USA > New York > Putnam County > Garrison > History of St. Philip's church in the Highlands, Garrison, New York, including, up to 1840, St. Peter's church on the manor of Cortlandt > Part 1
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ST. PHILIP'S CHAPEL IN THE HIGHLANDS (From a drawing by GEORGE E. MOORE)
HISTORY OF St. philip's Church in the Highlands GARRISON NEW YORK
INCLUDING, UP TO 1840, ST. PETER'S CHURCH ON THE MANOR OF CORTLANDT
BY E. CLOWES CHORLEY, B. D.
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
CHUR
PHILD
TER'S
CHAPEL
IS J
NEW
XBOX M
TVIS
NEW YORK EDWIN S. GORHAM 1912
Of this edition, three hundred copies have been printed. This copy is
No. 261.
BX 5980 . G 35 83
Copyright, 1912 E. CLOWES CHORLEY Garrison, N. Y.
HOWARD PRESS Poughkeepsie, N. Y
CCLA314730
TO THE WARDENS VESTRYMEN AND
CONGREGATION OF ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH IN THE HIGHLANDS
vii
INTRODUCTION.
N O apology is needed for writing the history of an American Church founded in the reign of George III. In the diocese of New York there are but fourteen Anglican churches which ante-date the War of the Revolution, and it is of the utmost importance that their records should be permanently preserved. The purpose to tell the story of this Highland parish was in- spired by the accidental discovery of some historical notes in the handwriting of the late Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL.D., for many years an honored Church Warden of the parish. Further investigation revealed a wealth of material. We are fortunate enough to possess the minutes of the Vestry from its first recorded meeting of September 1st, 1770-broken only for a few years during and after the Revolution-down to the present day, in addition to which Frederick Philipse, for thirty-seven years clerk and treasurer, kept all important letters and ac- counts.
It would have been possible to have constructed a narrative history of the parish from these sources without the wealth of quotation which the reader will find in the following pages, but the writer has chosen to allow the
ix
Introduction
records to speak for themselves. The arrangement of the chapters consequent upon an association of St. Peter's and St. Philip's in a common life of seventy years has involved some repetition, for which due allowance should be made.
The facts herein set forth have been gleaned from many fields, but, in most cases, authorities are quoted in the notes. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the courtesy of the librarians of Yale and Columbia Univer- sities, the General Theological Seminary and the New York Historical Society; the Rev. Dr. Hart, custodian of the Archives of the General Convention, the Comp- troller of the State of New York; Mr. James Nelson, Mr. Franklin Couch and Mr. H. Cammann, Comptroller of the Corporation of Trinity Church, for permission to use the valuable books and manuscripts in their hands, and to Mr. E. H. Virgin for reading the proofs. The Misses Philipse and Miss Van Cortlandt have freely placed the rich treasures of family papers and por- traits, so far as they relate to the churches, at our disposal.
Special mention should be made of the valued co- operation of Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, a Vestryman of the parish, who has proved unwearied in his search for material and most accurate in his estimate of its value.
While no effort has been spared to insure accuracy, it is too much to hope that no errors will be discovered. As Robartes wrote in the preface to his work on Tythes in 1613, "Who faulteth not, liveth not; the Printer hath faulted a little; it may be the Author hath ouersighted
x
Introduction
more," but, with all its imperfections, this modest con- tribution to the history of a church older than these United States of America is sent forth in the spirit of the words of the Psalmist:
Walk about Sion, and go round about her: and tell the towers thereof. Mark well her bulwarks, set up her houses: that ye may tell them that come after.
E. Clowes Charly
The Rectory, Garrison, New York. All Saints Day, 1911.
xi
CONTENTS. FOREWORD
CHAPTER I.
The Church in the American Colonies.
Page
1
CHAPTER II. 8
The Church in the Colony of New York.
THE UNITED CHURCHES
CHAPTER III.
17
St. Peter's Church and St. Philip's Chapel, 1767-1840.
CHAPTER IV.
64
St. Peter's Church and St. Philip's Chapel. The Rectors, 1770-1840.
CHAPTERS V-VI. 115-155
St. Peter's Church and St. Philip's Chapel. The Wardens and Vestrymen, 1770-1840.
ST. PHILIP'S IN THE HIGHLANDS
CHAPTER VII.
178
The Chapel of St. Philip's in the Highlands. 1770-1840.
CHAPTER VIII. 225
The Parish of St. Philip's in the Highlands, 1840-1911.
CHAPTER IX.
257
The Parish of St. Philip's in the Highlands. The Rectors, 1840-1911.
CHAPTER X.
279
The Parish of St. Philip's in the Highlands. The Wardens and Vestrymen, 1840-1911.
CHAPTER XI. 311
The Glebe Farm.
CHAPTER XII.
340
The Churchyard.
CHAPTER XIII.
347
The Parish Register.
(Containing a list of Baptisms,
Confirmations, Marriages and Burials, 1809-1911.)
APPENDIX.
394
Letters to the Corporation of Trinity Church and to Bishop Hobart, 1795-1813.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
413
INDEX 421
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Opposite Page
St. Philip's Chapel in the Highlands
Frontispiece
(From a drawing by George E. Moore, 1857)
St. Peter's Church, 1767 18
The Rev. John Ogilvie, D. D.
22
Minutes of First Vestry Meeting, 1770
32
Receipt for Damages in the War of the Revolution, 1791 42-
Interior of St. Peter's Church 54
The Rev. Andrew Fowler, M.A.
88
Title Page of the Rev. Andrew Fowler's Principal Book. On page 99
Salary Receipt of the Rev. Joseph Warren, 1806
108
Colonel Beverly Robinson
120
(From a miniature by John Plott)
William Denning
158
Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt.
160
(From a painting by Jarvis)
General Pierre Van Cortlandt
164
(From a painting by Collins)
Captain Frederick Philips
174
(From a painting by Gilbert Stuart)
Jacob Mandeville's House 188
Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk .
206
Salary Receipt of the Rev. James Sunderland 218
The Old Rectory
234
St. Philip's Church in the Highlands 240
Bishop Horatio Potter
244
Interior of St. Philip's Church in the Highlands
246
XV
List of Illustrations
Opposite Page
St. James' Chapel .
248
The Samuel Sloan Memorial Rectory, 1911 (From architect's drawing)
250
The Virginia Sturges Osborn Memorial Altar 254
The Toucey Memorial Parish House 256
The Rev. Henry Lemuel Storrs, M.A. 258°
The Rev. Ebenezer Williams . 260
The Rev. Edward Mills Pecke, M.A.
264
The Rev. Joel Clap, D. D.
266
The Rev. Charles Frederick Hoffman, M. A., D. D.
268
The Rev. Albert Zabriskie Gray, D. D.
270
The Rev. Walter Thompson, M.A., D. D.
272
The Rev. Carroll Perry, B. D.
276
Samuel Gouverneur
280
John Garrison
282
Frederick Philipse
284
Henry Belcher
286
William Moore 288
The Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL. D.
290
(From a painting by Huntington)
Colonel Thomas Boyle Arden 294
Samuel Sloan 296 Y
Charles de Rham 298
Henry Casimir de Rham
300 ™
Richard Dean Arden 302
Announcement of Vandue of the Glebe Farm, 1774 .
314
Affidavit concerning the Glebe Farm, 1792 316
Affidavits concerning the Glebe Farm, 1792 318
A Parochial Appeal and Subscription, 1774 320
A Page of the First Parish Register 348
xvi
CHAPTER I.
THE CHURCH IN THE COLONIES OF AMERICA.
T HE Church in America is an integral part of the Holy Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. Neither the Reformation in England, nor the Revolution in America, severed the chain of her historic continuity.
First upon the ground, she has remained steadfast ever since the founding of the nation. The beginnings of the Church are contemporaneous with the beginnings of the American Colonies; both took root the same day. With the hardy adventurer, seeking fame and fortune in virgin lands, there came the Priest of the Church to conquer the new world for Christ.
Whilst the Church was not permanently planted in Virginia until 1607, occasional services were held at least twenty-eight years before that date. In 1579, on his memorable voyage around the world, Sir Francis Drake arrived on the Pacific coast and anchored in Drake's Bay. The fleet carried its own chaplain, the Rev. Francis Fletcher, and during the stay of about six weeks Fletcher conducted services. To him belongs the honor of being the first Anglican to preach Christ in this broad land.
The first serious attempt to colonize the West was made in 1585 under the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh. One hundred and fifty persons landed at Roanoke, naming the land Virginia, in honor of Queen Elizabeth.
2
The History of St. Philip's Church
There accompanied the colonists one Thomas Hariot, who was the first missionary to America. During the one year of their stay Hariot, "many times and in every towne where he came, made declaration of the contents of the Bible, and of the chiefe points of Religion, to the natives according as he was able." In 1587 the first native Indian, Manteo, was baptized. One week later there was baptized Virginia Dare, the first white child born in the Colony.
Fourteen years before the Puritan "turned to the new world to redress the balance of the old" an Anglican Church was built at the mouth of the Kennebec river, in what is now the State of Maine, and the minister in charge was the Rev. Richard Seymour, great-grandson of the Duke of Somerset.
The colonists of 1585-7 carried back to England glow- ing reports of the fertile land and balmy skies of Virginia, and their story appealed to the merchant anxious for new markets, to the statesman burning to annex new lands, and to the Churchman yearning to convert the Indian. A new Company was chartered, to which the Crown granted lands reaching from South Carolina to Nova Scotia. On the 19th of December, 1606, three small ships, commanded by Christopher Newport, set out for the New World. The largest vessel was of one hun- dred tons burden; the smallest, twenty. After battling with wind and wave for a whole winter they entered Chesapeake Bay, and sailed up the James river about thirty miles and effected their settlement at Jamestown, so named after the English King.
In that bold venture the Church of England took the warmest interest, and Robert Hunt, one of her Priests,
3
The Church in the Colonies
accompanied the adventurers as chaplain. The first act of the colonists on landing was to kneel upon the beach and return thanks to Almighty God for deliver- ance from the perils of the great deep. Such was the first permanent settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race and the Church of England in America.
The land was covered with virgin forest and peopled with savage and hostile Indians. But, undaunted by either, "Now falleth every man to worke; the Counsell contrive the fort, and the rest cut down trees to make place to pitch the tents; some provide clapboard to relode the ships; some make gardens, some nets." The dual purpose of the settlers must ever be borne in mind. They left home and kindred to extend the bounds or Empire, to find gold and to convert the Indians. Their great hope, admirably stated by Christopher Newport, was that their venture "would tend to the glory of God, his majesties revenue, our countries profit, our owne advantage, and fame to all posterity." Missionary zeal kept pace with commercial enterprise.
Captain John Smith, whom Bancroft calls "the true father of Virginia," happily has left behind a pamphlet entitled, Advertisement for the Unexperienced Planter of New England. From that precious record we are able to glean particulars of the earliest provision for public worship, to which the settlers were summoned morning and evening by the roll of the drum.1 "I have been often demanded by so many how we began to preach the Gospell in Virginia . what Churches we had, and
1 The use of the drum to call the faithful to prayer was common in New England and New York down to the War of the Revolution.
4
The History of St. Philip's Church
our order of service. When I first went to Virginia, I well remember we did hang an awning (which is an old saile) to three or four trees to shadow us for the service; our walls were rails of wood; our seats unhewed trees. In foule weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better, and they came by way of adventure for new." In that primitive structure, on the third Sunday after Trinity, June 21st, 1607, the Holy Com- munion was celebrated for the first time in Virginia. Thus did those devout Churchmen keep the sacred Feast, and for a while forget their loneliness and danger as they held mystic communion with "angels, archangels and all the company of heaven."
As the Colony prospered, a new church was erected which is described as "a homely thing, like a barn, set on cratchets, covered with rafters, sod and brush." This served until the settlement was devastated by fire in which Robert Hunt "our preacher, lost all his librarie and all that he had (but the cloathes on his back)," but on the arrival of new stores, "the mariners set aboute a church which they finished cheerfully and in short tyme" -too short indeed-for Captain John Smith tells us "the rain washed it neere to nothing in fourteen days." With the arrival of Lord Delaware in 1610 steps were taken to rebuild the Church, and we are indebted to Strachey, secretary of the Colony, for a description of the new and statelier structure. "The Captaine Generall hath given order for the repairing of the Church, and at this instant many hands are upon it. It is in length three score foote, in breadth twenty foure and shall have a chancell in it of Cedar, and a Communion Table of black Walnut, and all the pewes of Cedar, with fare broad
.
5
The Church in the Colonies
windows to shut and open as the weather shall occasion: a pulpit of the same wood with a font hewen hollow, like a canu, with two Bels at the West End. It is so cast as to be very light within, and the Lord Governour doth cause it to be kept passing sweete and trimmed up with divers flowers, with a sexton belonging to it."
In due course cedar gave way to red brick, and at James- town today there stands an ivy-mantled tower keeping watch and ward over a few weather-beaten grave-stones bearing eloquent witness to the piety and devotion of those few men who planted the Church in the wilderness.
Strachey describes the services in the church. "Every Sunday we have sermons twice a day, and every Thurs- day a sermon, having preachers which take their weekly turnes. Every morning at ten of the clocke, each man addresseth himself to prayers, and so at foure of the clocke before supper." Pomp and pageant were not absent from the little Colony and Jamestown Church must have presented a gay appearance. "Every Sunday when the Lord Governour and Captaine Generall goeth to Church he is accompanied with all the councell, captaines, other officers and all the gentlemen, with a guard in his Lordship's livery of faire red cloakes, to the number of fifty both on eache side and behind him; and, being in the Church, his Lordship hath his green velvet chair with a cloath, and a velvet cushion spread on a table before him on which he kneeleth; and on each side sit the Councell, captaine and officers, each in their place, and when he returneth home againe, he is waited on to his house in like manner."
The name of the Rev. Robert Hunt should stand high upon the honored roll of the makers of America. Ap-
6
The History of St. Philip's Church
pointed Vicar of Reculver, in the county of Kent, in 1594, he resigned eight years later to accompany the Colonists in their hazardous venture. It is impossible to exaggerate the debt Virginia owes to his priestly devotion. Before the ships left the English Channel, the old chronicler says, "So many discontents did then arise, and Mr. Hunt, our preacher, was so weake and sicke that few expected his recovery, yet, he, with the greatest of patience and his godly exhortation (but chiefly by his true devoted ex- ample) quenched those flames of envie and dissension." After the voyagers had landed, "Many were the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant yet ambitious spirits, and then was the time that godly man, Master Hunt, did his part in healing our strifes, and he went from one to the other with sweet words of good counsell, how that we shall love and forgive our enemies; nay, he used more worldly arguments, pointing out that the welfare of our little band depended chiefly upon our union, for that we were in an unknown land, exposed to the attacks of the hostile natives, and we needed, therefore, all the ties of brotherly love." His arguments prevailed, "for we all loved him for his exceeding goodness, and the next day we all received the Holy Communion together as an out- ward and visible pledge of reconciliation."
Robert Hunt's apostolic labors were too much for his frail body and he sickened and died, the only recorded reference to the event being that of Purchas who says, "his soule questionless is with God." A fitting epitaph is that of a contemporary writer who said of him, "He was not in any way to be touched with the rebellious humour of a popish spirit . . . but was an honest, religious and courageous divine."
7
The Church in the Colonies
So was the old Church planted in the new land- planted thirteen years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, and two years before the Dutch came to New Amsterdam.
CHAPTER II.
THE CHURCH IN THE COLONY OF NEW YORK.
1 N the year of our Lord, 1609, Henry Hudson, in the ship Half Moon, anchored inside Sandy Hook, and, not long after, cabins, protected by a fort, sprung up on Manhattan Island. A few years later the "Dutch West India Company" was organized, with permission to effect a settlement in America. In 1625 thirty families arrived from the Netherlands, and Manhattan Island was purchased for twenty-four dollars. Within five years the first Dutch Reformed Minister arrived and found fifty communicants. The Dutch remained in peaceful possession until the 8th of September, 1664, when the Duke of York's fleet anchored in the Bay. When the news was carried to Peter Stuyvesant he stormed, swore-and surrendered; New Amsterdam became New York.
With Governor Nicholls came the English Church in the person of a chaplain to the fleet. The various religious bodies dwelt in perfect harmony together, and for thirty years the chaplain conducted services at the chapel within the Fort alternately with the Dutch dominie, and during a portion of that period the Roman Priest also offi- ciated. So matters proceeded until 1693, when, because "Profaneness and Licentiousness had overspread the Province from want of a settled Ministry throughout the same, it was ordained by Act of Assembly that six Prot- estant Ministers should be appointed therein."
9
The Church in New York
Governor Fletcher interpreted the phrase "Protestant Ministers" to mean of the Church of England as by law established, and in 1697 steps were taken to build a church in New York, and Trinity parish was organized, with Compton, Bishop of London, as Rector at a yearly salary of one hundred pounds. The first Trinity Church, designed to be "the sole and only parish church and churchyard in this our said city of New York," was opened on March 13th, 1698, enlarged in 1737, and destroyed by fire during the War of the Revolution. A contemporary writer describes it as "standing very pleasantly upon the banks of the Hudson River, with a large cemetery on each side, and enclosed in front by a painted pailed fence." Its revenue was restricted by Act of Assembly to five hundred pounds, but, the writer remarks, "it is possessed of a farm at the north end of the city, which is lately rented, and will in the course of a few years, it is hoped, produce a considerable income." The first resident Rector of Trinity Parish was the Rev. William Vesey, who served faithfully for fifty years.
When the eighteenth century opened the population of the Province of New York was 25,000, distributed "in Twenty Five towns-ten of them Dutch; the rest English." Long Island is described as "a great place with many inhabitants." For the most part the Dutch were Calvinists, and the English, "some of them Inde- pendents, but many of them of no Religion and like wild Indians."
The religious conditions at that time are graphically pictured by the Rev. William Vesey, who writes, in 1697:
Besides this Church (Trinity) and the Chappel in the fort, one church in Philadelphia (Christ Church),
10 The History of St. Philip's Church
and one other in Boston (King's Chapel), I don't re- member to have heard of one building erected for the public worship of God according to the Liturgy of the Church of England in this Northern Continent of America from Maryland (where the Church was es- tablished by a Law of that Province) to the Eastern- most bounds of Nova Scotia, which I believe in length is 800 miles.
Church and State alike were aroused in England by the report of the irreligion in New York. When Lord Cornbury was sent out in 1703 as Governor he was in- structed to "take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly serv'd throughout your Government. The Book of Common Prayer as by Law established read each Sunday and Holy Day, and the blessed Sacrament administer'd according to the rites of the Church of England. You shall be careful that the Churches already built there be well and orderly kept, and that more be built as the Colony shall, by God's Blessing be improved." Had Lord Cornbury's character at all fitted with his instructions his services to the cause of Religion would doubtless have been more effective; as it was, in 1707, he imprisoned the Rev. Thoroughgood Moore in Fort Ann for celebrating the Holy Commun- ion "as often as once a fortnight," which "frequency he was pleased to forbid."
In 1702 the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts decided to send six missionaries to America, and the Rev. Patrick Gordon and the Rev. George Keith arrived in the middle of the year. Their advent marks the spread of the Church outside the city of New York. Patrick Gordon was appointed to Jamai- ca, but "took sick the day before he designed to preach,
11
The Church in New York
and so continued till his death about eight days after." The apostolic labors of George Keith bore abundant fruit. When he preached at Hempstead there was "such a Multitude of people that the Church could not hold them, so that many stood without at the doors and win- dows to hear, who were generally well affected and great- ly desired that a Church of England Minister should be settled amongst them." Three days later he preached in New York on the occasion of "the weekly Fast which was appointed by the Government by reason of the great mortality . . . Above five hundred died in the space of a few weeks, and that very week about seventy." Keith's missionary journeys embraced New York, New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and of his experiences he writes:
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