Crossing the Middle River: Nuts and Bolts—Weeks Six and Seven ...

The last couple of weeks Barrie and I have been visiting the churches the Rev. John Thomson served between 1717 and 1750 prior to coming to North Carolina. It is remarkable to me that his ministry took him so many places. In addition to the four churches he served as pastor, there are occasional references to other places he preached for brief times. Thomson arrived in Philadelphia in 1715 from County Down, Northern Ireland. He was licensed to preach by the Synod of Ulster. Everything was an uphill battle since Presbyterians where not recognized in the British colonies. However, in the areas of William Penn’s experiment of religious toleration, Scots-Irish Presbyterians found a home. In the late 1600’s, Penn was the proprietor of much of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The Quaker region attracted Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews. In that seedbed of toleration, Samuel Davis founded a congregation in Lewes, Delaware in 1692 and preached there frequently. From 1717 to 1729, Thomson served as the first regular minister of the congregation. Today the congregation is vibrant and active, having completed an addition to the educational building and a major restoration of its historic sanctuary this year. It was good to see Dr. Buz Hughes, the current pastor, who was doing doctoral work at Union Theological Seminary when Barrie was a student there. Buz showed me a photograph taken in 1870 of the brick sanctuary built for Thomson in 1727. The building was taken down in 1871. From Delaware, Thomson went to Quarryville, Pennsylvania. Quarryville is in Lancaster County, better known for its large Amish and Mennonite population. Beginning in 1730, Thomson was the pastor of Middle Octorara and Chestnut Level Churches. Some records mention Fishing Creek, which developed a school but not a congregation. In 1732, the Presbytery relieved Thomson of responsibilities at Middle Octorara. When we were taking the tour with Pastor Doug Hileman, he stopped at a glass case, opened it up, and handed me several pieces of old silver which he said may be old enough to have been used by John Thomson. The baptismal bowl is strikingly similar to a bowl in the history room at Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church at least suggesting that both pieces may have been connected to Thomson. Thomson continued as pastor of Chestnut Level Church until 1744. During that time the church was a log structure located near the old cemetery.

The Reformed Presbyterian and covenanter

The history of the Morison or Morrison family, with most of the "Traditions of the Morrisons" (clan MacGillemhuire), hereditary judges of Lewis, by Capt. F. W. L. Thomas, of Scotland, and a record of the descendants of the hereditary judges to 1880. A complete history of the Morison settlers of Londonderry, N.H., of 1719, and their descendants, with genealogical sketches. Also, of the Brentwood, Nottingham, and Sanbornton, N.H. Morisons, and branches of the Morisons who settled in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Nova Scotia, and descendants of the Morisons of Preston Grange, Scotland, and other families

Daughters of the American Revolution magazine

History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches

Notes and queries, historical, biographical and genealogical, relating chiefly to interior Pennsylvania