Soon after the Restoration episcopacy, which had been displaced as the state church, was restored, and about 2,000 Presbyterian clergy were ejected from their cures in consequence of the Act of Uniformity, which came into force Aug. 24, 1662. Presbyterianism has ever since been simply one of the forms of dissent in England, and has held no prominent position, though many Presbyterian churches are scattered throughout Eng land. Of these by far the greater num ber are united to form a single body, the Presbyterian Church of England. There sprang up in England a few congrega tions connected with the Church of Scot land and with what was formerly known as the "Secession Church," now the United Presbyterian Church. The num ber of such afterward very much in creased. At the time of the formation of the Free Church of Scotland the greater number of the English Presby terian churches connected with the Church of Scotland sympathized with the cause of the Free Church, and took the name of the Presbyterian Church in England. In 1876 a union, which had been long desired, was consummated be tween the synod more intimately related to the Free Church of Scotland and the congregations belonging to the United Presbyterian Church. The name as sumed by the united church is the Pres byterian Church 0: England. At the time of the union the Presbyterian Church in England had about 150 churches, and the United Presbyterian Church more than 100. At the same date the Church of Scotland in England had about 20 congregations.
The first Presbyterians in America were emigrants from the British Isles, and the first Presbyterian church in America was founded in the colony of Massachusetts in 1629. It was the out growth of a Presbyterian congregation that landed there in 1625. This move ment was projected by Presbyterian leaders in the S. of England and also in London. It was designed to be a col onization on a higher principle than the desire for gain. Rev. Samuel Skelton was its pastor. Rev. Francis Makemie, the father of the Presbyterian Church in the Middle Colonies, in 1699, founded a Presbyterian church at Snow Hill, Md. The first Presbytery of which there re mains a record was constituted in 1706 at Freehold, N. J. Tradition says Ma kemie was its moderator. In 1716 a synod was formed of the four presby teries that had grown out of the first one. Its title was: "The Synod of Philadelphia." Dissensions ensued, and a division for 17 years; but in 1768 the American Presbyterian churches were reunited in one ecclesiastical body; and in 1788 a general assembly was insti tuted, the whole number of congregations being then 419, and of ministers 188.
The increase of the church was rapid, and in 1834 it contained 22 synods, 111 presbyteries, and about 1,900 ministers. In 1801 a plan of union was adopted between Presbyterians and Congrega tionalists, under which hundreds of con gregations were formed in the State of New York and elsewhere. The Cumber land Presbyterians separated from the main body in 1814; and in 1838 the American Presbyterian Church was di vided into two great sections, commonly known as Old School and New School Presbyterians. The portion of the Old School branch residing in the slave labor States withdrew in 1861 from their brethren in the other States and formed "The Presbyterian Church of the Con federate States of America." Now it is known as "The Southern Presbyterian Church." The Old and New School branches re united in the assembly of 1870, and on the basis of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the catechisms to which standards of doctrine both schools had adhered during the 32 years of separa tion. Strictly speaking, questions of doctrine had little to do with the division. At the time of this reunion the Old School Presbyterians counted 2,381 min isters, 2,749 churches, and 258,903 com municants; while the New School num bered 1,614 ministers, 1,479 churches, and 143,645 communicants. The United church had five theological seminaries. A revision of the Confession was com menced in 1891 and is now in progress. It is also proposed to formulate a creed which shall express the doctrine of all the branches of the church. There are several branches which virtually hold the polity of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, each having its own theological seminaries and colleges, such as the Presbyterian Churches Northern and Southern, the Cumberland, the Re formed, the United Presbyterian, the Re formed Dutch and German, etc. The total of all 12 bodies of Presbyterians in the United States for 1919 was: Minis tres, 11,029: churches, 13,016; members, 1,970,622. By the middle of the 18th century Prebyterian ministers were la boring in Nova Scotia and Qubec, the various divisions of the home churches being represented at an early stage; but most of the early ministers came from the Secession Church. A union between the sections representing the Free and United Presbyterian Churches took place in 1861.