The following article appeared in the Orange County Post on Thursday, April 14, 1966, page 10.

"BIG" LITTLE BRITAIN HAD WIDE BOUNDARIES IN EARLY DAYS; RECEIVED NAME FROM PETER MULLINER WHO SETTLED IN 1729.

By Margaret V. S. Wallace

It’s boundaries were wide. In the early days it was considered to be the whole western half of the town of New Windsor. That means it extended from the Falls House and the Square on the east to what is now called Rock Tavern on the west. Rock Tavern was originally a tavern in Little Britain.

Rock Tavern Station and Post Office which for a time was called Rocklet, and both in the same building, came with the Ontario and Western Railroad. This was all part of Little Britain. It was truly Big Little Britain in it’s extent, it’s famous people, it’s institutions, it’s patriotism and historic events.

It’s churches: it had four, well, almost four. Peter Mulliner settled on his farm in 1729 and named it Little Britain, and the name spread to the whole region. He was a Church of England man and very decided in his views. It is said he was friendly to his neighbors six days of the week but would not speak to them on the Lord’s Day.

He set aside a half acre for a Church of England church and another half acre for a cemetery. The cemetery was used mostly by Mulliners and Wellings. It is on Little Britain Road opposite the end of Bull Road. The church never got further than his mind and heart.

Little Britain had two Methodist Churches. They were not established next, but disappeared next. “Little Zion on the Hill” stood near the northwest corner of Pig Lane, [corrected in a later article to northeast corner], or if you prefer, Jackson Avenue north, and the Little Britain Road

It was build in 1853 by Harvey Alexander, carpenter. The second Methodist church of Little Britain stood at the extreme western edge of the town on the north side of Little Britain Road about where a round tower now stands.

The two churches were one parish. This latter building disappeared years ago so that very few remember it. The church near Pig Lane was prosperous in its early years, the auditorium often filled for both morning and evening meetings. Methodist Conference records are incomplete, but here is one report.

In 1867 Little Britain had two churches, two Sunday Schools, 53 members, 250 books in the Sunday School Library; expenses were $600.00. It was usually in a circuit, sharing it’s pastor with one or more other churches. It was still functioning in 1889, perhaps longer. The building stood idle for some years. Later it was used by the town for road machinery.

It burned when the aqueduct was being built and was replaced by a cement block building. The cemetery in back was once well ordered with a chart of graves. Now the chart is lost and the grave stones toppled and broken. There is in the Museum at Washington’s Headquarters, Newburgh, a copy of the inscriptions on the stones, only 25 or more and there has been an effort recently to preserve what is left of the stones.

The first building of the Little Britain Presbyterian Church was erected in 1765. The early settlers came in the a720’s. We can be sure they did not wait till the 1760’s to meet as a church. Charles Clinton is listed as an elder of the Bethlehem Church in 1739.

It is probable that others too drove that long distance, but not all of them. We have a record of McDowell’s meeting house, “the church in the house.” The original McDowell house is thought to be the house still standing down a long lane to the west, off Jackson Avenue south, right at the foot of what was more recently called Buchanan’s hill.

There used to be an entrance to this place from the original lay-out of the Little Britain Road. Mathew McDowell and his wife are buried near the top of the hill on their own farm. This house, then, may be the first meeting place of the Little Britain Presbyterian Church.

The Rev. John Cuthbertson was sent as a missionary to America by the Covenanter Church of Scotland. For 40 years he journeyed up and down from Maryland to Massachusetts. These entries are in his diary:
Oct. 13, 1760, McDowell’s meeting house.
Nov. 2, 1780, Rode 18 mile to Mathew McDowell’s Meeting House.
1783, Aug. 28, Rode 12 miles to Mathew McDowell’s meeting House.

These last two dates were after the first church was built, which shows that McDowell’s had been a meeting place so long that his name clung to the group after they built their church.

That it was not a separate group from those who built in 1765 is proved by the fact that Matthew McDowell was one of the first elders of the Little Britain Church.

And what a time they had when they built! A document drawn up by Charles Clinton in 1765 shows that a group in Little Britain had belonged to a presbytery for some time, presumably the same presbytery to which the Bethlehem church belonged.

It was a Presbyterian church like the State Church of Scotland. Charles Clinton wanted Little Britain to have that kind of a Presbyterian church. They had a deed for the land. But the Free Church people, the Seceders, acted fast. They got possession of the deed, and the Clinton group was unable to get it back, and so the Clintons continued to be members of the Bethlehem church. The Seceders built an Associate church. The land was furnished by Patrick McClaughry.

These stalwarts thought and acted according to their convictions. We admire them. For some years they had supply preachers sent by the Associate Presbytery, or one of their own number preached. The first pastor came in 1768. He was the Rev. Robert Annan, a powerful preacher from Scotland. He served the Neeleytown church too, another Associate church, and he lived in Neeleytown.

He was a patriot as well as a preacher. Rhode Island had appealed to New York for supplies during the Revolution, but New York felt too poor. Several towns held meetings to see if they could help. In one such meeting, the arguments were long. Mr. Annan stood up and said, “As many as are in favor of assisting the people of Rhode Island and the cause of liberty, follow me!” And they all did.

Little Britain Presbyterian church celebrated its centennial in 1857, for they knew the church was started as early as 1757. In the light of the Cuthbertson diary it seems they should have used an earlier date.

During the Revolution many of the men were away at war. The church was depleted, but struggled on. In 1826 it had recovered enough to be able to replace the small building with a fine one that looked just about like the lovely Bethlehem church does now. But around 1900 the folks wanted a new church. They said, “The old one isn’t safe. It will fall down.” They had to dynamite it apart. Now there are some who wish the old church might have been kept.

A new church was built on the same foundation. After the frame was up, they decided to have a slate roof. In just a few years, on a cold snowy winter Sunday the church burned completely. This was fortunate for the frame was not strong enough for so heavy a roof - much less strong than the frame of the old church. Next day two men drove by through the deep snow. One said to the other, “George, am I sober? Where is the church?”

Now Little Britain Presbyterian church has its fourth church building. May the truth always be preached in it as in the old days.

It was an Associate Church when its first building was built. Soon some Covenanters and some Associates united to form the Associate Reformed Church, which the Little Britain church became. When the Associate Reformed church almost died out, the Little Britain church joined the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., just what the Clinton group wanted way back in 1765.

Back to Index of Articles

Created by Elizabeth Finley Frasier

Comments

Created May 15, 2000