Forgotten Founding Father: Francis Makemie

In Accomack County, Va., there is a monument to a Scotch-Irish clergyman named Francis Makemie. Though he is considered the founder of American Presbyterianism, Makemie is largely forgotten today. On the monument is an inscription that tells us much about who he was. The inscription reads:

Francis Makemie who was born in Ramelton, County Donegal, Ireland, A.D. 1658, was educated at Glasgow University, Scotland, and came as an ordained Evangelist to the American Colonies A.D. 1683 at the request of Col. William Stevens, of Rehobeth, Maryland. A devoted and able preacher of our Lord's Gospel, he labored faithfully and freely for twenty-five years in Maryland, Virginia, the Barbados, and elsewhere. A Christian gentleman, an enterprising man of affairs, a public spirited citizen, a distinguished advocate of Religious Liberty, for which he suffered under the Governor of New York, he is especially remembered as the chief founder of organized Presbytery in America, A.D. 1706, and as the first moderator of the General Presbytery. He died at his home, whose site is nearby, in Accomack County, Virginia, in the summer of A.D. 1708.

The monument gives a quick sketch of Makemie's life, which we can flesh out a bit. Makemie was Scotch-Irish, born in Ireland, trained at the University of Glasgow, and ordained in 1682. In 1683, he arrived in America. He first settled in Maryland and Virginia along the Chesapeake Bay. He traveled through New York and the Carolinas. He went to Barbados in the southern Caribbean as a missionary to the native inhabitants of the island, but he also found himself serving as a minister to refugees. A group of Irish Calvinists fled persecution in their homeland, with some of them making their way to Barbados. So Makemie was their minister for a few years.

He made his way back to the Colonies, and as the monument tells us, he was especially instrumental in the founding of the Presbyterian church in America. He spent about fifteen years trying to get Presbyterian churches started and ended up organizing seven churches. In 1706, he held the first American presbytery meeting. This is an important date in American church history, because this was the founding of American Presbyterianism. Makemie was the first moderator of the general assembly.

But he did many other things, too. The monument speaks of him as "an enterprising man of affairs." He had inherited ships, which he then developed into a maritime trading business between England and her colonies in the New World. He used that business to fund his work and to fund missions endeavors. He built a water mill that supported a grain business for Virginia farmers.

The monument calls him a "public spirited citizen and a distinguished advocate of Religious Liberty." Makemie taught himself law and argued cases for religious liberty in Colonial courts. There's also the reference on the monument to the fact that "he suffered under the Governor of New York." In 1707, Makemie was arrested for preaching without a license in New York. The trial was a bit of a circus. The prosecutor was none other than the governor of New York himself, and Makemie was his own defense attorney. In the end, Makemie was acquitted.

Makemie died in 1708. He lived a remarkable life in service to God and His people, especially in his work in the founding of American Presbyterianism.