In reference to the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church it is good to read its background: "The next thirty-five years were marked by unusual religious excitement
and activity. It was during this period that the celebrated Whitefield
visited America, and stirred up the hearts of the people to their lost
condition, and Zinzendorf and his disciples from Hernhutt settled in the
wilderness on the beautiful Lehigh. The religious fervor prevailing
through the provinces manifested itself in this county, and churches
multiplied rapidly. The Neshaminy Presbyterian church was founded about
1720, possibly before, Southampton Baptist church in 1730, the
Presbyterian church at Newtown in 1734, the church in the midst of the
Scotch-Irish settlements along the Deep run in Bedminster about the same
time, and the New Britain Baptist church, an offshoot of Montgomery, and
the child of a religious quarrel, in 1744. In the establishment of these
early churches, the parent of denominational religion in this county, we
read in plain characters the history of the immigration of the period, for
places of religious worship only kept pace with the spiritual wants of the
population. It was during this period that the Brainards, with courage and
self-denial equal to the early Jesuit missionaries, labored among the
Indians in the Forks of Delaware, and now and then came down into the more
settled parts of the county to preach, at Neshaminy, Newtown, and
elsewhere. In 1726 Reverend William Tennent, one of the great lights of
his generation, was called to the Neshaminy church, and the same year he
established the Log college on the York road, half a mile below
Hartsville, which for years was the only school south of New England at
which a young man could be fitted for the ministry.
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