Sharon Church organized after families left Presbyterian churches over Watts's Hymns

Context

This passage appears in the “Sketches of Congregations” section of the Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The author is providing the origin story of Sharon Church in York County, South Carolina. The account traces the church’s founding directly to the introduction of Watts’s Hymns in nearby Presbyterian congregations, which caused families to withdraw and seek affiliation with the Associate Reformed denomination.

Extract

Sharon church is situated in the western part of York Co., S. C., and was organized by Rev. James Rogers in the summer of 1796. Its origin is due to the introduction of Watt’s Hymns into Bullock’s Creek and Beersheba Presbyterian churches. Owing to this innovation, a number of families left these churches and were organized into an Associate Reformed Church. In the winter of 1796 Sharon united with Bethany in the northern part of the county and Carmel in the southern part of the county in a call to Rev. William Dixon, recently came from Scotland.

Significance

This extract provides direct evidence of denominational realignment caused by the psalmody controversy at the congregational level. The founding of Sharon Church demonstrates the pattern central to the book’s thesis: the introduction of Watts’s compositions into Presbyterian worship drove families to leave and affiliate with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which maintained exclusive psalmody. The passage explicitly states the church’s “origin is due to” the hymn innovation, making the causal link unmistakable. Combined with the similar origins of Bethany and Carmel churches in the same region, this establishes a pattern of multiple ARP congregations emerging directly from Presbyterian psalmody disputes in the Carolina piedmont during the 1790s.