History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 96

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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provided in order that " everything tendine to lessen the solemnity of such occasions" might &, avoided. The same Yearly Meeting renewed the advice of former meetings in relation to marriage and laid particular stress on the inadvisability of marriages between Friends and those professing a different re- ligion. A resolution was also adopted, urging that " Friends take heed that they use plainness of speech without regard to persons in all their converse among men, and not balk their testimony by a cowardly compliance, varying their language according to their company."

The relations of the society in Philadelphia with Friends in England continued close and cordial, and visits were frequently exchanged. About the year 1800, Deborah Darby, wife of Samuel Darby. of London, visited Philadelphia, in company with Re- becca Young, afterward Rebecca Byrd. Mary Prior, wife of John Prior, of Hereford, England, and Mary Naftel, wife of Nicholas Naftel, of Germany, also came to Philadelphia about this time. Joseph Lan- caster, an eminent teacher and originator of the Lancasterian system of education, was a minister of the society, and during his stay in Philadelphia, where he had charge of the public schools for some years, attended meetings and spoke on different occa- sions. William Foster, of London, visited the United States in 1820, remaining five years, engaged in reli- gious labor. He was specially earnest in his denun- ciation of slavery. George Dillwyn3 visited England in 1800, and Jesse Kersey' in the summer of 1804. In 1807, Stephen Grellet, a Frenchman by birth, left Philadelphia for Europe, with a view of spreading the doctrines of the society. He traveled extensively (part of the time in company with William Allen in France, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Ger- many, Norway, Russia, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. He was admitted to interviews with the king of Prussia, the emperor of Russia, and the Pope.5

Among the eminent ministers from other parts of the Union who visited Philadelphia from 1800 to 1825 were Richard Jordan, of Norfolk, Va. ; Edward

1 Thompson Westcott.

" Ezra Michener, in his " Retrospect of Early Quakerism," says,

" While I am willing to allow full credit to all co-leborers in the cause of temperance, and rejoice in their success, il is proper to say that Friends were the pioneers in this reformation. It is only to be regretted that they have not been more nuitedly concerned in carrying oul The work."

" Dillwyn died June 23, 1820, from the effects of a fall on the ice. He was then in his eighty-third year.

Jesse Kersey was born al York, Pa., on the 5th of August, 1768. He was sent to Philadelphia when sixteen years of age, to learn the trada of a potter. He was regular at Friends' meetings during h's apprentice- ship, and entered the ministry in 1785, being then iu his seventeenth year. lle was still an apprenlice, and remained un ler his indentures for four years afterward. His addresses were considered surprising for one so young, and the eloquent young potter begin to attract much at- tention on account of the Impressiveness and persplenty of bis dis- conrses. After his apprenticeship was over he went tu East Calo, Ches- ter Co., and kept a school. Having married in 1790, he went : Y k with his wife, and commenced business as a potter. Afterfour years he returned to East Calo, and continued the business. Subsequently he became a farmer, near Downingtown. He was In unity with the society for many years, and died near Kennett, Chester " 1n 1\"

5 He was courteously received by the Pop-, and "found his way pen to address some words of religious counsel to the pintiff, an I was heard withuul offense. He was well satisfied with th"i terrew, and, having preached the gospel in Rome, he left the city with a thankful heart."

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Stabler, of Petersburg, Va .; Thomas Wetherald, of Washington, D. C .; Nathan Hunt, of Guilford, N. C .; Richard Mott, of New York; Gerard T. Ilopkins, of Baltimore; and Joseph Foulke, of Gwynedd. Jacob Lindley, of Chester County, Pa., came frequently. Ile was a strong advocate of tem- perance, and of efforts for the civilization of the Indians, and a determined opponent of slavery. After a ministry covering a period of forty years, he was killed by being thrown from a chaise on the 12th of June, 1814, in the seventieth year of his age. Thomas Scattergood, born in Burlington, N. J., in 1748, was another active minister in Philadelphia and vicinity. He went to England in 1794, and after his return was engaged in religions labor, "having the near unity and fellowship of Friends." He died on the 24th of April, 1814. Hugh Judge, of Little Falls, Md., to which place he removed in 1804, having previously resided in Philadelphia, was a frequent visitor at Yearly Meeting, and sometimes at Quarterly Meeting. In the course of his career as a minister, Judge traveled extensively in different States of the Union. He died Dec. 21, 1834, in his eighty-fifth year, having been a minister upwards of sixty-two years. Among the elders in Philadelphia who were most prominent and active during the period from 1800 to 1825 were Dr. Joseph Parrish,2 John Comly, of Byberry ;2 Nathaniel Yarnall, died Oct. 7, 1821 ; Hannah Yarnall, widow of Peter Yarnall, who was a physician and also a minister, and died in 1798;3 Hannah Fisher, wife of Samuel R. Fisher, of Phil- adelphia, and daughter of Thomas and Mary Rodman, who died Sept. 9, 1819, in her fifty-sixth year ; Isaac Potts, a minister of Germantown Meeting, who died in June, 1803; and Arthur Howell.4

Among the ministers connected with Pine Street Meeting during the years from 1800 to 1825 were

1 Dr. Parrish was born Sept. 2, 1779, and was the son of Iseac and Sarah Parrish, members of the Society of Friends. His father was a hutter, and Joseph learned the trade. At the age of twenty-two years he under took the study of medicine, toward which he had an inclina- tion from childhood. He graduated in due time, and became a very successful practitioner, enjoying celebrity in his profession, and great confidence and reliance on his skill and learning. For several years before his decease he was an elder of the society, and was diligent in religione meetings. Ilis interest and labors were given very faithfully during his life in watchfulness of the Indians and in advocacy of the abolition of slavery. He died March 13, 1840, in the sixty-first year of bis age.

2 The son of Isaac and Asenath Comly, born Nov. 19, 1773, H teacher in Westtown school in 1801, married Rebecca Budd, a tencher in the girla' department, and with her conducted a school at Byberry. Comly became well known as the author of " Comly's Grammar" and " Comly's Spelling- Hook," which attained a large circulation, and for many years were accepted na standard school-books. The Byberry school was dis- continued In 1813. In 1813, Comly wns acknowledged na a minister of the society. He died Ang. 17, 1850.

a Hannah Yarnall, whose maiden name was Thornton, died July 2, 1822. 4 Arthur Ilowell was for many years a leading member of the Phil- adelphia Meeting, and exercised much influence. He was the son of Joseph and Hannah Howell, and was born in Philadelphia Ang. 20, 1748. He was acknowledged as a minister by his Monthly Meeting in 1779. Howell is said to hove possessed the gift of forenight, and to have male some remarkable prophecies. He died Jan. 21, 1816.

Jonathan Kimber, Jonathan Evans, and Isaac T. Hopper. Among the leading members of the con- gregation were Charles Wharton, William Wharton (his son), Samuel R. Fisher, John Hutchinson, Sam- uel Shinn, John Morton (once president of the Bank of North America), John Townsend, Isaac N. Morris, Henry Cope, Isaac Lloyd, Alexander Elmslie, and many others.

The old Arch Street meeting-honse, between Third and Fourth Streets, still retains a quiet serenity amid the surrounding bustle of the neighborhood. It stands in a lot three hundred and sixty by three hundred and sixty-six feet, and is surrounded by a high brick wall. The edifice is divided into meeting-houses for men and for women, and is probably two hundred feet front. The members of the society, resident in the neigh- borhood, are so few that services are seldom held there on Sunday.

The Society of Friends (Orthodox) have in 1884 ten meeting-honses, all of them exceedingly plain both in exterior appearance and furnishing. They are situated as follows: Fourth and Arch Streets, Orange above Seventh Street, and Forty-second Street and Powelton Avenue, West Philadelphia. The min- isters of the above meetings are Joseph S. Elkinton, Abigail Hutchinson, Rachel E. Patterson, Rebecca A. Cooper, and Hannah Arnett. The Northern Dis- trict meeting-house, at Sixth and Noble Streets, has for its ministers Samuel F. Balterston, Jobn S. Stokes, and Phœbe A. Elkinton. The Germantown meeting- house, at Main and Coulter Streets, is ministered by William Kite, Samnel Morris, Samuel Emlen, and Elizabeth Allen. The Western District, Twelfth below Market Street, also includes Merion, on Lan- caster Avenue west of Hestonville. Haverford is supplied by Edward Marshall, and the Frankford Monthly Meeting, at Frankford, by David Heston.

The Friends' (Hicksite) meeting-honse, at Byberry, has for its ministers Watson Tomlinson, Ellen F. Croasdale, and Nathaniel Richardson. They have meeting-houses at Fair Hill, Germantown Avenue and Cambria Street; Frankford, at Unity and Waln Streets ; Friends' Mission No. 1, Beach Street and Fairmount Avenue; Germantown school, Girard Avenue and Seventeenth Street; Green and Fourth Streets (Jane Johnson, minister); Race above Fif- teenth Street (Anne S. Clothier and Samuel S. Ash, ministers) ; Spruce corner of Ninth Street (Deborah F. Wharton, minister); West Philadelphia, Thirty- fifth Street and Lancaster Avenue (Samuel J. Levick, minister).

The Friends " possessing original principles" have a meeting-house at Olive above Eleventh Street, min- istered by Joseph E. Maule.

THE PRESBYTERIANS.

The persecutions suffered by the Presbyterians in Ireland and Scotland during the seventeenth century caused many of them to seek refuge in the

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American colonies. Immediately after the battle of Dunbar, the victorious general sent the Scots prisoners by ship-loads to the British plantations, where they were sold. After the restoration the same course was adopted by the king; and many of those concerned in the risings at Pentland and Bothwell were consigned to servitude in Maryland, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and the West Indies. In Maryland, under the care of the Calverts, the Presbyterians found that liberty of conscience which had been deuied them in their native land. By the famous "act of toleration," passed by the Assembly of that province in 1649, the word " Presby- terian" was included among the terms of reproach which were forbidden to be used. From this circum- stance it would seem that persons of this faith were already in the province. In a letter of Lord Balti- more to the Privy Council, dated July 19, 1677, giving an account of the state of religion in the province, he speaks of dissenting ministers being " maintained by a voluntary contribution of those of their own persuasion, as others of the Presbyterians, Independ- ents, Anabaptists, Quakers, and Romish Church are." 1

A large number of the members of this religious faith settled in Somerset, now Wicomico County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and, having established a church at Rehoboth in December, 1780, made application, through Col. William Stevens, to the Laggan Presbytery, in Ireland, to send them a min- ister. This was the first regularly constituted Presby- terian Church in the United States, and this is the first application known to have been made to the British churches for a minister. In response to the application of the Presbyterians of Maryland, Francis Makemie, a native of Donegal County, Ireland,-who had been licensed by the Laggan Presbytery near the close of 1681, and who had received ordination, sine titulo, with a view of coming to America,-was sent on his mission to the church at Rehoboth, where he arrived shortly after. Mr. Makemie must have faithfully discharged his duties, for we find, in a report made by Governor Nicholson in 1697 to the Bishop of London, that Somerset County had no " Popish priest, lay brothers, or any of their chapels, and no Quakers ;" but it had "three Presbyterian places of worship."

The Presbyterians began to know one another in Philadelphia between 1690 and 1700. Francis Make- mie came to the city in August, 1692, just at the time of the outbreak of George Keith's heresy. He met a number of English, Welsh, Scotch, and French Presbyterians, and organized a church, which as- sembled for religious worship, in connection with a few Baptists, in a storehouse then situated on the northwest corner of Second and Chestnut Streets, be- longing to the Barbadoes Company. Neither sect

had a settled pastor, but the Rev. John Watts, a Bap- tist minister of Pennepeck, agreed to preach for them every other Sunday. Mr. Watts, in his narrative, says, " that divers of the persons who came to that assembly were Presbyterians in judgment; they having no minister of their own, and we have hitherto made no scruple of holding communion with them in the public worship of God." 2

Whenever there were Presbyterian ministers in town they officiated, and for three years the members of the two sects got along amicably. The Presby- terians, probably finding themselves unpleasantly situated, determined upon calling a minister, and invited the Rev. Jedediah Andrews, from Boston, who accepted their invitation, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1698.3

Of the members of this first congregation, the names survive of John Green, Samuel Richardson, David Griffing, Herbert Corry, John Vanlear, and Daniel Green. Shortly after the arrival of Rev. Mr. Andrews dissensions arose between the Baptists and Presbyterians, which resulted in their separation. The former withdrew, leaving the latter in possession of the storehouse, where they continued to worship until 1704. It was a small, one-story building, with a high hip-roof. In 1820, and up to about 1832, when it was pulled down, this store on the Barbadoes lot was known as " Jones' Stocking Store." The house ad- joining on Chestnut Street was Myers & Jones' paint- shop; adjoining on Second Street was Adams' grocery store, afterward Adams & Reath.

In 1704-5-Mr. Andrews still minister-the Presby- terians built a church on the south side of High [now Market] Street between Second and Third Streets, White Horse Alley [or Bank Street]. This meeting- house, surrounded originally by some fine sycamore- trees, was styled " Buttonwood Church." It is not known of what material the building was constructed. Its first elders were John Snowden, tanner; William Gray, baker; and Joseph Yard.

The Presbytery of Philadelphia, first formed in 1705, comprised seven ministers, and included Phila- delphia, Maryland, Delaware, and the eastern shore of Virginia. The names of these ministers were Francis Makemie, John Hampton, George McNish, and Samuel Davis, of the eastern shore of Maryland, all Irishmen ; Nathaniel Taylor, Scotchman, Upper Marlborough ; John Wilson, Scotchman, New Castle,

1 See Scharf's History of Maryland, vol. i. p. 363.

2 Edwards' " Materials for a History of the Baptists," vol. i. p. 104, quoted by Ilodge in his "Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church." vol. i. p. 81.

3 Rev. Jedediah Andrewe, son of Capt. Thomas Andrewe, was born at Hingham, Mase., July 7, 1674, and was baptized by the Rev. l'eter Hobart five days after. He was the youngest but one of ton children. He graduated at Horvard College in 1695, was licensed in New England, and was orilained in Philadelphia probably in the autumn of 1701 While stationed in Philadelphia he must have performed considerable mis- sionury labor, as we find him ministering at different times at Hope- woll, Gloucester, Burlington, Amboy, and Staten Island. He was also the recording clerk of the l'resbytery and of the Synod as long as ha fived.

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and Andrews, in Philadelphia. In 1706 John Boyd was ordained at the first meeting of the Presbytery of which there is any record. In 1716 four Pres- byteries were formed out of the original one,-New Castle, Snow Ilill, Long Island, and Philadelphia,- constituting altogether the Synod of Philadelphia. The Presbytery of Philadelphia was composed of the following ministers : Andrews, Jones, Powell, Orr. Bradner, and Morgan. The names show a prepon- derance of Welsh members. Only one of these min- isters, Mr. Andrews, was settled in Philadelphia, and the First Church, of which he was pastor, was the only one in this city under its care. In 1718 Rev. William Tennent joined the Synod, a seceder from the Established Church in Ireland. This was the beginning of a powerful influence in the Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and the history of that church from this time is picturesque.

The old Buttonwood Church is described by Kalm, the Swedish traveler, in 1748, as being near the mar- ket, of middling size, the roof nearly hemispherical, -hexagonal at least. It stood north and south. The Presbyterians do not mind the points of the compass, so that they have the points of the catechism all right. In 1735 came Rev. Samuel Hemphill, licensed by the Presbytery of Strabane, Ireland, and preached in Philadelphia. Smooth language, good elocution, said the crowds which he attracted ; as to his doc- trine,-rank heresy, said Rev. Mr. Andrews, and denounced Hemphill from the pulpit. The Synod pronounced the young man's views unsound; Frank- lin, who was a pew-holder in the church at the time, liked his flowing style, defended him in pamphlets and in the Pennsylvania Gazette. Presently it was found out that Hemphill's sermons were his only memoriter, got by heart from James Foster, Dr. Ib- | preacher's zealots (Seward) had invaded their property bots, and Dr. Clarke.

In the growth and extension of the church differ- ences had arisen in the Presbyteries and Synod which disturbed their harmony. The points of difference were, the examination of candidates for the ministry on experimental religion, the strict adherence to Pres- byterial order, and the amount of learning to be re- quired of those who sought the ministerial office. The Synod, on motion of the Presbytery of Lewes, adopted a rule that no candidate for the ministry who had received a private education should be admitted to trials in order to be licensed to preach the gospel by any Presbytery within its bounds, until such can- didate's learning was previously examined by a com- mittee of the Synod appointed for that purpose. But the Presbyteries quarreled on this point, and the New Brunswick l'resbytery, supported by the Ten- nents (Gilbert, William, Charles, and William, Jr.), with many elders, protested, and licensed, in 1738, John Rowland, in disregard of this rule of the Synod ; but the Synod refused to consider him a member of their body. Mr. Rowland was deprived of his charges,-Maidenhead and Hopewell, N. J.,-and

took to field-preaching and the barns,-the fore- runner of the Methodists. Gilbert Tennent joined him, and administered the sacraments also. It was at this time that the great preacher and orator, George Whitefield, came from England to Philadelphia early in November, 1739, and gave intensity to the im- pending schism.

Whitefield was an itinerant, a field preacher him- self, bold, fiery, denunciatory, intense, most elo- quent, and most capable of producing strong religious excitement. He appealed only to the feelings, but he stirred these to their very depths. He was per- haps the greatest revivalist who ever preached, and he created a strange fever of enthusiasm in the quiet town, having sometimes as many as six thousand hearers, whom no church could contain. He began preaching the first Sunday after he arrived, in Christ Church; he ended in the public squares and the field.1 He denounced ; he was assailed ; he rejoined ; he became the subject of fierce and violent contro- versy. The Episcopal Churches were closed against him. He did not yet venture to apply to the Presby- terians, but kept to the field. When he preached his farewell ten thousand people attended him to Society Hill, and one hundred and fifty horsemen escorted him as far as Chester. He was soon back again to Philadelphia, and indeed paid several visits, but none, perhaps, which caused so much excitement as his first. It seems as if his followers could not help mixing a little charlatanry with their zeal. They claimed that his preaching had caused the dancing- school and concert-room to close. The managers of the Assembly, after declaring that Whitefield had engaged all the printers not to print anything against him, proceeded to show that one of the without leave and nailed up the door without notice. Nevertheless, the Assembly was held, and the in- truder compelled to apologise. Still there can be no doubt that Whitefield's oratory resulted in a genuine revival. The Presbyterians and the Baptists were kindled by the flame ; the Tennents, Rowland, Blair, Davenport took to open-air preaching, and, as the contemporary accounts aver, "Religion is become the subject of most conversation. No books are in request but those of piety and devotion, and instead of idle songs and ballads the people are everywhere entertaining themselves with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." The people put up a new and large building for Whitefield to preach in on Fourth Street below Arch Street, and this, one hundred feet long and seventy broad, became an academy later, and then the College of Philadelphia and University of

1 He held furth from the balcony of the court-house to a great assem- blage of people, computed to number six thousand. From this place he preached every night during his first visit. Gillies says, "When he preached at the court-house every word could be distinctly heard on a shallop at Market Street wharf, a distance of four hundred feet. All the Intermediate space was crowded with hearers."

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Pennsylvania. He founded an orphan home in | Georgia, which was unsuccessful, and he continued to exercise great influence in Philadelphia.

The Presbyterian preachers who liked his style often preached in his "new building" after his de- parture, and became more and more divided from the controlling Synod. Many members withdrew from Mr. Andrews' congregation and flocked to the " new building" to hear the " New Lights" preach. In June, 1741, the Synod determined to deal with the "New Lights." A paper was presented, setting forth the reasons why they should be excluded from the Synod on account of "their heterodox and anarchical prin- ciples," their fostering dissensions, wholesale denun- ciations, and sensational preaching. The Synod required to acknowledge their faults or withdraw from the connection. They withdrew, protesting they had been forced out. The seceders comprised William Tennent, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel . Blair, Richard Treat, Eleazer Wales, William Tennent, Jr., Charles Tennent, Alexander Craighead, and David Alexander.

adopted the indictment, and the " New Lights" were ' the Rev. Harry Munro. Some objections, however,

This secession, which rent the Presbyterian Church all through the country, had one good result. It was the immediate cause of the founding of the College of New Jersey. The controversy was hard to heal.

In 1743, when Whitefield paid his last visit to Phil- adelphia, the one hundred and forty members of the " new building" congregation offered him eight hun- dred pounds to preach for them six months. They used the building until 1749, when the trustees of the academy demanded possession of it. A lot was pro- cured northwest corner of Third and Mulberry [now Arch] Streets, from Samuel Preston Moore and Rich- ard Hill. It was ninety-eight and one-half feet on Arch Street and eighty feet on Third Street, and it was subject to an annual ground-rent of £24 128. 6d. The foundations of the new church, eighty by sixty feet, were begun to be laid in May, 1750. On its eastern pediment, in gilt letters, was the inscription, " Templum Presbyterianum anciente numine erectum, Anno Dom. M.D.C.C.L." Gilbert Tennent was the first minister, and his immediate successors were John Murray, James Sproat, and Ashbel Green. Ebenezer Hazard was chairman of the building com- mittee.

The Rev. Jedediah Andrews, who had been in charge of the First Presbyterian Church from the time of its establishment, continued as pastor of that body until his death, in May, 1747. In September, 1733, the Synod allowed him an assistant, and Rev. Robert Cross, who was born near Ballykelly, Ireland, in 1689, and who had been pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Jamaica, L. I., since 1723, was requested to come to Philadelphia. He became a member of the Philadelphia Presbytery May 29, 1737, and on November 10th was installed assistant to Mr. Andrews. When Mr. Andrews died the Rev. Mr.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 96

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992