Union County NJ Archives Biographies.....Isaac MARTIN, 1758 - 1828 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 9, 2008, 8:04 pm Author: Mary Depue Ogden, Editor (1917) MARTIN, Isaac, Quaker Preacher. Among those earnest itinerant preachers called Quakers who in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries traveled the highways and byways of New Jersey was Isaac Martin. The journal of his "Life, Travels, Labors and Religious Exercises" was published at Philadelphia in 1834. The published journals of the old-time Quaker preachers are as a rule noteworthy for good English. Written with no desire to draw the praise of men or to conform to the canons of "polite literature," they reveal at least a taste for the elegance of simplicity. John Woolman's journal was formerly used to instruct in good English the students of Princeton. Doubtless Woolman, had he lived to know this fact, would have sat long for light before he could decide whether or not such use of his testimony was according to the leadings of truth. It may be said also of the journals of the Friends that though they were not compiled for human or historical interest, yet the thoughtful reader finds much of human interest in them, and the delver after original sources discovers much of historical value. Occasionally some historical incident is thrown into the narratives standing out the clearer for being set in the language employed. Isaac Martin dwelt at Rahway, which even as late as 1834 (as may be seen on the title page of the book) was designated as being in East Jersey. From Rahway he went forth from time to time on his preaching tours, visiting many localities in New Jersey and sometimes going to New England and to the Southern States. Isaac Martin was born in New York City, January 16, 1758. His father, Isaac, was a Friend. Martin became apprenticed to a hatter, and learned that trade. Like John Woolman, he believed that only "plain hats" should be worn. During the Revolutionary War he left the city and dwelt for a time with a relative. On April 12, 1780, he married Elizabeth Delaplaine, of New York. He moved to Rahway in September, 1784. He signed his name to a little treatise on "Silent Worship" on September 27, 1819, with the address Bridgetown, Rahway, East New Jersey. He died August 9, 1828. Princeton Theological Seminary last year celebrated its centennial anniversary. There were exercises, addresses and congratulations. Tribute was paid the institution for its work for the cause of religion. The Friend preacher, Isaac Martin, had visited Princeton during November, 1817. His thoughtful eye caught sight of the then new seminary building, and he was led to comment in his journal upon its use and purpose. "At this place," he said, "they have lately erected a large building called Theological Hall, intended to prepare young men for preaching." It seemed to the earnest Quaker like a relic of medieval darkness which he thought "in the Lord's time will be scattered by the arising of pure, evangelical light, which only can qualify sons and daughters to preach the plain doctrines of Christianity." "There is no need," continued Martin, "of learning Latin, Greek and Hebrew in order to enable preachers to address the people in a manner adapted to their understandings." That solid old Princeton Seminary should once have seemed an innovation and dangerous to evangelical piety may seem odd to modern readers, but if history teaches anything it teaches that all new movements are subject to honest doubt. J. F. F. 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 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/njfiles/ File size: 4.2 Kb This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nj/union/bios/martin-i.txt