0 HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY E. H. GILLETT, AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS.” VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. NEW YORK: A. D. F. RANDOLPH, 683 BROADWAY. C782616 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 1865. May 15 Gift of chas. Eliot Norton (H.C. 14460) Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by the PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. MORE than seventy years have elapsed since the attention of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was called to the subject of preparing a history of the denomination in this country. In 1791, Rev. Drs. Witherspoon, McWhorter, and Green, and Rev. Messrs. William Graham, James Hall, and James Templeton, were appointed a committee "to devise measures for the collecting of materials necessary" to carry out the project. In accordance with the suggestions of their report, it was enjoined upon each Presbytery "strictly to order their members to procure all the materials for forming a history of the Presbyterian Church in this country, in the power of each member, and bring in the same to their Presbytery, and that the Presbyteries forward the said collection of materials to the next General Assembly." In 1792, and in successive years till 1795, the subject was considered, and "delinquent Presbyteries” were called upon for their reports. But no further action was taken till 1804, when Dr. Green and Mr. Ebenezer Hazard were appointed, from the materials gathered, to write the history. Delinquent Presbyteries were again called upon to complete their narratives. In 1813, Dr. Green and Mr. Hazard stated to the |