Beginnings.

Among the earliest Puritan settlers in New England were many with a presbyterial orientation in which ministers and elders from congregations formed the governing body within a given district. When the Presbyterians gained ascendancy during the English Civil War, New England nearly adopted their view that church membership should be open to all who followed God's commandments and that congregations should relinquish some of their authority to higher councils of ministers and elders in order to maintain standards and prevent unscriptural practices and theological errors from creeping into the church. When this did not come to pass, individual congregations quietly followed presbyterian practices under either a Congregational or Presbyterian minister.

Makemie.

The Irish Presbyterian minister Francis Makemie is credited with joining these scattered congregations into an organized denomination. An inveterate traveler, he first arrived in 1683 to journey throughout the mainland colonies and Barbados, preaching...