USA > New York > Queens County > Flushing > Bi-centennial anniversary of New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends at Flushing, Long Island, 1695-1895 > Part 2
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The authorities in Amsterdam sent to the officials in New Netherlands the following decision, dated Amster- dam, April 16th, 1663 : " We, finally, did see from your last letter, that you had exiled and transported hither a certain Quaker named John Bowne, and al- though it is our cordial desire that similar and other sectarians might not be found there, yet as the contrary seems to be the case, we doubt very much if rigorous proceedings against them ought not to be discontinued except you intend to check and destroy your popula- tion, which however, in the youth of your existence, ought rather to be encouraged by all possible means.
" Wherefore it is our opinion that some connivance would be useful that the consciences of men, at least, ought ever to remain free and unshackled. Let every one be unmolested as long as he is modest, as long as his conduct in a political sense is unimpeachable, as long as he does not disturb others or oppose the govern- ment. This maxim of moderation has always been the
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guide of the magistrates of this city, and the con- sequence has been that from every land people have flocked to this asylum. Tread thus in their steps, and we doubt not you will be blessed.
(Signed) The directors of the West India Company, Amsterdam Department.
ABRAHAM WILMANDONK, DAVID VON BAERLE.
This document has peculiar historic interest because of the fact that it was the first official proclamation of religious liberty for any part of America, except Mary- land. With this decree the persecution of Friends on Long Island ceased.
While in Holland John Bowne wrote letters to his wife and numbers of Friends, which are still preserved. They are remarkable for the illustrations they give of unflinching steadfastness of purpose, for the beautiful and lofty ideas expressed in them, and for their elegant and sometimes scholarly diction. In one of these he said : " Dear George Fox and many more Friends de- sire their dear love and tender salutations remembered to all Friends." From this we may infer that he was visited at Amsterdam by George Fox and others.
Hannah Bowne, wife of John Bowne, became a min- ister, and made two religious visits to England and Ireland, and one to Holland and Friezland. The letters of her husband sent to her there are admirable in their expressions of tender affection and of interest in her religious service. In one of these he quaintly remarks : " Dear heart, to particularize all that desire to be remembered to thee would be exceedingly large, but this I may say for all Friends in general, relations and neighbors, and people, the like largeness of love for one particular person I have seldom found amongst them, as it is for thee." John Bowne joined his wife in England in 1676, and accompanied her in her relig- ious service until the Twelfth month, 1677, when she died in London. His testimony concerning her, given
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at her funeral at the Peel meeting, was remarkable for its tenderness and beauty.
The estimation in which John Bowne was held by Friends is shown by the following quaint certificate re- corded upon the minutes of Flushing Monthly Meet- ing.
" In the Mens' and Womens' meeting on Long Is- land in America.
These are to certify to all whom it may concern, that our dear and well beloved Friend John Bowne, of Flushing, (his occasion at this time requiring his being in Ould England by the first conveyance), is for his life and conversation unblamable and of good report, and is likewise in true love and unity with all Friends in the truth here, as by large experience we have all found and witnessed." Signed by many Friends.
The records of the same meeting nineteen years later contain the following minute. "John Bowne died at Flushing, 20th day of Tenth month, 1695, and was buried the 23d of the same, being about sixty-eight years of age. He did freely expose himself, his house and estate to the service of truth, and had a constant meeting at his house near about forty years. He was thrice married. His second wife was Hannah Bicker- staff, and his third was Mary Cock. He also suffered much for the truth's sake."
The meeting-house now standing in Flushing was erected in 1696. The circumstance of its erection is explained by a petition of Samuel Haight, of Flushing, bearing date June 17th, 1697, preserved with the State archives at Albany, in which he says that his step- father-in-law, Wm. Noble, lately deceased, and having no issue of his own body, left his estate to his widow during her life, and at her death to the people called Quakers, the land then being in the possession of the widow and the petitioner. In consideration of the re- quest of the deceased, the petitioner had erected a meeting-house for the Quakers in that town at his own charge, and prays that certain tracts of land may be confirmed to him at the death of the widow. On the
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same date a patent was issued in accordance with the petition.
In O'Callahan's History of New Netherlands, it is stated that Wm. Noble was a magistrate in Flushing in 165S, and was one of the number arrested by Gov- ernor Stuyvesant for refusing to molest the Quakers.
From the journals of Friends' ministers who came to Long Island we find that the membership must have increased rapidly, as many meetings had become estab- lished. John Taylor says he passed through Long Island in the spring of 1659 and attended meetings at Setauket, Oyster Bay, Hempstead, Gravesend, and other places. " Being joined in the winter by Mary Dyer, we had several brave meetings together, and the Lord's power was with us gloriously." George Wilson speaks of increasing numbers in 1661. William Edmondson says in the year 1672, " I went to Long Island, where there were many honest, tender Friends, and having several meetings with them there, we were well re- freshed and comforted together in the Lord."
In the year 1672 George Fox himself visited Amer- ica, coming by way of the Barbadoes. He landed in Maryland in the early spring, and travelled northward through the wilderness to visit Friends on Long Island and in New England. He was accompanied by John Burnveat, Robert Widders and George Pattison, and also by John Jay, a planter and merchant of Barbadoes, and by others. He crossed the lower bav of New York, landed at Coney Island, visited Friends at Gravesend, Flushing and other points, and attended a Half-year meeting at Oyster Bay. From the account in his journal it is evident there were a great number of Friends at these places. It is a remarkable fact, illus- trating Friends' care not to glorify any man, that no mention is made of Fox's visit in any record of any meeting, although regular minutes were kept before the time of his visit. Afterward the attendance of all ministers from beyond the limits of the meeting was recorded, and the practice still continues. Fox went to Rhode Island, where he attended the Yearly Meet-
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ing for New England, and was entertained at the Governor's house. He returned to Long Island, and in his journal we read : "At Oyster Bay we had a very large meeting. The same day James Lancaster and Christopher Holden went over the bay to Rye, on the Continent, in Governor Winthrop's government, and had a meeting." . These were the first Quakers, so far as known, who set foot in Westchester county. He states further, " from Oyster Bay we passed about thirty miles to Flushing, where we had a very large meeting, many hundreds of people being there, some of whom came about thirty miles to it. A glorious and heavenly meeting it was (praised be the Lord God), and the peo- ple were much satisfied."
Fox returned to Maryland, Philadelphia not having been then founded, without visiting the city of New York. Sewel and other historians have probably been in error as to his having visited the Governor there.
After leaving Long Island George Fox sent a letter to John Bowne from Maryland, 1st of Eleventh month, 1672, which concludes with, " Remember my dear love to Friends at Oyster Bay and Gravesend, and all the rest as though I named them, and for all of them to dwell in the word of God together as heirs of grace and life, and so the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be in and with you all, Amen."
The meetings upon Long Island appear to have been established in the following order : those at Gravesend and Flushing in 1657, that at Oyster Bay in 1660, those at the Farms, the Kills and Newtown before 1676, Matinecock in 1684, Jamaica and Hempstead in 1692. In 16S7 the Monthly Meeting ordered that meetings be held at Edmund Titus', Westbury, at Jericho, Beth- phage and Jerusalem. Sequatogue was established in 1700, Cow Neck, in 1703, Huntington in 1728, Rock- away in 1742, Setauket in 1743, and Stony Brook at some previous date.
The earlier meetings were soon organized into Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, and a half-year '
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Meeting was held at Oyster Bay from 1665. The ear- liest records we can now find began in 1671.
The meetings of Long Island were organized into a Yearly Meeting, and became independent of New Eng- land, by the following minute of New England Yearly Meeting : " At a Yearly Meeting at the house of Walter Newberry, in Rhode Island, 14th of Fourth month, 1695, among the meetings called are Long Island. It is agreed that the meetings at Long Island be from this time a general Meeting, and that John Bowne and John Rodman shall take care to receive all such papers as shall come to the Yearly Meeting in Long Island, and correspond with Friends appointed in London." It was held at Flushing until 1777, when it was removed to Westbury, and in 1794 it was removed to New York city.
The first mention we can find of Friends residing in the city of New York is the record made on the 12th of Eighth month, 1681, when it was arranged that the First-day meetings in New York were to be held at the house of Robert Story, and the Fifth-day meetings at the house of Lewis Morris, until a suitable house could be provided, and Wm. Richardson and Wm. Flampton were apppointed to arrange for a suitable place of meeting after taking the advice of Lewis Mor- ris, Robert Story and George Masters. In 1682 it was directed that the meeting be held part of the time at Gravesend and part in New York. In 1683 " Friends thought it convenient to keep the house that the meet- ing was in at York another year." In 1684 it was recorded that the meeting should be held in Patience Story's house. Third month 1684 " A committee was appointed to purchase a plot of ground for a meeting- house and burying place in New York, and if they buy the ground, to prepare timber for the house, which is to be twenty feet square." In 1694 the Quarterly Meeting held at Flushing was informed that Dorcas Jones, of New York, was dissatisfied with having a meeting held at her house. " Friends of New York were requested to select the house of one in unity for this purpose."
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Sixth month 1696: "It being proposed to have a meeting-house in New York, John Rodman offered ground there free, and a certain house of his at Flush- ing to be taken down and carried to York for that purpose as Friends shall value it." At the Yearly Meeting at Flushing, 26th of Ninth month 1696, some Friends reported they had purchased a certain piece of land in New York, bounded upon Greene Street, forty feet front and eighty feet deep, for £85. In 1772 there was still a proposition before the Yearly Meeting to buy a piece of ground for a meeting-house in New York. In 1774 £1,050 were paid for such ground, and in 1775 it is recorded that "the subscrip- tion for the meeting-house was accomplished, the estimated cost of the house being &3,500." But it appears that subscriptions were attended with some uncertainty in those days as well as now, for we find upon the Yearly Meeting minutes for many years afterward the reports of deficiencies on account of this house, and the minutes of the meetings on Long Island and the mainland contain many records of appeals to their members for contributions towards this deficiency. Isaac Norris, of Philadelphia, loaned the money necessary for the completion of the house, and it was not until twenty years afterwards that the loan was paid. We can only account for all this delay in build- ing meeting-houses and the inability to pay for the one erected in 1774, on the supposition that there were very few Friends in the city. A house was probably built upon the lot purchased on Greene Street, for at the Yearly Meeting at Flushing, Third month 2Sth, 1698, it was directed that " the deed for the meeting-house in New York be given to a committee to be held in trust in behalf of ye Friends that belong to ye men's Yearly Meeting on Long Island."
As Friends became numerous at Flushing they easily crossed the East river to Throg's Neck and became established in the town of Westchester, then called by the Dutch " Vredeland " or the " Land of Peace," " a meet appellation (says the historian of the New Nether-
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lands) for the spot selected as a place of refuge by those who were bruised and broken down by religious perse- cution." John Throckmorton, after whom Throgs' Neck was named, had come to Salem, Mass., in 1639. He afterwards became a Baptist, and fled to the Dutch to enjoy the free exercise of his religious principles. Naturally the Friends received a cordial welcome. About the same time others crossed to Mamaroneck. We cannot learn when meetings were first regularly held upon the main land, but we find that on the 27th of Twelfth month, 1685, the Quarterly Meeting held at Jerico, on Long Island, decided upon "the regulation of our Quarterly Meetings for most con- veniency," and it was agreed that a meeting be held at Westchester on the last First-day of the Fourth month, "in place of Gravesend meeting." It would thus appear that by 1685 Friends had become quite numerous in the southern part of Westchester county. Afterwards we find the minutes speaking of a Yearly Visitation Meeting in Westchester. This was continued until 1751, for in that year a proposition was under consideration to dispense with it.
In the year 1695 a step was taken that proved of great moment in the future settlements of Friends on the main land. John Harrison, of Flushing, with others, purchased of the Indians a tract of land bounded on the north by the Rye Ponds, on the east by Blind Brook, on the west by Mamaroneck river, and on the south by lands of Joseph Budd. The length was about two miles, and the medial width about three miles, comprising the present township of Harrison. In the same year Governor Fletcher ordered the survey of the purchase, and soon after Harrison and four others asso- ciated with him received a patent from the British government for the whole tract. The people of Rye claimed the land as- part of their territory. But they had taken no patent for their lands from the govern- ment of New York, and therefore their claim was not regarded. In 1685 Governor Dougan had ordered the inhabitants of Rye to appear and prove their title to
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their lands, but they had disregarded the order. Harrison's purchase was made for the purpose of settle- ment by Friends from Long Island. They called it The Purchase, and it is so known among Friends to this day. The emigration began as soon as the interests . of the patentees who were not Friends were purchased, and the arrangements adjusted. The family of John Clapp came in 1705. Other families soon followed. Mr. Bridge, the missionary of the Gospel Propagation Society, wrote that the "Quakers come frequently in great numbers from Long Island." This was between 1712 and 1719. A meeting was established at Robert Sneathing's and another at James Mott's, near Mamar- oneck. The Purchase Meeting-house was built in 1727 upon land given by Anthony Field, who removed hither several years before from Flushing. It was enlarged in 1797. Meeting-houses had been built at Mamaroneck and Westchester some years before, that at the latter place in 1707, and at the former probably in the follow- ing year. Mamaroneck was made a preparative meeting in 1728. A house was built in 1739, and removed to a central location in 1770. In the spring of 1707 the Quarterly Meeting at Flushing appointed a committee to purchase the land for the meeting's use "if they found the title clear."
The Yearly Meeting at Flushing established a monthly meeting on the main land which was held at Westchester the 9th of Fourth month, 1725. On the 13th of Fifth month, 1726, it was decided to hold the Monthly Meeting every other month at Mamaroneck. On the 13th of Third month, 1742, the Monthly Meeting was held for the first time " At the meeting- house at the Purchase in Rye Woods." The accessions to membership were very considerable. As Friends became established here they were very active and earnest in spreading their views. The Rev. James Wetmore, the rector of Rye, in 1750 wrote : " Where any of them settle they spare no pains to infect their neighborhood. Where they meet with any encourage- ment they hold meetings day after day. Celebrated
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preachers are procured from a distance, and a great fame is spread before them to invite many curiosities. Our people of credit will often go to their meetings, especially their great and general meetings." He thought they were very pernicious and ought to be sup- pressed. He wrote and printed two letters and three dialogues in refutation of the Quaker doctrines. He hoped they might be of great service to "stop the growth of Quakerism in these parts." The emigration from Long Island continued, and soon the lands of Harrison's Purchase were all occupied. Then Friends settled further northward, and an almost continuous settlement was formed that extended through West- chester County and that of Dutchess, and soon reached even into Canada. The situation of this district was peculiar. The eastern side of the country had been settled by Presbyterians from Connecticut, and the western side, along the Hudson River, by the Dutch. The feeling between them was far from friendly. Their disputes had been very bitter, and Rye and Bed- ford had revolted from New York's jurisdiction. Their whipping posts stood ready for the punishment of any from the river settlements who committed even slight offenses within their limits. As the two peoples natur- ally repelled each other they had left a strip of land, comparatively unoccupied, between them. This con- tinued in nearly a north and south line, parallel with the river, and a little more than midway between it and the Connecticut and Massachusetts lines, as far as they extended. Into and through this strip of land the Quaker stream flowed like a liquid injected into a fissure of the rocks. Each Quaker home as it was settled became a resting place for those who followed, for it was a cardinal principle of Quaker hospitality to keep open house for all fellow-members, under all cir- cumstances. The line extended from Harrison's purchase through North Castle and what is now New Castle, through Somers and Salem, through the Oblong of Putnam and Dutchess, and thence through Columbia, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Washington Counties, and
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through Vermont by the border of Lake Champlain to a place called Farnham, in Canada. 'On this line meetings were located in a very interesting row, and it is a singular fact that none of them were more than three miles from a straight line until Dutchess county was reached, and, although they became more scattered there, the same general rule prevailed. This became their order : Westchester, Mamaroneck, Purchase, North Castle, Chappaqua, Croton Valley, Amewalk, Salem, The Valley, The Oblong, New Milford, The Branch, Nine Partners, The Creek, Stamford, North East, and so on to Ghent, Chatham and the north. Other meetings were established to the eastward and the westward of this line, but they were of later date, and were usually set up by the children of the first settlers, who located in life near their fathers' homes. The meetings of this north line were not established successively, in geographical order, for, in some con- siderable distances, there were at first not sufficient members to constitute a meeting. The first settlement of any great numbers north of Harrison's purchase was at the Oblong in the present limits of the town of Pawling in Dutchess Co., where a meeting was very early established. A meeting-house was built there in 1741, and a Preparative Meeting established in 1742. and a monthly meeting for it and the adjacent meetings in 1744. The meeting at Nine Partners had been for some time held and became a regularly constituted meeting in 1742. It was made a Preparative Meeting in 1745 and a monthly meeting in the division of Oblong Monthly Meeting in 1769. Friends settled at New Milford, a little over the Connecticut line at an early day, as we find the meeting mentioned in 1739. A visitation meeting was appointed at Salisbury in 1746. Oswego Meeting, in Dutchess Co., was estab- lished in 1750, that in "Samuel Fields' neighborhood " in 1760, that at Poughquaque in Beekmantown in 1773 and that at The Creek in 1775. A monthly meeting was set off from Nine Partners in 1782 and established here. A new meeting was set up at Crum Elbow in
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Hyde Park in 1783. In the meantime Friends had moved further northward, establishing many meetings. In 1778 East Hoosack and Saratoga Monthly Meeting was set up, to include also the Friends of Kingsbury and Queensbury. Hudson was settled by Friends from the Island of Nantucket, who brought the interest in the whale fishery there. Their meeting was estab- lished in 1769 ; as also were meetings at Cornwall and at Goshen in Connecticut. A meeting was estab- lished at Hartford, Conn., in 1798.
We find on the records of Purchase Monthly Meeting under the date of the Sth of Ninth month, 1744: A proposition " was read at this time from the Monthly Meeting of the Oblong recommending to our considera- tion the applying to the Quarterly Meeting for to have a Quarterly Meeting on this side, which this meeting doth approve of, and appoints James Clements, David Hunt, Josiah Hunt, Thomas Franklin, John Burling and Edward Burlington to apply to the said meeting accordingly." The proposition was forwarded to the Yearly Meeting, and the request was granted. A Quarterly Meeting was therefore held at the Purchase and opened by the following minute: "On the 3rd of the Sixth month, 1745, was held a Quarterly Meeting at the meeting-house at the Purchase, agreeable to and by the appointment of the Yearly Meeting held at Flushing in the Third month last, when the meeting appointed John Burling clerk of the same." In 1749 it was decided to hold the Quarterly Meeting part of the time at the Oblong. In 1783 the Quarterly Meet- ing was divided, and that of Nine Partners set up, in- cluding Nine Partners, the Creek, East Hoosack and Saratoga Monthly Meetings. Purchase Quarterly Meet- ing retained Purchase and Oblong Monthly Meetings.
In 1783 Saratoga and East Hoosick Monthly Meet- ings were set off from Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting and Saratoga Quarterly Meeting was constituted. In 1755 the Yearly Meeting recorded the following minute: " The committee to take into consideration the subject relative to the style and appellation given to our Quar-
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terly Meetings, especially when held at different places, having attended thereto, agree and propose to the Yearly Meeting that the Quarterly Meeting now held at Westbury be known as Westbury Quarterly Meeting, and that the Quarterly Meeting held at Purchase and Oblong, be called the Quarterly Meeting of Purchase ; that Nine Partners Quarterly retain its present appellation, and that the Quarterly Meeting now called Saratoga, as it is held at Easton, be known and distinguished as the Quarterly of Easton."
Stanford Quarterly Meeting was established in 1800, consisting of the Creek, Hudson and Coeymans Monthly Meetings set off from Nine Partners Quarterly Meet- ing, leaving Oblong, Nine Partners, Oswego and Corn- wall Monthly Meetings to comprise Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting
Ferrisburgh Quarterly Meeting was established in 1809, consisting of Danby, Moncton and Peru Monthly Meetings set off from Easton Quarterly Meeting.
Farmington Quarterly Meeting was established in 1810, consisting of Scipio and Farmington Monthly Meetings set off from Easton Quarterly Meeting and De Ruyter Monthly Meeting set off from Stanford Quarterly Meeting.
Duanesburg Quarterly Meeting was established in 1812, consisting of Coeyman's, Duanesburg and the Butternuts Monthly Meetings set off from Stanford Quarterly Meeting. Saratoga Quarterly, the second, was established 1815, consisting of Saratoga, Galway and Queensbury Monthly Meetings set off from East- on Quarterly Meeting.
Cornwall Quarterly Meeting was established in 1816, consisting of Cornwall and Marlborough Monthly Meetings set off from Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting.
Scipio Quarterly Meeting was established in 1825, consisting of Scipio, De Ruyter and Hector Monthly Meetings set off from Farmington Quarterly Meeting.
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