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 34
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'We cannot but encourage you to prosecute your petition to our General Assembly : and we shall be on the spot at the time, and you may expect our countenance in that affair : and wish that you may have an orderly settlement of the worship and ordinances of God among you, and shall be ready as there may be occasion to afford you our help and Assistance ; in what may be agreeable to dissenting prin- ciples.
' Signed by order of the Trustees
SAMI WHITMAN, Scribe.'
'NEW HAVEN, Sep : 15, 1727.
The messengers from Rye carried a letter to the trustees of Yale College, which gives us a further insight into the state and prospects of the congregation. It is dated ' Oct 10th 1727 : ' __
' Revd Gentlemen yrs of Septembr 15 we have Received for which Favour we Return our hearty Thanks and hope we shall be laid under further Obligation of Gratitude for ye Continuation of uncommon Kindness loudly called for by our souls necessity. We make no Doubts but you will use y" Interest for our society a society Bordering on your selves and Encompassed by Church men and Quakers. A Society under havey Bonds and taxes to ye Church of England being forced to pay annualy a Considerable Salery and also to help them Build their Church or Rather Rebuild ye same. We want two Meeting Houses tho we are but one Society. The Gentlemen our People have Chosen viz. John Haight and Robert Bloomer will further inform you of our Affairs we hope by the Divine Blessing after a Great Variety of Divine Providences we shall be Encouraged in our Endeavors to have ye Gos- pel setled amongst us tho hitherto Things and Times have been very Dark and we . ... strangely Disappointed yet if we might have yr Counsel.and assistance it will Raise up the Hands that hang down and putt new Life in us. We Desire that one or more of your number may go for us to the Assembly in ye name of ye Rest and that you will afford all Counsels [and] Directions necessary and that if our Petition be lost that you would assist in Drawing a new one and that we may have a Letter from you by the bearers and in it yr Thoughts on ye whole of our Affairs. - This is Revd Gentlemen together with a Desire of y' ardent Prayers for us wh offers from yr very humble servts and sincere well-wishers
CALEB HYATII ROBERT BLOOMER'
326
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
The trustees of Yale College kept their promise to support the application of our people when it should come before the legisla- ture ; and the following is their letter ' To the Honble Govern' & Council, & Representatives in Gen1 Court assembled.'
' May it please yr Honors
' Upon the Representation of the Circumstances of Rye laid before us, The Trustees of Yale Colledg now Convened, do app'hend it may be for ye Intrest of Religion there, that a House for publiek Worship to be observed according to the manner of the Churches in New England be ereeted in the Town of Rye, to be Improved by a Minister of like perswasion with ourselves Capable and without offence, & do therefore by these Express o' willing Countenaneing the Petition of Rye-peo- ple as we understand now depending before this honble Assembly in such a manner as shall seem most meet to the wisdom of yo' honors
' Signed by order of the Trustees 'SAMLL WIIITMAN scribe
' The Trustees have desired the Revª Mr John Davenport to accom- pany the messengers of Ry to the General Assembly and present this to them. Attest Sam" Whitman scribe.'
Thus supported, the request of our memorialists obtained a sec- ond and a more favorable hearing. A joint committee was ap- pointed by both houses of the Assembly, to consider what might be expedient in the matter. This committee consisted of Matthew Allyn, Roger Wolcott, Major John Burr, Captain Is. Dickerman, and Mr. Caleb Leet. They reported that they were ' of opinion that a breif be ordered by the Assembly to pass throughout this Collony to ask the charitable Contribuceons of the Good people towards the pious Designe of the people of Rye and the white plains in setting up the publick worship of God amongst them ac- cording to the way of the churches in New England and what money shall be Raised thereby be put into the Hands of the Revd Mr Davenport of Stamford to be by him Improved for the use aforsd as the asociation of the County of Fairfield shall order.'
This report was adopted, and the following resolution was passed by both houses : -
' At a General Assembly at New Haven October 1727.
' Upon ye Representation of ye Circumstances of some of ye Good people of ye town of Rye (Respecting their pious Desires of Settling a Gospell minister according to ye persuasion and mode of this Colony) by Diverse of ye Reverend trustees of Yale College and praying ye as- sistance of ye Colony in building two meeting Houses without which the Worship can't be supported, which will be too heavy an undertak- ing for them
327
DEED FOR A BUILDING SPOT.
' It is ennacted by this Court that a Contribution of Every Congrega- tion In this Collony to that purpose be desired and it is hereby Desired, and 'tis ordered that the Collections thereof shall be delivered to ye Reverend Mr Davenport of Stanford who shall Give his Receipts y'of and shall dispose the same to ye use aforsd by the particular Directions of ye Association of ye Revrd Elders of ye County of Fairfield from time to time as need shall Require and the secretary shall send a breif to the ministers of the severall Congregations accordingly.'
Thus encouraged, our people unite in a fresh application to the colony : -
' Oct" ye 6th 1727 At an orderly Meeting of the Presbyterians of Rye & the white Plains M' John Hoit & M' Robert Bloomer Jur were Chosen for sd Society to Represent them their Case both to the Hon- ourable General Assembly of Connecticut & to ye Reverend Trustees of Yale Colledge all to be Convened at New Haven this Instant Octo- ber in witness whereof we have Desired some of the Principal of ye Society to Sign this Certificate And seeing we have no Laws to chuse a Clerk we have also Desired our Justice to Attest the same.' 1
The Connecticut people, we learn, ' contributed largely.' The Dissenters, writes Mr. Wetmore in 1729, are now 'doing their utmost to build a meeting house.'2 On the fifteenth of May in that year, they secured a building spot, the deed for which is en- tered upon our Town Records as follows : 3 -
' Wee whose names are under writen being properiotors of a sartin parcel of undevided Land lying and beeing in Rye beetwen Byrom
1 Signed Benj. Brown
Robert Bloomer Joseph Brondag Danjell Purdy Peter Brown
Caleb Hyatt Henry Dusinberre
Moses Knap
Peter Hatfield
Jonathan Lynch
David Horton
Thomas Lyon
George Lane
David Horton Jur
Benoni Merritt Jonathan Brown Israel Kniffin
Danl Lane
Haehaliah Brown
Samuel Horton
Danjell Purdy
Joseph Kniffin Andrew Sherwood Timothy Knap
October 9th 1727. These may Certify that Mr John Hoit & Mr Robt Bloomer Jur were Chosen as Agents for ye Presbyterian Society in Rye & ye white Plains & that there is no danger of faling in ye matter & that I was at ye Choice
Attested pr me
CALEB HYATT Justice of ye Peace.
2 Bolton, History of the Protestant Episcopal Church, etc., pp. 247, 253.
3 Vol. B. p. ii.
John Traviss
Samuell Brown
John Turner Willim Anderson
Thomas Brown
Robt Travis
328 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHI BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
River and blind brook within a sartin Patten that was Granted unto Daniel Purdy son of John Purdy desest Samuel Brown and Beniman Brown and others and wee said properiotors do here by give and grant unto the Prisbiteren Sosioty for ever one half acer of land lying on the plain neer unto the hows that wase the late deseas Thomas Meritts juner and is bounded as foloweth that is to say Easterly by the road northerly southerly and westerly by comen or undevided beeing teen Roods in length and eight Rods in breedth with a sartin whit oak tree standing on the north end of the land and wee said properioters as aforesaid do freely give and grant unto the said prsbetereon sosyoty for ever the said half acer of land in witness whereof wee have here unto set our hands the fiftenth day of may in the second year of the Reign of King George the Second onney Domny one thousand seven hun- dred twenty nine.' 1
This plot of ground was situated on 'Pulpit Plain,' as it was called ; at the northwest corner of the post-road and the 'road to the Cedars subsequently opened.' Here the church was built, and here it stood until the Revolutionary War. Tradition states that it was a plain, frame building, without belfry or spire, but tolerably capacious. The church at the White Plains, which as we have seen belonged to the same 'society,' was built two or three years earlier. It stood upon the site of the present Presbyterian Church in that village.
Mr. Walton left Rye in the beginning of the year 1728, and was followed by the
REV. EDMUND WARD,
a native of Killingworth, Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale Col- lege. This change of ministers in the Presbyterian congregation is noticed by the Anglican rector at the time, in his usual style : ' The haughty, insolent behaviour of Walton drew upon him the displeasure of the dissenting teachers, on which account he re- moved from the parish a few days ago, but introduced a young man to be his successor, who holds forth one Sunday at White
1 Signed
Robert Bloomer John Roosevelt
Hachaliah Brown
Daniel Purdy sr.
Charles Leish
Jon. Carhartt
Thomas Purdy
Timothy Knap
SI Lane Sr
Nathan Kniffin John Disbrow
Th. Howell
Benja Brown
Ebenezer Kniffin
John Coe
Daniel Purdy Joseph Lyon
Jo. Sherwood
Thomas Brown
Joseph Kniffin
John Lyon, jr.
Jonath. Brown James Roosevelt
Jos. Studwell
Joseph Purdy Ab Van Wyck
Geo. Kniffin
Nathanel Sherwood
Andro Merrit
Samuel Brown
Justus Bush
Jonath Haight
329
REV. EDMUND WARD.
Plains, and another in the town of Rye, alternately, for which they give him £50 per annum, which they raise by subscriptions. They have besides given him money to purchase a house and land, but how much I can't tell.'1 Mr. Walton and Mr. Ward were both graduates of the same institution with Mr. Wetmore ; the ' dissenting teachers ' were the ministers of ' the reverend Associa- tion of Fairfield County,' formerly Mr. Wetmore's honored breth- ren. The good rector, however, had forgotten some things.
Our little village now had two places of worship. The congre- gations were about equal in size, numbering some sixty families each. There was no sound as yet of the ' church-going bell ' to convoke them ; the roll of the drum still announced the hour of service at the parish church, and the same summons probably came from the 'meeting house' on Pulpit Plain. The signatures at- tached to the two petitions of the ' Presbyterians of Rye and the White Plains ' enable us to ascertain who were the families that composed this little flock. These lists embrace nearly seventy names. Some of them belong to the White Plains congregation. Of this number were Caleb Hyatt, Samuel Horton, John Haight or Hoit, Joseph Purdy, John Turner, George and Daniel Lane, Jonathan Linch, Henry Dusinbery, and perhaps others. At Rye, there were the Browns, Benjamin, Peter, Thomas, and Hachaliah, four sons of the early settler who bore that name ; and Samuel and Jonathan, sons of Deliverance Brown, their brother, who was now dead. There were the Purdys, Daniel of Rye and his namesake of Budd's Neck, and another Joseph. There were the Sherwoods, Joseph and Andrew ; the Merritts, Andrew, Benoni, and Joseph ; the Kniffins, Joseph and Israel ; the Knaps, Timo- thy, Benjamin, Moses and Daniel ; the Lanes of Rye, Samuel, Hezekiah, Nathan, Solomon, and Jonathan ; the Bloomers, father and son, of Hog-pen Ridge ; Michael Basset, of the same neigh- borhood ; Monmouth Hart, of Rye Neck; and William Anderson of Harrison, and others. The list of signers does not by any means include all the Presbyterians of Rye ; but it shows that they com- prised a large and highly respectable portion of the community at that day.
Mr. Ward's ministry at Rye lasted apparently from 1727 to 1729. He removed from this place to Guilford, Connecticut, where he became the pastor of a congregation which had a short time before been formed by a dissatisfied portion of the people be- longing to the First Church of that town.2
1 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church, etc., p. 249.
2 History of Connecticut, by Benjamin Trumbull, D. D., vol. ii. pp. 115-134.
330 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
A vacancy of several years succeeded Mr. Ward's departure. ' The Dissenters,' writes the Church of England missionary in July, 1729, ' have no teacher among them : but the common teachers come once in a while to preach among them, to keep the party alive. Many of them come to church, and bring their children to be baptized, but I cannot depend upon their being so reconciled, but that they will leave the church again, if one Independent teacher comes to town.' Again in 1731, 'My endeavours,' he writes, ' have been so far blessed with success, that the Independ- ents can get no teacher among them. The party I think would soon be at an end, were it not for the teachers in Connecticut, that once in a while come along, and endeavour to keep up the zeal of some few, that instigate others.' 1
It is not surprising that the period we have now reached should have been one of weakness and decline in the little congregation at Rye. It was so to a great extent throughout the country. For several years preceding the awakening under Whitefield and his apostolic fellow-laborers, religion was at a low ebb in all parts of this land. The spiritnal deadness of the churches, and the spread of irreligion and vice in the communities, were a subject of lamentation to all sincere Christians. But this time of darkness was followed by a season of great revival. Thousands under the preaching of Whitefield, Tennent, Dickinson, and others, were converted to God. The Great Awakening, as it has been called, infused a new life into the churches, and its effects were visible long afterwards in many places. Undoubtedly, it is to this ex- traordinary cause that we are to ascribe, under God, the improved condition of affairs which we now discover in this secluded spot.
A time of better things began in the history of this congrega- tion, - a period of nearly thirty years, covered by the faithful and successful ministry of the
REV. JOHN SMITH.
On the thirtieth day of December, 1742, a Council of the Eastern Consociation of Fairfield County, Connecticut, met at Rye, and ordained Mr. Smith as minister of that place. It has been only by dint of much research that we have been able to gather the few facts regarding this excellent man which are now presented. Strange and sad, that the mantle of forgetfulness should have so shrouded the memory of one, concerning whom this much is evi- dent, that he was an able, earnest, and influential minister of the
1 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church, etc., pp. 253, 256.
331
REV. JOHN SMITH.
Gospel, to whom several churches of this county were indebted for their establishment and early culture.
The Rev. John Smith was a native of England. He was born May 5th, 1702. He came to this country when a boy, with his father, Mr. Thomas Smith, who settled in the city of New York, and who appears to have been engaged in business. His father was a Presbyterian, and a zealous and intelligent Christian ; and upon his arrival here, identified himself at once with the effort to establish in New York a church of his own faith and order. Pres- byterianism was at that time in its infancy in the city. A little band of Christians met every Sabbath for worship, at first in a private house, and afterward in the City Hall. In 1717 they ob- tained the pastoral services of the Rev. James Anderson. Mr. Thomas Smith was one of the commissioners to prosecute the call, and was one of the trustees for the purchase of a lot of ground on Wall Street, and the erection of a church in 1719. But difficul- ties having risen between a part of the congregation and their pastor, Mr. Smith and some others withdrew, and for a time held services by themselves. It was to this little colony that the illus- trious Jonathan Edwards preached for abont eight months, from August, 1722, to April, 1723. His home in New York was in the house and family of Mr. Thomas Smith. Edwards was then barely nineteen years of age, and John Smith but a little over twenty ; and between these two young men there sprang up a friendship the most intimate and ardent, which we have reason to believe lasted for years, and perhaps through life. They used often, Mr. Edwards tells us, to walk together on the banks of the Hudson, to converse on the things of God ; 'and our conversation used to turn on the advancement of Christ's Kingdom in the world, and the glorious things that God would accomplish for His Church in the latter days.' He speaks of his separation from this endeared friend and companion, as one of the most bitter trials of his life.
A contrast more striking could scarcely be seen than that which is presented by the subsequent lives of these two ministers. Whilst the one enters upon a career that soon raises him to the highest pinnacle of influence and fame, his friend, congenial in spirit, and devoted to the same cause and Master, passes at once into an almost total obscurity, emerging at the end of twenty years only as the humble pastor of small and feeble congregations, among whom he toils for thirty years more, till 'worn out with various labours,' he falls asleep.
332
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
For this incident is nearly all that we know of the early life of Mr. Smith. The year after, he married a daughter of Mr. James Hooker, of Guilford, Connecticut. Mr. Hooker was a grandson of the famous Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of the colony of Connecticut, and one of the most eminent of the Puritan divines. Mr. Smith seems to have prized his connection with this family ; for he gave their name to his oldest son, whom he called William Hooker Smith.1
Where and at what time Mr. Smithi pursued his academic and theological studies, we do not know with certainty. It is on rec- ord, however, that he graduated at Yale in 1727. Tradition has it, that he studied medicine also, and it is certain that during his long pastorate at Rye and the White Plains, he practised as a physician, as well as preached. We do not learn where he spent the years preceding his advent to Rye. From the family record in the possession of one of his descendants, we learn that he lost a child in New York in 1729, and another a few weeks after in Guilford.
Of his pastoral labors, the earliest authentic trace is found in the records of the Fairfield Eastern Consociation, from which it ap- pears, as we have seen, that he was ordained as minister of Rye in the year 1742: -
' At a Meeting of a Number of Ministers from the Eastern Associa- tion of Fairfield, at Rye, December 30th A. Dom. 1742. Upon the Desire of the People of said Town : where were present the Rev. Messrs. Jedidiah Mills, Benajah Case & Joseph Bellamy.
' Mr. Mills was chosen Moderator ; Mr. Bellamy was chosen Scribe.
' The Revª Mess's Abraham Todd, John Eells, Benjamin Strong, were also present & were voted to joyn with us, in what Affairs may come before us, & then Prayer was attended.
"Then were laid before ye Council, ye Call to ye Work of ye Ministry of ye Presbyterian Inhabitants of ye Town of Rye, to Mr. John Smith, & his Answer thereunto, & their Desire of our laying hands upon him was also manifested.
' Then Mr. Smith was examined as to his Qualifications for ye Work of ye Ministry and was approved. Mr. Bellamy was appointed to make ye first Prayer & preach ye publick Lecture. Mr. Mills to lead in ye Ordination, laying open to ye Congregation ye Regularity of ye Proceed- ings relating thereunto, hitherto made by ye People, & to make Ordina- tion Prayer wth ye Imposition of Hands, & give ye Charge. Mr Bellamy to give ye Right Hand of Fellowship: & Mr. Todd to make the con- cluding Prayer. And ye Business of ye Day was accordingly attended
1 See pp. 166, 167, etc.
333
REV. JOHN SMITH.
by the appointed Persons. Met again next Morning & concluded with Prayer. ' Test. JOSEPH BELLAMY, Scribe
. A true Copy Recorded & Compared. - pr. S. COOKE Register.'1
He commenced his labors at once with much energy and zeal ; to the great comfort, doubtless, and satisfaction of the people, who had been so long destitute of a regular ministry ; but to the no small chagrin and displeasure of the Church of England mis- sionary, who had been so long endeavoring to crush out the Presbyterian element in his parish, and who but lately had been rejoicing over the prospect of success. 'As the dissenting faction,' he writes the following spring, 'have now got one of that sort ordained among them, residing not far from me, it gives me a great deal of trouble and uneasiness. Some that used to frequent the church, and had almost worn off their prejudices against it, now follow those meetings, and are wheedled after them by con- tinual visits and fair pretences.' Nor were matters much bettered by the fall. ' The teacher that holds his meeting near the parish church,' writes the perturbed missionary, 'is much cried up by his party, and indeed is unwearied in his attempts to amuse the people with fair speeches, and prejudice them against the Church, in his private visits from house to house.'2 In other words, the newly settled pastor was faithfully and wisely pursuing his work, gathering and instructing his little flock, looking up the absent, and winning the affections of all by his friendly intercourse through the week, as well as by his earnest pulpit ministrations on the Sab- bath.
A few weeks after his settlement here, Mr. Smith secured a home for his family, in the village of Rye. On the twentieth of February, 1743, he purchased of John Abrahamson a house and six acres of land, for the sum of one hundred and eighty pounds, ' current money of the province of New York,' or about five hun- dred dollars. Subsequently, he bought another house, with eight acres and a quarter of land, situated in the northern part of the village, and in the neighborhood of his church. The former prop- erty was still in his possession ten years later, in 1752.
Ten years of Mr. Smith's ministry at Rye had elapsed when he visited Newark, New Jersey, and there attended the meeting of the Synod of New York, then in session. On this occasion he met his early friend, Jonathan Edwards, who was now at the height
1 A Book of Records for the Venerable the Eastern Consociation of the County of Fairfield, p. 23.
2 Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church, etc., p. 271.
334 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHI BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
of his illustrious career. Both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Smith at this time joined the Synod as corresponding members. Shortly after, Mr. Smith connected himself with the Presbytery of New York, under whose care, it is to be supposed, this congregation then came. In subsequent years he was rarely present at the meetings of the Synod, which were generally held at Philadelphia, the length and difficulty of the journey doubtless preventing his at- tendance. Notwithstanding this, he appears to have been widely known, and held in high esteem by the Synod. Evidence of this is afforded by the fact that he was on several occasions appointed upon important committees, and in conjunction with eminent min- isters of the Presbyterian Church. Thus the records of the Synod show, that in 1755, the Rev. 'John Smith, of Rye,' was one of a committee to visit the church at Jamaica, with reference to the proposed removal of their pastor, Mr. Bostwick, to New York. His associates were President Burr, Gilbert and William Tennent, and other distinguished men. In 1754, when Gilbert Tennent was sent to England, with President Davies, to solicit funds for the college of New Jersey, Mr. Smith was requested by the Synod to supply his pulpit for four Sabbaths. But the most important service, probably, which he was called upon to render to the Church in this way, took place in 1766, when he was ap- pointed one of the commissioners from the Synod of the Presby- terian Church, to meet delegates from the consociated churches of Connecticut, for the purpose of initiating and maintaining a friendly correspondence between those bodies. Mr. Smith's asso- ciates in this duty were Dr. Alison, Dr. Rodgers, William Tennent, John Blair, and others.
After some years, Mr. Smith removed his residence from Rye to the White Plains, but continued to preach here, probably on alter- nate Sabbaths, riding over for the purpose on horseback. The house in which he lived at the White Plains is still pointed out, near the corner of the cross-road leading to the Purchase. In his later years, he owned a farm of about one hundred acres, the culti- vation of which, however, was chiefly left to a faithful negro ser- vant. To his other ministerial labors, Mr. Smith added, in 1763, the charge of the Presbyterian Church at Sing Sing, where he preached occasionally for the next five years. But he was now an old man, and no longer fit for such multiplied and arduous labors. In 1768, he united with the congregations whom he was serving, in an application to the Presbytery of Dutchess County, to which he belonged, for the assistance of a colleague. His letter to that
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