USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 27
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Of the churches strictly Presbyterian we are able to say but little during the period of which we speak. The church in Charleston, commonly called " the Scotch Church," which had been served by Hugh Stewart, seems to have obtained another minister early in this period. The Rev. Mr. Grant may have been Mr. Stewart's immediate successor. His name
252
EDISTO .- REV. JOHN MCLEOD.
[1740-1750
occurs in the South Carolina Gazette in connection with a notice of his marriage. " Aug. 26, 1745-Rev. Mr. Grant of the Scots Kirk in this town, was married to Miss Elizabeth Martin, a handsome young lady with a pretty fortune." The Gazette seems to have dealt in personal notices more than is usual in our own day. In the Gazette of Nov. 11 of the same year, we have the following : "Last Friday night, Rev. Mr. Whitefield, and madam his spouse, arrived in town from the northward. On Sunday he preached twice in Mr. Smith's meeting, and early on Monday morning set out for the orphan- house in Georgia."
Another name follows that of Mr. Grant very closely in the public Gazette, our only source of information. In the year 1747 mention is made of the death of Rev. Thomas Kennedy, of the Scots meeting, and certain lines occasioned by that event are found under date of Aug. 31, 1747.
The Presbyterian Church at WILTON was supplied by Mr. Stobo, as we have seen, till his death, which probably occur- red early in 1741. The town was then at the height of its prosperity, containing about eighty houses, and was sometimes called New London. On the 6th of April, 1746, a blank call was drawn up and subscribed, "to be forwarded through the Presbytery of South Carolina to Philadelphia." The result is unknown. Previous to the year 1747 the Rev. Mr. Ross seems to have been the pastor for some time, and to have died while serving the church. In that year an arrearage, or a donation, was paid to his widow, amounting to £193 15s. The church was next supplied by Rev. Mr. McLeod to the 15th of June, 1748, for which he was paid £200. In July, 1749, £25 was paid to Rev. Mr. Rae, of Williamsburg, "for coming and preaching two sermons." The Rev. Mr. Stewart, the pastor of Bethel, Pon Pon, must also have served this church as a supply for some time before his death, since his widow was paid £200 on Nov. 1, 1749, "for his supplying Wiltown congre- gation."
The Presbyterian church on EDISTO ISLAND had for its pastor, from 1741, the Rev. John McLeod. Mr. McLeod's first engage- ment in the ministry was at Darien, Georgia. The trustees of Georgia being desirous of introducing into their colony a more thrifty class of people than the first emigrants were, invited one hundred Germans, under Baron von Reck, from the city of Ratisbon, and, through Lieut. Hugh Mckay, agreed with one hundred and ten freemen and servants, to whom were allowed fifty women and children, from Scotland, as colonists.
253
JAMES ISLAND. WILLIAMSBURG.
1740-1750.]
These last were collected in the vicinity of Inverness, were men of good character, and selected for their military quali- ties. They were picked men from the glen of Strathlean, and were commanded by officers of high standing in the High- lands of Scotland, some of whose descendants still hold offices of honor and trust under the British government. In their political sympathies they leaned towards the claims of the Pretender, and had become committed in the rising of 1715. They were quite willing to expatriate themselves, and seek their fortunes in the wilds of America. The Mckays, the Dunbars, the Bailies, and the Cuthberts applied also for large tracts of land to people with their own retainers, most of them going over to Georgia and settling there themselves. They reached our sister colony in January, 1736, and built a village on the north side of the Altamaha, which they called New Inverness, and gave the name of Darien to the district around, in commemoration of the attempt made by the Scotch to found a colony on the Isthmus of Darien in the close of the pre- ceding century. They were hardy, adventurous men, inured to fatigue and labor, and accustomed to martial discipline. These people desired to have the privileges of the gospel in their new home, to have a Presbyterian minister who should preach to them in the Gaelic, and teach and cate- chise the children in English. The Scotch Society for Propagating Religious Knowledge being applied to, sent out Mr. John McLeod of the Isle of Skye, who was or- dained with a stipulated salary of £50 sterling. He was of the Dunnegan family (McLeod of McLeod), and highly recom- mended by his brother-clergymen. He was "to officiate as minister of the gospel to the Highland families and others, and to use his utmost endeavors also for propagating Christian knowledge among Indian natives in the colony." Oglethorpe showed him much kindness, and promised to build him a plain house of worship until he could put up one more substantial. In his letter to the society, November 25th, 1741, he de- scribes the deplorable condition of New Inverness by the loss of so large a number of the inhabitants at the massacre of Fort Moosa, those " who remain being so situated that the enemy can come upon them to their bedside." Discouraged by these events, Mr. McLeod left the colony of Georgia and became pastor of the church of Edisto Island .- (Brown's Missions, ii., 480; Stevens' History of Georgia, i., 128, 342.)
Of the Presbyterian church on JAMES ISLAND we have no information pertaining to this period. In the absence of any
254
REV. JOHN RAE.
[1740-1750.
records of the church or the presbytery, we are not able to discover the succession of its ministry. The Presbyterian church on JOHN'S ISLAND is involved in the same obscurity, though it is supposed that its pastor was the Rev. Thomas Murray. Whitefield preached and read prayers there at the time he was arraigned by Commissary Garden.
Of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH of WILLIAMSBURG there is a fragment of a MS. record of twenty-two pages folio, and four of a more modern date, purporting to be " A Register of the Proceedings of the Church Session of the Presbyterian Church of Williamsburg, So. Car., commencing Anno 1743." " A Register of Baptisms and Marriages" accompanies it, the baptisms commencing in 1729, the marriages in 1743, of 36 pp. fol. The first baptism recorded is in March, 1729. " George Nelson wt his wife Helen had a son baptized named Matthew." This we take to be an ex post facto record made simply to perpetuate family history, otherwise we must give an earlier date to the Williamsburg church than we have sup- posed. Its first pastor, Robert Heron, returned to Ireland in 1740 or 1741. It received its second pastor, the Rev. John Rae, in March, 1743. He had been ordained minister of the gospel by the presbytery of Dundee, to take charge of this church in consequence of a blank call sent by the representa- tives of the congregation with recommendatory letters from the presbytery of South Carolina to said presbytery of Dun- dee, to be filled up by the name of one they should choose. Mr. Rae arrived in the province about the latter end of April, 1743, and having made application to some members of pres- bytery to whom he submitted his credentials, they advised him to take charge of the congregation until the presbytery of South Carolina should meet at their ordinary time in No- vember. This he did. At the meeting of presbytery in the city of Charleston, in November, they received his credentials and appointed his installation on the first Thursday of March, 1743-44. Mr. Rae commenced his ministry in strict accordance with the usage of the Church of Scotland. The next record is on Sabbath, November 3d, 1743. " The minister appointed dyets of visitation of families and examination agreeable to the Constitution and Discipline of the Church of Scotland, and intimated from the pulpit his desire to the several heads of families that they would look out for some persons among them that might be fit to be ordained Elders, and give him notice of them against the first Sabbath of February next ensuing." The register proceeds : "The heads of families in the Cong"
1
255
BLACK MINGO.
1740-1750.]
having consulted, did nominate the following persons as fit according to y' apprehension to be chosen Elders. David Allan, Wm. James, David Wilson, and Rodger Gibson. And John James, having been an elder in Ireland in a Presbyterian Cong", to be continued." " The sª day he did appoint dyets of Examination for Communicants." On the 19th of Febru- ary, 1744, " the Revd Samuel Hunter, min' of the Gospel at Black River preached here and serve the Revª John Rae's Edict for Instal" according to appointment of presbytery." "March 1st, Thursday, the Revª Messrs. Samuel Hunter and John Baxter, members of Pby., having met here according to appointmt; the Rev' Jnº Baxter preached from Heb. xiii. 17, and y" after installa the Rev' Jolin Rae w the unanimous consent of the whole congregation." July 18tl1, 1744, was observed as a day of humiliation and fasting on account of the war with Spain. The entire records of this period show that everything in this church was transacted with all the regularity and strictness which belongs to the Scotch discipline in its purest form.
During the winter of 1749-50, a fatal epidemic ravaged the country, called the " Great Mortality," the exact character of which is not known ; but it is supposed to have been a violent type of influenza. By it eighty persons of the township died, not a few of whom were heads of families and prominent men of the colony. Three of these were original elders of the church : John Fleming, William James, and David Witherspoon. -(MS. Hist. of the Williamsburg Ch., by John R. Wither- spoon, M. D.,
BLACK MINGO .- It is evident from the preceding extract that Rev. Samuel Hunter was both a member of the pres- bytery in 1744, and minister on Black River. Mr. Bax- ter had also preached one Sabbath on Black River previous to that time. Mr. Hunter came into the province about the year 1734 or 1735. Mr. McPherson says his church was near what is now known as Brown's Upper Rope Ferry, on Black River. Other local traditions say the place of his preaching was on Black Mingo Creek, where the foundations of an old Presbyterian church are still to be seen. The site is marked on Mill's Atlas of 1825. Both traditions coincide, as the site is but a few miles above the junction of Black Mingo Creek with Black River.
The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT CAINHOY was served by Rev. John Baxter as its pastor. His register of texts shows that from 1733 to 1744, the date of Mr. Rae's installment at Wil- liamsburg, he had been constantly officiating at Cainhoy, witlı
256
BETHEL, PON PON.
[1740-1750.
a few occasional absences. It is most probable that this is the church which Ramsay (Hist., ii., 25) calls " the congrega- tion of St. Thomas," which he says was formerly connected with the presbytery. Mr. Baxter was succeeded at Cainhoy by Rev. John Joachim Zubly, a native of St. Gall in Switzerland, who is believed to have taken charge of this church in 1748.
The church of Bethel, Pon Pon, prospered during this period. The " sederunts" of the session were numerous. On the 31st of March, 1740, Moses Martin and William Crole were chosen ruling elders, and Thomas Andrew, William Oswald, and James Donnum, deacons. On the 10th of Decem- ber, Jolin Mitchell was appointed " ruling elder to attend with the minister on presbytery for the ensuing year," vice Thomas Buer, deceased. Their faithfulness in official duty may be judged of by the following minute :- "April 7th, 1742. Sederunt, Ministers and Ruling Elders. The Congregation they divide into five parts to the more particular inspection of the Elders and Deacons ; viz., From Moses Martin's to the Widow Singleton's to be inspected by Isaac Hayne, Elder, Robert Oswald, Deacon ; From Thomas Melvin's to Hugh Campbell's, by William Melvin, Elder, and Thomas Andrew, Deacon ; From Mr. Stewart's to the Horse Shoe, by John Mitchell, Elder, and Joseph Mitchell, Deacon ; From Pon Pon Bridge" (where Jacksonborough Ferry now is) "to Aslepoo, by John Andrew, Elder, and William Oswald, Deacon." On the 3d of December measures were taken to procure land to build a new meeting-house, and Mr. Robert Oswald was di- rected " to enquire for the distressed in Charles Town and apply the contribution of this congregation accordingly."
During the same year £1,207 were subscribed for increasing the number of slaves belonging to the congregation. These slaves were hired out, and the proceeds of their labor or liire applied to the payment of the pastor's salary, which, from 1743, was £600 currency. From 1746 to 1748 the Rev. Mr. Stewart, the pastor, proposed to receive the labor of these slaves upon his own plantation, with the interest of £500 (Kermicle's legacy), in lieu of the £600, which was assented to. The new meeting-house was finished and occupied as early as March 31st, 1746. The subscriptions amounted to £2,228, and were made by one hundred different persons, all of whom, with but two exceptions, were males. The sound of the church bell, which was but a small one, and is the same which is now (1846) at the church in Walterborough, could be heard by upwards of sixty families, so populous at that time
257
FRENCH CHURCH.
1740-1750.]
was a region which in the year 1846 contained but a dozen families within the circuit of three miles, including the once populous town of Jacksonborough. On the second Sab- bath of February, 1746, Mr. James Donnam was chosen ruling elder, and William Gwin deacon, who were ordained to these offices on the 15th of March, 1747; Mr. Donnam was appointed ruling elder to attend presbytery with the minister for the ensuing year. In [exact date not known] Rev. Mr. Stewart departed this life, deeply regretted. On July 30th, 1748, the session appropriated £350 to his widow for the last six months of his life. A letter too was addressed to Rev. Mr. Rae, moderator of the presbytery of South Carolina, re- questing supplies or an early meeting of presbytery, to give them an opportunity of forwarding a call. This letter, written by Isaac Hayne, earnestly deplores the evils which must come upon them if left destitute of a preached gospel, and bears date August 8th, 1748. On the 8th of September, 1748, the congregation made out a blank call for a minister, which was to be forwarded through the presbytery of South Carolina to the presbytery of Edinburgh, and was signed by John Mitchell, Junior, and others, sixty in number.
"November 23d, 1748. Sederunt Elders and Deacons-They voted a Salary of Seven hundred pounds cury per Annum, including the interest of Kermicle's Legacy, to a Minister who shall come and take upon him the charge of this Congregation and be their Minister. He is also to have the use of the Par- sonage House, land, etc. Mr. Rob Oswald hires the Congre- gation's Slaves for 40 Bbls. Merchantable Rice, 500 N" W", to be delivered at Pon Pon Bridge clear of all charges what- soever, with the bbl. included, he to be at all the charge of sª Negroes (viz., July, Phillis, Charity, Cyrus, Quarter- man, Chloe, June, and Prime, with six children), to continue three years from the first of July next."
The services of the HUGUENOT CHURCH in CHARLESTON were still kept up under the ministry of the Rev'd Francis Guichard. Their house of worship had been destroyed at the beginning of this decade, but this did not destroy their organ- ization, and probably only temporarily interrupted their worship.
Such are the few notices which we have been able to collect of the strictly Presbyterian churches in South Carolina during this period. In what way they stood affected to the great event of the time, the awakening of the churches out of their religious torpor, in which Whitefield and the Wesleys, Jonathan
17
258
WHITEFIELD AND THE SECEDERS.
[1740-1750.
Edwards and the Tennents, took so conspicuous a part, we are unable to say. Probably their views were for the most part represented by the Old Side Presbyterian party in America, and by those who in Scotland stood aloof from Whitefield and his measures. We have no right to say this with certainty, but it is in some degree significant that none of the Presbyte- rian ministers of this period are named in connection with Whitefield. Not all the Presbyterians received him kindly. Writing from Maryland, November 24th, 1740, he says, " Here is close opposition from some of the Presbyterian clergy." In England the Episcopal clergy shunned him. "In my zeal, during my journey through America, I had written two well- meant, though injudicious letters, against England's two great favorites, The Whole Duty of Man, and Archbishop Tillotson, who I said knew no more of religion than Mahomet." " They are so embittered by my injudicious and too severe expressions, that they fly from me as from a viper." In New England he was opposed by many. Several associations and the faculty of Harvard College bore their testimony against him. He had said of Yale College and Harvard-" As for the universities, I believe it may be said their light is now become darkness, dark- ness that may be felt," and this could not be forgiven. In Scot- land he was received as he everywhere was, in a different spirit by different persons. Mr. Willison of Dundee, whom the Williamsburg people in South Carolina sought as their first minister, testifies to his worth and labors. " It is a truly rare thing, to see so much of God in any one man." "This worthy youth is singularly fitted to do the work of an Evangelist; and I have been long of opinion that it would be for the advantage of the world were this still to be a standing office in the churches." Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine had repeatedly invited him to Scotland, and he preached his first sermon in Scotland in Ralph Erskine's pulpit at Dunfermline, to the great delight of the people. His brethren of the Associate Presby- tery, however, were not satisfied. "I met most of them, according to appointment," says Whitefield to his friend Noble of New York, "on Wednesday last. A set of grave, venerable men! They soon proposed to form themselves into a presby- tery, and were proceeding to choose a moderator. I asked them for what purpose? They answered to discourse and set me right about the matter of church government, and the solemn league and covenant. I replied, they might save themselves the trouble, for I had no scruples about it; and that settling church government and preaching about the solemn league and cove-
259
WHITEFIELD AND THE SECEDERS.
1740-1750.]
nant was not my plan." "I told them I had never made the solemn league and covenant the object of my study, being busy about matters, as I judged, of greater importance. Several replied that every pin of the tabernacle was precious. I said that in every building there were outside and inside workmen: that the latter at present was my province." "I then asked them seriously, what they would have me do; the answer was, that I was not desired to subscribe immediately to the solemn league and covenant, but to preach only for them till I had further light. I asked, why only for them? Mr. Ralplı Erskine said, 'they were the Lord's people.' I then asked whether there were no other Lord's people but themselves, and supposing all the others were the devil's people, they certainly had more need to be preached to, and therefore I was more and more determined to go out into the highways and hedges; and that if the Pope himself would lend me his pulpit, I would gladly proclaim the righteous- ness of Jesus Christ therein."-(Letter cccxxxIx.)
This playful letter of Whitefield has often been quoted to the disparagement of the seceders, yet he wrote it with sor- row in his heart, as other contemporary letters show. On Whitefield's return to Scotland, Adam Gib, a prominent seceding minister, signalized himself by publishing a bitter pamphlet, "A warning against countenancing his ministra- tions." This, however, did not prevent his great success in Scotland. At Cambuslang he preached to twenty thousand and to thirty thousand people, with the most wonderful results. Still some prejudiced ones were perpetually exclaiming against the work, affirming that " the wark at Cambuslang was the wark of the devil." The seceders went so far as to proclaim a fast on account of his doings. "Mr. Erskine's people have kept a fast for me, and give out that all the work now in Scot- land is only delusion, and by the agency of the devil."-(Letter CCCCXLVII.) "The dear Messrs. Erskine have dressed me in very black colors. Dear me; I pity them."-(Letter CCCCLXI.)
These things were spread out in the Gazette in Charleston, beginning with the year 1741 and extending to the year 1747, so that it would have been almost a miracle if different opin- ions had not prevailed as to the man and his labors. There were examples too of great censoriousness and intemperance among Whitefield's friends in this country. In 1741 the celebrated "Nottingham Sermon" of Gilbert Tennent was preached, affirmed by Dr. Alexander to be "one of the most severely abusive sermons that was ever penned," the subject
260
JOHN NEWTON IN CHARLESTON.
[1740-1750.
being "The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry;" and the schism which divided the American Presbyterian church, and which continued for seventeen years, took place. Whitefield favored the measures of the Tennents. In the letter to Noble, above quoted, he says, "I rejoice to hear that the work of the Lord prospers in the hands of Messrs. Tennents, &c., am glad they intend to meet in a synod by themselves. Their catholic spirit will do good." Then follows what he said of the Associate Presbytery of Scotland. This schism commenced in 1741, when nine ministers were excluded from the synod of Phila- delphia, and was consummated in 1745, when the synod of New York was formed, which represented "the New Side," while the synod of Philadelphia represented " the Old Side."
The friend of Whitefield, the Rev. Josiah Smith, met with a severe affliction in the year 1749, from a stroke of the palsy, from which he never recovered so as to articulate dis- tinctly. He still delighted in the work of the ministry. He continued to compose and print sermons ; and so great did he regard the privilege of preaching the gospel, that he begged that he might be permitted to deliver a sermon once a month in the church of which he had been the pastor. This was granted, and he was listened to patiently, though his organs of speech were so affected that his hearers understood but little of what he strove to utter. It was probably during this year that the celebrated John Newton, then engaged in the slave-trade, arrived in Charleston, with a cargo, probably of slaves from Africa, he being at that time mate of the vessel, and having encountered many perils in securing them in a land where he had once himself been a captive and a servant.
The letter which details the facts was written long subse- quently, January 22d, 1763; but the circumstances occurred in 1748-9. " Dear Sir: A few days after I was thus deliv- ered from an unseen danger, we sailed for Antigua, and from thence to Charlestown, South Carolina. In this place there are many serious people, but I knew not where to find them out ; indeed, I was not aware of a difference, but supposed that all who attended public worship were good Christians. I was as much in the dark about preaching, not doubting but whatever came from the pulpit must be very good. I had two or three opportunities of hearing a dissenting minis- ter, named Smith, who, by what I have known since, I believe to have been an excellent and powerful preacher of the gos- pel ; and there was something in his manner that struck me, but I did not rightly understand him. The best words that
261
MR. SAMUEL FAYERWEATHER.
1740-1750.]
men can speak are ineffectual till explained and applied by the Spirit of God, who alone can open the heart. It pleased the Lord for some time, that I should learn no more than what he enabled me to collect from my own experience and reflection. My conduct was now very inconsistent. Almost every day, when business would permit, I used to retire into the woods and fields (for these, when at hand, have always been my favorite oratories), and I trust I began to taste the sweets of communion," &c.
Those who are familiar with John Newton's life, will remem- ber how these prayers, offered in the woods of South Carolina, did their part towards preparing this wild and reckless sea captain to become a minister of the blessed gospel in London, one of our Lord's chosen ones, whose hymns we so often sing in our social worship, and who contributed so much to the advancement of experimental religion, in the century which is past.
Mr. Samuel Fayerweather, a licentiate from New England, had been employed in 1748 for a year to assist Mr. Smith, and had been re-engaged for the ensuing year. On the 9th of April, 1749, he was elected co-pastor by a majority of the voters of Mr. Smith's congregation, and he signified his accept- ance on the 22d day of October. But a majority of the members of the church in full communion objected to the set- tlement. He therefore left the province at the end of the year, but in 1757, which was marked throughout with unpleas- ant dissensions, returned as a clergyman of the Episcopal church, and missionary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, having been ordained in England, and received the degree of A. M. from the University of Oxford. He remained in charge of the church of Prince George, Winyaw, till 1760, when he was removed by the society to Narragansett .- (Dalcho, 307.)
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