USA > New York > Westchester County > Bedford > History of Bedford Church : discourse delivered at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Presbyterian Church of Bedford, Westchester Co., New York, March 22d, 1881 > Part 2
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* Joseph Theale, Abraham Ambler, John Miller, Daniel Jones, John Cross.
1681. Io March.
I681. 17 March.
22
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
168I.
house lots of three acres each, the choice of which was made as usual by casting the lot. On the twenty-second of March, 1681, the proprietors met, and approved the report of the " layers out." * It was resolved " the town common" be reserved in the place that had been determined upon, "and the Meeting-house shall be set upon the common so layd out namely the rock called Bates his Hill."
The Town Common of the first settlers, was un- questionably the spot now known as the Village Green. Originally, it would seem, covering three acres, + it has been gradually diminished by suc- cessive encroachments: but as recently embel- lished and enclosed, it forms the central attraction of this beautiful village. On the west side of the little park rises the singular eminence formerly known as Bates' Hill. Here, at the foot of the steep cliff, lies the ancient graveyard, where Thomas Denham, the first Minister of Bedford, and many of his parishioners, the " forefathers of the hamlet," sleep. And here, adjoining the burying-ground,
* " 22d March 16gg the propriators agree that wt [what] the co- mittee had done in laying out ye town plot and the house lots shall stand, and the place they reserued for the town comon and the town lot to be as they laid it out and the meeting house shall be set upon the common so layd out namly the rock called Bates his Hill."
+ The " lot for the use of the town " in the town plot was prob- ably of the same size with the other house lots, which were to be not less than three acres in extent. The lot reserved in the field for the same use was to be " proportionable with the other lots " in that locality.
23
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
and fronting on the Common, stood the first house of worship erected in this place, upon the present site of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Bedford village. It has been supposed hitherto that this first house of worship was identical with the build- ing destroyed a hundred years later, in the course of the Revolutionary war ; and that it stood at the foot of the hill, near the head of the village street, a few rods east of the site of the church recently abandoned for the present one. I am indebted to Mr. James Wood, President of the Westchester County Historical Society, for the suggestion of the site mentioned above : and upon further ex- amination I have been enabled to identify " the rock called Bates his Hill" with the eminence north of the Methodist Church. The town records show that in 1787 the trustees of the Presbyterian Church sold to Enoch Hall a certain piece of vacant land on the south side of Bates' Hill, "reserving a drift way next to the Grave Yard and so next to the Hill for the Inhabitance to draw stones." Enoch Hall's blacksmith shop stood " where the Methodist Church now stands, just south of the old grave-yard." * A curious indication of the " historic continuity" maintained in this ancient village, is to be seen in the fact that the same stipu- lation-" reserving liberty for the town to fetch stones "-is found a hundred years before, 22 March, 1681, when the proprietors give David
I681.
* Information from Mr. Albert Williamson, Bedford.
24
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1681.
Waterbury permission " to rune his home-lot fence to the rock commonly called Bates his Hill."
Although the action that determined the site was taken thus early, some years elapsed before the Meeting-house was built. As ultimately erected, it was a structure of respectable size, twenty-two feet in width, by forty feet in depth, and " ten feet and a half between joints." It was no rude log- · cabin, as some of the first habitations doubtless were, but a frame building, "clap-boarded and shingled," the whole work done " in a town way," at public expense, and under the supervision of persons duly chosen at the town meeting .*
How long this first building may have stood, we do not know. In process of time-perhaps in the early part of the next century-the primitive sanct- uary waxing old and decaying, a new one was erected, and in a different locality. As the popu- lation increased, and farms were laid out in the un- divided lands west and north of the settlement,
October 15th, 1689 : At a town meeting, the town doth agree to build Mr. Abraham Ambler, senor, a frame fortye foots long & twenty two foots wide and to set it up fit for clabording & shing- ling and to rais it up by the last of March to come after the date hereof, & the house above mentioned is to be teen foots & a half between ioynts and this frame above mentioned is to be set up upon the consideration that Mr. Abraham Ambler, senor will com up as often as he can conveniantly to cary on the Lord's day amongst us one year yt he may settle with us."
It is evident from the dimensions given in these specifications that the house thus described could not have been intended for a dwelling, and must have been the Meeting House, the building of which had been urged upon the settlers by Mr. Ambler of Stamford.
25
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
the inhabitants living at a distance would naturally demand that the church should be brought nearer to their own homes. Another site may therefore have been chosen as a compromise between con- flicting claims. The second church was built about one hundred rods north-west of the first one, at the foot of the hill upon which the third edifice - lately abandoned for the present sanctuary-was built after the Revolution.
Early in the following winter a Minister was called .* It has been stated that JOHN PRUDDEN came to Bedford and preached here for some time.+ This, however, is a mistake. Mr. Prudden, of Jamaica, continued the Minister of that town for ten full years from the date of his call in 1676.± Later, he became pastor of the Presbyterian church of Newark, New Jersey, where he died in the year 1725, in a good old age. § Bedford re- mained for three years without a resident Minis-
I68I. 2 December.
* " At a meeting at ye hop ground the proprietors . .. agree to give Mr Priddon of Gemeco [Jamaica] a call to be a minester in this place. Joseph Theale is chosen to goe to Mr. Priddon to de- clare theire mind in order to his coming among them as above : and Abra. Ambler is desired to write to Mr. Pridon in theire name and behalf." (Town Records.)
+ Bolton, History of Westchester Co., vol. I., p. 21. A Brief History of the Presbyterian Church at Bedford, N. Y., by Rev. P. B. Heroy, New York : 1874, p. 2.
Documentary History of New York, Vol. III., p. 196.
§ Two Centuries in the History of the Presbyterian Church, Jamaica, L. I., by James M. Macdonald, D.D., New York : 1862, pp. 70, 80.
2
26
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1681 to 1684.
ter. We are not to infer that the people during this time were as sheep having no shepherd. Though formed into a separate town, they still belonged to the parish of Stamford. John Bishop, the second pastor of the church in Stamford, was still living .* Our settlers, nearly all, had grown to man's estate under his care and teaching. Mr. Bishop had once walked all the way from Boston, with staff and Bible in hand, when called to the field where he laboured for fifty years; and though now an old man, he was still in active service. No doubt his voice was heard, from time to time, in the new settlement at Bedford ; and no doubt, on the high days of the Puritan year-the Fast day, Thanksgiving day, and especially the sacra- ment Sabbath-not a few of these dwellers in the remote part of the parish would make their appear- ance in the stone "meeting-house " at Stamford, which they themselves had helped to build ten years before coming to this place. +
1684.
The first Minister actually settled in Bedford was the Reverend THOMAS DENHAM. A man of advanced years, he came to this place to spend his last days, and to find a resting-place in the ceme- tery under Bates' Hill. Mr. Denham had been
* John Bishop, perhaps from Dorchester, Mass., was at Taun- ton in 1640, and at Boston in 16.44. In that year he came to Stamford, where he preached for fifty years, and died, probably in November or December, 1694. (Savage, Gen. Dict., s. v. Col- lections of Mass. Hist. Society, VIII., Fourth series, pp. 298.)
+ Huntington, History of Stamford, Conn., pp. 123, 4, 6.
27
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
living for some years in Rye. Little is known about him previous to his stay there. The Minis- ters of Fairfield and Stamford had recommended him upon his coming to Rye as a suitable person for the work, and the General Court at Hartford had encouraged his settlement .* It is thought that he was the son of John Dunham } of Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, and that he was living in Sheepscott, Maine, at the time of the outbreak of King Philip's war. ¿ It seems probable that Mr. Bishop, who was instrumental in his settlement at Rye, may have induced him to remove to Bedford to minister to a portion of his own flock. Mr. Denham's pastorate here lasted about five years- from 1684 to 1689.§ In addition to his stipend of twenty pounds a year, the Minister was pro- vided with a house and a home lot, and received a share in the successive divisions of the common
* Public Records of Conn., Vol. II., pp. 321, 322.
+ The name is written indifferently Dunham and Denham.
# History of Rye, Westchester Co., N. Y., pp. 278, 285, note. § Mr. Denham is believed to have left Rye in 1684 (Hist. of Rye, u. s.), and to have come at that time to Bedford.
At a town meeting, 28 January, 168g, collectors were chosen to gather Mr. Denham's rate for this year, and were also empow- ered "to gather the remainder that is behind of the former years, and make payment of it to Mr. Denham." The town appointed a committee, 22 June, 1688, to see to the finishing of Mr. Dunham's house. December 13, 1688, five pounds were appropriated to Mr. Dunham " upon the account of his chimblyes." His will (see His- tory of Rye, N. Y., p. 280), is dated May 2d, 1688. He was probably deceased by October, 1689, when Mr. Abraham Ambler was invited " to carry on the Lord's day."
1675. 24 June.
28
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1589.
lands. His rights as a proprietor, both in Bedford and in Rye, descended to his eldest son, Isaac Denham, who became one of the leading men in the latter place. His "Library of Bookes," in- cluding a "Commentary upon the Revelations," and another " Upon the Romans," was valued at six pounds in the appraisement of his effects. In curious apposition with these treasures his will makes mention of his " white horse," his " mus- quett and longe gun," and his " two-edged sword," the indispensable equipments of the pioneer pastor in those rude and anxious times .*
For twenty years after the settlement of the town, Bedford continued to regard itself as an integral part of New England. It is true, that, in 24 November. the year 1683, New York and Connecticut agreed 1683. upon that zigzag boundary line, which, beginning at the mouth of the Byram River, ran first to the north-west, and then to the north-east, in such a manner as to shut out Rye and Bedford, both of them Connecticut plantations, from that colony into the province of New York. But Rye and Bedford were no parties to this contract, which they ignored practically, and at last repudiated openly. Connecticut, itself, unwillingly consented to the surrender of these towns, secretly hoping that the agreement for their cession, having failed
* The General Court of Hartford granted him the sum of ten pounds " in regard to his late loss by the war." (Public Records of Conn., Vol. II., pp. 321, 322.) His will mentions his " Estate in Sheep's Gutt."
29
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
to receive the royal sanction, would never be car- ried into effect. For twenty years, then, the peo- ple remained in a state of chronic uneasiness and disaffection. It was not only that their sympa- thies, social and religious, leaned toward Connecti- cut, but their material interests were in jeopardy. Under the chartered government of the colony, they were secured in the possession of their lands, which they had honestly bought from the Indians, and diligently improved. But no sooner had their town been annexed to New York, than notice came to them from the sheriff of Westchester County, bidding them show what right and title they had to their lands. Instead of obeying this summons, the inhabitants applied to Connecticut for a patent confirming their territory to them under the laws of that colony. The patent, how- ever, was not obtained until January, 1697, when the General Court at Hartford openly received the towns of Rye and Bedford, and " undertook their protection " as members of that commonwealth. Three years later, the question in dispute was set- tled by an order of the king in council, remanding these towns to the jurisdiction of New York.
All this while, Bedford continued without a Minister, except during Mr. Denham's pastorate (1684-1689). Meantime, however, the interests of religion were not neglected. The town itself looked after them : the calling of a Minister, the providing for his support, the ordering of public worship in . his absence, being as much the care of the civil
I685. 4 June.
1697. 19 January.
1700. 29 March.
30
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1699. 9 January.
authority, as the laying out of the common lands, or the gathering of taxes. The town appoints one and another to " carry on the Lord's day," or con- duct the simple services of prayer, exhortation, and praise. The town appoints David Mead to beat the drum-the primitive substitute for the church-going bell. The town, by a major vote, orders that there shall be a request made to the Ministers of the county-meaning Fairfield County, Connecticut,-" to inquire for us, and to acquaint us where we may be likely to attaine to a Minister : and for his encouragement we doe agree upon serious consideration for his encouragement to give him a home lot and forty acres of land and meadow, and thirty pounds a year in current pro- vision pay." * In those early times, when, of all the perils of the wilderness to which a community was exposed, the " dreadful tendency to barba- rism "+ was felt to be the greatest danger, it was seen, at least in New England, that religion was vital to public order and health, and that nothing else more nearly concerned the citizen and the State.
Coming at length under the government of New
* " Provision pay." " Until the first issue of paper money by the colony in 1709, nearly all payments were made in provisions. . . From the first settlement to the French war of 1745, there was hardly any specie in circulation."-(History of Simsbury, p. 56.)
+ Historical Discourse, delivered at Norwich, June 23, 1859, be- fore the General Association of Connecticut, at the celebration of its 150th anniversary. By Leonard Bacon, D.D., p. 47 (in Contri- butions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut).
3 I
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
York, Bedford found itself transposed from the parish of Stamford to the parish of Rye. The Provincial Assembly of New York had passed, eight years before, an " Act for Settling a Ministry 19 September. 1693. in the City and County of New York," and in three adjacent counties .* Four " parishes " were created by this Act, one of which included Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford. No mention was made in this law of any particular religious denomina- tion. The people of the province were " generally dissenters," and the Assembly, which contained at the time but a single member of the Church of England, had certainly no intention of establish- ing Episcopacy in any town or county of the province. But the governor, a zealous and un- scrupulous partisan of that Church, was bent upon such a construction of the Act : and he and his
* Laws of New York, Vol. I., pp. 18-20. It is to be regretted that the revised edition of the History of Westchester County should contain the two-fold misstatement, that "Under the Act of 1693, the Church of England . . . was settled throughout the Province."-(Vol. I., p. 59.) The title of the Act expressly limits its operation to the four counties above named, and, moreover, it makes no mention of the Church of England. The Assembly which passed it represented a population of " dissenters averse to the Church of England." "The people," said Lewis Morris, "who never could be brought to settle an Episcopal min - istry in direct terms, fancied they had made an effectual provision for ministers of their own persuasion by this Act."-(See Work and Materials for American History, by Geo. H. Moore, LL.D., in the Historical Magazine, Vols. I., II. Also, Civil Status of the Presbyterians in the Province of New York, in the Magazine of American History, Oct., 1879.)
32
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
successors, down to the period of the Revolution, insisted upon its enforcement for the sole benefit of the Anglican clergy. Bedford was one of the towns mentioned in the Act of 1693, and Colonel Fletcher was only waiting for the arrival of a mis- sionary, a clergyman of that Church, to induct him as Minister of the parish. But Bedford had now secured a Minister of its own; the church lands, by act of the town, were in his possession, and Lord Cornbury found no opportunity, under pretext of a vacancy, to foist a stranger upon an unwilling people.
1699.
26 December.
JOSEPH MORGAN,* your second pastor, was called by the town in December, 1699. The Min- isters of Fairfield County ordained him in the fol- lowing year. About the same time the people of East Chester, New York, sought his services, and petitioned the governor of the province to ap- point him as their Minister.+ He appears to have officiated in both places-over thirty miles apart -for the first two years, after which he confined his labours to East Chester. The people of Bed- ford had hoped that their young pastor would
* Born in New London, Conn., Nov. 6, 1674 ; licensed, 1697 ; preached in Greenwich, Conn. (first church), 1697-1700 ; ordained, 1700 ; preached in Bedford and East Chester, N. Y., 1700-1704 ; settled in Greenwich (second church), 1705-1708 ; settled in Free- hold, N. J., 1709-1728 ; preached in Maidenhead [Lawrenceville], N. J., and in Hopewell [Pennington], N. J., for some years ; died in, or after, 1740.
+ History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the County of Westchester [N. Y.], by Robert Bolton, p. 364.
33
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
"live and die with" them, and had taken meas- ures to have him inducted by the Governor,* but, for some reason which does not appear, his stay here was short. It was the beginning, however, of a long and fruitful ministry, the greater part of which was spent in New Jersey, and was at- tended with large success. Morgan was a fluent and forcible speaker, and wrote much for the press. Cotton Mather was his friend and corre- spondent, and Franklin printed one of his ser_ mons. His writings are characterized, as his preaching doubtless was also, by an impetuosity bordering on extravagance ; } but there is reason to believe, that, in spite of marked foibles and some serious faults, he was a sincere and a useful man.
He was followed at Bedford by the Reverend JOHN JONES. ¿ The very curious correspondence
* History of the Presbyterian Church in America, by the Rev. Richard Webster, p. 335. A misprint (indicted for inducted), in Dr. Webster's statement, has given rise to the impression that Morgan, while in Bedford, was accused of some penal offence, and was i dicted and tried, " but acquitted." (A Brief History, etc., by Rev. P. B. Heroy, p. 7.) There is no evidence of any such trial.
+ I found a strange rhapsodical letter from Morgan, dated March 23, 1719, at Freehold, N. J., in one of the letter-books of the Gospel Propagation Society, London.
# A son of William Jones, of New Haven ; born Oct. 4th, 1667 ; graduated at Harvard College, 1690. Subsequent to his ministry in Bedford, he preached in Greenwich, Conn., "a year and a half," says Savage (Gen. Dict. of First Settlers of N. E., vol. II., 1. 563), but certainly longer, and probably from 1710 till 1714. (Historical Discourse, by Rev. J. H. Lindsley, D.D., Greenwich, Conn., pp. 22, 23.) "He was drowned in the harbour, 28 Jan., 1719, by breaking through the ice." (Gen. Dict., u. s.) 2*
1700. 12 June.
34
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH
I702. 7 December.
I704. April.
between this Minister and the inhabitants at the time of his call, * shows that he hesitated to settle here, because uncertain whether the government would allow and approve his ministry "free from impositions " which he could not comply with. His fears on this score were not groundless, as the event proved, for a Church of England mission- ary had now been appointed in charge of Rye and Bedford ; and in due time there came an order for his induction. Rye, just then, had neither Minis- ter nor house of worship; and the inhabitants, by the special efforts of their rich neighbour Colonel Heathcote, were persuaded for a while to submit to the new order of things. But it was otherwise with Bedford. The people were now alive to the danger of losing their religious rights. Two years before this, both Bedford and East Chester,t while under Mr. Morgan's ministry, had sought to be re- leased from the operations of the Act of 1693, and left free to support a Minister of their own choice. Bedford showed special earnestness in pressing this request. The people, assembled in their town meeting, declared it to be their desire " that they may be by themselves [so] as to maintain one
I702. 4 October.
* Originally published by Mr. Heroy, in his Historical Discourse, and reprinted in the revised edition of the History of Westchester County, by the late Rev. Robert Bolton, vol. I., pp. 46, 47.
+ " Eastchester, having an Independent minister, endeavoured at my coming to make themselves a distinct parish." -- Mr. Bartow to the G. P. S., May 25, 1703. (History of the Prot. Episc. Church in Westchester Co., p. 22.)
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH. 35
among themselves : and their desire is that they may be clear from ye former act of ye assembly of being joyned to Rye and Memerinock; and the town doth desire Mr. Jacobus van Cortlandt to present their desire and pertision to the Generall Assembly and ye town is willing to satisfie sd Cortland for his trouble." * These efforts had
been vain. The shrewd rector of Westchester wrote home to England : " There have been great endeavours made this session to annul that Act ; but we are safe as long as my Lord Cornbury is governor."+ Bedford was destined to remain a part of the parish of Rye until the Revolution. The people, however, found it difficult to accept the situation gracefully. Upon the arrival of Mr. Pritchard,¿ to "take possession of this portion of his benefice," § they displayed a stubborn and unmanageable spirit truly astounding. Young Benjamin Wright, and Mr. John Thomson, gentle- man, of London, lately removed from Stamford into this place, testify under oath, that all their endeavours to prevail with the inhabitants to en. courage Mr. Pritchard have been fruitless. Zach- ariah Roberts, the justice of the peace, is es
1704,! April.
* Town Records of Bedford.
+ History of the Prot. Episc. Church in Westchester Co., p. 13
# The Rev. Thomas Pritchard was sent in 1704, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to be its mis_ sionary at Rye, Westchester Co., N. Y. His brief ministry ended deplorably in March or April of the next year. (Bolton, History of the P. E. Church in Westchester Co., p. 146.) § Id., p. 619.
-
36
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1705.
pecially violent in his opposition. He refuses to take any affidavits in behalf of the Church of Eng- land, the Queen, and the government of New York. He has procured the passage of an act, at the town meeting, enjoining upon the people not to pay Mr. Pritchard anything. As for Mr. Jones, he preaches with great bitterness, referring in terms far from complimentary to the Church of England, and the government of New York ; and winding up his diatribe by saying to his congrega- tion, " Ye may tell'em so at York, for that he did not care for my Lord the Governor." As for the people, the greatest part of them are ripe for rebellion .* All this was very disturbing ; and we
* The affidavits of Benjamin Wright and John Thomson are printed in the Documentary History of New York, vol. III., pp. 933, 4, 5. For the following papers, not before published, from the Colonial Manuscripts in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany, I am indebted to the accomplished and obliging curator, Mr. Berthold Fernow.
John Tomson and Benjamin Wright both of Competent Age Tes- tify that they have been sore oppressed with the continuall reflec- tions of Mr. John Jones in his Preaching in Bedford Continually reflecting against the Church of England's present Government that he cares not for the said Church nor my Lord that he cares not for anything but to get away what they have for taxes ye said Jones and Robarts are very dangerous men Against the Church and Govern- ment and that the said Jones do persist in Continuall reflections as aforesaid Saying Come out of her my people least ye partake of her plauges With Continuall reflections against the Church of England . . . that they are in a dangerous Government where they do not pray nor serve God and that the said Jones do and wou'd Preach Reprobation in defiance of Principalities and Powers that they should tell them at Yorke that he wou'd do so and that he wou'd burne the [books of the] Church of England
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