USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 4 > Part 28
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It was with very great reluctance that the Committee on Mission Work in the lower part of the city reported, October 11, 1847, on the attempt to maintain a mis- sion in Maiden Lane. The service in Mccullough's salesrooms had been discontinued; the attendance had never been encouraging ; many Churchmen, and some members of the Vestry had been doubtful of its expedi- ency or success. It was stated that three months after
1 See pp. 62, 63, Constitution and Canons for the Government of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in the United States of America, 1847, appended to the Journal of the Convention of 1847. An almost verbatim report of the debate in the House of Deputies will be found in the New York Morning Courier and Enquirer, during the month of October, 1847. It is the work of the Rev. John Henry Hopkins, then a 'reporter.
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the services were inaugurated, there were on a bright Sunday, five persons present.1
The story of that experiment is best told by one of the deacons engaged in the work, Rev. Dr. Clerc :
"Dr. Seabury most strenuously declared to me that the mission work outlined in the Parish for the poor of the lower part of New York City was altogether an error. They all ought to find their home in Trinity Church, was his dictum. Dr. Berrian and Mr. Moore were so heartily interested in the mission project at Mccullough's tea sales- rooms, upper story of a building near Peck Street Ferry, East River, that they frequently and regularly climbed the three staircases to en- courage, by their presence at the appointed services there, the deacons who were assigned alternately to Trinity Church, and to the mission every Sunday. It soon became so apparent that the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind, etc., could not, and that others would not, as- semble in that spacious and well-furnished upper room, that Mr. Duffie and I agreed upon a canvass of that part of New York ; the report of families residing there showed the utter hopelessness of future success from the continuance of these services. There were many emigrants and strangers, landing, but not remaining ; Jewish residents were nu- merous. The fixed population was larger than we supposed, but the families had connections with the Roman, Lutheran, or other congre- gations, not remote, and the privilege of attendance at Trinity. I do not recall that there was any formal assignment of special visits or search for poor and needy persons, except as such made application at the Church; and were cared for, apparently, by committees or workers of the Parish, and by the Rector's apportionment of relief."?
The system of appointing deacons to serve in the Parish was continued, notwithstanding the failure of that first attempt at a mission ; from a communication by the Rev. Dr. Haight, accompanying the Committee's report, it appeared that " there is ample call for their services in the
1 Note, p. 19. A Brief Statement of Facts as connected with the Application by the Rector, Warden, and Vestrymen of St. Jude's Protestant Episcopal Church to the Corporation of Trinity Church, N. Y., first presented April 25, 1843, for an appropria- tion towards the support of said Church, and renewed November 6, 1846.
2 Letter of the Rev. Francis J. Clerc, D.D., Phillipsburgh, Pa., November 5, 1902, to the Rev. Joseph Hooper. VOL. IV .- 21.
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proper office of that order of the ministry, independently of any public performances of church services." On the 8th of November, 1847, the Rector nominated the Rev. Sullivan H. Weston as one of the deacons of the Parish. Mr. Weston was a native of Maine ; after spending many years of his earlier life in teaching, he studied theology privately, and was made deacon in Trinity Church, New York, on October 9, 1847, by Bishop Alonzo Potter. He was temporarily assigned to duty in the Parish from the day of his ordination, and thus commenced a useful and honorable ministry, which terminated only with his earthly life forty years later.
About the year 1850, or shortly before that time, anxiety about the condition of the Parish appears to have increased. The feeling was due, in part, to the changes which were rapidly taking place in the city, and, in part, to the expenditures referred to in the beginning of this chap- ter ; expenditures out of proportion to the resources of the Corporation. For several years the better class of the population had been removing from the vicinity of St. John's Square, and, in the cross streets, business was fast encroaching upon the residential quarter of the town ; Bleecker and Houston Streets were no longer fashionable, while the rich and prominent citizens were seeking new homes in Union Square, Madison Square, Fifth Avenue, and the streets in that vicinity. The effect of this mi- gration was already sensibly felt, and the authorities of the Parish, especially the Rector and the Assistant Ministers, noted with pain a lessening attendance and a loss of strength in the congregations under their charge.
A Report by the Rector is extant, dated March 13, 1848, in which he calls the attention of the Vestry to the changes which had taken place in the Parish in eight years. To no one more than himself, he says, had these changes
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come with greater "heaviness and pain, involving the rending asunder of ties which had been long in forming and which no new ones could ever replace." He attributed those removals
"largely to the increase of trade in the great Metropolis, and the need therefore of further accommodation for it. This upward current of our population has been becoming more rapid from year to year till it has gained at last such velocity and strength as to carry almost every one with it and to threaten us at no distant period with a very general loss of our oldest and most valued parishioners. The deep solicitude with which the subject has for a long time filled me, brought home more closely to my thoughts since the beginning of the year by the comparative ease with which I have already, in less than a month, nearly completed my annual visitation of the Parish, has induced me to enter into a minute and laborious investigation into its past and present condition to consider whether it may not be practicable to pro- vide some safeguard against so alarming a change."
Then follows a comparative statement of the strength of the Parish as shown by families and individuals compos- ing it on January 1, 1840, " just after the building of our new church was commenced," and January 1, 1848. The number of families at the former date as nearly as can be ascertained was five hundred and fifty-four (554); of adult unmarried individuals, one hundred and nine (109). On January 1, 1848, three hundred and thirty-five (335) of those families and seventy individuals appear to have left the Parish. Two hundred and nineteen (219) families and thirty-nine individuals remained.
An analysis of the causes of removal as far as possible is given. This may be omitted ; but we note, particularly his statement, that the families who had removed were
" in great part born and brought up in the Parish and completely identified with it, anxious for its growth, jealous of its interests, accustomed to its arrangements, attached to its usages, friendly to its clergy and to each other, and linked to it by such sacred and
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endearing associations as nothing but the force of circumstances could have induced them to sever."
Forty-four families are reported
" who still hung on to the Parish from lingering attachment, but who have also removed to such a distance as in the common course of things, from the great inconvenience of attending churches so re- mote, must gradually drop off from it, and six other families I have just learned are on the eve of similar change in their residence."
As a remedy for this state of things the Rector pro- posed " as an imperative duty " the provision of "a chapel immediately for the reception of our people who are con- stantly straying from us in the very direction to which our population is flowing." Dr. Berrian estimates that one hundred and fifty families formerly of the Parish could be gathered in at once as worshippers. As to the plan, already proposed, to erect a new chapel on Hudson Street between Clarkson and Le Roy Streets, the Rector consid- ered that it would not meet the exigency. The number of families which had removed to that quarter of the town was only eight ; so that he adds: " It is perfectly plain then that the motive for giving priority to the plan which I have ventured to suggest and deferring the one already in contemplation is nearly twenty times as urgent as the lat- ter in reference to the great objects of influence, security, and strength. The chapel in Hudson street would not be in the line of the emigration of our people." Dr. Berrian closes with these strong words: " I cannot help thinking that we shall make a fatal mistake if we do not seize at once upon some site which may be more fit for our purpose before it slips out of our hands, and it seems to me that none would be more suitable than in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Madison Square." 1
1 No. 543, Berrian MSS. The substance of this statement without any figures is on folios 474, 475, Records, liber iii.
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This statement was listened to with great attention by the Vestry. His figures were larger than the members had supposed ; action was imperative. The statement was re- ferred to the Committee on Church Extension to which Mr. John R. Livingston was added.
But the loss of parishioners, by removal, was not the only cause of anxiety to the Corporation ; the financial con- dition of the Parish was justly becoming a matter of most serious consideration. The indebtedness of the Corpora- tion, already great, had been increased by the building of the new church. The income was absorbed by parochial expenditures, the care of the property, and the gifts and allowances to various objects which still went on as before. It was beginning to be seen that the debt could not be paid except by prompt and decided measures in the direction of retrenchment and economy. That great alarm was felt is evident from a report presented December 13, 1847, by a Special Committee on the debt of the Church and its reduction. The resolutions accompanying the said report were discussed, and on the roth of January, 1848, adopted as follows :
" RESOLVED : First. That hereafter two thirds at least of the pro- ceeds (whether in cash or securities) of all future sales of the real estate shall be sacredly set apart as a fund for the gradual extinction of the Church debt, under such rules and regulations as may be devised by the Vestry, and that such fund shall be deemed and declared to be absolutely and inviolably appropriated to that purpose, until such time at least as the Vestry shall be of opinion that the debt is reduced to within safe and reasonable limits.
" Second. That under no circumstances shall any aid be granted which shall or may at any given time increase the indebtedness of the Church, or which shall in any degree impair the fund as so above set apart for its liquidation."
A third Resolution was submitted, laid over, and adopted October 9, 1848.
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" RESOLVED : That under no circumstances shall any aid be granted by grants of land belonging to this Corporation, whether in possession or reversion, whilst the resolutions for the reduction of the debt adopted by the Vestry on the 10th of January last continue in force."
The progress of the movement for financial reform was aided by General John A. Dix, who became a member of the Vestry in 1849, and was a strenuous advocate for economy in expenditure and administration. He introduced a series of resolutions, April 14, 1851, providing that the Standing Committee should formulate a plan, by which the expendi- tures of the Corporation should be limited to its income ; and further that they should consider the expediency of making the pews in Trinity Church, St. Paul's and St. John's entirely free, and should also devise a method for the support of the new chapel which it was proposed to build, on the distinct understanding that the funds of the Corporation should thereafter be used, " as far as may be practicable, in the education and religious instruction of the poor of the city." At the mover's request, these resolutions were referred to the Standing Committee for consideration and report.1
In talking with me about those old times, my father often mentioned his trials and difficulties in the cause of that greatly needed reform. At first his views met with no support. But, by and by, through the force of reason- ing and the clear grasp of a subject with which no man was more competent to deal, he gained, first one sup- porter, and then another, and another, until the large majority fell in with his ideas, and carried them out. To him, I have no doubt, great credit was due for the success
' Testimony of Hon. John A. Dix, before the Senate Committee, State of New York, on p. 255, Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on the Affairs of Trin- ity Church with the Testimony Relative thereto. Albany : Van Benthuysen, printer, 1857.
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of a movement which averted financial disaster and se- cured to the Corporation a residuum of its old estate suf- ficient to carry on the work for which it stands to-day responsible to Almighty God, and to the cause of the Christian religion in the city of New York.
CHAPTER XV.
RELATIONS OF TRINITY CHURCH TO OTHER CITY CHURCHES.
Vestry Agree to Transference of Lot on Fifth Avenue to St. George the Martyr for Erection of a Hospital-Request for an Advance from the Rector of St. George the Martyr to Enable him to Collect Funds in England-Resignation of Rev. Cornelius R. Duffie-Parish of St. John Baptist Organized-Endowment of Geneva College Granted by Vestry-Leave of Absence Granted to Dr. Wainwright-The Passing of the Parish Clerk-Donation Granted to the Late Clerk-Grant to Church of the Inter- cession-Sermons of Dr. Barclay Presented by Dr. Ducachet to Vestry-Report of Committee on Church Extension-Review of the Negotiations with St. George's Church-Agreement Reached with the Vestry of Trinity Church-Use of Old St. George's Granted to Church of Holy Evangelists-Leave of Absence Granted to Dr. Parks-Memorial from Calvary Church to be Incorporated as a Chapel of Trinity Church -Conferences Held-Approval at First of the Plan by Dr. Berrian, who Afterwards Withdraws his Approval to it-Petition of Calvary Church Declined- Purchase of Lots on Twenty-fifth Street Authorized-Appointment of Messrs. Walter and Bristow as Organists-Application for Permission to Build on St. Paul's Church- yard Refused-Death of Dr. Ogilby-Destruction by Fire of St. Thomas's Church- Friendly Offices of Trinity Parish.
I T is necessary now to retrace our steps and resume the consideration of certain matters referred to in the preceding chapter. On the 10th of April, 1848, the Stand- ing Committee made a special report upon the tripartite agreement to be carried out by Trinity Corporation, the City of New York, and the Anglo-American Church of St. George the Martyr. Citing the facts in the case, they recommended that the conveyance to the city of the plot at the foot of Duane Street be made. After considera- tion, it was ordered " that a release or quit claim of all and every right of the Corporation " to the land " bounded by Washington, Reade, West, and Duane Streets be executed
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to the City Corporation without covenant of warranty of title " on compliance with
" resolutions passed by the City Corporation on the Ioth day of May last as to the conveyance by it of that part of block No. 73 of the common lands bounded by the 5th avenue, 53rd and 54th streets, ex- tending from the 5th avenue three hundred feet west of the same and parallel thereto, to the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of the Anglo-American Church of St. George the Martyr for the erection of a Hospital and Chapel for the benefit of British emigrants."
It was also determined to refer back the application of that church to the Standing Committee with power in order " that it may the more effectually secure the prem- ises to be conveyed to the church permanently for the uses intended." 1
At the same meeting an application was received from the Rev. Mr. Marcus, Rector of St. George the Martyr, " for an advance of his stipend for a certain period, or a special appropriation hereafter to be returned by him, to enable him to go to England for the purpose of raising money to establish and endow the Church and Hospital of St. George the Martyr in this city for the benefit of poor British emigrants."2
The request of Mr. Marcus for an advance of his stipend was granted, on condition that the Church of St. George the Martyr acquiesced, and Mr. Marcus soon after sailed for England.
In a letter to Dr. Berrian, written March 9, 1849, in which Mr. Marcus speaks of various dignitaries, mutual friends, and the state of the Church, he laments the changes that have occurred during his years of absence in America, and the many appeals from the United States "which have almost drained the springs of benevolence."
" But I do not despond, nor doubt of success. I will
1 Records, liber iii., folios 475, 476.
? Ibid., folio 476.
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put on a frieze gown and with the cross in my hand stand at the corners of the streets and beg for Christ's sake the alms of the Church before I give up what I have begun in faith." 1
After a service of nearly two years as Deacon, the Rev. Mr. Duffie presented his resignation, April 10, 1848. With the aid of his immediate family and some friends, he organized a new church, to be called the Church of St. John the Baptist, for which a handsome edifice in the Gothic style was built on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East Thirty-fifth Street, on a site given by his family. Mr. Duffie remained connected with that parish through- out his life, serving forty-five years as its Rector, and seven more as Rector Emeritus. He was also Chaplain of Columbia College for many years.
Upon a report made May 12, 1848, on the subject of Geneva College, a resolution was adopted by the Vestry declaring it expedient, for the purpose of promoting re- ligious education, to endow the College with an annuity of $6000, to commence on the ist of May, 1866. The sum so appropriated was
"to be thereafter annually expended in the support of professors and tutors and upon terms, conditions, and provisoes, and with checks to be hereafter settled so as to ensure its application to the uses intended; provided the College shall raise by subscription and other grants a sufficient sum to ensure the continuance of the institution in its late efficiency until the endowment of this Church shall be available, and it was referred to the same Committee to consider and report the proper terms, conditions, provisoes, and checks aforesaid."
The Rector was added to the Committee.2
The Board of Trustees of Geneva College sent its thanks for the proposed endowment. Their communica- tion was accompanied by a letter from the Bishop of
1 No. 518, Berrian MSS.
? Records, liber iii., folio 483.
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Western New York, Dr. De Lancey, expressing his " heart-felt thanks for this great benefit to his diocese."
The Rev. Dr. Wainwright, who in addition to his pa- rochial duties, held several offices of responsibility in con- nection with the general work of the Church, found himself in the fall of 1848, in an enfeebled condition from the effects of a prolonged attack of whooping-cough. Rest and change were needed. Leave of absence was granted to him for a term not exceeding one year, with a continuance of his salary and a gratuity of two thousand dollars. 1 Dr. Wainwright sailed for Europe in the month of September 1848, accompanied by some members of his family, and travelled extensively and leisurely through portions of Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land.
During his absence which extended to October 1849, the Rev. John Henry Hobart was invited to officiate in the Parish.
One effect of the Oxford Movement was the gradual withdrawal from service of that eighteenth century institu- tion, the Parish clerk, who was really a survival of the sing- ing men and boys who were found in every parish before the Reformation. Many complaints had been made to the Music Committee in the spring of 1848 about the style of music at St. Paul's. In this condemnation the clerk and organist were included. After an anxious discussion by the committee (for musical matters are difficult and delicate to handle) the Rector finally determined to bring the matter before the Vestry. This was done at the March meeting, when he stated that the music of St. Paul's Chapel was generally disapproved of, and that another organist and a reorganization of the choir were deemed requisite for its im- provement. An order was then adopted " that the Rector be authorized to receive the resignation or, if necessary,
1 Records, liber iii., folio 497.
In
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proceed to the dismissal of the present organist and clerk of that chapel." 1
It appears that the resignations took effect at the beginning of the fall and that a new organist and choir were then installed to the great satisfaction of the congre- gation. With the withdrawal of the clerk from St. Paul's Chapel that functionary disappeared from the Parish, and his place knew him no more.
Mr. James A. Sparks, who had been the clerk for five years, felt his removal keenly. In September he sent a petition to the Vestry stating his destitute circumstances, mentioning his long continuance in the choir and his in- cumbency of the clerkship " at two hundred dollars a year." The Vestry kindly considered his case, and in view of the fact that he had been " unexpectedly deprived of his situa- tion," and of his long membership in the choir of St. Paul's Church they gave him a donation of three hundred dollars.2
On the 9th of October, 1848, the new Parish of the In- tercession at Carmansville petitioned for aid. An annuity of one hundred dollars was granted, on condition " that its church can be used for funerals at the cemetery and its Rector officiate at them when requested, also in the ceme- tery at burials." 3
November 13, 1848 a communication was received from the Rev. Henry W. Ducachet, in his youth a member of this Parish, and then Rector of St. Stephen's, Philadelphia. In his letter to Dr. Berrian he stated that he had " in his possession a large collection of the manuscript discourses of the Rev. Dr. Henry Barclay, the second Rector of this Church, and an ancestor of his wife, some of which were preached to the Mohawk Indians, and others in the Parish, from his induction in November 1746 to 1764 when he
' Records, liber iii., folio 474.
2 Ibid., folio 493. 3 Ibid., folio 494. 1
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died : and, for the purpose of securing their permanent preservation, offering to present them to the Vestry of this Church." 1
The gift was accepted and the Rector was requested to convey to Dr. Ducachet, " the thanks of this Vestry for these memorials of olden times."? The proposed gift was, however, never made, or else the sermons have dis- appeared, as they are not now among the archives of the Parish.
An important report was made about this time by the Committee upon Church Extension. The opinions of eminent counsel, such as Mr. David B. Ogden, the Hon. John C. Spencer, and Mr. Benjamin F. Butler were ap- pended to the report. They agreed that it would be hazardous, in view of the provisions of the charter and the general laws governing religious corporations, either to purchase land for a new chapel or to erect a church within grounds purchased for a cemetery. The Committee em- bodied their conclusions in these resolutions which were unanimously adopted by the Vestry :
" Resolved that it is not expedient for this Corporation to purchase any additional real estate for the erection of a chapel thereon or for other purposes.
" Resolved that the cemetery grounds, under the law as it now stands, should not be used for the erection thereon of a chapel, or for any purpose not mentioned in the act under which it was purchased." 3
We come now to the case of St. George's Church in Beekman Street.
The story of the removal of St. George's Church from the site in Beekman Street occupied by it for nearly forty years, to Stuyvesant Square, is a long one, and very much complicated. The record of the proceedings, as given in
: 1 Records, liber iii., folio 494.
2 Ibid., folio 497. Ibid., folio 498.
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the Vestry Minutes, would furnish material for a good- sized pamphlet. I shall not attempt to present it in full, but confine myself to a condensed account, made as brief as is consistent with the design of presenting a clear and coherent view of the subject.
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