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DIGEST
OF THE
S. P. G. EECOEDS
B^^
'.■-■. *
1
THE RIGHT REV. SAWUEL SEABURY. D D.
(Thr first Bishop of lie Aiwrii-nii Cliiirfh).
OONSKCUAllili HlSimi' OF CO.NXEt riCL r, NOVKMUKB U, 1781.
I
I
CLASSIFIED DIGEST
OK TlIK
RECO R D
iD
OK THE
Satictn for tijc f ropagatbn of tbc 6ospcI in ^foreign ^larts
ITOl ISO')
ovrni Ml ill sri>pLj:Mi':xTAin' isfoumation)
LONDON
|1ublisbtb at \\t ^oM% t^fiite
19 DELAHAY STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.
1898
(All riiihts reserved)
^R^m
rnixTKi) BY
BroTTlSWDODE AXIJ <ci., NliW STHKKT f^l'MlK 1.0MJ0..
■ ;
VI
Till-: SOCIETY'S
AitcuuiHiiui> Wake, 1716-37.
AiU'iiiUhMioc HuiTox, I7S7-8.
AllCllUI.SHOP POTIBn, 1737-47.
AiicmtisHop Tknison, 1701-15.
Aiiciiiiisiiiii' llKuiiiNn, 1717-57,
AuC'lllllr<lli>l' CoilNWALI.W, I7()8 H3
A lie II Ills
Aucimisiiin' Skckkii, 1758 t;8.
The Society's Charter of 1701 named Archbishop Tenison as the first President, and empowered the Society to choose on tlie tliird Friday in l-'ebrnary one President for the year ensuing. The Archbishop of Canterbury was always elected annually until, by the Supplemental Charter of April (J, 1882, the Archbishop became ex officio President.
PRESIDEXTS, 17(11-1893.
va
M7-57.
AiK'iiiiisiioi' 3urrox, 1805 2h.
Aiiciiuiwiiui' iloonK, 1783-1S05.
•»wy. ■■'-.'^j^^
AlailUl.slKJP ItKMiON, 1882.
AllClllUf^MOr SUMNKll, 1848-62.
Au^llHl^i|101• ilOWLKY, 1828-18.
Aliiiimsiiop Tait, 1868-82.
■ n
h
'■i'i
i"'. Hi
AiKiililtfllor LtPXULKV, 1862-8.
The portraits in the Society's possession have heen reproduced in the above form thron^h the bounty of the llev. Brynier iJclchcr (one of the Society's Vicc-prcBidents) and the Hid of his son, H. W. Belcher, Esq.
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PEEFACE.
• v ' ;..* : »•>.'■ * .r 4 < ,
Some eight years ago it was proposed to print verbatim the manuscript journals of the Society, from its incorporation in 1701 to the end of the 18th century. The idea was suggested by the very frequent enquiries for information as to the agents by whom the Church was planted in foreign parts in the last century, which were addressed to the Society from Churchmen — lay and clerical — in America. The work of the Society on that continent, especially in the United States, seems to be remembered with extraordinary interest and gratitude, and all incidents connected with it and with the workers are eagerly sought after and treasured.
The scheme was abandoned, because, although from many quarters there came expressions of sympathy, the cost at which five large quarto volumes could be produced seemed to be prohi- bitive, the more so as the Society's work in the present century would still be left to some future day. It was also felt that in a reprint of such archives there would be much that was not interesting in itself, and a carefal and accurate digest of such vast materialB seemed to be a task beyond the powers of any
T-
PREFACE.
officers of the Society, who were abready fully engaged. This consideration, however, did not weigh with the compiler of the following pages, and Mr. C. F. Pascoe, who has special charge of all the Society's MSS., archives, and books, applied himself to it with great diligence and perseverance, with the result that he has produced a complete chronicle of the Society's work in all parts of the world, from 1701 to 1892. He has sacrificed to it all his leisure time and his annual holidays for the last five years, and it will be comparatively easy, as time goes on, to publish every ten years a similar record of the Society's work. I have gone carefully through the proof-sheets, and have given such an amount of " editing " as makes me ready to accept the full responsibility for any faults that may be discovered in the book, while all the credit of a most painstaking labour remains with him to whom it is justly due.
H. W. TUCKER,
Secretary.
19 Delahay Street, S.W,, April, 1893.
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CONTENTS.
• j-i«*>* ' '.f*.' .'1''^
1 - ,■ * . •.''to ! 1^ •
•o«-
' FRONTISPreCE— THE SOCIETY'S PRESIDENTS, 1701-1898,
AND BISHOP SEABUBY.
PREFACE.
CHAP. PACK
I. Orioim, Object, and Fibst
PROCAEDniaB
Society .
OF
THE
1-9
II. North America -The United States — Introduction 9-12
m. South Cabouna . . 12-20
IV. North Carolina 20-6
V. Georgia . . . 26-9 VI. Virginia . . .80
vn. Maryland . . 81-8
vm. Pennsylvania 33-40
IX. New England . 41-61
X. New Jersey . 62-6
XI. New York . 67-79
xn. ScfiofABY of Results . 80-7
xm. British K. Ameriea—
Introduction . . .88
XIV. Newfoundland and Nobtbbbn
Labrador . . 88-102
XV. Bermuda . . . 102-6
XVI. Nova Scotu, Cape Breton, and Pbincb Edward Island . . . 107-25
xvn. New BRxmswiCK . . 125-36
xvm. Quebec and Ontabio Pro- vinces . . . 185-41
xzx. QuBBBC (oonftntMd) 148-62
XX. Ontario (eonMnu«d) . 158-76
xn Manitoba and Nobth-Wbst
Canada . . 177-81
xxn. Bbitisb GoLXTiiBU 181-92
SumABY . . , 192-3
chap. paoi
xxni. West Indies. Central and South Ameriea—
Intboduction . . 194-6
XXIV. Windwabd Islands . 196-206
XXV. Tobago . 206-7
XXVI. Trinidad . . 208-10 XXVII. Leeward Islands 210-15
xxvm. Bahamas . 216-27
XXIX. Jabiaica . . 228-33
XXX. MosKiTo Shore . 284-7
XXXI. Bbitibh Honduras . 288-40 xxxn. Panama . . 240-1
xxxni. British Ouiana . . 242-51 Summary . . 252-8
xxxrv. Africa— Introduction . 254
XXXV. West Africa . . 254-68
XXXVI. Cape Colony, Wertebn and
Eastebn Divisions . 268-85
xxxvn. Cape Colony, Wbstebn
Division (cantinutS^ 286-97
xxxvm. Cape Colony, Eastebn
Division {continue^ 297-305
XXXIX. Cape Colony, Eaffbabia 305-17
XL. Qbiqualamo Wsst . 317-19
xu. St. Helena ,' '. 819-22
XLn. Tristan d'Acuhha . 822^
XLin. Basutoland . . 324-7
XUT. Natal . 828-85
XLV. ZULULAMD . . 835-42
. xLvi. Swaziland . 842^
OVII. TONGAIiARD . . . 844-6
L_aj -ij
=¥==
iiUwii Vim
|
XII |
CONTENTS. |
||
|
CRAP. |
PAOR |
OHAP. |
PA»I |
|
XLTin. DilmkmBat |
846-7 |
LXXI. HAWAIUir IlbANDC |
460-4 |
|
SLix. Ob&noi Fbxb Statc . |
847-58 |
Lxxn. NbwOuinba |
464-6 |
|
L. Tbambtaal . |
864-8 |
SUMHABT |
466-7 |
|
LI. BbOHDANAIiAMD |
859-61 |
||
|
LII. MaTABBIiBLAND |
862-8 |
iixxui. Asia— Intboductiom . |
468-9 |
|
UII. MASHONAIiAin) |
863-6 |
LxxiT. Indu — Intboouction . |
469-78 |
|
uv. Oazaland . |
867 |
Lxxv. Bengal |
478-600 |
|
Lv. Cbntral Africa . |
367-8 |
Lxxvi. Madras |
601-68 |
|
r.vi. Mauritius . |
. 868-73 |
Lxxvii. Bombay |
668-89 |
|
LTii. Madaoascar |
. 374-80 |
Lxxviii. N.-Westebn Provinces 690-603 |
|
|
Lviii. Northern Africa |
380-1 |
Lxxix. Central Provinces . |
604-6 |
|
SUMUARY . |
. 382-5 |
Lxxx. Assam |
606-11 |
|
Lxxxi. Punjab |
612-28 |
||
|
Lxxxn. Burma |
629-66 |
||
|
ux. Australasia— Introduction |
Lxxxm. Cashmerb . |
666-7 |
|
|
386 |
Lxxxiv. Ajmbre and Bajputana |
657-8 |
|
|
T.x. New South Wales wi Norfolk Island . Lxi. Victoru . Lxii. Queensland |
th . 386-403 . 404-10 . 411-15 |
Lxxxv. Europeans in India . Lxxxvi. Cbtlon Lxxxvii. Borneo and The Straits . |
668-9 660-81 682-708 |
|
Lxiii. South Austraua |
. 416-24 |
Lxxxvui. China |
708-12 |
|
Lxiv. Western Australia |
424-8 |
LXXXIX. COREA |
712-15 |
|
Lxv. Tashanu |
. 428-38 |
xc. Manchuria . |
716 |
|
Lxvi. New Zealand |
. 438-48 |
xci. Japan .... |
717-27 |
|
Lxvii. Melanesia |
. 444-52 |
xcn. Western Asia . |
728-9 |
|
Lxvm. PrrcAiRN Island . |
452-4 |
Summary . |
780-8 |
|
Lxix. Norfolk Island . |
. 454-6 |
||
|
LXX. Fui . |
. 456-60 |
xom. Europe |
784-42 |
|
. ' APPE |
NDIX. |
xciv. The American and The Enoubh Colonial and Missionary Episcopate, with Portrait of Bishop C. Inglis and Notes on Church Organisation Abroad . . 748-68
xcv. Education (with illustra- tions of Colleges) . 769-97 xovi. Books AND Tbanslationb 798-816 xovn. Mbdioal Missions . 816-18
xovm. Emiorahts and noN
Emioba- . 818-20
xcix. Intercession for Missions 821 c. The Society's Funds . 822-38 ci. Anniversary Sermons 883-5 cii. The Society's Offices and
Secbetaribs . . 885-6 cm. The Missionaries of thb
Sooibty, 1702-1892 886-924
(the Missionary Boll begins on p. 849).
Thb Society's Chabtbb (1701) 926-8 Thb Sooibty's Supplbmbntaii
Chabtbb (1882). . 929-82
INDEX 988-80
xm
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE REFERENCES AT THE
END OF THE CHAPTERS (and op theik
Sub-divisions) piiom Page 9 to Page 846.
(T/m abbreviations and signs in tlu " Missionary Roll " {pp. 849-924) are explained on p. 848.)
A MSB. ... App. Jo. ...
C.D.C. ...
Church in Col.
O.M.
Jo.
L. ... ...
M.D.O. ...
M.P. M.H. M.B. MSS. ...
N.M.
Q.M.L. ...
JK« • • • • • •
S.C.
S.P.C.K. . , . S.P.Q. ...
A->
(See MSS. below).
Appendix to the .Journals of the Society (4 vols. A, B, C, D), {see p. 815).
Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Society. ■'"./■■.
The Church in the Colonies {see p. 814).
The Qospel Missionary (see p. 814).
The Journals of the Society {see p. 815).
Letter.
The Madras Diocesan Committee of the Society. *
The Mission Field {see p. 814).
Missions to the Heathen (see p. 814). ' '-
The Monthly Record {see p. 814).
The Manuscripts of the Society (grouped in 13 divisions,
A to M) (see p. 815).
News from the Missions (see p. 814).
The Quarterly Missionary Leaf (see p. 814).
The Quarterly Paper (see p. 814). '
The Annual Reports of the Society (see p. 814).
Sub-Conmiittee of the Society.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
^Tsmmm
|
xiv BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE SOCIETY'S OPERATIONS, |
1701-1892. |
||||||
|
(1) The Field and |
(J) No. of Races mini- stered to |
(3) No. of LanguawPS used by the Mis- sionaries |
(4) Ni). of Ordained Missionaries employed |
(5) •No. of Oentral SUtlons |
1 Society s Expendi- ture |
(7) Reference to more |
|
|
Period |
European and Colonial |
Native (dark races) |
detailed statement |
||||
|
NoHTii Amkhica:\ Tlie olderColonles, ( now the Unitkd Statiw 1702M . |
8 European Colonial races, also Negroes, and over 14 Indian trllies |
8 |
309 |
— |
300 |
£337,464 |
*» pp. 86-7 |
|
Nkwfoundland ( imd Canada .\ 1708 I H93 1 |
S European Colonial races, 27 Indian trll)es, also NcimxM, mixed rncrx, and (UiincKe |
1 " |
1,44S |
— |
H30 |
1:1,780,188 |
5;mpp.192 3 |
|
WkBT IXDIKfl, / (JRNTRAI. and 1 HouTii America 1 1712 lHft2 { |
Eiiro|)eaii('(>lnnl8t»,nli<o Nt'trrooH, mixofi races, 9 Indian trilws, and Hindus and Cldnoso |
:i93 |
7 |
172 |
C611,!H)7 |
Jlwpp.363-3 |
|
|
Africa . . .1 176J-1802 |
4 European Colonial races, 27 African fami- lies, many mixed coloured races, also Hindus and Phineso . |
• 17 |
404 |
65 |
271 |
£679,394 |
.%e pp. 883-6 |
|
Aubtralaaia 1793-1893 |
Colonists, 9 Native races, also mixed coloured races |
1" |
4S8 |
S |
SB5 |
£341,308 |
&• pp. 466-7 |
|
AfllA 1820-93 |
33 Native races, also Europeans and half- castes . . , , . |
( 37, and many ■| dialects of some ^of these |
■ S81 |
199 |
206 |
£3,014,889 |
&e pp. 780-3 |
|
Europe , . . ( 1702-4,1864-92 ] |
9 (Europeans princi- pally) .... |
4 |
114 |
— |
231 |
£139,303 |
See p. 741 |
|
Total (tee notes on |
126 families (a) |
88(6) |
3,604 276^ |
1 i 2,271(rf) £6,700,340 |
k |
||
|
next page) . |
3,608 (0 |
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH ABROAD, 1701-1892.
|
1701 |
1802 (0 |
|||||||
|
«■ |
Church Mem- bers |
Clergy |
Dio- ceses |
Local Mis- sionary effort |
Church Mem- bers |
Clergy; |
Dio- ceses |
Local Missionary effort |
|
North Auebica:\ The older Colonies, now the UsrraD • STATK8(Amerionn ChurohX&Mcxico) |
43,800 |
50 |
— |
— |
• 3,313,000 |
• 4,366 . |
• 70 |
Domestic and Foreign Missions (sfe p. 87) |
|
Newfoundland and Canada . |
600 |
?2 |
723,733 |
1,136 (212 S.P.O.) |
21 • 10 « 18 22 |
Domestic and Foreign Missions (tee p. 193) |
||
|
West Indies, Central and South America |
? |
?23 |
— |
• 688,500 |
« :311(33S.P.Q.) |
Domestic and Foreign Missions (tee p. 253) |
||
|
Africa . |
Only a few Euro- peans |
One or two Chap- lains |
' |
— |
• 808,669 |
• 484(169S.P.a.) |
Domestic MIssIodb (tee pp. 888, 386) |
|
|
Australasia |
- |
— |
— |
— |
1,493,313 |
1,043 (19SJ.G.) |
Domestic and Foreign Missions («M p. 467) |
|
|
Asia |
A few Euro- peans only |
4 Chap- :ialn8 |
— |
• 378,178 |
• 1,086(284 S.P.G.) |
• 19 |
Domestic Missions , t (lee pp. 781-8) |
|
|
EtntoFS (Continent) |
? |
? |
— |
? |
176 (83 S.P.O.) |
1 |
||
|
Total |
? |
81? |
— |
— |
e,eo7!287 |
8,442(680 8.P.G.) |
161 |
1 |
|
(«)(6) |
(e) (d) ( |
«) mi |
Bootnotei |
on next page |
• See («) on |
naztp |
1 |
leferenre imore
ttem«nt
I pp. 86-7 >pp.l9S 3 e pp. 353-3
j«pp.M8-6
K» pp. 466-7
S« pp. 730-3 See p. 741
-1892.
anary effort
nd Foreign we p. 87)
nd Foreign (i«e p. 193)
,nd Foreign (»«« p. 353)
llgdong 8,386)
nd Foreign rp.467)
ligsions , 81-8)
XV
V// , i r.l: VH i\V\' 'i)
f •• r r .
The Society has had the privilege of sending the first ministers of our Church into man^ of our Colonies, and with the exception of the Falkland Isles fwhere it had only an honorary Missionary), every Colony of the Empire nas at some time or other received its aid. While from the first it nas had direct Missions to the heathen, the bociety (to quote Bishop G. A. Selwyn's words) has adopted " the surer way of spread- ing the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth " by " building up the Colonial Churches as Missionary centres" ; 20 of the American Dioceses, and all but 10 of the 87 English Colonial and Missionary Dioceses, include Missions which were planted by the Society — in most instances before the foundation of the See — and 107 Bishops have ', been supported, wholly or in part, from the Society's funds. The loyalty of the Missionaries to the Church of England may be gathered from the fact that of the 8,698 employed between 1702 and 1892, only three cases of secession to other Christian bodies are recorded in the roll, while the accessions for the same period number at least 106— probably many more {see p. 847). , •
The operations of the Society are now carried on in 51 dioceses, ' ' the number of languages in use being 68. A little more than one- fourth of itd funds is all that is now spent on our Christian Colonists, — ' about five-eighths are spent on the conversion of the heathen, and on building up the native Churches within the Empire, and the remainder on Missions in foreign countries, such as China, Corea, Japan, Borneo, Madagascar, and Honolulu. Of the 680 ordained Missionaries , now on its list 119 are natives of Asia, and 88 natives of Africa. , V
In the Society's Colleges there are about 2,600 students; and 2,800 lay teachers, mostly natives, are employed in the various Mis- , y, sions in Asia and Africa, in the schools of wmch 88,000 children are receiving instruction. -
■ ' * {Fooi-notea to p. xiv.)
(a) 10 European or European Colonial, 46 American Indian, 27 African, 9 Austral- asi)ui, and 88 Asiatic families.
(6) After allowing ior repetitions and omitting many dialects.
' (c) After allowing for repetitions and transfers. (The actual number of lay agents employed during the same period cannot at present be stated, as the record of names is inoomplste, but it may be taken as over 6,000.)
(({) Includes some 18,000 out-stations.
(e) This table takes into account the foreign Missions of the American Church, and other parts which are outside the scope of the tables given on pp. 87, 268, 888, and 788, ieo.
(/) ApproKimate.
I'if*
m m
''■M
i0i
-.1 XVI
FIELD OF THE SOCIETY'S WORK.
NORTH AMERICA, 1702 ; CONTINENT OF EUROPE, 1702 ; WEST INDIES, 1712 ; CENTRAL AMERICA, 1748 ; AFRICA, 1762 ; AUSTRALASIA, 1708 ; ASIA. 1820 ; SOUTH AMERICA, 1886 :-
|
, *1702 South Carolina |
1836 Leeward Islands |
Westn. Borneo 1848 |
||||
|
• „ New York |
*■ „ Jamaica |
Melanesia |
. 1849* |
|||
|
* „ New England |
„ British Guiana |
Natal . . |
l» |
|||
|
* „ New Jersey |
1836 Trinidad |
Rupertsland (Mani- |
||||
|
* „ Pennsylvania |
„ Mauritius |
toba «o.) |
. 1860 |
|||
|
• „ Virginia |
* „ South Australia |
Orange Free State,, |
||||
|
„ Europe (Continent) |
n838 Victoria |
Assam . . |
. 1861 |
|||
|
*I703 Maryland |
^-t^SM^ |
Tristan d' Acun ha „ |
||||
|
„ Newfoundland |
Pitoairn Islar. |
:858* |
||||
|
•1708 North Carolina y |
V^ji^^S^^MP'^'flfl |
^^W |
- Pur\jab. . |
1864 |
||
|
\ 1712 Windward Island ^ |
i^^^^^BjSjMJ^fc^ ^^ |
Western Asia |
* n |
|||
|
1728 Nova Scotia /ti^ |
j^yyBPB^ |
Kaffraria . . |
1866 |
|||
|
*178a Georgia fj^ |
^1^^-^ / IT > |
i The Straits . |
1866 |
|||
|
„ Bahamas fn^ |
/^IPk ^ ^L ^ |
1 X^ |
2^ Lower Burma |
1869 |
||
|
*1748 MosquitoShore jjp^l |
^Jr|^"*^j^aa y |
V^ |
■^ Zululand . |
• II |
||
|
(Cent. America) ll^B |
SL ^^"^"^Mllf^y |
SsJf |
^& Brit. Columbia „ |
|||
|
1762 Western Africa hrih»4f^ |
^Sks^ W^C'^^^ |
MMf^i |
3 Northn. Africa 1861 |
|||
|
< 1769 Quebec Prov. |
IVffaMi |
' ^'T^^ JjS^ |
f. |
ffflrt |
^ Hawaiian lslds.1862 |
|
|
1 1783 N. Brunswicit |
lulkKAi |
^^^ l^fij)} |
i« |
- w ' |
3 China . . . |
1868 |
|
1784 Ontario Prov. |
Ri£ |
I^Nli^. ^/.^KmTJJI |
fir 4| |
^ Transvaal |
1864 |
|
|
' 1785 Gape Breton |n|£S' |
'^^hL '^i^mmflS |
%•' |
1 Madagascar . |
II |
||
|
*1798 N. South Wales MISS |
y^fcaHpijii ^B^Val ra^ |
i:^ ' |
5W Cashmere . . |
1866 |
||
|
1796 Norfolk Island Vl^J^I |
^ itj^'^ '\ w^n |
W . |
yjff Upper Burma |
1868 |
||
|
1819 Prince Edward VP^IP |
-^■^^^^^v |
JJ Griqualand W. 1870 |
||||
|
Island v»zS^ 4 AAA B— ^^\ vCf^lNHi |
?Ct^%#-^^u^ ^ |
i-.:^ |
W Swaziland . |
1871 |
||
|
i 1820 Bengal ^^^ |
' #<^:^^^^K? ^^..y^' |
^^4 |
f Beohuanaland 1878 |
|||
|
1821 Cape Colony \/^ |
7BaBEjl^HM|B^PpJ |
Japan . . . |
11 |
|||
|
(Western Division) ^ |
^^^^P |
Basutoland . |
1875 |
|||
|
*1822 The Bermudas ^ |
Central Africa 1879* |
|||||
|
1826 Madras |
Fiji ... . |
1880 |
||||
|
1880 Bombay |
^^**™" "^^ |
Ajmere Ac. . |
1881 |
|||
|
„ Cape Colony |
1840 Queensland |
Panama . . |
1888 |
|||
|
(Eastern Division) . ; |
* „ New Zealand |
North Borneo |
1888 |
|||
|
1882 Seychelles |
„ Ceylon |
Corea . . . |
1889 |
|||
|
1888 N.W. Provinces, India |
1841 Western Australia |
Mashonaland |
1890 |
|||
|
*1 836 Tasmania . |
1844 British Honduras |
New Guinea , |
* II |
|||
|
„ Tobago |
*1846 Central Provinces, India |
Manohuria . |
1882 |
|||
|
.•.\".. ■ ... |
1847 St. Helena |
|||||
|
N3.— The " Digest " hu brought o |
ut the important fact that aerer*! distriots we |
re oocupied t^ the Soelety at an ion of the varioM dlTitioni In • |
||||
|
eurUer period than \mA bee |
n Buppoeed. |
The above table shows the date |
oft |
Intoconpat |
complete and ooireot form for the first time.
• The aiterisk indicates that the Society haa wl'Jidrawn from the distriot
.^-
CLASSIFIED DIGEST.
CHAPTER I.
omaiN, OBJECT, AND FIRST PROCEEDINGS
THE SOCIETY.
OF
Althouoh it was not till 1701 that the Church of England began to conduct Foreign Mission work on an organised system, the two preced- ing centuries had not been entirely barren of Missionary effort. No sooner was England freed from the supremacy of the Pope than Archbishop Cranmer hastened (1534-6) to provide two chaplains for Calais, at that time Britain's only foreign possession. When Martin Frobisher sailed (May 81, 1578) in search of the North-West Passage to India " Maister Wolfall " was " appointed by her Majestie's Councill to be their Minister and Preacher," his only cave being to save souls. Wolfall was privileged to be the first priest of the reformed Church of England to minister on American shores. To "discouer and to plant Christian inhabitants in places conuenient " in America was the main object of the expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who took possession of Newfoundland in 1588, and to whom was granted (by Queen Elizabeth in 1578) the first charter for the founding of an English colony. Similar powers were given in 1584 (by Letters Patent and Parliament) to Sir Walter Raleigh, his half-brother, and Wingandacoa was discovered in that year and named Virginia (now North Carolina). The first band of colonists sent there included Thomas Heriot or Hariot, the eminent scientist and philosopher, who may be regarded as the first EngUsh Missionary to America. The emigrants failed to effect a permanent settlement, but during their stay at Boanoke (1585-6) Heriot " many times and in euery towne " where he " came " " made declaration of the contents of the Bible " and of the " chiefe points of BeUgion " to the natives according as he " was able." One named Manteo, who accompanied the party on their return to England (1586) was appointed Lord of Boanoak (by Raleigh), and on August 18, 1587, was baptized in that island— this being the first recorded baptism of a native of Virginia. From this time and throughout the 17th century the extension of Christ's Kingdom con- tinued one of the avowed objects of British colonisation.
But though the religious duty obtained some recognition everywhere, performance fell so far short of promise that when in 1676 Bishop CoMPTON instituted an inquiry into an order of King and Council " said to have been made ' ' [in the time of Charles I., see p. 743] " to commit unto
V
^-m
2
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
i i
the Bishop of London for the time being the care and pastoral charge of sending over Ministers into our British Foreign Plantations, and having the jurisdiction of them," he "found this title so defective that little or no good had come of it," there being " scarce four Ministers of tlie Church of England in all the vast tract of America, and not above one or two of them, at most, regularly sent over." His proposals to several places to furnish them with chaplains were encouraged by the settlers and by Charles II., who allowed each minister or school- master £20* for passage, and ordered that henceforth " every Minister should be one of the Vestry of his respective parish." Whereupon the people " built churches generally within all their parishes in the Leeward Islands and in Jamaica." And for the better ordering of them the Bishop prevailed with the King " to devolve all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in those parts upon him and his successors, except what concern'd Inductions, Marriages, Probate of Wills, and Administrations," and procured from his Majesty, for the use of the parish churches, books to the value of about £'1,200. Soon after this the people of Rhode Island built a church, and six were [ordered to be] established by the Assembly of New York.f For the regulation and increase of religion in those regions the Bishop of London appointed the Rev. James Blaib to Virginia [about 1690] and the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray to Maryland [1696] as his commissaries [1].
Laudable as may have been the exertions made for planting the Church, they were so insufficient that at the close of the 17th century " in many of our Plantacons, Colonies, and Factories beyond the Seas . . . the provision for Ministers " was " very mean " ; many others were *' wholy destitute, and unprovided of a Mainteynance for Ministers, and the Publick Worshipp of God ; and for Lack of Support and Mainteynance for such " many of our fellow- subjects seemed " to be abandoned to Atheism and Infidehty." [S.P.G. Charter p. 925.] The truth was that the action taken had been isolated and individual, and therefore devoid of the essential elements of permanence. If under such circumstances individual effort was greatly restrained or wasted, it at least served to kindle and foster a Missionary spirit, and with the growth of that spirit the need of united action on the part of the Church became more and more apparent. Out of this arose what may be called the Beligious Society movement of the 17th cen- tury, to which the origin of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel may be traced. This movement had been preceded by a Missionary undertaking which deserves special notice. In 1646 John Eliot '* the Apostle of the North American Red Men " began his labours among them in New England, which he continued till his death in 1690. Through his tracts the wants of the Indians became known in Eng- land, and so impressed was " the Long Parliament " that on July 27, 1649, an ordinance was passed establishing " A Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," consisting ot a President, Treasurer, and fourteen assistants, to be called " the President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England." A general collection throughout England and Wales (made at Cromwell's direction) produced nearly £12,000,
* This "Royal Bounty" was continuud to at least the end of Queen Anne's reign. t See p. B7.
I i
thi
,yi'<'
>^v
,v , ORIGIN, OBJECT, ETC. OP THE SOCIETY. i V
of wliich £11 ,000 Mas invested in landed property in E ngland. By means of the income ^fi<!Hionaries were maintained among the natives in New England atd New York States. On the Restoration, in 1660, the Corporation necesfiarily became defunct, but was revived by a Charter granted by Charles II. in 1662, under the name of " the Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in N§w England and the parts adjacent in America." The new Charter was obtained mainly by the exertions of the Hoi). Eobert Boyle, who became the first (Irovernor. Tht: operations of the Company were carried on in New England up to 1775, and after an interval of eleven years, caused by the American Revolution, removed to New Brunswick in 1786, and thencG in 1822 to other parts of British America, an extension being made 'ilso to the West Indies for the period 1823-40. The funds of the Company, for the regulation of which three decrees of Chancery have been obtained (1792, 1808, 1836), now yield an annual income of £3,500 (from invest- ments). This, the first Missionary Society established in England, is generally known as '* The New England Company." As reconstituted in 1662 it was limited to forty-five members, consisting of Church- men and Dissenters [2] .
About twelve years later the existence in England of " infamous clubs of Atheists, Deists, and Socinians" "labouring to propa- gate their pernicious principles," excited some members of the National Church, who had a true concern for the honour of God, to form themselves also into Societies, " that so by their united zea) an^l endeavours they might oppose the mischief of such dangerous principles, and fortifie both themselves and others against the attempts of those sons of darkness, who make it their business to root out (if possible) the very notions of Divine things and all differences of Good and Evil." Encouraged by several of the Bishops and Clergy, who, as well as Queen Anne, inquired into and approved of their methods and orders, these Religious Societies soon spread throughout the kingdom — increasing to forty-two in London and Westminster alone — and became " very instrumental in promoting, in some churches, Daily Prayers, Preparatory Sermons to the Holy Commimion, the administration of the Sacrament every Lord's Day Bnd Holy Day, and many other excellent designs conformable to the Doctrine and Constitution of the Church of England, which have, not a little contributed to promote religion." [Sec " A Letter from a Residing Member of ihe Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London to a Corresponding Member in the Country " (Downing, London, 1714) ; also Dr. Josiah Woodward's " Account of the Rise and Progress of the Religious Societies in the City of London " (1701) [3].]
Among the promoters of this movement was the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bbay. Bom at Marston, Shropshire, in 1656, and educated at Oswestry and at Hart Hall (or Hertford College), Oxford, he became successively Curate of Bridgnorth (Shropshire), Chaplain to Sir Thomas Price at Park Hall (Warwickshire), Incumbent of Lea Marston, Vicar of Over Whitacre, and in 1690 Rector of Sheldon, an ofiice which he held till within a few months of his death in 1730. On his appointment as Ecclesiastical Commissary for Maryland by the Bishop of London in 1696, Dr. Bbay, before proceeding to America, employed his time in sending out clergymen and supplying them with suitable libraries.
!.l
?l
'■'•W'^
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
And failing to obtain assistance from Parliament, he originated the plan of a Society to be incorporated by Charter, for spreading Christian knowledge at home and in the plantations or colonies. The plan was laid before the Bishop of London in 1697 ; it could not then be fully carried out, but it soon gave rise to the " Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge."
Th6 foreign branch of the designs of this excellent institution — declared at the outset to be " the fixing Parochial Libraries throughout the Plantations (especially on the Continent of North America) " — had not been extended to the employment of Missionaries, when it devolved* on a new organisation formed specially for the supply of living agency abroad, viz.. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first meeting of the S.P.C.K. was held on March 8, 1699, the members present being the Lord Guildford, Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Mr. Justice Hook, Dr. Bray, and Colonel Colchester. In December 1699 Dr. Bray, having been obliged to sell his eflfects and raise money on credit to pay for his voyage, left for America, where he organised as far as he then could the Church in Mary- land, and returned to England in the summer of 1700 in order to secure the Royal Assent to a Bill for its orderly constitution. At home much interest was aroused in his Mission, Archbishop Tenison •declaring that it would be "of the greatest consequence imaginable " to the establishment of religion in America [4]. Without doubt it was mainly the action taken by Dr. Bray that inspired the efforts made in the next year by Convocation, the Archbishop, Bishop Compton, and the S.P.C.K., with the view to the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. The Minutes of the Lower House of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury show that on March 18, 1701 : —
" At the proposal of Dr. Isham, a Committee of twelve were named to enquire into Ways and Means for 'promoting Christia7i Bcligio7i in our Foreign Plan- tations: and the said Committee are directed to consult with the Lord Bishop of London about the premises as often as shall be found necessary. Ei, ulterius nrdindrunt — that it be an instruction to the said Committee, that they consider the promotion of the Christian religion according to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church of England as by law established. And that it be a further instruction to the said Committee to consider how to promote the worship of God lamongst seafaring men whilst at sea. And it was declared to be the opinion of this house, That any members might come and propose anything to this or any other Committee, unless it was otherwise ordered by this house, but none to have liberty of suffrage except such as are deputed to be of the Committee." [Page 243 of The History of the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy of the Provinxe of Canterbury, 1706 [1701]. London : A. and J. Churchill, 1702.]
According to Dr. Atterbury (Prolocutor of the Lower Hoase of Convocation) • —
" When business of high consequences to the Church, and such as was likely to do honour to the promoters of it, was started by the clergy, attempts of the Fame kind, without doors, were set forward which might supersede theirs. Thus %vhen the Committee, I have mentioned, was appointed, March 13th, 1700 [1701], to consider what might be done towards ' propagating the Christian religion, as pro- fessed in the Church of England, in our Foreign Plantations ' ; and that Committee, composed of very venerable and experienced men, well suited to such an enquiry, had sat several times at Bt. Paul's, and made some progress in the business referred to them, a Charter was presently procured to place the consideration of that matter in other hands, where it now remains, and will, we hope, produce
• Sw p. (!.
(by
ORIGIN, OBJECT, ETC. OF THE SOCIETY.
excellent fruits. But whatsoever thoy are, they must be ftcknowleJgoJ to have gprung from the overtures to that purpose first made by the Lower House of Con- vocation." [Page 13 of Preface to Some Proceedings in the Convocation of 170'i (by Dr. Atterbury) 1708.]
The first meeting of the Committee of Convocation was held oi» March 15, 1701, and within the next three weeks Dr. Bkay appealed to WiUiam III. in the following terms : —
" To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, the humble PetitioJi of Thomas Bbay, D.D.,
" Humbly shciceth,
" That the Numbers of the Ii'habitants of your Majesty's Provinces in America have of late Years fjreatly increas'd ; that in many of the Colonies thereof, more especially on the Continent, they are in very much Want of Instruction in the Christian Religion, and in some of them utterly destitute of the same, they not being able of themselves to raise a sulHcient Maintenance for an Orthodox Clergy to live amongst them, and to make such other Provision, as shall be necessary for the Propagation of the Gospel in those Parts.
" Your Petitioner further sheweth, That upon his late Arrival into England' from thence, and his making known the aforesaid Matters in this City and Kingdom, he hath great Reason to believe, that many Persons would contribute, as -. well by Legacy, as Gift, if there were any Body Corporate, and of perpetual Suc- cession now in Being, and establish'd in this Kingdom, proper for the Lodging of the said Legacies and Grants therein.
" Now forasmuch as Your Majesty hath already been graciously pleas'd to take the State of the Souls of Your Majesty's Subjects in those Parts, so far into Con- sideration, as to Found, and Endow a Royal College in Virginia, for the Religious Education of their Youth, Your Petitioner is thereby the more encouraged to hope, that Your Majesty will also favour any the like Designs and Ends, which shall be Prosecuted by proper and effectual Means.
" Your Petitioner therefore, who has lately been among Your Majesty's Subjects aforesaid, and has seen their Wants and knows their Desires, is the more embolden'd, humbly to request, that Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to issue Letters Patent, to such Persons as Your Majesty shall think fit, thereby Con- stituting them a Body Politick and Couporatk, and to grant to them and their Successors, such Powers, Privileges, and Immunities as Your Majesty in great Wisdom shall think meet and necessary for the Effecting the aforesaid Ends and Designs.
" And your Petitioner sluill ever Pray do,
"TuoMAs Bkay."
The reception of the above is thus recorded : —
" WiiiTE-ILvLL, April "ith, 1701.
" His Majesty having been moved upon this Petition is graciously pleas'd to refer the same to Mr. Attorney, or Mr. Solicitor-Crcneral, to consider thereof, and Report his Opinion, what His Majesty may fitly do therein; whereupon His Majesty will declare His further Pleasure.
" JA. VEnxoN." [5]
The matter was now formally taken up by the S.P.C.K. At the meet- ing of that Society on May 6, 1701, " the Draught of a Charter for the Erecting a Corporation for Propagating the Gospell in Foreign Parts was read," and on May 12 Dr. Bray's petition with other papers relating to the subject. The Archbishop of Canterbury was the first to promise a subscription (twenty guineas) towards the charges of passing the Charter, which document was on May 19 " again read and debated and several amendments made, and the names of the Secretary and other oflScers . . . agreed to." It being " very late" its further con-
«
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
:
sideration was " referred to Sir Richard Bulkeley, Mr. Comyns, Mr. Serjeant Hook, and the Secretary." The S.P.C.K. (May 26) under- took to advance the " moneys wanting for the Payment of the Charter," and (June 9) £20 was actually paid on this account. [See also p. 822.] The Charter as granted by "William III. [sec p. 925] was laid before the S.P.C.K. by Dr. Biiay on June '23, and thanks were tendered to him for " his great care and pains in procuring the grant," and to the Archbishop of Canterbury for " promoting the passing the aforesaid Letters Patents," and the latter was asked to summon a meeting of the new Society [GJ. It should here be noted that in a "form of subscription for raising the money due to Dr. Bray upon account of the Plantations," adopted by the S.P.C.K. in November 1701, it is stated that there remained due to Dr. Bray £'200, " part of a greater sum by him advanced upon the credit of public Benefactions towards the propagation of Christian knowledge on the Continent cf North America," that the said sums had been really expended by him upon that account, in particular "divers ministers" had been " sent over," and "many Parochial Libraries" "fixed in the Plantations on the said continent." It was added th{.,t the S.P.C.K. had " thought fit to sink the subscriptions for the plantations (to which all their members were obliged to subscribe upon admittance) by Reason that that Branch of their Designs is determined " by the incorporation of the S.P.G., which included most of the members of the S.P.C.K [7]. [N.B. — The operations of the S.P.C.K. did not, however, long remain restricted to the British Isles. From 1710 to 1825 it supported Missions in India conducted by Lutherans [sec p. 501-8], and though its employment of Missionaries then K,eased it has since continued to assist materially in building up branches of the English Church in all parts of the world.]
The first meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was held on June 27, 1701, at Lambeth Palace,* and there were present : the Archbishop of Canterbury, President ; the Bishops of London (Compton), Bangor (Evans), Chichester (Williams), and Gloucester (Fowler) ; Sir John Philips, Sir William Hustler, Sir George Wlieler, Sir Richard Blackmore, Mr. Jervoyse, Segeant Hook, the Dean of St. Paul's (Sherlock), Dr. Stanley (Archdeacon of London), Dr. Kennett (^ Archdeacon of Huntingdon) ; the Rev. Drs. Mapletoft, Hody, Stanhope, Evans, Bray, Woodward, and Butler; Mr. Shute, Drs. Slare and Harvey; and Messrs. Chamberlayne, Brewster, Nichols, Bromfield, Bulstrode, and Trymmer. After " His Majestie's Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England constituting a Cor- poration for Propagating the Gospell in Foreign Parts were read," officers and members were elected, and steps were taken for the preparation of a Seal and of Bye-Laws and Standing Orders, also for the printing of copies of the Charter, and defraying the charges of passing it [8].
The second meeting, held July 8, 1701, at the Cockpit, decided that the device of the Seal should be :—
" A ship under sail, making towards a point of land ; upon the prow standing a minister ^vith an open Bible in his hand ; people standing on the shore in a posture of expectation, and using these words, Transiens adjuva nos." * Place not stated in S.P.O. Journal, but recorded in that of S.P.C.K., June 80, 1701,
ORIGIN, OBJECT, ETC. OP THE SOCIETY.
'T'2!-
The Bye-Laws and Standing Orders adopted at this meeting provided that the business of the Society should be opened with prayer, that there should be an annual sermon [sec p. 888], and that the following oath should be tendered to all the officers of the Society before admission to their respective offices : " I, A. B., do swear that I will faithfully and duly execute the office ... of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Forreign Parts, according to the best of my judgment. So help me God " * [9].
Subsequent meetings were for many years held generally at Archbishop Tenison's Library in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the ■episcopate being largely represented, notwithstanding that the hour was frequently as early as eight or nine in the morning. [See Journals.]
On March 6, 1702, a Committee was appointed " to receive all pioposals that may be oftered to them for the Promoting the designs of this Society, and to prepare matters for the consideration of the Society " [10]. From June 18, 1703, this body became known as " the Standing Committee " [11] : its meetings were long held at St. Paul's Chapter House [12], and up to 1882 it continued subject to " the Society" as represented in the Board meetings. On April 6 of that year a " Supplemental Charter " was granted to the Society [sec p. 929], one result of which was that the Standing Committee was placed on a fully representative basis, and thus became for nearly every purpose the Executive of the Society [13].
On August 15, 1701, the Society entered on an enquiry into the religious state of the Colonies ; information was sought and obtained from trustworthy persons at home and abroad — the Bishop of London, English merchants. Colonial Governors, con- gregations, &c.t — and on October 17 progress was made in raising " a Fund for the Propagation of the Gospel in Forrein Parts " [14].
The Charter shows that the Society was incorporated for the threefold object of (1) providing a maintenance for an orthodox Clergy in the plantations, colonies, and factories of Great Britain beyond the seas, for the instruction of the King's loving subjects in the Christian religion ; (2) making such other provision as may be necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts ; and (3) receiving, managing, and disposing of the charity of His Majesty's subjects for those purposes. The construction placed upon the first two heads by the founders of the Society was thus stated by the Dean of Lincoln, in the first anniversary sermon, Feb. 1702 : —
" The design is, in the first place, to settle the State of Religion as well as may be among our ouii People there, which by all accounts we have, very much wants their Pious care : and then to proceed in the best Methods they can towards the
Conversion of the Natives The breeding up of Persons to understand the
^reat variety of Languages of those Countries in order to be able to Converse with
* In confomiity with the proviHions of Act 5 & 6 Will. IV. cap. (12, the following ■"declaration " waH Hubstituted for the " oath " in 183(). " I, A. B., do declare that I will faithfully and duly execute the office of . . . the Society for the Propagation of Uie Gospel in Foreign Parts." In 1850 the declaration was abolished [Off].
"f In particular see Memorial of Colonel Morris " concerning the State of Religion in the Jerseys," «fcc. and Philadelphia ; Governor Dudley's " Account of the State of Religion in the English Plantations in North America " ; Rev. G. Keith's Letter " About the State of Quakerism in North America " ; a Letter from the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations " concerning the conversion of the Indians " ; and "A List " (furnished by the Bishop of London) "of all the Parishes in the English Plantations in iVmerica " [14aJ.
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the Natives, and Preach the Gospel to them .... this is very great CJuirity, indeed the greatest Charity we can show ; it is Charity to the Sotils of men, to the Souls of a great many of our otcn People in those Countries who by this may be reformed, and put in a better way for Salvation by the use of the means of Grace which in many places they very much want, but especially this may be a great Charity to the souls of many of those poor Natives who may by this be converted from that state of Barbarism and Idolatry in which they now live, and.be brought into the Sheep-fold of our blessed Saviour " [15],
At one time it seemed as if this interpretation would not be adhered to, for in 1710 it was laid down by the Society that that branch of its design which related to the "conversion of heathens and infidels" " ought to be prosecuted preferably to all others." [See p. 69.] Though the proposed exclusive policy was not pursued, the Society through- out its history has sought to convert the heathen as well as to make spiritual provision for the Christian Colonists, and, according to its ability, neither duty has ever been neglected by it. On this subject much ignorance has hitherto prevailed at home ; and in some quarters it is still maintained that the Society did nothing for the evangeUsatiou of the heathen to entitle it to be called " Missionary " until the tliird decade of the present century. The facts are that the conversion of the negroes and Indians formed a prominent branch of the Society's- operations from the first. The object was greatly promoted by the- distribution of a sermon by Bishop Fleelwjod of St. Asaph in 1711 [16], and of three addresses* by Bishop Gibson of London in 1727 [17] ; and to quote from a review of the Society's work in 1741 by Bishop Seeker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury : —
*• In less than forty Years, under many Discouragements, and with an income very disproportionate to the Vastness of the Undertaking, a great deal hath been done ; though little notice may have been taken of it, by Persons unattentivc to these things, or backward to aclmowledge them. Near a Hundred Churches have been built : above ten thousand Bibles and Common-Prayers, above a hundred thousand other pious Tracts distributed : great Multitudes, upon the whole, of Negroes and Indians brought over to the Christian Faith : many numerous Congre- gations have been set up, which now support the Worship of God at their own Expence, where it was not known before ; and Seventy Persons are constantly employed, at the Expence of the Society, in the farther Service of the Gospel" [18]. •' :
Further proof will be found in the following chapters, which contain a brief record of the Society's work in all parts of the world. In particular, see the accounts of tlie early Missions to the heathen in New York Province [Negroes and Indians, 1704, &c., pp. 68-74], in the West Indies [Negroes, 1712, &c., pp. 194, 199, &c.], in Central America
* (1) "An Address to Serious Christians among ourselves, to Assist the Society for Propagating the Gospel, in carrying on tlie Work of Instructing the Negroes in oar Plantations abroad." (2) " Letter to the Masters and Mistresses of Families in the English Plantations abroad ; Exhorting them to encourage and promote the Instruction of their Negroes in the Christian Faith." (3) " Letter to the Missionaries in the English Plantations; exhorting them to give their Assistance towords the Instruction of tha Negroes of their Several Parishes, in the Christian Faith " [17a].
NORTH AMERICA.
[Moskito Indians, 1747, &c., pp. 284-Gl, in West Africa [Neprroos, 1752, Ac, pp. 254-8], and in Canada [Indians, 1778, &c., pp. 139-40,. 154, 165, &c.] ; sec also pp. 86, 192, 252, 882, &c.
Eeferences (Chapter I.)— [1] R. 1700, pp. 11-14. [2] Accounts of the New EnglnmT Company. [8] British MuHeum, niid " American Pamphlets, 1(!50-1704," in S.P.G. "White Kennet" Lihrary (bound in green). [4J S.P.C.K. Journal, Aug. H, 1700. [6] " Life and Designs " ilc. of Dr. Bray : Brotherton, London, 170(5 (S.P.G. " Wliite Kennet " Library). [6] S.P.C.K. .Tournak, May 5, 12, 1», 20, and June 9, 28, 1701. [7] S.P.C.K. Journal, Nov. 4 and 18, 1701. [8] Jo., V. 1, pp. 1-3, and page H22of this book. [0] Jo., V. 1, pp. 4-5. [9rt] Jo., V. 44, pp. 04, 121 ; R. 1834-5, p. vi. ; R. 1830, p. vi. ; Jo., V. 40, pp. 85, 107. [10] Jo., V. 1, p. 39. [11] Jo., V. 1. p. 109. [12] See the Standing Committee Books. [13] See the Bye-Laws and Regulations of the Society for the period. [14] Jo., V. 1, pp. 13-18, and p. 822 of this book. [14«] Jo., V. 1, p. 13, and App. Jo. A, pp. 4-42 ; do. B, pp. 1-5. [15] S.P.tV. Anniversary Sermon, 1702, pp. 17-18. [16] Printed in S.P.G. Report for 1710. [17 & 17a] R. 1740, pp. 00-8, and printed in full in Humphreys' Historical Account, 1.730, pp. 250-75. [18] S.P.G. Anni- versary Sermon, 1741, pp. 11-12.
CHAPTER II.
NOBTH AMEBIC A : THE OLDER COLONIES, NOW THE UNITED STATES— {INTRODVCTION).
For the greater part of the 18th century the Colonies of Great Britain, extending along the East Coast of North America, from South Carolina to Maine, together with the negroes, and with the Indian tribes who dwelt further inland, constituted the principal Mission- field of the Society. These Colonies were first settled by private adventurers, mostly representatives of divers denominations, dissenting from the Mother Church, yet too much divided among themselvcn to- preserve, in some parts, even the form of religion. Hence, notwith- standing the prominent recognition of religion in the original schemes of colonisation, the Society found this field occupied by 250,000 settlers, of whom whole Colonies were living " without God in tho world," while others were distracted with almost every variety of strange doctrine. Church ministrations were accessible only at a few places in Virginia, Maryland, New York, and in the towns of Phila- delphia and Boston, and the neighbouring Indians had been partly instructed by the Jesuits and by John Eliot and agents of the New England Company. Until 1785 the Society laboured to plant, in all its fulness, the Church of Christ in those regions.
In the Rev. GEOuaE Keith the Society found one able and willing^,, not only to advise, but also to lead the way. Originally a Presbyterian^ he had been a fellow-student of Bishop Burnet at Aberdeen, but soon after graduating he joined the Quakers, and went to New Jersey and afterwards to Pennsylvania. There he became convinced of the errors, of Quakerism, and returning to England in 1694 he attached himself to the Mother Church and was admitted to Holy Orders in 1700. His zeal and energy, combined with his experience of the country.
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SOCIETY FOR THB PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
pointed him out as well qualified for the service of the Society. Accordingly he was adopted as its first Missionary on Feb. 27, 1702 [1], and with the Rev. Patuick Gordon (appointed March 20) [2], sailed from England on April 24, 1702. Among their fellow-passengers were Colonel Dudley, Governor of New England, and Colonel Morris, Governor of New Jersey, and the Rev. John Talbot, Chaplain of the ship, from each of whom they received encouragement, and Talbot was so impressed with Keith's undertaking that he enlisted as companion Missionary [3]. They landed at Boston on June 11, and on the next day Keith wrote to the Society : —
" Colonel Dudley was ko very civil and kind to Mr. Gordon and me that he caused us both to eat at his table all the voyage, and his conversation was both pleasant and instructive, insomuch that the great cabin of the ship was like a collodge for good discourse, both in matters theological and philosophical, and very cordially he joined daily with us in divine worship, and I well understand he purposeth to give all possible encouragement to the congregation of the Church of England in this place. Also Colonel Morris was very civil and kind to us, and so was the captain of the ship, called the Centurion, and all the inferior officers, und all the mariners generally, and good order was kept in the ship ; so that if any of the seamen were complained upon to the captain for profane swearing, he caused to punish them according to the usuall custom, by causing them to carry a heavy woodden collar about their neck for an hour, that was both painful and shameful ; and, to my observation and knowledge, severall of the seamen, as well as the officers, joined devoutly with us in our daily prayers according to the Church of England, and so did the other gentlemen that were passengers with us " [4].
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The object of Keith's Mission was to enquire into the spiritual condition of the people, and to endeavour to awaken them to a sense of the Christian religion. How that object was accomplished is fully told in his Journal published after his return to England [5], of which the following is a summary : — , , . ,t ; , j r » i
" I have given an entire Journal of my two Years'* Missionary Travel and Service, ■on the Continent of North America, betwixt Piscataway River in New Englaiid, and Coretuck in North Carolina ; of extent in Length about eight hundred miles ; with which Bounds are Ten distinct Colonies and Governments, all under the Crown of Englniid, viz., Piscataway, Boston [Colony called Massachusett's Bay], Rltod. Island [Colony included also Naraganset, and other adjacent parts on the Continent], Connect icot, New York, East and West Jersey, Pcnsilvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. I travelled twice over most of those Governments and Colonies, and I preached oft in many of them, particularly in Pensilvania, West and East Jersey, and New York Provinces, where we continued longest, and found the greatest ocasion for our service.
"As concerning the success of me and my Fellow-Labourer, Mr. John Talbot's, Ministry, in the Places where we travelled, I shall not say much ; yet it is necessary that something be said, to the glory of God alone, to whom it belongs, and to the encouragement of others, who may hereafter be imployed in the like Service.
" In all the places where we travelled and preached, we found the people generally well affected to the Doctrine that we preached among them, and they did generally join with us decently in the Liturgy, and Public Prayers, and Administra- tion of the Holy Sacraments, after the Usage of the Church of England, as we had occasion to use them. And where Ministers were wanting (as there were wanting
• Keith was actually " two years and twenty weeks " in the Society's service, and on completing his misBion he was elected a member of the Society in consideration of " bis great experience in the affairs of the plantations," &c. [6].
NORTH AMERICA. 9
In many places) the People earnestly desired us to present their Kequest to the Honourable Society, to send Ministers unto thein, which accordingly I have done : and, in answer to their request, the Society has sent to such places as seemed most to want, a considerable number of Missionaries.
" Beside the general Success we had (praised be God for it) both in our Preacli- ing, and much and frequent Conference with People of Diverse I'erswasions, many of which had been wholly strangers to the Way of the Church of Englatid ; who, after they had observed it in the Publick Prayers, and reading the Lessons out of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the manner of the Administration of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, were greatly affected with it, and some of which declared their great satisfaction and the Esteem they had of the Solemn and edifyingmannerof our Worship and Administration, far above whatever they could observe in other Ways of Worship known to them.
" To many, our Ministry was as the sowing the Seed and Planting, who, probably, never so much as heard one orthodox Sermon preached to them, before we came and Preached among them, who received the Word with Joy ; and of whom we have good Hope, that they will be as the good ground, that brought forth Fruit, some Thirty, some Sixty, and some an Hwulred Fold. And to many others it was a watering to what had been formerly Sown and Planted among them ; some of the good Fruit whereof we did observe, to the glory of God, and our great Comfort. . . Almost in all these Countries where we Travelled and Laboured , . . by the Blessing of God on our Labours, there are good Materials prepared for the Building of Churches, of living Stones, as soon as, by the good Providence of God, Ministers shall be sent among them who have the discretion and due qualifications requisite to build with them " [7].
In a letter (Feb. 24, 1703) written during his Mission, Keith said : —
*' There is a mighty cry and desire, almost in all places where we have travelled, to have ministers of the Church of England sent to them in these Northern parts of America. . . If they come not timely the whole country will be overrunne with Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and Quakers " [8].
Mr. Talbot also wrote (Sept. 1, 1708) :—
" It is a sad thing to consider the years that are past ; how som« that were born of the English never heard of the name of Christ ; how many others were baptized in his name, and [have] fallen away to Heathenism, Quakerism, and Atheism, for want of Coniirmation. . .
" The poor Church has nobody upon the spot to comfort or confirm her children ; nobody to ordain several that are willing to serve, were they authorized, for the work of the Ministry. Therefore they fall back again into the herd of the Dissenters, rather than they will be at the Hazard and Charge to goe as far as England for orders : so that we have seen several Counties, Islands, and Provinces, which have hardly an orthodox minister am'st them, which might have been sup- ply'd, had we been so happy as to see a Bishop or Suffragan Apud Americanos " [9].
These representations were followed by petitions from multitudes of Colonists, whom the Society strove to supply with the full ministrations of the Church, at the same time using direct means for the conversion of the heathen, whether Negroes, Indians, or Whites.
In addition to its efforts to meet the calls for pastors, evangelists, and school teachers, the Society distributed great quantities of Bibles, Prayer- Books, and other religious works [see p. 798] ; " and for an example, to furnish the Churches with suitable ornaments," it sent services of Communion Plate, with linen, &c. [10].
The hindrances to the planting and growth of the Church in America in the 18th century may be indicated, but cannot be realised in this age. As the chief hindrance is fully stated in another chapter
12
SOCIErY FOR the; PnOPAOATION or THE GOSPEL.
[see p. 743], it will suffice to say here that the want of a Bishop was severely felt by the members of the Church in each of the following colonies.
lirfcrrncca (Clmpter II.)— [1] Jo., V. 1, p. '.\'2. [2] Jo,, V. 1, pp. 4ft-7. [3] Jo., V. 1, Aug. HI, Hep. IH, Nov. 20, 170'2. [4) A MSH., V. 1, No. ». |6J Jo., V. 1, Aug. iJO and 28, 1704 ; July -20, 1700 ; Jan. IH, Fel). 1 aud *2H, March 15, May 17, July 1», and Aug. 1(5, 1700. [6| Jo., V. 1, Oct. iiO and Doc. 15, 1704. [7] KoitliV Journal, pp. 82-0. [8J A MSS., V. 1, No. 87. [OJ A MSS., V. 1, No. 125. [lOJ U. 1700, pp. 7!J-4.
13
CHAPTER III.
iJ:
Bill
SOUTH CAROLINA.
, .South Caboi.ina (originally united with North Carolina in one colony), was settk'tJ under a Charter granted to a Company in l(i(!2, whoHO professed motives were a desire to enlarge his Majesty'n <lo, linions and "zeal for the propagation of tho Christian fuith in a country not yet cultixated or ])lanted, and oidy innabited by some barbarous people who had no knowledge of God." But the Society found in 1701 that more than one-half of the 7,000 Colonists {to say nothing of tho negroes and Indians) were themselves living regardless of any religion, there being only one* Church (at Charlestown), no schools and few dissenting teachers of any kind.
The first Missionary of the Society to South Carolina, the Rev. S. Thomas -who was the third sent by it to America — was less for-' tunate in his voyage than Keith and Gordon. In the passage down the English Channel he was "forc'd to lye upon a chest," and " after many importunate and humble pcrswasions " he at last obtained leave to read prayers daily, but he was "curs'd and treated very ill on board." At Plymouth he was so ill that his hfe was despaired of, but during his detention there he recovered so far as to be able to officiate " severall Lord's Day for a minister att Plimstockj who was both sick and lame . . . and whose family " was " great and circumstances in the world mean." Receiving " nothing from him but his blessing and thanks," Mr. Thomas went on his way in another ship with a " civil " captain, and for the rest of the voyage he " read prayers thrice every day and preached and catechised every Lord's Day." After "12 weeks and 2 dayes at sea " he arrived at Charlestown on Christmas Day, 1702. He was designed for a Mission to the native Yammonsees, and on his appointment £10 was voted by the Society " to be laid out in stuffs for the use of the wild Indians." Wild indeed they proved to be — they had revolted from the Spaniards " because they would not be Christians," and were in so much danger of an invasion that they were *' not at leisure to attend to instruction " ; nor was it " safe to venture among them." Surrounding him, however, were a body of heathen equally needing instruction, and more capable of receiving it, viz. the negro and Indian slaves who in the Cooper River district alone outnumbered the savage Yammonsees. Therefore, Mr. Thomas settled in that district. One of the places included in his charge was Goosecreek, containing "the best and most
• App. Jo. A, p. 40.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
18
numerous congregation in all Carolina," who were " as sheep without a shepherd " [1].
Numbers of the English settlers wore " in such a wilderness and so destitute of spiritual guides and all the means of grace " that they " were making near approach to that heathenism which is to be found among negroes and Indians." Mr. Thomas pre- vailed with "the greatest part of the people to a religious care in sanctifying the Lord's Day," which had been "generally profaned." Many also were induced to " set up the worship of God in their own families," to which they had been "perfect strangers." The Holy Communion " had not been administered " in one district before Mr. Thomas came, and after " much pains " he could " procure only five " communicants at first. Before long this number grew to forty-five, and there was " a visible abatement of immorality and profaneness in the parish, and more general prevailing sense of religion than had been before known " [2]. After taking great pains to instruct the heathen slaves also (Indians and negroes), some of whom were admitted to baptism [8], Mr. Thomas visited England on private affairs in 1705, at the same time being " empowered and desired " by "the Governor, Council and Parliament" of Carolina "to make choice of five such persons" as ho should "think fit, learned, pious, and laborious ministers of the Church of England to officiate in the vacant parishes, pursuant to a late Act of Parliament for the encouragement of the publick worship of God according to the Church of England " in the Province [4]. On this occasion Mr. Thomas submitted what the Society pronounced to be " a very full and satisfactory account of the state of the Church in South Carolina" [5]. He also drew attention to an objectionable clause in the Act of the Assembly above referred to (passed Nov. 4, 1704) [6], which placed in the hands of certain lay commissioners the power of removing the clergy. Holding " that by Virtue hereof the Ministers in South Carolina will be too much subjected to the pleasure of the People," the Society referred the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, and agreed to " put a stop to the sending any ministers . . . into those parts till . . . fully satisfied that the . . . clauses are or shall be rescinded, and that the matter be put into an ecclesiastical method " [7]. While the Society was vindicating the rights of the clergy, a petition was presented to the House of Lords by Joseph Boone, merchant, on behalf of himself and many other inhabitants of Carolina, showing : —
" That the Ecclesiastical Government of the said Colony !s under the Jurisdiction of the Lord Bishop of London. But the Govemour and his Adherents have at last, which the said adherents had often threatened, totally abolished it : For the said Assembly hath lately passed an Act whereby twenty Lay-Persons therein-named, are made a Corporation, for the exercise of several exorbitant Powers, to the great Injury and Oppression of the People in general, and for the exercise of all Eccle- Biastical Jurisdiction, with absolute Power to deprive any Minister of the Church of England of his Benefice, not only for his Immorality, but even for his Impru- dence, or for Innumerable Prejudices and animosities between such Minister and his Parish. And the only Church of England Minister, that is established in the said Colony, the Rev. Mr. Edward Marston,* hath already been cited before their Board ; which the Inhabitants of that Province take to be a high Ecclesiastical Commission
[* Not a Mi6sion:.ry of the Society.]
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SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE OOBPEL.
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Court, (lefltructive to the vory boing and essence of the Church of En(];lani1 and to be had in the utmost Detestation and Abhorrence by every Man that is not an Enemy to our Constitution ia Church and Htate."
" The House of Lords expressed their opinion— . -• ' -i
"That the Act of the Assembly lately past there ... bo far forth as the same relates to the establishing a Commission for the displacing the Itectors or Ministers of the Churches there, is not warranted by the Charter granted to the Proprietors of that Cobny, as being not consonant to lieason, repugnant to the Laws of this llealni, and destructive to the Constitution of the Church of England."
On this Resolution being laid before the Queen the matter of com- plaint was effectually taken away [8]. A new Act was passed in 1700 in which provision was made for raising the salaries of the clergy from £50 to £100 per annum, and in communicating the same to the Society the Governor and Council explained that the Clause in the Act of 1704 was " made to get rid of the incendiaries and pest of the Church, Mr. Marston," and had the Society known the facts of the case it would not have blamed them " for taking that or any other way to get rid of him." Mr. Boone, they stated, was *' a most rigid Dissenter," who, while pretending to defend the rights of the Clergy, sought to destroy the Act " because it established the Church of England . . . and settled a maintenance on the Church ministers." In proof of this it should be added that at the very time he was championing the cause of the Church, Mr. Boone was engaging " two Dissenting ministers " and a schoolmaster to take back with him to Carolina, and they were actually fellow-passengers with Mr. Thomas on his return in 1706 [9]. Shortly after this the Governor and Council addressed the following memorial to the Society : —
" We cou'd not omit this ( )pportunity of testifying the grateful Sense we have of your most noble and Christian charity to our poor Infant Church in this Province expressed by the generous encouragement you have been pleased to give to those who are now coming Missionaries, the account of which we have just now received, by the worthy Missionary and our deserving Friend and Minister, Mr. Thomas, who, to our great Satisfaction is now arrived. The extraordinary Hurry we are in, occasioned by the late Invasion, attempted by the French and Spatiiards, from whom God hath miraculously delivered us, hath prevented our receiving a parti- cular account from Mr. Thomas of your Bounty ; and also hath not given us leisure to view your Missionaries' instructions, either m regard of what relates to them, or to ourselve°. ; But we shall take speedy care to give them all due Encouragement and the Veiieiable Society the utmost Satisfaction. There is nothing so dear to us as our hoi;, P> si i;ion, and the Interest of the Establish'd Church, in which we have (we bless (io(ri been happily educated ; we therefore devoutly adore God's Provi- dence for br.nging and heartily thank your Society for encouraging, so many Missionarif^si to come among us. We promise your Honourable Society, it shall be our daily Care and Study, to encourage their pious labours, to protect 'lieir Persons, to revere their Authority, to improve by their ministerial Instructions, and as soon as possible, to enlarge their annua iSalorys . . . When we have placed your Missionaries in their several Parishes according to your Directions, and received from them an account of your noble Benefactions of Books for each Parish, we shall then write more particular and full : In the mean Time, we beg of your Honourable Society to accept of our hearty gratitude, and to be assured of our incere Endeavour to concur with them in their most noble Design of Propagating Christ's holy Keligion. . . . Sep. 16, 1706 " [10].
By the same body the Society was informed in 1706 of the death of Mr. Thomas, of whom they reported that " his exemplary life,
even more
SOUTH CAROLINA.
15
diligent preaching and obliging courage " had secured him " the good- will of all men. . . . He not only brought over several of the Dissenters but also prevailed upon several that professed themselves members of the Church of England to lead religious lives and to become constant communicants, and other considerable services he did for the Church." They added, " We do most humbly request your honourable Society to send us four more ministers for the country, and upon your recom- mendation we shall have them fixed in the several parishes there " [11], Mr. Thomas' widow was voted two months' salary from the Society and a gratuity of £25 " in consideration of the great worth of . . . her husband and of his diligence in his ministerial oftice and for the encouragement of missionarys to undertake the service of the Society " [12].
Other faitliful men were found to take up and extend the work begun in South Carolina. For the Colonists, Missionaries were needed oven more than for the negroes and Indians. So many of the settlers lived " worse than the heathen " that the province was (in 1710-14 > "spoiled with blasphemy, Atheism and Iminorality," and the great obstacle to the free Indians embracing the Christian religion was ''"' " scandalous and immoral life of the white men " among them calli themselves " Christians " [18]. In the case of the slaves (negroes au' Indians), many of the masters were extremely inhuman, ** esteemin< them no other than beasts," and while, it is hoped, few went to the extent of scalping on Indian woman (as one did in 1710), the owners generally were, at first, opposed to the endeavours of the Missionaries to instruct the slaves [14] .
" ' What I ' said a lady ; considerable enough in any other respect but in that of Round knowledge ; ' Is it possible that any of my slaves could go to heaven, and must I see them there ? ' " "A young gent had said some time before that he is resolved never to come to the holy table whila slaves are received there." (L. from llev. Dr. Le Jau, of Gooaecreek, Aug. IH, 1711 [15]).
All honour to those who were zealors in encouraging the instruction of their slaves, such as Mr. John Morris (of St Bartholomew's), Lady Moore, Capt. David Davis, Mrs. Sarah Baker, and several others at Goosecreek, Landgrave Joseph Marton and his wife (of St. Paul's), the Governor and a member of the Assembly (v/ho were ready to stand sureties for a negro), Mr. and Mrs. Skeen, j\Irs. Haigue, and Mrs. Edwards [16] . The last two ladies were formally thanked by the Society for their care and good example in instructing the negroes, of whom no less than twenty-seven prepared by them — including those of another planter — were baptized by the Rev. E. Taylou, of St. Andrew's, within two years. •'
Mr. Taylor wrote in 1713 : —
" As I am a Minister of Christ and of the Church of England, and a Missionaiy of the Most Christian Society in the whole world, I think it my indispensible and special duty to do all that in nie lies to promote the conversion and salvation of the poor heathens here, and more especially of the Negro and Indian slaves in my owr parish, which I liope I can truly say I have been sincerely and earnestly endeavouring ever sirce I was minister here where therft ere many Negro and Indian slaves in a most pitiful! deplorable and perishing condition tho' little pitied by many of their masters and their conversion and salvation little desired and endeavoured by them. If the Masters were but good Christians themselves and would but conourre with t'ne Ministers, we should then have good hopes of the conversion and salvation at least of some of their Negro and Indian slaves. But
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too many of them rather oppose than concurr with us and are angry with us, I am sure I may say with me for endeavouring as much as I doe the conversion of their slaves. . . . Icann't but honour . . . Madam Haigue. . . . In my parish . . . a very considerable number of negroes . . . were very loose and wicked and little inclined to Christianity before her coming among them. I can't but honour her so much ... as to acquaint the Society with the extraordinary pains this gentle- woman, and one Madm. Edwards, that came with her, have taken to instruct those negroes in the principles of Christian Keligion and to reclaim and reform them : And the wonderfull successe they have met with, in about half a year's time in this great and good work. Upon these gentlewomen's desiring me to come and examine these negroes ... I went and among other things I asked them, Who Christ was. They readily answered. He is the Son of God, and Saviour of the World, and told me that they embraced Him with all their hearts as such, and I ■desired them to rehearse the Apostles' Creed and the 10 Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, which tbey did very distinctly and perfectly. 14 of them gave me so great satisfaction, and were so very desirous to be baptized, that I thought it my duty to baptize them and therefore I baptized these 14 last Lord's Day. And I doubt not but these gentlewomen will prepare the rest of them for Baptisme in a little Time " [17].
Other owners in the same parish refused to allow their slaves to attend Mr. Taylor for instruction, but he succeeded in inducing them or some of tlieir families to teach the Lord's Prayer, and this was so effectual that more negroes and Indians came to church than he could find room for [18]. The desire of the slaves for instruction was so general that but for the opposition of the owners there seems no reason why the whole of them should not have been brought to Christ. So far as the Missionaries were permitted, they did all that was possible for their evangelisation, and while so many " professed Christians " among the planters were "lukewarm," it pleased God "to raise to Himself devout servants among the heathen," whose faithfulness was commended by the masters themselves [19]. In some of the congre- gations the negroes or blacks furnished one-half of the Communicants out of a total of 50 [20].
The froe Indians were described as " a good sort of people, and would be better if not spoiled by bad example; " the Savannocks being, howcvor, "dull and mean," but the Floridas or Cricks (Creeks) "honest, polite," and their language "understood by many nations, particularly the Yamousecs." They had some customs similar to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, and feast of first-fruits ; they loved justice, not enduring " cither to cheat or be cheated," and had notions of a Deity and the immortality of the soul. Many of them desired Missionaries, but the traders hindered this as likely to interfere with one branch of their trade viz. the exchanging of their " European goods " for slaves made during wars instigated by themselves [21],
War had already reduced the number of the Indians by one-half, and it was the desire of the Society to bring to them the Gospel of peace. The Rev. Dr. Le Jau forwarded in 1709 a copy of the Lord's Prayer in Savannah, the language of the Southern Indians, a* ' n 1711 Mr. J. Norris, a planter, interviewed the Society, and was en- couraged in a design which he had formed of bringing up his son to the ministry and sending him to the Yammonsees at his own expense [22].
The Rev. G. Johnston, of Charleston, brought to England in 1713 a Yammonsce prince, at the request of his father and of the Emperor of the Indians, for instruction in the Christian religion and the manners of the English nation ; it was decided that under Clause 2 of the
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SOUTH CAROLINA.
17
Charter the said youth might " be maintained, put to school and instructed at the charge of the Society " [23]. This was done, and after being twice examined by the Committee of the Society, he was sub- mitted to the Bishop of London, and by him baptized in the Royal Chapel of Somerset House on Quinquagesima Sunday, 1715, at the age of 19, Lord Carteret, one of the proprietors of South Carolina, with Abel Kettiiby, Esq., and Mrs. Caecilia Conyers, being sponsors, after which he was presented to the King " under the character given " [24]. The Society sent him back with a present for his father of a " gun or flfazee," with a pair of scarlet stockings, and a letter of commendation to the Governor and Council, who were " exhorted to contribute all ihey " could " to the conversion of the Indians," and it was lioped that much would be done, as the "whole Province" saw "with admiration the improve- ment " of the prince [25]. On his return he wrote to the Society : —
SiK,
" Charles Town in South Carolina, December 3, 1715.
" I humble thank the good Society for all their Favours which I never forget. I got into Charles Town the 30 September. I have hard noos that my Father as gone in Santaugustena and all my Friends. I hope he will come to Charles Town. I am with Mr, Commissary Johnston house. I learn by Com- missary Johnston as Lady. I read every Day and night and Mr. Commissary Johnston he an well kind to me alwas. I hope I learn better than when I was in School. Sir, I humble thank the good Society for all their Favours.
" Your Most and Obedient Servent
"Prince Geouge." [26],
The absence of the father was caused by a war in which he was- taken prisoner. This made the prince extremely dejected, but he continued his education under Mr. Johnston, who took the same care ■ of him as of his own children [27], and prevailed on the Emperor of the Cherequois to let him have his eldest son for instruction ; the Rev. W. Guy was also informed in 1715 by Capt. Cockran, a Dissenter at Port Royal, that the son of the Emperor of the Yammonsees was with him, and that he would take care to instruct him, and that as soon as he could say the Creed, the LordV. Prayer, and the Ten Commandments» he would present him for baptism [28].
The efforts of a few rightr jus men availed not, however, to savft the provinca from the calami' '^s of a war which"proved as disastrous to- the Mission cause as to the material interests of the country. This wr;;i' was caused partly by the oppression of the traders [29], who^. having sown the wind, were now to reap the whirlwind. In 1715 thv3 Indians from the borders of Fort St. Augustino to Cape Fear conspired to extii-pate the white peop^'c. On the Wednesday before Easter some traders at Port Royal, fearing a rising among the Yam- monsees, made friendly overtures to tb.em, which were so well received*^ that they remained in the India cump for the night. At daybreak they were greeted with a volley of "ihot, which killed all but a man and a boy. These gave the alarm at T ort Royal, and a ship happening ta be in the river, about 8G0 of the inhabitants, including the Rev. W. Gut, escaped in her to J'a^rLdtou,the few families who remained being tortured and murder^'i. The Appellachees, the Calabaws, and the Creeks soon joined the Yammonsees. One party, after laying waste St. Bartholomew's, where lOO Christians fell into their hands, was driven
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"ntoiided for ■- ii" in the tho Rev. L. at Beaufort,
oflf the week after Easter by Governor Craven ; but the Indians on the northern side continued their ravages until June 18, when, after massacring a garrison, they were finally defeated by Captain Chicken, of the Goosecreek Company.
The Missionaries suffered grievously from the war — some barely escaping massacre, all being reduced and impoverished. Timely help from the Society relieved their miserable state, and that of two French clergymen. Rev. J. La Pierre,* of St. Dennis, and Rev. P. de Rich- BOURG, of St. James's, Santee, who, but for this aid, must have left their congregations, consisting of French refugees, who had conformed to the Church of England [80].
During the war the Rev. R. Maule, of St. John's, remained four months shut up in a garrison ministering to the sick and wounded, being, said he, " satisfied, not only to sacrifice my health, but (if that could be of any use) my very life too, for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ [31]." Both were sacrificed, as it proved, and at his death in 1716 he left most of his property (or over £750 currency) to the Society [32 j. So also did the Rev, R. Ludlam, of Goosiic? > >, in 1728- the bequest, amounting to £2,000 currency, being pnrti the erection of •' a schoole for the instruction of pn.)i* civ parish [33J. A legacy of £100 was also bequeaihed b; Jones, of St. Helen's, for the support of a free school and in 1761 the Rev. C. Martyn, of St. Andrew's, attended a meeting of the Society in England, and resigned his Missionary salary, " think- ing the minister of St. Andrew's sufiiciently provided for without the Society's allowance " [34]. The need of schools in South Carolina was thus represented to the Society by some of the inhabitants of Dor- chester in 1724 : —
" The want of country Schools in this Province in general and particularly in this parish is the chief source of Dissenters here and we may justly be appre- hensive that if our children continue lonjjer to be deprived of opportunity of being instructed, Christianity [will] of course decay insensibly and v.'e shall have a generation of our own as ignorant as the Native Indians " [35].
Here, as elsewhere, the Assembly were moved to establish » free school [36]. As early as 1704 a school was opened at Goosecreek ; y tlie Rev. S. Thomas [37], and several of the ordained Missionarin >>t' fu. Society acted also as schoolmasters. Mr. Morritt reported n 'Ti'j that he had sent for, and was expecting, a son of a Creek chief i-^r instruction in his school at Charleston [38].
In 1743, two negroes having been purchased ana trained as teachers at the cost of the Society, a school was opened at Charleston by Commissary Garden, with the object of training the negroes as in- structors of their countrymen. The school was continued with success for more than 20 years, many adult slaves also attending in the evening for insti'uction. This was done by the Church in the face of many diffi- culties and obstructions, and at a time when the Government hn I not one institution for the education of the 50,000 slaves in the Col' .; [39].
By the example of the Society and its Missionaries, th ) oorists were led to take a real interest in spiritual things, and they ^:)w<;d their gratitude by building and endowing Churches and Schools, and
* Mr. La Pierre was assisted again in 1720. h» boiug then in "miserable circuin- Btances " [30^].
SOUTH CABOLINA.
Id
making such provision that in 1759 the Society decided not to fill up the exicting Missions in the Province as they became vacant [40]. The last of these vacancies occurred in 1766, but in 1769 a special call was made on behalf of " the Protestant Palatines in South Carolina.'* Having emigrated from Europe, they were •* greatly distressed for want of a minister," there being none to be met with at a less distance than 60 or 70 miles ; "no sick or dying person " could "be ^•isiled at a less expense than £10 sterling," and their settlement being in an infant state, without trade and without money, they were unable to support a minister, and therefore implored the aid of the British Government. The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations referred their petition to the Society, with the result that the Rev. S. F. LuciTrs was sent out ^0 minister to them [41]. Arriving at Coffee Town in i770, he officiated on Easter Day to " a people very eager to hear tbe Word." For want of a minister among theui " the children were grown up like savages." In six months he baptized 40 children and 30 adults [42], The people built two churches, and Mr. Lucius continued among them as the Society's Missionary until the end of the American Revolution. During the war he was reduced to " the deepest distress " by being cut ■off from communication with the Society, and unable to receive his salary for seven years (1776-88). After the evacuation of Charleston, where he had taken refuge, he attempted to go to " his old residence ri Coffee Town ; but, destitute as he was of every conveniency, and travel- ling, vwre Apostolorum, on foot, encumbered with a wife and seven children, along an unhospitable road, he was soon unable to proceed, having . . certain information that he would not meet with a friendly reception." He returned to Charleston, and in March 1783 proceeded to Congarees (142 miles distant), " where a great number of the Pala- tines were settled," who were in general " very irreprehensible in their morals and behaviour," seventy being communicants [48].
in.
STAtisTics. — In South Carolina (area 30,750 f- ' iles), where (1702-83) the Society UBBiRted in maintaining 64 MiaBionariefl and planting .u Central Stations (as detailed on pp. 849-50), there are now 995,577 inhabitants, of whom about 25,000 are Church MemberH and 5,179 Communicants, under the care of 51 Clergymen and a Bishop. [A'ee «/so the Table on pp. 86-7, and p. 849.]
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Beferehem (Chapter III.)— [1] Jo., V. 1, June 19 and 20, July 3, Aug. 21, and Sept. 18, 1702, and June 18, 1703; A MSS., V. 1, Nos. 21, 25, 83, 8fi, 179; R. 1700, pp. 41-2; App. Jo. A, pp. 40(5-80. [2] App. Jo. A, pj). 477-8. [3] App. Jo. A, pp. 472-8. [4] Jo., V. 1, Sept. 21, 1705 ; App. Jo. A, pp. 394-5. TG] Jo., V. 1, Jan. 18, 170(1 ; App. Jo. B, No. 74. re] App. Jo. B, No. 73. [7] Jo., V. 1, Feb. 15 and March 15, 170«. [8] R. 170(i, pp. 75-9 ; Jo., V. 1, March 21 and April 18, 1707. [9] A MSS., V. 2, No. 149; do. V. 8, No. 153; App. Jo. A, pp. 532-(5. [10] App. Jo. A, pp. 527-30. [11] App. Jo. A, pp. 537-8. [12] Jo., V. 1, May 30, July 18, and Aug. 15, 1707. [13] Jo., V. 1, Oct. 20. 1710; Jo., V. 2, Oct. 10, 1712; Jo., V. 3, Oct. 15, 1714. [14] Jo., V. 1, Oct. 21, 1709; Oct. 20, 1710 ; Jo., V. 2, Oct. 9, 1713. [15] A MSS., V. 0, No. 142. [lo] Jo., V. 2, June 15, 1711; Oct. 10, 1712; Oct. 10, 1713; June 1, 1714; Jo., V. 3, Oct. 7, 1715, Nov. 22, 1710 ; R. 1724, pp. 40-1. [17] Jo., V. 2, Oct. 10, 1713 ; A MSS., V. H, pp. 35(J-7 ; R. 1718, pp. 44-5. [18] Jo., V. 2, Oct. 16, 1713 ; Jo., V. 3, Oct. 7, 1715. [19] Jo., V. 2, p. 887. [20] R. 1724, pp. 40-1 ; R. 1726, p. 40 ; R. 1758, p. 70 ; R. 1761, p. 62. [21] Jo., V. 1, Sept. 16, Oct. 21, Doc. 30, 1709 ; Jo., V. 2, May 18, 1711 ; Oct. 10, 1712. 1 22] Jo., V. 1, Sept. 10, 1709, Jan. 26 and Feb. 1, 1711 ; Jo., V. 2, pp. 87-8. [23] Jo., V. 2, pp. 297, 800. [24] R. 1714, pp. 59-60 ; Jo., V. 2, Aug. 20, Sept. 17, 1714 ; Jo., V. 8, Jan. 21, 1715. [25] Jo., V. 2, Aug. 20, 1714; Jo., V. 3, Jan. 21, 1715, July 6 1710; Accounts of Society's Expenditure, 1714 ; R. 1714, p. 60. [26] B MSS., V. 4, p. 84. [27] Jo., V. 8, Feb. 1, 1717. [28] Jo., V. 8, Oct. 7, 1715, July 6, 1716, Feb. 1, 1717. [29] Jo., V. 3, Nov. 22, 1716. [30] Humphreys' Historical Account of the Society, pp. 97-102 ; Jo., V. 3, pp. 71-2, 89, 91-2, 158-9, 168, 221-36. [30a] Jo., V. 4, Jan. 16,
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1720. [SI] Jo., V. 8, p. 281 ; A MSS., V. 11, p. 127. [32] Jo., V. 8, pp. 260, 27», 850, 857-8; Jo., V. 4, p. 67; A MSS., V. 13, pp. 237, 249. [33] Jo., V. 5, pp. 201, 222-3 ; B MSS., V. 4, p. 219. [34] R. 1761, p. 63 ; Jo., V. 15, p. 133. [35] and [36] A MSS., V. 19, pp. 09-70. [37] App. Jo. A, p. 478. [38] R. 1725. p. 86. [39] Jo., V. 9, pp. 48-9, 108-4,288-9,279; Jo., V. 10, pp. 11, 12, 02, 64, 328 ; K. 1740, p. 68; R. 1748, p. 58; R. 1747, p. 63; R. 1757, p. 50. [40] R. 17.59, p. 63. [41] Jo., V. 18, pp. 207-8, 252. [42] Jo., V. 19, p. 83; R. 1771, p. 27. [43] Jo., V. 23, pp. 66, 273-5 ; R. 1783, p. 45.
CHAPTER IV.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
NoHTH Cabolina was included in the Charter grunted to the South Carolina Com- ^"■uy in 1602. [See page 12.] In 1701 it contained at least 5,000 Colonists, besides
'c and Indians, all living without any minister and without any form of Divine
Aip pu'olicly performed. Ch-ldren had grown up and were growing up unbaptized ■\\ cineducated ; and the dead ./ere not buried in any Christian form.
Aocfiding to an old resident, some good had been effected by religious books supplied by the Rev. Dr. Bray in 1699-1700; but this to a certain extent had been counteracted by the ill behaviour of the first clergyman, the Rev. Daniel Brett, who also appears to have been sent over by Dr. Bh.\.y in th3 latter year. " For about J a year ho behaved himself in a modest manner, aid after that in a horrid manner " [1], [Mr. H. Walker to Bishop of London, Oct. 21, 1703.]
In his Journal Keith records that on May 10, 1703, leaving Elizabeth County in Virginia—
*' We [i.e. Talbot and himself] took our journey from thence to North Carolina, May 16, Whitsunday, I preached at the House of Captain Sanders in Corretuck in North Carolina, on Bom. i. 16. We designed to have travelled further into North Carolina, but there was no passage from that place by Land convenient to Travel, by reason of Swamps and Marishes ; and we had no way to go by water, but in a Ganow over a great Bay, many Miles over, which we essayed to do, but the wind continuing several days contrary, we returned to Virginia " [2].
Early in 1702, two months before Keith left England, the need of a Missionary for Roanoak was recognised, but some time elapsed ere one could be obtained [3].
The Rev. John Blaie visited the Province in 1704 as an itinerant Missionary, supported by Lord Weymouth, but returned the sam© year enfeebled with poverty and sickness, having found it " the most barbarous place in the Continent " [4].
The country thus designated then consisted for the most part of swamps, marshes, deserts, forests, and rivers, without roads or bridges, but here and there a path, more easy to lose than to find ; and this, added to an exacting climate, made it one of the most arduous and deadly of Mission fields [5]. In 1705 Chief Justice Trot appealed for 500 copiesof Mr. John Fhilpot's Letter against the Anabaptists, " because the said country swarm with Anabaptists " ; and the copies were supplied by the Society, with additions from Bishop Stillingfleet's works on the subject [6].
A paper entitled "The Planter's Letter" showed such a want of ministers in North Carolina that it was decided that the next " proper person who offers shall be sent there " [7]. The Rev. J. Adams and
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the Rev. W. Gordon were approved in October 1707, and arriving in 1708 [8], took charge of four of the five districts into which the province had been divided. In Chowan, though few of the people could " read, and fewer write, even of the justices of the Peace and vestrymen," yet " they seem'dvery serious and well inclin'd " to receive instruction, and 100 children were soon baptized by Mr. Gordon. In Paquimans, where a church had been begun by a IMajor Swan, ignorance was combined with opposition from the Quakers, who were " very numerous, extreamely ignorant, unsufferably proud and ambitious and consequently ungovernable." By using the " utmost circumspection both in publick and in private," and by the " success of some small favours " Mr. Gordon " shewed them in physick, they not only became very civill but respectfull" to him "in their way." After a year's experience he returned to England, being unable to endure " the distractions among the people and other intoUerable inconveniences in that colony " [9]. A greater trial awaited Mr. Adams. In Pascotank most of the people were Church members, and the government was "in the hands of such persons as were promoters of God's service and good order ; " but the Quakers " did in a most tumultuous manner stir up the ignorant and irreligious " against the Rulers and the Clergy. Of this he wrote (in October 1709) : —
" The abuses and contumelies I meet with in my own person are but small troubles to me in respect of that great g.ief of hearing the most sacred parts of Religion impiously prophan'd and rediculed. We had a Communion lately, and the looser sort at their drunken revellingR and caballs, spare not to give about their bread find drink in the words of administration, to bring in contempt thut most holy Sacra- ment and in derision of those few good persons who then received it " [10],
From his congregations he derived not enough support " to pay for diet and lodging " [11], and it was only by an increased allowance from the Society that he was enabled to exist [12]. Writing from "' Currituck " in 1710 he said : —
" Nothing but my true concern for so many poor souls, scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, and my duty to those good men who reposed this trust in me, cou'd have prevailed upon me to stay in so barbarous and disorderly place as this now is, where I have undergone a world of trouble and misery both in body and mind. ... I have struggled these two years with a lawless and barbarous people, in general, and endured more, I believe, than any of the Society's Mis- sionaries ever has done before me. I am not able as the countrey is now, to hold out much longer, but intend God willing, next summer or fall, to set out for Europe" [13].
From his flock he earned the character of " a pious and painfull pastor, ' " exemplary and blameless," who had " much conduced to promote the great end of his Mission." Before his arrival the blessed Sacrament had never been administered in Carahtuck precinct, but now (1710) there were more communicants there than in most of the neighbouring parishes of Virginia, where there had long been a settled ministry [14]. [See Addresses from "Carahtuck " and Pascotank, and from Governor Glover.]
Sickness, however, prevented Mr. Adams leaving for England, and he died among his flock. Successive Missionaries for many years had to encounter additional hardships and dangers arising from the incursions of the Indians. The Corees and Tuskaroras, near Cape Fear, formed a plot which threatened the riin of the Colony. In
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99 SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAQATION OF THE GOSPEL.
small bands of five or six men they waited as friends on their victims, and as opportunity offered slew them. At Boanoak 137 of the inhabitants were massacred. Timely aid came from South Carolina in the form of 600 whites and 600 friendly Indians, under Colonel Barnwell, who defeated the enemy, killing 800, taking 100 prisoners^ and forcing the rest, about 600, to sue for peace. Most of the other straggling bands retreated into " Fort Augustino " district, under the protection of the Spaniards. But though the Colony was saved from extinction, about 30 Indians remained, and these meeting Avith little opposition soon multiplied and gave much trouble. Families were daily " cut off and destroyed " [15], and in the space of five years more than 80 unbaptized infants perished in this way [16J. The Rev. G. Bansfobd of Chowan was taken prisoner by the " salvages " as he was going to preach, but escaped and took refuge in Virginia for two months [17]. Mr. Ransford had several conferences in 1712 with the King of the (friendly) Chowan Indians, who seemed " very in- cHnable to embrace Cliristianity " [18]. But the itev. T. Newnam in 1722 reported that though the Indians were "very quiet and peacable,'' he almost despaired of their conversion. They then numbered only 800 fighting men, living in two towns [19]. In the course of time the Catawba and other tribes settled among the Planters, and, becoming more open to instruction, baptisms occasionally resulted. The minis- trations of the Rev. A. Stewakt in Hyde County, were at- tended by " many of the remains of the Attamuskeet, Roanoke and Hatteras Indians," who " offered themselves and their children for baptism," and on one occasion he baptized 21. He also fixed a schoolmaster among them, at the expense of Dr. Bray's Associates, over whose schools in the Province he acted as superintendent [20].
Among the negroes, a much more numerous body, greater results were attained, though the INIissionaries' efforts were frustrated by the slaveowners, who would " by no means permit " their negroes " to be baptized, having a false notion that a christen'd slave is by law free " [21].
"By much importunity," Mr. Ransford of Chowan (in 1712) "pre- vailed on Mr. Martin to lett " hiiu baptize three of his negroes, two women and a boy. " All the arguments I cou'd make use of " (he said) " would scarce effect it, till Bishop ffleetwood's sermon* . . . turn'd y« scale " [22]. Yet Mr. Ransford succeeded in baptizing " upwards of forty negroes" in one year [23]. As the prejudices of the masters were overcome, a Missionary would baptize sometimes fifteen to twenty-four negroes in a month ; forty to fifty in six months ; and sixty-three to seventy-seven in a year. The return of the Rev. C. Hall for eight years was 355, including 112 adults, and at Edenton the blacks generally were induced to attend service at all the stations^ where they behaved "with great decorum " [24].
In no department of their work did the Missionaries in North Carolina receive much help from the Colonists. The Rev. J. Urmston in 1711 was with his family " in manifest danger of perishing for want of food; we have," he said, "liv'd r.any a day only on a dry crust and a draught of salt water out of the Sound, such regard have the
See p. 8.
.•Sn C '. KORTH CABOLINA.
tft
be law
to nd
C. ton
mt
ast
nthe
people for my labours — so worthy of the favour the Society have shewn them in providing Missionaries and sending books " [25]. The poor man was promised from local sources a house and £100 a year, but actually received only £30 in five years, and that in paper money [26].
Similar complaints were made by others, and to all " the trivial round, the common task " furnished ample roor "or self-denial. Many instances might be quoted to show that the bounty of the Society was really needed and duly appreciated.
Thus the " Vestry of Queen Anne's Creek," on " behalfe of the rest of the inhabitants of the precinct " of Chowan, wrote in 1714 : —
" Wee ... in a most gratefull manner Beturn our h'^arty thanks to the Honble. Society &c. For their great Care of our Souls' health in sending over Missionaries to preach the Word of God and administring the Holy Sacrament among us. Wee and the whole English America ought to bless and praise the Almighty for having putt it into the hearts of so many and great Honble. Personages to think of their poor Country Folk whose lott it hath been to come into these Heathen Countries were we were in danger of becomeing like the Indians themselves without a God ia the World" [27]. . , , .
In the following year the Assembly of North Carolina divided the country into nine parishes, and settled salaries for the Ministers of each parish not exceeding £50. The preamble of this Act states that they did this to " express our gratitude to the Eight Honourable the Society for Promoting the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts, and our zeal for promoting our Holy Religion " [28].
In 1717 Governor Eden wrote to the Society, remonstrating on the "deplorable state of religion in this poor province" : —
" It is now almost four months since I entered upon the Government, where I found no Clergyman upon the place except Mr. Urmston, one of your Missionaries, who is really an honest painestaking gentleman, and worthy of your care, but, poor man ! with utmost endeavours, is not able to serve one-half of the county of Abbermarle, which adjoins to Virginia, when as the county of Bath is of a much larger extent, and wholly destitute of any assistance. I cannot find but the people are well enough inclined to imbrace all opportunitys of attending the Service of God, and to contribute, to the utmost ox their ability, towards the support of such missionarys as you shall, in compassion to their circumstances, think tit to send amongst them ; but our tedious Indian warr has reduc'd the country so low, that without your nursing care the very footsteps of religion will, in a short time, be worne out, and those who retain any remembrance of it will be wholly lead away by the Quakers ; whereas a few of the Clergy, of a complaisant temper and regular lives, wou'd not only be the darlings of the people, but would be a means in time to recover those all ready seduced by Quakerism" [29].
In 1782 the Society, observing with much concern that there was not one Minister of the Church of England in North Carolina (and being unable to do more), appointed an Itinerant Missionary (Rev. J. Boyd) to travel through the whole of the country and at times officiate in every part of it. Five yoars later the province was divided into two itinerant Missions, to one of which was appointed the Rov. J. Gakzia, whom the inhabitants of St. Thomas, Pamplico, had induced by fair promises to come from Virginia, and were starving with his wife and three children by not paying him " his poor salary of £20 per annum " [30] .
The travelling Missionaries were by no means equal to the mighty task laid on them, but they served to keep religion alive, preaching publicly, and from house to house, and baptizing from 600 to 1,000
t ■H
II
i ^ I'M
< \i
itiA
24
SOCIETY FOK THE PBOPAOATION OF THE GOSPEL.
• ■i;
persons a year, sometimes as many as 100 in a day [81]. Notwith- standing the hardships involved, several of the Colonists themselves were ready to undertake the office of a Missionary, and in the labours of one of these will be found an example for all time.
In 1748 there came to the Society a magistrate from North Carolina bearing letters signed by the Attorney-General, the SheriflFs, and the Clergy of the province, testifying that he was of " very good repute, life, and conversation." Having officiated for several years as a lay- reader, in the absence of a clergyman, he now desired to be ordained in order that he might more effectually minister to the wants of his countrymen. Admitted to the sacred office, the Bev. Clement HalIi returned a Missionary of the Society, with an allowance of £80 a year [82]. Thenceforward he gave himself up to a life of almost in- cessant labour, and for twelve years was the only clergyman for hundreds of miles of country. Several of his congregations were so large that they had to assemble under the shady trees for service [88]. On one of his tours he baptized 876 persons in less than a month ; on another, in one day, " at a very remote place," ninety-seven, several of whom "were grown up, not having opportunity before " [34]. In 1762 he thus suminarised his labours : — „ • ,
" I have now, through God's Gracious Assistance anA Blessing, in r.bout seven or eight years, tho' frequently visited with sickness, been enabled to perform (for ought I know) as great Ministerial Duties as any Clergyman in North America : viz., to Journey about 14,000 miles, Preach about 675 Sermons, Baptize about 5,783 White Children, 243 Black Children, 57 White Adults, and 112 Black Adults- in all 6,195 Persons ; sometimes adminr. the Holy Sacrat. of ye Ld.'8 Supper to 2 or 300 Communicants, in one Journey, besides Churching of Wonien, Visiting the sick, (fee, d'c. I have reason to believe that my Health and Constitution is much Impair'd and Broken, by reason of my contin. Labours in my Office, and also from the Injurious treatment I have often reed, from the adversaries of our Church and Constitution ; for w'ch I do, and pray God to forgive thorn, and turn their hearts" [35]. Ij
After three years' more itineration work he was appointed to a settled Mission, St. Paul's, and died in 1759, having received into the " con- gregation of Christ's flock " 10,000 persons by baptism [86].
Another Colonial candidate for Holy Orders, Mr. E. Jones, walked from Liverpool to London, and for the last four days of the journey he was reduced to living " upon a Penny a Day " [37].
Those instances show that even North Carolina might have furnished a sufficient number of Clergy had ordination been obtainable on the spot. The neglect arising from the want of a Bishop must have been great when a Missionary could report : —
" I found the people of the Church of England disheartened, and dispersed like bheep, but have collected them into about forty congregations, or have as many preaching places where I meet them, consisting on a moderate calculation, of seven thousand souls men, women and children or 900 familys, inhabiting a country of one hundred and eighty miles in length and one hundred and twenty in breadth " [38]. [L., Rev. T. S. Drage, Fob. 28, 1771.]
The Society had long had reason to complain that the inhabitants of North CaroUna, though frequently called upon to build churches and parsonages and to fix glebes and salaries for settled Missionaries, did little or nothing [89]. Up to 1764 only one glebe-house had been finished, but in that year Governor Dobbs obtained some better
pro onl
NORTH CAROLINA.
u
provision for the maintenance of the Clergy, whose number, then only six, increased threefold in the next seven years [40].I
But in 1775 the Rev. D. Earl reported that he had " not received a shilling of his salary from his parish for near three years." This was partly owing to the political troubles. During the Revolution the case of the clergy, who wished not to offend, but to be left at liberty quietly to perform their duties, was " truly pitiable." Some were " suspended, deprived of their salaries, and in the American manner proscribed by the Committees " of the Revolutionists. " No line of con- duct could protect them from injury ; " and the Rev. J. Reed, who was one of those " advertised in the Gazette," did not long survive the treatment he received.
Throughout the most trying period, however, the Rev. C.Pettiorew was enabled to cuntinue his Missionary journeys and to baptize 3,000 infants within eight years, and though some Missionaries were obliged to " engage in merchandise " or " other secular employment to obtain a subsistence for their families," the North Carolina clergy on the whole suffered less than their brethren in the other Colonies. In 1783 the Society withdrew its aid from its last Missionary in the Province (the Rev. D. Eakl), having reason to beUeve he had " a very suflScient maintenance " from other sources [41].
Statistics. — In North Carolina (area, 52,250 sq. miles), where (1708-83) the Society assisted in maintaining 83 Missionaries and planting 22 Central Stations (as detailed on p. 850), there are now 1,399,750 inhabitants, of whom about 42,000 are Church Members and 8,410 Communicants, under the care of 02 Clergymen and 2 Bishops. [See also the Table on pp. 86-7 and p. 850.]
' Beferencea (Chapter IV.)— [1] A MSS., V. 1, No. 129. [2] Keith's Journal, p. 64. [3] Jo., V. 1, Feb. 27, 1702, and Feb. 15 and March 17, 1704. [4] Jo., V. 1, Nov. 17, 1704; A MSS., V. 2, No. 14 ; App. Jo. A, p., 252-7. [5] Sec Humphreys' Historical Account of the Society, pp. 129-30; Hawkins' do., p. 64. [6] Jo., V. 1, March 30 and April 20, 1705. [7] Jo., V. 1, May 17, 1706. [8J Jo., V. 1, Oct. 17, 1707, Sept. 17, 1708. [9] A MSS., V. 4, Nos. 61, 105. [10] A MSS., V. 5, No. 102. [11] Jo., V. 1, July 21, 1710. [12] Jo., V. 1, Oc 20, 1710; Feb. 8, 1711. [18] A MSS., V. 6, Nos. 187-8. [14] Jo., V. 2, Ut^.^h 22, 1711; A MSS., V. 5, Nos. 178-6. [15] Humphrey Historical Account of the Society, pp. 137-8 ; Jo., V. 3, Jan. 21, 1715. [lej A MSS., V. 10, p. 73. [17] Jo., V. 2, Oct. 9 and 16, 1713. [18] Jo., V. 2, p. 228 ; A MSS., V. 7, p. 419. [10] A MSS., V. 10, pp. 93-4. [20] Jo. v. 14, p. 48 ; Jo., V. 15, pp. 132-3 ; Jo., V. 16, pp. 165-C ; R. 1757, p. 48 ; R. 1764, p. 86 ; R. 1769, p. 32. [21] A MSS., V. 5, No. 102. [22] A MSS., V. 7, p. 418 ; [23] A MSS., V. 10, p. 70. [24] R. 1748, p. 43 ; R. 1749, p. 48 ; R. 1757, p. 48 ; R. 1772, p. 32 ; R. 1773, p. 40. [25] A MSS., V. 7, pp. 305-6. [26] A MSS., V, 12, pp. 137-8. [27] A MSS., V. 10, p. 66. [28] Trot's Laws of the British Plantations in America, p. 83 (N.B. The Society assisted in the publication of Trot's book by taking 250 copies ; see Jo., April 29, 1720, and Feb. 17, 1721). [20] A MSS., V. 10, pp. 72-8. [30] R. 1732, p. 62; Jo., V. 6, pp. 37-8, 199; R. 1734, p. 63; R. 1739, pp. 58-4. [31] R. 1740, p. 54 ; R. 1748, p. 43 ; R. 1749, p. 48. [32] Jo., V. 9, pp. 272-8 ; R. 1759, p. 57. [33] R. 1753, p. 69. [34] Jo., V. 11, p. 10 ; B MSS., V. 16, p. 121. [35] Jo., V. 12, pp. 192-4 ; B MSS., V. 20, pp. 132-3. [36] R. 1759, pp. 57-8. [37] B MSS., V. 5, pp. 178, 205. [38] Jo., V. 19, p. 119 ; B MSS., V. 5, p. 33. [30] R. 1749, p. 48. [40] R. 1764, pp. 84, 86 ; Jo., V. 16, pp. 164-6 ; B MSS., V. 5, p. 201. [41] Jo., V. 21, pp. 17, 504 ; Jo., V. 28, pp. 73, 198, 400 ; R. 1775, p. 47.
l II
1
11
:-j
1
?6
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
r- Ij .V
CHAPTER V.
GEOBGIA.
1 r::v,:r
, Georoia was establiBhcd aw an English Colony in 1783 with the object of protecting the Bouthorn provinces of North America ugainst the encroochnienta of the UpaniardH and French, and at the Banie time affording an aHylum to poor EngliHh families and to those ProtestantH in Germany who were being persecuted because of their religion. By the exertions of a philanthropiHt, General James Oglethorpe, a charter was granted by George II. in 17B2, placing the administration of the Colony in the hands of a Corpora- tion of Trustees — mosLly Cluirchmen — iit whose instance not only was liberty of conscience guaranteed, but the Trustees themselves were debarred from receiving any "profit whatsoever " by or from the undertaking. The first settlers sent out by the Trustees consisted of US families, in all about 120 " Hober, industrious and moral persons." They wore led by General Oglethorpe, and, embarking at Deptford, after a service in Milton Church, they arrived at Georgia in January 1738. They were accompanied by the Rev. Henuy Herbeut, D.D., who after three months' ministrations returned to England to die. The expulsion of '25,000 German Protestants from the province of Saltzburg, Bavaria, on account of their religion, evoked English sympathy to the extent of £33,000, and some 250 of these exiles were, by the aid of the S.P.C.K., sent to Georgia about 1735.
It appears that Dr. Herbert was not intended to remain in Georgia, for before he and the first settlers had reached the country the Trustees for establishing the Colony memorialised the Society in the following terms : —
" That in pursuance of powers granted to them by His Majesty they have sent out a number of families of His Majestie's subjects to settle in Georgia, and that to provide for the establishing a regular Ministry according to the Church of England they have already directed the laying out a site for the Church, and have allotted three hundred acres of land for glebe for the Minister but in regard it will be some years before the glebe can produce a sufficient maintenance for the said Minister, they humbly hope that the Society will deem it to be within ye intent of their Charter to make the like allowance to the Rev. Mr. Samuel Qcincy the Minister chosen to be settled among them as they do for the Missionaries establisht in the other Colonies till such time as the glebe shall be sufficiently improved for his maintenance as likewise that they will favour the Trustees with a benefaction of such books or furniture as they have usually given upon the first foundation of Churches. That they have received some benefactions for religious purposes which they have already set apart for erecting a Church for the town of Savannah clearing the glebe land and building the Minister's house. Benj. Martin, Secretary, Trustees Office Palace Court Westminster 17th of Jan, 1732 " [1733].
The prayer of the Trustees was granted [1].
The Eev. John Wesley became the successor of Mr. Quincy. The following Minute records his appointment as a Missionary of the Society, at a meeting held on January 16th, 1736, at which the Bishops of London, Lichfield and Coventry, Rochester, and Gloucester, and others, were present : —
" A memorial of the trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America was read, setting forth that the Rev. Mr. Samuel Quincy, to whom the Society had been pleased, upon their recommendation, to allow a salary of fifty pounds per annum, has by letter certified to the said trustees, that he is desirous of leaving the said Colony of Georgia, and returning home to England in the month of March next.
OBORGIA.
27
Lt.
to which they have agreed ; and the said trustees recommend the Bev. Mr. John AVealey to the Society, that they would allow to him the said fifty pounds p. annum from the time Mr. Quincy shall leave the said Colony, in the same manner Mr. Quincy had it. Agreed that the Society do approve of Mr. Wesley as a proper person to be a Missionary at Georgia, and that fifty pounds per annum be allowed to Mr. Wesley from the time Mr. Quincy's salary shall cease " [2J.
Wesley had sailed for Georgia on October 14, 1735 — that is, before his name was submitted to the Society. " His first design," as he informed the Society in a letter written from Savannah on July 26» 1737—
•' was to receive nothing of any man but food to eat and rayment to put on, and those in kind only, that he might avoid, as far as in him lay, worldly desires and worldly cares ; but being afterwards convinced by his friends that he ought to consider the necessities of his iiock, as well as his own, he thankfully accepted that bounty of the Society, which he needed not for his own personal subsistance " [3].
Arriving at Savannah in February, 1786, Wesley found little oppor- tunity of carrying out liis design of evangelising the heathen, owing to the bad hves of his countrymen. Over his European congregations he exercised the strictest discipline — he baptized children by immersion, accepted none but Communicants as sponsors, catechised the children on Sundays after the Second Lesson in the afternoon, refused the Holy Communion to Dissenters (unless previously admitted into the Church), or to read the Burial Service over the unbaptized. He also took a journey to Charleston (South Carolina) to make a formal complaint to the Bishop's Commissary, of a person who had been marrying some of his parishioners without banns or licence. During his visit, it being the time of their annual Visitation, " I had," said Wesley, " the pleasure of meeting with the Clergy of South Carolina ; among whom, in the afternoon, there was such a conversation, for several hours, on ' Christ our Eighteousuess,' as I had not heard at any Visitation in England, or hardly any other occasion " [4].
The claims of the settlers at Savannah and neighbourhood left him no time for preaching to the Indifins, although he made several attempts to do so. Thus his Journal records :—
" Saturday, Oct. 29, 1737.— Some of the French of Savannah were present at the prayers at Highgate. The next day I received a message from them all, that, as I read prayers to the French of Highgate, who were but few, they hoped I would do the same to those of Savannah, where there was a large number who did not understand English. Sundoy, 30th. —I began to do so, and now I had full employment for that holy day. Tne first English prayers lasted from five to half- past six. The Italian, which I read to a f" ^'^audois, began at nine. The second service for the English (including the Se> i -ndthe Holy Communion) continued from half an hour past ten to half on iiuar past twelve. The French Service began at one. At two I catechised the children. About three I began the English Service. After this was ended, I had the happiness of joining with as many aa my largest room would hold in reading, prayer, and singing praise ; and about six the service of the Moravians, so-called, began, at which I was glad to be present, not as a teacher, but a learner."
If, as his labours show, Wesley spared not himself, it must be con- fessed he spared not his flock. The strictest discipline of the Church might have been thought sufficient for those who were as yet babes in Christ, but weighted with rules of his own [which he called " Apostolical institutions "] the burdens were heavier than could be borne.
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SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OP THE GOSPEL.
While yet tlissatisfied with the fruit of his labours, an event occurred which caused him to leave Georgia. A rebuke which he found occasion to administer to a member of his congregation- -a lady for whom before her marriage he had entertained an affection — having been angrily received, he refused to admit her to the Holy Communion, since she had failed to comply with the rubric requiring notice of inten- tion to communicate and open repentance of her fault. On this the husband charged him before the Recorder and Magistrates with defaming his wife and repelling her wit' ' cause. Wesley denied the first charge, also the right of a soculi art to adjudicate on the Recond — a matter purely ecclesiastical. The whole Colony became involved in the quarrel. A true bill was found by the grand jury, twelve, however, protesting; and for months courts were held, and slanderous affidavits received, without Wesley having an opportunity of answering them. These vexatious delays and the prospect of im- paired usefulness decided him to return to England. The magistrates Bought to prevent his departure, but he disregarded their order, and on December 2, 1787, he records in his Journal : —
"Being now only a prisoner at larRo, in a place where I know, by experience, every day would give fresh opportunity to procure evidence of words I never said, and actions I never did, I saw clearly the hour was coino for leaving this place ; and as soon as evening prayers were over, about eight o'clock, the tide then serving, I shook off the dust of my feet and left Georgia, after having preached the Gospel there (not as I ought, but as I was able) one year and nearly nine months "[5].
Besides the Mission at Savannah — w' vas renewed in 1789 — others were opened by the Society. The ^. x. Bosomwobth found at Frederica in 1744 " that the people had been too long as sheep with- out a shepherd, and driven to and fro with every wind of doctrine " [6], The Society joined Avith Dr. Bray's Associates in supporting a school- master for the negroes in 1751, and an improvement in the slaves was soon admitted by their owners [7]. At Augusta the Rev. S. Frink, in 1706, who made some converts among the negroes, reported his efforts to convert the Cheeksaw [Chickasaw] Indians '• all to no purpose while many of the white people " were " as destitute of a sense of religion as the Indians themselves " [8].
For although the Georgia Assembly had (Act of 1758) divided the province into eight parishes, and made provision towards the building of a church and the support of a clergyman in each parish, so little advantage was taken of the Act that the Church of England remained established in name only [9]. The condition of the settlers in 1769, when there were but two churches in the whole of the country, and these 150 miles apart, was thus described by Mr. Frink : —
" They seem in general to have but very little more knowledge of a Saviour than the aboriginal natives. Many hundreds of poor people, both parents and children, in the interior of the province, liave no opportunity of being instructed in the principles of Christianity or even in the being of a God, any further than nature dictates " [10].
It was for such as these that the Church in America needed and desired a Bishop " to bring again the out-casts " and " seek the lost." To indifference and opposition succeeded persecution. The revo-
OEOROIA.
29
lutionary war found tho Rev. J. Skymouu at Augusta. For " two years after the hreaking-out of the rebellion " ho porforraed tho dutioH of his parish, thouf,'h often "threatened by the mob," In 1771) ho was a prisoner in the " rebel camp " for several days, but owing to tho (uire of the officer in connnand* he was " well used." He reached homo to find " one of his children a corpse and the rest of his family very sick." Some months after his house was occupied by a rebel regiment and the church turned into a hospital ; barracks were built on part of the glebo and the remainder was sold. Tho success of the British troops enabled Jiim to regain possession of his parsonage, but the enemy renewing the attack he " fled into a deep thick swamp, where he remained, in the greatest anxiety, five days and nights without any shelter. A party Avas sent in search of him, who threatened his life, if they found him, but, it pleased God, he escapod undiscovered." His family, however, were " stripped of everything valuable even of their clothing and pro- visions," and "85 innocent loyalists" in Augusta were "murdered" "in their houses." For some time Mr. Seymour took refuge at Savannah, where he assisted the Rev. J. Brown (another S.P.G. Missionary detained there), and represented his own parisliioners in the " Commons House of Assembly." Eventually he made his escape to St. Augustine in East Florida, and there officiated imtil (1783-4) tho Spaniards took possession of the Province t [11].
Statihtich. — In O. uKia (area 59,475 8q. miles), where (l71)!)-8a) the Society assiHtwl in mamtaining lii MiKKionaries and planting 4 Central Htationn (aH detailed on p. HOI), there are now 1,543,180 inhabitantH, of whom about 'J9,()()0 arc Church Memberx and 5,975 ComniunicantH, under the caro of 38 Clergymen and a Bishop. [See also the Tablo on pp. H(i-7 and p. 851.J
llefermccs (Chapter V.)— [1] Jo., V. 6, pp. «»-4, 7)1 ; A MSS. V. 24, p. 74. [2] Jo., V. 0, p. 305. [3j .lo., V. 7, pp. 261-2. [4] Wesley'H Journal, 17aO-7, and Hawkins' Account of the Society, pp. 'JS-fl. [5] Wesley'a Journal, Oct. 29 and Dec. 2, 1737. Tyennan's Wesley, V. 1, pp. 155-8; Bp. Perry's History of the American Church, V. 2, pp. 341-5. [0] Jo., V. 9, p. 839 ; R. 1744, p. 53. [7] Jo., V. 11, pp. 805, 811 ; K. 1752, p. 54. [8] Jo., V. 17, p. 97; R. 1700, p. 08. [0] Jo., V. 18, pp. 205-fl. [10 J .lo., V. 18, pp. 75, 205 ; Hawkins' Account of S.P.G., p. 104. fll] Jo., V. 22, pp. »10-1«, 405-« ; Jo., V. 23, pp. 195-6, 884-0 ; R. 1781, pp. 49-52 ; R. 1783, p. 45. [llaj Jo., V. 22, p. 312.
* General Williamson, whose " humanity " was " not unrewarded " when soon after lie liimself became a prisoner — to the British forces [llaj.
t Florida was ceded to Spain in 1783, and to the United States in 1821.
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SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
i
CHAPTER VI.
VIBGINIA.
m
ViBoiNiA had the advantage of being planted (under a London Company) Ly settlers who were mostly members of the Church of England. As soon as the Colony was fairly established they began to make provision for their souls as Christians, as well as for their temporal concerns as merchants. In 1612 the whole country was laid out into Parishes or Townships, Churches were built, and an Act of Assembly fixed a salary upon the Minister. >
The "maintenance" being "hurt by disuse," in 1701 nearly lialf of the forty to forty-six parishes, containing 40,000 people, were un- supplied with Clergy. Still the Colony was better provided than any other, and therefore the Society's assistance was limited to gratuities to two clergymen there, in 1702 and 1725, and the supply of religious books [1].
In 1702 a Mr. George Bond offered to convey to the Society his right and title to an estate of 950 acres of land in Virginia. The offer was accepted, but the title proving " dubious" the matter dropped [2J.
Keith, who with Talbot visited the country in April 1703, records in his Journal : -
" May 23, Sunday, 1708, 1 preached at the Church in Princess Ann County in Virginia, on Heb. 12, ] , and I baptized eight children there. Mr. Talbot preached the same day at a Chappel belonging to the same county, and baptized ten children. The whole county is but one parish, and is about fifty miles in length ; the People are well affected, but they had no Minister, and greatly desire io have one ; and as they informed us, the Minister's salary being paid in Tobacco (as it is generally all over Virginia and Maryland *) the Tobacco of that county was so low that it could not maintain him " [3].
Statistics (1802). — Area of Virginia, 42,450 sq. miles; population, l,.'>12,5(i.'i ; Church Members, about 110,000 ; Communicants, 22,151 ; Clergyman, 132 ; Bishops, 2. [Sec also the Table on pp. BO-7 and p. 851.]
Befcrcnces (Chapter VI.)— 11] Jo., V. 1, June 26, 1702, Dec. 17, 1703, June 1(! and Aug. 28, 1704, May ao, 1707 ; Jo., V. 2, Dec. 5, 1712 ; Jo., V. 4, March 18, 1720. [21 Jo., V. 1, Sept. 18 and Dec. a and 18, 1702 ; R. 1700, p. 88. [3] Keith's Journal, pp. 0 1-5.
• [See p. 851.]
In
31
CHAPTER VII.
MARYLAND.
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Mabyland — so named in honour of Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I. — was first settled in 16S4 un<^er a Charter panted to Lord Baltimore, a Boman Catholic. Toleration having been granted to all who professed the Christian religion, the Colony, at first mainly Romanist, lost its exclusive character, and local provision was made for establishing the Church of England by Act of Assembly in 1692 &c.
In 1701 Maryland had a population of 25,000, settled Jn thirty parishes, and although only about half supplied with Clergy, its claims could not compare with those of other Colonies, and therefore it received from the Society (and that only for a short time) occasional help in the settlement of clergymen and libraries [1].
The province was visited by Keith and Talbot in July 1708. On "July 4, Sunday" (wrote Keith), " I preached at Annapolis on 1 Thess. i. 5, and had a large auditory well affected ; my Sermon, at the request of a worthy person who heard it, was printed at Annapolis, mostly at his charge ; and copies of it sent by him to many parts of the country." Being requested "to have some friendly conference " with the Quakers at Herring Neck, Keith endeavoured to do so, but r
" had spoke but a very few sentences when " (as he says) " they interrupted me very rudely . . . abused me with reviling speeches in nieer (Jenerals as the manner generally of the Quakers is, to all who endeavour to reform them from their Errors, and especially to any who with a good conscience upon Divine Conviction, have forsaken their Erroneous ways, to whom they are most outragious, as the Jews were to St. Paul, after his conversion to Christianity."
At Shrewsbury he preached also, "where was a large auditory out of diverse Parishes : But that parish of Shrewsbury had no Minister, nor have had for some considerable time." Here he had some discourse with a Quaker trader who was " extream ignorant," denying he had " a created soul " [2]. The Society appointed a Missionary to this place in 1707, who, however, failed to reach his destination, being carried away into captivity. His case deserves notice as illustrating some of the dangers which Missionaries had to encounter in those days. The Rev. William Coediner, an Irish Clergyman, received his appointment to Shrewsbury in January 1707, with an allowance at the rate of j^60 per annum, on condition that he transported himself and family there *' by the first opportunity." Three months passed before he could find a ship, and when on April 13 he embarked on the Dover, man-of- war, at Spithead, it was only for a day — for the Dover being ordered on a cruise he landed, and the ship returned disabled. On May 24 he re-embarked on the Chester, man-of-w^ar. After being *• sixteen times out at sea " — sometimes fifty and sixty leagues— and driven back by contrary winds or the French, the Chester at length left Plymouth in company with five men-of-war and 200 merchantmen in the evening of October 10. At noon on the next day they were engaged by fourteen
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8S8 SOCIETY FOB THE PROPAQATION OF THE OOSPEL.
French men-of-war, and in two hours' time were all taken except the Boyal Oak (escaped) and the Devonshire (blown up). The CJiester was on fire several times, and the thirty-seven men on the quarter-deck were all killed and wounded except the captain and two others. The prisoners were searched •' to the very skin " and deprived of all they had. The French sailors, taking compassion on the women and children, gave some things back, which the chief officers then appropriated, even the shoes and stockings of the little children. On October 19 the prisoners were landed at Brest, having suffered from exposure and want of food and clothing. There Mr. Cordiner was offered provision for his mother, wife, and two children if he would betake himself to a convent. On the way to Dinan, which was reached on December 5, they were subjected to ill treatment from the Provost. A great many sick men were " carryed in a very pitiful conr' '^'on, some . . . being blind with the small-pox and whenever they t plained " they were beaten.
At Fugiers and at Dinan Mr. i^ordiner ministered to his fellow- prisoners, and encouraged them. An Irish priest (Father Hagan) having stopped his doing so in Dinan Castle, some of the merchant- men procured a room in the town, where service was held every Sunday and on holy days. Several " who never understood it before " were instructed in the Liturgy and conformed. During their detention at Dinan one of Mr. Cordiner's children and his servant died, and a child was born to him. He was " several times . . . imprisoned for two or three hours, and daily threatened with close restraint and confinement." The number of English prisonftrs, at first 1,000, was increased to 1,700, but some 200 died. The prisoners " were mightily cheated in their allowance and too much crowded together, and the hospital at Dinan was a place to despatch them out of this world."
When " the design of the Pretender" was in hand the French abused and beat their prisoners and applauded the Scotch ; but when they found " that he was obhged to return to France . . . they cursed the Scotch bitterly," saying, " Scot will be Scot still, always false." Upon which disappointment the prisoners were sent to England, landing at Wey- mouth on December 11 [3].
The truth of Mr. Cordiner's statementswas confirmed by a certificate signed by sixty-two of the masters and officers, his fellow-prisoners, who also testified that " by his sound and wholesom Doctrine, pious Admonition, exemplary life and conversation "he
" established and confirmed several in that most pure & holy Beligion from W" they would otherwise have been seduced & drawn away, by the sly insinuations and false Delusions of our sedulous and crafty Adversaries, and hath in all other respects discharged his Ministerial office and Function with that diligenc* carefulness and sobriety and hath behaved himself with that Prudence, Piety, and Zeal as doth become his character and Profession " [4].
When in 1729 the Maryland Clergy were in danger of having their salaries " considerably diminished " by the action of the Local Assembly, the Society supported them in successfully opposing the confirmation of the Act, and
" Besolved that the Lord Baltimore bo acquainted that in case the Clergy of Maryland be obliged thro* the hardships they suffer by this Act to leave MaryUai
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the Society will employ them in their Mission in other Governments, and will not make any allowance to them or any other Clergymen as their Missionaries in Maryland, there having been a sufficient maintenance settled upon them by a former Act of Assembly, part of which is by this Act taken away and thereby the Clergy rendered incapable of subsisting themselves in that Qovernment " [5.]
Statistics (1892). — Area of Maryland, 12,210 square n^iles ; Population, 984,943 ; Church Members, about 164,000; Communicants, 30,9SU; Clergymen, 218; Bishops, 2 ; [See also the Table on pp. 86-7 and p. 851.]
Eeferences (Chapter VII.)— fl] Jo., V. 1, Mar. 19, 1703; Nov. 17, 1704; Mar. 16, 1705 1 Jan. 17, Feb. 14, Apr. 9, May 30, Sep. 17, 1707 ; Mar. 19, 1708 ; Jo., V. 2, Nov. 29, 1711 ; Mar. 20 and 27, 1712. [2] Keith's Journal, pp. «C-7, 72. [3j App. Jo., B No. 117 (1) ; Jo., V. 1, Jan. 81, Mar. 7, Sep. 15, 1707 ; Mar. 5, and May 21, 1708 ; July 15, 1709. [4] App. Jo., B No. 117 (2). [5] Jo., V. 5, pp. 210-1, 210, 225.
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CHAPTER VIII.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania was originally settled by Swedes and Dutch; the Swedes formally surrendered to the Dutch in 1655, and the Dutch to the English in 1664. In 1680 the country was granted by Charter to William Penn, from whom it took its name, the first English settlers consisting of 2,000 Quakers taken over by him. The Dutch were Calvinists; the Swedes, Lutherans. The Quakers were followed from the mother country by other denominations, including some members of the Chur'ili of England. Religious divisions set in among the Quakers ; the other inhabitants followed each what was good in his own eyes; so that in 1701 "the youth" of the country were "like those in the nsighbouring provinces, very debauch't and ignorant " ; [1] and the population of 20,000 were for the most part living in general neglect of public worship of God, and without the instituted means of grace and salvation. The Swedes from their first settlement in 1636 and the Dutch were partly provided with Ministers ; but the English Churcli was not set up till 1095, when Christ Church, Philadelpliia, was built under the direction of the Rev. T. Clayton, then appointed there.
In 1700 the Rev. Evan Evans was sent to Philadelphia by Bishop , Compton of London. His labours were so successful that congrega- tions consisting chiefly of persons brought over from the Quakers and other sectaries soon joined the Church of England in Philadelphia and other places ; these he endeavoured to ground in the faith " till, they were formed into proper districts and had Ministers sent over to them by the Venerable Society " [la].
On the application of the Church congregation at Philadelphia William III. settled an allowance for a minister and a schoolmaster there, and the Society in January and February 1702 bore the cost- between £"80 and £40 — of the Letters Patent for giving effect to the same [2]. On November 5 of the same year Keith and Talbot arrived at Philadelphia, "and were kindly received by the two Ministers there, and the Church People, and especially by the late converts from Quakerism, who were become zealous Members of the Church." On. the next day, Sunday, both preached in the church, " and had a very great auditory, so that the church could not contain them, but many stayed without and heard " [8]. Their preaching here and elsewhere
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prepared the way for resident Missionaries, whom the Society were not slow to send, the first being the Rev. H. Nichols, in 1703 [4]. He was stationed at Chester, or Uplands, where the people had begun building a church, but as the Vestry informed the Society " We never had so much reason to hope that ever the Gospell would be propagated, in these of all other Forreign Parts, till now we find ourselves to be the subject of your great care " [5]. The Philadelphia ^' Minister and Vestry " also wrote in 1704 : —
" We can never be sufficiently tliankf ull to Divine Piovidence, who hath raised you up to maintain the Honor of religion, and to engage in the great work of promoting the Salvation of Men. Gratitude, and an humble acknowledgemt. of your noble and charitable Resolutions of propagating the Sacred Gospell in these remote and dark corners of the world, is not only a duty, but a just debt to you from all true Professors of Christianity. We cannot but with the profoundest deference make mention of those noble instances of piety and Beneficience you exhibited to the Church of God in generall in these uncultivated parts since you v.-ere first incorporated, particularly we crave leave to return you our most thankful! acknowledgements for your pious care in sending over the Eev. Mi\ Keith whose unparallel'd zeal and assiduity, whose eminent piety, whose indefatigable diligence (beyond what could be expected from a person of his declining years), whose frequent preaching and learned conferences, whose strenuous and elaborate writing made him highly and signally instrumenall of promoting the Church and advancing the number of Christians not only here but in the neighbouring provinces " [6].
Thus encouraged the Society continued to send Missionaries to Pennsylvania to minister to the settlers, Welsh as well as English, and to evangelise the heathen. The Colonists showed their desire for the Church's ministrations by building and endowing churches, and otherwise cortributing to the support of their pastors ; and it was to the Church rather than to Dissenting teachers that the Quakers turned for baptism when they became Christians [7].
The Rev. T. Crawford, after two years' work at Dover, reported in 706:--
" At my first comeing I found the people all stuffed with various opinions, but not one in" the place that was so much of a churchman as to stand Godfather for a child : so that I was two months in the place before I baptised any, on that account . . . but now (I thank God) I have baptised a great number, they bring their children with sureties very orderly to the church ; and also people at age a great many the greater part whereof were Quakers and Quaker children for by God's blessing upon my labours I have not only gained the heart of my hearers but some that were my greatest enemies at first, and Quakers that were fully resolved against me are come over and have joyned themselves to our Communion. I have baptised families of them together, so I have dayly additions to the con- gregation " [8].
In Sussex County the Rev. W. Becket (1721-4) effected such a refor- mation in the lives of the people as to draw forth the " thanks of the Magistrates and gentlemen of the Church of England " in the county [9]. Within three years three churches were built in his Mission, •' yet none of them," he wrote in 1724, " will contain the hearers that constantly attend the Church service " [10]. Grateful too were the Welsh at Oxford and Radnor, to be ministered to in their own tongue, while only "poor settlers" "in the wilderness." The people at Radnor "built a church in hopes of being supplyed with the right worship of God" [11], hopes which were first gratified in 1714 by the appointment of the Rev. J. Clubb. In referring to his death.
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but er at
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which occurred in December 1715, the Churcliwardens and Vestry
wrote in 1720 :—
" Mr. Clubb our late Minister was the first that undertook the care of Badnor And Oxon and he paid dear for it, for the great fategue of rideing between the two Churches, in such dismall wayes and weather as we generally have for four months in winter, soon put a period to his Life " [121.
The death of a Missionary was frequently followed by the loss of a congregation to the Church. " For want of Ministers episcopally ordained " " many large congregations of Churchmen " were " obliged to join with the Dissenters in worship," as appeared from the answer of a Presbyterian teacher, who being asked how his congregation stood affected in those unsettled times, answered he was " happy in having his congregation chiefly consisting of Church of England people who gave themselves up to none of those wild notions and €nthusiastick ravings which some people practiced so much and were so fond of" [13]. The disadvantageous position of the Church of America for want of a Bishop was forcibly represented by the Rev. H. Neill of Oxford. Himself formerly a Presbyterian minister he had, eince conforming, educated for the ministry of the Church a nephew, Mr. Hugh Wilson, who on returning from ordinatior in England was, with the Rev. Mr. Giles, shipwrecked and drowned within sight of land in 1766. On hearing of this Mr. Neill wrote (May 19) : —
" Such, alas ! are the misfortunes, and I may say, persecutions, that attend the poor distress'd Church of England in America, that whilst the Dissenters can send out an innumerable tribe of teachers of all sorts without any expences, we must send three thousand miles cross the Atlantic Ocean, at the expence of all wo me worth, sometimes, and as much more as we have credit for, as well as the risque of our lives, before we can have an ordination — this is a difficulty that has, and always will, prevent the growth of the Church in America. Few Englishmen that can live at home will undertake the Mission — the great expences and dangers of the Seas that the Americans must encounter with, before they can obtain an ordination, damps their spirits, and forces many of them (who have strong in- clinations to the Church) to join the Dissenters, and become teachers among them — thus, when a vacancy happens among them, it can be filled in an instant, when a vacancy among us [it] is some considerable time before they [we] can have a minister. All this time the Dissenters are making such havock among the Church people, that when a Missionary comes to one of these destitute places, he has all the work to begin again and many years before he can collect his scattered sheep.
" The Dissenters very well know that the sending a Bishop to America, would contribute more to the Encrease of the Church here than all the money that has been raised by the Venerable Society. . . . Alas ! we see and feel the power of our enemies and weakness of our friends, and can only mourn in secret and pray for better times " [14].
One of the earlier Missionaries, the Rev. G. Ross of Chester, on the return voyage from England in 1711 fell into the hands of the French, by whom he was " carryed prisoner into France," where, he wrote : —
" I as well as others was strip't of all my cloaths from the crown of my head to the sole of my ffoot ; in a word, I was left as naked as I was born, and that by means of the greedy priest that was Chaplain of the Ship : he perceived that my cloaths were better than his own, and therefore he never ceased to importune his Captain till he got leave to change, forsooth, with me ; so that ! am now cloathed in raggs, in testimony of my bondage " [Letter from Dinant, March 10, 1711.] [16]
In his Mission of Chester, to which when released he returned, Quakerism had •* taken deep root," and was " cultivated by art and
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policy and recommended by fashion and interest," so that " the doc- trine of Christ" met "with much reproach and opposition" [16]. Some fifty years later, one of his successors, the Rev. G. Craig, estimated the Church members in Pennsylvania to be less than one- fiftieth of the whole population [17]. Nevertheless, in spite of numerical weakness and other disadvantages, the Church gained in strength wherever a faithful Missionary was maintained.
Thus at Perquihoma the congregation increased greatly " by the daily coming over of Boman Catholicks, Anabaptists and Quakers " [18], and at Conostogoe and Newcastle by Irish immigrants, of whom from 8,000 to 10,000 arrived in Pennsylvania (in 1729-30), many being shepherded by the Missionaries, the Bishop of Baphoe also remembering them by a present of Bibles, Prayer Books, &<:. [19]. In Sussex County the several "orderly, well disposed congregations" were joined by Dissenters ; there were baptisms every Sunday, and " scarce a Com- munion " but what some " were added to it." The " country-born people " were generally members of the Church, and Quakerism strangely decayed " even in that Province designed to be the Nursery of it" [20]. Strangers who "accidentally attended" service at Apoquiniminck expressed " an agreeable surprise at the decency and regularity of it," and both here and in many other places, previous to the Bevolutionary movement, Dissenters flocked to the churches, which in the summer season were so crowded that, for want of room and fresh air, the Missionaries had " to preach under the green trees " [21].
The Eev. C. Inglis (who became the first Colonial Bishop) wrote in 1763 that his Mission in Kent County was in " a flourishing state, if building and repairing churches, if crowds attending the publick worship of God and other religious ordinances, if some of other denominations joining . . . and a revival of a spirit of piety in many can denominate it such " ; though there was " still left Lukewarmness, Ignorance and vice enough to humble him sufficiently and exercise, if lit had it, " an apostolic zeal " [22].
The inhabitants of York County in 1756 " acknowledged the infinite service done by the Society's Missionaries in that dark and distant part of the world," and particularly by the Rev. T. Barton, who, they wrote,
" has distinguished himself at this time of public danger with so much zeal and warmth in behalf of Liberty and Protestantism that he has endeared himself not only to his own people, but to all Protestant Dissenters there. He has con- stantly persevered by word and by example to inspirit and encourage the people to defend themselves and has often at the head of a number of his couRregations gone to oppose the savage and murderous enemy, which has so good an effect that they are verily persuaded that he has been instrumental undei' God, in preventing many families from deserting their plantations and having the fruits of many years' labours gathered by the hands of rapacious and cruel niurtherers " [23].
The " public danger " was caused by the incursions of the French and Indians, who reduced Cumberland County to a condition " truly deplorable." Mr. Barton reported in 1756 that though his churches were " churches militant indeed, subject to dangers and trials of the most alarming kind," yet he had the pleasure every Sunday to see tho people crowding to them "with their muskets on their shoulders," declaring that they would " dye Protestants and Freemen, sooner than live Idolaters and Slaves " [24J.
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The services rendered by Mr. Barton in organising his people for defensive purposes were thus noticed in a letter from Philadelphia to Mr. Penn, who communicated it to the Society : —
" Mr. Barton deserves the commendations of all lovers of their country ; for he has put himself at the head of his congregations, and marched either by night or day on every alarm. Had others imitated his example, Cumberland would not have wanted men enough to defend it ; nor has he done anything in the military way but what hath increased his character for piety, and that of a sincerely religious man and zealous minister : In short Sir, he is a most wortli}', active and serviceable pastor and Missionary, and as such please to mention him to the Society " [25J.
In 1763-4 Mr. Barton reported : —
" The Churches in this Mission now make as decent an appearance as any Churches in the province, those of Philadelphia excepted. But much more is the pleasure I feel in observing them crowded every Sunday during the summer season with people of almost every denomination, who come, many of them, thirty and forty miles. . . . Amidst all the mad zeal and distractions of the Religionists that surround me, I have never been deserted by any of those whom I had received in charge. . . . This Mission then takes in the whole of Lancaster County (eighty miles in length, and twenty-six in breadth), part of Chester County, and part of Berks ; so that the circumference of my stated Mission only is 200 miles. The county of Lancaster contains upwards of 40,000 souls : of this number, not more than 500 can be reckon'd as belonging to the Church of England ; the rest are German Lutherans, Calvinists, Mennonists, Moravians, New Born, Bunkers, Presbyterians, Seceders, New Lights, Covenanters, Mountain-Men, Brownists, Independents, Papists, Quakers, Jews, &c. Amidst such a swarm of Sectaries, all indulg'd and favour'd by the Government, it is no wonder that the National Church should be borne down. At the last election for the county to chuse assembly-men, sheriffs, coroner, commissioners, assessors, &c., 5,000 freeholders voted, and yet not a single member of the Church was elected into any of these offices. Notwithstanding . . . my people have continued to give proofs of that submission and obedience to civil authority, which it is the glory of the Church of England to inculcate : and, whilst faction and Party strife have been rending the province to pieces, they behav'd themselves as became peaceable and dutiful subjects, never intermeddling in the least ... In the murder of the Indians in this place, and the different insurrections occasioned by this inhuman act, not one of them was ever concern'd. . . . Their conduct upon this occasion has gain'd them much Credit and Honour. Upon the whole, the Church of England visibly gains ground throughout the province. The mildness and excellency of her con- stitution, her moderation and charity even to her enemies, and . . . the indefatigable labours of her Missionaries, must at length recommend her to all, except those who have an hereditary prejudice and aversion to her. The German Lutherans have frequently in their Coetus's propos'd a union with the Church of England, and several of their clergy, with whom I have convers'd, are desirous of addressing . . . my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and . . . Bishop of London upon this subject. A large and respectable congregation of Dutch Calvinists in Philadelphia have already drawn up constitutions, by which they oblige themselves to conform to the Canons and Constitutions of the National Church, and to use her Liturgy and forms, and none else provided they be approv'd of and receiv'd at Home and that my Lord Bishop will grant ordination to such gentlemen as they shall present to him. The Church of England then must certainly prevail at last. She has hitherto stood her ground amidst all t^e rage and wildness of Fanaticism : and whilst Methodists and New Lights have roam'd over the country, ' leading captive silly women,' and drawing in thousands to adopt their .strange and novel doctrines, the members of the Church (a few in Philadelphia «xcepted) have ' held fast the profession of their faith without wavering.' And, if <depriv'd as she is of any legal establishment in her favour, and remote from the immediate influence and direction of her lawful Governor the Bishops, she has stood unmov'd and gain'd a respectable footing— what might be expected if these were onoe to take place. . . . Many of the principal Quakers wish for it [the
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establishment of Episcopac^j in hopes it might be a check to the growth of Presbyterianism, which they dread ; and the Presbyterians . . . would not chuse to murmur at a time when they are obiig'd to keep fair with the Church whose assistance they want against the Combinations of the Quakers, who would willingly crush them " [26].
Mr. Barton had made a favourable impression on the Indians, had held conference with them, and induced some to attend Church ; but he says : —
" Just when I was big with the hopes of being able to do service among these tawny people, we received the melancholy news, that our forces, under the com> mand of General Braddock, were defeated on the 9th of July, as they were marchings to take Duquesne, a French fort upon the Ohio. This was soon succeeded by an alienation of the Indians in our interest ; and from that day to this, poor Penn- sylvania has felt incessantly the sad effects of Popish tyranny and savage cruelty ! A great part of five of her counties has been depopulated and laid waste, and some hundreds of her steadiest sons either murder'd or carried into barbarous cap> tivity"[27]. [Nov. 8, 1766.]
With a view to the conversion of the Indians the Society in 175 ft agreed to allow £100 per annum for the training of native teachers in the College at Philadelphia under the Bev. Dr. Smith [28].
" Nothing can promise fairer to produce these happy effects than the scheme proposed by the honourable Society," wrote Mr. Barton. " In the conversion of Indians many difficulties and impediments will occur, which Europian Missionaries will never be able to remove. Their customs and manner of living are so opposite to the genius and constitution of our people, that they could never become familiar to them. Few of the Indians have any settled place of habitation, but wander about where they can meet with most success in hunting : and whatever beasts or reptiles they chance to take are food to them. Bears, Foxes, Wolves, Baccons, Polecats, and even Snakes, they can eat with as much chearfulness as Englishmea do their best beef and mutton " [29].
Wars and rumours of wars, however, kept the Indians too unsettled to listen to Christian teaching. In 1763 Mr. Barton wrote : —
" The Barbarians have renew'd their hostilities and the country bleeds again under the savage knife. The dreadful news of murdering, burning, and scalping,, is daily convey'd to us and confirmed with shocking additions. Our traders, with goods to the amount of near £200,000, are taken ; our garrisons have been invested, and some of them obliged to surrender. Above fifty miles of the finest country in America are already deserted, and the poor people, having left their crops in the ground, almost ready for the sickle, aie reduced to the most consummate distress" [30].
The obstacles to the conversion of the negroes were not so great ii> Pennsylvania as in some parts of America. As early as 1712 the- Missionaries began to baptize the slaves ; and a Mr. Yeates of Chester was commended by the Eev. G. Ross for his " endeavours to train up his negroes in the knowledge of reUgion " [81]-
Other owners were moved by the Bishop of London's appeal [see p. 8] to consent to the instruction of their slaves ; and the result was the baptism of a considerable number [32]. At Philadelphia th& Rev. G. Ross baptized on one occasion twelve adult negroes, " who were= publickly examined before the congregation and answered to the ad- miration of all that heard them . . . the like sight had never before been seen in that Church " [33]. The sight soon became a common one, and in 1747 the Rev. Dr. Jenney represented that there was a great and daily increasing number of negroes in the city who would with joy attend upon a Catechist for instruction ; that he had baptized
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several, but was unable to add to his other duties ; and the Society, "ever ready to lend a helping hand to such pious undertakings," appointed the Bev. W. Stubqeon to be their Cateohist to the negroes in Philadelphia [84]. Generally the Missionaries showed great dili- gence in this branch of their work, Mr. Neill of Dover baptizing 162 (146 being adult slaves) within about 18 months [85]. The Revo- lutionary War, which put a stop to this and many other good works, entailed much suffering on the 5lissionaries. Mr. Barton reported in 1776 :—
'• I have been obliged to shut up my churches, to avoid the fury of the populace, who would not suffer the liturgy to be us'd, unless the collects and prayers for the King and royal family were omitted, which neither my conscience nor the declara- tion I made and subscrib'd when ordained, would allow me to comply with : — and although I used every prudent step to give no offence, even to those who usurped Authority and Bule, and exercised the severest tyranny over us, yet my life and property have been threaten'd upon meer suspicion of being unfriendly, to, what is call'd the American Cause. Indeed every Clergyman of the Church of England who dar'd to act upon proper principles, was mark'd out for Infamy and Insult. In consequence of which the Slissionaries, in particular, have suffer'd greatly. Some of them have been drag'd from their Horses, assaulted with Stones and Dirt, ducked in water, obliged to flee for their lives, driven from their Habita- tions and Families, laid under arrests and imprison'd — I believe they were all (or, at least, most of them) reduced to the same necessity, with me, of shut- ting up their churches " [36].
The following account of the closing of Apoquimininck Church on Sunday, July 28, 1776, is related by the Rev. P. Reading : — •
"After the Nicene Creed I declared, in form that, as I had no design to resist the authority of the new Government, on one hand, and as I was determined, on the other, not to incur the heavy guilt of perjury by abreach of the most solemn promises, I should decline attending on the public worship for a short time from that day ; but that for the benefit of those who were in full and close communion with me, for comforting them in the present distress, for strengthening them in the faith, for encouraging them to persevere in their profession unto the end, I would administer the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper on (Sept. 8th) that day six weeks. I had purposed to say more on the subject, but the scene became too affecting for me to bear a further part in it. Many of the people present were overwhelmed with deep distress, and the cheeks of some began to be bathed in tears. My own tongu& faltered, and my firmness forsook me ; beckoning, therefore, to the clerk to sing the psalm, I went up into the pulpit, and having exhorted the Members of the Church to • hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering,' and to depend upon the promises of a faithful God for their present comfort and future relief, I finished this irksome business, and Apoquimininck Church from that day has continued shut up " [37].
After being confined to liis house for two years by the rebels, Mr. Barton was left " no choice but to abjure his King, or to leave the country." At his departure for New York in 1778 the people of Pequea and Carnarvon* testified their esteem and regard for him by paying the arrears of his salary, presenting him with £'50, taking a house for his eight children, and " giving the kindest assurances that they should be supported, till it might please God to unite them again."
* These people were accustomed to provoke one another to good works. In 1768 Mr. Bai on introduced to the " notice of the Society Mr. Nathan Evans, an old man belonging to the Caernarvon congregation, whose generosity to the Church " was " perhaps nnequalled " in that part of the world. " Though he acquired his estate by hard labour and Industry," he gave " £100 towards finishing their Church," " porchaaed a glebe of 40 acres for the use of the Minister," and contributed further to the endowment of the Church [S^u],
-^ ,.
40
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAOATION OF THE OOSPEL.
During Lis confinement, being '* no longer allowed to go oul. of the country , . . under penalty of imprisonment," " he secretly met his people on the confines of the counties, chiefly the women (who were not subject to the Penalties of the laws), with their little ones to be catechised, and infants to be christen'd." Under this restriction he " sometimes baptized 30 in a day." The Missionaries were "most grievous sufferers in these days of trial." Most of them " lost their aH," many wore reduced to a state of "melancholy pilgrimage and poverty," and some sank under their calamities, Mr. Barton among the number, *' his long confinement to his house by the Rebels having brought on a dropsy," from which he died* [88]. The Report for 1779 stated there had been " a total cessation of the public worship " in Per.-.oylvania, and almost every Missionary had been driven out of the province [89]. One of those who remained and persevered in the faithful discharge of his duty, "in spite of threats and ill treatment," was the Rev. S. Tinoley of Lewes, who was unable to communicate with the Society for six years (1770-82). During this period he went about Sussex County, and sometimes into Maryland, " strengthening and confirming the brethren," travelling " at least 3,000 miles a year," and baptizing " several thousands . . . and among them, many blacks, from 60 years to 2 months old." He " seldom performed publick service without having at the same time 30, 40, or 60 baptisms." His " difficulties and sufferings " were " many and great " ; often he " scarcely had bread to eai, or raiment to put on," and the Revolutionists were so cruel as to deprive his family of some refreshments which had been sent him, " though his weak and
a medicine
dying wife begged
part onl yof the things
[40].
Statistics. — In Pennsylvania and Delaware (area 47,266 sq. milcB), where (1702-83) the Society aHHisted in maintaining 47 Miflsionariea and planting; 24 Central Stations (as detailed on pp. H!>l-2), there are now 4,429,499 inhabitants, of whom about 809,000 are Churoh Members and 61,818 Communicants, under the care ot 150 Clergymen and 4 Bishops. [See also the Table on pp. 86-7 and p. 851.]
lieferencns (Chapter VIII.) — [1] App. Jo. A, p. 10 ; do. B, p. 1. [la] App. Jo, B, p. 109. [2] Jo., V. 1, Jan. 16 and Feb. 27, 1702. [3] Keith's Journal, p. 54. [4] Jo., V. 1, Feb. 27, 1702 ; Jan. 15 and May 21, 1703. [5] App. Jo. A, pp. 238-9. [6] App. Jo. A, pp. 234-5. [7] Jo., V. 3, p. 215. [81 A MS8., V. 2, p. 160. [9] R. 1722, p. 49 ; Jo., V. 4, p. 252 ; A MSS., V. 16, p. 156. [10] A MSS., V. 18, p. 142. [11] A MSS., V. 12, p. 200. [12] A MSS., V. 14, p. 107. [13] Jo., V. 9, p. 89; R. 1742, p. 60. [14] B MSS., V. 21, p. 125 ; Jo., V. 17, p. 130 ; R. 1766, p. 33. [15] A MSS., V. 6, p. 40 ; Jo., V. 2, Mar. 22, 1711. [16] A MSS., V. 7, p. 510. [17] Jo., V. 16, p. 248; R. 1764, " '^ "- [19] R. 1730, p. 90; R. 1738, p. 54.
. . _ , , -, ,, _..-, ,.. ,,. [22] Jo.,
V. 16, p. 68 ; R. 1733, p. 88. [23] Jo., V. 18, p. 262 ; R. 1766, pp. 54-5. [24] B MSS., V. 21, No. 1, p. (17) 1 ; R. 1750, p. 55. [25] R. 1757, p. 45. [26] B MSS., V. 21, pp. 13-14. [27] B MSS., V. 21, No. 1, p. 15, 16. [28] Jo., V. 17, p. 394 ; R. 1756, pp. 52-3. I 29] B MSS., V. 21, No. 1, p. 20. [30] Jo., V. 16, p. 21 ; R. 1763, p. 92 ; B MSS., V. 21, p. 13rt. [31] Jo., V. 2, p. 251. [32] R. 1729, p. 89 ; R. 1731, p. 49 ; Jo., V. 6, pp. 19-20. [33] Jo., V. 9, p. 87 ; R. 1742, p. 50. [34] R. 1747, p. 60. [35] R. 1761, p. 43 ; R. 1752, p. 60 ; R. 1766, p. 64 ; R. 1774, pp. 42-3 ; Jo., V. 10, pp. 116, 253 ; Jo., V. 12, pp. 86, 179 ; Jo , V. 20, p. 287. [36] B MSS., V. 21, p. 30. [37] B MSS., V. 21, p. 211. [38] Jo., V. 21, pp. 424-8 ; B MSS., V. 21, pp. 35-6; R. 1778, pp. 58-9 ; R. 1780, p. 42. [38a] Jo., V, 16, pp. 20-1 ; R. 1763, p. 91. [386] R. 1769, pp. 2&-80. [39] R. 1779, p. 54. [40] Jo., V. 22, pp. 458-65; B MSS., V. 21, p. 186; R. 1782, p. 50.
V. 2, Mar. 22, 1711. [16] A MSS., V. 7, p. 510. [17] Jo., V. 16, p. 248; pp. 79-80. [18] Jo., V. 6, p. 63 ; R. 1732, p. 65. [19] R. 1730, p. 90 ; R. 173 [20] Jo., V. 7, p. 296 ; R. 1738, p. 55 ; R. 1744, p. 50. [21] R. 1744, p. 61 ; R. 56; Jo., V. 9, p. 148; Jo., V. 16, p. 277; R. 1742, p. 61; R. 1759, p. 54. [ V 1ft n ftft! H 17'!« n 8«. ra.'ll .Tn . V. 13. n UfiiS : R. IT.f.Ci. nn 54-5.
* A Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of Clergymen in the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania was established in 1769, the Society contributing X20 annually to each of the three branches [386 J.
41
CriAFTER IX.
NEW ENGLAND.
le
le
Nkw E.NdLAND was formerly divided into four gi-oat districts or govornmonts, including the Coloiiica of MasauchuaettH, Connecticut, Rhode Islund, New HampHhire, Maine, Vermont, and Naragansett or King's Province. The first settlement — that of New Plymouth, MassachuBetts Bay — was formed by a small ^)arty of Puritans or Independents in 16^0, which was • :'.ich strengthened by a fresh emigration from England in 1629. Other sects poured into the country, which soon swarmed with Brownists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Familists, Antinomians, Conformitants or Formalists, Arrians, Arminians, Oortonists, &c. The Oortonists wore so lost to common humanity and decency that they were BU|)preBsed by the Civil Power under Governor Dudley in 1643. The Independents soon established their ecclesiastical system, and sought to exact from others u rigid conformity to it. Fleeing from persecution in England, they now them- selves betarae i>ersecutor8 ; and notwitlistanding their former professions of mmleratiun and liberty of conscience, and the toleration conferred by the Now England Charter, they drove out of Mass.ichusetts the Quakers * and other sectaries. The Church settlers were so restrained from having their own form of worship that in KiTU many of the inhabitants of Boston petitioned Charles II. that they might be allowed to build a, church there for the exercise of religion according to the Churcli of England. Permission was accorded, and the congregation of the " King's Chapel," Boston, so increased that William III. settled an annual allowance f of £100 for the support of an assistant minister for them.
In 1701 there were still only two clergymen of the Church of Eng- land in New England, the population (Massachusetts, 70,000 ; Con- necticut, 80,000 ; Rhode Island and Providence, 5,000 ; Naragansett, 8,000; New Hampshire, 8,000; and Maine, 2,000) being mostly Dissenfois [1].
In February 1702 the Society, after reading letters " deliver'd in by Dr. Bray," and consulting the Eev. G. Keith, recorded its opinion " that a Missionary should be forthwith sent to the Naragansets country," and the Bishop of London was asked to recommend one [2]. It was not possible, however, to carry out the proposal till many years later. In the meantime, Keith, Talbot and Gordon [pp. 9, 10] reached Boston on June 11, 1702, and the former reported : —
•' At my ariival the Reverend Mr. Samuel Miles, the Reverend Mr. Christopher Bridge, both Ministers of the Church of England at Boston, did kindly receive me and the two Ministers in company with me, and we lodg'd and were kindly entertain'd in their houses during our abode at Boston. June 14, 1702. Being Sunday, at the request of the above-named Ministers of the Church of England, I preached in the Queen's Chapel at Boston, on Eph. 2, 20, 21, 22, where was a large auditory, not only of Church People, but of many others. Soon after, at the request of the Ministers and Vestry, and others of the auditory, my Sermon was printed at Boston. It contained in it towards the conclusion, six plain brief rules, which I told my auditory, did well agree to the Holy Scriptures, and they being well observed and put into practice, would bring all to the Church of England, who dissented from her. This did greatly alarm the Independent Preachers at Boston. Whereupon Mr. Increase Mather, one of the chief of them ' was set on work to print against my sermon, as accordingly he did, wherein he -
* After the Church of England had been set up in Rhode Island the Quakers were ' led to "express their regard " for it "from the experience . , . they had of the mildness and lenity of its administration " [3].
•I'!
*:iv
7Am
4S
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAOATION OF THB GOSPEL.
laboured to prove them all false and contrary to Scripture, but did not say any- thing u^ainHt the body of my sermon. And not lon^ after, I printed a Treatise in Vindication of theao Six IluleH, in answer to hia, wherein I anewed the invalidity of hia objections against them. This I had printed at New York, the printer at Boston not daring to print it, lest he ahould give ofitence to the Independent Preachers there. After it was printed, the printed copies of it were sent to Boaton, and diaporuod both over New England and the other parts of North America " L^J-
The MS. of Keith's Journal contains this passage : — ■
" In divers parts of New England wo found not only many people well affected to the Church, who have no Church of England Ministers, and in some places none of any sort ; but also we found several New England Ministers very well affected to the Church, some of whom both hospitably entertain 'd us in their houses and requested uu to preach in their congregations, wch. accordingly we did, and receiv'd great thanks, both from the Ministers and people: arid in Cambridge Colledge in N. England we were civilly treated by some of the ffellows there, who have u very great favour to the Church of England, and were it not for the poysonous doctrines that have been infused into the scholars and youths there, and deep prejudices agt. the Church of England by Mr. Increaae Mather, formerly President of the Colledge there, and Mr. Samuel Willard, now President there, the Scholars and Students there would soon be brought over to the Church " [6],
The truth of the above description was remarkably con- firmed in later years, when the persecution of the Church was followed by the conformity of large numbers of Dissenters and their teachers. Already some of the inhabitants had begun to show their preference by building churches and petitioning the Society for ministers, and the first to receive encouragement were the people of Newport, Rhode Island, for whose church the Society allowed in January 1703 £15 for " a Chalice Patten, Cloath and other necessaries." At the same time £20 was granted (at Governor Dudley's request) " towards the support of Mr. Eburn, a Minister in the Isle of Shoales, for one year " [7]. The Rev. Samuel Eburn min- istered in this Mission three and a half years ; in which time it cost him £150 more than he " ever received from the inhabitants." "This extraordinary expense" he "was at merely to introduce the service of the Church of England in those Islands," and did it to some good effect. " He stay'd there so long till every family of the place removed their goods to the mainland for fear of the enemy " [8]. In 1704 the Rev. J. Honyman was appointed to Newport. He not only built up the Church in Rhode Island, but gathered congregations at several towns on the continent, and ministered to them until they were provided with resident clergymen. In spite of the " frowns and discouragements " of the Government— 'here ? only " one baptized Christian in the whole legislatur " o*^ he island— Mr. Honyman was able to report in 1732 : —
*' Betwixt New York and Bostor. distance of 30l ,iiles, and wherein are
many Missions, there is not a congrt n in tl way of the Church of England
that can pretend to compare with mine, equ .it in any respect; nor does my Church consist of members that were of it wh> i I came here, for I have buried them all; nor is there any one person now alive that did then belon-' to it, so that our present appearing is entirely owing to the blessing of Go upon my endeavours to serve him " [9].
Mr. Honyman's labours at Newport extended over nearly half a century.
NEW ENGLAND.
48
)0
'7
In Connecticut the /oundations of several Missions were laid by the Rev. G. Muirson. Although attached to the parinh of Rye in New York, lie could not resist the desire of the people of Stratford to have the Church settled among them. Colonel Heathcote accompanied him on his visit in 170U, and thus described their reception in Connecticut : —
" We found that CoUony much as wo expected, very ignorant of the CoriHtitution of our Church, and therefore enemys to it. All their TowncH are furninhed with Ministers . . . chiefly Independents, denying Baptiume to the Children of all who are not in full Communion ; there are many thousonda in that Govnit. nnbaptised, the Ministers were very uneasy at our coming amongst them, and abundance of pains was taken to terrify the People from hearing Mr. Muirson. But it availed nothing, for notwithstanding all their endeavours, he had a very great Congregation and indeed infinitly beyond my expectation. The people were wonderfully surprised at the Order of our Church, expecting to have heard and seen some wonderfuU strange things, by the Account and Hepresentation of it that their Teachers had given them. . . . Mr. Muirson baptized about 24 — most grown people " [10].
The visit was renewed (again by invitation) in 1707, the stead- fastness of the people being unshaken by the Independents, whose ministers and magistrates went from house to house threatening " with prison and punishment " those who would go to hear Mr. Muirson preach.
" One of their Magistrates " (wrote Mr. Muirson) " with some other officers, came to my Lodgings, . . . and in the hearing of Colonel Heathcote and a great many people read a long Paper. The meaning of it was to let me know that theirs was a Charter Government, that I had done an illegal thing in coming among 'em to establish a new Way of Worship, and to forewarn me from preaching any more. This he did by virtue of one of their Laws . . . the Words he made use of are these as the said Law expresses them : Be it enacted by the . . . General Assembly, That there shall be no Ministry or Church Administration entertained or attended by the Inhabitants of any Town or Plantacon in thi» Colony, distinct and separate from, and in opposition to that which is openly and publickly observed and dispenced by the approved Ministers of the Place.' Now whatever Interpretation of the Words of the said law may admit of, yet we are to regard the sense and force they put upon them ; which is plainly thus, to exclude tho Church their Government, as appears by their Proceedings with me. So that hereby they deny a Liberty of Conscience to the Church of England people, as well as all others that are not of their opinion ; which being repugnant to the Laws of England is contrary to the Grant of their Charter " [11].
The movement in favour of the Church was stimulated by this opposition; other towns invited Mr. Muirson to visit them, and he became a kind of travelling Missionary in the Colony. The tactics of the Independents were repeated.
*' They . . . left no mean sun tryed both foul and fair, to prevent the settling of the Church among them " (\vrote Mr. Muirson) ; " . . . the people were likewise threatened with Imprisonment, and a forfeiture of £5 for coming to hearing me. It wou'd require more time than you would willingly bestow on these Lines, to express how rigidly and severely they treat our People, by taking their Estate by distress when they do not willingly pay to support their Ministers. . . . They spare not openly to speak reproachfully and with great contempt of our Church, they say the sign of the Cross is the Mark of the Beast and the sign of the Devil and that those who receive it are given to the Devil " [12].
Mr. son died in 1709 ; and two years later Governor Hunter of New lurk wrote to the Society : —
" When I was at Connectiont, those of the Commanion of the Church ai
u
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
r" ■
li'i:
|||:i,:
Stradford, came to me in a Body, and then, as they have since by a Letter, begg'd my Intercession with our most Venerable Society and . . . the Bishop of London for a Midsionary; they appeared very much in earnest, and are the best Hett of men I met with in that country " [13].
Disappointment from friends was perhaps a severer test of earnestness than persecution* from enemies ; but neither could shake the faithfulness of the Church adherents at Stratford, and after waiting another eleven years their wishes were gratified by the Society sending them a Missionary, the Eev. G. Pigot, in 1722. To some extent many other congregations were subjected to similar trials, and oppression and persecution seemed to be the common lot of the Church in New England. Sometimes Churchmen's complaints reached the ear of the Governor, and grievances were redressed, but in general the Independents had the upper hand, and their bigotry was extreme. At Newbury, Governor Dudley had eased the Church members from paying taxes to the Dissenting Ministers, but the Rev. H. Lucas found on his arrival in 1716 that the Dissenters had taken possession of the church and robbed it of its ornaments, vest- ments, and books. Next day, however, the ornaments &c. were restored ; ho reconciled the people, and two of the Dissenting teachers who had been relied on to " dissolve " the Church congre- gation were admitted to Holy Communion, and one of them shortly after " put on y® courage to read the Holy Biblef in the meeting and say the L'''* Prayers, a thing not done before " there, and " he resolved" to continue it "tho' very much opposed." Mr. Lucas' "knowledge in Phisick" was very serviceable in winning people, and effected " that which by preaching " he " could not have done " [14].
Of the 88 Missionaries on the Society's list in New England, more than one-fourth were brought up Dissenters. Among these were Samuel Seabury (father of the first American Bishop) ; Timothy Cutler, President of Yale (Presbyterian) College ; and Edward Bass, the future Bishop of Massachusetts. " The great inclination of some young students in New England to enter into Episcopal Orders " had been brought under the Society's notice at an early period, and in 1706 a letter was sent to the Governor and the Clergy encouraging the sending of candidates to England for ordi- nation [15]. The sacrifices involved by conformity were such as to exclude all but persons actuated by the highest motives. Hence those who conformed were a real gain to the Church, which exerted a power and influence out of all proportion to her numerical strength. Of this the Dissenters were aware, and their dread and intolerance of the Church showed that they had little confidence in their own systems of religion. What some of those systems were, and how the Church was affected by them, may be gathered from the writings of the Missionaries.
The Eev. Dr. Johnson of Stratford wrote in 1727 that he had
Vlf
for th«
01
fol W wa
bes
CUt(
Pra
thi
• This continued after Mr. Muirson's deatli. See " An Account of the Sufferings of the Members of the Church of England " and an Appeal to the Queen for relief from their grievanccH, about 1711-12 [10].
t A Biniilar effect was produced in the Kjv. S. Palmer's Mission, where a congrega- tion of DisHentern, from observing the regular method of reading the Scripture in church, " voted that a new folio Biole be bought for them and that their teacl'er shall read lessons out of it every Sunday morning and evening."
NEW ENGLAND.
45
ja- iii (til
visited (at Fairfield) " a considerable number of my people in prison for their rates to the Dissenting Minister, to comfort and encourage them under their sufferings . , . both I and my people grow weai-y of our lives under our poverty and oppression " [17, 18].
In 1743 he opened a new church at Ripton. " On the Sunday following a Dissenting teacher, one Mills ... a great admirer of Mr. Whitfield , reviled and declaimed" against the Dr.'s Sermon, "which was on the subject of relative holiness," and soon after some of Mills' followers " put his doctrine into practice, by defiling the Church with ordure in several places " [19].
In the Mission of the Rev. J. Beach of Newtown &c. some people began to build a church. But, said he in 1743 : —
" The Independents to suppress this design in its infancy . . . have lately prose- cuted and fined them for their meeting to worship God according to the Common Prayer ; and the same punishment they are likely to suffer for every offence in this kind. . . The case of these people is very hard. If on the Lord's Day they continue at home, they must be punished ; if they meet to worship God according to the Church of England, in the best manner they can, the mulct is still greater ; and if they go to the Independent meeting in the town where they live, they must endure the mortification of hearing the doctrines and worship of the Church vilified and the important truths of Christianity obscured and enervated by enthusiastic and antinomian dreams. . . . My people [at Newtown d'c] are not all shaken, but rather confirmed in their principles, by the spirit of enthusiasm that rages among the Independents. ... A considerable number [of the Dissenters] i» this Colony have lately conformed, and several churches are now building where they have no minister " [20].
Dr. Johnson reported in 1741 : —
" We have had a variety of travelling enthusiastical & antinomian teachers come among us. . . . Not only the minds of many people are at once struck with amazing Distresses upon their hearing the dismal outcrys of our strolling preachers, but even their Bodies are in a moment affected with . . . surprizing Convulsions, and involuntary agitations and cramps " [21],
The Rev. H. Caneb wrote from Fairfield in 1743 : —
" At Norwalk, Stanford, and liidgetield . . . there have been large accessions made to the Church of late . . . chiefly persons who appear to have a serious sense of religion • . . Where the late spirit of Enthusiasm has most abounded the Church has received the largest accessions. Many of those deluded people ... as their Passions subsided, sought for rest in the Bosom and Communion of the Church " [22].
A joint letter from its Missionaries in New England acquainted the Society in 1747 that it was " a matter of great comfort to them to see- in all places the earnest zeal of the people in pressing forward into the Church from the confusions which Methodism liad spread among them ; insomuch that they think nothing too much to do to qualify themselves for the obtaining of Missionaries fvom the Society " [23].
The Rev. Mr. Fayebweather, at Naragansett, had his dwelling "in the midst " " of enemies, Quakers, Anabaptists, Antipoedobaptists, Presbyterians, Independants, Dippers, Levellers, Sabbatarians, Muggle tonians, and Brownists," who united " in noching but pulling down the Church of England," which they in their language called " emphatically Babel, a synagogue of Satan," &c. Thus situated he- found it best "to be mild and gentle, peaceable and forbearing,"" which the Society earnestly recommended to him and all their Mission- aries. In consequence of this behaviour several conformed to the Church from the Anabaptists and other persuasions. In that part of
I- rt
46
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
America Mr. Fayerweather found "immersion preferred among persons in adult years to sprinkling," and whenever it was required he administered in that way, as the Church directs [24]. See also letters from Rev. Dr. Cutler, Boston, June 80, 1743, and Dec. 26, 1744 [25] ; Eev. J. Beach, Newtown, April G, 1761 [26]; Rev. E. Winslow, Stratford, July 1, 1763 [27]; and Rev. R. Mansfield, Derby, Sept. 25, 1768 [28]. This testimony (and much more that might be quoted) shows that the influence of the Society's work was beneficial to the whole country. The progress made must have been considerable when Missionaries could report from 100 to 345 communicants in their con- gregations [29]. In the Newton and Reading district Mr. Beach "preached in many places where the Common Prayer had never been heard nor the Scriptures read," in others where there had been no public worship at all, and he had the privilege of raising up ■" flourishing congregations," and seeing the Church members increase more than twenty-fold and outnumber the Dissenters [30] .
The Eev. J. Bailey, Itinerant in Massachusetts, stated in 1762 that " Industry, Morality, and Religion " were " flourishing among a people till of late abandoned to disorder, vice, and Profaneuess," which alteration was " chiefly owing to the performance of Divine service and those pious tracts which the Society's generous care has dis- persed "[31].
Another missionary, the Rev. E. Punderson — who during thirty years failed to officiate only one Sunday — " almost alone raised up eleven churches in Connecticut under the greatest trials and difficul- ties imaginable " [32]. In New Hampshire the difficulty of raising tip churches was lessened at this time by the action of Governor Wentworth, who made over to the Society 120 cown lots of land, ot about 800 acres each, and also set apart church glebes in each town, and " granted an equal portion or right to the first settled minister of the Church of England and his laeirs with the rest of the pro- prietors of every town for ever " [33].
The efforts of the Missionaries for the conversion of the negroes and Indians in New England met with more opposition than en- couragement from the Colonists. From Bristol the Rev. J. Usher reported in 1730 that " sundry negroes " had made " application for baptism that were able to render a very good account of the hope that was in them," but he was '* not permitted to comply with their requests . . . being forbid by their masters." In the same year, how- ever, he succeeded in baptizing three adult Indians, and later on the Bristol congregation included " about 80 Negroes and Indians," most of whom joined " in the Publick Service very decently " [34].
At Newtown the opposition was more serious, and the story of the Rev. J. Beach should be taken to heart by all who profess the name of Christ. This is what he wrote in 1738 : —
the)
theil theJ theJ thed havJ
" When first I arrived here, I intended to visit the Indians who live three miles from Newtown, and I had hopes that some good might have been wrought upon them ; but many of the English here that are bitter enemies to the Church, antidoted them against the Church, or any instructions they might have received from me, By insinuating them with a jealousy, if they recieved me as their Minister, I would in time get their land from them ; and they must be oblidged to pay me a salary. This put them into a great Bage, for these Indians are a very
NEW ENGLAND.
47
jealous people, and particularly suspicious of being cheated out of their land by the English (the English having got most of it from them already). These English Dissenters likewise rail'd against all the Churchmen in Generall, telling them (the Indians) they were rogues, &c., and advised them that : if I came among them to instruct them, to whip me. In a word they raised such a ferment among these Bude Barbarians, that their Sachem, or Chief, said that if I came among them, he would shoot a bullet thro my heart ; these things several! of the Indians have told me since. However I, not knowing the danger, went to visit them, but they looked very su lily upon me, and showed a great uneasiness when I mentioned the name of God, so that I plainly saw, that they were resolved not to hear me, and I feared that if I had persisted in my discourse of Beligion, that they would have done me a mischief " [35].
Mr. Beach does not appear to have baptized many Indians, and his parishioners had but few negro slaves ; but all they had he, after proper instruction, baptized, and some of them became communi- cants [36]. The teaching which the Indians received from the Romish Church, as well as from Dissenters, tended to make them imperfect Christians. The frontiers of Massachusetts Bay were frequented