Presbytery of Philadelphia (1706-1716)

found: A circular letter to the churches under the care of the Synod of Missouri, 1842:p. 3 (Presbytery of Philadelphia)

found: PPPrHi files(In approximately 1706, several churches of Presbyterian principals associated themselves into an ecclesiastical court known as the Presbytery of Philadelphia, or simply, The Presbytery. This was done voluntarily, by their own vote, without an order from any higher court. In 1716 this body divided itself into four presbyteries, meeting as a presbytery of the whole in 1717 under the name of the Synod of Philadelphia. In 1741 this Synod was rent by controversy into factions known as Old Side and New Side. Another synod called the Synod of New York was established by the seceding (New Side) churches in 1745. The two synods existed as opposing bodies until 1757 when they reunited under the name of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia; they continued to act from 1758 until 1788, when they reconstituted themselves into four different synods, resolving to meet in 1789 as a synod of the whole, called the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., a denomination which theretofore had not existed)