Treat, Mr. Joseph Crane, Joseph Harrison, George Harrison, Eliphalet Johnson, John Morris and John Cooper, were now appointed, with full power to "treat, bargain and agree with such Indians as they find to be the right owners thereof by their diligent enquiry"—the major part of the committee to have full power to act.* It is a circumstance not easily explained, that we find in these articles no reference to the Proprietors, while the fourth article declares that "the said land, purchased and paid for by us, shall be held and continued as our just rights, either in general or particular allotments, as the major part shall agree from time to time." As, however, an act of the General Assembly of the province, passed in 1683, was still in force, forbidding the taking of any deed from the Indians, except in the Proprietors' name; and as the inhabitants of Newark, down to the date of this new purchase, had maintained an unimpeachable loyalty to the Provincial government; especially, as they had but two years before sent a committee to the Proprietors to obtain a grant of this very tract; the presumption is, that they obtained the grant, and that this important accession to their territory

The tract was secured for £130, and a deed obtained of the Indians. This important deed was destroyed by fire, March 7, 1744-5, in the burning of Jonathan Pierson's house. It was promptly renewed within a week, so far as it could be, by another conveyance, to which Daniel Taylor was a witness, signed by the descendants of the sagamores who had signed the first.

was made in a way that satisfied at once the rights of the natives and the claims of authority.* The bonds of loyalty had not yet snapped under the strain of oppression. It needed the administration of a Cornbury, and the attempt to subject the Puritans of New Jersey to an ecclesiastical establishment from which their fathers had fled, to give vitality to those seeds of discontent which had already been planted, and which were to ripen with the growth of another generation.

* Yet the account given of this period by the Council of Proprietors, in 1747, bears certainly against that presumption. It runs thus: "In 1688, the then king, James, broke through the rules of property, by seizing the government of New Jersey, and things continued in disorder and confusion till some time after the glorious revolution in England, that the Proprietors' government was restored; from which time, peace and tranquillity remained until 1698. From that time till 1703, all rules of property were slighted; many riots, and much disorder and confusion ensued. In 1701, during that time, it's said that Horseneck purchase and Vangeesen's purchase were made, and possibly the others that they, the Committee, say they have concern in and for. And then was a grand effort made, by the Remonstrance and Petition beforementioned, to King William, to overset all the rules of property in New Jersey, and to establish Indian purchases; but in this they failed, and kept their purchases secret. And to prevent the like disorder, confusion and attempts for the future, the Act of 1703 was made, and peace and tranquillity restored; which New Jersey ever since happily enjoyed, to the great improvement thereof; till 1745, that the worthy Committee, as is supposed, formed great plans and estates for themselves in their own minds, by setting up Indian purchases again.”—Appendix to Bill in Chancery, p. 37.

CHAPTER II.

THE MOUNTAIN SOCIETY.

NIFTY years have passed. The venerable Pierson, leader of the Branford flock, has long rested from his labors. His son and successor, more distinguished as the first president of the Connecticut college, to which he was removed from his Newark charge, has also finished his course. The pioneers in the settlement on the Passaic sleep in silence within sound of its waters. A generation has passed away. Five pastors have closed their ministry in Newark. The aspects of the congregation, and its relations and circumstances, have considerably changed. It adheres to its early faith, but it has felt the force of surrounding influences upon its ecclesiastical usages and forms. New Jersey, except as held by the Quakers, is in the main Presbyterian ground, and the Newark church, yielding to the influences of its position, and having received a considerable infusion of Presbyterian elements from abroad, has received its sixth pastor, Rev. Joseph Webb, from "the hands of the Presbytery.” The statement of Dr. McWhorter, quoted by Dr.

CHANGES IN NEWARK.

47

Hodge,* that Newark was settled by English Presbyterians, and had elders from the beginning, according to his best information and belief, is disproved by well-established facts. At the same time we must agree with Dr. Hodge, that on the soil of New Jersey at large Presbyterianism has not invaded and supplanted Congregationalism. It was the earlier and predominant type of ecclesiastical order, and naturally absorbed and assimilated the Congregationalism that came in. This assimilation was not, however, without a struggle between the two systems, and in a community like that of Newark, originally composed of Congregationalists only, the process of change was necessarily slow. When the second Pierson manifested some leanings toward the Presbyterian order, the displeasure of his people was excited, and troubles arose which resulted in his dismissal. Yet on the 22d of October, 1719, Joseph Webb, in the line of his successors, was ordained and settled over the same flock by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and the next year took a seat in the Synod with a ruling elder from his church.

Did that event precipitate an Independent organization at the mountain? A comparison of dates will make the supposition appear at least probable.

The records of the Newark Church, and those of Hist. Pres. Church, part I., p. 108.

48

CHURCH AT THE MOUNTAIN.

this church also (it is said), perished or were lost in the time of the Revolution. But in a parcel of old deeds and other papers preserved by the Trustees of this church, is a deed of twenty acres of land sold by Thomas Gardner to "Samuel Freeman, Samuel Peirson, Matthew Williams, and Samuel Wheeler, and the Society at the Mountain associated with them," which bears date, January 13, 1719. As the year then began on the 25th of March, January followed October in the calendar. The deed was therefore given about three months after Mr. Webb's ordination and settlement in Newark. This coincidence, taken in connection with the previous history of the old Society, and with the well-established fact of the Congregational form of this Church till after the death of its first minister, affords presumptive evidence of the opinion expressed above, that the change which took place in Newark stimulated the new movement here.

In 1720, ground was purchased of Samuel Wheeler on which to erect a house of worship. This again favors the supposition of a recent organization. Dr. Stearns places the event "in or about the year 1718."* A congregation was doubtless collected here by that time. Yet it seems scarcely probable that the Church had existed two years before steps were taken to build a sanctuary. With such light as the subject obtains from the

On the authority of Dr. McWhorter.