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Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical,
Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers:
Electronic Edition.

Foote, William Henry, 1794-1869

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
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Source Description:
(title page) Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical, Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers
Rev. William Henry Foote
xxxii, 33-557, 8 p.
New York
Robert Carter, 58 Canal Street
1846
Call number C285 F68 c. 4 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

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SKETCHES
OF
NORTH CAROLINA,
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL,
ILLUSTRATIVE
OF THE PRINCIPLES
OF A PORTION OF HER EARLY SETTLERS.

BY

REV. WILLIAM HENRY FOOTE.

NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET.
1846.

Page verso

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
ROBERT CARTER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

R. CRAIGHEAD'S Power Press,
112 Fulton Street

Page iii

DEDICATION.

        To the Ministers of the Synod of North Carolina, with whom I have been associated in arduous labors for about seven years, and whose counsel and assistance and cheerful welcome it has been my happiness to enjoy,--

        MOST RESPECTFULLY:

        And to the Elders and Churches with whom I have labored in the cause of benevolence; whose attachment to sound doctrine and the church of their fathers has been so often and so agreeably displayed; whose hospitality has spread around me, times almost innumerable, the comforts and luxuries of life,--

        MOST KINDLY:

        And to the Children, who by their affectionate cheerfulness have been my solace in hours of weariness and exhaustion; the hope of the Church and of the State,--

        MOST TENDERLY:

        And to the Citizens of the sedate and sober State of North Carolina generally, inheriting so much that is estimable from past generations,--

        WITH SENTIMENTS OF STRONG REGARD AND WELL-WISHING;

        Is this Volume dedicated by

THE AUTHOR,
WILLIAM HENRY FOOTE.

Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia,
October, 1846.

Page ix

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

        NORTH CAROLINA, in the days of colonial dependence, was the refuge of the poor and the oppressed. In her borders the emigrant, the fugitive, and the exile found a home. Whatever may have been the cause of leaving the land of their nativity--political servitude,--tyranny over conscience,--or poverty of means, with the hope of bettering their condition,--the descendants of these enterprising, suffering, afflicted, yet prospered people, have cause to bless the kind Providence that led their fathers, in their wanderings, to such a place of rest.

        Her sandy plains, and threatening breakers jutting out into the ocean, met the voyagers sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and the island of Wocoken afforded the landing-place, "as some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers," and witnessed the ceremonial of taking possession of the country for the Queen of England, who soon after gave it the name of Virginia. The island of Roanoke, between Pamtico and Albemarle Sounds, in the domains of Granganimeo, afforded the first colony of English a home so quiet, with a climate so mild, and with fruits so abundant, that the tempest-tossed mariners extolled it in their letters to their countrymen as an earthly paradise. So no doubt it seemed to them the first summer of their residence, in 1585; and notwithstanding the disastrous conclusion of that and succeeding colonies, so the adjoining country has seemed to many generations that have risen, and flourished, and passed away, in the long succession of years, since the wife of Granganimeo, in savage state, feasted the first adventures.

        Her extended champaign around the head streams of the numerous rivers that flow through her own borders, and those of South Carolina, to the ocean, cherished into numbers, and wealth, and civil and religious independence, the emigrants from a rougher climate and more unfriendly soil, of the north of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. The quiet of the vast solitudes and forests of North Carolina lured these hard-working men, who, in their poverty and transatlantic subjection, cherished the principles of religion, wealth and independence, to seek in them the abode of domestic blessedness, and the repose of liberty. Far from the ocean, in a province without seaports, and unfrequented by wealthy emigrants, the clustered settlements had space and time to follow out their principles of religion, morality and politics to their legitimate ends; and the first declaration of Entire Independence of the British crown was heard in the province that afforded a resting-place to the first colony.

Page x

        Carolina was settled by emigrants from different parts of the kingdom of Great Britain and her American provinces, in such numbers, and in such remote situations, that it is comparatively easy to follow the line of their descendants, and trace out the workings of their principles and habits upon themselves, the commonwealth, and the country at large. Every state of society owes much of its character for excellence or demerit, to the generations that preceded; the present is a reflected image of the past; and men must search among their ancestors for the principles, and causes, and springs of action, and moulding influences, that have made society and themselves what they are. The present generation of Carolinians look back to the men that drove the wild beasts from the forests, and displaced the savages, as the fathers of a republic more blessed than the most favored of antiquity; and may well ask what principles of religion and morals,--what habits made us what we are. In answer to these questions there is no good civil history of the State; and with the honorable exception of the life of Caldwell, by Mr. Caruthers, there is no church history; and the traditions that reached back to the settlement of the country, are, for the most part, passing away, or becoming dimmed in the horizon of uncertainty. The prospect, then, is, that the coming generations will be ignorant of their ancestors and their deeds, and like the Greeks and Romans, be compelled to go back to a fabulous antiquity to search in dreams and conjectures for the first link in a chain of causes, the progression of which is so full of blessedness.

        It may be well for some people, that the mist of antiquity hides in uncertainty, the lowness of their origin; and that aspersion has sometimes been cast on Carolina. But if any people may glory in their forefathers, the Carolinians, at least a part of them, may glory in theirs, and cherish their principles with the firm confidence that they will make their descendants better, and the progress of excellence shall never end. No human mind can tell with certainty, or even conjecture plausibly, where the principles of the men, that did so much for their posterity, will lead; though they may be certain the pathway shall be resplendent, and the goal glorious.

        The history of principles is the history of States. And the youth of Carolina might study both on one interesting page, were there a fair record of past events presented to their perusal. They might learn at home something better than the histories of Greece and Rome, or the Assyrian and Babylonian, or all the eastern and western empires of the world, have ever taught. They would find examples worthy of all praise, and actions deserving a generous emulation. They would be impressed most deeply with the conviction that people and actions worthy of such examples must be the citizens and the acts of the happiest nation on earth.

        The following pages are an effort to open the way for some future historian to do full justice to the past, by recording the events that are so honorable, and to the future by presenting a page full of interest and instruction, all true, and all encouraging. They contain the history of the Presbyterian population of

Page xi

North Carolina as far as it has been yet collected from traditions, records of the churches and ecclesiastical bodies and printed volumes that refer incidentally to this people and their principles and their doings. Though the history of a denomination, it is not sectarian, because it must of necessity be the history of a large part of the State; and because it is also a fair record of events. Every denomination has the liberty of producing a series of events in their past history of equal or greater interest, and it will be neither bigoted, sectarian, or ambitious.

        The author has had some peculiar advantages in gathering the facts related in the following pages. For about seven years he was constantly engaged in the active duties of Secretary of Foreign Missions; and in their fulfilment was called to visit most of the Presbyterian congregations in North Carolina and Virginia repeatedly. In conversation with the aged ministers and members of the church, he heard many things to which he listened with emotion, and asked to hear them again; and then repeated them to others; and then wrote them down; and then corrected and enlarged the notes; and then occasionally published a chapter in the Watchman of the South, the reading of which often induced persons in possession of interesting facts to communicate them either to the writer personally, or to the public through the Watchman; and then to consulting manuscripts and records as far as they were known to have any relation to the matters in hand, or as they fell in his way, and commonly he stumbled, as it were, upon them most unexpectedly, as he passed around in his arduous undertakings; and then as the agency in which he was engaged was drawing to a close, in looking over the memoranda of interesting events that had accumulated upon his hands, the purpose was formed of making a volume of sketches relating to past events in the Presbyterian settlements of Virginia and Carolina, few of which had ever been in print except in the columns of a weekly periodical, and most were fast passing away from the knowledge of the living, as that generation whose fathers were actors in the most interesting scenes of the early settlement, and from whom many of these traditions were received by the writer, were fast entering the unseen world, when he commenced committing their communications to paper, and have now but here and there a solitary representative in the land of the living. In this state of the case the Synod of North Carolina, during the annual session held in Fayetteville, November, 1844, by a committee, invited the writer to use his materials, and others that might be put into his hands, in preparing a history of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina; such a history as might show the influence of Presbyterian doctrines, habits, and population, upon the past and present generations of citizens of the North State, and in some degree also upon the population of those States which owe much to the emigration from Carolina. The only hesitation the writer felt in acceding to this honorable proposal, arose from the circumstance, that as the population of a part of Virginia and North Carolina were homogeneous, and were for a long time connected in the same

Page xii

Presbytery, and have always since been more or less connected in their religious and benevolent actions, there might arise a difficulty in giving a fair history of the church and people, disconnected from the church in Virginia, which was senior in point of time and always intimately connected in action. But upon farther reflection and conversation with judicious friends, it appeared there were ample materials, purely Carolinian, to form a volume of the size desired by the generality of readers, and equally as ample materials, purely Virginian, for another; and the gratification of the readers, and the public advantage, would be consulted by giving the volumes separate. The invitation of Synod was then, after a few explanations, accepted, and the brethren generally most cheerfully made offer of their collections of facts and materials for the history, which they had for some time been gathering respecting their own particular charges.

        The writer is under particular obligations to many individuals for the materials for the succeeding volume. To Rev. John Robinson, D.D., now no more, from whom he received the first impulse to make the collection of traditions, by hearing from him, at his own fireside, the recital of some of the events that must immortalize Mecklenburg; and whom he visited for the purpose of correcting and enlarging his traditions, in December, 1843, and found preparations making for his funeral;--a noble, urbane; powerful preacher of the gospel: to Rev. E. B. Currie, in whose retired cottage the writer gathered the principal facts relating to Rev. James McGready and the revivals that accompanied and followed his preaching; and many of the facts respecting the churches in Granville and Caswell counties; the infirmities of whose age but enrich his experience: to the Rev. Robert Tate, from whom I received much that is recorded respecting the churches in the eastern part of the State, himself the patriarch of the present churches in New Hanover: to the Rev. Dr. Morrison, for materials for the interesting Memoir of his father-in-law, J. Graham; and also for much concerning Dr. Hunter and Dr. Wilson: to Dr. T. C. Caldwell, for many traditions relating to Sugaw Creek, received from his father, and for an interesting visit to the old grave-yard: to Dr. Hunter, of Goshen, for many facts and incidents concerning his father, Rev. Humphrey Hunter, D.D.: to Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, for the valuable selections from his Life of Rev. David Caldwell, D.D.: to ex-Governor Swain, President of the University of North Carolina, for materials for the sketch of the University, and Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D., and for other interesting facts: to Rev. Colin McIvor, stated clerk of the Synod, for a copy of the minutes of the Synod of the Carolinas, and for the translation of a Gaelic pamphlet: to Mr. Charles W. Harris, for some curious manuscripts relating to Poplar Tent, from the pen of Mrs. Alexander: to Rev. Alexander Wilson, D.D., for facts concerning the county of Granville, and the church in Ireland previous to the emigration: and to Rev. Messrs. Cyrus Johnson, J. M. M. Caldwell, John M. Wilson, James M. H. Adams, E. F. Rockwell, A. Gilchrist, C. Shaw, and Archibald Smith, for manuscripts, pamphlets and volumes relating to the history of Presbyterianism in their congregations:

Page xiii

to Governors Morehead and Graham, and the public officers in Raleigh, for access to the records of the State and the public library: to Dr. Ramsey, of Tennessee, for much valuable information: and to J. S. Jones, the author of the Defence of North Carolina, from which many interesting facts have been borrowed: and to Dr. Pattillo, of Charlotte, for many papers relating to his grandfather. Other sources of information are acknowledged in the body of the work.

        It is more than possible that upon the perusal of these pages other documents will be brought to light that shall confirm the principal facts here produced, add others, and perhaps modify some.

        The strict order of chronology could not be followed in the succession of chapters, but it is, as far as possible, in the events themselves, and also in the narration.

        The volume takes the name of "Sketches," rather than that of "History," for reasons that will be apparent on perusal; and the author has but one cause of dissatisfaction in reviewing the work, and that is, that the Sketches are not more worthy of the scenes and the actors.

Page xv

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page 33

SKETCHES
OF
NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, MAY 20TH, 1775.

        THE little village of CHARLOTTE, the seat of justice for Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, was the theatre of one of the most memorable events in the political annals of the United States. Situated in the fertile champaign, between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, far above tide-water, some two hundred miles from the ocean, and in advance of the mountains that run almost parallel to the Atlantic coast, on the route of that emigration which, before the Revolution, passed on southwardly, from Pennsylvania, through Virginia, to the unoccupied regions east of the Mountains, on what is now the upper stage route from Georgia, through South Carolina and North Carolina, to meet the railroad at Raleigh,--it was, and is, the centre of an enterprising population. It received its name from Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, whose native province also gave name to the county, the House of Hanover having been invited to the throne of England.

        Here was located the first academy, or high school, in the upper part of the State; and here was made the first effort for a college in North Carolina, in the institution called QUEEN'S MUSEUM.

        The traveller, in passing through this fertile, retired, and populous country, would now see nothing calculated to suggest the

Page 34

fact, that he was on the ground of the boldest Declaration ever made in America; and that all around him were localities rich in associations of valor and suffering in the cause of National Independence, the sober recital of which borders on romance. Everything looks peaceful, secluded, and prosperous, as though the track of hostile armies had never defaced the soil. Were he told, this is the spot where lovers of personal and national liberty will come, in pilgrimage or imagination, to ponder events of the deepest interest to all mankind, he must feel, in the beauty and fertility of the surrounding region, that here was a chosen habitation for good men to live, and act, and leave to their posterity the inestimable privileges of political and religious freedom, with abundance of all that may be desired to make life one continued thanksgiving.

        Seventy years ago, on the 19th day of May, 1775, might have been seen assembled, in this frontier settlement, an immense concourse of people under great excitement; some few, well dressed, moving about with the dignity of Colonial Magistrates; a small number of officers of the militia; the great mass of the assembly clad in the homespun of their wives and sisters,--not a few shod with the moccasins of their own manufacture,--all completely wrapt in the exciting subjects of a revolutionary nature, then agitating the whole land. Continental Congress was then in session in Philadelphia, consulting for the welfare of the Colonies; provincial Legislatures had been dissolved, and the whole population of the United Provinces were in commotion, discussing the rights and privileges of persons, and States, and Kings. Every man had become a politician, and from being a hunter was prepared to become a soldier.

        There was no printing press in the upper country of Carolina, and many a weary mile must be traversed to find one. Newspapers were few, and, no regular post traversing the country, were seldom seen. The people, anxious for news, were accustomed to assemble to hear printed handbills from abroad, or written ones drawn up by persons appointed for the purpose, particularly the Rev. Thomas Reese, of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, whose bones lie in the grave yard of the Stone Church, Pendleton, South Carolina. There had been frequent assemblies in Charlotte, to hear the news and join in the discussions of the exciting subjects of the day; and finally, to give more efficiency to their discussions, it was agreed upon, generally, that Thomas Polk, Colonel of the Militia, long a surveyor in the province, frequently a member of the Colonial Assembly, well known and well acquainted

Page 35

in the surrounding counties, a man of great excellence and merited popularity, should be empowered to call a convention of the representatives of the people, whenever it should appear advisable. It was also agreed that these representatives should be chosen from the Militia districts, by the people themselves; and that when assembled for council and debate, their decisions should be binding on the inhabitants of Mecklenburg.

        Having heard of the attempt of Governor Martin to prevent the assembling of a Provincial Congress, or Convention, in Newbern, in April; and of his arbitrary proceedings in dissolving the last provincial Legislature after a session of four days, before any important business had been transacted; and being afflicted with the news from distant colonies, and from across the ocean, the people were clamorous for action and for redress. The Provincial Congress of North Carolina had assembled in direct opposition to the proclamation of the Governor, and had approved of the acts and doings of their representatives in the Continental Congress, expressing their confidence in their wisdom and abilities, by re-appointing them to the arduous duties of Representatives in the Legislature of the United Colonies; and the people generally were more and more restless under the exercise of royal authority, and daily more irritated by the exactions of men who glutted their avarice under the color of law.

        In this state of the public mind, Colonel Polk issued his notice for the committee men to assemble in Charlotte, on the 19th of May, 1775. On the appointed day between twenty and thirty representatives of the people met in the Court House, in the centre of the town, at the crossing of the great streets, and surrounded by an immense concourse, few of whom could enter the house, proceeded to organize for business, by choosing ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, a former member of the Legislature, a magistrate, and ruling elder in the Sugar Creek Congregation, in whose bounds they were assembled, as their chairman; and John McKnitt Alexander, and Dr. Ephraim Brevard, men of business habits and great popularity, their clerks. Papers were read before the Convention and the people; the handbill, brought by express, containing the news of the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, on that day one month, the 19th of April, came to hand that day, and was read to the assembly. The Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, Pastor of Poplar Tent, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, and William Kennon, Esq., addressed the Convention and the people at large. Under the excitement produced by the wanton bloodshed at Lexington,

Page 36

and the addresses of these gentlemen, the assembly cried out as with one voice, "Let us be independent! Let us declare our independence, and defend it with our lives and fortunes!" The speakers said, his Majesty's proclamation had declared them out of the protection of the British Crown, and they ought, therefore, to declare themselves out of his protection, and independent of all his control.

        A committee, consisting of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Mr. Kennon, and Rev. Mr. Balch, were appointed to prepare resolutions suitable to the occasion. Some drawn up by Dr. Brevard, and read to his friends at a political meeting in Queen's Museum some days before, were read to the Convention, and then committed to these gentlemen for revision.

        While the committee were out discussing these resolutions, the Convention continued in session and were addressed by several gentlemen. General Joseph Graham, then but a youth, and present at the deliberations, relates an interesting incident. A member of the committee, who had said but little before, addressed the chairman as follows: "If you resolve on Independence, how shall we all be absolved from the obligations of the oath we took to be true to King George the Third, about four years ago, after the Regulation battle, when we were sworn, whole militia companies together? I should be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their consciences after taking that oath?" The Speaker referred to the blood shed by Governor Tryon, on the 16th of May, 1771, on Alamance Creek, when he dispersed the Regulators, men driven to open resistance of His Majesty's officers, by their tyranny and exactions;--and to the numerous executions that followed in Hillsborough and the neighboring country;--and to the oath of allegiance forced on the people by the Governor, to save their lives and property, after that bloodshed. The question produced great confusion, and many attempted to reply; the chairman could with difficulty preserve order. This question did not imply fear, or want of patriotism; it simply revealed the spirit and tone of the man's conscience, that he was one of those men blessed of the Lord, "who sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." The excitement that followed evinced the fact that the Speaker had struck a chord that vibrated through the assembly. An answer must be given, or the event of that day's discussion would not be for independence. The haste to answer the question revealed the fact that the community felt the awful and binding sanction of a solemn oath; and unless some answer was

Page 37

given, and given speedily, the minds of the auditory would be turned back from the proposed declaration, for very many were held by the oath exacted by Tryon. Some cried out that--"allegiance and protection were reciprocal; when protection was withdrawn, allegiance ceased; that the oath was binding only while the King protected us in our rights and liberties as they existed at the time it was taken." Others, of more passion than conscience, cried out that such questions and difficulties were all "nonsense." One man at last carried the assembly with him by a short illustration, pointing to a green tree near the Court House,--"If I am sworn to do a thing as long as the leaves continue on that tree, I am bound by that oath as long as the leaves continue. But when the leaves fall, I am released from that obligation." The people determined that when protection ceased, allegiance ceased also. The Convention proceeded to enact by-laws and regulations by which it should be governed as a standing committee, and about midnight adjourned till noon the next day.

        The excitement continued to increase through the night and the succeeding morning. At noon, May 20th, the Convention re-assembled with an undiminished concourse of citizens, amongst whom might be seen many wives and mothers, anxiously awaiting the event. The resolutions previously drawn up by Dr. Brevard, and now amended by the committee, together with the by-laws and regulations, were taken up; John McKnitt Alexander read the by-laws, and Dr. Brevard the resolutions. All was stillness. The chairman of the Convention put the question:--"Are you all agreed?" The response was an universal "aye."

        After the business of the Convention was all arranged, it was moved and seconded that the proceedings should be read at the Court House door in hearing of the multitude. Proclamation was made, and from the Court House steps Colonel Thomas Polk read, to a listening and approving auditory, the following resolutions, viz.:--

THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

        "Resolved, 1st. That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, to America, and to the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

        "Resolved, 2d. That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us

Page 38

with the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American Patriots at Lexington.

        "Resolved, 3d. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power, other than that of our God, and the General Government of the Congress:--to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.

        "Resolved, 4th. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law, nor legal office, civil or military, within this county; we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.

        "Resolved, 5th. That it is further decreed, that all, each, and every military officer in this county is hereby retained in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz.: a Justice of the Peace, in the character of a committee man, to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, union, and harmony in said county; and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a general organized government be established in this province."

        A voice from the crowed called out for "three cheers," and the whole company shouted three times, and threw their hats in the air. The Resolutions were read again and again during the day to different companies desirous of retaining in their memories sentiments so congenial to their feelings. There are still living some whose parents were in that assembly, and heard and read the resolutions; and from whose lips they heard the circumstances and sentiments of this remarkable declaration.

THE SECOND MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

        The Convention had frequent meetings, and on the 30th of May, 1775, issued the following paper, viz.:--

Page 39

"CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG COUNTY,
May 30th, 1775.

        "This day the committee of the county met and passed the following Resolves:--Whereas, by an Address presented to his Majesty by both houses of parliament, in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commissions confirmed by, or derived from the authority of the king or parliament, are annulled and vacated, and the former civil constitution of these Colonies for the present wholly suspended. To provide, in some degree, for the exigencies of this county, in the present alarming period, we deem it necessary and proper to pass the following resolves, viz.:--

        "1st. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and the constitution of each particular Colony wholly suspended.

        "2d. That the Provincial Congress of each province, under the direction of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers, within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative power does, or can exist, at this time, in any of these Colonies.

        "3d. As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the Congress have not provided others, we judge it necessary for the better preservation of good order, to form certain rules and regulations for the internal government of this county, until laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.

        "4th. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on a certain day appointed by this committee, and having formed themselves into nine companies, viz., eight in the county, and one in the town of Charlotte, do choose a Colonel and other military officers, who shall hold and exercise their several powers by virtue of this choice, and independent of the crown of Great Britain and the former constitution of this province."

        Then follow eleven articles for the preservation of the peace, and the choice of officers to perform the duties of a regular government.]

        "16th. That whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country; and upon information to the captain of the company in which he resides, the company shall cause him to be apprehended, and,

Page 40

upon proof of the fact, committed to safe custody, till the next sitting of the committee, who shall deal with him as prudence shall direct."


        A copy of the acts and doings of this convention was sent by express to the members of Congress from North Carolina, then in session in Philadelphia. Capt. James Jack, of Charlotte, was chosen as the bearer, and set out immediately on his mission. Passing through Salisbury, on the regular court day, he was persuaded by Mr. Kennon, a lawyer in attendance at court, also a member of the committee that reported the first declaration, to permit a reading of the papers publicly. The citizens of Rowan, generally, approved of the course taken by their fellow-citizens of Mecklenburg. Two individuals, John Dunn and Benjamin Booth Boote, opposed the sentiments of the resolution, pronounced them treasonable, and proposed the detention of Captain Jack. Bidding them defiance, and favored by the great majority of the people, he passed on unmolested, and delivered the declarations to the delegates from North Carolina, then in Philadelphia--Messrs. Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes. Approving of the spirit of their fellow citizens, and the tone of the resolutions, these gentlemen nevertheless thought them premature, as the General Congress had not then abandoned all hopes of a reconciliation with the mother country, on honorable terms; and did not present them to Congress. By this perhaps prudent smothering of the expressions of sentiment by an intelligent people, the citizens of Mecklenburg were disappointed, but not discouraged; they lost the foreground their patriotism merited, but lost not their spirit. They declared themselves independent May, 1775, and have never ceased to be so.

        A copy of the proceedings of the Convention was addressed to the Moderator of the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina, which met in Hillsborough, August 20th, 1775; and was laid before the committee of business, but not particularly acted upon, as the majority of the body were still hoping for reconciliation on honorable terms.

        A copy of the proceedings appeared in the Cape Fear Mercury, published in Wilmington, and meeting the eye of Governor Josiah Martin, is thus noticed by him in the Proclamation issued from on board his Majesty's ship Cruiser, August 8th, 1775, and sent to the Provincial Congress:--"And whereas, I have also seen a most infamous publication in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be

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'Resolves' of a set of people styling themselves 'a Committee of the County of Mecklenburg,' most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and constitution of the country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and subversive of his Majesty's government," &c. The Governor knew the people better than his predecessor, Tryon, and had he known them better still, he would have spoken of them more respectfully.

        A copy of the second declaration (that of May 30th, 1775) appeared in the public papers in New York and Massachusetts; files of which are still preserved; and from them was copied by Mr. Force into his State Papers.

        The history of the preservation of the first declaration (that of May 20th, 1775), in the absence of printed documents, will be given, in full, in the sketch of Hopewell Congregation, and the Secretary of the Convention.

        The energy of the committee was equal to the decision of their declarations. The laws were vigorously enforced; and the venerable chairman, and his coadjutor Col. Polk, with the committee at large, demonstrated that, in seeking freedom from tyranny, they designed no overthrow of law, or perversion of justice. Opposers of independence were reckoned offenders; and open offenders found no refuge in Mecklenburg. As soon as the news of the insult offered their express, Capt. Jack, in Salisbury, reached Charlotte, the committee ordered a party of some ten or twelve armed men, on horseback, to proceed to Salisbury, the seat of jnstice in Rowan, and bring these men prisoners to Charlotte. The party lost no time in fulfilling their mission, and met with no resistance in Rowan. The offenders, Dunn and Boote, were, after examination by the committee, sent to South Carolina as suspicious persons, to be kept in confinement. Gen. Graham says--"My brother, George Graham, and the late Col. John Carruth, were of the party that went to Salisbury; and it is distinctly remembered that when in Charlotte, they came home at night in order to provide for their trip to Camden; and they and two others of the party took Boote to that place. This was the first military expedition from Mecklenburg in the revolutionary war, and believed to be the first anywhere to the South."--But it was far from being the last, retired and frontier as the county was. It characterized, in its spirit, energy and success, the various expeditions in and from Mecklenburg during the seven years' war--more particularly in the distressing campaigns of Cornwallis, which Graham

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himself acted so conspicuous a part. Dunn and Boote were both transferred to Charleston, for safekeeping, as persons particularly inimical to the country. Their wives made a strong appeal in their favor to the Provincial Congress, which met in Hillsborough, August 20th, 1775: on the 29th of that month it was decided by a vote of that body that they remain in confinement.

        Associations were formed, very generally, throughout the different counties in the state during the summer of 1775. Articles drawn up for the purpose were signed individually as a test of patriotism. The first association of which there is a copy, was drawn up in Cumberland county, July 10th, 1775; the second in Tryon, now Lincoln, in August of the same year.

        The first Provincial Congress of North Carolina were not prepared for independence of the mother country; and on the 4th of September, 1775, after discussion and the action of a committee, it was resolved--"The present association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent state." But on the 9th of the same month, the appointment of a Provincial Council, of thirteen persons, with executive powers, was resolved upon; also County Committees of Safety, with executive powers, in connection with the Provincial Council, to consist of not less than twenty-one persons, to be chosen annually by the electors on the day they made choice of Congressmen. It was also determined that, after the 10th day of December, no suit for debt should be entertained except by permission of this committee. These committees of safety appear to have been the same as that already in existence in Mecklenburg; and Abraham Alexander continued to act as the chairman, as appears from the following certificate, which may be also a specimen of the spirit of the times, and the vigilance with which the committee acted:

"NORTH CAROLINA, MECKLENBURG COUNTY,
"Nov. 28th, 1775.

        "These may certify to all whom they may concern, that the bearer hereof, William Henderson, is allowed here to be a true friend of liberty, and has signed the association.

        "Certified by Abraham Alexander, chairman of the committee of safety."


        Though the Declaration of Independence, made and repeated in Charlotte, in May, 1775, had no immediate effect upon the Continental Congress, it is not unfair to conjecture that it had an influence

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on the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, that met in Hillsborough in August of that year, in the appointment of the Provincial Committee and the County Committees of Safety, as four of the members of the convention were members of the Congress, viz.:--Thomas Polk, Waightstill Avery, John Pfifer, and John McKnitt Alexander. Neither is it unfair to conclude that it had some influence on the Provincial Congress that assembled in Halifax, April 4th, 1776: as, on the 8th of that month a committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Harnett, Burke, A. Jones, T. Jones, Nash, Henekin, and Person, to take into consideration the usurpations and violence committed by the king and parliament of Great Britain; and, on the 12th, Mr. Harnett submitted an able report, which was concluded with the following resolution, viz.:

        "Resolved, That the delegates from this colony, in Continental Congress, be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence, and in forming foreign alliances; reserving to this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for this colony, and of appointing delegates from time to time (under the direction of a general representation thereof), to meet delegates of the other colonies for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out."


        This resolution was, on the same day it was proposed, unanimously adopted; and IS THE FIRST PUBLIC DECLARATION FOR INDEPENDENCE BY THE CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES OF A STATE. It was presented to the Continental Congress, May 27th, 1776, nearly six weeks before the national Declaration.

        The question now arises, who were these people of Mecklenburg, and whence did they come? What were the habits and manners by which they were characterized? What were their religious principles? and what their daily practice? The county was comparatively new; and it was not yet forty years since the first of those composing the convention had settled in the wilderness. Agriculturists, at a distance from market, and in a fertile country affording in its pea-patches, and cane-brakes, and prairies, plentiful sustenance for their herds, they had abundance of provisions, and little of the sinews of war, money. Skilful marksmen, hunters, and horsemen, capable of enduring great fatigue, in making the Declaration of Independence, they offered a heart and a hand, to give and act according to their abilities, and the emergencies in which they might be placed. The riches of the gold mines were then unknown: the wealth of the country was in her sons,

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and she was rich. Protestants, trained in religious things in the strict doctrines of the Reformation, their settlements were made in congregations; and their places of worship so arranged as to accommodate all the families. Their descendants now assemble where their fathers worshipped before the Revolution. Their forms and creed were the forms and creed of their ancestors, who were eminently a religious people; and their Confession of Faith has descended as a legacy from the emigrants, to go down to the latest posterity.

        Whence did these people come? and what was their ancestry? Of the members of the Convention that proclaimed Independence, May, 1775, one was a minister of the Gospel, and nine were Elders in the Church; and all in some way connected with the seven churches and congregations that embraced the whole county of Mecklenburg. In tracing their history, the true and legitimate workings of religious principles are as happily displayed as in the annals of any State or section in the United States. When the history of these people and their descendants shall be the history of two centuries, it may, and probably will appear, that in the advance of true religious and genuine liberty and sound literature, the South and West are not a whit behind the most favored sections of our Confederacy. It cannot well be otherwise, for the principles, the creed of Puritanism, under whose influence human society has so happily been developed in the New England States, are the principles of Presbytery, the principles of civil and religious liberty, that struck deep in the soil of Carolina, and sent out their vigorous shoots in the great valley of the Mississippi.

        But the question arises with increased force, who were these people, and whence did they come? In what school of politics and religion had they been disciplined? At what fountains had they been drinking such inspirations, that here in the wilderness, common people, in their thoughts of freedom and equality, far outstripped the most ardent leaders in the Continental Congress? Whence came these men, that spoke out their thoughts, and thought as they spoke; and both thought and spoke unextinguishable principles of freedom of conscience and civil liberty? That they were poor and obscure but adds to their interest, when it is known that their deeds in the Revolution were equal to their principles. Many a "life" was given in Mecklenburg in consequence of that declaration, and much of "fortune" was sacrificed; but their "honor" came out safe, even

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their great enemy Tarleton being witness. They did not get their ideas of liberty and law from Vattel, or Puffendorf, or the tomes of English law. From what book then did they get their knowledge, their principles of life? Ahead of their own State in their political notions, as a body, they never wavered through the whole Revolutionary struggle; and their descendants possess now just what these people asserted then, both in religion and politics, in conscience and in the state.

        To North Carolina belongs the unperishable honor of being the first in declaring that Independence, which is the pride and glory of every American. Honor to whom honor is due!

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CHAPTER II.
BLOOD SHED ON THE ALAMANCE--THE FIRST BLOOD SHED IN THE REVOLUTION, MAY 16TH, 1771.

        IN the year 1759 a town was established by the legislature of the province of North Carolina, on the Eno, a branch of the Neuse, near its head waters, in the county of Orange, which might have received its name, Hillsborough, from the beautiful eminences by which it is surrounded, as well as from the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for American affairs, from whom it is called. Its first name was Childsborough, in honor of the Attorney-General; but the change speedily took place on account of the odium attached to the attorney for his exorbitant fees.

        This little village, the county seat of Orange, has claims upon our attention, for events enacted within its precincts and its neighborhood, in times gone by. It was the seat of the first provincial congress in North Carolina, 1775;--the head-quarters of Gates after his sad defeat at Camden;--and of his adversary, Lord Cornwallis, on his invasion of Carolina in his pursuit of Greene (the residence of his Lordship, then one of the most sightly buildings in the village, is now kept as a tavern of no splendid appearance);--but more particularly noted as the place of the first outbreaking of those discontents, which had shown themselves in complaints and remonstrances, but here assumed form and consistence, first heard of in Orange and Granville, and ultimately spreading over all that section of the State west of a line drawn from the point of entrance of the Roanoke, from Virginia, to the point of egress of the Yadkin to South Carolina;--discontents, and complaints, and outbreakings, that eventuated in the first blood shed in Carolina, in the contest of freedom of opinion and property with the tyranny and misrule of the British government: and the first contest that had any appearance of a regular predetermined battle, in the provinces in North America.

        This spirit of discontent was at first confined to that part of the province granted and set off to Lord Granville, which was bounded by the Virginia line on the north, by the line of latitude

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of 35° 34'' on the south, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean indefinitely west; but more particularly, that part of his Lordship's domain lying west of the line from the Roanoke to the Catawba, at the points specified above. It might have been quieted, had the governor been as ready to require the agents of Granville and his own officers to do justice, as he was to issue his proclamations, filled with promises, and vain orders, to a people irritated by oppression, but not desirous of rebellion.

        On the 24th of April, 1771, Governor Tryon marched from Newbern with a small force, on his way, according to the recommendation of the council, to check a rebellion in the upper country, which had received the name of the Regulators, or the Regulation; the militia of the several counties, in answer to the governor's demand upon the constituted authorities, joined him on his march; and on the 4th of May he encamped at Hunter's lodge in Wake county. Here being joined by a detachment of militia under Col. John Hinton, he found himself at the head of an armed force sufficient to alarm, if not subdue, the undisciplined country in which the dissatisfaction prevailed. He left the palace in Newbern accompanied by about three hundred men, a small train of artillery, and a number of baggage wagons; on the way he had been joined by the detachment of militia from New Hanover county, under Col. John Ashe; of the county of Craven, under Col. Joseph Leech; of the county of Dobbs (now called Lenoir), under Col. Richard Caswell; of the county of Onslow, under Col. Craig; of the county of Cartaret, under Col. William Thompson; of the county of Johnson, under Col. Needham Bryan; of the county of Beaufort, a company of artillery, under Capt. Moore, and a company of Rangers under Capt. Neale; and a company of light horsemen from Duplin, under Capt. Bullock.

        From this place he sent out some detachments to assist the sheriffs in collecting their taxes and various fees due to the government and its officers, with the hope of overawing the community by his military parade; and on the 9th instant marched to the Eno, and encamped within a few miles of Hillsborough, the centre of the infected district, and the residence of the most hated and oppressive officer of the crown, Col. Edmund Fanning, who joined his camp at this place with a detachment of the militia of Orange, whom by various means he had prevailed upon to unite with the governor in putting down their distressed and rebellious neighbors.

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        This was the second visit paid by the governor to the county of Orange on account of the agitation of the public mind, and the disturbances in the community, and the difficulty attending the collection of taxes and the fees of the public officers. In the early part of July, 1768, he came as governor, unattended with any armed force, and used the authority of the chief magistrate, and the address of a practised politician, to restore order, under promises of redress. The apparent quiet gave place to redoubled confusion after his departure, as the promises of protection from illegal exactions all proved vain. He now came with an armed detachment of the colonial militia, to quell by power what he would not control by justice.

        The whole inhabited region of Carolina, west of the line mentioned above, inhabited, as Martin says,--"by several thousand families, removed from the mother country, settled in the frontier counties of the province, exposed to the dangers of savage Indians, and subject to all the hardships and difficulties of cultivating a desolate wilderness, under the expectation of enjoying to their fullest extent the exercise of their religious privileges as a people,"--and with their religious were joined inseparably the civil and domestic rights of an enterprising race accustomed to endure hardship and resist oppression;--all this region of country was agitated, and in some parts in open rebellion; without a single military leader of experience; with few men of much wealth or political eminence, or polished education; with a population of scattered neighborhoods, and not a single fortified place, or any preparations of the munitions of war beyond the rifle and powder and ball of the hunter.

        Mr. Wirt, in his Life of Patrick Henry, says, "the spirit of revolution in Virginia began in the highest circles in the community, and worked its way down to the lower, the bone and sinew of the country." Wherever it may have begun in the eastern part of Carolina, it is certain that in the western division, the people, feeling that their interests were neglected by the governor, and misunderstood or overlooked by the seaboard counties, and not protected, or even consulted, by the parliament or court of England, or any of their executive officers, were moved as one great, excited, undisciplined mass of shrewd, hardy, enterprising men, that acknowledged the dominion of law, and held "opposition to tyrants" to be "obedience to God."

        The men on the seaboard of Carolina, with Colonels Ashe and Waddel at their head, had nobly opposed the Stamp Act, and prevented

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its execution in North Carolina; and in their patriotic movements the people of Orange sustained them; and called them "The Sons of Liberty." Col. Ashe, in Wilmington, had ventured to lead the excited populace against the wishes and even the hospitality of the governor, and in 1766 his party had thrown the governor's roasted ox, provided for a barbecue feast, into the river. Now they were marching with his very governor, to subdue the disciples of Liberty in the west; perhaps, through a misunderstanding of the true nature of the case, they were willing to convince the governor that they were all supporters of the laws and of the authority of the British crown, by uniting with him and subduing those who were reported to the council and provincial legislature as an ignorant and restless multitude, to be reclaimed, by severity, to the government of the laws. The eastern men looked for evils from across the waters; and were prepared to resist oppression on their shores before it should step upon the soil of their State. The western men were seeking redress from evils that pressed them at home, under the misrule of the officers of the province, evils unknown by experience in the eastern counties, and misunderstood when reported there. Had Ashe, and Waddel, and Caswell, understood their case, they would have acted like Thomas Person, of Granville, and favored the distressed even though they might have felt under obligations to maintain the peace of the province, and the due subordination to the laws. While the rest of this province, and the other provinces, were resisting by resolutions and remonstrances, and making preparations for distant and coming evils; these western men, in defence of their rights, boldly made resistance to the constituted authorities, unto blood. While the eastern men stopped the stamped paper on the shore, these contended with an enemy in their own bosom, and sought deliverance at home in the wilderness.

        The disturbances Governor Tryon came to quell were no sudden outbreaks of a discontented and excitable people. As early as the year 1759, the attention of the legislature of the province was called to the illegal fees exacted by the officers of government, producing great and alarming discontents; and a law proposed for redress failed in meeting the approbation of the legislature, though the discontent of persons living on Lord Granville's land had been manifested by the seizure of his lordship's agent, in Edenton, Francis Corbin, and his purchase of liberty by his bond, for future better behavior, in £8,000, with eight securities. This exhibition

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of popular frenzy was not noticed by the governor, because one of his favorite counsellors, M'Culloch, was engaged in it. In 1760, the people of Orange, finding themselves "defrauded by the clerks of the several courts, by the recorders of deeds, by entry takers, by surveyors, and by the lawyers, every man demanding twice or three times his legal fees," violently prevented the sheriff from holding an election according to proclamation of the governor, in expectation of some new oppression by the office-holders, in the form of taxes and fees. In June, 1765, a paper entitled, "A serious address to the people of Granville county, containing a brief narrative of our situation, and the wrongs we suffer, with some necessary hints with respect to a reformation," was circulated in that county, with great effect, being written with much clearness and force. The wrongs complained of in Orange, and Granville, and Anson, and the other counties, were essentially, and for the most part, individually the same.

        The people complained that illegal and exorbitant fees were extorted by officers of government; that oppressive taxes were exacted by the sheriffs, where they had a right to exact some; and that the manner of their collection at all times was oppressive, especially when the right to exact any was denied. As early as the years 1752 or 1753, Childs and Corbin, the agents for Lord Granville, and successors of Mosely and Holton, began to oppress the people who had been induced, by fair promises, to settle on his lordship's reservation, by declaring the patents issued by their predecessors null and void, because the words, "Right Honorable Earl," had been left out from the signature, which had been simply, "Granville, by his Attorneys." They next demanded a larger fee for the patents they issued, than had been given to their predecessors;--next, a fee for a device which they had invented to be affixed to the papers;--also, by granting over and over again, knowingly, the same lands to different persons, and in no case returning the illegal fees;--and in various ways rendering titles to land uncertain and insecure in a large part of Orange. In all these extortions the people complained that the high officers of the province were so interested, there was little prospect of justice but by some strong appeals and exhibitions of powerful dislike, that could not be frowned down.

        The governor's proclamation, issued from time to time, requiring that copies of the legal fees should be exhibited to the people, and no others demanded, were disregarded by his officers; and it was more than hinted that the judges were, indirectly at least, in many

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cases, partakers of the crime, by sharing the fees of office with the inferior officers. This gave weight and impunity to the oppressive exactions. The people were poor; living on productive land as most of them did, they were far from market, and had scarcely surmounted the labors and exposures of a new settlement. One of them, who was engaged in the opposition, declared that when he had gone with his father to Fayetteville to market, with a load of wheat, he could get a bushel of salt for a bushel of wheat; or if money was demanded, they could get five shillings a bushel for wheat, of which one only was in money, and the rest in trade. And if they could go home with forty shillings, or five dollars, from a load of forty bushels, they thought they had done well. In these circumstances double fees and double taxes were exceedingly oppressive,--and to men of their principles these exactions were sufficient cause of open and persevering resistance.

        In 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed, and the governor issued two proclamations on the 25th of June, one making known that desirable fact, the other requiring of the officers of government strict adherence to the graduated table of fees; expecting of consequence that both the east and the west would be gratified, and make no further resistance to the collection of the lawful taxes, and range themselves on the side of the government. The relief and tranquillity were far greater in the eastern counties than in the western. During the session of the county court of Orange, a number of persons entered the court-house in Hillsborough, and presented to the magistrates a written complaint, drawn up by Harmon Husbands, which they requested the clerk to read, setting forth the views of the people respecting their wrongs,--"that there were many evils complained of in the county of Orange that ought to be redressed,"--and proposing that there should be a meeting in each company of militia, for the purpose of appointing delegates for a general meeting to be held at some suitable place "where there was no liquor,"--"judiciously to inquire whether the freemen of this county labor under any abuse of power,"--"that the opinions of the deputies be committed to writing, freely conversed upon,--and measures taken for amendment." The proposition was considered reasonable, and a meeting was appointed to be held at Maddock's Mill, two or three miles west of Hillsborough, on the 10th of October, to inquire into the acts of government,--"for while men were men, if even the Sons of Liberty were put in office they would become corrupt and oppressive, unless they were called upon to give an account of their stewardship."

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        The company meetings were held, and the delegates were appointed; in some cases, with written commissions, viz:--"At a meeting in the neighborhood of Deep River, 20th of August, 1766, it was unanimously agreed to appoint W. C. and W. M. to attend a general meeting on the 10th of October, at Maddock's Mill, where they are judiciously to examine whether the freemen in this county labor under any abuses of power; and in particular to examine into the public tax, and inform themselves of every particular thereof, by what laws, and for what use it is laid, in order to remove some jealousies out of our minds." "And the representatives, vestrymen, and other officers, are requested to give the members what information and satisfaction they can, so far as they value the good will of every honest freeholder, and the executing public offices pleasant and delightsome."

        On the appointed day, the 10th of October, 1766, the delegates assembled; after some time, James Watson, a friend of Col. Fanning, the most odious officer in the county, came, and as a reason for his not appearing to give account as their representative, read a message from Fanning, that, "It had been his intention of attending them till a few days ago, when he observed in the notice from Deep River, the word judiciously, which signified the authority of a court; and that he considered the meeting an insurrection." The meeting had full and free discussion on a variety of topics; and finally resolved that such meetings as the present were necessary, annually, or oftener, to hear from their representatives and officers, in order to have the benefits of their constitution and the choice of their rulers; and that as their representatives, sheriffs, vestry and other officers had not met them here, with but one exception, they should have another opportunity of conferring with their constituents. It is impossible to conceive what fairer mode of ascertaining the truth could be devised by men situated as they were, without a printing press and without newspapers. Such proceedings might, in the colonial days, be rebellion to be put down; in these days of liberty, a man would lose his hold on the community were he to refuse compliance with such commands from his constituents, or the community at large.

        In April, 1767, another meeting was held at the same place, Maddock's Mills, and the following preamble and resolutions were discussed and adopted, by which these men passed the Rubicon; and from being called a mob, or insurgents, were known by the name of REGULATORS, or THE REGULATION, and were considered as having some continued existence:

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        "We, the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to form ourselves into an association, to assemble ourselves for conference for regulating public grievances and abuses of power, in the following particulars, with others of the like nature that may occur, viz.:

        "1st. That we will pay no more taxes until we are satisfied they are agreeable to law, and applied to the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help it, or are forced.

        "2d. That we will pay no officer any more fees than the law allows, and unless we are obliged to it; and then to show our dislike, and bear an open testimony against it.

        "3d. That we will attend our meetings of conference as often as we conveniently can, and is necessary in order to consult our representatives on the amendment of such laws as may be found grievous or unnecessary; and to choose more suitable men than we have done heretofore for burgesses and vestrymen; and to petition the houses of assembly, governor, council, king, and parliament, &c., for redress in such grievances as in the course of the undertaking may occur; and to inform one another, learn, know, and enjoy all the privileges and liberties that are allowed, and were settled on us by our worthy ancestors, the founders of our present constitution, in order to preserve it on its ancient foundation, that it may stand firm and unshaken.

        "4th. That we will contribute to collections for defraying necessary expenses attending the work, according to our abilities.

        "5th. That in case of difference in judgment, we will submit to the judgment of the majority of our body.

        "To all which we solemnly swear, or being a Quaker, or otherwise scrupulous in conscience of the common oath, do solemnly affirm, that we will stand true and faithful to this cause, till we bring things to a true regulation, according to the true intent and meaning hereof, in the judgment of a majority of us."


        These resolutions were drawn up by Harmon Husbands.

        A subscription was set on foot, and fifty pounds were collected for the purpose of defraying the expenses of such suits as might arise in seeking redress of their grievances.

        During this year, 1767, the governor commenced his palace at Newbern, for which, with great difficulty, he had obtained an appropriation of £5,000 by the last legislature; and proceeded in a tasteful and expensive style of building, to expend the whole sum upon the foundation and a small part of the superstructure. At the meeting of the two houses in December of this year, the governor laid before them the condition of the building. The legislature

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with reluctance gave, as the only alternative, £10,000 more to complete the palace. When finished it was pronounced the most superb building in the United Provinces. The governor was gratified, and the people incensed. The taxes had been burdensome--the palace rendered them intolerable.

        On the 21st of May, 1768, the Regulators had another meeting, and determined to petition the governor direct, and prepared their address; which, with a copy of their proceedings at this and the previous meetings, was sent to His Excellency, by James Hunter and Rednap Howell. In the month of June, these gentlemen waited upon the governor at Brunswick; and in reply to their petition, received a written document from which the following extracts are made:

        "The grievances complained of by no means warrant the extraordinary steps you have taken: in consideration of a determination to abide by my decision in council, it is my direction, by the unanimous advice of that board, that you do, from henceforward, desist from any further meetings, either by verbal appointments or advertisement. That all titles of Regulators or Associators cease among you. As you want to be satisfied what is the amount of the tax for the public service for 1767, I am to inform you, it is seven shillings a taxable, besides the county and parish taxes, the particulars of which I will give to Mr. Hunter. I have only to add, I shall be up at Hillsborough the beginning of next month."


        In all these public and documentary proceedings of the Regulators, we see nothing to blame, and much to admire. On these principles, and to this extent of opposition, the whole western counties were agreed. The most sober and sedate in the community were united in resisting the tyranny of unjust and exorbitant taxes; and had been aroused to a degree of violence and opposition difficult to manage and hard to quell. And the more restless and turbulent and unprincipled parts of society, equally aggrieved, and more ungovernable, cast themselves in as a part of the resisting mass of population, with little to gain, but greater license for their unprincipled passions, and little to lose, could they escape confinement and personal punishment. These persons were guilty of lynching the sheriffs, that is, seizing those they found in the exercise of their office, tying them to a black-jack, or other small trees, beating them severely with rods, laughing and shouting to see their contortions; they would rescue property which had been seized for taxes, often with great violence; and on one occasion, in April, 1768, proceeded to fire a few shots upon the house of Edmund Fanning in Hillsborough. These

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unjustifiable acts were charged upon the party; and the Regulators were made accountable for all the ill that wicked men chose to perpetrate under the name of struggling for liberty; while it is well known that the leaders of this oppressed party never expressed a desire to be free from law or equitable taxation. The governor's palace, double and treble fees and taxes without reason, drove the sober to resistance, and the passionate and unprincipled to outrage. But there were cases of injustice most foul and crying that might palliate, where they could not justify, the violence that followed; such as taking advantage of the quietness of the Regulators to seize a man's horse with the bridle and saddle, and selling them for four or five dollars to an officer, to pay taxes resisted as illegal.

        The sheriff had taken advantage of a peculiar conjuncture of events to seize two of the leading men. A meeting had been agreed upon to be held on the 20th of May, 1768, when the sheriff and vestrymen would meet a deputation from the Regulators, and give them satisfaction. Previous to that day a messenger came from the governor with a proclamation against the Regulation as an insurrection; the sheriff immediately, with a party of thirty horsemen, rode some fifty miles, and seizing Harmon Husbands and William Hunter, confined them in Hillsborough jail. The whole country arose, and making an old Scotchman of some seventy years of age, Ninian Bell Hamilton, their leader, marched towards Hillsborough to the rescue. When they reached the Eno, they found the prisoners set free, with this condition laid upon them among others--"nor show any jealousies of the officers taking extraordinary fees." When the Regulators reached the Eno, Fanning went down to meet them with a bottle of rum in one hand and of wine in the other, and called for a horse to take him over--"ye're nane too gude to wade," replied the old Scotchman. Fanning waded the river, but no one would partake of his refreshments, or listen to his statements. The governor's messenger, who had just then returned, rode up to them, read the governor's message, and assured them that, on application to the governor, he would redress their grievances and protect them from extortion and oppression of any officer, provided they would disperse and go home. The whole company cried out, "agreed! agreed!" and immediately dispersed. This event preceded the visit made by Hunter and Howell to the governor.

        Early in July, 1768, the governor arrived in Hillsborough, and issuing a proclamation, as he had promised Hunter and Howell.

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excited the expectations of the country that some redress would be granted. But sending the sheriff to collect the taxes, and with him a letter addressed to the people of a similar import with his proclamations and previous letters, these fond expectations were all broken, and the excited people drove off the sheriff with threats of his life if he persisted in his efforts, and sent a reply to the governor. On a false alarm, a large body of the Regulators assembled in arms, on the night of the 11th of August, near Hillsborough. The nearest companies of militia were called upon; and a large body assembled to defend the governor from injury or insult. The better part of the community were averse to the irregularities of those lawless spirits who, attaching themselves to the cause of liberty, greatly impeded its progress; and desired to govern themselves and persuade their neighbors, by reason, to gain the justice they demanded. Frequent communications passed between the governor and the leaders of the Regulators before the session of the superior court, Sept. 22d, at which Husband and Butler were to be tried; and the demands of His Excellency always implied absolute submission; while the Regulators insisted on protection. On the day of trial, between three and four thousand people assembled near the town, but no violence was committed; the court proceeded; Husbands was acquitted; Hunter and two others were found guilty of riot, fined heavily and committed to jail, from which two soon found the means of escape, and all soon received the pardon of the governor. A number of indictments were found against Fanning; he was pronounced guilty on all, and fined one penny each.

        After this display of justice, the governor issued a proclamation of a general pardon to all who had been engaged in the late riotous movements, except thirteen individuals designated by name. These were probably esteemed by the governor as principal men among the Regulators in Orange county, and their names are preserved, James Hunter, Ninian Hamilton, Peter Craven, Isaac Jackson, Harmon Husbands, Matthew Hamilton, William Payne, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Malachy Tyke, William Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff, and John O'Neil. Supposing the country sufficiently pacified, the governor returned to his palace, soon to find that the people were neither deceived nor dispirited.

        The course of events in the upper country flowed on in a disturbed channel, during the remaining part of the year 1768, the whole of 1769 and 1770. The Regulators held their meetings, often in an excited, but never in a dissipated manner, and continued

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to throw more and more difficulties in the way of the sheriffs and other officers, whose exactions increased by impunity. All classes felt the evil, and a greater number than formerly determined on resistance. In March, 1770, Maurice Moore reported to the governor from Salisbury, where he had gone to hold the superior court,--"that the sheriffs of the several counties of that district, complained heavily of the opposition made to them in the exercise of their duties, by the Regulators; that it was impossible to collect a tax or levy an execution; plain proofs, among others, that their designs have even extended farther than to promote a public inquiry into the conduct of public officers:" and he prayed that it might not be found necessary to redress the evil "by means equal to the obstinacy of the people."

        On the records of the superior court in Hillsborough, under date of Sept. 24th, 1770, is the following entry, which requires no comment. "Several persons styling themselves Regulators, assembled together in the court-yard under the conduct of Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, Samuel Divinny, and many others, insulted some of the gentlemen of the bar, and in a riotous manner went into the court-house, and forcibly carried out some of the attorneys, and in a cruel manner, beat them. They then insisted that the judge (Richard Henderson being the only one on the bench) should proceed to trial of their leaders, who had been indicted at a former court, and that the jury should be taken out of their party. Therefore, the judge finding it impossible to proceed with honor to himself and justice to his country, adjourned the court until to-morrow at 10 o'clock; and took advantage of the night and made his escape, and the court adjourned to meet in course."

        The next entry is as follows, viz.:

        "March term, 1771. The persons styling themselves Regulators, under the conduct of Harmon Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, and Samuel Divinny, still continuing their riotous meetings, and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, and other officers of the court, prevented any of the judges or lawyers attending. Therefore, the court adjourned till the next September term." So it appears there was no superior court in Orange for a year; and in Rowan the course of justice was greatly impeded.

        To these acts of rebellion, unfortunately, were added acts of personal violence that called the governor from his palace, with his armed force to revenge. Immediately after the adjournment of the

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court, a lawyer, Mr. John Williams, on his way to the court-house, was met by a number of individuals, who seized and beat him severely in the streets. Edmund Fanning, the person most obnoxious to the community, was seized in the court-house, dragged out by his heels, severely beaten, and kept in confinement during the night. In the morning, when it was discovered there would be no court, he was beaten again; his fine house, which occupied the site of the present Masonic Hall, was torn down, and his elegant furniture destroyed. While the buildings on the premises were falling under the hands of the Regulators, a bell, which had been procured for the Episcopal church, and deposited with Fanning for safe keeping, was discovered. The cry was raised, "it's a spice mortar;" and in a twinkling, Fanning's spice mortar was scattered in fragments.

        The excited multitude then proceeded to the court-house; appointed a man by the name of Yorke as clerk; set up a mock judge; called over the cases; directed Fanning to plead law; and pronounced judgment in mock gravity and ridicule of the court, and law, and officers, by whom they felt themselves aggrieved. Henderson informed the governor, and urged his special attendance, and proposed the calling of the Assembly. Soon after, the house, barn, and out-buildings of the judge, were burned to the ground.

        The governor postponed the calling of the legislature till the usual time; and received them in the palace, which had just been completed, amidst the confusion of the upper country, so greatly aggravated by its erection. Vigorous measures were proposed to restore peace to the upper country; four new counties were set off--Guilford, Chatham, Surry, and Wake. With the hopes of dividing the attention of the people, a proclamation was issued forbidding merchants, traders, or others, to supply any person with powder and shot, or lead, till further notice; and finally it was determined to proceed to extremities, and on the 19th March, 1771, the governor issued his circular to the colonels and commanding officers of the regiments, stating the grievances the government was suffering; he adds--"You are to take fifty volunteers from your regiment, to form one company," &c., offering, at the same time, liberal rations, bounty and pay. No little difficulty was found in collecting the necessary forces, from the great unwillingness of the militia to march against men, in whose doings there was so much to justify, and so little to condemn and punish.

        On the 9th of May, after many delays, he was encamped, as

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we have said, on the banks of the Eno, near Hillsborough. General Hugh Waddel had been directed to march with the forces of Bladen and Cumberland, and to rendezvous in Salisbury, and collect the forces from the western counties, and join the governor in Orange, now Guilford. While he was encamped at Salisbury, waiting for the arrival of ammunition from Charleston, the exploit known in tradition as the Black Boys was performed by a company of men in Cabarrus county, who, lying in wait in disguise, with blackened faces, intercepted the convoy of ammunition between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard, blew up the powder, and escaped unhurt.

        Having crossed the Yadkin, Waddel found a large company of Regulators assembled to prevent his advance; his own men were many of them averse to violence, and others strongly in favor of the insurgents, and were falling away from his ranks. Upon receiving threats of violence if he continued to advance, in a council of officers, he determined to retreat across the Yadkin.

"GENERAL WADDEL'S CAMP,
"Potts' Creek, 10th May, 1771.

        "By a Council of Officers of the Western Detachment:--

        "Considering the great superiority of the insurgents in number, and the resolution of a great part of their own men not to fight, it was resolved that they should retreat across the Yadkin.

"William Lindsay,
Ad' Alexander,
Thos. Neel,
Fr. Ross,
Robt. Schaw,
Griffith Rutherford,
Saml. Spencer,
Robert Harris,
Saml. Snead,
Wm. Luckie.

        "May 11th, Captain Alexander made oath before Griffith Rutherford, that he had passed along the lines of the Regulators in arms, drawn up on ground he was acquainted with. The foot appeared to him to extend a quarter of a mile, seven or eight deep, and the horse to extend one hundred and twenty yards, twelve or fourteen deep."


        On Waddel's retreat the Regulators pressed on him, and many of his men deserting, he reached Salisbury with a greatly diminished force, and immediately despatched a messenger to Tryon to warn him of the common danger. The governor, already alarmed at the reports that came in, of forces gathering on the Alamance, on the route to Salisbury, raised his camp immediately,

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and on the 13th of May crossed Haw River; and on the evening of the 14th, encamped within six miles of the Regulators, on the Alamance. On the 15th, the Regulators sent a message to the governor making propositions of accommodation, and asking an answer in four hours. He promised them one by noon the next day. In the evening, Captain Ashe and Captain John Walker being caught out of camp, by the Regulators, were tied to trees, severely whipped, and made prisoners. On this, as on the preceding night, one-third of the forces was under arms all night. On the 16th, Tryon began his march at daybreak, and moved on silently within half a mile of the insurgents, and there proceeded to form his line, the discharge of two cannon being the signal. Here Rev. David Caldwell, who, at the solicitations of his parishioners and acquaintances, some of whom were with the Regulators, had visited Tryon's camp on the 15th, in company with Alexander Martin, afterwards governor of the State, to persuade the governor to mild measures, again visited the camp, and it is said obtained a promise from the governor that he would not fire until he had tried negotiation. Tryon sent in his reply to the Regulators, demanding unconditional submission, and gave an hour for consideration: they heard with great impatience a first and second reading. Both parties advanced to within about three hundred yards of each other; Tryon sent a magistrate to the insurgents with a proclamation to disperse within an hour, and also commenced a negotiation for an exchange of Captains Ashe and Walker. Robert Thompson, who had with some others come into the camp to negotiate with the governor, was detained as a prisoner, and attempting to leave camp without liberty the governor seized a gun and shot him dead with his own hand. A flag of truce sent out by him was immediately fired on by the excited people, many of whom were near enough to witness the circumstances of Thompson's death. The parties had gradually been drawing nearer and nearer to each other, the insurgents somewhat irregularly, till their lines in places almost met. The governor gave the word "fire," his men hesitated, and the Regulators, many of them with rude antics, dared them to "fire." "Fire!" cried the governor, rising in his stirrups; "fire! on them or on me!" and the action began. The cannon were discharged, and the military commenced firing by platoons; the Regulators in an irregular manner from behind trees. Some stout young men of the Regulators rushed forward and seized the cannon of the governor, but not knowing how to use them, speedily gave them up and retreated. A flag of truce

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was sent out by the governor to stop the battle; an old Scotchman cried out to the Regulators, "it's a flag, don't fire;" but almost immediately three or four rifles were discharged, and the flag fell. The firing was renewed with fresh vigor by the military, and the Regulators in the general fled, leaving a few posted behind trees, who continued their fatal aim till their ammunition was exhausted, or they were in danger of being surrounded.

        Some of the Regulators had wished and expected to fight; but the greater part that had assembled expected that the governor, seeing their numbers, would parley with them, and ultimately grant their demands. Rev. Mr. Caldwell, just from Tryon's camp, was riding along the lines urging the men to go home without violence, when the command to fire was given, and with difficulty escaped from the conflict.

        They had no commander to regulate their motions, they had none with them used to camps and wars to give them advice; there had of late been no expeditions against the savages, and the military life, further than to shoot a rifle and live on short rations, was all new. "O," said an old man, who was in the battle, to Mr. Caruthers, "O, if John and Daniel Gillespie had only known as much about military discipline then as they knew a few years after that, the bloody Tryon would never have slept in his palace again!" Many that were defeated in that bloodshed, in a few years showed Cornwallis they had learned to fight better than in the day of Tryon's victory on the Alamance. It is the unvarying tradition among the people of the country, that the Regulators had but little ammunition, and did not flee till it was all expended.

        Nine of the Regulators, and twenty-seven of the militia were left dead on the field; a great number were wounded on both sides in this skirmish, or battle--in this first blood shed for the enjoyment of liberty. We cannot but admire the principles that led to the result, how much soever we may deplore the excesses that preceded, and the bloodshed itself.

        The excesses of the Regulators had been great, as has been recorded, but the barbarities of the governor upon his prisoners, after his victory, make these lamented deeds dwindle into harmless sport. On the evening of the battle, he proceeded to hang, without trial or form, James Few (whom he had taken prisoner), a young man, a carpenter, that owned a little spot of land near Hillsborough, where Mr. Kirkham's house now stands, of quiet and industrious habits, goaded on to rebellion by the exactions of Fanning; and at last, driven to madness by the dishonor done by that man to his

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intended bride, he joined the Regulators, and proclaimed himself "sent by heaven to release the world of oppression, and to begin in Carolina." And not content with this, the governor's vengeance followed his aged parents, and having executed their son, Tryon proceeded to destroy the little provision made for their helplessness and age.

        Captain Messer was condemned to be hung the next day. His wife, hearing of his captivity and intended fate, came with her oldest child, a lad of about ten years, to visit and intercede for her husband. Her kindness comforted but could not redeem her husband, the father of her children; the governor was inflexible. While the preparations were making for the execution, she lay upon the ground weeping, her face covered with her hands, and the weeping boy by her side. When the fatal moment, as he supposed, had arrived, the boy, stepping up to Tryon, says: "Sir, hang me and let my father live!" "Who told you to say that?" said the governor. "Nobody!" replied the lad. "And why," said the governor, "do you ask that?" "Because," said the boy, "if you hang my father my mother will die, and the children will perish." "Well!" said the governor, deeply moved by the earnestness and affecting simplicity of the lad, "your father shall not be hung to-day." On suggestion of Fanning, Messer was offered his liberty on condition that he would bring in Harmon Husbands, his wife and child being kept as hostages. After an absence of some days he returned, saying he had overtaken him in Virginia, but could not bring him back; he was put in chains and taken along as prisoner.

        After resting a few days on Sandy River, the governor passed on as far as the Yadkin, and having issued a proclamation, that all those who had been engaged in these disturbances, excepting the prisoners in camp, the company called the Black Boys, and sixteen others, that should come into camp, lay down their arms, and take the oath of allegiance before the 10th of July, should receive a free pardon: and having sent General Waddel with a company of twenty-five light horse, one field-piece, and a respectable corps of militia to visit the counties to the west and south, and return home, himself took a circuit round through Stokes, Rockingham, Guilford to Hillsborough. In all his circuit, after the bloodshed, he exhibited his prisoners in chains, particularly in the villages he passed. He exacted the oath of allegiance from all the inhabitants that could be found; levied contributions of provisions with a lavish hand upon the suspected and the absent; he seized one Johnson, who was reported to have spoken disrespectfully of Lady

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Wake, from whom one of the counties lately forcibly set off had been called, a beautiful and accomplished lady; and for his want of gallantry to this sister of the governor's wife, condemned him to five hundred lashes on his bare back, two hundred and fifty of which were inflicted; and offered a reward of a thousand acres of land, and one hundred pounds in money, for Harmon Husbands, James Butler, Rednap Howell, and others of the Regulators; and filled his measure of tyrannical glory by burning houses, destroying crops, and holding courts-martial for civil crimes. On reaching Hillsborough, he held a special court for the trial of his prisoners, twelve of whom were condemned to death on his urgent statements, and six were actually executed. The real leaders had all escaped, but a sacrifice must be made; the court hesitated and delayed; he sent his aide-de-camp to chide and threaten their delay; the soldier and governor were lost in the tyrant and the savage.

        On the 19th of June, six prisoners were publicly executed near Hillsborough, of whom the unfortunate Messer was one, reprieved a few days by the spirit of his child, only to be carried about in chains, and hung ignominiously at last. The governor, in person, gave orders for the parade at the execution, and, as Maurice Moore said, "left a ridiculous idea of his character behind, bearing a strong resemblance to that of an undertaker at a funeral."

        Robert Mateer, one of the victims, was a quiet, inoffensive, upright man, who had never joined the Regulators. On the morning of the bloodshed he visited Tryon's camp with Robert Thompson, and was detained with him a prisoner; being recognized as the person who had, some time before, grievously offended the governor in the matter of a letter entrusted to his care, he was condemned, and made one of the six that were executed; beloved while living, and lamented when dead.

        Captain Merrill, from the Jersey Settlement, or, as others say, from Mecklenburg county, was on his way to join the Regulators--probably had been engaged in intercepting Waddel--with three hundred men under his command. Hearing of the defeat and dispersion of the Regulators on the Alamance, when within a day's march, his men dispersed, and he returned home, but was afterwards taken prisoner, and was made one of the six that were executed. A pious man, he professed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and declared himself ready to die, and died like a soldier and a Christian, singing very devoutly, with his dying breath, a

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Psalm of David, like the Covenanters in the Grass Market in Edinburgh.

        James Pugh, an ingenious gunsmith, had, during the firing at Alamance, killed with his rifle some fifteen of those who served the cannon, and delaying his escape too long was taken prisoner, and made one for this day's sacrifice. When placed under the gallows he asked and obtained leave from the governor to address the people for half an hour. He justified his course, professed his readiness to meet God, inveighed against the oppression of the public officers, and particularly against Fanning. This dastardly man, unable to bear the reproaches of his victim, made the suggestion, and the barrel, on which the prisoner stood, was overturned, and the young man launched into eternity, his speech unfinished and his half hour unexpired.

        These men may have been rash, but they were not cowards: they may have been imprudent, but they were suffering under wrong and outrage, and the withholding justice, and the proper exercise of law. "And if oppression will make a wise man mad," the ten years of such oppression as these suffered, would have proved them fit for subjection had they been submissive.

        Tryon returned to his costly palace in Newbern, only to bid it farewell, and make room for Josiah Martin, who knew better how to appreciate these people and their complaints. Edmund Fanning, the cause of so much trouble, gathered a company and met the governor on his first approach to Orange; went with him to Alamance, and as the firing commenced, found it indispensable to take his post many miles in the rear, whether through fear of his life, or of shedding the Regulators' blood. Harmon Husbands, also, on the other side, rode faster and farther on that day. He had been active for years in exciting the people to resistance, making speeches, circulating information, drawing up memorials and papers of a political cast, and taking the lead in measurers that brought on the bloodshed in Alamance. He had been once put in prison while a member of the legislature, for his principles and connection with the disturbances in Orange; but when the cannon began to roar at Tryon's command, on the 16th of May, on the Alamance, he mounted his horse and rode rapidly away to the more quiet State of Pennsylvania, and was not seen again in Carolina till after the Revolution--professing that his principles as a Quaker forbade him to fight, though they impelled him to resistance. When the time of trial came, that men must submit or flee, or bleed, he escaped, while others poured out their blood. He and all like him

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are passed over in the inquiries we make about the people who bore the burthen of the Revolution and its previous struggles.

        The question now arises, who were these people?--and whence did they come? They could discuss the rights and privileges of men; they could write in a manner that has been pronounced "the style of the Revolution;" and they were men that feared an oath. The oath of allegiance exacted by Tryon, from multitudes, as the condition of their lives and property, hung on their consciences through life, and no reasoning could convince them they were free from its awful sanctions, though the king could afford them no protection. One of these, who was in the bloodshed of Alamance, and afterwards had borne arms for the king, as he considered himself bound to do, said sorrowfully at the close of the Revolution--"I have fought for my country, and fought for my king; and have been whipped both times." Still his oath bound his conscience, while he rejoiced it did not reach his children.

        The descendants of these people, who were at the time treated as rebels, and stigmatized in government papers as ignorant and headstrong and unprincipled, hold the first rank in their own country for probity and intelligence; have held the first offices in their own and the two younger and neighboring States; and have not been debarred the highest offices in the Union.

        In less than four years from this period, those who were not crushed by the solemnities of the oath Tryon forced on them, united with their brethren of Mecklenburg of the same stock, and kindred faith, in maintaining the first declaration of independence made in North America--a declaration scaled with blood in North Carolina, but never, like the Regulation, put down. The principles of the Regulators never were put down; and in the contest with the governor, there is little doubt on which side the victory would have declared itself had there been a military man at the head of the undisciplined people, or had they been fully convinced the governor would fire upon them. Repeatedly had these men gathered at Hillsborough, and dispersed without violence, on promise of redress; and Waddel had been met and turned back without bloodshed a few days before. The greater part expected some terms of reconciliation, while some wished for the contest, and many were ready to fight.

        The address sent in to Tryon the day before the bloodshed, in which they promised to disperse and go home if he would redress their grievances, shows they were not expecting the governor

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would proceed to violence. The feelings of a great part of the western counties were united in the object of their efforts; and many of the inhabitants of the seaboard were on their side. The militia of Duplin refused to march against them, with the exception of a company of light horse under Capt. Bullock, and also refused the oath of allegiance the governor offered them on his return. In Halifax there were many supporters of their principles; in Newbern itself many, in fact, the majority of the militia assembled, declared in their favor. Not a few men of eminence favored them more or less openly, advocating the principles, but greatly disapproving the excesses of the violent. Of these were such men as Maurice Moore, judge of the Superior Court; Thomas Person, the founder of Person Hall, at Chapel Hill; and Alexander Martin, afterwards governor of the State.

        Martin, the historian, who appears to know so little about the principles and habits of the persons engaged, says that there were "several thousand families" scattered through the upper counties: and so there were--and these gathered into congregations of religious worshippers all along from the Virginia to the South Carolina line. It is the origin of these that is now inquired after; and the nature of their religion, so favorable to mental exercise and improvement, to civil freedom and the rights of man, that is to be delineated,--a religion the same now as in the days of the American Revolution,--and the great English Revolution of 1688,--and the same in spirit and substantial forms as when the great Apostle plead his cause, in chains, at Rome.

        There has been as yet no monument erected to the memory of those who fell on the Alamance, in this first bloodshed in the cause of oppressed freemen seeking their rights: they sleep in unhonored graves, as also do those who were publicly executed in the same glorious cause near Hillsborough, June 19th, 1771. But you can find the battle ground and graves of the slain, on the old road from Hillsborough to Salisbury by Martinville, or Guilford old courthouse. It is a locality to be remembered, for the event must always fill an honorable page in any full and fair history of North Carolina, or of the United States, as the first resistance to blood, in which resistance was determined upon, even should resistance end in wounds and death.

        The Regulators may have been rude, they certainly were unpolished; but they were not ignorant, neither did they lack intelligence, nor exhibit as a people any lack of religious or moral principle. On the contrary, their estimation of an oath far transcended

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the expectation of the governor, who anticipated much from a people taught by McAden, Caldwell, Pattillo, and Craighead, all eminent in their vocation as gospel ministers.

        Differing from the governor in their religious principles as much as in their political creed, they were condemned by the king's officers to fines and plunder and confiscation and death, and by the ministers of the State religion to endless perdition. There is extant a sermon preached before the governor at Hillsborough, on Sunday, the 25th of September, 1768, by George Micklejohn, from Romans, chapter xiii., 1st and 2d verses--in which the preacher avows that the governor ought to have executed at least twenty on that his first visit; and that the rebels could not escape the damnation of hell on account of their resistance to the existing government. But these outraged men sought deliverance from the oppression of man, and hoped in the mercy of Almighty God. And they found from heaven what was denied by earth.

        The succeeding pages will give a collection of facts that shall present the history of principles that cannot die, and are always effective. The scene of action and the actors but reflect additional tints of beauty on what, in themselves, are immortal,--the principles of true government and undefiled religion.

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CHAPTER III.
A PAPER ON CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, DRAWN UP IN 1775.

        "SHE has seven sons in the rebel army," was the reason given by the British officer for plundering the farm and burning the house of Widow Brevard, in Centre Congregation, while Cornwallis was in pursuit of Morgan and Greene, after the victory of the Cowpens. What a mother! seven sons in the army at one time! all fighting for the independence of their country! And for this glorious fact, the house of the widow plundered and burned, and her farm pillaged!

        One son, Captain Alexander Brevard, a tall, dignified gentleman, independent in his feelings and his manners, rendered signal services in the Continental army. He took part in nine important battles--Brandywine, Germantown, Princeton, Stony Point, Eutaw, Guilford, Camden, Ninety-Six, and Stono. Of all these, he used to say, the battle of the Eutaw was the sorest conflict; in that he lost twenty-one of his men. When the time of hard service was over, he returned to private life, and never sought political promotion; enjoying that liberty for which he had fought, and serving his generation as a good citizen, and the church as a elder, respected and beloved. He laid his bones at last in Lincoln county, the place of his residence for many years, in a spot selected by himself and General Graham. They served as soldiers in the Revolution, and lived as most intimate friends: having married sisters, the daughters of Major John Davidson, one of the members of the Mecklenburg Convention, they were brothers indeed; and dying in the hope of a blessed resurrection, they sleep, with their wives and many of their children, in their chosen place of sepulture. You may find the graves of these honorable dead in a secluded place, walled in with rock, about a hundred paces from the great road leading from Beatte's Ford by Brevard's Furnace to Lincolnton, a spot where piety and affection and patriotism may meet and mingle their tears; and youth may gather lessons of wisdom.

        The youngest son of this widow, afterwards Judge Brevard of Camden, South Carolina, was first lieutenant of a company of horse, at the age of seventeen, and held, through life, a corresponding station in the opinions and affections of his fellow men.

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        Ephraim Brevard, another son of this widow, having pursued a course of classical studies in his native congregation, was graduated at Princeton College; and having pursued a course of medical studies, was settled in Charlotte. His talents, patriotism and education, united with his prudence and practical sense, marked him as a leader in the councils, that preceded the convention, held in Queen's Museum; and on the day of meeting designated him as secretary and draughtsman of that singular and unrivalled declaration, which alone is a passport to the memory of posterity through all time.

        Dr. Brevard took an active part in the establishment and management of the literary institution in Charlotte, which was, to all useful purposes, a college, though refused that name by the king and council. His name appears upon the degree given John Graham in 1778, which is carefully preserved at Vesuvius Furnace, the only degree of the institution now known to be in existence. For a time the institution was under his instruction.

        When the British forces invaded the southern States, Dr. Brevard entered the army as surgeon, and was taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston, May 12th, 1780. The sufferings of the captives taken in that surrendered city, moved the hearts of the brave inhabitants of Western Carolina, and in the tenderness of the female bosom found alleviation. News was circulated among the settlements in the upper country, that their friends and relations were dying of want and disease, in their captivity. The men could not visit them; it would be leaping into the lion's den. The wives, the mothers, the sisters, the daughters, gathering clothing and provisions and medicine, sought through long journeys, the places of confinement, trusting to their sex, under the Providence of God, for their protection. These visits of mercy saved the lives of multitudes; and in some cases were purchased by the lives of the noble females that dared to undertake them. The mother of President Andrew Jackson, returning to the Waxhaw, from a visit made to the prisoners, having been the bearer of medicine, and clothing, and sympathy, was seized with a fever in that wide, sandy wilderness of pines that intervened, and died in a tent, and was buried by the roadside, and lies in an unknown grave. Multitudes perished and found a captive's grave; and multitudes more contracted disease whose wasting influence more slowly, yet as surely, laid them low among their native hills. Of these was Dr. Brevard. On being set at liberty, he sought the residence of John McKnitt Alexander, his friend and co-secretary, for rest and recovery. The air of that mild climate, and the aid of medicine, and the watchful care of

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friends, all failed to restore him. Struggling for a time against the diseases, with hopes of recovery, he breathed his last, about the time the hostile forces trod his native soil. He gave "life, fortune, and most sacred honor," in his country's service. The first was sacrificed; the last is imperishable. You may search Hopewell graveyard in vain for a trace of his grave. His bones have mouldered beneath the turf that covers Davidson and the Alexanders, but no stone tells where they are laid. No man living can lead the inquirer to the spot.

        There is a paper in his handwriting, preserved for a long time in the family of his friend John McKnit Alexander, and now in the possession of the Governor of North Carolina, William A. Graham, which is as remarkable as the proceeding of the Convention on which it is based. It bears date September 1st, 1775. The first Provincial Congress of North Carolina was then in session in Hillsborough. The delegates from Mecklenburg were his compeers and personal friends,--Polk, Avery, Pfifer and McKnitt Alexander.

"INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DELEGATES OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY, PROPOSED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE COUNTY.

        "1st. You are instructed to vote that the late Province of North Carolina is, and of right ought to be, a free and independent State; is vested with the powers of Legislation, capable of making laws to regulate all the internal police, subject only in its internal connections and foreign commerce, to a negative of a continental Senate.

        "2d. You are instructed to vote for the execution of a civil government under the authority of the people, for the future security of all the rights, privileges, and prerogatives of the State, and the private, natural and unalienable rights of the constituting members thereof, either as men or Christians. If this should not be confirmed in Congress, or Convention,--protest.

        "3d. You are instructed to vote that an equal representation be established, and that the qualifications required to enable any person or persons to have a voice in legislation may not be screwed too high, but that every freeman, who shall be called upon to support government, either in person or property, may be admitted thereto. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "4th. You are instructed to vote that legislation be not a divided right, and that no man, or body of men, be invested with a

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negative on the voice of the people duly collected; and that no honors or dignities be confirmed for life, or made hereditary on any person or persons, either legislative or executive. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "5th. You are instructed to vote that all and every person or persons, seized or possessed of any estate, real or personal, agreeable to the late establishment, be confirmed in their seizure and possession, to all intents and purposes in law, who have not forfeited their right to the protection of the State, by their inimical practices towards the same. If this should not be confirmed,--protest.

        "6th. You are instructed to vote that deputies, to represent this State in a Continental Congress, be appointed in and by the supreme legislative body of the State; the form of the nomination to be submitted to, if free. And also, that all officers, the influence of whose office is equally to extend to every part of the State, be appointed in the same manner and form. Likewise, give your consent to the establishing the old political divisions, if it should be voted in Convention, or to new ones if similar. On such establishment taking place, you are instructed to vote, in general, that all officers, who are to exercise this authority in any of the said districts, be recommended to the trust only by the freemen of said division--to be subject, however, to the general laws and regulations of the State. If this should not be substantially confirmed,--protest.

        "7th. You are instructed to move and insist that the people you immediately represent, be acknowledged to be a distinct county of this State, as formerly of the late province, with the additional privilege of electing in their own officers, both civil and military, together with election of clerks and sheriffs, by the freemen of the same: the choice to be confirmed by the sovereign authority of the State, and the officers so invested to be under the jurisdiction of the State, and liable to its cognizance and inflictions in case of malpractice. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "8th. You are instructed to vote that no chief justice, no secretary of State, no auditor-general, no surveyor-general, no practising lawyer, no clerk of any court of record, no sheriff, and no person holding a military office in this State, shall be a representative of the people in Congress or Convention. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "9th. You are instructed to vote that all claims against the public,

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except such as accrue upon attendance on Congress or Convention, be first submitted to the inspection of a committee of nine or more men, inhabitants of the county where said claimant is resident, and without the approbation of said committee it shall not be accepted by the public; for which purpose you are to move and insist that a law be enacted to empower the freemen of each county to choose a committee of not less than nine men, of whom none are to be military officers. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "10th. You are instructed to refuse to enter into any combination of secresy, as members of Congress and Convention, and also to refuse to subscribe to any ensnaring tests binding you to unlimited subjection to the determination of Congress or Convention.

        "11th. You are instructed to move and insist that the public accounts, fairly stated, shall be regularly kept in proper books, open to the inspection of all whom it may concern. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "12th. You are instructed to move and insist that the power of county courts be much more extensive than under the former constitution, both with respect to matters of property and breaches of the peace. If not confirmed,--contend for it.

        "13th. You are instructed to assent and consent to the establishment of the Christian religion, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and more briefly comprised in the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, excluding the thirty-seventh article, together with all the articles excepted and not to be imposed on dissenters by the Act of Toleration; and clearly held forth in the Confession of Faith, compiled by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster; to be the religion of the State, to the utter exclusion, for ever, of all and every other (falsely so called) religion, whether pagan or papal;--and that full, and free, and peaceable enjoyment thereof be secured to all and every constituent member of the State, as their unalienable right as freemen, without the imposition of rites and ceremonies, whether claiming civil or ecclesiastical power for their source;--and that a confession and profession of the religion so established shall be necessary in qualifying any person for public trust in the State. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "14th. You are instructed to oppose to the utmost, any particular church or set of clergymen being invested with power to decree rites and ceremonies, and to decide in controversies of faith, to be submitted to under the influence of penal laws. You are also to oppose the

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establishment of any mode of worship to be supported to the oppression of the rights of conscience, together with the destruction of private property. You are to understand that under the modes of worship are comprehended the different forms of swearing by law required. You are, moreover, to oppose the establishing an ecclesiastical supremacy in the sovereign authority of the State. You are to oppose the toleration of popish idolatrous worship. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "15th. You are instructed to move and insist that not less than four-fifths of the body of which you are members, shall, in voting, be deemed a majority. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "16th. You are instructed to give your voices to and for every motion, or bill, made or brought into Congress or Convention, when they appear to be for public utility, and in no ways repugnant to the above instructions.

        "17th. Gentlemen, the foregoing instructions you are not only to look upon as instructions, but as charges, to which you are desired to take special heed, as the ground of your conduct as our Representatives; and we expect you will exert yourselves to the utmost of your ability to obtain the purposes given you in charge; and wherein you fail, either in obtaining or opposing, you are hereby ordered to enter your protest against the vote of Congress or Convention, as is pointed out to you in the above instructions."


        This paper will not suffer in comparison with any political paper of the age. In some respects it surpassed all with which Mr. Brevard and his compeers had any acquaintance. In the first and seventh resolutions there is a reference made to preceding events in North Carolina, to which nothing corresponds but the doings of the Mecklenburg convention. The Congress of North Carolina in session at the time this paper was drawn up, was not prepared for such a step as is referred to--the entire independence of the State.

        In the second and third resolutions, the democratic republican principles are announced in their full extent,--complete protection, and extended suffrage. In the fourth and fifth, aristocratic honors are done away; and the right of property confirmed. In the seventh, the election of all officers, civil and military, is confirmed to the people at large. In the eighth, the jealous watchfulness of an abused community is seen in shutting out all public officers, from whom any oppression had been suffered under His Majesty, from the office of law-maker for the community. In the ninth,

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tenth, and eleventh, the expenditure of the public money is guarded from all such impositions as had been complained of in times past. The object and amount of all expenditures to be fairly stated, that no impositions like those suffered in Orange, and from which the Regulators sprung, might be repeated. By the twelfth, the execution of the laws is brought more within the power of the people, or at least more carefully within their view.

        But the thirteenth and fourteenth resolutions are especially worthy of notice, as asserting religious liberty. He does not take the false ground that all religions are to be contemplated, in the constitution of a free people, as alike open for the adoption of the community at large; and that any religion, or no religion, may become the public sentiment without detriment to liberty:--but having secured to all persons undisturbed enjoyment of life, land, and estate, he takes the broad ground that there is one true religion, and that religion is acknowledged as true by the State. He believed the Bible, and from it had drawn his principles of morals, and religion, and politics:--from it, the people of Mecklenburg had drawn theirs,--and multitudes in Carolina had drawn theirs. To abjure religion would be to abjure freedom and the hope of immortality. The phrases confession and profession in the thirteenth resolution, are not taken in a restricted sense or made denominational, but used in their enlarged meaning, embracing all Protestants, asserting the Bible to be true, and as a revelation containing the complete system of the only true religion.

        To put beyond all doubt, however, what he understood by the Christian religion, he marks out the two well known and accredited systems of Articles with which he and his constituents had been familiar, and under which he arraigned all Protestants, both asserting the main principles of the Reformation, and one conjoining a system of efficient government on which he had modelled his political creed,--a creed the inhabitants of a large part of North Carolina were prepared to defend. He would have the community disown Infidelity and all Paganism, and avow the religion of the Bible.

        Having asserted the paramount authority of the Christian Religion as the sole acknowledged religion of the community,--he then puts all denominations on a level, in political matters. North Carolina had suffered as little as any community had, or perhaps could, from a religious establishment, that is, certain forms and doctrines supported at public expense, and defended

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by law;--but the evils resulting had been so many and so great, that these resolutions require that no denomination, not even that of a majority of the citizens, should have any peculiar privileges guaranteed by law. The people of Mecklenburg were almost universally of the same faith as himself; but he asked no favor by the power of law. But one other State in the Union had, at that time, acknowledged this grand principle, and with this State the author of this paper had no communication. The idea was to him, and his constituents, a peculiar idea,--like the idea of independence under the supremacy of law, it was consistent and complete.

        Of all the forms in which religion, professedly drawn from the Bible, is presented in any part of the world, one only is excepted in the resolution,--that is the Popish. The ancestors of these people in Mecklenburg had brought with them, from the mother country, no kind remembrance of the spirit of the Popish clergy and their adherents. Turn to what period of the history of their fathers they might, and the Romish priests appeared the enemies of that religious liberty and civil freedom for which they panted. Every page of the history was stained with blood. They fully believed the spirit of popery unchanged; and to tolerate it, was to cherish in their bosom an enemy to the very privileges and enjoyments for which they had labored, and for which they were prepared to lay down their lives. The principles of religious liberty, asserted by their ancestors the other side of the ocean, took deep root in the wilderness of Carolina, and grew as indigenous plants. The people felt they were born to be free--were free; and having made declaration of their freedom, would maintain it against all enemies unto death.

        Now that the subject of religious liberty has been discussed about three-quarters of a century, in the freest country on earth, the only exception that can be taken against these resolutions on religious liberty, is on this single point--the exclusion of popish rites and ceremonies. In other colonies the contention had been against foreign interference with the established religion of the province; here, as in Rhode Island, the ground is taken against all State establishments whatever. It is instructive to observe how this principle, avowed by Roger Williams in exile and suffering, and proclaimed by the emigrants in North Carolina, has at length become the received opinion of the whole United States. And while, on principle, the free exercise of religious rites is guaranteed to all that claim to be Christians, of whatever sect or

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denomination, there is a growing fear, manifesting itself in every section of country, lest the extension of popish rites and ceremonies shall be found at last injurious to civil liberty.

        The resolutions of the Mecklenburg Convention establish a government, and at the same time they set aside the authority of the king of Great Britain. In this paper the great principles on which to frame a constitution of the most entire freedom, fullest protection, and most complete dominion of law, are laid down. The one is a beautiful expression of enthusiastic devotion to liberty and law; and the other is a calm expression of the idea of that liberty for which these patriots panted. Neither were mere theories or paper declarations; both were realities. The people felt themselves independent,--and that they had a natural right to the freedom they enjoyed in their log cabins in the wilderness, and on the plains of the Catawba, far removed from the wealth and refinement of the seaboard. Their flocks and their plains, with the skilful hands of their wives and daughters, and the brawny arms of their sons, and the mines beneath their feet, supplied the wants, and even the luxuries of men who could sleep upon straw, be contented in home-spun coats, and find domestic peace in a log cabin. The liberty for which their fathers had sighed, these men had found. they knew the value of the pearl, and rejoiced in that liberty in which God, in his grace and wonderful providence, had made them free.

        This paper is the expression of the feelings of thousands in Carolina in 1775, and the feelings of multitudes at this day. The merit of Ephraim Brevard is, not that he alone originated these principles, or was singular in adhering to them, but that he embodied them in so condensed a form, and expressed them so well. He thought clearly,--felt deeply,--wrote well,--resisted bravely,--and died a martyr to that liberty none loved better, and few understood so well.

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CHAPTER IV.
COMMENCEMENT OF PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

        ABOUT the year 1735, a race of people diverse in habits, manners, forms of religious worship and doctrinal creed from those who had previously taken their abode in Virginia and the Carolinas, and destined to exert a grand and controlling influence on the enterprise, wealth, and prosperity of those States, began to erect their habitations along the western frontiers, and form a line of defence against the savages of the mountains and the great west, by their strong neighborhoods of hardy, enterprising men, in that region of country extending from the Potomac river to the Savannah, which now forms the heart of these States, and is most abundant in resources of men and things.

        Previously to that date, the emigrants to Virginia, whose descendants had spread out over the lower counties, and were progressing towards the mountains, were chiefly from England, with a few Scotch and Irish families intermingled, with one colony of Germans in Madison county, and one of Huguenots a few miles above Richmond, each having its own peculiar forms of religious worship, and ministers proclaiming the gospel in their native tongue.

        In North Carolina the first permanent settlements had been formed by fugitives from Virginia, who sought refuge in the mild climate and extended forests of this unoccupied region,--some from the rigid, intolerant laws of that colony, which bore so heavily on all that could not conform to the ceremonies of the established church,--and some from a desire to escape from the jurisdiction of all law, delighted with the license enjoyed in the plains and swamps of a country which, previous to the 18th century, scarce knew the exercise of civil authority. When the Puritans were driven from Virginia, some eminently pious people settled along the seaboard, safe from foreign invasion, and free from the domestic oppression of intolerant laws and bigoted magistrates. Next to these were the emigrants from the West Indies and from England, who preferred the advantages offered by this uninhabited country to those of a more populous state. About the year 1707, a colony of Huguenots was located on the Trent river; and one of Palatines at Newbern,

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in 1709; each maintaining the peculiar habits, customs, and religious services of the fatherland. The Quakers, at an early date, cast in their lot with the colony of Virginia; and many were compelled to fly from the execution of the severe laws passed against their sect, and found refuge in Carolina. They were of English descent, and at that time, too few, in either State, to exert a preponderating influence on the community at large.

        The Presbyterian race, from the north of Ireland, is not found in Virginia and North Carolina, till after the year 1730, except in scattered families, or some small neighborhoods on the Chesapeake. Soon after this period it is found at the base of the Blue Ridge in Albemarle, Nelson, and Amherst, in Virginia; and then in the great valley. About the year 1736 a colony of Presbyterians, from the province of Ulster, Ireland, commenced their residence on the head springs of the Opecquon in Frederick county, near the present town of Winchester; and their descendants are found in the congregation that bears the name of the creek in that county, and also in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. About the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, John Caldwell, from the north of Ireland, commenced a settlement on Cub-creek, in Charlotte county, Virginia, then a province; and persuaded a colony of his countrymen to unite with him. Their descendants are found in the Cub-creek congregation, and those congregations that have grown out of it: and also in Kentucky and South Carolina--the eminent political character, John Caldwell Calhoun, being one of them. About the year 1736, Henry McCulloch persuaded a colony from Ulster, Ireland, to occupy his expected grant in Duplin county, North Carolina. Their descendants are widely scattered over the lower part of the State, and the southwestern States, with an influence that cannot be easily estimated.

        About the same period, the Presbyterian settlements were commenced in Augusta and Rockbridge counties, Virginia; and speedily increasing, they formed numerous large congregations, which are still flourishing, having given rise to many other congregations in the counties further west, and also in the western States. From all these have arisen hosts of men that have acted conspicuous parts east and west of the Alleghanies, during the century that has passed since the emigrants built their cabins on the frontiers of Virginia and Carolina.

        The loss of the early records of Orange presbytery has left us without the means of ascertaining the precise year the Presbyterian colonies in Granville, Orange, Rowan, Mecklenburg, and, in fact,

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in all that beautiful section extending from the Dan to the Catawba, began to occupy the wild and fertile prairies. But it is well known, that, previously to the year 1750, settlements of some strength were scattered along from the Virginia line to Georgia. On account of the inviting nature of the climate and soil, and the comparative quietness of the Catawba Indians, and the severity of the Virginia laws in comparison with those of Carolina, on the subject of religion, many colonies were induced to pass through the vacant lands in Virginia, in the neighborhood of their countrymen, and seek a home in the Carolinas. As early as 1740, there were scattered families on the Hico, and Eno, and Haw--and cabins were built along the Catawba.

        The time of setting off the frontier counties is known, but is no guide to the precise time of the first settlements. Granville county was set off from Edgecomb in 1743, and extended west to the charter limits; Bladen was taken from New Hanover in 1733, its western boundary being the charter limits; and in 1749 Anson was set off from Bladen with the same western boundary. The two counties, Anson and Granville, embraced all the western part of the State in 1749. Orange was set off from Bladen in 1751, and Rowan from Anson in 1753, and Mecklenburg from Anson in 1762. These dates show the progress of emigration and increase of population, but do not fix the time when the cabins of the whites began to supplant the wigwams of the Indians. The dates of the land patents do not mark the time of emigration, as in some cases the lands were occupied a long period before grants were made, and the lands surveyed; and in others, patents were granted before emigration. Some of the early settlements of Presbyterians were made before the lands were surveyed, particularly in the upper country.

        Emigration was encouraged and directed very much in its earliest periods, by the vast prairies, with pea-vine grass and canebrakes, which stretched across the States of Virginia and Carolina. There are large forests now in these two States, where, a hundred years ago, not a tree, and scarce a shrub could be seen. These prairies abounded with game, and supplied abundant pasturage, both winter and summer, for the various kinds of stock that accompanied the emigrants, and formed for years no small part of their wealth. In 1744, Lord Granville's share of North Carolina was set off by metes and bounds, having Virginia on the north; a line drawn from the sea-shore westward on the parallel of 38° 34′ north latitude, on the south; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; and the unexplored ocean on the west. The great inducements

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offered by his lordship and his agents, the beauty and healthiness of the country, the fertility of the soil, and the low rate at which tracts of land were set to sale, attracted attention, and brought purchasers for residence and for speculation. Every additional colony increased the value of the remaining possessions of his lordship.

        The remaining part of the upper country was held by grants made from the crown, from time to time, and by the grantees sold out in smaller sections. There is nothing, however, in the peculiar circumstances of making the land purchases, or in the country itself, or the time in which the settlements were made, that can account for the spirit, principles, and habits of the people. These they brought with them, and left as a legacy to their children; they had wrought wonders in the fatherland, turning the scale of revolution in 1688, putting the crown on the head of William, Prince of Orange, and working out purity of morals, inspiring a deep sense of religious liberty and personal independence, under all the withering influences of prelacy, aristocracy, and royalty.

        While the tide of emigration was setting fast and strong into the fertile regions between the Yadkin and Catawba, from the north of Ireland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, another tide was flowing from the Highlands of Scotland, and landing colonies of Presbyterian people along the Cape Fear River. Authentic records declare that the Scotch had found the sandy plains of Carolina, many years previous to the exile and emigration that succeeded the crushing of the hopes of the house of Stuart, in the fatal battle of Culloden, in 1746. But in the year following that event, large companies of Highlanders seated themselves in Cumberland county; and in a few years the Gaelic language was heard familiarly in Moore, Anson, Richmond, Robeson, Bladen, and Sampson. Among these people and their children, the warm-hearted preacher and patriot, James Campbell, labored more than a quarter of a century; and with them, that romantic character, Flora McDonald, passed a portion of her days. As many congregations were formed among these Highlanders, who were all Presbyterians, as that devoted, but solitary man of God, Mr. Campbell, could visit in the performance of the duties of his sacred offices.

        In the upper part of the State, between the Virginia and Carolina line, along the track traversed by the army of Cornwallis in the war of the Revolution, there were above twenty organized churches, with large congregations, and a great many preaching-places.

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In Caswell county, McAden, the first minister that became permanently settled in North Carolina, had his dwelling and his congregations; in Granville, and in Orange, along the Eno, the eloquent Pattillo taught impressively the wonder-working truths of the gospel of Christ; in Guilford, was the school and seminary of Caldwell, the nursery of so many eminent men; in Rowan, the elegant scholar, McCorkle, preached and taught; in Iredell, Hall led his flock both to the sanctuary and the tents of war; in Mecklenburg, Craighead cherished the spirit of independence which broke out in the declaration in Charlotte, May, 1775; and Balch, McCaule, and Alexander, fanned the flame of patriotism in their respective charges; and Richardson, the foster uncle of Davie, ministered in holy things. All of these, with the exception of Craighead, who was removed by death, were at ONE TIME teaching the principles of the gospel independence, and inculcating those truths that made their hearers choose liberty, at the hazard of life, rather than oppression with abundance; all were eminent men, whose influence would have been felt in any generation; all saw the war commence, and most of them saw its end, and not a man of them left his congregation, not a man of them faltered in his patriotism, and two of them actually bore arms. Their congregations were famous during the struggle of the Revolution, for skirmishes, battles, loss of libraries, personal prowess, individual courage, and heroic women.

        Governor Tryon complained of the resistance the crown officers struggled with in the upper country of Carolina, as the unprincipled turbulence of an ill-informed and unreasonable people; he marched his army, and dispersed the Regulators, on the Alamance; and then trusted to the solemn oath of the sufferers, swearing allegiance to the king for their spared lives, for the peace of the country, without noticing, and perhaps without perceiving the fact, that there was a strong moral feeling pervading this excited community, that gave sanctity to an oath in the most unfavorable circumstances. But the principles, that gave power to the oath, gave strength to the opposition. The governor left the State without understanding either the grievances of the people, or the deep workings of those principles that would outlive all oppression, sure of a triumph at last, though arrayed on the side of the few, and the poor, against the many, and the rich and the powerful.

        To trace out these principles and truths, destined by the wisdom and goodness of Almighty God to get the mastery of the misrule of princes and men in authority, legitimate or elective, and

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ultimately to prevail throughout the world, triumphing over human depravity itself, we must go back to the ancestry of these people, which, like the origin of the proudest house and longest line of crowned heads in Continental Europe--is from the dust--the poorest of a shrewd and enterprising people. The farthest limit, however, to which the research will be carried, is about the commencement of the seventeenth century; and as we trace the progress of events, and the developments of truth through the seventeenth century, and more than half of the eighteenth, we shall look with less surprise than did Governor Tryon, on the resistance to oppression he experienced in Orange; or than Governor Josiah Martin, on the declaration of independence, made at Charlotte;--these events will seem to flow as streams from the enduring fountains of Truth and Liberty.

        All advancement in society has been the fruit of the religious principle; and of all religious principles that have influenced society, those have been most effective that have most exalted God, and put the lowest estimate on the moral purity of human nature, and the means of human devising for the purification of our race. Those have done most for mankind that have first taught the creature to despair of himself, and next to trust in God; think less of property than life, and less of life than principles; and to value the hopes and expectations of eternity immeasurably more than the things of time. With such principles men may be poor and unpolished, but can never be mean or undone; they may be crushed, but never degraded. When Tryon returned to his palace in Newbern, after the bloodshed on the Alamance, he feasted. The people of Orange mourned under the oath of allegiance exacted with terrible sanctions, and at the sight of the gallows-tree where their neighbors had died ignominiously. He was the minion of arbitrary power; they were temporarily crushed. He was finally driven from the provinces of America, and they bequeathed to their children the inheritance of a beautiful land, with all that civil and religious freedom they ever desired.

        Looking back from the time of the bloodshed on the Alamance, or the Declaration of Independence in Charlotte, over a period of half a century, and then forward on the things that next succeeded in the space of another half century--the events of both which periods have passed away to the province of history,--and we have an exhibition of principles and men worthy of being written and read by all mankind, and through all time. The wonderful prosperity of the last quarter of a century but adds to the interest of

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the previous thrilling events. Could the leaders of the people that formed the population of which we speak, for one generation in Ireland, and for two in America that immediately succeeded the first large emigration--and in both lands, for that time, the real leaders were godly men--could these now rise from the graves to which they went down, some in peace, some in the sorrow of hope, and could they speak the language of earth, they would sing a Psalm of David louder than Merrill at the gallows--louder than they ever sang at a communion season, or revival, in Ireland or in Carolina--the beautiful sixty-sixth: "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard; which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved us; and thou hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net, thou layedst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire, and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my vows; which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble." And would not their posterity in and around the grand Alleghanies shout with a voice of thunder and a heart of love,--"The Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Alleluia! Amen!"

        For about two centuries and a half this race of people have had one set of moral, religious, and political principles, working out the noblest frame-work of society; obedience to the just exercise of law; independence of spirit; a sense of moral obligations; strict attendance on the worship of Almighty God; the choice of their own religious teachers; with the inextinguishable desire to exercise the same privilege with regard to their civil rulers, believing that magistrates govern by the consent of the people, and by their choice. These principles, brought from Ireland, bore the same legitimate fruit in Carolina as in Ulster Province, whose boundaries travellers say can be recognized by the peace and plenty that reign within. Men will not be able fully to understand Carolina till they have opened the treasures of history, and drawn forth some few particulars respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish, and become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution--during that painful struggle--and the succeeding years of prosperity; and Carolina will be respected as she is known.

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CHAPTER V.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH.

        To find the origin of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlements in Virginia and North Carolina, we must go back to Scotland and Ireland in the times of Elizabeth and her successor, James. Elizabeth found Ireland a source of perpetual trouble. The complaints from the ill-fated island were numerous, and met little sympathy at the court of England; right or wrong, Ireland must submit to English laws, and English governors, and English ministers of religion; and last, though not least in the estimation of the Irish, the English language was, under sanction of law, about to supplant the native tongue, and the last work of subjugation inflicted on that devoted people.

        The Reformation in England had been accomplished partly by the piety and knowledge of the people at large under the guidance of the ministers of religion, and partly by the authority of the despotic Henry and his no less despotic daughter. The tyranny of the crown for once harmonized with the desires of that great body of the people so commonly overlooked, and even in this case entirely unconsulted; it pleased Henry to will what the people desired. In Ireland the Reformation was commenced by royal authority, and carried on as a state concern; the majority of the nobility and common people, as well as the ministers of religion, being entirely opposed to the designs of the sovereign, their wishes were as little consulted as the desires of the people of England. The chief agent employed in this work was George Brown, consecrated Archbishop of Dublin, March 19th, 1535. Immediately after his consecration he proceeded to Ireland, and in conference with the principal nobility and clergy, required them to acknowledge the king's supremacy. They stoutly refused, withdrew from the metropolis, and sent messengers to Rome to apprise the Pope of the proceedings. In May, 1536, a parliament was assembled for the purpose of taking measures for acknowledging the king's supremacy in religion, he being considered head of the church in England and Ireland

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instead of the Pope of Rome. The principal argument of the archbishop was, "He that will not pass this act as I do, is no true subject to his majesty:" this prevailed, and the king was proclaimed head of the church, and all appeals to Rome forbidden. Commotions and bloodshed followed the order for the removal of the images, which was made in 1538; and as the people and clergy were strongly in their favor, the order was evaded.

        The first book printed in Ireland was the Liturgy, in 1551, by Humphrey Powell. In 1556 John Dale imported the Bible from England, and in less than two years sold seven thousand, being excited to make trial of the sale of Bibles by the avidity of the people to read the present sent over by the Archbishop of York, a Bible to each of the two cathedrals, to be kept in the centre of the choirs, open for public perusal.

        Henry found the Irish a source of vexation, and delivered to his children the inheritance of a restless, dissatisfied people. Elizabeth pursued the policy of her father, with his vigor, and subdued Ireland to the laws, and ostensibly to the religious rites of England, and delivered it to James I., in 1603, pacified as she hoped, and as James fondly yet vainly imagined. The few privileges that were left to the Catholics were used by the priests and nobility to promote rebellion, and aggravate James, who had opposed the Catholic forms more from political interest than religious scruples. A conspiracy formed by the Earls of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, of the province of Ulster, against the government of James, in the second year of his reign, in expectation of aid from the courts of France and Spain, was discovered in time to prevent its execution. The earls fled, and left their estates to the mercy of the king. Soon after, another rebellion or insurrection raised by O'Dogherty was crushed, its leader slain, and another large portion of the province reverted to the crown. In consequence of these and other forfeitures, nearly the whole of six counties in the province of Ulster, embracing about half a million of acres, were placed at the disposal of James. This province had been the chief seat of disturbances during the time of Elizabeth, and was fast becoming desolate or barbarous. With the hopes of securing the peace of this hitherto the most turbulent part of his kingdom, James determined to introduce colonies from England and Scotland, that by disseminating the Reformed faith he might promote the loyalty of Ireland. In the fulfilment of this design he planted those colonies from which, more than century afterwards, those emigrations sprung, by which western

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Virginia and the Carolinas were in a great measure peopled. The frequent attempts made, in the reign of Elizabeth, to plant colonies of English and Scotch in Ireland, in the hope that those doctrines of the Reformation, as odious to the crown as the people that professed them, might mould the Irish mind and heart to greater attachment to the English crown, had been conducted on a small scale, and attended with little success. The project of James was grand and attractive, and in its progress to complete success formed a race of men, law-loving, law-abiding, loyal, enterprising freemen, whose thoughts and principles have had no less influence in moulding the American mind, than their children in making the wilderness to blossom as the rose.

        Sir Arthur Chichester, on whom the king had conferred a considerable estate in Antrim, was appointed Lord deputy of the kingdom, in February, 1605; and by his sound judgment, sense of religion, and experience in the affairs of men, contributed not a little to the success of the royal enterprise. He had six counties in Ulster carefully surveyed, and the lands divided into sections of different magnitudes, some of two thousand acres, some of fifteen hundred, and some of a thousand. These he allotted to different kinds of persons: first, British undertakers, who voluntarily engaged in the enterprise; second, Servitors of the crown, consisting of civil and military officers; third, Natives whom he hoped to render loyal subjects. The occupants of the largest portions of land were bound, within four years, to build a castle and bawn, that is, a walled enclosure, with towers at the angles, within which was placed the cattle,--and to plant on their estates forty-eight able-bodied men, eighteen years old or upwards, of English or Scottish descent. Those who occupied the second class were obliged, within two years, to build a strong stone or brick house, and bawn; and both were required to plant a proportionable number of English or Scottish families on their possessions, and to have their houses furnished with a sufficiency of arms.

        Under these and various other regulations, the escheated lands were disposed of to one hundred and four English and Scottish Undertakers, fifty-six servitors, and two hundred and eighty-six natives; these gave bonds to the State for the fulfilment of their covenants, and were required to render an annual account of their progress. Nearly the whole of the county of Coleraine was allotted to the corporation of the city of London, on condition of their building and fortifying the cities of Londonderry and Coleraine,

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and otherwise expending twenty thousand pounds on the plantations; and the county is now called Londonderry, in allusion to that circumstance. In 1610, the lands began to be generally occupied. The northeastern parts of the province were occupied principally by emigrants from Scotland, on account of the proximity of the places, and the hardy enterprise of the people; the southern and western parts were settled by the English. Great difficulties attended the settlement, arising principally from the plundering incursions of the irreclaimable natives. A contemporary writer says: "Sir Toby Canfield's people are driven every night to lay up all his cattle, as it were, in ward; and do he and his what they can, the wolfe and wood-kerne, within culiver shot of his fort, have often times a share. Sir John King and Sir Henry Harrington, within half a mile of Dublin, do the like, for those forenamed enemies do every night survey the fields to the very walls of Dublin." The country had grown wild during the troubles of the past reign, and was covered with woods and marshes that affected the healthiness of the climate; this, together with the difficulties arising from the opposition of the native Irish, and the wild beasts that abounded in the desolations, greatly retarded the emigrations, and gave a peculiar cast to the emigrants.

        The Reverend Andrew Stewart, minister of Donaghadee from 1645 to 1671, son of Rev. Andrew Stewart, who was settled minister of Donegore in the year 1627, wrote "A short account of the Church of Christ as it was amongst the Irish at first:--among and after the English entered:--and after the entry of the Scots." He says, "of the English not many came over, for it is to be observed that; being a great deal more tenderly bred at home in England, and entertained in better quarters than they could find in Ireland, they were unwilling to flock thither, except to good land, such as they had before at home, or to good cities where they might trade; both of which, in those days, were scarce enough here. Besides that the marshiness and fogginess of this island were still found unwholesome to English bodies." He also adds: "the king had a natural love to have Ireland planted with Scots, as being, besides their loyalty, of a middle temper, between the English tender and the Irish rude breeding, and a great deal more likely to adventure to plant Ulster."

        He thus describes the progress of the plantation:--"The Londoners have in the Lagan a great interest, and built a city called Londonderry, planted with English. Coleraine also is builded by them; both of them seaports, though Derry be both the more

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commodious and famous. Sir Hugh Clotworthy obtains the lands of Antrim, both fruitful and good, and invites thither several of the English, very good men, the Ellises, Leslies, Langfords, and others. Chichester, a worthy man, has an estate given him in the county of Antrim, where he improves his interest, builds the prospering mart of Belfast, and confirms his interest in Carrickfergus, and builds a stately palace there. Conway has an estate given him in the county of Antrim, and builds a town afterwards called Lisnegarvay, and this was planted with a colony of the English also. Moses Hill had woodlands given him, which being thereafter demolished, left a fair and beautiful country, when a late heir of the Hills built Hillsborough. All these lands and more were given to the English gentlemen, worthy persons, who afterwards increased, and made noble and loyal families in places where had been nothing but robbing, treason and rebellion."

        "Of the Scots nation there was a family of the Balfours, of the Forbesses, of the Grahames, two of the Stewarts, and not a few of the Hamiltons. The Macdonnells founded the earldom of Antrim by King James's gift,--the Hamiltons the earldom of Strabane and Clanbrassil, and there were besides several knights of that name, Sir Frederick, Sir George, Sir Francis, Sir Charles his son, and Sir Hans, all Hamiltons; for they prospered above all others in this country, after the first admittance of the Scots into it."

        Con O'Neill, who possessed great extent of lands in Down and Antrim, being engaged in a rebellion, was apprehended and laid in the king's castle; the Deputy intending to have him suffer capitally, expecting to gain a large portion of his lands, which fell to the king. His wife, indignant that her husband should be confined and appointed to an ignominious death, goes over to Scotland and lays her claim before Hugh Montgomery of Broadstone, promising him, if he would get her husband's pardon from the king, to be content with a third part of their estate, and cheerfully to yield two-thirds to him under the king's grant. Montgomery entered into the scheme, and having a boat in readiness, and his wife carrying to him, in his prison, ropes in two cheeses, O'Neill effected his escape to Scotland. Montgomery then applied to Mr. James Hamilton, who had relinquished his fellowship in Dublin College, and was in high favor at the English court, to assist him in obtaining a pardon for O'Neill from the king, promising him half of his two parts of the estates. The pardon was obtained; and grants were issued from the king to each of these gentlemen

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for a third part of O'Neill's estates. Both were made knights: but as Montgomery was an inheritor under the king in Scotland, and his vassal, he obtained the precedency. Hamilton, however, so managed the matter as to obtain the better share in the possessions.

        Mr. Stewart says,--"These two knights, having received then lands, were shortly after made lords--Montgomery of Ards, and Hamilton of Claneboy. But land without inhabitants is a burden without relief. The Irish were gone, the ground was desolate rent must be paid to the king, tenants were none to pay them. Therefore the lords, having a good bargain themselves, make some of their friends sharers, as freeholders under them. Thus came several farmers under Mr. Montgomery, gentlemen from Scotland, and of the names of the Shaws, Calderwoods, Boyds, and of the Keiths from the north. And some foundations are laid for towns and incorporations, as Newton, Donaghedee, Comber, Old and New Grey Abbey. Many Hamiltons also followed Sir James, especially his own brethren, all of them worthy men; and other farmers, as the Maxwells, Rosses, Barclays, Moores, Bayleys, and others, whose posterity hold good to this day. He also founded towns and incorporations, viz., Bangor, Holywood, and Killileagh, where he built a strong castle, and Ballywalter. These foundations being laid, the Scots came hither apace, and became tenants willingly, and sub-tenants to their countrymen (whose manner and way they knew), so that in a short time the country began again to be inhabited."

        The progress of the plantation was slow; and by order of the Crown, frequent inquiries were made into its advancement. The last was made in 1618; by that it appeared that one hundred castles, with bawns, had been built; nineteen castles without bawns; forty-two bawns without castles or houses; and one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven dwelling houses of stone and timber; and about eight thousand men of English and Scottish birth, able to bear arms, were settled in the country. The appointment of Sir Arthur Chichester, as Deputy, was made in 1605; the survey was speedily commenced: the lands began to be generally occupied, in 1610, by the emigrants from Scotland and England; and by 1618, against all the opposition of the native Irish, and the unfavorable circumstances of the country, a population, with some eight thousand fighting men, were gathered upon the escheated lands.

        The race of Scotchmen that emigrated to Ireland, retaining the characteristic traits of their native stock, borrowed some things

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from their neighbors, and were fashioned, in some measure, by the moulding influences of the climate and country. In contra-distinction from the native Irish, they called themselves Scotch; and to distinguish them from natives of Scotland, their descendants have received the name of Scotch-Irish. This name is provincial, and more used in America than elsewhere, and is applied to the Protestant emigrants from the north of Ireland, and their descendants. The history of this people from this period, 1618, till the emigration to America, which commenced with a discernible current about a century after the immigration from Scotland, is found in the "History of Religious Principles and Events in Ulster Province." Their religious principles swayed their political opinions; and in maintaining their forms of worship, and their creed, they learned the rudiments of republicanism before they emigrated to America. They demanded, and exercised, the privilege of choosing their ministers and spiritual directors, in opposition to all efforts to make the choice and support of the clergy a state, or governmental concern. In defence of this they suffered fines and imprisonment and banishment, and took up arms at last, and, victorious in the contest, they established the Prince of Nassau upon the throne, and gave the Protestant succession to England.

        Emigrating to America, they maintained, in all the provinces where they settled, the right of all men to choose their own religious teachers, and to support them in the way each society of Christians might choose, irrespective of the laws of England or the provinces,--and also to use what forms of worship they might judge expedient and proper. From maintaining the rights of conscience in both hemispheres, and claiming to be governed by the laws under legitimate sovereigns in Europe they came in America to demand the same extended rights in politics as in conscience; that rulers should be chosen by the people to be governed, and should exercise their authority according to the laws the people approved. In Europe they contended for a limited monarchy through all the troubles of the seventeenth century; in America, their descendants defining what a limited monarchy meant, found it to signify rulers chosen by the people for a limited time, and with limited powers; and declared themselves independent of the British crown.

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CHAPTER VI.
STATE OF RELIGION IN IRELAND FROM THE TIME OF THE EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND, TO THE FIRST EFFORT TO EMIGRATE TO AMERICA IN 1631.

        THE state of Religion among the emigrants was peculiar, though not strange or unexpected, in the circumstances. Many of the large landholders, and also the proprietors of smaller sections, were gentlemen in the Scotch acceptation of the word, men of good birth, of good manners, of some education and property. Some of them appear to have been truly religious. Among the tenantry and sub-tenantry, were also many of sound principles and correct lives,--and some were truly pious. But the circumstances of the emigration were such as to hold out greater inducements to the restless than to the sedate, to those who were more anxious about temporal, than to those who were most engaged about spiritual concerns; and consequently the province was occupied by settlers, who were willing enough to receive and respect ministers, who were sent to them, but were not characterized by any great desire to obtain either faithful ministers, who would warn them of their sins, or careless ones who would be content with their tithes. Of the latter class they had enough in Ireland, as the whole country had been divided into parishes, which were expected to support a minister of the Established Church of England. The former class were a terror unto them, as they always are to those not fully intent upon their own salvation. Stewart draws a dark picture of the people soon after their emigration; it is probably over colored, as the author was not conversant with the settling of colonies; the only other one of which he had much knowledge, the Puritans that removed first to Holland, and then to New England, being a solitary example of excellence. "Most of the people were all void of godliness, who seemed rather to flee from God in their enterprise, than to follow their own mercy. Yet God followed them when they fled from him. Albeit, at first, it must be remembered, that, as they cared little for any church, so God seemed to care as little for them. For these strangers were no better entertained (i.e., by the clergy they found in Ireland, or that part of it where they were)

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than by the relics of popery, served up in a ceremonial service of God under a sort of antichristian hierarchy, and committed to the care of careless men, who were only zealous to call for their gain from their quarter. Thus, on all hands, atheism increased, and disregard of God, iniquity abounded with contention, fighting, murder, adultery, &c., as among a people who, as they had nothing within them to overawe them, so their ministers' example (i. e., those they found in Ireland) was worse than nothing. And verily, at this time the whole body of this people seemed ripe for the manifestation either of God's judgment, or God's mercy."

        The situation of the emigrants, in matters pertaining to religion, was so different from the condition of the congregations in Scotland, that with the more grave and religious in the mother country, it became a matter of abhorrence;--so much so, that "going to Ireland" was looked upon as a thing to be deplored, as going away from the privileges and enjoyments of religion. It became a proverb expressive of disdain, "Ireland will be your latter end." Mr. Blair said of their condition in religious things--"Although amongst those whom divine providence did send to Ireland, there were several persons eminent for birth, education and parts, yet the most part was such as either poverty, scandalous lives, or at the best, adventurous seeking of better accommodation had forced thither; so that the security and thriving of religion was little seen to by these adventurers, and the preachers were generally of the same complexion with the people." This condition of the emigrants became at length a matter of deep sympathy and Christian benevolence--and faithful ministers of the gospel were encouraged to take their abode in Ireland, and expend their strength in labors which received a rich blessing from on high. Between the years 1613 and 1626, seven preachers went over to Ireland, whose exertions for the advancement of religion were blessed to such an eminent degree, that others were excited to follow them; and in a few years the church in Ireland became as famous for a spirit of revival, as the emigration had been for indifference to all religious concerns.

        The first, in point of time, was EDWARD BRICE, M.A., who, on account of his strenuous opposition to all efforts to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, was compelled to leave his parish, Drymen in Stirlingshire; turning his attention to Ireland, he directed his steps to Broad Island in County Antrim, where an old acquaintance had settled in 1609. He began to exercise his ministry there in 1613. "In all his preaching," says Livingston, "he insi

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most on the life of Christ in the heart, and the light of His spirit and word on the mind; that being his own continual exercise." The wrath of man, in his troubles at home in Scotland, was overruled of God to bring him to preach Christ to the desolate; his being driven from his parish, was the leading of others to the Kingdom of God. He died in 1636, aged 67 years.

        The second was JOHN RIDGE, a native of England. He had been admitted to the order of Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford; but feeling no freedom to exercise his ministry in England, on account of the requisitions made of the clergy, he removed to Ireland, and on presentation of Lord Chichester, was admitted to the vicarage of Antrim in July, 1619. Blair styles him--"the judicious and gracious Minister of Antrim." Livingston says of him: "he used not to have many points in his sermon; but he so enlarged those he had, that it was scarcely possible for any hearer to forget his preaching. He was a great urger of charitable works, and a very humble man." After having witnessed the power of religion in an uncommon degree in Antrim, as will be noticed more particularly in another place, when the great revival comes up for narration, he died about the year 1637.

        The third was MR. HUBBARD, a Puritan minister from England. He was Episcopally ordained; but having forsaken the communion of the Established Church, and taken charge of a non-conforming congregation, at Southwark, London, he was greatly oppressed by the intolerant measures of the times, and with his people resolved on removing to Ireland, in hopes of greater freedom in religion. Lord Chichester being informed of their intention, invited them to Carrickfergus; they were peaceably settled there about the year 1621. Blair speaks of him as "an able and gracious man." He soon died; but his congregation shared largely in the divine blessing that so unexpectedly was poured upon Ulster county.

        The fourth was JAMES GLENDENNING, whose labors were peculiarly blessed, a native of Scotland, educated at St. Andrews, and early in life removing to Scotland, he succeeded Mr. Hubbard at Carrickfergus. The theatre of his greatest usefulness was Oldstone, near Antrim, where commenced, under his preaching, THE REVIVAL that spread over the province, and laid the foundation of the Irish Presbyterian Church. Mr. Glendenning was not esteemed as a man of much ability or learning; but his preaching being full of life and earnestness was much admired, and greatly blessed of God. He left Ireland in a few years.

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        The fifth was ROBERT CUNNINGHAM. Having been chaplain to the Earl of Buccleugh, in Holland, on the return of the troops to Scotland he went to Ireland, and became curate of Holywood and Craigavad in County Down. His name does not appear upon the roll as curate till 1622, though he was in Ireland some years previous to that time. Livingston says of him: "To my discerning he was the one man who most resembled the meekness of Jesus Christ, in all his carriage, that ever I saw, and was so far reverenced, even by the wicked, that he was often troubled with that scripture--'woe to you when all men speak well of you.' " He died in Scotland, March 29th, 1637, having witnessed, in an extraordinary manner, the power of the gospel.

        The sixth was ROBERT BLAIR. He had been professor in the College of Glasgow, but was induced to leave the situation on account of the measures used by Dr. Cameron to introduce Prelacy; being invited by Lord Claneboy (James Hamilton), he went to Ireland in May, 1623, and was settled in Bangor, in County Down. On his first landing in Ireland, his prejudices against the country were greatly increased by what he saw. Lord Claneboy interested himself very much in removing his difficulties, and Mr. Gibson, the first Protestant Dean of Down, then sick, invited him to preach in Bangor, and afterwards united with the congregation in urging him to make that his abode. Mr. Blair, in his narrative, says: Mr. Gibson "condemned Episcopacy more strongly than I durst to; he charged me in the name of Christ, as I expected a blessing on my ministry, not to leave that good way wherein I had begun to walk; and then drawing my head towards his bosom, with both arms, he laid his hands on my head, and blessed me."

        On his first interview he frankly told Bishop Echlin his objections to Prelacy. Echlin promised to impose no conditions on him, but said he must ordain him, or they could not answer the laws of the land. Blair objected to the performance of the ordination by him alone. The bishop finally agreed to associate Mr. Cunningham and the neighboring ministers with him in the ordination: and the service was performed July 10th, 1623. "Whatever you account of Episcopacy, yet I know you account a presbytery to have a divine warrant," said the bishop to him. "Will you not receive ordination from Mr. Cunningham and the adjacent brethren, and let me come in among them in no other relation than a presbyter?"

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        Livingston says of Blair,--"he was a man of a notable constitution both of body and mind; of a majestic, awful, yet affable and amiable countenance and carriage, learned, of strong parts, deep inventions, and solid judgment. He seldom ever wanted assurance of his salvation. He spent many days and nights in prayer alone, and with others, and was vouchsafed great intimacy with God."

        The seventh was JAMES HAMILTON, nephew to Lord Claneboy (James Hamilton, who obtained a part of O'Neill's estate), whom Mr. Blair found in the employ of his uncle, as steward, or agent. Perceiving his piety, and knowing his education, he invited him to enter the ministry. "I invited him," says Mr. Blair, "to preach in my pulpit, in his uncle's hearing, who till then knew nothing of this matter. We were afraid the viscount would not part with so faithful a servant. But he, having once heard his nephew, did put more respect on him than before." Mr. Hamilton was ordained by Bishop Echlin in the year 1625.

        These seven brethren labored with the spirit of missionaries of the cross, and triumphing over all difficulties, were favored with an extraordinary measure of success. Their influence was first seen in a reformation of manners and a devout attention to religion; and led, under the blessing of God, to a revival of religion, which spread over a large part of the counties of Down and Antrim, and is one of the most signal on record in the Protestant Church. This revival first appeared under the preaching of the weakest of the brethren, Mr. Glendenning. Mr. Stewart, in his narrative, thus relates the matter: "Mr. Blair, coming over from Bangor to Carrickfergus on some business, and occasionally hearing Mr. Glendenning preach, perceived some sparkles of good inclination in him, yet found him not solid but weak, and not fitted for a public place, and among the English. On which Mr. Blair did call him, and using freedom with him, advised him to go to some place in the country among his countrymen; whereupon he went to Oldstone (near the town of Antrim), and was there placed. He was a man who could never have been chosen by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent to begin a reformation in this land. For he was little better than distracted,--yea afterwards did actually become so."

        "At Oldstone God made use of him to awaken the consciences of a lewd people thereabouts. For seeing the great lewdness and ungodly sinfulness of the people, he preached nothing to them but law, wrath, and the terrors of God for sin. And indeed for nothing else was he fitted, for hardly could he preach any other thing."

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But behold the success! For the hearers finding themselves condemned by the mouth of God speaking in his work, fell into such anxiety and terror of conscience, that they looked on themselves as altogether lost and damned; and this work appeared not in one single person or two, but multitudes were brought to understand their way, and to cry out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?' I have seen them myself stricken into a swoon with a word; yea, a dozen in one day carried out of doors as dead,--so marvellous was the power of God, smiting their hearts for sin, condemning and killing. And these were none of the weaker sex or spirit, but indeed some of the boldest spirits, who formerly feared not, with their swords, to put a whole market town in a fray;--yea, in defence of their stubbornness cared not to lie in prison and in the stocks,--and being incorrigible, were as ready to do the like next day. I have head one of them, then a mighty strong man, now a mighty Christian, say, that his end in coming to church was to consult with his companions how to work some mischief. And yet at one of those sermons was he so catched, that he was fully subdued. But why do I speak of him? we knew, and yet know multitudes of such men, who sinned, and still gloried in it, because they feared no man, yet are now patterns of sobriety, fearing to sin, because they fear God."

        "And this spread through the country to admiration, especially about that river, commonly called the Six Mile Water, for there this work began at first. At this time of the people's gathering to Christ, it pleased the Lord to visit mercifully the honorable family in Antrim, so as Sir John Clotworthy, and my Lady his mother, and his own precious Lady, did shine in an eminent manner in receiving the gospel and offering themselves to the Lord, whose example instantly other gentlemen followed, such as Captain Norton and others, of whom the gospel made a clear and cleanly conquest."

        This religious excitement spreading wide, continued for a considerable length of time; the demand for the pure word of the gospel was unceasing; and the labors of the ministers unremitting. The mercy of the gospel was welcomed by the hearts wounded for sin and by sin; and great numbers were hopefully awakened and converted to God. Among other things that followed this revival was the Monthly Meeting at Antrim, the effects of which were great and happy. Its origin is thus described by Stewart and Blair:--

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        "There was a man in the parish of Oldstone, called Hugh Campbell, who had fled from Scotland; God caught him in Ireland, and made him an eminent and exemplary Christian until this day. He was a gentleman of the house of Duckethall. After this man was healed of the wound given to his soul by the Almighty, he became very refreshful to others who had less learning and judgment than himself. He therefore invited some of his honest neighbors, who fought the same fight of faith, to meet him at his house on the last Friday of every month; where and when, beginning with a few, they spent their time in prayer, mutual edification, and conference, on what they found within them: nothing like the superficial superfluous meetings of some cold-hearted professors, who afterwards made this work a snare to many. But these new beginners were more filled with heart exercises than head notions, and with fervent prayer rather than conceity notions to fill the head. As these truly increased, so did this meeting for private edification increase too; and still at Hugh Campbell's house, on the last Friday of the month. At last they grew so numerous that the ministers who had begotten them again to Christ, thought fit that some of them should be still with them, to prevent what hurt might follow." This took place in the year 1626. Here Mr. Stewart's narrative ends abruptly. Mr. Blair says:--"Mr. John Ridge, the judicious and gracious minister of Antrim, perceiving many people, both sides of the Six Mile Water, awakened out of their security, made an overture that a monthly meeting might be set up at Antrim, which was within a mile of Oldstone, and lay centrical for the awakened persons to resort to, and he invited Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Hamilton, and myself, to take part in that work, who were all glad of the motion, and heartily embraced it."


        As the revival progressed, the news of it reached Scotland, and called the attention of the whole Christian community to Ireland; and in consequence, some very able ministers went over to take part in the work, and were blessed of God in being extensively useful in laying the foundation of the Irish Presbyterian Church. In addition to the seven who went previous to the revival, the following six, who entered the field during the great excitement, are worthy of particular notice.

        The first, JOSIAS WELCH, son of John Welch, of Ayr, and grandson of JOHN KNOX, the Reformer, by his third daughter, Elizabeth. Having finished his education at Geneva, he filled a Professor's chair in Glasgow, till the movements of Dr. Cameron

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for prelacy, which drove Mr. Blair from college, induced him also to surrender his office. At Mr. Blair's earnest instigation he went to Ireland in 1626, and like that good man, found that persecution, as in the days of the death of Stephen, sometimes drives men into that part of the Lord's vineyard where they reap the richest harvest for eternal life. He preached for a time at Oldstone, where the excitement began; and having been ordained by his kinsman Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, in Donegal, was soon after settled at Temple Patrick, and, Livingston says, had many seals to his ministry. He died on Monday, June 23d, 1634.

        The second that came was ANDREW STEWART, who was settled as minister of Donegore, adjoining Temple Patrick and Antrim. Blair styles him "a learned gentleman, and fervent in spirit, and a very successful minister of the word of God." He died in July, 1634.

        The third was GEORGE DUNBAR. He had been minister of Ayr, and was twice ejected on account of his nonconformity, and for a time confined in Blackness, and then banished. On the arrival of the news of his second ejectment, he turned to his wife and said: "Wife, get the creels ready again;" that is, the osier baskets in which he had carried his children in his first remove. He was driven to Ireland to be blessed in the Lord's vineyard. Being settled at Larna, county Antrim, his congregation participated in the great revival; and among the subjects was the singular case of a deaf and dumb person, Andrew Brown, who, by his reformed life and expressions of piety, prevailed on the ministers, who met at Antrim, in their monthly meetings, to admit him to the Lord's table. A singular, and almost solitary, case of a mute professing spiritual religion, previous to the recent successful efforts at giving them instruction.

        The fourth was HENRY COLWORT, a native of England, ordained by Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, on the 4th of May, 1629, and settled at Oldstone, June, 1630. Blair says, "this able minister was a blessing to that people;" and Livingston speaks of him as one "who very pertinently cited much Scripture in his sermons, and frequently urged fasting and prayer."

        The fifth was JOHN LIVINGSTON. Being silenced by Spotiswood, Archbishop of St. Andrews, in the year 1627, and being prevented by the bishops from obtaining a settlement, though invitations came to him from various quarters, he at length yielded to the storm, and following the hand of the Lord, went to Ireland,

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August, 1630, and was settled in Killinchy, in county Down. He received ordination from Knox, in the same manner Blair had done, some years previously. In the month of June preceding his removal to Ireland, he had, in company with Mr. Robert Blair, assisted at the famous meeting in the Kirk of Shotts, which resulted in the hopeful conversion of so large a company. Under his sermon on Monday, which he delivered after hours of meditation and private prayer, the whole audience seemed under the convicting power of the word, and as many as five hundred, of those that day impressed, afterwards professed faith in Christ. Some say that, reckoning up all that from that day's preaching became hopefully religious, the number would be swelled to seven hundred; as the audience was collected from a great distance, as usual on Scotch communion days, many of the hopeful converts were from distant congregations, and some who dated their religious impressions from that day, did not profess religion for a length of time.

        The great excitement produced at this meeting rendered Mr. Blair and Mr. Livingston more obnoxious than ever to the Prelates, who, under pretence of their having transgressed the order of the Church and the government, prevailed on Bishop Echlin, in Ireland, in September, 1631, to suspend both these men from their ministerial functions. No service done to God, in the conversion of men, could satisfy these Prelates for nonconformity to their established rules of Church government.

        Two others were extensively useful, though not settled in congregations. One was JOHN McCLELLAND, of whom Livingston says,--"he was first school-master at Newton-Ards in Ireland, where he bred several hopeful youths for the college. Being first tried and approved by the honest ministers in the county of Down, he often preached in their churches. He was a most straight and zealous man; he knew not what it was to be afraid of man in the cause of God; and was early acquainted with God and his ways."

        The other was JOHN SEMPLE. According to the mode of commencing public worship, he, as clerk or precentor, was, as customary, singing a psalm before the minister came in that was to preach. Thinking the minister tarried long, he felt an impulse to speak something to the psalm he was singing; and, as he said,--"he was carried out with great liberty." The ministers, looking upon his case as peculiar, made private trials of his capability to teach, and gave him license "to exercise his gifts in private houses

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and families." With this liberty he went through the country with great acceptance; the people flocked to hear him, filling dwelling-houses and barns; and to very many he was the happy instrument of God in their conversion.

        These ministers were powerful auxiliaries in extending the revival in Ulster. The churches gathered by them multiplied and extended, and became a large body; and from them were the emigrants whose descendants are found in Pennsylvania, western Virginia, North and South Carolina, in large bodies, and also in smaller companies scattered over the southern and western portions of the United States.

        The monthly meeting set up at Oldstone by Mr. Campbell, being altogether in the hands of the inexperienced, was likely to lead to the evils that result from zeal without knowledge. By the prudent exertions of Mr. Ridge of Antrim, a monthly meeting of ministers was formed, which took the place of the other, prevented the dreaded evils, and became instrumental of great good to the community. The exercises of those meetings were very similar to the services performed at the communion seasons in Scotland, and to the communion seasons and four day meetings held by the Presbyterians in Virginia and the Carolinas, and indeed in the whole South and West. People flocked to them in crowds, and embraced the opportunity of conversation with their minister, and each other, on the great subjects of Religion; and the minister took the opportunity of communicating instructions on important subjects, and for the exercise of necessary discipline, in which unity of purpose and action was required.

        Mr. Brice of Broad Island, and Mr. Dunbar, who was for a time his assistant, and afterwards settled at Oldstone, were called to the exercise of prudence and judgment in another way. In Broad Island and the adjacent parish of Oldstone, there were several persons violently affected during public worship with hard breathings and convulsions of the body. These new and strange exercises they considered as evidences of the work of the Spirit. Messrs. Brice and Dunbar examined them carefully on this matter, and on conferring with them about their state of mind and heart, could not find that these bodily exercises either produced or accompanied any discovery of their sinfulness before God, nor any clear views of Christ, or desires after him. They therefore considered the exercises to be either an imposition or a delusion. The ministerial brethren were called together upon the matter; and after a patient examination they decided against the opinion

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that the exercises were either a work of the Spirit or any evidence of its presence. Mr. Blair says--"When we came and conferred with them, we perceived it to be a mere delusion and cheat of the destroyer, to slander and disgrace the work of God." The putting down these irregularities did not hinder the progress of the good work, but rather gave confidence both to preachers and people. Instead of permitting the passions and feelings of their hearers to lead the pastors, or the heat of excitement to blind their eyes, they submitted all things in religion to the test of Scripture, and by its authority they chose to abide. This was their rule in church government, ordination and doctrine: and more than two centuries in Europe, and more than a century in America, has tested and proved the prudence and propriety of their decisions.

        The monthly meeting at Antrim, besides being a source of rich encouragement and high enjoyment to the people, became to the ministers a source of great consolation. In them they took counsel and gave advice, and comforted and exhorted each other; and, until presbyteries were formed, it was their grand council. It must be borne in mind, that the whole country was under the Established Church of England; and in the space occupied by these laborers were some twenty ministers of the Established Church, who took no interest in the revival, but rather set themselves against it, and were opposed to these ministers preaching in their parish bounds. Bishop Echlin, at first favorable to these ministers, soon became their bitter enemy: while Knox of Raphoe continued their friend to the last. Mr. Livingston says that the brethren that formed this meeting lived in the greatest harmony, each preferring the other in love.

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CHAPTER VII.
THE EAGLE WING--OR FIRST ATTEMPT AT EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND TO AMERICA, 1636.

        IN the spring of the year 1631, the presbyterians of Ulster, wearied out by the intolerance of Charles I., and Archbishop Laud, and the consequent exactions of the ministers of the crown, particularly the Lord Deputy Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Stafford, by which their cup of bitterness was made to overflow, turned their eyes to the new settlements in the wilds of America. The Puritans of England, who were contending and suffering for the same rights of conscience, had planted colonies in Massachusetts, which cheered them with the expectation of a refuge from the ills they could neither be freed from, nor endure, in their native land. The flourishing colony had been planted at Salem, in the year 1628, and had been even more successful than Plymouth. These prosperous efforts to secure the enjoyment of liberty of conscience, turned the attention of the distressed congregations of Ireland to seek, in the deeper solitudes of distant America, what had been promised, and sought for in vain, in depopulated Ireland; or enjoyed only while they reclaimed the desolations of the previous rebellion.

        The ministers that had come over from Scotland, whose names have been enumerated, had not attempted to form a Presbytery. The whole country had been laid off into parishes and bishoprics of the Church of England; and as the emigrants from England or Scotland found their residences, they were consequently included in some parish, and the ministers that came over to preach to them were admitted to occupy parish churches, and enjoy their own forms and ceremonies. Archbishop Usher was most mild and tolerant in his views of church order and government; and so, for a time at least, were some of his bishops; and in the different Dioceses of Ulster might be seen priests and deacons of the Established Church, and here and there intermingled a Presbyterian or Puritan minister, with a flock of their own peculiar creed and forms, under the bishop's supervision. The great revival had broken up some of this quietness and order that had

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prevailed, by exciting jealousies between the favorers and opposers of that blessed work: the bishops mostly withdrew their favor and protection, and were ready to carry into effect the rigid orders from Laud and the Deputy, and proceeded to silence those that would not conform strictly to the rites and ceremonies of the establishment, and began with Blair and Livingston: but by the good offices of Archbishop Usher these men were restored to their ministry. Their enemies, however, made representations at Court which resulted in shutting out from the exercise of the ministry, Blair, Welch, Livingston, and Dunbar.

        These oppressed ministers, with many of their respective charges, began to make preparation for removal to America. Two persons were appointed delegates to visit New England, the Rev. John Livingston and Mr. William Wallace, and, if circumstances were favorable, to choose a place for their future residence. They proceeded to England to find a passage to America; but some unexpected difficulties caused their return to Ireland, and prospects in Ireland appearing more favorable, the project was for a time abandoned. In 1634, these ministers, who had been restored to their office, were three of them again suspended, and the next year the fourth, Livingston, shared the same fate; their only crime charged was their opposition to Episcopal forms. During the same year four other ministers were forbidden the exercise of their ministry on account of their adherence to Presbyterial forms; Brice, who was amongst the earliest that visited Ireland, and after a laborious ministry of twenty years, died the next year after his suspension, aged sixty-seven years,--Ridge, who went to Antrim in 1619, and had been most laborious and successful, and after his suspension returned to Scotland, and died 1637,--Cunningham, who had gone over in 1622, and returning to Scotland, after his suspension, died in 1637,--and Colwort, minister at Oldstone, where the great Revival began.

        Once more preparations for emigration were commenced, and a correspondence opened with the colonies in New England. Cotton Mather, in his Magnolia, tells us, Book 1st--"That there were divers gentlemen in Scotland, who, being uneasy under the ecclesiastical burdens of the times, wrote on to New England the inquiries:--Whether they might be there suffered freely to exercise their Presbyterial church government? And it was freely answered--that they might. Thereupon they sent over an agent, who pitched upon a tract of land near the mouth of the Merrimac River, whither they intended to transplant themselves. But

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although they had so far proceeded in their voyage as to be half-seas through, the manifold crosses they met withal, made them give over their intentions; and the providence of God so ordered it that some of these very gentlemen were afterwards the revivers of that well-known Solemn League and Covenant, which had so great an influence upon the nation." There is one error in this extract. The conclusion would naturally be, that the expedition was from Scotland; and very probably Mather understood it to be from that country,--whereas, the company sailed from the North of Ireland. The error arose undoubtedly from the fact, that the correspondence was carried on from Scotland, and the agent was a Scotchman, the ministers were from Scotland, and of no small eminence, and the colonists themselves were either Scotchmen by birth, or the children of Scotchmen reared in Ireland.

        The deposition of their ministers, which took place August 12th, 1636, hastened the preparations for emigration, and on the 9th of the following September, the EAGLE WING, a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons, set sail from Lockfergus with one hundred and forty emigrants prepared for the voyage, and a settlement in a new country. The colonists took with them the necessary implements for carrying on fisheries, and also a considerable amount of merchandise to assist them by traffic to meet the expenses of the voyage and necessities of the new settlement. Among the emigrants were four noted preachers, ROBERT BLAIR, JOHN LIVINGSTON, JAMES HAMILTON, and JOHN McCLELLAND: all afterwards promoters of the cause of truth in Scotland and Ireland. Among the families that composed the company were the names Stuart, Agnew, Campbell, Summervil, and Brown. Many single persons united in the expedition, and with them sailed Andrew Brown, a deaf mute, from the parish of Larne, who during the revival had been deeply affected, and had given satisfactory evidence, by signs connected with a godly life, of having been truly converted. Like the voyagers in the MAY FLOWER, this devoted people met with difficulties. The New England Memorial traces them in the former case to the knavery of the shipmaster, first in springing the leak, then in landing them far north of the intended harbor; in the present case the parties concerned referred them to the providence of God.

        "We had," says the Rev. John Livingston in his account of the voyage, "much toil in our preparation, many hindrances in our outsetting, and both sad and glad hearts in taking leave of our friends. At last, about the month of September, 1636, we loosed

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from Lockfergus, but were detained some time with contrary winds in Lock Regan in Scotland, and grounded the ship to search for some leaks in the keel of the boat. Yet thereafter, we set to sea, and for some space had fair winds, till we were between three and four hundred leagues from Ireland, and no nearer the banks of Newfoundland than any place in Europe. But if ever the Lord spoke by his winds and other dispensations, it was made evident to us, that it was not his will that we should go to New England. For we met with a mighty heavy rain from the northwest, which did break our rudder, which we got mended by the skill and courage of Captain Andrew Agnew, a godly passenger; and tore our foresail, five or six of our champlets, and a great beam under the gunner's room door broke. Seas came in over the round house, and broke a plank or two on the deck, and wet all that were between the decks. We sprung a leak, that gave us seven hundred, in the two pumps, in the half hour glass. Yet we lay at hull a long time to beat out the storm, till the master and company came one morning and told us that it was impossible to hold out any longer, and although we beat out that storm, we might be sure in that season of the year, we would foregather with one or two more of that sort before we could reach New England.

        "During all this time, amidst such fears and dangers, the most part of the passengers were very cheerful and confident; yea, some in prayer had expressed such hopes, that rather than the Lord would suffer such a company in such sort to perish, if the ship should break, he would put wings to our shoulders, and carry us safe ashore. I never in my life found the day so short, as at all that time, although I slept some nights not above two hours, and some not at all, but stood most part in the gallery astern the great cabin, where Mr. Blair and I and our families lay. For in the morning, by the time every one had been some time alone, and then at prayer in their several societies, and then at public prayer in the ship, it was time to go to dinner; after that we would visit our friends or any that were sick, and then public prayer would come, and after that, supper and family exercises. Mr. Blair was much of the time sickly, and lay in the time of storms. I was sometimes sick, and then brother McClelland only performed duty in the ship. Several of those between deck, being thronged, were sickly; an aged person and one child died, and were buried in the sea. One woman, the wife of Michael Calver, of Killinchy parish, brought forth a child in the

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ship. I baptized it on Sabbath following, and called him SEABORN."

        The report of the master and company filled them with distress,--the storm was upon them and before them;--oppression had driven them from Ireland, and waited their return. After prayer, and long and anxious consultation, they agreed to return; trusting in the good providence of God for their future welfare. The next morning as soon as the day dawned, the ship was turned, and they made for Ireland. On the third of November, after a prosperous sail, they came to anchor in Lockfergus, the place of their departure, after an absence of about eight weeks, cast down under this providence of God, and anticipating hostility, ridicule and suffering. Having sold their effects in preparation for the voyage, and having vested their property in provision and stock of merchandize, suitable for their expected residence, they experienced great loss in disposing of their cargo, and reinvesting the proceeds in things suitable to their emergency. The persons, they had hired to go with them to assist in fishing and building houses, demanded their wages, and were dismissed at great disadvantage to their employers.

        Their reception by their friends, like their departure, was mingled with "gladness and sorrow;"--by their enemies with anxiety and disdain. Their friends commiserated their calamity, and rejoiced in their safety. Their enemies disliked their return, fearing the consequences, and were for a time divided in their opinion how they should be treated. Some were for exercising greater lenity; others poured out their ridicule in no measured terms, and in ballads, and notes to printed sermons, compared these oppressed and disheartened people to asses, which the same vessel had a little before brought from France,--and their religious ministrations to brayings so sad, that Neptune had stopped their voyage, and sent them back to Ireland to be improved.

        The next year, 1637, the ministers finding no peace in Ireland, went over to Scotland, and met a most cordial reception from ministers and people. Mr. Blair was settled at Ayr; Mr. Livingston at Stranrear; Mr. Hamilton at Dumfries; Mr. Dunbar at Caldir in Lothian; Mr. McClelland in Kirkcudbright; Mr. Temple in Carsphain; Mr. Row at Dunfermline; and Mr. Robert Hamilton at Ballantises. These nine were zealous promoters of the National Covenant, which was renewed for the third time in Edinburgh, 1st March, 1638. Four of them were members of the famous assembly that met in Glasgow, in November of the

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same year, and took an active part in the doings of that body, by which Prelacy in Scotland was abolished,--the bishops deposed,--and Presbytery re-established. Those, who were settled on the western coast of Scotland, kept up their intercourse with Ulster, and many of their former hearers removed to Scotland to enjoy their ministrations. On the stated communions, great numbers would go over from Ireland to enjoy the privileges they could not have at home; on one occasion five hundred persons went over from Down to Stranrear, to receive the sacrament at the hands of Mr. Livingston. At another time, he baptized twenty children brought over to him, for that purpose, by their parents, who were unwilling to receive the ordinance from the Prelatical clergy.

        The influence which this company of emigrants exercised on Ireland, and ultimately on America, is incalculable. It is scarcely possible to conceive, that any situation in New England could have afforded them such a theatre of action as the province of Ulster; perhaps none they might have occupied anywhere in America, even in founding a new State, could have afforded such ample exhibition of the power of their principles and godly lives. There had been a revival, a great revival in Ireland, among the emigrants from Scotland and their children; but as yet, no Presbytery had been formed; and the influence of the Presbyterian Protestants was circumscribed, and their principles not yet deep-rooted for permanency. Had this colony succeeded in finding an agreeable situation in America, in all probability so many of their friends and countrymen would have followed, that the North of Ireland would have been deserted to the native Irish, or the wild beasts, as in the times just preceding the emigration from Scotland. This company of men, as will be seen in the subsequent history, were the efficient instruments in the hands of God, of embodying the Presbyterians of Ireland, of spreading their principles far and wide, and marshalling congregation after congregation, whose industry made Ulster blossom as the rose. The Presbyterians became the balancing power of Ireland. "You need not"--said an intelligent physician of Petersburg, Va., who is familiar with Ireland, and does not claim to be a Presbyterian,--"You need not ask when you are to pass from the Catholic counties to those of the Protestants. You will see and feel the change in everything around you."

        Had the principles of Usher prevailed, and these men been permitted to labor in peace in their parishes, it would in all probability have been long before a Presbytery had been formed in Ireland;

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and when formed its influence and number of churches would have been really less than they were in 1642, the year the first Presbytery met. The intolerance of the Court and their obedient bishops drove these men out of the churches of the establishment. When the four set sail in 1636, for America, no faithful Presbyterian was left; the others were dead, or had retired to Scotland; all bonds were broken that might have held them in connection with the Episcopal church. The tempest brought them back to do a work in Scotland; and the rebellion and consequent massacre, by the native Irish, opened the way for their successful labors in Ireland, and for founding the Irish Presbyterian church. The wrath of man, and the tempests of the ocean, together work the wonderful counsels of Almighty God.

        After the lapse of some two-thirds of a century, Ulster began to send out swarms to America; shipload after shipload of men trained to labor and habits of independence, sought the American shores; year after year the tide rolled on without once ebbing; and many thousands of these descendants of the emigrants from Scotland, disdaining to be called Irish, filled the upper country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Ulster, in Ireland, has been an exhaustless hive, a perennial spring; and the form and fashion of its emigrants were moulded by these men, whom the storms baffled and sent back to do a work for Ireland and America. LIVINGSTON and BLAIR lived for Posterity.

        In 1608, Jamestown, in Virginia, was founded by a small company from England; in 1620, the May Flower landed her little band of Puritans on Plymouth rock; in 1636, the Eaglewing relanded her company at Lochfergus; and some few years afterwards King Charles forbade the sailing of the vessel that should have carried away from England the Spirits of the Revolution. Napoleon, with all his immense hosts of savans and soldiers, did not, could not so change the condition of the world, as those four bands that, collectively, would scarce have formed a regiment in his immense army. Principles, not men, must govern the world under the Providence of God.

        It was well that the distressed people of Ireland turned their thoughts to America for a resting place; it was better that they embarked for the wilderness, as it manifested an enterprise equal to the emergency; but it was better still that God's wise providence sent them back to labor for Ireland, and shut them up to the work; and last, it was best of all, that they laid the foundation of that church which may claim to be the mother of the American Presbyterian Church, the worthy child of a worthy mother.

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CHAPTER VIII.
FORMATION OF PRESBYTERIES IN IRELAND.

        THE first meeting of a regular Presbytery in Ireland took place at Carrickfergus on Friday, June 10th, 1642. Previously to that time the ministers in Ireland, who promoted the Revival, acted on Presbyterial principles, though by law of England under the jurisdiction of Bishops of the Church of England. At the Reformation almost the entire Irish nation were Roman Catholics or Papists; and the majority of the nation are to this day. Henry VIII. of England commenced establishing a Protestant national church, and Elizabeth followed up the design; and James perfected the plan as far as he was able. Bishops were sent over, and the clergy were appointed to parishes and supported by the authority of the state; yet the mass of the people remained Papists, and maintained their own bishops and priests, and received the ordinances at their hands. The Scotch emigrants were divided, in their settlements, into parishes; or rather, the boundaries of the old parishes remained, and clergy were supplied by the state to the inhabitants, of whatever country or religious principles they might chance to be. The parishes occupied the same territory embraced by the Papists in their ecclesiastical divisions; and neither the Scotch emigrants nor the native Irish Papists were permitted by law to enjoy their own clergy, or their own religious ceremonies; and both were sufferers under the severities of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. The ministers who went over to Ireland to preach to the Scotch, a short account of whom has been given, were presented to parishes and admitted regularly; some were ordained by the Bishop, in conjunction with other clergy as a Presbytery, objecting more or less strenuously to his prelatical character.

        A convocation of the Irish clergy was summoned in 1615, before any number of ministers from Scotland had visited the island. As the Irish Church had always been independent of that of England, it was thought necessary to declare its faith, and settle its form of government. The only statutes in force in the kingdom respected solely the celebration of public worship, which was made

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conformable to that of the English churches. The English ritual was followed; but the Irish Church had not adopted a Confession of Faith. Dr. James Usher, Professor of Divinity in the College of Dublin, and afterwards Archbishop, was appointed to draw up a Confession; this task he performed to the approbation of the Convocation and the Parliament, and also to the satisfaction of the King and Council. The Confession was digested into no less than nineteen sections, and one hundred and four propositions; and was as decidedly Calvinistic as that afterwards drawn up by the Westminster Divines. The Pope was pronounced Antichrist; the doctrine of Absolution condemned; the morality of the Sabbath strongly asserted, in opposition to the King's well known sentiments. The reason for this was,--that the intolerance practised in England induced many of the Puritans to emigrate to Ireland; and there, the King, glad to have them out of England, gave them preferments. Heylin says:--"They brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism, such a contempt of bishops, such a neglect of the public Liturgy, and other offices of the Church, that there was nothing less to be found among them than the government and forms of worship established in the Church of England! He was understood also as implying the validity of ordinations out of the English Church as truly as those performed by Diocesan Bishops. His words are:--"And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work, by men, who have public authority given them, in the Church, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard."

        ROBERT BLAIR, one of the most eminent of those who went to Ireland, from Scotland, refused to be ordained by the Diocesan Bishop alone, or by him in conjunction with Presbyters, in any other light than as a Presbyter. With that express understanding, as he asserts, he was ordained by the Bishop and other clergy.

        JOHN LIVINGSTON, another laborer of great eminence, objected to ordination by the Bishop of the established church, and, as the Bishop of Down, in which his parish was, had resolved, in obedience to the court of England, to require submission to the rules of the Established Church, he applied to Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, taking with him letters of introduction from Lord Claneboy, and others. He says Knox received him kindly, and said he knew his errand, and that he was aware he had scruples against Episcopacy, as Welch and others had, and then proceeded to say, "that if I scrupled to call him my Lord, he cared not much for it; all that he would desire of me was, that I should preach at Ramelton the

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first Sabbath, because they got there but few sermons, and that he would send for Mr. William Cunningham, and two or three other neighboring ministers to be present, who, after sermon, should give me imposition of hands; but, although they performed the work, he behoved to be present; and although he durst not answer it to the State, he gave me the book of ordination, and desired that anything I scrupled at, I should draw a line over it on the margin, and that Mr. Cunningham should not read it. But I found that it had been so marked by others before, that I need not mark anything." Thus it appears Presbyterian ordination was introduced before the revival, and was acted on during that great excitement out of which grew the Irish Presbyterian Church.

        But the rigor of James, towards the latter part of his life, and the severity of Charles I., and Archbishop Laud, in their endeavors to enforce conformity to the Established Church, had become more and more oppressive, till, after the failure of the attempt at emigration in the EAGLE WING, the Presbyterian clergy left the country in 1637, and retired to Scotland. The congregations to which they had ministered were left without instruction, except what they received from their more eminent laymen, who conducted public worship for the people that would come together; and many were inclined to do this, notwithstanding all the efforts of Lord Stafford, the Deputy in Ireland, to make them conform to the Established Church. By the petition sent by these Presbyterians to the Long Parliament, we learn that after all efforts for their destruction, they continued a numerous people. The revival had subsided, but religion had not died away; and although King Charles had forgotten the obligations of his father to them, they had not forgotten their obligation to the great head of the church, or lost their love for his truth.

        The introduction of the Scottish army into Ulster, to quell the rebellion that broke out October 13th, 1641, changed the face of affairs in these congregations, and was the means of forming a presbytery, and restoring pastors to these suffering flocks. The Papists had made insurrection and furious rebellion, with design of cutting off the Protestants, and restoring the ceremonies and worship of the Church of Rome. Their plans were laid for concerted action, and the energy with which they were carried out may be judged from the fact that in a few months, at the lowest calculation 40,000, and as some Catholic writers, and some Protestants also, assert, 150,000 persons were brought to an untimely end. These sufferers were Protestants; but a small part only were Presbyterians,

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for the nobles and clergy of that denomination had fled to Scotland some time before, to escape the persecutions and impositions of the Established Church. This rebellion was at first encouraged by King Charles, as an event that would operate favorably upon his interests; and both he and the Papists agreed in sparing the Scotch Presbyterians,--probably because they had not declared for the parliament against the king. The flight of the Scotch in 1637, and onwards, was pre-eminently their safety; they escaped from the unreasonable Prelates first, and then from the massacre of the Papists. God knows how to deliver his people. The company of emigrants in the Eagle Wing must not reach America, neither must it be cut off in this massacre; it had a great and glorious work to accomplish, and that work was to be done in Ireland, and the bright day of its accomplishment should break after a most tempestuous night.

        After many horrible massacres perpetrated during the winter of 1641-2, Major General Monro was sent over from Scotland in the spring, with a force of 2,500 men; with these, in conjunction with the Scotch and other Protestants in Ulster, after many battles and sieges, he succeeded in crushing the rebellion. The Lagan forces (or those from the northern part of Donegal) had signalized themselves before the arrival of the Scotch army, and continued their brave and enterprising efforts after that event, stimulating them by an honorable rivalry, to a speedy accomplishment of their mission, the suppression of the rebellion. The Scotch forces were from seven different regiments, each of which had its chaplain. The Rev. Hugh Cunningham was attached to Glencairn's regiment; Rev. Thomas Peebles, to Eglenton's; Rev. John Baird, to Argyle's; Rev. James Simpson, to Sinclair's; Rev. John Scott, to Home's; Rev. John Aird, to Lindsay's, or Monro's; and the Rev. John Livingston, who was so much beloved in Ireland, was sent along with the army by the Council. These ministers were active and fervent in their preaching to the army; and in the parishes near the encampment, where their labors were highly appreciated, "as cold waters to a thirsty soul," "and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." The country was entirely without a Protestant clergy; the Scotch had been driven off before the rebellion, and the Prelates and their clergy fled from the murderous hands of the Papists. After the rebellion was crushed, public attention was turned to procuring pastors and spiritual guides for the vacant parishes; and the inclination of the people was speedily manifested in the efforts to obtain ministers. Those who had been Presbyterians previously, remained

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so still; and many others were now inclined to unite with them, very few of the laity being attached to the Prelates or the Established Church. Those who had fled to Scotland during the rebellion returned, and all declared for Presbytery; and many that had been inclined to Episcopacy, were disgusted with the transactions in England, and united with the Presbyterians in settling their church in a formal manner as a distinct church. The plan of Archbishop Usher would probably have been acted out in Ireland, but for the intolerant disposition and principles of Laud and his master, King Charles. Whether under any circumstances it could prosper, can never be satisfactorily determined till a more complete trial be made than the few years of imperfect action during the revival in Ireland.

        The chaplains first formed regular churches in four of the regiments,--Argyle's, Eglenton's, Glencairn's and Home's--choosing the most grave and pious men for elders, and setting them apart to their office in due form, according to the Scotch Confession. On the 10th of June, 1642, five ministers, Messrs. Cunningham, Peebles, Baird, Scott and Aird, Messrs. Livingston and Simpson being necessarily absent, with an elder from each of the four sessions, met and constituted a Presbytery in the army. Mr. Baird preached from the latter part of the 51st Psalm--"Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem." Mr. Peebles was chosen stated clerk, and held the office till his death, a period of about thirty years. The ministers produced their acts of admission to their regiments, and the elders their commissions from the Sessions; and the Presbytery was constituted in due form. As the formation of the Presbytery was speedily known in the country, applications poured in from all sides to be received into their connexion, and to obtain the regular ordinances of the gospel; and the ministers proceeding to visit the congregations, in a short time there were sixteen regular sessions formed in important parishes.

        By the prudent and zealous efforts of these seven ministers the foundations of the Presbyterian church were relaid in Ulster province, in conformity with the model of the Church of Scotland. From this period the complete organization of the Presbyterian church in Ireland takes its date, and the history of her ministers, her congregations, and her ecclesiastical councils, can be traced in uninterrupted succession; the principles then adopted, and the form of worship then introduced, continue to this day; and the government and discipline then adopted continue in all essential

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points unaltered, and all are to be found in the Presbyterian church in the United States, to which they have descended as from parent to child.

        The people agreed to petition the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which was to meet in July, for supplies, and various papers were drawn up and signed by the inhabitants of different parishes, requesting that those ministers who had formerly labored among them might be sent back to them, and others along with them, to fill the numerous vacancies in that spiritually desolate province. The Assembly listened kindly to these petitions, and appointed a commission of six ministers to visit Ireland and instruct and regulate congregations, and ordain to the ministry such as might be found properly qualified. The ministers were to go two and two on a tour of four months. Mr. Robert Blair and James Hamilton for the first four months, Robert Ramsay and John McClellan for the next four, and Robert Baillie and John Livingston for the last four. These brethren were everywhere received with joy; congregations were organized on Presbyterian principles, members received into the church, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper administered. Their preachings were incessant, and the congregations large; people renounced prelacy, and those who had taken the Black oath, as it was termed, by which they solemnly engaged not to resist the king, were called to public renunciation and repentance. No person was admitted to the privileges of the church who did not possess a competent degree of knowledge, or who did not fully approve of her constitution and discipline, or was unable to state the grounds of that approbation. The congregations took possession of the parish churches that were standing vacant, and likely to remain so, and many who had been episcopally ordained, came and joined the Presbytery, but were not recognized as members until they had been regularly called and inducted to the charge of some congregation. Thus those ministers who had first been led to go to Ireland because they could not exercise their ministry in Scotland, and after being successful in Ireland were driven back to Scotland, now came again to Ireland, having been driven back from America by a tempest, and set up the Presbyterian church which has flourished so gloriously, and been the parent church of so many in America, particularly in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina.

        During the year 1643, the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT was adopted by the Westminster Assembly and the British Parliament

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on the one side, and the Scottish nation on the other. This League and Covenant was presented to the Presbyterians in Ulster, and during the year 1644 was adopted by great numbers in Down, Derry, Antrim, Donegal, and parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh. The English parliament on the 16th of October, 1643, requested the Scotch commissioners to take steps that the Covenant "be taken by all the officers, soldiers, and Protestants of their nation in Ireland." After some correspondence and various plans, this important business was committed to those ministers who had been appointed by the assembly to visit Ireland, the Rev. Messrs. James Hamilton, John Weir, William Adair, and Hugh Henderson. The civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Edinburgh made choice of the first of these, Mr. Hamilton, minister of Dumfries, to be the bearer of the Covenant; the others were associated for the work of presenting it to the churches. In sending word to the forces in Ireland of their appointment, these ministers say, "As our cause is one, and has common friends and enemies, so we must resolve, with God's assistance, to stand or fall together." They reached Carrickfergus the last of March, and were all present at the Presbytery held there on the 1st of April, 1644. "The Covenant was taken on the 4th of that month, with great solemnity, in the church at Carrickfergus, by Monro and his officers, and in ten days afterwards, by all his soldiers. Major Dalzel (afterwards so well known in the distresses in Scotland) was the only person who refused." It produced the same effects in Ulster it had in other parts of the kingdom, ascertaining and uniting the friends of liberty, and inspiring them with fresh confidence in the arduous struggle in which they were engaged, and diffused through the country a strong attachment to the Presbyterian cause; and what is of higher moment, it revived the cause of true religion, so that from this period is reckoned the second Reformation.

        Notwithstanding the difficulties and trials to which the Presbyterians in Ireland were exposed, on one side by the authorities of King Charles, and on the other by the parliament, which ultimately brought the king to the block, the church continued to prosper. In the year 1647, there were about thirty ordained Presbyterian ministers in Ulster, besides some chaplains of regiments, on account of some severe laws which drove many to Scotland, there were, in the year 1653, but about twenty-four; and again in the year 1657, by the relaxation of the laws, there were about eighty in the different counties of the province of Ulster.

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        In the year 1655, it was agreed there should be what is called MEETINGS, in Down, Antrim, and Route with Lagan, consisting of the contiguous brethren who met for consultation, putting over the more important matters that required action, to the regular meeting of the whole Presbytery. Two years after, these meetings were increased to five, Route being separated from Lagan, and Tyrone being added; and in a little time there became five Presbyteries, by dividing the original Presbytery; which number continued till 1702, when four more were added, making the whole number nine. At this present time there are twenty-four in the Synod of Ulster. From the close connection between Synod and Presbytery in Ireland, it probably happened that the first Presbyterian Synod in the United States, made by the division of a large Presbytery, frequently performed acts which are now, by common consent, performed only by the Presbytery or at their order. At the time of the Restoration, in 1660, there were in the province of Ulster not less than seventy regularly settled Presbyterian ministers;--about eighty congregations, comprising not less than one hundred thousand souls. If the statement of one of their enemies be true, the population connected with the Presbyterian ministers must have much exceeded that number; he says--"in the north (of Ireland) the Scotch keep up an interest distinct in garb and all formalities, and are able to raise 40,000 fighting men at any time." This number of fighting men would require a greater population than 100,000. That they would raise an army and fight for their lives, their enemies knew from fatal experience.

        From six ministers, in about forty years of constant resistance to oppression, under the two Charleses, and of their predecessor, James I., the congregations had increased to about eighty; and the preachers to nearly the same number, though repeatedly driven off and kept in banishment for years, on every return increasing in numbers and influence. This perseverance of a harassed people impresses the mind with the strong conviction, that they felt in their consciences, that their principles of civil and religious liberty were the truth of God, and imperishable. In 1689, the time the Toleration Act came in force, there were in the five Presbyteries about one hundred congregations, eighty ministers and eleven licentiates. The vine of the Lord's planting grew, though "the boar out of the wood did pluck at her," and they that passed by did trample her down.

        The Presbytery of Lagan, embracing the northern part of the county of Donegal, principally that between the Foyle and the Swilly,

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and containing in the year 1660 thirteen members, all of whom were ejected by Charles II. 1661, is peculiarly full of interest to the American Church, as that body which licensed the Rev. FRANCIS MAKEMIE, and afterwards ordained him, for the purpose of sending him to America, the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN PREACHER that ever visited the western continent. This honor belongs undisputedly to the Church in Ireland, and the Presbytery of Lagan, Those in New England who have been called Presbyterians were not formed into regular Presbyteries as in Scotland and Ireland; but had lay elders and held Presbyterian sentiments. The first preachers and the first regular congregations were from Ireland, which poured forth emigrants in swarms all the early part of the eighteenth century. It may be gratifying to many to know the names of those thirteen ejected ministers of the Lagan, worthy of everlasting remembrance. King Charles began the work of ejectment in Ireland under Jeremy Taylor in 1661, giving the front rank in this ecclesiastical martyrdom to the Presbyterians of Ulster. The Puritans of England were called to the same trial in August, 1662, when about 2,000 ministers were deprived of their parishes; and the same scene of trial and heroic suffering was enacted the following October in Scotland. The ministers of the Presbytery of Lagan were, Robert Wilson, Robert Craighead, Adam White, William Moorcraft, John Wool, William Sample, John Hart, John Adamson, John Crookshanks, Thomas Drummond, Hugh Cunningham, Hugh Peebles, and William Jack. The first three survived the happy revolution of 1688, when William, Prince of Orange, ascended the throne of England; and enjoyed the toleration proclaimed in 1689.

        The Rev. Thomas Drummond, of Ramelton in Donegal, introduced Mr. Makemie to the Presbytery as a member of his charge, and worthy of their notice. In the year 1681,--the same year that four of the members of the Presbytery were put in confinement, for keeping a fast, after having been fined £20 each, to be kept in confinement till they should give bonds not to offend again, and after eight months' confinement were released,--he was licensed to preach the gospel. These four ministers were William Trail, James Alexander, Robert Campbell, and John Hart; three of them were members introduced after the ejectment by Jeremy Taylor in 1661. The Church in Ireland was like the Israelites in bondage,--the more it was oppressed, the more it grew. From the minutes of this Presbytery it appears that Capt. Archibald Johnson had, as early as August, 1678, applied for a minister for Barbadoes;

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and in 1680 Col. Stevens of Maryland applied for a minister to settle in that colony; and Mr. Makemie was designated as the man. As the clerk of the Presbytery and three others were imprisoned in 1681, there is a deficiency in the minutes, and the meetings of Presbytery being for some time irregular, no record is preserved of the time or place of his ordination, though in all probability it took place in 1681 or 1682. This fixes the time of his removal to America, whether to Barbadoes first, or to Virginia and Maryland, for he labored in all these places, as is now satisfactorily ascertained. He led the way for Presbyterian ministers to America, and was prominent in forming the first Presbytery, that of Philadelphia, in 1706, a Presbytery which has since spread out into the General Assembly of the United States of America.

        No little anxiety has been felt and expressed about the original component parts of this first Presbytery, and what interpretation of the Confession of Faith they may have given. The discussion has been animated, and from the circumstantial evidence collected, the inference general that they did put a strict construction on the Articles of our Faith. The facts just related about Francis Makemie and the Presbytery that ordained him, are sufficient to justify our belief that the man that took the Solemn League and Covenant, as the candidates of the Presbyteries in Ireland then did, put a strict construction on the Articles of the Confession; and the following facts, that the year before the Presbytery was formed, he brought over, from a visit to his native land, two ministers from the province of Ulster, John Hampton and George M'Nish, who formed part of the first Presbytery,--men educated as he had been, in trouble, and made to choose Presbytery in the face of great opposition and suffering,--will set the matter at rest. Three other ministers soon followed. It is not likely that such a man as Makemie, with two others of like spirit, would have agreed to form a doubtful Presbytery, to please Mr. Andrews and the Church in Philadelphia provided they wished such a Presbytery, of which there is no evidence; as there were ministers enough to form a decided and strict one, without going to Philadelphia, the church of which city was weaker than the church at Snow Hill in Maryland.

        The solemn League and Covenant first framed by John Craig, and called Craig's Confession, or the first National Covenant of Scotland, and subscribed by the leaders of the people, December 3d, 1557; and subscribed by King James and household, and the nation generally in 1581: enlarged and signed again in 1588: and

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again in 1638 enlarged, and made to consist of three parts--the first, the old Covenant by Craig,--the second, condemning Popery, by Johnston of Warriston,--third, the application of the whole to the present time, by Alexander Henderson; and signed by the people at large in 1638: and again remodelled by Henderson and adopted in August, 1643: and also by the Westminster Divines and the Parliament of England, September 25th of the same year; and in the spring of 1644 by the Churches of Ireland; and continuing to this day a binding instrument in Scotland, and making a part of their printed Confession and Discipline, and also acknowledged as binding to this day by a large number of the descendants of the Scotch and Irish emigrants to America,--leaves no rational doubt what views of the Confession of Faith those that lived so near the times of the grand national subscription of 1643 and 1644 must have had. In matters of conscience they had been accustomed to resist the king; they bound themselves by this solemn oath to do it; and this solemn League was inseparably connected with their doctrinal creed and form of church government, which were strictly Presbyterian.

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CHAPTER IX.
THE POLITICAL SENTIMENTS OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH EMIGRANTS.

        THE religious sentiments of the emigrants having been given, as Calvinistic and Presbyterian, for the holding of which they had suffered, and were ready to suffer again, we will glance at their political principles, which had no small influence in their emigration and location, and after life,--forming one of the three grand motives to cross the waters,--Religion, Politics, and Property.

        I. In the truest sense of the word they were loyal. They, and their ancestors, were well convinced of the importance of a regular and firm government; and were true to their promises and their allegiance. James I. chose the Scotch for the colonizing Ireland, for two reasons: first, from their habits they were more likely to overcome the difficulties of a settlement; and second, from their principles of allegiance, most likely to make Ireland what he wished it--pacific and prosperous. In the first he was not disappointed; and his hopes of the second were crossed only as he and his successors failed to extend to the emigrants that protection he had promised, and was well able to give. They always maintained the conceded authority of the king, as supreme ruler according to the Solemn League and Covenant, by which they held themselves bound from the time it was taken in 1644, till they left Ireland about a century afterward; and some of their posterity in America profess to feel its binding power in some respects to this day. They opposed those violent measures, in parliament and out, which led to, or hastened, the king's death. They desired a reform of abuses, and a fulfilment of the Solemn League, on the part of the king, and designed a fulfilment of their own promises, and had not been found deficient in any emergency. They expected the king to be honest while they were loyal.

        Their views of the parliamentary authority, after the king's death, are well expressed by one of their ministers, on examination before the military authority of the Parliament, at Carrickfergus, in 1650. Being required to take the Oath, or Engagement of submission to Parliament, which was to be in place of the Solemn

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League of obedience to the king; the parliament having, by enactment, made it high treason to acknowledge a government by King, Lords, and Commons:--"We must be convinced," said this minister in the name of the rest, "that the power which now rules England is the lawful parliamentary authority of that kingdom." Col. Venable replied: "They call themselves so!" The minister replied: "It seems to us a strange assertion that they are a parliament because they say so; or are a power because they place power in themselves. Kings and other magistrates are called by the ordinance of man, because they are put in their office by men. Men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people, whom they govern; and for men to assume unto themselves power, is mere tyranny and unjust usurpation."

        They would rather be governed by a lawful king than an usurping or doubtful parliament; by one they chose, even though he might be a tyrant in disposition, than by a company they had not elected, though they might do some things well. They fully believed that the liberties of the subject might consist with the regal authority; that the privileges they asked were no infringement of the necessary rights of the crown, and that their enjoyment would render the government more stable, entrenching it in the hearts of the people, in whose affections all governments rest at last.

        II. They claimed, and persisted in claiming, the privilege of choosing their own ministers, or religious instructors, as an inherent right that could not be given up, and any civil or religious liberty be preserved. Here was the ground of all the difficulty of the Presbyterians in Ireland; they would choose their own ministers,--and with the choice of ministers was of course connected the forms of religious worship, and the articles of their religious creed; a difficulty that was removed only by first emigrating to America, and then toiling through the Revolution. They desired in Ireland what the Scotch are now asking in Scotland, the liberty of choosing their own ministry. The Irish conceded what the Scotch concede now, that the king might prescribe the way the minister should be supported; they were willing to be taxed in large or small parishes, but insisted on the liberty of choosing their own teachers, and deciding on the forms with which they would worship God. They yielded to the civil authority all honor and service and money, and demanded protection for their persons in the enjoyment of their property and religion. Their folly, if folly it might be called, in their circumstances, was, to expect that freedom in religion, under a monarchy, which never had been

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found; and which never has existed under any government except in these United States. These people had advanced far in the know-ledge of human rights; were in the high road to republicanism, without, perhaps, being aware of the lengths they had already advanced; that, judging from their answer to the parliamentary committee--that men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people--they were already republicans. Perhaps they did not fully understand liberty of conscience; or if they did, as there is some reason to believe, they had not room or opportunity for its exercise; hemmed in to choose one form of religion as the paramount one, they of course chose their own for the religion of the whole. How they would have acted had the power of the State been at their command, it is in vain perhaps to conjecture.

        They also demanded that their ministers should be ordained by Presbyteries, and not by prelatic bishops; the apparent yielding of some things under the influence of Archbishop Usher, soon being turned to uncompromising sternness, by the exercise of arbitrary power to compel them to conform. The principle of the house of Stuart was, "no Prelate, no King;" that of the Presbyterian Irish was, "the king without Prelates; all sufferings at home rather than Prelates; exile rather than Prelates."

        III. Strict discipline in morals, and full instruction of youth and children. These were connected with the Presbyterian body in Scotland; were transplanted to Ireland, there cherished, and were the foundation principles on which their society was built; were taken to America by the emigrants, and have been characteristic of the Scotch-Irish settlements throughout the land. Children were early taught to read, and exercised in reading the Bible every day; and became familiar with the word of God in the family, in the school and in the house devoted to the worship of the Almighty God. Their moral principles were derived from the words of him who lives and abides for ever; and the commands of God, and the awful retributions of eternity, gave force to these principles, which became a living power, and a controlling influence. The time has but just passed, when the schoolmaster from Ireland taught the children of the Valley of Virginia, and the upper part of the Carolinas, as they taught in the mother country,--when the children and youth at school recited the Assembly's shorter Catechism once a week, and read parts of the Bible every day. The circle of their instruction was circumscribed; but the children were taught to speak the truth, and defend it,--to keep a

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conscience and fear God,--the foundation of good citizens, and truly great men.

        Wherever they settled in America, besides the common schools, they turned their attention to high schools or academies, and to colleges, to educate men for all the departments of life, carrying in their emigration, the deep conviction, that without sound and extensive education, there could be no permanence in religious or civil institutions, or any pure and undebased enjoyments of domestic life. The religious creed of the emigrants made part of their politics, so far as to decide that no law of human government ought to be tolerated in opposition to the expressed will of God. It was on this ground, their fathers in Ireland resisted the arbitrary exactions of the Charleses and the Jameses, whom they considered lawful rulers, whom they had recognized in the solemn League, and whom they were bound, and willing to obey in all things that did not involve violation of conscience by sinning against God.

        Whether they were aware how far their principles actually led them, before they came to America, is doubtful; they had acknowledged that the authority of human government was from the same divine hand that made the world, fashioning the fabric of human society to require the exercise of good and wholesome laws for the promotion of the greatest good;--and had also claimed the right of choosing those who should frame and execute these laws;--contending that rulers, as well as the meanest subject, were bound by law. These principles, modified by experience, and digested into extended form, are the republican principles of the Scotch-Irish in America. On matters of national policy, and the smaller concerns of political organizations, they have differed in opinion and differ still, and will probably differ for ever, from the nature of the human mind in the independent exercise of thought. But on the great principles of freedom of conscience in matters of religion--on the supremacy of the laws--on the choice of rulers by the expressed will of a free people--and the undisturbed enjoyment of life, limb and property, in submission to constituted government--there never has been, and probably never will be, any division of sentiment or feeling. In the blood shed on the Alamance, and in the declaration of independence in Mecklenburg, a casual observer must see, it was opposition to tyranny, and not the execution of the laws of a just government, that urged the people on. A people educated as they had been for generations, and placed in circumstances

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calculated to provoke independence of action, could not have acted differently, and retain their identity of character.

        The siege of Derry was undertaken and sustained with its innumerable and unmeasured sufferings, in opposition to a king they had repudiated, and a hierarchy they abhorred; and to defend the government from which they hoped for freedom and quietness, and the exercise of their religious principles and forms without tyrannical interference. It is not probable that these men,--and some of the men of Derry emigrated to America, and laid their bones south of the Potomac,--or their immediate descendants, who lived in the days of the American Revolution (and there were many such), would hold back their hearts and hands, and belie the great principles that had done so much for Protestant England, and ultimately so much for America. Tyrannical government of colonies of such people must produce a revolution; and had Governor Martin studied the character and circumstances of the people he marched to subdue, with any feelings of justice and humanity, he would first have redressed their grievances, and then bound to his government a willing, grateful people, and at least for a time stayed the progress of revolution in North Carolina, and by the wholesome example, delayed, if not prevented it, throughout the United Provinces.

        The Presbyterians in Carolina have ever been a law-loving, law-abiding people; differing sometimes about the extent of powers to be granted to magistrates, all unite in reverence for the laws enacted by the regular authorities under the adopted Constitution. They have always felt it was better to endure some evils than encounter the horrors of a revolutionary war; but they have always felt it better to endure all the protracted miseries of a revolutionary struggle than fail to enjoy liberty of person, property, and conscience. Their ideas of religious liberty have given a coloring to their political notions on all subjects; perhaps it is more just to say, have been the foundation of their political creed. The Bible has been their text-book on all subjects of importance; and the principles of the Bible carried out will produce a course of action like the emigration of the Scotch-Irish to America,--and their resistance to tyranny, in the blood shed on the Alamance, and their Declaration of Independence at Charlotte.

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CHAPTER X.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE SCOTCH ON THE RIVER CAPE FEAR; AND THE REVEREND JAMES CAMPBELL.

        THE time of the settlement of the first Scotch families upon the river Cape Fear, is not known with exactness. There were some at the time of the separation of the province into North and South Carolina, in the year 1729. In consequence of disabilities in their native land, the enterprising Scotch followed the example of their relations in Ireland, and sought refuge and abundance in America; and some time previous to the emigration from the province of Ulster to the Yadkin, numerous families occupied the extended plains along the Cape Fear, in that part of Bladen county, now Cumberland. From records in possession of the descendants of Alexander Clark, it appears that he came over and took his residence on the river in the year 1736, and that a "ship load" of emigrants came over with him. It also appears that he found "a good many" Scotch settled in Cumberland at the time of his arrival, amongst whom was Hector McNeill, called Bluff Hector, from his residence near the bluffs above Cross Creeks, or Fayetteville, and John Smith, with his two children, Malcolm and Janet, his wife, Margaret Gilchrist, having died on the passage up the river.

        Alexander Clark came from Jura, one of the Hebrides. His ancestors, particularly his grandfather, had suffered much in the wars that had desolated Scotland, and fell heaviest on the Presbyterians. Being constrained to flee for his life, his grandfather took two of his sons and went to Ireland, and saw many trials and sufferings, which were brought to a close by the battle of the Boyne, that decided the fate of the British dominions. Returning to Scotland after the peace, he sought his family; leaving the vessel, he ascended a hill that overlooked his residence, and gazed in sadness over the desolation that met his eye; to use his own words, "but three smokes in all Jura could be seen." Not a member of his family could be found to tell the fate of the rest. They had all perished in the persecutions. He returned to Ireland to find his cup of bitterness, overflowing as it was, made still more bitter

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by the death of one of his two sons. After some time he returned, and spent the remainder of his days in Jura, having for his second wife one whose sufferings had been equal to his own. Her infant had been taken from her arms, its head severed from its body in her presence, and used by a ruffian, twisting his hand in its hair, to beat the mother on the breast till she was left for dead. Gilbert, the only surviving child of his first wife, returned with his father to Jura, and there lived and reared a family. One of his (Gilbert's) sons, Alexander, married Flora McLean, and reared four sons and four daughters, and when his eldest son Gilbert was sixteen years of age, removed to America, and settled in Cumberland county, on the Cape Fear. Some of the descendants of Keneth Clark, half brother of Gilbert, came to America. From this stock arose numerous families in the south and west.

        When Alexander Clark emigrated to America, he paid the passage of many poor emigrants, and gave them employment till the price was repaid. Many companies of Scotchmen came to America in a similar way, some person of property paying their passage, and giving them employ upon their lands until they were able to set up for themselves.

        Could the history of families be traced out with certainty, there is little doubt that vague traditions of sufferings and trials from the hands of the Catholics, would prove to have been derived from as sad realities as are found in the family of the Clarks. Almost without exception these Scotchmen were Presbyterians, who held the Confession of Faith, the Solemn League and Covenant, and the Form of Government and Discipline now in use in Scotland. And for their creed they were willing to suffer; for, as little as liberty of conscience was understood at that time, the Scotch had found that yielding their religious creed to authority was giving up themselves to hopeless tyranny; and through many political mistakes they held the palladium, their Confession of Faith and Form of Government, with an unwavering spirit.

        More than sixty years had passed from the decisive battle of the Boyne, July 1st, 1690, in which the forces of James II. were entirely routed by William III., Prince of Orange, and the royal fugitive James took refuge in Paris, abandoning his throne to his rival, when his grandson CHARLES EDWARD began to make preparations for a descent upon England. From his very cradle he was inspired with an unquenchable desire to regain the throne of his ancestors; of this he talked by day and dreamed by night, and in his delusive plan was encouraged by the thoughtless and

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the imaginative, till he came to believe that the principal men in the kingdom were discontented with the reigning house of Hanover, and desirous of seeing a male descendant of the house of Stuart on the throne. After much solicitation he obtained some encouragement from the King of France, but no public acknowledgment either of the present enterprise or the validity of his claim. On the 16th of July, a day remarked by some as fatal to his family, in 1745, he landed on the coast of Lochaber, in Scotland, with some money, a few stands of arms, and scarce an attendant, relying on the national feelings of the Scotch, whom he expected to rally around his standard. Of the rising in his favor, or rebellion against the constituted authorities of the kingdom, which followed, an account may be found in any extended history of England or of Europe, sufficient to satisfy a general reader. The Pretender to the crown of England, Prince Charles Edward, soon discovered that while the Scotch loved his family from their hearts, as their own royal house, the Lowlanders had become so attached to the reigning house, or satisfied with their government, that no solicitations could engage them in a hasty rebellion against George II.; and that among the Highlanders, the most powerful chiefs were either so connected with the government as to be altogether averse to any attempt to shake its peace and security, or were so convinced of its stability as to consider any efforts to regain the crown to their own royal house but a feeble rebellion. The head of the Makenzies, and also the head of the McLeods, were members of parliament; the head of the McDonalds, the strongest and most numerous of the clans that had favored the father and grandfather of Prince Charles Edward, was entirely opposed to a rising, or insurrection, or rebellion, having no hope of final success. In their view neither time nor circumstance was propitious; nor were they prepared to say that any government they might hope for, under the house of Stuart, would be more favorable to Scotland and the united kingdom than the dominion of the reigning family.

        Lord Lovat declared for him, and with him were united some of the feebler noblemen; some of the smaller clans in the Highlands unanimously raised the standard for the Pretender; and many of the young men of the clans of the McDonalds, the McLeods, the Makenzies, and others whose leaders would not favor the enterprise, gave way to the impulse of national enthusiasm and chivalric enterprise, and joined his ranks. For a time it is well known that he was successful, and on his march towards

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the capital of the kingdom, spread terror through the country, and struck alarm in the cabinet of King George. Whether his success had reached its boundary and necessarily subsided into misfortune and calamity, or whether his delays and revelries wasted the golden hours of enterprise, and suffered the rising enthusiasm of the nation, warmed for a young prince claiming his ancestors' throne, to grow cool, his tide of success soon changed, and he retired, whether wisely or unwisely, first to the borders of Scotland, and then to the northern part, and took possession of Inverness. The disposition to declare for their royal house was spreading in Scotland, and could he have maintained his post in England, or have delayed a battle for a time, the mass of the nation would have taken arms in his cause. On the 16th of April, 1746, he fought, a few miles north of Inverness, against the Duke of Cumberland, the disastrous battle of Culloden; and with his defeat his hopes of empire vanished. Dismissing his followers, whose hopes and courage were better than his own, he wandered a fugitive among the mountains and crags, and, never again rallying his forces, sought his safety in secresy and flight.

        His followers were taken captive in great numbers; three noblemen, after summary trial, perished on the scaffold; one of them, Lord Lovat, in his eightieth year, exclaiming with his latest breath, "Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori." The English army ravaged with fire and sword all that part of Scotland that had favored the prince. The men were hunted down like wild beasts, and shot on the smallest resistance; the huts were burned over the heads of the women and children, and the cattle and provisions were carried away or destroyed. The very appearance of rebellion, and in many places even of population itself, was extinguished in the Highlands before the Duke of Cumberland returned to London. Yet in all this misery of the people, and the keen scrutiny of the soldiers, the prince finally escaped. In his wanderings he experienced all the variety of dangers and hair-breadth escapes that can be imagined from the efforts of a chivalrous young man whose greatest errors and misfortunes had sprung from the success of his gallantry among the ladies of his court and country,--and a people rough and untutored, but loyal to a proverb, and though poor, too staunch to be bribed by the offer of £30,000 to deliver up the fugitive whose hiding-places were known to many and could easily be guessed at by multitudes. During the five months of his wanderings, no less than fifty individuals were in possession of his person, many of whom had been opposed to the rising in his favor,

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from the conviction of its uselessness, and had suffered themselves to be drawn into the rebellion by the enthusiasm of their nation for their own royal house.

        Many pleasing instances of heroic devotion to the prince in his misfortunes are related to the everlasting honor of the Highlands. Immediately after the battle of Culloden, he took refuge in Ross-shire; and to save him from the hot pursuit of the soldiers, his adherents and friends not only fought, but suffered themselves to be slain that he might escape. One gentleman, always known as opposed to the rebellion, being apprehended for aiding him in his necessity, pleaded before his judges--"I only gave him what nature seemed to require, a night's lodging and an humble repast. And who among my judges, though poor as I am, would have sought to acquire riches by violating the rights of hospitality in order to earn the price of blood?" This generous plea gained him his dismission with applause. Another by the name of Kennedy, who often exposed his life for his prince, and though poor, despised the large reward offered for betraying the royal fugitive, was some time after seized at Inverness and executed on the charge of stealing a cow. At the place of his execution he pulled off his bonnet, and looking round upon the assembly, exclaimed, "I give most hearty thanks to Almighty God that I never proved false to an engagement of any kind; that I never injured a poor man; and never refused to share whatever I had with the stranger and those in want."

        On the return of the army under the Duke of Cumberland, a large number of prisoners were taken along, and after a hasty trial by a military court, publicly executed. Seventeen suffered death at Kennington Common, near London; thirty-two were put to death in Cumberland; and twenty-two in Yorkshire. This was probably done by way of vengeance and alarm. But kinder thoughts prevailed with his Majesty George II.; and a large number were pardoned, on condition of their emigrating to the plantations, after having taken the solemn oath of allegiance. This is the origin of the large settlements of Highlanders on Cape Fear River. For a large number who had taken arms for the Pretender, preferred exile to death, or subjugation in their native land; and during the years 1746 and 1747, with their families and the families of many of their friends, removed to North Carolina and settled along the Cape Fear River, occupying a large space of country of which Crosscreek, afterwards Campbelton, now Fayetteville, was the centre. Probably the report from those who had settled along

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this river, of the mild winters, the open forests, the abundant cane-brakes and wild grass, turned the attention of these emigrants to this part of America, where lands were abundant and cheap. Perhaps, too, the royal authority was exerted in fixing a location for the pardoned exiles, that Carolina might have a hardy race of industrious people to occupy her waste lands, increase her population and her revenue to the royal coffers. This wilderness become a refuge to the harassed Highlanders; and shipload after shipload landed at Wilmington in 1746 and 1747. The emigration once fairly begun by royal authority and clemency, was carried on by those who wished to improve their condition, and become owners of the soil upon which they lived and labored; and in the course of a few years large companies of industrious Highlanders joined their countrymen in Bladen county, North Carolina. Their descendants are found in the counties of Cumberland, Bladen, Sampson, Moore, Robeson, Richmond and Anson, all of which were included in Bladen at the time of the first emigration; and are a moral, religious people, noted for their industry and economy, perseverance and prosperity; forming a most interesting and important part of the State. Their present descendants are to be found everywhere in the South and West.

        The religious principles of these emigrants have been better known and more generally understood, and better expressed, by writers of American history, whether sectional or general, than those of the people who took possession of the upper country, and acted so nobly in the Revolution; and better, perhaps, than those of any other section of the State in its earlier years. The religion of the Scotch Church is known to the world; it is the religion of the nation. The religion of Ireland is part Protestant and part Papist; the predominant being of the Church of Rome, and the Protestant being divided between the Presbyterian and the Church of England. To say a company of emigrants are from Ireland does not decide either the political or religious creed; to say they are from Scotland, in general, decides both. In the former case we inquire for their birth-place and their creed; in the latter, we take it for granted we know what their creed is, unless we are warned to the contrary.

        From the time of the introduction of the Christian religion into Scotland the bias of the national mind has been to the creed and forms of Presbytery. The Culdees were to all intents and purposes Presbyterians; they held strenuously to the parity of the clergy; had but one ordination; and governed the Church by a

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Council of Presbyters. Popery for a time did obtain the ascendency in Scotland, all the time struggling against the spirit of the nation that demanded independence in religion. But from the time of John Knox, there has been no doubt respecting the religious forms or the creed desired by the great body of the people. The National Covenant adopted and signed publicly in 1638, and repeated afterwards, and the Confession of Faith, which has been used now more than two hundred years by the Presbyterians in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and about a century and a half in America, leave no doubt what their views of church government, church order, and belief, were. The fact that many of them had borne arms for the Pretender, a Papist sent over by the instigation of the Pope and his adherents, for the purpose of introducing Popery once more into England, is easily and very truly accounted for on other feelings and principles than any sympathy in religious belief, of which it is known there was none.

        No minister of religion accompanied the first emigrants in 1746 and 1747; nor is it known that any came with any succeeding company till the year 1770, when the Rev. John McLeod came direct from Scotland and ministered to them for some time, though he was not the first preacher. This fact, that no minister of religion came with these people, many of whom were pious, and all of whom were accustomed to attend on public worship, cannot easily be accounted for; and it had an unhappy effect upon the emigrants and upon their children. Without public ministrations of the ordinances of the gospel a sense of religion will soon begin to pass away from the public mind; and the fire will be kept burning only on here and there a private altar. The wonder is that in the circumstances of these colonists the sense of religion was so well maintained under the ministrations and labors of one solitary preacher, James Campbell, who pursued his laborious course alone among the outspreading neighborhoods in what is now Cumberland and Robeson, from 1757 to 1770.

        This worthy evangelist, the Rev. James Campbell, was born in Campbelton, on the peninsula of Kintyre, in Argyleshire, Scotland. Of his early history little is known; and too little has been preserved of his pioneer labors in later life. About the year 1730 he emigrated to America, a licensed preacher in the Presbyterian Church, and landed at Philadelphia. He soon became connected with a congregation of Scotch emigrants somewhere in Pennsylvania, and labored in the ministry with them for a time. His mind became clouded, and his heart full of fears, on the subject of his

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call to the ministry, and even of his own personal piety; and he ceased to perform the duties of a minister, believing that it was wrong for him to preach. In this state of mind he heard the famous Whitefield preach, as he was traversing the country, and sought an interview with him. This eminent servant of God heard him state his case, removed most of his difficulties, and encouraged him to resume his ministry. He labored for a time in Lancaster county, on the Coneweheog, where the Rev. Hugh McAden visited him, as is recorded in his journal. His attention being turned to his countrymen on the Cape Fear, Mr. Campbell emigrated to North Carolina in the year 1757, and took his residence on the left bank of the Cape Fear, a few miles above Fayetteville, nearly opposite to the Bluff church.

        For a long time he held his Presbyterial connection with a Presbytery in South Carolina, which was never united with the Synod of Philadelphia. About the year 1773 his connection with Orange Presbytery was formed, and in that connection he continued till his death in the year 1781. Mr. Campbell left behind him no papers or memoranda from which anything can be gleaned respecting his religious exercises, or ministerial labors; but he has left traditions which sprung from the experience of the people of his charge, that he was a zealous laborious man, who never wearied in his work, from the time he came to Carolina, but spent his days in affectionate and unremitting efforts to bring men home to God through Christ. His labors had no bounds but his strength. It is probable that, for a time, he supplied the Scotch population at the rate of a Sabbath once in three or four to a neighborhood, the people going in many instances a long distance to attend the ministrations of the sanctuary, and glad to hear, even at distant intervals, the gospel of Christ.

        It would be greatly gratifying to the church and the public generally could some pages of history, formed from the accredited doings of this laborious minister, be presented to the world. But for want of documents less place is given than his memory deserves. God has been pleased to leave much of his doings covered up from posterity, to be revealed when the veil is taken off from all things.

        His preaching places appear to have been three, for regular congregations, on the Sabbath, besides occasional and irregular preaching, as the necessities of the country required. For ten or twelve years he preached on the southwest side of the river below the Bluff, in a meeting-house near Roger McNeill's, and called

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"Roger's meeting-house." Here Hector McNeill (commonly called Bluff Hector) and Alexander McAlister, acted as Elders. After the death of Mr. Campbell, and about the year 1787, the "Bluff Church" was built, and Duncan McNeill (of the Bluff, Hector being dead) and Alexander McAlister, and perhaps others, officiated as Elders.

        Soon after his removal to Carolina, Mr. Campbell commenced preaching at Alexander Clark's, and continued his appointments for a number of years. About the year 1746, John Dobbin, who had married the widow of David Alexander in Pennsylvania, and had resided in Virginia, near Winchester, about a year, removed to Carolina; and, while the Alexander families that came with him took their abode on the Hico or the Yadkin, he fixed his residence on the Cape Fear, somewhat against the inclinations of his wife and step-daughter. The situations on the river being esteemed less healthy than those more remote, Mr. Dobbin and others took their abode on Barbacue; and about the year 1758 Mr. Campbell began to preach at his house, and continued so to do till the "Barbacue Church" was built, about the year 1765 or 1766. The first Elders of this church were--Gilbert Clark, eldest son of Alexander Clark, and step-son of John Dobbin (having married Ann Alexander), one of the first magistrates of Cumberland county, under the Colonial Government,--Duncan Buie, who early in the Revolutionary war removed to the Cape Fear River, nearly opposite the Bluff Church,--Archibald Buie of Green Swamp,--and Daniel Cameron of the Hill. These men were pious, and devoted to the cause of religion and their duties as Elders; and for their strict attention to their duties got the name of "the little ministers of Barbacue." The congregation, like the others under the care of Mr. Campbell, were trained in the old Scotch fashion of reading the Bible, attending church when practicable, and repeating the Catechism; and were accustomed to follow the minister in his proof texts. It was of this congregation the Rev. John McLeod said, "he would rather preach to the most polished and fashionable congregation in Edinburgh than to the little critical carls of Barbacue." Not that they were so particularly captious about his manner and delivery, for he was esteemed an eloquent man, but they were so well-informed on the doctrines and usages of the church, that it required great particularity in his sermons to avoid their criticism. The kind of sermons demanded by that people might now seem novel or antiquated, but would be found full of instruction; and even their length would be no objection in

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congregations that can hear the gospel but once in a month or six weeks.

        Barbacue church was the place of worship of Flora McDonald, while she lived at Cameron's Hill, and though the congregation is less extended and flourishing than in former years, it is still in existence. May it revive and flourish!

        Mr. Campbell also began to preach soon after his coming to Carolina, at McKay's, now known as Long Street, one of the places visited by Mr. McAden in his first journey through Carolina. A church was built about the year 1765 or '66, the time at which Barbacue was built. The first elders were Malcom Smith, Archibald McKay, and Archibald Ray. This congregation is still in existence, and though much curtailed in extent and numbers, flourishes.

        These three congregations were the principal places of Mr. Campbell's preaching, and for a time accommodated the greater part of the Scotch settled in Cumberland. As the emigration continued new neighborhoods were formed, and the limits of these congregations contracted: and one after another the numerous churches in Cumberland, Robeson, Moore and Richmond, and Bladen, were gathered, some of which now surpass in numbers these ancient mothers.

        At the time Mr. Campbell labored in Cumberland, the larger number of the people used the Gaelic language; some could use both that and the English; and there were some Lowland Scotch, and a few Scotch-Irish families, and some Dutch that could not use the Gaelic: divine service was therefore performed in both languages. Mr. Campbell, to accommodate his hearers, preached two sermons each Sabbath, one in English and one in Gaelic; this he did in all three of his churches. In a few congregations, in the Presbytery of Fayetteville, this practice of preaching in the two languages is still continued. The influence of this language has been great upon the Scotch settlements in Carolina. There have been some disadvantages attending it, and the language is fast passing away. But for a long time it was a bond of union, and a preservation of those feelings and principles peculiar to the Scotch emigrants, many of which ought to be preserved for ever. The change has been so gradual in putting off the Gaelic, and adopting the English, that the people of Cumberland have suffered as little, from a change of their language, as any people that have ever undergone that unwelcome process. They have retained the

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faith and habits of their ancestors, things most commonly thrown away or changed by a change of the common dialect.

        Mr. Campbell, for a few years, had an assistant in the ministry. The Rev. John McLeod came from Scotland some time in the year 1770, accompanied by a large number of families from the Highlands, who took their residence upon the upper and lower Little Rivers, in Cumberland county. Barbacue and Long Street were part of the places in which he preached during the three years he remained in Carolina. In the year 1773, he left America with the view of returning to his native land; being never heard of afterwards, it is supposed that he found a watery grave. He was a man of eminent piety, great worth, and popular eloquence.

        With this exception it is not known that he had any ministerial brother residing in Cumberland, or the adjoining counties, that could assist him in preaching to the Gaels. McAden, who preached in Duplin, could give him no assistance where the language of the Highlanders was the vernacular tongue.

        How the congregations of the Scotch maintained so much of a spirit of piety and true religion, can be accounted for on no other principles, than the pious, devoted labors of Mr. Campbell and his elders, accompanied by the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The children were taught the catechism, and called to frequent examinations by the church officers; and the Bible was much read; and family religion very generally maintained. These forms were kept up even after the spirit of godliness had much decayed, in the old age of Mr. Campbell, and by the confusion and strifes and bloodshed of the Revolution, which were felt in all their terrors on the Cape Fear.

        Since the Revolution the congregations of the Scotch have been much better supplied with ministers than previously; but it is doubtful whether family government and religion are as carefully attended to now as in former days. One reason of the small supply of ministers, before the Revolution, may have been in the fact, that the emigrants, while in Scotland, had been accustomed to the division of the country into parishes by the civil authority, and the collection of the ministers' support by law, in some parishes having a qualified voice in the choice of their pastor, and in others possessing no right of choice worth naming. In Carolina, all interference of law was to divide the county into parishes for the establishment of the English National Church, to which these emigrants were greatly averse. After the revolutionary war,

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necessity led the Scotch to voluntary efforts for the support of their ministers, and these efforts were attended with success; and their descendants enjoy gospel privileges in as high a degree as any section of the southern and western States. The Scotch-Irish had been more accustomed to these efforts in Ireland, being left to provide for their own ministers by voluntary gifts, after they had paid what the law required for the national clergy. They were more active in Carolina, before the Revolution, than the Scotch; after that event, the efforts of both are worthy of high commendation.

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CHAPTER XI.
THE POLITICAL OPINIONS OF THE SCOTCH EMIGRANTS.

        THE Scotch, never, in the land of their fathers, or in the United States of America, have been inclined to radicalism, or the prostration of all law. In their warmest aspirations for the liberty of choosing their own rulers, or framing, or consenting to the laws, by which they should be governed, they always acknowledged the necessity of law and order; in fact, they never asked for anything else. The general run of Scottish history shows the nation to have been in favor of a government of sufficient strength to control its subjects in the exercise of their passions, and defend them from aggression and violence.

        They have ever been strenuous that their rulers should govern according to some established law, well known and understood, to which reference should be had in cases of dispute among themselves, or with their rulers; and to the decision of this law, fairly interpreted, there should be no opposition while the law was unrepealed.

        They contended that there is of necessity an agreement between the rulers and the people, the one, to govern by these fixed laws, and the other, to obey the directiona given by the constituted authorities.

        They ever contended that there is a conscience towards God, paramount to all human control; and for the government of their conscience in all matters of morality and religion, the Bible is the storehouse of information,--acknowledging no Lord of the conscience, but the Son of God, the head of the Church, Jesus Christ; and the Bible as his divine communication for the welfare and guide of mankind.

        They have held that tyranny and usurpation may be set aside by force; that, in extreme cases, revolution by force is the natural right of man; not a revolution to throw down authority, and give license to passion, but a revolution to first principles, and to the unalienable rights of man.

        On these principles, they formed their various Covenants. The first made in 1557, Dec. 3d, and the second on 31st of May, 1559; in both of which the leading men, and many others, bind themselves

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to maintain their religion against all opposition from any and every quarter. The first National Covenant of Scotland was drawn up by John Craig, and sometimes has been called Craig's Confession; was publicly owned and signed by the king himself, his household, and the greater part of the nobility and gentry, throughout the kingdom, in 1581; the signing of it being greatly promoted through the country by the ministers of religion. The same covenant, with many additions, was publicly signed, with great solemnity, by the people in Edinburgh, Feb. 28th, 1638. By this, they all bound themselves to preserve, at all hazards, their religious rights and liberties against opposers. And finally, the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, drawn up by Alexander Henderson, and read by him in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on the 17th of August, 1643, and was received and approved, with emotions of the deepest solemnity and awe, with whispered thanksgivings and prayers. It was then carried to the Convention of States, and by them unanimously ratified; subsequently, it was sent to London, where, on the 25th Sept. of the same year, it was accepted and subscribed by the English Parliament and the Assembly of Westminster Divines; and afterwards carried over to Ireland, and taken generally, by the congregations of Presbyterians, in Ulster province. The services attending the signing of this important instrument were solemn and protracted, not only in Scotland, but in England and in Ireland.

        This Solemn League and Covenant, so generally taken, bound the United Kingdoms to endeavor the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, discipline, and government,--and the Reformation of Religion in England and Ireland according to the Word of God, and the example of the best reformed Churches,--the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy,--the defence of the King's person, authority, and honor,--and the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the kingdom, in peace and quietness. Hetherington, a writer of note, in his History of the Church of Scotland, thus writes: "Perhaps no great international transaction has ever been so much misrepresented and maligned, as the Solemn League and Covenant. Even its defenders have often exposed it, and its authors, to severe censures, by their unwise mode of defence. There can be no doubt in the mind of any intelligent and thoughtful man, that on it mainly rests, under Providence, the noble structure of the British constitution. But for it, so far as man may judge, these kingdoms would have been placed beneath the deadening bondage of absolute despotism;

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and in the fate of Britain, the liberty and civilisation of the world would have sustained a fatal paralyzing shock. This consideration alone might be sufficient to induce the statesman to pause, before he ventures to condemn the Solemn League and Covenant. But to the Christian, we may suggest still loftier thoughts. The great principles of that sacred bond are those of the Bible itself. It may be that Britain was not then, and is not yet, in a fit state to receive them, and to make them her principles and rules of national government and law; but they are not, on that account, untrue, nor even impracticable: and the glorious predictions of the inspired Scriptures foretell a time when they will be more than realized, and when all the kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdoms of Jehovah, and of his anointed, and all shall be united in one solemn league and covenant under the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And who may presume to say that the seemingly premature and ineffectual attempt to realize it by the heavenly-minded patriarchs of Scotland's second Reformation, was not the first faint struggling day-beam piercing the world's thick darkness, and revealing to the eye of faith an earnest of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness? A sacred principle was then infused into the heart of nations which cannot perish; a light then shone into the world's darkness which cannot be extinguished; and generations not remote may see that principle quickening and evolving in all its irresistible might, and that light bursting forth in its all-brightening glory."

        "It has often been said the Covenanters were circumvented by the English Parliament, and were drawn into a league with men who meant only to employ them for their own purposes, and then either cast them off, or subdue them beneath a sterner sway than that of Charles. Were it even so, it might prove the treachery of the English, but would expose the Covenanters to no heavier accusations than that of unsuspecting simplicity of mind. They ought to have first ascertained, men say, what form of church government England intended to adopt, before they had consented to the League. And yet the same accusers fiercely condemn the Scottish Covenanters for attempting to force their own Presbyterian forms upon the people of England. The former accusation manifestly destroys the latter. That the Covenanters did not attempt to force Presbyterianism upon England, is proved by the fact, that entered into the league without any such specific stipulation, because it was contrary to their principles either to submit to force in matters of religion, or to attempt using force against other free Christian men. It argues, therefore, ignorance both of their principles

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and of their conduct, to bring against them an accusation so groundless and so base. They consented to lend their aid to England in her day of peril, in which peril they were themselves involved; but they left to England's assembled divines the grave and responsible task of reforming their own church; lending, merely, as they were requested, the assistance of some of their own most learned, pious, and experienced ministers, to promote the great and holy enterprise. For that they have been and will be blamed by witlings, Sciolists and Infidel philosophers; but what England's best and greatest men sought with earnest desire, and received with respect and gratitude, Scotland need never be ashamed that her venerable covenanted fathers did not decline to grant."

        "And let it be carefully observed, that the difference between the conduct of the English Parliament in the great civil war, and of the Covenanters in their time of struggle, consisted in and was caused by this--that in England it was essentially a contest in defence, or for the assertion of civil liberty,--in Scotland for religious purity and freedom. England's fierce wars for civil liberty laid her and her unfortunate assistant prostrate beneath the feet of an ironhearted usurper and despot. Scotland's calm and bloodless defence of religious purity and freedom secured to her those all-inestimable blessings, broke the chains of her powerful neighbor, revealed to mankind a principle of universal truth and might, and poured into her own crushed heart a stream of life, sacred, immortal, and divine."

        The famous book Lex Rex, by Rev. Samuel Rutherford, was full of principles that lead to republican action, as the Scotch generally have understood republicanism,--to be governed by rulers chosen, and by laws framed according to the will of the people,--and religious liberty untouched.

        These great principles the Scotch brought with them to America; they are still held by their descendants, who differ from their parent stock in insisting on and enjoying the form of government, which, while it protects the citizens, is elective, and is executed by the same persons but a short time in continuance. On the other side of the water, the Scotch enjoy but an implied choice in their hereditary monarch, and but in part that freedom of conscience, and that liberty from legislative interference in matters of religion, they aimed at in their National Covenant.

        James I. had signed the first National Covenant, and Charles II., on his being crowned at Scone, by the Scotch, January 1st, 1651, heard the National Covenant and the solemn League and Covenant

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read, and solemnly swore to keep them both; and when the oath to defend the Church of Scotland was administered to him, kneeling and holding up his right hand, he uttered the following awful vow: "By the Eternal and Almighty God, who liveth and reigneth for ever, I shall observe and keep all that is contained in this oath."

        Now with men who had felt that it was right to bind a hereditary monarch by a solemn covenant, to which they bound themselves, and who, in emigrating to North Carolina, had come, some of them of their own free will, with the expectation of enjoying more liberty and acquiring more property, and some on compulsion, to save their lives after the rebellion of 1748, and loaded with a solemn oath of allegiance as part of the conditions of pardon; and in Carolina kept a part of them in ignorance of the real state of the country, and imposed upon by the representations of the Governor, in whom they trusted,--it is not at all strange there should be difference of opinion and action as the revolutionary struggle came on. Some were ready to carry out their principles at once,--and were republicans, doing away at once all hereditary claims to the throne or chair of state. Others had not felt the evils complained of in Carolina to any great degree, and were not hasty to enter into a contest. Others felt themselves bound to obey the king, to whose government and person they had taken the solemn oath of allegiance, as a condition of their spared lives. And some were so convinced that the king's forces could not be successfully resisted,--and from what they knew or heard from their nation's experience, they had some cause to fear,--that it was better to bear the evils they endured, than to suffer greater after a crushed rebellion. One man, William Bourk, was heard to say in the winter of 1776, that "we should all be subdued by the month of May, by the king's troops; that General Gage ought to have let the Guards out to Bunker Hill, and it would have settled the dispute at that time;" and for this he was brought before the provincial council, March 2d, 1776, and acknowledged his words, and added,--"he wished the time would happen this instant, but was sure the Americans would be subdued by the month of August;" whereupon he was sent to Halifax and committed to close gaol till further orders.

        Those that had come to the province of their own accord, previous to the great emigration, by authority, in 1746 and 1747; and many of those who emigrated afterwards, followed out their inclinations and their principles in taking part in the revolution;--and many, perhaps most of those who came in that emigration, took part for the king,--feeling themselves bound by their oath of

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allegiance, and their present position, to defend the rights and dominions of the crown. For a time, at least, the majority of the inhabitants of what was Cumberland were in favor of the crown, and even disposed to assist Governor Martin, who kept them informed of the preparations made by the crown for the subjugation of the colonies; and appealed to their sense of honor and religion and loyalty to rally around his standard, which, after his flight from Newbern on the night of April 24th, 1775, was raised at Fort Johnson, on the Cape Fear; and from that removed to an armed vessel until the arrival of forces enabled him to take again his position in safety on land.

        The following paper shows that those in Cumberland who felt free to act for the revolution were no less spirited than those in Mecklenburg or any other part of the State. After the Declaration made by the inhabitants of Mecklenburg, the different counties formed what were called associations; a paper being drawn up expressing their sentiments on the great questions agitating the public mind, they subscribed their names, pledging themselves to the defence of American Liberty. Within a month a paper was circulated in Cumberland county, of which the following is a copy.

"THE ASSOCIATION, JUNE 20TH, 1775.

        "The actual commencement of hostilities against the Continent, by the British troops, in the bloody scene of the 19th of April last, near Boston, in the increase of arbitrary impositions from a wicked and despotic Ministry, and the dread of instigated insurrections in the colonies, are causes sufficient to drive an oppressed people to the use of arms. We, therefore, the subscribers, of Cumberland county, holding ourselves bound by the most sacred of all obligations, the duty of citizens towards an injured country, and thoroughly convinced that, under our distressed circumstances, we shall be justified in resisting force by force, do unite ourselves under every tie of religion and honor, and associate as a band in her defence against every foe, hereby solemnly engaging, that, whenever our continental or provincial councils shall decree it necessary, we will go forth and be ready to sacrifice our lives and fortunes to secure her freedom and safety. This obligation to continue in full force until a reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America, upon constitutional principles, an event we most ardently desire, and we will hold all those persons inimical to the liberty of the colonies, who shall refuse to subscribe to this association; and we will in all things follow the advice of our general committee respecting the

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purpose aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order, and the safety of individual and private property."

        This paper was the composition of Robert Rowan, whose name stands first on a long list of subscribers; it is still in existence in Robeson County. The phrase, "instigated insurrections," in the above paper refers probably to a charge made against Governor Martin, that he favored the effort that was made for an insurrection of the Slaves, planned by the captain of a coasting vessel.

        The difference of opinion in Cumberland county led to much distress and trouble, not from the foreign foe, for the British forces never visited the county, except in the hasty retreat of Cornwallis to Wilmington, after the battle of Guilford; but from the inhabitants themselves. Some of the most ardent Whigs in the State were citizens of Cumberland county, who hesitated not to give the Royalists much trouble. We shall not stop to dwell upon or recount the plunderings, the skirmishes, and battles, the personal rencounters between the two parties in Cumberland and the surrounding counties, though they afforded many thrilling scenes of courage and of suffering; and shall relate the circumstances of only one engagement between the Whigs and Tories in the lower part of the State, as the consequences were of importance to the country through the whole war.

        Governor Martin had issued a Commission of Brigadier General to Donald M'Donald, a leading man among the Scotch, and perhaps the most influential among the Highlanders; and had sent him a proclamation without date, which the General might send forth at any time he should think it advisable, commanding all the king's subjects to rally around the General. On the 1st day of February, 1776, M'Donald erected the Royal Standard at Cross Creek, and issued his proclamation. In a short time fifteen hundred men were assembled under his command, well armed and provided with proper military stores for a march to join the Governor at the mouth of the river. The celebrated Flora M'Donald, whose history will fill another chapter, is said to have used her influence over her clansmen and neighbors to join the standard of the old veteran, who had held a commission in the army of the Pretender, Charles Edward, and taken part in the battle of Culloden, in 1745, and had saved his life by the oath of allegiance and emigration to Carolina, and was now prepared to fight for his king as his only proper sovereign ruler. Her husband took a Captain's commission; and others of the name held commissions, and were in the camp, which was well

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supplied by contributions, and the king's money, a large amount of which was secured by the Whigs after the battle.

        Colonel James Moore of New Hanover, who had been commissioned by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, in 1775, and had a regiment under his command of five hundred men, four hundred of whom had been stationed at Wilmington, marched, with his regiment, and a detachment of the New Hanover militia, towards Cross Creek, and fortified a camp on Rockfish River, about twelve miles south of M'Donald head-quarters; and by his scouts and spies broke up the regular communication between the General and the Governor. The first move of M'Donald was towards Moore. Halting a few miles from his camp, he sent a decided but friendly letter to the Colonel, urging him to prevent all bloodshed by joining the royal standard; and offering, in the name of the king, a free pardon and indemnification for past rebellion,--"otherwise he should consider them as traitors to the constitution, and take the necessary steps to conquer and subdue them." Moore, after the delay of some days, returned his answer--that he and his men were engaged in the most glorious cause in the world, the defence of the rights of mankind, and needed no pardon;--and urged the General to sign the test proposed by the Provincial Congress,--otherwise he might expect that treatment which he had threatened him and his followers.

        McDonald having in the meantime received information that Sir Henry Clinton and Lord William Campbell had arrived at the head-quarters of the Governor, determined, if possible, to avoid an engagement with Moore, and decamped at midnight, and commenced his march to join the Governor. By rapid marches and crossing the Cape Fear, he eluded the pursuit of Moore, and was bending his course to the sea shore, intending to leave Wilmington to the left, when, on the third day's march, crossing the South River from Bladen into Hanover, he comes to Moore's Creek, which runs from north to south, and empties into the South River about twenty miles above Wilmington, and finds the encampment of Cols. Alexander Lillington with the minute men of the Wilmington district, and Richard Caswell, with the minute men of New Berne district, who assembled their forces on hearing of McDonald's proclamation, and had united their regiments, and were in search of the army of the Tories.

        McDonald's situation admitted of no delay; Moore was in rapid pursuit, and these Colonels in front; he determines upon an attack upon the forces in front. A certain individual, who claimed to be

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neutral, visited the camp of Lillington that night, and informed him that an attack would be made the next morning. The Colonel drawing up his men in a very advantageous position, to command both the road and the bridge, and removing the planks from the bridge, keeps his men under arms all night. About day, the 27th of February, the Scotch forces advance for battle, under the command of Colonel McLeod, the General himself being confined to his tent, too unwell to lead his forces. McLeod is speedily killed, and also Colonel Campbell; and the forces of Lillington and Caswell rushing on with great spirit, the forces of McDonald, deprived of their leaders, are thrown into confusion, and routed, and either taken prisoners or entirely dispersed. McDonald was found sitting on a stump near his tent, alone;--and as the victorious officers advanced towards him, waving the parchment scroll of his commission in the air, he delivers it into their hands. Colonel Moore arrived in camp a few hours after the battle was over, and his forces all came up during the day.

        By this battle the spirits of the loyalists were broken, and they never again were embodied in large companies till the fate of the war became doubtful by the movements of the army of Cornwallis.

        The Provincial Congress determined to show kindness to the prisoners and their families, respecting their principles, though opposing their course; and on the 29th of April published a manifesto from which the following are extracts. "We have their security in contemplation, not to make them miserable. In our power, their errors claim our pity, their situation disarms our resentment. We shall hail their reformation with increasing pleasure, and receive them among us with open arms. Sincere contrition and repentance shall atone for their past conduct. Members of the same political body with ourselves, we feel the convulsion which such a severance occasions; and shall bless the day which shall restore them to us, friends of liberty, to the cause of America, the cause of God and mankind."

        "We war not with helpless females, whom they have left behind them; we sympathize in their sorrow, and wish to pour the balm of pity into the wounds which a separation from husbands, fathers, and the dearest relations has made. They are the rightful pensioners upon the charity and bounty of those who have aught to spare from their own necessities, for the relief of their indigent fellow creatures; to such we recommend them."

        "May the humanity and compassion which mark the cause we are engaged in, influence them to such a conduct as may call forth

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our utmost tenderness to their friends, whom we have in our power. Much depends upon the future demeanor of the friends of the insurgents who are left among us, as to the treatment our prisoners may experience. Let them consider these as hostages for their own good behavior, and by their own merits make kind offices to their friends a tribute of duty as well as humanity from us, who have them in their power."

        The Congress granted to General McDonald and his son, who held a colonel's commission, a liberal parole of honor; and complimented both these officers on their candor. Some time in the summer, the general and twenty-five of the officers taken prisoners in the battle at Widow Moore's Creek Bridge, were taken to Philadelphia, and held in confinement for the purpose of promoting an exchange of prisoners between the two armies.

        We cannot but admire the integrity of these men, though we lament their course; we reverence their moral principles, while we deplore their mistake. We pass by their error, and glory in receiving and instructing others in the principles of religion and morality which governed these men. Their descendants are among the best citizens of the States. The great principles of their ancestors still reign among the descendants along the Cape Fear; and though divided on the party questions of the day, as might be expected in a nation of freemen, they are united on the great principles of republicanism.

        The descendants of these men are altogether in favor of an enlightened ministry; and are patrons of efforts for the instruction of the rising generation. They are firm friends to the grand principles of the supremacy of law, and yield a cheerful obedience to the laws of the land enacted by the legislators, chosen by freemen from their own body. Not given to change either in their politics or their friendships, they support the government of their choice; and are divided only on the question respecting the powers of a republican government.

        When once it was settled, by the surrender of Yorktown, that monarchical government was at an end in the colonies, those along the Cape Fear that had felt themselves bound to support the royal authority while that authority could be supported, joined heartily with their countrymen, who had all along been struggling for the independence of the colonies, in preparing and adopting and defending the constitution that guards our liberties. But it is to be remembered that the most earnest defenders of the rights of the crown, along Cape Fear, contemplated monarchy as hedged in

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and centralled by the principles of their Solemn League and Covenant, which in due time lead all men that adopt them, to struggle as for life, for the liberty of conscience and freedom of property and person. The free church of Scotland have struggled nobly for the first; one more step, and they are republicans of the American stamp. Martin, who knew the power of an oath over the Scotch on Cape Fear, used it skilfully to keep them to their allegiance. He saw its power in Orange and Mecklenburg, but knew not how to ingratiate himself with that peculiar race of people, in whose politics, as among the Scotch, a strong religious principle prevailed.

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CHAPTER XII.
FLORA M'DONALD.

        AMONG the emigrants to the Scotch settlements on the Cape Fear, was Flora McDonald, a name held in the highest reverence in the traditions of North Carolina and the Highlands of Scotland, though English history has given her neither a name nor a place in her pages, crowded with the events and personages of that day, that no human art can save from the oblivion they deserve. With or without history, the descendants of the Highlanders in North Carolina will love the name of Flora McDonald, while female excellence can be found among their sisters and daughters.

        In those heart-stirring events that succeeded the rising in favor of the Pretender, and led to the emigration of the Scotch settlement on the Cape Fear river, Flora McDonald first makes her appearance, a young and blooming girl; in the troubles and distresses that affected the honest yet divided Scotch in Carolina, at the commencement of the American Revolution, she is the dignified matron; before the disasters and radical principles of the French Revolution troubled her country and employed her chilren, she was carried to the cemetery of Kilmuir.

        The most romantic escape of the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward, in his five months' wanderings in the Highlands of Scotland, hunted from mountain to dell, from crag to cavern, by day and by night, by the soldiers of the Duke of Cumberland, and a price set upon his head as a fugitive felon, was planned and executed by the McDonalds, the most powerful of whom had opposed the attempt to place the Prince upon the throne, as a hopeless rebellion, and many of whom were bearing arms for the house of Hanover; and some even then leading forces in search of the Royal fugitive, into the wilds and fastnesses of the Highlands and the Western Isles.

        Roderick Mackenzie aided the flight of the Prince by his chivalrous death; Flora McDonald by her romantic spirit and womanly contrivance. "This young man," says one, "sought concealment in the mountains of Ross-shire after the battle of Culloden, and was surprised by a party of soldiers sent in pursuit of Charles Edward. His age, his figure, his air, deceiving the military

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completely, they were going to secure him, believing they had got hold of the true prince. Mackenzie perceiving their mistake, with great fortitude and presence of mind instantly resolves to render it useful to his master. He drew his sword, and the courage with which he defended himself, satisfied these soldiers that he could be no other than the Pretender. One of them fired at him; Mackenzie fell, and with his last breath exclaimed--'You have killed your Prince.' This generous sacrifice suspended for the time all pursuit, and afforded an opportunity for the unfortunate Charles to escape from the hands of his enemies."

        The escape by the aid of Flora was less bloody and more romantic. With great difficulty he had made his way across the Highlands to the western shore, and setting sail in an eight-oared boat from the farm of Arasag, after encountering a most furious storm, such as are frequent on that northern sea, when, in the language of Ossian, "The thunder of the skies, as a rock, penetrated the heavens, and a fiery pillar issued from the black cloud," he landed on one of the western islands, South Uist, and found a shelter for a time at Ormaclet, with Laird McDonald, of Clan Ronald. The keen scent of his pursuers at length traced him to this place, and three thousand soldiers, red coats as they were called, were sent to search the island, through every dell, and rock, and crag, and cottage; and armed vessels were stationed all around to intercept every ship or boat that might attempt to leave the shore and convey away the royal fugitive. Many projects for his escape were proposed by his anxious friends, and laid aside in rapid succession. At length Lady McDonald suggested a romantic plan,--that, arrayed in female clothes, he should accompany a lady as her waiting woman, or servant maid. Two difficulties were to be encountered; what lady would engage in the dangerous, though romantic enterprise? and how should they obtain a passport from the hostile officers for such a company to leave the island? Two young ladies in the house of McDonald were appealed to, but their courage was less than their tenderness.

        At this critical time, who should come to the house of Laird McDonald but the kind and beautiful Flora, from Millburg, in the same island, to visit her relations, on her return from Edinburgh, having just completed her education in that metropolis. The father of this accomplished young lady had been some time dead, and her mother was united in marriage with Captain Hugh McDonald, the one eyed; the son of Samuel, the son of great James, the son of young Blue Donald, of Armadale, in the Isle of Skye. Her

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step-father, Capt. Hugh McDonald, was then in Uist, in command of a company of the clan McDonald, in the service of King George, searching for the Prince.

        The peculiar feelings of the Scotch towards the Royal family of their nation is beautifully exhibited in the occurrences connected with that young lady's visit. While these McDonalds could not take arms to place the prince upon the throne, esteeming the effort madness, and were defending the reigning house of Hanover, and even then in arms in search of Charles, hemmed in among the crags of Uist, they could not find it in their heart to seize him, now in their power, though some of them were so pressed with debt that the large reward offered might have been a temptation, and the fines and confiscations that would follow suspicion of their favor for the Pretender, might have been a sufficient reason to hold them back from any effort for his escape. "Will you," says the lady of Laird McDonald to Flora, after making her acquainted with the presence and hiding-place of the Prince on the island, and the plan she was meditating for his escape, "will you expose yourself to this danger to aid the escape of the Prince from his enemies that have him here enclosed?" The maiden answered, "Since I am to die, and can die but once, I am perfectly willing to put my life in jeopardy to save his Royal Highness from the danger which now besets him." Delighted with this response, the lady opened the matter to an officer named O'Neill, who expressed the same romantic desire to aid the escape of the very man for the apprehension of whom he was then in arms. He accompanied Flora to Carradale, a rocky, craggy, wild, sequestered place, where the Prince lay concealed, in a cave, that they might concert with him the details of the plan of his escape. On entering the cave they found the Prince alone, broiling a small fresh fish upon the coals for his lonely repast. Startled at their approach, and supposing his retreat had been discovered by the soldiers, and escape to be hopeless, he put himself on the defence to sell his life as dearly as his dignity required. The gallant young officer and the beautiful lady do him reverence as a prince. At their kind salutations his alarm gives place to astonishment; and the unfolding of the plan for his escape from his desperate condition, filled his heart with unmeasured delight. After a short interview, Plora left him, and calling on her brother at Millburg, finds a youth, Neill McDonald, the son of Hector, as noble, generous, and romantic as herself, who entered with devotion into the plan for the escape of the Prince, in whose company she returns

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to Ormaclet, to complete the preparations for the departure from the island.

        The most important step was to procure a passport from the island, that might protect them from the search of officers, and detention by the vessels on the coast. Flora at length obtained one from her step-father, Captain Hugh McDonald, for herself, her youthful companion Neill McDonald, and three others, to constitute a boat's crew, and also for her serving maid, BETSEY BURKE, a stout Irishwoman, whom Flora pretended she had engaged for the special purpose of becoming her mother's spinster, at Armadale, in Skye. As the Captain gave the passport, and wrote by Flora a letter recommendatory of Betsey Burke as a spinster, it is conjectured, not without reason, that he was not altogether unaware of the designs of his fair step-daughter, though he wisely kept himself in ignorance.

        While the arrangements were in progress for this visit of Flora to her mother, in Skye, Allan McDonald, of the hill, arrived at Ormaclet with a company of soldiers in search for the Prince, without any particular suspicions that the fugitive was near, or any thought that his fair kinswoman was concerting a plan of escape which his presence might particularly discommode. There was now no time to be lost. Flora, hastening to his hiding-place, clothes the Prince in the attire of an Irish serving woman, and on the afternoon of Saturday, the 28th of June, 1746, the party embark from Uist for the isle of Skye. Soon after they launch forth, there comes upon them a furious storm of wind. Tossed to and fro, and driven about all night, the courage of the maiden never forsakes her; anxious for her charge, rather than for herself, she encourages the men not to turn back. Inspirited by the exhortations of the maiden, the oarsmen exert their utmost strength, and surmounting all the dangers of the tempest, at dawn of day they approach Point Vatermish in the Isle of Skye. As they draw near, however, the sight of a band of soldiers drawn up upon the shore to receive the boat, turns them back to the ocean; and the volleys discharged at them by the soldiers hasten their flight, while the balls are whistling by and rebounding from the waves. Turning eastwardly they pursue their course, and about noon, on Sabbath, land at Kilbride, in the parish of Kilmuir, near the Magustat-house, the residence of Sir Alexander McDonald, the Laird of Sleite, to repose like the dove after her flight over the waters, for a little space, in the ark.

        Concealing the Prince in a hollow rock on the beach, Flora repaired

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to the chieftain's mansion, and met a most cordial reception from Lady McDonald, in the absence of the Laird. The hall was full of officers, whose sole business was to search for the royal fugitive; and the Laird himself was known to be hostile to his pretensions. The maiden, more self-possessed from the danger, with confiding enthusiasm makes known to the lady the hiding-place of the Prince, and the circumstances of his escape from Uist. The lady's heart answers to the maiden's confidence, and she espouses her cause, and sends by Alexander McDonald, the Laird of Kingsburg, Baillie to Sir Alexander, her husband, who happened to be in the house, refreshments of wine and other comforts suited to the necessities of the fatigued and distressed wanderer. By advice of Lady McDonald, who feared discovery from the numerous officers and soldiers then on the estate, Flora and Betsey Burke set out immediately for Kingsburg, about twelve miles distant, accompanied by the Baillie as their guide. On their way they met many of the country people returning from church, whose curiosity was much excited by the coarse, negligent, clumsy-looking, long-legged female figure that accompanied the Laird and the maiden. Without any indignity or suspicion they reached the place of their destination about sunset, wearied from the storm and perils of the preceding night, and the escapes and journeys of the day. The next morning Flora accompanied the Prince to Portaree, and there bid him adieu. On parting he kissed her, and said, "Gentle, faithful maiden, I entertain the hope that we shall yet meet in the Palace Royal." They never met again; the hopes of the Prince were as unsubstantial and evanescent as the shadows of the clouds, and the fogs that rest upon the hills. His escape was the work not of his chivalry or courage, but of woman's tenderness, and the loyal feelings of Scottish hearts.

        From Portaree, the Prince took passage to Raarsay; and from that island he went to Straith McKinnon, having for his guide a poor man, Malcolm McLeod, whose pack he carried as a paid servant, to escape observation. From thence, he took passage by water to Arasag, and then wandered through Arasag and Moodart and the roughest of the Highlands, enduring incredible hardships, till about the middle of autumn he found vessels to convey him and a few friends to France, leaving Scotland as unattended as he entered, hopeless of his crown, multitudes of his friends butchered, and others beggared or in exile, his resources all exhausted, himself the scorn of France and pity of the world. With him

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sailed to France Neill McDonald, who assisted in his flight from Uist, and had shared his fortunes during his wanderings. The enthusiasm of his fair kinswoman dwelt in his bosom, and spread itself through the youth of the Highlands, and rendered the capture of the Prince more hopeless; after the exploit of the maiden and the two ladies McDonald, who would hesitate to give him succor and conceal his retreat? Neill McDonald remained in France; and his son became famous in the wars of the French Revolution, being made marshal by Buonaparte, and for his success created Duke of Tarentum. Had the unfortunate Charles Edward possessed a spirit to command, equal to the courage and daring of his friends, the house of Stuart might now occupy the throne of England.

        After the escape of the Prince to France, the troubles of Flora McDonald commenced. Incensed at the loss of their victim, and not satisfied with the possession of the kingdom, and the executions that the plea of necessity may have justified, the officers of the crown seized on those who were known to have aided the Prince in his flight, and conveyed them to London as state prisoners, for sending from the island the cause of the late disturbance, routed, broken down and discouraged, and at once delivering the crown from farther cause of uneasiness, and the country from agitation. Flora was arrested, and together with Malcohn McLeod, whose pack the prince had carried, McKinnon of the Straith, who received him from McLeod, and McDonald of Kingsburg, who aided Flora on the 29th of June, were taken to London and confined in the Tower as prisoners of state, to be tried for their life, as aiding and abetting attempts against the life and crown of King George. The example of the young lady in rousing up her countrymen, however friendly to the house of Hanover, to promote the escape of one whom they could not, and perhaps on account of his religion, would not make king, turned the indignation of those who had lost the splendid reward offered for the Pretender dead or alive, upon herself and her friends. During their confinement, the nobility of England became deeply interested in the beautiful and high spirited Flora, especially as she was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith. Her devotion to royalty, so romantically expressed, won the favor of Prince Frederick the heir apparent, great grandfather of Victoria, the present queen of England; visiting her in prison, he became enlisted in her favor most strongly; she awakened in his bosom the chivalric gallantry she had called forth in her country-men;

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and by his strenuous exertions he procured her release, greatly to his own honor and the prosperity of the kingdom, and the popularity of the king.

        After being set at liberty, her residence, while she remained in London, was surrounded by the carriages of the nobility and gentry, who paid their respects personally, congratulating her on her enterprise, her courage, her loyalty, and her release. Lady Primrose, a favorer of the Pretender, a lady of wealth and distinction, introduced her to the court society, and by her example and influence, obtained large presents to make her forget her captivity, and to meet the expenses of her detention and her return to her own country. The tradition in Carolina, where she afterwards lived, is, that "she received golden ornaments and coin enough to fill a half bushel." She was introduced to the king, George II.; and to his somewhat ungallant inquiry--"How could you dare to succor the enemy of my crown and kingdom?" she replied with great simplicity--"It was no more than I would have done for your majesty, had you been in like situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for her return to Scotland; for her escort she chose a fellow prisoner, Malcolm McLeod, who used afterwards to boast, "that he went to London to be hanged--but rode back in a chaise and four with Flora McDonald."

        Four years after her return to Scotland she was married to Allan McDonald, son of the Laird of Kingsburg, who, at the death of his father, succeeded to the estate and title; and thus she became mistress of the very mansion in which the Prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye, June 29th, 1746, after the romantic escape from Uist. Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, in their tour to the Hebrides in 1773, were hospitably entertained by Allan and Flora McDonald, and were greatly gratified by being put to sleep in the same bed in which the unfortunate Charles Edward had slept the night he passed upon the island. Flora, though then more than twenty years a wife, and the mother of numerous children, still retained her blooming countenance and genteel form, and was full of the enthusiasm of her youth. On account of the pecuniary embarrassments of her husband, they were then, the doctor tells us, in his journal, contemplating a removal to North Carolina, to join their countrymen and friends on the Cape Fear river, sent thither immediately after the rebellion of 1745. From that period the sandy country of the Carolinas had been the refuge of the High-landers, whether they fled from poverty or oppression, or were drawn by the desire of being independent landholders and wealthy

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men. In the year 1775, just as the troubles in the American colonies were turning into rebellion against the tyranny of England, and the assertion of independence of all foreign control, Allan and Flora, with their family and some friends, landed in North Carolina and took their abode for a short time at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville. The place of her residence was destroyed by the great fire that swept off a large part of the town one Sabbath in the summer of 182-. The ruins of this dwelling are still to be seen as you pass from the market-house to the court-house, on your right hand, just before you cross the creek, not far from the office built out over the stream. After a short stay in this place, they removed to Cameron's Hill, in the Barbacue congregation, about twenty miles above Fayetteville, in Cumberland county. While residing at this place, Mrs. Smith, now living in Robeson county, from whom much of the information respecting Flora was derived, remembers seeing her, at the Barbacue church, a dignified and handsome woman, to whom all paid great respect. They afterwards removed farther up the country into Anson county. While residing there, Donald McDonald, a relation of Flora's, who had been an officer in the Pretender's army in 1745, and had taken the oath of allegiance and emigrated to save his life, was commissioned by Governor Martin as general in the service of his Majesty George III. On the 1st of February, 1776, he issued his proclamation calling on all loyal and true Highlanders to join his standard at Cross Creek. Some fifteen hundred men soon assembled in arms; some of whom were sincerely attached to the house of Hanover, and others were under oaths of allegiance to which they owed their life, and, as some believed, their property. With these were assembled Kingsburg McDonald, the husband of Flora, with their kindred and neighbors, animated by the spirit of this matron, who now, on her former principles, defended George III. as readily as she had aided the unfortunate Charles Edward about thirty years before. Tradition says she accompanied her husband and neighbors to Cross-wicks, and communicated her own enthusiasm to the assembled Scotch. From this fact it has been supposed by some, that she followed the army in its march to join Governor Martin at the mouth of Cape Fear. Mrs. Smith, however, expressly asserts that she did not follow the army; but returned to her residence in Anson, when the army first moved up Rockfish, as it did in a short time, in preparation to march down the river.

        On their march down the river the forces of General McDonald were met by Colonels Lillington and Caswell, near the mouth of

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Moore's Creek, in New Hanover, and after a severe engagement, on the 27th, were entirely routed and dispersed, taken prisoners or killed. Among the prisoners was the husband of Flora, who served as captain.

        After the release of her husband from Halifax jail, the place of confinement for the officers taken in the battle, having suffered much in their estate from the plunderings and confiscations to which the Royalists were exposed, they with their family embarked in a sloop of war for their native land. On the voyage home, the sloop was attacked by a French vessel of war; and as the engagement grew warm the courage of the sailors deserted them, and capture seemed inevitable. Ascending the quarter deck, she animated the men to renew the conflict with activity and courage, nothing daunted by a wound she received in her hand. The sight of the courageous and wounded woman aroused the spirit of the crew to the highest pitch. Having beaten off the enemy, they landed Flora and the family safe on their native soil, from which she never again departed. She used sometimes to remark pleasantly on the peculiarity of her condition, "I have hazarded my life both for the house of Stuart and the house of Hanover; and I do not see that I am a great gainer by it."

        To the close of her life she was of a gentle, affable demeanor, and greatly beloved; her modesty and self-respect were blended with kindness and benevolence. There were none of those masculine passions and habits, or tempers, so commonly connected in our thoughts with acts of bravery performed by females. She was always womanly in her course, and always lovely. The mother of a numerous family, five sons and two daughters, she inspired them all with her spirit of loyalty and adventure; the sons all became military officers, and were faithful to their king and country; the daughters were married to military men, and maintained their loyalty and their honor, as true descendants of such a mother. Loyalty in these ladies had no servility in it; it was a sense of the necessity of a firm and established government to execute laws for the peace of the community, and a conviction that a restricted monarchy was the best form of government, and that a hereditary was better than an elective crown. The most desolating wars in the history of their country had been waged by disputants for the crown.

        The eventful life of this amiable lady was closed March 5th, 1790. We have no record of the mental and religious exercises of her last moments. She was educated, lived, and died in the

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Presbyterian faith, the faith of the Church of Scotland; and never sympathized in the religious creed of the Pretender, whose life she saved. It was not so much admiration of the Prince, as a character or a man, as the workings of her own kind heart and noble soul in looking upon her hereditary Prince in distress, that moved her to the romantic and hazardous enterprise of his escape from Uist. An immense concourse of people were assembled at her funeral; not less than three thousand persons followed the corpse to the grave in the cemetery of Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye. According to a request long previously expressed, her shroud was made of the identical sheets in which the Prince reposed the night he slept at Kingsburg,--thus carrying to her grave the romantic spirit of her youth.

        A writer who visited the cemetery in September, 1841, says: "There is not so much as one of that family in the land of the living. At the end of two years the body of her husband was deposited in a grave by her side,--where, alas, all her offspring now silently slumber. Thus is Flora McDonald, she who once was beautiful as the flower of the morning, now reposing beneath a green hillock; and no monument, as yet, has been erected to perpetuate the memory of her faithfulness or her achievements! Thus the beauty of the world shall pass away!"

        Though no monument be erected in England or in Scotland to her memory; though no page of English history shall inscribe her worth, because displayed in an unpopular cause; though from the time of that ill-planned and ill-fated rebellion, the whole policy of England towards her native country has been to annihilate the habits, and the very language and dress of the Highlands, and of her youth, her memory will live in North Carolina while nobleness has admirers, and romantic self-devotion to the welfare of the distressed can charm the heart. And will not that be for ever? Will not posterity admire her more than Prince Charles who led his followers to slaughter? or George II., who envied the popularity of his own son? and draw more instruction from her romance, and affection, and boldness, and devotion, and womanly graces, and feminine loveliness, than from all the court of England that fill the histories of that by-gone period?

        Massachusetts has her Lady Arabella; Virginia her Pocahontas; and North Carolina her Flora McDonald.

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CHAPTER XIII.
HUGH M'ADEN AND THE CHURCHES IN DUPLIN, NEW HANOVER, AND CASWELL.

        THE first ordained minister that took his abode among the Presbyterian settlements in North Carolina, was the Rev. James Campbell, on the Cape Fear river. The first missionary whose journal, or parts of journal, has been preserved, is Hugh McAden (or as sometimes spelled McCadden), who was also the first missionary that settled in the State.

        The first Presbyterian minister that preached in North Carolina of whom we have any knowledge, was William Robinson, famous in the annals of the Virginia churches, of whom the Rev. Samuel Davies says,--"that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect upon it, astonishes me." This eminent missionary passed through Virginia to North Carolina, and spent a part of the winter of 1742 and 1743, among Presbyterian settlements. It was on his return from Carolina, and while preaching at Cub Creek, in Charlotte county, that the messenger from Hanover county waited upon him and persuaded him to visit that county, in which were no settlements of Presbyterian emigrants, and which of course had not been included either in his original mission, or his intended route homeward.

        We are not able to ascertain the places with precision, which he visited, but as the Presbyterian settlements in the county of Duplin and New Hanover were the oldest in the State, and there were none others at that time of much strength, the probability is that Duplin and New Hanover were the places he visited, and the scattered settlements then commenced in the upper part of the State also received some attention. Mr. Davies tells us that the success attending the ministry of this eminent man, so abundant in Virginia, was very small in Carolina. It is probably owing to that fact that the whole history of his mission is circumscribed in the single statement, that he visited the country through much exposure, and many hardships, owing to the unsettled wilderness through which he had to pass.

        Supplications were sent from Carolina to the Synod of Philadelphia

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as early as the year 1744. The records speak of them as having come "from many people," but do not tell us from what section of the State they were sent. In the year 1753, two missionaries were sent by the direction of the Synod to visit Virginia and North Carolina, Mr. McMordie and Mr. Donaldson; but there is no mention made of the settlements they were to visit, further than they were "to show special regard" to the vacancies of North Carolina, especially betwixt Atkin (Yadkin) and Catawba rivers. In the year 1754 the Synod of New York directed four ministers, Messrs. Beatty, Bostwick, Lewis, and Thane, to visit the States of Virginia and North Carolina, each three months, but no particular places are specified. In 1755, the same Synod appointed two other missionaries, and named some places in the upper part of the State; but owing to the disturbances in the country from the depredations of the Indians, this mission was not fulfilled.

        The settlement of Presbyterians in Duplin county is probably the oldest large settlement of that denomination in the State. About the year 1736, or perhaps 1737, one Henry McCulloch induced a colony of Presbyterians from the province of Ulster, in Ireland, to settle in Duplin county, North Carolina, on lands he had obtained from his majesty, George II. The stipulated condition of the grant, or promised grant, was, that he should procure a certain number of settlers to occupy the wide forests, as an inducement to other emigrants to seek a residence in the unoccupied regions of Carolina. His son reported between three and four hundred emigrants, for whose introduction he retained about sixty-four thousand acres of land. The descendants of these emigrants are found in Duplin, New Hanover, and Sampson counties--the family names indicating their origin. The Grove congregation, whose place of worship is about three miles southeast of Duplin court-house, traces its origin to the church formed from this, the oldest Presbyterian settlement in the State, whose principal place of worship was at first called Goshen.

        Nearer Wilmington was a settlement on what was called the Welch Tract, on the northeast Cape Fear.

        This was composed at first of Welch emigrants, but after a short period other families were located on the tract, and then were associated families enough to form a congregation sufficiently large to invite the services of a minister.

        These two settlements, one in Duplin and the other in Hanover, formed the field of labor in which McAden passed the first part of

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his settled ministry. As you pass rapidly on the cars from Richmond, Virginia, to Wilmington, North Carolina, after crossing the Tar River, and entering upon the extended sandy level that stretches, without an elevation of an ordinary hill, through the State, abounding in the species of pine that pours forth the turpentine of commerce, you enter upon the country roamed over by McAden, in his ministry in Duplin. Passing on, with scarce an elevation or a turn, through that country, and the unchanging groves of pines in New Hanover, till you cross the Cape Fear, you have measured the space allotted to him for the exercise of his ministry. A singular country; the wealth of the inhabitants is in the endless forest of pines, and their principal employment is gathering the product of these forests in the shape of turpentine, tar, and lumber, for foreign markets. The grain and grass crops are a secondary consideration, and scarcely supply the home demand. The supply from the forest has hitherto been unfailing, abundant, and often very profitable. To one accustomed to the cultivated fields of western Carolina, or the more northern States, this country, in passing hastily through it in the steam cars, appears one vast solitude. The turpentine groves present little of romance or beauty in their constantly recurring sameness, while they are pouring out streams of wealth to an industrious people.

        Hugh McAden was born in Pennsylvania; his parentage is traced to the North of Ireland. His Alma Mater was Nassau Hall; his instructor in Theology, John Blair, of New Castle Presbytery. He was graduated in 1753, and was licensed in 1755, by the Presbytery to which his instructor belonged, and ordained by the same Presbytery in 1757; and dismissed in 1759 to join Hanover Presbytery, whose limits extended indefinitely south. Comparatively little is known of his early life, as his papers were almost entirely destroyed by the British soldiers, in January, 1781, while the army of Cornwallis, in the pursuit of Green, was encamped at the Red House, in Caswell county. Of the few papers that escaped was the Journal of his first trip through Carolina, and is the only document of the kind known to be in existence. As it contains many facts, incidentally stated, that will now be useful, all the important and interesting parts of this brief document will be presented, either verbatim, or in a condensed form, leaving out repetitions, and things that are likely to be in a journal not intended for the public, and which are not of lasting importance.

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M'ADEN'S JOURNAL.

        "Tuesday, June 3d, 1755.--Took my journey for Carolina from Mr. Kirkpatrick's in the evening; came to Mr. Hall's, where I tarried all night. Next day crossed the river in company with Mr. Bay and his wife. Spent the day in visiting her friends on both sides,"--that is, the old and new sides into which the church was then divided. "Thursday we set off and came to York, forty miles, with some difficulty, the weather being extremely hot, and no food for our horses. A very bad prospect of crops appears everywhere, the ground being quite burned up with drought, and the corn much hurt by the frost; the green wheat and meadows, in some places, entirely withered up from the roots as if they had been scorched by fire. Here I left Mr. Bay and his wife, rode out in the afternoon and lodged in the congregation. Next day set off in the morning and came to his house, where I stayed for breakfast." This Mr. Bay was a Presbyterian minister, of New Castle Presbytery, of the new side, and he speaks as if it were remarkable that he visited both sides with Mrs. Bay. York is the first town mentioned; and the bearing of his journey, and crossing "the river," would seem to fix the location of Mr. Kirkpatrick in Lancaster county. The mention he here makes of the great drought is repeated through all the summer and fall; from which it appears a severe drought prevailed extensively the same summer that Braddock's war raged so disastrously.

        The second Sabbath of June he was at Rock Spring and continued till the Friday after; the people making preparations to attend the administration of the Lord's Supper in the two congregations, that lay on each side, of one of which the Rev. JAMES CAMPBELL, who was the next year in Carolina, was the pastor. In this he passed the third Sabbath of June, in company with the pastor and the Rev. Andrew Bay, whom he says he "heard preach with great satisfaction." This Mr. Campbell he had for his neighbor, in Carolina, on the Cape Fear, in about a year from this; the patriarch of the Scotch churches.

        "Monday, June the 16th, set out from Connegocheg, upon my journey for Carolina, crossed the Potomac, and lodged at Mr. Caten's, where I was very kindly entertained, and civilly used. Next day (Tuesday) set off about 12 o'clock, and came to Winchester, forty miles, and tarried all night. In the morning rode out to Robert Wilson's, where I was kindly entertained. Spent the day with Mr. Hogg" (or Hoge) This Mr. Wilson lived a

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short distance from the present Opecquon meeting-house, and was proverbial for his hospitality. His house, which is still standing, on the cast side of the great turnpike, part of stone and part of wood, was the resort of preachers in his day; and during the time that Washington was encamped in Winchester, the resort of his Excellency. The Mr. Hogg, or Hogge, or Hoge, for the name has been spelled all these ways, had been ordained by New Castle Presbytery about the time that Mr. McAden was licensed. He was graduated at Nassau Hall, in 1748; how long he had been at Opecquon is not known. He was the first settled minister in that congregation, the oldest in the valley.

        On Thursday, the 19th, he set off up the valley of the Shenandoah, of which he says: "Alone in the wilderness. Sometimes a house in ten miles, and sometimes not that." On Friday night he lodged at a Mr. Shankland's, eighty miles from Opecquon, and twenty from Augusta court-house. On Saturday he stopped at a Mr. Poage's--"stayed for dinner, the first I had eaten since I left Pennsylvania."

        From Staunton he went with Hugh Celsey to Samuel Downey's, at the North Mountain, where he preached on the fourth Sabbath of June, according to appointment, and being detained by his horse, preached there the fifth Sabbath also. The same cause detaining him another week, he consented to preach in the new court-house on the first Sabbath of July. "Rode to widow Preston's Saturday evening, where I was very kindly entertained, and had a commodious lodging." This is probably the widow of John Preston, whose family have since been so famous in Virginia. The North Mountain congregation has long since given place to Bethel and Hebron. On Monday he rode out to John Trimble's, more encouraged by the appearances at North Mountain than in Staunton. On Tuesday he passed on to the Rev. John Brown's, who was the first settled minister of Providence and Timber Ridge. "Here I was vehemently desired by Mr. Brown to preach in one of his places, having set apart a day of fasting and prayer, on the account of the wars and many murders committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants. To this I agreed, having appointed the Forks of James River for the next Lord's day, where I could easily reach on Saturday. So I tarried, and preached at Timber Ridge on Friday, which was the day appointed, to a pretty large congregation; felt some life and earnestness in alarming the people of their dangers on account of sin, the procuring cause of all evils that befal us in this life, or that which is to come; encouraging

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them to turn to the Lord with all their hearts, to wait upon him for deliverance from all their enemies, the only sure refuge in every time of difficulty; and exciting them to put themselves in the best posture of defence they could, and endeavor, by all possible means in their power, to defend themselves from such barbarous and inhuman enemies. Great attention and solemnity appeared throughout the whole assembly; nay, so engaged were they that, though there came up a pretty smart gust, they seemed to mind it no more than if the sun had been shining on them. But in a little time the Lord turned it so about that we were little more disturbed than if we had been in a house.

        "Came to Mr. Boyer's, where I tarried till Sabbath morning, a very kind and discreet gentleman, who used me exceedingly kindly, and accompanied me to the Forks, twelve miles, where I preached the second Sabbath of July, to a considerable large congregation, who seemed pretty much engaged, and very earnest that I should stay longer with them; which I could by no means consent to, being determined to get along in [my] journey as fast as possible; and proposed to preach at Round Oak next Sabbath. Rode home with Joseph Lapsley, two miles, from meeting, where I tarried till Wednesday morning.

        "Here it was I received the most melancholy news of the entire defeat of our army by the French at Ohio, the General killed, numbers of the inferior officers, and the whole artillery taken. This, together with the frequent account of fresh murders being daily committed upon the frontiers, struck terror to every heart. A cold shuddering possessed every breast, and paleness covered almost every face. In short, the whole inhabitants were put into an universal confusion. Scarcely any man durst sleep in his own house--but all met in companies with their wives and children, and set about building little fortifications, to defend themselves from such barbarians and inhuman enemies, whom they concluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure. I was so shocked upon my first reading Col. Innes's letter, that I knew not well what to do."

        This was the defeat of Gen. Braddock. The consternation that followed through all the frontiers of Virginia, which were then all in the valley, is well described in the few lines given above. The difficulties and dangers increased till many of the inhabitants of Augusta fled to the more quiet frontiers of North Carolina, as will be seen in the progress of this journal. Among others who fled, and in a few years took his residence on Sugar Creek, was the

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Rev. Mr. Craighead, who had been some years in Virginia, residing on the cow pasture. His congregation was not in the track of Mr. McAden's journey, which left Mr. Craighead's residence to the right, and Mr. Craig's to the left.

        After much consideration whether he should remain where he was, or return to Pennsylvania, or go on to his destined field of labor in Carolina, he determined, in the fear of God, to go on. "I resolved to prosecute my journey, come what will, with some degree of dependence on the Lord for his divine protection and support, that I might be enabled to glorify him in all things, whether in life or in death, though not so sensible as I could wish for and earnestly desired."

        On Wednesday, the 16th of July, he left Mr. Lapsley's, in company with a young man from Mr. Henry's congregation, in Charlotte, who had been at the Warm Springs, and was fleeing from the expected inroads of the savages. Giving up the appointment at Round Oak, he took the route by Luny's Ferry, which was distant about twenty-six miles--"because it was now too late to cross the mountain, nor did I think it quite safe to venture it alone: but here I thought we might lodge with some degree of safety, as there were a number of men and arms engaged in building a fort, round the house, where they were fled with their wives and children."

        The next day Major Smith sent a guard with them across the mountains; and after riding thirty-two miles they reached Mr. I. Sable's, about three miles from Bedford court-house. Here he was out of danger from the Indians, but found the same oppressive drought he left in Pennsylvania. The next day he reached "Mr. Thomas Dickson's, at Falling River, twenty-three miles, a place where Mr. Henry preached once a month. The people insisted very much upon my staying here till Sabbath day: as it was now Friday evening, it was impossible to get over to Dan River (which was the first vacancy I could preach at) in time to warn a congregation before Sabbath day, therefore I tarried and preached at Falling River."

        On Monday, the 21st, he rode thirty miles to the Rev. Mr. Henry's--"where I was much refreshed by a relation of Mr. Henry's success among his people, who told me of several hopefully brought in by his ministry, and frequent appearance of new awakenings amongst them, scarcely a Sabbath passing without some life and appearance of the power of God. So likewise in

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Mr. Wright's congregation, I hear, there is a considerable appearance of the power of God."

        On Wednesday, 23d of July, he left Mr. Henry's, rode ten miles, and preached at a Mr. Cardwall's, in Halifax county, and passed on that night to Ephraim Hill's, five miles. The country was then thinly settled, and the people appeared to Mr. McAden as sheep without a shepherd. On the next day rode twenty miles to Capt. Moore's, on Dan River, where he remained and preached the Sabbath, July 27th. On Tuesday he left Capt. Moore's, proceeded five miles up the Dan, crossed over, and preached at Mr. Brandon's; and on the same evening, riding twelve miles, came to Solomon Debow's on Hico, an emigrant from Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Here he remained, and preached the first Sabbath of August. "Having now got within the limits prescribed me by the Presbytery, I was resolved not to be so anxious about getting along in my journey, but take some more time to labor among the people, if so be the Lord might bless it to the advantage of any. May the Lord, of his infinite mercy, grant his blessing upon my poor attempts, and make me in some way instrumental in turning some of these precious souls from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that the power may be known to be of God, and all the glory redound to His own name."

        Mr. McAden was now out of the sphere of alarm occasioned by Braddock's defeat; and he was also now beyond the southern bounds of any settled minister of the Presbyterian denomination in connection with the Synods of New York and Philadelphia. There were some Presbyterian churches built in North Carolina, and many worshipping assemblies, but few, if any, organized churches at this time, and no settled minister. Mr. McAden was of the New Side, as they were termed. This is discoverable from a very few sentences in his journal which occasionally appear, when he meets with some opposing circumstance from the other side; for through Virginia and in the settlements in Carolina the difference of opinion had spread, and the fierceness of the dispute had yet scarcely passed away.

        We shall follow him with interest from this first Sabbath in Carolina, August 3, 1755, at Solomon Debow's, on Hico, through the settled part of the State. Some of his preaching-places can be identified, and others with difficulty conjectured; as they were at private houses generally, or in the open air. As might be expected, some became permanent preaching-places, and others gave way to more convenient locations.

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        On Tuesday, 5th, he preached at Mr. Debow's; on Wednesday, rode ten miles to the chapel on South Hico, where--"I preached to a number of church people and some Presbyterians. After sermon they seemed exceedingly pleased, and returned abundance of thanks for my sermon, and earnestly entreated me by all means to call upon them as I came back, and showed a very great desire that all our ministers should call upon them as they travel back and forward." He went home with Mr. Vanhook, five miles, and preached at his house on Thursday; and on Friday was conducted by Mr. Vanhook "to Eino" (Eno), about twenty miles, to a Mr. Anderson's. The second Sabbath of August, the 10th day, he preached at Eno--"to a set of pretty regular Presbyterians," who appeared to him to be in a cold state of religious feeling. "In the evening returned to Mr. Anderson's; here I tarried till Tuesday, the 12th of August; preached again to the same company." From these expressions it would seem there was a house for public worship on the Eno.

        "Being sent for, and very earnestly entreated to go to Tar River, I took my journey the same evening, with my guide, and rode to Bogan's, on Flat River, twenty miles. Next morning, set off again, and rode to old Sherman's, on Tar River, and preached that afternoon to a small company, who seemed generally attentive, and some affected." Next day he went to Grassy Creek, sixteen miles, where was a Baptist meeting-house, and preached to a people "who seemed very inquisitive about the way to Zion." The next day he accompanied his host, old Mr. Lawrence, to Fishing Creek, to the Baptist Yearly Meeting; and on Saturday and Sabbath preached to large and deeply interested audiences. "Here I think the power of God appeared something conspicuous, and the word seemed to fall with power." Being earnestly pressed, he preached again on Sabbath afternoon, with some hope of success. On Monday he preached again with greater appearance of usefulness. The inhabitants, he was informed, were principally from Virginia, and some from Pennsylvania and Jersey. "I was obliged to leave them after I had preached to and exhorted them with many words, that they should carefully guard against taking shelter under the shadow of their own righteousness, committing them to God, who, I know, is able to make them wise unto salvation." On Monday, P. M., the 18th, he rode to Granville court-house, twenty-five miles. On Tuesday he rode to Mr. Sherman's, on Tar River, at about 11 o'clock, twenty miles; and preached in the afternoon "to a middling congregation, who appeared very devout, and some of

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them much affected." On Wednesday, returned to Mr. Anderson's, on Eno. On Friday evening he rode "to the Hawfields, where I preached the fourth Sabbath in August, to a considerable large congregation, chiefly Presbyterians, who seemed highly pleased, and very desirous to hear the word. Preached again on Tuesday; the people came out to hear quite beyond expectation. Wednesday, set out upon my journey, and came to the Buffalo Settlement, about thirty-five miles; lodged at William Mebane's till Sabbath day; then rode to Adam Michel's, where I preached; the people seemed solemn and very attentive, but no appearance of the life of religion. Returned in the evening, about a mile, to Robert Rankin's, where I was kindly received and well entertained till Tuesday; then returned to the former place, and preached; no stir appeared, but some tears." On Wednesday, September 3d, he set out for the Yadkin, having Robert Rankin as his guide, and having ridden forty-five miles, lodged at John Vannoy's. "Next morning, came to Henry Sloan's, at the Yadkin Ford, where I was kindly entertained till Sabbath day; rode to the meeting-house and preached to a small congregation." Here there appears to have been a congregation of some strength that had a meeting-house, but had become divided,--"Many adhere to the Baptists that were before wavering, and several that professed themselves to be Presbyterians; so that very few at present join heartily for our ministers, and will in a little time, if God prevent not, be too weak either to call or supplicate for a faithful minister. O may the good Lord, who can bring order out of confusion, and call things that are not as though they were, visit this people!" One cause of the divisions in this congregation arose from the labors of a Baptist minister among them by the name of Miller.

        After preaching, he visited some sick people, and went home with James Smith, about four miles. On Tuesday, he preached again at the meeting-house, and went home with Cornelius Anderson, about six miles--"a judicious, honest man, I hope, who seems to be much concerned for the state of the church and perishing souls." On Wednesday, 10th, he visited Captain Hunt, who was sick with an intermitting fever, and found his visit welcome; and returned to Mr. Sloan's. On Friday, 12th, he crossed the Yadkin, and rode about ten miles to James Alison's. On Saturday, he went three or four miles to Mr. Brandon's--"one of my own countrymen." On Sabbath, 14th, he preached at "the meeting-house to a considerable congregation of professing people;" and on Monday, rode to John Luckey's, about five or six miles.

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"Preached again on Wednesday, being appointed as a day of fasting and prayer, to entreat the Lord for deliverance from these sad calamities, with which the land seems in general to be threatened, being in very great danger both of sword and famine." In the evening, he paid a faithful visit to a man, about to die, from a fall from his horse, in a very unprepared state of mind. "Went home with John Andrew, a serious, good man, I hope, with whom my soul was much refreshed, by his warm conversation about the things of God. How sweet to meet one in the wilderness who can speak the language of Canaan! The next day, he rode to Justice Carruth's, about eight miles, and remained till Sabbath, 21st, and then preached at the meeting-house about two miles off, "to a pretty large congregation of people, who seemed generally pretty regular and discreet." The next day, he set out for Mr. David Templeton's, about five miles from Mr. Carruth's; on his way--"came up with a large company of men, women and children, who had fled for their lives from the Cow or Calf pasture in Virginia; from whom I received the melancholy account, that the Indians were still doing a great deal of mischief in those parts, by murdering and destroying several of the inhabitants, and banishing the rest from their houses and livings, whereby they are forced to fly into desert places." Rode on that evening to William Denny's, four miles further; who presented him with what he considered a great present, "a pair of shoes, made of his own leather, which was no small favor." On Tuesday, he returned to David Templeton's, and on Wednesday, a day appointed for fasting and prayer, rode to "the meeting-house and preached." After sermon, he went home with Captain Osborne, about six miles; here, he remained till Sabbath, the 28th, when he preached "at the new meeting-house, about three miles off;"--and "again on Wednesday, being appointed for fasting and humiliation." In the evening, he rode home with William Reese, about seven miles, and remained till Sabbath, the 5th of October, when he preached at Captain Lewis's, about three miles distant--"to as large a congregation as any I have had since I came to these parts." The whole of the succeeding week he lodged at Captain Lewis's. On Wednesday, he preached again, it being the day appointed by the governor and council, for humiliation, fasting and prayer, on account of the distress upon the land.

        On the Sabbath, the 12th of October, he rode seven miles to Justice Alexander's, "when I preached in the afternoon, a considerable solemnity appeared." Though it was now near the middle

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of October, the drought was still so great that he says--"I have not seen so much as one patch of wheat or rye in the ground." On Wednesday, he went over to Major Harris's, about three miles, and preached; on Friday, he preached at David Caldwell's, about five or six miles, to a small congregation, and went on to William Alexander's, and tarried till Sabbath, the 19th, and then rode about twelve miles to James Alexander's, on Sugar Creek, and preached--"where there are some pretty serious, judicious people--may the Lord grant his blessing!" That evening, he rode home with Henry Knealy (or Neely, as he spells the name both ways), six miles; and on Monday, the 20th, took his journey for Broad River--"sixty miles to the southward, in company with two young men, who came thus far to conduct me thither--a place where never any of our missionaries have been."

        On this journey, he passed through the lands of the Catawba Indians. On the first night, they prepared to encamp in the woods, about three miles south of the Catawba--"there being no white man's house on all the road." This was his first night "out of doors." On the next day, they passed one of their hunting camps unmolested; but when they stopped to get their breakfast, they were surrounded by a large number of Indians, shouting and hallooing, and frightening their horses and rifling their baggage. Accordingly, they moved off as fast as possible, without staying to parley; and to their great annoyance, in a little time they passed a second camp of hunters, who prepared to give them a similar reception, calling them to stop, from each side the path. Passing on rapidly, they escaped without harm; and after a ride of twenty-five miles, were permitted to get their breakfasts in peace.

        Here some leaves of the journal are missing.]


        On Sabbath, the 2d of November, he preached "to a number of those poor baptized infidels, many of whom I was told had never heard a sermon in all their lives before, and yet several of them had families." This seems hardly credible. But he relates an anecdote told him here of an old gentleman, who said to the governor of South Carolina, when he was in those parts, in treaty with the Cherokee Indians, that he "had never seen a shirt, been in a fair, heard a sermon or seen a minister, in all his life." Upon which the governor promised to send him up a minister, that he might hear one sermon before he died. The minister came and preached; and this was all the preaching that

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had been heard in the upper part of South Carolina before Mr. McAden's visit.

        How far he penetrated the State is not known, on account of the loss of a few leaves of the journal. "On Monday, the 10th of November, returned about twenty miles, to James Atterson's, on Tyger river; preached on Tuesday, which was the first they had ever heard in these parts, but I hope it will not be the last, for there are men in all these places (blessed be God), some at least, that have a great desire of hearing the gospel preached. Next day rode to James Love's, on Broad River: Thursday, preached." On Broad River his congregation was effected under his preaching. It is not unlikely that some latitude of expression was used by those who gave him the statements he records. It is very likely that he was the first minister the people heard in those neighborhoods; but those who had never heard a sermon were comparatively few, as the mass of the early settlers were of a parentage that taught their children the way to church. There were, however, some settlers from the older parts of the State that had not been much accustomed to any religious forms.

        "Friday, the 14th, took my leave of these parts, and set out for the Waxhaws, forty-five miles, good; that night reached Thomas Farrel's, where I lodged till Sabbath day; then rode to James Patton's, about two miles, and preached to a pretty large congregation of Presbyterian people. Wednesday, preached again in the same place, and crossed the Catawba river and came to Henry White's." Here he remained till Sabbath; part of the time sick of the flux, but was able to preach on Sabbath, the 23d, at "the meeting-house" five miles off; and went home with Justice Dickens. On the Monday following he set out for the Yadkin, retracing his steps; lodging that night at Henry Neely's, where his disorder returned upon him, and kept him till Sabbath, when he rode six miles, to James Alexander's, and preached. From thence he proceeded to Justice Alexander's, on Rocky River, twelve miles; thence on to Captain Lewis's, in the Welch settlement, and there tarried some days as before, and preached the first Sabbath of December (the 7th); thence to William Reece's; and on the next Sabbath (the 14th) he preached in the "new meeting-house," near Mr. Osborne's; the next, at Coddle Creek; and passing on he called on David Templeton, William Denny, Justice Carruth, and John Andrew, and preached on Sabbath, the 28th, at Cathey's meeting-house, now called Thyatira, to a large audience. Here he was urged to remain and

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divide his time with that congregation and Rocky River. The congregation, however, was divided in their preference, some for the old side, and some for the new; and the movements to settle a minister unfortunately became a party question. Being urgently solicited, he preached the next Sabbath at the same church, and his friends made out their subscription. On the whole, he thought it unadvisable to prosecute the matter. After visiting Second Creek, and preaching at Captain Hampton's, he passed on to the Yadkin, and having crossed it with difficulty, he lodged with his former host, Mr. Sloan, and preached in "the meeting-house" on the second Sabbath of January, the 11th day, in company with Mr. Miller, the Baptist minister, from Jersey, of whom as a Christian man he speaks favorably.

        On Tuesday, January 13th, 1756, he set out on a journey down the Cape Fear river, to Wilmington, in company with a Mr. Van Clave, and reached Huary, thirty miles, and preached the next day, Wednesday. The next day he reached Smith's, at the Sand Hills, and remained till Sabbath; in public worship he could find no one to join in singing a part of a psalm. On Monday, the 19th, set off in company with Mr. Smith, who was going to court, and rode fifty miles to McKay's. Next day rode thirty miles to Anson court-house. Here he met with an old acquaintance, James Stewart, and went home with him and remained till Saturday, and preached at the court-house, and rode to the New Store. On Sabbath, the 25th, he rode to Hector McNeill's, "and preached to a number of Highlanders,--some of them scarcely knew one word that I said,--the poorest singers I ever heard in all my life. Next day rode to David Smith's, on the other side of Little River, fourteen miles; on Tuesday, preached to a considerable number of people who came to hear me at Smith's. Wednesday, rode up to Alexander McKay's, upon the Yadkin road, thirty miles; Thursday, preached to a small congregation, mostly of Highlanders, who were very much obliged to me for coming, and highly pleased with my discourse. Though, alas, I am afraid it was all but feigned and hypocritical." His reason for this fear was, some stayed around the house all night and indulged in drinking and profane language, in spite of his remonstrances, and almost entirely prevented his rest.

        On Friday he "set off down the river, thirty miles, to Neill Beard's;" then he preached on Sabbath, 1st of February, to a "mixed multitude, some Presbyterians, some church people, some Baptists, and don't know but some Quakers." However, they expressed

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themselves highly pleased with his visit. On Monday, the 2d, he rode to a Mr. James Semes's, about five miles, a sick family whom he visited, and preached in their house to the neighbors assembled; and in the evening rode on to Mr. Robinson's, "a very affable gentleman," with whom he tarried till Wednesday, and then accompanied to the court-house in Bladen county, where he preached to a considerable congregation; and "in the evening went home with old Justice Randle, about two miles." On Thursday he preached at George Brown's, three miles off, and went on three miles further to Neal Shaw's, and the next day to Duncan McCoulsky's; and on Sabbath, the 8th, rode to Esquire McNeill's, where he preached to a small congregation, the day being wet. "After the sermon a proposal was made to get me to come and settle among them; and I think I never saw people more engaged, or subscribe with greater freedom and cheerfulness in my life. May the Lord, in much mercy, prepare me for some usefulness in the world, and direct me to what will be most for his own glory, and the good of precious souls!"

        "On Monday, 9th, crossed the swamp and came to Baldwin's, on the Whitemarsh, about five miles, where I tarried all night, and preached the next day to a very few irregular sort of people, who, I believe, know but little about the principles of any religion." In the evening he rode home with Mr. Kerr, four miles. On Wednesday he set out for Wilmington, and rode thirty miles to young Mr. Granger's, "a very discreet gentleman, who entertained me with a great deal of courtesy;" on Thursday he rode fifteen miles to President Roan's; and on the next day fifteen miles further to the ferry, and then crossed by water, four miles, to Wilmington.

        Here he preached, Sabbath, the 15th, "in the A.M., to a large and splendid audience, but was surprised when I came again in the P.M., to see about a dozen met to hear me." This small number greatly depressed his spirits, and probably hastened his departure from the place on the Tuesday following. On that day he rode twenty-five miles, to Cowen's, up the Northeast Cape Fear, and on the next day to old Mr. Evans's, in the Welch Tract.

        There he preached on Sabbath, 22d, designing to move on homeward, "but I was detained by the affection and entreaties of this people, who earnestly pressed upon me to tarry with them another Sabbath; their design herein was that they might have time to get a subscription drawn up, that they might put in a call for me." On Sabbath, the 29th, he preached again to the same

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people, who expressed great desire for his return, and made out a call for him as their pastor.

        On Tuesday, March 2d, he rode to Mr. Bowen's, about ten miles, on Black River; and on the next day six miles further, and preached, then crossed the river and rode about five miles to South River, where he lodged with Mr. Anderson. On Thursday crossed Collie's Swamp, then in a bad condition--"lodged at old Mr. Grife Jones's;" on the next day crossed the Northwest, and lodged at George Brown's, where he preached on Sabbath, March 7th. While in this neighborhood, he was grieved to find some, who had been brought up under the influence of the gospel in other parts, become dissolute and indulging infidel notions, since their abode in this region where the gospel was not regularly preached, and in fact scarcely heard.

        On Monday, the 8th, crossed the Northwest, and being detained by the rain, and some other business, he rode but about ten miles, to Mr. Isaac Jones's, "a good honest Quaker, and an assemblyman." The next day, crossed Collie's Swamp again, which was now overflowed, and caused much trouble by swimming the horses--"and got to Mr. Anderson's again about 12 o'clock;" that same day, he rode on to Mr. Lewis's, on Black River, about twenty-five miles. On Wednesday, he went fifteen miles, to John James's, and preached. By the high waters he was detained in the Welch Tract till after the second Sabbath of March. On Thursday, 18th, he rode to Jeremiah Holden's, about twenty miles; and on the next morning, about three miles, to Mr. Dickson's, the clerk of Duplin county, where he preached on Sabbath, the 21st, to a considerable congregation, most of whom were Irish.

        "The people here being very desirous to join with the Welch Tract, in putting in a call for me, and many of their best friends being abroad upon business, they insisted so strongly upon me, that I was forced to consent to stay with them another day. Tuesday, rode up to Goshen in company with Mr. Dickson, and several more. Came to Mr. Gaven's, twelve miles, where we tarried all night; next day preached, and returned to Mr. Dickson's." On Sabbath, 28th, he preached at John Miller's, about two miles distant. The people seemed all very hearty in giving him a call, and making a proper support for him.

        On Monday, the 29th, he set out from Mr. Dickson's homeward; tarried that night at Mr. Gaven's, twelve miles; next day crossed Neuse, and tarried with Joshua Herring, about thirty

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miles. This man was out early in the morning, and assembled his neighbors, and detained him to preach to them at noon. In the evening, rode to Mr. Herring's, senior, about twelve miles. "The next morning, set out upon my journey for Pamlico, and rode about ten miles, to Major McWain's, where I had opportunity of seeing and conversing with Governor Dobbs, who is a very sociable gentleman." That night he lodged at Peter's Ferry, on Cuttentony, about twenty miles, it being too late to go father. The next day, he rode about forty miles, to Salter's Ferry, on Pamlico. The next day, being Saturday, he came to Thomas Little's, where he remained over Sabbath, April 4th. This man had not heard a Presbyterian minister in the twenty-eight years he had lived in Carolina, and took the opportunity of sending round for his neighbors, and collected a congregation; and kept Mr. McAden till Wednesday, to preach again. "I found some few amongst them, that I trust are God's dear children, who seemed much refreshed by my coming."

        On the 7th day of April, Wednesday, after sermon, he rode to Mr. Barrow's, about five miles; and the next day, about five or six miles, to the Red Banks, "where I preached to a pretty large company of various sorts of people, but fewer Presbyterians. In the evening, rode up the river, ten miles, to Mr. Mace's, who is a man of considerable note, and a Presbyterian." Here he remained till Sabbath, the 11th, and preached in the neighborhood.

        On Tuesday, April 13th, he set out homeward, and rode twenty miles, to Mr. Toole's, on Tar River; this man he describes as unhappy in his notions of unbelief. On Wednesday, he rode thirty miles, to Edgecomb court-house; the next day he reached Fishing Creek, about twenty-five miles; and on Friday, he rode about ten miles up the creek, and was kindly received by the Baptist friends he made on his journey through the country the last fall. On Sabbath, 18th, he preached at their meeting-house. Here many came to converse with him about their experience. On the next day, he went home with Joseph Linsey, who had heard him preach.

        "He insisted very hard upon me to stay at Nut Bush, and give them a sermon, as they were very destitute and out of the way. I went home with him, about twenty-two miles, it being pretty much in my way, and preached." He found them a cheerful people, without the regular preaching of the gospel, and in a situation as might be expected, with abundance of wealth, and full leisure for enjoyment.

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        On Wednesday he reached Captain Hampton's, about 35 miles; and on Thursday got to John Anderson's,--"who seemed very joyful to see me returned so far back again;" tarried till Sabbath, and preached. On Tuesday, 27th, he preached at Hawfields; on Wednesday at Eno: on Thursday rode down to Aaron Vanhook's; and next day to John McFarland's, on Hico; and there preached, Sabbath, the 2d of May.

        "Got ready to take my journey from Carolina, Thursday, the 6th of May, 1756; that day rode in company with Solomon Debow, who came to conduct me as far as John Baird's, on Dan River, twenty miles from Hico." From thence he set off alone. Passing through Amelia, we find him, on Sabbath, the 9th of May, at the house of Mr. Messaux, on James' River. Here the journal abruptly closes.

        It is interesting to follow the track of this early missionary. Many of the neighborhoods he mentions have at this day regular preaching; in some there are large congregations and flourishing churches; and some few have passed from the list of Presbyterian congregations.

        The time, and distances from place to place, have been given for the purpose of enabling those in the region of his route to trace his track. A comparison of the state of things as they appeared ninety years ago, with the present, may lead to profitable reflections. These data are left with those who may feel interested in searching out the "beginning of things."

M'ADEN'S LABORS AS A PASTOR IN NORTH CAROLINA.

        Mr. McAden returned to Carolina, and became the settled minister of the congregations in Duplin and New Hanover. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New Castle, in 1757; and in 1759 was dismissed to join Hanover Presbytery, which then included a greater part of Virginia, and extended indefinitely south. He presented his credentials at a meeting of the Presbytery on Rockfish, July 18th, 1759, having previously sat as a corresponding member.

        With these people he remained about ten years; when, believing that the influence of the climate upon his health was too unfavorable to justify his remaining longer in the lower part of the State, he removed to Caswell county, and there finished his days. At a meeting of Hanover Presbytery, at Buffalo, March 2d, 1768, for the purpose of ordaining Messrs. David Caldwell and Joseph Alexander, "a call from the churches of Hico, Dan River, and

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County Line Creek," was put in for his pastoral services. At the same meeting he presided at the installation of the Rev. David Caldwell over the congregations of Buffalo and Alamance. This year, if not earlier, he became a resident of Caswell. An intimacy had existed between him and this people for years, and he had laid their destitute condition before the Presbytery in 1759, "giving a moving representation of their difficulties." The names of these churches were changed; and also the place of his labors in part. At the time of his death he was preaching at Red House (Middle Hyco), Greer's (Upper Hyco), and to a church in Pittsylvania, "about half a day's ride" from his dwelling, near the Red House.

        Mr. McAden was united in marriage with a Miss Scott, of Lunenburg county, Virginia, whose family name was given to the neighborhood, formed by a company of emigrants from the North of Ireland, and called Scott's Settlement. A number of children were born to him in Duplin, the eldest of whom died in Caswell, in the year 1845.

        The following extract from a letter dictated by Dr. John McAden, the eldest son of the preacher, in his 82d year, contains all we know of the habits of this pioneer of Carolina. The letter bears date--"Hyco Hills, Caswell county, Jan. 5th, 1845. My father was a very systematic man,--and he always spent one or two days every week in private study,--and if he walked into the fields he always carried his Bible with him. He visited with his elders once a year, all the families within the bounds of his congregations,--and he would exhort and pray with them during his stay. He would collect all of his congregations once a year at his churches, and hold an examination of those present. He administered the sacrament at each of his churches twice every year. He spent his life in attempting to convince all of their sins, and in rendering happy those who were members of his congregations,--respected and beloved by all who knew him. During the Revolution, the Lord God Almighty thought proper to remove this venerable man, whose influence will always be acknowledged with pleasure; and he departed this life January 20th, 1781, leaving a wife and seven children. Two weeks after his death, the British encamped in the yard of the Red House church. They remained there some time, going about over the country, committing many depredations upon all the neighbors. And my father's long ministerial services did not free him from their ravages, but they came to his house and searched it throughout, destroying many things, and also many of his most valuable papers, on account of which,

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the knowledge of my father is so limited, having been absent a greater part of my life at school in Guilford, N. C., under the late Dr. Caldwell, and having arrived at home a few days before the death of my father. During the encampment of the British in the yard of the Red House, they committed many depredations upon the church which were not repaired for many years."

        The visit of the British referred to in this letter, took place, after Green had crossed the Dan, in the memorable retreat before Cornwallis, by which the march of Morgan into Virginia, with the prisoners taken at the Cowpens, was covered, and the American forces placed beyond the reach of the enemy, till reinforcements from Virginia came in, and Greene could venture to face the enemy and provoke the famous battle of Guilford. It is a well-known fact that Cornwallis's army ever showed a dislike to Presbyterian ministers, as the immediate cause of much of the stubborn resistance which met them at every step in Carolina. McAden had rested from his labors before his house was plundered, like Caldwell's; and he was spread the trial of being witness of the miseries of his congregation, and flying, like a criminal, to the forests and the dens of the earth, like his brother, of Guilford.

        Mr. McAden lies buried in the grave-yard, near the Red House, in Caswell county, about five miles from the flourishing town of Milton, the Pioneer in Duplin, New Hanover, Caswell, and Pittsylvania.

THE CHURCHES IN DUPLIN AND NEW HANOVER AFTER HIS DEPARTURE.

        For a long period there was no successor to Mr. McAden in Duplin and New Hanover. The congregations were served only by the precarious and desultory labors of occasional missionaries, and were dwindling away. In 1793, John Robinson was licensed by Orange Presbytery, and directed to labor in Duplin. The mutual interest resulting from his first visit, led to his settlement; and till the close of the century, his successful labors were devoted to the remains of the congregations served by McAden for about ten years. They revived under his ministry. In the year 1800 he removed to Fayetteville.

        The Rev. Samuel Stanford became a member of Orange Presbytery in 1795, and visited the low country before Mr. Robinson left, and became his successor. He extended his labors over the greater part of Duplin as a minister, and conducted a classical chool with success. The Academy at the Grove has been kept

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in operation, with some intermissions, for a long series of years. The pastors that have succeeded Mr. Stanford have been patrons or teachers of a classical school either at the Grove, or near their own residence, and have kept alive the spirit of classical education, without which there is no permanent attention to polite literature, and sound philosophy, and true science. Mr. Stanford wore out his strength and days in the service of the people of Duplin, and finished his course in the year 1828.

        For a few years the Rev. S. D. Hatch labored with great success in Duplin; and left the county for a more southern residence much against the desires of an affectionate people.

        Rev. Alexander McIver ran a short race in Duplin, being arrested by sudden death, in the midst of his days and his usefulness.

        Wilmington had no organized Presbyterian church till long after the Revolution, engaging occasionally the services of well-educated men, who acted in the capacity of classical teachers and ministers of the gospel. Rev. James Tate, a Presbyterian minister, came from Ireland to Wilmington, about the year 1760; and for his support opened a classical school, the first ever taught in the place. He educated many of the young men of New Hanover, who took an active part in the Revolution. While residing in Wilmington, he was accustomed to take excursions for preaching through New Hanover and the adjoining counties, particularly up the Black and South Rivers. In the course of his visits he baptized the children of the Scotch and Irish families, that chose to present them, without any particular inquiry into the Christian experience of the parents, which would perhaps have been unavailing of any good in the destitute condition of the country. It is supposed, however, that he practised upon the principle of admitting to the ordinance the children of all those who had been themselves baptized, if not guilty of scandalous lives. He received a small fee for each baptism, either in money or in cotton yarn; and this appears to have been all his salary and all the remuneration for his journeyings and services.

        During the Revolutionary war, being a staunch whig in his principles, he found it prudent to leave Wilmington and seek a residence in the upper country. He declined all offers to be connected with a congregation; engaged in frequent preachings in destitute neighborhoods desirous of hearing the gospel. He made his home in the Hawfields, in Orange. Courteous in his manners, especially to females, he was never married. Particularly neat in

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his dress, and winning in his conversation, his company was prized by young people; and his influence over them was highly improving to their manners, morals, and mental culture.

        About the year 1770, the first church building was put up on Black River, near where the Black River Chapel now stands.

        About the year 1785, Rev. William Bingham, from Ireland, commenced preaching in Wilmington and the surrounding country. He sustained himself by a classical school, in the management of which he attained great excellence and éclat. He removed to the upper country, and taught with great success in Chatham and in Orange. His mantle, as teacher, fell upon his sons.

        About the year 1790, the Rev. Colin Lindsey, a man of extensive education, fine appearance, and superior talents as a speaker, came over from Scotland on invitation, and settled on Black River, on the place now owned by Mr. Sellars. His stay was short. Difficulties of a moral nature arose; and in about two years he removed to Robeson. Having bought a yoke of oxen on a Saturday, at a sale, he permitted them to be driven home on the Sabbath, alleging as a reason, want of food at the place of sale; a member of his church remonstrating, he expressed strong dissatisfaction at the liberty taken by a private member to reprove the minister. Hard words and hard feelings succeeded; the congregation enlisted, and divided. To this grievance was added a charge of too free use of spirituous liquors, the distinction of a moderate use being admitted; in consequence he removed first to Raft Marsh congregation, and from thence to Bethel. About the year 1802 he was deprived by Presbytery of his authority to preach, and was excommunicated. He continued, however, to preach and baptize whenever opportunity occurred; and further rendered himself obnoxious to the Presbytery of Orange, and the Synod of the Carolinas, by opposing the great revival of 1802. Seizing upon the irregularities that accompanied that extensive work, he denounced the whole as a delusion, and charged his former brethren with fanaticism, and unkind and unrighteous discipline. By his talents and address he obtained many adherents, and greatly resisted the spread of religion, as taught by zealous ministers of the day. A notice of this man appears in the extracts from the records of the Synod of North Carolina for the year 1810. His latter days were unhappy, and in 1832 he died unreconciled to the Presbytery. Little is known of his religious exercises in his last days.

        His wife was of the Hamilton family, so famous in Scotland and

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Ireland. After the difficulties with her husband commenced, she was urged to return to Scotland, but refused. She survived her husband some years; her last days were cheered by the family with whom she resided, by the name of McGlaughlin, whose partiality for the name and race of the Hamiltons was expressed in unremitting attentions to her in her infirmities.

        Early in the year 1798, the Rev. Robert Tate, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, reared in the Hawfields, about two miles cast of the place of worship, visited New Hanover and Duplin, and became a resident minister. He was ordained in 1799. His preaching-places have been mostly in New Hanover. His first communion was on Rockfish, near where the church now stands. Four persons united with him and his wife, viz.: Timothy Bloodworth and his wife, and Timothy Wilson and his wife. Mr. Bloodworth was much in public life,--collector of the port of Wilmington, and member of Congress from that district. In his old age, he prepared for the ministry, but some pecuniary misfortunes prevented his entrance upon the duties of the office.

        Under Mr. Tate, Rockfish, Keith, and Hopewell sprang up and opened the doors of the sanctuary to a large region of country. The scene of McAden's labors had become a desolation; but the church still lives in New Hanover, and has hope of continuance. Black River congregation was for a long time a sharer of Mr. Tate's ministerial labors. Besides the refreshing influence enjoyed in common with his brethren, in 1802, and for some succeeding years, and various more limited manifestations of divine presence, the congregations generally in New Hanover, were visited, in 1832, with a refreshing influence, which added many to the visible church of Christ, and promoted piety and the life of godliness.

        The laborers in that part of the Lord's vineyard embraced by New Hanover, and Duplin, and Sampson, have great reason to be encouraged, while they labor in the field trod by the first Presbyterian missionaries to Carolina, and hallowed by the sepulchres of the ancient dead. When another century shall have passed, may there be found worthy successors in the ministry, and flourishing churches in the vast Turpentine Region; and may the blessings of grace be as ceaseless to the inhabitants as the flow of their annual temporal wealth.

M'ADEN'S PLACES OF PREACHING WHILE RESIDING IN CASWELL COUNTY.

        Colonel James Smith, of Tennessee, an emigrant from North

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Carolina, and son of Colonel Samuel Smith, one of the founders of Grassy Creek church, in Granville county, in a letter to Dr. Alexander Wilson, of Caldwell Institute, says, "some time between 1755 and 1760, Samuel Bell, with his brothers and son-in-law, Donnell, removed from Pennsylvania, and settled in the forks of Hico. They were strict Presbyterians, and were soon supplied with preaching by a Mr. Black, afterwards by Mr. McAden, from the lower part of the State." It appears that this gentleman was not aware that McAden had previously visited Hico, and found a few families of Presbyterians already there, and that Mr. Pattillo had been invited there in 1758. The emigrants he mentions formed the congregation of Upper Hico (now Greers); from other families Mr. McAden organized Middle Hico (Red House); and from the emigration of the Barnet family and their friends, he gathered Barnet's, or Lower Hico.

        Mr. Smith states that about the time the Bells settled in the forks, Hugh Barnet, his brother, and their friends, seated themselves some fifteen or twenty miles southeast of that settlement, and planted a church, which was frequently called Barnet's, sometimes Criswell's, from their first minister, James Criswell, who was licensed by Hanover Presbytery. This church was sometimes also called Lower Hico, and though it has ceased to have a place in the records of the church, it at one time contained more members than any of the sister churches in the State.

        There was another church in Caswell of long standing, called Bethany, or Rattlesnake, situated on the road from Milton to Yanceyville, near the residence of Mr. George Williamson. It was never under the care of Mr. McAden. For a long time it was a flourishing church, and for a series of years enjoyed the labors of Rev. Ebenezer B. Currie, now (1846) the oldest minister in Orange Presbytery. This church has been divided, and the old place of preaching abandoned; one part of the church and congregation worshipping in Yanceyville, and the other forming the church of Gilead, some five miles southwest of Milton.

        Mr. McAden had another place of preaching, and a church organized near Pittsylvania court-house, in Virginia, on which he regularly attended during his life. May the church now rising in Pittsylvania come up like a phoenix from the ashes of the more ancient and almost forgotten, though once flourishing, congregations.

        The Bell family, says Mr. Smith, early removed from this to Guilford, carrying their attachment to religion and to Presbyterianism

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along with them, and their descendants are to be found there to this day. Two of the sons of Samuel Bell, and the daughter, Donnell, removed to the west, still carrying their attachment to religion and Presbyterianism along with them. The two sons lived to an advanced age. One of them, while on his knees at family prayer, faltered in his voice, and said, "What is this?"--and ceased to breathe. But of this family, says Mr. Smith (many years since), sprung four preachers of strong common sense, full of zeal, and eminent for piety. By this family much has been done for propagating the gospel in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Cherokee nation.

        The Covenant of God stands sure. "I will be a God to thee and thy children after thee."

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CHAPTER XIV.
CHURCH OF SUGAR CREEK--ITS FIRST MINISTER, ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD.

        THE first Presbyterian minister that took his residence in Western Carolina, and the third in the State, was Alexander Craighead. In what part of Ireland he was born, or in what year he emigrated to America, is not a matter of record. The name of Craighead is of frequent occurrence in the history of the Church of Scotland and of Ireland, and holds an honorable place among the ministry. The tradition in the family of Mr. Craighead, as related by Mr. Caruthers, was, that his father and grandfather, and perhaps his ancestors further back, were ministers of the gospel, strongly attached to the church, and reputed as truly pious. A Mr. Thomas Craighead was among the first ministers of Donegal Presbytery,--a native of Scotland, ordained in Ireland,--emigrating to New England, and there remaining from 1715 to 1721,--uniting with the Presbytery of New Castle in 1724,--he finished his course in 1738.

        The first notice we have of Mr. Alexander Craighead, as member of the Synod of Philadelphia, appears in the record of the Synod for the year 1736, September 16th: "the Presbytery of Donegal report that Mr. Alexander Craighead was last winter ordained to the work of the ministry, and at that time did adopt the Westminster Confession of Faith, &c.; and also, both he and Mr. John Paul, lately from Ireland, having now heard the several resolutions and acts of the Synod in relation to the adopting said Confession, &c., did before the Synod declare their agreement thereunto." In this minute, reference is made to the proceedings of the Synod the previous year respecting the employing of ministers from abroad, requiring of them an express acknowledgment of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, before the Presbytery, as condition of admission.

        Being an exceedingly zealous man, of an ardent temperament, devoted to the work of the ministry, he was noted for preaching sermons peculiarly calculated to awaken careless sinners. Anxious for the salvation of men, and dreading the awful consequences of that stupidity on the subject of religion, so apparent around him, he favored those measures for bringing men to Christ which were

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not so acceptable to his brethren in the Presbytery. He was accused of irregularities before his Presbytery in 1740. No immoralities were alleged against him, or false doctrines charged on him; the complaint was against various proceedings of his thought to be irregular. This was about the time of the great revival of religion, which in the course of a few years was felt all over the Protestant world, began to be seen in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the neighboring counties--an account of which from the pen of Samuel Blair is read with unabating interest; and the commencement of those discussions which led to the dismemberment of the Synod of Philadelphia in 1745.

        The Presbytery were unable to make any conclusion of the matter; for while the majority were against him, his vehement appeals to the public turned the sympathies of the community in his favor. The charge of irregularity he rebutted by the recriminating charge of Pharisaism, coldness and formality; and in the ardor of his defence he was not very measured in his epithets and comparisons.

        In the year 1741 the case was carried up to the Synod, and was debated with much earnestness. The great revival in Mr. Blair's congregation in Fagg's Manor had spread to many of the congregations that had previously been unmoved, and the whole community, both religious and irreligious, were agitated, not so much on the subject of doctrines, as of measures, not of orthodoxy in the creed, but of prudence and propriety in the conduct of church matters generally, and the peculiar manner of administering the Word of God, from which error in belief and practice might arise. The case of Mr. Craighead was lost sight of by the action consequent upon the protest brought in by Rev. Robert Cross, signed by himself and eleven ministers and eight elders. The members of New Brunswick Presbytery withdrew, and Mr. Craighead withdrew with them. His name does not appear on the list of either Synod of New York or Philadelphia until the year 1753, when he appears upon the roll of the Synod of New York as an absentee. From the records for 1755, he appears as member of New Castle Presbytery. During the interval from 1745 to 1753, he was for a time an associate with the Cameronians. He was a great admirer of Whitefield's spirit and action; and like the first minister among the Presbyterians in the lower part of the State, James Campbell, drank deeply of the same fountain of truth and love. Like the man they admired, both these ministers possessed the power of moving men; and both left an impress upon the community in which they lived in Carolina, and stamped an image on the churches they gathered, which are

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visible to this day. To all human appearance there has been a great amount of fervent piety among the churches gathered and watered by these men, which has been bequeathed to their descendants from generation to generation, as a precious inheritance of the covenant of faith.

        Previous to the time that Mr. Craighead's name appears upon the roll of the Synod of New York, 1753, he removed to Virginia, probably about the year 1749, and took his residence in the county of Augusta, on the Cow Pasture river, in the bounds of the present Windy Cove congregation. There is upon the minutes of the Philadelphia Synod, in the year 1752, a mention of a Mr. Craighead, the Christian name not given, and the Presbytery with which he held his connection not mentioned.

        Mr. Alexander Craighead's name was enrolled among the members set off for the formation of the Presbytery of Hanover, as appears from the following extract from minutes of the Synod of New York for 1755: "A petition was brought into the Synod setting forth the necessity of erecting a new Presbytery in Virginia, the Synod therefore appoint the Rev. Samuel Davies, John Todd, Alexander Craighead, Robert Henry, John Wright, and John Brown, to be a Presbytery under the name of the Presbytery of Hanover, and that their first meeting shall be in Hanover, on the first Wednesday of December next, and that Mr. Davies open said meeting by a sermon; and that any of their members settling to the southward and westward of Mr. Hogge's congregation, shall have liberty to join said Presbytery of Hanover."

        Owing probably to the troubles in the country, Mr. Craighead did not meet with the Presbytery for some two years after its formation.

        The defeat of Braddock on the 9th of July, 1755, had thrown the frontiers of Virginia at the mercy of the Indians. The inroads of the savages were frequent and murderous. Terror reigned throughout the valley. Mr. Craighead occupying a most exposed situation, his preaching-place being a short distance from the present Windy Cove church, and his dwelling on the farm now occupied by Mr. Andrew Settlington--in a settlement on the Virginia frontier, and open to the incursions of the savages, fled with those of his people who were disposed and able to fly, and sought safety in less exposed situations, after having lived in Virginia about six years. Crossing the Blue Ridge, he passed on to the more quiet regions in Carolina, and found a location among the settlements along the Catawba and its smaller tributaries, in the bounds

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of what is now Mecklenburg county. Mr. Craighead first met with Hanover Presbytery at Cub Creek, Sept. 2d, 1757. At a meeting of the Presbytery in Cumberland, at Capt. Anderson's, January, 1758, Mr. Craighead was directed to preach at Rocky River, on the second Sabbath of February, and visit the other vacancies till the spring meeting. At the meeting of the Presbytery in April, a call from Rocky River was presented for the services of Mr. Craighead. He accepted the call, and requested installation. "Presbytery hereby consent that Mr. Craighead should accept the call of the people on Rocky River, in North Carolina, and settle with them as their minister, and they appoint Mr. Martin to preside at his installation at such time as best suits them both." This appointment Mr. Martin failed to fulfil, and in September, Mr. William Richardson, on his way to the Cherokees, was appointed to perform the duty. This appointment was fulfilled, though the day of the services is not given. From this record it appears that the name of the oldest church in the upper country was Rocky River; and it included Sugar Creek in its bounds. In 1765 the bounds of all the congregations were adjusted by order of the Synod.

        In this beautiful, fertile and peaceful country, Mr. Craighead passed the remainder of his days, in the active duties of a frontier minister of the gospel, and ended his successful labors in his Master's vineyard in the month of March, 1766; the solitary minister between the Yadkin and Catawba.

        In this retired country, too, he found full and undisturbed exercise for that ardent love of personal liberty and freedom of opinion which had rendered him obnoxious in Pennsylvania, and was in some measure restrained in Virginia. He was ahead of his ministerial brethren in Pennsylvania in his views of civil government and religious liberty, and became particularly offensive to the Governor for a pamphlet of a political nature, the authorship of which was attributed to him. This pamphlet attracted so much attention, that in 1743 Thomas Cookson, one of his Majesty's justices, for the county of Lancaster, in the name of the Governor, laid it before the Synod of Philadelphia. The Synod disavowed both the pamphlet and Mr. Craighead; and agreed with the Justice that it was calculated to foment disloyal and rebellious practices, and disseminate principles of disaffection.

        In the State of Virginia to which he removed, the disabilities upon those who dissented from the established government, were ill-suited to the spirit of such a man as Mr. Craighead. To fight with savages, to defend the frontiers, and shield the plantations of

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Eastern Virginia; for men that could not yield to his congregation the privilege of being married according to the ceremonies of the church to which they belonged, and who required of them to support a ministry on whose ordinances, public and private, they would not attend, could not be agreeable to a spirit that longed for all the freedom that belongs to man, and in his aspirations for what he had not seen, and scarcely knew how to comprehend, indulged in latitude of thought and expression alarming even to emigrants from Ireland, whose minds had not been restrained in their speculations about religious and civil liberty.

        In Carolina, he found a people remote from the seat of authority, among whom the intolerant laws were a dead letter, so far divided from other congregations, even of his own faith, that there could be no collision with him, on account of faith or practice; so united in their general principles of religion and church government, that he was the teacher of the whole population, and here his spirit rested. Here he passed his days; here he poured forth his principles of religious and civil government, undisturbed by the jealousy of the government, too distant to be aware of his doings, or too careless to be interested in the poor and distant emigrants on the Catawba.

        Mr. Craighead had the privilege of forming the principles, both civil and religious, in no measured degree, of a race of men that feared God, and feared not labor and hardship, or the face of man; a race that sought for freedom and property in the wilderness, and having found them, rejoiced,--a race capable of great excellence, mental and physical, whose minds could conceive the glorious idea of Independence, and whose convention announced it to the world, in May, 1775, and whose hands sustained it in the trying scenes of the Revolution.

        About the time the emigration from Ireland, through Pennsylvania, began to occupy the beautiful valley of Virginia, and the waters of the Roanoke, some scattered families were found following the Indian traders' path to the wide prairies on the east of the Catawba, and west of the Yadkin. From the similarity of names, in the absence of other proof, it is very probable that these settlements, in the beautiful Mesopotamia of Carolina, were formed from emigrants from the same parts of Ireland that nurtured the youth of the ancestors of the congregation on Opecquon, in Frederick county, in Virginia, and the congregation of the Triple-forks of Shenandoah, in Augusta. These in Virginia were commenced about the year 1737; those in Carolina must have been soon after. By means of the memoranda preserved by the Clark family, that have

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lived more than a century along the Cape Fear river, it is ascertained that a family, if not a company, of emigrants went to the west of Yadkin, as all the upper country was then called, as early as the year 1746, to join some families that were living sequestered in that fertile region. This, the oldest positive date that is now known, indicates a previous settlement, the time of whose arrival cannot be found out, as the records of courts are all silent, and the offices of the foreign landowners were not then opened for the sale of these remote fields and forests.

        The emigrants from Ireland, holding the Protestant faith, the first to leave the place of their birth, for the enjoyment of freedom, in companies sufficient to form settlements, sought the wilds of America by two avenues, the one, by the Delaware River, whose chief port was Philadelphia, and the other, by a more southern landing, the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Those landing at the southern port, immediately sought the fertile forests of the upper country, approaching North Carolina on one side, and Georgia on the other; and not being very particular about boundaries, extended southward at pleasure, while, on the north, they were checked by a counter tide of emigration. Those who landed on the Delaware, after the desirable lands east of the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, were occupied, turned their course southward, and were speedily on the Catawba: passing on, they met the southern tide, and the stream turned westward, to the wilderness long known as "Beyond the Mountains;" now, as Tennessee. These two streams, from the same original fountain, Ireland, meeting and intermingling in this new soil, preserve the characteristic difference, the one, possessing some of the air and manner of Pennsylvania, and the other, of Charleston. These are the Puritans, the Roundheads of the South, the Blue-stockings of all countries; men that settled the wilderness on principle, and for principle's sake; that built churches from principle, and fought for liberty of person and conscience as their acquisition, and the birthright of their children.

        Passing along the upper stage route from South Carolina, through the "Old North State," to the "Old Dominion," the traveller is conducted through the pleasant villages of Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, Lexington, Greensborough, and then either through Hillsborough to the capital of North Carolina, Raleigh, or through Danville or Milton, on to the River of Powhatan. This is the line of settlements of the emigrants from Ireland, as they sought a residence in this beautiful upper country. After passing Charlotte, the first object of importance that meets the eye of one searching for localities, is the plain brick meeting-house, of the Sugar Creek congregation,

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about three miles north of the village. This is the present place of worship of part of the oldest Presbyterian congregation in the upper country, in some measure THE PARENT OF THE SEVEN CONGREGATIONS that formed the Convention in Charlotte, in 1775. The Indian name of the creek, which gave name to the congregation, was pronounced Sugaw or Soogaw, and in the early records of the Church, was written Sugaw; but for many years it has been written according to the common pronunciation, ending the word with the letter r, instead of w. This brick church is the third house of worship used by the congregation; the first stood about half a mile west from this, and the second, a few steps south, the pulpit being over the place now occupied by the pastor's grave.

        Previous to the year 1750, the emigration to this beautiful but distant frontier was slow, and the solitary cabins were found upon the borders of prairies, and in the vicinity of canebrakes, the immense ranges abounding with wild game, and affording sustenance the whole year, for herds of tame cattle. Extensive tracts of country between the Yadkin and the Catawba, now waving with thrifty forests, then were covered with tall grass, with scarce a bush or shrub, looking at first view as if immense grazing farms had been at once abandoned, the houses disappearing, and the abundant grass luxuriating in its native wildness and beauty, the wild herds wandering at pleasure, and nature rejoicing in undisturbed quietness.

        From about the year 1750, family after family, group after group, succeeded in rapid progression, led on by reports sent back by the adventurous pioneers of the fertility and beauty of those solitudes, where conscience was free, and labor all voluntary. By the time that Mr. McAden visited the settlements in 1755 and 1756, they were in sufficient numbers to form a congregation in the centre spot. Many of the early settlers were truly pious, many others had been accustomed to attend upon and support the ordinances of God's house. Intermingled were some that delighted, in these solitudes, to throw off all restraint, and live in open disregard of the ordinances of God, and as far as was safe, in defiance of the laws of man. The pious and the moral united in the worship of God, and formed the congregation of Sugaw Creek, which knew no other bounds than the distance men and women could walk or ride to church, which was often as much as fifteen miles, as a regular thing, and twenty for an occasional meeting.

        At the time of the settlement of Mr. Craighead, the county of Anson extended from Bladen indefinitely west, having been set off

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in 1749, as a separate county. In the year 1762, the county of Mecklenburg was set off from Anson, and took its name in honor of the reigning house of Hanover; and the county seat, in the bounds of Sugaw Creek congregation, and about three miles from the church, was called Charlotte, in honor of the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg.

        About the year 1765, by order of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, the congregations that surround Sugar Creek were organized by the Rev. Messrs. Spencer and M'Whorter, as appears from the Records of Synod as follows:--viz., Elizabethtown, May 23d, 1764,--"Synod more particularly considering the state of many congregations to the southward, and particularly North Carolina, and the great importance of having those congregations properly organized, appoint the Rev. Messrs. Elihu Spencer and Alexander M'Whorter, to go as our missionaries for that purpose; that they form societies, help them in adjusting their bounds, to ordain elders, administer sealing ordinances, instruct the people in discipline, and finally direct them in their after conduct," &c. On the 16th of May, 1765, this committee reported to the Synod that they had performed their mission; this report, however, has not been preserved. But we are not left at a loss for the names of part of the congregations whose bounds they adjusted, as, in that and the succeeding year, calls were sent in for pastors from Steel Creek, Providence, Hopewell, Centre, Rocky River, and Poplar Tent, which entirely surrounded Sugar Creek, besides those in Rowan and Iredell.

        These seven congregations were in Mecklenburg, except a part of Centre which lay in Rowan (now Iredell),--and in their extensive bounds comprehended almost the entire county. From these came the delegates that formed the celebrated convention in Charlotte.

        A visit to the localities of this congregation will reward the traveller.

        Turning westward from this brick church, about half a mile through the woods, you find on a gentle ascent, the first burying ground of this congregation, and probably the oldest in Mecklenburg county. A few rods to the east of the stone wall that surrounds it, stood a log church where Craighead preached, and where were congregated from Sabbath to Sabbath many choice spirits, that having worshipped the God of their fathers, in this wilderness, far from their native land, now sleep in this yard. The house, to its very foundation, has passed away, and with it the generation that

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gathered in it, upon the first settlement of the land. Their deeds remain. The children of that race are passing away too; scarce a man or woman lingers in the flesh; and with them is passing, fast passing to oblivion, the knowledge of things, and men, and deeds, which posterity will fain dig from the rubbish of antiquity, and shall dig for in vain. The generation has passed, without a history, and almost without an epitaph.

        These little breaches you see in the time defying wall, reared by the emigrants around the burial place of their dead, were made by gold diggers, when the excitement first spread over the land upon the discovery, that these adventurous people had lived, and died, and were buried here, ignorant that there was, or could be, in their place of worship and sepulture, any deposit more dear to posterity than the ashes of their ancestors. Entering by the gateway at the north-western corner through which the emigrants carried their dead, a multitude of graves closely congregated, with a few scattered monuments, meet the eye. You cannot avoid the impression, as you move on, that you are walking upon the ashes of the dead; and as you read some of the scanty memorials, reared by affection to mark the burial-places of friends, that you are among the tombs of the first settlers who lie in crowds beneath your feet, without a stone to tell whose body is resting there in expectation of the resurrection.

        The first head-stone, a little distance from the gate, on the right, is inscribed,--"MRS. JEMIMA ALEXANDER SHARPE; born Jan. 9th, 1727: died Sept. 1st, 1797: a widdow 38 years." An elder sister of the secretary of the convention, one of the earliest emigrants to this country, she used to say, that in the early days of her residence here, her nearest neighbor northward was eight miles, and southward and eastward, fifteen; that the coming of a neighbor was a matter of rejoicing; and that her heart was sustained in her solitude by the Doctrines of the Gospel and the Creed of her Church.

        In the southwest corner is an inscription to--JANE WALLIS, who died July 31st, 1792, in the eightieth year of her age,--the honored mother of the Rev. Mr. Wallis, minister of Providence, some fifteen miles south of this place,--the able defender of Christianity against infidelity spreading over the country at the close of the Revolution, like a flood. His grave is with his people.

        Near the middle of the yard is the stone inscribed to the memory of DAVID ROBINSON, who died October 12th, 1808, aged eighty-two,--an emigrant, and the father of the late Dr. Robinson, who served the congregation of Poplar Tent about forty years, and ended his course in December, 1843. It was at a spring on this man's land,

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and near his house, that the congregation of Sugar Creek and Hopewell used to meet and spend days of fasting and prayer together, during the troublesome times of the early stages of the French Revolution. From the peculiar formation of the ravine around the spring, the pious people were willing to believe that it was a place designed of God for his people to meet and seek his face.

        The oldest monument, but not the monument of the oldest grave, is a small stone thus inscribed.

Here Lys the
Body of ROBERT
McKEE, who deceased
October the 19th, 1775,
Aged 73 years.


        Around lie many that were distinguished in the Revolution, without a stone to their graves, and not one with an epitaph that should tell the fact of that honorable distinction. Perhaps the omission may have arisen from the circumstance honorable to the country, that, with few exceptions, the whole neighborhood were noted for privations and suffering, and brave exploits in a cause sacred in their eyes.

        The most interesting grave is at the southeast corner, without an inscription or even a stone or mound to signify that the bones of any mortal are there. It is the grave of the REVEREND ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD, the first minister of the congregation, and of the six succeeding ones whose members composed the entire convention in Charlotte, in May, 1775. Tradition says that these two sassafras trees, standing, the one at the head, and the other at the foot of the grave, sprung from the two sticks on which, as a bier, the coffin of this memorable man was borne to the grave in March, 1766. Being thrust into the ground to mark the spot temporarily, the green sticks, fresh from the mother stock, took root and grew. Was it an emblem? Were we as superstitious as the people of Europe a hundred years ago, we might read in this and the surrounding congregations, the fulfilment of this mute prophecy. The aspirations for liberty, which were too warm for the province of Pennsylvania or even Virginia, were congenial to the spirits here. When the hearts around him beat with his, Craighead ceased to be "tinged with an uncharitable and party spirit" charged on him in Pennsylvania; and the community which assumed its form under his guiding hand, had the image of democratic republican liberty more fair than any sister settlement in all the south,

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perhaps in all the United States. And his religious creed as to doctrines, and also as to experience, has been the creed of the Presbyterians of Mecklenburg. Soundness of doctrine, according to the Confession of Faith, has been maintained by his congregation at all hazards--and a standard of warm-hearted piety and ardent devotion has been handed down as a legacy from their fathers to succeeding generations to which the church has always looked with kindling desire. Mr. Caruthers tells us, Mr. Craighead was subject, in the latter part of his life, to dejection of spirits. This of course lessened his capability to labor; and may account for the application from Rocky River for supplies in 1761, as he was the only minister in the country.

        Besides this double influence of the man, living and speaking after him, much of his spirit has been inherited by his descendants, and with it the affections of the people. He left two sons, and several daughters. One son, Thomas, licensed in 1778, supplied the congregation of his father for some time; but declining a settlement in North Carolina, he ultimately removed to Tennessee;--an eloquent preacher and warm-hearted man. He died a few years since near Nashville; the latter part of his life rendered less useful by his difference with his brethren on the subject of the agency of the Word in the conversion of men. His third daughter, Rachel, was married to the Reverend David Caldwell of Guilford, whose life has been given to the public by his successor, the Reverend Eli W. Caruthers, and became the mother of Samuel C. Caldwell, whose whole ministerial life, with small exception, was devoted to this, his grandfather's charge. His memorial, testifying to his service for thirty-five years, is near the new brick meeting-house.

        After the removal of Dr. Morrison to Davidson College, a great grandson of Craighead succeeded to his pulpit, John Madison McKnitt Caldwell, the son of S. C. Caldwell, and served them till the year 1845.

        "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."

        The immediate successor of Mr. Craighead was Joseph Alexander, a connexion of the McKnitt branch of Alexanders, a man of education and talents, of small stature, and exceedingly animated in his pulpit exercises. Licensed by New Castle Presbytery in 1767, in October of that year he presented his credentials to Hanover Presbytery at the Bird church, in Goochland, and accepted a call from

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Sugar Creek. His ordination took place with that of Mr. David Caldwell on March 4th, 1768, at Buffalo. He read his lecture on John, 3d Chapter, 3d to 5th verse, on the third of March, and also his trial sermon on the words--"There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Mr. Pattello presided at the installation. On the third Friday in May, Mr. Caldwell performed the services of his installation as pastor of Sugar Creek.

        A fine scholar, he, in connection with Mr. Benedict, taught a classical school of high excellence and usefulness. From Sugar Creek he removed to Bullock's Creek, South Carolina, and was long known in the church as a minister and teacher of youth for professional life. A volume of his sermons was given to the public after his death.

        While the Presbyterians were laboring in vain to get a charter for a college, in Charlotte, confirmed by the king, the notorious Fanning offered to get a university of which he himself should be chancellor, and Mr. Joseph Alexander, who was noted as a teacher, should be first professor. But much as the people desired a college and loved Alexander, they could not take one with such a chancellor.

        Returning to the Brick church, we enter the grave-yard by the roadside on the south. The first white stone that meets the eye, marks the grave of S. C. Caldwell, directly beneat the communion table of the log church he long occupied as minister, the spot where he stood when he took his ordination vows, and where he chose to be buried when he should have finished his course. Around the preacher sleeps the congregation who worshipped in the house that stood here during the Revolution. The pastor and people and building are passed away. The children that assembled here, in Revolutionary times, have grown old, and scarcely here and there one remains to tell the history of the exploits and sufferings of the war, and the traditions of the settlement. The man that sleeps in that grave led the flock of his grandfather through the troublesome times that succeeded the Revolution, when the infidelity of France rolled its burning waves with fury across the whole continent.

        Samuel C. Caldwell, the son of David Caldwell of Guilford, and grandson of Alexander Craighead, was licensed to preach the gospel, when but nineteen years of age, by the Presbytery of Orange. Dr. Hall, of Iredell, used his influence, and none knew how to exercise it better with young men, in persuading him to accept the call made by his grandfather's congregation; and preached the ordination sermon on February 21st, 1792, at which time Mr. Caldwell

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became Pastor of Sugar Creek and Hopewell churches. The five years that elapsed between his licensure and ordination had much of it been spent in these congregations; and the success attending his ministry led the people earnestly to desire his settlement. Dr. Hall, in a note to the sermon delivered on the occasion of his ordination, says,--"Under Mr. Caldwell's first ministrations in those congregations, it pleased God to send a reviving time, in consequence of which, there were upwards of seventy young communicants admitted to the Lord's table in one day."

        He resided for a time with David Robinson by the famous Spring; and John Robinson, the son, afterwards pastor of Poplar Tent, pursued his studies for the ministry in the same room with him.

        Being united in marriage with Abigail Bane, the daughter of John M'Knitt Alexander, he took his residence in Hopewell. After her death, which occurred in 1802, leaving him with two motherless children, circumstances occurred which led to his giving up the charge of Hopewell in 1805, and he removed to Sugar Creek, giving three-fourths of his time to Sugar Creek; the other fourth of his labors he expended at Charlottetown for a time; then at Paw Creek till a church was organized, which he relinquished to Mr. Williamson; and then at Mallard Creek till a church was organized there. In 1805 he opened a classical school, which he carried on for years with the approbation of Presbytery, as expressed on their minutes.

        His second wife was a daughter of Robert Lindsay, of Guilford, who bore him nine children.

        Of great self-command, clear in his conception of truth, and plain in his enunciation both in style and manner, amiable in his disposition and manners, kind from his natural feelings, and from the benevolence of the gospel he loved and preached, a lover of the truth, he passed his whole ministerial life, after his ordination, in connection with the prominent congreation that had called him to be pastor. His modesty and mildness might have led an inexperienced or hasty enemy to suppose that he might be easily turned from his purpose, or driven to silence by vehement, clamorous opponents. But the manner in which he met opposition, so kind and yet so entirely unflinching, so willing to do justice to his opponents, and so devoted to the cause of truth and righteousness, made all friends feel that any cause was safe in his hands; and his enemies, that it was easier to attack him than to drive him from his position, or come off honorably from the contest.

        In the infidel controversy which came upon him soon after his settlement, men learned to love him, even if unconvinced by his arguments.

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And when he was harshly charged, because he would not yield his own pulpit and his long accustomed hour of preaching to his people, for the purpose of permitting efforts to be made to divide his congregation, the perfect coolness and unwavering resolution with which he met the assault, tempered the storm to a harmless breeze. He had enough of the cool and calm resolution of his father, David Caldwell, of Guilford, the sixth minister in Carolina, to make him immoveable, when he felt convinced; and enough of the warm heart and ardent piety of his mother, the daughter of Craighead, to make him both lovely and beloved.

        Hall of Iredell came down like a torrent, a storm, a tempest; his friend Wilson, of Rocky River, poured out his common sense views of gospel truth like a steady day's rain; his neighbor and intimate Robinson, of Poplar Tent, was like a summer day with a storm of lightning and thunder rending the oaks; Wallis, of Providence, like a hot sun that melted by its direct rays; while Caldwell, of Sugar Creek, was like the sunshine and showers of April. His people loved him; and felt they could do nothing else. The memory of the righteous is blessed.

        His epitaph was drawn up by his friend Wilson, of Rocky River.

SACRED
to the memory of the late
REV. SAMUEL C. CALDWELL,
who departed this life
Oct. 3d, 1826,
in the 59th year of his age,
and the 35th of his pastoral
office of Sugar Creek Congregation.

His long and harmonious continuance
in that relation
is his best Eulogium.


        The Rev. Hall Morrison, his successor, became the pastor of the church in 1827, and continued for ten years, preaching a fourth part of his time in Charlotte-town. In 1837, he was removed to the Presidential chair of Davidson College.

        His successor was John M. M. Caldwell, the son of S. C. Caldwell and Abigail Bane Alexander, who resigned his office in 1845, and removed to Georgia. A younger son is a minister of the gospel in South Carolina. Who shall say that the covenant of God is not visited from the fathers to the children, in the infinite mercy of God?

        Step a little further into the middle of the yard, under the shade of these old oaks, and you may read on an humble stone, the name of one that will never be forgotten in Carolina, the Chairman of

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the Convention of 1775, and of the Committee of Public Safety that succeeded, and an elder of the church.

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER,
died April 23d, 1786,
Aged 68 years.

"Let me die the death of the
Righteous, and let my last
end be like his."


        That he was a leading magistrate of the county, will be seen, by inspecting the records of the court of Mecklenburg, now in the clerk's office in Charlotte, the county seat.

        As you look round upon the numerous headstones, you perceive that the Alexander family must have been very numerous in the time of the Revolution, and since, in Mecklenburg. Of the same original stock, they were of different degrees of consanguinity. The tradition of their emigration from Ireland to America is singular. Among the emigrations from Scotland to Ireland, and from Ireland to Scotland, during the period intervening 1610 and 1688, to which the Presbyterians were driven as the means of escape from persecution for conscience sake, there was one to Ireland, in which seven brothers of the name of Alexander formed part. Unable to endure the harassing interference which became more and more grievous the few years preceding the Revolution in 1688, many of the ministers being put in prison for holding a fast, and the private members of the church suffering oppressions equally intolerable, they turned their eyes to America. A plan was formed for their transportation to the New World. On the eve of their departure, they sent to Scotland for their old preacher, to baptize their children, and administer the consolations of the gospel. The minister, a faithful and fearless man, came; the families and their effects were embarked, the ordinances of the gospel were administered in quietness, on board the vessel, and with a solemnity becoming the occasion. An armed company, that had been prowling about, came on board, broke up the company, and lodged the minister in gaol. Towards night, the old matron, who had been piously covenanting for her grand-children, addressed the alarmed company, "Men, gang ye awa', tak our minister out o' the jail, and tak him, good soule, with us to Ameriky." Her voice had never been disobeyed. Before morning, the minister was on board, and the vessel out of the harbor. Having no family, the minister cheerfully proceeded on the voyage, and with many prayers and

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thanksgivings, they were landed on the island of Manhattan, where the city of New York now stands. Part of the company remained on Manhattan, and one of their descendants, William Alexander, was known in the war of the Revolution, a Major-General in the American service, and commonly called Lord Sterling, having succeeded to an estate and the title. The others took up their abode for a time in Jersey, and then removed to Pennsylvania. There they intermarried, and mingled with their countrymen, and their descendants, in great numbers, emigrated to the Catawba.

        Families by the name of Alexander were the most numerous in Mecklenburg at the time of the Revolution; next to them was the Harris connexion; these two, with their kindred, embraced at that time about one-third of the county.

        The log meeting-house that stood here, whose foundations you may in part see, the second occupied by the congregation that now worship in that brick house, was the place of worship while Mrs. Jackson, and her son, Andrew, made Sugar Creek their refuge. The widow, an emigrant from Ireland, had buried her husband on the Waxhaw, then claimed by North Carolina, but now within the settled bounds of South Carolina, and, compelled by the sufferings of war, had fled for refuge to Mecklenburg.

        After the fall of Charleston, the British army spread out over the country. Col. Buford, from Bedford, Virginia, moving along the Waxhaw, as he supposed, out of danger, was suddenly set upon by Tarleton, who had been upon his trial. The soldiers were preparing their breakfast, and as the British came in sight, there was much discussion whether they should fight a superior force, or abandon the field to the enemy. It was finally resolved to fight it out to the last, by the determined course of Capt. Wallace, from Rockbridge, Virginia. Tarleton, in his account of the battle, says, that he sent a flag, and proposed a surrender; that, finally, the negotiation was broken off by the two following communications:

1st. From Tarleton to Buford. May 29th, 1780.

        (After making preparations for Buford's surrender in five articles, which, he said, could not be repeated.) "If you are rash enough to reject them, the blood be upon your head."

        2d. The laconic reply of Buford. Waxhaw, May 29th, 1780.

        "Sir,--I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity.

"I have the honor to be,

"ALEX. BUFORD, Col."


        The event of the battle is well known. Before night, the Waxhaw

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haw meeting-house was a hospital, and Buford's regiment killed, wounded, or dispersed. The females and children fled to escape the ravaging track of the relentless enemy. Mrs. Jackson took up her abode with her two children, in Sugar Creek congregation, with widow Wilson, and remained a part of the summer.

        This brave woman, and two of her sons, perished in the war, and left her youngest son a solitary member of the family. Her death was occasioned by a fever, brought on by a visit to Charleston, to carry necessaries to some friends and relations on board the prisonship, whose deplorable sufferings, she, with four or five other ladies, was permitted to relieve. On her way home, she was seized with the prison fever, and soon ended her days. Somewhere between what was then called "Quarter-house" and the city of Charleston is her unknown grave.

        Men have often wondered how her son Andrew, in his most thoughtless days, always treated a faithful minister of the gospel so respectfully; and why, after encouraging his wife in a religious life, he himself should, in his age, become a member of the Presbyterian church. The cause is found laid deep in his childhood. His mother was a member of the Waxhaw congregation, and he had seen and felt the influence of faithful ministers when a child.

        Turning towards the middle of the yard, you may read the simple memorial of Mrs. Flinn, the widowed mother of the Rev. Andrew Flinn, D.D., who held an eminent place among the clergy of North and South Carolina, whose childhood was passed in Sugar Creek.

        Along this great road that passes this yard and house, the British forces pursued the armed band that had been collected for the temporary defence of Charlotte; and a little beyond that hill, fell Major Locke, and a little further on, Graham was wounded. Near by, lives Aunt Susy, who, with her mother, watched and trembled over him the night he lay exhausted after that sad day's encounter, when, as the British historian says, "that company of horsemen behind the Court-house, kept in check the whole British army."

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CHAPTER XV.
HOPEWELL, AND THE RECORDS OF THE CONVENTION.

        TEN miles west from Davidson College, and two east from the Catawba River, in Mecklenburg county, stands Hopewell church. Entering near the northwest corner, on the north side of the burying ground which lies a little south of the church, and going diagonally to the middle of the yard, you will find a low gravestone, on the top of which are sculptured two drawn swords, and beneath them the motto, Arma Libertatis. The inscription is--

In
Memory
of
FRANCIS BRADLEY,
A friend of his country,
and privately slain
by the enemies of his
country, Nov. 14th,
1780, aged 37 years.


        Tradition says that this man was the largest and stoutest man in the country--hated by the few tories--and much desired as a prisoner by the British officers, for the activity and energy with which he harassed their scouts and foraging parties, and the fatal aim of his gun in taking off their sentries, particularly while the army lay at Charlotte.

        On the day of his death, seeing four tories lurking near his house, he took his gun and went to capture them, or drive them from his neighborhood. A scuffle ensued, in which one of the tories succeeded in wresting his gun from his hand, and with it gave him a fatal wound.

        Near by this stone you may observe a brick wall about six feet long, and two feet high, without any inscription: that is upon the grave of GENERAL DAVIDSON, who fell by the rifle-shot of a tory, at Cowan's Ferry, a few miles distant from this place, as he was resisting the crossing of the British army, in 1781, when Morgan and Green were conveying the prisoners, taken at the Cowpens, to Virginia, for safe keeping. After the army of the enemy had

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passed on, his friend Captain Wilson, whose grave is near by, found him plundered and stripped of every garment; laying him across his horse, he brought him hastily by night to this place of sepulture.

        Congress voted a monument to this man--most beloved in his county--a sacrifice to the public welfare. But the resolution has slept on the records of the Congress,--and the grave of the general is without an inscription.

        The college, patronized by his children and friends, bears his name, and is rising in usefulness and reputation.

        By the cast wall is a row of marble slabs, all bearing the name of Alexander. On one is this short inscription:--

John McKnitt Alexander,
who departed this life July 10th, 1817.
Aged 84.


        This is upon the grave of the Secretary of the Convention in Charlotte, in 1775. By his side rests his wife, JANE BANE.

        At a little distance southwardly is the grave of the late pastor of this congregation, JOHN WILLIAMSON.

        Ephraim Brevard, the penman of the Declaration, and Hezekiah Alexander, the clearest-headed magistrate of the county, sleep in this yard in unknown graves.

        Hopewell and Sugar Creek are contemporaries in point of settlement, though, in church organization, Sugar Creek has the preeminence. The families were from the same original stock in the North of Ireland; some were born in Pennsylvania, and some only sojourned there for a time; they were connected by affinity and consanguinity; and more closely united by mutual exposures in the wilderness, and the ordinances of the gospel, which were highly prized.

        Scattered settlements were made along the Catawba, from Beattie's to Mason's Ford, some time before the country became the object of emigration to any considerable extent, probably about the year 1740. As the extent and fertility of the beautiful prairies became known, the Scotch-Irish, seeking for settlements, began to follow the traders' path, and join the adventurers in this southern and western frontier. By 1745, the settlements, in what is now Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties, were numerous; and about 1750, and onward for a few years, the settlements grew dense for a frontier, and were uniting themselves into congregations,

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for the purpose of enjoying the ministrations of the gospel in the Presbyterial form. The foundations for Sugar Creek, Hopewell, Steel Creek, New Providence, Poplar Tent, Rocky River Centre, and Thyatira, were laid almost simultaneously: Rocky River was most successful in obtaining a settled pastor. The others received the church organization and bounds during the visit of Rev. Messrs. McWhorter and Spencer, sent by the Synod of Philadelphia for that purpose, in the year 1764. Missionaries began to traverse the country very early, sent out by the Synod of Philadelphia, and the different Presbyteries of New Brunswick, New Castle, and Donegal.

        The enterprising settlers, inured to toil, were hardy and long lived. The constitutions that grew up in Irelard and Pennsylvania seemed to gather strength and suppleness from the warm climate and fertile soil of their new abodes. Most of the settlers lived long enough to witness the dawning of that prosperity that awaited their children. They sought the union of liberty, and property, and religious privilege for their posterity. Year after year were "supplications" sent to Pennsylvania and Jersey for ministers, or missionaries, and effort after effort was made to retain these visitors as settled pastors, but all in vain, previously to 1756; when the troubles from the Indian war, called Braddock's war, united with the wishes of the people, and three Presbyterian ministers were settled in Carolina in that year, or preparations were made for their settlement--Craighead, and M'Aden, and Campbell. Those were days of log cabins and plain fare, when carriages were unknown, and the sight of wheels was an era in the settlements. "That man was the first that cr