1810
Samuel
Donnell in list of elders and representatives present
[Source: Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
March 20-22, 1810]
1811
Messrs. William
Bumpass, David
McLin, William
Barnett, and Samuel Donnell each delivered a discourse
from the subjects assigned them at our last Presbytery, which
were sustained.
...
Ordered, that
Mr. Samuel Donnell prepare a discourse from Romans iii.
28, to be delivered at our next Presbytery.
[Source: Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
March 19-22, 1811]
1811
Ordered,
that Messrs. Robert
Donnell, Samuel Donnell, William
Barnett, David
McLin, William
Bumpass, and Philip
McDaniel [sic: McDonnold], be required to stand an examination
on English Grammar at our next stated Presbytery.
Mr. Samuel Donnell delivered a discourse from Rom. III,
28, which was sustained as part of trial.
Ordered, that Mr. Samuel Donnell prepare a discourse from
John III, 16, to be delivered at our next stated session.
[Source: Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
October 9-11, 1811]
1812
Samuel
Donnell delivered a discourse from John III, 16, which was
sustained as part of trial.
...
Ordered,
that Samuel Donnell prepare a discourse from Psalms CXIX,
165.
[Source: Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
April 7-9, 1812]
1812
Ordered,
that Messrs. Samuel
McSpadin, Ezekiel
Cloyd, and Samuel Donnell spend, each of them,
two months on the Nashville circuit.
[Source:
Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
November 3-6, 1812]
1813
Messrs.
Samuel
McSpadin, Samuel Donnell, and James Stewart,
being candidates for the ministry, were called upon to read their
discourses.
Members present as yesterday, and resumed
the consideration of Samuel Donnell's discourse and James
Stewart's, the former of which was sustained as a popular
discourse. The latter was sustained as a part of trials.
Presbytery
proceeded to the examination of Messrs. Samuel
McSpadin and Samuel Donnell upon those necessary
points of trial previous to licensure, which were unanimously
sustained; and having received a good report of their moral characters,
and of their being in communion of the Church, they were called
upon, this 9th day of April, 1813, and after answering satisfactorily
the necessary questions proposed to candidates for the ministry,
the Presbytery did, and hereby do, license them, the said Samuel
McSpadin and Samuel Donnell, to preach the gospel
of Christ, as probationers for the holy ministry within the bounds
of this Presbytery or wherever they shall be orderly called.
[Source: Minutes
of Cumberland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
April 6-9, 1813]
1814
The following
brief sketch of the Synod that acted on the report of the committee,
and adopted the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian
church, is from E. Curry, Esq., who was present on the occasion:
"The Synod
met at Sugg's Creek, Wilson County, Tenn., on the 5th of April
1814.
...
A little back, lay Samuel Donnell, brother of Robert,
in an advanced stage of consumption, who seemed to be a kind of
concordance, to whom all applied for scriptural proof."
[Source: Lowry, David. Life
and Labors of the Late Rev. Robert Donnell: Of Alabama, Minister
of the Gospel in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Alton, Ill.: S. V. Crossman, printer, 1867, page 40]