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BI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS AT FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND 1695-1895
Gc 974.7 F91b 1667548
M.I
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 4979
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/bicentennialanni00soci
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BI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY -
OF
N.Y.
Ur. NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING
OF THE
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
AT
L.1
FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND,
1695 - 1895.
FRIENDS' BOOK AND TRACT COMMITTEE, NO. 45 EAST TENTH STREET. NEW YORK.
1667548
. 1695 1895
Bi-Centennial Anniversary
OF
New York Yearly Meeting
OF THE
Religious Society of Friends
AT
FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND
DEAR FRIEND:
Will thee, after reading, please pass this pamphlet around among thy friends and acquaintances, Friends and others. for perusal?
ROBERT S. HAVILAND, Chairman.
IN 1894 the Yearly Meetings of the two bodies of Friends in New York decided to observe with suitable exercises, in 1895, the two hundredth anniversary of the establishment of New York Yearly Meeting, and each referred the matter to its Representative Com- mittee. Each of these appointed Special Committees with authority to arrange for a joint celebration. The meetings of these committees were characterized by much kindness and courtesy, and it was arranged to hold the celebration on the 29th of Fifth month, at Flushing, where the Yearly Meeting was held during its first eighty-two years. The Town Hall, having the largest audience room in the place, was secured for the purpose of the meeting. It was arranged that the exercises should consist of an historical address, a poem, and addresses upon " What Friends have Done for the World " and " Woman's Position in the Society of Friends."
The meeting was held at the time designated. The attendance was very large, and the occasion proved of great interest. Robert S. Haviland, of Chappaqua, N. Y., presided, by the appointment of the Committee of Arrangements, and at the opening of the meeting made some appropriate remarks and read the 90th Psalm. After a time of silence prayer was offered by Ruth S. Murray, of New England Yearly Meeting. The program was then carried out as arranged.
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COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS.
ROBERT S. HAVILAND, Chairman. IL
WILLIAM H. S. WOOD,
AARON M. POWELL,
JAMES WOOD,
WILLIAM M. JACKSON,
STEPHEN T. BIRDSALL, MARIANNA W. CHAPMAN,
JAMES B. CHASE, PHEBE C. WRIGHT.
ROBERT I. MURRAY, Secretary.
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OPENING ADDRESS.
ROBERT S. HAVILAND.
ONE of our wise men has said that if we are to hold a man to strict account for all his actions, he should have been allowed to choose his grandparents.
We have not been thus privileged, but it is our privilege to-day to ratify the choice that has been made for us and to rejoice in the memory of a godly ances- try, whose earnest efforts in the cause of truth have enriched our lives with so much that makes life of value.
Two hundred years of Minding the Light ought to have rewarded us with a strengthened and enlarged vision.
That the eye has been sufficiently single to effect these results we may well question of ourselves to-day.
We welcome you Friends, all, to this joint celebra- tion of the two hundredth anniversary of the estab- lishment of New York Yearly Meeting of Friends.
We welcome you to this historic ground, where for nearly the first century of its existence the Yearly Meeting had its home, and from out whose peaceful shades the settlers early went forth to found new settle- ments of Friends in the wilds of Westchester and Dutchess and northerly to within the Canadian border. We welcome you as Friends in fact as well as in name.
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THE BI-CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING.
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH.
BY JAMES WOOD.
THE progress of Christian doctrine in the Protestant Reformation in Great Britain was by slow and irregular stages. During the reign of Henry VIII., the de- parture from Rome was more in outward form and government than in real principles, and much that was gained under Edward VI. was lost during the reign of Mary. As freedom of thought and discussion asserted themselves during the following three-quarters of a cen- tury, there was great commotion in religious affairs, and a multitude of sects sprang into existence. The national church of England at first took but a short step in the new direction, and afterward increased the distance with great caution. The new sects took their stand with more or less disregard of the past, some upon one doc- trine or practice, some upon another, but they were all, though in varying degrees, compromises with Rome, each retaining some doctrine or practice, some ordinan- ces or ritual, that still identified it with the system of the old hierarchy.
If the crucial distinction between Catholicism and Protestantism is correctly expressed in the formula of Schleiermacher, that "Catholicism makes the believer's relation to Christ depend upon his relation to the church, while Protestantism makes the relation of the believer to the church depend upon his relation to Christ," then a remnant of Catholicism, more or less pronounced, was found wherever any churchly rite or ceremony was re- quired, or wherever any trace of sacerdotalism was continued.
It was not until one hundred years had expired after the Reformation began, that it reached its cul-
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mination in the progress of doctrine by a severance from Catholicism that was complete and absolute. It was given to George Fox to see and to declare that the troubled soul can find access to and acceptance with God without the intervention of any human priest, or ordinance, or ceremony whatsoever. His presentation of the doctrine of the abiding of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the believer contained the most exalting truth ever announced to man as pertaining to his existence here. Thomas Carlyle has called this a revelation of " the divine idea of the universe," and it led him to declare that the preaching of Fox was " the most re- markable incident in modern history."
With the spread of the new doctrine in nearly all ranks of society in England, and the growth of the new organization until the kingdom swarmed with its ad- herents, it is not our present purpose to deal. It was not long before the advocates of the new doctrine crossed the Atlantic, and the history of Friends in America be- gan. As is well known, its earliest chapters were darkened by persecution and blood, but they were made brilliant by steadfast faith and holy endurance. In considering these persecutions we must remember the times in which they occurred. Justice requires that we shall bear in mind how lightly human life was regarded, how little personal liberty was esteemed, and how hard was the public sense in regard to corporal punishment. In England there were almost numberless offences punishable with death, and the stocks, the pillory and the whipping-post found victims with trivial excuse.
It is not necessary to speak in detail of the reception given them in Massachusetts. There were two sides to the dispute. From the Puritan standpoint the Quaker had no right to go there. The Puritans had come to Massachusetts to establish a religious, not a civil, com- monwealth. Only members of their church were eligi- ble to citizenship, all others were merely tolerated. The teachings of the Quaker were subversive of their order, and therefore he was excluded. The Quakers took broader ground. They claimed that as English-
١٣٫٣٠
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men they had the legal right to visit or to live wherever the English flag proclaimed English jurisdiction. This claim rested upon that clause in the Massachusetts charter which expressly guaranteed " all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of the realm : to all Englishmen which shall go to and inhabit Massachusetts," or "which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence." The Quaker stood upon the higher moral and legal ground -- the Puritan had the physical power. The result was one of those sad episodes in history over which, in this age, it is better to throw the mantle of charity, with devout thankfulness that our lot is cast in better times.
The persecutions of the Quakers in Massachusetts turned the stream that continued to cross the Atlantic, and led to the settlement upon Long Island.
Very naturally the Friends looked to the Dutch for religious toleration. The Puritans themselves had gone to Holland to find religious liberty when they had been compelled to flee from England. Many others besides Friends came to Long Island from Massachu- setts to escape the religious restraint there. The first who afterward became connected with Friends was Lady Deborah Moody. She settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1640, and received a grant of four hundred acres of land. "She was a woman of consequence, and was treated with great respect till she fell under discipline and was excommunicated from the church for religious sentiments deemed heretical." Governor Winthrop thus speaks of her in his journal : " In 1643 Lady Moody was in the colony of Massachusetts, a wise and anciently religious woman ; and being taken with the error of denying baptism to infants was dealt withal by many of the elders and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, whereof she was a member ; but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, etc., she removed to the Dutch against the advice of her friends." On Dec. 19th, 1745, Gov. Kieft, of New Amsterdam, issued a general patent for the town of Gravesend,
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Long Island, to Lady Deborah Moody, Sir Henry Moody, her son, George Baxter and James Hubbard, their heirs and successors, " to have and enjoy free liberty of conscience, according to the customs and manners of Holland, without molestation." Gravesend was planted entirely by English settlers from Massa- chusetts, and, unlike the " five Dutch towns," which constituted the rest of the county, the records were kept from the commencement of the settlement in the Eng- lish language. The town was laid out on a very liberal scale, with streets radiating from a central square. For forty years it was the capital of King's County, and there the courts were held. Friends came to Gravesend in considerable numbers in 1656 and '57, and their views met with favor. "Many of the inhabitants readily embraced their doctrines and discipline, and the first regular meeting on the island was organized and maintained here." Naturally, the views upon the rite of baptism which Lady Moody, and probably many of her associates entertained, strengthened in their minds by the harsh treatment they had received both in Mas- sachusetts and in Connecticut, when on their way to Long Island, prepared many of them to adopt the Quaker system when it was introduced among them. Croese says, " Meetings were held at the house of Lady Moody, who managed all things with such prudence and observance of time and place as to give no offence to any person of any other religion, so she and her people remained free from all molestation." Lady Moody received courteous consideration from the Dutch Governors, and for many years had the naming of the Gravesend magistrates. Wm. Bowne, a Friend, was a magistrate there in 1657.
Flushing was settled from the east, probably by dis- senters who were impatient of religious restraint in Massachusetts, and who sought a larger liberty under the Dutch. They were careful to have inserted in their charter granted by Governor Kieft, October 10th, 1645, a clause permitting them " to have and enjoy the liberty of conscience according to the manner and cus-
11
tom of Holland without molestation from any magis- trate or any ecclesiastical minister that may pretend jurisdiction over them." For two years they had no minister. When Stuyvesant succeeded Kieft in the Dutch Governorship in 1647, he urged upon their at- tention the propriety of calling a minister, and recom- mended the Rev. Francis Doughty. He soon settled there, but the people refused to pay his salary of 600 guilders, so that he was compelled to leave, and finally went to Virginia. It has been stated that he subse- quently united with Friends, but I can find no evidence of his having done so. For many years there was no regular preaching at Flushing. The state of religion was thus described by the Dutch ministers, Megapolen- sis and Drisius, in 1657 : " At Flushing they have heretofore had a Presbyterian preacher who conformed to our church, but many of the people became endowed with divers opinions, and it was with them quot homines tot sententiae " (as many creeds as men).
It was in Eighth month, 1657, just ten years after George Fox began to preach in England, that minister- ing Friends came to Long Island and held meetings in Hempstead, Jamaica, Flushing and Gravesend. Rob- ert Hodgson and Robert Fowler were among the num- ber. Settlers of the sect had preceded them, among whom was Richard Smith. Now there began on the part of Governor Stuyvesant a persecution of the Qua- kers only second to that so much better known in Massachusetts. In the instructions given by the Di- rectors of the Dutch West India Company the official oath required " the maintenance of the reform religion in conformity with the decrees of the Synod of Dort- recht, and not to tolerate in public any other sect." In this Stuyvesant had an excuse for a course of conduct which seemed suited to his character. In 1656 he imprisoned some Lutherans, and was sharply reproved therefor by the council of the West India Company. So far as appears, the ministration of the Friends pro- voked no immediate opposition from Governor Stuy- vesant other than the posting of placards forbidding
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" the harboring of Quakers as disturbers of the public peace." The order was the subject of grave delibera- tion at a town meeting held in Flushing, Twelfth month 27th, 1657, at the house of Michael Milner. Tobias Feake, the sheriff, a New England man, drew up a remonstrance, which was signed by thirty of the townsmen. They declared that they could not in con- science lay violent hands upon the Quakers, but should give them free ingress and egress to their town and houses. The Governor was in a rage. He had most of the signers arrested. The sheriff was removed from his office, as also was the town clerk, who had signed the remonstrance. The immediate cause of the meet- ing was the arrest of Henry Townsend, who was fined and imprisoned for holding meetings at his house. Being a person of great worth and consideration, the people were deeply incensed. The signers of the re- monstrance were imprisoned until the 26th of Third month, when they were released, and the Governor, in order to prevent as much as possible the consequences of Quaker influence among the people, resolved to change the municipal government of the town of Flush- ing. After formally pardoning the town for its mutin- ous resolutions, he abolished the town meetings and ordered that a council be chosen from certain respecta- ble citizens. He stated that " in future I shall appoint a sheriff acquainted not only with the English and Dutch languages, but with Dutch practical law, that a tax of twelve stivers per morgen of land be laid upon the inhabitants for the support of the orthodox minis- ter, and such as do not sign a written submission to the same in six weeks may dispose of their property and leave the soil of this government." Robert Hodgson, continuing his preaching, was seized and committed to prison on the accusation of holding conventicles. " A guard was sent from New Amsterdam to bring him before the Governor and council. Two women who had entertained him were also taken, one of whom had a young child. They were put into a cart, and Hodg- son, having been fastened behind it, was dragged through
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the woods by night to the city and thrust into the dun- geon of Fort Amsterdam. On being brought out the next day he was examined, condemned and sentenced to two years hard labor, or to pay a fine of 600 guilders. With the latter alternative he was either unable or un- willing to comply, and was again confined, without permission to see or converse with any one. Being afterwards chained to a wheelbarrow and commanded to work he refused to do so, and was by order of the court beaten by a negro with a tarred rope till he fainted ; the punishment was continued at intervals to one hundred lashes. After having been for some months confined and frequently scourged as before, he was liberated at the solicitation of Gov. Stuyvesant's sister, and banished from the province."
John Bowne was the leading member among Friends, and for many years was regarded as their representative member. The history of their establishment requires some special mention of his coming to America and his acceptance of the doctrines of Friends. He was born at Matlock, in Derbyshire, England, on the 9th of Third month, 1627, and was baptized in the parish church there on the 29th of the same month. His father was Thomas Bowne, who was baptized, as stated in the records, Fifth month 25th, 1595, and he came to America with his son and all his family, except one daughter, and died at Flushing. The family came to America early in 1649.
In Tenth month, 1650, John Bowne returned to England, and again arrived in America in 1651, land- ing at Boston, Fifth month 25th. On Sixth month 15th following, he visited Flushing in company with Edward Farrington, who is supposed to have married his sister Dorothy. The family soon after removed to Flushing and settled there. On Fifth month 7th, 1656, John Bowne and Hannah Field* were married at Flushing, and in 1661 he built the house which was
* The Bowne records give the name Hannah Field, but it is believed by care- ful investigators that her name was Hannah Feake. See N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Record, vol. xi., p. 12.
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used as a meeting-place for Friends for nearly forty years, which is still standing, an historic monument of Flushing, and which has been owned and occupied by his lineal descendants to the present time.
In the year of their marriage Hannah Bowne became acquainted with some of the Friends, who at that time were in the practice of holding meetings for worship in the woods. She soon after became a member. Her husband from curiosity attended a meeting, and was deeply impressed with the beauty and simplicity of their worship. He invited them to meet at his house, and soon after he joined in membership with them.
Meetings had not long been held at the house of John Bowne before complaints were made against him, as appears from the following translation from the Dutch records now preserved in Albany : " Complaints made 24th of August, 1662, by the magistrates of Flushing, that many of the inhabitants are followers of the Quakers who hold their meetings at the house of John Bowne." An ordinance of the West India Company of 1662 provided that " besides the Reformed religion no conventicles should be holden in houses, barns, ships, woods or fields, under the penalty of fifty guild- ers for the first offense, double for the second, and arbi- trary correction for every other."
Under the authority of this ordinance we find that great numbers, including many women, suffered severely, both by direct action of the Governor and by his courts held at Gravesend. John Bowne was arrested Ninth month 1st, 1662, charged with " harboring Quakers and permitting them to hold their meetings at his house." He was then taken a prisoner to Fort Amsterdam, and on the 14th of the same month the " court held by the Lords, Director General and Council at Fort Amster- dam in the Netherlands," entered the following judg- ment : " Because John Bowne, at present prisoner, dwelling at Flushing upon Long Island, has made no scruple in vilipendation of the orders and mandates of the Director General and Council of the New Nether- lands, we do in justice to the high and mighty states of
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the United Provinces and the administrators of the West India Company of the Chamber of Amsterdam, having heard the demand of the substitutes, and the acknowledgment of the prisoner, have condemned and do condemn the said John Bowne by those present- boete-5 and 20 pounds Flemish with the charges of the Justician, and with express admonition and inter- dict to abstain from all such forementioned meetings and conventicles, or else for the second boete he be con- demned in a double boete, and for the third boete to be banished out of this province of New Netherlands." John Bowne refused to pay the fine, and was then con- fined in a dungeon and restricted to bread and water, no person whatever being allowed to speak with him. As this did not change his steadfastness of purpose he was some time afterward taken to the Stadthaus and put in the prison-room there, and was allowed to see his wife and other friends. He was then notified that the Court had resolved that he must pay the fine that had been imposed or be sent out of the country, or he would be set free if he would promise to leave the country in three months. He still remained firm in his purpose not to compromise his principles in any way. On Tenth mo. 21st he was permitted to visit his friends under a promise to return in three days, and on the 31st of that month he was put on board ship and sent a prisoner to Holland. He arrived at Amsterdam on the 29th of Second mo., 1663. The following statement was forwarded by the authorities of New Netherlands to the West India Company : " Honorable, Right Respectable Gentlemen. We omitted in our general letter the trouble and diffi- culties which we and many of our good inhabitants have since sometimes met with, and daily are renewed by the sect called Quakers, chiefly in the county and principally in the English villages, establishing forbid- deu conventicles and frequenting those against our pub- lished placards, and disturbing in a manner the public peace, in so far that several of our magistrates and well- affectioned subjects remonstrated and complained to us
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from time to time of their insufferable obstinacy, unwill- ing to obey our orders or judgement. "Among others has one of their principal leaders named John Bowne, who for his transgressions was, in conformity to the placards, condemned to an amends of 150 Guilders in suevant, who has been now under arrest more than three months for his unwillingness to pay, obstinately persisting in his refusal, in which he still continues, so that we at last resolved, or were rather compelled, to transport him in this ship from this province in the hope that others by it be discouraged. If nevertheless by these means no more salutary impression is made upon others we shall, though against our inclinations, be compelled to prosecute such persons in a more severe manner, and which we previously solicit to be favored with your Honours' wise and foreseeing judgment. With which after our cordial salutations we recommend your Honours to God's protection, and remain, Honour- able and Right Respectable Gentlemen, your Honours' faithful servants."
The officials of the West India company considered the case and drew up a paper for John Bowne to sign. In reply he sent to the company the following dignified statement : " Friends, the paper drawn up for me to subscribe I have perused and weighed, and do find the same not according to that engagement to me through one of your members, viz. : that he or you would do therein by me as you would be done unto, and not otherwise. For which of you being taken from your wife and family, without just cause, would be bound from returning to them unless upon terms to act con- trary to your conscience, and deny your faith and religion, yet this in effect do you require of me and not less.
" But truly, I cannot think that you did in sober ear- nest ever think I would subscribe to any such thing, it being the very thing for which I rather chose freely to suffer want of the company of my dear wife and children, imprisonment of my person, the ruin of my estate in my absence there, and the loss of my goods
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here, than to yield or consent to such an unreasonable thing as you thereby would enjoin me unto.
" For which I am persuaded you will not only be judged in the sight of God, but by good and godly men, rather to have mocked at the oppressions of the op- pressed and added afflictions to the afflicted than herein to have done to me as you in the like case would be done unto, which the royal cause of our God requires. I have with patience and moderation waited several weeks expecting justice from you, but behold an addi- tion to my oppression in the measure I receive.
" Wherefore I have this now to request for you, that the Lord will not lay this to your charge, but to give eyes to see and hearts to do justice, that you may find mercy with the Lord in the day of judgment.
JOHN BOWNE."
In the Fourth mo. John Bowne was released. He returned to America by the way of England and the Island of Barbadoes, but did not reach Flushing until First mo. 30th, 1663.
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