"My wife's father, Mr. Coxe, (he was Treasurer and Warden of St. Mary's,) lived until a short time before our marriage, in the brick house which he built on the bank, at the corner of Wood street, afterwards sold to and inhabited by Horace Binney, Esq., of Phila. My father's uncle, Dr. Wm. McIlvaine, lived and died in the large house on the bank, which Mr. Charles Chaunafterwards occupied, and where, before him, lived the grand parents, (John Griffith and wife,) of the present Rev. Dr. Francis Wharton. His mother grew up there. I was married at Sunbury, a country seat, (near the town,) where my fatherin-law, Mr. Coxe, then lived, and which, I believe, has gone to decay.

cey

"One of the most precious graves in that dear old church-yard, (precious to the Lord of life,) is that of Maria Coxe, my wife's elder sister, whose Christian character and life were as precious ointment at the Saviour's feet, whose good works were as well known in Burlington as those of Dorcas, at Joppa.

"While a candidate at Burlington, I officiated as a lay-reader at Bristol, during a vacancy in that parish.

"Thus I believe I have answered your enquiries. I have been thus particular in order to show how I have been identified with Burlington and St. Mary's, and how dear its associations are to me, and how 'I look for the resurrection of the dead,' in that grave-yard.

"I remain,

"Your friend and brother,

"Rev. Geo. Morgan Hills, D. D.

"CHAS. P. McILVAINE.

"P. S.-I might have said that in a few weeks after I was ordained by Bishop White, (in St. Peter's, Phila.,) I preached for Dr. Wharton, in St. Mary's, and many times afterwards. The last time I preached there, was in the old Church, before the new was begun."

BISHOP M'ILVAINE TO THE REV. DR. HILLS.

"REV. AND DEAR SIR:

"Cincinnati, April 9, 1872.

"I'am glad to learn from your letter of the 4th, that you are engaged on a history of the Burlington Church.-You ask if

you may incorporate my letter, or the main portion of it.'— Though it was written without any idea that you were preparing a history, and I went so much into detail, solely for the purpose of showing you, how very much, my personal history is connected with Burlington, I have no objection to your incorporating it in the main.'

*

*

"You ask whether I originated as well as organized the Sunday School. It came in this way. While I was in College in Princeton, one of my class-mates, John Newbold, of Phila., (who in graduating became a candidate for orders, but died before he could be ordained,) on returning to College from a vacation, brought to us students an account of a Sunday School he had attended in Philadelphia. It was in the very beginning of Sunday Schools in this country. He brought specimens of the blue and red tickets used. A number of the students in College formed a S. S. Society and raised a fund of about $400, of which I, (then in my 17th year,) was made Treasurer. We set up four Schools in and about Princeton. I and John Newbold, and (I think) the present Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, and the present Bishop Johns, (a class-mate of Dr. Hodge, and both a year before me,) were teachers in different Schools. My first extempore address, was then made to the School I was detailed to, in a barn of what was called Jug Town, a suburb of Princeton. Going home in 1816, the project of the Burlington School originated. Such a thing had never been heard of in Burlington. I first obtained Dr. Wharton's approbation, and then began to talk it up. Mr. Aikman, the Clerk of the Church cooperated. I must here correct what I said about my superintending the School. This I did in the time, (one year,) between my graduating and returning to Princeton to enter the Theological Seminary, when I thus returned to Princeton, Mr. Aikman became superintendent. The organization took place and the School was always held in the Academy-as long, I believe, as Dr. Wharton continued Rector-and how much longer I do not know.

"The organization took place in the spring of 1816. Consider that I was then only 17 years of age-and therefore almost all concerned, except as pupils, must have been older-And as

I am now in my 74th year, it is not likely that any body lives who was actively concerned in those things then. I was not aware that my name has been taken by one of the classes, but I am much pleased to know it now. I intended to say, in connection with the old Rectors, that my dear mother was baptized by one of them in infancy. I have distinct recollection of hearing her speak of him, but do not remember his name. Perhaps her name is in the Register, Maria Reed.†

"Seeing that the old Church was not to be kept as a Church, it seems a pity that it had not been allowed to remain in the form and furniture of its pristine Anglican origin. I remember it well, a straight sided Church, without any side projection, standing East and West, with a gallery and organ and clerk's desk at the West end, chancel at the East, entrance on the South side, and a door to the yard on the North, pulpit and reading desk before it against the North wall, and about two-thirds of the extent towards the East, an immense baptismal font, with a great mahogany cover rising from all sides to a point, a pewter basin inside. It stood under the gallery. There were grave stones, as in English Churches, in the one aisle where two or three of the former generations were buried.-When the old Church was transformed to what is now called the old Church, these stones were taken up and put at the South, near the East end, and at the East end. But an internal change had taken place before that transformation, somewhere about 1811. The old pulpit, and desk with its English sounding-board had been taken down, and a new and outlandish thing, (a carpenter's device,) had been put up at the East end with desk before it, and a little closet of a robing room under it.

"In the real old Church remained till that change, the old pew of the Governor of the Province in Colonial times, large, square, elevated, high sided, [with a canopy upheld by pillars,] standing in the S. E. corner. The Griffith family occupied it before the change, and our pew was next, but one, West.

"It is an interesting part of this history that until after 1832, there being no Presbyterian congregation in Burlington, (only

+ The Parish Register contains this entry in the handwriting of Dr. Odell: Baptized, Decem. 5, 1775, Maria, of Bowes & Margaret Reed, born Novr 11th, 1775."

a Baptist, Quaker and Methodist,) the Presbyterians attended at St. Mary's, and had no thought of any thing else. Thus Thos. Aikman, the Clerk, Dr. Boudinot, Mr. Bradford, his daughter, two cousins of my mother, Misses Reed sisters of Joseph Reed, of Phila., and daughters of Gen. Reed, mentioned in my last letter, also General Bloomfield, for many terms Governor of the State, who married Dr. McIlvaine and my grandfather' ssister. "Your friend and brother,

"CHAS. P. McILVAINE.†

"The Rev. Geo. Morgan Hills, D. D."

GEN. BLOOMFIELD.

"1823, Oct. 5th. Buried Gen. Joseph Bloomfield."-Parish Register.

MARRIAGE OF THE REV. MR. HALL.

"1824, March 2d Married in the Church, the Revd Mr Hall and Sarah Lucas.”—Parish Register. [This was the Rev. Richard D. Hall, who died at Mount Holly, July 28th, 1873, aged 84 years.]

THE CONDITION OF THE PARISH.

Aug. 18, 1824. The Rector adds to the statistics of his parochial report: "That devout attention is in general paid to Divine service, and to the rubrics of the Church, that an assocition of Young Ladies has been formed in aid of the Missionary Fund, and as the fruit of their edifying industry, a respectable sum has been raised. It is believed, and is a subject of humble thanksgiving to the Divine Head of the Church, that a spirit of genuine religion is increasing in this congregation. It may be well to specify in this report the sum raised by the association of Young Ladies of Burlington, which has only been in existence for the last six months. By the most incessant exertions they have raised $75, $50 of which they have appropriated to constituting their Rector a Patron of the General Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and the balance $25 to the N. J. Missionary Fund. The Rector reports further, that on every Wednesday evening he delivers a lecture on the Acts of the Apostles, which is respectfully attended."

+ Bishop McIlvaine died in Europe, March 12th, 1873.

EDWARD SHIPPEN WATSON.

"1826, May 1st. Baptized Edward Shippen Watson, an Infant."-Parish Register. [Afterwards ordained in St. Mary's Church; and now (1876) Rector of St. James' Church, Lancaster, Pa.]

THE DEATH OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH, ESQ.

"June 8th, 1826. Buried William Griffith." Such is the record, in the handwriting of Dr. Wharton, in the first Parish Register.

"Mr. William Griffith was one of the Justices of the Circuit Courts of the United States as constituted by what was called Mr. Adams's Judiciary Act of 1801; an organization of the National Courts, which Mr. Binney† tells us was deemed, by wise men of all sides, the happiest organization of our Federal Judiciary, but which, he says, 'having grown up amidst the contentions of party, was not spared by that which spares nothing.' On the election of President Jefferson, the whole court was abolished; and Judges who had received their commissions during good behavior were deprived of their offices without the imputation of a fault.' The bench in the 3rd circuit, (the circuit comprising Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware,) was composed of William Tilghman, afterwards well known as Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; Richard Basset, of Delaware; and William Griffith, of New Jersey. The first of these is an historie. name, and the second is sufficiently known. Mr. Griffith's deserves not less honor than has been paid to either of them. He was a native of New Jersey, and resided at Burlington, in which city he died, in June, 1826. 'It would be difficult,' said an accomplished literary character of New Jersey, his friend, the Rev. Charles Henry Wharton, D. D., 'to form a wish for more splendid talents, more professional acquirements, more ardent and unsophisticated attachment to his country, than shone conspicuously in the character of William Griffith. He was literally a father to the fatherless, a friend to the widow, and a benefactor to the distressed of every description. The

Eulogy on William Tilgham, p. 11, Philadelphia, 1827.