All of our seven Congregational books include valuable information on Presbyterian churches!

Both Congregational and Presbyterian churches are parts of the Reformed tradition that took root in English-speaking areas. Pilgrims and Puritans (Congregationalists) fled to America and founded what became English colonies. Puritan Congregational churches were founded, not only in New England, but also in the majority of the English colonies in the 1600's. A small growth of Scotch-Irish and Scottish Presbyterian churches in the colonies began in the 1670's.

Things changed dramatically in the first decade of the eighteenth century. The royal government in New York seized Puritan church buildings to turn them over to Anglican congregations, and arrested Scotch-Irish minister Francis Makemie for preaching without a license. The new Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel funded missionaries to start Anglican congregations in non-Anglican areas of the colonies. On the other hand, the unification of Scotland and England as Great Britain in 1708 opened the door for massive Scottish migration to America. Congregational leaders in New England urged their sister churches in the Middle Atlantic colonies to cooperate with the growing number of Presbyterian churches in resisting Anglican domination. The first Presbytery in America was founded in Philadelphia in a congregation whose pastor, Jedidiah Andrews, was a Massachusetts native and a Harvard graduate. One by one many of the Congregational churches outside New England began to join presbyteries. The two oldest churches in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. (Southampton and Southold, Long Island) both began as Congregational churches, as did the oldest Presbyterian churches in New Jersey. The first three Presidents of Princeton University were all born and educated in New England.

After American independence, and the opening of the west for settlement, in 1801, the Presbyterian General Assembly and the Congregational General Association of Connecticut agreed to a “Plan of Union,” that would end competition between the two groups in new western communities by allowing for churches with mixed memberships, and pastors of either tradition serving those congregations. In the years following most New England Congregational state bodies endorsed the Plan as well. In 1808 the Presbyterian General Assembly approved an “accommodation plan” that permitted Congregational churches to join presbyteries maintaining their own local practices, and allowing their committee members to represent them in the various Presbyterian judicatories. Many Congregational associations disbanded and most of their churches and clergy joined presbyteries.

However, opposition to the two plans grew. The Presbyterian Church divided in 1837 with the majority (Old School) ending the cooperation, while the minority (New School) continued the plans. A Congregational Convention in 1852 also ended participation in the plans, though many Congregational churches remained in New School presbyteries until around the time of the Old and New School reunification in 1869/1870.

Our New England book, New York State in our Middle Atlantic book, and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio's Western Reserve in our Great Lakes books, include all Presbyterian churches in those areas before 1838, and all New School churches before 1852. In all other areas and in all seven books, movement of churches in both denominations is documented. Our New England book also documents Presbyterian churches in smaller Presbyterian denominations before1838.

Interestingly, reversing the accommodation, Presbyterian churches were members of majority Congregational bodies in such varied areas a New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Oregon. Cooperative work through various mission groups founded many churches, provided outreach to Native Americans, and laid the foundations of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association.