Posted on 07/04/2025 11:07:21 AM PDT by ReformationFan
As those of us in the United States this week celebrate freedom from British governance, consider the many ways that Presbyterianism influenced the decision to enter a war for independence and take up arms against a magistrate:
Only a Presbyterian understanding of Romans 13 would allow us to enter a war. The Bible calls for submission to magistrates, but Presbyterians understood the nuances that allowed for rebellion against tyranny. (See James M. Wilson's Establishment and Limits of Civil Goverment for an exposition of Romans 13.)
It was psalm singing Presbyterians like Rev. James Caldwell who helped win some battles--when paper for musket wads was unable to be found--Isaac Watts' Hymnbook was used instead. "Give 'em Watts, boys!"
King George referred to the war for Independence as the "Presbyterian rebellion." The Anglicans were never fans of rebellious presbyterians.
The prime minister of England, Horace Walpole said in Parliament that "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson."
“The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure...so intense, universal, and aggressive were the Presbyterians in their zeal for liberty..." Lorainne Boettner in "Calvinism in America."
Historians note: "When Cornwallis was driven back to ultimate defeat and surrender at Yorktown, all of the colonels of the Colonial army but one were Presbyterians elders. More than one-half of all the soldiers and officers of the American Army during the Revolution were Presbyterians.”
One German mercenary soldier wrote home: "Call this war by whatever name you may... it is nothing more or less than a Scots-Irish Presbyterian rebellion.”
British troops, knowing the role of the Presbyterians in the war, turned Presbyterian church buildings into stables--or sometimes choosing to burn them to the ground.
Joseph Galloway, former speaker of the house, fled back to England, blaming Presbyterians for the war, calling it a "religious quarrel."
Harvard historian, Dr. G. Bancroft notes: “The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the Planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Carolinas.”
As you wave sparklers in the air, crack open a few cold ones, eat grilled meat, and watch the fireworks, remember that God used Presbyterians to give liberty in the new world. Have you thanked a Presbyterian today?
Lol, one of my relatives was General Richard Montgomery.
My Revolutionary War ancestor was Scots-Irish (not sure if he was born in Ireland or in Virginia). He served in the Virginia militia and was at Yorktown. His obituary mentions that he was a soldier and calls him “one of the fathers of our freedom.” It also mentions that he was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Saving grace for the Protestants is that they can always split away
Currently large numbers of Latino Catholics are leaving Catholicism for Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism.
Hung from a tree in his nightgown, and stabbed with swords several timed. My great-grandmother’s maiden name was Wishart
He’s married to my 5th great grandfather’s 2nd cousin, Janet Livingston.
And he was the commander under whom 5th great grandfather, Major Henry Livingston, Jr., invaded Canada.
Montgomery Tappan was named for him. When the child died, Henry wrote:
An elegy on the death of MONTGOMERY TAPPEN
who dies at Poughkeepsie on the 20th of Nov. 1784
in the ninth year of his age
The sweetest, gentlest, of the youthful train,
Here lies his clay cold upon the sable bier!
He scarce had started on life’s varied plain,
For dreary death, arrested his career.
His cheek might vie with the expanded rose,
And Genius sparkled in his azure eyes!
A victim so unblemish’d Heaven chose;
And bore the beauteous lambkin to the skies.
Adieu thou loveliest child! adieu adieu!
Our wishes fain would follow thee on high.
What more can friendship - what more fondness do,
But drop ‘th unbidden tear & heave the sigh?
Ye youths, whose ardent bosoms virtue fires:
Who eager wish applause & pant for fame;
Press round MONTGOMERY’S hearse
- the NAME inspires.
And lights in kindred souls its native flame.
COLUMBIA grateful hails the tender sound
And when MONTGOMERY’S nam’d still drops a tear.
From shore to shore to earth’s remotest bound,
Where LIBERTY is known that NAME is dear.
He also wrote about Montgomery in a parody done on General Wolf:
Parody on the Death of General Wolfe
https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/montgomery.htm
In a mouldering cave where the wretched retreat
Columbia sat wasted with care
She wept for her chief then exclaim’d ag’ fate
And gave herself up to despair.
The walls of her cell she had sculptured around
With exploits her Montgomery had done
And even the dust as it lay on the ground
Was engraved with the deeds of her son.
When sudden the radiance of Heav’n appear’d
Around the disconsolate dame
And sweeter than music a cadence was heard
And this was the rapturous strain
“All gallant in arms thy Montgomery shone
When leading the patriot band
“But now in the skies he’s advanced to a throne
“And the least of his glory - command.”
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My version was born in VA, his father in England or Scotland. He was in the 1st VA regiment and pressed on board a British ship. LOVING the connections we’ve got.
The Va. Gazette, Williamsburg, Nov. 27, 1778 published in National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 80, 85
A list of men that were taken prisoners by the British, belonging to the 1st Va. regiment taken on board the Muskio, and part of whom we pressed on board King’s ships:
Henry Butridge, my 3rd great grandfather, mother’s side
His brother Joseph also served in the VA infantry during the Rev War.
My Yorktown ancestor was a member of a Virginia militia after emigrating (legally) to America from France. He helped serve as an interpreter between the French and Americans at Yorktown. He ended up on the Frontier of what is now West Virginia engaging in an occasional skirmish with the Shawnee.
Fascinating and very elegant. Virginia was mother’s side
The Va. Gazette, Williamsburg, Nov. 27, 1778 published in National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 80, 85
A list of men that were taken prisoners by the British, belonging to the 1st Va. regiment taken on board the Muskio, and part of whom we pressed on board King’s ships:
Henry Butridge, my 3rd great grandfather, mother’s side
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My only French ancestry is French Canadian, something I haven’t investigated much because of the language difficulty.
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Since we’re talking Yorktown, that probably means your ancestor was connected to General Lafayette, who commanded my ancestor, Gerrit G. Lansing, during that battle. In 1825, during Lafayette’s trip around America, he was entertained by Colonel Lansing in Oriskany, where the town turned out for a luncheon on Lansing’s lawn.
The father of Colonel Lansing’s daughter-in-law, Arthur Breese, also entertained Lafayette in Utica during that trip. Arthur Breese was married to my 4th ggmother, the daughter of Henry Livingston, whose 1st cousin, Colonel Henry Alexander Livingston, ALSO entertained Lafayette in the home he bought of my 6th ggfather’s in Poughkeepsie. Lafayette DID get around.
My grandmother told her daughter-in-law, my mother, family stories in her letters. One was that she had inherited the wine glasses from which Lafayette had drunk but it was long lost which glass it was. And I never heard which of my ancestors’ glasses they were.
Before Lafayette was at the Battle of Yorktown, he served at Valley Forge during That Winter. Another 5th ggfather, Henry Bicker, was also there, commanding the 2nd NY in June of 1777 for a year. So if your ancestor was there with Lafayette’s 2200 men, another set of our ancestors might have shared a camp.
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