fluence. The vestry of the parish of Coventry appeared against them, encouraged, as is supposed, by Rev. Robert Keith, of Dividing Creek. The petitions were referred to the Governor and Council, and were finally granted, Mr. Hampton settling at Snow Hill. Still the hardships imposed upon Dissenters even in this colony, established originally on principles of equal liberty, but where the Episcopal Church was now established, were by no means light. A tax of forty pounds of tobacco was imposed on every "taxable," to meet the expense of building and repairing churches and supporting ministers. The meeting-houses of Dissenters were to be "unbarred, unbolted, and unlocked." The nature of the obstacles thrown in the way of the Presbyterians. and other Dissenters may be judged from the character of the Episcopal clergy of that day in Virginia as well as Maryland, the off-scouring of the English Church,— men, for the most part, according to Bishop Meade, far more worthy to be ejected from society than to lead or instruct the flock. In the Carolinas, moreover, Presbyterians were made to feel the edge of intolerant legislation. During the troublous period from the Restoration to the Revolution (1660-1688) they had sought a shelter from persecution in a colony in which civil and religious rights were solemnly guaranteed to them. They had increased in numbers, and amounted in South Carolina to several thousands. But in 1703, by methods that savored of the brutality of Jeffries and the bigotry of James II., the Episcopal was made by law the established Church. Dissenters of all classes were taxed for its support, and those who did not conform were disfranchised. They who had left England for freedom of conscience were pursued by English intolerance across the ocean, and, in spite of their earnest remonstrance and appeal to Parliament, the yoke was fastened to their necks, and they were politically and socially degraded by a legislation which, to prop up Episcopacy, violated the solemn. pledge in the faith of which they had become exiles from their native land. Thus amid scenes of intolerance and persecution the Presbyterian Church in this country commenced its career. But it soon manifested, in the persons of its adherents, a vital energy that was to overbear obnoxious statutes and tyrannic legislation. The treatment which Makemie, Hubbard, Hampton, Macnish, and others experienced at the hands of royal Governors or servile judges, fitly links the history of American Presbyterianism with the memories of the English, Irish, and Scotch Dissenters under the reigns of the Stuarts. CHAPTER II. THE FIRST PRESBYTERY. THE first Presbytery formed in this country dates from 1705 or 1706. The loss of the first leaf of the records leaves the precise time uncertain. Our first view of it is obtained from the minutes of a meeting, called probably at Freehold,' N.J., for the purpose of ordaining Mr. John Boyd. It consisted at this time of seven ministers, Francis Makemie, John Hampton, George Macnish, Samuel Davis, John Wilson, Jedediah An 1 The church at Freehold was organized about 1692, and John Boyd, who died in 1708, was the first minister. A charter of incorporation for this church, including those of Allentown and Shrewsbury, was obtained through the influence of Governor Belcher. (Hodge, i. 56.) The country around Upper Freehold was at that time a wilderness full of savages.--Webster, 323. drews, and Nathaniel Taylor. Some of these men had been for many years laboring in their respective fields. In 1684, Makemie was performing the duties of pastor of the church at Snow Hill, which he had assisted to organize. He had been ordained an Evangelist in 1681,1 and sent out by Laggan Presbytery, on the application of Colonel Stevens of Maryland, as a missionary to this country. For some time he labored in Barbadoes, and afterwards on reaching Maryland, "notwithstanding all obstacles, his hearers and congregations multiplied." It became, consequently, his great anxiety to obtain more laborers for the extensive and inviting field which was opened before him. With this object in view, he corresponded with Increase Mather of Boston, and at length crossed the ocean and applied for aid to the Presbyterian Congregational Union of London, which Increase Mather had had a hand in forming. His application was not in vain. "A respectable body of Dissenters in London3 sent out, for the purpose of serving as evangelists in the middle and southern colonies of America, two itinerants for the space of two years." These they undertook to support, engaging afterwards to send out others on the same conditions. This was in 1704-5. Makemie returned in the fall of 1705 with the two ministerial brethren," his associates," John Hampton and George Macnish. According to law, since the Toleration Act was designed to take effect in the colonies, they were entitled to the unmolested exercise of their ministry. Macnish commenced preaching at Monokin and Wicomico; Hampton, who had applied with him to Somerset Court to be qualified, meanwhile going north with Makemie to New York. 1 Foote's Sketches. 2 Webster, 297. 3 Miller's Life of Rodgers, 90. Of the other members of the Presbytery, Samuel Davis was residing in Delaware as early as 1692, when that Quaker convert to Episcopacy, George Keith, visited him. John Wilson, as early as 1702, preached in the court-house at New Castle,' but, becoming dissatisfied, removed. In a few months, however, "finding it not for the better," he returned. He was doubtless one of those who gave Keith occasion to speak of Cotton Mather's "emissaries." He was Of these, Andrews also was accounted one. born at Hingham, Mass., in 1674, and graduated at Harvard in 1695. In 1698, at the instance of the "New England Doctors," if we are to regard the insinuations of Keith, he went to Philadelphia. The Quaker schism had opened the way for the commencement of religious services by Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and, as the latter withdrew from common services, the Baptists proposed to the Presbyterians that Mr. Andrews and his infant congregation should unite with them. The negotiation, however, proved futile, and in 1701 Andrews was ordained. His congregation was far from homogeneous. At the outset there were "nine Baptists and a few Independents in the town." There were, moreover, Scotch, Welsh, Swedish, and New England elements. The prospect for the young congregation was far from promising. "The Presbyterians," says the Episcopal missionary Talbot, "have come a great way to lay hands on one another; but, after all, 1 The Presbyterian church in New Castle is believed to be the continuation of the Dutch church which William Penn found in existence in 1683. Wilson probably commenced his labors here, continuing there till after the formation of the Presbytery. 2 Prot. Hist. Col., i. 67. 3 The Wicacoe (Swedish) church, near the navy-yard, was organized in 1675, by order of the general courts, held at New Castle in that year.-Old Records, Vol. B. F. I think they had as good stay at home, for all the good they do... In Philadelphia one pretends to be a Presbyterian, and has a congregation to which he preaches." The prospect was but little better in 1703. "They have here," says Keith, "a Presbyterian meeting and minister, one called Andrews; but they are not like to increase here." They did increase, however. Under the influence and labors of Andrews the heterogeneous mass began to coalesce. In 1705, five adults were baptized; in 1706, four more. We have thus the elements which were to give to American Presbyterianism its earliest distinctive type, brought together in the first Presbytery. Makemie was a correspondent of Increase Mather, and an applicant for missionary aid to the Dissenters of London, composed of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. By them his two "associates," Hampton and Macnish, were supported for several years. Andrews was a Massachusetts man, and Wilson, originally from Scotland, but an emigrant to Connecticut, was probably an emissary of the "New England Doctors." Taylor was settled on the Patuxent, over a congregation composed to a considerable extent of Independents; although the body consisted originally, according to tradition, of a colony of two hundred from Fifeshire. They arrived, with Taylor as their pastor, it is said, in 1690, and founded the church of Upper Marlborough. Davis can scarcely be taken into account: for fourteen years he had labored in Delaware 1 Rev. George Macnish was undoubtedly a Scotchman. His name (which he wrote as above) indicates it; his descendants assert it; and Rev. Mr. Poyer of Jamaica, in a letter of April, 1714, to the society in England, styles him "a Scotch Independent preacher," and in another letter "" 'an Independent North Britain preacher." J. R. |