HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERY OF PHILADELPHIA,

the appointment. This circumstance soon engendered strife betweent the Presbyterians and Baptists which is sued in the expulsion of the latter from the house of worship. Morgan Edwards in his history of the Baptists, attributes blame to the Presbyterians in this proceeding, and perhaps with justice. In a letter attribut

The first churches established under Presbyterian or-ed to Mr. Andrews about this date, he says, "though we ganization in this country, were located in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Jersey. The reason of this fact is to be found in the free toleration of religious peculiarities, granted by the original proprietors of these provinces. The following may be considered as an agreeable specimen of the temper which characterized the laws of these provinces on the subject of religion. It is an enactment in relation to Pennsylvania, and is in these words; "That all persons living in this Province, who confess and acknowledge one almighty and eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice, in matters of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever.'

Martii 25. Post preces sederunt, John Wilson, &c. This day Mr. Francis McKemie and Mr. John Wilson delivered their discourses according to appointment and were approven by the Presbytery.

Ordered that a letter be writ and sent to Mr. Samuel Davies in the name of the Presbytery by Master John Wilson, requiring him to be present at our next meeting in this placc.

Appointed that the letters sent from the people of Snow Hill in Somerset, be read before the Presbytery. The letters were accordingly read and their contents were duly considered by the Presbytery. And whereas the aforesaid people do by their representatives and letters earnestly addressed the Presbytery for their joynt concurrence and assistance in prosecuting their call to Mr. John Hampton that he may undertake the work of the ministry among them, as their settled and proper minister and pastor.

Ordered by the Presbytery that the call be sent to Mr. Hampton by the aforesaid people and also the other paper containing their subscriptions for his encouragement to undertake the work of the ministry among them, be given to Mr. Hampton to peruse and consider, which accordingly were given him.

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The Presbytery do appoint Mr. Jedediah Andrews and Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, to prepare a Presbyterial sermon each of them to be delivered against the next Presbytery. Mr. Andrews to discourse from Heb. 1 chap. 3v. the first, and Mr. Taylor from latter part of the verse.

Appointed that the Presbytery meet upon the first Tuesday of Aprile, 1708, at Philadelphia;and this meeting was concluded.

May the 18th, at a meeting of Presbytery at Philadel phia, 1708, post preces sederunt, ministers, Messrs. Samuel Davies, John Wilson, Jedediah Andrews, Nath. Taylor, John Hampton, John Boyd. Elders, Joseph Yard, -Bell, John Gray.

Mr. Samuel Davies war chosen moderator. Ordered by the Presbytery that Mr. Jedediah Andrews deliver his Presbyterial exercise to-morrow at ten of the clock in the meeting house, and that Mr. Nath. Taylor deliver his on Friday next at ten of the clock in the morning.

This day were read before the Presbytery a letter sent by the people of, and about Whiteclay creek, in New Castle county, importing their desire and petition to the Presbytery to have the ordinances of the Gospel administered with more convenience and nearness to the place of their abode for the greater advantage and ease to their several family's, promising withall due encouragement to the minister that shall be appointed thus to supply them.

Ordered, that whereas Mr. Hampton after his receiving the call to him from the people at Snow Hill, gave several satisfactory reasons, why he could not at this time comply with it, that the said Mr. Hampton, have the call and the paper of subscription retained in his hands for his further perusal, till the next Presbytery. Ordered by the Presbytery that this letter be read at Ordered further in this affair, that a letter be sent in the next session to-morrow afternoon and that another the name of the Presbytery to the people of Snow Hill letter from some persons about Apoquinim be considerto encourage their endeavours for a settled ministered against the next dyet of the Presbytery at the tyme among them and that Mr. Nathaniel Taylor write the let- aforesaid. ter expressing the mind of the Presbytery which was accordingly done.

Appointed that the Presbytery meet- at ten o'clock, and that Mr. Andrews and Mr. John Boyd prepare some overtures to be considered by the Presbytery, for propagating religion in the respective congregations.

Martii 26. Post preces sede runt, the moderator &c. Ordered by the Presbytery that Mr. Francis McKemie write to Scotland to Mr. Alexander Coldin minister of Oxnam of the Presby of and to give an acount of the state and circumstances of the dissenting Presbyterian interest among the people in and about Lewistown and to signfy the earnest desyre of that people for the said Mr. Coldin's coming over to be their minister; and that Mr. McKemie make report of his diligence herein against the next Presbytery.

The Presbytery appoints Mr. John Wilson to write to the Presbytery of to the effect aforesaid and make report of his case herein against to the next Presbytery.

Overtures proposed to the Presbytery and agreed upon for propagating the interest of religion.

First, that every minister in their respective congregations reade and comment upon a chapter of the Bible every Lord's day as discretion and circumstances of tyme, place, &c. will admit.

Second over: That it be recommended to every minister of the Presbytery to set on foot and encourage private christian societies.

Third over: That every minister of the Presbytery supply neighbouring desolate places where a minister is wanting and opportunity of doing good offers.

bytery in relation to this exercise was not neglected with impunity. "1713 Mr. George McNish not having his Presbyterial exercise ready, and excusing himself on account of sickness for a month past, was blamed for not preparing of it sooner, and ordered to prepare and deliver the same, the next Presbytery.

Robert Wortherspoon for a similar deficiency was "admonished by the Moderator to be more careful for time coming."

This day was also read a letter from several persons in the town of New Castle wherein they crave that the people of Whiteclay creek may not be suffered to set up a meeting house in the country, that their meeting house and congregation in New Castle may not be damaged by this rupture of their fellow members of Whit.

creek.

Ordered that this letter be considered at the next session of the Presbytery.

PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCILS.

THURSDAY EVENING, June 30. SELECT COUNCIL.-A communication from the young men, relative to the Ringing of the OLD STATE HOUSE BELL, on the Fourth of July was received.

Mr. Fox, as chairman of the committee on Logan Square, reported, an ordinance which was passed by the Select Council, but was laid on the table in the Common Council.

COMMON COUNCIL.-The following communication was received from Mr. Benjamin Chew, Jr. and referred to the committee appointed on the 24th of February last.

A warrant has been granted for a piece of marsh, between the Eastern line of the city property, west of Schuylkill, and north of the Permanent bridge, and between the marsh belonging to the city and the marsh recently taken up by M. Freytag.

A survey has been made and returned under the said warrant, and a patent issued thereon. The patentee understands that this marsh is claimed by the city, although obtained by him after strict investigation and advice of council-but he is far from desiring to give the city any trouble if it has title to the lot in question and if the city will exhibit a sufficient title to his counsel, he will immediately relinquish the lot, and if the city will meet him on these terms, his counsel will explain the Brief of Title on which he founds the opinion that the said lot was vacant when the warrant was obtained.

It is proposed therefore that the city solicitor be directed to ascertain whether the city has title to the lot of marsh land between the acknowledged city property

wood, cordage and wharfage, which was ordered to be
printed.
Mr. Israel offered the following resolution, which was
agreed to.

Resolved, That the Committee of Arrangement of the young men of the city and county of Philadelphia, have the privilege of ringing, on the Fourth of July ensuing, the OLD STATE HOUSE BELL for such period of time as they may deem necessary.-Phil. Gaz.

WILKESBARRE, June 15, 1831. LIME. We understand a stratum or vein of stone has been discovered in Newport township, which is supThe discovery posed to be the real blue lime stone. was made by a citizen of Columbia county, who has had much experience in burning lime in that county. We learn that he put a small quantity of the stone in a lime kiln near Bloomsburg, and when burnt, it proved to be lime of a better quality than that of which the kiln was composed. So certain is the person who made the discovery, that it is lime of good quality, that he has erected a lime kiln, and intends immediately to burn a quantity of the stone. We expect he soon will be able to determine whether he has found a new treasure in the bowels of the mountains of this county, or not. If his opinion be correct, no doubt the quantity of lime in this county is very great. We understand the same stratum of stone, from which he is quarrying, The vein has already been traced five or six miles. runs through Newport and Hanover, and is from 6 to 8

red on the evening of Saturday, the 19th April last; that he had not known the defendant before; that several days before the fire, the defendant told him he must not be surprised if they should be smoked out some day; told him if he wanted any small articles out of the store he might have them; and when the witness, after taking some, asked for certain other articles he said, "they had better burn-it would look better." On the even ing of the fire, about 8 o'clock, after shutting the windows, witness was leaving the store with an umbrella, when defendant told him to leave it in the store, it would look better that it should burn." He gave wit ́ness his cane, and told him to wait outside; one candle was then lighting in the store. In about five minutes the defendant came out, locked the front door, gave witness the keys, and they walked together to S. W. corner of Market and Ninth streets, when witness turned round, and said, "there is a fire or a light in the store." The defendant said, "let us run;" and they accordingly ran down Lodge alley to Seventh and Chesnut streets, where witness lived. After washing himself, defendant engaged in conversation with the family, and some minutes afterwards, the fact of the fire in defendant's store was announced by witness's brother. They then ran up to the store, from which many of the goods had been already taken, and many consumed or injured. Defendant fainted next door during the fire. On his cross-examination, he admitted that he had taken several articles, linen, silks, hose, belt ribbons, gloves, &c. from the store; but said he had received permission to take all the articles of any consequence, that he had buried some of them after the fire; had concealed some in his trunk; and the ribbons (taken without leave) in the lining of his vest, and had given others to his brother for safe keeping. He alleged, that until the moment when the defendant gave him his cane, he had no suspicion that the store was to be burnt; although he had heard the declarations of defendant, and had, in consequence, taken away various articles which he thought it a pity should be burnt. He cut off several yards from both ends of a piece of green silk on the day of the fire; but alleged that although defendant did not authorise him to do so, he subsequently gave him leave to keep them. On Sunday he became alarmed, and mentioned the circumstances to his father and brother, and on Monday to the officers of the Insurance Company. Defendant's business was regularly conducted; he had a good stock of goods, and no removals of any amount, had been made before the fire; he had no notes immediately pressing upon him, and his credit appeared good. The goods removed were, he supposed, sold in the usual course of business.

On the part of the defendant, several witnesses stated narratives made by the lad to them, which differed materially from his present account, in which he admitted that he had taken the green silk without permission, but solicited the witness not to divulge that, or another fact, connected with the articles taken, which had also come to light. He denied all participation by defendant in the fire, and could not then account for its occurrence. This was previous to the prosecution.

In addition to the objections urged by the defendant's counsel to the witness, that he was an avowed accomplice; that he was deeply interested to screen himself from liability for the property of his employer thus clandestinely removed, and that his story was incredible, unconnected, and contradictory, the defendent gave evidence to show the absence of all apparent motive for the commission of the offence, by proof that he actually possessed goods enough to justify the effecting a polifor $3000; that he continued to keep up his stock to time of the fire, paid various bills very shortly before, and refused to sell certain goods below his price on the very day of the fire; which, it was contended, he would not have done, had he meditated a fraud. His innocence was rendered the more clear, by the fact of his remaining in the city, and exhibiting himself to the prosecutor VOL. VIII.

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and others, after the reports had been propagated by the former,and after he hsd been fully warned of the designs against him. In addition, letters from gentlemen of the highest respectability near Boston, and elsewhere corroborated by numerous witnesses, (some of them from New York and Boston,) were adduced, in proof of his unblemished moral character and credit up to the period of the fire.

In his charge to the jury, the Recorder limited their inquiry to the single question, whether the testimony of the only witness for the commonwealth, was to be credited under all the circumstances of the case. If they should think it insufficient, the prosecution, he said, must fail. If otherwise, then the charge was sufficiently laid in the indictment, to justify a conviction upon it; and the objections taken to it by the defendant's coun sel, might be reconsidered after verdict.

Counsel for the commonwealth, A. H. Richards, Esq. For the defendant, Wm. H. Haly, and D. P. Brown, Esqs.

From the Connecticut Observer.

RELICT OF WYOMING.

Died at Torringford on the 9th of May last, Mrs. ESTHER SKINNER, in the 100th year of her age.

If the following extract from the sermon preached on the occasion of her funeral can find a place in the Observer, it will gratify her surviving friends and acquaintance:

Mrs. Skinner was born at Bolton, in this State, February 26, 1732. In travelling back to the commencement of her existence, we find ourselves carried through almost half the period of New England's history-the landing of the pilgrims being but little more than a century antecedent to her birth. To hold converse with her while living, was calculated to call vividly to mind events of former generations, of great religious and political interest to our country. She was of sufficient age to notice and remember the great revival of religion which overspread New England in 1740 and 41, and to have a personal share in the alarms and distresses and perpetual anxiety of the protracted French and Indian wars that harrassed these colonies.

There are some incidents of her past life of so remarkable a character, as to deserve particular notice on this occasion. These are connected with the war of the revolution. Our national independence with its attendant blessings, which the present generation are enjoying in quiet repose, was purchased by our fathers, at the expense of great sacrifices and severe struggles. The amount of contribution which our departed friend thus paid for the benefit of posterity, was no less than a brother, who died of a wound received in the early part of the war-a husband who fell a victim to one of those contagious diseases which war propagatesand two sons who were butchered at the famous slaughter and conflagration which took place at Wyoming, besides her whole property plundered and destroyed.

The name of Wyoming, associated with events of thrilling interest to the bosom of every American, will long be remembered by the friends of the deceased. It was a Connecticut colony on the East branch of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, comwith her husband and eight children, had removed To this place our friend prising eight townships. in the year 1777-just in time to be overwhelmed in the catastrophe which befel this settlement the A coalition of tories and savages, following year. who seemed on this occasion to vie with each other in deeds of cruelty, had sworn vengeance on these Their commander is representunhappy settlers. ed to have been "the most ferocious being ever

produced by human nature, often too prodigal of similar monsters," and the cruelties he practised on this occasion, "without an example in the history of inhuman men." The whole of this fertile and thriving settlement, he speedily converted into a field of slaughter and devastation. Every victory, as the fortifications of the place fell successively into his hands, was signalized by selecting the men among his prisoners for more conspicuous slaughter, and burning alive the women and children in the conflagration of their houses and villages.When asked by the commander of a fort what terms of capitulation would be granted on condition of their surrender, his reply was, The hatchet.

[JULY

thrown by this intelligence, can be more easily conceived than expressed; "flying," as they are represented, "without money, clothes, or food.”Mrs. Skinner with her six surviving children, the youngest five years old was in this company. Her son: who is now among the mourners, can well recollect that he came off without hat, shoes, or jacket; such was the haste and confusion of their departure. The little children of our departed friend, as they hastened to the water side, where boats were prepared for their conveyance down the river, were ready to cry with the anguish of their bruised and lacerated feet: but the chidings of the wary mother, and the dread of being heard by the suspected savage in ambush, repressed their weeping, and made them tread with breathless silence their painful way. O when will the inhabitants of the earth learn war no more!

With what feelings she must have left this laid in ashes, her husband in his grave, and her two sons lying mangled and unburied on the field of battle, can be more easily conceived than described. To the land of her nativity her thoughts and her course were now bent,—a formidable journey, we should think for a feeble mother with six tender children to make on foot, without money,clothes, or provisions. Much of her way lay through Dutch settlements, to whom she could neither tell the story of her sufferings, nor make known her present necessities, except by signs. Fame, however, which went before her, had already related her tale of woe, and secured for her many kindnesses from this people of a strange language. After a journey of one hundred miles by water, and near three hundred by land, she arrived in safety at the place of her former residence, whence she removed some years after to this place. All her children she outlived by many years, except the son with whom she resided; whom providence appears to have spared, for the grateful service of sustaining and comforting her in her decrepitude.

Such was the character of the foe that fell upon the settlement where the deceased with her family resided. It was in the month of July, 1778. Remote from all military succours which government could afford, they had no other means of defence than what their own population could furnish, al-place-her little property plundered, her dwelling ready drained of much of its sinew and strength to replenish the continental army. Their remaining force, comprising every man capable of bearing arms among them, was mustered for their defence. The main body of this little army, consisting of about four hundred men, among whom were the two eldest sons of Mrs. Skinner, just emerging from youth to manhood, were allured from their entrenchments by the artifice and perfidy of the enemy, and drawn into ambush. A desperate conflict ensued, in which the firmness of the Americans had well nigh repulsed their enemies; when a false cry of retreat, from either a treacherous or cowardly soldier, was the means of breaking their ranks and exposing them to all the fury of an exasperated foe. A scene of carnage and horror followed which beggars description. The fugitives fall by missiles, the resisting by clubs and tomahawks. The dead and dying are heaped together promiscuously. Happy those who expire the soonest! The savages reserve the living for tortures! and the infuriate tories, if other arms fail them, mangle the prisoners with their nails! Never was rout so deplorable; never was massacre accompanied with so many horrors." About twenty only of these four hundred are said to have escaped alive. Our departed friend who had buried her husband but a short time before, saw her sons no more,

A particular incident of this scene of distress may serve to give us a nearer view of the picture. A young man who afterwards married a daughter of the deceased was among the survivors. Driven to the brink of the river, he plunged into the water for safety, and swam to a small island. Here immersed in water, protected by the bushes at the water's edge, and screened by the darkness of night, he happily eluded the search of the pursuing foe, thirsting for blood; while about twenty of his companions, who had retreated likewise to the same spot, were all massacred within a few yards of him. He heard the dismal strokes of the tomahawk and the groans of the sufferers, expecting every moment himself to become the next victim. One savage foot trod upon the very bush to which he clung. A solitary individual besides himself was left at the departure of the savages, to weep with him over the mangled bodies of their friends.

In the mean time the news of this day's disaster was conveyed in the night to the village where the women and children were left; who were warned at the same time that their only possible escape from the fury of the advancing savages, was immediate flight. The confusion and distress into which these bereaved and unprotected females were

The character of Mrs. Skinner is deserving of particular notice on this occasion, as affording an example worthy of imitation. To great natural equanimity of temper, was added an uniform spirit of piety and devotedness to God. Her natural temperament imparted a cheerful and amiable cast to her piety, which rendered both her religion and her society particularly inviting. Uniformly placid under all circumstances, she appeared to have learned practically the lesson of the apostle-in whatsoever situation she was therewith to be content. The relation that she would sometimes give when solicited, of the scenes of suffering through which she passed, never betrayed a repining or complaining spirit. The mercies of God and the kindness of her fellow men, were the most prominent events of her narration. "The Dutch people," she used to say, "were very kind to her, though she could not understand their language.' Their refusing in some instances to admit her into their houses in her suffering flight, she would incidentally notice without the least apparent resentment."They had nice barns,"she said, "with clean straw, where her children lodged very comfortably." Under the infirmities of age, she was equally an example of patience. Though decrepid and helpeless for many years before her death, she appeared not to live in vain; for she was a bright illustration, as long as she remained with us, of the excellence and the consolatory power of the religion of Christ. Such a serene old age, I can truly say, without any intended disparagement to others,