HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
Found on the web at famousamericans.net as presented by Virtualology and mistakenly titled Dacid (sic) Jones is "Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography," edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889. Interestingly, the site’s text requests corrections due to overt as well as OCR transfer errors. The most obvious mistake is not including ‘Upper’ in Upper Freehold Baptist Church, also known as the Old Yellow Meeting House near Clarksburg and celebrating its yearly reunion this Sunday.
JONES, David, clergyman, born in White Clay Creek hundred, Newcastle County, Delaware, 12 May, 1736; died in Chester county, Pennsylvania, 5 February, 1820. His grandfather, David, who married Esther Morgan, a daughter of Morgan at Rhydderch, emigrated from Cardiganshire, Wales, in 1710, and settled at Welsh Tract. Delaware. After attending Hopewell academy, New Jersey, and studying theology under his cousin, Reverend Abel Morgan of Middletown, New Jersey, he entered the ministry of the Baptist church. His first regular charge was the [Upper] Freehold Baptist church, New Jersey, of which he was the pastor from 12 December, 1766, until April, 1775, when, becoming somewhat obnoxious to the Tories of that region, he removed to Chester county, Pennsylvania, and took charge of the Great Valley Baptist church for one year.
On 27 April, 1776, he entered the Revolutionary army as chaplain of the 3d and 4th Pennsylvania battalions, and on 1 January, 1777, he became chaplain of General Anthony Wayne, with whom he continued until the end of the war. He narrowly escaped being killed at the Paoli massacre. Throughout the whole Revolutionary struggle he exercised great power, especially in the region around Philadelphia, in stimulating the zeal of the patriots and in overawing the disaffected. He had pastoral charge of the Southampton Baptist church, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from 1786 till 1792, when he returned to Chester county and resumed the charge of the Great Valley Baptist church, with which he remained until his death, with frequent and prolonged leaves of absence.
In 1794, when his old commander, General Wayne, was sent to the northwest, he accompanied the army as chaplain, and when the war of 1812 began he [now 76 years old] volunteered, and served in 1813-’15. The last occasion on which he appeared in public was at the dedication of the Paoli monument, 20 September, 1817, when he delivered an address.
In the years 1772 and 1773 he travelled to the region of the Ohio, and published a journal that he kept of these two trips (Burlington, 1774; new ed., 1865). He delivered an address to the troops at Ticonderoga, 20 October, 1776, which was published at the time. On 20 July, 1775, at Great Valley church, on the day of the Continental fast, he preached a sermon, which was published shortly after under t he title "Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless." He also published "The Doctrine of the Laying on of Hands" (Philadelphia, 1786); "A True History of Laying on of Hands upon Baptized Believers as such" (Burlington, 1805); "A Treatise on the Work of the Holy Ghost under the Gospel Dispensation" (1804); and "Candid Reasons of Peter Edwards examined" (Philadelphia, 1811). Brown university gave him the degree of A.M. in 1774.
His son, Horatio Gates, clergyman, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 11 February, 1777; died in Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 December, 1853, received an academical education, studied theology, and was ordained in 1802 at Salem, New Jersey, becoming pastor of the Baptist church there. In 1808 he became the first pastor of the Lower Merion Baptist church, which continued under his care for forty-five years. He was one of the founders of the Baptist board of Foreign missions, and president of the Philadelphia Baptist association from 1829 till 1853, and it was chiefly through his influence that the latter body organized a manual-labor school, which afterward became Haddington college. As long as the college existed he was president of its board of trustees, and spared neither time nor money in promoting its interests. In 1812 Brown conferred on him the degree of M. A., and in 1851 the university at Lewisburg (now Bucknell), of which he was then chancellor, bestowed on him its first degree of D.D. He published a "History of the Philadelphia Baptist Association" (1832).
Horatio Gates’s son, John Richter, lawyer, born in Salem, New Jersey, 2 October, 1803; died near New Berne, North Carolina, 23 May, 1863, was graduated in 1821 at the University of Pennsylvania, and admitted to the bar in 1827. In 1836 he was appointed one of the judges of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia county, which post he held until 1847. On retiring from the bench he settled in Sullivan county, Pennsylvania. In 1861 he raised the 58th Pennsylvania regiment, of which he was commissioned colonel, he met his death while at the head of a reconnoitering force at New Berne, North Carolina, just after a long march in which he had captured a considerable force of the enemy at Gum Swamp. In this expedition he was in command as acting brigadier-general of several regiments. He was a classical scholar, and carried with him to the camp his Septuagint version of the Old testament, which he was accustomed to read daily. He was author of "The Quaker Soldier" (Philadelphia, 1858).
Another son, Horatio Gates, lawyer, born in Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 January, 182o was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1841, admitted to the bar in 1847, and entered on active practice of the law, in which he has since continued. He was in the state senate in 1875-’82, and introduced bills to secure freedom from the penalties of the Sunday law of 1794 for all persons who observed the seventh day as the Sabbath. Mr. Jones has devoted much time to historical matters. He became a member of the Historical society of Pennsylvania in 1848, was its secretary in 1846-’67, and was then chosen one of its vice presidents, which office he still holds. He has been president of the Welsh society of Philadelphia for twenty-five years, is a member of numerous state historical societies, and in 1877 was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal historical society of Great Britain. He has also been an active member of the Baptist church, and is president of the Philadelphia Baptist association. He has published "The Levering Family" (Philadelphia, 1858); "Ebenezer Kinnersley and his Discoveries in Electricity" (1858); "History of Roxborough and Manayunk" (1859); "Memoir of Henry Bond, M. D." (Boston, 1860); "Report of the Committee of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, on the Bradford Bicentenary" (1863); "Biographical Sketch of Reverend David Jones, A. M." (New York, 1865); "History of Pennypack or Lower Dublin Baptist Church, Morrisania, New York" (1869); "Andrew Bradford, Founder of the Newspaper Press in the Middle States of America" (Philadelphia, 1869); "The Bradford Prayer Book of 1710" (1870); "Diary of S.J., or Journal of a Country Baptist Minister" (1881); "Memoir of Reverend Abel Morgan of Pennypack Church" (1882); "History of the Great Valley, Pennsylvania, Baptist Church" (1883); "History of the Brandywine, Pennsylvania, Baptist Church" (1884); and "Welsh Books in Brown University" (Cincinnati, 1885). In 1863 Brown conferred on him the degree of M.A., and in 1880 Judson university that of D.C.L.
Historically Speaking is a regular column presented by John Fabiano, president of the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society. For information 0about the historical society, call (609) 259-9127.