As early as 1680 several families of Irish Presbyterians settled in the lower counties of Maryland and erected several houses of worship, as a letter from one of them, Colonel William Stevens, was presented in 1680 to the Laggan Presbytery in Ireland, requesting that a minister by sent to labor in Maryland, and in 1683 the Rev. Francis Makemie arrived by the way of Barbadoes and founded the church at Snow Hill. For several years he labored as an itinerant preacher or missionary, founding churches or strengthening those already started. “This pioneer of the church,” says a Presbyterian authority, “was born in County Donegal, Ireland, and was so earnest, fearless and indefatigable that he persevered so well in obtaining fellow laborers, though he must cross the ocean for them, and in 1704 brought out two young men, one being John Hampton, a fellow countryman. He was instrumental in organizing the first classical assembly of the Presbyterian church in America, 1706.” Under the name of the “Presbytery of Philadelphia,” with the Presbytery of Dublin as a model, Makemie being elected moderator and thus logically becoming the founder of organized Presbyterianism in America. In 1716 there arrived in New York the Rev. William Tennent with his three sons, Gilbert, William, Jr., and John, from the County Armagh. After a period of labor in New York State he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Neshiminy, Penn., where he established “The Log College” in 1726, himself an eminent scholar. He trained a number of godly and useful young men for the ministry, among who were Samuel Blair and his own three sons. This college was the foundation of which the present Princeton University was built and all those whom I have mentioned, as well as others who graduated, became leaders in the denomination. It would be superfluous for me to weary you with an account of all the great Presbyterian ministers who came to our shores from the Emerald Isle. Suffice to say that the names of Makemie, Mackie, Hampton, Tennent, Blair, Drs. Neill, Junkin, Elliott, Murry, Allison, Potts, Patterson and Hall stand out in letters of gold in the successful history of that church.