USA > New York > New York City > An historical sketch of Trinity Church, New-York > Part 8
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We committ this letter to the care of Mr. George Harison, one of our Vestry, and Mr. William Johnson, son of the Revd Doctor John- son, by whom we beg leave to tender our best respects to the Vener- able Board, and by whom they may be informed more particularly in any matter relating to this subject.
We remain with much respect, Reverend Sir,
Your most humble servants.
In 1754, the Rev. Dr. Johnson acquainted the Society, that the charter for the foundation of the college then called King's, but now Columbia College, for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences, had been passed, by which the head of the college is to be always a member of the Church of England, and the prayers of the Church are to be always used in it. He likewise informs them, that he hath accepted that post, and therefore begs leave to resign the mission of Stratford, which he had held thirty-two years, in which, as he modestly ex-
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presses himself, he hopes he may say he had faithfully endeavoured, through many struggles and hardships, to answer the pious design of the Society, in placing him there. It will not be thought to have been inap- propriate to notice this appointment, inasmuch as Dr. Johnson was subsequently elected as an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, and the College itself was amply endowed by it.
In the following year he remarks in another letter, that he is concerned to write that a great clamour was raised by its inveterate enemies, against the mea- sures proposed for carrying this laudable design into speedy effect, and that it had so far prevailed as to cause the matter to be postponed in the Assembly, by a majority of a single vote.
The next year, however, the Society states in the abstract of their proceedings, that it hath the satisfac- tion to be informed by Mr. Harison, a worthy member of the Vestry of Trinity Church, that at length the Assembly had passed a vote to appropriate the money raised for the building of the College in the city of New-York, to its proper purpose, and therefore it is to be hoped that this very useful design will meet with no further obstructions, but be carried into exe- cution with all proper speed.
It may here perhaps not be amiss to remark, that the ground which was originally given to the College by Trinity Church merely for its own proper use, has long since so far increased in value, from the growth of the city, as to furnish a large part of its annual income.
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"On the 20th of December, 1753, it was unanimously resolved, that the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Strat- ford, be called as an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, and that he be allowed for the same the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum ; and the Rector and Churchwardens were desired to write to the said Dr. Johnson, and acquaint him with the resolution of this Board, and that his said salary should commence from the day of his leaving his Parish at Stratford.
"Col. Robinson acquainted this Board that the Rev. Mr. Barclay, Mr. Murray, and himself, pursuant to the order of this Board of the 20th of December last, had wrote to the Rev. Dr. Johnson, and that they had received an answer from him, which was in the words following, viz :
" STRATFORD, January 16th, 1754. "GENTLEMEN :
"I am very much obliged to you for the good opinion you are pleased to entertain of me, and the honour you have done me, in so unanimously choosing me an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church. As I have a great esteem for the good people of New- York, and a particular friendship and regard for many of them with whom I have been acquainted, I should rejoice to be instrumental in ministering to their eter- nal weal and happiness, and should willingly spend and be spent in that great and important work. But my advanced years, verging towards the decline of life, are great matter of discouragement to me, and render me extremely fearful whether I shall be able
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to answer your expectations. However, as this peo- ple are also dear to me, and this station is of much importance to the general interest of the Church in these parts, I must beg of you, before I come to a final conclusion, to give me a little time to consider and look out for a worthy successor, with whom I may with satisfaction leave the care of them who have hitherto been committed to my charge, which, if I can accomplish, I shall willingly serve you to the uttermost of my power.
" As to what you have proposed to do towards my support, in conjunction with the gentlemen Trustees of the College ; as you can judge much better than I what is requisite for a decent subsistence among you if I should remove, I must therefore entirely rely on your benevolence and generosity. Meantime, I earn- estly beg of God that the result of both your delibera- tions and mine, relating to this important affair, may be such as will best promote His honour and the publick good, and terminate in both the present and everlasting happiness of us all. I am, gentlemen, with a deep sense of esteem and gratitude, your most obliged friend and humble servant,
"SAMUEL JOHNSON."
" The Churchwardens were authorized by the Ves- try to pay, until further order, unto the Reverend Dr. Johnson his salary as usual and agreed upon, and that in consideration of his advanced years, and the duties of the college, he be desired only to read prayers on Sun- days, and preach one Sunday in a month at church and
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chapel, or as occasion may happen to require, and be agreed upon by the Rector."*
The following sketch of the life and character of the Rev. Dr. Johnson, is from the classic pen of his great-grandson, the Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck. It is drawn from a fuller biographical memoir of this distin- guished man, which appeared in the Churchman's Magazine for 1813 :
"Samuel Johnson was born at Guilford, Connec- ticut, October 14th, 1696, and was descended from a respectable family of the earliest settlers of Connecti- cut. After obtaining a much more thorough know- ledge of the learned languages, than the classical schools of New-England at that time generally afforded, he was sent to the College of Connecticut, then first established at Saybrook. Learning was at this period at its lowest ebb in New-England. The first generation of learned puritans had died off, and their immediate successors, educated among a people too intent on their immediate necessities to attend much to the cultivation of general learning, while
* Ordered, That the Church Wardens pay unto the Reverend Mr. Barclay and the Reverend Mr. Auchmuty, the additional sallary of sixty pounds p. annum each, formerly allowed them, for officiating in the chappel as well as the Church, untill the appointment and coming of the Reverend Doct" Johnson to assist them in the Parochial duties, and that the said Church Wardens continue the payment of the said additional salary of sixty pounds to each of them, from the coming of Doct" Johnson untill further order, provided they continue to officiate, preach, and perform the parochial duties, as they did before the coming of Doctor Johnson.
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they retained little of the profound biblical and classic lore of their fathers, were encumbered with all that was useless and pedantic in their course of study.
" Just as Mr. Johnson had received the usual academic honors, chance threw in his way Lord Bacon's Essay on the Advancement of Learning, (perhaps the only copy at that time on this side the Atlantic,) the study of which operated in his mind the same change which had already taken place for more than forty years among the learned of Europe, but of which no rumor had yet reached the literati of New-England.
" His mind, naturally patient of investigation, and eager for truth, received with avidity the flood of new ideas thus poured in upon it, and he seemed to him- self, to use his own expression, 'like a person suddenly emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day.'
"Shortly after this memorable epoch in his life, a considerable addition was made to the college library, among which were the writings of the greatest philo- sophers, divines, and polite scholars of the age: and the then modern works of Newton, Halley, and Woodward; Barrow, South, Tillotson and Sherlock; Bentley, Addison and Steele, were seen and read for the first time in the Colony of Connecticut. The regularly bred scholar of the present day, surrounded and sated with literary luxury till he turn cloyed with excellence to stimulate his jaded appetite with novelty,
-- mala copia quando Ægrum solicitat stomachum,
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can have but a faint idea of the avidity and intense application with which the works of these great mas- ters of reason and just expression were perused, and (to use the happy phrase of Gibbon) meditated, again and again, by Mr. Johnson and a few of the associates of his studies.
"The discoveries of Newton particularly excited his attention, and, not content with a general and superficial notion of his doctrines, he determined to acquire such a knowledge of mathematics as would enable him thoroughly to comprehend their grounds and reasons, and enter into the very penetralia of that high-priest of nature. In this design, his usual reso- lute application made him completely successful. During all this time, he never intermitted his classical studies, or that of the Hebrew, of which he had early acquired the rudiments, and which in after life became the employment of his leisure, and the solace of his age. Thus richly stored with general science, he was admirably calculated for the station to which he was appointed in 1716, of tutor in the college, then removed to New-Haven, and placed under the direc- tion of the learned Dr. Cutler, as rector or president. Here, for four years, in conjunction with the learned rector, he was actively employed in dissipating the intellectual darkness which had overspread the land. Mr. Johnson had always intended the Christian min- istry as his ultimate profession, and had kept this in view in all his studies. To this he was set apart, according to the forms of the Congregational Church, in 1720, and settled at West-Haven, where he applied himself to the duties and studies of his profession with
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exemplary diligence and zeal. He had been educated according to the strictest forms and most rigid ortho- doxy of the independent Calvinistic Church, at that time the only sect known or tolerated in the colony. But in the course of a long and laborious investigation of most of the points in controversy between his own Church and that of England, in which he was accom- panied by President Cutler and a few other studious friends, he and his friends found reasons to change many of their opinions on those points, and finally to profess themselves members of the Church of Eng- land.
"Dr. Cutler resigned his presidency, Mr. Johnson his church, and both embarked for England to receive Episcopal ordination, where Mr. Johnson's natural curiosity and love of knowledge was gratified by the attention, conversation, and friendship of many of the most learned divines of the Church of England, with most of whom he maintained a regular correspondence during the rest of his life. After being admitted to Priest's orders in the Church of England, Mr. John- son returned to America, as a missionary, under the patronage of the Venerable Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel, and settled at Stratford, a pleasant village of Connecticut, of the Episcopal congregation of which place he was the regular minister; although, as he was for some time the only clergyman of that denomination in the colony, his labours were necessa- rily extended over a large tract of adjoining country. Here he married, and gradually overcoming, by the uniform mildness of his manners, the sectarian preju-
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dices which had been excited against him, continued for many years engaged in the active duties of his calling, and in the pursuit of his favorite studies of divinity and the Hebrew language.
"In 1729, a circumstance occurred, which forms a remarkable epoch, not only in the life of Mr. Johnson, but in the literary history of this country ; the arrival of the famous Dean (afterwards Bishop) Berkeley, in America. A similarity of studies and principles, soon produced an intimate acquaintance between them, and during the two years and a half which that great and amiable * man resided in this country, a constant literary and social intercourse was kept up between them ; and an uninterrupted correspondence was afterwards maintained, in a series of the most affec- tionate and confidential letters, until the death of the bishop, in the year 1752. As the Episcopal Church increased in Connecticut, the labours of Mr. Johnson, who was regarded as its head and champion, were still augmented ; and in a theological controversy which soon followed, he defended her, in several tracts, pub- lished at intervals, with ability, candour, and good temper.
"In 1743, he received, through the recommendation of his friend Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Secker, the degree of Doctor in Divinity t from the Univer-
" To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."-POPE.
+ This diploma was conferred in a manner the most flattering to Dr. Johnson. Dr. Hodges, the Vice-Chancellor, in an oration before the University, spoke of his character in the highest terms, and the diploma itself is thus specially worded, " eumque Rev. vir S. Johnson
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sity of Oxford, a literary honour which, in that ancient university, has seldom been by any means lavishly bestowed, and cheap as academic honours have become elsewhere, is still regarded with high respect.
" In 1752, a number of gentlemen of New-York, feeling the importance of establishing some system of academic instruction in that rapidly increasing colony ; and perhaps stimulated by the recent success of the Philadelphians, undertook the foundation of a college in that city. In the next year an act of incorporation was obtained, and some provision for a fund for its support was made by a succession of lotteries ; and soon after the trustees unanimously chose Dr. Johnson president of their college. The funds of this institu- tion were increased by the donations of individuals in the colony, and by a liberal grant of land from Trinity Church, including the lot upon which the college edifice now stands, as well as some adjoining ground, from which it still derives the most considerable part of its revenue. Besides this, the college received a benefaction of five hundred pounds sterling from the Society in England for the Propagation of the Gospel ; a bequest from a Dr. Bristowe of London, a very active member of the same society, of his library, amounting to about fifteen hundred volumes ; and
fidissimus ad N. Angliam missionarius in oppido Stratford, de Pro- vincia Connecticutensi, enthusiasticis dogmatibus strenue et feliciter conflictatus, Regiminis Episcopalis vindex acerrimus, demandatam curam prudenter adeo et benevole, indefesse ita et potenter adminis- travit, ut incredibili ecclesia incremento summe sui expectationem sustinuerit plane et superaverit .- SCIATIS, &C.
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finally, a legacy from Mr. Murray * of ten thousand pounds currency, (twenty-five thousand dollars.)
"But after the erection of the college building and the purchase of a philosophical apparatus, the trustees found it impossible to proceed on the liberal plan which they had begun, without encroaching on the permanent fund, or obtaining some farther assistance. This was supplied by a collection, made in England, for the joint use of the colleges of New-York and Philadelphia, which produced to the former the clear sum of six thousand pounds sterling.
" While this liberal spirit was displayed on the part of the public, Dr. Johnson was not inactive, and on June 17th, 1754, he began the collegiate course of instruction alone, with a class of twelve students. He was shortly after assisted by his son William Johnson, Mr. Cutting, a graduate of the University of Cam- bridge, who is still remembered as a thorough-bred classical scholar; and Mr. Treadwell, of Harvard College, Massachusetts, who was appointed professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.+
"In the midst of all his academic labours, Dr. Johnson never lost sight of the high duties of his profession ; and he from time to time combatted such errors as he deemed of peculiarly dangerous tendency
* Mr. Murray was a lawyer of great eminence in the city of New- York, about the middle of the last century. He was one of the Council, and Attorney-General of the Province, and much celebrated in his day as a constitutional lawyer.
t Mr. Treadwell died in 1760, and was succeeded, as professor of Mathematics, by Mr. Robert Harper, a gentleman educated at the University of Glasgow.
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in this country, in some tracts and single sermons, published about the year 1761; while his popularity as a preacher induced the Vestry of Trinity Church, New-York, soon after his removal to that city, to call him as a lecturer in that Church; where he officiated in turn with the rector and assistant, but without having any other parochial charge. After filling these stations, for which he was so eminently qualified, about nine years, finding his activity gradually impaired by age and infirmity, and his spirits sinking under domes- tic calamity, in the loss of his youngest son, and some time after of his wife; seeing too, the college thoroughly established, and flourishing beyond his hopes under the immediate superintendence of Dr. Myles Cooper, the professor of Moral Philosophy, his destined suc- cessor, a man of acknowledged learning and talents ; he was induced in 1763 to resign his office and retire to Stratford, to finish the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family.
"In this peaceful retreat, he again resumed the duties of a parish priest, and pursued his studies, and discharged his clerical functions, at the age of seventy, with the same zeal with which he had applied himself to them more than forty years before.
"Thus occupied in works of piety and usefulness, his virtuous and venerable age glided peacefully along, until the 6th of January, 1772, when, after a very short, and apparently slight indisposition, he expired in his chair without a struggle or a groan. His remains are interred in the Episcopal burying-ground at Stratford, where a neat monument is erected with
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the following inscription, from the classic pen of President Cooper :-
M. S. SAMUELIS JOHNSON, D. D., COLLEGII REGALIS, NOVI EBORACI, PRÆSIDIS PRIMI, ET HUJUS ECCLESIA NUPER RECTORIS NATUS DIE, 14 TO OCTOB. 1696. OBIIT. 6 TO JAN. 1772.
If decent dignity and modest mien, The cheerful heart and countenance serene ; If pure religion and unsullied truth, His age's solace, and his search in youth ; In charity, through all the race he ran, Still wishing well, and doing good to man ; If learning, free from pedantry and pride ; If faith and virtue, walking side by side ; If well to mark his being's aim and end, To shine through life, the husband, father, friend ; If these ambition in thy soul can raise, Excite thy reverence, or demand thy praise, Reader, ere yet thou quit this earthly scene, Revere his name, and be what he has been.
" Dr. Johnson was in person tall, and in the decline of life rather corpulent ; his countenance was mild and pleasing. A good engraving of him may be found in the ' American Medical and Philosophical Register ' for October, 1812. He was remarkable for a very uniform and placid temper and great benignity of dis- position, which was displayed in habitual beneficence and hospitality. His theology, to which he was warmly attached, was that of the Church of England in her purest form. Having submitted to the laborious oper-
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ation of forming his own mind upon every important point, without taking any thing on trust, or from authority, he fully felt the difficulties attendant on the exercise of private judgment in matters of religious difference, and the importance of a charitable inter- pretation of the motives and principles of others. This turn of thought gave to his controversial writings, a spirit of mildness and urbanity not always to be found in polemical theology. The prominent features of his mind appear to have been, strong and clear sense, and a habit of diligent and patient investiga- tion."
The ministers of the parish for several years after this period, seem to have been labouring with great diligence and success. Each annual account of Mr. Auchmuty to the Society appears to be better than the other. The number of adults and infants baptized by him among the blacks, was steadily increasing. His catechumens were becoming more numerous. And additions to the communion were also more
frequent. The Prayer Books and catechisms sent out to him for their use, he had distributed among them, as he hoped, to good purpose; since they regu- larly attended divine service, and were devout and attentive in the worship of the Church. He took pleasure in assuring the Society, that the negroes under his care were becoming more and more deserv- ing of the pains he took with them, and that many of them were a credit to our holy religion; that it was an unspeakable satisfaction to him to find that his labours among the poor slaves were not lost, but through the goodness of God produced such consid-
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erable fruit; and that not one single black who had been admitted by him to the holy communion, had turned out bad, or been in any shape a disgrace to his profession.
In the beginning of the year 1756, the Rev. Mr. Barclay acquainted the Society, that the Church had suffered a great loss by the death of Mr. Colgan, formerly a catechist in this parish, but for many years a laborious and worthy missionary at Jamaica Town, in Long Island; and that the churches under his care were very apprehensive of great difficulties in obtaining a clergyman of the Church of England to succeed him, because the dissenters were a majority in the vestry of that parish. It too soon appeared that their apprehensions were not without good reason, for the dissenters prevailed by their majority in the vestry to present one Simon Horton, a dissenting teacher, to Sir Charles Hardy, the Governor, for induction into the parish, but the Governor, in obedi- ence to his instructions from his Majesty, would not admit him into that cure, because he could not pro- cure a certificate under the Episcopal seal of the Bishop of London, of his conformity to the Liturgy of the Church of England. And when no person thus qualified, had been presented to the Governor after more than six months, his Excellency was pleased to collate to the cure of the Church the Rev. Samuel Seabury, Jr., father of that true churchman and sound divine, the first Bishop of Connecticut, and great grandfather of the distinguished theologian and acute polemic who bears his name at the present day.
At a meeting of the Vestry, held on the 24th of
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March, 1761, it was "resolved, that there should be allowed by this corporation the sum of five hundred pounds current money of New-York, towards pur- chasing a new organ for Trinity Church ; it having been proposed by several gentlemen to raise by sub- scription so much, as in addition to the said five hundred pounds, would amount to seven hundred guineas. Whereupon it was ordered, that the Church Wardens pay the said five hundred pounds to such person or persons as shall undertake to send for the said organ, when the said subscription should be compleat."
And it was likewise ordered, "that Mr. Thomas Harison should be employed as the organist for Trin- ity Church, and allowed for his services as such, the sum of eighteen pounds current money of New-York per quarter, and that his salary should commence from the first Sunday he should begin to play."
In the course of a short time the amount to be raised by private subscription was probably filled up, for in the following year the Churchwardens were directed by the Board to pay to Mr. George Harison the sum of five hundred pounds, voted by this corpo- ration, towards purchasing an organ for Trinity Church.
The next event to be noticed is the death of Dr. Barclay, and the election of his successor. As in his arduous mission at Albany and among the Mohawk Indians, he had distinguished himself by his zeal and indefatigable labours, "so when chosen Rector of Trine ity Church, the same assiduous attention to the duties of his office, the same ardor in promoting religion as
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formerly, marked every step of his conduct. His character was truly respectable, his disposition most amiable and engaging. Meek, affable, sweet-tem- pered, and devout, his life was exemplary ; whilst he cherished the warmest spirit of benevolence and charity. During his incumbency the congregation greatly increased. St. George's Chapel was built, and the design was formed of building St. Paul's. This last however he did not live to see executed, but it was accomplished soon after, under his successor."*
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