Rev. Walter B. Gillette, the present incumbent, was installed. Besides these pastors, other ministers have, at different times, been connected with this church, who have removed to other fields of labour.
This church occupies a very pleasant situation, about thirty miles from the city of New York.
SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCH, PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY.
This church, a branch of the former, was organized in 1838, and Lucius Crandall, first as licentiate and subsequently as pastor, assumed the spiritual charge; in which relation he still continues.
Both these churches are very wealthy and highly intelligent, and occupy a distinguished position in the denomination.
SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCH, SHILOH, NEW JERSEY.
This church dates to a very early period. So long ago as 1695, an itinerant minister of the Seventh-day Baptist persuasion, named Jonathan Davis, removed from Long Island to the State of New Jersey, where he settled near Trenton, and preached until his death, which occurred in 1750.
Elder Davis visited Cohansey, where his nephews resided, one of whom, also named Jonathan Davis, was a minister, and a principal agent in gathering this church, which was constituted in 1737, and consisted of twenty members, some of whom were emigrants from Piscataway. Elder Davis continued to serve this church until his death, in 1769. During his ministry their first meeting-house was erected. It stands on a lot of one acre of ground, which was donated to them by Mr. Caleb Ayars. The burial-ground, as might be supposed, contains many time-honoured monuments.
Rev. Jonathan Davis, his successor in the ministry, was of Welsh extraction, and the son of Rev. David Davis, a distinguished minister of the Welsh Tract Church. He was born in 1734, received ordination in 1768, and installed as pastor of the church upon the death of his predecessor, in which relation he continued until his death in 1785. Elder Davis was eminently distinguished for sound judgment, great stability, and moral worth. He was universally beloved, and the church, under his ministry, attained a considerable degree of strength and permanence.