The First Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in New Brunswick, New Jersey is one of the oldest churches in the Presbyterian denomination. It was the seat of the Presbytery of New Brunswick which is now located in Trenton, New Jersey. [1]
The First Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in New Brunswick, New Jersey is one of the oldest churches in the Presbyterian denomination. It was the seat of the Presbytery of New Brunswick which is now located in Trenton, New Jersey. [1]
In 1738 the Presbytery of East Jersey was merged with the Presbytery of Long Island and renamed the Presbytery of New York, and two days after that, the Presbytery of New Brunswick was created. [2]
In late 1726, or early 1727 Reverend Gilbert Tennent was ordained pastor of the congregation. The church records were destroyed or lost, during the American Revolution when British soldiers were quartered in the manse. The records of the First Presbyterian Church (Newark, New Jersey) were destroyed at the same time. Because of damage to the church from the war, a new building was set up to replace the damaged one. [2]
In 1937 John Gresham Machen was condemned by the Presbytery of New Brunswick for disobeying higher authorities in a religious court hearing held in Trenton, New Jersey. [3]
In 1947 a fire caused $147,000 in damages (equivalent to $1,927,000in 2022). [4]
Around 1966, Alfred Yorston removed 520 bodies from the church's cemetery to Van Liew Cemetery to make way for new construction at the church. [5]
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is a confessional Presbyterian denomination located primarily in the United States, with additional congregations in Canada, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. It was founded by conservative members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), who objected to the rise of Liberal and Modernist theology in the 1930s. The OPC is considered to have had an influence on evangelicalism far beyond its size.
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the College of New Jersey, it is the second-oldest seminary in the United States. It is also the largest of ten seminaries associated with the Presbyterian Church.
Gilbert Tennent was a Presbyterian revivalist minister in Colonial America. Born into a Scotch-Irish family in County Armagh, Ireland, he migrated to America with his parents, studied theology, and along with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, became one of the leaders of the evangelical revival known as the First Great Awakening. His most famous sermon, On the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, also known as the "Nottingham Sermon," compared "Old Side" ministers to the biblical Pharisees of the Gospels, triggering a schism in the Presbyterian Church which lasted for 17 years. A prolific writer, Tennent would later work towards reunification of the two synods involved.
Ira Condict was an American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed minister who served as the third president of Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was a German-American Dutch Reformed minister, theologian and the progenitor of the Frelinghuysen family in the United States of America. Frelinghuysen is most remembered for his religious contributions in the Raritan Valley during the beginnings of the First Great Awakening. Several of his descendants became influential theologians and politicians throughout American history.
The Van Liew Cemetery is located at 585 Georges Road in North Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. It also has an entrance from Pine Street. The cemetery is one of the oldest in the township.
William Tennent was an early Scottish American Presbyterian minister and educator in British North America.
The fundamentalist–modernist controversy is a major schism that originated in the 1920s and 1930s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. At issue were foundational disputes about the role of Christianity; the authority of the Bible; and the death, resurrection, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Two broad factions within Protestantism emerged: fundamentalists, who insisted upon the timeless validity of each doctrine of Christian orthodoxy; and modernists, who advocated a conscious adaptation of the Christian faith in response to the new scientific discoveries and moral pressures of the age. At first, the schism was limited to Reformed churches and centered around the Princeton Theological Seminary, whose fundamentalist faculty members founded Westminster Theological Seminary when Princeton went in a liberal direction. However, it soon spread, affecting nearly every Protestant denomination in the United States. Denominations that were not initially affected, such as the Lutheran churches, eventually were embroiled in the controversy, leading to a schism in the United States.
Clarence Edward Noble McCartney was a prominent conservative Presbyterian pastor and author. With J. Gresham Machen, he was one of the main leaders of the conservatives during the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Samuel Finley was an Irish-born American Presbyterian minister and academic. He founded the West Nottingham Academy and was the fifth president and an original trustee of the College of New Jersey from 1761 until 1766.
James Waddel Alexander was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rev. Archibald Alexander.
John Thomson or Thompson was born in Ireland and became a minister in the Presbytery of Philadelphia, later the Synod of Philadelphia. He served as a missionary in both Virginia and North Carolina, where he died a natural death in 1753. He is buried in the cemetery of Centre Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Charles Rosenbury Erdman Sr. (1866-1960) was an American Presbyterian minister and professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The former Presbytery of New Brunswick is now part of the Coastlands Presbytery as of March 1, 2021
William Pierson Merrill (1867–1954) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, pacifist, author, and hymn writer. He was acknowledged during his time as one of the most influential ministers in America. He is probably best remembered as the author of several well-known hymns, including "Rise Up, O Men of God".
Presbyterianism has had a presence in the United States since colonial times and has exerted an important influence over broader American religion and culture.
The Old Scots Burying Ground is a historic cemetery located on Gordon's Corner Road in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 15, 2001, for its significance in history and religion. The Old Scots Burying Ground is about an acre in size, about 195 feet above sea level and dates back to 1685. The total number of burials at the cemetery is not precisely known, suggested by Symms, "There are a large number of graves in Old Scots yard without any inscribed stones". Some reports place the number as at least 100 known graves with most headstones of brown sandstone. However, more recent research using ground penetrating radar reported by the Old Tennent Church in 2001 has put the number of confirmed sites at about 122 graves with a possible 140 more unmarked; placing the number at about 262 total graves in the cemetery. In 1945, in an attempt to clean out the site of vegetation and over-growth, a bulldozer was used on the property and as a result some headstones were dislodged and broken stones removed. The defining structure in the cemetery is a tall monument to Rev. John Boyd, created by the J&R Lamb Company. Built to commemorate the first recorded Presbyterian ordination of Rev. John Boyd. The monument is currently owned by the Synod of the Northeast who holds the property deed but it is maintained by the Old Tennent Church. The last identified burial was in 1977.
Reverend John Boyd was a Presbyterian minister in the United States. He was ordained the first pastor of Old Scot's Church, by the First Presbytery, which met in America on December 29, 1706. He was the first Presbyterian minister ordained in America. The event was described by the Rev. Hugh McCauley as "the small beginning of the great stream of organized American Presbyterianism". He was also the first pastor of Old Scot's Church. He was considered important to the Presbyterian history and the Synod of the Northeast placed a 25 foot monument in his honor at the Old Scots Burying Ground in 1900. His monument was restored by the Synod of the Northeast in 2002 and the top Spiral on the monument was replaced at that time.
John Blair was a Presbyterian minister, a Trustee, Professor, and Acting President of Princeton University. His brother Samuel Blair was a leader of the Presbyterian New Light religious movement. His nephew, Samuel Blair was the second Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.
William Tennent III was a Presbyterian pastor and South Carolina politician. He was born and educated in northern Colonial America, but spent the latter part of his life in the southern state of South Carolina. He was a prominent advocate for the dis-establishment of any state religion. He is known for his opposition to British colonial policy, publishing patriotic essays in support of the revolution. He was selected to travel in 1775 into the "back county" of South Carolina to convert Loyalists to the cause. In the state assembly, he lobbied for religious liberty in the drafting of state constitutions.
New Brunswick, New Jersey. The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America meets in the Second Reformed Church of this city this year, on Wednesday, June 4, and a few notes concerning the business which is to come before it must be of very general interest. ... The First Presbyterian Church of this city is one of the oldest in the denomination (dating back nearly a century and a half) and one of the most prominent hereabouts, has recently elected deacons to a term of three years ...
presbyterian church, New Brunswick.
The Rev. Dr. J. Gresham Machen of Philadelphia, Fundamentalist leader, was found guilty here today by a special judicial commission of the Presbytery of New Brunswick of disobeying the higher authorities of the Presbyterian Church.
Historic First Presbyterian Church in the heart of this city's business district was wrecked by fire early this morning, with a loss tentatively estimated at more than $160,000.
Yorston is best remembered for his work in removing the 520 bodies from the New Brunswick Presbyterian Church's cemetery to Van Liew Cemetery to make way for new construction, for his around-the-clock service during the 1918 deadly influenza epidemic, and for his service in connection with the autopsy involving the infamous Hall-Mills murder in neighboring Franklin Township.
Chancellor Howard Crosby, D.D., LL. D., New York University, New York. Born in New York City, February 27, 1826. Graduated at the University of the City of New York, 1844; Professor of Greek in that institution in 1851; Professor of Greek in Rutgers College, New Jersey, in 1859; Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1861-62; pastor of Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, since 1863, and Chancellor of the University of New York since 1870.
The Rev. Dr. William White Knox, pastor emeritus of the First ... He has been pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church
After 33 years of service as pastor at the Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick, the Rev. Dr. Szabolcs S.G. Nagy will retire at the end of May.