USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 1 > Part 13
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 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
They add that :
"The Enemys of our peace being dissolute in principle as well as in- moral in their Lives & Conversation made their study falsely & mali- tiously to slander our Minister as well as others with ye Character of Jacobitism & dissatisfaccion to his Matys Sacred person & the Laws & Government of England, & had like to have broke that hedge wch his Maty had most graciously placed about us, but yor Lordps happy & Auspicious Arrival like ye Sun after morning darkness will dispel all those clouds & raise up our heads & hearts."
In conclusion, they assure the Governor of their willing- ness " with our lives & Fortunes" to support and main- tain correct principles as against "all his Matys enemys whosoever & ye enemys of ye true Protestant interest." 1
The address of the Wardens and Vestry to the Gov- ernor may be accepted without reserve as a refutation of the charges of disloyalty to Protestant interests raised by Atwood against Mr. Vesey and his friends. The rector himself, no doubt, suffered for the opinions of his father, a known Jacobite, as the Massachusetts records prove ; but he clearly took much pains to set himself and the par-
1 Records, i., 38.
137
Queen Anne's Commission
1708]
ish right with the incoming administration. That Mr. Vesey had the confidence of the Governor, is clear from Atwood's own "Case," in which, from his secure place of refuge, he complains of Cornbury, saying : " He not only countenanced the Minister in Preaching against the last Administration as a time of Persecution, and crying up his Lordship as a Moses, who had delivered them from their Egyptian Bondage ; but," could one believe it, " his Lord- ship " countenanced Jamison in calling Atwood a " Vil- lain."1 He might very truthfully have styled him a Jeffries.
Atwood's wrathful expressions, which were put upon paper after he fled to England, did not avail. Mr. Vesey had the right upon his side, and daily strengthened his posi- tion. Notwithstanding the turmoil of the times, he steadily grew from year to year in the estimation of the people.
Lord Cornbury received from Queen Anne a commis- sion and two sets of instructions. Neither the commis- sion nor the instructions have been printed, nor do any copies exist in this country. Curiously enough, however, the originals have found their way hither, and are now in possession of a private individual. They are fortunately in good state of preservation. The commission is written in old English text, on two large sheets of parchment, with handsomely engraved borders, and bearing the por- trait of the Queen. It is dated December 5, 1702, and is hard to decipher. It contains the following important provision respecting the Church :
" Wee do by these present authorize and impower you to collate any pron or prons to any Churches or Chap- pells, or other ecclesiastical benefices within our said prov- ince or dependencies aforesaid, as often as that any of them shall happen to be void."
1 Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1880, 286.
138
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
The instructions are in a plain hand, on ordinary fools- cap, and contained in a strong leathern case which appears to be original ; the Queen's large cramped autograph is at the head. Those parts which relate to Church affairs are as follows :
Instructions for Edward Hyde, Esqr., commonly called Lord Cornbury (son and Heir apparent to ye Earl of Clarendon) Our Captaine Generale and Gov- ernor in Chief of Our Province of New York and the Territorys depending thereon in America.
ANNE R
Given at our Court of St. James's the 29 day of January 170g in the first year of our Reigne.
I. With these our Instructions you will receive Our Commission under Our Great Seal of England constituting you our Captaine Gener- all and Governor in Chief of Our Province of New York and Terri- torys depending thereon in America.
2. You are to take upon you the execution of the place and Trust Wee have reposed in you, and forwith to call together the members of Our Council for that Province, by Name William Smith Peter Schuyler Samson Shelton Broughton, Wolfgang William Romer William Law- rence, Gerardus Beekman Rip Van Dam, John Bridges, Caleb Heath- cote, Thomas Wenham, Mathew Ling, Killian Van Ranslaer, Esqrs.
3. And you are with all due and usual solemnity to cause Our Said Commission under Our Great Seal of England constituting you Our Captain Generall and Governor in Chief as aforesaid to be read and published at the said meeting of Our Councill.
4. Which being done, you shall yourself take and also administer unto each of the Members of Our Said Council as well the Oaths ap- pointed by act of Parliament to be taken instead of the Oaths of Alle- giance and Supremacy and the oath mentioned in an Act Entitled An Act to declare the alteration in the oath appointed to be taken by the Act Entitled an Act for the further security of his Matys. person and the Succession of the Crown in the protestant Line, and for extin- guishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and all other pretenders and their open and secrett abettors, and for declaring the Association to be determined as also the test mentioned in an Act of Parliament made in the 25 years of the reigne of King Charles the second entitled an Act for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants, together with an oath for the due execution of your
I39
Queen Anne's Commission
1708]
and their places and Trusts, as well with regard to the equal and im- partial administration of justice in all causes that shall come before you as otherwise and likewise the Oath required to be taken by Gov- ernors of Plantations to do their utmost that the laws relating to the Plantations be observed.
.
·
60. You shall take especiall care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout youre Government, the Book of Common prayer as by Law established, read each Sunday and Holy-day, and the blessed Sacrament administered according to the rites of the Church of England, you shall be carefull 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, and that besides a com- petent maintenance to be assigned to the Minister of each Orthodox Church, a convenient house be built at the Common Charge for each Minister, and a competent proportion of Land assigned him for a Glebe and exercise of his Industry, and you are to take care that the parishes be so limited and settled, as you shall find most convenient for the accomplishing this good work.
61. You are not to prefer any Minister to any Ecclesiasticall Benefice in that Our Province without a certificate from the right reverend Father in God the Bishop of London, of his being con- formable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and of a good life and conversation, and if any person preferred already to a benefice appear to you to give scandall, either by his doctrine or Manners, you are to use the best means for the removal of him, and to supply the vacancy in such manner as we have directed.
62. You are to give order forthwith (if the same be not already done) that every Orthodox Minister within your Government be one of the Vestry in his respective parish, and that no vestry be held without him, except in case of sickness, or that after notice of vestry he will not come.
63. You are to inquire whether there be any Minister within your Government, who preaches and administers the Sacraments in any Orthodox Church or Chappell without being in due orders, and to give an account thereof to the said Bishop of London.
64. And to the end of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the said Bishop of London may take place in your province so farr as con- veniently may be, Wee do think fitt, that you give all continuance and encouragement to the exercise of the same, Excepting to the
140
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
Collating to Benefices, granting Lycenceses for Marriages, and probate of Wills, which we have reserved to our Governour and to the Com- mander in Chief of our said Province for the time being.
65. Wee do further direct that no schoolmaster be henceforth per- mitted to come from England and to keep schoole within Our Province of New York, without th Lycense of th said Bishop of London, and that no other person now there, or that shall come from other ports, be admitted to keep School without your Lycense, first obtained.
66. And you are to make especial care that a Table of Marriages, established by th Canons of th Church of England to be hung up in every Orthodox Church & duly observed, and you are to endeaver to get a law past in th Assembly of that Provinc (if not already done) for th strict observance of th said Table.
67. You are to take care that Drunkenness and debauchery Swear- ing and blasphemy be discountenanced & punished ; and for th further discountenance of Vice & encouragement of Virtue and good living (that by such examples ye Infidels may be invited and desire to partake of th Christian Religion) You are not to admit any person to publick Trust and Employments, whose ill fame and conversation may occasion Scandall.
Lord Cornbury soon settled all questions respecting the late sovereign. He writes under date of June 23, I702 :
"On Thursday the 18th instant having drawn out the forces there I did in the presence of the gentlemen of her Majesty's Council attended by the Mayor Aldermen and Common Council the Clergy and I think I may say all the Gentlemen and Merchants of the City of New York cause Her Majesty to be proclaimed Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the faith, Supream Lady of the Province of New York and Plantations of the same according to the directions I had received from the Lords of her Majestys Most Honble Privy Council." In the same letter he adds that the people have "suffered great hardships and wrongs through the wicked prac- tices of Mr. Atwood and Mr. Weaver, who have made the divisions among the people of New York much greater than ever they were and would have made them past cure had they gone on a little longer " 1; all of which formed a fair vindication of the parish.
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., iv., 960. His reasons for suspending Atwood, Weaver, De Peyster, Walters, and Staats are given in same volume, pp. 1012-14-17. The con- firmation of his action by the Council occurs on pp. 1026-SI.
141
The Lease of the King's Farm
1708]
Returning to the parish records, we find the Wardens and Vestry quietly at work looking after the interests of the Church, the business being conducted with the usual order, so that no one would suspect the danger to which a number of the Board had been subjected under the reign of Chief Justice Atwood and his political friends.
The grant of a lease of the King's Farm to the Church by Governor Fletcher, and the annulling of that lease by Bellomont, have been already mentioned. Lord Cornbury now renewed the lease, in 1702, but only dur- ing his term of office, at an annual rental of sixty bushels of wheat. At a meeting of the Vestry held August 6, 1 702,
"Mr. Vesey & Mr. Wenham Reported that Mr. Clarkson dec'd one of the Tennants of the King's Farme before his death & after the grant- ing of a new Lease from the Right Honble Edward Lord Viscount Cornbury did relinquish his right & interest in the lease thereof to the Church. Capt. Wilson, in consideration of a peece of Plate to be given him by the Corporation of Trinity Church within twelve months next ensuing doth surrender his Interest & right in the said lease for the farme to come to the Church & bears the charges he has bene at in defending & maintaining the Churche's right thereto." Also :
" It is agreed by this Board that George Ryders have the Farme the remaining part of the year till the first of May next, that he shall have liberty to take off his Winter & Summer Grain provided he plant no' Indian Corne next spring therein, that he sew no more summer grain next spring than winter grain, that he commit not any waste, leave the Fences in repair & good order, he paying for the same the sum of thirty-five pounds to the Church Wardens for the use of the Church."
It will be observed that it was not without opposition that Trinity Church procured even a short lease of the farm. Its first lease in 1697 for seven years was vacated by the Colonial Legislature ; its second lease in 1701 ran only during the Governor's term. It will presently be
142
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
seen that before the lease expired, the Farm became the property of the Church.
About this time the Rev. George Keith, formerly a member of the Society of Friends, came over as a mis- sionary of the Propagation Society, accompanied by Talbot and Gordon. No doubt the people had been prepared for the church by the labors of the Rev. Mr. Vesey. Keith everywhere created a strong impression, and, in his Journal, he says that he preached in the after- noon of September 27th, at Hempstead, when the church would not hold the people who stood around the doors and windows to hear. They were generally well affected, "and greatly desired that a Church of England minister should be settled among them." Keith states in his Journal (Sept. 30th) that at this period special services were being held in Trinity Church : "At the Request of Mr. Vesey, the Minister at New York, I preached at the Weekly Fast, which was appointed by the Government, by reason of the great Mortality that was then at New York, where above Five Hundred died in the Space of a few weeks ; and that very Week, about Seventy died. My Text was, James 5, 13." 1
At this period the Rev. Mr. Bartow, a missionary of the Venerable Society, established himself at Westchester and began the work that has continued to the present day.
In 1702 England declared war against France and Spain. The contest was prolonged till 1713 ; during that time, and subsequently, until the close of the American
1 Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck on the Continent of North America. By George Keith, M. A., Late Missionary from the Society for the Profa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; and now Rector of Edburton, in Sussex, London. Printed by Joseph Downing, for Brob. Aylmer at the Three-Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Corn hill, 1706 (p. 30). See Coll. P. E. Hist. Soc., IS51, P. I.
143
Conference of Clergy
1708]
Revolution, Canada formed the objective point of the English. The route thither lay through New York, by the Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain ; a route which had been known to explorers from a very early period. The French and English kept up a con- tinual strife for the possession of that natural and almost complete water-way, and when the American Revolution broke out, the same struggle was continued between the English and the Provincials.1
Very early in the history of our parish, as appears from the foregoing letter of Mr. Vesey's already given, need was felt of joint action on the part of the clergy of New York and its vicinity, for the extension of the influence of the Church and the promotion of her cause in the province. Nicholson, Governor of Virginia, did much to further this design ; at his call, seven of the clergy met in the City of New York in the month of November, 1702, and held a kind of convention there. The persons present were the Rev. John Talbot, the Rev. John Bartow, the Rev. George Keith, the Rev. Alexander Innes, the Rev. Edmond Mott, the Rev. Evan Evans, and the Rev. Mr. Vesey. Governor Nicholson gave {25 towards defraying the charges of the meeting. The council lasted a week, and measures were discussed and devised for propagating the Gospel in the provinces. Great stress was laid on the need of Episcopal services, and an earnest wish was expressed that a suffragan might he sent out from England; a state- ment of the condition of the Church was also prepared to send home, with a view to enforce what was, at that early day, the strongest desire of our mission clergy. This statement gives an account of the state of the Church in North America and was drawn up and signed by these
1 See the military history connected with this route in Lake George, its Scenes and Characteristics, by B. F. Da Costa, chaps. vi. and vii.
144
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
seven clergy.1 Their prayer fell on listless ears, and they were left to work on without a head .?
November 15th Mr. Keith was again in town ; he says : " I preached at New York, on Revel. 3, 20, being Sacra- ment-Day." On the following Sunday, he " preached again at New York, on Rom. 6, 17, 18 in the Forenoon, and Mr. Talbot in the Afternoon," adding, "My Lord Cornbury, Governor of New York and the Jerseys, was very kind to us, and at his Invitation, we did eat at his Table both Sundays and other Times."3 In writing to the Society Keith says :
"My Lord Cornbury invited us to dine with him at Fort Henry, as accordingly we did after Sermon. There is a brave congrega- tion of people belonging to the Church here, as well as a very fine fabric of a church, and the Rev. Mr. Vesey very much esteemed and loved for his ministry and good life, and the like I can say of all the other ministers of the Church, where I have travelled, as at Boston, at Rhode Island and Philadelphia." ‘
1702. This year the Bishop of London applied to the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, asking them to provide a house for Mr. Vesey and that they would please :
Ist. To take into consideration the twenty-six pounds allowed annually by his late Majesty for and towards the providing of an house for the Minister of Trinity Church in New York to dwell in, in order to the continueance of it.
2d. That whereas an hundred and ten acres in the Coun- ty of Worcester in the said province of New York have been escheated to the Queen by the death of one Thomas Williams, their Lordship's payments would be for the set-
1 It can be found in the Coll. P. E. Hist. Soc., 1851, pp. xv. to xxi. See also P. 33.
2 Coll. P. E. Hist. Soc., xxxiii., letter of Rev. Mr. Bartow of Nov. 4, 1702, to Mr. Whitefield, N. Y. Genl. Con. MSS.
3 Coll. P. E. Hist. Soc., p. 33.
4 N. Y. Doc. His., iii., 25.
5
145
The King's Farm
1708]
tling of them upon the Church, in the said county, the better to provide for a subsistence of a Minister.1
There is no further record of parochial affairs until February 19, 1703, when,
"It being moved which way the King's Farme which is now vested in Trinity Church should be let to Farm. It was unanimously agreed that the Rector and Church Wardens should wait upon my Lord Cornbury, th Govr to Know what part thereof his Lordp did design towards the Colledge which his Lordp designs to have built and there- upon to publish Placards for the Letting thereof at the public outcry to the highest bidder." ?
This appears to be the beginning of a movement which culminated in the founding of what is now Colum- bia College, in 1754. Cornbury, with all his faults, saw the necessity which existed for a school of learning like that ultimately established, and deserves grateful remem- brance in this particular connection, though it will be observed that Colonel Morris suggested that the Farm should be acquired by the Propagation Society.
This reference to the King's Farm brings up once more a subject of great importance to the church, on which it now appears to be in order to make a full state- ment. The reader has already noted the sale of that piece of land by the heirs of Anneke Jans, under the provision of her will in 1670, to Governor Lovelace; the transfer of the property to the Duke of York ; its grant to the Colo-
1 N. Y. General Convention MSS., i., 5.
9 Records, i., 43. At this period we find Morris joining with Heathcote in ad- vocating the founding of a college. Morris writes : "The Queen has a farm of about 32 acres of Land which rents for £36 p. ann : tho the Church Wardens have peti- tioned for it, & my Ld four months since gave yu promise of it the Proceedings has been so slow that they begin to fear the success wont answer to the expectation. I believe her Maty would readily grant it to the Society for the asking-N. York is the centre of English America & an appropriate place for a colledge, & that Farme in a little time would be of considerable value, & it is a pity such a thing should be lost for want of asking, which at another time wont be so easily obtained." Archives, S. P. G., i., 171.
10
146
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
nial Governors by the Crown as a perquisite of their office ; the lease of the Farm to Trinity Church by Governor Fletcher ; the annulling of that lease by Governor Bello- mont ; the renewal of the said lease to the Church by Lord Cornbury. On the 27th of June, 1704, an Act was passed "granting certain privileges and power to the Rector and inhabitants of the City of New York of the communion of the Church of England as by law established," among which privileges was that of holding lands, tenements, etc., and of leasing, demising, and improving the same to the benefit of the Church and other pious uses.
Under the provision of that Act, and upon the recom- mendation of the Governor, the Farm was given to the Church in fee, by royal patent, November 20, 1705, and has been in its possession to the present day.1
In view of subsequent agitation on the subject of this grant ; of the statement that the Farm was violently taken by a powerful ecclesiastical corporation from its rightful owners, and is still held adversely to their rights ; of the amazing popular delusion that the heirs of Anneke Jans were wrongly dispossessed of their property, and that their descendants, or persons claiming to be such, have a legal and equitable right to the property to-day ; and of other wild ideas on this subject which are still giving designing and dishonest persons occasion to delude the ignorant and obtain money under false pretences-it seems desirable that the reader should have a full account of the matter from the beginning ; and this appears to be the proper point at which to give him that information. It is neces- sary to go back to a date thirty-four years before the parish of Trinity Church came into existence.
1 See Letter of Mr. Vesey to Gov. Fletcher, Hist. American Church, i., 172 ; also Murray Hoffman's Ecclesiastical Law in the State of New York, Appendix, 293-302.
147
The Heirs of Anneke Jans
1708]
In the days when New Amsterdam was a Dutch colony, there lived in it a woman of humble origin whose name was Anneke Jans. She was the wife of one Roeloff, manager for Adrian Van Rensselaer, the first Patroon of the great Manor at Beverwyck, near Albany. To her and her husband was made a grant of a farm of about sixty-two ' acres on Manhattan Island, afterwards known as the An- neke Jans Farm, and later as the Domine's Bouwery.
Roeloff died, leaving three daughters and one son. In 1638, his widow married the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, a Dutch minister who had been sent out from Holland five years before as clergyman for the colony. Bogardus, on a voyage home in 1647, was lost at sea ; he left four children, and his widow removed to Albany, where she died in 1663. She made a will, which is on record, direct- ing that the farm on Manhattan Island should be sold, and providing for the disposition of the proceeds of the sale, chiefly in favor of the four children of her first husband. This, accordingly, was done, and the farm was bought by the English Governor of the province, Francis Lovelace, the deed of sale being duly recorded. It will be observed that this sale of the Anneke Jans Farm was made thirty- four years before Trinity Church came into existence. By the deed the interests of all the heirs and devisees were duly conveyed ; and there can be no reasonable doubt of the validity of the sale.
There is no evidence whatever that for a period of sixty-eight years after the sale of the Farm to Lovelace, any dissent was made on the part of any member of the family of Anneke Jans Bogardus from the propriety and legality of the sale. So far as any evidence has been found, no attempt was made by any of them to claim the property ; nor was any attack set on foot against the title of any occupant of the property until after the death of all
148
History of Trinity Church
[1702-
the original parties to the transaction, whose knowledge of its details would have prevented such an attack. Dur- ing all that period, the heirs of Anneke Jans were resi- dent in New York, and the Farm was a well-known piece of property, familiar to the residents of the growing colony, claimed by owners not of the Roeloff or Bogardus connec- tion, and occupied and cultivated by their tenants, who paid rent regularly for its use. If there had been any claim to the Farm on the part of the descendants of the original possessor, it would long before have been barred by the statute of limitations : but there was no such claim, either to the rent of the Farm paid by its occupants, or to the ownership or possession of it, until all the daughters of Anneke Jans Bogardus were dead, and their husbands were dead, and all the sons of Bogardus were dead, and Mrs. Rombout, the widow of the first Cornelius and mother of the second Cornelius, was dead, and the second Corne- lius himself was dead. They had sold it once ; they never attempted to sell it again ; never mentioned it in any will ; never tried to borrow money on it; never disturbed the persons who lived upon it. The conclusion is irresistible that the heirs had no rights to assert. The first appeal to the courts upon the part of the descendants of Anneke Jans in respect to her farm was made some thirty years after the death of her last surviving child.
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.