Gloucester County NJ Archives Church Records.....Old Trinity Church
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Old Trinity Church*
At Swedesboro, N. J.

* By REV. EDGAR CAMPBELL.

    The history of the earliest settlements in Gloucester County is one of those
things which has been forever lost. It naturally has to do with the coming of
the Swedes, in 1634, and with the settlement on Tinicum Island which lies in the
Delaware just off the western end of the county. With the fertile uplands of the
county so close at hand it seems unreasonable to suppose that the Swedes would
have failed to recognize the wonderful agricultural possibilities of the sandy
loam which lay so near to the Governor's headquarters. The first actual
knowledge of them, however, is concerned with the arrival of the good ship Kent
with the commissioners, John Eldridge and Edmund Warner, to settle the dispute
between Edward Byllinge and John Fenwick. In August, 1676, they arrived at New
Castle, Delaware, later moving up the Delaware, and finally landing the
passengers at the mouth of Raccoon Creek, where the Swedes had a settlement
years before, only to be abandoned as they moved inland to the permanent
occupation of the land which is now Swedesboro and Repaupo. Among the passengers
on board was William White, a cordwainer, who purchased the land where
Swedesboro now stands. He bequeathed the same to his son, John White, who later
sold it to John Hugg, Jr., of Gloucester River, sometime High Sheriff and later
Chief Justice of Gloucester County. By him the tract was sold to Trinity Church,
which has been in possession of it since the first day of September, 1703.

    The history of the neighborhood naturally centers around the old church. The
deed recites the fact that the church was "late erected" and the original
survey, which, with the original deed, is in the possession of the Church
Corporation, shows the church in place "in the middle of the tract of twenty
acres, facing the creek." There is no record of Indian occupancy, but when one
studies the geology of the neighborhood and finds evidence that a large fresh
water lake, lying directly north of the town, was in existence at the time the
King's Highway was laid out in 1765, for this famous road just skirted the
eastern bank, and that at the sandy head of this lake, with a wonderfully easy
portage from the creek, are to be found many arrowheads and Indian utensils, it
is easy to surmise that there must have been a large permanent settlement of the
red men there. What more natural that they should select the slope at the head
of tide water, where two creeks join, for a burying place, and that the Swedes
when they laid their dead away should have come to the same place, and then
later when they came to erect their church should have asked for this hallowed
spot. At any rate the church was erected there and from that time, whether
before 1700 or afterwards, the history of the community centers for the greater
part in the history of the church.

    The first church was of logs, but by the time of the Revolution, about 75
years later, this was fast going to ruin, yet around it must have clustered the
same hallowed memories that we put around all rural churches. Here they came for
services, to listen to the celebrated men sent from Sweden, among whom was Peter
Kalm, who named our mountain laurel and in whose honor it still carries the
Latin name, Kalmia. Here they brought children to be baptized; the lovers came
to be married, and here they sadly laid away their dead. English and Swedes
lived side by side, the Swedish gradually mingling with the English, until 1765,
when the English became dominant and they wrote their records in that language.

    Church yards everywhere tell us much of history. In the old yard of Trinity
Church there are very few old stones. One is forcibly reminded of the words of
Irving, to be found in Rip Van Winkle. On his return from the mountain, Rip came
to the village tavern and asked, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" "There was silence
for a little while, when an old man replied in a thin, piping voice, 'Nicholas
Vedder? Why he is dead and gone these eighteen years. There was a wooden
tombstone in the churchyard that used to tell about him, but that's rotten and
gone too.' " It must have been so here. Occasionally one finds a stone that he
feels is very old, but for the most part the markers are gone. There is a stone
to the memory of Jonas Jones, who died 1721; one for Eli Vanneman, 1722, and
then there are others until we come to Joseph Applin, 1740, a beautifully carved
stone, similar to those found in English churchyards of that period, and which
was most likely brought from England.

    What heroes of the Colonial wars lie buried may not be known. Of the
Revolution few names can be of a certainty recognized. Colonel Robert Brown, of
course, for he was the storekeeper, money lender, and factotum of the community.
Then there was Colonel Bodo Otto, who was also a physician, whose father was
Washington's surgeon general at Valley Forge. Of him there is an interesting
paper in the vaults of the church, namely a receipt for medical attendance on
William Matson, which was signed April 19, 1775, the very day the battle of
Lexington was fought. Captain John Daniels and Colonel Heston are also buried
here, and Hester, wife of Captain Samuel Williams. Of privates there is no
record whatsoever. They must have numbered twenty to one, compared to the
officers, so that we very likely have fifty of them, most of whom are in
unmarked graves.

    Interesting is the story told of the time when Cornwallis marched by, and
who knows but the Quaker poet may have visited the community and there found the
germ of the poem of Barbara Frietsche. The old folks told of how in marching by
the general saw a clergyman officiating at a funeral, who from his vestments
resembled an English clergyman. He gave orders that the Church was not to be
molested and it was left in peace. A seeming fairy tale! But we have the grave
of Hester, wife of Captain Samuel Williams, who died Oct. 16, 1777, just three
days before Cornwallis marched by, and there may be truth rather than fiction in
the story.

    The British did not always leave the community in peace. A record in the
minute book of the Vestry under the date of 1778 is as follows:

  "The usual vestry meeting on the 3d day of Easter could not be observed,
because of the general distraction produced by the war. Militia and Continental
troops on one side, and refugees with British on the other were frequently
skirmishing, and both almost equally distressing the country. Plundering,
marauding, imprisoning, and burning houses, with other horrid excesses, were
frequent from the beginning of spring til July, when the British army evacuated
Philadelphia. In the morning of Easter-Sunday, a man who had traded with the
British was tied to a pine near the burying ground, and cruelly whipped. He died
after a short time. On the 4th day of April, some hundred of English Marines and
refugees came to Swedesborough early in the morning to surprise the militia.
Being disappointed they burnt the Schoolhouse, alleging for a reason that some
loyal subjects had been imprisoned therein some weeks before"

    The present church was built in 1784, and there is preserved in the vestry
room the original subscription book with the names of all the contributors to
the fund for its erection, and a reading of the names is like a census of the
community. The list of expenditures is also given and shows that the total cost
of the church was £1310 and 8 shillings. The church as lit stands to-day is
practically unchanged. There have been some alterations in the interior, but the
exterior is exactly as it was when the Swedes and English left it as completed.

    It is interesting to know that Mr. Isaac Vanneman, grandson of the master
mason who built the church, Isaac Van Neaman (Vanneman), is still living in
Swedesboro.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

NOTES ON
Old Gloucester County
NEW JERSEY

HISTORICAL RECORDS PUBLISHED BY
THE NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA

VOLUME I

   Compiled and Edited by
FRANK H. STEWART
HISTORIAN OF THE SOCIETY
1917


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