Just 20 years ago, we celebrated the 300th anniversary of America’s first presbytery, which assembled in Philadelphia in 1706. The key player in gathering seven Presbyterian ministers to establish this presbytery in the American Colonies was Francis Makemie. In memory of his efforts to create a Presbyterian structure in America, Makemie has been given the honorific title “Father of American Presbyterianism” by later generations. Many of his contemporaries knew Makemie best for his bold advocacy for religious freedom. 

Who was this man, and how did he help shape early Presbyterianism in America? Before we discuss the life and contributions of Francis Makemie, we will briefly explore the nascent Presbyterian footprint in America leading up to Makemie’s ministry in the New World. This background will provide a useful context for understanding the impulse to establish the first presbytery in America and the significance of Makemie’s fight for religious liberty in the British colonies of America.

Presbyterians Come to America

The first English settlement in the New World was Jamestown, Virginia, settled in 1607. Among the Jamestown immigrants were Puritan clergy from England, some of whom were of Presbyterian persuasion. Alexander Whitaker and George Keith were two early Virginia clergy with Presbyterian convictions. Whitaker immigrated to Virginia in 1611, serving a parish along the James River below Richmond. He was from a Presbyterian Puritan family. His father William was a divinity professor at Cambridge, a hotbed of Puritanism. One of Alexander Whitaker’s cousins would later serve as a member of the Westminster Assembly in the 1640s. 

George Keith was a Presbyterian Scot who entered the Virginia colony in 1617 and served several parishes. Keith did not use the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and practiced Presbyterian polity. Keith wrote, “I have by the help of God, begun a Church government by ministers and elders. I made bold to choose four elders publickly by lifting up of hands and calling upon God.” ¹

The early Presbyterian work in Virginia was interrupted when the Virginia Assembly in 1629 declared that all clergy in the colony must conform to the Church of England. Presbyterians were suppressed in Virginia, and over time were assimilated by the Anglican establishment of the colony.²

Reformed and Presbyterian immigrants began arriving in the South Carolina coastlands in the late 1600s. The French Reformers, known as Huguenots, entered Charles Town and surrounding areas beginning in 1669.³ Scots also entered the Carolinas during the 17th century. Some Scottish “Covenanters,” who had taken a solemn oath to only support national Presbyterianism, were banished to Carolina for their refusal to acknowledge the English king’s supremacy. 

In Charleston, Scots joined with Scots-Irish brethren, English Puritans, and Huguenots to establish the Independent Church in 1690, which historically would be known by several different names, including “the Presbyterian Church.” One of the Independent Church’s ministers, Archibald Stobo, planted several South Carolina Presbyterian congregations after he left the Charleston congregation in 1704. Stobo and three other Scottish ministers in the Charleston region established a presbytery in 1722.⁴

Presbyterians also immigrated to Puritan-dominated New England, but without any Presbyterian ministers available, Presbyterians often joined the Congregational churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Congregationalists practiced church government by elders and ministers in autonomous congregations, but there were also connectional Presbyterian sentiments found among the growing New England population. 

The influence of Presbyterian principles within New England Congregationalist practice was evident in the collaboration among the churches.⁵ Boston minister Cotton Mather, in his 1698 history of New England churches, claimed that over 4,000 Presbyterians had come to New England in the years up to 1640.⁶

Advance in the Middle Colonies

Puritan Congregationalists from New England began moving into the Middle Colonies in the 1640s. Those with Presbyterian convictions organized themselves into Presbyterian congregations. There is evidence of an established Presbyterian congregation on Long Island by 1662 (Jamaica Church), and there were other Presbyterians throughout New York. The governor of New York in 1678 reported on the religious groups in the colony: “There are Religions of all sorts, one Church of England, severall Presbiterians and Independents, Quakers and Anabaptists, of severall sects, some Jews, but Presbiterians and Independents most numerous and substantiall.” ⁷

From Scotland, religious refugees (Covenanters) entered New Jersey in several waves in the 1680s and 1690s, most uniting with New England settlers in congregational churches. A number of Scots were banished to America in exchange for release from brutal prison conditions. Imprisoned for non-conformity — field preaching or attending conventicles in defiance of the King’s suppression of Dissenter worship — they immigrated to the colonies for freedom of worship.⁸

The presence of Presbyterian churches in Delaware began with the Dutch Calvinist church in New Castle. The congregation’s membership included Dutch, English, Scots, Scots-Irish, and Huguenots, and would become a Presbyterian church under John Wilson of Boston who began his pastorate at New Castle in 1703. In the colony of Maryland, under Roman Catholic Lord Baltimore’s policy of religious toleration, Presbyterians prospered, along with multiple other groups. In 1677 Baltimore wrote: “The greatest part of the inhabitants of that province (three of four at least) do consist of Praesbiterians, Independents, Anabaptists and Quakers, those of the church of England as well as those of the Romish being the fewest.” ⁹ 

Presbyterian clergyman Samuel Davis of Ireland served congregations in Maryland (Snow Hill, 1691) and Delaware (Lewes, 1698).  When Presbyterian immigrants arrived in Philadelphia, they joined with Baptists for worship. Eventually, the two groups divided, and Jedediah Andrews, a Harvard graduate, became the ordained pastor of the Presbyterian group by 1701.

Francis Makemie of Northern Ireland (1658-1708)

Francis Makemie was born in Ramelton, County Donegal, Ireland in 1658, 10 years after the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms were finished in England. His family was among the numerous Scottish Presbyterian immigrants to the Ulster Plantation of Northern Ireland during the 17th century. 

As a youth Makemie would be an eyewitness to the persecution of Presbyterians in Ulster and Scotland, beginning with the 1660 restoration of Charles II who renewed persecution of non-Anglicans. Makemie attended Glasgow University in Scotland, then was licensed and ordained as a Presbyterian minister by Ulster’s Presbytery of Laggan around 1682. We don’t have an actual record of his ordination, but Makemie mentions it in his letters. 

Prior to Makemie’s ordination, the Presbytery of Laggan had received correspondence from America requesting Presbyterian clergymen be sent to Maryland to serve the Presbyterian settlers in the colony. The Presbytery of Laggan sent minister William Trail to Maryland in 1682. Makemie, who had also expressed interest in going to America, set sail from Ulster, arriving in Maryland in 1683. He was 25 years old when he reached American shores. 

Makemie began an itinerant ministry along the coasts of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina in his early American years. Tradition has it that he helped organize five churches, including Snow Hill and Rehobeth in Maryland. This is not certain, however, given his extensive travel in the colonies during his years in America. There were a few other Presbyterian ministers associated with these churches who may have been the settled organizing pastors. At one point Makemie attempted to sail to Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to connect with Presbyterian Scots there, but the ship encountered terrible weather and returned to Virginia. One of Makemie’s purposes was to identify suitable places in the American colonies where his persecuted brethren in Ireland might find permanent settlement. 

Makemie married Naomi Anderson, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Accomack County, Virginia. Francis and Naomi had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. Ministers often needed additional means of support beyond the small contributions congregations could provide. His father-in-law, William Anderson, likely provided financial support for Makemie’s ministry. In 1687, Makemie bought land in Accomack County, not far from the settlement of Rehobeth, Maryland, where there was a Presbyterian congregation he served. 

In Makemie’s first trip to Pennsylvania, he traveled to Philadelphia in 1692, and preached to a small gathering of Presbyterians who met in a storehouse owned by the Barbados West Indies Trading Company. This may have been one of the first Presbyterian sermons in Philadelphia. He would return to Philadelphia in later years to organize the Presbyterians. Makemie had trade connections with Barbados, traveling there in 1690 and making his residence on the island from around 1693 until 1698. Apparently, one reason the Makemie’s remained in Barbados for several years, was due to Francis’ poor health. His time in Barbados was spent in both missionary labor and commerce. He secured a dissenter’s license while in Barbados enabling him to legally preach in Barbados, a British colony since 1627.

Makemie had kept ownership of his 500-acre farm in Virginia while he was away in Barbados. In 1698 he returned to his home in Accomack County. That same year his father-in-law, William Anderson, died leaving much of his wealth to Francis and Naomi. The Makemies purchased additional land on the Elizabeth River in Princess Anne County, Virginia. Records indicate that they had slaves and sold produce from their land. 

America’s First Presbytery

Makemie was very concerned about long-term strengthening of the Presbyterian work in America. During a trip to London he secured funds to support two young ministerial graduates from the University of Glasgow. John Hampton and George McNish traveled back with Makemie to Maryland in 1705. Soon afterward, Makemie was instrumental in getting Hampton and McNish, along with Samuel Davis, Nathaniel Taylor, Jedediah Andrews, and John Wilson to join forces in establishing the first presbytery in the American colonies. Their backgrounds were diverse: three were New Englanders, three Scots-Irish, and one Scot.¹⁰

Makemie was chosen as moderator of this first “meeting of ministers” in Philadelphia in 1706.  In a letter to a friend, Makemie related that seven had been in attendance, “but expect a growing number.” In the letter he described the purpose of the presbytery: “Our design is to meet yearly, and oftener, if necessary, to consult the most proper measures for advancing religion and propagating religion in our Various Stations, and to maintain Such a Correspondence as may conduce to the improvement of our Ministeriall ability by prescribing Texts to be preached on by two of our number at every meeting, which performance is Subjected to the censure of our Brethren.” ¹¹

The gathering of this small group of pastors had a primary purpose of evangelism and church planting, what Makemie called “propagating and advancing religion.” And they were committed to mutually furthering their pastoral skills in preaching, deciding that all of their joint meetings would include preaching to one another and offering feedback. They kept a record of this first meeting and would continue to keep minutes from all of their meetings as presbyteries multiplied, Synods were established, and finally a General Assembly was founded in 1789, around the same time of the U.S. Constitutional Convention. 

The first two pages of the minute book from the first presbytery meeting are missing, and only a brief record from the conclusion of the first meeting is found. In it, a Mr. John Boyd is being examined for ordination — he preached, defended his thesis, and “gave Satisfaction as to his Skill in the Languages & answered to extemporary questions: all which were approved of & sustained.”  

At the second meeting in March 1707, several elders were also in attendance, but an absent minister, Samuel Davis, was sent a letter “requiring him to be present at our next meeting in this place.” It appears that several elements of Presbyterian government were in place from the beginning — ministerial ordination trials before presbytery, participation by both ministers and elders, and mandatory clergy attendance.¹²

Trial in New York

One reason for Presbyterians forming a presbytery was to strengthen religious toleration in the middle colonies. Dissenter worship had become difficult in the city of New York due to the installation of an Anglican priest, William Vesey (a former Dissenter), as rector of Trinity Church. The New York governor, Lord Cornbury, was in full support of the Church of England in the colony, and Presbyterian ministers John Hubbard of Jamaica, and Joseph Morgan of Westchester were forced to leave their church buildings.¹³

In January 1707, Makemie and John Hampton were traveling to Boston and stopped in New York, where they were invited by the Presbyterians to preach. On the same day, Makemie preached in a private home on Pearl Street, and Hampton preached at Newtown on Long Island. Soon afterward, Makemie and Hampton went together to preach again at Newtown, but this time they were arrested for preaching without Cornbury’s permission.  

Makemie and Hampton were arrested on January 21 and appeared before Cornbury on January 23, 1707. We have a record of the arrest and trial from Makemie’s hand, “A Narrative of a New and Unusual Imprisonment of Two Presbyterian Ministers and Prosecution of Mr. Francis Makemie” (1707). ¹⁴

In the initial conference, Makemie gets into an argument with Lord Cornbury about the extent of the Toleration Act. Under the rights of the 1689 Toleration Act of William and Mary, Makemie and other ministers had secured dissenter licenses. The Toleration Act allowed Trinitarian Dissenters, with the exception of Roman Catholics, to secure such a license.  Makemie’s house had been designated an authorized preaching point in Anglican-established Virginia, and he had a dissenter’s license from Barbados.

The following are excerpts from the initial dialogue between Cornbury and Makemie after his arrest:

Lord Cornbury (LC): “How dare you take upon you to Preach in my Government, without my Licence?”

Francis Makemie (FM): “We have liberty from an Act of Parliament, made the First Year of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary, which gave us Liberty, with which Law we have complied.”

LC: “That Law does not extend to the American Plantations, but only to England.”

FM: “My Lord, I humbly conceive, it is not a limited nor Local Act, and am well assured, it extends to other Plantations of the Queens Dominions, which is evident from Certificates from Courts of Record of Virginia, and Maryland, certifying we have complied with said Law.”

LC: “You shall not spread your Pernicious Doctrines here!”

FM: “As to our doctrines, my Lord, we have our Confession of Faith, which is known to the Christian World, and I challenge all the Clergy of York to show us any false or pernicious Doctrines therein; Yea, with those exceptions specified in the Law, we are able to make it appear, they are in all Doctrinal Articles of Faith agreeable to the Established Doctrines of the Church of England.” [Dissenters were allowed a few exceptions to the Thirty-Nine Articles].

LC: “You must give Bond and Security for your good Behaviour, and also Bond and Security to Preach no more in my Government!”

FM: “As to our Behaviour, tho’ we have no way broke it, endeavouring always so to live, as to keep a Conscience void of offence, towards God and Man: Yet if his Lordship required it, we would give Security for our Behaviour; but to give Bond and Security to Preach no more in Your Excellency’s government, if invited and desired by any people, we neither can, nor dare do.” 

LC: “Then you must go to Gaol!” ¹⁵

Makemie and Hampton were imprisoned for 46 days. Charges against Hampton were dropped but Makemie was released on bail and ordered to stand trial in June. 

In a letter to a friend, Makemie expressed his concern for religious freedom in the colonies: “. . . the penall laws are invading our American Sanctuary, without the least regard to the Toleration, which should justly alarm us all.” ¹⁶

In June of 1707, Makemie appeared in court with three skilled lawyers who made the case that Cornbury’s requirement for an additional license to preach in New York was illegal. He participated in his own defense during the trial, being well-versed in colonial laws related to religious freedoms. 

Though acquitted at the trial, Makemie was forced by the governor to pay court costs for both the defense and the prosecution. Cornbury defended his actions in a letter to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantation in London.  He wrote that Makemie was a “Jack of all Trades he is a Preacher, a Doctor Physick, a Merchant, an Attorney, or Counsellor at Law, and, which is worse of all, a Disturber of Governments.” ¹⁷

Responding to Cornbury’s unjust treatment of Makemie, the New York Assembly charged Cornbury with violating the liberties of the people and removed him in 1709. Widespread knowledge of the trial gave Presbyterians an enhanced reputation as advocates of religious liberty in the colonies. The judge in the case observed that this was the first public trial over religious persecution in the colonies. ¹⁸

Boston Minister Cotton Mather wrote to a friend: “That brave man, Mr. Makemie has after a famous Trial at N.York, bravely triumphed over the Act of Uniformity and the other Poenal Lawes for the Ch. of England…. The Non-Con[formist] Religion and Interest, is, thro’ the Blessing of God on the Agency of that Excellent person, Likely to prevail mightily in the Southern Colonies.” ¹⁹

Makemie returned to his farm in Accomack County, Virginia, where his health would deteriorate over the next year. He continued as pastor of the Rehoboth church in Maryland. In his will, written in April 1708, he left the land at Rehoboth, which had a new church building, “for ye ends and uses of a Presbyterian Congregation as if I were personally present and to their successors for ever and none else but to such of ye same persuasion in matters of Religion.” The May 1708 presbytery minutes do not indicate that Makemie was present, although a letter written by him is mentioned. Makemie was 50 years old when he likely died in July 1708 on his farm in Virginia. ²⁰

Makemie’s Writings

We have limited writings from the hand of Makemie, but these pieces offer a window into his perspectives on the issues of his time. In addition to his record of the trial proceedings mentioned above, there are four other works we possess. His longest writing is a rebuttal to a Quaker’s public criticism of a children’s catechism written by Makemie. The work, An Answer to George Keith’s Libel Against a Catechism (1694), included a defense of Makemie’s Reformed doctrines as well as his appraisal of the weaknesses in Keith’s Quaker theology.

During his years in Barbados (1693-1698), Makemie wrote an ecumenical pamphlet with the title: TRUTHS in a true Light, or A Pastoral LETTER to the Reformed Protestants IN BARBADOS Vindicating the Non-Conformists, from the Misrepresentations, commonly made of them, in that Island, and in other places: And, Demonstrating, That they are indeed the truest and soundest part of the Church of ENGLAND (1699). 

In this work, Makemie appealed for Protestant unity as co-belligerents against Roman Catholics. He argued for the harmony of Anglicans and Presbyterians “in the main, great and Substantial parts of the Christian and Protestant Religion.”

Makemie was very concerned for sound civil and economic policies to bring a growing strength to the American colonies. While in Britain in 1704-05, he published, A Plain and Friendly PERSUASIVE to the INHABITANTS of VIRGINIA and MARYLAND For Promoting Towns and Cohabitation. Here he encouraged the development of towns and commerce in the colonies. He was convinced that the colonies would flourish by building towns which would encourage education, religion and commerce. Makemie recommended diversifying the economies in Virginia and Maryland away from sole dependence on tobacco which had caused these colonies to increase the number of slaves. 

The final piece we have from Makemie is a sermon, entitled A Good Conversation. It is the sermon Makemie preached in New York on January 19, 1707 which led to his arrest by Lord Cornbury. He apparently added some material to the sermon while incarcerated in New York since the dedication page of the sermon is dated March 3, a week before Makemie and Hampton were released from jail. The sermon was published in Boston that same year. 

The sermon text is Psalm 50:23 “To him that ordereth his Conversation aright, will I shew the Salvation of God.” In the sermon Makemie declared, “A Well-ordered Conversation is highly necessary as a consequence of Regeneration, or a gracious conversion; and without a suitable and agreeable Conversation, men cannot justly lay claim to the New Birth,…” The sermon is quite long, and he admits originally intending two sermons. Long sermons appear to be a quintessential challenge for Presbyterian clergy! ²¹

Legacy

The Father of American Presbyterianism left a significant legacy for his ecclesiastical descendants. Makemie’s grand vision for church planting, and Presbyterian government has shaped Presbyterian practice in the United States down to the present day. In a day when travel was not easy, Makemie tirelessly worked to organize local congregations and gather the ministers and elders together into a Presbyterian structure for the sake of advancing the gospel in America. His faithfulness amidst jail time and a criminal trial for his religious convictions heralded a belief that religious liberty must be a cherished freedom in America.  

Makemie laid the foundation upon which the next generation of Presbyterian Scots-Irish immigrants would build. The first major wave of Scots-Irish immigration to America began just a decade after Makemie’s death. Beginning in 1717, a steady stream of Ulster Scots populated the Middle colonies. As they moved into the South, churches and presbyteries were established throughout the southern colonies. By the time of the first Presbyterian General Assembly in 1789, there would be over 400 American Presbyterian churches in the lineage from Makemie and the first presbytery of 1706.

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Donald Fortson is Professor of Church History and Pastoral Theology Emeritus at Reformed Theological Seminary Charlotte.

 

1.  John Gardiner, Jr. “The Beginnings of the Presbyterian Church in the Southern Colonies,” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, vol. 34 (March 1956): 38,39.
2.  Ernest Trice Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, vol.1: 1607-1861(Richmond: John Knox Press, 1963), 12-15.
3.  See Arthur Hirsch, The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina (Durham: Duke University Press, 1928); George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, vol. 1 (Columbia: Duffe & Chapman, 1870).
4.  Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, vol.1, 31-36.
5.  See Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958), 124-129.
6.  Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol.1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1979), 80.
7.  Ecclesiastical Records State of New York, I, 709 quoted in Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 23.
8.  Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, from its Origin Until the year 1760. (Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson, 1857), 68-73.
9. William McIlvain, Early Presbyterianism in Maryland, Note Supplementary to the John Hopkin’s University Studies in Historical and Political Science, No.3 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 1890), 5.
10.  Trinterud, Forming of an American Tradition, 31.
11.  Letter of Makemie to Mr. Benjamin Colman, March 28, 1707 in Charles Augustus Briggs, American Presbyterianism: Its Origin and Early History, Appendix X “Letters of Makemie” (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1885),l.
12.  Guy S. Klett, ed. Minutes of the Presbyterian Church in America, 1706-1788 (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1976), 1-3. Klett’s critical edition of the original manuscript minutes retains the spelling, capitalization and abbreviations from the original manuscripts.
13.  Nichols, Presbyterianism in New York State, 17-22.
14.  The full manuscript is printed in Boyd S. Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1971), 189-244.
15.  Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 199-200. Original spelling and punctuation is preserved.
16.  Letter to Benjamin Colman, March 28, 1707 in Briggs, American Presbyterianism, Appendix X, xlix.
17.  Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 24. It was not uncommon during this era for clergy to practice medicine. One of Makemie’s Presbyterian colleagues, Samuel Davis, also practiced medicine; see Schlenther, 276, n 77.
18.  Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 24, 25.
19.  Diary of Cotton Mather, I, 599 quoted in Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 25.
20.  Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 28.
21.  Schlenther, The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, 174.