Moore's Tavern, in Chester County Valley, and his body was interred at the burying ground in Old Chester. He was the favorite of the family, and greatly regretted by all his friends. Judge Kirkpatrick, of New Jersey, who was his classmate in College, said he was the most lovely and beloved member of the class."
VII. The seventh child of Rev. C. Beatty was Reading Beatty, born December 23, 1757. It was intended by his father that he should receive a classical education at Princeton, but about the time he was to have entered
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College he abandoned the idea, and commenced in the spring of 1774 the study of medicine with his brother John, at Neshaminy. He was afterwards with Dr. Moses Scott, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was studying with him in 1775, when the war broke out between America and Great Britain. He was, like the rest of the family, warmly patriotic, as we learn from a letter he wrote about that time to his sister, Mrs. Green, from which the following is an extract :
"Have you any Tories in your part of the country? We have too many of them here; and indeed some that are worse than Tories, viz., those that when they have on their regimentals are pretended Whigs, but as soon as they put them off are detestable Tories, and are therefore hypocrites. Does Mrs. Green drink tea yet? I hope not. If she does, and you allow her, you perhaps will fall under the denomination of a Tory."
He first enlisted in the army as a private soldier, but was soon promoted to be a Sergeant, and then an Ensign in the Fifth Pennsylvania battalion, commanded by Colonel Robert Magaw. In 1776 he was appointed a Lieutenant, and in the course of the campaign, in consequence of the sickness of the Captain, he had command of the company. He was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Washing- ton, Nov. 16, 1776, as his brother John was, and at first was treated with severity and harshness, being deprived of most of his clothing, marched through the streets of New York, and confined on the Prison Ship Myrtle in the harbor. The report is that he would have been murdered wantonly by a Hessian soldier, if he had not been shielded by a British Officer. Through his brother's higher rank and influence he was at length allowed to
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leave on parole, and stayed with him at Flatbush, Long Island, for some months studying medicine, though under many disadvantages arising from the progress of the war. He continued a prisoner for eighteen months, and was exchanged in 1778. He still gave attention to medicine, and was in some capacity in the Surgeon's department of the Federal army at Morristown in 1779, and in 1780 was appointed Surgeon of the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment. In 1781 he received a Commission from the Continental Congress as Surgeon of an Artillery Regiment, and served in this capacity till the close of the war. After the war he first settled in the practice of medicine at Hartsville, or " Hart's Cross Roads," as it was then called, near the Neshaminy Church. He was united in marriage April 20, 1786, to Christina Wynkoop, daughter of Judge Henry Wynkoop, of Bucks Co., Pa., one of the Executors of his father's estate. Soon after this he and his wife removed to Erwinna, in Nockamixon Township, near the banks of the Delaware, but in 1788 they went to reside in Falls Township, near Fallsington, in the midst of Quakers. Here he purchased a farm and remained forty years, prac- ticing medicine and superintending the cultivation of his estate. He attended the Presbyterian Church of New- town, five miles distant, of which he and his wife were members, and he a ruling Elder. In 1828 he gave up the practice of his profession and removed to Newtown, where he died October 29, 1831, aged nearly 74 years. One of his daughters, Ann, became the wife of Rev. Alexander Boyd, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newtown. One of his sons was Charles Clinton Beatty, M. D., many years a resident of Abington, Montgomery
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Co., Pa., and an Elder of the Presbyterian Church of that place, who died greatly beloved and respected at the house of his sister, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Steele, March 10, 1876, in the 83d year of his age. Another daughter, Mary, was married to Rev. Robert Steele, D.D., Pastor of the Church of Abington. Another son, John, resides in Doylestown, esteemed and honored as a man of great excellence of character by all who know him. Another daugh- ter, Sarah, was married in 1834 to Rev.Henry R. Wil- son, who had consecrated himself to the work of Foreign Missions. They soon went, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, to labor among the Choctaw Indians in the territory assigned to that tribe by the United States government, south-west of the State of Arkansas. Before many months had passed away she was attacked be the fever peculiar to a warm climate and a new country, and after a few weeks of severe sickness, attended only by her husband, she died July 15, 1835. She was a warm-hearted, devoted Christian, and her last hours were calm and peaceful, and cheered by the confi- dent hope that her work though short in a remote field was approved by her Divine Master.
VIII. The eighth child of Rev. Charles Beatty was Erkuries, born October 9, 1759. He was called by this name, because the family names had been given to the older sons, and the father desired to express his sense of obligation to God for this new object of affection. It was coined by him from the Greek, E-from ; and Kurios-the Lord ; and variously spelled Erkurios, Erkurius, Ercurius, and at last Erkuries.
His father died when he was about thirteen years of
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age, and after that event he attended school among friends in New Jersey, and was preparing for the Sopho- more Class in Princeton College, in 1775, when the war with Gt. Britain commenced. It was his desire to join the Federal army like his older brothers, but as he was only sixteen years old, his friends did not deem it best. His spirit is shown in the following extract from a letter to his oldest sister, dated Aug. 10, 1775 :
"Dear Sister :- I exercise now almost every day, and have done this some months past, and have got the discipline pretty well, and am ready now to stand for my country in every respect. I have got my uniform in a company they call the Light Infantry, which is a very fine company, and have got good officers. Last Monday we had a review by our Colonel, and when we had all gathered together, Mr. Caldwell preached us a fine sermon suitable to the occasion."
He first went out in a privateer ship from Elizabeth- town in the fall of 1775, which captured a British vessel and brought her into that port as a prize. Soon after he enlisted in his country's forces as a private soldier, being of large size for his age. He served in that capacity or as non-commissioned officer for more than a year, when his brothers procured for him an Ensign's commission in the 4th Battalion Pennsylvania Line, Col. Cadwallader. During the year 1776 he was in the battle on Long Island, under Lord Stirling, Aug. 27th, and in the retreat to New York on the night of the 28th; in the action at White Plains, October 28th, and as a Sergeant he commanded a party of soldiers who were guarding some. stores in a position of great danger on the North river, when they were attacked by the enemy and
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narrowly escaped being made prisoners, all being killed or wounded but himself. He was in the battle of the Brandywine, Sep. 11, 1777, and in that at Germantown, October 4th, in which he was severely wounded, being shot through the thigh. He was fainting with loss of blood, when he was carried from the field by a horseman, and left at the house of a Quaker family, who were at first unwilling to receive him, for fear the British would find a wounded rebel officer in their dwelling. But when he returned to consciousness and informed them whose son he was, they took him in and sent word to his friends, especially a "Mr. Erwin," and they soon came and removed him to their home, not far from the " Crooked Billet," now Hatborough. Here he remained, and among the people of the Neshaminy Church, until his wound healed, when he went back to the army, then in winter quarters at Valley Forge.
During the year 1778 he was in the battle of Mon- mouth, June 28th, and afterwards on the Hudson river. In April, 1779, he was in an expedition against the Onondaga Indians in New York, and during the summer he marched with the troops under Gen. Sullivan against the Tories and Indians, who were encamped where Elmira now stands. There the "battle of the Chemung" was fought, August 29th, in which he participated, returning down the Susquehanna in a flotilla of boats to Wyoming and thence to Easton, October 15th. In 1780 he was actively engaged in various military enterprises, and in 1781 he was present at the capture of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. The part of the army with which he was connected, was disbanded in
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