Early Churches in Bucks County

Index of Bucks County Churches

• St. John's Lutheran, Spinnerstown, 1734 250 Anniversary

• St. Matthew's Lutheran (i.e. Keller's Church), Bedminster, 1744

• Neshaminy Lutheran Mission, Northampton Twp., 1748

• Peace Lutheran (i.e. Tohickon), Weisel, 1750

• Trinity Lutheran, Pleasant Valley, Springfield Twp., 1751

• St. Luke's Lutheran, Ferndale, Nockamixon Twp., 1752 Christ's Lutheran, Lower Tinicum, 1760

• Sellersville, 1768

• St. John's Lutheran, Ridge Valley, 1789-92 Durham Lutheran, 1790

• These are all the Lutheran church founded in Bucks County prior to 1800. Many of these were union churches with German Reformed congregations founded about the same time at the same location.

• On the Mennonite side, Deep Run in Bedminster was found in the 1740's. Swamp church in Milford Twp. probably also pre-dates 1762.

Submitted By Tom Myers

This Church listing was submitted by Joel Michaelson

• Neshaminy Presbyterian Church Of Warminster And Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks, Pennsylvania.

Old Southampton Baptist Church

It may have originally been called the Pennypack (or Pennepack) Church. The Potts estate indenture listed, and shown, in the Bucks County archives is the estate of Joshua Potts, first minister of Southampton.

Submitted by Mary A Largen m_largen@juno.com

Would like to find its exact location.

The following was sent in reponse to the question of finding the exact location. Husband's early ancestors, Thomas Webster (1726-1809) is buried in what was then called ...Pennypack Baptist, in Lower Dublin/Philadelphia. From Martha Webster

Its on
Krewstown Road in Philadelphia, many of my ancestors (Thomas Beans, Griffith
Miles, and their familles) are buried there. A very interesting place, it was
founded in 1688 by people that were originally Keathien Quakers.  If you want
to see it come to Philadelphia, Rt. 1 south, make a right on Grant Ave. Go
past Bustleton Ave. make a left on Krewstown Rd. about a 1/2 mile on your
right. The cematery is on both sides of the road.                 
           Ken Ferris

St John The Bapt. RC Church, Haycock twp, Bucks, PA This includes early Marriage and Christenings Records

Submitted by Shirley at  lsbuirch@caltel.com

Richland Monthly Meeting House in Quakertown Boro.  A Quaker church.

The Bensalem Presbyterian Church on Bristol Rd in Bensalem is the oldest non-quaker church still worshipping on the same acreage of land since it was formally established in 1705.  We will be celebrating our 300th Anniversary next year.  Many famous pastors were a part of our heritage, including Jedidiah Andrews, Malachi Jones, William Tennent, Hugh Williamson, M.D. (Also a Physician, Constitutional Delegate from North Carolina & friend of Ben Franklin), and James Boyd during the 1700’s and 1800’s. 

You may visit our website at: http://www.bensalempresbyterianchurch.org/

Submitted by Irene Tomchik Church Historian

St. James the Greater - Bristol Pennsylvania

http://www.stjamesbristol.org/history.html  Beautiful photos on the website.

In the 1690s, George Keith, an Englishman and former Quaker, appealed to the people of Bristol to embrace Anglican worship. In 1702, he returned to England to study for Holy Orders and after ordination, he was sent to Bristol as the first missionary dispatched by the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. John Talbot, chaplain of the ship on which Keith traveled, decided to join him. Talbot settled in Burlington, NJ, and built St. Mary’s Church while Keith busied himself baptizing people on the Pennsylvania shore. He returned to England in 1704 and served as rector of St. Andrew’s parish in Edburton, Sussex, in far southeastern England until his death on March 27, 1716.

In the first decade of the 1700s, Talbot came from Burlington by rowboat and ministered to the “Keithians,” as those here were known. On land given by Anthony Burton and John Rowland, the first church was built and consecrated on the feast day of St. James the Greater, July 25, 1712. St. James was the first church in Bristol (the third oldest town in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and Chester) and the only Episcopal church in Bucks County for 119 years. Under the leadership of the Rev. George W. Ridgely (rector, 1830-1833) St. James helped establish mission churches at Hulmeville (Grace) and Newtown (St. Luke’s). Ridgely then moved to St. Luke’s and from there helped to found St. Andrew’s, Yardley and Trinity, Buckingham.

Gothic in architecture, the original church was built of Trenton field stone with bead moldings and corbels. The church flourished until anti-British feeling in the 1770s made it an unpopular place (the Episcopal Church did not yet exist, and the parish was part of the Church of England). The church was abandoned by clergy and members, vandalized and left as a shell of a building, and used by American troops for stabling horses during the Revolutionary War. After the war, the little church eventually was restored and expanded.

In 1784, St. James was represented in Philadelphia, along with nine other colonial parishes, to establish the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and two years later to elect the first Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. William White. The little church was torn down in 1856 and the present building was built in 1857 at a cost of $10,000.

Early Churches with Bucks County Records in New Jersey

St Mary's Church Burlington County New Jersey