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By Henry Goodwin Smith (1895)
“This is the era at which Hast Jersey, till now chiefly colonized from New England, became the asylum of Scottish Presbyterians,” says Bancroft, [Colonial History, chap. xvii.] “Is it strange,” he continues, “that Scottish Presbyterians of virtue, education and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with religious enthusiasm, hurried to Hast Jersey in such numbers as to give to the rising commonwealth a character which a century and a half has not effaced.” “Thus the mixed character of New Jersey springs from the different sources of its people. Puritans, Covenanters, and Quakers met on her soil; and their faith, institutions, and preferences, having life in the common mind, survive the Stuarts.”
Some six miles to the north of the present town of Freehold, on a wooded eminence, overlooking rolling, fertile fields, lies a neglected acre which should be a cherished spot to all Presbyterians of our land, and also to all interested in the beginnings of the colonial history. It is the site of the “Old Scots” Church of Freehold, reared by the exiles of 1685 for their worship of God after the simple manner forbidden in their own “native and covenanted land.” The view presented in the accompanying cut shows a portion of this “God’s Acre,” with the church site in the foreground. Of the building itself, no memory, tradition, or trace remains, except the slight depression in the soil, which would indicate the humble dimensions of a structure perhaps some twenty feet square. Close under its eaves were laid the remains of its first minister, Rev. John Boyd. Eight yards to the southwest, under a horizontal stone that is sinking in the turf, lies the body of Rev. John Tennent, who, like Rev. John Boyd, died in his youth after two years of ministry with the church.
Around this central site lie the rude stones of the old Scotch pilgrims and their children, of Archibald Craige, one of Lord Campbell’s company, of John Henderson, son probably of him of the same name who signed the protest on Pitlochie’s ship, of Formans of the generation following John Foreman of the “Henry and Francis,” and others of the names of Clark, Redford, Wall and Ward, belonging to the Covenanter generation, others still of the names of Amy. Crawford, O’Harrah, Pease, Patten, Van Dorn, and Freeiser of the generation of the sons and daughters born in the new world.
The generaly accepted date for the erection of the church building, or the organization of the church society, is the year 1692. The only basis apart from tradition appears to be a Mss. letter from Freehold by Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., dated April 23rd, 1792, which stated that “The Church was formed about an hundred years ago, chiefly by persons from Scotland.” [Hodge’s History, i. 56.]
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/freehold/index.htm
Alastair
“This is the era at which Hast Jersey, till now chiefly colonized from New England, became the asylum of Scottish Presbyterians,” says Bancroft, [Colonial History, chap. xvii.] “Is it strange,” he continues, “that Scottish Presbyterians of virtue, education and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with religious enthusiasm, hurried to Hast Jersey in such numbers as to give to the rising commonwealth a character which a century and a half has not effaced.” “Thus the mixed character of New Jersey springs from the different sources of its people. Puritans, Covenanters, and Quakers met on her soil; and their faith, institutions, and preferences, having life in the common mind, survive the Stuarts.”
Some six miles to the north of the present town of Freehold, on a wooded eminence, overlooking rolling, fertile fields, lies a neglected acre which should be a cherished spot to all Presbyterians of our land, and also to all interested in the beginnings of the colonial history. It is the site of the “Old Scots” Church of Freehold, reared by the exiles of 1685 for their worship of God after the simple manner forbidden in their own “native and covenanted land.” The view presented in the accompanying cut shows a portion of this “God’s Acre,” with the church site in the foreground. Of the building itself, no memory, tradition, or trace remains, except the slight depression in the soil, which would indicate the humble dimensions of a structure perhaps some twenty feet square. Close under its eaves were laid the remains of its first minister, Rev. John Boyd. Eight yards to the southwest, under a horizontal stone that is sinking in the turf, lies the body of Rev. John Tennent, who, like Rev. John Boyd, died in his youth after two years of ministry with the church.
Around this central site lie the rude stones of the old Scotch pilgrims and their children, of Archibald Craige, one of Lord Campbell’s company, of John Henderson, son probably of him of the same name who signed the protest on Pitlochie’s ship, of Formans of the generation following John Foreman of the “Henry and Francis,” and others of the names of Clark, Redford, Wall and Ward, belonging to the Covenanter generation, others still of the names of Amy. Crawford, O’Harrah, Pease, Patten, Van Dorn, and Freeiser of the generation of the sons and daughters born in the new world.
The generaly accepted date for the erection of the church building, or the organization of the church society, is the year 1692. The only basis apart from tradition appears to be a Mss. letter from Freehold by Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., dated April 23rd, 1792, which stated that “The Church was formed about an hundred years ago, chiefly by persons from Scotland.” [Hodge’s History, i. 56.]
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/freehold/index.htm
Alastair