The Anglican Church in Colonial Monmouth County, New Jersey

Part II – Growth and Prosperity

Abstract

The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church (and since 1789 in the United States as the Protestant Episcopal Church), made its entry into the area south of the Raritan River in New Jersey by 1700. Beginning in 1702, missionaries sent to America by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts served Monmouth County whenever possible in spite of the often-dangerous ferry crossing at Perth Amboy. The Society finally assigned missionaries full time to the area beginning in 1733. From then through the years of the American Revolution, the three Anglican congregations that evolved in Shrewsbury, Middletown, and Freehold depended on the Society for much of their support. This article, the second of three, tells the story of the Anglican Church in Monmouth County from 1751 through 1774. This was a period of steady growth and increasing prosperity led for more than two decades by the Rev. Samuel Cooke, a faithful missionary sent to the area by the SPG. The final article will focus on the depredations and difficulties faced by the Anglicans of Monmouth County and their churches during the years of the American Revolution when many (but not all) of them became Loyalists.