USA > New York > Ecclesiastical records, state of New York, Volume II > Part 61
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to remain in closest bonds of brotherly friendship with you, and also ever to enjoy your further correspondence.
Reverend and godly Gentlemen and Brethren in Christ, Your submissive and very obedient servants, the Elders and Deacons of the Church of Jesus Christ at Albany, Peter Schuyler, Jacob Schorman, Anthony van Schaick, John Cuyler, William Groesbeck, Haerpart Jacobs,* Clerk.
ACTS OF THE CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM.
Bellomont.
1700, Oct. 4th.
Touching the letter of Mylord Bellomont, it was resolved, before answering the same, to hear Rev. Dellius ; especially, in reference to what he had to adduce respecting the accusations against him. This was rcommended to the Deputies ad res Maritimas. viii. 332 ; xix. 258.
Rev. Vas. 1700, Oct. 4th.
Rev. Petrus Vas renews his former request (to be sent) to the East Indian Churches. His request was granted. viii. 332.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF TRADE ON BELLOMONT'S PROPOSALS. 1700, Oct. 4.
His Lordship offers. that some minister of the Church of England, be sent to live among our Indians, to instruct them in Christianity and to prevent their being practised upon by the French Priests and Jesuits .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 702.
Concerning ministers to instruct our Indians, and prevent their being practiced upon by the French, We humbly conceive that if a fund can be found for the maintenance of such ministers, they may be of very great use and service, as well for the propagation of the Reformed religion, as of improving the civil interest of England .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 707.
* This was the Deacon in whose yacht Lydius and Freerman sailed together to Albany.
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CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM.
Acts of the Deputies and their Correspondence. The Classis of Amsterdam to Rev. Godefridus Dellius, October 5, 1700.
Reverend Sir and Brother :-
At our meeting of Classis held yesterday, it was thought proper to hand to you the accusations of Lord Bellomont, with the ex- pectation that, as soon as possible, you will let our Assembly have your replies thereto; for our reply to his Lordship's letter awaits now only this, that our Assembly should have seen and considered your answer. Colleague van Oostrum tells me that you have read and copied the letter from Lord Bellomont, so that, in case your defense were asked for, you might have it ready the sooner. Our Assembly therefore shall look for it very soon. Meanwhile commending you to God and the Word of his Grace,
In the name of the Rev. Classis of Amsterdam, L. Zeegers, V. D. M., deputatorum ad res Maritimas, praeses.
Amsterdam,
October 5, 1700.
COUNCIL JOURNAL. Parish of Eastchester. 1700, Oct. 16. Bello- mont, Governor. An act for declaring the town of Eastchester, in the county of Westchester, a distinct parish from the town of West- chester, in the county aforesaid,- was sent to the Council for their concurrence. Council Journal, 151. Committed, 151. Reported, asking the Governor to inspect his commission and instructions, to see if nothing therein mentioned is an infringement of the pre- rogative royal, (October 24), 152. Amended, passed, and sent back to Assembly, 154; (the principal amendment was the inser- tion of the word " orthodox " before " Protestant ", in second line.) Passed by Assembly and sent back to Council, October 30. p. 155. Enacted, November 2, 1700, p. 155.
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BELLOMONT TO THE LORDS OF TRADE.
1700, Oct. 17.
Severall Bills were offered me and the Council by the Representatives for our passing; but some we thought frivolous and some had clauses inconsistent with the laws of England. An Act against Jesuits and Popish Priests; and an Act for the better securing the Five Nations in their fidelity to his Majesty. This last Act I gave the assent to, with great reluctance, and I believe your Lord- ships will think the treatment it deserves, is, to be rejected by the King with scorn, when it comes to be laid before his Majesty in Council .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 713.
I shall only observe that the message I sent last spring by Coll. Schuyler, Mr. Livingston and Mr. Hanson to the Five Nations was a most lucky step, and was, I may presume to say, the hindering the Indians from a revolt to the French. This will appear from what the Indians own in page the 5th of the conference. I had the good luck to be too nimble for Bruyas the Jesuit and Monsr. Maricour, and by my present of a belt of Wampum I frustrated theirs; insomuch that upon their coming, the Indians told them that they were pre-ingaged to me .- iv. 714.
I desire your Lordships will please to send over two ministers as soon as possibly can be, or we shall hazard the loss of our Indians; they press for ministers above all things whatsoever. They ought to be young men, or they will never be able to learn the Indian tongue. They must be men of sober and exemplary lives and good scholars, or they will not be fit to Instruct the Indians, and encounter the Jesuits in point of argument. I should advise their being both settled at the intended Fort; and for their encouragement they ought to have one hundred and fifty pounds a year salarle, apiece, Sterl. money. Without a Fort 'tis next to impossible to prevail with the ministers to live among the Indians; they are so nasty as never to wash their hands or the utensils they dress their victuals with. Their food is (some of it) loathsome to the last degree; tho' they eat great store of venison, pidgeons and fish; yet bear's flesh is a great part of their diet; and when they feast themselves and their friends, a dog is esteemed with them a princely dish. The corporation for propagating the Gospell etc., are worthy gentlemen, and I am con- fident will at your Lordships desire, order the salaries of the ministers out of the Corporation Stock; and because your Lordships ordered me, in your letter of the 21st of August 1699, to send you an account of the disposition of the stock in New England, I therefore now send an account of the persons who receive pensions out of it, and also of the fond out of which these pensions arise; both which are con- tained in the same paper and (No. 15.) The persons against whose names I have set a cross on the margin are ministers. I have often told Mr. Stoughton, who is treasurer, and the rest of the Commissioners for management of that affair, that I thought that Province able enough to maintain their ministers; and that the giving that money to ministers that did not preach to the Indians in their tongue, and were so lazy as not to learn it, that they might the better instruct them, was a misapplication of the Corporation money. I am a member of the Corporation myself, and we had some meetings at Boston to settle that business but did little in it. Mr. Grindall Rawson is the only minister in the list that speaks the Indian tongue and preaches it. Mr. Stoughton and I joyn'd in putting Mr. Laborie into a Plantation where are some French and Indians, with a salarie of thirty pounds a year; he had undertaken to learn the Indian tongue and instruct and preach to the Indians .- iv. 717-718.
I find in looking over my papers and notes, I had forgot to acquaint your Lordships of a petition of the inhabitants of Suffolk County, and another of those of Queens County, in this Province, for the settling of a Dis- senting Ministry among them; the said petitions were delivered during that session
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of the Assembly wherein the Revenue was settled for six years. I gave no countenance to those petitions then, nor will I recommend them now. I think the best way is to forget them .... - iv. 719.
I suspended Parson Smith, Chaplain to these Companys, on the 7th of last August, for affronting my Lord Bishop of London, and for living a scandalous life, in neglecting his cure, parting with his wife, and cohabiting with another woman .- iv. 719.
EARL OF BELLOMONT TO THE LORDS OF TRADE, 1700, OCT. 17.
P. S. Mr. Champante having sent me the copy of some articles that were ex- hibited against me to the House of Commons last session by one John Keis a Scotchman, I had once a design of answering them, till reflecting that the greatest part of 'em are palpable untruths, and those that happen to be true are trifling and of little moment, I thought it would be time mis-pent to answer such trash. To instance, in some of those false articles, I am accused of having removed Col. Young with others from the Council, and Col. Young was dead two years before my coming into this country. Dr. Carfbile, whom I swore of the Council is called a mountebank in one of the articles, whereas in truth he was a graduate Phisitian, having studied and taken his Doctors degree at Leyden, and was a very learned and honest man. There are a great many other grosse and impertinent untruths in those articles, which I do not think worth while to trouble your Lordships with. I think 'tis a hardship on every honest man that serves the King to the best of his power to have his name and reputation torn and vilified by a little vagabond Scotchman. And I should think such a man is accountable to the House of Com- mons for abusing them with untruths and wasting their time, and it would become their justice to punish men that make vexatious and groundless complaints .- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 725, 726.
ACTS OF THE CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM.
Dellius.
1700, Oct. 18th.
The president, the Rev. Lambertus Zegers reports, that he has written to Rev. Dellius, to send over his defense. An answer to this is awaited. The Rev. Zegers was thanked for his trouble. viii. 334 ; xix. 259.
EARL OF BELLOMONT TO SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
Extract of a letter from the Earle of Bellomont to the Secretary of this Board. Dated at New Yorke the 19th of October 1700.
Sir :- Mr. Smith the Chaplain,* whom I dismist, had the impudence to come the other day and question my power of dismissing him. I forgot, in my letter to their Lordships where I mentioned him, to acquaint them with an arch peice of villany done by Smith while I was at Boston. He comes to the Lieutenant Governor and desires him to signe a blank licence, pretending the persons to be married were desirous to have their names concealed. The Lieutenant Governor, suspecting
* Rev. Symon Smith is mentioned as Chaplain to the Fort at New York, July, 1699, in New York Council Minutes, viii., 123.
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Smith's knavery, refuses to signe the blank licence. Afterwards Smith brings a licence filled up with the names of Adam Ball and the maiden name of a married woman; he afterwards adds a sillable to the man's name, in the licence, (after the Lieutenant Governor had signed it), and then it was Baldridge, the pirate, that the Lords formerly writ to me about; and the woman was the wife of Buckmaster, a pirate, who escaped out of the goal of this town, and who had come in Shelley's ship from Madagascar. Being asked why he married Baldridge to another man's wife, he answered she had made oath to him that she was never married to Buck- master. Then he was asked by what authority he administer'd an oath, being not in the Commission of the Peace; to that he could give no satisfactory answer. Since that, it appears Buckmaster was married to the woman by a justice of the Peace, in one of the Jerseys, which is their way of marrying there. I desire you will acquaint their Lordships with this roguery of Smiths.
My Lord of London, having writ to Mr. Vesey, the English Minister of this town, to submit himself to me; and to me, to accept of his submission; I have complyed therewith, and have promised Mr. Vesey to become his friend, provided he demean himself peaceably and discreetly for the furture, which may not be improper to acquaint their Lordships of. I have newly received a letter from Sir William Ashurst, wherein he tells me, the Corporation are willing to allow eighty pounds, apiece, to five Ministers, for the Five Nations for three years, provided the Ministers be taken out of Cambridge College, in New England. But there are two things objectionable in that offer; first I do not approve or like that the allowance should be temporary, which would discourage Ministers. Secondly, I do not so well like Ministers bred there, as Church of England Ministers; for in New England the Ministers pray ex-tempore, and mightyily decry set forms of prayer; insomuch that they never use the Lord's prayer at any time. The best way, in my humble opinion, is for their Lordships to send to speake with Sir William Ashurst and the members of the Corporation, which is the way to come to a right understanding in that matter. Sir William is a right honest gentleman and will hearken to reason. There ought to be very great care taken in the choice of Ministers, that they be not such debauched, loose men, as come to America; who indeed give great scandal, instead of inviting to be of our Church Communion. Another thing is, they ought to be rightly well principled for his present Majesty's Government, and English men rather than Scotch men. I say rather than Scotch men, because my Lord of London is fallen into a vein of preferring Scotchmen to be Chaplains to the King's ships. I can only say that all the Scotch in these plantations, (who are pretty numerous), are very angry since their loosing Caledonia. I should desire of the Corporation but three hundred pounds sterling, a year, for the present, for two Ministers to be settled at our intended Fort at Onondage; and seventy pounds sterling to be divided between the two Dutch Ministers at Albany and Schenectady.
Bellomont.
- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 766-7.
THE DEFENCE OF REV. GODFRIDUS DELLIUS, AGAINST THE CHARGES OF LORD BELLOMONT MADE OCT. 13, 1699.
1700, Oct. 31.
[The following is the defence of Rev. Godfridus Dellius, for- merly of Albany, against the bitter attack of Lord Bellomont. The first one third of this Document was brought from Holland by Brodhead in 1842, but little could be done with it on account
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of its incompleteness. The remaining two-thirds - eight closely written pages in Dutch - were found by Dr. Corwin, in his re- searches in Holland in 1897-8, but the letter of Bellomont was not found.]
Rev. Godfridus Dellius to the Classis of Amsterdam; Antwerp, October 21, 1700.
The scandalous letter of Lord Bellomont, against Rev. Godfridus Dellius, answered and refuted.
As it is honorable and generous to defend oppressed innocence Duty of self-de- fence. when commanded by others, so it is not less the duty of every one to defend himself against the attacks of evil tongues and malicious pens. Such has become my duty, because of what has happened to me through a letter from Lord Bellomont to the Rev. Classis of Amsterdam, written from Boston on the 13th of October '99 (1699). Therein he tries to traduce me in most shocking terms ; and with the most enormous imputations to lower my credit with the Rev. Classis and others, and, if possible, to make me odious.
The whole letter from beginning to end is nothing but a mis- denial. representation of the truth. It is quite astonishing, how a man of his rank can so far forget himself, as to go to war against so many well-known facts, unless he believes that the great distance, and the difficulties arising therefrom in making close examinations, give him the liberty to slander what he pleases; or else that audacter calumniari somper aliquid adheret.
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[I. As to the relations of Dellius to Leisler.]
1. He begins his letter by referring to Captain Jacob Leysler and Mr. Jacob Milborne, as being very zealous in elevating King William; as men who had the courage to declare for his Majesty, and to proclaim his titles in the Province of New York.
2. He praises their behavior, as having been more moderate than was ever known of men who had been suddenly placed in such power by the people generally, as they had been.
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3. He says, that because of this, their zeal for the good cause, they had been executed in the most arbitrary and wretched manner.
. 4. He closes the paragraph with accusations against Mr. Nicolas Bayard and Rev. Godfrey Dellius, who above all others, says he, showed their malice against the lives of the two above named men.
[Reply of Dellius to these assertions and charges. ]
1. As to the first item, to wit, Their Declaration for his Majesty :
Leisler's asserted zeal for William vs. Nich- olson's asserted indiffer- ence. But William promoted Nichol- son, and Leisler's zeal was selfish.
Whereas the city of New Albany is about thirty six (Dutch) miles from New York, and I was not then at the latter place, I cannot very well enter into details concerning what happened there. It is presupposed (by Bellomont) that Lieutenant Governor (Fran- cis) Nicholson, who was a Protestant, did not do all that was possible, upon receipt of the first news that his Majesty, then Prince of Orange, had landed in England. Now an untimely friendship does not differ much from enmity. Therefore (it is said, that) he desired to wait for further news and orders, to execute the act with so much more splendor and formality; and it is evident that his present Majesty was well satisfied with his conduct by the immediate appointment (of Nicholson) as Gov- ernor of Maryland. This the King granted him, together with the further grant of the government of Virginia. These the said Nicholson at present administers. And if Leysler's turbulent char- acter anticipated all this, it was not so much his zeal to proclaim his Majesty, but rather, as is well known in the whole Province of New York, his desire for lucrative gain; that he might not have to pay the import duties on a vessel, which had just then come from Madeira, or the Azores, with wine, to his account; and he sought thereby to repair his broken fortune. Thus fishing in troubled waters, he found ready means to subvert the government through the people, and by driving out the Lieutenant Governor, to set himself in his place.
2. As to the second item : The moderate behavior (of Leisler and Milborne, in exercising the government. )
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One must be more than brazen faced to assert this. During the whole compass of his proceedings, nothing but violence and tyranny Proofs of were to be seen. He ruled arbitrarily and indiscriminately both Leisler's tyranny in ecclesiastical and secular matters, as if he were armed with all the plenitude of a sovereign. His will was his law. If any one did not immediately carry out his orders, or if only The least security which the people had for their lives and property high treason ; and to apprehend them, he used no other warrant than the sword of a collected mob of soldiers. His law book was the bullet hole in the fort. In that fort the most prominent Protestant merchants, English, French and Dutch, were imprisoned without any previous legal proceedings, but only upon his orders, and with the greatest insults, scorn and malice, and were kept on bread and water. His usurped power, which he wrought up (lit. screwed up) to the highest pitch, feared no law. His ambition to rule recognized no authority; for he did not hesitate to remove all the lawful Magistrates, who have since been confirmed by the gracious declaration of his present Majesty and his Majesty's High Council; but he also imprisoned some of them in the fort and maltreated them most cruelly. He had them fettered with iron chains, and thus exposed them to the derision and rage of the howling mob. He allowed his soldiers to handle the meat and drink, brought to them by their own servants, in such a manner that it became abhorrent to Christian feelings. He daily had the houses and cellars of the merchants broken open, and forcibly took away their goods; and he plundered also others, as was finally done at Colonel Willets. It was then not much less than Haec mea sunt reteres migrate coloni.
Even sacred things were not spared. Hands were laid upon the alms or other pious gifts, and so he even confiscated church prop- erty, as will witness the churches of New York and New Albany. The last occurrence was on the 30th of April 1690; the first not long before or after.
And how moderate his behavior towards the preachers has been appears in the scandalous treatment of Domine Selyns and Daille,
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whom he publicly saluted in the church: The first with " You old rogue "; the other with " The devil take you", (Diable vous porte). He did this because the first did not read a letter (billet) soon enough to please him; the second, because he spoke of not preaching in the afternoon. Domine Varick was thrown into prison. In order to avoid such rude treatment the preacher of Albany (Dellius himself), with a considerable number of mer- chants, fled from the Province, remaining away for seven or eight months.
I pass over other extravagancies as that even the graves were not respected. The letters of Domine Varick, part of a copy of one of which, made by himself, is enclosed ; also those of the other preachers in the Province; a copy of an address by the French Protestants to the King, then written, and also sent to the Rev. Classis ; all these if received, may give you some further informa- tion about all this. Truly, one must be wholly lost to shame, if he dares to call all these violent proceedings by the name of " mod- eration."
3. As to what he (Bellomont) says on the third point, namely, that because of their zeal for the good cause, they have been executed as traitors in the most arbitrary and cruel manner :
What has been said above, on the foregoing points, shows but little zeal for a good cause. If we add thereto, his actual rebellion against the Governor sent over by his Majesty, Col. Sloughter, and other acts of war committed by him, by which some were killed, and others wounded ; further, if one wishes as he did, for I have read a copy of his letter, to carry out a barbarous design to massacre even the children in the cradle, and then undoubtedly to flee - under such circumstances, we cannot say that they were executed as traitors in the most arbitrary and cruel manner. (It was only just. )
The son of Leysler complained to their Majesties concerning the proceedings against his father, and his brother-in-law, Mil-
But Leisler and Mil- borne were rebels and were exe- cuted ac- cordingly.
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borne, but here follows the decision of their Majesties Council and their approval as given :
At the Court at Whitehall the 11th of March 1691.
The Queens most Excellent Majesty in Councill :
Whereas, the Right Honorable, the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Plantations, have by their report, dated the 11th Instant, Represented to her Majesty that they have examined the execution matter of the petition of Jacob Leisler, the son of Jacob Leisler of New York, deceased, referred to the Committee by his Majesties order in Councill of the 7th of January last, complaining of pro- ceedings against his father and Jacob Milborne by Coll. Sloughter at New York; who were thereupon condemned and put to death, and their estates confiscated; and their Lordships having fully heard the said Jacob Leisler the Petitioner by his Council learned, upon the whole matter ; are humbly of opinion, that the said Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne deceased were condemned and have estates re- But their suffered according to law. But their Lordships do humbly offer iles. their intercession to her Majesty in behalf of their families as fit objects of their Majesties mercy ; that the estate of the said Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne deceased may be restored to them upon their humble application to their Majestys by petition for the same; Her Majesty in Council is this day pleased to approve the said report, and to declare that upon the humble application of the relations of the said Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne de- ceased, Her Majesty will order the estate of the said Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne to be restored to their families as objects of her Majestys mercy. (See also Col. Docs. iii. 827.)
This decision of the Council and the approval of their Majesties does not at all agree with the opinion of Bellomont: for they are condemned and have suffered according to law; they are therefore not executed in the most arbitrary and cruel manner, unless he ac- cuses English law of cruelty and injustice.
Proofs: Decision of the Royal Council; legal.
stored to their fami-
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4. He closes the paragraph, accusing Mr. Nicholas Bayard and Godfrey Dellius, saying that they have signalized their malice and rage against the lives of the two men mentioned, above all others.
Bayard's excellent character.
He also charges Col. Bayard with having made complaints against him, in England, last year, and with having presented a memorial. As to Bayard himself, he has for forty years or more served with great reputation in the most prominent ecclesiastical and political offices ; yet he has been an object of Leisler's fury, and of that of the raging mob. And Mr. Bayard has behaved with all imaginable moderation in regard to these two men, and as a good Christian, has generously forgiven his enemies who have so greatly injured him.
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