USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 1 > Part 21
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Among the men engaged in this arduous service was the Rev. Thomas Barclay. As Missionary and Catechist
1 History of the Church in Burlington, N. y., by the Rev. Geo. Morgan Hills, D.D., 64, 66, 74, 103, 132.
9 See the statements of the Rev. William Andrews, missionary to the Mohawks from 1712 to 1718. He says : " Their lives are generally such as leave little or no room for hopes of ever making them any better than they are-heathens. Heathens
237
Thomas and Henry Barclay
1738]
at Albany, he had the spiritual oversight of the English residents and the duty of doing what he could towards the conversion and instruction of the Indians and Negroes. He appears as Chaplain at Fort Edward in 1708, where he preached in the Lutheran Church, being familiar with the Dutch language ; he also had occasional duty at Schenec- tady. In 1715, St. Peter's Church, Albany, was completed and opened for service, Mr. Barclay being the Rector. He suffered much, however, from hardships, misfortune, and illness, and in 1722 temporarily lost his reason, which led to an appeal to the Venerable Society on his behalf by his brethren of the clergy.1
The Rev. Thomas Barclay had a son, Henry by name, born in 1715. This young man graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1734, and, in the following year, was appointed Catechist to the Mohawks at Fort Hunter. His labors proving acceptable and successful, he determined to de- vote his life to the work of the Sacred Ministry. Accord- ingly in 1737 he went to England, where he received Deacon's and Priest's orders, January, 1738, and thereupon returned and settled among the Mohawks as their spiritual father. He was received with joy by his Indian neo-
they are, and heathens they will still be. There are a few, and but a few, perhaps about fourteen or fifteen, whose lives are more regular than the rest." They showed no devotion in church, where they came to get a dinner and slept most of the time. (Historical Notices by Hawkins, 268). It was the same with the Roman Catholic Mis- sions ; Father Hennepin's accounts coincide with these. 1
"N. Y., July 5th, 1722.
We the Commissary & Clergy of the Province of New York etc. do take the Liberty to lay before the Venble Society the deplorable condition of the Revd Mr. Barclay min' of Albany formerly a missionary from that Venble Body & the miserable circum- stances of his poor family-he hath been all along diligent in his cure and hath taken great pains in catechising Indian Infidels in a place where they are very numerous but of late many misfortunes successfully attending him have at length brought him to an outrageous distraction such as has obliged his friends to confine him to a dark room and in the meantime the small Salary which the Government in England allowed him not being paid, his family (a wife and four children) are reduced to extreme poverty.
His relations in this place have applied to us his Brethren to lay this before the
238
History of Trinity Church
[1743-
phytes and, on the transfer of the Rev. John Miln, then Rector of St. Peter's, Albany, to a cure in Monmouth, N. J., he was appointed his successo :. On the occasion of the gathering of the Nations to renew their league of friendship with the whites, he preached to a large con- gregation, the Indians duly responding in the church ser- vice. He also preached to the Dutch in their own language. Sprague says,
"In 1741, Mr. Barclay informed the Venerable Society that his congrega- tion at Albany consisted of one hundred and eighty English, besides two independent companies ; and in the Mohawk country, of five hun- dred Indians, settled in two towns, at thirty miles distance from Albany ;- that he had sixty English, and fifty-eight Indian, communi- cants ; and that the vice of intemperance among the Indians was greatly on the decrease. In 1743 his statement was that two or three only of the whole tribe remained unbaptized and that with the consent of the Governor, he had appointed two Mohawk schoolmasters to teach the young Mohawks, and that they were both very diligent and success- ful." 1
The success of Mr. Barclay in his Indian work was, however, temporary; political events, together with the venble Society humbly praying that his miserable condition and the necessities of his poor family will move that Charitable body to consider them in such manner as in their great Wisdom and goodness shall seem most effectual for their relief.
We desire you 'Il please to lay this before the Venerable Society & withal assure them that we are
Their Honors most faithful missionaries & most obliged humble Servts John Thomas Æneas Mckenzie
Will: Vesey Dan1 Bondet John Bartow Edwd Vaughan
Robert Jenney Thomas Poyer
N. Y. Gen. Conv., i., 5So.
Mr. Barclay was subsequently appointed to Rye, with a salary of £50 : it does not seem probable that he went there. Bolton, in his history of the Church in the County of Westchester, 214, confounds Thomas Barclay with Henry ; and Dr. Baird, in his History of Rye, 312, follows the error. On the Barclays, see the American Genealogy, by Holgate, Albany, 1848, 122, and N. Y. Gen. & Bio. Record, 1886, 75.
1 Annals, v., 92, also N. Y. Col. Docs., v.i, 88 and 314, and the Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, Edited by George Lockhart Rives, ii.
239
Election of Henry Barclay
1746]
fickleness and instability of the savages, led to great and melancholy changes. On the ad of December, 1761, he 1746 wrote to the Venerable Society informing them that his efforts had received a rude, if not a fatal check ; he says :
" About the middle of November, 1745, the French Indians came to an open rupture with us, and, with a party of French, fell upon a frontier settlement, which they laid in ashes, and made most of the in- habitants, to the number of about a hundred, prisoners ; ever since which time they have kept us in a continual alarm by skulking parties who frequently murdered and carried off the poor inhabitants, treating them in the most inhuman and barbarous manner ; by which means the lately populous and flourishing County of Albany is become a wilder- ness, and numbers of people, who were possessed of good estates, are reduced to poverty. In the meantime, our Indians could not be pre- vailed upon to enter into the war, but have deceived us with fair promises from time to time, whilst we were convinced, by undeniable proofs, that they kept a correspondence with the enemy."
It was at this critical juncture that the rectorship of Trinity Church became vacant by the death of Mr. Vesey. The decision of the Wardens and Vestrymen to designate Mr. Barclay as his successor appears to have been an im- mediate one. The right of presentation to the living vested in them ; to the Governor belonged that of induc- tion and institution. Mr. Barclay took three months to consider the important subject, and confesses that he was greatly at a loss what to do.
"The melancholy situation I was in pressed me on the one hand to accept the kind offer in case they called me, whilst a sincere regard for the interest of religion amongst the heathen nations on the other hand kept me from determining nearly three months ; when, finding no prospect of being serviceable to the Indians, amongst whom I could no longer reside with safety, I thought myself at liberty to leave them, and being presented to the rectory of Trinity Church, I am now agreeably settled in this place."
In the parish records under date October 17, 1746, we read that it was
240
History of Trinity Church
[1737
"Resolved and order'd that the Rev. Mr. Henry Barclay be and the said Mr. Barclay is hereby called as Rector of Trinity Church in this city and that this Board present the said Mr. Barclay to his Excellency the Governor and Desire he may be admitted and Instituted as Rector of and Inducted into the said Church. But Mr. Horsmanden & Mr. Chambers being Desired to Wait on Mr. Barclay and acquaint him with the Resolution of this Board and know whether he would accept of the . call waited on him accordingly, who returned and introduced Mr. Barclay into the Vestry where he accepted of the call. And therefore it is ordered that Mr. Murray Mr. Horsmanden, Collo Moore, Mr. Watts, Mr. Reade, Mr. Livingstone or any three of them one of the Church Wardens being one, be a committee to wait on his Excellency the Governor to know when he will be attended by this Board to present the same Mr. Henry Barclay for Admission, Institution and Jurisdiction as Rector of Trinity Church aforesaid that they make their report thereof to the next Vestry." 1
October 22, the committee reported that they had ar- ranged for the presentation of Mr. Barclay to Governor Clinton on the afternoon of that day at five o'clock. The Presentation, the Admission, the Letters of Institution, the Mandate and Certificate of Induction, fill more than four of the large folios of the records.2
1 Records, i., 236.
2 Ibid., i., 236-40. It may be well here to give the presentation :
" To his Excellency the Honourable George Clinton, Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of New-York, and Territories thereon depending, in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, and Vice Admiral of the Red Squadron of his Majesty's fleet :
" We, the Church wardens and Vestry men of Trinity Church in the City of New- York in Communion of the Church of England, as by law established the true and un- doubted patrons of the Rectory of the Parish Church of Trinity Church aforesaid, within your Government in all reverence and obedience to Your Excellency due and suitable send Greetings in our lord God Everlasting, to the said parish Church of Trinity Church aforesaid, now being vacant by the natural death of William Vesey, Clerk, the last incumbent in the same, and to our Presentation of full right belonging, our beloved in Christ, Henry Barclay, Clerk to Your Excellency,-by these presents
we do present, humbly praying that you would vouchsafe him, the said Henry Barclay to the same Church to admit him into the Rectory of the same Church, to institute, and cause to be inducted, with all its rights, members and appurtenances, and that you will, with favour and effect, do and fulfill all and singular those things which in this behalf are proper and fitting for your Excellency to do. In testimony thereof, we, the Church Wardens and Vestrymen aforesaid, have to these presents put our
சத்தத்து நீரின்ம்
The Rev. Henry Barday. 9.2. Appointed Rector October 17th, 16. Died Squat 20th, 165.
241
Induction of Mr. Barclay
1737]
The Certificate of Induction states that the Induction was performed in the presence of the Wardens and Vestry on Sunday October 23d, when the new Rector
" did Read in his parish Church aforesaid openly, Publickly and Sol- emnly before the Congregation there assembled the Morning and Even- ing prayers appointed to be Read by and According to the Book Entitled the Book of Common Prayers and Administration of the Sac- raments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David printed as they are to be said or Sung in Churches " ; and it further relates that he " did openly and publickly before the congregation assembled declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all and Everything and things contained and prescribed in and by the book Intituled the Book of Common Prayer."
In the afternoon of the said day he read before the con- gregation a certificate of his declaration of conformity made under the hand and seal of Edward, Bishop of Lon- don, dated December 15, 1737.
That Mr. Barclay never lost his interest in his old mis- sion work may be inferred from the fact that in the year 1762 we find him undertaking the supervision of a new edition of the Prayer Book in the Indian tongue .? That he was held in high esteem for his personal character, attain- ments, and devotion to his work is equally evident from the fact that on the 22d of November, 1760, Archbishop Secker wrote to the Chancellor of the University of Ox- ford recommending him for the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In view of the fact that the course of Dr. Barclay, in
hand and seals this twenty-second day of October, in the year of our Lord one Thou- sand seven hundred and forty-six." See the Documents printed in Berrian's Historical Sketch, 67-75.
1 This was printed at New York by Gaine. The first edition, of 1715, was printed by Bradford. The New York Historical Society has the first and second editions. See Fields's Indian Bibliography, 277; and N. Y. Col. Docs., viii., 815. This edition was ordered by Sir William Johnson in 1762. The death of Dr. Barclay de- layed the publication for two years. See also, N. Y. Doc. Hist., iv., 206-211.
242
History of Trinity Church
[1746-
leaving his work in and near Albany and accepting the invitation to New York, was unfavorably criticized by some of his contemporaries, attention is called to certain letters addressed, December 6, 1746, to the Bishop of London and the Secretary of the Venerable Society. The writer, after referring to Mr. Vesey, says that the Congre- gation "almost with one voice " named the Rev. Mr. Bar- clay to succeed him. They say of the new Rector,
" altho' we were well satisfied of his qualifications in all Respects yet as he was in the service of the Honorable Society and had been instru- mental in doing a vast deal of Good among the Heathens, we should not have presumed to have Countenanced the Calling of him had we not been well satisfied that since the war with France he had mett with insupportable discouragement which rendered his Mission and best En- devers fruitless as well as the safety of his person precarious among those Savages in the Mohawk Country which with many other parts of the County of Albany being the ffrontiers of the Province is now De- serted by the Christian inhabitants and almost laid Waste by Barba- rians and French, all which with what Mr. Barclay will have the honor of writing to your Lordship upon this Head we humbly hope will be sufficient in your Lordship's Opinion and judgment to justifie our Con- duct and proceeding upon this important occasion." They also beg leave to " humbly to recommend our Rector as a worthy gentleman, worthy of your Lordship's favour and Countenance."
In addressing the Society they express the hope that their action "will not be disagreeable to that Venerable Body," repeat the statement made to the Bishop of Lon- don, and ask for the continuance of the kindness formerly shown to the parish.1
Resuming our examination of the minutes of the Ves- try, we find that the Corporation had entered upon stormy times, when claimants to the church land under the fan- cied Bogardus interest, failing in the use of legal means, had resolved to try the efficacy of mendacity and force.
1 Records, i., 241-44.
243
Richard Charlton
1747]
As a part of the plan the Browers built a house upon the land, deeming it probable that actual possession would en- able them to support their claim. The Corporation, how- ever, met them very promptly, and it was ordered on August 10, 1747, " that the Church Wardens, Mr. Cham- bers, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Reade or any three of them (one of the Church Wardens to be one) be a Committee to receive the possession of the house and land part of the Churches farm, forcibly entered into and detained by the Browers and others. And that the said Browers have liberty to take away the House by them erected if they think fitt."
The Committee on November 24th reported that strong measures had been taken with regard to the interlopers, saying that they had duly taken possession " of the house, &c Built on the Churches farm by the Browers and also of the Churches Garden," formerly occupied by Captain George Ingoldsby, and that they had caused the Browers's house to be "pulled down," agreeing that the Browers "might have the materialls of the house by them Built if they would fetch it away." Word to this effect was duly sent to them by both sexton and under-sheriff, but the Browers indignantly " returned for answer that they, the Browers, would have nothing to do with it "; a resolution that would have proved a fortunate one if it had only been kept.
The Rev. Richard Charlton was assistant minister of Trinity Church and catechist during the early part of Dr. Barclay's rectorship.1 On the 24th of November,
"1 On Tuesday the 7th Inst. departed this Life, in the 72d year of his Age at his House on Staten Island, the Rev. Mr. RICHARD CHARLTON, Missionary from the honorable Society for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
" This worthy Clergyman was born in Ireland, and received his Education in Trin- ity College, Dublin. He came over to this Country soon after he entered into Holy Orders ; and was the first Missionary of New Windsor, on Hudson's River. From
244
History of Trinity Church
[1747-
1747, he accepted a missionary station on Staten Island, and the Venerable Society was requested to send a cate- chist to take his place. In this connection a respectful suggestion was made with reference to candidates for the position ; it being understood that the society had in view a young gentleman of New England recently ordained, it is hinted that "possibly they may not have considered a defect whereof will render all his other good qualities as a preacher useless to our Congregation, we mean the strength and clearness of his voice, our church being by all accounts the largest in America, so that few gentle- men are perfectly heard in it."
At this session it was voted that,
" taking into consideration the Great Expence the Revd Mr. Barclay has been put to in Removing from Albany here, and that sixty pounds per annum of the Ministers Salary ceasing on the death of the late Mr. Vesey, and the said Mr. Barclay having no right to the Easter offer- ings nor to Double fees on the Buriall of Strangers, it is unanimously ordered that the Church Wardens pay to the Revd Mr. Barclay the sum of one hundred pounds for his services the last year besides his house rent already paid. And the Better to encourage the said Mr. Barclay to continue diligently to perform the Duties of his function, it is also unanimously ordered that the Church Wardens pay to the Said Mr. Barclay the sum of one hundred pounds (including the twenty-six pounds allowed him for house rent) at four quarterly payments for the next year." '
thence he moved to this City, being chosen Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, and Catechist ; in which station he continued several Years, before his Appointment to the Missionary of Staten-Island, in 1747, where he remained ever since.
"Sincere and Steady in Friendship, charitable to the distressed, and hospitable to all, he was deservedly esteemed and respected. Amidst the confusions of the present rebellion, his loyalty was unshaken-His Attachment to the Constitution, in Church and State, unalterably firm. The great Increase of his Congregation, during his In- cumbency for thirty Years at Staten-Island, was an evidence of the Assiduity with which he discharged the Duties of his Office ; and the Tears which were plentifully shed over liis Remains at the Grave, by the Members of his Flock were a sure Indi- cation that they considered themselves as having lost, in him, a common Father and Friend." -- The New- York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, Oct. 13, 1777.
1 Records i., 247.
245
Samuel Auchmuty
1747]
This shows the liberal and considerate spirit that actuated the Vestry in dealing with the clergy ; the same rule was always observed, except where circumstances prevented the Board from doing as it desired.
The fact has been repeatedly stated that the City and Parish Vestries were different bodies. Each Board at- tended to its own affairs ; but the City Vestry, being com- posed for the most part of Dissenters, was not averse to an occasional brush with the Church Vestry, especially when, as in the case of Governor Hunter, it had the Ex- ecutive on its side.
About this time another slight breeze seems to have been blowing, as the City Vestry claimed the right to dis- tribute a certain charitable bequest, which fell to the church. The differences between the two bodies, how- ever, were, upon the whole, few, though for their own guidance the City Vestry finally came to need a Manual or Guide, an edition of which was published in 1747.1
With the name of Barclay will ever be associated that of his assistant, Auchmuty, who shared the labors of his
1 The following advertisement appeared in the New- York Gazette revived in the Weekly Post-Boy, Dec. 6, 1747, though no copy of the work seems to be accessible at the present time :
"Just publish'd, and to be sold by the Printer hereof, (Price 8d.)
"A GUIDE TO VESTRYMMEN : OR, AN ESSAY, endeavouring to Shew the Duty and Power of the Vestrymen of the City and County of New York. Collected from diverse Acts of Assembly of the Colony of New-York and Customs of the said City : Interspersed with some Considerations and Reflections, proper for such who may hereafter be chosen to said Office and intended chiefly for their Use.
" Published by the Corporation.
" Prov. xxix : 7, 'The Righteous considereth the Cause of the Poor ; but the Wicked regardeth not to Knew it.'"
The following shows one aspect of the City Vestry's work : "Ordered the Church Wardens lend Phillip Batten, Butcher, thirty shillings, in order to go on with his trade, (he being reduced to great poverty by reason of his wife being delirious,) being an object of Charity." De Voe's Market Book, vol. i., 91. This work which forms a mine of curious and valuable information about old New York, also shows that the City Vestry put badges upon the clothes furnished the poor, marked " N. Y. in blew or red cloth att their discretion."
246
History of Trinity Church
[1748-
arduous position for sixteen of the eighteen years of his rectorship, and, on his death, was advanced to the vacant place. Samuel Auchmuty was born in Boston, January 26, 1722. His father, Robert Auchmuty, was a Scotch gentleman, a lawyer and Judge in Admiralty, who came to this country early in life, dying in 1750. The son, having graduated at Harvard College, in the year 1742, was admitted to holy orders in 1747, by the Bishop of London ; and on the 8th of March in the following year entered on his duties as assistant minister of Trinity Church. As such assistant, he had to read prayers in the church, to aid the rector in his parochial duties, and to serve as cathechist to the colored population. In the year 1766 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford, and in the following year the same honor was conferred on him by King's College in New York.
The selection of Mr Auchmuty was a judicious and happy one, and the evidences of his talents and usefulness become more and more apparent as we proceed.
The growth of the parish under the administration of Dr. Barclay, seconded by his able assistant, was rapid and solid ; and it soon appeared to be necessary to pro- vide additional accommodation for the people, by the erection of a "Chapel of Ease," as such dépendances of the parish church are styled in the phraseology of English ecclesiastical law.
It was a mooted question for some time where the new edifice should be placed. The site first selected fronted on Nassau and Fair (now Fulton) streets ; but the inhabitants of " Montgomerie Ward,"1 a part of the
1 Montgomery Ward was that part of the town lying east of William Street, the North Ward being situated between William and Broadway and the West Ward west of Broadway, while the South Ward was south of Wall Street.
247
Erection of a Chapel of Ease
1749]
city subsequently and still known as " the Swamp," were exceedingly desirous that the chapel should be built in their district; nay, they offered to purchase the land re- quired and give it to the Vestry on condition that their wishes should be complied with. On the 23d of January, 1749, it was agreed in Vestry Meeting that the Com- mittee on the title to Mr. Beekman's ground near "the Swamp " have power to purchase the same, and that the land be conveyed
"to the Rector and Inhabitants of Trinity Church, and that when such purchase shall be so made that they agree with James Burling for ex- changing part of the said ground for a Lott of ground belonging to the said James Burling adjoining thereto such part thereof as they can agree with him to exchange for the same." 1
At the same meeting the Committee on Plans reported and " produced severall plans," when it was unanimously voted "that the Chapple of Ease be built," and that it should be "ninety-two foot in length and seventy-two foot in breadth."
At the Vestry meeting March 23, 1749, the commit- tee reported the actual purchase of the six lots of Mr. Beekman's land. Captain Aspinwall had now, however, on behalf of certain citizens of Montgomerie Ward, paid £645 for the lots in question. An adjoining lot was also pur- chased of John Killmaster and his wife, for which the par- ish paid {125 the following year. Robert Crommelin, a Scotchman, and a member of the Vestry, was selected as architect, and the work of construction was commenced. It proceeded slowly, and two years and a half had passed before the building was ready for use.
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