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Gc 974.702 H37m 1356431
AI
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01152 3211
9-7-06
How Lingston
Over The Top Korea. L.
HISTORY
OF
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH
HEMPSTEAD
LONG ISLAND, N. Y.
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM H. MOORE, D.D.
RECTOR OF ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, HEMPSTEAD
NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 1881
ORPHANS' PRESS, CHURCH CHARITY FOUNDATION, BROOKLYN, N. Y.
PREFACE.
H ERODOTUS declares that his object in writing his history was "in order that events which have taken place may not vanish from mankind by time." 1356431
In preparing the work herewith presented to the public the compiler has been influenced by a like motive. There are facts relating to the origin and growth of St. George's parish which, in a Churchman's view, are worthy of being generally known, and which should be rescued from the oblivion to which they are in- creasingly exposed and which was already en- shrouding some of them.
Some of the facts here related may possibly be considered of but little importance, and per- haps none of them will be deemed of much moment to the world. Yet as those who come after us may desire the very information we may nowlightly esteem, so it has been deemed prudent not to omit anything which might
4
Preface.
serve to give a true picture of the parish in its several stages of progress, and of the men who were the principal actors in it.
Many of the facts here narrated have been gathered only by prolonged and persistent investigation. And this simple history will indicate to those only who have engaged in similar undertakings how much patient research has been necessary to secure and reduce to the form of a consistent narrative the facts which are here presented.
My facts have been derived principally from the Parish Records, which, in the early dates, are happily fuller and in a better state of preserva- tion than those of most of the Colonial parishes. The other sources of my information I have commonly noted.
I return thanks to those who have obligingly furnished me with accounts of the organization of their several parishes located within the original limits of St. George's Parish; viz., the Rev. Messrs. Samuel W. Sayres, S. Stebbins Stocking, J. C. Middleton, S.T.D., W. P. Brush, and W. M. Geer.
But, like every one who seeks information on any subject relating to the antiquities of Long Island, I owe especial thanks to Henry Onderdonk, Jr., of Jamaica, not only for a valuable contribution of facts which he had
5
Preface.
gleaned with great industry; but also for words of encouragement to persist in a task the mag- nitude of which, small as it may seem even now to others, was little foreseen at the begin- ning.
F
I have felt the more inclined to heed his encouraging words and do what I could to ac- quaint the public with the history of one of the oldest parishes in the land, from a grateful recollection of the quiet and happiness I have enjoyed as its Rector for nearly a third of a century.
W. H. M.
ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY, Hempstead.
Easter Tuesday, 1881.
LIST OF RECTORS Of St. George's Church,
WITH THE PERIOD AND LENGTH OF THEIR REC- TORSHIPS.
REV. JOHN THOMAS. From 1704 to 1724 .20 years ..
ROBERT JENNEY, LL.D ...
1726 to 1742 16 years ..
SAMUEL SEABURY
1742 to 1764 22 years ..
LEONARD CUTTING
1766 to 1783. 17 years ..
THOMAS LAMBERT MOORE
1785 to 1799. 14 years.
JOHN HENRY HOBART . . .
1800 6 mos.
SETH HART
1800 to 1829 28 years.
R. D. HALL.
1829 to 1834 5 years.
W. M. CARMICHAEL, D.D.
1834 to 1843. 9 years.
O. HARRIMAN, JR. . .
1844 to 1849
5 years ..
WM. H. MOORE, D.D ....
1849 to
1892
La die de
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. 1695-1726.
Legislation which prepared the way for introducing the Church- Duke of York's laws first proclaimed at a representative Assembly at Hempstead-Services held by the Rev. William Vesey and the Rev. George Keith-The Rev. John Thomas appointed missionary to Hempstead by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts -- His Induction to the Rectorship-Reports of his labors made to the Society-His death 9
CHAPTER II. 1726-1742.
Rev. Dr. Robert Jenney is appointed Mr. Thomas' successor-Bio- graphy of Dr. Jenney-Account of the Church property and the sources from which it was derived-Reports made to the Society by Dr. Jenney-Site granted by the Town and a Church built-Cere- monies of its opening by Gov. Cosby-A charter granted to the Parish-Its peculiar features-Remains still the organic law of the Parish, never having been amended or altered-Dartmouth College case as bearing on its inviolability-Dr. Jenney resigns and removes to Philadelphia-Account of his death-Gifts to the Church by John March. 43
CHAPTER III. 1742-1764.
Rev. Samuel Seabury appointed to the Rectorship-Biography- His Induction-Extensive field of his ministrations-His successful labors-Reports made by him to the Venerable Society -- Encoun- ters oppositions, and how he met them-His school-His death. 79
CHAPTER IV. 1766-1784.
Rev. Leonard Cutting becomes Rector-His Biography-Warning signs of the approaching Revolutionary War-Incidents in the Parish during the war-Predominance of Royalists in the Parish- Mr. Cutting vacates the rectorship at the close of the war-His subsequent occupations and death. 109
CHAPTER V. 1784-1799.
Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore called to fill the vacancy-Mode of his Induction -- Biography-One of the original promoters of the organi- zation of the Church in the United States-Office and duties of Clerk described-Communion Plate, and whence derived -- First ordination in New York held at Hempstead-Rev. Mr. Provoost's opposition to Bishop Seabury-The attachment to him of St. George's Parish-New Rectory resolved on and built-Sale of a
8
Contents.
portion of the Parsonage farm South, and purchase of Greenfield farm-History of the Church and Parish at Oyster Bay-The first Confirmation in St. George's Parish-Death of the Rev. Mr. Moore -Tributes to his memory-Death of the last member of his family. 141
CHAPTER VI. 1799-1829.
Rev. John Henry Hobart becomes Rector-His brief stay-Removal to Trinity Church, New York-The Rev. Seth Hart called-His bio- graphy- Christ Church, Manhasset, organized and set off as an independent parish-A new church built in Hempstead-Rev. Mr. Hart's Sermon at its consecration-His impaired health-Resigna- tion -- Death
CHAPTER VII. 1829-1849.
Rev. Richard D. Hall becomes Rector-Peculiarities of the call given him-Excitement at 4th of July celebration-An annual meeting of the Parish "postponed"- Account of organization of St. Paul's Church, Glen Cove-First Sunday School in the Parish-Mr. Hall resigns -- Rev. William M. Carmichael becomes Rector-Sale of glebe and diversion of funds-Organization and subsequent history of Trinity Church, Rockaway -- Lecture Room built for St. George's Church-Dr. Carmichael resigns-Bishop Coxe's Ballad on St. George's Churchyard-Rev. Orlando Harriman, Jr. called to the Rectorship -- Grace Church, South Oyster Bay, organized-Rev. Mr. Harriman resigns 224
CHAPTER VIII. 1849-
Rectorship of the Rev. William H. Moore, D. D .-- Alterations and improvements made in the Church and Rectory -- Their Cost- clock purchased -- the subscribers to it-Parish Library established -- Bequest to it from Thomas W. C. Moore-Report of Committee on inviolability of funds bequeathed for Rector's support-Parish of Trinity Church, Roslyn, organized-Garden City founded-Cathe- dral of the Incarnation -- Lines on the burial of Mrs. Elizabeth Nichols 258
Appendix A.
Bishop Coxe's Ballad on St. George's Churchyard. 283
Appendix B.
List of Wardens and Vestrymen of St. George's Church 287
Appendix C.
Charter of St. George's Church.
288
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH,
HEMPSTEAD.
CHAPTER I.
1695-1724.
S T. GEORGE'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH in Hempstead owes its establishment, under God, to the venerable Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel, and was one of the first fruits of its organization in England in 1701. But various events had prepared the way for this establishment, and even for the selecting of this place for the mis- sionary operations of the Society. As early as the closing years of the seventeenth century, steps were taken leading to the introduction of the Church in this town. One of these preparatory steps was, that on the first of March, 1665, Governor Richard Nich- ols gathered in this very town of Hempstead the first representative assembly ever convened in the pro- vince of New York. There were present two repre- sentatives from each town on Long Island, and two from Westchester County. The representatives from Hempstead township were John Hicks and Robert
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St. George's Church.
Jackson. Before this assembly, Governor Nichols laid his own commission from the Duke of York, to whom this province had been granted by his brother, Charles II. He also produced a code of laws by which he was ordered by the Duke to govern the province of New York. This code of laws, commonly called " The Duke's Laws," continued to be the laws of the colony until October, 1683. One article of this code forbade any minister to officiate in the province unless he had satisfied the Governor that he had received ordination from some Protestant bishop or minister within some part of his majesty's dominion. Another provided for the establishment and orderly management of the spiritual and tempo- ral affairs of parishes through eight overseers, the constables and overseers to elect two of their number to be church-wardens, and for the support of a minis- ter by a rate upon the town .*
In 1686 Governor Dongan, the fifth governor of the province, was instructed " to take care that God Almighty be devoutly served throughout the govern- ment, the Book of Common Prayer as it is now es- tablished be read every Sunday and Holy Day, and the blessed Sacraments administered according to the rites of the Church of England, and no minis- ter be preferred to any ecclesiastical benefice in the province without a certificate from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury."
These instructions were not immediately enforced,
* See Hoffman, Ecclesiastical Laws of New York, pp. 2, 3. Also Bolton, Church in Westchester Co., p. x.
II
Governor Fletcher.
and when compliance to them was required, the officers whose duty it was to make the requisition, were, by many, bitterly reproached, and a great outcry was made as if some unexpected imposition was laid upon them.
A hindrance to complying with the instructions arose from the fact that the population of the southern part of the Province was composed principally of Dutch, who were connected with the Church of Hol- land ; or dissenters from the Church of England. But, in New York, and in Queens County especially, there were some adherents to that Church, some of whom were holding office under the government, and were persons of influence.
But no measures were taken for several years after Gov. Dongan's departure to introduce the Services of the Episcopal Church even in those parts of the Prov- ince of New York where members of the Church were settled.
There was a chaplain to the British forces in New York, who held services within the fort. But there was no other Episcopal clergyman in all the Province to maintain the claims of the Church and administer the Word and Sacraments. Of this period, in a com- munication from this county, the writer says :
" Before Gov. Fletcher there was no provision made for the maintenance or support of a minister of the Church of England; nor church erected in any part of the Province for the members thereof to worship God in." *
* N. Y. M.S.S., and Bolton, p. xiii.
I2
St. George's Church.
But a change was now to take place.
In 1692 Col. Benjamin Fletcher became Governor of the Province. He was a firm, decided and zealous Churchman; and he felt it to be his duty, as it was. also his privilege, to carry into effect the instructions given by the royal proprietor of the Province to his, predecessor, Gov. Dongan, and to promote the estab- lisment of the Church to which-as well as to the State-he had sworn to be faithful and true. He en- deavored to have the Assembly of the Province make- provision for the Church. For doing this his motives have been aspersed-his character maligned, and he stigmatized as a " bigot," and " a narrow-minded sec- tarist," by Smith, in his History of New York, and by some recent writers. But it is not apparent wherein his offence consisted, and a very favorable contrast to him might be drawn with the deeds of many whose views were contrary to his.
Gov. Fletcher succeeded in his effort with the As- sembly of New York, so far as to get them to pass a Bill in Sept. 1693, providing for "Settling a Minister and raising a maintenance for them in the City of New York and the Counties of Richmond, West- chester and Queens." The Bill provided that in. Queens County there "Should be two Protestant Ministers called and inducted within a year, to offici- ate and have the Care of Souls ;- one to have charge of Jamaica and the adjoining towns and farms ; the other to have charge of Hempstead and the next adja- cent towns and farms." Thus, by the way, it is to be noted, were the boundaries of St. George's Parish de-
13
Governor Fletcher.
creed and defined* as embracing all Queens County east of Jamaica.
The third section of the act required that "the freeholders of every City, County and Precinct should annually, on the 2d Tuesday of January, chuse Ten Vestrymen and Two Churchwardens," these, with the Justices, were " to lay a reasonable tax on said respect- ive Cities, &c., for the maintenance of the Minister and Poor of their respective places."
The majority of the Assembly were dissenters; and the act was so drawn as to prevent its provisions from yielding any especial benefit to the Church of England. In the language of Col. Morris, a member of the Governor's Council, "the Act to settle the Church is very loosly worded-the dissenters claim- ing the benefit of it as well as we."t
It will be noticed that Ministers were to be called and inducted " by the Justices and Vestries." But the ' Vestries' themselves, in despite of their Churchly title, might be Dissenters, if the freeholders so willed, and sometimes were so. From whence there sprung up contentions and two Vestries-the one a Civil Vestry, as it was called, and the other Ecclesiastical.
The act of 1693 was a disappointment to Gov. Fletcher. Finding that he could obtain no concession from the Assembly in favor of the Church of Eng- land, he determined to send fit persons, as soon as he could find them-even if they were but laymen-to hold Church servicesin places contiguous to New York,
* Doc. Hist. § 3, p. 76 : " Hempstead Parish of 2 towns, Hemp- stead and Oyster Bay."
+ Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 3, p. 151.
14
St. George's Church.
to which the act for the support of a Ministry ap- plied ; and where there were Englishmen who de- sired her offices.
"There is a mighty cry and desire," said Rev. G. Keith, in a letter to Dr. Bray, Feb. 24, 1702-"almost in all places where we have travelled,. to have Ministers of the Church of England sent to them."* He soon received aid in furtherance of his, purpose from an unexpected quarter.
The Puritans of Massachusetts, under the lead of Increase Mather, assiduously sought to propagate their ecclesiastical system-that of Independents or Con- gregationalists-and to overthrow other systems. The Episcopal Church came in for a very large share. of their opposition.
On leaving England for America, a company of emigrants had sent forth an address from on board the Arbella, dated April 7, 1630, in which they said -" We esteem it an honor to call The Church of England, from whence we rise, 'Our Dear Mother;'t and much more of the same sort. But after they were settled in New England this affectionate regard for the Church disappeared and they turned to be her enemy. They very actively opposed her. Besides seeking to prevent her obtaining a foothold in Mas- sachusetts, they attempted to weaken her in those Colonies where she was already effectively at work. They made such an attempt in Virginia at an- early day.
* Prot. Epis. Hist. Collec. v. I., p. xxiii.
+ Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., vol. I. Appendix.
I5
Governor Fletcher.
" In 1642, in answer to requests from sundry well- disposed people in Virginia to the ministers of the Province of Massachusetts, three ministers were agreed upon, viz., Mr. Phillips of Watertown, Mr. Thompson of Braintree, and Mr. Miller of Rowley ; which the General Court approved of, and ordered that the Governer should command [commend ?] them by his letters to the Governor and Council of Virginia. On their return it appears that God had greatly blessed their ministry for the time they were there,-which was not long, for the rulers of the country did in a sense drive them out, having made an order that all such as would not conform to the discipline of the English Church should depart out of the country."*
Failing in this direction, the Puritan clerical circle, after a time, directed their attention, it is thought, to New York Province, with the benevolent purpose of suppressing the evident tendency to ' prelacy ' which was incited by Gov. Fletcher's countenance and efforts.
In 1695, a young man named Vesey, "without orders," says Miller -¿. c., not ordained -- a layman- " was officiating in Hempstead," (" a Description of ye Province and City of N. Y., A. D. 1695, by ye Rev. John Miller," London, 1696). We do not con- trovert the suggestion that Mr. Vesey was sent here by the Massachusetts Puritans; but we have found no evidence that he was acting as their agent, or even agreed with their religious views. Nothing is known of the nature or form of the services he held here. On the strength of a casual mention of Mr.
* Hist. of Old Braintree, &c., W. S. Pattee, M.D., p. 246.
16
St. George's Church.
Vesey in a letter to the Bishop of London, from anonymous friends of Gov. Hunter, as " a dissenting preacher on Long Island,"* it has been concluded that he officiated as such at Hempstead. We re- frain, under our present lack of definite information, from claiming that Mr. Vesey acted here in behalf of the Church of England, and that he was the first one to use her services here. But we have abundant reason for claiming that it was greatly owing to him that St. George's Parish came into existence. He, at least, prepared the ground for her foundations to be laid. For to the knowledge he gained while here of the people and the spiritual needs of the place, we attribute those active efforts he soon after- wards made as an avowed Churchman to establish the Church here, and that affectionate interest in the welfare of the parish which he manifested for nigh fifty years. If Mr. Vesey did officiate here for a few months as a representative of the Independents or Congregationalists of New England, he was acting contrary to the traditions of his birth and the princi- ples of his whole after life. It is possible that, from youthful inconsiderateness, he may have discarded the belief in which he was reared. But if he lapsed, the lapse must have been for but a brief period. For when Mr. Vesey officiated in Hempstead, he was but twenty-one years old, having been born in Braintree, Mass., in 1674. In 1693 he graduated at Harvard College, and in less than two years thereafter he was
* Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. iii. p. 438.
17
Rev. Wm. Vesey.
what would now be called a candidate for holy orders in the Episcopal Church.
Mr. Vesey's father was a Churchman of the staunchest kind. He evidently had very little respect for the sentiments of the "Standing Order" which ruled in Massachusetts with a heavy ecclesiastical hand, and he did not disguise his sentiments as an adherent to the Church of England. Two extracts from Sam- uel Sewall's Diary make this manifest:
" Func 20, 1696 .- Wm. Vesey is bound over for plowing on the day of Thanksgiving," p. 428. Mr. Vesey " Claimed to be of the Church of England and objected to being taxed for the support of the Con- gregational minister."-p. 386, note.
Such was the stock of which young Vesey came, and here is the explanation of the fact that when Mr. Vesey, while at Hempstead, received a call, January 26, 1694-5, to be the minister of Trinity Church New York, he did not accept it ; the call having been given by the civil Vestry, which was composed of Dissenters -persons unfriendly to Gov. Fletcher's designs for the Church. But the very next year, January 14, 1695-6, when the call was renewed, the composition of the Vestry having been meanwhile changed, and Churchmen then being in the ascendant and making the call, he expressed his willingness to accept the po- sition, when he should have been duly ordained. It has been more than once uncharitably suggested that Mr. Vesey was won over from Independency through promises of favor from Gov. Fletcher. Such a sugges- tion ought not to be made without some shadow of evidence that there was such a barter, partaking of
I8
St. George's Church.
the sin of simony. Such evidence does not exist. While, on the other hand, the facts of Mr. Vesey's birth and education supply a rational and sufficient motive for his adhesion to the Episcopal Church and his change from Independency, if he had unwittingly and for a brief time taken to its ways.
As bearing upon Mr. Vesey's views at this time, the following quotation will be found to have an important bearing:
In an answer of the Church of England in Brain- tree, to a charge laid against them, bearing date 1709, we read, "Mr. Vesey, minister of the Church of New York, when he was a youth, can say that he, with his parents and many more, were communicants of the Church of England, and that in their family at Brain- tree, divine service was daily read, which things to mention would argue great pride and vanity were it not in our own defence."
From which it appears that as early as 1689 a little company of Church people held services here.
"An address to the Bp. of London, dated April 22, 1704, 'from Braintree,' is signed by William Vesey and John Cleverly, Church Wardens, &c .;- thus showing there was an organized parish here (Braintree) at that early day."*
We make one further quotation from this work (p. 430 and note) : " He (Vesey) was one of the first of the young men referred to by President Mather at the ordination of Mr. Wadsworth, of the First Church-' who had apostatized from New England
* Hist. of Old Braintree, &c., W. S. Pattee, M. D., p. 247.
19
Rev. Wm. Vesey.
principles, contrary to the Light of their educa- tion.' "*
This shows what influences had been exerted at Harvard College on young Vesey to seduce him. from the Church principles in which he had been reared ; and it shows also that Vesey, in returning to those principles, had disappointed the hopes, and, perhaps, disconcerted the plans of the governing ministers of the Independents or Congregationalists. of Massachusetts.
From this statement of Mr. Vesey's ecclesiastical position prior to and while he was at Hempstead- a point on which some obscurity has hitherto rested. -we resume the narrative of his acts when he ceased to be an alien to his father's faith and complied with the admonition-" Hear the instruction of thy father,. and forsake not the law of thy mother." Prov. I : 8.
·After he had given a favorable response to the call of the Churchmen composing the Vestry of Trinity Church, he prepared himself to go abroad. for ordination. With this purpose he returned to Boston and put himself under the spiritual guidance and instruction in theology of the Rev. Samuel Myles, the Rector of King's Chapel. We hear this. of him while he was there:
" July 26, 1696 .- Mr. Vesey preached on Sunday in the Church of England and had many auditors. He was spoken to to preach for Mr. Willard; but am told this will procure him a discharge."t
* Hist. of Old Braintree, &c., W. S. Pattee, M. D., p. 247.
+ Sewell's Diary, p. 430.
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St. George's Church.
The editor of the Diary rightly interprets the last sentence, " While by so doing he might peril his Episcopal standing."
We learn from this contemporary with Mr. Vesey that he officiated as a lay-reader under the direc- tion of the Rev. Mr. Myles, in the Episcopal Church, as an avowed Episcopalian, and declined to preach for the Congregationalists or Independents, lest his position might be mistaken.
A few months after the incident mentioned by Sewell, Mr. Vesey returned to New York, bearing, with him testimonials from the Rev. Mr. Myles of King's Chapel-with whom Mr. Vesey had studied theology-and from the wardens of the church, which were laid before the Vestry of Trinity Church. Whereupon the following action was had by that Vestry :
" Nov. 2, 1696 .- At a meeting of the Church- wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, New York : Wee, ye Church-wardens and Vestrymen elected by Virtue of ye Said Act, having read a Certificate under the hands of the Reverend Mr. Samuel Myles, Min- ister of the Church of England in Boston in New England, and Mr. Gyles Dyer and Mr. Benjamin Mountford, Church-wardens of ye Said Church, of the Learning and Education, of the pious, sober and Religeous behaviour and Conversation of Mr. Wil- liam Vesey and of his often being a Communicant in the Receiving ye most holy Sacrament in the said Church, have called the said Mr. William Vesey to officiate, and to have the care of souls in this City of New York. And ye said Mr. William Vesey being sent for, and acquainted with the proceeding of this board, did return them his thanks for their great
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