This Week In History

March 27, 1799

With the approval of the Synod of Virginia, on March 27, 1799, the Transylvania Presbytery was divided into 3 new presbyteries -- Transylvania, West Lexington and Washington. The Presbytery of Washington encompassed parts of Kentucky.

March 28, 1707

On March 28, 1707, Presbyterian Rev. Francis Makemie wrote to Rev. Benjamin Coleman of Boston, describing Makemie's ongoing trial in New York for preaching and the meeting of the first Presbytery in America :
"Since our imprisonment we have begun correspondence.... the penall laws are invading our American Sanctuary, without the least regard to the Toleration, which should alarm us all...."
Regarding the Presbytery, Makemie wrote: "Our design is to meet yearly, and oftener if necessary, to consult the most proper measures, for advancing religion, and propagating Christianity, in our Various Stations...."

March 30, 1730Rev. John Moorhead

The Rev. John Moorhead was born in 1703 near Scot-Irish Belfast. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, Moorhead came to Boston in 1727. He began services to a growing Scot-Irish congregation which was commonly known to Bostonians as the "Church of the Presbyterian Strangers." Rev. Moorhead was ordained as the Boston congregation's pastor on March 30, 1730. On April 16, 1745, the first presbytery in New England was formed by Rev. Moorhead and other Presbyterian ministers in the region. Moorhead died December 2, 1773. (The photo at right of a 1749 portrait of Rev. Moorhead is courtesy of Childs Gallery, Boston.).

March 31, 1839

The oldest church in Houston, Texas, First Presbyterian Church was founded on March 31, 1839, by The Rev. William Youel Allen.