History: Trinity Church in the Revolutionary War. . .

The Rev. Nicholas Collin preached his first sermon at Raccoon on June 3, 1770. Throughout his period at the Raccoon and Penns Neck parishes, Collin maintained a Journal which provides much insight to life, church activities, members and most importantly the tumultuous period of the Revolutionary War. His correspondence to family and friends left in his homeland of Sweden also provide insight to life in America. He makes reference to missing the ladies from home and notes that the" general defect of women in America is that they lose their teeth before they are twenty". The severe heat bothered him and he complained that there were "no heathens to defend my faith against". All in all he did not regret his journey to New Sweden. He preached twice on Sundays and had to travel from 2-3 Swedish miles, equal to 12-18 English miles between Raccoon and Penns Neck. He prepared an orchard at Raccoon and experimented with grafting and collected botanical and other specimens that he shipped to Sweden. He made observations of the weather, gathered information about animals, insects, trees, bushes and plants. With the aid of the schoolteacher, he established a circulating library, perhaps the first public library in Western New Jersey. In spare time he made frequent journeys to Philadelphia establishing friendships with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other great thinkers of the time.

During the Revolution he suffered and was often without sufficient food and clothing but describes life in the area as being otherwise normal with marriages, funerals and baptisms. In the year 1777, he was accused of being pro-English and taken prisoner. He describes being "under close guard by a strong escort with loaded guns and fixed bayonets, and judging from their barbaric expressions I often expected death, especially as many were drunk and fired several salvos for their own amusement". Fortunately a Doctor Otto arrived and obtained his release by going bail. The following day he was asked to take the oath of allegiance to the new Government or go to the English camp. He negotiated with the authorities and took "the oath with explicit reservation to remain neutral and to do nothing which would be unworthy of me as a Swedish subject". He complains later that his sermons, given without any political reference, were often misinterpreted. Collin visited some of his worst persecutors on their deathbed because it was "no more than a Christian duty". In September of 1777, the English got possession of the part of the river which touches Penns Neck and Raccoon congregations. "From that time on, there was a constant alarm by straying parties and the militia marching to and fro; Divine services were often interrupted on account of it". Collin was arrested in October and threatened with hanging but finally released. He prayed with wounded Hessians and describes the pitiable sight of some without arms or legs and those dying in great agony. His Journal notes that "three members of the congregation lost their lives this autumn through this unhappy war". During one funeral in the church, several of the man's army comrades played ball at the nearby tavern. Collin describes them as "people not particularly gifted with tender and fine feelings". For two or three months around Christmas a number of the militia were quartered in Swedesboro. And Collin's house was so crowded at times he had only one room unoccupied.

"On the last of February 1778, the American General Anthony Wayne passed through with a detachment of 300 men, miserably clothed, some without boots, others without socks." Wayne arrived 12 o'clock at night and took up quarters in Collin's house. He escaped the following day as a regiment of English infantry came to attack him. Collin was again confronted by the English soldiers who he said "are undisciplined and cannot always be controlled". From then until the end of June conditions were in a rather wretched state. People began to trade with the English to obtain sugar, tea, syrup and strong liquors, which Collin said were "much used here". Everywhere distrust, fear, hatred and abominable selfishness were met with. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, wife and husband were enemies to one another. The militia and refugees on one side and the Englishmen on the other were plundering and destroying, burning houses and whipping and imprisoning each other. At the end of March 15 persons, who had traded with the English, were arrested; half of them belonged to the congregation. They were kept imprisoned for one night in the schoolhouse at Raccoon Church then marched off to the country. On April 4, 300 refugees and English troops arrived and "burnt down the schoolhouse because their friends had been prisoners there". The militia arrived, took up positions in a wooded hill and began to fire on the English. Collin notes that "both parties aimed so badly that the bullets flew in all directions so that it was best to stay inside". On Easter Day a member of the congregation was tied to a pine tree near the church and whipped. Some days later he died. In May," a division of American troops was stationed in Swedesborough for some weeks". They took up quarters in the church "and filled it with filth and vermin so that no Divine service could be held" and Collin had to preach in private houses. Collin describes members of the congregation lost cattle; Dr. Bodo Otto's house was burnt down by refugees, property was taken, some arrested and taken to New York as prisoners for several months. He describes militia captain Brown's house being pillaged with his wife and her mother hardly left with necessary wearing apparel and bedclothes.

In 1779, Collin was visiting many congregation members in prisons. In the middle of January all had been pardoned. He describes, in detail, spending the last hours with the condemned man in spiritual meditation. At one o'clock "I led him to the place of execution, and invoked a general prayer. Thereupon he was hung and quickly died. In accordance with his desire, I held his hand until the end".

Collin notes that his Journal is a "brief summary of the distressful adventures during three years brought on me and the congregations. He thanked "God Almighty, Who gave me strength to go through this fiery ordeal with Christian steadfastness and the good conscience of never having taken a step from the path of honor either from hope or fear."