USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
* See Appendix B, p. 516.
CHAPTER II THE NEW CHURCH : 1765-1767
"And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord."- 2 Samuel 24 : 21.
" A decent Edifice Erected on this Spot, properly Enclosed in a pail fence, will be a Great Ornament to the Green."-OFFICERS OF THE BRICK CHURCH, "Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York," Vol. VII, p. 11.
I N providing the new place of worship the first problem that presented itself was the securing of a suitable plot of ground. The Presbyterian Church owned no land that could be used for this purpose, and it would doubtless have been very difficult to raise sufficient money for the purchase of a site, but it was hoped that, if properly approached, the city authorities would come to the rescue. Ac- cordingly on February 19th, 1766, a petition* was drawn up, which plays so important a part in this history that it must be given in full.
"TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COMMONALTY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, IN COMMON COUNCIL CONVENED:
"The petition of the ministers, elders, deacons, trustees, communicants and other members of the English Presbyterian Church of the City of New York, according to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechism, and Directory, and agreeable to the
* See "Document No. 37," pp. 564-566.
17
18
THE BRICK CHURCH
present Established Church of Scotland, humbly sheweth :
"That while the church to which your petitioners belong has not unmeritedly been esteemed for the purity of her doctrines, her members, we would pre- sume to hope, have approved themselves good sub- jects and useful members of society; that by the blessing of Almighty God your petitioners have so increased in numbers, as at this day to constitute a very considerable part of the freemen, freeholders, and inhabitants of this flourishing city; that although your petitioners are already possessed of a spacious and convenient edifice for the public service of Al- mighty God, and the administration of divine ordi- nances according to their wholesome and approved form of discipline and worship, yet, by their great and continual growth, that building is rendered alto- gether incapable of containing their congregation, and the cemetery too small for decent interment of their dead; that, urged by these necessities, your pe- titioners have lately cast their eyes around them in search of a convenient spot of ground for the erection of another church, and for supplying it with a ceme- tery; that in this survey the known and approved benevolence of the Honorable Board toward every Protestant denomination in this city, and its abilities to relieve the present necessities of our congregation could not fail to command its attention; nor will the distinguished generosity by which our brethren of Trinity Church were supplied with a large and con- venient burying-ground, of the free gift of this Hon- orable Board, nor the late grant of a number of lots to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in this
19
THE NEW CHURCH
city, upon a reasonable rent, permit us to doubt of the success of this our application; that, though your petitioners would not be thought to prescribe, yet upon the view of the several lots belonging to this Honorable Board, within the compass of the improved parts of this city, the angular lot adjoining to the ground lately called the Vineyard * and to the Green ; appeals to your petitioners to command the preference, not only with a view to convenience, but what will doubtless ever merit the attention of this Honorable Board, the public ornament; that influ- enced by the latter, as a first motive, your petitioners beg leave to observe, that it will be necessary to keep open a cross street į between this piece of ground and the Vineyard, by which the angle being short- ened at its base, will be so much diminished as to contain of about six lots only, which your petitioners humbly conceive will be a compass too small, espe- cially if its disadvantageous form be considered, to contain a decent edifice and a suitable cemetery ; that therefore, should this Honorable Board conde- scend to relieve the wants of your petitioners, they would beg leave to suggest the necessity of an addi- tional piece of ground, with such convenience in point of situation and quantity, for the use of a ceme- tery, as to this Honorable Board shall seem meet, for which, as well as the angular lot above mentioned, your petitioners are freely willing to render to this Honorable Board a rent suitable to the circum- stances of their church, and to erect such an edifice, * "North-eastward of the Vineyard," is the fuller description given elsewhere. "Common Council," Vol. VII, p. 9.
t The present City Hall Park.
į This was the later Beekman Street.
20
THE BRICK CHURCH
as will contribute to public ornament. Your peti- tioners, therefore, humbly pray this Honorable Board to take their extreme necessities into your serious consideration, and to grant to them the aforesaid angle of ground for the erection of a new church, with an additional lot, suitable for a cemetery, sub- ject to such an annual rent to be rendered forever to the Honorable Board, as they, in their great wisdom and justice, shall think reasonable; and your peti- tioner shall ever pray, etc." *
When it is realized that the "angular lot" so boldly, though respectfully, asked for is approxi- mately the land bounded to-day by Nassau and Beek- man streets and Park Row, one is inclined to regard with admiration and even with amazement the te- merity of the petitioners. But in truth their request was not so extraordinary as it sounds to us. In the first place, the relation of the authorities to the indi- vidual citizens and their personal interests was at that time much more paternal than at present, a condition that had its advantages as well asits drawbacks; and in the second place, the property in question had in 1765 comparatively little value. It must be borne in mind that New York City at the time covered but a small area at the southern end of Manhattan Island. On. the west side the region of houses had passed into the region of fields not far north of what is now City Hall Park. On the east, which was then the more pros-
* The names of the petitioners were: Ministers; John Rodgers and Joseph Treat: Elders; William Smith, Garret Noel, Nathaniel Mckinley, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, John Smith, and Thomas Jackson: Deacons; John Stevens and Peter Riker: Trustees; Thomas Smith, Peter R. Liv- ingston, Joseph Hallett, John Lashor [Lasher ?], Jr., William Smith, Jr., John Dunlap and John Morin Scott.
...
. ...
.....
---...... .
....
............ ..
. ........
.....
.. .
"Salt.
18006666
Meadows.
Surveyed by Bernd Ratzen.
ton
......
SCALE OF FEET
. .......
0 400
1200
2000
tē
S
River
Corlet's Hook
. Mr.Jonesces
. GREAT ..
Acklands
10.10
6.6
4.6
Mr. Rutgers
Walk T.
O
resh
Go Water
33
Rant
p
arrison
River
Slip
@ Ferry
References- -
Fort George in
19 The College
Klm \ Lat. 40,41, 58" 2 Trinity Church
20 Free Eng! Sch! 2/ Secretary's ofre 22 City Hall
3 St.Paul's Ch.
4 St. Georges Chap !!
Hunter's
5 Old Dutch Ch.
6 New Eng Dh.Ch.
7 New Dutch Cals ,
8 Presbyt" Meet9
9 New do. do.
10 French Church
I/ Lutheran do.
12 New Luth? 13 Calvinist
Batter
14 Moravian Meet!
15 Anabaptist ,
16 New Scots
17 Quaker 36 Theatre 18 Jews Synagoguel 37 -Arsenal
JAS. S. KEMP.
Courtesy of Harper Brothers.
NEW YORK IN 1767. From Thomas A. Janvier's "In Old New York"
Part of Long or Nassau Island
or
K
ec
or
Brookland
Ferry to Paulin HadAl
Beekman's Slip
Aman's Slip
Long Va. Ferry
Murray's Wharf
23 The Prison 24 Poor House 25 Exchange 26 Barracks
ugers
Albany Piers
Eas
white Hall Slip/
Staten island Ferry
27 Fish Market- 28 Old Slip do. 29 Fly do. 30 Peck's do. 31 Oswego do. 32 Powder House 33 Jews Bury! Crd 34 Wind Mill 35 Tan Yard
North Hudson
Barnets
EL - Road to Greenwich
Bayard,
DELANCY
Fa
SQUARE
Degrushes Rope
Mr. Byvank La
....... ...
Grown-Pt.
:1
Plan of the CLIY OF NEW YORK 1767.
21
THE NEW CHURCH
perous portion of the city and the more fashionable, the houses extended somewhat farther, but in a north- easterly direction. Standing on the ground that was wanted for the new church and looking northward across the Green, one would have seen the poor- house (on the site of the present City Hall) and the City Prison (in later years the Record Office). Back of these he might have caught a glimpse of the barracks, but, except for these buildings, as far as the eye could reach was open country. In fact, the land desired was on the extreme northern edge of the city.
At the same time it was sufficiently accessible, and what was more, the petitioners believed that there was a good chance of getting it. In this they were not disappointed. A committee of five was directed by the Common Council to confer with the representatives of the church and to report,* and there seems from the beginning to have been a dis- position to grant the request in substance, only the details being matter for further discussion; for in the next communication from the church the petitioners say expressly that they "take very kindly the Speedy Attention Given by the Corporation to their Request."
There was at first some doubt whether, instead of
* For this and the following statements see "Common Council," Vol. VII, pp. 5 ff. Some items from the minutes of the Board of Aldermen, for the meeting at which the Presbyterian petition was received, and the one held the next week after, relating to the ferries on the East and North rivers, point out in an interesting way the primitive conditions of that time. We learn that there was but one ferry to Nassau (now Long) Island, a petition for a second one being rejected. It was ordered that after ad- vertising "in all the publick or weakly Gazzetees," the existing ferry should be farmed out "by Public Outcry to the highest Bidder." As to the means of reaching New Jersey, we learn that an exclusive grant of the right of ferriage across the Hudson from New York was given to one man, who agreed to keep in use three large boats and two small ones.
22
THE BRICK CHURCH
the lot petitioned for, another piece of land, de- scribed as "opposite the Old Wind Mill Spot," might not be made to serve the church's purpose. This the petitioners vigorously opposed, and some of their arguments are interesting, not only in them- selves, but in the light they throw upon the conditions of life in New York at that time. They urged that the land proposed as an alternative, and which lay near the juncture of the present Elizabeth and Hes- ter streets, was "too remote," that the streets leading to it were inconveniently narrow and would "prob- ably not be paved for many years to come," and that there would be danger to the proposed church from the small wooden buildings of that neighborhood. They therefore renewed their request for the lots ad- joining the Vineyard, on the ground that this land was "nearer the Inhabited Part of the City," and "more convenient to the Petitioners, as it will admit of an Easy Access at all times of the Yeare," and also because it was the choice most likely to improve the appearance of the city, "whereas," say they, "it is at Present Entirely Useless, or Rather a Nuisance, as it is now a Receptacle for all the Dirt and Filth of the Neighborhood." * They add, moreover, that an accurate measurement having shown the plot to con- tain the equivalent, not of six, but of nearly nine city lots, twenty-five by a hundred feet each, ; it will be unnecessary to provide extra land elsewhere for a "Cymetery"; and finally they make an offer of forty pounds sterling ground-rent per annum.
* "Common Council," Vol. VII, p. 11.
t The property measured on its south-west side (Beekman Street), 152 feet, on the south-east side, 200 feet, on the north-east side, 62 feet, and on the north-west side (toward the "Green"), 214 feet.
23
THE NEW CHURCH
The committee of the Common Council reported favorably upon the request of the petitioners in its entirety, and on February 25th, 1766, the Board con- veyed the "Vineyard lot" * to the ministers, elders, deacons, and trustees of the Presbyterian Church and to their heirs and assigns forever ("in considera- tion of the pious and laudable designs of the said parties") on condition that within a reasonable time they should "enclose the same within a good and sufficient fence, and either erect an edifice or church thereon, or on a part thereof, for the worship of Almighty God, or use the same, or a part thereof, for a cemetery or church-yard, for the burial or interment of the dead, and shall not appropriate, apply, nor convert the same at any time, forever thereafter, to private, secular uses," and also upon further condition of the payment of an annual ground-rent of forty pounds sterling.
Several clauses in this grant were destined to cre- ate more or less discussion and even controversy in later years. The right of burial here given was made the basis of a claim upon the city in the next century; the meaning of the phrase "private, secular uses," proved, as we shall see hereafter, to be not as clear as was at first supposed, and especially the matter of the ground-rent demanded readjustment from time to time.
The land for the new church was now provided, but the church itself was still a thing of the future. Mr. Rodgers set about the raising of the money for this purpose and soon proved that in this practical
* Loosely so described, though the lots merely adjoined the "Vine- yard." .. See above, page 19.
24
THE BRICK CHURCH
department of his work he was as energetic and suc- cessful as in his spiritual ministry. For several months he went from door to door, literally collecting with his own hands the money needed for this pur- pose .* In after years he is said to have narrated many anecdotes of those days, describing sometimes the unexpected repulses and sometimes the agreeable surprises that he encountered. One incident of the latter sort has come down to us and is worth repeat- ing, for it makes us realize that the building of the church on Beekman Street was no mere business enterprise, but a labor of love. Mr. Rodgers with an officer of the church, in the course of his money- raising, called one morning at the house of a certain widow who had recently lost by death a dearly loved daughter, and who was known to be in very narrow circumstances. Little or nothing was expected from her, and indeed the two callers were loath to ask her for anything. Their reason for coming to her at all was that they would not hurt her feelings by seeming to overlook her, or to despise her little gift. They were, accordingly, amazed when, after she learned their errand, she brought and put into their hands a sum which for her was very large indeed. She could well spare it, she assured them, when they ex- pressed reluctance to take so much. It was money saved in former years; in truth, laid by to be her daughter's marriage portion. We need not be told that the good minister and his companion went out from that humble house with renewed courage for their difficult task. The other anecdotes of that soliciting tour have been forgotten, but when the
* "Rodgers Mem.," pp. 181 ff.
25
THE NEW CHURCH
story of the Brick Church is retold from time to time the gift of this woman shall still "be spoken of for a memorial of her."
Of the appearance of the new church on its com- pletion at the end of 1767,* we have very little direct knowledge, but there is no reason to doubt that, so far as the exterior was concerned, the main features were much the same as in pictures and descriptions that come down to us from about 1800 .; Without attempting at this time to describe the details of the building, we may with certainty say that, though much plainer and in many points less attractive, it
* There is to-day, set into the outer wall of the present Brick Church, immediately south of the north entrance, a piece of brownstone, bevelled, with this inscription:
P. V. B. Livingsto 1767
The author has been unable to gain any direct information in regard to it, but the date suggests, of course, that it was in some way connected with the building of the church on Beekman Street. Is it, perhaps, a fragment of the original corner-stone? A newspaper report of an address by Dr. Spring at his fiftieth anniversary in 1860, quotes him as saying that the original corner-stone was laid by Dr. Rodgers' "own hands, with those of Livingston." The conclusion to be drawn would appear certain, were it not that Dr. Spring has also stated ("Br. Ch. Mem.," p. 8), that this cor- ner-stone was laid in the fall of 1766. But what was his authority for this statement? Most probably the words of Dr. Miller ("Rodgers Mem.," p. 181), "the foundation of the new church was laid in the autumn of the same year," that is, 1766. "Foundation," it will be noticed, is the word used in this older record, not "corner-stone." Doubtless Dr. Spring made an erroneous, though natural, inference, and we may assume that the stone is a part of the original corner-stone laid by Dr. Rodgers and Peter Van Brugh Livingston in 1767.
t Except that, apparently, the steeple was not added till a later time, Noah Webster, in 1788, describes the church as "a genteel brick building, with a steeple not finished." The following extract from the diary of Dr. Alexander Anderson, preserved in the New York Historical Society, suggests a possible date for the steeple's completion. "Jany 11th, 1794. Saturday Evening We had an alarm of 'Fire.' I believe it arose from trying the new. Bell in the Brick Meeting, which gave an alarm to the other bells."
26
THE BRICK CHURCH
was built in the same style as the present St. Paul's Chapel, which had been erected about two years before, and stood but a short distance away. The front was on what is now Beekman Street, so that the church almost had its back to the Green-looked at it over its right shoulder, as it were-a fact which, were it still standing to-day, when almost the whole city lies to the north of City Hall Park, would give it a singular appearance. The northern end of the church, however, was by no means neglected. The large colonial window in that wall was in excellent taste, and indeed in general it is evident that the promise to build a church which should be an orna- ment to the city, as set forth in the petition for the land, was by no means forgotten. The church, while it stood, was one of the truly admirable speci- mens of the city's architecture.
One feature of the structure must be mentioned even if all others should be disregarded: it was built of brick. It has been assumed by some that on ac- count of this fact, and because the old church on Wall Street was of stone, the new structure was at once called the "Brick Church." This does not appear to be exactly the history of the name's origin. For a number of years after the church was built, in fact, till 1799, the session records speak of it consist- ently as the "New Church." There is evidence, it is true, that in popular usage the name Brick Church or Brick Meeting-House had been commonly em- ployed at an earlier time, but it certainly had no official standing until about the date that has been mentioned. At that time a third church had been completed, so that to call the building on Beekman
THE BRICK CHURCH FROM THE NORTH-EAST IN 1800 Showing St. Paul's Chapel on the right
VIEW FROM THE SAME POINT IN 1908 Steeple of St. Paul's in the centre
27
THE NEW CHURCH
Street "new" was no longer appropriate. In Eng- land, where the spirit of conservatism is strong, this difficulty would not have been regarded; the church would have continued to be called the "New Church" till the end of time, after the manner of New College, Oxford, which was founded in the year 1379, or the New Inn at Gloucester, which claims to be the oldest in the Kingdom. But it is interesting to observe that even as early as the end of the eighteenth century Americans were moved by the desire to keep up to date. The name "New" was surrendered to the younger organization on Rutgers Street, and the Brick Church assumed its present title. This, how- ever, took place as has been said, more than thirty years after the erection of the building, to which event we must return.
The possession of the new land, and the invest- ment of a considerable amount of money in the building erected upon it, brought to the front once more a difficulty that had already existed for many years, and had caused the officers of the church no little concern. According to the law of the Province no charter of incorporation could be obtained by a Presbyterian organization, a fact which made it ex- tremely difficult to hold property or to secure the payment of legacies. Attempts had been made as early as 1720 and repeatedly in the half century that followed * to secure these very necessary privileges, but without success, owing largely to the determined opposition of the vestry of old Trinity, who were re- luctant to share with others the privileges enjoyed by the Established Church.
* See "Rodgers Mem.," pp. 135 ff., 140 ff., 166.
28
THE BRICK CHURCH
In 1730, fearing that those who were moved by this unfriendly spirit might take further advantage of their position, the Presbyterians determined to make their property safe by putting it into the hands of a body outside the jurisdiction of the colony. Accord- ingly, they conveyed it to a committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The practical management, however, of the church's temporal affairs was, at this period, by common consent, en- trusted almost entirely to Dr. John Nicoll, a physi- cian of New York, whose devoted service to the church deserves to be gratefully remembered. After his death in 1743 the congregation appointed for this task a self-perpetuating committee of eight * gentle- men, who were called trustees, but whose obligation to the church rested, of course, on a moral, not a legal, basis. The trust, which was thus by necessity reposed in the faithfulness of individuals, was so far from being abused in any way that when, in 1762, the church acquired possession of a "parsonage- house," the cumbersome method of applying to Scotland was not resorted to, and the property was vested in private persons, members or officers of the church.
This was the method by which it was proposed to hold the New Church on Beekman Street. It could not but be evident, however, that this plan was open to very grave objections as applied to such large in- terests as were now at stake, and spurred on by their increased necessity the church authorities made a new attempt to secure a charter. It was discovered that the Governor of the Province, Sir Henry Moore,
* Increased to twelve in 1771. ("Manuscript Hist.," p. 16.)
29
THE NEW CHURCH
was favorable to their desire, but some doubt was raised as to his power to act in the premises, and a reference of the question to the Provincial Council, constituted as it then was, did not seem at all likely to help the matter.
The officers of the church, therefore, in March, 1766, addressed a petition to King George. The Privy Council, before whom it was laid by His Majesty, referred it in turn to the Board of Trade, whose President, Lord Dartmouth, the patron of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, showed him- self a sincere friend to the petitioners and their cause. In spite of delays and discouragements, the request might have been granted at this time, had not the Bishop of London declared himself its enemy, ap- pearing twice before the board in opposition to it. The report to the King was unfavorable and the petition was rejected.
It will be perhaps as well to trace at this time the further history of this matter. In 1774, when still another request for a charter was made, the concur- rence of the King, the Governor, and the Council was actually obtained, but the obstinacy of the King's Attorney in New York, who pigeonholed it, delayed action until the imminence of the conflict with Great Britain turned the minds of men in other directions. It was finally in 1784, when the War of Independence had been won, that the Legislature of New York passed an act to incorporate the churches af all religious denominations, allowing each of them to hold an estate of twelve hundred pounds sterling per annum gross revenue. The Presbyterians at once availed themselves of this law, appointing nine trus-
30
THE BRICK CHURCH
tees, and taking the name "The Corporation of the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York." To this corporation the lands and buildings of the church were conveyed by the individuals, who had until that time faithfully held and managed the property .*
It will have been observed that in the building of the New Church no steps were taken toward creating a separate ecclesiastical organization. The so-called collegiate arrangement by which such a separation was made unnecessary, and which continued for forty years, should be clearly understood. The two congregations, on Wall Street and on Beekman Street, respectively, constituted one undivided church. The ministers belonged equally to them both, and preached alternately in the two churches on Sunday mornings. The second Sunday service was held in one church one Sunday, in the other the next. All the elders, deacons, and trustees were officers of the united congregations. The number of these officers was increased soon after the New Church was built, in order to enable them to cover the more extended field, but even then there was no such person as an elder of the Wall Street Church, or a deacon of the New Church: all belonged to both. From the very beginning, moreover, there was not, so far as the records show, the slightest indication that one of the congregations was in any way inferior or subordinate to the other, nor did there ever come between them, in any marked degree, the spirit of envy or of the selfish desire for power. The causes which finally ended the union lay, not in any failure of Christian
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.