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The original Jersey Settler families were members of Rev. Samuel Swayze's Congregational church in Chester, New Jersey, along with the family of Capt. Amos Ogden, original grantee of the mandamus in West Florida, now Mississippi.
Other neighboring families, either in the area when the Jersey Settlers arrived or shortly thereafter, became over the years closely allied to the Jersey Settlers, usually through marriages, and are considered as important to our organization as the original Jersey Settlers.
Many of those families of the Congregational church in Chester, New Jersey, had lived together since their arrival in the New World almost 150 years before the migration to the South. Some family names may not have survived the trip to the South, but there importance is such that a brief history is included here.
Jersey Settler Families
Swayze (alt. Sweesy, Sweezy), Rev. Samuel and wife, Hannah Horton
Coleman, Jeremiah and wife, Hannah Swayze
Unknown and wife, Phoebe Swayze
Samuel Swayze, Jr. and wife, Elizabeth Putnam
Nathan Swayze and wife, Bethia Hopkins
Elijah Swayze and wife, Polly White
Stephen Swayze and wife, Rachel Hopkins
Obidiah Brown and wife, Penelope Swayze
Swayze (alt. Sweezy), Richard and wife, wife, Sarah Horton
Gabriel Swayze and wife, ______ Clark
King, Caleb and wife, Mary Swayze
King, Justus and wife, Sarah Swayze
Richard Swayze, Jr. and wife, Hannah Budd
Cory, Job and wife, Lydia Swayze
Luse, Israel and wife, Deborah Swayze
Ogden, Amos and wife, Margaret Cairns (alt. Carnes)
Ogden, James Nicholson and wife, Mary Louise (alt. Louisa) Bennett
Rapalje, Jacques and wife unknown
Pepper, Christopher and wife unknown
Glover, Uriah and wife unknown
Hopkins, David and wife
Robertson, Robert and wife unknown
Sewel, James and wife unknown
Drake, Ebenezer and wife
Reid, Thomas (self)
Hopkins, Abijah (self)
Colter, John and wife unknown
Van Turl, Andrew (self)
Raymond, Seth (self)
Staybraker, John (self)
Butler, James (self)
Allied Families
Callendar, Alexander and wife Mary Coleman
Carter, Nehemiah and wife, Rachel Minthorn
Dougherty (alt. Dougharty), William Y. and wife, Jennet Maria Foules
Eaton, Thomas and wife, Sarah King
Farrar, Daniel and wife, Eliza King
Foules, William Becket and wife Matilda Ann Luse
Griffing, Gabriel and wife, Hannah Abidon Coleman
Griffing, John and wife, Penelope Coleman
Sojourner, John and wife, Sarah
Related Families
Horton
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Taken from a tiny booklet called "The History of the First Congregational Church of Chester, New Jersey" and published by The Conover Press in 1934.
Page 5 - About the time of the building of this first church the excitement which caused the separation in the Congregational Churches of Connecticut and Long Island reached this settlement and a majority of the inhabitants became "Separates," as they were then called. A Separate Congregational Church was gathered which was ministered unto by Rev. Samuel Sweazy. He was the first settled pastor. He labored with the church for twenty years and then organized a colony, largely from Chester, and located near Natchez, Mississippi. Soon after arriving in their wilderness home they were regularly organized into a Congregational Church and Mr. Sweazy took its pastorate. Of this, Reverend F. A. Johnson writes, "He was beyond doubt the first Protestant minister that ever settled in what is now the state of Mississippi, and his church as the first Protestant Church ever organized there. Therefore the Chester Church may be said to be the Mother of Protestantism and Congregationalism in the great Southwest."
These Separatists retained the doctrines and form of government of the regular Congregational Churches. Their separation was a protest against the oppression and worldly influence of the union between Church and State which existed, especially in Connecticut. All honor to the spirit of liberty that dared the opposition of a powerful State Church rather than submit to being oppressed.
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