Ecclesiastical records, state of New York, Volume II, Part 47

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: 740


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Prayer before eating in Rhyme Philip Schuylder


137 Psalm


Helena Vincent


Sara Kip


Rhymed Evening Prayer.


Barent de Cleyn Abraham de Milt


$


139 Psalm Pause Sara Kierstede


Maria Meyer Gerrit de Wilde Maria Meyers


136 Psalm


Helena Vincent


1 Pause


2 Pause


Christina Kuylders


143 Psalm


Elizabeth Gabriels


Maria Kip


145 Psalm


16 Pause


Isaacq van Vleck


146 Psalm


149 Psalm


Maria Goderus


121 Psalm


Ten Commandments, Several children.


124 Psalm


Thomas Popinga


131 Psalm


135 Psalm


138 Psalm


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Memorandum.


After my prayer and address, our regular Sunday-prayer* which is made before the sermon, was recited without any mistake, and with energy and manly confidence, by Marycken Popinga, a child of five years. It was then repeated, not without tears, by my church members. In testimony whereof this has been signed, at the request of my Catechumens, at New York, the 14th of Sep- tember, 1698.1


By order of my Consistory, Henry Selyns, Minister at New York.


EARL OF BELLOMONT TO THE BOARD OF TRADE.


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Sept. 14, 1698.


However, in the weak condition I was, I made a shift to manage a conference with the Indians. I must confess I was strangely surprised and discouraged at the behaviour of those people the first two or three days conference; for I found them so sullen and cold in their carriage that I thought we had quite lost their affections; but some of the Sachims coming to some of the honest Magistrates of that town, discovered to them they had been tampered with by Mr. Dellius, the Dutch Minister, to whom with three others viz., Col. Peter Schuyler, Major Dyrk Wes- sells, Mayor of that town, and one Banker, Col. Fletcher had committed the whole management of all the Indian affairs; so that Dellius, to serve the interest and designe of Col. Fletcher in creating me all the difficulty and disturbance in that part of my administration, had possessed the Indians (as these Sachims confessed) that their power, viz. that of Dellius and the other three before mentioned persons, was equall to mine, and did insinuate, as if it did more peculiarly belong to them, to take cognizance of the Indians and their affairs, and to treat with and succour them at all times, then it did to me. Besides, Dellius did inculcate that by no means they must impeach Col. Fletcher of any neglect of them or our frontiers during the late warr.


The villany of this Dellius will appear to your Lordships upon the perusall of that part of the conference which is in manuscript (No. 2.) and which relates wholly to that fraudulent bargain transacted between Dellius and six or eight of the Mohack Indians, wherein though he makes the Indians believe the land was only to be conveyed by them to himself and the other three persons in trust for the use of them and their posterity, and to hinder the said land being disposed of to other


* This is the first prayer, as found in the Liturgy of the Dutch Church in the editions of 1792 and 1815, styled, "A Prayer on the Lord's Day, before sermon ".


¿ This list of Catechumens was also sent to the Dutch Church of London - Austin Friars, and in the recent publication of the documents in their Archives, this com- plete list is found .- " Ecclesiae Londino - Batavae Archivum. Tomi Terli Pars Secunda. Epistolae et Tractatus Reformationis Historiam Illustrantes. Hessels. Cantabrigiae, 1897 ". For this list, see pages 2703-2708.


The same list has been printed in New York Hist. Coll. 18 pp. The above is from the original documents.


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hands, that would probably dispossesse them thereof; yet he with the other three persons together with Mr. Pinhorne (whom I lately removed from the Council and his Judges place) obtained an absolute grant of all the said Mohacks land from Col. Fletcher. It is observable that the parties who were the chief complainants to me and evidence against Dellius are Mohack Indians, proselyted by himself to the Christian Faith, Henry and Joseph, he has taught to pray and preach in their language by the means of a woman Interpretres. I know not how sincere converts they are, but they seemed to have no veneration for their Doctor and Apostle Dellius, whose juggle with them about that land must needs have made him appear to them an impostor. The Interpretress, a Mohack woman and his own convert was also a witness against him, as your Lordships will see in the manuscript I have already mentioned, notwithstanding he has managed her and the other Indians by her, for some years past. But examining her upon oath before all the Magistrates of Albany and severall other persons, the woman was frank in declaring her knowl- edge of the fraud put upon the Mohack Indians by Dellius. This account had been printed with the other conferences, but that I was willing in tendernesse of Dellius his ministerial function to conceale the fraudulent part he acted from all the world, except your Lordships to whom I reckon myself obliged in duty to the King to communicate all things without reserve, that have regard to his Majesty's interest in these Provinces that are under my government. I have been longer upon this head of the conference with our Indians and Dellius's sinister practices, because I take it to be of the last consequence to the service of these Provinces that your Lordships should be rightly and fully informed of the circumstances of our Indians and certainly Dellius and the other three managers are not a little accountable for the dangerous and knavish artifices they used to withdraw the respect of the Five Nations from me; which had liked to have been fatal to his Majesty's interest, and might have shaken the allegiance and subjection of the said Indians to His Majesty, at a time when the French are so very industrious to debauch them from us.


Three things are observable in the address to me from the Magistrates of Albany page 16 of the printed propositions; the first, which I have marked with a line, implyes a wrong susteined by the inhabitants of Albany by means of a grant made by Colonel Fletcher to one Ranslaer (Rev. Nicholas Renselaer.) of a great tract of land upon Hudson's River, above Albany, whose scituation give the said Ranslaer the advantage of intercepting the Beaver trade with the Indians from the town of Albany and as they come down the river in their canoes sometimes by fair means and often by a sort of force makes them take rum and other comodities for their peltry.


P. S. Just now the Mayor of Albany Major Wessels is returned from his negocia- tion with our Five Nations of Indians, and has delivered me the memorial which I now send your Lordships (No. 8.) which contains all that can now be said to your Lordships touching that matter. I forgot particularly to mention in the body of this letter the discourse that passed between Mr. Dellius the Minister of Albany and myself the day I left that place, which I have added to the manuscript (No. 2) and which may serve for an evidence to your Lordships of that man's strange pre- varication and doublenesse. I do assure your Lordships I have advanced nothing against him in that narrative but what I can with a good conscience sweare to the truth of. I can prove by witnesses of undoubted creditt severall immoralities of life in that man, his disaffection to the person of the King and other things which I will not now trouble your Lordships with. You may perhaps wonder that I trusted him with my first letters to the Governor of Canada and Mount Reall, to notifie the peace to them, and that I give a character in those letters (copies whereof I formerly sent your Lordships) so different from that which I now give of him. But I had not then seen him, and Col. Schuyler the other messenger of


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those letters was then here and advised me by all means to let him take Mr. Dellius along with him from Albany because he could speak the French tongue well, which I therefore consented to .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 362, 363, 364, 365, 366.


CHURCH OF NEW YORK.


1698, Sept. 18.


Deficiencies in Salary.


The minister's salary, when falling short, shall by virtue of the Charter and the general resolution of our Church, be made up and paid out of the collections made in public worship. This has been signed by us all, (the Consistory,) and shall be signed by all who come into the service. Lib. A. 7.


See a letter of Sept. 18, 1698, quoted in a letter of April 24, 1700.


1698, Oct. 14.


On the Re-burial of Leisler under the Dutch Church, nine years after his death.


Answer of the Church-Masters of the Dutch-Church concerning the re-burial of Leisler and Milbourne in their church.


We, The Church-Masters, having been requested by Isaac de Riemer, in the name of Mr. Jacob Leisler, (Jr.) to bury the corpse of his father and of Milbourne in our Dutch Church, give for an- swer - because we are pressed by both parties in the congregation, and very much desire to preserve peace and quiet in our church - that we cannot consent thereto ; but also that we shall not hinder it. Theunis De Key, Johannes Kip, Brandt Schuyler.


New York, October 14, 1698.


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THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE DUTCH CHURCH OF NEW YORK TO THE MINISTERS AND CONSISTORY OF THE LONDON DUTCH CHURCH, (THAT OF AUSTIN FRIARS, ) OCT. 18, 1698.


Sirs and Brethren in Christ Jesus :-


Knowing what the fellowship of the saints is, we could not well forego to communicate to your Reverences through the opportunity we have by the bearer of this letter, that, after invocation upon the Name of the Lord, and by virtue of our Charter, we have called a second Minister, to the service of our Dutch Church here, and have also requested the Classis of Amsterdam to send us such a one. Our country being in trouble, it was impossible that our Church should be altogether free of it. Nevertheless we had a plurality of votes among all ; viz. : in our Rev. Consistory, we had seven against two; in our congregation we had three to one; among all the Dutch churches of the Province, we had eight to one; and we had the sixteen of the old and present Elders and Deacons, met together, against none. Approbantibus omnibus, contradicente nemine.


It therefore seemed proper to us to communicate with your Rev- erences and make known these facts, so that in case further troubles should arise in the Church of Jesus Christ - which may God for- bid - your Reverences might second our efforts and thus be help- ful to us, that we in this region might be built up and not cast down. What further steps ought to be undertaken for the promo- tion of our call, for the honor of God and the peace of our Church will be best understood as explained by the bearer of this letter, to whom the facts are entrusted and who is commended to you. Nevertheless in order to describe his Honor to you, and to give you a correct idea of his life, as well as of his good name, his un- wearied labors and great zeal, for the greatest service to, and wel- fare of God's Church and the Church's peace, he is the Hon. Col. Nicholas Bayard, a man worthy of all love and praise. He has been one of his Majesty's Council for many years; has been hon- ored with the office of Mayor, with much praise and reputation,


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and has been very useful to our Dutch Church both by his godly advice and by several ecclesiastical offices which he has held, having been one of our Deacons for two years, an Elder eight years, and would probably have been chosen again to our Eldership, if his Honor had not resolved, for weighty reasons, to go to England, and may the Lord God safely conduct his Honor thither. When he ar- rives there, please assist his Honor and respect our letters, and deal with him and our Church for our welfare. In confidence of your favor, we commend your Honors' persons, your service and your Church to the Lord of the harvest and to the Word of his Grace. Farewell.


Your Reverences obedient servants, and brethren to command in the Lord,


Henricus Selyns, Minister. Pieter Jacobszen. Marius Johannes Kip Elders. Jan Harpending


From the Archivum of the London Dutch Church, (Ecclesiae Londino - Batavae Archivum) Vol. iii., Part Second, page 2709. Published, 1897.


REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE ON THE AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK.


Whitehall, Oct. 19, 1698.


The next head under which we shall humbly represent to your Excellencies the rise of those difficulties which the Earl of Bellomont meets with in the administra- tion of that government is the Grants of Lands made by the late Governor; and in order thereunto, we beg leave, in the first place, to set down a list of such grants whereof his Lordship has sent us either Copies or Abstracts; with this observation, that the lands therein mentioned are not laid out by exact measure of acres, but computed in the lump by miles.


A Grant to Col. Nicholas Bayard a member of the Council (whom we have men- tioned before as an instrument in negotiating for Col. Fletcher's protections to pirates) for a tract of land in the County of Albany claimed by the Mohacqs and containing about twenty four or thirty miles in length: its breadth we know not .*


* This grant included the valley on both sides of the Schoharie creek, from the mouth of the latter at Fort Hunter, in Montgomery county, to the high hills near the mouth of the Little Schoharie creek, in the town of Middleburg, in Schoharie county. A description of these hills will be found in Sims' History of the latter county, p. 33; and of the patent, in Van Schaack's Ed. of the Laws of New York, p. 32.


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A Grant to Godfrey Dellius, Minister at Albany for a tract of land on the East side of Hudson's river containing about seventy miles in length and twelve miles in breadth. *


A Grant to Colonel Henry Beckman for a tract of land in Dutches County, con- taining about sixteen miles square; and likewise for another tract of land upon Hudson's River about eight miles in breadth and twenty miles in length.


A Grant to Colonel William Smith a member of the Council for sundry tracts of lands and meadows in the Island of Nassau, comprizing all the vacant lands be- tween the bounds of former patents therein specified and computed to contain about fifty miles; what length or breadth we know not.


A Grant to Capt. John Evans Commander of His Majesty's ship the Richmond for sundry tracts of land lying on the West side of Hudson's River and containing about forty miles in length and twenty miles in breadth.t


A Grant to William Pinhorn Esq., Col. Peter Schuyler, Domine Godfrey Dellius, Major Derrick Wessels and Captain Evert Banker, for a tract of land lying on the Mohacqs River, containing about fifty miles in length and two miles in breadth on each side of the said River.#


A Grant to Col. Caleb Heathcote a member of the Council for a lot or toft of ground, containing in breadth about twenty seven foot and in length about fifty foot, which had been formerly part of the King's Garden. Also another part of his Majesty's said garden extending from the Stockadoes or fence thereof in the rear, as far into Hudson's River at low water mark.


In confirmation of this last suggestion his Lordship instances the forementioned grant of the pleasantest part of the King's Garden to Col. Heathcote, as likewise the leasing out to the Church a farm called the King's Farm, which usually sup- plied the Governour with bread corne; and the selling another part thereof which is meadow ground, (a scarce thing there) to Capt. Evans; adding that Col. Fletcher would have also leased out a little island called Nutten Island (convenient for grasing a few Coach horses and cows for the Governour's family) to one formerly his footman, but that the Council were ashamed to consent to it; and yet further that he had permitted the fences and trees of the remaining part of the King's Garden (after he had knowledge of his Lordships being appointed Governor) to be destroyed by Cattle, that fourteen years will hardly repaire them .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 391, 392, 393.


BELLOMONT TO THE LORDS OF TRADE, ABOUT THE EXHUMATION AND RE-BURIAL OF LEISLER.


1698, Oct. 21.


About three weeks since the relations of Mr. Leisler and Mr. Milburne desired leave to take up the bodies that had been buried near the gallows and give them Christian burial in the Dutch Church here. I thought their request so reasonable that I consented to it, partly out of a principall of compassion, but chiefly out of


* It extended from Batten kill, in Washington county, N. Y., being the north bounds of the Saratoga patent, to Vergennes, in the State of Vermont. The north line of this patent will be found laid down in a " Map of French and English Grants on Lake Champlain ", in Documentary History of New York, i.


ad + This tract commenced on Hudson's river at the S. line of the town of New Paltz, in Ulster county, went thence westerly to the Shawangunk mountains, thence - he southerly along these mountains to the S. W. angle of the town of Calhoun, Orange county, thence easterly to the eastermost angle of the last named town, whence it proceeded S. E. to the Hudson river at Stony point, and thence up the river to the place of beginning. It included the S. tier of towns in Ulster, two thirds of Orange, and part of the town of Haverstraw, in Rockland county, N. Y. A map of this extravagant grant is No. 97 in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany.


ie # This patent is supposed to have embraced that portion of the Mohawk Valley extending from Amsterdam, in Montgomery county, to Little Falls, or perhaps to West Canada creek, in Herkimer.


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respect to the Act of Parliament for reversing the attainder of those two men; which Act does also legitimate Captain Leisler's assuming the government of this Province and puts a censure upon the illegality of his execution; as your Lordships will see by the Act for Reversing the attainder of these men, which goes herewith and is (No. 10). I may add to these a third motive, that prevailed with me, which is, that Coll. Fletcher refused to obey that Act of Parliament by restoring the heirs of those two men to their Father's estate; which treatment of his, gave his party the boldness to vilifie it, by calling it a libell, a forgery, an Act surreptitiously obtained in the Parliament of England; and I have been told that the rage and malice of some of that party have transported them to the burning it. I, that am a hearty lover of English laws, and that value no Englishman that is not so, thought it proper to assert the Act of Parliament which had been treated with infamy. My design is chiefly to give the people here a just idea of English laws, that they bear the stamp of the highest authority of the King and Nation of England, and ought to be respected as sacred. There was great opposition made to the burying of those two men by the contrary party, but I was resolved, for the reasons I have already mentioned, to give that satisfaction to the relations of those unfortunate men. I had no reason to apprehend any disorder from a meeting of Leisler's friends, or such as think the proceeding against him was arbitrary and cruell; for I formerly told your Lordships that I have found those people more obedient to Government than the contrary party. There was a great concourse of people at the funerall (1200 'tis said) and would 'tis thought have been as many more, but that it blew a rank storm for two or three days together, that hindered people from coming down or crossing the rivers. I continue to be with respect, my Lords,


Your Lordships most humble and most faithful servant,


Bellomont. - Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 400.


New Yorke, 1 October the 21st 1698.


CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM.


Correspondence from America.


Letter of certain members of the Dutch Church of New York, (of the Leisler party ) to the Classis of Amsterdam, Oct. 21, 1698. To the Right Reverend Classis of the City of Amsterdam:


Right Reverend and Very Learned Gentlemen - Fathers and Brethren in Christ :-


In the first place we beg your Reverences to pardon us, that in giving you an account of certain matters we must be more tedious than may seem desirable. But as our story proceeds it will appear that the account could not be properly given without considerable length. We consider it a peculiar favor of heaven that we are per- mitted to present this account before so reverend and learned an


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Assembly, and that the recital may see the light of heaven. The anxiety and terror which we experienced during the last year of the reign of ex-King James were very awful. We heard of the arbitrary measures taken for the establishment of the Papacy in England; what a foothold it had obtained, and what success the dragonnades had made in France. At the same time we perceived what a variety of plans were being laid to introduce the same things into these distant regions. We could easily guess therefore what was before ourselves.


The Jesuits had already established a school here (New York) under color of teaching Latin to the youth. And to this school some of our best citizens had begun to send their children. Even our (Dutch) Church bell was tolled about 8 A. M., when the school was to be opened. And although you will hardly believe it, it is said that low mass was privately heard by some one, although this was asserted to have been done through curiosity. Also royal orders were received from England, directing us to thank the Lord most heartily, and celebrate with bonfires, the happy delivery of the Queen (the wife of James II) of a Prince of Wales. This was indeed obeyed with altogether too much joy, and even with evidences of unbounded gladness by those who were at the head of our own church affairs. Yet every man of intelligence, who pondered the consequence of such an event, could have easily seen that the pretended birth of such a Prince was nothing else than a deathly stab at the Protestant religion in England, and conse- quently of our religion over here too. There remained nothing else for us to do than to possess our souls in patience and await the Providence of God respecting it.


Under such feelings, it can easily be understood how much our happiness exceeded our sorrow, when we received positive tidings, that his Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange; who is now our acknowledged Sovereign, had entered England with a mighty army to deliver the country from oppression and Popery; and that he had been received by the chief inhabitants with the greatest de-


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monstrations of joy and affection. It was a still greater satisfac- tion to us, and gave us enlarged assurances to receive tidings that the people of our neighboring city of Boston had already declared themselves for the Prince of Orange, and had actually put under arrest Sir Edmund Andros, who was their Governor as well as ours, and also his Council, because they had refused to declare themselves for the new Prince.


About the same time these reports reached this place, (New York), as we have said, and the people could not be held back. They at once insisted that our Magistrates should immediately declare for the Prince of Orange. It seemed more appropriate that we should do this than the people of Boston; for the ancestors of the new King had delivered our fathers from the Spanish yoke, and his Royal Highness (a descendant) had now arisen to rescue the Kingdom of England from Popery and oppression. All this was done amid such evidences of love and affection for the Royal House of Nassau, as is natural to the Dutch nation - for thus are we designated here - although we have been so badly rewarded therefor. Our rulers were reluctant to proceed, and feared to risk anything. They thought it might be another " Monmouth Affair ". Nevertheless the determined demands of the people com- pelled the calling of an Assembly of both the Civil Council and of the military. At this meeting everybody was put under oath not to reveal anything which might be determined on, or to com- municate it to the people. But it leaked out that those who pre- sumed to speak favorably of the Revolution had been severely re- buked and threatened; that Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson had flaunted his Commission from King James, and casting it down on the table had sworn with terrible oaths that he would live and die by it.


Soon after this we perceived one morning that the cannon of the Fort had been pointed towards the city. When the people learned this they became furious. The Magistrates were com- pelled to grant them the privilege of examining the magazine, and


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also to allow the militia, with one company to stand guard in the Fort over night. But the people were not allowed to place their sentinels in all parts of the Fort, but they could remain within the bounds of the park. It soon became privately whispered around that the Magistrates had obtained soldiers from Boston, whom they intended to slip into the Fort through a postern gate; and that then these, together with those on the side of the Magis- trates, would drive the citizen militia out. But from such circum- stances nothing could be anticipated but a general slaughter throughout the country. The minds of the people were now in- censed to the greatest degree; for those who were on the side of the Revolution numbered ten to one.




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