History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2, Part 34

Author: Howe, George, 1802-1883
Publication date: 1870
Publisher: Columbia, Duffie & Chapman
Number of Pages: 724


USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 34


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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667


CANDIDATES ORDAINED.


1790-1800.]


entered his chamber, calm and alone, they made the important communication ; whereupon the good man burst into tears of joy and gratitude, lifting up his hand and declaring that was the last guinea he could command, but his trust in God was firm and unwavering. " J. R. WITHERSPOON.


" Greensboro, 22d September, 1851."


Mr. Edmonds had two children, one of whom died in ear- liest infancy. Mr. Hutson's Register of Births, Deathis, and Marriages, has the following entries : "September 24, 1786, baptized George, son of Rev. James and Anne Edmonds. September 28, buried George, son of Rev. James and Anne Edmonds. November 24, 1759, baptized Mary, daughter of James and Anne Edmonds." She (his daughter Mary) was living in 1815, when Dr. Ramsay published his history of the Circular church, and was for many years a pensioner upon the funds of the clergy society.


One cannot fail to have observed the number of young ministers that were raised up by the Head of the Church so soon after the war of the Revolution, and by the laying on of the hands of this presbytery, clothed with the ministry of reconciliation.


First, Robert Hall, Robert Finley, and Robert Mecklin, re- ceived as probationers from the presbytery of Orange, April, 1785. Robert Finley was ordained May 24, 1785, as minister of Waxhaw ; dismissed to the presbytery of Redstone, April, 1790. He had previously taught a classical school near Rocky River, North Carolina.


ROBERT HALL, ordained pastor of Upper Long Cane and Greenville, July 27, 1785 ; died August 31, 1797.


ROBERT MECKLIN was ordained pastor of Rocky River and Lower Long Cane (or Hopewell), July 29, 1785, and died August, 1798. .


WM. C. DAVIS was educated at Mount Zion : received as candi- date, October, 1786 ; licensed, December, 1787; ordained, April, 1789; pastor of Nazareth and Milford, 1790; dis- missed to the presbytery of Concord in 1797 ; and became pastor of Olney church, North Carolina. His subsequent history is well known. He died September, 1831, aged seventy years.


ROBERT MCCULLOCH, from Mount Zion college : received, Octo- ber, 1786; licensed, December, 1787; ordained, April, 1789 ; pastor of Beaver Creek and Hanging Rock, 1790. He became pastor of Catholic and Purity churches in 1794.


668


PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.


[1790-1800.


JAMES WHITE STEPHENSON, D.D., from Mount Zion college : re- ceived, April, 1787 ; licensed, April, 1790 ; ordained, April, 16, 1791, as pastor of Williamsburg and Indian Town churches. He migrated, with a large colony of his people, to Maury county, Tennessee, in 1808. He received the degree of D.D. from South Carolina college in 1815, and died, January 6, 1832, aged seventy-six.


JOHN NEWTON : received from Orange presbytery as a proba- tioner, October, 1785; called to Beth-Salem, Georgia, April, 1787; ordained, October 18, 1788. Mr. Newton was born in Pennsylvania, February 30, 1759. Educated at Liberty Hall, Charlotte, North Carolina ; graduated, August 20, 1780. Married Catharine Lawrence, 1780. Had a large family of sons and daughters. His widow lived at Athens, Georgia, to an advanced age. He died, June 17, 1797.


JOHN SPRINGER, a candidate of Orange: received, October, 1787; ordained, July, 1790, at Washington, Georgia, pastor of Providence, Smyrna, and Washington. He died, deeply regretted, in 1798.


HUMPHREY HUNTER, from Mount Zion college : received, March, 1788; licensed, October, 1789 ; ordained, May, 1792, pas- tor of Hopewell, P. D., and Aimwell. Dismissed to pres -. bytery of Orange, September 17, 1795.


JAMES WALLIS, from Mount Zion college : received, March, 1788 ; licensed, Oct., 1789; dismissed to Orange, Sept., 1790 ; and in 1792 became pastor of Providence church, N. C., to which he ministered till his death, in 1819, con- ducting also a classical school of some eminence for many years, and contending successfully against the skepticism of his day., He was born in 1762, in Sugar Creek congregation, and was for some time before his death a trustee of the university of N. C.


ROBERT M. CUNNINGHAM, of Dickinson college, (afterwards D.D.): received, Oct., 1789 ; licensed, Sept., 1791; or- dained, Aug., 1793, pastor of Ebenezer and Bethany churches, in Georgia ; removed to Alabama, 1822.


GEORGE G. MCWHORTER : received, Sept., 1790. He was dis- missed, April, 1793, to Orange; received, from Orange, 1796; ordained, July, 1796, pastor of Bethel and Beersheba. SAMUEL W. YONGUE, from Mount Zion college, was received, April, 1791 ; licensed, April, 1793 ; ordained, Feb. 4, 1796, as pastor of Lebanon church, Fairfield.


669


CANDIDATES ORDAINED.


1790-1800.]


JOSEPH HOWE, from Mount Zion college, was received, April, 1791 ; licensed, Oct., 1792; was dismissed to presby- tery of Transylvania, April, 1794.


DAVID E. DUNLAP, from Mount Zion college, received, April, 1791 ; licensed, April, 1793; ordained pastor of the Co- lumbia church, June 4, 1795.


WILLIAM WILLIAMSON, from Hampden Sidney college : received, April, 1791 ; licensed, April, 1793 ; ordained, Sept., 1794, as pastor of the Fairforest church.


ROBT. B. WALKER, Mount Zion college : received, Sept., 1791 ; licensed, Sept., 1793; ordained, Dec. 4, 1794, pastor of Bethesda.


WILLIAM MONTGOMERY, Mount Zion college : received, Septem- ber, 1791; licensed, April, 1793 ; ordained, May 28, 1795, as pastor of the churches of Little Britain and Siloam, now Greensborough, Georgia. He removed to the West in 1812.


JOHN FOSTER, Mount Zion college : received, September, 1791 ; licensed, September, 1793 ; ordained, February 4th, 1795, pastor of Salem, B. R.


ROBERT WILSON, Dickinson college: received, September, 1791; licensed in April, 1793; ordained as pastor of Upper Long Cane and Greenville churches on the 22d of May, 1794; removed to Ohio.


JAMES GILLELAND, Dickinson college : received, September, 1791; licensed, September, 1794 ; ordained pastor of Brad- away, 21st of July, 1796; removed to Ohio.


ANDREW BROWN, Hampden Sidney : received, September, 1791, licensed, April, 1794; ordained, 19th of July, 1799, pastor of Bethlehem.


JOHN B. KENNEDY, Mount Zion college : received, September, 1791; licensed, September, 1794; ordained, September 8th, 1796, pastor of Little River and Duncan's Creek.


JOHN BROWN, D.D., licentiate of presbytery of Orange : received, April, 1793 ; and was ordained pastor of the Waxhaw church on the 11th of October, 1793.


MOSES WADDEL, D.D., received from presbytery of Hanover, April, 1793, as a licentiate. He was ordained as pastor of the Carmel church, in Georgia, June 6th, 1794.


WILLIAM G. ROSBOROUGH, graduate of Mount Zion college ; received, April, 1793 ; licensed, April 16, 1795 ; ordained by the first presbytery of South Carolina as pastor of the united churches of Concord and Horeb, February 4, 1801.


670


PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.


[1790-1800.


ISAAC SADLER, student of Dr. Joseph Alexander ; received, April, 1793 ; passed throughi a portion of his trials, but did not prosecute his studies for the ministry.


JOHN B. DAVIES : received, September, 1794 ; licensed, October 31, 1796 ; ordained pastor of Fishing Creek, March, 1799. JOHN COUSER : received, September, 1794; licensed, October 31, 1796 ; ordained by the first presbytery of South Carolina, pastor of New-Hope church, November 19. 1803. -


GEORGE REID, Dickinson college : received, October, 1796; licensed, October, 1798.


WILLIAM A. DUNHAM, from New England : received, April, 1797 ; dismissed from trials, March, 1798.


HUGH DICKSON, a graduate of Hampden Sidney : received, October, 1797; was licensed by the second presbytery, . February 12, 1800, and ordained by the same as pastor of Greenville and Smyrna churches, November 11, 1801.


THOMAS NEELY : received as candidate from Concord presby- tery, March, 1799 ; was licensed by the first presbytery of South Carolina on the 1st of October, 1800; and was ordained by them pastor of Purity church, October 17, 1806.


This is a remarkable list of young candidates for the minis- try, thirty-three in number, only two of whom failed to pursue their trials through to a successful completion. Those of them who died young had a successful ministry. Most of them have lived to a good old age, and came to their grave full of years. Some of them became professors in colleges, three of them presidents of such institutions, five of them were adorned with the title of D.D. Several of them were eminent instructors of schools and academies, which the necessities of the country and the small provisions made by the churches for their pas- tors obliged them to set up. It will not be known till the last day how many souls they have been instrumental in converting, nor shall we be able to measure the influence of the labors of these, our predecessors, into which we have entered. Those whose office it was to introduce them into the order of preach- ers of the gospel, followed the apostolic direction, to lay hands suddenly on no man. They sought to send these young men into the ministry with the most ample qualifications the coun- try then afforded. The following views addressed to presby- tery, by Thomas H. McCaule, president of Mount Zion college, were the views that controlled them.


"I need not use formality in assuring you that strictness and universality in the examination of our young preachers,


671


THEIR INFLUENCE.


1790-1800.]


are expedients highly necessary to keep our order RESPECTABLE. The vocation of an attorney has become tenfold more odious than ever by an indiscriminate admission to the departments of Law. The physicians of this State are taking measures to be incorporated, with a view of ejecting every empiric, and admitting none to practice, but such as shall be regularly licensed by the most learned and respectable of that profession. I have seen some of their circular letters on the subject. They mention in terms of high approbation the strict discipline of the clergy in admission to ecclesiastical functions. If the medical part of our citizens should carry their intentions into effect, there will be as great outcries against wind-fallen Irish doctors, as there have been against wind-fallen Irish preachers."


And there are many evidences of their care in guarding the pulpit from unworthy intruders.


The migrations, too, of ministers and people, have carried the gospel from these regions into the adjoining States of the south, and the remoter ones of the southwest. The removals from the Fairforest and Bethesda congregations strikingly illustrate this, and if our plan permitted us to draw our materials from the next century, to show the ministers, elders, professional men, and others, who have gone forth from these congregations to carry the light of truth, and to form christian communities and churches elsewhere, it would appear that the Presbyterians of the newer States are but the sons and daughters of these, as these were the sons and daughters of those who dwelt beyond the broad Atlantic.


Wherever they have gone, they have carried with them those principles of republican liberty which shone forth in such bright- ness in Geneva, among the Huguenots in France, in the Low country of Holland, among the Dissenters in England, on the bleak hills and in the narrow vales of Scotland, and among the hardy sons of the North of Ireland. Hard by the church has been the school. And these schools have sometimes risen to eminence under the sole management, and by the talent and energy, of the teacher, as in the cases of Dr. Joseph Alexander, Dr. Moses Waddel, and others. Sometimes there has been concerted action, as in the foundation of Mount Zion college at Winnsboro. We find this presbytery of South Carolina at one time contemplating the foundation of a grammar-school, or public academy for the education of youth. They had been addressed by the Philanthropic society of Spartanburg, which had founded a school of this character of which we believe the Rev. James Templeton was the preceptor, proposing that they


672


(OLD) PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. [1790 -- 1800.


should take this school under their patronage ; and in 1797, they had raised a committee, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Alexander and Cummins (afterwards Drs. Alexander and Cum- mins), and Mr. Templeton, to devise a plan for the same. Afterwards the legislature granted a charter for a college at Pinckneyville, in which most of the clerical members of pres- bytery were named as trustees. This seems to have superseded the nascent plan of presbytery, but it was little more than a year before the division of this body into the first and scc- ond presbyteries of South Carolina. This college, which would have continued the succession of Dr. Alexander's school, seems never to have gone into effective operation, or if it did, we are not able to trace it down in the records.


Ecclesiastical bodies which have exercised jurisdiction over the Presbyterian churches in South Carolina to the close of the eighteenth century :


The first of these bore the name of the presbytery of South Carolina. It is sometimes referred to as the presbytery of the province. We have spoken of its early existence on pages 189 to 191. It existed during the ministry of Mr. Bassett of the Independent Church, Charleston, which extended from 1724 to 1738. How much earlier we are not able to say. It appears to have licensed Rev. John Baxter as early as January, 1733-4. The congregation of Williamsburg forwarded a blank call through it to the presbytery of Dundee, who sent out the Rev. John Rae, whom the presbytery installed over that church in March, 1743-44. In 1748 it forwarded a similar blank call of Bethel, Pon Pon, to the presbytery of Edinburgh for a minister, which resulted in procuring for them Rev. George Anderson. It licensed the Rev. Archibald Simpson, May 16, 1754, and or- dained him April 2d, 1755. This presbytery received William Donaldson, from Pennsylvania, in 1756, and in the same year settled the troubles in the church of Bethel, Pon Pon. It in- stalled Mr. Gordon at Pon Pon, in 1759 ; deposed Rev. Robert Miller, of Waxhaw, in 1758; received Rev. William Richardson into their body, May 16, 1759, and took action for his instal- lation at Waxhaw in 1758 ; received the Rev. James Camp- bell from the presbytery of New Castle, and settled him in the pastorate of the Bluff church, on the Cape Fear river, in North Carolina ; received the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Hewat from Scotland, in November, 1763; forwarded the blank call of the Williamsburg church to the presbytery of Bangor in Ireland, who put it into the hands of David Mckee, and on its


673


1790-1800.] (OLD) PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.


acceptance, ordained him to take charge of that congregation, and sent him and his credentials to this presbytery of South Carolina, who installed him in February, 1769. It sent a let- ter to the synod of New York and Philadelphia in 1770, to ascertain on what terms it could be united with them; but though fair and honorable terms were proposed to it by the synod, it never connected itself with that body. It contin- ued its ecclesiastical action until the troubles which issued in the war of the Revolution, at which time its distinct organi- zation seems to have ceased.


Roll of Members.


Archibald Stobo,


Independent church, Charleston. Wilton.


William Livingston,


Nathan Basset,


Hugh Fisher,


John Witherspoon,


1st church, Charleston.


Hugh Stewart, Moore,


Edisto.


William Porter,


Wappetaw


John Baxter,


Cainhoy.


John McCallister, Turnbull,


Wappetaw.


John McLeod,


Edisto.


Robert Heron,


Williamsburg.


Thomas Kennedy,


Williamsburg, 1772.


Grant, Ross,


Wilton.


Samuel Hunter,


Black Mingo.


Joseph Rae,


Williamsburg.


Archibald Simpson,


Stoney Creek.


John Martin,


Wappetaw.


Robert Miller,


Waxhaw.


Charles Lorimer,


Ist church, Charleston.


Philip Morison,


Bethel, Pon Pon.


Thomas Bell,


James' Island.


Bethel, Pon Pon.


James Rymer, John Alison,


Wilton.


George Anderson,


Bethel, Pon Pon.


Jonathan S. Porter,


Charles S. Gordon,


Bethel, Pon Pon.


William Donaldson, Banantino,


Waccamaw. A licentiate.


Independent church, Charleston. 66


Dorchester. James' Island.


7


Bethel, Pon Pon.


1st church, Charleston.


674


PRESBYTERY OF CHARLESTON.


[1790-1800.


William Richardson,


James Campbell, John Al(iso)n,


Waxhaw. Bluff church, North Carolina.


T(a)t(e),


Alexander Hewat,


First Pres. church, Charleston.


William Knox,


Black Mingo. Indian Town.


Patrick Kier,


James' Island.


James Latta,


John's Island.


Hector Allison,


Williamsburg.


Thomas Henderson,


Edisto.


John Maltby,


Wilton.


Hugh Alison,


James' Island.


James Gourlay,


Stoney Creek.


Robert McClintock, (?)


Then a licentiate.


John Logue.


2. The Presbytery of Charleston .- The succession of the old presbytery of South Carolina was interrupted by the war of the Revolution. A new presbytery was subsequently formed, which was incorporated in 1790 by the name of "The Presbytery of Charleston." The main provisions of the char- ter were referred to on p. 573, and are as follows :-


The especial plan for providing for the widows and chil- dren of deceased ministers is set forth in the following articles. It would require a considerable association of churches, or greater and more constant liberality than they usually possess, to make these provisions effectual, yet they are worthy of our attention.


Article III. provides, " That each church of this corporation shall, at its first annual meeting, make choice of, and pay into the fund of the society, one of the five following rates, viz. : Three pounds six shillings and eight pence; five pounds ; six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence ; eight pounds six shillings and eight pence ; or ten pounds, lawful money of this State, to entitle the corresponding annuity of twenty pounds, thirty pounds, forty pounds, fifty pounds, or sixty pounds money aforesaid." Each church shall pay the said rate annually, and be charged legal interest thereon till paid. Each " shall have power at the election of every new minister to choose which of the five rates they will pay for him during his ministry."


The IVthi Article provided, that "if any minister leave or be displaced from his church, he shall be cut off from the priv- ileges of the society, unless the said minister sustain a good


675


PRESBYTERY OF CHARLESTON.


1790-1800.]


character, and pay annually to the corporation the same rate which his church was bound to pay for him."


The Vth and VIth Articles provide for the payment of the annuities to the widows and children of deceased ministers ; the VIIth, for the admission of other churches to the society ; the VIIIth, for the withdrawal or exclusion of churches from the corporation and its privileges .- (Statutes at Large, viii., 158.)


This presbytery was organized ecclesiastically, we sup- pose, previous to its incorporation. It never had the same extensive jurisdiction with the one which preceded it. In 1800 it petitioned the General Assembly to be received into con- nection with that body. Arrangements were made that this should be done, by and with the consent of the synod of the Carolinas. In 1804 they renewed their request for a union, " without connecting themselves with the synod of the Caro- linas." Against this the synod of the Carolinas presented their remonstrance, and in 1806 the subject was dismissed. The request was renewed in 1811, and was granted on condi- tion that the members should have adopted the confession and constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, "should effect a compromise or union with the pres- bytery of Harmony, which transactions shall be subject to the review and control of the synod of the Carolinas." These conditions were not complied with. It preferred " to remain independent of synods and General Assemblies."


The latest act of this presbytery with which we are acquainted was the licensing of James J. Murray of Edisto Island, on the 15th of April, 1819.


Its records, as well as those of the old presbytery of South Carolina, have eluded our search, and the former have proba- bly ceased to exist .- (Minutes of General Assembly, 1800, p. 189 ; 1804, p. 296; 1811, pp. 467, 475. "The Veil With- drawn," by Raphael Bell, member of Charleston presbytery, p. 36, Charleston, 1817. American Quarterly Register, xii., 168. Evangel. Intel., vol. i., p. 47.)


Roll of Members, previous to 1800.


Rev. James Gourlay,


" William Knox,


" Thomas Cooley,


" James Wilson, Jr.,


Independent Presbyterian Ch., Prince William, Bethel, and Pon Pon. Black Mingo.


· Edisto.


1st Pres. Ch., Charleston, 1788.


676


PRESBYTERY OF ORANGE.


[1790-1800.


Rev. Jolin McCosh,


Robert Mcclintock, Drysdale,


Liberty Spring.


- Concord.


Indian Creek.


Rocky Spring. John's Island.


Williamsburg.


66 Samuel Kennedy,


" John Hidelson,


" James Wilson, Sen.,


" James Malcomson, M. D., Williamsburg, 1792.


" George Buist, D. D.,


Wilton, 1787, 1788.


1st Pres. Ch., Charleston, 1793.


Tradition makes Robert McClintock and his correspondents, Huglı Morrison, John Logue, Jolin McCosh, John Hidelson, Robert Tate, members of this presbytery, but except one or two allusions in their private correspondence, we have no other evidence of it.


Rev. Mr. Wilson continued in this pastorate only a short time after 1790. Sprague says he remained several years, then returned to Scotland, remained a year or two, came again to America, and died in Virginia, in 1799 .- (Vol. iii., p. 160.)


3. The Presbytery of Orange .- The Rev. Hugh McAden, Henry Patillo, James Creswell, Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah James Balch, and Hezekiah Balch, were detached from the presbytery of Hanover, and erected into a presbytery to be known as the presbytery of Orange, in 1770, by the synod of New York and Philadelphia. Four out of its seven original members had an important influence upon the religious inter- ests of the upper portion of the State. McAden's missionary tour in South Carolina, in 1755, was not without its salutary effects. Hezekialı Balclı (afterwards D. D.) became pastor of Bethel church, York district, in the same year this presbytery was organized, and continued in its service for four years. Joseph Alexander (afterwards D. D.), after performing much missionary labor, settled at Bullock's Creek in 1774, and did much as a minister of the gospel and an educator of youth, many of whom have held stations of influence in this and other States. James Creswell was the minister at Ninety-Six, and Little River, at the opening of the Revolution, and had preached also in other churches around. James Edmonds, Jolın Harris, Thomas Reese (afterwards D. D.), John Simpson, Francis Cummins (afterwards D. D.), Thomas Hill, and Daniel Thatcher, and Thomas H. McCaule, were members of it. The three Roberts, viz. : Finley, Hall, and Mecklin, and Jolin New- ton, and John Springer, came as candidates or licentiates from it. For fifteen years it stretched its fostering hand over tlie


677


PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.


1790-1800.]


feeble churches which were springing up in the frontier por- tions of South Carolina. Unfortunately, the early records of Orange presbytery were consumed by fire some years ago, and the particular facts of its connection with our churches cannot be ascertained.


4. Presbytery of South Carolina, in connection, first with the synod of New York and Philadelphia, and then with the synod of the Carolinas. The last fifteen years in this cen- tury the churches of the Presbyterian order were under the supervision of this presbytery, save those connected with the presbytery of Charleston before mentioned, and some few which may have stood aloof from both.


At the close of the century the presbytery took measures for its own division, which took place as provided for in the following extract from the minutes of the twelfth sessions of the synod of the Carolinas. "Hopewell Church, November 6th 1799 : a petition of the presbytery of South Carolina, pray- ing for a division of the said presbytery, was handed in through the committee of overtures, read and considered ; whereupon, resolved that the prayer of the petition be granted, and that agreeably to the request of the presbytery, Broad river in its whole course, as far as it passes through the State of South Carolina, be the line of division ; and that the meni- bers on the northeast side of said river, viz. : The Rev. Messrs. Joseph Alexander, Robert McCullock, James W. Stephenson, John Brown, Robert B. Walker, David E. Dunlap, Samuel W. Yongue, John Foster, George G. McWhorter, and John B. Davies, be, and they are hereby constituted a presbytery, to . be known by the name of the First Presbytery of South Caro- lina, to hold their first meeting at Bullock's Creek meeting- house, on the first Friday in February next, afterwards to sit on their own adjournments. The Rev. Joseph Alex- ander to open presbytery and preside until a new moderator be chosen, or in case of his absence the senior member pres- ent.


"It shall be the privilege of the first presbytery to retain in their possession the records and papers of the original pres- bytery of South Carolina. It will, nevertheless, be their duty to furnish the second presbytery with such extracts from the former as may be of use to the latter. The moneys now in the treasury of the presbytery of South Carolina, are to be equally divided between the first and second presbyteries of South Carolina. The probationers and candidates under the care of the presbytery of South Carolina, are in future to be under




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