contain indubitable evidence.
by some Scotch members of the congregation, and opposed by others recently from Connecticut, who were in favour of the Saybrook platform. It is probable that this difficulty led to Mr. Pierson's removal. In 1715, the church of Newark appears in connexion with the Presbytery of Philadelphia.
The Puritans were not very successful in their attempts to form settlements upon the Delaware. In 1640, the colony of New Haven made a large purchase on both sides of that river and sent out about fifty families to make a settlement. As this country, however, was covered by a previous claim of the Dutch, the trading establishments of the New Haven colony were broken up by the Hollanders, and the people scattered. In 1669, application was made by New Haven to the commissioners of the united colonies to make plantations on the Delaware, but the proposal was declined; and it was left to the New Haven merchants to dispose of the land which they had purchased, or to plant it as they should see cause. Some permanent settlements, however, at a subsequent period were made upon the Jersey side of the Delaware. Fairfield, for example, was settled about 1690, by a number of persons from the town of the same name in Connecticut. This fact is ascertained from the law creating the township of Fairfield, passed in 1697. Cape May was also a puritan settlement, of which their records contain indubitable evidence.
In the southern colonies, there are here and there traces of puritan settlements, but not sufficient either in number or extent, to exert much influence on the character of the rising population. Maryland was at first a Catholic colony, but being settled upon the principles of general toleration, the number of Protestants soon greatly exceeded that of the Romanists. Lord Baltimore "invited the Puritans of Massachusetts to emigrate to Maryland, offering them land, and privileges, and 'free liberty to religion;' but Gibbons, to whom he had forwarded a commission, was 'so wholly in the New England discipline,' that he would not advance the wishes of the
Irish peer; and the people, who subsequently refused Jamaica and Ireland, were not now tempted to desert the Bay of Massachusetts for the Chesapeake." The protestant population which so soon gained the ascendency in Maryland, were no doubt of various religious sentiments. It would seem, however, that the episcopalians predominated, either in number or influence, since when the bishop of London sent over his commissary in 1692, the provincial assembly divided the colony into thirty parishes, sixteen of which were supplied with ministers and provided with livings.
Virginia was so completely an episcopal province, and the laws against all non-conformists were so severe, that we can expect but few traces of the Puritans in her early history. Unity of worship was there preserved, with few exceptions, for a century after the settlement of Jamestown. There were, however, some puritan families in the colony from the beginning, and others arrived at a later period, and there were also a few settlers from Massachusetts. As early, however, as 1633, severe laws were made for the suppression of dissenters, who had begun to appear in the colony. In 1643, it was ordered, "that no minister should preach or teach publicly or privately, except in conformity to the constitutions of the Church of England, and non-conformists were banished from the colony." A congregational church had been gathered by the labours of ministers from New England, and increased in 1648 to the number of one hundred and eighteen persons; but the governor, who had already banished its elder, now enjoined on Mr. Harrison its pastor to depart from the country. During the time of Cromwell, a spirit of greater moderation prevailed; but on the restoration of Charles II., the assembly revived all the laws against separatists. Strict conformity was demanded, and every one was required to contribute to the support of the established church. The whole liturgy was to be read, and no non-conformists might teach either in public or private, on pain of banishment. In 1663 these laws were made still more severe. Attendance on the meetings of non-conformists was punished by severe
fines, and the rich were obliged to pay the forfeitures of their poorer brethren. Ship-masters were punished if they brought dissenters into the colony. The separatists against whom these laws seem to have been mainly directed, were Quakers and Baptists. It was not until after the commencement of the eighteenth century, that other denominations than the episcopal, obtained permanent footing in Virginia, protected by the English toleration act. The presbyterian church in the Atlantic portion of the state was, in a great measure, built up by those who had been previously episcopalians; and in the portion beyond the mountains, by the Scotch-Irish emigrants from Pennsylvania.
Under the name of Carolina, Charles II. granted to the earl of Clarendon and his associates, the district of country between Virginia and Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When the first emigrants sent out by the proprietors arrived, they found a small colony of New England men already established on the south side of the Cape Fear river. This colony, however, did not prosper, and although it received some accessions from New England, the people were soon nearly absorbed in the colonies established by emigrants from Barbadoes and the Bermudas. The earliest settlers of this part of Carolina, were principally refugees from Virginia; men who endeavoured to escape from the oppressive laws of that province against all non-conformists. They were probably mostly Quakers; at least the earliest religious teachers and meetings were in connexion with their society. As puritans, when sufficiently numerous, were seldom long without the regular ministrations of the gospel, the fact that there was no stated minister in North Carolina before 1704, and no church until 1705, proves that their influence was very small.
South Carolina was settled about 1670, under the direction of the proprietors. The first colony came from England with the governor "William Sayle, who was probably a presbyterian;" the people, however, it is presumed were principally episcopalians. The country was rapidly filled
up with settlers from various quarters, but no mention is made of the puritans as among the early colonists, except that a church organized in Dorchester, Massachusetts, removed in 1696 and settled on the Ashley river. Rev. John Cotton, from Plymouth, son of the celebrated John Cotton of Boston, removed to Charleston in 1698, and gathered a church there. At an earlier period, 1683, Blake, brother of the famous admiral, brought over from Somertshire a company of dissenters who settled in Charleston. To what denomination they belonged is not mentioned. The predominant influence in South Carolina, either from the number of its adherents, or from their influence was with the church of England, which in 1703 was established by law. I have thus endeavoured to trace the influence of the Puritans, beyond the limits of New England, in the early settlement of our country. It appears they were predominant on Long Island, numerous in East Jersey, few and scattered on the Delaware, and dotted at certain distant intervals along the southern coast.
The Dutch come next under consideration, for although they have been so numerous as to form by themselves, a distinct ecclesiastical organization, yet being Calvinists and Presbyterians, they have in many parts of the country entered largely into the materials of which our church is composed. It was by the Dutch that the Hudson, the Connecticut, and probably the Delaware rivers were discovered. In 1613, they erected a few huts upon Manhattan island; and in 1623, a more permanent establishment was there effected. They built a fort on the Delaware, and another on the Connecticut, laying claim to all the intervening country. In 1629 and 1630, they purchased the land on both sides of the Delaware, and commenced a settlement near Lewestown. In 1638, the Swedes arrived and purchased the land from the mouth of the Delaware to Trenton, and established themselves on Christiana creek. Several successive bodies of emigrants having arrived from Sweden, they extended their settlements as far as where Philadelphia now stands.
The few English families, emigrants from New England, who had been allured thither by the climate or the facilities for traffic with the Indians, were either driven away or submitted to the Swedes. The Dutch viewed these colonists as intruders, and in order to maintain their claim to the soil established themselves, in 1651, at New Castle. The Swedes in 1654, attacked and reduced that settlement, but were themselves in the following year conquered by the Dutch, who became complete masters of the Delaware. In the meantime the Dutch settlements were rapidly extended along the Hudson, as high as Albany and the western end of Long Island. In New Jersey they had settlements in Bergen, around Newark, on the banks of the Raritan, near Shrewsbury, and were mixed with other settlers in various parts of the eastern section of the state. When the Dutch possessions were conquered by the English, in 1664, the number of inhabitants was probably not far from ten thousand. The Dutch were also among the early settlers of Maryland. And in 1671, almost immediately after the settlement of Charleston, South Carolina, two ships arrived there with Dutch emigrants from New York, who were subsequently followed by others of their countrymen from Holland.
The German emigrants, though never forming a distinct government, as was the case, not only with the Dutch, but even with the Swedes, were far more numerous than either, and have exerted a powerful influence on the character of our country. Gov. Hunter of New York, brought over with him in 1730, three thousand German emigrants, who had fled to England to escape the persecution which they suffered in their own country. They also formed a settlement to the west of Albany, on the German Flats. Their emigration to Pennsylvania commenced as early as 1682 or 1683, when Germantown was settled by them. In subsequent years they came in such numbers, that it was estimated in 1772, that one third of the population of the province, which was then between 200,000 and 300,000, consisted of them and their descendents. In the year 1749, twelve thousand German emigrants arrived, and for several years nearly the same number arrived