THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES was founded by the Scotch, Irish, French, German, and Dutch Reformed immigrants to this country. Fugitives from persecution, they took refuge in the more' liberal colonies of Pennsyl vania, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and some in New England. The founding of a Presbyterian colony on Massachu setts Bay took place in 1625. With the arrival of more colonists in 1620 a church was fully con stituted under the Rev. Samuel Skelton. Christ's Presbyterian Church was established at Hemp stead, Long in 1644. The Rev. Francis Doughty, an English Presbyterian minister, was the first Presbyterian to preach in New York. Ile ministered there from 1643 to 1648. A Pres byterian Church, however, was not organized until 1717. Francis Makemie, an Irish minister of the Presbytery of Laggan, is considered the father of organized Presbyterianism in America. Ile founded several churches in Maryland and Virginia. Later he crossed the ocean to appeal to the mother Church for help. In 1707 be was imprisoned in New York for preaching without permission. for at that time the Episcopal Church was practically the established Church, and no dissenter was allowed to preach without a li cense. In the meantime other Presbyterian churches had been founded, one in Freehold, N. .J., in 1692, one in Philadelphia, in 1698, under the care of Jedediah Andrews. The first Ameri can presbytery was organized in Philadelphia, probably in 1706—the precise date having been lost—and consisted of seven ministers, Francis Makemie, Samuel Davis, John Hampton, and George McNish, from Ireland; Nathaniel Taylor and John Wilson, from Scotland ; and Jedediah Andrews, from New England. The growth of the Church was rapid, and in 1716 the Synod of Philadelphia was formed, consisting of four presbyteries: Philadelphia, with six ministers and churches; New Castle, six ministers and churches; Snow Hill, three ministers and churches; Long Island, two ministers and several churches. There is no record at this time that ant' standards of doctrine had been adopted by the Synod, although as most of the ministers were of Scotch descent, it is probable that the Westminster standards were those to which the young Church adhered. In 1729, by an 'adopting act,' the Synod made the Westminster Confession of Faith their doctrinal standard, "as being in all the essential and necessary articles good forms of sound words and system of Christian doctrine." They also agreed that no one should
be ordained to the ministry or received into mem bership who had scruples as to the Confession. "save only about articles not essential and neces sary to doctrine, worship, and government." The ministers from abroad, however, were more strict in their doctrinal ideas, and laid more stress on scholarship, than the native ministers, who insisted more on a living Christian experi ence, and who, in view of the great needs of the new country, were disposed to receive into the ministry students who were sound in doctrine, but whose opportunities for education had been limited. In 1739 party feelings were stirred by the visit of George Whitefield, and the Synod was divided into a party warmly befriending revivals and a party standing aloof from that form of work. By 1741 this dissension resulted in a schism and two Synods were formed: the Old Side, called the Synod of Philadelphia, in sisting on a thoroughly educated ministry; the New Side, or Synod of New York, which laid more stress on piety and zeal. There was but slight difference between the two bodies as to doctrine or discipline. After a separation of thirteen years this breach was healed and the two Synods united under the title of the Synod of Yew York and Philadelphia, with more than 100 churches under its care.
At this time the tide of population was flowing rapidly westward. The frontier communities con tained many men of lawless habits. Hostile Indians were numerous. The opposition of the State Church added to the difficulties of the Pres byterian pioneer. Men of education and strength of character were needed. The Church found them in the Tennents of New Jersey, Brainerd, the missionary to the Indians, Davies, of Vir ginia, and many others whose work still lives in the Christian communities they established. In 1766, fearful of the legal establishment of the Church of England, the Synod agreed to meet in annual convention with the General As sembly of Connecticut "to unite their endeavors and counsels for spreading the Gospel and preserv ing the religious liberties of the Church." This arrangement was continued till the war of 1776.