REV. JOSEPH TATE
"Was received as a licentiate,
by Donegal Presbytery, April
l, 1748, and was sent to Lower
Pennsborough, (Silver Spring,)
Marsh Creek, and Conewago.
On the 14th of June, he was
called to Donegal; and, soon
after, the Rev. Andrew Bay, of
the New Side Presbytery of
Newcastle, accused him of having
preached false doctrine at
the Three Springs, (Big, Middle,
and Rocky.). He was
acquitted, October 25, and accepted the
call from Donegal, they giving
seventy pounds to buy a plantation
and seventy pounds salary.
He was ordained, November
23, 1748: Samuel Thomson presided.
He spent eight Sabbaths
in the following fall in Virginia.
Immediately after his
installation he was married,
December 15, 1748, to Margaret Boyd,
the eldest daughter of Adam
Boyd, of Octorara. Her father gave
her, besides a silk gown,
a bed and its furniture, a horse and saddle,
and nearly every article for
housekeeping; all of which are
carefully entered in his book.
"Tate found little or no satisfaction
on the union, the two parties
in the presbytery being so
nearly equal in numbers, and so
thoroughly divided in sentiment.
He withdrew, and, finally,
had leave, in 1768, to join
the Second Philadelphia Presbytery.
He was sent by the synod to
Western Virginia and North Carolina;
and, in the following March,
he was called to Coddle Creek.
he presbyters asked his congregation,
Should the call be placed
in his hands?, and they immediately
requested that his relation
to them might be dissolved.
A committee was sent to reconcile the
difference, and they did not
prosecute their demand fort his ' dish
mission.
"He died October 11, 1774,
aged sixty-three. Dr. Martin says
"he was eccentric, but fearless
in reproving vice and the errors
of the day "
"His son, the Rev. Matthew
Tate (T1), graduated at the College of
Philadelphia, was licensed
by Newcastle Presbytery, and was employed
as a supply in several presbyteries.
He visited the new settlements
west of Albany, and went to
the Southern States. He received holy
orders as a deacon from the
hands of Bishop White, and was rector
of St. Matthew's, South Carolina,
from 1789 to 1792, when he re-
moved to Beaufort, and had
the charge of the parish till his death,
October 7, 1795. His
mother married James Anderson, the son of her
husbands predecessor, and
her daughter Jane married his son.
"This seems to say that the
mother of Rev. Matthew Tate, which
would be Margaret Boyd Tate,
m. James Anderson and that Rev
Matthew Tate had a sister
Jane who also married an Anderson.
While the second part is fairly
obviously true, the first stretches
credibility a bit. The Rev
Joseph Tate died 11 OCT 1774; Margaret
supposedly died the same year,
although a specific date isn't available.
If the story is true, Margaret
was widowed in October, and then
and remarried and died herself
in a period of less than 3 months. "
A History of the Presbyterian
Church from its origin until
the year 1760, Rev. Richard
Webster, 1857