Monmouth's Presbyterians Lose Two Ministers in a Week, Then Gain One

Historians of the American Revolution have noted that, among all Protestant denominations, Presbyterians lined up the most solidly behind the Revolution. In the Revolutionary Era, Monmouth County had Presbyterian meeting houses at Penelopan (present day Manalapan), Mt. Pleasant (west of Middletown), Allentown, and Good Luck (north of Toms River). The Penelopan and Mt. Pleasant meetings were ministered by William Tennent and Chales McKnight respectively. The smaller Allentown meeting shared a minister, George Faitoute, with meetings in Burlington and Nottingham (in Burlington County). The Good Luck meeting did not have a minister.

The strong pro-Revolutionary tilt of Presbyterians was not lost on Loyalists. During Upper Freehold’s Loyalist insurrection, William Imlay was “publicly damned… [as] an 'old Presbyterian', saying he was the cause of all the bloodshed.” The British Army, no doubt, guided by local Loyalists, singled out the Allentown meeting house to use as its stable when it occupied Allentown in the days prior to the Battle of the Monmouth.

The Death of Monmouth County’s Presbyterian Ministers

By 1777, a clique of ascending Presbyterian county leaders—David Forman, Nathaniel Scudder, Thomas Henderson, etc.—faithfully attended the Tennent Church in Penelopan (now Manalapan). That church, more than any other, would be the focal point of local political power for the rest of the war. William Tennent was the minister of the Tennent Church. He was the son of Gilbert Tennent, the famous Great Awakening preacher. As the elder minister of the zealously Whig congregation, Tennent was among the county’s most important residents as the Revolution started.

But Tennent’s health was failing. The Minutes of the New York and Philadelphia Presbytery would soon record: "The Rev. Mr. William Tennent departed this life March 8, 1777." Tennent had been declining for some time, and was reportedly unconscious for a week before expiring. Within days of Tennent’s death, Loyalist raiders burned the Presbyterian meeting house at Mt. Pleasant. They captured Reverend Charles McKnight. In a week, the county lost both of its Presbyterian ministers.

McKnight had made himself a target for Loyalists with his strongly anti-British sermons. William Sands testified that in October 1776 McKnight was one of three Revolutionary leaders targeted for capture by Samuel Wright’s Loyalist association. He was “to be conveyed to Staten Island, where they [the Loyalists] were to receive forty dollars each for each prisoner taken.” When captured in March, he was put on a prison ship with common prisoners and not permitted the “parole” status granted to other gentleman prisoners. McKnight was fatally ill by December 1777, when he was released home. The New York and Philadelphia Presbytery would note "that the Rev. Mr. Charles McKnight departed this life January last.”

John Woodhull Arrives in Monmouth County

Monmouth County would be without a Presbyterian minister from March 1777 until the end of that year. At that time, Reverend John Woodhull, a native of Pennsylvania and Continental Army veteran, arrived as the new minister of the Tennent Church. It might not be a coincidence that the middle months of 1777—between Tennent’s death and Woodhull’s arrival—was the same period of time in which General David Forman’s conduct lurched toward lawless. Forman lacked an ethical check from a professional minister.

While Woodhull arrived too late to check David Forman’s excesses, he would soon prove an energetic and patriotic minister. He became the local loan officer for the Continental government, helping to raise money for the troops. In 1779, the Tennent Church offered communion to 82 people including fifteen slaves and two free African Americans. Reverend Woodhull led instruction at the Mattisonia School at Freehold, Monmouth County’s first school.

Woodhull’s rising standing is demonstrated by him being sent a divinity student, Joseph Clark of Elizabethtown, in 1781. Clark fondly recalled his time studying under Woodhull:

The principal part of his theological instructions he received from that venerable father of the church, and distinguished teacher of divinity, the Reverend Doctor John Woodhull... with whom Mr. Clark resided some time, prosecuting his preparatory studies for the ministry and improving himself by assisting his Reverend preceptor in the instruction of the highly respectable grammar school which he [Woodhull] had established and was superintending at the place of his residence.

Woodhull was recognized by the New York and Freehold Presbytery as an “elder” in 1782. He was only thirty-one years old. However, it should be noted that the other Monmouth Countian bestowed that title in 1782 was Kenneth Hankinson, a militia officer associated with several scandals; he would soon lead the vigilante group, the Retaliators. The willingness of Presbyterian leaders to look past unethical conduct, if it was pro-Revolution, was evident in Revolutionary New Jersey.

As for Joseph Clark, he became Reverend Joseph Clark at the end of 1783. He recorded that he "took charge as the Presbyterian congregation at Allentown.” This congregation, expanded by new members fleeing inland to escape Loyalist raiders, was finally large and wealthy enough to support its own minister. It is unclear when the Mt. Pleasant congregation received a minister again, but it was not during the war. If a minister had been assigned to the congregation during the war, he likely would have suffered the same fate as Reverend McKnight.

Caption: Reverend John Woodhull came to Monmouth County in late 1777 as the county’s sole Presbyterian Minister. He replaced two ministers, Wiliam Tennent and Charles McKnight.

Related Historic Sites: Old Tennent Church

Sources: William Imlay, Deposition, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War Documents, #29; Records of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1788) p477; Benson Lossing, The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution (New York: Harper Brothers, 1860) vol. 2, p 368; John Fabiano, Allen's Town, New Jersey: Crossroads of the American Revolution, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Allentown Historical Society, p 51-2, 54; Allentown Messenger, Nov. 16, 1905; Records of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1788) p480; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Council of Safety, Deposition of William Sands; Monmouth County Historical Association, Collections Alphabetical, John Woodhull Pape; Symmes, History of Old Tennent Church (Cranbury, NJ: George Burroughs, 1904) p 183-4; Records of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1788) p487, 492; Memoirs of the Reverend Robert Finley… with Brief Sketches of Some of His Contemporaries (New Brunswick: Terhune & Letson, 1819) p214; Diary of Joseph Clark in Proceedings of the NJ Historical Society, 1853-55, vol. 7, pp 93.