USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 12
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Foiled in their attempt to obtain a colleague pastor, they apply July 29th, 1787, to Drs. Sproat and Duffield of Phila- delphia for counsel and aid. Meanwhile, they proceed with their measures for the repair and the completion of the colle- giate church in Archdale street. In June, 1776, during the attack on Sullivan's Island, this church was occupied by the country militia, and the pews were at that time destroyed. It was further injured by the British in 1780. Its sashes were broken out, and it was otherwise dilapidated. In 1786, a con- tract was made with Messrs. Palmer and Miller for the restora- tion of the seventy pews, and for putting it into proper order for worship. The cost of this restoration was $6,000; and it was opened for public worship by the Rev. Mr. Hollingshead
Presbyterian church in Fairfield, New Jersey, the next year. Here he was greatly esteemed, and enjoyed a high degree of popularity through the whole region .- Sprague's Annals, ii., p. 58.
459
REV. DR. KEITH.
1780-1790.]
on the 25th of October, 1787, whose sermon on the occasion was published.
In December they received a reply from Drs. Sproat and Duffield, recommending to their attention three names, and the church forthwith made out a call, which was subscribed by sixty-five members and supporters, and at the same time all the members and supporters subscribed the new constitution of the church.
On the 16th of September, 1788, Isaac Stockton Keith be- came their collegiate pastor, in answer to the call before men- tioned. He was the son of William and Mary Keith, and was born at Newton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 20th, 1755. He was graduated under Dr. Witherspoon, at Princeton, at the age of twenty, in 1775, where also he had received his academic education. After graduation, he taught a Latin school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, subsequently to which he pursued his theological studies under the general direction of the Rev. Robert Smith of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was licensed by the presbytery of Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1778, and was engaged for a short season in missionary labors. In March, 1780, he was called to the church of Alex- andria, District of Columbia, was ordained by the presbytery with a view to this pastoral charge, and was dismissed from that presbytery on the 30th of May, to the presbytery of Donegal, with which the church at Alexandria was connected. He continued to serve this church till the date above mentioned, in 1788, when he formally accepted the call, and received from the church the right-hand of fellowship. They voted him a sal- ary of two hundred guineas. Shortly after this he was married to Hannah, daughter of Rev. Dr. Sproat of Philadelphia.
" The two pastors alternated, every morning and afternoon, in the two churches, each preaching the same sermon twice the same Sabbath. This arrangement was adopted by a large majority, but from it were the following highly respectable dissentients, viz. : Thomas Lamboll, Henry Peronneau, Arthur Peronneau, Charles Warham, Mark Morris, and Daniel Legare, junior, on the ground that it was in conflict with the spirit of Congregational polity, and particularly with the fundamental principle, that every church is a dis- tinct, independent, self-governed society. This led to some dissensions and discussions, and, finally, to an examination of the records, and an investiga- tion as to the real character of the church, in regard to denomination and church government. A committee reported the following as the substance of what had been unanimously adopted, February 5th, 1775.
"' That this church never has adopted any one distinguished name, platform, or constitution, in a formal manner, nor declared of what denomination of dissenters it is, but suffered itself to be called either Presbyterian, Congrega- tional, or Independent : sometimes by one of the names, sometimes by two of them, and at other times by all the three.
460
POLITY OF THE CHURCH.
[1780 -- 1790.
"' We do not find that this church is either Presbyterian, Congregational, or Independent, but somewhat distinct and singular from them all.
"'That the main thing this church has in view ever since the year 1732, was not so much to define exactly the particular mode of their discipline, and to bind their hands up to any one stiff form adopted either by Presbyterians, Congregationalists, or Independents, as to be upon a broad dissenting bottom, and to leave themselves as free as possible from all foreign shackles, that no moderate persons of either denomination might be afraid to join them.
"'This free and liberal plan has been so much in their view, that for many year's they would not take any name at all, but considered themselves only as a certain society of Christians, worshipping in a briek meeting-house, and had no hesitation about the denomination of their minister, so be lie was a Protes- tant Pædo-baptist dissenter from the Church of England, a moderate man, and willing to leave them free: and it appears that, if they have latterly adopted the word Congregational, it is with no other idea than that they acted as a congregation, disconnected from all others; not supposing themselves, on ac- count of this name, bound up to every stiff rule laid down by a meeting at the Savoy, or at Cambridge, in New England ; many of the rules there adopted could, perhaps, by no means be put into practice liere, nor would ever be as- sented to by this church, who have never bound their hands by the forms of the Savoy or the Cambridge, more than by the Westminster directory ; re- serving it in their own hands, from time to time, to act as circumstances and conscience might require in their disconnected situation.
"'Its constitution is to have no absolute invariable form, but to aet upon the freest and most liberal principles, as occasion may serve and edification direct.
"'And, although its lands were given, and legacies left to it at different times, under different names, according to the idea of the donors, yet those names have never been formally adopted by any act of the church, nor are we obliged to adopt or act upon any one of those forms.
"But it also appears,
"'That although this Church is upon so broad a bottom, yet that it might not be liable to any interruptions in the disposal of its temporalities and in the choice of a minister, and might keep itself free in its actions, it has established Laws for the choice of managers,
the introduction of voting supporters-
election of ministers.
"'These laws do not interfere with the peculiarities of any denomination of dissenters.'
"From this document, it appears that the church was a free ecclesiastica! democracy, without vestrymen, elders, or any other order of human pre-emi- nence. In secular or pecuniary concerns, the payers of pew-rents, called supporters, had equal rights and votes with communicant members, called members ; but the latter had the exclusive right to appoint deacons, and, in conjunction with the minister, to admit members to the communion. In the election of a minister the members had also the sole riglit of fixing the time of proceeding to an election ; but they had only an equal per capita vote with the supporters. There was, also, a veto on the dismissal of a minister, their concurrence, on a separate vote by themselves, being an essential pre-requi- site to any action on that subject, by the supporters-and, in all spiritual con- cerns, they voted, although paying no pew-rent. These, it is believed, are substantially among the rules and canons for the government of the church at the present time."
On the Sth of March, 1789, the congregation resolved on the organization of " The Society for the Relief of Elderly and
461
CLERGY SOCIETY -- WAPPETAW.
1780-1790.]
Disabled Ministers, and the Widows and Orphans of the Clergy of the Independent or Congregational church in the State of South Carolina." Dr. Ramsay says, "The providen- tial affliction of the Rev. Mr. Smith suggested to the church, in its latter days of prosperity, the expediency of providing a permanent fund for the support of elderly and disabled minis- ters and their families. In this manner a kind Providence lias overruled a partial temporary evil for a general permanent good." His paralytic affliction rendered him for more than thirty years incapable of performing the duties of his office, and the inade- quate support he had received for the preceding twenty-three years of active service put it out of his power to provide for the extraordinary emergency. He was therefore in a great degree dependent on liis eldest son, Josiah Smithi, for the means of living.
This society was evidently intended for the relief of the dis- abled ministers of Congregational churches throughout the State, though it has for many years enured to the benefit of the ministers of this congregation alone, which is at the pres- ent time [1864] almost the only remaining representative of that ecclesiastical polity. The society was chartered by the General Assembly of South Carolina, on the 7th of March, 1789. It consisted in 1815 of forty-seven members, each of whom paid annually one pound sterling. Only three of its members at that time were clergymen, and its capital then amounted to $30,000 .*- (Dr. Ramsay's History of the Inde- pendent or Congregational Church.)
The INDEPENDENT OR CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH worshipping at WAPPETAW, in Christ Church parish.
Rev. Mr. Atkins was the pastor of this church at the com- mencement of this period. His history is unknown to us, save that he was murdered in the parsonage, near the church, by his negroes, as was supposed, at the instigation of the British,
* Among the prisoners sent to St. Augustine after the capitulation of Charleston was the Rev. James H. Thompson, who was a minister of the Congregational or Independent church; but was employed as the teacher of an academy, and was probably without charge. He and Rev. John Lewis, rector of St. Paul's Colleton, preached to the prisoners until forbidden by the Commandant, because they could not offer up prayers for king George, and "for his triumphis over all his enemies." While permitted to officiate, he read the prayers and conformed to the liturgy of the Episcopal church, and with them a printed sermon generally of the Church of England. After the peace he resumed his occupation as a teacher, and continued the principal of a classi- cal seminary of great excellence. He married a daughter of Mr. Theodore Trezvandt, and left three daughters, who all married and left families .- (Johnson's Traditions of the Revolution.)
462
REV. DR. M'CALLA.
[1780-1790.
who then occupied the church as barracks. They burnt it when they were evacuating Charleston in 1782, and all the old books of the church are said to have been destroyed at the same time .- (The Claims of Wappetaw, &c.)
Of the history of this church from the evacuation of Charles- ton to the settlement of Dr. McCalla, in 1788, we find no other notice, save that of its incorporation as the Independent church in Christ Church parish in 1786. Daniel McCalla, D. D., was born at Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, in 1748, and received the rudiments of education at Fagg's Manor, in his native State, under the Rev. John Blair. He was admitted to the church at the early age of thirteen. He was graduated at the college of New Jersey, with a high reputation as a scholar. He opened an academy in Philadelphia, and during his labors as a teacher made himself familiar with the science of medicine, mastered several of the modern languages, and pursued also a course of theological study. He was licensed as a preacher by the first presbytery of Philadelphia, on the 20th of July, 1772. He was ordained and installed as pastor of the united con- gregations of New Providence and Charleston, in Pennsylva- nia, in 1774. Here he preached with great acceptance till the opening of the American Revolution. His heart was deeply interested in the cause of Independence, and at the commence- ment of hostilities, when the troops under General Thompson were ordered to Canada, he was appointed chaplain of that corps by Congress, the only chaplain Congress ever appointed, appointments to chaplaincies being subsequently devolved upon the commanding officers of each regiment. He was made a prisoner, with Gen. Thompson and other officers, at Three Rivers, and was confined for several months in a loathsome prison-ship and subjected to brutal treatment. Released at length on parole, he was restored to his congregations in the latter part of 1776. He was soon after charged with violating his parole in praying for his country. Finding himself involved in difficulty, he escaped to Virginia, where, after some time, he was released from his parole by an exchange of prison- ers. Opening an academy in Hanover county, he enjoyed a high popularity as a teacher, and the congregation of which Rev. Samuel Davies had been pastor being vacant, he succeeded to the charge and preached with much acceptance. He here became connected in marriage with Eliza, second daughter of Rev. John Todd, of the county of Louisa, an amiable and accomplished woman. Mr. McCalla was eminently a social man and perhaps not always discreet. He mingled in scenes
463
DORCHESTER .- STONEY CREEK.
1780-1790.]
of conviviality more than was pleasant to those who looked upon these things with severity. Finding himself the subject of censure, he left the position he occupied and became the minister of the church of Wappetaw, in 1788 .-- (Sprague's Annals, vol. iii., p. 320; Memoir prefixed to his works, pub- lished in 1810, in two volumes; Hollingshead's Funeral Sermon.) In the same year, on the 4th of May, the church adopted a constitution which, with some omissions, is identical with that of the Independent or Congregational church worshipping in Meeting and Archdale streets, Charleston. The church itself · was incorporated as the Independent church in Christ Church parish, on the 2d of March, 1786.
The CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF DORCHESTER and BEECH HILL.
The worship of this church was rendered more irregular, if not wholly suspended, through the whole of this period, by the disturbances consequent on the war. Early in 1780 Dor- chester and its vicinity were occupied by the American troops under Gen. Moultrie, who, by an order of Maj .- Gen. Lincoln, threw up a fortification commanding the approaches to Bacon's Bridge. It lay in the march of Lieut .- Col. Tarleton, and became a British post. . The British army was encamped here after the battle of Eutaw, in September, 1781, but retired before the advance of Gen. Greene, burning all their stores. "The British occupied the Dorchester church and burnt its interior when they left. The walls, however, continued to stand, and the interior was restored towards the close of this century. But through the remainder of this decade it was a charred ruin in which no voice of praise was heard." -- (Moultrie's Me- moirs, vol. ii, p. 46; Lee's Memoirs, p. 380, 450.) Wednesday, March 5th, 1788-" I passed Dorchester, where there are the remains of what appears to have been once a considerable town. There are the ruins of an elegant church, and the ves- tiges of several well-built houses."-(Bp. Asbury's Journal.) This church was perhaps the Episcopal church, the tower of which still stands, a picturesque ruin, bearing the date 1751.
The INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH of STONEY CREEK .- This church continued to enjoy the services of Rev. James Gourlay as its pastor through these ten years, so far as the war permitted, which spread its desolation over this congre- gation as well as elsewhere. Mr. Simpson, its former pastor, in his diary, while visiting this country after the peace, for the settlement of his affairs, says of Mr. Gourlay, that he "acted as private tutor to some gentlemen's children during the late
464
SIMPSON'S JOURNAL.
[1780 -- 1790.
unhappy war, and is again preaching at Indian Land, where, as I am told, he has a very few hearers." There is in our possession a certificate, testifying to " the propriety and con- sistency of his behavior as a teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ," signed February 22d, 1780, by Thos. Hutson and Jno. McPherson, trustees, specifying that he had been upwards of five years in that parish. The certificate was given to him on the probability that he may have occasion to go northwardly on account of the confusion of the times. It seems, however, that he continued to reside through the war within his charge. Mr. Simpson speaks of the sad influence the war had exerted over the land. " Was much pressed," he says, " by the friendly Dr. Ramsay, and by my former friends in this place [Charles- ton], to spend some weeks in town, as the country at present is sickly, as it always is at this season of the year [September, 1783]; and besides, the whole country at any distance from the seat of government is still in a very unhappy situation. Robberies are almost daily committed, and many murders are lately perpetrated by an armed banditti, who call themselves British Refugees, or Loyalists, and sometimes call themselves Americans, taking revenge for the evil treatment they have met with." The dangers of the road in part induced him, after he had remained some weeks in Charleston, to charter a small vessel to take him to liis plantation. On the 3d of November, 1783, he " got to Mr. Hatcher's Landing, up St. Helena Sound; met Mrs. Hatcher, her nephew, James Fer- guson, &c .; was much affected to hear of the dreadful, horrid ravages of war in this parish and neighborhood." He sends to his plantation for means of conveyance, and receives an ox-cart with six oxen and the best horse on the plantation, " which is indeed a small, poor, sorry creature, such an one as in former times he would be ashamed to ride. The British and American armies have carried off all his fine breed of horses and several hundred head of cattle." "Wednesday, Nov. 5th-I rode around by my old parsonage or manse, which is still standing; stopped on the road and viewed it for some time, with a heart ready to burst at the remembrance of the past. There my dear children were born ; there they and their ever dear mother died; there I had many a sweet, pleasant and comfortable-many a sick, melancholy, and sorrowful . hour. Proceeded all alone to my old meeting-house at Stoney Creek, which, to the surprise of many, is left standing, while they burned the grand Episcopal church at Sheldon, the most elegant country church in the State. Lighted from my horse ;
465
SIMPSON'S JOURNAL.
1780-1790.]
viewed the tomb where the bodies of my dear Jeany Muir, Sacheverel, Archibald, and Jeany Simpson, the mother and the children, lie interred ; was greatly affected, yet could not drop a tear, but leaved many a deep-fetched sigh from a troubled heart; went into my old study-house ; sat some time in mourn- ful silence; knelt down and offered up fervent prayers and praises to God-praised the Lord for his sparing mercy to me and mine, and for bringing me back again to this land; prayed for grace, mercy, and counsel for myself while in this country, and that I may again be made useful in it; prayed for the present minister, Mr. James Gourlay, whose circumstances in Scotland being somewhat peculiar, I prevailed with to come to America; proceeded with a heart full of the most tender feelings past the Stoney Creek store. All was desolation, and indeed all the way there was a gloomy solitariness. Every field, every plantation, showed marks of ruin and devastation. Not a person was to be met with in the roads. All was gloomy." He goes to his own house. "It is impossible to describe in words how altered these once beautiful fields are ; no garden, no enclosure, no mulberry, no fruit trees, nothing but wild fennel, bushes, underwood, briars, to be seen-and a very ruinous habitation. Some of my negroes were at work in the woods. They saw me and ran with transports of joy, holding me by the knees as I sat on horseback, and directly ran off to the plantation to give notice to Mr. Lambert. They asked me if I was going to leave them when they had stayed on the plantation when the British wanted them to go away ; abused the two who had left me and gone with Col. Moncrieff." He visits Mr. Lambert, his manager, where he meets the Rev. Mr. Henderson. He understands "that his attorneys allowed Mr. Henderson to take away a good deal of bedding and fur- niture from his house, though he had lived in it some years, while preaching to the people, and that great liberties had been taken with his plantation. That in the late distressing times it was a common good, used for the public ; and that not only the armies lived upon it, but that numbers of families driven from Georgia lived here on the produce of the planta- tion for many months together-sometimes sixteen or twenty families ; and that when his dwelling-house, the machine house, the overseer's house, and all the negroes' houses were full, they camped and hutted in the fields to the number of two hundred persons at a time, and took what was at hand, so that besides the large quantities of rice, corn, potatoes, and peas they used, the number of cattle, sheep, and hogs killed is almost
30
466
REV. MR. GOURLAY.
[1780-1790.
incredible. "In these respects," says he, " I am thought to be the greatest sufferer by the war in all this large parish." A picture this of what we of the South have just now expe- rienced. He speaks of the attachment of his servants shown by the presents they brought him. "They indeed live easy and comfortable to what many of their color do, and much more comfortably not only than many of the peasants in Brit- ain, but much more than thousands of the farmers or coun- try people of Scotland. Happy, very happy, should I be if I could be useful to their souls.
He says of Rev. Mr. Gourlay : "He is much altered, and old like, but is very brisk and lively to what he used to be when I saw him in Scotland. He lives at Mr. Main's planta- tion and has acted as teacher to a few boys as well as minister at Stoney Creek. He, like all other Presbyterian ministers, was prevented from preaching while the British army was in these parts." He again alludes to the exhaustion and distress of the country, and the demoralization of society. "I have not a horse to ride out anywhere. Every person, every family in both parishes, and through all this district of country, ap- pears to be in the same situation. No one comes to see me, for none have horses. All society seems to be at an end. Every person keeps close on his own plantation. Robberies and murders are often committed on the public roads. The people that remain have been peeled, pillaged, and plundered. Pov- erty, want, and hardship appear in almost every countenance. A dark melancholy gloom appears everywhere, and the morals of the people are almost entirely extirpated. A general dis- content, dissatisfaction, and distrust of their present rulers and of one another prevails throughout the country. In Charles- ton they appear to be more happy. I am greatly disappointed since I came to the country, and could not have believed that these distresses had been so great had I not seen. It is evident that the British army came here to plunder, and not to fight or conquer the people, far less to conciliate them to submit to the British government. The appearance of the whole country shows it here, and the vast fortunes that the officers of the British army have carried home with them and realized in Britain, shows it there. It is with great difficulty people can get to public worship. Hardly such a thing as a chair, or one-horse chaise, is to be seen, and these are so plain and coarse, and without paint, and made by negro carpenters, much like the covered carts we formorly used for carrying our children to school."
467
SIMPSON'S JOURNAL.
1780-1790.]
He alludes again to the losses he had sustained by great numbers of destitute families driven from Charleston, Sun- bury, and Midway, in Georgia, and their own homes in both States, living for many months together on and about his plantation ; and yet that he had spent too much time in reflect- ing and murmuring over the very shameful and extraordinary liberties that some of his professed friends had all along, both in peace and war, taken with his substance and interest, on which they had lived and helped themselves, while he and his poor children were reduced to great straits and hardships in Scotland. There he was running in debt, while they were ad- vancing themselves by his interests ; and now the devastation and destruction of the war has occasioned such a loss of papers, receipts, and vouchers, and such a general confusion, that little or nothing can be recovered, that it is much the same as if a general bankruptcy had taken place.
On November 25th he attends a vendue at Godfrey's, Savan- nah. "The vendue was of the clothes, books, medicines, and a horse, belonging to a Dr. Brown, who lodged at Mr. Dun- nom's, the son of a Presbyterian minister in Virginia, who had given offence to a company of villains who prowl around the State, by his endeavoring to discover the murderers of another young man, Dr. Orr, murdered about four months ago; both shot, scalped, and otherwise most barbarously used, while riding in the public road in the way of his practice, by persons who lay in the woods waiting for him. Both these murders were committed within six miles of the house where I now live. Of the people a few were the children of my former friends, who knew me, and whom I could remember, and were the only persons who made a decent appearance. The two principal murderers, - - and -, were said to be present. One of them was pointed out to me."
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