34 



His only son, as loyal to the American cause as was his 

 father, was active as a military man until 1777, when his 

 removal to the bench restricted his efforts to more of a civil 

 nature. 



Without detailing the movements of the First minister during 

 this crucial period of our history, it will suffice to say that his 

 record was that of an active Christian patriot. At the begin- 

 ning of hostilities he took a stand from which he never 

 swerved, — a stand which exposed his little estate to confiscation 

 and his neck to the halter. 



He lived to hear of our triumph at Yorktown and to rejoice 

 in the cessation of hostilities which followed it. All through 

 life he had shared his people's fortunes and for fifty-two years, 

 except when temporarily absent in their behalf, had regularly 

 occupied the pulpit to which they had called him. But the end 

 of his farming and his preaching had come. 



One Sunday morning, a little less than a year after the sur- 

 render of Lord Cornwallis, his people assembled at the meeting 

 house for their usual service and there many of them first 

 learned that their venerable pastor was dead. He had risen in 

 the expectation of meeting them as usual, but the great arbiter 

 of human actions had summoned him to a greater assembly, and 

 to a higher service. The Pennycook pulpit was for the first 

 time vacant. 



In due time, the town placed at his grave a plain slab of slate 

 stone, which tells the reader that, 



He died on the 1st day of September 1782, 

 In the 78th year of his age 

 And the 5 2d of his ministry. 



But it was mainly to the leadership and pastoral care of a 

 rural people that the first minister devoted his time and ener- 

 gies. 



He identified himself with their temporal interests. Many of 

 their early legal documents are in his handwriting. He worked 

 with them for the establishment of American nationality. In 

 the defense of their homes against the Bow proprietors his aid 



