cence, and put them above the world by exercising that ability towards them which God has blessed you with, which, if you do, God will gather you, in his good time, to your honest and worthy progenitors. I have a quick sense of your filial favors, and you may be assured, dear son, that I am your most obliged and affectionate father.

'GEORGE Ross.

George Ross, Rector (as he is styled in his presentation) of the Church in New Castle, was second son that came to man's estate of David Ross, of Balblair, a gentleman of moderate fortune but of great integrity, born in the north of Scotland, in the Shire of Ross, in the Parish of Fern [near the town of Tain], about four or five miles [from that part of] the shire between two friths, the one the Frith of Murray, the other the Frith of Dornoch. The land lying between the two friths terminates in a noted point called Tarbat-Ness.*

He was put to school very early, and made some progress in the Latin tongue under the care of the school-master [in Tain], and being of a promising genius, his father asked him, as they were going to a farm a little distance from home, "What he would be ?" to which be answered, "A scholar." Young as he was, credo inspiratione. “A scholar you shall be," replied his father.

When he was about fourteen years of age, his eldest brother, Andrew, requested his father to send him to him to Edinburgh. Accordingly he was sent, but for the first twelve months little to his advantage, for instead of advancing him in his learning, he made him attend his office, and write from morning till night,-often without his dinner, to his great disappointment; not through want of affection to his brother, but hurry of business and much company. His father, being informed of this low or no education, ordered him to be put to school and fitted for the University, Andrew lost his slave, and George was once more put in the way of being a scholar.

He took his degree of Master of Arts, in Edinburgh, in 1700. With this feather in his cap he returned home, and became tutor to the Lord of May, his son, for which [tutorship] he was allowed ten pounds sterling per annum,-great wages in that part of the world, and at that time of day.t

[Having some] cash of his own, and somewhat anxious to see Edinburgh again, and taking [leave of his father] the [last time he ever saw him], not without some coolness on the son's side, for that the father did not add weight enough to his blessing, as the son expected,—and even at that time he was not without the thought of foreign countries, -I say, taking leave of his father, he proceeded on his journey to Edinburgh, and there entered his name among the students of divinity, worthy Mr. Meldrum being the professor. There was great hope of seeing worthy Mr. George mount the Presbyterian pulpit, but, alas! the closer he applied himself to reading, the stronger his aversion grew to the party then uppermost in Scotland. He observed the leading men

*Ness, a termination common in Scandinavian geographical names, and signifying promontory. See page 65.

† See page 66.

of that side to be sour, censorious, and hypocritical. He could not digest the ministers' odd gestures, grimaces, dry mouths, and screwed faces in their pulpits. He could not comply with their practices even to save him from want of bread. Their "horrible decretum (as Calvin, the author of it, calls it) of reprobation" gave him a surfeit of their principles, and as to their church-government, he was satisfied, it was a spurious brat (the genuine product of Core's rebellion) of proud presbyters [revolting] against their lawful bishops. While he passed among the students for an orthodox brother, he was diligently informing himself of the principles of the Church of England, which [he] approved of so well that he was resolved, as soon as he could find encouragement, to set out for England. Mr. Æneas McKenzie, chaplain to the Earl of Cromarty, Secretary of State for Scotland, was then at London, to whom he wrote on this subject. Mr. McKenzie, [being of the] same way of thinking, [answered that] he might depend upon [being provided for during the] war, "the least," says he, "you can expect." Mr. McKenzie's letter he communicated to his brother, who, upon mature deliberation with some of the leading men of the Episcopal party in Scotland, procured him a bill of exchange for £18 11s. 9d. sterling. Thus strengthened and provided, and honored with a recommendation from the Bishop of Edinburgh, then ousted by the revolution, he bid adieu to his native country (after suffering much in the flesh by college diet among a set of canting Pharisees), and went to London by sea; and, upon his safe arrival, waited on the Bishop of London, who received him very kindly, and ordered him to attend the next ordination, at which he and his friend McKenzie, with several other candidates, were put in deacon's orders. This happened nine days after his arrival at London, which proved no small mortification to the [dominant] party at Edinburgh, and triumph to those of the contrary party.

He was soon promoted to a chaplaincy of eighty pounds sterling [per annum] on board a man-of-war. But the captain being a haughty fellow, he soon grew sick of that station, and resolved to quit it as soon as he could be otherwise provided for. Returning to London, he found his friend McKenzie making application to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, then newly incorporated, for a mission. He was easily prevailed [upon] to join with him in so commendable a design. Upon the Society's being satisfied, after full trial of their character and abilities, they were both admitted missionaries: McKenzie for Slaten, in Ireland, and Ross for New Castle, who arrived there in 1703 [and continued], save for a few years, when he removed for his health's sake, till this time, being in his seventy-third year. How he behaved is known from the constant regard [of the Society for him]. GEORGE ROSs.

New Castle, to which Mr. Ross was appointed a missionary of the Church of England, has borne more names than any other town in the United States. It was called Sandhoec," ""New Amstel," and "Fort Kasimer," by the Dutch; "Grape Wine Point," and (in 1675) “Delaware Town," and (in 1664) "New Castle," by the English. It was laid out by the Swedes in 1631, and called by them "New Stockholm." The Dutch built Fort Kasimer in 1651. The Dutch West India Company, being much indebted to the city of Amsterdam and other persons,

to relieve themselves (A.D. 1656), ceded to that city Fort Kasimer, with the territory extending from the Christiana River (including it) to Bombay Hook, and as far west as the land of the Minquas extended, and was formally transferred by Governor Stuyvesant, in behalf of this Company and the States-General of the Netherlands. Immediately afterwards the city of Amsterdam sent forth a colony to this territory, which was called "New Amstel." In the spring of 1656 a number of families from New York migrated to this territory, and the GovernorGeneral gave seventy-five deeds for land, chiefly lots in New Amstel, upon condition that sixteen or twenty families should settle together for safety. This condition was only complied with at Fort Kasimer. This was the beginning of New Castle.-Hazzard's Annals of Pennsylvania from 1609 to 1682, pp. 220, 227, 228. The Swedish Governor Pointz resisted to the utmost of his power the occupation of the Dutch. He first protested against it, and then sent troops to recover possession, under Risingh, who took Fort Kasimer by stratagem. In 1655 the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant directed an expedition against the Swedish territory on the Delaware (seven hundred men in two sloops), who conquered it, destroying its public buildings (the fort at Tinicum included), and carried its chief inhabitants to New York, from whence they were deported to Holland. The common people, however, were permitted to remain, but under the laws of their conquerors. This territory was then annexed to the "New Netherlands." It was included in the grant of the "New Netherlands" to the Duke of York. In 1672 New Castle was incorporated, its officers being a bailiff and six associates, with power to try causes, not exceeding ten pounds, without appeal; and a sheriff to be annually elected, whose jurisdiction was over the town, and also extended along the river. The inhabitants of New Castle were further granted free trade, without making entry at New York, as previously required of them. In this state it continued until in the war which ensued between England and the States-General, the "New Netherland" territory was recovered by the Dutch, and again subjected to their laws, but for a brief period; for, at the termination of this war, the "New Netherlands" were exchanged, by an article of the peace of Breda, for Surinam, in 1667. From that time the three counties on Delaware were held and governed as an appendage to New York. William Penn landed at New Castle in 1682, assembled the inhabitants at the court-house, made them a speech, and was received with joyful acclamation. Possession of New Castle and "the three lower counties on Delaware" was symbolically delivered by handing him "turf and water."*

Gabriel Thomas, in his "Account of Pennsylvania," A.D. 1697, states, "both in Philadelphia and New Castle there are curious wharves and large and fine timber-yards." In 1699 Penn returned to Pennsyl vania after an absence of fifteen years, and remained there two years, during which one hundred laws were passed, the Legislature sitting, to please the lower counties, chiefly at New Castle. In 1708 James Logan states some reasons why New Castle did not prosper, and was not more considerable then than thirty years before,-to wit, the unhealthiness of the place, and disorderly way of living which prevailed, the Finns

* Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, pp 9, 10, 16, 45, 46, 85.

and Dutch there being addicted to drinking spirituous liquors overmuch; but as he charges the "lower counties" with having designed and effected a separation from Pennsylvania, with a view to divert the trade of Philadelphia, in part, to New Castle (in which they failed), evidently looking upon her, as a would-be-rival of his city, with no friendly eye, prejudice may have exaggerated both the unhealthiness and intemperance he attributed to her.

The following extract from Hawkins's "History of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts" (pp. 118, 119, 120) furnishes the history of the first period of Mr. Ross's mission: "Another rising town in Pennsylvania, which the Society determined to furnish with a clergyman, was New Castle, originally built by the Dutch, and containing a population of 2500. The Reverend George Ross was accordingly sent there in 1705. There, as elsewhere, the proportion of churchmen was inconsiderable, the Presbyterians having a meeting in the town, and the Anabaptists another in the country. His congregation was principally made up of those who came a considerable distance to church, some above twelve miles, seldom missing, zealous men, and of substantial piety. A church was built by the contributions of several gentlemen in the place,-a fair and stately building, and one of the largest in the government.* After he had been about three years in his mission, whether from the unhealthiness of the situation or the little encouragement he received, with both of which he was dissatisfied, Mr. Ross left New Castle and went to Chester, from whence the Reverend Mr. Nichols had withdrawn. This liberty of changing their stations, which this and other of the early missionaries assumed, is here mentioned as furnishing a practical proof of the detriment which the infant church in the Colonies suffered for want of a presiding head. The only step which the Society could take was to suspend their stipends. Mr. Ross went home to vindicate his conduct before the Society, and after a full inquiry into all the circumstances of the case was restored to his charge. On his voyage back to America, he was taken prisoner by a French man-of-war (February 11th, 1711), and carried into Brest, 'where,' he says, 'I, as well as others, was stripped of all my clothes from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot; in a word, I was left as naked as when I was born, and that by means of the greedy

*August 1st, 1703, Sunday.-I preached at New Castle on Hebrews, v. 9, and had a large auditory of English and Dutch. They have had a church lately built, and the Reverend Mr. Ross, a missionary from the honorable Society, has lately been sent to them.”—Journal of George Keith, Missionary, p. 42. "In Pennsylvania, upon our arrival there (11th January, 1703), there was but one Church of England congregation settled; now, blessed be God (June 8th, 1704), there are five, viz., at Philadelphia, Chester, Frankfort, New Castle, and Appoquinimy." -Ibid., pp. 47, 50.

"I preached at New Castle the beginning of December last, where I found a considerable congregation, considering the generality of the people were gained over from other persuasions. Their minister, the Reverend George Ross, is esteemed a person that is ingenious and well-learned, as well as sober and prudent, and I doubt not but, by the blessing of God upon his good endeavors, the church at New Castle will continue to increase."-Memorial of the Reverend Evan Evans, Missionary at Philadelphia, submitted by the Bishop of London to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts (A.D. 1707), cited in Hawkins's History of the Church of England Missions in North America, p. 110.

priest who was chaplain of the ship. He perceived that my clothes were better than his own, and therefore he never ceased to importune his captain till he got leave to change, forsooth, with me, so that I am now clothed with rags, in testimony of my bondage.' He was ultimately released, and returned to Chester, in which settlement he reports there were, by modest computation, twenty Quakers, besides other dissenters, for one true churchman."—Hawkins's History of the Church of England Missions in North America, pp. 118, 119, 120.

Mr. Ross continued at Chester* until he was transferred to New Castle, entering the second time upon the charge of the church there (29th August, 1714.-Minutes of the Vestry of Immanuel Church, New Castle, Delaware, p. 5). The following proceedings of the Vestry of this Church appear on their minutes (page 7) of their meeting 26th October, 1714, the Vestrymen present being Jasper Yeates, Joseph Wood, Gunning Bedford, John Land, John Ogle, and Richard Clark; and the Wardens Richard Halliwell and James Robison: "A letter from the Honorable the Society for Propagating the Gospel, etc., directed to the Rev. George Ross, was laid before the Vestry, by which, letter it appeared the Society were pleased to appoint the said Mr. Ross to serve the cure at New Castle as their missionary, with the salary of twenty pounds per annum. Which appointment being well liked of by the Vestry, they unanimously agreed, for the further encouragement of the said Mr. Ross, their minister, that he should be eased of the burden of house-rent during his ministry among them; and that, if the subscriptions for his support should exceed the sum of forty pounds, the overplus shall be supplied to the payment of his house-rent. It was further agreed, that in case the said overplus should prove too inconsiderable to defray the said charge, then the said rent should be paid out of the collections at the sacrament, and at the church-door."

The history of George Ross, and his mission is brought down to a later period of it than the foregoing one by the following extract from Humphreys's "History of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," pp. 151, 156, 166, 167:

"New Castle, the capital of the county of that name, is finely seated, standing high upon the Delaware. This county is the uppermost of the three lower, New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, which run 120 miles along the coast, and are about 30 miles deep towards Maryland. These counties comprehend all the marshes on the great bay of the Delaware, as commodious and fertile as any in the world. The town was first built and inhabited by the Dutch, and called 'Amstel,' from the river which gives name to Amsterdam, in Holland. It is a large place, containing about 2500 souls. The Reverend George Ross was appointed missionary here in 1705 by the Society. He was received with great kindness by the inhabitants, and had a very regular congregation. Not only the people of the town, but a very considerable number of the country-people, though they lived a good way off the town, some above

"Mr. Ross came from New Castle and officiated at Chester, at the people's desire, and was very industrious and acceptable to them. However, the Society did not continue him there, though he behaved himself entirely to their satisfaction."-Humphreys's History of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, p. 414.