USA > New York > Westchester County > Rye > Chronicle of a border town : history of Rye, Westchester county, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains till 1788 > Part 31
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This lot is described in Mr. Bridge's patent as follows : 'Also no. 19 a point of land commonly called Parsons point containing three acres lying on the south east of
295
PARSONAGE POINT.
It is remarkable that though a century and a half have passed since this occurrence, the name which intimates its ancient destina- tion, of which the above statement is the only explanation we find, still clings to this spot. PARSONAGE POINT is laid down upon the maps to this day, and is a familiar name to our villagers, and the fishermen who frequent our shores. It is now the site of one of our most beautiful residences - that of G. H. Van Wagenen, Esq.
2. A second reservation for the minister took place when the village was permanently laid out, at the upper end of Peningo Neck - about the year 1665. This lot was located in the TOWN FIELD - the tract of land, about a mile square, lying east of the Milton Road or the village street, and south of Grace Church Street. The inhabitants, however, seem to have found some diffi- culty in deciding precisely where, in this territory, to put the par- sonage lot. Two or three different spots are so designated within the first forty years. The earliest mention occurs in 1682, when Hachaliah Brown sells to James Wright a certain parcel of land bounded on the south by ' the parson's land.' The same lot, appar- ently, is described the next year in another deed as 'land which was formerly Parsonidg land.'
That which was finally devoted to this purpose was a lot, prob- ably of ten acres originally, which had been 'laid out to John Ogden.' It lay in the Town Field, at some distance from any public road, but accessible by means of a lane or cart-way leading from Grace Church Street.
In 1698, when Rye had 'revolted back ' to Connecticut, some steps were taken to provide a larger glebe for the minister. The following account appears on our Records : 'At a towne meting in Rye desember: 29: 1698 the towne hath made choise of John Lyon and Isack Denham as a committy for the Laying out of Land for a parsonage not exceding forty akers where they may see it convanant and so to Remain a parsonage.' The same persons were authorized ' to agree with umpray undrall [Humphrey Under- hill] conserning his Land and to Lay it out if the sayd undrall and they can agree.' There is no evidence that the purchase was effected.
After this we find frequent allusions in the Town Records to ' the parsonage lot' in the Field. Mr. Bridge, indeed, writing to the Secretary, July 30th, 1717, makes no mention of this land,
the town neck between the lands of John Hoight, the salt water and undivided Land.' (Grant to Rev. Christopher Bridge of 20 small pareels in Rye : Book of Patents, Secretary of State's Office, Albany, vol. xiii. p. 182.)
296
ECCLESIASTICAL LANDS.
nor of that on PARSONAGE POINT.1 But his successor, Mr. Jenney, in the letter already quoted, sends 'a draft of the two lots of land which make up the glebe, with a copy of the survey 2 which the violent opposition of some dissenters have obliged me to obtain.' One of these contains ' about seven acres and a half, and is about a mile off, but is so encompassed with other men's land that the road to it is about two miles, so that I fear I shall have little or no use of it. - The lots of land are wholly out of fence.' 3
Mr. Jenney's object in having these lands surveyed was to ecure them beyond further dispute to his successors in office as the property of the parish church.4 To this the proprietors of the town, ' being the most part such as were desirous of having a dissenting teacher settled here,'5 were much averse. The rector complains that upon his arrival they gave him great trouble ; and ' had not His Excellency been so kind as to grant his warrant to the Surveyor General to survey, it is believed they would have kept me by force from taking possession.' The measures he took to overcome this opposition do not seem to have propitiated them greatly.
Mr. Wetmore, who succeeded Mr. Jenney in 1727, enjoyed the use of the parsonage lands which had thus been confirmed to the Church. He describes the lot of which we are speaking as con- taining ' about eight acres, a mile distant, lying in such a form as to be of very little use, but at present rented for three bushels of wheat per annum, for seven years.' But the opposition which the
1 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church in Westchester County, p. 205.
2 The following is the portion of this survey that relates to the parsonage lot in the Town Field : -
'Pursuant to a warrant from his Excellency bearing date the fifth day of July 1722 I have by Mr. William Forster one of my deputys run out and ascertained the Lim- its and Boundaries of such Parcels of Land as have been formerly possessed and enjoyed by the Minister of the Parish of Rhye in the County of West Chester as the same were shown to my said deputy by the Church wardens of the said Parish viz.
'One Parceli scituate in the Town field beginning at a white oak bush near the fence of Ebenezer Kniffin and runs thence South seventy-four degrees thirty minutes east twenty-three chains seventy-eight links to a heap of stones thence South twenty- three degrees twenty minutes west three chains seventy links to a wallnnt stump Thenee north seventy two degrees twenty minutes west twenty four chains twenty links to a stone set in the ground, and thence northeast and by north very near dirt [direct ?] two chains and seventy links to the place where it began and contains seven acres and abont half an acre.' (Land Papers, in Secretary of State's Office, Albany, vol. viii. p. 192.)
3 Bolton, Ibid. p. 221.
4 Ibid. p. 222. ' I have taken all possible care to prevent my successor from the like oppositions,' etc.
5 Ibid. p. 221.
.
297
LOT IN THE TOWN FIELD.
former rector had experienced grew in strength. 'The Dissenters,' writes Mr. Wetmore, September 29th, 1748, ' are now endeavour- ing to get into their possession the small glebe belonging to our Church, which is scarcely worth the charge of a lawsuit ; yet I have commenced a suit to defend it, which I believe the wealthiest of my parishioners will not assist me with a farthing to support.' The Society's Secretary, in the following June, wrote at Mr. Wetmore's suggestion to the churchwardens and Vestry, express- ing the Society's concern upon hearing that the church and par- sonage were very much out of repair, ' and that even the possession of the glebe is disputed against ' their ' very worthy pastor.' They are urged to give orders for the full repair of the buildings, and to ' defend Mr. Wetmore in the maintenance of all his just rights,' as they desire his longer continuance among them. On the ninth of October, 1749, Mr. Wetmore informs the Secretary, -
"The tryal with the Dissenters, concerning the parsonage lot, is to be the 24th of this month, according to notice of tryal given. The lot is of no great value, being but seven and a half acres, yet I have thought it my duty not to give it up without tryal, altho' I am threat- ened by the same persons to have an ejectinent served upon me for the poor house and two acres of land upon which I live, unless I will agree to some terms whereby the Presbyterians may have a share of what was anciently designed for a parsonage; but as there is no more than two small lots, (which have been long in the possession of the Church,) I think to show no concession unless obliged to it.'
We have no account of the result of this lawsuit. It appears to have been brought by the Presbyterian congregation, for the purpose of recovering at least a part of the old ecclesiastical lands. They claimed, it seems, that this property was theirs originally, having been appropriated by the early settlers for the use of a ministry of their persuasion, and that it had been so enjoyed for a number of years. They asked for a division of the lands - con- senting that the parish church should retain the minister's house and home-lot, if the parsonage lot or glebe were surrendered to them.
This plea would have met with little consideration from the governor of the province, who lost no opportunity to assert the exelusive claims of the Church of England as by law established, to all such property in the province. But before a eivil court, it was more likely to be heard. At least one ease of this kind had already come before the courts. In 1727, the Presbyterians of Jamaica, L. I., after great expense, by due course of law
298
ECCLESIASTICAL LANDS.
recovered their church, parsonage, and lands, which had been wrested from them many years before.1 At Hempstead, the Rev. Mr. Jenney, who went to that place in 1726 from Rye, was ' often threatened with an ejectment' from the church property, which had been seized about the same time in a similar way ; ' the' Presbyterians' pleading ' from the purchase having been made by them, before any church was settled here, and from their min- isters having been long in possession of it, that it belongs to them.' 2 It does not appear that they ever carried these threats into execution. Thirty years after the seizure, Governor Cosby gave the church and parsonage at Hempstead, by royal charter, to those who detained them from the lawful owners.3
Soon after the date of the trial, as mentioned by Mr. Wetmore, we find that the land in question had passed out of the hands of the 'rector, churchwardens and vestry of the parish of Rye,' and was held by certain individuals, most of whom were members of the Presbyterian congregation, and who were presumably the trustees of that body. On the fourteenth of April, 1753 - three years and a half from the time of the trial - these persons sold to Roger Park, junior, of Rye, a 'certain tract of land . . . . con- taining seven acres and a half, it being the lot commonly called the Parsonage Lott.'4 This tract is now included in the farm owned by John Greacen, Esq., of Rye, who bought it from the descendant of Roger Park in 1863. No subsequent allusion to the trial occurs in Mr. Wetmore's published correspondence, nor is any mention made of the 'parsonage lot' in question as a part of the church lands, by the succeeding rectors, or in the parish books. A new . glebe' was afterwards secured to the church after this trial, through the efforts of Mr. Wetmore, in place, it is to be supposed, of the land which had been lost.
3. The third tract appropriated by the town for the minister's use, was the 'home-lot' in the village. This contained between two and three acres, and lay 'by the Blind brook.' The site seems to have been chosen previous to the year 1675, when the Rev. Peter Prudden commenced his labors at Rye. Probably it was set apart at the same time with the 'parsonage lot' in the
1 Thompson's History of Long Island, vol. ii. p. 107. Macdonald's History of the Presbyterian Church, Jamaica, pp. 148, 149.
2 Thompson's History of Long Island, vol. ii. p. 30, note.
8 Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church, p. 88.
4 Deeds in the possession of Mr. Greaeen, Rye. The grantors are Benjamin Brown, Cornelius Flaman, Jonathan Brown, Ebenezer Kniffen, Joseph Kniffen, Thomas Lyon, Samuel Brown, Ezekiel Halsted, and Gilbert Bloomer, all of Rye.
299
HOME-LOT BY BLIND BROOK.
Field - when the village was first laid out. Here the minister's house was built, before a settled pastor had been obtained; and here Mr. Denham, Mr. Woodbridge, and Mr. Bowers lived before the arrival of the English missionaries. The house-lot was a part of the property claimed by the rectors by virtue of their induc- tion. Mr. Pritchard preached here, in the ' town-house' as it was called ; and so probably did Mr. Muirson, until the building of the church in 1706. Mr. Bridge, the next rector, found upon his arrival ' a small parsonage house,' with three acres of land; 'the house so much decayed that it was scarce habitable.' His suc- cessor, Mr. Jenney, obtained a survey of this lot,1 as he did of the larger glebe in the Town Field. By that time - in 1722 - the house, which stood at the southeast corner of the lot, and was built of timber, was 'so much out of repair that nothing but the frame stands good.' Mr. Wetmore describes the parsonage, in 1728, as ' a small, old house with three acres of land lying near the church.' The house, he adds, ' was first built by the town for a Presbyterian minister, before there was a church in town, but never any particular settlement of it upon any. When a minister of the Church came, and they had no Presbyterian minister, the house was put into his possession and enjoyed successively with . the glebe by the minister of the Church ; but the Presbyterian party threatening to give trouble about it in Mr. Jenney's time, he procured a survey of it for the Church, and got it entered upon the public records of the province. He also repaired the house, which was almost fallen down, being neglected by Mr. Bridge, who thought it not worth repairing.' 2
Mr. Wetmore himself, though he owned a large farm in the immediate vicinity, continued to occupy the parsonage honse, which he ' enlarged and repaired ' at his own charge. 'It is now grown so old and decayed,' however, he writes in 1748, ' that it is
1 The survey quoted on page 296 continues as follows : -
' Another parcel called the Home Lot in which the Town house or Parsonage honse stands, Begining at a heap of stones near the said house and runs thence north nine degrees forty five minutes east three chains Thenee north twelve degrees west four chains fifty links to stones near Peter Brown's house. Thence Sonth eighty seven degrees west four chains to a Maple by Blind Brook Then along the said Brook Sonth cight degrees east five chains fifty links and South seventeen degrees west one chain fifty four links and thenee from the Brook South eighty six degrees east four chains twenty links to the stones where we began. Containing two acres three roods and thirty six Poles. Given under my hand this twenty fourth day of September in the ninth year of his Majesties Reign Anno Dom. 1722.
CADWALLADER COLDEN Surv" Gent.'
2 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church in Westchester County, pp. 245, 246.
300
ECCLESIASTICAL LANDS.
scarce worth repairing.' At the instance of the Gospel Propaga- tion Society, the people appear to have done something toward the improvement of the building. The next rector, Mr. Punderson, ' expressed his satisfaction with the parsonage house and lot.' He had probably removed to the new dwelling and glebe which Mr. Wetmore had secured for his successors, on the west side of Blind Brook.
I have been curious to ascertain the exact spot where so many of the old ministers of Rye, of both denominations, lived. Fortu- nately, Mr. Jenney's survey of the lot, in 1722, has enabled me to do this with much precision. I find that it occupied the grounds now owned by Mr. Halsted, Miss Bush, and Mr. Thomas Peck, between the post-road and Blind Brook, in the village. The dia- gram here given is a copy of that which accompanies the survey obtained by Mr. Jenney. Peter Brown's house, men- tioned in the surveyor's description, is the lot lately owned by Mr. D. H. Mead.1 The lot is described as lying south of that house and east of Blind Brook.
BLIND BROOK
When the turnpike road was laid out in 1800 through the village of Rye, it deviated slightly at this point from the line of the old Boston Road, approach- ing nearer to Blind Brook, and thus cut- ting off a portion of the parsonage lot, which formerly extended quite across the present road. The negotiations of the Vestry on this subject with the Turnpike Company, show us how these matters were conducted in the days when land was cheap and time moved slowly. January 16, 1802, it is stated to the Vestry that ' the Glebe Lands belonging to this Church have been dam- aged by the new Turnpike.' May 21, 1803, the Vestry resolve
1 In 1738, the exeentors of Peter Brown sold his 'lot with house and mill erected thereon,' bounded on the sonth 'by the parsonage and Blind brook ; on the west by Blind brook ; on the east by the highway into Harrison's purchase ; and on the north by land of Samuel Lane.' (Town Records, vol. C. p. 146.) This lot of five acres had formerly belonged to Jacob Pierce, whose widow Mary, then wife of Isaac Den- ham, sold it in 1695 to Peter Brown. (Records, vol. B. p. 67.) The minister's lot mentioned in 1675 lay 'sonth of Jacob Pierce's' (not Jacob Bridge's, as Mr. Bolton gives the name - undoubtedly by a clerical error). Peter Brown's house was subse- quently bought by Mr. Wetmore. Its ownership ean thus be traced with seareely a break from the foundation of the town to the present day.
301
MR. JENNEY'S GARDEN.
to go and view the land intended to make a part of the Turnpike road, which will cut off parts of the parsonage land. On the same day it was ' resolved, that the real value of the land belong- ing to the parsonage as marked out and intended for the Turnpike road to come, is sixty-two dollars and fifty cents ; and that the clerk shall give notice of this resolution immediately to John Peter Delancey, President of the Turnpike Corporation.' August 9, 1803, Mr. Nathanael Penfield is authorized to receive said sum and give a receipt in full.1
South of this lot by the brook, there was a narrow strip of land lying between the brook and the Boston Road, which was event- ually incorporated with the parsonage land. On the fifth of March, 1679, the town of Rye had granted to the Rev. Mr. Den- ham ' fifty poles of land lying before his door, toward the brook.' This tract became the property of Isaac Denham, son of the min- ister, upon his father's death ; and in 1723, he conveyed it by gift to the Rev. Mr. Jenney, then rector of the parish church. 'There is a small present,' writes Mr. Jenney, July 1st, ' made to our church, by Mr. Isaac Denham, of this place, of a piece of land containing about fifty square rods, lying before the front of the parsonage house, which though a small spot is of great use to the house ; and the donor shows himself on all occasions a hearty promoter of the Church's interest. He is a constant attendant at the ordinances and a communicant. He hath given me a deed of gift for the land, and possession, according to the forms of law, for my use and my successors, the ministers of Rye.' 2 This deed is on record at White Plains. It describes the land conveyed as lying south of the parsonage lot, and between the highway and Blind Brook. It extended as far down as the junction of Rectory Street, as it is now called, with the post-road. ' Mr. Jannis [Jen- ney's] garden ' is designated in 1723 as opposite the path that ' now leads from ye Church into the Country Road.' 3
This property remained in the possession of the Episcopal Church of Rye until comparatively recent times. An old inhab- itant, Mr. Josiah Purdy, remembers the house, which was still standing when he was a boy, about the beginning of this century, near the site of the present residence of Miss Bush. It was then quite dilapidated, but was still known as the 'old parsonage.' After the Revolution all the parsonage lands were, for a while,
1 Records of the Vestry of Christ Church, Rye.
2 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church, etc., p. 226.
3 Entering of Highways, etc., in County Clerk's Office, White Plains, p. 7.
302
ECCLESIASTICAL LANDS.
hired out to various persons for a small rent. May 2d, 1785, ' Mrs. Tamar Haviland hired the Land called the Old Parsenige this year for fifty five shillings, she to put it in fence and to be allow'd for fencing.' June 14, 1792, the Vestry resolved ' that some repairs be made on the old glebe House so as to make it tenantable for a year or two.' It does not appear, however, that it was ever again occupied.
The parsonage lot, however, remained intact until about forty years ago. In 1837, Mr. David H. Mead already owned the lower part, which he occupied as a garden. In that year, the rector and Vestry of Christ Church conveyed to Mr. William Smith a piece of land fifty-five feet wide, lying north of Mr. Mead's garden, and in 1847 they sold the remainder of the tract, then estimated to contain four acres.
These were all the lands originally given by the town for the support of the ministry in Rye. The parish church, however, some time before the Revolution, acquired another and much more valuable glebe, situated, not on Peningo Neck, but upon the west side of Blind Brook, opposite the village. This occurred, we have said, a few years subsequent to the lawsuit, and, as there is reason to believe, in consequence of the loss of the old parsonage land in the Field. The first allusion we find to this property is contained in the Abstracts of the Gospel Propagation Society's proceedings for 1759. They state : -
' The Rev. Mr. Wetmore, the Society's missionary at Rye in the Col- ony of New York, has the pleasure of acquainting the Society by his letter, dated April 7th, 1759, that a very worthy person, a native of England [St. George Talbot, Esq.] but now living in New York, has put into his hands £600 of that currency, of which he reserves to him- self the interest during his life, and hath left by his will £400 more to be added to it after his death, to purchase a convenient glebe for the use of the Society's missionary at Rye, for ever.'
Mr. Wetmore himself lived but a little more than a year after this time, but from his will, dated August 6th, 1759, it appears that he had made provision for the accomplishment of Mr. Tal- bot's design, by setting apart a portion of his own farm for the purpose of a glebe. His farm lay chiefly on the west side of Blind Brook, including lands which lately belonged to Mr. James Hal- sted and Mr. D. H. Mead. In his will,1 Mr. Wetmore mentions
1 Surrogate's Office, New York, lib. xxiv. 125, 126.
303
THE NEW GLEBE.
' the land I have sequestered for a glebe, which at the upper end by the stone fence is to be half the width of my lot.'1 A deed of the year 1768, relating to some property north of this, mentions ' the new Parsonage sequestered by the Reverend James Wetmore,' and speaks of it as lying across the brook from 'the old Parson- age.' It contained about twenty acres.
A small plot of ground, in this new glebe, was devoted to the purpose of a burial-place for the rectors of the parish church. Mr. Wetmore himself was the first whose remains were laid here, those of his predecessors who died at Rye having been interred beneath the church. The graves of several of the later rectors occupy this plot, which lies directly opposite the rear of Mr. Dan- iel Strang's store.
A few rods south of the burying-ground, on the other side of a small knoll, there was formerly a house, which probably stood on the glebe at the time when Mr. Wetmore owned it, as there is no record of its erection by the parish. If so, it of course became the property of the parish when the land was set apart for a glebe ; and after the Revolution it was occupied, for a while, both as a parsonage house and as a place of worship. Some persons who were yet living a few years ago could remember crossing the brook, when children, to attend divine service here, and one old inhabitant who is still with us, Mr. Josiah Purdy, aged eighty-five, remembers seeing the building destroyed by fire in the year 1794. The impression, however, that this house ' across the brook ' was the ancient rectory of Rye, is certainly a mistaken one. The ' old parsonage' is the spot of chief interest in the history of our churches before the Revolution.
The Vestry of Christ Church retained possession of the glebe sequestered by Mr. Wetmore, until the year 1846, when they sold it.
After the fire of 1794, the Vestry purchased the RECTORY GROUNDS now owned by Christ Church, for the sum of four hun- dred pounds. This beautiful tract of land was then in the posses- sion of Mr. Isaac Doughty, a son of John, and grandson of Francis,
1 From the connection it is evident that the parsonage land aeross the brook is in- tended. 'I give and bequeath to my loving son Timothy that house, barn and im- provements, bought of Mr. Jacobs, lying in the town of Rye, with all the land on the west side of the road which formerly belonged to Peter Brown ; and also that part of my land bought of Joseph Haight, on the west side of Blind Brook, running from said brook north-westerly to the stone fence that now runs eross my land near Abra- ham Brundige's, and to extend southerly to the land I have sequestered for a glebe,' etc. The word ' southerly ' is misprinted ' northerly ' in the will as given by Mr. Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church, etc., pp. 289, 290.
304
THE REVOLUTION.
who, kept the tavern in the old stone house lately known as Van Sicklin's. The rectory grounds, containing four acres, were an- ciently a part of the village plot, known as ' The Plains.' Here, as we saw in a former chapter, were some of the choicest ' home- lots' of the first settlers. Two such lots, perhaps, were included within the space now occupied by these grounds. They had been joined in one by the middle of the last century, when Samuel Purdy, schoolmaster of Rye, in 1753 sold his home-lot for one hundred and seventy pounds to his sons Samnel and Caleb. It was bounded on the north by the street leading from the post- road towards the church ; on the east by the street leading towards Lyon's mill ; on the south by Francis Doughty's home-lot ; and on the west by the post-road. This describes the present property of the church, which was conveyed by deed in 1794 from Isaac Doughty, in fee-simple, without any restrictions or conditions. There is no evidence that it had ever before constituted a part of the glebe. The rectory stood, until within a few years, near the post-road, toward the northern line of the grounds.
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