The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-11
1879
HISTORIC GROUND.
Pilgrimage to Old Scots
Burial Ground by New
Jersey PresbYterians.
SERVICES IN TENNEST CHURCH
Committee Appointed by the Synod
TO Make Arrangements
Scraps Of History.

The Presbyterian Synod of New Jer-
sey has appointed a committee to make
arrangements for the commemoratson
of the early establishment of the Old
Scots and Tsnnent churches and the
events thus Intimately connected with
the early history of the Presbyterian
Church IN this country.
This committee having held several
meetings, have at last decided to hold
a pilgrimage to Monmouth County and
hold services at the Old Scots burial
ground in the forenoon and in the Ten
nent Church in the afternoon of Tues
day, jun A. This old church at Ten
nent, or Freehold. as it was first called.
IS a quaint structure erected in 1880, and
there's not a dull page in its history.
According to Doctor Dodge, who has
written much of Presbyterian history
In Jersey, the Church of Freehold was
the only one at first belonging to the
P~resbytery. The settling of that place
with a gospel ministry was owing under
God to some Scotch people that came to
it, among whom there was none so
painstaking. in this blessed work, as one
Walter Ker, who. in 1856, for his faith
full and conscientious adherence to God
and his truth, as professed by the
Church Of Scotland, was there appre-
hended and sent to this country under
sentence of perpetual Punishment"
FOUNDED BY SCOTS EMIGRANTS.
The accepted historical facts are that
Scotch emigrants, fleeing from perseeu-
ton, arrived at Amboy IN 1886, and, with
others, settled in the Township of Free
hold. In 1892. or earlier, they erected a
meeting house on Free Hin. In 1706,
Francis Mackenzie, who is often called
the father of the Presbyterian Church
in this country, acting as the moderator,
Jedediah, pastor of the first Church of
Philadelphia, and John Hampton, whom
Mackenzie had lately brought from Ire
land, met here as a Presbytery, and
after a careful examination of Mr.. John
Boyd, die ordain him ION the Lords
Day, the 18th of December, in the pub
lie meeting house of this place, before a
numerous assembly, and the next day he
had the certificate of his ordination"
HISTORIC GROUND.
"A generation later, in 1730-31, the same
congregation erected another building,
distant five miles southwest on White
Hill, and enlarged it in 175o-53 to the
size of the present Tennent Church, and
for one hundred and fifty years it was
liC tut CHuTcn y ETGtuOlu. luGy
W~orshipped for an unknown period alter
nately in the two houses. Here is his
toric ground. On that old Scots burial
acre, now overgrown with large trees,
stands that of John Boyd, with a Latin
inscription, now almost illegible. On the
surface lies another, to the memory
who was called in 1880. and dice in 1882.
Here in 1905 met the first presbytery.
Here began the great revival in the
- III ricf ~ 1nhn Tan
nent;. Here was the first regular or
d:nation of a minister of the first pres
Oytery F K iii dopn MEKeLBcTED.
1,5 The Log College, established IN l72s by
William 1T Te m sr. has been com n.
other high dignitaries and many thou
ed in Fa:rmount Park to John Wither.
President Of Princeton College. patriot
a aion s If Tndepen aha eesns Th ef i Ins pe mona-
ment at Freehold Village contemporaries
the battle of Monmouth. But what
place where Scotch Presbyterians erected
connected with our first Presbytery in
Nothing! And old Tennent, with It's
seats and the communion table, around
w li(tl ~ AAC IA WltI ~ d1lo
Tennent, partook of the sacred emblems.
has overshadowed the original church
and obscured its memory
The Old Scots meeting house has dis
appeared; but the Tennent Church, with
it's lofty pulpit and sounding board, with
it's straight back pews and deep gallery
on three Sides, stands substantially as
it was built in 1880. and enlarged in
Will COMMEMORATE ITS GLoRaEs.
Aroused by these memories, the Synod
appointed these gentlemen to make suit
able arrangements to commemorate the
glories of Old Tennent:-Rev. Allen n.
Brown, Chairman. Camden: Rev. George
t swaln' Rev g Eli Rben s. cobb. a T%reasuTer.
Elizabeth; Rev. Frank r. Symmes, Re-
cording Secretary, Tennent; Rev. H.
Goodwin Smith, Corresponding Secretary,
Freehold; R. Perrine .Crasg, Elder, Ten
nent; James Steen, Elder, Eatontown.
County win attend this pilgrimage, it
that the Old Scots burial ssound IS
less than one mile from the WickatunS
station on the Atlantie Highlands braneh'
of the Central Railroad Of New Jersey,
and Tennent Church is pne-third Of q
mile from Tennent station on the Long
Branch division of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. Stages and carriages will be
at the stations to convey passengers to
the grounds Freehold VIII be the COM
the Monmouth Battle Monument, and
take cars for Tennent and the services
| of the afternoon.
AMONG THE CHURCHES.
1F. .- Fl