USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 1 > Part 14
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It has been stated that the Farm was sold to Governor Lovelace under the provision of the will. He lost it after the peace between England and Holland in 1674, when the colony finally reverted to the English. Lovelace was in disgrace, on account of his failure to prevent the sur- render of the town to the Dutch ; he appears to have been heavily in debt to the proprietor, the Duke of York, and all his property passed into possession of the Duke.
ה
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The Title to the King's Farm 149
Its rental, which was of small value, became, with the Duke's approval, a perquisite of the English Governor, and finally the property of the Crown ; the same tenant who had occupied under Lovelace was in undisturbed possession for twenty-seven years. In 1697, Governor Fletcher, deeply interested in the progress of the Church in the province, waived his claim to the rental of the Farm and leased it to those persons, styled the " Managers of the Church of Eng- land," who were engaged in an effort to found and build a church in the City of New York. The same tenant con- tinuing in possession, a grant of the property was finally made to Trinity Church by Queen Anne, in 1705. This history explodes the notion industriously circulated long afterwards, and even now held, that the Anneke Jans heirs were kept out of their rights by a rich and powerful ecclesi- astical corporation, whereas no such corporation was in ex- istence until thirty-four years after her death.
The title of the Church came then from the Crown of Great Britain. It was unaffected by the changes effected by the American Revolution. After the acknowledg- ment of the independence of the Colonies, an Act was passed in the Legislature of New York, confirming all the titles acquired prior to that time in the colonial period.
After the death of all the Bogardus family of the first generation, some of their descendants set up a claim to the property, and since 1746 numerous proceedings have been taken by persons claiming as descendants of Anneke Jans, and in every form which legal ingenuity could suggest, to enforce their supposed claims. In these various proceed- ings the title of the Church has been uniformly sustained.
The notion that Trinity Church has wilfully wronged the heirs, obtaining possession of their property by unfair means, is quite as preposterous as any other of the hallu- cinations on this subject.
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" The children of Mrs. Bogardus parted with their title by actual sale and conveyance to the English Governor shortly after her death ; if by reason of any informalities in the transfer they ever had any right to redress, they had lost such right long before Trinity Church came into existence. The title of the Church to every parcel of its lands to which Anneke Jans Bogardus ever had any color of a prior claim is not only free from legal defect, but is free also, and has always been free from any equitable claim of her descendants ; and if any wrong was perpetrated when her children parted with the property, it was a wrong on the part of those of them who managed the transaction against the others interested in the proceeds ; the fraud of some of the heirs upon the others, antedating the existence of Trinity Church nearly forty years."1
In short, the claim is in its entire history an instance of a mere delusion, and those persons who now, after the Church has held the property for one hundred and ninety- one years, persist in making it must be considered as playing on the ignorance of simple persons and guilty of conscious fraud .?
For further and full information on this subject the reader is referred to a note prepared for this work by Mr. Stephen P. Nash, Senior Warden of Trinity Church, an eminent member of the New York Bar, and for many years a representative of the Diocese in its Standing Committee, and in the Diocesan and General Conventions. Mr. Nash has shown : Ist, what were the pieces of land constituting the original endowment of the Church ; 2dly, how they came into her possession and when; 3dly, by whom attempts at spoliation have been made ; and 4thly, how those attempts have been in every instance defeated. Having read what has now been briefly presented in the text, together with the appended note, the reader will
1 I quote from Mr. Nash's larger work entitled Anneke Fans Bogardus, her Farm and how it Became the Property of Trinity Church, New York. An Historic Inquiry. By Stephen P. Nash, LL.D. Prepared and printed for the use of the Church, New York, 1890.
9 See Schuyler's Col. N. Y., ii., 361, quoted by Mr. Nash.
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" The Venerable Society "
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understand the references to the Farm which are scattered through this history.
Nothing of particular interest appears in the Records until Feb. 14, 1704, when we find a memorandum of the lease of " the Queen's Farme " to George Riesse for £30 per annum for five years.1
"April 30, 1705, Mr. Jamison produced his Excels Patent for the King's Farme now call'd the Queene's Farm and the Queene's Garden wch was read and acquainted the Vestry that his Excell. Mr. Attorney General Bickley and Mr. Secretary Clarke, gave their fees for passing thereof."2
No history of the foundation and progress of the Church in this country would be complete which did not record the name and recite the noble services of the " So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," commonly known and spoken of as "The Venerable So- ciety." This organization was chartered in the reign of King William III., June 16, A.D., 1701. Its objects were, first, to provide a maintenance for an orthodox clergy in the plantations, colonies, and factories of Great Britain, beyond the seas, for the instruction of the King's loving subjects in the Christian religion ; and secondly, to make such other provision as was necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts. To use the words of the Dean of Lincoln, in his sermon, preached on the first an- niversary, February 20, 1702: "The design is, in the first place, to settle the state of religion, as well as may be, among our own people there, which, by all account we have, very much wants our pious care; and then to proceed, in the best methods they can, toward the con- version of the natives." Among the corporators were included, ex officio, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Ely, Gloucester, Chichester,
1 Records, i., 51.
9 Ibid., 54.
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Bath and Wells, and Bangor, the Deans of Westminster and St. Paul's, the Regius and Margaret Professors of the two universities, and a very long list of clergy and laity of high standing in the mother country ; and the Society was authorized to collect subscriptions for its objects and to pay them over to its own nominees. To this Society was due, under God, the settlement of the Church on this side of the Atlantic, by the support of the clergy who came out hither, and by provision for mission work among the negroes and Indians. Men were sent out by it to South and North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and all parts of New England ; teach- ers and catechists for the blacks who were held in slavery in the colonies, and for savage tribes beyond, so that it might truly be said :
"Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?"
Incessant reference is made to the Venerable Society in every history bearing on the subject of the evangelization of North America by the Church of England ; and justly, for that was the strong arm on which the clergy had to lean when everything seemed against them, and to that fountain of supply and comfort they looked, when, without such assistance, their efforts must have failed. The rector of Trinity Church, New York, was not directly connected with the Society, but his assistants were its missionaries, and his catechists and lay helpers were supported by ap- propriations from its treasury.1
February 19, 1703. "Ordered that Capt. Wilson, Capt. Willet and Mr. David Jamison do meet with Mr. Isaac De Riemer and treat with him concerning the lot
1 See Dr. Humphrey's Historical Account of the S. P. G., London, 1730; Haw- kins's Missions of the Church of England, London, 1845 ; Digest of the S. P. G., 1701-1892, chaps. ix. and x.
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Grant of the Burial Ground
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of ground which he has lying near to Trinity Church, and agree with him for the same upon the most easy terms they can for the use of the said Church." 1
It appears, too, that the money collected "for the Redemption of some slaves in Sally," which had been allotted to the parish by order of the Council, still lay in Holland, and a committee was appointed "to treat with my Lord" Cornbury concerning it; while Mr. Huddle- stone was voted {2 19.3 "for teaching Wm. Welch to read and write." ?
March 30th. Mr. Jamison was retained as attorney to recover the money, which, it would seem, was actually recovered in the sum of {209.3 in sterling, and 150 guilders Holland money recovered in goods, January 13, I705.
June 3d. Ordered that "Col. Wenham pay Mr. Jami- son what is reasonable for his pains and trouble in drawing the deed for ye Burial place granted from the City of New York to Trinity Church."3 This land had already been used by the city as a cemetery, but had been granted to the parish October 19th, previous, by the city, Philip French being Mayor.
Under the same date we have the first mention of the Dutch Church which occurs in the Records.
Ordered, that
" Capt. Tothill and Capt. Sims wait on Majr. de Brown and get him to execute the Deed for that parcell of ground he pretended to, now within the bounds of Trinity Church Charter, and that they with Capt. Morris and Capt. Wilson do meet with the managers of the Dutch Church and endeavor to get them to Sign the Resignation of that piece of land which they lay pretensions to, but is contained in Trinity Church Charter."‘
It was also " Agreed with Mr. Ebits Bricklayer that
1 Records, i., 43. 2 Ibid., i., 44. 3 Ibid., i., 44. 4 Ibid., i., 45.
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he point the Steeple, ye Western part of ye Church, make middle Brick pillars in ye windows and plaister them sufficiently." 1
The subject of music was now attracting attention in the parish, and, on the 4th of August, the rector and others were appointed a committee "to Confer with and Dis- course Mr. Henry Neering Organ maker, about making and erecting an Organ in Trinity Church in New York, and if they shall think meet to agree with him on as easy terms as possible." ?
Nothing appears to have been done with respect to the organ at this time, as in 1709, Mr. Vesey wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury about their need of " a sett of Organs." At this time there does not appear to have been anything of the kind in New York. The first organ in America, it is believed, was set up at Boston in 1713. The earliest mentioned in New York is the organ given by Governor Burnet, December 28, 1727, to the Corporation of the Dutch Church ; a somewhat singular action, considering the fact that Burnet was a member of the Church of England, and that Trinity Church was still unprovided for.3
1 Records, i., 45.
2 Ibid., i., 5. " That yie middle right hand pew in ye gallery be allotted to Mr. Philip French and his family," and " that ye right hand front pew in ye gallery be allotted to Mr. Nichols and his family and also for Mr. Attorney General Broughton and his family," and "Capt. Coddrington and his family have ye one half of that pew with Alderman Smith." Records, i., 45. Later there was ordered a pew " for ye Govr. Council Mayor and Aldermen," and it is ordered that " Mr. William Bradford and his wife do sit in that half of the pew which was formerly Mr. Saml. Burt's, along with Mr. Deick Vandenburgh, until the said Burt's male children are of years to use the same."
3 See the Christian Intelligencer, April 11, 1878, which gives a translation of the articles of conveyance. The Governor, however, did not hold very strict views with regard to the Church, and was exceedingly friendly to the Dutch, among whom he had lived in Holland. It may be stated here, that one of the earliest organs in the New World was built by a member of the Religious Orders in South America in the six- teenth century, some of the pipes being made from trunks of trees.
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William Bradford
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Mr. Keith again appeared in New York in November, 1703. He writes :
"November 7, Sunday. I preached at New York, on Acts 2, 42, and that Sermon was soon after Printed at New York, at the desire of some who heard it, and did contribute to the Charge of its Printing." No- vember 28th he preached again "on I Cor. 12, 13"' the discourse being printed ; and he says : "by the Blessing of God, both these printed Sermons have been serviceable to many in these American Parts, and to some also in England, to reclaim them from their errone- ous Opinions about the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper."ª
We may judge of the financial strength of the congre- gation at this period, from the fact that on April 19, 1 704, " the voluntary contributions " were reported as "£51 : 14 : I} since December 12 previous." 3
At this time Colonel Wenham was " desired to write to Mr. Thrale to procure the Plate & furniture given by her Maty to Trinity Church."‘
The name of William Bradford now appears on the Records. It was ordered, April 19th, that Mr. Bradford be
1 Coll. P. E. Hist. Soc., 1851, pp. 44, 45.
' The Menzies Catalogue, p. 235, gives the titles of these now exceedingly rare sermons :
" The Notes of the True Church With the Application of them to the Church of England, And the great Sin of Separation from Her. Delivered in a Sermon preached at Trinity Church in New York, Before the Administration of the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the 7th of November, 1703, by George Keith, M. A. Printed and Sold by William Bradford at the sign of the Bible, in New York, 1704."
" The great Necessity & Use of the Holy Sacraments of Baptism & the Lord's Sup- per, delivered in a Sermon preached at Trinity-Church in New - York, the 28th of November, 1703, by George Keith, M. A. Printed and Sold by William Bradford at the sign of the Bible, New York, 1704."
' Records, i., 47.
^ Ibid., i., 47. The public Records at this period give a glimpse of what was going on in some quarters, and say, April 3d : " The Court being informed that the widow Rombouts and several other persons on the west side of Broadway are levelling the fortifications, and about to fence in the street fronting to Hudson River, ordered that Alderman Hutchings and Mr. Laroux do forthwith warn them from so doing, upon pain of being prosecuted at Law." At this time the city owned 8,925 feet of land on the water front, which, it was ordered, should not be sold at less than threepence a foot.
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paid for a book to enter the Records of Marriages and Baptisms, and for printing two laws for the Church, four pounds four shillings. This was the eminent man who introduced the art of printing in the Middle Colonies of North America. Born in England in 1663, he accompanied William Penn to Pennsylvania in 1682, and set up a print- ing press in Philadelphia under the auspices of the Quak- ers. Things not going smoothly there, he accepted an urgent invitation from Governor Fletcher, and came to New York in 1692, where he was immediately appointed Printer to the Crown, and where he resided till the day of his death, May 23, 1752. Mr. Bradford was a Vestryman of Trinity Church from 1703 to 1710. Notes of work done by him for the parish appear from time to time in the Records.
In his history of Trinity Church Dr. Berrian gives a long account of Mr. Elias Neau, whose transition from the French Evangelical Society to the English Church seems to have been considered as a matter of considerable moment. This person was an elder of the French Church, and no doubt a person of a deeply religious character and earnest turn of thought. He was in correspondence with the Venerable Society some time before he made the change. We learn from a letter of his, dated June 22, 1704, that he was active in trying to bring the denomina- tions in New York into some kind of union.
"The fine project that our Pastors of N. York had made to labor in concert to erect a Society upon the plan of that at London has had no success. It was impossible for me tho' I took all the care imaginable to reassemble our 3 Pastors. I found excuses everywhither & which seemed plausible. Mr. Vesey on the one side said that he durst not innovate anything without express commands from my Lord of London and that if he should goe to secret assemblies 'twould be the means of introducing those sort of assemblies which the Presbyterians call
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Elias Neau
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Meetings, and that whereas his Church is but as yet in its infancy he ought to labor that he might edify it."
The Dutch minister pleaded many engagements and his ignorance of the English language. "The French minister," he says, "is the only one who has pusht forward & desired that a Society might be endeavored to be erected according to the Articles they had agreed upon together." This failing, Mr. Neau and a few friends formed a little society, consisting of seven persons, of whom the French pastor was President, and they met every Wednesday in a kind of devotional conference. About this time Mr. Neau was appointed as Catechist by Lord Cornbury, an appointment which was not satisfactory to Mr. Vesey, who thought that it should have come from the Bishop of London, and that the person appointed should be in Deacon's Orders. Suspicions were enter- tained of Mr. Neau, as not in sympathy with the spirit of the Church, and tinctured with purist conceits. On Au- gust 29th 1 of the same year he wrote again to the Society, explaining the difficulty of his situation, inasmuch as if he proceeded with the work of Catechist he would displease Mr. Vesey, while if he remained inactive he would offend Lord Cornbury. However, the happy solution of the trouble came finally in his conforming to the Church of England. In explanation and defense of his cause, he wrote, November 6th, that he had performed his promise "to quit the employment of Elder & 'tis now about 10 days since I am entirely settled in the Eng. Chh. not upon the sole account of my being your Catechist, nor for any other worldly object, but I have done it through a principle of Conscience, because I find more comfort in celebrating the Mysteries in yor Chh and in Praying. I had learnt in my Dungeon part of ye Eng. Liturgy by 1 N. Y. Gen. Conv. MSS., i., 49.
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heart, by the means of a Bible that I had there, & to wch there was the Com: Prayer Book annex'd. I did my de- votions therewth Night & Morng in my Solitude. Thus, I beseech you & the whole Illust Society to believe that I have a very great affection for the Com: Prayer, and that it shall not be my Fault, that the Church is not establisht everywhere according to the directions that shall be given me concerning it."1
During the summer of this year, it is apparent from the letters of Colonel Heathcote to the Secretary of the Soci- ety for the Propagation of the Gospel, that there was an earnest desire to extend the work of the Church. Heath- cote wrote on June Ist, suggesting that the Society should give directions "that there should be 4 Quarterly meet- ings of the clergy annually 2 in West Chester County, & Queen's County 2, to propagate the church."?
August 23, 1704. The following entry is of special interest to students of American bibliography : " That the Church Wardens do lend to Mr. Wm. Bradford thirty or forty pounds for six months on security without interest for purchasing Paper to Print Common Prayer."3 Chaplain Sharp was security for him.
In the year 1704, Church services were established at Hempstead by Mr. Thomas, who thus carried on the good work commenced, no doubt originally by Mr. Vesey, and deepened by Keith. At this time also services began
1 N. Y. Gen. Conv. MSS., i., 53.
9 Ibid., i., 30.
3 Records, i., 49. At this time a system of fees was recorded : " The Clerk's Fees. For attending at a Funeral, Five shillings & sixpence. For his attendance at a Marriage, Six shillings and sixpence. For Registering a Christning, nine pence. The Sexton's Fees. For Ringing the Bell for a Funeral, Three shillings. For making a grave, Six shillings. For every marriage, Three shillings & sixpence. Ordered That every Stranger pay Double Fees. Fees to be paid for Burial in Church. For Burying a man or woman in the Chancel, to the minister, Five Pounds. For ye same ground for a child about Ten years & not exceeding Sixteen, Fifty shillings. For a child under Ten years, One Pound five shillings."-Records, i., 49.
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Madam Knight
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to be held at Richmond, Staten Island, where St. Andrew's Church was built in 1713.
At a meeting of the clergy held in New York, October 5, 1704, the subject of education was considered. A com- munication was then received from Lord Cornbury, who had been instrumental in obtaining the enactment of a law for the establishment of a Latin Free School, and endowing it with a salary of £50 per annum. Other schools were also established.
Here we may turn for a few minutes to secular life, for the purpose of showing the social and domestic environment of the people at this period, in connection with which all genuine information is valuable.
Late in the autumn of 1704 that unique character, Madam Knight, so called, travelled from Boston to New York, and at once went to the Auction, which seems at that time to have formed something of the nature of a Social Exchange.
" Mr. Burroughs," she says, "went with me to Vendue where I bought about 100 Rheem of paper wych was re-taken in a flyboat from Holland and sold very Reasonably here-some ten, some Eight Shil- lings per Rheem by the Lott wch was ten Rheem in a Lott. And at the Vendue I made a great many acquaintances amongst the good women of the town, who curteosly invited me to their houses and generously entertained me.
"The Cittie of New York is a pleasant, well compacted place, situ- ated on a Commodius River wch is a fine harbour for shipping. The Buildings Brick Generaly, very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston. The Bricks in some of the Houses are of divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, being glazed look very agreeable. The inside of them are neat to admiration, the wooden work, for only the walls are plastered, and the Sumers and Gist are plained and kept very white scowr'd as so is all the partitions if made of Bords. The fire- places have no Jambs (as ours have) But the Backs run flush with the walls, and the Hearth is of Tyles and is as farr out into the Room at the Ends as before the fire, wch is Generally Five foot in the Low'r rooms, and the peice over where the mantle tree should be is made as
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ours with Joyners work, and as I supose is fasten'd with iron rodds inside. The House where the Vendue was, had Chimney Corners like ours, and they and the hearths were laid wth the finest tile that I ever see, and the stair cases laid all with white tile which is ever clean, and so are the walls of the Kitchen wch had a Brick floor. They were making Great preparations to Receive their Governor, Lord Cornbury from the Jerseys, and for that End raised the militia to Gard him on shore to the fort." 1
Our literary friend also devoted some portions of her " 100 Rheem" of paper to other matters. For instance, she continues :
"They are Generaly of the Church of England, and have a New England Gentleman for their minister, and a very fine Church, set out with all customary requsites. There are also a Dutch and Divers Con- venticles as they call them, viz. Baptists, Quakers, etc. They are not strict in keeping the Sabbath as in Boston and other places where I had bin, But seem to deal with great exactness as farr as I see or Deall with. They are sociable to one another and Curteos and Civill to strangers and fare well in their houses.
"The English go fasheonable in their dress. But" the Dutch, es- pecially the middling sort, differ from our women, in their habitt go loose, were French muches wch are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their ears bare, which are sett out wth Jewells of a large size and many in number. And their fingers hoop't with Rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers as were their pendants in their ears, which You should see very old women wear as well as Young.
" They have Vendues very frequently and make their Earnings very well by them, for they treat with good Liquor Liberally and the Customers drink as Liberally and Generally pay for't as well, by pay- ing for that which they Bidd up Briskly for, after the sack has gone plentifully about, tho' sometimes good penny worths are got there.
"Their diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertainment at a place called the Bowery, and some go to friends Houses who hand- somely treat them. Mr. Burroughs carry'd his spouse and Daughter and myself out to one Madame Dowes, a Gentle-woman who lived at a farm House, who gave us a handsome Entertainment of five or six
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