Francis Makemie
Francis Makemie, born in the mid-seventeenth century in County Donegal, Ireland, is recognized as a pivotal figure in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the son of Scottish parents and, after graduating from the University of Glasgow, he faced restrictions as a Presbyterian that barred him from attending Irish universities. In the early 1680s, Makemie emigrated to the American colonies, where he served as a minister across several regions, including North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, for over twenty years. A notable traveling evangelist, he published influential works, including a catechism that promoted the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Makemie's contributions included organizing support for the formation of the first American Presbytery and advocating for religious tolerance. He was also the first minister to preach outside the Anglican tradition under the Tolerance Act. His life was marked by challenges, including an arrest for preaching without a license, but he successfully fought these charges, which highlighted the struggles for religious freedom at the time. Makemie passed away in 1708, leaving a legacy as a foundational figure in American Presbyterianism, and was survived by his wife, Naomi, and two daughters. His life's work and writings remain significant in the history of religious development in America.
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Francis Makemie
Religious Leader
- Born: c. 1658
- Birthplace: Near Ramelton, County Donegal, Northern Ireland
- Died: 1708
- Place of death: Accomack County, Virginia
Biography
Francis Makemie, best known as the founder of the Presbyterian Church in America and for producing writings most critical to the Church’s development, was born in the mid-seventeenth century to Scottish parents in County Donegal, Ireland. Barred from attending the Irish University as a Presbyterian, Makemie graduated from the University of Glasgow and was ordained by the Laggan Presbytery. In the early 1680’s, he went to the American colonies, where he was a minister for more than twenty years until his death.
Initially he traveled to North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Barbados. While working as a traveling evangelist, he published a catechism that popularized the Westminster Confession, which he avidly supported. This catechism was opposed by Quaker George Keith, to whom Makemie responded in An Answer to George Keith’s Libel, Against a Catechism Published, by Francis Makemie: To Which Is Added, by Way of Postscript, a Brief Narrative of a Late Difference Among the Quakers, Begun at Philadelphia (1694). Makemie’s works, all of which were published late in his life, centered on the founding and promotion of the Presbyterian Church in North America.
In the late 1690’s Makemie wed Naomi Anderson, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Virginia, and inherited a large portion of his father-in-law’s wealth upon his death that same year. Makemie used his means to become a successful merchant to bring in funds, as there was no organized religious foundation as yet for Presbyterians in the colonies. Makemie and his wife settled on the eastern shore of Virginia, where he secured a license to preach at two of his homes. Under the Tolerance Act, Makemie had the distinction of becoming the first minister to preach doctrine not associated with the Anglican Church.
In the beginning years of the eighteenth century, Makemie published A Plain and Friendly Perswasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for Promoting Towns and Cohabitation (1705). It was also during this time that he organized support in England for a small group of Presbyterian and independent ministers to form the first American Presbytery.
Upon his return to the colonies, Makemie was arrested on the order of Lord Cornbury of New York under the aegis of preaching without a license. Makemie was acquitted but forced to pay all court costs, including that of the prosecution. Cornbury continued the harassment, and Makemie published the original sermon for which he was arrested and the story of his harassment in A Narrative of a New and Unusual American Imprisonment, of Two Presbyterian Ministers: And Prosecution of Mr. Francis Makemie One of Them, for Preaching One Sermon at the City of New- York, just a year before his death in 1708. A year later, the exposure of Cornbury’s practices resulted in his recall and legislation in New York prohibiting the costs of prosecution to be charged to a defendant. Makemie was survived by a wife and two daughters.