USA > New York > New York City > Annals of St. Michael's ; being the history of St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, New York, for one hundred years 1807-1907 ; > Part 3
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 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
27
Trinity's Changed Policy
but its general policy was to promote the growth of independent churches, and it even furthered the de- velopment of its own oldest chapel of St. George's into a separate church in 1811, giving it at the same time a very handsome land endowment.
By this time there were some nine parishes in New York, besides Trinity. In 1812 some members of St. Stephen's parish claimed the right to vote at the Trinity elections, and were refused. To prevent such claims in the future, and to validate its own act in alienating property to create separate parishes, Trinity applied to the Legislature in 1813 for a change of charter. Some of the Churchmen of New York entered a pro- test against such a change, but none of the separate parishes as such protested, and one, St. Mark's, for- mally endorsed Trinity's petition. By a tie vote in Council, the Chancellor deciding, Trinity's request was granted in 1814, and the corporate title changed to "The Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Trinity Church in the City of New York," the grants made to separate parishes and the erection of St. George's into a separate parish validated, and the right to vote at Trinity elections confined to members of Trinity Church and Chapels. This was understood to be merely a matter of protection of property, how- ever, and not a provision for an intended change of policy, and for many years thereafter Trinity in fact continued to foster the growth of independent churches, giving to each new church which was organized some lots of land or assistance in money or both. Later this policy was changed and the present policy adopted, which has looked first and foremost to the growth of Trinity Parish by the erection of new chapels. This change of policy was believed, by many, to be not only
28
Annals of St. Michael's
morally, but also legally, indefensible and in 1846-47, and again after the erection of Trinity Chapel, in 1857 an effort was made by the rectors of the leading city churches and some of the broadest and most spiritually minded laymen, to have the law of 1814 repealed, that the matter of the control of the property and the manner of its use might be decided by the courts. Trinity was accused by them of abusing a trust in- tended for the Church at large, and especially of divert- ing the funds which should have been used in support of work among the spiritually and financially destitute to the erection and maintenance of luxuriously equipped chapels for its own wealthy members. As a matter of law Trinity won, the Legislature refusing to revoke the amendment of 1814, and thus deciding that the property belonged to Trinity Corporation as such and not to the Church in New York at large. But what- ever the legal rights of the case may be, probably most thinking Churchmen outside of Trinity Corpora- tion believe that the older policy was practically and morally correct, the policy which best carried out the intention of the original trust, and the policy best calculated to promote the interests of religion and of the Church in New York. There can be no question that much greater efficiency in church development and missionary work was obtained by the development of separate parishes. The huge accumulation of funds in the hands of one corporation has not tended to the promotion of aggressive spiritual activities. It is not the Trinity Chapels, but St. George's, Grace, St. Bar- tholomew's, Holy Communion, St. Thomas's, Calvary, and St. Michael's, to mention only a part, which have been the originators and promoters of the great spiri- tual, educational, and missionary movements in the
29
Organization of St. James
Church and city. Having entered upon a policy of self-aggrandizement, it became the policy of Trinity to add every few years a new chapel to its list, sometimes in the poorer regions where they were needed, but some- times in the richest and best churched sections of the city, and these latter were made twice as beautiful and costly as the former.
Instead of assisting weak churches, as formerly, to stand alone by gifts of land or money, it attached them to itself by loans or mortgages; and finally it began to annex them as chapels. An irresponsible and self-perpetuating corporation with an enormous and increasing revenue,1 adding not churches to the diocese, but chapels to itself, Trinity is creating an imperium in imperio, which, ever increasing in size, threatens serious danger to the Church.
It will be observed that in Trinity's grant to St. Michael's, St. James's Church is also mentioned. In 1807 the city decided to improve the Common Lands, which included in general the region between 45th Street and 85th Street on the east side. In carrying out this plan there was laid out on paper a park, Hamilton Square, extending from Third Avenue to Fifth Avenue and from 66th Street to 69th Street, and on this park, on the very crest of York Hill, as the hill on the western end of which the old reservoir in Central Park now stands was called, at 69th Street and Lexington Avenue (Hamilton on the original map), they set apart a piece of ground "intended for a church or academy," which was to be the centre of a new village. Some of the gentlemen who had country seats along the East River, finding it difficult to attend
1 Its income at the present time is estimated to be over $800,- ooo a year.
30
Annals of St. Michael's
church at St. Michael's and inspired by the example of the erection of the church in Bloomingdale, promptly organized and offered to take the plot marked in the map and build a church on it. Their offer was accepted, and in 1809 they began to petition Trinity, which gave them $3000, and to collect money by subscription to erect a church, a plain wooden building with a belfry, very much like the old St. Michael's and St. Mary's. The church was consecrated May 17, 1810, and incorporated July 16th of the same year. The senior warden was Peter Schermerhorn, one of the original pewholders of St. Michael's, and Edward Dunscomb, Isaac Jones, and Joshua Jones, vestrymen or pewholders of St. Michael's, were prominent in its forwarding. Two days after its incorporation, July 18, 1810, the vestry of St. James's Church appointed a committee to solicit aid from Trinity, and as a matter of course received an endowment of land, consisting of four city lots, and a stipend or annuity, which, as already stated, for St. Michael's and St. James's together, amounted to $500. Whether the suggestion of a union of the two churches originated with Trinity or with the gentlemen composing the vestries of St. Michael's and St. James's, I do not know, but steps were soon taken to unite them in support of one clergyman. This union did not actually become effective, however, until some time after the resignation of Rev. Mr. Bartow.
The latter presented his resignation on August 27, 1810, to take effect on September 12th. He left the church in fairly good condition financially, thanks to the donation from Trinity. The six lots granted to St. Michael's were by that time so leased as to bring in an income of about $700 a year.1 The pew rentals 1 No. 73 Chambers Street was leased in 1810 at $150 for twenty-
3I
Haggling over Terms
amounted to almost $200, at least on paper. In that year also the Vestry began to utilize the land about the church for purposes of burial, but the income from this source is scarcely worth considering. Under date of September 8, 1809, there is notice in the minutes of a resolution to fine absentees from meetings $1.00 each. Whether this was intended to add to the revenue or to ensure greater punctuality of attendance is not clear. Numerically the church was feeble, the first report to Convention, presented in 1810, showing that there were at that time only about fifty communi- cants, of whom, as is evident from later records, about thirty were summer residents, while the re- mainder resided in Bloomingdale all the year round. There were reported for the year ten baptisms, five marriages, and three funerals.
The committee appointed to select a new minister reported the name of Samuel Farmar Jarvis, and on November 17, 1810, he was appointed minister, or in the event of his receiving priest's orders, rector of St. Michael's Church at a salary of $800 a year. There was no hurry about his reply, as the church would naturally be closed during the winter and his work would not commence until the spring. In the meantime steps were taken to combine the work of St. Michael's and St. James's. At a meeting of the Vestry of St. James's Church, January 1I, 18II, a committee of one was appointed to prepare a letter to St. Michael's proposing a union of the two churches in the support of one clergyman. Mr. Jarvis is evi- dently informed of this, for in his letter of acceptance
one years and $250 for the next twenty-one years, following the custom of ground leases prevailing for such property at that period, and I01 Vesey Street for twenty-one years at $150.
32
Annals of St. Michael's
of the call of St. Michael's Church, March, 22, 1811, which makes his acceptance depend upon his ordination to the priesthood, he refers to the possibility of an arrangement with St. James's also. Evidently, more- over, the salary proposed was not sufficient, for at a meeting on March 16, 1811, the Vestry of St. Michael's Church resolved to add to its former offer house rent at a rate not to exceed $300. Mr. Jarvis "took possession of his cure" in April, having been ordained priest on the 5th of that month. In the report in the Convention Journal of 1811, he appears as rector of both St. Michael's and St. James's. In point of fact the final arrangement between the two churches for a joint rectorship was not consummated until 1813. There was a long period of haggling about terms. Under date of February 26, 1812, it is reported to St. James's vestry that an arrangement has been made with St. Michael's, by which the salary of Mr. Jarvis is to be $1000, his allowance for horse hire $100, for clerk, who was practically assistant to the rector, in keeping records, arranging funerals, and many other matters, besides leading the service in the church, $100, for Mr. Jarvis's house rent $300, and for salary of sexton $75,1 a total of $1575, which was to be divided equally between the churches. But this arrange- ment made by its committee was not accepted by St. James's vestry. St. James's did not feel that it could pay more than $600, and it wanted the services of the rector only from June Ist to November Ist, while St. Michael's wished his services all the year round.
1 The salaries for clerk and sexton, $100 and $75, were the same as those paid at St. Mark's and St. Paul's, and seem to have been the usual salaries for such services at that time.
33
Union with St. James
While these negotiations were in progress, St. Michael's Church applied to Trinity for an increased annual stipend, and in 1813 Trinity decided to raise the amount given to St. Michael's and St. James's annually from $500 to $700, in case they should continue united. On March 25, 1813, St. James's actually called Mr. Jarvis to be rector of that church in conjunction with St. Michael's. Trinity having now guaranteed $700, the two churches together would be able, it was sup- posed, to give Mr. Jarvis a salary of $1800. But, just as everything appeared to be settled, came another hitch. In July of that year a committee of St. James's vestry met Mr. Jarvis and offered him, as St. James's part of the salary, "the whole present income of the estate of St. James's Church." Mr. Jarvis declined such a contingent fee, if one may so call it, and re- turned the certificate of election. The vestry regretted his declination or resignation, but did not see that "in justice to the infant church it can offer Mr. Jarvis more than the actual revenue at its disposal." The vestry evidently did not propose to take active steps to increase the amount of their church's revenue, nor were the wardens and vestrymen willing to assume the responsibility of guaranteeing the salary originally proposed, which guarantee they might have to make good to the extent of $10 or $20 apiece.
Then ensued further conferences between the churches. Finally, on August 2, 1813, it was agreed that Mr. Jarvis, the rector of St. Michael's Church, shall be called to be rector of St. James's also, receiving from the same $500 for an equal share of his services, and on September 20th a call was actually given to Mr. Jarvis on the above basis. But St. Michael's was unwilling to agree to this. If St. James's Church wished
3
34
Annals of St. Michael's
to have an equal share of Mr. Jarvis's services, it must pay an equal part of his salary, namely, $700. Finally, in October of that year, 1813, an arrangement was reached. Mr. Jarvis is to officiate at St. Michael's Church on Sunday mornings throughout the year and at St. James's Church on Sunday afternoons from the second Sunday in April to the second Sunday in November, and St. James's is to pay $500 a year. If later St. James's wishes Mr. Jarvis's services in the winter also, then St. James's is to pay its proportionate share of the extra amount now to be paid by St. Michael's. The agreement was finally ratified on October 18, 1813, and services, which had been intermitted at St. James's, were resumed; but Mr. Jarvis did not technically become rector of the latter church until 1814, when he was formally instituted by the bishop. In the same year the two churches agreed to provide the salary of a common clerk, and from that date until 1842 St. Michael's and St. James's remained twin churches.
The first few years of Mr. Jarvis's rectorship are un- eventful in the annals of St. Michael's. From the Vestry records it appears that a sun-dial was ordered erected in the churchyard in 1812. It is rather interesting to note that in the Convention of that same year, St. Michael's was one of the two churches whose laity voted against the resolution to declare Bishop Provoost not bishop. It will be remembered that after the Revolution Dr. Provoost was chosen rector of Trinity Church and first bishop of New York, probably largely because of his patriotism, he being one of the few clergy of the Church who had actively espoused the American cause. He was a learned man, a classical scholar, a bibliophile, and
35
Effects of War of 1812 1425900
a botanist, and socially one of the interesting figures of his day; but he was neither a strong Churchman nor a man of special evangelical zeal. He seems to have been content with a routine performance of his Episcopal duties and to have had no vision of the future of religion and the Church. In fact the out- look seemed to him discouraging, if not hopeless. With the dying out of the old colonial families he believed that the Episcopal Church would die out also. After the death of his wife, in 1801, at the compara- tively early age of fifty-nine, he resigned his bishopric, and withdrew to the more congenial cultivation of his Linnæan farm in Dutchess County. His resigna- tion was not accepted; nevertheless, as he refused to perform Episcopal functions, Dr. Benjamin Moore, who had already succeeded him as rector of Trinity, was elected and consecrated bishop in his stead. In 1811 Bishop Moore was smitten with paralysis, and Dr. Hobart was chosen coadjutor bishop. At this point Bishop Provoost unexpectedly reasserted his rights as bishop of the diocese, hence the resolution referred to. It should be added that, unless Bishop Provoost had joined in laying hands on Dr. Hobart's head, the requisite three bishops for his consecration could not have been brought together. The episode is worthy of record as illustrative of the condition of the Church and its extreme feebleness at that time.
The effect of the embargo in 1807, and the ensuing commercial war which culminated in actual war with England in 1812 (the embargoes and commercial war did not in fact come to an end until 1815) made itself increasingly felt in New York City as the years went. on. From 1810 to 1815 the population of the city remained almost stationary. After 1811 for eight
36
Annals of St. Michael's
years no Episcopal church was erected in the city. There is one curious record of the results of the War of 1812 in the records of St. Michael's Church. In 1819 the Vestry votes to repay Mr. Frederick DePeyster the sum of $700 expended by him for a bell, remitting in addition the pew-rents then due by him. It appears that he had been authorized to purchase and import a bell for the church, that first in use having been presumably a cheap affair. The ship conveying the bell was captured by an English privateer and carried into Nova Scotia. After the war Mr. DePeyster bought the bell a second time, which so enhanced its original purchase price that in the end it cost the church somewhat more than $1.oo a pound.
Doubtless many members of the church individually were effected by the war. From the records of the DePeyster family we learn that Mr. DePeyster's eldest son, James Ferguson, later vestryman, warden, and treasurer of the church, entered the army, becoming a captain in 1814. Another son, Frederick, Jr., later vestryman and clerk of the vestry, then a student in Columbia, helped erect the breastworks at the head of Manhattanville hill to protect Bloomingdale against invasion by the British.
In another direction the results of the war made themselves sadly manifest in the affairs of the church. The lessee of 73 Chambers Street, as a result apparently of the financial embarrassment of the time, defaulted on his rent and the property came back to the church; to be re-leased later for forty-two years at $175 a year. Some of the pewholders defaulted on their pew-rents and in general there seems to have been a carelessness about their payments, so that finally, on May 3, 1815, it was voted to appoint a collector
-
37
An Annual Deficit
to collect the pew-rents at $30 a year or about twenty per cent. of their actual value. In 1816 it appears from the vestry minutes that the church is not meeting its obligations. There is a deficit of $155.50. Accord- ingly it was voted to send a letter to the pewholders setting forth the financial conditions of the church:
Receipts: Ground rents of lots belonging to the church, $727.50; amount of pew-rents the last year at $5 each, $150; collections, not exceeding $50; total, $927.50. Ex- penditures: Permanent expenses, including salary as well as rent, clerk and sexton's fees, $1050; interest per year on loan from Bank of New York, $33; total, independent of repairs and incidental expenses, $1083, leaving an annual deficit of $155.50, independent of repairs, fuel in the winter, and incidental claims.
In consequence of this statement it was voted that "the pew-rents should be doubled, a measure which will assist in removing the present embarrassment, and this information is given you in full persuasion that no objection can be made to a measure so absolutely necessary."
Mr. Jarvis's reports to Convention show that St. Michael's was in fact a feeble church. In 18II he reported twenty communicants, who "reside out of town the whole year and therefore belong exclusively to that parish." In 1812 he reported thirty communi- cants in winter and fifty-four in summer and in the following year thirty-six in winter and fifty-seven in summer. But although few in number, many of the parishioners were wealthy. To be sure they counted their first obligation to their city churches, but even at that one is amazed at the small amount which they contributed, both for the church and for charitable purposes. So in 1816 the collection for the mission
38
Annals of St. Michael's
fund in St. Michael's Church is reported as only $12.50 and for the Episcopal Fund $17.122.
The financial embarrassment was not in fact wholly or perhaps primarily due to the war and the subse- quent poverty and distress resulting therefrom. The Episcopalians of New York had learned to depend upon an establishment, and many years were to pass before they were trained to give out of their own pockets for the support of their churches and church work. Queen Anne's donation to Trinity Church, valuable as it was in securing a permanent endowment for many of the existing parishes of the city, exerted, on the other hand, a deadening influence on the pocket nerves of Churchmen where contributions for religious work were concerned. That they were not illiberal is proved from the fact that many of them were con- cerned in the establishment of orphan asylums, hospi- tals, and the like; but when it came to church work, they appeared to expect that to be provided for out of the endowment, and to feel no obligation to con- tribute liberally of their own means. Characteristic of this attitude is a resolution adopted at a vestry meeting held August 23, 1827, by which morning and evening collections were ordered to be discontinued, "as inter- rupting the solemnity of divine worship and generally unpleasant to the congregation."
Reference has been made to the small number of communicants in the church. In the early reports to the Convention there is no mention of persons con- firmed in St. Michael's Church until 1835. In point of fact a relatively small number of the adult communi- cants of the church were confirmed in the earlier years of the century. Confirmation had been a prac- tical impossibility during the colonial period, and
39
Episcopal Visitations
after the creation of the American Church, with its own bishops, it was a long time before people could be made to appreciate the need and obligation of that rite. During these years also Episcopal visitations were of necessity infrequent. The early bishops were rectors of parish churches, depending for their support principally upon their salaries as rectors and compelled to give the greater part of their time to parochial preaching and ministrations. Moreover, the dioceses were large in extent and the means of conveyance slow, inadequate, and expensive. In addition to New York Bishop Hobart had under his jurisdiction for some years New Jersey and Connecticut, and his Episcopal journeys even extended westward to Michi- gan. Under such conditions an Episcopal visitation could be expected by the smaller and more remote parishes only at rare intervals. Bishop Moore visited St. Michael's in 1809 and administered confirmation in that church. Five years later, in 1814, Bishop Hobart visited both St. Michael's and St. James's, insti- tuting Mr. Jarvis as rector of the latter and confirming in both places. Many long years were to pass before it should become a practice annually to prepare candi- dates for confirmation and confirmation itself should assume its present important place in the eyes of the Church.
During the first years of his ministry Mr. Jarvis resided not in Bloomingdale, but in the city, at 490 Broadway. On September 26, 1815, an important move for the development of the parish was made, by the provision of a house for the rector in Blooming- dale. The Striker house, then occupied by Mrs. Marshall, was rented for two and a half years as a rectory, and the rent allowance paid the rector was
40
Annals of St. Michael's
increased by $50 to enable him to occupy that mansion.
Another important step in the development of the parish was the foundation of St. Michael's Charity School. It was at that time the custom for the churches of all denominations to conduct charity schools for the education of the poorer children in the rudiments of knowledge and religion. The first men- tion of such a school in connection with St. Michael's appears in Mr. Jarvis's report to the Diocesan Conven- tion of 1815, that "a school has been established in which several poor children are educated at the expense of the parish." No mention of this school appears in the vestry records, however, until November 27, 1816, when it is resolved "to establish a Charity School and to solicit subscriptions for the same." The history of this school is narrated in the next chapter.
In his diocesan report of 1815 Mr. Jarvis states also that a school has been started near St. James's Church for blacks, in which there are upwards of thirty children. The colored population of New York at that time was relatively quite large. By an act passed in 1758 the children of slaves were made free, but slavery itself was not abolished until 1827, those who were minors at that time continuing slaves, however, until 1830. In the early part of the century domestic servants were exclusively, or almost exclusively, black slaves. Some of the entries in St. Michael's records are interest- ing, as showing the conditions then prevailing :
"Anthony, son of Catharine, a black woman, servant of Mr. McVickar, baptized by the Rev. Dr. Beach, 1 at Bloomingdale, August 6, 1809, Mrs. McVickar, sponsor."
1 Assistant Minister of Trinity Church.
4I
The Colored People
And among the entries of Mr. Jarvis's rectorship:
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.