Ecclesiastical records, state of New York, Volume I, Part 5

Author: New York (State). State Historian. cn; Hastings, Hugh, 1856-1916. cn; Corwin, Edward Tanjore, 1834-1914, ed. cn; Holden, James Austin, 1861-
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Albany, J. B. Lyon, state printer
Number of Pages: 812


USA > New York > Ecclesiastical records, state of New York, Volume I > Part 5


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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 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71


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THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM AND THE COLONIAL CHURCHES.


The Minutes of the Classis and of the Deputies constantly allude to the Correspondence. The letters to the Colonies were prepared by the Deputies, subject to the approval of the Classis. The Deputies also received all letters from abroad, and reported them to the Classis. This Correspondence was maintained with about a score of places in the East and West Indies.


THE LETTERS OF THE CLASSIS TO THE FOREIGN CHURCHES.


There are now seven volumes of such letters in the Old Ar- chives, which are numbered from 26-32 and run from 1648-1804, as follows:7


Vol. 26 from 1648-1655.


27 1666-1700.


66 28 1701-1726.


29


1727-1743.


66 30 1743-1753.


31 1753-1779.


66


32


66 1780-1804.


7 Between 1714-1726 very few documents or letters are found. There are also several smaller gaps.


21


INTRODUCTION.


These volumes contain many hundreds of letters. An odd volume, 39 (1636-1648), constitutes, in certain respects, a pre- liminary volume to this set, as well as to the volumes of Minutes of the Deputies. There was once, another volume, still earlier than 39, ending in 1635, according to the "Inventory ", (or Catalogue) but which is damaged to such an extent as to be use- less. The injury to this volume must have occurred before 1816, as it was not numbered, when the other volumes were numbered. Vol. 26, the first of this set, as now numbered, runs from 1648- 1655, when an hiatus occurs of about eleven years, suggesting another lost volume, but to which no allusion is made in the " Inventory ". The other volumes of Correspondence, Nos. 27-32, run without break from 1666-1804. Vol. 28, of this set, is said in the "Inventory " to be lost; but there is now a volume in the Archives, quite dilapidated, apparently unnumbered, and which just fills in the gap, and is, no doubt, the once lost volume 28. Vols. 30, 31 and 32, are designated on their covers, respectively as "Copy-book, Part I"; "Copy-book, Part II "; " Copy-book, Part III"; this word being used in the sense of a volume in which letters are copied or recorded.


Vol. 30 Copy-book, Part I; Letters 1-136.


31


II; 66 1-314.


32 66 III; 1-95, the balance of the letters being unnumbered.


Now it was from these seven volumes of Correspondence, Nos. 26-32, that most of the material obtained by Brodhead in 1841-4, was secured. The nine hundred pages then obtained have already been referred to in this Report.


The searchers employed by Brodhead do not seem to have ex- amined the Minutes of the Classis at all; to have made a very


22


INTRODUCTION.


cursory examination of the Minutes of the Deputies, and to have done nothing with the Minutes of the Synod of North Holland. They seem to have supposed that the transcription of the items in the Correspondence would sufficiently cover everything. Neither did they examine the odd volume, No. 39. If they had examined the Minutes of the Classis, and Vol. 39, they could not well have missed the references to Michaelius and Bogardus which are contained therein. But Michaelius was yet utterly un- known to Brodhead when he published the first edition of Vol. I. of his history of New York in 1853, twelve years after these searches; and indeed the items in these volumes were not dis- covered, until after the discovery of the famous Michaelius letter in 1857. This led to an examination, under the auspices of Hon. Henry C. Murphy, of the Minutes of the Classis and the Deputies, and brought to light the few references therein, to Michaelius.8


We may now be reasonably sure that we have all the material written by the Classis to our churches, so far as it now exists in their Archives; part of it being in the bound volume of nine hun- dred pages in the New Brunswick Archives, and part being in the present collection. These two lots are intermingled in this publication.


THE LETTERS OF THE FOREIGN CHURCHES TO THE CLASSIS.


The Classis has many thousands of such letters on file, at pres- ent arranged in twenty five large Portfolios, with titles accord- ing to the countries from which they came. The present Classifi- cation, the writer was informed, was made about 1880, by Drs. Rogge and Scheltema, at the request of the Classis. There are now four Portfolios containing letters from the East Indies; three containing letters from Ceylon; seven from the West Indies; two from Curacoa and Surinam; one from the smaller islands of the West Indies; two from the Cape of Good Hope; three from North


' Col. Docs. N. Y. ii. 759.


23


INTRODUCTION.


America, of which two contain letters from New York and New Jersey being the residue of those not found in 1842; and one from Pennsylvania; while one Portfolio contains letters of a miscel- laneous kind.


If this classification had existed in 1842, we would, no doubt, have received, at that time, the loan of the entire collection of letters written in America; but only about one half were then placed in Mr. Brodhead's hands. But the belief, excited by the construction of the writer's Calendar in 1875, that there must be a large additional number of letters in existence, and the actual discovery of the same by Chaplain Hoes, in 1885, owing to the new classification of all the filed letters in 1880, led, ultimately, as we have seen, to the enterprise of sending the writer to Hol- land in 1897, for a new search, and the acquisition of copies of this new material. Among the first things which he did upon reaching Amsterdam, was carefully to examine the two port- folios of letters from New York and New Jersey, in the very hand writing of the early Domines, and compare their titles and dates with his Calendar of similar letters already prepared. While there were a few duplicates, about ninety per cent of them were new material, and were needed, to complete our collection. Tran- scribers were at once set to work, and the results are exhibited in four large volumes of transcriptions, making about a thousand pages.


These transcriptions are thus arranged:


Vol. I. 1700-1730.


II. 1731-1750.


66 III. 1751-1754.


IV. 1755-1788;


but these do not include the American letters obtained by Brod- head in 1842. The two lots are to be commingled in this publi- cation.


24


INTRODUCTION.


This new material is all between 1700 and 1800. Among these letters and documents are recovered the lost Minutes of several sessions of the Coetus, or early American Classis, subsequent to 1754, representing some of the most important Acts of that body in connection with the assumption of independence by the Dutch Church. But we are sarry to say that the Minutes of sev- eral sessions of that body are still missing, but all the facts are probably covered by the Correspondence of the period. There are also several lengthy and important papers among the documents. now recovered, upon special local, or personal themes, which will clear up not a few obscure points in the history of the last century. We cannot here refer to these documents in detail. These new found documents are about three hundred and twelve in number, often with other documents appended.9


THE MINUTES OF THE SYNOD OF NORTH HOLLAND.


The Minutes of this Synod begin as far back as 1572, ten years before those of the Classis of Amsterdam, reaching into the very days of Spanish tyranny. The Minutes of all the Particular Synods of the Northern Netherlands from 1572-1620, have re- cently been collected together and printed, in eight volumes. This publication is very valuable, and although antedating the settlement of New York, contains much matter of great historical interest to Americans. A set of these Minutes was purchased for the Collegiate Church of New York. There is also a set of the same in the Sage Library at New Brunswick, N. J.10


" These appended documents are called " Bylagen ", meaning Attached Documents, Supplements or Appendix-es.


10 This publication is edited by Reitsma and Van Veen, and was printed by Wolters of Groningen. The first volume was issued in 1891, and the eighth appeared in 1899. From 1608-1618, the Synod of North Holland did not hold any sessions, on account of the civil and theological troubles then developing, and which led to the holding of the National Synod of Dort, 1618-19. At the close of the Minutes of 1608, occurs a Latin note, which reads as follows: "From this time, 1608, until the year of our Lord, 1618, the Annual Synodical Assembly could not be held, according to its wonted custom, on account of the excessive troubles, with the dissensions in the Church. At the restoration of ecclesiastical and civil order, a Provincial Synod was legally held, and afterward a National Synod, as convoked by public authority, in the year 1618."


25


INTRODUCTION.


The writer began his examination of the Minutes of the North Holland Synod with the year 1621. His researches in this field were carried on partly at the Hague. All the volumes were care- fully examined between 1621 and 1810, covering a period of one hundred and ninety years. The examinations and departures of the ministers (to the Colonies) are quite regularly reported therein. Brief extracts from the letters from the Colonies, includ- ing, of course, New Netherland, are also quite generally given.


The writer was pleased to find the name of Jonas Michaelius our first American Minister, 1628, in the Minutes of the Synod of North Holland, in the year 1621 and 1624. On the first occasion he is mentioned as a delegate from the Classis of Enk- huysen, to the Synod, coming from the Church of Hem, a little hamlet near the city of Hoorn; and in the second instance, as being dismissed from Hem, by the same Classis, in order to go to San Salvador, in Brazil; but strange to say, no further refer- ences to him are found in the Minutes of the Synod of North Holland, although he was probably sent by the same Classis of Enkhuysen to New York, and which should have been reported to this Synod, in 1628 or 1629. The records of the Classis of Enkhuysen were burned in 1838, in a fire which consumed the Groote Kerk there, and hence we could not examine into the matter from that source.


The transcriptions from these Synodical Minutes amount to about fourteen hundred pages, and are bound in five volumes, which are properly " titled " and " dated ".11


11 These transcriptions are as follows:


Vol. I. 1621-1642.


II. 1643-1666.


.. III. 1667-1683.


IV. 1684-1729.


V. 1730-1810.


But much of the material secured from these Synodical Minutes, of interest in a general way, the writer did not feel warranted to put among the material published by the State.


26


INTRODUCTION.


THE ARCHIVES OF THE GENERAL SYNOD.


It is proper here to say a few words, in passing, about the Archives of the GENERAL SYNOD of the Church of the Netherlands. Their General Synod as a distinct body, dates back only to 1816. With the Minutes of this body,12 this Report has no special interest, as they do not reach back to the Colonial Period. But the Archives of the General Synod contain a unique collec- tion of records and documents, and are the most extensive Eccle- siastical Archives in the country. They are located in the " Synodical Building " at 100 Java street, in the Hague. The older records are kept in two very large iron safes, on the lower floor. Therein are found the original Minutes of those six early Synodical Conventions from 1568-1586,13 which formulated the government of the Dutch Church, and also adopted its standards - the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. Here are also the original Minutes of the great and famous Synod of Dort, 1618-19, in nineteen large volumes.14 They are in the Latin language, and after two hundred and seventy years, are yet in a perfect state of preservation, the ink being just as black as if written yesterday. Here are to be seen the original signatures of all the delegates from most of the countries of Europe. All these signatures are repeated five times, as they are subscribed separately, to each of the five Heads of Doctrine involved; and each set of signatures occupies five pages. The writer also had photographic copies of these signatures taken.15 Here are also


12 These Minutes have been regularly printed since 1816, and a set of them is to be found in the Sage Library at New Brunswick, N. J.


13 Of Wesel, 1568; of Embden, 1571; of Dordrecht, 1574 and 1578; of Middleburg, 1581; and of the Hague, 1586. These have been printed in the "Groot Plakaat Boek " and the " Kerkelyk Plakaat Boek ", and in many other editions, but never yet, in full, in English.


14 All the business of this Synod, which lasted for six months, was conducted in Latin. Latin and Dutch editions of the proceedings were soon issued; but, perhaps, only one Latin edition of the "Post-Acta " was ever published, and hence, prob- ably, its scarcity. But the Latin being the original, and, therefore, especially desirable, photographic copies of the original sixty-four pages were secured.


15 Since writing the above, the Post-Acta in both Latin and Dutch, in parallel


27


INTRODUCTION.


the original Minutes and Notes of the Translators of the Dutch Bible of 1637, filling many volumes. These Archives also con- tain manuscript sets of the Minutes of each of the Particular Synods of Holland,- of Gelderland, Friesland, Overyssel, Gron- ingen, Utrecht, South Holland and North Holland, with many individual duplicate volumes. The Minutes of the old Classis of Delft, in seven volumes, are also here, and perhaps those of other Classes. The loose documents belonging to the Synod of South Holland, (whose Archives are also here), are very numer- ous, among which are many documents relating to Pennsylvania. There are very few papers here relating to New York, as their Correspondence was almost exclusively with the Classis of Amster- dam, and the Synod of North Holland. Here is also a set of the Great Edict Book, (Groot Plakaat Boek), of the States-Gen- eral, containing all the Edicts, civil and ecclesiastical,16 for about two centuries. This work is printed in seven huge volumes. The Edicts relating especially to the Church have also been collected out of this great work, and are found in the "Eccle- siastical Edict Book " (Kerckelyke Plakaat Boek), which is printed in four smaller volumes.17 Here are also countless docu-


columns, have been issued by Dr. H. H. Kuyper, in one volume of five hundred and thirty pages, octavo, under the following title:


" De Post-Acta of Nahandelingen van de Nationale Synode van Dordrecht in 1618 en 1619 Gehouden, naar den authentieken tekst in het Latyn en Nederlandsch' uitgegeven en met toelichtingen voorzien, voorafgegaan door De Geschiedenis van de Acta, de Autographa en de Post-Acta dier Synode en Gevolgd door de Geschiedenis van de Revisie der Belydeniddchriften en der Liturgie benevens de Volledige Lyst der Gravamina op de Dordtsche Synode ingediend Een Historische Studie door Dr. H. H. Kuyper, Bedienaar des Woords te Leeuwarden. Boekhandel, voorheen Hovoker en Wormser. Amsterdam. Pretoria ".


Or: " The Post-Acta, or After-Acta of the National Synod of Dort, held in 1618-19 published according to the authentic text of the Latin and Dutch, and provided with explanations; preceded by the history of the Acts, the Autographs and the Post- Acta of this Synod, and followed by the History of the Revision of the Confession of Faith and the Liturgy; together with a complete list of the Gravamina presented at the Synod of Dort. A Historical Study by Dr. H. H. Kuyper, Minister of the Word at Leewarden. Hoveker and Wormser. Amsterdam and Pretoria." (1899).


16 Even all the doctrinal parts of the Synod of Dort are in full in this Groot Plakaat Boek, with the names of the delegates. There is a copy of this work in the New York State Library; in the Sage Library at New Brunswick, N. J., and a copy is owned by Rev. E. T. Corwin. The copy in State Library was secured by Brod- head. See Col. Docs. N. Y. i. 27.


17 A copy of this work was bought for the Collegiate Church of New York. The Sage Library has only the first two volumes.


28


INTRODUCTION.


ments relating to the Colonial Churches in all parts of the world. A printed Catalogue of these Archives, called the Old Synodical Archives, (Oud Synodaal Archief) was prepared by H. Q. Jans- sen, 1876, containing one hundred and ninety six pages, several copies of which were secured. One was given to the Library of the Collegiate Church, New York; one to the Sage Library, New Brunswick, N. J .; one to the Library of Theological Seminary, Holland, Mich .; one to State Library, New York; and the writer has one.


LIMITATIONS IN THESE RESEARCHES.


It was impossible, under limitations of time and means, to make more extensive researches in these several Archives.


As the Synods communicated their business to one another, corroborations of the facts of our American history would, more or less fully, be found, and occasionally additional facts might have been secured, by such examinations.18 If circumstances had permitted, items of interest might have been looked up also at the birth-places, or settlements of the early Dutch ministers, as the Church records are, generally, very complete. -


The General Cata- logues of the Universities indicate the ages, residences, depart- ments of study and other particulars, of nearly all of the early Dutch ministers.19


The writer had also intended to visit the town of Hem, near Hoorn, to try to discover additional facts from the church there, about Rev. Jonas Michaelius, who was settled there from 1614- 1624, when he went to Brazil; but sad to say, the records of this


18 E. g. The Coetus of Pennsylvania reported quite fully to the Synod of South Holland the overtures for union made to them by the Coetus of New York, 1763-1770. The Synod of South Holland seems to have as much, if not more material, relating to Pennsylvania, than the Synod of North Holland and the Classis of Amsterdam. This has been obtained by Rev. Dr. James I. Good, of Reading, Pa., and Prof. Hinke, of Philadelphia.


1º The General Catalogue is styled, " Album Studiosorum "


Many facts as to the places from which these ministers came, their ages, the de- - partments of study - medicine, jurisprudence, or theology - will be found in these Alba Studiosorum. Those of Leyden and Utrecht were purchased for the Collegiate Church. That of Groningen is owned by the writer.


29


INTRODUCTION.


Church were burned up during his first week's residence in Amster- dam, September, 1897. This shows the importance of collecting documents relating to America while it is possible.


REFERENCES TO OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST TO THE GERMAN CHURCHES IN PENNSYLVANIA.


In going over the volumes of the Classis of Amsterdam and of its Deputies, references were kept to all items relating to the German Churches in the United States, not only because of their own importance to our American Church History, but because of their many interlinked relations with the Dutch Churches of New York and New Jersey. Before The Revolution there were about twenty German Churches in these two States; and not a few German ministers went back and forth between these New York churches and those of Pennsylvania. Transcriptions were, therefore, secured, of items relating especially to the New York and New Jersey German churches of that period, while references were kept to the other items referred to.


GENERAL WORTH OF THE MATERIAL OBTAINED.


To the historian original documents are invaluable. The transcriptions now secured constitute the fundamental facts of the ecclesiastical history of New York and New Jersey. About three-fourths of these documents relate to New York and one- fourth to New Jersey, but they cannot very well be separated, and ought not to be. They represent much of the social history of colonial times, although they of course relate chiefly to the religious history. There are also not a few allusions to civil mat- ters, which cannot fail to be of interest in the General Civil His- tory of these States. Indeed, the social, civil and religious his- tories in colonial times were so closely blended that they cannot be altogether divided. This fact abundantly appears in the Documentary History of New York, and in the Colonial Docu-


30


INTRODUCTION.


ments of the same State. ' The same also appears in the similar set of volumes styled " The Archives of New Jersey ". The gen- eral tone of the documents obtained also gives a true and living picture of the religious life of Holland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They show a genuine spirit of piety, and great zeal to promote the spiritual interests of the Colonial churches. The labor involved in the care of the many Colonial churches, by this Classis, scattered all over the world, seems almost incredible. A general spirit of fraternity also existed with all the neighboring churches - those of Switzerland, Germany, Poland, France and England. There is a standing Article in the Minutes, for several generations, on " Oppressed Churches " and " Sufferers on the Galleys." There is an unceasing stream of " love gifts ", received and bestowed, on needy churches and individuals. Indeed, as early as 1643-48, the Classis of Amster- dam sent no less than ten thousand dollars (no small sum in those days), to Ireland, to relieve the distress in that country, after the desolating wars of those times. Also provinces which had been inundated always called out the gifts of the churches. Money was annually sent to Pennsylvania, to assist the Germans there, for two full generations, 1728-1792.


There are also constant allusions, in this Correspondence, to other denominations in America, especially to the Presbyterians from 1740 onward. Allusions to the Church of England are not infrequent. The influence of the Dutch in resisting the Estab- lishment of the English Church, which did not represent a tenth of the inhabitants, will receive much additional light from these documents; as well as the general influence of the Dutch in pre- paring the way for the entire separation of Church and State. What the "Documentary History of New York", and the " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York ", have been for the study of the civil history, including much of the ecclesiastical; the same will these " Original Ecclesiastical


31


INTRODUCTION.


Documents " be, for the study of the ecclesiastical history of the State, including also much of the civil history. Their worth to local church histories will also be very great.


INCORPORATION OF OTHER MATERIAL.


It was thought wise, finally, in such a collection, embracing so large a proportion of the ecclesiastical documents of Colonial times, to incorporate also some other important papers, such as church-charters, the legal phraseology of which becomes more liberal with the growing century; also the repeated applications for Charters by congregations of other denominations besides those of the Reformed Dutch Church and the Episcopalians, but which were never granted; also the three college charters of New York and New Jersey of the Colonial period. These are those of the College of New Jersey (now at Princeton), 1746; Kings (Columbia) College, New York City, 1753; Queens (Rutgers) Col- lege, New Brunswick, 1766 and 1770. Occasionally, also, church calls, with their varying forms of phraseology according to the periods and the struggles of the times, have been included; also certain civil legislation, bearing on the churches, as well as certain judicial decisions relating to the same, anticipating the dawn of full religious liberty;20 or where this was found to be imprac- ticable, at least an abstract of such facts, with references to the documents, have been inserted at the proper points. It adds but little to the bulk of the work, to include the documents from all denominations, or at least abstracts and references to the same. This also adds greatly to the value of the work, making it more unique and complete as " Original Documents Relating to all the Religious Bodies of Colonial Times in New York and New Jersey "; for these two provinces were generally under one Governor.


20 Certain ecclesiastical edicts in Holland and England would also throw further light on American Church history.


1


ACTS OF THE SYNOD OF NORTH HOLLAND, AT HAARLEM. 1621


1621, Aug. 24 et seq.


Transactions of the Particular Synod of North Holland, held in the city of Haarlem, Anno, 1621, on August 24 and follow- ing days.


After the Brethren, delegated by the Classes belonging to the Synod of North Holland, appeared, the Rev. Henricus Gees- teranus began the meeting by calling on the name of the Lord. Afterwards the credentials of the aforesaid delegates were opened and read, and unanimously approved by the Assembly. It was found that the following Ministers and Elders had been delegated to this Synod:


(We give the names of the delegates to this Synod of North Holland for 1621, in full, because Rev. Jonas Michaëlius, sub- sequently, 1628, the first Minister at New York, was among them.)


From (Classis of) Haarlem.




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