USA > New York > New York City > An historical sketch of Trinity Church, New-York > Part 17
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A letter was received from the Vestry of St. George's Church, representing the destruction of their Church by fire, and soliciting the assistance of this Board: and thereupon, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Sherred, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Ogden, to which Mr. Bayard was afterwards added, were appointed a committee to consider the said application, and to confer on the subject with the committee appointed by St. George's.
At the next meeting of the Vestry, the written cor- respondence was presented which had taken place be- tween them. It was, therefore, resolved, that this Cor- poration would agree to rebuild St. George's Church, upon the original plan, except as to the steeple, which was to be replaced by a tower, upon condition that they should be allowed to sell all the pews on the ground floor, except twelve single pews nearest the doors, at public auction, subject to a reasonable rent, and to apply the proceeds of such sales towards the reimbursement of the expenses of the building; these twelve pews, and all the pews in the gallery, being left at the disposal of the Vestry of St. George's. The latter having agreed to the terms proposed, the Com- mittee were authorized to proceed in the rebuilding of the said Church, in such manner as they should deem advisable; and it was at the same time ordered,
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that $600 should be paid to the Vestry of St. George's Church, as one year's rent of a house for the use of their Rector.
Shortly after, another application was laid before the Board from St. George's Church, relative to the enlargement of their burial ground, and to the further execution of the arrangement under which they were separated from this Corporation. The Vestry, there- fore, authorized the committee to whom this applica- tion was referred, to purchase the estate of Thomas Burling, adjacent to the Church, for the sum of $14,000; and, upon the recommendation of the same committee, it was further resolved, that they should take measures for enclosing the most westerly of the two houses on the said lot, to be hereafter completed as a dwelling-house for the Rector of St. George's. In 1815, the Treasurer of Trinity Church, in concert with the Vestry of St. George's, was authorized to have $30,000 insured on the Church and Parsonage-house, and to pay the preminm for the same, amounting to 184 25-100.
By the Treasurer's annual account in the same year, it appears that the sum expended in the rebuilding of St. George's Church, and the Rector's house, was $30,946 83-100 ; and as there is no credit on the cash side of the account for receipts from the sales of pews, it is probable that this is the net amount of their cost, after these receipts were deducted.
In 1816, a representation was made from St. George's, respecting the expenses of repairing the Church chandeliers and branches, and requesting to be furnished with a clock and organ; which this Vestry,
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having hoped for some limit to their bounty, respect- fully declined.
Upon a careful estimate of the present value of the lands with which St. George's was endowed by Trinity Church, and the various gifts and grants of this muni- ficent Corporation, the total amount cannot be set down at less than $220,000, or but little less than a quarter of a million.
As long "as benevolence shall be considered a vir- tue," and gratitude a duty, could it be thought that liberality like this would ever be forgotten !
On the 17th of Nov., 1812, the Assistant Rector was authorized to engage the Rev. Benj. T. Onder- donk to assist in performing Divine service for six months, at the expiration of which he was empowered to continue the arrangement for six months longer. But on the 30th of Oct., 1813, the Assistant Rector having nominated him as an Assistant Minister of this Church, the nomination was approved, and Mr. Onder- donk was placed on the same footing with respect to salary and the tenure of his office, as had been deter- mined on, at my own appointment.
A communication was received about this time from the Free School Society of New York, accompanied by a resolution of the Trustees of that Institution in the following words :
" Resolved, That the afternoon of Tuesday (third day) in each week, be appropriated for the instruction of the children of the New-York Free School in the prin- ciples of the Christian Religion, and in order that they may be educated in the peculiar tenets of the Denom- inations to which they respectively belong, the several
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churches with which they are connected, be respect- fully invited to send suitable persons to catechize and otherwise so to instruct them."
It was thereupon ordered, that the Assistant Rector and other Clergy of this Church, be requested to give the necessary attention to the said resolution, and that 200 Common Prayer Books be appropriated to the use of the scholars who belong to the Episcopal Church, to be distributed under the direction of the Assistant Rector.
At a meeting of the Vestry, held on the 1st of March, 1813, the Rev. Dr. Beach having signified his desire to resign the office of Assistant Rector and Minister of this Church, if agreeable to the Vestry, it was there- upon resolved, unanimously, that this Board in concur- rence with the desire of Dr. Beach, would accept such resignation, and in consideration of his very long and faithful services in this Church, as one of its useful pas- tors, this board would grant him an annuity for life of $1500, to be secured by bond under the seal of this Corporation.
The Rev. Abraham Beach, upon his ordination in England, was appointed by the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, as their Missionary at New-Brunswick and Piscataqua, at a salary of £40 sterling a year. The Society shortly after received advice that he had arrived safe at his mission, in the end of September, 1767, where he was kindly received by the people, and found an agreement (in charity, we may suppose, and not in doctrine,) among all denominations. And as a proof of this friend- ly feeling, he stated, in letters written several years
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afterwards, that his own churches were frequented by serious persons of all denominations, that he endea- voured by a kind and candid treatment of dissenters to overcome their prejudices, and that he had in several instances experienced the good effects of it. A differ- ent spirit, however, began to prevail about the break- ing out of the Revolutionary war; for in one of his communications he represented to the Society how hurtful the American disputes were to the Clergy, and he assured the Society tl.at he had endeavoured to promote moderation, peace, and good order, trusting to Providence for the success of his efforts. To which he added, that if he could preserve nothing else, he hoped still to preserve a conscience void of offence towards God and man. While most of the Mission- aries of the province of New-Jersey had taken refuge in New-York, he (with Mr. Ogden and Mr. Frazer) appears to have remained at his post without molesta- tion, in the faithful discharge of his duties. He was more fortunate, however, in this respect than Mr. Fra- zer, whom he represented as a most worthy man, who had been stripped of almost all that he possessed by the Revolutionary army, and who being too low in circumstances to remove, was forced to submit to daily insults and threatenings; or than his neighbour and intimate friend, Dr. Chandler, of Elizabethtown, who had been obliged to fly from the country in the very outset of the war.
In two of his letters, dated March 24th and Octo- ber 2d, 1780, he wrote that he had seized the oppor- tunity of a flag of truce to New-York, to inform the Society that he was still in his station, and doing his
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duty in it, and that he was endeavouring to answer the Society's expectations, so far at least as the dis- tracted state of the country would admit, by visiting distant missions, baptizing the children, and perform- ing other ecclesiastical duties. And these were ac- companied by a minute detail of his missionary labors for several years. He re-opened his church on Christ- mas Day, 1781; but after having spent a few years more in his comparatively humble, but useful station, he was appointed an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, on the 8th of June, 1784, at a salary of £500 per annum.
From this time to that of his resignation as Assist- ant Rector, a period of twenty-nine years, he pursued his noiseless course in this parish with usefulness, and retired from it without reproach, a commendation more enviable than that which is frequently bestowed on greater men.
He passed the remainder of his days, in old age, near a place endeared to him in youth; and the last notice which is found of him, is in the annual address of Bishop Croes, of New-Jersey, to his Convention, in 1829: "Some changes have taken place with respect to the clergymen belonging to this Diocese. Among these ought especially to be mentioned the decease of the aged and venerable Dr. Abraham Beach, who for many years was the respectable Rector of this church,* and who, after an absence of nearly thirty years, per- forming the duties of a Minister of Trinity Church, New-York, returned to his farm, near this city, and
* New-Brunswick.
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spent in peace and tranquility the residue of a life of eighty-eight years duration."
On the 12th of April, 1813, a communication was received from the Right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D., nominating the Right Rev. John Henry Hobart to be his Assistant, and to fill the said office if the nomina- tion should be consented to by the Wardens and Ves- try of Trinity Church; which nomination was for- mally approved.
On the 1st of March, 1816, the Vestry having been convened, in consequence of the death of the Right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D., who departed this life on the 27th of February, it was resolved that the mem- bers would, in a body, attend the funeral of their de- parted Rector, and that on occasion of his death Trinity Church and its Chapels should be hung with mourning.
" Bishop Moore was born October 5th, 1748, at New- town, Long-Island. He went to school in Newtown, and afterwards in New-York, in order to prepare for entering King's (now Columbia) College, where he graduated," and of which he afterwards became, and long continued, one of the most honoured of its Presi- dents.
"He pursued his studies, after he graduated, at New- town, under the direction of Dr. Auchmuty, Rector of Trinity Church; and he was engaged some years in teaching Latin and Greek to the sons of several gen- tlemen in New-York.
" He went to England in May, 1774; was ordained Deacon on Friday, June 24, 1774, in the Chapel of the
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Episcopal Palace at Fulham, by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London, and Priest on Wednesday, June 29, 1774, in the same place, by the same Bishop.
"After his return from England, he was appointed, with the Rev. Mr. Bowden, (afterwards Dr. Bowden of Columbia College,) an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church ; Dr. Auchmuty being Rector, and afterwards Dr. Inglis, since Bishop of Nova-Scotia .*
" On the resignation of Bishop Provoost, Dr. Moore was appointed Rector of Trinity Church, Decem- ber 22, 1800. He was unanimously elected Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New- York, at a Special Convention in the city of New- York, September 5, 1801, and was consecrated Bishop at Trenton, New-Jersey, in St. Michael's Church, Fri- day, September 11, 1801, by the Right Rev. Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, Presiding Bishop; the Right Rev. Bishop Claggett, of Maryland; and the Right Rev. Bishop Jarvis, of Connecticut.
" He was attacked by paralysis in February, 1811, and for the last two or three years repeated attacks gradually weakened and disabled him, until he expired at his residence, at Greenwich, near New-York, on Tuesday evening, the 27th of February, 1816, in the 60th year of his age." Bishop Hobart, by whom the duties of the Episcopal office in this Diocese had been
* From that time till his retirement from the active duties of his office, there is such an evidence in the Parish Register of the extent of his labours, and his unbounded popularity, as within my observation, is beyond all precedent. In the period of thirty-five years, he celebra- ted 3,578 marriages, and baptized 3,064 children and adults.
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discharged, as Assistant Bishop, since his consecration in May, 1811, delivered his funeral sermon, of which the following extract forms the close :
" Our venerable father has gone. In the bosom of Abraham, in the paradise of God, in the custody of the Lord Jesus, his soul reposes, waiting in peace and joy for 'its perfect consummation and bliss in God's eternal and everlasting glory.' Soon the sentence that sin has brought on the whole human race, is to be pro- nounced on the revered remains before us : 'Earth to earth-ashes to ashes-dust to dust.'
"But he lives in the memory of his virtues. Let us recall and cherish them. Let us keep him a little longer with us-not as of late, when languishing under disease he gradually lost that engaging expression, which had so eminently characterized him, until he at last sunk in the darkness of death-but let us view him such as you, people of the congregation, beheld him when he appeared among you as your Pastor-such as we, my brethren, beheld him when he exercised over us his paternal authority.
"I should, indeed, violate that simplicity which in a high degree adorned him, if I were to indulge in the language of inflated panegyric. Simplicity was his distinguishing virtue. He was unaffected-in his tem- pers, in his actions, in every look and gesture. Sim- plicity, which throws such a charm over talents, such a lustre over station, and even a celestial loveliness over piety itself, gave its colouring to the talents, the station, and the piety of our venerable father. But it was a simplicity accompanied with uniform prudence, and with an accurate knowledge of human nature.
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"A grace allied to simplicity, was the meekness that adorned him-a meekness which was 'not easily pro- vokeď-never made an oppressive display of talents, of learning, or of station-and condescended to the most ignorant and humble, and won their confidence ; while associated with dignity, it commanded respect and excited affection in the circles of rank and afflu- ence. And it was a meekness that pursued the dic- tates of duty with firmness and perseverance.
" His piety, arising from a lively faith in the Re- deemer whom he served, and whose grace he was commissioned to deliver, warmed as it was by his feel- ings, was ever under the control of sober judgment. A strong evidence of its sincerity, was its entire freedom from any thing like ostentation. It did not proclaim itself at the corners of the streets-it did not make boastful pretensions, or obtrude itself on the public gaze-but it was displayed in every domestic, every social, every public relation. It was not the irregular meteor, glittering for a moment and then sinking in the darkness, from which it was elicited, but the serene and steady light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
" He rose to public confidence and respect, and to general esteem, solely by the force of talents and worth. In the retirement of a country village, the place of his nativity, he commenced his literary career, and he pro- secuted it in the public seminary of this city, and subsequently in his private studies, until he became the finished scholar and the well furnished divine.
" This city was the only scene of his parochial labors.
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Here he commenced and here he has closed his minis- terial life.
" People of the congregation ! you have seen him, re- gular and fervent, yet modest and humble, in perform- ing the services of the Sanctuary. You cannot have forgotten that voice of sweetness and of melody, yet of gravity and solemnity, with which he excited while he chastened your devotions; nor that evangelical elo- quence which, gentle as the dew of Hermon, insinuated itself into your hearts.
" His love for the Church was the paramount princi- ple that animated him. He entered on her service in the time of trouble. Steady in his principles, yet mild and prudent in advocating them, he never sacrificed consistency, he never provoked resentment. In pro- portion as adversity pressed upon the Church was the firmness of the affection with which he clung to her. And he lived until he saw her, in no inconsiderable de- gree by his counsels and exertions, raised from the dust and putting on the garments of glory and beauty.
"It was this affection for the Church which animated his Episcopal labors-which led him to leave that fa- mily whom he so tenderly loved, and that retirement which was so dear to him, and where he found, while he conferred enjoyment, to seek in the remote parts of the Diocese for the sheep of Christ's fold .. I know that his memory lives where I have traced the fruits of his labors.
" My brethren of the Episcopal Clergy, I need not tell you how much prudence, gentleness and affection, distinguished his Episcopal relation to you.
" We are not without many recent monitions of that
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summons which we shall all receive-Give an account of thy stewardship. But a few months since and this temple witnessed your attendance on the last solemn offices of a venerable Father .* The remains of ano- ther are now before us. With the exception of one,t to whom we still look with reverence, who was the companion of his youth, the associate of his early la- bours, and the sympathizing friend of his old age, he is the last in this diocese of those venerable men who de- rived their ordination from the Parent Church, and whose characters were marked by attachment to evan- gelical truth, in connection with primitive order. My brethren, let not their principles descend with them to the grave. Soon our course will be finished : our ac- count will at the great day be demanded ; and how awful the responsibility of those to whom Christ hath entrusted the charge of "the sheep for whom he shed his blood, of the congregation which is his spouse and body !"
On the death of Bishop Moore, the Right Rev. John Henry Hobart was unanimously elected on the 11th of March, 1816, as his successor in the Rectorship of Trinity Church, and was duly admitted into the Church by delivering to him the keys thereof in the presence of the Church Wardens and Vestrymen, and of the Sextons, Thomas Collister and Richard Wenman, wit- nesses.
In 1817 my own health, partly from a neglected cold and partly from the weight of the duties in this extensive parish, suddenly broke down, and it was
* The Rt. Rev. Bishop Provoost.
t The Rev. Dr. Bowden.
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thought expedient by my physician that I should pass the winter in the South of Europe. I therefore ap- plied to the Vestry for leave of absence, and also for the aid which was necessary, having no means of my own. They very promptly gave me permission to be gone for a year, and passed a resolution for the contin- uance of my salary .* This relief, with a considerable sum which was raised by private contributions in the Parish, furnished an ample provision for my journey. Though from my extreme feebleness and the doubt- fulness of the issue, there was some reason for despon- dency, I nevertheless went on my way rejoicing, and contrary to the fears of many of my friends returned with renewed health and cheerfulness of spirit to the discharge of those duties, which, through the blessing of God, I have been enabled to perform for nearly thirty years longer.
In consequence of my absence the Rector was au- thorized to engage the Rev. Mr. Jarvis, of St. Mi- chael's and St. James's Church in the vicinity of this city, and the Rev. Evan M. Johnson, of New Town, Long Island, to officiate in this Church and its Chapels on Sunday afternoons for the period of six months.
On the 11th of June, 1818, the Rector nominated the Rev. Thomas C. Brownell, of Schenectady, as an Assistant Minister of this Church, and it was resolved, that such nomination should be approved, in the confi- dence that Mr. Brownell would relinquish the office
* This application to the Vestry for pecuniary aid was the first and the last which I ever made.
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if his health should not be found to be so established as to enable him to discharge its duties. In the year be- fore it had been so much impaired, that just on the eve of my departure for Europe, in the hope of recovering my own, I wrote to him requesting him to accompany me in my journey. It was a matter of unfeigned re- gret to me, that circumstances which he could not con- trol, rendered it inconvenient for him to accept the proposal.
In the following year Mr. Brownell was elected Bishop of Connecticut, where he has been enabled to discharge his Episcopal duties with honour to himself and advantage to the Church, for the long period of twenty-seven years.
At the next meeting of the Vestry, held on the 25th of November, 1819, the appointment of an Assistant Minister being under consideration, in consequence of the vacancy which had been recently made by the election of the Rev. Mr. Brownell to the Bishopric of Connecticut, the Rector nominated the Rev. Jonathan M. Wainwright, of Hartford, to supply his place, which nomination was thereupon approved. He en- tered at once upon the duties of his charge; but a short time after, receiving an appointment as Rector of Grace Church, New-York, he resigned his office as an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, on the 8th of January, 1821.
About this period, the Rev. George Upfold, Rector at the time of St. Luke's Church, New-York, after- wards the Rector of St. Thomas's, and now of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh ; the Rev. Wm. H. Delancey, now
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Bishop of the Western Diocese of New-York, and the Rev. George W. Doane, now Bishop of New-Jersey, were temporarily engaged in Trinity Parish.
In the autumn of 1822, Bishop Hobart had a severe attack of bilious fever, at his country residence in the neighbourhood of Springfield, New-Jersey, which ex- cited in the minds of his friends the most anxious fears, and which brought him indeed very near to the gates of death. He soon, however, recovered from it in such a degree as to be enabled to resume his duties ; but in the following summer, being threatened with a repetition of it, he intermitted them for a time, and took a journey to Quebec, in which I accompanied him. It turned out to be of no advantage to him, but, on the contrary, he was exceedingly ill on his way home, and the case seeming to be hopeless, without a thorough change of climate, and a long season of repose from his arduous labors, he made an applica- tion to the Vestry, by the advice of his physicians, for leave of absence, in order to undertake a voyage to Europe. The Rector having withdrawn, and Mr. Rogers being in the chair, it was unanimously agreed, that he should have leave of absence for one year, with a view to the re-establishment of his health, that the expenses of the voyage should be borne by the Vestry, and that the Rector's salary, at the time, and other allowances, should be continued.
Upon this occasion, the 23d of Sept., 1823, I was nominated as Assistant Rector, and the nomination was confirmed.
In the autumn of 1824, a letter having been received from Bishop Hobart, stating that in consequence of 17
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continued ill health, he was advised to remain in Eu- rope, and to pass the ensuing winter in the South of France, his leave of absence was extended for another year. The subject of his expenses was entrusted to a committee, and managed with so much delicacy as that the extent of them was not known at the time, even to the Vestry itself. They were generally understood, however, to be on a scale at once suited to the dignity of the Bishop, and the means of the Corporation by which they were bestowed.
On the 14th of June, 1824, the Assistant Rector nominated the Rev. John F. Schroeder, as an Assist- ant Minister of this Parish, and the nomination was approved. Dr. Schroeder continued his connection with Trinity Church for fifteen years, resigning his charge on the 5th of Jan., 1839.
In 1827, the following communication from Richard Harison, Esq., was received, read, and ordered to be entered on the minutes of the Vestry :-
"To the Vestry of Trinity Church, in the City of New-York :-- " GENTLEMEN :
" I have for some time past had it under considera- tion, whether I ought not to resign my place as one of your body, and the office which, for a number of years, I have held by its appointment and at its pleasure.
"A variety of reasons, which it would be useless to specify, have hitherto, and perhaps too long, deferred my determining this question. It was natural, if not strictly proper, to delay taking so definitive a measure, until it could be ascertained whether the infirmities by which I had been visited were of a nature so continued as to exclude the prospect of their entire removal, or
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