church and they asked to have Rev. John Steel sent to them. Black was called by the people of North and South-six miles west of Staunton, Virginia, March 6, 1745. He was dismissed from Conewago in April, but in the fall they sought to recall him. A division ensued, and those who were opposed to him obtained one-fifth of the time of Rev. Mr. Roan, pastor of the New Side churches of Paxton and Derry. In 1747 he with Thompson and Craig were directed to take the oversight of the vacancies in Virginia. He was at Synod in 1751 and was directed to supply Buffalo settlement and adjacent places four Sabbaths and the congregations of Rockfish and Mountain Plain, before 1752. He was dismissed from this charge by Hanover Presbytery, July 18, 1759. He died August 9, 1770, Presbytery styling him "an aged minister."

Rev. John Roan.

John Roan came from Ireland, was brought up a weaver, was a student at Log College, Neshaminy, and taught in Neshaminy, probably while pursuing his theological studies under the Tennents. Dr. Rogers, the first Moderator of the General Assembly, was one of his pupils. He was licensed by the New Side Presbytery of New Castle and was sent on a missionary tour to Virginia in 1744. His preaching was very effective in Hanover and the adjoining counties in Virginia. Many are alleged to have been awakened in different places and to have been converted under his ministry. He was bold and fearless in his denunciations of those he regarded as delinquent in duty and inveighed against the clergy of the established church, charging them not only with the neglect of their ministerial functions, but also of gross moral delinquencies. His offensive statements and scathing satire brought upon him the indignation of the parish clergy and their friends and led to prosecutions against him for damaging reflections upon the established ministers and for villifying the established religion, These charges, although the occasion of not a little feeling and trouble, were not sustained and the indictment was dismissed, the chief accuser having fled the country.

In 1745, Mr. Roan was settled over the united New Side

Mr. Elder was one of those who signed the protest in the Synod in 1741. And it was the people of Paxton and Derry who overtured the Synod in 1735 for a more definite declaration as to the adoption of the standards than that of 1729 and which led the Synod in order to the removal of all ground of jealousy on account of the expression of scruples which was allowed as to matters non-essential, used in the adopting act, to say that year, "that Synod adopted and still adhered to the Westminster confession, catechisms and directory for worship, without the least variation or alteration and without any regard to such distinctions, and that this was their meaning and true intent in their first adopting act of said confession."

Mr. Elder after the division of Paxton and Derry congregations retained the charge of the Old Side portion of Paxton and took charge of the Old Side portion of Derry congregation.

Mr. Elder was a public-spirited man, of great energy and decision of character. He took the command of the "Paxtang Boys" during the troublous times of the French and Indian war and in 1763 was appointed a colonel by the Provincial authorities and had command or rather the superintendence of the blockhouses and stockades from Easton on the Delaware to the Susquehanna, nothing more being expected of him, as stipulated by the Governor in his appointment, than a general oversight. Such services were regarded as justified upon the part of the ministers of that day, by the crisis of affairs then existing in the country. The Indian massacre on Conestoga Manor and at Lancaster in 1763, on account of which Mr. Elder was subject to much criticism and some censure, was perpetrated despite his most earnest remonstrance.

The union of the Synod in 1758, brought Mr. Elder and his Old Side friends in the Donegal Presbytery into union with a number of warm New Side men of the New Castle Presbytery. To escape from these unpleasant associations Mr. Elder and some others, by the action of Synod, were set off to the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia. On the formation of the General Assembly in 1788 he became a member of Carlisle Presbytery.

At the period of the American Revolution Mr. Elder warmly espoused the cause of American Independence. At

the time when the British army overran New Jersey and drove before them the remnant of our half-starved and poorly-clad troops, in response to a brief and earnest appeal by Mr. Elder, at a Sabbath morning service, to his people, a company of volunteers was quickly formed, of which his oldest son Robert was chosen captain and of which his younger son John, then only sixteen, became a private member. The next day though in midwinter, they marched away to the scene of conflict.

Mr. Elder continued pastor of that part of the congregation of Paxton which adhered to the Old Side, and at the death of Rev. John Roan, the New Side portion of the congregation of Derry, united with that of Paxton in receiving him as their minister, and for a period of fifty-three years Mr. Elder was pastor of that people and died, highly respected and deeply lamented, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.

Mr. Elder, from all the evidence which can now be gathered with respect to his character and life, was a man conspicuous in his day for talent, learning and piety; a man of robust constitution, of strong and decided convictions, of great courage, of indomitable energy and strength of purpose; a man full of public spirit, of extensive influence and in many respects one of the foremost men of his day; a man similar in the prominent characteristics of mind and disposition to John C. Calhoun or Andrew Jackson.

He was a tall portly man, over six feet in height and of strong and heavy frame. He had, said one who well remembered the old minister, a good and very handsome face, his features were regular and he was of fair complexion and had blue eyes. He was a man of affairs, being equally sucessful as a farmer, a soldier and a minister. His remains lie buried in the old Paxton graveyard. He was twice married and had fifteen children, four by the first and eleven by the second wife.

Rev. Samuel Caven.

He came as a licentiate from Ireland; was sent by Presbytery of Donegal, November 16, 1737, to Conococheague or Clear Water settlement, embracing what is now Falling Spring, Upper

W. C. (Mercersburg), East C., or Greencastle, and Lower W. C., or Welsh Run. He received and accepted a call from the East Side and was ordained and installed November 16, 1739. In 1749 he was dismissed from Falling Spring. He was unacceptable to the New Side portion of his charge and was much complained of by them, as not sufficiently anxious for their salvation and as failing in pointed conversation and preaching in regard to their spiritual state. On this account he was allowed to retire from that field and after spending some time in New York and in itinerating work in other places, he was called to Lower Pennsboro' in 1749 and died there November 9, 1750, at the age of forty-four, and his remains were interred in Silver Spring graveyard.

This is the inscription upon his tomb. "In memory of Ye Rev. Samuel Caven who departed this life November ye 9, 1750, aged 44 years.

Rev. Samuel Thompson.

Mr. Thompson was received by the Presbytery of Donegal, November, 1737, and was appointed to supply Pennsborough the four following Sabbaths. At the next meeting, April 12, 1738, the two congregations of Upper and Lower Pennsborough requested that some one be designated to moderate a call for him to those churches, and Mr. Thompson was appointed to supply them until the next meeting. June 29, 1738, a call, with the necessary subscriptions for his support, was presented to Presbytery, but he being providentially absent was continued as a supply and the call retained by Presbytery. At the next meeting the call was placed in his hands and held by him for consideration, he being again appointed to supply said churches until the next meeting. His final acceptance of this call and his ordination and installation were delayed until November 14, 1739; five years from the time of the first supply, Alexander Craighead was sent to that people. This delay was chiefly owing to arrearages due to former supplies being unpaid. Mr. Thompson, after his installation, continued pastor of these congregations until March 26, 1745. Then, on account of impaired health, he asked to be released from Lower Penns

borough and gave his whole time to Upper Pennsborough or Meeting House Springs, until November 14, 1749, when his relation to it was dissolved and he was called to Great Conewago, now Hunterstown, Adams county, Pa. Here he continued to labor until 1779 and here he died April 29, 1787, and was buried in the Great Conewago burying ground, having spent his entire ministry within the bounds of this Presbytery. Mr. Thompson was the first settled pastor at Upper and Lower Pennsborough. He was there ten years, in which time on various grounds, he was subject to many painful trials. Charges of indiscretion, prevarication and immorality were preferred against him. According to Webster he was suspended but subsequently restored. His comfort and usefulness were

so impaired by his own course and that of the people, that he felt constrained to seek a dissolution of his pastoral relation to Upper Pennsborough and the Presbytery thought it best to grant it.

These were the leading ministers settled within the bounds of this Presbytery during the first period mentioned from 1729 to 1741. The whole church was at the close of this period greatly agitated by what has been called the Great Revival, and the qualifications for candidates for the ministry, the controversy in relation to which finally resulted in the division of the Synod and the rending of many congregations. This great controversy was not the result of conflicting views either as to doctrine or church government. It was not in relation to either the nature, the necessity or the importance of a true revival of religion. On these points the Old Side held views as decided and Scriptural as the other. It was chiefly owing to the alienation of feeling produced by controversy in relation to the' measures and characteristics of that great religious awakening which was then in progress and the course of its most active friends and promoters. The result was, great exaggeration of each others. failings and disparagement of each others labors and usefulness. The most aggravating offense and that which made the longer continuance of the two parties together so difficult, was the right of intrusion, which was claimed and exercised by certain ministers on one side into the congregations of the other