USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 2 > Part 4
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
" To the Honorable the Representatives of the State of New York, in Senate and Assembly
" The Memorial of the Subscribers Humbly Showeth ' :
"That your Memorialists are Members of the Episcopal Church in this City commonly distinguished by the name of the Church of Eng- land ; and that as such, with their Fellow-Christians of other Denomina- tions, they only claim the Privilege of Enjoying their own mode of Religious worship, according to the Dictates of Reason and Scripture, and agreeably to the Spirit and Letter of the Constitution of the State, which declares 'That the free Exercise and enjoyment of religious Profession and Worship, without Discrimination or Preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed within this State to all mankind.'
" That it has been the uniform and constant Practice of the Church to which we belong to give to every Member in Communion a free Vote, and to have her officers annually elected by the majority of Voices.
" That a Minor Part of the Congregation has lately prevailed so far, as to displace all the former Officers of the Church, who were ap- pointed in Strict Conformity to Established Usage and to the Directions of our Ancient Charter. They have procured a Bill to be passed thro' the Honorable the House of Assembly, in which Church Wardens and Vestrymen are mentioned by name, and at the request of the Congre- gation at large ; Whereas your memorialists humbly beg leave to represent that a Major Part of the People are so much dissatisfied and
1 Document 2406, State Records, Albany, " Whales and Taxes."
-
...
c. A:
1 Adat halls (bir. junteer :
Fiant Grooms -
1
$96
-
Gabili furlongs
=
. Fine
F
Augto Smith. : Xin : Findington
( 2
MyWichnam
: Francis Pantin m" The dinh
George Do missich John Bard.
1
farcis Roebuck
R. L.ithaspe
SIGNATURES TO THE PETITION OF THE OLD VESTRY AND THEIR FRIENDS
--
Im Clark
1
-
George Starten 1
1 fines Caller
John Flaple allover Smith Veanul ? Litet
Thomas Lowrey : Edward Ogat
Charice Kings and
Sherry. !!!!
Educar Muchas 1
Flowers Doughty Peter Concert
"John Barne
george walgrave
The linn!"
Benjam MI'S.all.
Jarn Ciayard
Homai Grammer
-
FOR THE ENDOWMENT OF A SEPARATE CHURCH.
29
Petition for Use of a Chapel
1784]
displeased as to abandon their Places of Public Worship-more es- pecially as they find themselves not only precluded from the Privilege of being consulted now, but that those Gentlemen are to continue in office for two years from next Easter.
" That in the course of this Dispute (the whole proceedings of which were laid before the Honorable the House of Assembly on the 2Ist inst. and to which we again beg leave to refer this Honorable Body) such Propositions have been made, as in our opinion were formed in the principles of Justice and Equity, calculated to restore Peace and Harmony, and to accommodate the Government of the Church to the Genius and Spirit of the Constitution of the State.
"That to these Propositions we are still earnestly desirous to ad- here. But if those who have hitherto opposed our wishes for an Equitable Conciliation and disregard our complaints, persist in their Endeavours to carry their Intentions into Execution, your Memorial- ists will then be driven to the painful necessity of forming a separate Congregation in which every Member in Communion may have a free and uncontrouled Voice.
"In which Case your Memorialists humbly pray, that one of the Churches may be allotted them for the Purposes of Divine Worship, together with a Proportionable Part of the Temporalities of its Church for the support of their Ministers.
" And your Memorialists, as in Duty bound, will ever pray.
"NEW YORK, Feby 28, 1784."'
This petition was largely signed, containing three hun- dred and seventy-six signatures. A glance at the list of names shows that members of the same family were not all arrayed on one side. While Chancellor Livingston was the influential and active agent on the side of the Whigs, John Livingston is found on the side of the old vestry. So it was with others. We find Benjamin Haight, Richard Leaycraft, John Griffiths, William Newton, and three Lewises on the side of the old vestry, while on the op- posing side are Cornelius Haight, George and William
, 1 Endorsement on Document 2406.
" Memorial and Petition of John Haskins and 24 others. No. I.
In Senate 5th March, 1784. Read and referred to a Committee of the Whole." For rest of names appended to this petition see Appendix III.
30
History of Trinity Church [1784
Leaycraft, Anthony Griffiths, H. Newton, and two Lewises.
As to the fate of the Petition, all that is known is gathered from the endorsement on it. It was "read and referred to a Committee of the Whole." No further no- tice seems to have been taken of it. And as the persons they appealed to were in the main their actual opponents, the Whig members being in control of the Senate and As- sembly, the fate of their Petition was sealed beforehand. To have granted it would have been a signal disaster ; a schism would have followed, as in Scotland. There was the Church of England in Scotland, and the Church in Scotland ; so, here, there would have been a Church of England in America, perpetuated and kept alive mainly by political partisans, and as a protest against the republi- can form of government. It was bad enough for the Church to be associated, in the minds of the common peo- ple, with the Church of the Tories and aristocrats ; but it would have been impossible for her to have gained a foot- hold in the strong and vigorous current of American life had a branch of her been kept alive as the visible embodi- ment of the old regime. Such a schism was averted by the firmness and resolution of Chancellor Livingston, James Duane, and others, and by their weight and influ- ence in the councils of the nation. This Petition was the last concerted attempt of the friends of the old order to stem the rising tide. If they did not acquiesce ex animo, they protested no more.
CHAPTER III.
SAMUEL PROVOOST.
Birth, Parentage, and Ancestry of Samuel Provoost-Student at King's College- Goes to England-Enters St. Peter's College, Cambridge-Ordination-Friendship with Benjamin Bousfield-IIis Marriage-Returns to New York-Election as As- sistant Minister-Obtains Leave of Absence-Revisits Ireland-Returns to New York-Unpopularity-Resignation-Settles at East Camp-His Straitened Circum- stances.
S AMUEL PROVOOST was the oldest child of John Provoost and Eve Rutgers. He was born in the city of New York, February 26, 1742, and baptized in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church ; the register does not give the date of baptism. The previous entry is dated February 28th, and the subsequent one March 7, 1742. Samuel was probably baptized on the 28th.
The other children of John Provoost were John (b. January 24, 1753), whose date of death is not known, but who was living in 1789; Catharine (b. May 8, 1755), who died in 1794; David (b. 1757, died 1794); and James Alexander (b. 1759, married Mary Rosevelt, died Sep- tember 19, 1795). Samuel's parents died, the father on September 24, 1767, the mother about the year 1788.
The family was of French origin, tracing its descent back to Guillaume Prévost, who lived in the sixteenth century.
That he spelled his name Prévost is established beyond question. That the Prevost became " Provoost" in Hol- land and New Amsterdam, 1572-1664, and "Provost" after the latter became New York and part of an English
31
32
History of Trinity Church
[1742
colony, is only the happening of the inevitable. But as Prévost in French, Provoost in Dutch, and Provost in English are identical in meaning, the family had a per- fect right to adopt whichever method they preferred.
The Bishop wrote his name Provost until he was nearly forty years of age; then, probably wishing to be identified with the Dutch, rather than the English, of New York, he first began to use the extra "o." (See vol. xviii., N. Y. Gen. and Bio. Rec.)
Guillaume Prevost, born in Paris, 1545, married in Hol- land, 1574.
Johannes Provost, born in Holland, 1576, married in Am- sterdam, 1601, Elizabeth
David Provost, born in Amsterdam August 10, 1608; came to New Netherlands in 1624, returned to Holland in 1626, and in 1630 married Margaretta, daughter of Gillis Ten Waert, and returned to New Amsterdam in 1634; died 1657.
David Provost, born November 20, 1642, at Fort Good Hope ; baptized in New York, September 30, 1645, by Domine Bogardus. Married in 1668 Catharine Laurens.
Samuel Provost, tenth child of David and Catharine, born Jan. 8, 1687, married October 15, 1711, Maria, daughter of John Spratt.
Samuel Provost became a wealthy merchant, and upon his death, in 1720, his widow continued his business. She was a woman of rare abilities, and by her skill and close attention to business became the most wealthy woman of the colony. January 1, 1721, she married James Alexan- der, the statesman, scholar, and lawyer, who for so many years was in the Councils of New York and New Jersey and in the Assembly of New York. Their son, William,
33
Youth of Samuel Provoost
1771]
known as the "Earl of Sterling," was the celebrated Major-General of the American Army of the Revolution.
John Provost, baptized Jan. 10, 1714; in 1734, married
Eve, daughter of Hermanus Rutgers ; died Sep- tember 24, 1767.
The New-York Mercury of September 28, 1767, announces the death of John Provost and his half-sister, Mary Liv- ingston, at about the same hour, and adds :
" Both deaths are universally lamented. Their remains were decently interred in the family vault, Trinity Church."
Samuel Provost, born February 26, 1742, married June 6, 1766, Maria, daughter of Thomas Bousfield, Esq., of Lakelands, Cork, Ireland.1
The parents of Samuel Provoost belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, and, as we have seen, its register contains the record of his baptism. There is little doubt, however, that his attendance at King's Col- lege weaned him from the Dutch Church and enlisted his sympathies for that Church in which he was in after years to be a Bishop. Samuel Johnson, a strong Church- man by conviction, was then the President of the College, and the students in those days were few enough in numbers to allow of personal intercourse between them and their President, whose influence must therefore have been direct and great.
Samuel Provoost was graduated as Bachelor of Arts, in the class of 1758. In the summer of 1761 he sailed for England, arriving at Falmouth in September. In Novem- ber he entered St. Peter's College, Cambridge, as a
1 For a very full account of this family, see Biographical and Genealogical Notes of the Provost Family from 1545 to 1895, by Andrew J. Provost. New York, 1895. Privately printed. Three hundred copies only. Printed for private distribution by the Author.
VOL. II .- 3
34
History of Trinity Church
[1742-
Fellow-Commoner. His tutor was the great Dr. Jebb, with whom he forined a lifelong friendship. Young Provoost had a special aptitude for learning languages ; he was not only an accurate Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholar, but knew French and Italian. In a letter to his father, dated April 15, 1765, he thus alludes to his pro- ficiency :
"I can get my degree and Commendamus here whenever I please ; nothing but my being too young for orders could prevent my returning home next summer." 1
On the 23d of February he was ordained Deacon by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London, at the Chapel Royal, in St. James's Palace. Dr. Norton, in his short Life, gives February 3d as the date of Provoost's ordination to the Diaconate, but the certified copy from the Registry of the Diocese of London, printed in the Appendix, gives the date as February 23d.2
On Palm Sunday, March 23d, of the same year, and not on the 25th as usually stated, he was ordained Priest in King's Chapel, Whitehall, by Edmund Kean, Bishop of Chester.3
During his stay at Cambridge he had formed a friend- ship with a fellow-student, Benjamin Bousfield. The widowed mother of young Bousfield, with her daughter Maria, paid her son a visit at the University. Provoost fell in love with his friend's sister, and they were married at St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, June 8, 1766.
A few months after the marriage the young couple sailed for New York, and on December 23d of the same year he became Assistant Minister in Trinity Parish, being appointed
1 Norton's Life of Bishop Provoost, p. 30.
2 Appendix IV.
3 Appendix V. (Extract from Registry of Diocese of Chester.)
1808891
1771]
The Parish Roster
35
" to officiate in his turn at the several Churches on the Lord's Day and at Prayers on Week Days when requested by the Rector."
His stipend was fixed at {200 a year, Ogilvie and Inglis being his fellow Assistant-Ministers.
It was the custom in those days to assign the Assistant Ministers to the duty of preaching in the several churches of the Parish, by a Roster showing their appointments. On the back of one of Mr. Provoost's sermons, there is the following specimen of that publication :
" TRINITY.
ST. GEORGE'S. ST. PAUL'S.
Aug. 2d.
Mr. Inglis, Mr. Provost, Mr. Inglis,
Mr. Ogilvie,
Mr. Provost,
Mr. Ogilvie.
"
9th.
Mr. Provost, Mr. Inglis, Mr. Auchmuty, Mr. Inglis."
Mr. Auchmuty,
Mr. Provost,
This custom continued for more than a hundred years ; and as the Parish grew and the churches increased in num- ber, the Roster, or Routine, as it was lately called, became an elaborate and lengthy Order, requiring great calcula- tion to ensure an equable distribution of duty. It was dis- continued about the year 1870 when the assignments were made permanent at each church. An ordinance of the Vestry required the composing and publication of this routine, which not infrequently resulted in dissatisfaction on the part of the Clergy, and complaints of the Rector, as having been either partial or careless in assigning them to duty.
Early in the year 1769, Mr. Provoost announced his in- tention of returning to England on his private business.1 Leave of absence was granted for that purpose, but with the understanding that his salary should not be continued · until his return.
' See History of Trinity Church, Part I., p. 326; also, Records, liber i .. folio 339.
36
History of Trinity Church
[1742-
On his return from his visit to Ireland in 1769 Mr. Provoost found that there was a feeling in the Parish against him. There is little doubt that as a preacher the young clergyman did not suit those who had become ac- customed to the fiery exhortations of Whitefield, who had been preaching in New York. Nor did the teachings of the Methodist find much favor with him, as may be seen from the following letter, written about this time.
"I should think my situation perfectly agreeable, if it were not for the bigotry and enthusiasm that generally prevail here among people of all denominations. Even the Church, particularly the lower mem- bers of it, is not free from the general infection. As I found this to be the case, I made it a point to preach the plain doctrine of religion and morality in the manner I found them enforced by the most eminent divines of the Church of England. This brought an accusation against me by those people, that I was endeavoring to sap the founda- tions of Christianity, which they imagined to consist in the doctrines of absolute predestination and reprobation, placing such unbounded confidence in the merits of Christ as to think their own endeavors quite unnecessary, and not in the least available to salvation ; and con- signing to everlasting destruction all who happen to differ from them in the most trivial matters. I was, however, happy enough to be sup- ported by many of the principal persons of New York." 1
To a man of the temperament of Samuel Provoost, the extravagant forms of enthusiasm and doctrinal ex- pression of the early Methodists must have been peculiarly distasteful. This will account for his unpopularity among a certain section of the people ; his attitude in the struggle for Independence made him equally unpopular with others.
He was not timid in proclaiming his opinions. What he believed he frankly professed, as is witnessed by his allusions to the war in his sermons. In one written on Deut. xxix : 29, and delivered either on Trinity Sunday, 1767, or Trinity Sunday, 1771, the following paragraph occurs :
' Norton's Life, P. 39.
37
Unpopularity of Provoost
1771]
"We are now fighting for our laws and for our liberties, for our friends, families and country. May the guilty be prevailed on to repent of their sins, and the righteous persevere in their integrity. May he grant understanding to our counsellors and teach our senators wis- dom. May he inspire with steadiness and unanimity, with conduct and bravery our fleets and armies, and may the blessing of heaven attend us in all our just and lawful undertakings, and finally, may we be favoured in due time with a safe, honourable, advantageous and lasting peace and tranquility ! Then will our trade revive and flourish, our fields yield their increase, and there will be no room for complaining in our streets, then will the divine protection be the glory of our land, and upon that glory there will be a defence."'
This unpopularity was no doubt the real cause for a proposal of the Vestry in October, 1769, to dismiss him from the position of Assistant Minister, though the reason given on the minutes is that
"of the insufficiency of the Corporation Funds to support him." ?
The matter was, however, referred to the next meeting, which on November 6, 1769, resolved
"that Mr. Provoost be continued and paid by what can be raised by subscription only." 3
On December 15th a committee was appointed to collect the subscriptions.4
This method of payment, never successful for any length of time, was doomed to be a failure when the Minister was in any degree unpopular. We are therefore not surprised at finding from the minutes of May 27, 1771,
1 According to the memoranda on it, this sermon was preached four times : on
"Trinity Sunday 1767. Trinity Church morning-St. Paul's afternoon.
Trinity Sunday 1771. St. George's, afternoon.
Trinity Sunday 1785. St. Paul's M. St. George's A.
Trinity Sunday June 8, 1800. St. George's St. Paul's."
The paragraphs on the war could, however, have been delivered in no other years than 1767 or 1771, as only then would they have been appropriate.
9 Liber i., fol. 344. 3 Ibid., fol. 345. 4 Ibid., 346.
1
38
History of Trinity Church
[1742-
that the subscription was not raised because the members of the committee found that though many were ready to subscribe to Mr. Provoost's stipend, yet if they did so, others would withdraw their subscriptions, to a like amount, from Mr. Ogilvie and Mr. Inglis, whereupon "they were discouraged from prosecuting the said subscriptions."
. Under these circumstances Mr. Provoost wisely deter- mined to resign, which he did on May 21, 1771, when the balance owing him was ordered to be made up.
On looking for a place of residence, where he might abide in peace during the war, he was naturally influenced to select the neighborhood of the residence of the Living- stons. With Walter and Robert Cambridge Livingston, who were at college with him at Cambridge, he had al- ready formed a close friendship. He accordingly settled at East Camp between Clermont and Claverack. He thus frankly describes his position at that time :
" I have no salary or income of any kind, the Estate which formerly supported me having been in the hands of the Enemy ever since they took possession of New York. The place on which I live is so far from maintaining my family, that I am now in debt for the greatest part of the wheat they have consumed since the beginning of the War. Be- sides selling part of my furniture, etc., and running in debt for various necessaries, I have, from time to time, borrowed money of my friends to considerable amount. My mother and family are refugees from the City, and nearly in the same situation as myself ; and I am prevented by the Constitution of the State, and canons of the Church, from entering into any secular employment." 1
1 Norton's Life, p. 44.
CHAPTER IV.
SPECIMENS OF PROVOOST'S CORRESPONDENCE.
Letters from East Camp-To his Mother-To his Brother-To his Wife's Mother- To his Brother -To Count Claudio Ronzone-Provoost Joins in the Defence of his Farm-Elected Delegate to Provincial Congress-Chaplain-Elected Rector of St. Michael's, Charleston-Letter of Declination-Probable Election to King's Chapel, Boston-Evacuation of New York by the British-Prompt Action Taken by Provoost's Friends.
T HE letters and correspondence of Mr. Provoost dur- ing his sojourn at East Camp are of interest for the light which they cast upon the times and the manner of his life during a period of great trial. His sermons, of which we possess a large number in manuscript, are particularly valuable, by way of illustration of his memoirs. It was his custom, for some inscrutable reason, to use the blank pages at the end of his discourses for all kinds of memoranda. Here are to be found gene- alogical notes, references to personal and family affairs, remarks on current events, and even sonnets and short verses in English and even in Italian, in which tongue, as has been already remarked, he was a proficient. In the Appendix1 will be found a complete list of his ser- mons known to be in existence, with notes of the extraneous matter which they contain. It is from these sermons that some of the letters have been selected which are now to be presented to the reader. It has been con- jectured by persons who have examined these remarkably illustrated and extended discourses, that the price of
1 Appendix VII.
39
40
History of Trinity Church
[1771-
paper and the short supply of money, while at East Camp, induced that unique method of using the blank pages. No doubt there are preachers in our own day whose ser- mons would be more eagerly sought after and more care- fully preserved for future reference, if it had occurred to the writers to embellish them in this manner.
Let us proceed to some of the letters selected as specimens of the correspondence of that period :
I. Samuel Provoost to his Mother.
" Dr Mother
"I intended to send you a letter by the Manor sloop which we ex- pected would sail 2 or 3 weeks ago but as the harvest and want of freight detains her still in the Country we commit this to the care of Mr. R. R. Livingston who sets off next sunday. David's sudden de- parture both surprised and affected us but I think business being very dull in N. Y. that he has acted very prudently and make no doubt but the Voyage will be to his improvement and advantage. Maria who has undergone a great deal of fatigue this summer has been poorly for some days. I mentioned in my last my want of money I must again beg that you will send me fifty pounds as soon as you can conveniently after the receipt of this. You will excuse my troubling you again upon this subject as there is no one here I would willingly apply to and you know that I lately performed the funeral ceremony over the judges father and the eldest daughter of Col Peter Livingston a very amiable girl about 15 years old .- This is a very busy time about the Country and we bid fair to have a tolerable harvest, I have already nine waggon loads of wheat in the barn and expect as many more - I have pressed you so often to visit us that I can add nothing further up- on this head. Since my last we have received the paint & by Capt. Post some parcels of news papers and 2 or three letters from James, he may depend upon my writing to him the next opportunity. We have had a confused account of a small skirmish in which a few men were killed on governors Island I shall be glad to know the particulars of it .- I remain with compliments to Mrs James & Dr
" Madam
"Your most Dutiful "
41
Samuel Provoost to his Mother
1783]
The date of this letter can be approximately fixed by the fact that Judge Robert R. Livingston died at the close of 1775. The name and date of death of the daughter of Colonel Peter Livingston are not ascertainable. The affair at Governor's Island alluded to at the end of the letter may be the affair of the 27th of October, 1776, recorded on page 304 of Moore's Diary of the American Revolution.
"In the evening of the 27th the army encamped in front of the enemy's works. On the 28th, at night broke ground six hundred yards distant from a redoubt upon their left, and on the 29th at night, the rebels evacuated their entrenchments, and Red Hook, with the utmost silence, and quitted Governor's Island the following evening, leaving their cannon and a quantity of stores, in all their works. At day break on the 30th their flight was discovered ; the pickets of the line took possession, and those most advanced reached the shore opposite to New York, as their rear guard was going over, and fired some shots among them."
On the last page of the sermon is Provoost's autograph - and the signature of a child, Charlotte Davies.
In Davies's Memoir, on page 59, we read :
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.