Ulster and the Presbyterian Ministry in 1718
In the early years of the Colonies, that is, before 1718, an occasional party of emigrants went out from Ireland in the ships which sailed to southern ports for tobacco and cotton. Through them the Carolinas became in a few years familiar to the people of Ulster. New England on the other hand received scarcely any immigration before 1718, and there was very little intercourse, unless we except that of a theological and literary nature which existed between leaders of thought in Dublin and Boston. This was perhaps the chief reason which led to the appointment of an agent by the Bann Valley colonists.
This agent, the Rev. William Boyd, was ordained at Macosquin in January, 1709-10. The Rev. Thomas Boyd, probably his father, was an Episco pal clergyman at the neighboring town of Aghadowey, and although deposed in 1661 for non-conform ity, continued to preach there until his death in 1699, holding services also at Macosquin for the last ten years that he lived.
When the Rev, William Boyd had fulfilled his mission in Boston and was ready to return to Macosquin, he preached a "return" sermon at the weekly lecture on the 19th of March, 1718-19. It was printed in 1719 with the title "God s way the Best way" (Jeremiah vi. 16). The introduction by the Eev. Increase Mather tells in rather quaint language so much of interest relating to Mr. Boyd and his mission to New England that it is given in part just as he wrote it: "It was not before the last Summer that he Arrived among us. He had his Education in the University of Edinburgh in Scot land; and there commenc d Master of Arts: and afterwards Bead Divinity in the Famous Colledge and University in Glasgow1 under the care of Mr. Widrow, then Professor of Divinity there. Has been Ordained a Minister of the Gospel, and Pastor of a Church at Macasky in Ireland. Many in that Kingdom having had thoughts of a remove to this part of the World, have considered him as a Person suitably qualify d to take a Voyage hither, and to make Enquiry what Encouragement or otherwise, they might expect in case they should engage in so weighty and hazardous an Undertaking, as that of Transporting themselves & Families over so vast an Ocean. The issue of this Affair has a great depend ence on the Conduct of this Worthy Author. The Lord direct him in it. Since his being in New-Eng land (as well as afore that) by the Exemplary holi ness of his Conversation, and the Eminency of his Ministerial Gifts, he has obtained a good Eeport amongst all Good Men.
"It is justly observed in the Sermon Emitted herewith, that Antiquity alone, is not a sufficient Justification of any Practice ; Altho Truth is more Ancient than Error.
Cotton Mather with his unfailing kindness sent Mr. Boyd away with a generous letter of commendation:
"It is hereby Certified on Behalf of ye Reverend Mr . William Boyd That which he has Commenced among us, he has, as far as we Could know or learn Adorned Ye Doctrines of God or Saviour, with un blemished Conversation, and improved y6 Charac ter given him in ye recomendations which he brought hither from Ireland with him. And that his public Labours in ye ministry of the Gospel, have been De sired and Accepted among the people of God in this Country: with whom he now leaves a very Good Name, & Reputation, At his Departure from us.
"Having furnished this worthy our Brother with Such a Testimony, we earnestly Comend him to ye Conduct & Blessing of our glorious Lord, in ye Voyage that is now before him. ?1
Before further reference is made to Mr. Boyd s subsequent career and the lives of his contempora ries, something must be said of the Presbyterian church in Ulster, its organization, its work and its ministry, for the ministers were closely allied with the first plan to form a Scotch Irish colony in Amer ica. The General Synod of the Presbyterian church in Ulster was held usually in June of each year. The Synod of 1717 is especially interesting for its long and important sessions, in which Boyd, McGregor, Cornwall and others who were interested in America took part. Nine presbyteries were represented, Down, Belfast, Antrim, Tyrone, Armagh, Coleraine, Derry, Convoy, and Monaghan; one hundred churches sent their ministers and in most instances also a ruling elder. The aged David Cargill had come with the Eev. Mr. McGregor from Aghadowey ; they were both appointed by the Synod members of the Committee "on funds." Matthew Clark and James Woodside were absent; Clark was ex cused, but Mr. Woodside did not have so good a rea son for absence and was not excused.
The records of the Synod show among other activities an increasing interest in the Irish language, some ministers being able to read and others to preach in Irish. The Synod of Argyle also expressed a desire to aid Ulster in the conversion of the Irish, and there is mention of a Celtic catechism, ready to be printed. Of still greater importance, if Mr. McGregor was already thinking and speaking of removal to America, was his appointment to travel about the counties of Londonderry, Antrim and Tyrone on a mission to convert the Celtic Irish.
The Synod declined after much discussion to transfer the Rev. Robert Craighead, brother of the minister soon to be in Massachusetts, from Dublin to Londonderry. Many other cases of ministerial transfers were discussed, including the Rev. Mr. Cornwall s request to be relieved of his work at Augher (near Clogher) on account of ill-health, the distance of his house from the church, and the inabil ity of the congregation to meet expenses.
A young man who wished to enter the ministry was examined by the Presbytery of Antrim which now reported to the Synod "that he hath neither a natural capacity nor learning any way equal to the work of the Ministry, " and was advised to lay aside his purpose.
There are also in the records many discussions of charities, assignments to preach, admonitions to thoughtless or possibly sinful brothers. Taking them all in all, the records of the Ulster Synod are orderly, concise, and sane a monument to a century and more of religious work in Ireland. They con vince the reader that a man privileged to take part in the meetings of his congregation, of his presby tery, or of the General Synod had an opportunity to fit himself for self-government. Indeed, the com mittee work and the exercise in speaking which these assemblies offered prepared the leading Presby terian laymen in Ulster to participate in county and town affairs in America on equal terms with their neighbors. The Scotch Irish, from minister to la borer, were bred in an atmosphere of self-reliance, and they carried this force with them to the New World.
The emigrants of the year 1718 came largely from the Bann Valley. The Valley s chief town, Coleraine, still gloried in its buildings of the Elizabethan period, grouped along a good road leading to the square (now called the Diamond), and onward to the bridge across the Bann water. John Barrow, a traveller of a later date, writes :
Standing on this bridge, the spectator has a fine view of the Bann on both sides of it; that to the northward embraces, among a number of decentlooking villas or farm-houses, a very pretty man sion and grounds on the left bank, close to the sub urb, called, from the owner I imagine, Jackson Hall ; and the view in the contrary direction, or up the river, exhibits many neat villas, well planted with wood. Among them a parkish-looking place, on the left bank, caught my attention, and I walked along a good road, not merely to get a nearer view of it, but also to take a look at the salmon-leap, which I knew to be about the spot. This place is named Som erset. . . . The little cottages belonging to the weavers, are, like those of Antrim, built of stone, and have a neat appearance ; but there is this distinctive character which makes them differ from an English cottage, that they are all open to the road in front, and want that little paled-off garden enclosure, so common to our meanest cottages."
The Presbyterian ministers of this region in 1718 were the Eev. William Boyd at Macosquin, a village three miles out of Coleraine on the road to Aghadowey; the Eev. James McGregor at Aghadowey; and a short distance south the Eev. James Woodside at Garvagh; all on the west side of the Bann. Farther south, near the Bann, the Eev. Matthew Clark, a survivor of the siege of Londonderry and a military man, preached at Kilrea; and the Eev. John Stirling was at Ballykelly, county London derry, a dozen miles west of Coleraine. At Coleraine was the Eev. Eobert Higinbotham, famous in his day for his futile attempt to change his mind after having honored Mrs. Martha Woods with the offer of his hand ; and about six miles south of Cole raine at Ballymoney, just across the river from Aghadowey, was the Eev. Eobert McBride. Eight or ten miles north east of Coleraine at Billy or Bushmills was the Eev. John Porter, said by contemporaries to have been a sprightly orator, and four miles to the south west of Bushmills the Eev. Henry Neill was at Ballyrashane.
At Londonderry no one at the moment held the pulpit of the Eev. Eobert Craighead, who died Au gust 22, 1711. At Donegal, a few miles west of Lifford and Strabane, was the Eev. John Homes, and at Donaghmore the Eev. Benjamin Homes. In County Tyrone the Eev. Samuel Haliday, father of the famous Dr. Haliday, was six miles south of Strabane at Ardstraw; the Eev. William Cornwall was twenty miles farther south at Clogher ; he was thinking of America, and no doubt in communication with the Homes family. At Kilmore, county Down, was the Eev. Thomas Elder, and at Magherally the Eev. Samuel Young.
All these ministers are known to have had some interest in or sympathy with a proposal for migra tion to New England ; but when Boyd was about to sail for Massachusetts Bay and a petition for lands for Scotch Irish settlers was prepared for him to present to Governor Shute, only four ministers, Higinbotham, Porter, Neill, and Elder, added their sig natures, and not one who signed came over to New England to live.
The petition is headed by the Rev. James Teatte, probably the James Tate who served at Killeshandra, near the town of Cavan, from 1705 to 1729. If he had any ties with the Coleraine presbytery to which most of the clerical signers belonged we have now no means of discovering them.
Of the other clerical signers of this petition a few words only are necessary. Thomas Cobham was or dained at Clough, a village south of Ballymoney in county Antrim, in March, and only a few days be fore the petition was drawn up. Robert Neilson, an aged minister, whose trembling hand wrote a signa ture which Mr. Parker in his " Londonderry " very naturally printed " Houston, " held no parish al though long identified with Kilraughts in the Pres bytery of Route (later the Presbytery of Coleraine). William Leech was the minister of Ballymena, county Antrim, 1698-1738, although the historians Killen and Hanna speak of the minister there as Thomas Leech. Robert Higinbotham of Coleraine, John Porter of Bushmills and Henry Neill of Ballyrashane were all members of the Presbytery of Coleraine. The next signer, Thomas Elder, was from County Down, although he may have lived at one time in the Coleraine presbytery, since one of the same name accompanied the Eev. Mr. Neill to the Synod of 1716. James Thomson was to become min ister at Ballywillan, near Coleraine, in a few weeks. Alexander Dunlop, a signer, was not a minister in Ulster, nor were two other clerical signers of the petition to Shute, Archibald McCook and Samuel Wilson, of whom nothing is known in the Presby terian annals of Ulster. Dunlop, McCook and Wil son were Masters of Arts ; all the others were Min isters of the Word of God, signing themselves V[erbi] D[ei] M[inister]. The more one studies the list the more one is puzzled by its composition. It appears to have been prepared in some haste by ministers in the Bann Valley; possibly at a presby tery gathering which Tate, Leech, and Elder had attended.
The names of the other signers are also for the most part well written and still easily to be read. They have not as familiar a sound as one might ex pect, but if we recognize in one column Randall Alex ander, in another Andrew McFadden, and in a third Matthew Slarrow, we may assume that most of the names were gathered in the Bann Valley towns. All the names doubtless looked impressive to Governor Shute, even if upon us the significance of many of them is lost. And perhaps both the Governor and Cotton Mather were no wiser than we are.
The petition to Governor Shute was engrossed on a sheet of parchment twenty-eight inches square, and is now deposited with the New Hampshire His torical Society, at Concord, where it may be seen.
The ministers who accompanied the first colonists in 1718 were worthy men, but their departure from Ulster did not deprive the Presbyterian Church of any of its real leaders.
The Rev. William Boyd upon his return to Macosquin continued his work there until 1725, when Monreagh in County Donegal called him. This parish, on the west bank of the Foyle between Londonderry and Lifford, promised to build a meeting house and to secure to him 40 per annum. He was installed April 25, 1725, and died there in service May 2, 1772, leaving children. He last attended a synod in 1762, when he was probably in feeble health. His career was a troubled one, on account of a rival minister who built a church at St. Johnstown within his juris diction, and alienated many of his people. The Gen eral Synod took his part steadily, but was finally forced to recognize the new organization.
Monreagh was in Boyd s time also called Taboin or Taughboyne. The McClintocks were prominent Presbyterians in Taughboyne, and William McClintook, father of the Rev. Samuel of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, may have been of this race.
The Rev. James McGregor or McGregore fol lowed the Rev. Thomas Boyd at Aghadowey, a small Londonderry village whose name means " Duffy s field. " He was ordained there June 25, 1701, came to Boston August 4, 1718, and died at the American Londonderry of a fever after a short illness March 5, 1729.1 A widow and seven, it is said, of their ten children survived him. The widow, Mary Ann Mc Gregor, was married January 9, 1733, by the Rev. John Moorhead of Boston, to Mr. McGregor s Lon donderry successor, the Rev. Matthew Clark, a vig orous and picturesque preacher.
Little is known of McGregor s education and early life; his name does not appear on the mem bership rolls of the universities, but he was a man of good abilities. He came possibly from the Scotch highlands, for his knowledge of Celtic enabled him to take a leading part in the movement to draw into the Presbyterian Church those of highland and Irish descent. It was found that both peoples could read the Bible in Celtic, and Presbyterians vied with Churchmen in establishing missions. Two dissent ing societies were organized in 1716 to study the language, and McGregor was appointed to preach to one of them at a meeting in Dungiven in August. A few years earlier he had become associated in this work with the Eev. Archibald Boyd, and we find them both as followers of the Eev. William Boyd on New England soil in 1718. McGregor s coming was doubtless hastened by the poverty of his parish, which owed him eighty pounds at the time of his de parture. The General Synod brought pressure to collect half the sum, but with what result we cannot tell, for Aghadowey was reported in 1728 to be religiously and financially in " a sinking state."
The rigid standards of the dissenters at this period bring the sins of the clergy into relief. In 1700 they were censured by the Synod because they, their wives and children, were " gaudy and vain" in their manner of dress. They were cautioned to avoid "powderings, vain cravats, half shirts, and the like," as well as " sumptuous, prodigal dinners" at ordinations. McGregor and Boyd, the apostles to the Irish, withstood the allurements of fashion, but were found wanting in other virtues. McGregor, having taken several cans of ale at Coleraine where, as he said, "less might have serv d," was in 1704 after a vote of "not proven" severely admonished before the whole Synod of Ulster. Curiously enough the chief of his accusers bore the surname of Love. McGregor s after life appears to have been exem plary. Archibald Boyd was deposed for sins against morality in 1716; he appeared in Boston in 1718, but no reference was made to his former ministerial position.
McGregor s son David became even better known than his father as a Presbyterian leader, while set tled at Londonderry, New Hampshire. He was a controversialist and speaker whose influence was felt for many years in New England.
The weakness for excessive drinking affected men of all classes in Ireland. The archbishops admon ished the clergy of the Established Church, and the Synod labored with the dissenters. John Gamble in his travels in the north of Ireland in 1810 refers to a certain Presbyterian clergyman who could lecture "on the seven churches, and on the seven candle sticks, as pat as if it was the Gospel o St. Luke. Has but one fault in the world he's our fond of the wee drap." The Congregation were tolerant of this failing in their pastor, but a parishioner said : "Och aye, man, the Papists and the high kirk hold out their fingers at us, and gibe us, sore, on his account."
The Rev. Mr. Clark, mentioned above, was at Kilrea ; his connection with the congregation there was severed April 28, 1729. A few miles to the north west the Eev. James Woodside had for many years preached at Garvagh. His arrival in New England will be described in an account of the Brunswick settlement. But a letter of encouragement from the Rev. Cotton Mather, written in February, 1718-19, has several interesting passages, and is given in full from the draft in the American Antiquarian Society :
[To the Rev. James Woodside]
"Tis more than Time that your Brethren here
should bid you welcome to the western side of Ye
Atlantic and make you a Tender of all the Brotherly
Assistance that we are capable of giving you ; espe
cially under ye Difficulties which at your first Ar
rival you cannot but meet withal. The Glorious
providence of God or Saviour, which has been at
work, in the Removal of so many people, who are
of so Desirable a character as we see come & coming
from ye North of Ireland, Unto ye North of New
England, has doubtless very great Intentions in it ;
and, what He does, we know not now, but we shall
know hereafter.
"He who Defeated ye purposes of such a removal attempted by some excellent persons of your Nation & Spirit, more than four score years ago, now seems to favor us.1 Is it not because He has a work to do which we are not yet aware of! Happy and Hon oured, those of us Christians [?] by whom or glori ous Lord comes to have these ends of ye earth for His possession!
quot;The people who are upon this Transportation, are of such principles, & so Laudable for their sobri ety, their Honesty, their Industry, that we cannot but embrace you with a most fervent charity, and cherish hopes of noble settlements to be quickly made in a Region, which has hitherto been a Reputed Aceldama.
The people who were formerly taking Root there, carried not ye ministry of ye Gospel with ye, and were once and again suddenly cursed of God. The Indians have never yett been permitted of Heaven to break up a Town that had a minister of ye gospel in it. It is a vast encouragement unto or expectations of a smile from God on the plantation now going forward, that we see a Woodside as well as a Cornwal, appearing there; and we have a prospect of more such ministers coming over, as will be ye Beauty & ye Safety of that Countrey, and be ye very life of yr colonies that will be under their watchful & [illegible] Influences. "
The Rev. William Cornwall, mentioned by Mather, belonged to a family not unknown in the ministry. Thomas Cornwall graduated at Edinburgh in 1694, and William "of Ireland " matriculated at Glasgow in 1687. They were possibly sons of Gabriel Corn wall who preached in 1656 at two villages a few miles northeast of Coleraine, Ballywillan and Bush mills. The Eev. William Cornwall returned to Ire land after a winter of hardship in Casco Bay, and settled at Taughboyne in 1722. He died March 13, 1734-5.
Two ministers whose names will always be associ ated with the early life of the Scotch Irish settlers in Worcester were the Eev. Edward FitzGerald and the Eev. William Johnston.
The Eev. Edward FitzGerald, leader of the com pany which settled in Worcester in 1718, deserves notice, but his history has not been found. An influ ential man of the same name was an original settler of Boscawen, New Hampshire, in 1734.1 The last record of the Eev. Edward FitzGerald in Worcester is in 1725, when 2 were recorded in the Town Treas urer s report as due "to ye Eevd Mr. Fits Gearld." The town had called the Eev. Isaac Burr in Febru ary, 1725, and it would appear that, being in need of a temporary preacher, Mr. FitzGerald had been engaged until the ordination of Mr. Burr in October. This, however, is merely a conjecture.
The Rev. William Johnston, born at Mullaghmoyle, County Tyrone (?), in 1710, was the son of William and Elizabeth (Hoey) Johnston. After seven years at the University of Edinburgh, he came to Worcester. The Presbyterians there endeavored in March, 1736-7, to become exempt from taxation for the support of the town church that they might maintain Mr. Johnston in the ministry.
Failing in this, he removed to Windham, New Hampshire, where he became the first minister of the town in July, 1742. In July, 1752, the parish had become so poor that he voluntarily withdrew and settled in New York State, dying at Florida, Mont gomery county, May 10, 1782, after many years of service in various places.
Of other Presbyterian ministers who came from Ireland in 1718 or possibly the year following, the most important in the Connecticut valley were the Rev. John McKinstry4 of Sutton, Massachusetts and Ellington, Connecticut, the Rev. James Hillhouse of New London, and the Rev. Samuel Dorrance of Voluntown. McKinstry was born at Erode1 on the east ern shore of Antrim, near Carrickfergus, in 1677, and took his Master of Arts degree at Edinburgh in 1712. Willis believes that he came in 1718, but I find no record of him so early. The town of Sutton voted December 25, 1719, to call him to be pastor at the meeting-house which the people had recently com pleted. Later he moved to Ellington, where he died January 20, 1754.
The Rev. James Hillhouse was born about 1688, the son of John and Rachel Hillhouse, owners of a large estate called Freehall, in County Londonderry. He studied at Glasgow under the famous Professor Simson, and was ordained by Derry presbytery October 15, 1718. Coming to America in 1720, he was called to a church in the second parish of New London in 1722, where he died December 15, 1740. His son William was a member of the Continental Congress, and William s son James was a Senator of the United States.2 Mr. Hillhouse s widow Mary married the Rev. John Owen of Groton, Connecticut, who may have been of the Scotch Irish connection. Her third choice was also a minister, so that she was said to have spent her life "near the altar. " This third husband, the Rev. Samuel Dorrance, was entered as an Anglo-Hibernian at Glasgow University in 1709. He is said to have studied divinity at Edin burgh, although his name does not appear in the printed list of graduates ; was licensed by Dunbarton presbytery in Scotland, and in 1719 was re ported as received by the Presbytery of Coleraine, his testimonials having been read by the Synod of Derry. He settled in Voluntown, now Stirling, Con necticut, bringing with him several brothers and friends who became leaders in the community. Dorranee was ordained in 1723, not without opposition from those who opposed Presbyterian proclivities.
In 1750 this opposition became aroused, but again subsided, and their pastor was allowed to serve until March 5, 1771, when he was dismissed. Dorrance died November 12, 1775, at the age of ninety, leaving a large family. The first members of the church were asked to subscribe to the Westmin ster Confession of Faith. The English settlers held aloof, but the Scotch friends of Mr. Dorrance very generally signed. One might properly ask whether Dorrance had been long enough in Ireland to gather a following, or whether the Voluntown settlers came from Scotland. Since he was accepted by the Pres bytery of Coleraine it seems probable that he came there to live, and finding many bent on migration joined in their well matured plans.
Two of the earliest Scotch Irish ministers in west ern Massachusetts, where Presbyterian influences grew rapidly, were the Eev. John Harvey and the Eev. Eobert Abercrombie. Harvey was ordained at Palmer, then known as "The Elbows, " June 5, 1734, and resigned in 1747, when he removed to Blandford to be with his Scotch Irish friends in that settlement.
The Eev. Eobert Abercrombie came to Boston late in 1740 with testimonials from the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy in Scotland, and from the Eev. Mr. Wil son of Perth. He settled in Pelham in 1744 and after a useful but somewhat troubled career died during the Eevolutionary period.
Of the many ministers who served the Maine coast settlers several deserve notice. The Rev. William Cornwall who spent the winter of 1718-19 at Falmouth, and the Rev. James Woodside, an early min ister at Brunswick, have both been mentioned. Lit tle is known at present of the Rev. Hugh Campbell, Master of Arts at Edinburgh in 1714, who spent a year at Scarboro, Maine, in 1720, and was followed by the Rev. Hugh Henry in June, 1722. The Rev. Robert Rutherford, perhaps a student at Glasgow in 1708, was ordained at Ahma-Carte March 23, 1714, came over with the Dunbar migration in 1729, and preached at Bristol, Nobleboro, and Boothbay in Maine. He was minister at Brunswick from about 1735 to 1742, and died at Thomaston October 18, 1756, aged 68. The Rev. Robert Dunlap of Bruns wick, Maine, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in August, 1715. He studied at the University of Edin burgh, received his Master of Arts degree about 1734, and embarked for America in the spring of 1736. He was wrecked on the Isle of Sable and landed at the Isle of Canso. In December, 1746, Brunswick voted to invite Mr. Dunlap to preach on probation. He was ordained at the Protestant French Church in Boston the next year, and preached at Brunswick until October, 1760. He died June 26, 1776. The Rev. William Mc- Clanethan of Georgetown, Maine, was employed to preach for several years, beginning in 1734, but having no settlement. He moved to Blandford, Mas sachusetts, in 1744. The Eev. Alexander Boyd of New-Castle, Maine, labored there first in 1754. The presence of many Congregationalists raised dissention soon after, and he was removed in 1758. He had studied divinity at Glasgow, and being approved by the Boston presbytery in 1749 he preached at Georgetown, Maine, and elsewhere on the Kennebec for a year or two.
In looking back over this rather cursory survey of the Ulster clergy we find that the migration of 1718-20 did not noticeably injure the Presbyterian ministry in Ireland where the Churches were well organized, and the leaders as a whole intelligent, prosperous and reasonably free from tyranny of law. If it had any effect it was upon the growing tide in later years. Men like McGregor and Homes represented a worthy standard, and their example must have influenced many in Ulster. A few, com ing without proper credentials, or under a cloud, were less worthy of favor, but they had little effect upon public opinion. Other considerations often prejudiced the native clergymen and laymen.
The New England people after a century out of England were still, as Professor "Wendell has said, essentially Elizabethan ; their speech and their hab its, their polity and their ideals could not be in har mony with Scotch character developed on Irish soil, for the Scotch Irish were of the Hanoverian age. Where the early settlers were in a minority they tolerated a Presbyterian minister, or even came to love him; but Presbyterianism did not thrive in New England, where the English stock and the Con gregational polity were all-powerful.