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The histories of three of the churches, viz. Welsh Tract, Duck Creek or Brynsion, and Wilmington, will be related.

The Welsh Tract church is thus distinguished from a large tract of land of the same name, surrounding the place of worship in Pencader, county of New-Castle. The house is a neat brick building, 40 feet by 30; it was erected in 1746, and is situated 42 miles, in a southwestern direction from Philadelphia.

To come to the history of this church, we must cross the Atlantic and land in Wales, where it had its beginning in the following manner. "In the spring of the year 1701, several Baptists, in the counties of Pembroke and Caermarthen, resolved to go to America; and as one of the company, Thomas Griffith, was a minister, they were advised to be constituted a church; they took the advice; the instrument of their confederation was in being in 1770, but is now lost of mislaid; the names of the confederates follow: Thomas Griffith, Griffith Nicholas, Evan Edmond, John Edward, Elisha Thomas, Enoch Morgan, Richard David, James David, Elizabeth Griffith, Lewis Edmond, Mary John, Mary Thomas, Elizabeth Griffith, Tennet David, Margaret Mathias, Tennet Morris; these sixteen persons, which may be styled a church emigrant, met at Milfordhaven in the month of June, 1701, embarked on board the good ship William and Mary; and on the 8th of September following, landed at Philadelphia. The brethren there treated them courteously, and advised them to settle about Pennepek; thither they went, and there continued about a year and a half; during which time their church increased. from 16 to 37. But finding it inconvenient to tarry about Pennepek, they, in 1703, took up land in NewCastle county, from Messrs. Evans, Davis, and Willis, (who had purchased said Welsh Tract from William Penn, containing upwards of 30,000 acres) and thither removed the same year, and built a little meeting-house on the spot where the present stands."

This removal left some of their members near Pennepek, and took some of the Pennepek members to Welsh Tract, yet neither would commune with their neighbours, on account of a difference about laying-on-of-bands;

for the church of Pennepek had grown indifferent about the rite; but that at Welsh Tract deemed it a pre-requisite to the communion of saints. To remedy this inconvenience, the churches appointed deputies, to the number of twenty-four from both, to compromise matters as well as they could; who met for the purpose, June 22, 1706. The following history, translated from the Welsh Tract church-book, will give the reader a view of this whole transaction, and the happy termination of these disputes.

"We could not be in fellowship, at the Lord's Table, with our brethren in Pennepek and Philadelphia, be cause they did not hold to the laying-on-of-hands, and some other particulars* relating to a church: true, some of them believed in the ordinance, but neither preached it up, nor practised it; and when we moved to Welsh Tract, and left twenty-two of our members at Pennepek, and took some of their members down with us, the difficulty increased: we had many meetings in or der to compromise matters, but to no purpose till June 22, 1706: then the deputies, who had been appointed for the purpose, met at the house of brother Richard Miles, in Radnor, and agreed, that a member in either church might transiently commune with the other; that a member who desired to come under the laying-onof-bands, might have his liberty without offence; that the votaries of the right might preach or debate upon the subject with all freedom, consistent with brotherly love. But three years after this meeting, we had reason to review this transaction, because of some brethren, who arrived from Wales, and one, among ourselves, who questions whether the first article was warrantable. But we are satisfied that all was right, by the good effects which followed; for from that time forth, our brethren held sweet communion together at the Lord's Table; and our ministert was invited to preach and assist at an ordination at Pennepek, after the death of our brother Watts. He proceeded from thence to the Jersey, where he enlightened many in the good ways of the

* Some of those particulars are said to have been church covenants, ruling elders, &c. †Thomas Griffith.

Lord, insomuch that in three years after, all the ministers, and about fifty-five private members had submitted to the ordinance."

The Welsh Tract church was the principal, if not the sole means of introducing singing, imposition of hands, church covenants, &c. among the Baptists in the middle States. The Century Confession was in America, before the year 1716, but without the articles which relate to these subjects; that year they were inserted by Rev. Abel Morgan, who translated the confession to Welsh, about which time it was signed by one hundred twentytwo members of this church. These articles were inserted in the next English edition, and adopted with the other articles by the Philadelphia Association in 1742.

The pulpit of this church was filled by great and good men of Welsh extraction, for about 70 years.

The first minister was Thomas Griffith, who emigrated with the church. All we can learn of him, is, that he was born in Lauvernach parish, in the county of Pembroke, in 1645, and after faithfully serving this church twenty-four years, died at Pennepek, July 25, 1725.

Mr. Griffith was succeeded by Elisha Thomas, who was born in the county of Caermarthen, in 1674. He emigrated from Wales with the church whereof he was one of the first members, and died, November 7, 1730, (and was buried in this church-yard, where a handsome tomb is erected to his memory: the top-stone is divided into several compartments, wherein open books are raised, with inscriptions and poetry both in Welsh and English.

Mr. Thomas's successor was Enoch Morgan. He was brother to Abel Morgan, author of the Welsh Concordance. Their father was Morgan Ryddarch, a famous Baptist minister in Wales; but it was a common thing, in that country, for the children to take the personal name of their father instead of the sirname, only joining to it the names of their progenitors, by a string of aps.* Mr. Morgan was born in 1676, at a place called Allt gach, in the parish of Lanwenrog, in the county of Car

I remember, says Morgan father's with the following title zvard, ap Davydd, ap Evan.

Edwards, to have seen a Bible of my grandpage; Fiddo Edwards ap William, ap EdMS Hist of the Baptists in Delaware, p. 241.

digan. He arrived in America with the Welsh Tract church, whereof he was one of the constituents; he took on him the care of the church at Mr. Thomas's decease, and died in 1740, and was buried in this grave-yard, where a tomb is erected to his memory.

The next pastor of this church was Owen Thomas. He was born in 1676, at a place called Gwrgodllys, in Cilmanllwyd, and county of Pembroke. He came to

America in 1707; took the pastoral care of the church at Mr. Morgan's death, in which office he continued until 1748, when he resigned it, to go to Yellow Springs, where he died, November 12, 1760. Mr. Thomas left behind him the following remarkable note; "I have been called upon three times to anoint the sick with oil for recovery; the effect was surprising in every case, but in none more so, than in the case of our brother Rynallt Howel: he was so sore with the bruises which he received by a cask falling on him from a waggon, that he could not bear to be turned in bed: the next day he went to meeting."

The next in office here was David Davis. He was born in the parish of Whitechurch, and county of Pembroke, in the year 1708, and came to America when a child, in 1710; was ordained in this church in 1734, at which time he became its pastor; he continued in this office 35 years, viz. until 1769, when he died. He was an excellent man, and is held dear in remembrance by all who knew him. Two of his sons were preachers. Jonathan was a seventh-day Baptist, and John was some time pastor of the 2d Baptist church in Boston, Mass.

Thus it appears, that hitherto the pastors of this church were all Welshmen. Those who have succeeded were native Americans, and the first was John Sutton, whose biography may be found in the history of the Emancipating Baptists, in Kentucky. He took on him the oversight of this church in 1770, and resigned it in 1777, to go to Virginia.

The next to him was John Boggs, who was ordained to the pastoral office here in 1781. He was born in East-Nottingham, in 1741; was bred a Presbyterian, but embraced the Baptist sentiments in 1771. He died at Welsh Tract, of a paralytick stroke, in 1802, and was

succeeded by Gideon Ferrell, the present pastor. Mr. Ferrell is a native of Maryland, and was born in Talbot county, in 1763. He was bred a Quaker, but was baptized by Philip Hughes, in 1770. As Mr. Boggs, his predecessor, was much inclined to itinerate in the surrounding country, for which employment he was well qualified, Mr. Ferrell had preached for the church once a month, and sometimes oftener, for the space of about seven years, before he was invested with the pastoral care of it.

The Welsh Tract church is very handsomely endowed; for after all the casualties which have befallen its temporalities, it has about thirteen hundred and thirty dollars in funds, at interest, and a lot of six acres, on which the meeting-house stands, and a plantation, the bequest of Hugh Morris, on which its pastor resides.

This church is the oldest in the State, and has now existed upwards of 100 years. It has been the mother of the Welsh Neck church in South-Carolina, the London Tract, the Duck Creek or Brynsion, and, in some measure, of Wilmington, Cowmarsh, and Mispillion, and was one of the five churches which formed the Phila delphia Association, in 1707.

DUCK CREEK OR BRYNSION.

THIS church, which was formerly distinguished by the first name, but now altogether by the latter, is situated about 70 miles to the south-west of Philadelphia. The meeting-house was built of brick in 1771, on a lot of one acre, the gift of John and Philemon Dickinson.

The tract of land which was called Duck Creek Hundred, was settled in the year 1733, by a number of Welsh families, some of the Independent and some of the Baptist denominations. The Independents built a meeting-house on the lot where the Baptist house now stands, and called it Brynsion, viz. Mount-Sion. They had divine service performed in it by Presbyterian ministers, viz. Rev. Messrs. Thomas Evans, Rees Lewis, David Jenison, &c. But in process of time this Independent society dwindled away, partly by deaths, and partly by emigrations; and the Baptists made use of

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