Njorth Carolina State LiDrary
Raleisr?, N. i
JOHN THOMSON— -A MAN WITH A MISSION
BY ALEX T. CROCKETT
1985*
] ^^^-\J2_^ ^U^^^^^I CAtyjU*^:
-::- Portions of this work were prepared for, and published in,
the Wythe County ( Va
.
) Historical Review , Kos . 27 and 28. The
author is a great -great -great -great -great grandson of the Rev.
John Thomson. He is Vice President/Secretary of The Durham
Herald Company, Inc., and Clerk of the Session at First Pres-byterian
Church, Durham, N.C.
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North Carolina State Library
Raleigh
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Presented by
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Alex T. Crockett
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John Thomson A Man With A Mission
By Alex T. Crockett
There is general agreement that the Rev. John Thomson
( 1690-1753) was the first Presbyterian minister some say the
first minister of any denomination to preach in Western
North Carolina. x
Unfortunately, church historians have been able to reach
a consensus on little else about the life and times of this
hard-headed Scotch-Irish preacher, writer, progenitor, theo-logion
and missionary.
"Thomson was a narrow and opinionated man. He became the
father of all the discord and mischief in the American Presby-terian
Church," declared Dr. Charles Augustus Briggs in his
American Presbyterianism , published in 1885. -*
That other historians were more charitable and that Dr.
Briggs himself appears to have been at least as opinionpted as
the object of his criticism may be beside the point. There is
no denying that John Thomson was a person who knew where he
stood and where he thought the Presbyterian Church should
s t and
.
Indeed, his life was so much a microcosm of the early
Church in this country that it is well nigh impossible to
study them separately.
Mr. Thomson was born about 1690 in Northern Ireland,
educated at the University of Glasgow, ordained June 23, 1713,
in the Presbytery of Armagh, came to America in 1715, and held
pastorates in Delaware, Maryland (as a supply), Pennsylvania
and Virginia. He preached extensively to early settlers along
the frontier in Virginia and the Carolinas, and was a prolific
writer
.
Twice married, he fathered 13 children, was influential
in the establishment of a number of pioneer congregations, and
helped lay the groundwork for several institutions of higher
learning.
He died in 1753 and was buried... not once, but twice... in
what is now Iredell County, N.C.
It is ironic that more than two centuries after his death
there is still some uncertainty about the number and names of
his children. Dr. John Goodwin Herndon who compiled the most
authoritative list offers one very logical reason:
"Although his will is above referred to and the distri-bution
made in accordance therewith, neither the document
itself nor a copy has been discovered in any of the court-houses
of tlorth Carolina or in the archives at Raleigh. "^
He points out that the Thomson family Bible also has been
lost
.
In their attempts to piece together a list of Thomson
descendants, various genealogies have made faulty assumptions
and perpetuated glaring omissions. One of the earliest and
most widely circulated books lists only four "known" children,
one of whom is incorrect.^
Church
arrived in
and family,
might have
that there
records indicate that when the Rev. Mr. Thomson
New York in 17l5> he was accompanied by "his wife
" Dr. Herndon astutely observes that "family"
meant simply more than one child or it might imply
were other relatives aboard.
He concludes that the
years of age at the time,
unknown), his daughter, Esther
minister, who was approximately 25
was accompanied by his wife (name
probably a second child,
probably by his sister, Esther, and possibly other relatives."
The sister in question was the "Widow Esther Warranton ye
Rev. Jno Thompson's sister," who was buried in Sussex County,
Del., on April 6, 1?68
.
It is singularly distressing. . .and more than a little
surprising. . .that little is known about Thomson's first wife
except that she came with him from Ireland to America, bore
12 of his 13 children, and died in 1733 or I73I4.. Her grave
probably lies somewhere in Lancaster County, pa.
Between August of 173l| and March of 1735', Thomson married
a Mary McKean Reid. She was the widow of Thomas Reid who had
been an elder in the church at Octorara, pa., and a justice
of the peace in Lancaster County. The Reids apparently had
seven children of their own. 7
Beyond the fact that she gave birth to Hannah, the last
of Thomson's ten daughters and three sons, in 1735> little
else is heard of Mary McKean Reid Thomson. Her name appears
along with his on a land transfer dated Oct. Q, I7I4-O, in
Lancaster County, but not on similar documents in Virginia or
North Carolina to which he removed in l-7Mj- and 175l • It
appears likely that the minister became a widower for the
second time between late 17 1+0 and late 17lj-5»
The Thomson children included: ESTHER (m. 1st Samuel
Crockett; m. 2nd William Sayers); MARY (m. Robert Baker, Jr.);
JOHN, JR. (m. Margaret Davidson); ABRAHAM (wife's name
unknown); SARAH (m.'the Rev. Richard Sankey); DAUGHTER (in.
John Graham); DAUGHTER (m. John Finley, Sr . ) ; ROGER (m. Ann
Ferguson); JAKE (m. 1st Douglas Baker; m. 2nd William Watson);
ANN (m. James Cunningham, Sr.); MARGARET (m. John Shields);
ELIZABETH (m. 1st Samuel Baker; m. 2nd Charles Harris); HANNAH
(m. Roger Lawson).
To appreciate the role John Thomson played in the develop-ment
of Presbyterianism in America, it is necessary to delve '
into a bit of church history.
Some of the problems faced by early Presbyterian settlers
were common to all of those who came to a new land seeking
religious freedom; others were peculiarly their own.
"it is admitted that the early history of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States is involved in great obscurity,"
the Rev. Charles Hodge, D.D., points out in his Constitutional
History of The Presbyterian Church , published in Iti^lT.
"The reason of this fact is obvious. Presbyterians did
not at first emigrate in large bodies, or occupy by themselves
extensive districts of country. . .They came, as a general rule,
as individuals or in small companies, and settled in the midst
of people of other denominations.
"it was, therefore, in most instances, only gradually
that they became sufficiently numerous in any one place to
form congregations, or to associate in a Presbyterial
capacity. It is true their increase was very rapid; partly by
the aggregation of persons of similar principles, though of
different origin, and partly by constant immigration."'
Hodge traces the path of the Scotch and Irish from their
early concentration in Pennsylvania southward to Virginia and
North Carolina. The Rev. William Henry Poote says that "on
account of the inviting nature of the climate and soil, and
the comparative quietness of the Catawba Indians, and the
severity of the Virginia laws, in comparison with those of
Carolina, on the subject of religion, many colonists v/ere
induced to pass through the vacant lands in Virginia, in the
neighborhood of their countrymen, and seek a home in the
Carolinas." q
According to Hodge, a thousand families arrived in North
Carolina from colonies to the north in the single year of
"But the Scotch-Irish would have been lost to the Presby-terian
Church if it had not been for a vigorous missionary
activity on the part of the presbyteries of the North and
East," declares Ernest Trice Thompson, D.D., in his Presby-terians
In The South, published more than a century after
the writing of Hodge and Foote
.
"To follow these hardy pioneers into the Back Country of
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia the early system of
missionary itineration was greatly extended. Pastors were
ordered by presbyteries and synod to leave their congregation
and to take extended tours among the Scotch-Iri3h settle-ments.
Young men who wished to enter the ministry were not
ordained until they had made a visit to the frontier.""
John Thomson was among the first of these missionaries
and he came on his own initiative rather than because he was
required to do so. He preached in the Shenandoah Valley and
in what is now Prince Edward County, Va., as early as 1739 >
visited North Carolina in 17 Ml* and left the comparative
security of Pennsylvania for good the same year.
Undoubtedly, the steady migration of relatives and close
friends to the frontier figured prominently in Thomson's
increasing interest in the missionary enterprise, but it may
be that his decision to take up residence there during the
waning years of his ministry also was influenced more than a
little by a desire to avoid further clashes with his peers.
He had found himself in the vortex of one such contro-versy
during his first pastorate at Levies, Delaware (1717-
1729). It was he who, in September of 1727* introduced in the
Synod of Philadelphia an overture for adoption of the West-minster
Confession of Faith as a standard for the ordination
of ministers.
Hodge sets the background this way:
A broad foundation for the Presbyterian
Church was laid from the beginning. The
English Puritans were all Calvinists and
many of them Presbyterians. The Dutch
were Calvinists and Presbyterians; a
moiety, gt least, of the Germans were of
the same class. All the French Protes-tants
were Calvinists and Presbyterians,
and so, of course, were the Scotch and
Irish.
As they merged their diversities of
national character into that of American
citizens, so the Scotch, Irish, French,
English, Dutch and German Presbyterians
became united in thousands of instances
in the American Presbyterian Church.
As long as the church was small, and all,
k
or a large. portion of its members, could
be present at the admission of every new
applicant, the most natural and the most
effectual method to obtain a knowledge
of his opinions, was personal examination.
And as long as the churches with which
the Synod corresponded were faithful to
their own standards, their testimony was
received as sufficient evidence of the
soundness of the men whom they recommen-ded.
But when from the multiplication of Pres-byteries,
the first method became imposs-ible,
and when the second was found to be
unworthy of confidence, another plan was
adopted. On the supposition that the
church was to remain one, and that it had
any zeal for its own doctrines, it was
necessary that the several Presbyteries
should understand each other, and unite
in adopting a common standard of ortho-doxy.
...As it regards doctrines, the point to
be ascertained is whether the Presbyterian
Church was a Calvinistic body, and re-quired
adherence to that system of doctrine
as a condition of ministerial communion,
or whether it demanded nothing more than
assent to the essential doctrines of the
gospel. IX
Significantly, members of the Joint Committee on Presby-terian
Union would grapple with this touchy issue all over
again as recently as I90I. In 1727, John Thomson's overture
sought to resolve it this way:
That the synod, as an ecclesiastical jud-icature
of Christ, clothed with ministerial
authority to act in concert in behalf of
truth and in opposition to error, would, by
an act of its own, publicly and authori-tatively
adopt the Westminster Confession
of Faith, Catechisms, etc. for the public
confession of our faith; and oblige each
presbytery to require every candidate for
the ministry to subscribe or otherwise
acknowledge, coram presbyteris , the said
Confession and promise not to preach or
teach contrary to it.
All "actual ministers" coming among us to
5
do the like, and no minister to teach or
preach contrary to said articles, unless
first he propose the point to the presby-tery
or synod to be by them discussed.
Each minister to recommend to his flock
to entertain the truth in love, be
zealous, and fruitful, and earnest by
prayer with God, to preserve the wine
from being spoiled by these deluding
foxes. '*
Response to the overture was mixed. Calvin and Knox had
been dead little more than 1^0 years. Their devotion to
doctrine and discipline still burned in the Presbyterian
breast. But so did the hard-won (and, in some of the colonies,
still far from secure) freedom of conscience. The idea of
subscribing even to a precept of their own making engendered
immediate suspicion. Religious oppression, by its nature,
sometimes occurs under laws made. acceptable through
expediency.
Action on Thomson's overture was delayed until 1729 > a t
which time it was referred to a committee of eight which in-cluded
the author. By that time, according to the Rev.
Jedediah Andrews (who also served on the committee), the
overture enjoyed the support of "all the Scotch and Irish
members present," with all the English and Welsh on the other
side. /V
The Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, described by Dr. Briggs as
"the ablest man in the American Presbyterian Church in the
colonial period," was one of the several committee members
not favorably disposed toward subscription. Nevertheless, "it
is said that Dickinson so shaped the Adopting Act as to make
it satisfactory to all parties.
"It is due chiefly to him that the Church became an Amer-ican
Presbyberian Church, and that it was not split into
fragments representing and perpetuating the differences of
Presbyterians in the mother countries of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Wales, and the several parties of those
countries .
"
The American Adopting Act described the 'Westminster Con-fession
and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms "as being, in
all the essential and necessary articles, good forms of sound
words and systems of Christian doctrine." The wording differ-ed
from both the Scotch and Irish acts, and Briggs deemed the
semantics of extreme importance.
The Scotch Adopting Act of 1690 approved the Westminster
Confession "as containing the sum and substance of the doc-trine
of the Reformed Churches." The Irish Pacific Act of 1720
dealt with it "as being a good abridgement of the Christian
doctrines contained in the sacred Scriptures."
Briggs points out that the American Act has two sides:
"The latter, 'good forms of sound words and systems of
Christian doctrine, ' is of the same essential character as
the Irish and Scotch acts. There is an important difference,
however.
"The Scotch Act refers to the 'doctrine of the Reformed
Churches'; the Irish Act to 'Christian doctrines,' and our
American Act agrees with the latter, and not the former. The
American Act, however, gives a still further qualification
to its adoption. The Confession is not such in all its
articles, but only in 'all the essential and necessary
articles. '
l|Ar
Over the centuries, the V/estminster Confession has con-tinued
to occupy a position of honor in credal documents of
American Presbyterians, though not to the exclusion of other
creeds and confessions. The Book of Church Order used in the
Presbyterian Church In the United~S"tates prior to reunion
required candidates for the ministry to "sincerely receive
and adopt the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this
Church as, in their essentials, authentic and reliable expo-sitions
of what Scripture leads us to believe and do." /6
Semantics again played a role in development of the Book
of Order finally adopted by the reunited Presbyterian Church
TTT.S .A. ) . Candidates for ordination to the ministry now are
required to make affirmative answer to the question:
"Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets
of the Reformed faith as expressed in the Confessions of our
Church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scrip-ture
leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed
and led by those Confessions as you lead the people of God?"
Meanwhile, back in the l8th Century, John Thomson had
come to a parting of the ways with his congregation at Lewes.
The reasons are somewhat obscure. Dr. Webster says that he
"left Lewes in September 1729, through want of support," but
there may have been other reasons. ,s
Dr. Herndon reports that "despite the urging of some of
the congregation for him to remain with them, he decided to
seek another field of labor." /9
During the following year, Thomson supplied congregations
at Snow Hill, Lid., and at Lower Octorara, Fishing Creek,
Middle Octorara and Middle town, Pa. He accepted a call and,
in October of 1730, was installed as pastor of a parish which
included
Pa.
Middle Octorara, Fishing Creek and Chestnut Level,
Thomson was an original member of the Synod of Phila-delphia
which met for the first time in 1717. He became a
member of the Presbytery of New Castle at its fourth meeting
during the same year. He was elected Moderator of the Pres-bytery
in 1718, again in 1722, and for a third time in 1730.
Similar honors had come to him at the Synod level. He was
chosen Moderator in 17 19* an^ in 1722, he became the first
person elected twice to the highest office in the Presbyterian
Church in this country after the organization of the General
Synod. In 1736, he was elected Clerk of the Synod.
In 1732, the Synod decided to form those congregations
lying within Lancaster County into the Presbytery of Donegal.
Thomson was elected the first Moderator of the new Presbytery.
He served as moderator pro tem in 173^j-, as Clerk from 173^-
until 1737, and as "constant dark" (Stated Clerk) from 17^2
until I7I4I1-. -30
But things were far from smooth at the congregational
level. As early as November 15, 1732, he requested the Pres-bytery
to relieve him of further assignments at Middle Octo-rara,
and complained of "the people's neglect to pay up their
arrears according to appointment by which he and his family
greatly suffer." Presbytery approved termination of the pas-toral
relationship with Middle Octorara on September 5, 1733*
2/
Thomson stayed on at Chestnut Level for 11 more years.
Although this may have been one of the most productive periods
of his life, it was not a happy time. He continued to exper-ience
financial difficulty because pledge payments lagged, and
doctrinal differences which preceded "The Great Awakening"
already were beginning to tear the infant Church apart.
Of even greater moment was the death of his wife in late
his
?33 °r early 173^-« Bereft of both his helpmate and the mother
of 12 children who ranged in age from about two years to
approximately twenty years, he felt constrained to write his
Pcor Orphans ' Legacy . The opening lines reflect in painful
detail the depth of discouragement which seemed almost more
than he could bear:
Dear children: - Some years have elapsed
since I first began to entertain thoughts
of preparing some words of wholesome ad-vice,
which might be of some lasting
and benefit
in the dust
to you, even when I am laid
It hath pleased God in his holy and wise
8
dispensation of providence, so to order
and overrule things concerning me in this
world, that I have not been in condition
either to make any provision for your
worldly settlement, or even to afford you
but a very small degree of education and
learning, and far short of what is common-ly
given, especially by ministers of the
gospel to their children; and it seems to
grow still more unlikely that ever I shall
be in a condition to do anything of value
in these respects for you.
And besides, the providence of God hath so
ordered matters, that I am obliged to
commit some of you to the care of others,
not being in a condition to do it myself;
and perhaps, I shall be under a necessity
to do so with more of you before it be
long: and my troubles in this world seem-ing
to increase rather than diminish, and
some of you being yet in your younger
days, whom I can scarcely expect to live
so long as to see advanced to the age of
maturity - these, with many other like
considerations, have prevailed upon me to
attempt to compose something by way of
advice, that having it by you, it may be
of some use and benefit to you, and you
may hear your affectionate and tender
father as it were speaking to you, and
unfolding his very bowels, even when his
body lies in the dust.
And I would beseech and entreat you, yea,
I charge and command you, as a father who
hath the spiritual and eternal concerns
of your souls as much at heart as anything
I can mention, next to my own eternal
salvation; I say, I entreat and charge
you, that you not only diligently peruse
and ponder, but also carefully and per-severingly
practice what I shall here
offer for your good.*"1
There follows a lengthy discourse on the joys and obli-gations
of the Christian life. Austere by 20th Century
standards, the exhortations contain both general advice and
specific admonition about study of the scriptures, prayer,
spiritual rebirth, resisting temptation, the covenant life,
stewardship of time, talents and material resources, medi-tation,
observance of the Sabbath, wise choice of companions,
dealing with disappointment, devotion to duty, humility, for-giveness,
marriage and parenthood.
It is easy to imagine that the Legacy served a second
purpose of which the minister himself may not have been
aware. It appears to have been a form of therapy for his own
aching heart. Prom the depth of despair which permeates the
opening lines, he presses onward and upward to the assurance
that "this little legacy... may afford you more profit and
comfort than if I had silver and gold, land and comfort and
possessions to distribute among you by my last will and
testament .
"
He concludes with the prayer "that my God and my father's
God even that God who hath been remarkable to me in a con-tinued
series of singular gracious conduct in his providence
ever hitherto, and I hope will be my guide unto my dying day;
even that God who hath honoured me to be an office-bearer in
his house, (in myself one of the -most unworthy that ever thus
he called and employed), that this very God may be also your
God by everlasting and well ordered covenant, is and shall be,
my dearly beloved children, my prayer for you while I live."
This benediction is followed by one last solemn warning
from the minister-father in the form of a post script:
If you do not follow your father's advice
and counsel in the twenty-two particulars,
by a sincere endeavour to put them in prac-tice,
beware lest they follow you to the
judgment and be a witness against you; and
therefore I entreat you that you would de-sire
and hope for your heavenly Father's
blessing as well as mine... How much will
you be to blame, if, after I have been at
pains to prepare these counsels for you,
you be so slothful and negligent as not to
acquaint yourselves with them, in order
to practice 1 " i3
According to Dr. He radon, The Poor Orphans ' Legacy was
published as a 38-page pamphlet in 173k by no lesser per-sonage
than Benjamin Franklin. "So far as the present writer
knows, only two copies of the original work still exist. One
is in the rare book room of the Historical Society of Penn-sylvania,
1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia. The other, an
imperfect copy, lacking pages 6 and 1, is in the Library of
Congress.
"
aV
The published work included an introduction, "To The
Reader, ,r which the author undoubtedly composed sometime after
the writing itself was completed. In it he explains that this
was "my plain and homely way of speaking to my own children,
10
and adds that: " I rather should rejoice than grudge that
others besides should reap benefit by all or any of my poor
labours . "
A;r
In 1792* Andrew Baker, one of Thomson's grandsons, repub-lished
the Legacy, and in May i860, the Presbyterian Board of
Publication reprinted this work. The Descriptive C atalogue
of the Presbyterian Board of Publication dated 18BD contained
this advertisement:
Poor Orphans' Legacy (No. 566). Being a
short collection of Godly Counsels and
Exhortations to a Young, Rising Gene-ration.
Primarily designed by the author
for his own children, but published that
others may also reap benefit from them.
This is a reproduction of an old work
supposed to be from the. pen of the Rev.
John Thompson, of Donegal presbytery,
who came from Ireland as a probationer
to New York in 1715 and spent the latter
part of his life as a missionary in Vir-ginia.
Every parent would do well to
place this instructive volume in the
hands of his children. It is a complete
manual of Christian morals. *6
Although The Poor Orphans' Legacy may have been his best
known and certainly his least controversial work, it was
by no means the full extent of Thomson's writing. His sermon
on The Doctrine of Conviction was denounced by the Rev. Gil-be
rT^ennenT
_
and~Tater answered by the Rev. Samuel Finley.
And his treatise on The Government of the Church elicited
criticism from the Rev. Samuel Blair and others.
Both were published in 17J-I-1 amid the growing storm which
soon would divide the Church.
After his removal to Virginia, he published at Williams-burg
in 17^9 > A^ Explication of the Shorter Catechism . Some
of his overtures to Presbytery and Synod are preserved in
early church records. If other sermons were published, they
have not survived.
When he was not preaching, writing or performing official
duties on behalf of the various church courts, John Thomson
occupied himself with such other concerns as fund-raising and
education. Herndon notes that the Fund for Pious Uses was es-tablished
in 1718 and that Thomson served as a member of
Synod's Committee for the Fund from that time until his re-moval
to Virginia, signing its records "in a clear, vigorous
penmanship ."
11
Even after he had gone to Virginia, "the shadow of his
influence continued; for in Y]{\$ the Rev. Richard Sankey,
one of his sons-in-law, was appointed to that committee,
presumably in his stead."
Herndon adds that "this fund has grown from generation to
generation and has become the financial backlog of the work
of the Presbyterian Church in matters of Christian Education
and Ministerial Relief and Sustentation, two objectives dear
to the heart of John Thomson." 37
It is risky business to ascribe credit for the founding
of institutions to persons who may have been involved only
peripherally in their establishment. Nevertheless, there is
good and sufficient documentation for a claim that the John
Thomson influence helped pave the way for the emergence of
three distinguished institutions of learning.
In 1739 » Thomson introduced an overture in Donegal Pres-bytery
proposing the establishment of a school under the care
of the Synod. The overture was referred to Synod and unani-mously
approved later the same year. Steps were taken to
secure funds from Europe, as well as this country, and Thom-son
was directed to write a synodical letter on the subject
to the various Presbyterian congregations.
War between England and Spain delayed the project, xe but
when Newark Academy was finally established in 17 09 i^ s
charter began:
Whereas the Rev. Messrs. John Thomson,
Adam Boyd, Robert Cross, Francis Alison,
Alexander McDowell and some others, about
twenty years since, erected a public
school in the province of Pennsylvania
for the instruction of vouth in the
learned languages, mathematics, and other
branches of useful literature, and to
qualify them for admission into Colleges
and universities; which school they sup-ported
with much care and expense to the
great advantage and benefit of the public:
And whereas, the said school, so as afore-said,
originally in the province of Penn-sylvania,
hath been removed and is now
kept in the town of Newark, in the county
of* New Castle :
And whereas, etc.
Later, Newark Academy would become the College of Dela-ware,
and in 1833, the University of Delaware. 27
12
Concerning the establishment of Hampden-Sydney College,
Dr. Joseph D. Eggleston has this to say:
It was mainly because of the three Pres-byterian
congregations of Buff aloe (which
Thomson served as pastor from 17i^ until
1750) on the west, Briery on the south,
and Old Cumberland on the north, that
Hampden-Sydney College came into being
and was located on Hudson's Branch in
Prince Edward County. Indeed, Dr. W.H.T.
Squires, in an interesting sketch of John
Thomson, says that "in the later years of
his life, Thomson. . .established (in Prince
Edward County) a school for the young men"
of that section. .
.
...The school attained a large success.
Some of the lads rode miles to attend;
others built cabins and cooked their own
food. "In a rough way, this school might
be called a forerunner of Hampden-Sydney
College," says Dr. Squires. 30
Nine years after Thomson moved from Virginia to Horth
Carolina, the Rev. Richard Sankey, one of his sons-in-law,
became pastor of the Buff aloe Presbyterian Church. On Febru-ary
2, 1775 j Sankey was named one of the original trustees
of Prince Edward Academy. By May of 1776, Prince Edward
Academy was known by the name of Hampden-Sydney College.-7'
Dr. Ernest Trice Thompson says that "Crowfield Academy
(a forerunner of Davidson College) grew out of a classical
school begun about 1760 in the bounds of Centre congregation
in the present Iredell County. It received students from all
parts of the South and from the '.Vest Indies and prepared
them for the College of New Jersey. " 32-
Thomson had preached at Centre, Fourth Creek, Poplar Tent
and Thyatira from the summer of 1751 until his death in 17^3
•
"He had one preaching station near the oresent site of David-son
College," according to J.K. Rouse. 35
Education of ministerial candidates became one of the
issues which led to the great schism of 17^-1... at least to
the extent that it brought about an alliance between the Rev.
George '.Vhitefield and the Tennent family. The famous Log
College, established about 17 27 at Ileshaminy, ?a., by the Rev.
William Tennent, Sr., and operated privately rather than under
the control of either the Presbytery or the Synod, had become
a primary training ground for prospective ministers.
The Rev. Gilbert Tennent appears to have taken offense
13
on behalf of his family at the Thomson overture of 1739
regarding the need for a school which would be under the
care of the Synod. Dr. William Henry Poote quotes from a
Synod communication to the President of Yale College summa-rizing
the educational disagreement:
Mr. Gilbert Tennent cried out that this was
to prevent his father's school from train-ing
gracious men for the ministry; and he
and some of his adherents protested against
it, and counteracted this our public agree-ment,
admitting men to the ministry which
we judged unfit for that office.
While these debates subsisted, Mr. White-field
came into the country, whom they drew
into their party to encourage divisions.
And by his interest Mr. Gilbert Tennent
grew hardy enough to tell our Synod he would
oppose their design of getting assistance
to erect a college wherever we should make
application, and would maintain young men
at his father's school in opposition to us.
This, with his and his adherents' divisive
practices, obliged the Synod to exclude him,
and others of his stamp, from their commun-ion...
the four Tennents, Blair, Craighead,
Treat and Mr. Wales. These, especially the
Tennents, Blair and Treat, being the ring-leaders
of our divisions, and the destroyers
of good learning and gospel order among us;
and they with a few others that joined with
them, erected themselves into a separate
body, and licensed and ordained men for the
work of the ministry, that were generally
ignorant and warm in the division scheme,
and they have troubled Virginia and the
New England government
.
°4
Harold Wickliffe Rose, in his The Colonial Houses of
Worship in America , describes the schism this way:
The evangelistic preaching of George White-field
in the colonies, which in 17^-0 and
171-1-1 aroused the Great Awakening, caused
considerable controversy and led to schisms
in several denominations. In the Presby-terian
Church, the younger generation of
American-born liberals, known as the "New
Lights," separated from the older generat-ion
who were known as the "Old Lights." The
congregations took sides, and the liberal
Ik
churches became known as "New Side," as
compared to the conservative "Old Side"
churches
.
Gilbert Tennent became active in the con-troversy,
favoring the preaching of White-field,
and the Tennent family of preachers
together with their Log College became
involved. As a result, the Presbytery of
New York joined with the Tennents in 171+5 j
and established the Synod of New York,
which was New Side, while the Synod of,
Philadelphia continued to be Old Side.
Terming the split, "a vehement dispute," in which minis-ters
and churches took sides "with some asperity of feeling,"
Poote says that the parties drove each other "into extremes,
using unkind expressions and unjustifiable means, and de-fending
unwarrantable positions .. .These errors brought a
glorious awakening into disrepute, and gave opportunity to
all, who were not friendly to spiritual religion, to oppose
a genuine work of God. The extreme of one side was formality
in religion; of the other, extravagent bodily exercises ."J6
Not surprisingly, Dr. Briggs lays much of the blame at
Thomson's door:
John Thomson, one of the chiefs of the "old
side," wrote a book to advocate his high
notions of ecclesiastical authority over
against the two papers of the New Brunswick
ministers. . .This brings out clearly the
differences between the parties with refer-ence
to ecclesiastical authority. .
.
...Thomson, (Robert) Cross, (Francis) Ali-son,
and their friends were straining after
an extreme type of Presbyterianism, beyond
anything that had been previously known in
America, and with stretches of absolutism
which would have been strenuously opposed
in the mother Presbyterian churches of
Europe
.
It was the necessity of their position in
hostility to Methodism, rather than their
conformity to ideal Presbyterianism which
urged them on to such tyranny and disorder. '
It might be interesting to conjecture how Dr. Briggs
arrived at his own enlightened understanding of what "ideal
Presbyterianism" is, but it is hardly surprising that Thomson
should have found himself at odds with those whose Calvinistic
15
leanings may have been, at best, only skin deep.
George Whitefield, champion of the New Side Presbyterians
as well as one of the founders of Methodism, continued to be
a priest in the Church of England as long as he lived. Jon-athan
Edwards, who carried the torch with Whitefield, preach-ed
one of his most famous sermons at the Congregational
Church in Enfield, Conn. And William Tennent, Sr., had been
an Anglican clergyman in Northern Ireland before becoming a
Presbyterian in Pennsylvania .
•**
Dr. He radon, as lavish in his admiration as Dr. Briggs
was in his criticism, explains Thomson's position this way:
What Mr. Thomson complained of and con-demned
in the New Light ministers was
their bold and uncharitable condemnation
of their Old Light brethren as graceless,
their ceaseless attempts to prejudice the
people against their pastors, their dis-regard
of established parish boundaries,
and their teaching that every true
Christian is sure of his own conversion
and that no adult can be converted unless
he first undergoes convictions in that
subject which are ungracious and prepara-tory
in nature.
He objected to their emphasis on the need
or the desirability of convulsions on the
part of the converts. He deplored their
preaching in such a way as to delude
their hearers that during their devotions
they had seen Christ or a great light. He
objected to the spirit of censoriousness
which they seemed to inculcate in their
converts . .
.
...In fact he agreed that the revival had
had good effects when it stirred up a
great many people "to more serious
thoughts about their soul's concerns than
ever before." This he said was "a thing
truly to be rejoiced in, and many, it is
said, are much reformed in several par-ticulars
of moral practice, which also is
just matter for satisfaction. " 3<*
3y June 1, 17I+1, it had become obvious that the division,
was irreparable and the Rev. Robert Cross, pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, read to the Synod a pro-test
signed by himself, Thomson, Francis Alison, Robert
16
Mortn C:
Cathcart, and eight 'other ministers and seven elders.
"No vote was taken on the protest, but after it was
sensed that the overwhelming membership of the Synod supported
it, those who would have been on the losing side, if a vote
had been taken, withdrew," Herndon says. "They organized
themselves as the Synod of New York in 17i|-5« The two Synods
kept in touch with each other and in 175&1 reunited as the
Synod of New York and Philadelphia,"^
But the outspoken Dr. Briggs had yet one more indictment
of John Thomson and his compatriots and perhaps it was the
most serious of all:
The twelve Protesters of 17^1> by persisting
in the wrong which they had done in dividing
the American Presbyterian Church, threw away
the one great opportunity, which has never
since been repeated, of combining the entire
Presbyterian strength of America in one com-pact
organization.
For there can be little doubt that if the
views of the Presbytery of New York had pre-vailed
in the Synod of 17^4-j the Presbyteries
of New Brunswick and New Londonderry would
have been restored to their rightful position
in the Synod; the breaches would have been
healed, the Dutch and German (Reformed)
Churches would have been cordially received;
the corresponding breaches in these Churches
would have been prevented from expanding
into those schisms which soon afterwards dis-tracted
them; the French Churches of New York
and Carolina would have joined the Union; and
Presbyterianism would have become so strong
in the Middle colonies that it would have
been impossible to resist its onward sweep.
It would have entrenched itself as the
national Church of these colonies as strongly
as Congregationalism had established itself
in New England.^'
If such a golden opportunity truly existed It appears to
have escaped the notice, not only of the divines of that day,
but also of the contemporaries of Dr. Briggs nearly a century
and a half later. In any case, Briggs himself felt constrained
to acknowledge almost grudgingly, it would seen that
Providence might have had a hand in the entire affair.
But such a supremacy of Presbyterianism
In America might have involved a premature
17
struggle with the English crown; it would
have prevented the establishment of those
principles of liberty and equality which
are now the boast of the American Republic.
presbyterianism had to suffer through the
folly of the twelve protesters of I7I4-I, and
forfeit the religious supremacy of America,
in order that there might be a Free Church
in a Free State; in order to the establish-ment
of the principles of Religious Toler-ation,
Fraternal Recognition of different
Denominations, and Ecclesiastical Compre-hension,
on a grander scale than Presby-terians
aimed at in the eighteenth century...
...It was the external struggle against
civil injustice and tyranny, and the in-ternal
struggle with narrowness, intol-erance,
and bigotry that made Presbyter-ianism
in America the champion of civil
and religious liberty.
^
Efforts toward healing the costly breach in Presbyterian-ism
became a major concern of leaders in both factions almost
immediately. And, again, John Thomson and Gilbert Tennent
found themselves in the forefront. Reflecting on the conflict
and its aftermath, Dr. Hodge describes Thomson as "a man of
self -command, learning and piety."
He took indeed an active and in some re-spects,
a very mistaken part in opposition
to Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Tennent; yet no
one can read his writings without being
impressed with respect for his character
and talents. And it is a gratifying fact,
that Mr. Tennent himself, after the ex-citement
of controversy had subsided, came
to speak of him in terms of affectionate
regard
.
Indeed, were nothing known of these two
men, but their controversial writings, the
reader could hardly fail to think, that
in humility, candour, and Christian tem-per,
Mr. Thomson was greatly superior to
his opponent. It is, however, the weakest
side of Mr. Tennent ! s ardent and impetuous
character that appears in these writings
and they would be a very unfair criterion
to the man. ^
Tennent, himself, in his Irenicum of 17^4-9 j described
18
Thomson's writings of 17 1+1 vintage as breathing "the candid
and humble spirit of true Christianity." And, of Thomson and
his sympathizers, he adds that "as far from opposing the late
revival of religion, that on the contrary they expressly
acknowledged it, rejoiced in it, and prayed for its increase."^
Agreeing that Tennent ' s "zeal and energy contributed not
a little to the harmony of the Church" and its ultimate
reunion, Dr. Foote has this to say of Mr. Tennent ' s role in
the entire matter:
The Church has long since spread her mantle
of love and sweet remembrance, over his
memory; and a reference to his imprudent
zeal will do him no harm, while it may be a
warning to others against indulgence in
passionate denunciation, and hasty judgment
of character and Christian standing . '*''•*"
Prom Dr. Webster's history, it is possible to trace in
concise fashion Thomson's own concern over reconciliation:
17l|9 John Thomson was then labouring in
the Valley of Virginia; and the moderator,
Timothy Griffith, was ordered to write him
(concerning optimism that the split soon
might be healed )
.
17^0 The Philadelphia Synod met on the
23rd of May, 1750. The venerable John
Thomson had come from Virginia to be pres-ent
at this interesting period.
1753---The Philadelphia Synod, in 1753* did
nothing towards the union: they had lost
their two oldest members, John Thomson and
Hugh Conn, and had gained none.
So time had run out for Mr. Thomson. . .but not for the
Church to which he had dedicated his life.
I758 At three p.m. in the Second Presby-terian
Church (of Philadelphia), the two
synods met, Sampson Smith being moderator
of the one, and Samuel Davies of the other.
The plan of union was read and unanimously
agreed to, the union was accomplished, and
a new book opened and the whole plan and „
articles of agreement entered May 29, 1758*
Presbyterianism in America had survived its first serious
crisis. This would not be the last, nor the longest, nor even
19
the most heart-rending separation it would experience. It
would, however, provide a foretaste of the healing philoso-phy
expressed more than two centuries later by Dr. 3en Lacy
Rose, then Moderator of the PC US, as it looked toward a
long-sought merger with the UPUSA
:
God does not require that we always agree
with each other; only that we love and
respect each other as brothers and sisters.
^
John Thomson would have had no quarrel with that state-ment.
He was not around to defend himself against Dr. Briggs'
charge that he had been "a narrow and opinionated man who
became the father of all the discord and mischief in the
American Presbyterian Church," but he came very close to
offering a suitable reply in his sermon on Conviction and
Assurance . Discussing qualifications for the ministry and
perhaps indulging in a bit of self-examination he admonished
his listeners (or readers) in these terms:
It is the indispensable duty of every one
who would aspire to the sacred office, to
pray and labour in the greatest earnest
for true sanctifying grace, and all other
necessary qualifications to fit him for
his work; and to propose single ends and
views to himself in undertaking it. And it
is no less the duty of those, whose part
it is to call and ordain men to that work,
to take all possible care to inquire into
the saving grace as well as other qualifi-cations
in the persons to be ordained; and
the neglect of either is a heinous sin,
and of a dreadful tendency; no doubt a
graceless ministry is an awful plague and
scourge to any people...
...We are directed by the Westminster
Assembly to inquire touching the grace of
God in the candidate, and if he be of such
holiness of life as is requisite in a
minister of the gospel...
...No man or judicature on earth hath a
right to know my spiritual state further
than a profession of the faith of the gos-pel,
and owning subjection to its precepts,
go. None has a right to know the secret
intercourse between me and my God, or be-tween
me and my own wicked heart and
Satan's temptations.
20
These things .are among the religious secrets
which I have a right to conceal or to dis-cover,
as Christian prudence or discretion
shall direct. **
Dr. Webster insists that Thomson's "book on the Govern-ment
of the Church and his sermon on Convic tion and Assurance
are as able, learned, judicious, and evangelical, as any of
the writings of (Jonathan) Dickinson and (Samuel) Blair."*?
Mr. Thomson's interest in the Virginia frontier appears
to have paralleled the very earliest settlements there.
"There were no white inhabitants of the Valley anywhere along
the Potomac or Shenandoah previous to about the year 1733;
and no Presbyterian congregation before 1736 or 1737>"
according to Dr. Foote.**~<,
Kegley ' s Virginia Frontier corroborates the first date.
On December 15~, T733T Jacob Stover, a native of Switzerland,
acquired title to 10,000 acres "on west side of the great
mountains, and on the second fork of the Shenando River, on
both sides of the branches thereof, for the settlement of
himself and divers German and Swiss families, his associates,
whom he proposes to bring thither to dwell in two years space.
"Place selected was the Indian Oil Fields called Ivlassa-nutton,
and here was made the first permanent white settlement
in the Valley."-*7
Dr. Eggleston confirms the general arrival time of what
appears to have been the first genuine Presbyterian congre-gation:
Miss Elizabeth V. Gaines has given a valuable
account of the Scotch- Irish Settlement on Cub
Creek, in the western part of Lunenburg (now
Charlotte) County. The leader of this Settle-ment
was John Caldwell, a native of Ulster
County, Ireland, who settled first in Penn-sylvania,
and then, after spying out the land,
brought a colony to Virginia in 1738*
In Pennsylvania he was an elder in the Pres-byterian
Church of which Rev. John Thomson
was the pastor... In 1738> Mr. Thomson visit-ed
the Valley of Virginia, and was requested
to remain as pastor, but his Presbytery de-clined
to release him from his charge at
Chestnut Level. He visited other communities
in Virginia; in 1739 he was preaching at Cub
Creek, at Buffaloe, and in other nearby
communities .
"*
21
Dr. Poote is even more explicit:
Mr. John Thompson of the Presbytery of
Donegall visited Virginia in the year 1739>
and spent some time in the Opeckon neigh-bourhood,
in the neighbourhood of
Staunton, on Rockfish in Kelson, on
Cub Greek, at Buffaloe, and in Campbell
County. "He took up voluntary collections
for preachers of the gospel" says the
manuscript history of Lexington Presbytery
"and in doing justice to his memory it
is proper to observe, that he was active in
promoting the Presbyterian cause in Vir-ginia
."
He was a man of great vigour and took an
active part in the affairs of the church.
Through his instrumentality Messrs. Samuel
Black and John Craig were sent by presby-tery,
the one to the Triple Forks, and the
other to Rockfish.
Thomson's growing interest in Virginia understandably
did little to endear him to his Chestnut Level parishioners.
Already in a turmoil over the Old Side-New Side controversy,
the congregation was far from happy, which probably accounted
in part for the Presbytery's unwillingness to dismiss him
from the charge.
"In the troubles of the great rupture he had his full
share," writes Dr. Webster. "The state of his congregation
made it uncomf ortable for him to remove; he was poorly paid,
and he turned toward Virginia, where he had steadfast friends,
He was not released till July 31* 17^1- J ancl then he at once
made his home in the Valley .^V
Dr. Ernest Trice Thompson picks up the narrative from
the Virginia end
:
In I7I4-O, John Craig returned to Augusta (Old
Stone) and Tinkling Spring churches, the
first settled pastor in western Virginia.
His congregation extended over a territory
30 miles long and 20 broad. Craig spent the
rest of his days serving the Presbyterians
of the Valley.
Samuel Black settled shortly afterward in
Albemarle County, and Andrew Miller came to
share the work in Augusta County. In 17^4-
John Thomson, v/ho had itinerated earlier
PP
through the frontier settlements, made his
home in the upper Valley and carried on an
extensive missionary work throughout the
whole region.
For some time these four Craig, Black,
Miller, and Thomson were the only pas-tors
in the Valley; the majority of the
settlers continued to depend on the occas-ional
visits of itinerants for their re-ligious
ministrations.
It was also in 17ljlf the year he moved to Virginia
that Thomson visited North Carolina for the first time. When
the General Synod met in Philadelphia on May 2lj. of that year,
it adopted the following minute:
A representation from many people of North
Carolina, was laid before the Synod showing
their desolate condition, and requesting
the Synod to take their estate into con-sideration,
and petitioning that we would
appoint one of our number to correspond
with them. Ordered, that Mr. John Thomson
correspond with them.*5^
"He was, says Foote, "at that time on a visit to these
petitioners and others in Carolina." Herndon adds that
whether he repeated these visits during his Buffalo pas-torate
is not known, but considering how extensively he
traveled, it would not have been unlike him to have done so.
Nevertheless we have no positive record of a further visit
until 1751* after which he never returned to Virginia."'*"7
Herndon also speculates that the years Thomson spent at
Buffalo may have been the happiest and most useful of his
life. He had married again in late 173^1- °f early 1735 and
the youngest of his 13 children was born in 1735* The older
children were grown, some were married, and the minister
probably had a dozen or more grandchildren by the time he
came to Virginia.
More than that, he was among friends who had come from
Pennsylvania and some, perhaps, even from Ireland with
him. If not forgotten, recrimination from the schism at least
was pushed momentarily into the background.
It was during this time that he wrote his Explication of
the Shorter Catechism , which Herndon believes "is still
probably the keenest analysis of the Shorter Catechism yet
written." A few excerpts contained in the Herndon book lend
credence to this elaborate claim. A copy of the entire work
is in the Virginia Historical Society library."**
23
Thomson's removal to North Carolina is a bit more diffi-cult
to understand than his decision to forsake Pennsylvania
for Virginia, if Dr. Eggleston is to be believed, it may be
that the Buffalo Settlement simply had become too tame for
him:
A quiet and peaceable community makes little
history, and there is little of a dramatic
nature to be found among these settlers, who
were busy with their farm operations and
other businesses. It was a land of wheat,
corn, tobacco, with some cattle; country
stores at convenient points; and smithies,
where everything from nails and horseshoes
to wagons, and other vehicles, were made;
one fulling mill; many mills for the grind-ing
of wheat and corn.-*"?
Always something of an adventurer, Thomson may have found
the challenge of a new field begging for the Word of God
irresistible
.
Or perhaps he simply fell in love with Western Carolina
during his visit in 17l]I\. ( a^d possibly on other occasions).
His two youngest daughters had married and moved there, but
he also left numerous children and grandchildren in Virginia.
If he feared for the spiritual well-being of the latter, it
may be that he and his son-in-law, the Rev. Richard Sankey,
had some sort of understanding.
Sankey and a large part of his congregation came from
Pennsylvania to the Buffalo colony in 1759 after ll}. members
of the flock had been killed in an Indian massacre.
"Whether there was a regular pastor between his (Thomson's)
departure and the arrival of Mr. Sankey in 1759 i s n°t known.
It is known that there was at least one stated supply, and
there were doubtless others," Eggleston reports. &?
Whatever his motivation may have been, John Thomson
elected to stay in North Carolina after his missionary visit
in the spring or summer of 1751* Poote thinks he may have
visited settlements along the Eno and Haw rivers en route to
that part of Anson County which, in 1753 > became Rowan, and,
in I788, Iredell County. 67
He made his home with Elizabeth and Samuel Baker, his
daughter and son-in-law. Death had claimed his second wife
some years earlier.
"His North Carolina 'parish' contained about 3llj. square
miles," according to Herndon. "He is said to have gone on his
A
circuit on horseback, prepared to encamp wherever night over-took
him hobbling his horse, and turning him loose to feed
upon the abundant and luxurious pea vines which continued
green nearly all winter. " 6-*-
Sturdy oaks which grew from the little acorns Thomson
planted in his North Carolina "parish" include the historic
congregations of Centre, Poplar Tent, "Old Fourth Creek" (now.
the First Presbyterian Church of Statesville ), and Thyatira.
J.K. Rouse's Colonial Churches in North Carolina tells a bit
about Thomson's role in each:
CENTRE Soon after the land along Davidson
Creek in Anson County (now Iredell County)
was settled by the Scotch-Irish in the year
of 1714-8 » the pioneers constructed a small
log church building, two miles north of the
present town of Davidson College and named
the church the Osborne Meeting House.
(Because the Osborne Meeting House seemed
to be in the center of the congregation,
the name was changed to Centre Presbyterian
Church in 1765.
)
It was to this frontier settlement that the
Presbyterian missionary, John Thompson,
came in the summer of 175>l.».at the invi-tation
of John Brevard, Moses Winslow,
George Davidson, and other Scotch-Irish
people whom he had known in Pennsylvania...
To the Centre Presbyterian congregation,
(he), no doubt, gave his famous sermon on
the Nature of Conviction for Sin.
POPLAR TENT In a beautiful grove of Pop-lar,
Oak and Elm trees, seven miles west of
Concord, stands the old Poplar Tent Presby-terian
Church, established in 1751. The
first services were held under a large Pop-lar
tree near the present colonial brick
church. In a very short time, the congre-gation
erected a tent for a place of wor-ship.
The Scotch- Irish emigrants to the
Carolinas often used these tents until the
congregation could build a permanent
building
.
Dr. James Hall of Iredell County said that
he had seen large numbers of people stand-ing
in the rain and snow to hear the gospel
preached. One day in a meeting at the tent
someone said, "What shall we call this
place?" One said, "Poplar Springs," another
standing by threw a cup of water against
the tent and said, "Poplar Tent," hence the
name of the church. .
.
...There is strong presumptive evidence
that, Charles Harris, who emigrated to the
Poplar Tent community of Anson County (now
Cabarrus County) from Lancaster County,
Pa., in 17^0, was the man who invited the
Rev. John Thompson of the Davidson Creek
Settlement to preach to the Poplar Tent
Pioneers under the shade of a giant poplar
tree which once stood on the present Pop-lar
Tent Presbyterian Church grounds.
It is a matter of record that after the
death of his first wife, Jane Mclllenney
Harris, Charles Harris (one of Poplar
Tent's first elders), in 1758 > married
Elizabeth Thompson Baker (whose first hus-band,
Samuel Baker, had died earlier the
same year), the daughter of this first
Presbyterian minister to make his home in
Western North Carolina.
''OLD FOURTH CREEK" The First Presbyterian
Church of Statesville, or "Old Fourth Creek
Church," was established in 1753 • ..From the
History of Fourth Creek Church , written by
Rev. e'.F. Rockwell, we learn that Fourth
Creek was gathered into a congregation at
least as early as 175l> and their place of
worship was fixed upon as early as 17^6.
The Rev. John Thompson came into this region
as early as 175>1j and settled near Centre
Church. He preached at Fourth Creek and var-ious
other stations in Rowan County, for
about two years, and it is said that people
came twenty or twenty-five miles to his
appointments. "From the Davidson Settlement
and the region of Beattie's Ford, they came;
from Rowan, the Brandons, the Cowans, the
Brawleys. Sometimes he baptized a score of
infants at once." • • •
...The town of Statesville, one of the old-est
towns in Western North Carolina, grew
up around old Fourth Creek Presbyterian
Church and is considered a child of this
26
institution. In 1875 the church name was
dropped and Fourth Creek Congregation
became known as the First Presbyterian
Church of Statesville.
THYATIRA Thyatira Presbyterian Church,
located in the western part of present
Rowan County, about ten miles west of
Salisbury, in the village of Mill Bridge,
is said by many to be the oldest Pres-byterian
Church in North Carolina, which
has documentary proof of its antiquity. .
.
William Kizziah's study reveals that
"Thyatira Church is older than Rowan
County," and that to his knowledge, "there
is no documentary record of any church
that 'was established in Rowan County be-fore
Thyatira." ...
..."The Catheys and Brandons came down
from Lancaster, Pa., by way of Augusta
County, Va.; and these two families alone
were sufficient to establish a sizeable
congregation for a church. These families
probably came in 17l\.Q and obtained the
necessary entries for their land and later
the grants were issued. . .Since (they) had
obtained their lands as early as April
6th, 171+9 j there is no reasonable doubt
that one of their first acts after erect-ing
some sort of shelter for their fam-ilies
was to build a meeting house."...
...The first services that were held at
the Lower Meeting House in the Cathey
Settlement were conducted by visiting Pres-byterian
missionaries from the Synod of
Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. . .The Rev.
John Thompson, an Old Side Presbyterian
minister, came to North Carolina in 1751
to serve the Presbyterian churches west
of the Yadkin River. He made his home with
his son-in-law, Samuel Baker, and daugh-ter,
Elizabeth, who lived in the Centre
Settlement, some fourteen miles west of
the Lower Meeting House.
Rev. Thompson was the only licensed Old
Side Presbyterian minister living in this
section of North Carolina in 1753 and it
is the writer's opinion that he was the
pastor of the Lower Meeting House at the
27
time the deed was made on the seventeenth
day of January 17 £3
•
This gray-headed disciple of Christ so
presented the view, principle and customs
of the Old Side Synod to the Thyatira
Congregation that, two years after his
death, they were unable to come to an
agreement on whether the church should
extend a call to the Rev. Hugh McAden,
a Presbyterian missionary of the New Side
Synod, who made a visit to the Congrega-tion
in 1755.
^
It is not likely that, in preaching the gospel as he
understood it, John Thomson would have deliberately pre-judiced
one of his congregations against dedicated ministers
from the Hew Side. Certainly, there is nothing in the record
to indicate that he did anything to disparage young Hugh
McAden, who, by all accounts, was a thoroughly competent
missionary in his own right. Under different circumstances,
the two men might have labored side -by-side in the Lord's
vineyard
.
The problem was that dissension rampant in the Pennsyl-vania
congregations had followed Presbyterian settlers to
Virginia and the Carolinas. With one notable exception, the
early Scotch-Irish communities in Western North Carolina
adhered with fierce loyalty to the Old Side tenets.
That exception was the Rocky River settlement in present
Cabarrus County. Organized about 1751) this congregation was
composed of settlers from Lancaster County, pa., who "adhered
to the New Side Synod that took great delight in the glorious
revival of Rev. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. "^
Although it lay well within the bounds of his "parish,"
there is no record of Thomson's having been invited to preach
at Rocky River.
By 1755> however, the great schism had taken a heavy toll
on the supply of available ministers from the Old Side Synod
of Philadelphia. By contrast, the New Side Synod of New York
seemed to be blessed with an abundance of zealous missionar-ies.
It was this situation which accounted for Mr. McAden'
s
visit to the Thyatira congregation in the first place.
During the latter days of his life, Thomson had occupied
a small cabin in the yard of the Baker home. Legend has it
that when he died, "the floor of the cabin was taken up and
his grave made inside the cabin walls. This was the beginning
of the Baker graveyard."^5
"
23
Even in death, however, John Thomson was unable to es-cape
confusion and consternation. The confusion was natural
enough. Most historians fixed the location of "the Baker
graveyard" at "Centre, North Carolina."
And so it was. But 20th Century maps and documents list
a "Centre" in Guilford County, a "Center Township" in Stanly
County, two "Center" communities in Yadkin, and one in Davie .
County.^ Only those familiar enough with Mr. Thomson's North
Carolina "parish" to know that it included the Centre congre-gation
at Mount Mourne could have guessed where to look for
the cemetery.
The Rev. E.P. Rockwell, a former pastor of the old Fourth
Creek Church at Statesville, was one who knew the location
very well. According to J.K. Rouse, he wrote the following
epitaph and had it inscribed on a marker at the head of
Thomson's grave:
Born by the side of the River Poyle, in North
of Ireland, where he first opened his eyes
on the world, he closed them in the wilder-ness,
on the banks of Catawba; an ocean rose
between his cradle and his grave, an emblem
of his stormy life. Ireland gave him his
birth; Iredell County a grave; heavenly Jeru-salem
a final rest. 6 *'
So much for the confusion. The consternation arises from
a set of circumstances Rockwell's epitaph had no way of
anticipating. It bursts forth when an amateur archeologist
or genealogist makes a pilgrimage to the site... only to dis-cover
that it now lies at the bottom of the largest man-made
lake in North Carolina I
But this, it turns out, really is a blessing in disguise.
In a quiet corner of the old cemetery across the road from
Mount Mourne ' s Centre Presbyterian Church and barely a
stone's throw from busy Interstate 77 a simple marker reads:
Baker Cemetery
Moved To This Site
1961
From Original Location
3a Miles Southwest
In Lake Norman
Nearby is another marker:
29
The Rev. John Thomson
cl690-1753
Pioneer Presbyterian Preacher,
Teacher and Writer.
Graduate of U. of Glasgow
Advocate of the Adopting Act 17 29.
Probably the First Minister to
Preach in What Became Concord
Presbytery
Buried in This Enclosure
It is enough. This place is a proper setting in which to
reflect upon John Thomson's contributions to his Church and
his Nation. The first Presbytery that net between the Catawba
and the Yadkin held its sessions at Centre Presbyterian
Church. And it was here that the Synod of the Carolinas was
formed in 1788> and the Presbytery of Concord in 179&*
The second and fourth meetings of the Synod of the Caro-linas
also were held in Thomson's "parish 11 the former in
1789 at Poplar Tent, and the latter' in 1791 at Thyatira.^
There is yet another historic dimension to the Centre
Church cemetery. Sixteen members of this congregation fought
in the American Revolution. Many of them undoubtedly were
baptized in early childhood by the flock's first shepherd.
Some now share the hallowed ground with him. Their Nation,
like their Church, has prospered under a provident God.
The Rev. John Thomson sleeps in peace... but the work he
started goes on.
There can be little doubt that he intended his Poor
Orphans ' Legacy to be read by an audience larger than that
of" his own children, but it seems just as obvious that it
was meant to contain a very personal message to his kith
and kin.
From the 13 children and at least 6l grandchildren
he left, Thomson's progeny have spread over the entire
country with the heaviest concentrations probably in Virginia,
North Carolina and Georgia. Wherever they have scattered, a
strong religious faith has gone with them. Most often it has
been expressed through his cherished Presbyterian Church.
Yet, the one descendant whose life may have followed most
closely the John Thomson blueprint was a Methodist minister!
The Rev. William Chaffin Crockett (1352-1921), a great-great-great
grandson, ministered to far-flung circuits in the
Wythe-Bland-Giles area of Southwestern Virginia and was the
founding pastor of a number of congregations.
30
This turn of events was not as strange as it might seen.
The Rev. Mr. Crockett and the seven other children of William
Guise and Emily Chaffin Crockett were exposed to almost equal
amounts of Presbyterian and Methodist theology as they were
growing up. The Methodist influence came from their mother
and grandmother.
Even as Chaffin Crockett was committing his life to the .
Methodist ministry, a younger brother, Dr. Alexander George
Crockett, wa s mixing the practice of medicine with practical
Presbyterianism. He was an elder in Abingdon Presbytery's
historic Anchor of Hope congregation until his death in 1919
...but he also served as one of the original trustees for
the Max Meadows, Va., Methodist Church.
Obviously, the tension which existed between these denom-inations
at the time of "The Great Awakening" posed no problem
for this particular family of Thomson descendants. The old
missionary v/ould have been delighted. He said as much "
century and a half earlier.
a
Despite his controversial role in the first serious
division within his own denomination, Thomson had addressed
Christian unity in terms that might have come straight from
the 20th Century ecumenical movement. At a time when Pres-byterians
often felt a heavy hand of oppression from the
Church of England, he deemed it desirable to discuss not
the differences but the similarities between the two
denominations in a companion document to his Explication of
the Shorter Catechism .
He pointed out that "Presbyterian ministers in general
do freely and without scruple.'. . subscribe all the 39 articles
(adopted by the Church of England in 155>2 ) except the 3 4-th,
35th, and 36th and the 1st Clause of the 20th, all which do
only relate to the Authority, ceremonies, Homilies, & Con-secration
of Archbishops & Bishops & Ordination of Priests
and Deacons; and not at all to any main point of Christian
Faith."
Then he adds this exhortation:
Let us all cordially endeavor to be united
in our Christian Affections and Charity
towards one another as well as true Love
towards God. Let us all cordially strive
to initiate, emulate, & encourage one
another in everything that is commendable
before God and agreeable to our consciences;
and let us beware lest our differing judg-ments
and sentiments in lesser points of
religion have more influence upon us, to
31
alienate affections from one another,
than our agreement to the more substan-tial
parts of Religion can have to unite
and cement our souls together in mutual
Christian Love. 6 '
In a sense, the Rev. John Thomson was a product of the
times in which he lived. But, in a broader context, it would
not be an exaggeration to say that he helped shape the events
of that day at least as much as he was shaped by them. His
ministry was one of dedication, determination, decisiveness
and devotion.
He held strong opinions and he was hard-headed and out-spoken.
There may have been occasions when he took himself
too seriously and, certainly, there were times when prudence
might have dictated that he should be listening instead of
talking. These are vexing though rarely fatal genetic
flaws which have continued to afflict his progeny unto the
seventh and eighth generations.^
It is impossible to study John Thomson's life (and the
writings which have survived) without speculating how he
might have reacted to the historic sequence of developments
which brought about the long- sought reunion of the Presbyter-ian
Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America 230 years after his
death.
Quite probably, he would have quibbled over some of the
same sticking points which bedeviled the Joint Committee on
Presbyterian Union. But the masterfully-drawn Foreword which
introduced the Plan for Reunion would have been a document
after his own heart I "
History does not record what kind of singing voice John
Thomson himself had. But the harsh judgment of Dr. Charles
Augustus Briggs notwithstanding it is difficult to believe
that he would not have wanted his descendants (spiritual, as
".veil as genealogical) there in the front ranks when the
joyful group in Atlanta sang, "Blest Be The Tie."
And some of them undoubtedly were.
Bibliography and References
1. There can be little doubt that "Thomson 11 was the original
spelling, although a few early church records, several
historians, and his descendants almost without exception
opt for "Thompson." In the interest of accuracy, the name
32
is spelled herein just as it appears in the particular
source material.
2. Herndon, John Goodwin, The Reverend John Thomson ( ca
.
1690-1753 ) , Lancaster, Pa., The Lancaster Press, I9I4.3
,
P- 51.
3. Briggs, Charles Augustus, American Presbyterianism,
Philadelphia, Pa., 1885, p. ltSb.
I4.. Herndon, op. cit. , p. 65.
5. French, Janie Collup and Zella Armstrong, The Crockett
Family and Connecting Lines (Notable Southern Families,
v. 5 h Bristol, Tenn., King Printing Co., I928 . (Reprint-ed
by Reprint Co., Spartanburg, S.C., l^)i\\.) , p. 201.
6. Herndon, op. cit. , p. 6l.
7. Ibid. , p. 63.
8. Hodge, Charles, The Constitutional History of the Pres -
byterian Church , Philadelphia, Pa., Presbyterian Board
of Publication, l85l, part I, p. 19.
9. Foote, William Henry, Sketches of North Carolina , New
York, H.Y., Robert Carter, ltfl+6, p. I'd,
10. Hodge, op. cit. , p. 56.
11. Thompson, Ernest Trice, Presbyterians in the South , Vol.
One, Richmond, Va . , John Knox' Press, I9S3 , p . i|.8 .
12. Hodge, op. cit. , pp. 59 > ®1 > ®k-<
13. Webster, Richard, A History of the Presbyterian Church
in America , Philadelphia, pa., TB~57, p. 103
.
1I4.. Ibid. , p. 105.
15. Briggs, op. cit. , pp. 2l6, 218.
16. Presbyterian Church in the United States, The Book of
Church Order , 1981-1982 ed., Richmond, Va., JoErTKnox
Press, Sec. 27-7. (3).
*-7» The plan For Reunion of the Presbyterian Church in the
united StaTes~oT AmerTca7~T901, Sec. 0- ll 1_.oJ4.Oi> ( c7
.
18. Webster, op . cit. , p. 355.
19. Herndon, op. cit.-, p. 15
.
33
20. Ibid. , pp. 19, 20.
21. Ibid. , pp. 20-22.
22. Thomson, John, The Poop Orphans ' Legacy , 17 3^- • Mimeograph
copy of unknown origin in author's possession.
23. Ibid.
2I4.. Herndon, op. cit. , pp. 25> 2d.
25. Thomson, op . cit.
26. Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., Board of Publication,
Descriptive Catalogue , Philadelphia, pa., i860.
27. Herndon, op . cit. , pp. 9» iO.
20. Hodge, op. cit. , p. 2l£.
29. Herndon, op. cit. , pp. 38 > 39*
30. Eggleston, Joseph D., "The Buffaloe Settlement and Its
Makers," The Virginia Magazine of Historv and Biography,
v. 1|.8 and~W, p. 2I[2. ( 1«Ll1 ) .
31. Poote, William Henry, Sketches of Virginia , Historical
and Biographical , Philadelphia, "^a .
, W.S. Martien, 1850,
v. 1, p. 395.
32. Thompson, op. cit. , p. 2l\%.
33« Rouse, Jordan K., Colonial Churches in North Carolina ,
Salisbury, H.G., Rowan Business Forms, 1961, p^ £31.
3^4- • Foote, Virginia , op. cit. , p. 22£.
35". Rose, Harold IVickliffe, The Colonial Houses of Worship in
America , New York, N.Y., Hastings House, I963, p~. 68.
36. Foote, Virginia , op . cit. , p. II9.
37 • Briggs, op. cit. , pp. 265? 267.
38. Rose, op . cit. , pp. Ip2, 68.
39. Herndon, op. cit. , pp. 3^, 36.
1(.0. Ibid. , p. 30.
!|.l. Briggs, op. cit. , p. 288.
lj.2. Ibid.
3k
i+3 • Hodge, op. cit. , pp. 128, 129 •
I|l|.c Herndon, op. cit. , p. 36.
i|-5« Foote, Virginia , op. cit« , p. 227.
lj.6. Webster, op^ cit. , pp. 223, 221]., 233, 239.
1(.7« From a sermon at First- Presbyterian Church, Durham, N.C.
14.8
.
Hodge, op . cit
.
, p. 321.
14.9. Webster, op. cit. , p. 356.
50. Foote, Virginia , op. cit
.
, p. 357.
51. Kegley, Frederick Bittle, Keg ley ' s Virginia Frontier , Roa-noke,
Va., Southwest Virginia Historical Society, FJ38,
p. 33.
52. Eggleston, op. cit. , pp. 239, 2I4.O
53' Foote, Virginia , op . cit
, p. 118
.
%l\.* Webster, op. cit. , p. 356.
55* Thompson, op. cit. , p. h$,
56. Herndon, op. cit. , p. 56.
5?. Ibid.
58. Ibid., pp. lj.9-52.
59 • Eggleston, op. cit., p. 237.
60. Ibid. , pp. 239, 2l|.0.
61. Foote, North Carolina , op. cit . , p. 225.
62. Herndon, op. cit. , p. 58
•
63. Rouse , op. cit. , pp. 67-8I4..
6J4.. Ibid. , p. 7 if.
65. French, op. cit. , p. 200.
66. North Carolina Gazetteer , I983 ed.
67. Rouse, op. cit. , p. 72.
35
68. Foote, North Carolina , op. cit. , p. 232.
69. Herndon, op. cit. , pp. 53, $K*
70. For tliis, and subsequent expressions of opinion, the
author unabashedly claims a modicum of poetic license.
71. The Plan For Reunion , op. cit. , p. 9.
Additional References:
Baker, Pearl, A Handbook of History, McDuffie County, Georgia,
1870 - 197TT:
Barbery, Willard Sanders, Brother She f fey , Bluefield, Va .
,
privately published c. 195F^
Breed, the Rev. V/.P., D.D., Presbyterians and the Revolution ,
Philadelphia, Pa., Presbyterian Board of Publication,
I876.
Carr, Jess, The Saint of the Wilderness , Radford, Va., Com-monwealth
Press, Inc ,~, 19 7% •
Encyclopedia Americana , The , 1958 ed., Vol. 13
•
Harrison, Crockett Allen, The Aliens and the Harrisons of the
Kingdom of Callaway , Grove City, Pa., Mulvey Adver-tising,
Inc~ I98I.
Herndon, John Goodwin, "Some of the Descendants of the Rever-end
John Thomson (ca. 1690-1753)," The Virginia Mag -
azine of History and Biography , v. 51 ( 19^-3 ) •
Herndon, John Goodwin, "The Cunninghams of Cub Creek," The
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , v. 52 (19^4-)*
Kerr, the Rev. Robert P., Presbyterianism for the People ,
Philadelphia, Pa., Presbyterian Board oT~Publicat ion,
I883.
Klett, Guy Soulliard, Presbyterians in Colonial Pennsylvania ,
Philadelphia, Pa., 1937.
Lefler, Hugh Talmage and Albert Ray Newsome, North Carolina
(Revised Edition), Chapel Hill, N.C., UNC Press,
195'j. and I963.
personal correspondence with Michael S. Moss, Archivist, Uni -
versity of Glasgow ; Trevor Parkhill, Public Records
Office of Northern Ireland ; and Mrs. C. Donnelly,
Ulster Historical Foundation .
36
Presgraves, James S., Wythe County Chapters , Wytheville, Va .
,
1972.
Rouse, Jordan K., North Carolina Picadillo , Salisbury, 'N.C.,
Rowan Business Forms, Inc~ I966.
Rouse, Parke, Jr., Planters and Pioneers Life in Colonial
Virginia , New York, N.Y. , Hastings House, 196 b1
.
Thomas , Mrs . Elizabeth Peirce Crockett , Autobiography of,
V/ytheville, Va., circulated among family and friends,
c. 1950.
Trimble, David B., Southwest Virginia Families , San Antonio,
Tex., 1975-
.
Wilson, Goodridge, "The Southwest Corner," Roanoke, Va . , The
Roanoke Times, various dates.
37
GQ 285.0924 T482C
Crockett. Alex T.
John Thomson : a man with a mission I
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