Morris County NJ Archives Biographies.....James STEVENSON, 1762 - 1843
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 10, 2008, 12:11 am

Author: Mary Depue Ogden, Editor  (1917)

STEVENSON, James,
Educator, Litterateur.

  On August 7, 1764, a tract of twenty-five thousand acres of land situated at
what is now Salem, Washington county, New York, was granted Alexander Turner and
twenty-four others residing in Pelham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and these
proprietors conveyed an undivided half to Oliver Delancy and Peter Dubois, of
New York City. The whole tract of twenty-five thousand acres was marked off into
three hundred and four small farms of eighty-eight acres each, suitable to the
requirements of a Scotch-Irish farming colony.

  The "New Light heresies" which in the middle of the eighteenth century sowed
dissensions in the Presbyterian churches in Scotland and Ireland caused an Irish
Presbyterian community in and about Monaghan and Ballibay to petition the
Associate Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow, Scotland, to furnish them with orthodox
preaching. Rev. Thomas Clark, M. D., an ordained minister of this Glasgow
Presbytery, was thereupon sent "as a missionary to Ireland," and shortly after
was regularly ordained and installed by a committee of the Glasgow Presbytery
over the church at Ballibay, where he became greatly honored and beloved for his
piety and zeal. Bitter persecution, however, instigated by prominent members of
the rival Presbyterian church in Ballibay induced Dr. Clark and a large portion
of his flock to seek a new home in the wilds of America. Dr. Clark and his
parishioners sailed for New York from Neury, Ireland, May 10, 1764, arriving
there July 28, 1764. The unique feature of this interesting emigration is the
fact that the entire church organization was transferred from Ireland to
America. An Irish Presbyterian church with a Scotch pastor affiliated
ecclesiastically with a Scotch Presbyterian Assembly was thus transferred to
America in a body. As stated in the "Salem Book," there were none of the
formalities of organizing a church. No admission of members or election of
trustees. The company was already a perfectly organized religious society with
its pastor, its elders, its members, all regularly constituted. Dr. Clark had
never resigned nor had the Presbytery released him from his pastoral charge over
these people. We doubt if any other religious society has been transferred from
the Old to the New World in a manner so regular and orderly and with so little
to vitiate its title to a continuous identity." Dr. Clark searched for a
suitable place on which he and his people could establish their church and their
homes, and after much investigation and travel he secured on September 13, 1765,
from Delancy and Dubois their undivided share of the twenty-five thousand acre
tract, which already had been sub-divided into farms as above stated. The result
of acquiring rights to the allotment of farms distributed throughout a large
tract, instead of acquiring the whole of a tract which the colonists could
divide among themselves, was that the Scotch-Irish and Scotch colony under Dr.
Clark were intermingled over a wide territory with a New England colony who
divided among themselves the farms which represented the half of the tract which
Dr. Clark did not purchase. Dr. Clark and his people were under obligation after
five years to pay a rent of one shilling per acre, and hence they no doubt
urgently invited their coreligionists from Scotland as well as from Ireland to
join them, and within ten years from the original settlement a very substantial
addition to the colony was made by emigrants from the part of Scotland from
which Dr. Clark had come. Dr. Clark named the settlement New Perth, while the
New England settlers called it White Creek. On March 2, 1774, the Legislature of
New York combined both tracts into the township of New Perth thus establishing a
legal name, which remained until March 7, 1788, when in dividing the whole State
into counties and towns, the name New Perth was changed to Salem, located in
Washington county, New York. This was the objective point to which the
passengers of the brig, "Commerce," were bent on April 20, 1774, when James
Stevenson and his family left Scotland for the New World.

  (II) James (2), son of James (1) Stevenson, a shawl weaver of Scotland, was
the founder of this family in America. He was born in the home of his parents on
the bank of the Bonnie Doon in Ayrshire, Scotland, about the year 1747. When a
young man he removed to Paisley, where he learned the trade of silk and linen
weaver. He joined the Scotch Presbyterian church in Paisley, at that time haying
as its pastor the distinguished divine, John Witherspoon. While a citizen of
Paisley he married Margaret, daughter of David Brown, of Stewartson, Scotland,
and while residents of Paisley three children—James, Jane and John—were born.
The family embarked at Greenock, Scotland, April 20, 1774, in the brig,
"Commerce," with several other families, their destination being the Scotch
settlement at New Perth in the State of New York. He had allotted to him a farm
located two miles east of the present village of Salem, Washington county,
whereon he settled and lived during the remainder of his life. In 1896 this farm
was owned by two of his grandsons, Thomas S. and Robert M., sons of Thomas and
Agnes (McMurray) Stevenson. The first election held in the town of New Perth,
now Salem, was on September 8, 1774, and James Stevenson voted at that election.
Soon after the American Revolution had assumed a definite purpose, he
volunteered for military service in the New Perth Company, commanded by Captain
Alexander McNitt. Upon his arrival James Stevenson became a member of the church
of Dr. Thomas Clark and was afterward one of its ruling elders. When Dr. Clark
severed his relations with the congregation in 1782, Mr. Stevenson went on
horseback through the almost unbroken wilderness from Salem, New York, to
Pequea, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to endeavor to persuade the Rev. James
Proudfit to become pastor of the church at Salem as successor to Dr. Clark, who
had resigned to join another Scotch settlement in South Carolina as their
pastor. In this mission he was entirely successful and Dr. Proudfit became the
second pastor of the Scotch church in Salem. Mr. Stevenson brought with him from
Paisley, Scotland, a large library of excellent books, and a quantity of fine
linen, the product of the industry of his family, and these heirlooms are highly
prized by his descendants.

  Children of James and Margaret (Brown) Stevenson: 1. James, see forward.   2.
Jane, born in Scotland; married George Telford and settled in Argyle, New York.
3. John, born in Scotland; married Katherine McLeod and settled in Howard,
Steuben county, New York, where he died in 1863. 4. David, born in Salem, New
York, died there unmarried. 5. Thomas, born in Salem; married (first) Agnes,
daughter of John McMurray; married (second) Mary, daughter of Joshua Steele; his
children were: Thomas S., Robert M. and James B.; Thomas Stevenson lived on the
homestead; was an elder in the church at Salem for nearly half a century; died
in Salem, 1854, aged seventy-five years. James Stevenson, father of these
children, died in Salem, New York, April 19, 1799, and his widow died the
following year.

  (III) James (3), eldest child of James (2) and Margaret (Brown) Stevenson, was
born in Paisley, Scotland, January 8, 1762. He came with his parents, sister
Jane and brother John to America in 1774. He was prepared for college by his
father, and then entered the Hackensack Classical Academy, conducted by Dr.
Peter Wilson, afterwards of Columbia College, and was graduated at Queen's now
Rutgers College, Bachelor of Arts, 1789. He was principal of the academy at
Morristown, New Jersey, the Rutgers grammar school, and in 1811 was appointed
principal of the Washington Academy, Salem, New York, in which institution he
proved himself one of the ablest classical teachers in the country. Among his
pupils, several of whom have written eulogistically of his character, his
attainments and his extraordinary skill and capacity as an instructor, were Dr.
Philip Lindsay, vice-president of Princeton and president of Nashville,
Tennessee, University, Professor Henry Mills, of Auburn Theological Seminary,
Samuel L. Southard, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Rev. Jacob Kirkpatrick and Rev. Dr.
George W. Bethune.

That eminent scholar, Dr. Taylor Lewis, professor in Union College, who was a
pupil for two years in the Salem Academy, in some reminiscences which he writes
of his beloved instructor, says: "He stands in my remembrance as the best model
that I ever knew of the most honorable and dignified profession, the
schoolmaster's. Some of the thoughts respecting him come to my mind when I read
Dr. Arnold, the best example of a teacher that England ever produced." James
Stevenson was a trustee of Washington Academy, incorporated February 18, 1791,
the fourth academy incorporated in the State of New York and the first free
academy established in the State outside of New York City. He contributed to the
newspapers and magazines of the time devoted to educational and religious subjects.

  James Stevenson married Hannah, daughter of Richard Johnson, of Morris county,
New Jersey. Children: James, Sarah, Martha, Richard, Paul Eugene, Anna Louisa.
James Stevenson, father of these children, died October 9, 1843, in the
eighty-second year of his age.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN

VOLUME III
MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK,  NEW JERSEY
1917


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