A Rare Treasure Located: A Bible Used by William Tennent at the Log College

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[William] Tennent, the lone teacher at the Log College, earnestly desired to educate men for the ministry. The intended design of the Log College's instruction was to prepare faithful ministers of the Gospel. Therefore, Tennent attempted to maintain a balanced emphasis between 'piety and learning' — complementary components of ministerial training. For Tennent, a theological education without a godly life was useless. — 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐣𝐞𝐫, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑔 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 (1994)

𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚 𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑔 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 [Presbyterian Historical Society].

A recent trip to the William Smith Morton Library at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia led to the finding of a rare treasure held in the archives there: a copy of the Gospels and Acts in both Greek and Latin that was once owned and used by William Tennent for instruction at the original Log College. Director of Archives and Special Collections Ryan Douthat, in particular, was of invaluable assistance in locating this special volume.

A copy of the Gospels and Acts in Greek and Latin once owned by William Tennent, Sr. and utilized by him in his education program at the Log College. Union Presbyterian Seminary Library notes indicate that this volume was published in 1699 (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

This volume contains the inscriptions of William Tennent, Sr. (dated 1736) and John Charles Tennent (great-grandson of William Tennent, Sr., son of William Tennent III) (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

Matthew chapter 1 in Greek and Latin (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

Appended to the volume is a note describing its provenance (it was handed down from one generation of the Tennent family to the next and ultimately presented to the Union Seminary Library in 1907 by Anna M. Tennent, great-great-great-grand-daughter of William Tennent, Sr.) (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

It was a remarkable experience to hold in one’s hands a volume of Scripture that was employed by the founder of the Log College in the education of his students. The book serves as a tangible reminder of the linguistic skills of William Tennent as well as the wedding of piety to education which characterized his method of instruction.

A Relic of the Old Log College

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There is an intriguing reference in Archibald Alexander’s Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni, of the Log College (1845), pp. 11-12, to what constitutes the sole surviving physical remnant of the original Log College founded by William Tennent.

Of late, considerable curiosity has ben manifested to ascertain the place where the first Presbyterian church, in this country, was formed; and the history of the first Presbyterian preacher who came to America, which had sunk into oblivion, has, of late., been brought prominently into view. Such researches, when unaccompanied with boasting and vainglory, are laudable. And to gratify a similar curiosity, in regard to the first literary institution, above common schools, in the bounds of the Presbyterian church, this small book has been compiled. That institution, we believe, was, what has received the name of, THE LOG COLLEGE. The reason of the epithet prefixed to the word “college,” might be obscure to an European; but in this country, where log-cabins are so numerous, will be intelligible to all classes of readers. This edifice, which was made of logs, cut out of the woods, probably, from the very spot where the house was erected, was situated in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, about twenty-eight miles north of Philadelphia. The Log College has long since disappeared; so that although the site on which it stood is well known to many in the vicinity there is not a vestige of it remaining on the ground; and no appearance which would indicate that a house ever stood there. The fact is, that some owner of the property, never dreaming that there was any thing sacred in the logs of this humble edifice, had them carried away and applied to some ignoble purpose on the farm, where they have rotted away like common timber, from which, if any of them remain, they can no longer be distinguished. But that some small relic of this venerable building might be preserved, the late Presbyterian minister of the place. Rev. Robert B. Belville, some years ago, rescued from the common ruin so much of one of these logs, as enabled him, by paring off the decayed parts, to reduce it to something of the form of a walking staff; which as a token of respect, and for safe keeping, he presented to one of the oldest Professors [Dr. Samuel Miller] of the Theological Seminary, at Princeton, N. J., in whose possession it now remains, and who will, it is hoped, before he leaves the world, deposit it in the cabinet of curiosities, which has been formed, in connexion with the Theological Seminary.

After a few turns of the spade, this is what we know: That walking staff has been, with the rare exception such as the 250th anniversary celebration at Neshaminy Presbyterian Church in 1976, out of public view for decades. It does still remain, however, at the Special Collections Department of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library, where it was donated by the family of Samuel Miller.

Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Department of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.

Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Department of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.

Sometime in the 20th century, for reasons unknown, part of the walking staff was sawed off so it is now too small to function as a proper walking stick. (It resembles a piece of lumber more than a polished walking stick to be sure.) There is obscure writing on the back of it which has not been transcribed. It can be viewed in person by appointment only. But — lovers of church history will be glad to know — a piece of the original Log College exists still!

Communion Seasons and Tokens in Early American Presbyterianism

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What has been like a revelation to me in my research was, finding out the extensive use of Tokens in the United States. All the early Presbyterian churches appear to have used them. — Robert Shiells, The Story of the Token as Belonging to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1891), p. 150

Colonial American Presbyterianism, utilizing the Westminster Directory of Presbyterian Worship until 1788, relied much on Scottish Presbyterian traditions which included both communion seasons and tokens. These important features of simple Presbyterian worship were also associated with notable revivals, including both the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. “The communion seasons in Virginia, as wherever the Presbyterian Church was planted, were seasons of revival.” (Mary McWhorter Tenney, Communion Tokens: Their Origin, History, and Use (1936), p. 87). Leigh Eric Schmidt writes:

With the transplantation of Presbyterianism to the American colonies came Old World ways of organizing worship and devotion. The sacramental occasion, as one of the most prominent features of the evangelical Presbyterian tradition, was soon re-created in America. In New England, for example, enclaves of Presbyterian immigrants almost immediately staged sacramental occasions fully reminiscent of Scotland and Ulster….

In the middle colonies, where Presbyterian immigration was much heavier than in New England, sacramental occasions were proportionally larger and more pronounced. The communion seasons — prevalent, powerful, and well attended — figured prominently in the religious life of the Presbyterian immigrants throughout the region [Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period (1989), pp. 53-54].

Julius Melton also notes this important feature of early American Presbyterian worship as well as its transatlantic nature:

One especially prominent aspect of the Presbyterian’s worship experience in the colonies was the “sacramental season.” This was the practice, inherited from Scotland, of placing the infrequent celebrations of the Lord’s Supper within a series of services — days of fasting, sermons, examination of communicants and singing for which crowds would gather from an entire region. After dwelling at length on their sins and Christ’s work of salvation, Presbyterian drew near to receive the sacrament with great awe [Melton, Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787 (1967, 2001), p. 16].

The Great Awakening was at least in part built on the foundation of sacramental seasons of revival. This was true for the Tennents (William, Sr., William Jr., Gilbert, and John included), some of whom contributed to a famous collection of Sermons on Sacramental Occasions by Divers Ministers (1739).

Gilbert Tennent was born into a family of Scots living in Ulster, in the northeast of Ireland. By the close of the seventeenth century, Ulster had become an enclave of dissenting Presbyterians, rebels against both the English crown and the Anglican Church, who were forced by the government to settle there. These dissenters kept alive the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of field communion, or sacramental occasions, a distinctive practice that helped to maintain ties to their heritage [Kimberly Bracken Long, The Eucharistic Theology of the American Holy Fairs (2011), pp. 83-84].

Gilbert Tennent wrote in 1744 of revival that took place in his congregation at New Brunswick, New Jersey:

I may further observe, that frequently at Sacramental Seasons in New-Brunswick, there have been signal Displays of the divine Power and Presence: divers have been convinced of Sin by the Sermons then preached, some converted, and many much affected with the Love of God in JESUS CHRIST. O the sweet Meltings that I have often seen on such Occasions among many! New-Brunswick did then look like a Field the Lord had blessed: It was like a little Jerusalem, to which the scattered Tribes with eager haste repaired at Sacramental Solemnities; and there they fed on the Fatness of God’s House, and drunk of the River of his Pleasures [Thomas Prince, ed., The Christian History (1745), p. 294].

Neshaminy, Pennsylvania was the site of a sacramental occasion in June 1745 where David Brainerd assisted Charles Beatty administer the bread and the wine to “three or four thousand” in attendance which Brainerd described as a “sweet melting season.” Brainerd went on during the following year to build on this experience, along with counsel from those who commissioned his missionary labors — the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge — to host his own sacramental seasons among the Native Americans to whom he ministered.

Brainerd followed the Scottish pattern basically to the letter: Friday was “set apart for solemn Fasting and Prayer”; Saturday was given over to further preparations and exhortations; Sunday brought the Lord’s Supper and more sermons; Monday concluded “the Sacramental Solemnity” with praise, thanksgiving, and calls for sustained moral discipline….This sacramental season proved to be among the most satisfying events in Brainerd’s life; indeed, the “sweet Union, Harmony and endearing Love” he experienced there was “the most lively Emblem of the heavenly World, I had ever seen” [Schmidt, Holy Fairs, p. 55].

Brainerd spoke similarly of a sacramental occasion that he participated in at Freehold, New Jersey just a couple of months later (June 1746) which was hosted by William Tennent, Jr., describing it as “a season of comfort to the godly, and of awakening to some souls” (ibid., p. 56). These sacramental seasons are a running theme throughout his ministry, especially to the Native Americans. Yet, as Schmidt notes, “No one, as far as I know, has ever taken stock of Brainerd’s sacramental revivals and seen just how thoroughly Presbyterian in this matter he had become” (ibid., p. 235).

The first Covenanter communion in America took place at the “Junkin Tent” in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1752, and was administered by John Cuthbertson. This was also the first instance of the use of communion tokens in America. It bore the simple abbreviation “L.S.” for “Lord’s Supper” on one side only. These tokens were used to signify admittance to the Lord’s Table.

Commemorative 1752 communion token (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

In colonial Virginia, even before the arrival of Samuel Davies, a sacramental occasion was held by William Tennent, Jr. and Samuel Blair, where it was reported that “The Assembly was large, and the Novelty of the Mode of Administration did peculiarly engage their Attention….It appeared as one of the Days of Heaven to some of us; and we could hardly help wishing we could with Joshua have delayed the Revolutions of the Heavens to prolong it” [Samuel Davies, The State of Religion Among the Protestant Dissenters in Virginia (1751), p. 17]. A few years later, a paper communion token was used by Samuel Davies in Hanover County, Virginia. Note the sacramental poem written by Davies himself.

Samuel Davies’ communion token held at the William Smith Morton Library, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond Virginia (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

John Todd, John Wright, Robert Henry, John Brown and John Craig were among other Virginia Presbyterian evangelists who observed sacramental occasions and found them to be “special outpourings of the spirit” (John Wright, January 20, 1757 Letter found in John Gillies, Historical Collections (1845 ed.), p. 520). David Rice, who grew up under the ministry of Samuel Davies and John Todd, also helped to bring the practice of sacramental seasons to Kentucky.

The importance of communion gatherings in Davies's practice and Rice's conversion reveals that both men stood in the long tradition of Presbyterian sacramental seasons dating back to seventeenth-century Scotland. From the beginning, these "holy fairs" were protracted religious celebrations, sometimes attracting thousands of participants, which included not only the celebration of the sacrament but also fervent preaching. Such seasons were centers of religious renewal and revival, and the practice was continued by many Presbyterians in North America. In particular, this tradition can be traced through the family history of the Tennents, the Log College and its offshoots, the work of Samuel Davies, and Rice himself, who conducted similar communion seasons throughout his ministry. These gatherings would continue to be central to religious life on the frontier, though they would also become centers of controversy as the frontier context and new religious trends took the communion seasons in new directions [Andrew M. McGinnis, “Between Enthusiasm and Stoicism: David Rice and Moderate Revivalism in Virginia and Kentucky,” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 172-173].

Robert B. Davidson notes that communion seasons and tokens were part of the Kentucky Revival:

The sacramental meetings, or sacraments, as they were called, were held at long intervals, when several ministers attended and took part; tokens were distributed; a long Action Sermon preached; the tables duly fenced; a succession of tables served; a fresh minister assigned to each table, and a fresh exhortation to each company; and when the communicants were numerous, (many coming from a distance,) the services were protracted till sunset, and became extremely tedious and fatiguing [Davidson, History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky (1847), pp. 103-104].

James McGready was a pioneer Kentucky evangelist who seemed to be most in heaven while on earth at the communion table. Hear how he speaks in “The Believer Embracing Christ”:

The believer sometimes meets with Christ and embraces him in the arms of faith when he is seated at a communion table, then by faith, he sees a mangled, bleeding, dying, rising, triumphant Jesus, heading his own table, and feasting his blood-bought children with the bread of life and the milk and honey of Canaan [McGready, The Posthumous Works of the Reverend and Pious James M’Gready (1831), pp. 134-135].

As colonial Presbyterianism became less oriented towards traditional Scottish worship and more distinctly American, communion seasons and communion tokens began to fade away from the 19th century mainline American Presbyterian experience, and even, more slowly so, from the experience of Reformed (Covenanter) and Associate Reformed Presbyterians. John M. Mason was among those who argued for more frequent communion, and in this he was followed by James W. Alexander (see The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper [1840]), and others, until the communion season was no longer found to be the norm in the American Presbyterian experience.

THE LORD’S SUPPER. This sacrament, although celebrated infrequently, was still probably the high point in the worship experience of an Old School Presbyterian, as diaries and autobiographies of the period indicate. The high value placed upon the Communion is seen also in the effort that was made to bring about more frequency in its celebration and to separate it from the cumbersome appendages of the sacramental season. This idea had been advanced by the revisers of the Directory [of Public Worship] in 1787, but was overruled by the 1788 synod. A harbinger of change was the decision by a New York congregation of the Associate Reformed Presbytery to “discontinue the custom of observing a fast day before, and thanksgiving day after, the administration of the Lord’s Supper.” This change, which prompted much discussion in that Presbyterian denomination, had been promoted by the New York pastor John Mitchell Mason, author in 1798 of the book Letters on Frequent Communion [Melton, Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787, pp. 39-40].

Nevertheless, to hold a communion token in one’s hands is to hearken back to that bygone era when sacramental seasons marked perhaps the pinnacle of an Old School American Presbyterian’s spiritual pilgrimage on earth. If one listens closely, one might almost hear the faint sounds of a psalm sung, “Perhaps Dundee’s wild-warbling measures rise, / Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name; / Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame” (Robert Burns, A Cotters’ Saturday Night).

Planted on the hillside here the ‘Banner of Blue,’
And worshipped God in simple form as Presbyterians do.
Upon this very ground was heard the voice of prayer,
And ancient Psalm to solemn tune they sang. —
’Do good in thy good pleasure, Lord, unto our Zion here;
The walls of our Jerusalem establish Thou and rear.’
Thus prayer and praise were made to God,
Nor dread of any foe
Dismayed our fathers in their work
So many years ago.
— Paraphrase of William McCombs, Two Hundred Years Ago (1842) in Mary McWhorter Tenney, Communion Tokens: Their Origin, History, and Use (1936), p. 59

William Robinson's Long-Lost Letter

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We must always remember when we turn one eye upon ourselves and our guilt, blemishes, vileness, and loathsomeness, we must let the other eye be fixed upon Jesus Christ! — William Robinson

William Robinson is one of the most influential colonial American Presbyterian ministers about whom we know so little. He was born in England, the son of a well-to-do Quaker physician, around the beginning of the 18th century, and after falling into the sins of big city life in London, made his way to America to work as a teacher, before a conversion experience led him to become a student for the ministry at William Tennent’s Log College. Samuel Miller tells the story of that experience in his biography of John Rodgers:

He was riding at a late hour, one evening, when the moon and the stars shone with unusual brightness, and when every thing around him was calculated to excite reflection. While he was meditating upon the beauty and grandeur of the scene which the firmament presented, and was saying to himself, "How transcendently glorious must be the Author of all this beauty and grandeur," the thought struck him with the suddenness and force of lightning: "But what do I know of this God? Have I ever sought His favor or made Him my friend?" This happy impression, which proved, by its permanence and effects, to have come from the best of all sources, never left him until he took refuge in Christ as the hope and life of his soul.

Marker located at the Historic Polegreen Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

An alumni of William Tennent’s Log College; Robinson was called to succeed William Tennent as pastor of the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, but declined the call; he was a leader of the Great Awakening, and a friend of George Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent; he served as moderator of New Brunswick Presbytery; and he preached the first Presbyterian sermon in central Virginia (July 6, 1743), and paved the way for the ministry of Samuel Davies, who wrote of him that "The work was begun and mainly carried on by that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect on it, astonishes me.” Davies also said:

Probably Mr. Robinson, during the short period of his life, was the instrument in the conversion of as many souls as any minister who ever lived in this country. The only circumstance relating to his person which has come down is that he was blind of one eye [as a result of scarlet fever]; so that he was called by some “the one-eyed Robinson.”

It was his dying wish that Davies would be sent to minister to the people of Hanover County, Virginia, where Robinson had preached three years before, and accepted a financial gift from his grateful hearers only with the proviso that it would go to support Davies’ theological education. He died on August 1, 1746, just six years after his ordination to the ministry, and his funeral sermon was preached by Samuel Blair. But although the stories of his travels throughout Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and his ministry in Delaware, are fascinating to read, and his role in the education and missionary efforts of Samuel Davies was key to bringing the Great Awakening to Virginia, we have nothing to read that was written by his own hand — or so it was thought until very recently.

James P. Williams is an American Baptist minister who was serving as pastor of four Baptist churches in England from 2007 to 2010. While cleaning one of those churches, he discovered a letter from William Robinson to his [unnamed, female] cousin in England dated June 16, 1741. The letter is transcribed in his book Light the Fire Again: Eighteenth-Century Light for the Twenty-First Century Darkness, which tells more fully than has been done before the story of Robinson’s life and ministry. The letter rejoices in the news that Robinson had received that his cousin was born again. He tells her about reports he has heard from George Whitefield concerning revival in England, and gives a report on revival throughout the northern colonies:

…here has been such Surprising Effusions of God’s spirit in the ministry Especially under Mr. Whitfield & our new Brunswick Presbytery in which are the famous Tennents my dear brethren, that all New England, the Provinces of York, the Jersies, Pensilvania, and Maryland are filled with Convinced & Converted souls, many are the thousand Brot to Christ and on the way Children, youth & aged persons, rich & poor, Black & White, tis no Great Matter here to preach unto Five Thousand People, for my Brethren to preach 3-4 or 5 times a day.

It is a letter that practically drips with the sweet savor of the gospel. In all his rejoicing of the communion in Christ which he now shares with his cousin, and in all his descriptions of revival, Robinson is concerned to give God the glory rather than himself or even those brethren of whom he speaks so highly. Robinson: “I cannot tell what great things God has done for ME, what honors conferred on me a poor ignorant wretch. Oh that I may be humble and thankful.” The work of both conversion and revival is by the hand of God, and brings Robinson to a humble adoration of the One who has merciful done and continues to do great things among the people on both sides of the pond. The whole letter takes up a handful of pages in transcription, and Williams helpfully includes a summary of its highlights as well. The life story of Robinson is given in Light the Fire Again with a view towards inspiring 21st century readers to catch the flame that stirred Robinson, Whitefield, the Tennents, Davies, Jonathan Edwards and others in the 18th. We are most grateful to Williams for finding Robinson’s letter and sharing its contents with this generation. May that spark contained within, by the grace of God, help to light the world again today!

The Presbyterian Church That George Whitefield Built

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Although George Whitefield was an Anglican minister who promoted the revivalism of the Great Awakening and in particular, Calvinistic Methodism, he had close ties to colonial American Presbyterians such as Gilbert and William Tennent, Sr. [Whitefield’s journal entry following his visit to the elder Tennent in 1739 is one of the earliest and most significant descriptions of the original Log College], Ebenezer Pemberton, Jonathan Parsons, Samuel Davies, among others.

Davies may have heard Whitefield preach at Faggs Manor, Pennsylvania in 1739-1740. Davies certainly heard him preach in England in late 1753 and visited him at his house, as noted in his journal. It is noteworthy that the literature acquired by Samuel Morris that helped to inspire the 1740s Great Awakening in Virginia prior to Samuel Davies’ arrival there included the published sermons of George Whitefield, who had preached previously at the Bruton Parish Anglican Church in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1739.

In 1743, following Whitefield’s ministry in Philadelphia, the Second Presbyterian Church in that city was organized, and Gilbert Tennent was called to serve as the pastor.

On another New England preaching tour, in October 1740, at New Haven, Whitefield encountered Jonathan Parsons, who, although he had studied under Jonathan Edwards, was at the time an Arminian-leaning Congregational minister at Lyme, Connecticut. The Great Awakening that Whitefield promoted also deeply affected Parsons, whose ministry changed dramatically after Parsons embraced the experimental piety that Whitefield preached. Following another Whitefield tour of New England in 1746, a congregation began meeting in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and with Whitefield’s guidance, Parsons was called to serve as the pastor. The present building of the First Presbyterian Church of Newburyport (more popularly known as Old South Church - and sometimes, as “Whitefield’s Church”) was constructed in 1756 in three days by over 100 men working together. Later, a church bell cast by Paul Revere was installed in the clock tower.

Old South had a special place in George Whitefield’s heart. He returned on occasion to preach there, and maintained a close friendship with Parsons. It was on a visit there that George Whitefield passed away suddenly on a Lord’s Day morning, September 30, 1770 at Parson’s house. Parsons was called upon to preach his funeral sermon later that day, “To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain” (published in 1771). At Whitefield’s own stated request, he was buried under the pulpit of Old South.

Parsons served as pastor of Old South from 1746 until his death in 1776, a few days after the Declaration of Independence. He, too, was buried in the vault under the Old South pulpit, as was Joseph Prince, the famous blind minister, who died in 1791.

After Parsons, John Murray ministered to the congregation from 1781 to 1793. The third pastor of Old South was Daniel Dana, who served from 1794 to 1820. The long line of faithful ministers in Newburyport includes Jonathan F. Stearns, who delivered A Historical Discourse, Commemorative of the Organization of the First Presbyterian Church, in Newburyport, Delievered at the First Centennial Celebration, Jan. 7, 1846 (1846); and Ashbel G. Vermilye, author of A Discourse Delivered at Newburyport, Mass., November 28, 1856, on Occasion of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Building of the First Presbyterian Church (1856).

To this day, those who want to see where the earthly remains of the great revival preacher George Whitefield are laid to rest will make the trek to Newburyport, Massachusetts to a Presbyterian church in which his memory is cherished, along with that of Parsons and Prince. This Presbyterian church, and the line of faithful ministers who served it for many years, may rightly be considered fruits of George Whitefield’s remarkable ministry. His labors were legendary, as was his preaching voice; he spent his life for Christ, and preached around 18,000 times to an estimated approximately 10 million listeners. When the Lord took him home it was at the house of a dear old friend, with whom he would be reunited in Christ a few years later.

If one makes the trip to see where Whitefield and Parsons are buried, consider not only the happy fruit of their ministry, but also the very words of the Apostle Paul chosen by Parsons to preach on after Whitefield’s death: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Old South was but a waystation for them, and a very special one at that.

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What's New at Log College Press? - August 16, 2022

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There is always a lot going on at Log College Press. Here is a brief report to get you up to speed.

In July 2022, we added 349 new works to the site. Today we aim to highlight some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Early Access:

• In 1760, a letter authored by Gilbert Tennent and signed by seventeen other Presbyterian ministers was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning William McClanachan (1714-c. 1765), a sometime Anglican, Congregational and Presbyterian minister, which proved to be somewhat ecclesiastically messy for the writers. What is particularly interesting about the “eighteen Presbyterian ministers” who jointly signed the letter is that this is one occasion when Samuel Davies and the Tennent brother (Gilbert, Charles and William, Jr.) united in a literary production. Others who also signed include John Rodgers, Abraham Keteltas, Alexander MacWhorter, John Blair, Robert Smith, John Roan, Charles McKnight; all together at least seven alumni of the Log College signed this letter, which is now available to read on our Early Access page.

• Speaking of the Tennents, we have added a volume by Mary A. Tennent titled Light in Darkness: The Story of William Tennent Sr. and the Log College (1971) to the William Tennent, Sr. page. It is a valuable study of the Tennent family and the Log College.

• In the course of our research, we came across a volume of sermons once owned by Samuel Miller. Many of the individual sermons bear his handwritten signature on the title pages. Some of the sermons were delivered in connection with the May 9, 1798 fast day appointed by President John Adams (William Linn, Ashbel Green and Samuel Blair, Jr.). Also included was another separate fast day sermon preached by Nathan Strong and an 1815 thanksgiving sermon preached by James Muir (following the end of the War of the 1812).

• We added some interesting works by John Tucker (1719-1792), including a noted 1771 election sermon and two editions (one published and one handwritten manuscript) of a 1778 sermon on the validity of Presbyterian ordination.

• Robert R. Howison, author of a noted history of Virginia, wrote a history of the War Between the States in serial fashion which was published in the Southern Literary Messenger from 1862 to 1864. We have compiled each installment into one PDF file comprised of almost 400 pages.

• Perhaps the most famous sermon delivered by Clarence E.N. Macartney was Come Before Winter, first preached in 1915 and then annually for many years after. We have added the 30th anniversary edition of that sermon to his page.

• We have also recently added more sermons and letters by Samuel Davies, some of which are now at the Recent Additions page.

Recent Addtiions:

• William Adams, On the Death of President Harrison (1841);

• Several novels by Francis R. Goulding;

• James Newton Saunders, Memorial Upon the Life of Rev. Stuart Robinson (1883);

• and many works by Theodore L. Cuyler, J.R. Miller and Julia McNair Wright, among quite a few others.

Be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including some by John Murray on the regulative principle of worship; David Rice on religious controversy; and Louis F. Benson on early Presbyterian psalmody.

As we continue to grow, please avail yourself of the many resources (both digital and in print) at Log College Press, and be sure to tell your friends about us. We hope that brushing off these old tomes will indeed enrich the 21st century church - that is our prayer. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends.

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Forgotten Founding Fathers of the American Church and State

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There is a volume of biographical sketches that is well worth the read - William T. Hanzsche’s Forgotten Founding Fathers of the American Church and State (1954). It highlights some of the most significant colonial Presbyterians found on Log College Press. These include: Francis Makemie (“the Father of American Presbyterianism”); William Tennent, Sr. (founder of the Log College); Jonathan Dickinson (first President of the College of New Jersey in Princeton); David Brainerd (the “Apostle to the North American Indians”); Gilbert Tennent (“Son of Thunder”); Samuel Davies (the “Apostle to Virginia”); and John Witherspoon (the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation).

Hanzsche’s study is a great introduction to these men and their legacies. Their contributions to early American Presbyterianism, and indeed, to the history of the United States and the world, are worthy of notice and appreciation. This volume helps students of history to better understand the significance of each of these American Presbyterian worthies.

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Log College Resources

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At Log College Press, we aim to survey the broad landscape of American Presbyterianism, from mainstream denominations to dissenting branches, both conservative and liberal, to provide insight into the history and claims of those who speak for Presbyterianism in America. But we have a special place in our heart for the original Log College, which served as the first Presbyterian seminary in the colonies.

A 19th-century sketch of the Log College with an interesting background described here.

Here is an effort to provide resources for further study on that Log College and specially connected to it. This is not a complete survey, but it is hoped that readers who wish to study the Log College more in-depth can do so ably with the material referenced below.

The Founders of the Log College (c. 1726) were William Tennent, Sr. (1673-1746) and Catherine Kennedy Tennent (1683-1753). Each of their male children were among the graduates of the Log College program of education: Gilbert, William, Jr., John, and Charles. Other famous Log College alumni include Samuel Blair, John Blair, Samuel Finley and Charles Beatty. The Log College planted seeds which later resulted in the founding of Princeton, the Log Colleges of John McMillan, David Caldwell and others.

There are many valuable works about the Log College and its alumni and influence available to read at Log College Press, including:

• Archibald Alexander - Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni of the Log College (1845) and Sermons and Essays by the Tennents and Their Contemporaries (1855)

• Elijah R. Craven - The Log College of Neshaminy and Princeton University (1902)

• Nathaniel Irwin - Memoirs of the Presbyterian Church of Neshaminey (1793, 1904)

• Guy S. Klett and Thomas C. Pears, Jr. - Documentary History of William Tennent and the Log College (1940)

• Thomas Murphy - The Presbytery of the Log College; or, The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America (1889)

• Douglas K. Turner - History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, PA, 1726-1876 (1876); Sketch of Log College (1886, 1909); and The Log College (1889)

Also of interest is Charles Spencer Richardson, Jr., A Week in Log College Country (1903), available to read here. William B. Sprague’s Annals, Richard Webster’s History of the Presbyterian Church in America, and many other biographical and historical literature is also available to read at Log College Press.

Other works known to the writer, but not yet available on Log College Press include:

• George H. Ingram - The Story of the Log College (1927) and Biographies of the Alumni of the Log College (1929-1930)

• Clarence E.N. Macartney - The Log College and the Beginning of Princeton (1946-1947)

• Richard McIlwaine - The Influence of the Log College in the South (1889)

• Thomas C. Pears, Jr. - History by Hearsay or New Light on William Tennent: A Footnote on the 'Documentary History of William Tennent (1940)

• Gary E. Schnittjer - William Tennent and the Log College: A Common Man and an Uncommon Legacy (1992) and The Ingredients of Effective Mentoring: The Log College as a Model for Mentorship (1994)

Books which directly treat aspects of the Log College from the Secondary Sources page at Log College Press include:

• Milton J. Coalter, Jr. - Gilbert Tennent, Son of Thunder (1986)

• S. Donald Fortson III - Colonial Presbyterianism: Old Faith in a New Land (2006)

• John F. Hansen - The Vision That Changed a Nation: The Legacy of William Tennent (2007)

• Margaret Adair Hunter, Education in Pennsylvania Promoted by the Presbyterian Church, 1726–1837 (1937)

• Alexander Leitch - A Princeton Companion (1978)

• Howard Miller - The Revolutionary College: American Presbyterian Higher Education, 1707-1837 (1976)

• Mary A. Tennent - Light in Darkness: The Story of William Tennent, Sr. and the Log College (1971)

There is a great deal of literature on Princeton which can be read online at Log College Press, or ordered from the Secondary Sources page, which touches on the history of the Log College. Many titles are not mentioned here, but could be included in a more thorough compilation. But it is hoped that the resources highlighted here will provide the student of colonial American Presbyterian history with readily available information to assist in their studies of a remarkable chapter of church history.

And let us remember that “the past is not dead,” because the story of the Tennents and the Log College is but prologue to the present. The William Tennent House Association continues its work in a different direction to make this history and legacy alive and accessible to visitors as well. One Log College, and the many others which followed, did so much to leave a godly legacy for America. We are glad to help others learn more about the story, and we are thankful to God for the legacy.

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An answer to Pilate's question: What is truth?

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Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? (John 18:38)

Besides the famous Log College of William Tennent and its daughter schools in Pennsylvania — as well as the Log College of David Caldwell in North Carolina, and others — there was the Shepherd’s Tent of New London, Connecticut. of which Timothy Allen (1715-1806) served as President in the 1740s. Shepherd’s Tent was a brief but important contribution to the revivalism of the Great Awakening; see Richard Warch, “The Shepherd's Tent: Education and Enthusiasm in the Great Awakening,” American Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, 1978, pp. 177–198, for more about this contribution. John Brainerd and Elihu Spencer were among the students of Shepherd’s Tent.

Meanwhile, today’s post is extracted from a fascinating essay by Allen written as a response to an age-old question. The full treatise is very much worth the read. In conclusion, he gives an eight-part answer as follows.

Lastly. We see the sum of the answer to Pilate’s question, in these particulars.

1. GOD, his nature, and all his attributes and perfections, are truth, in its first and most important sense. His proper distinctions is, GOD of truth, Deut. xxxii.4.

2. JESUS CHRIST as a divine person, and as perfectly expressing GOD to men, is in equal sense, the truth. John xiv.6.

3. The Holy Ghost, as the great efficient of all divine purposes, and as represented in the genuine influence of all the words, and all the works of GOD, on the consciences of men, is truth. 1 John v.6. And for this reason styled, the Spirit of the truth. John xiv.17.

4. The work which JESUS CHRIST came to do, and which is the only obedience of merit, in which therefore all the hope of sinners lies, itself being the only perfect practical righteousness, is truth, in fact, through which only we are saved. 2 Thess. ii.13.

5. The Scriptures, as the only perfect literal description of the Godhead, and the only history of his kingdom, and its righteousness, is in the same sense, truth itself. John xvii.17.

6. The saving work of the Spirit of GOD, through belief of the word of GOD, and by which sinners are made partakers of the divine nature, and have fellowship with God, is truth. 1 John ii.27.

7. The whole kingdom of God, as including the creation and government of all things, is original truth, exemplified in facts. All his works are done in truth. Ps. xxxiii.4.

8. NATURAL self-consisting truth, in the last and most finished representation of it to men, is the distinguishing character of that kingdom, of which JESUS CHRIST was born lord and king. It was represented in types, in the Jewish state of the church; and the whole of that state of the church was type, or typical. But now the truth is come, which was all along meant by those types.

In this summation, Allen explores the manifold sense in which Pilate may receive a full answer to a profound question. Pilate may not have sought such an answer, but lovers of the truth, which is timeless, will appreciate what Allen had to say over 250 years ago. Our God is indeed a God of truth.

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The Protesters of 1741

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On Monday, June 1, 1741, a protest authored by Robert Cross and signed by him, along with eleven other ministers and eight ruling elders, was submitted to the Synod of Philadelphia, with Jedediah Andrews serving as Moderator, which led to the great Old Side-New Side split of the colonial American Presbyterian Church. The signers were mostly from the Presbytery of Donegal, representing the Old Side party. D.G. Hart writes* that “This division in American Presbyterianism has been the most difficult one to explain in the history of the church…” The protesters, for one thing, referred to their opponents (the New Side) as “protesting brethren,” which certainly clouds the issue for those removed from the controversy by centuries.

It is not the purpose of this post to attempt to explain the circumstances and motivations of either party, which would require an essay of great length, and the tragic story is told elsewhere in church histories by Charles Hodge, Richard Webster, and others. but simply to alert students of church history to the fact that all twelve ministers who signed the Protestation are now found on Log College Press. As William Tennent’s Log College did play an important role in the events leading up to the 1741 split, it is a matter of great interest to us at Log College Press to read what the Old Side had to say, as well as the New Side.

The twelve ministers who signed included 3 Roberts, 3 Johns and 2 Samuels, and most were born in Ireland:

• Robert Cross (1689-1766) - The Protestation’s author served the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia alongside Jedediah Andrews.

• John Thomson (1690-1753) - Thomson was the author of the 1729 Adopting Act.

• Francis Alison (1705-1779) - Alison was a scholar and educator, as well as a leading voice among Old Side presbyters. He preached the opening sermon at the 1758 reunion Synod on “Peace and Union.”

• Robert Cathcart (d. 1754) - Cathcart ministered in Wilmington, Delaware from 1730 until his death.

• Richard Sankey (1710-1789) - In church records, his last name is often spelled Zanchy. He was the son-in-law of John Thomson, and — after a rocky start in which he was accused of plagiarizing his ordination sermon — later served Virginia Presbyterians under the jurisdiction of the Hanover Presbytery.

• John Elder (1706-1792) - The “Fighting Pastor” is known to history as the founder of “Paxton Boys,” who were involved in the Conestoga Massacre in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, and then marched on Philadelphia. In the American War of Independence, he recruited patriots to the American cause.

• John Craig (1709-1774) - Craig, about whom we have written before, later served the Hanover Presbytery in Augusta County, Virginia as the first settled Presbyterian minister west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

• Samuel Caven (1701-1750) - Caven’s tombstone at the Silver Spring Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania indicates that he was 44 years old when he died on November 9, 1750; however, other sources indicate that he was born (in Ireland) in 1701.

• Samuel Thomson (1714-1787) - Although some have thought that Samuel was the son of John Thomson, the latter’s biographer, John Goodwin Herndon, makes the case that this was not so. Samuel Thomson served as pastor of the Great Conewago Presbyterian Church in Hunterstown, Pennsylvania from 1749 to 1787.

• Adam Boyd (1692-1768) - Over a 44-year pastoral career, Boyd — a man “eminent” for piety — help to organize 16 “daughter” and “grand-daughter” churches.

• James Martin (d. 1743) - Martin left his mark as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Lewes, Delaware, where the house that he once owned remains an historical landmark.

• Robert Jamison (d. 1744) - Jamison, after arriving from Ireland in 1634, ministered in Delaware until his death.

These names are worth getting to know. The ministers who signed the Protestation played an important role in a tragic chapter of American Presbyterian history, and some of them were part of the reunited Synod 17 years later. Ezra Hall Gillett writes of some of these men in The Men and Times of the Reunion of 1758 (1868). That was a happier year than 1741. The rupture that happened after the Protestation had been building for years, and both sides were to blame, as Gillett says. In reviewing the protesters, on both sides, we are reminded that all men fall short of the divine standard of holiness, love and long-suffering that ought to be characteristic of believers. The history of the Presbyterian church affords many examples of division; happily, in this case, a great reunion followed.

* S. Donald Fortson III, ed., Colonial Presbyterianism: Old Faith in a New Land, p. 158

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Restoration of the William Tennent House

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Today’s post contains a message from Wendy Wirsch, President of the William Tennant House Association. Previously, we have written about the efforts of this organization to preserve and restore the home of the Founder of the original Log College. She has an update to report that we wanted to pass along to our readers.

Wendy Wirsch portrays Mrs. Catherine Tennent at the Log College Monument (courtesy of Wendy Wirsch).

The Rev. William Tennent, Sr. helped light the fires for revival at the beginning of the First Great Awakening. He lived on a hundred-acre plantation in Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Today what was once William Tennent’s property is now the children’s campus for Christ’s Home. Near his house he built a log cabin school for the training of Presbyterian ministers. This school became known as the Log College. All of his known graduates became revivalist preachers except for one who became a medical doctor. After William Tennent’s death on May 6, 1746, the Log College closed its doors. John 12:24 says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies. It remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The death of this “grain of wheat” produced sixty-three colleges and universities. The first offshoot was Princeton University.

In 2011 the William Tennent House Association (WTHA) became a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 formed to restore the home commonly known as the William Tennent House. This house stands diagonally behind the Log College Monument which lists the sixty-three colleges and universities. The WTHA began working with the historic preservation department of AECOM. Currently the Association is working with Michael Cuba and Dale Emde, timber framers, and Jeffrey Marshall, President of the Heritage Conservancy.

Here’s an update on the efforts to restore the house.  The Historic Resource Survey Report compiled by AECOM’s historic preservation department was submitted to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for their review in order to get eligibility for the National Registry.  Unfortunately, the PHMC turned down our submission, but we’re not giving up.

During the summer of 2019 we began working with Michael Cuba and Dale Emde, timber framers along with advice from Jeffrey Marshall of the Heritage Conservancy in Doylestown, PA.  After thorough examination of the structure, Michael and Jeffrey tell us that this is a totally rebuilt house with materials from other structures.  The two stone ends where the fireplaces are located are probably original.  Also, the original house was a one or one-and-a-half story log home.  We don’t know why William Tennent advertised it as a two-story dwelling in the Pennsylvania Gazette.  We know from our research that this is the location of his house. 

Michael Cuba and Dale Emde took core samples of wood from the interior of the home for dendrochronology and sent them to the Oxford Dendrochronology Lab in Oxford, England.  Dendrochronology will help us date the structure.  The results should be in by March.

In the ceiling of the basement there are logs that look like they came from a log cabin structure.  I often wondered if they came from the Log College.  Unfortunately, we may never know.   When Michael took a core sample from one of the logs, he discovered the logs were chestnut.  In the 18th century a blight wiped out all of the chestnut trees so there is no sample we can compare it to. 

Currently the WTHA is raising money to stabilize the north wall and put a temporary roof over the existing roof.  We also need to raise money for ground penetrating radar to check the foundation and conduct an archaeological dig on the property.  Archaeology will tell the story of this house and who lived there. When we raise even more money, we will have Jeffrey Marshall resubmit a revised HRSF to the PHMC. 

This house has always been known as the William Tennent House. Inspired by William Tennent and the impact of the Log College our mission is to raise awareness of his lasting contributions to higher education in the American middle colonies, as well as Tennent’s spiritual influence on the founding of our nation. We envision the William Tennent House as a place where the community and school students will learn about the life of William Tennent and his important contribution to American history and spiritual renewal. The home will be open for tours to the public, and a library will be opened for anyone who wants to do research.

Any reader of this blog who wants to make a donation or become a member of the William Tennent House Association can visit our website at www.williamtennenthouse.org. We are also on Facebook at William Tennent House. I believe this house holds a secret, and I’m determined to find out what it is.

The William Tennent House (courtesy of Wendy Wirsch).

If you are interested in the mission of the William Tennent House Association, please visit their website to learn more. The former home of the founder of the Log College is an historical treasure. The preservation and restoration of the landmark of American Presbyterian history is a worthy aim, and if there are secrets to be unlocked, we hope that these efforts will be successful.

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How a conversation in Latin led Charles Beatty into the ministry

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Samuel Miller tells the tale of how Charles Beatty, as a teenager, having emigrated from his native Northern Ireland and arrived in America with a measure of classical education already under his belt, in the providence of God, met William Tennent, Sr., the founder of the Log College. Their encounter was a memorable one, which led to a great chapter in the history of God’s kingdom on earth.

The Rev. Charles Beatty was a native of Ireland. He obtained a pretty accurate classical education in his own country; but his circumstances being narrow, he migrated to America, and employed several of the first years of his residence on this side of the Atlantic in the business of a pedlar. In the pursuit of this vocation, he halted, one day, at the “Log College,” on the Neshaminy, then under care of the Reverend William Tennent the elder. The pedlar, to Mr. Tennent’s surprise, addressed him in correct Latin, and appeared to be familiar with that language. After much conversation, in which Mr. Beatty manifested fervent piety, and considerable religious knowledge, as well as a good education in other respects, Mr. Tennent addressed him thus — “You must quit your present employment. Go and sell the contents of your pack, and return immediately, and study with me. It will be a sin for you to continue a pedlar, when you may be so much more useful in another profession.” He accepted Mr. Tennent’s offer; returned to Neshaminy; completed there his academical and theological studies; and in due time became an eminent minister. He died in Barbadoes, wither he had gone to solicit benefactions for the college of New-Jersey [Princeton], about the time of Mr. Rodgers’ removal to New-York (Memoirs of the Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., p. 109).

Beatty went on to serve as the pastor of Tennent’s church at Neshaminy, and as a missionary on the western frontier. He was a close friend and companion of David Brainerd. Although born in Ulster and buried on the Caribbean island of Barbados, his name is remembered as an American Presbyterian pastor and pioneer missionary of great eminence. And in the providence of God, it was his knowledge of Latin that led him to a life of service to Christ and his kingdom.

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A Week in Log College Country

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An ordinary traveller passing along the turnpike that winds southward through the county of Bucks in Pennsylvania would take no particular interest in a certain empty field lying on his left; but were he a lover of history he would stop short and gaze earnestly, for in the middle of a potato-patch, just where a knoll rises, stood once the structure that has become famous to posterity as the Log College.

So begins a fascinating account of “A Week in Log College Country” by Charles Spencer Richardson, Jr. which appeared in The Nassau Literary Magazine (April 1903). Drawn to the same history which inspires us here at Log College Press, Richardson tells the story of William Tennent, Sr. and his famous academy. Moreover, he recounts how he came to hold in his hands the original 1735 deed to the property upon which the Log College stood, as well as Tennent’s 1746 last will and testament and the inventory of his goods which was taken after his death.

The sun was touching the hills when I drove on down the turnpike and stopped before a large, colonial house in the village of Hatborough. An elderly lady answered my ring and in response to the query whether she knew of any documents connected with the Tennant property, said that there were some old papers in the garret but that she had not examined them. She soon returned with several musty, yellow parchments which she gave to me with the remark that they were of no possible benefit to herself….In a foot note to his History of the Neshaminy Church, written about 1850, the Rev. D. K. Turner mentions the documents, but for over half a century they have lain untouched in the attic of the Carrell house and owing to the fact that they are of parchment, they are as legible as on the day when they were written, one hundred and sixty-eight years ago.

The memory of William Tennent and the Log College has been kept alive by many — and especially today by the William Tennent House Association. But the story of a drive through Bucks County, Pennsylvania over a century ago and what Richardson learned and discovered on that trip, makes for fascinating reading today for those who treasure the heritage of the first American Presbyterian theological seminary. That story, along with the documents mentioned, can be read here.

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The William Tennent House - Home of the Founder of the Original Log College

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Behind the man — William Tennent, Sr. — who founded the Log College in 1727, America’s first Presbyterian seminary, stood a woman: “Catharine Kennedy — the real founder of the Log College” (Thomas Murphy, The Presbytery of the Log College; or, The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America (1889), p. 118). Today, if one follows the William Tennent Trail of History Tour — which includes stops at the Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church and cemetery in Warminster, Pennsylvania, along with the William Tennent House and the Log College Monument — your tour guide is likely to be the woman who so ably portrays Catherine Kennedy Tennent. Her name is Wendy Wirsch, and she is the church historian at Neshaminy-Warwick and President of the William Tennent House Association.

Wendy Wirsch portrays Mrs. Catherine Tennent at the Log College Monument (courtesy of Wendy Wirsch).

She represents an effort to raise awareness, preserve and restore the William Tennent House, and indeed the legacy of the Log College and its founder. The WTHA’s mission is fueled by her passion and the passion of all those who support its aims to honor this legacy by teaching others about the history of the Tennents, the Log College and the far-reaching ministry of early American Presbyterians in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church (photo credit: R. Andrew Myers).

The church founded by William Tennent, Sr. still stands and has a very active congregation. The memory of its founder and succeeding ministers is cherished by its members. The nearby cemetery where some of those men were laid to rest remains a place of sober reflection and appreciation. The WHTA also tries to uphold their memory in the ways that it can, but it does need your support.

The William Tennent House Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to the mission of restoring and preserving the William Tennent House located at 880 York Road in Warminster, Pennsylvania.

Our goal is to eventually open the house to all ages and offer educational tours, presentations, special events and to establish a museum and library with relics, documents, books, collectibles and art for education and research about William Tennent and related historical persons and sites on a local, state and national level.  We would like to give the public the opportunity to participate in every phase of the restoration and preservation process. This includes inviting community members to assist in the ongoing maintenance of the house and surrounding 1+ acre of land.

Please join us in our efforts to offer this most historic and unique home to our local community. Learn more about the impact William Tennent had on that period of time in our history known as The Great Awakening, as well as the profound impact his Log College had on the beginning of higher education in the American middle colonies – the roots of which extend to the present day.  The William Tennent House will serve as a place of interest in history, preservation, and education, and will become a valuable resource for future generations.

For more information, email friendsofthetennenthouse@yahoo.com or go to:  www.facebook.com/william.tennenthouse

Front view of the William Tennent House (photo credit: R. Andrew Myers).

As is evident from pictures above and below, the house where the remarkable Tennent family lived is a special place in need of restoration. Such work is ongoing, and much more work is yet needed. If you support the goal of preserving and restoring this chapter of history, the home of William Tennent, Sr., and the associated heritage of the original Log College, you can contribute to or become of a member of the William Tennent House Association and help to realize this dream shared by Wendy Wirsch and others. Your contribution is tax deductible, and will go a long way towards helping future generations to be able to walk through this house and learn about the legacy of its famous residents, and their contribution to the kingdom of Christ in America.

Rear view of the William Tennent House (photo credit: R. Andrew Myers).

So many landmarks of American Presbyterian history have deteriorated or faded from memory. Recently, we highlighted the sad condition of the birthplace of Samuel Davies here. The work of the William Tennent House Association provides an opportunity to ensure that this bit of history will not be lost, but rather preserved and cherished. Pray for its success, and consider what you can do to support the work. Future generations will be blessed by these labors, as we cherish the labors of William and Catherine Tennent, and many others.

The grave of William Tennent, Sr. (photo credit: R. Andrew Myers).

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How do we know what the Log College looked like?

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After the closing of the Log College in 1746, there was a gap in the historical memory of what the actual building used by William Tennent, Sr. to teach the next generation of American Presbyterian ministers looked like. Mary Tennent explains:

Until the close of the 19th century, it was thought that no likeness of the school existed. The sole reference to its appearance occurred in George Whitefield’s journal dated 1739 when he visited Neshaminy, that it was built of logs and was “twenty feet long and nearly as broad.” Around 1889, Dr. Thomas Murphy while engaged in writing a history of the “Log College Presbytery” (New Brunswick) learned otherwise through a rather unusual circumstance. (Light in the Darkness: The Story of William Tennent, Sr. and The Log College, p. 35)

We turn now to Murphy’s own account, published in The Presbytery of the Log College; or, The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America (1889), pp. 484-486, along with the first known visual representation of the original Log College.

In the journal of the Rev. George Whitefield record is found which states that the Log College was a structure built of logs, and that its dimensions were twenty by eighteen feet. Beyond this simple notice and the name it has ever borne, the appearance of the building has thus far been a mystery. No picture, or description even, has been supposed to be in existence. This makes the discovery of what is the frontispiece of this volume an event the value of which only the antiquary can appreciate. It is a discovery for which the author is indebted to Dr. W. S. Steen, a gentleman well known in San Francisco, Cal., member of the Calvary Presbyterian church of that city and for years superintendent of one of its Sabbath-schools, also an eminent mineralogist and assayer.

While engaged in geological and kindred pursuits at the Yuba mines, in California, he made the acquaintance of a man named Wilson, a pious and intelligent miner, in whom he became greatly interested. Both being natives of Pennsylvania and members of the Presbyterian Church, they would seek refuge on the Sabbath in the forest from the noise and profanity of the mine, and there study the Bible. On these days Wilson related his previous history. He was of pious ancestry in Eastern Pennsylvania. A grandfather had importuned him to study for the ministry of the Church of his forefathers, and among other inducements had presented him with a Bible in which there was a picture of "the first college established in this country for the training of young men for the Presbyterian ministry." It looked as if it had been an illustration from an old pamphlet or had been sketched by some bright youth of the institution. The building was small and rude, of logs, and located in Eastern Pennsylvania among the Presbyterians. On this picture, as a reminder of their faroff home, the two had gazed times without number. Dr. Steen came to have it so fixed in his imagination and memory that he could recall it with the utmost vividness. Failing by correspondence to find either Wilson or the Bible, at the author's solicitation he described the picture so exactly that the designer had no difficulty in reproducing it with the utmost accuracy. Of this the doctor has given the accompanying certificate, with the liberty of making it public:

"I do hereby certify that the accompanying engraving is an exact reproduction of ‘a picture of the first college building in this country for the education of young men for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Eastern Pennsylvania, and which was constructed of logs,' which I very frequently saw in the Bible of a pious miner of the Yuba mines of California, and which he had received as an heirloom from a grandfather whose ancestral home was in that region of the State.

"W. S. Steen,
"San Francisco, Cal."

In addition to this certificate, there are three corroborative circumstances which leave no question but that we have here an actual likeness of the original Log-College building: (1) The picture is so unique with its two tiers of windows, so unlike the traditional log house, that the building evidently had some special purpose; (2) The grounds around the building, as seen in the larger original picture, are precisely like the existing grounds around the site of the Log College; (3) In the original picture was the form of a man standing in front of the door, which in the position, dress and mode of wearing the hair bore an unmistakable likeness to the existing pictures of William Tennent. All these peculiarities Dr. Steen described before he had seen the likeness of Tennent or knew anything else about the Log College.

There can, therefore, be scarcely a doubt but that in this picture we have a correct representation of the original Log-College building, and so a treasure of the greatest value.

Thus, from the pen of Thomas Murphy we have the story of how this famous picture of the Log College was re-discovered in the late 19th century. It fires the imagination even today to think about how such a humble log cabin school left such a valuable spiritual legacy. We are thankful for the providence of God in the re-discovery of this illustration, but even more for the spiritual blessing to the church which it represents.