Reverend George Duffield's Revolutionary War Pulpit On Pine Street

Reverend George Duffield's Revolutionary War Pulpit On Pine Street. . , In 1730, the Duffield family immigrated to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where they purchased farmland Born in 1732, George, named for his father, pursued a religious education, graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and returned to Lancaster County as an ordained preacher. His early career was in the western Allegheny wilderness, bearing "words of courage and good cheer and hope" to scattered white settlers and to indigenous peoples., Rev. Duffield was a "New Side" Presbyterian, influenced in the spiritual revivals of the First Great Awakening. He accepted a call to serve the Old Pine Street Church against the wishes of many "Old Side" Presbyterians., On his first Sunday morning as our minister, he arrived to the church to find that the doors had been locked by "Old Side" sympathizers. This provoked people to flood into the church. Due to the crowd, Duffield's supporters lifted and passed him through a window and he took his place in the pulpit., Soon a civil magistrate arrived and ordered Duffield to step down or be guilty of disobeying the Riot Act. Robert Knox, a future colonel of the Revolutionary War, lifted the magistrate in the air and tossed him out the door, saying, "Be gone! And disturb no more the worship of God!" Returning to his pew, he said, "Go on, Mr. Duffield." Overnight, Duffield reportedly became one of the city's most famous preachers.