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 3
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
are not surprised to learn that the offending jus- tice and Minister were called to account for their conduct before the governor and council. Mr. Jones was required to give surety for his appear- ance, and Zachariah Roberts was remanded into the custody of the sheriff of the city, till the next session of the Supreme Court of the province.+
Especially those that was brought from Colonel Heathcote and that the friends of the Church wou'd desire the Reverend Mr. Pritchard to come there to preach but cannot prevaile whereby some of them are forced to quitt the place for feare of damage to their Bodys being made so vnhappy and vneasy thereby, that the greatest parte of the Inhabitants are ripe or ready for Rebellion abundantly more than is here Expressed. John Thomson.
Benjamin Wright.
(N. Y. Colonial MSS., vol. L, f. 75.)
+ The Depositions of John Thompson and Benjamin Wright of Bedford agt one John Jones a Dissenting Minister of Bedford for speaking severall Irreverant Words agt the Church of England and many seditious words agt the Government being read, the sd Jones was Called into the Councill Chamber and the said Depositions be- ing likewise read to him and he not having given sufficient satisfac_ tion thereon to this Board it is Ordered that the sd Jno Jones wth sufficient sureties enter into recognizance for £25. -. - to appear at the next Supreme Court to be held for the Province to answer such things as shall be alleged in behalf of her Majtie.
The depositions of the sd Thompson and Wright agt Zachariah Roberts of the same place a Justice of ye Peace for severall illegall and unwarrantable practices being read and the sd Roberts being Called in to the Councill Chamber to whom the sd Depositions were likewise read and he having given no satisfactory answers thereon to this Board it is ordered, that the sd Zachariah Roberts remain in the hands of the Sherriffe of the Citty and County of New Yorke till the next Supream Court to be held for the Province there to answer such things as shall be brought and objected agt him in behalfe of Our Sovereigne Lady ye Queen.
(Council Minutes, ix., p. 518 (May 8th, 1705).
1705. 8 May
38
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1705.
1706. 22 May.
His apprehensions of interference on the part of the government fully realized, Mr. Jones left Bed- ford in 1705 .* And now the people, perhaps hop- ing to be allowed the exercise of their right under the Act of 1693, applied to the governor for leave to settle a Minister of their own choosing.t Lord Cornbury delayed answering the petition until he could consult the new missionary at Rye, as incum- bent of the parish that included Bedford. This was Mr. Muirson ¿- " an abdicated Scotch Jaco- bite parson," as a writer of the period styles him -" obtruded upon " the Bedford people, and "that insults intolerably over them."§ Mr. Muirson's opinion of the Bedford people was not more flat- tering than this opinion of him. "Every fourth Sunday I preach at Bedford," he writes home to the Gospel Propagation Society, " and I am afraid without success, for they are a very wilful, stub- born people."| Each of these statements, how-
* " Lately an Independent minister hath removed out of it." (Rev. George Muirson, 21 Nov., 1705. Bolton, History of the P. E. Church in Westchester Co., p. 151.)
+ Webster, History of the Presb. Church in America, p. 335.
# The Rev. George Muirson was sent over in 1705 to succeed Mr. Pritchard at Rye. He died there, 12 Oct., 1708.
§ " The late petition of Bedford for calling a Minister, is not yet answered, until an abdicated Scotch Jacobite Parson, obtruded upon them, that insults intollerably over them, is consulted with." -A Narrative of a New and Unusual Imprisonment of Two Pres- byterian Ministers, and Prosecution of Mr. Francis Makemie, for preaching One Sermon in the City of New York. - Epistle to the Reader.
|| Bolton, History of the P. E. Church in Westchester Co., p. 166.
39
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
ever, must be taken with some allowance. ] Mr. Muirson was really a laborious and self-sacrificing Minister, faithful to his convictions of duty ; whose death, at the early age of thirty-three, was has- tened by his fatigues and privations in his Master's service. And the Bedford people may certainly be pardoned for some degree of "stubbornness " at the time. Dissatisfied with their recent change of government, and chafing under Lord Cornbury's brutal rule, they could have been in no mood to submit to that which they regarded as an unwar- rantable intrusion upon their rights of conscience. Nor do they seem to have flinched in after days from the decided stand thus taken. A quarter of a century later, they still had the name of being " the most rigid and severe of all the Dissenters,"* in this region of so-called Dissent. The fact is, they were simply very thorough and inveterate Presbyterians.
They were Presbyterians, that is, in the larger sense in which that name was used from the begin- ning among the Connecticut churches. No pres- bytery, indeed, had yet been organized in America, at the time when this town was founded. But the ecclesiastical system that prevailed in Connecticut was one that bore a close affinity with the Presby- terian order, and that was frequently designated, even at a very early day, as Presbyterian.
The commissioners sent by Charles II. to Con- necticut were instructed to inform themselves of
* Bolton, History of the P. E. Church in Westchester Co., p. 256.
1706.
1731.
40
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1664. 23 April. the full difference between the people of that colony and those of Massachusetts ; the king con- ceiving " those of Conecticott to contrive them- selves under the most rigid Presbiterian Govern- ment."* The commissioners' report confirmed this 14 December. impression. " For the most part they are rigid I665. Presbyterians." + The principal friends and patrons of this colony in England, from the be- ginning, and many of those who came over to settle here, were avowed Presbyterians .¿ A tend- ency that became more and more pronounced, and that resulted in the formation and adoption of the Saybrook Platform, was apparent at a very early day.§
1708. 20 September.
Under the Saybrook Platform, which, according to Dr. Hodge, comes very little short of Presby- terianism, the Consociation ." possessed substan- tially the same authority as Presbytery." The fundamental principle by which Congregationalism is distinguished from Presbyterianism, is " that every local congregation of believers . . . is a com- plete church, and not to be subject in government
* Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. III., p. 55.
+ Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1661-1668 ; p. 341.
# The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, by Charles Hodge, D.D., part I., pp. 31, 34.
§ Historical Discourse, etc., by Leonard Bacon, D.D., pp. 15, seq .- " Most of the Puritans who went over to New England were attached to a species of Presbyterianism, rather than to Independ- ency."-Orme's Life of Owen ; quoted in the "Presbyterian Quar- terly Review," vol. VII., p. 433, note.
41
1708.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
to any ecclesiastical authority outside of itself."* Clearly recognizing this principle, the Hartford North Association, comprising some of the lead- ing Ministers of Connecticut, declared in 1799, " that the constitution of the churches" in that State, "founded on the common usages, and the Confession of Faith, Heads of Agreement, and Articles of Church Discipline, adopted at the ear- liest period of the settlement of that State, is not Congregational,t but contains the essentials of the government of the Church of Scotland, or Presby- terian Church in America, particularly as it gives a decisive power to ecclesiastical councils ; and a Consociation, consisting of Ministers and messen- gers, or a lay representative from the churches, is possessed of substantially the same authority as Presbytery.# The churches therefore in Con-
* Rev. A. S. Quint, D. D., in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. II., p. 475.
+ Dr. Bellamy (1744) held that a church receiving the Saybrook Platform departed from Congregational principles. - (Bellamy Papers, MS.).
# The following illustrations may be given, from the minutes of the Eastern Consociation of Fairfield County :- In 1746, the Conso- ciation "pronounce the awful sentence of Excommunication " upon a member of a church under their care. In 1759, at the desire of " a considerable number of ye society," they dismiss the pastor of a congregation. In 1763, the church in Danbury dissenting from the Saybrook Platform, declaring itself a Congregational church, and refusing to submit to the jurisdiction of any Consociated au- thority, the Consociation resolve that they have the right of jurisdic_ tion, notwithstanding the doings and votes of said church. Occa- sionally the Consociation is designated in these minutes, as "the Presbytery."
42
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1708.
necticut at large, and in our district in particular, are not now, and never were, from the earliest period of our settlement, Congregational churches, according to the ideas and forms of church order contained in the Book of Discipline called the Cam- bridge Platform. There are, however, scattered over the State, perhaps ten or twelve churches [unconsociated] which are properly called Con- gregational."
Thus there was much to justify the usage in accordance with which, from early times, and down to a period comparatively recent, the churches of Connecticut have been familiarly styled Presbyterian. Such, at all events, was the designation of the Bedford church from the beginning.» It is to be presumed that under the Saybrook Platform this congregation came under the care of the Association of Fairfield County ; for though in a political sense ceded to the prov- ince of New York, Bedford continued until about the year 1720 to be regarded from the Connecti- cut point of view as belonging, ecclesiastically, to the parish of Stamford ;} and it is reasonable to
* " There is a Presbyterian preacher at Bedford " (Rev. Robert Jenney, of Rye : 1722). "There are three meeting houses in the parish, one at Bedford, built for, and used by the Presbyterians." " At Bedford they have had a Presbyterian minister " (Rev. James Wetmore, of Rye : 1728). Bolton, History of the P. E. Church in Westchester Co., pp. 222, 249.
+ Huntington, History of Stamford, Conn., p. 145. The records of Fairfield County Association, for this period, unfortunately, do not exist.
43
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
suppose that during the long period of destitution that intervened, the Ministers at Stamford offici- ated, at least occasionally, in the " meeting house " at Bedford.
For fifteen years after the removal of Mr. Jones from Bedford, the town was without a resident Minister. Failing in their appeal to the Assembly, and finding resistance to the governor's arbitrary rule useless, the people gave up the struggle, and submitted to a wrong which was not to be re- dressed while the colonial government lasted. They were taxed year by year for the support of the Church of England missionary at Rye, twenty miles off ; the constable of the town being required to collect the quota assessed upon this part of the missionary's " parish," and pay the amount in half- yearly instalments to the church-wardens. Occa- sionally, too, a special assessment was added for the completion of the church at Rye, and the re- pair of the Minister's house." Compelled to carry this load, the people of Bedford appear to have felt for several years that it would be impossible to bear the expense of supporting also a ministry of
' The Records of the Vestry show that from the year 1711- when the Records begin-to the year 1719, the average yearly amount levied upon the town of Bedford, as its quota toward the salary of the missionary at Rye, and other expenses of the parish (including " Beating the Drum ") was £11, 8, I. From 1722 to to 1731 the average amount was £13, 6, II. From 1732 to 1740, £14, 12, I. From 1741 to 1750, £20, 10, 8. From 1750 to 1760, £22, 2, 7. From 1760 to 1770, £47, 5, 9. From 1770 to 1776, £99, 18, II.
1705 to I720.
44
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1719. 22 May.
their own .* Perhaps they may have been sustained by the hope that an opportunity to escape from this oppressive yoke might present itself. Such an opportunity came at last, as they thought, in the year 1719, upon the death of Mr. Bridge, t the third rector of Rye. A vacancy of three years fol- lowed. During this vacancy the " Minister's rate" remained ungathered throughout the parish ; and the inhabitants of Rye, " being for the most part such as were desirous of having a dissenting teacher settled " there,¿ took occasion, in the ex- ercise of their supposed rights, to invite a Pres- byterian Minister to their church. This Minister was the Reverend Stephen Buckingham, who was called to Rye early in the year 1720,§and remained for more than two years.| It was at the same
* " The people there are very poor, and incapable to maintain two differing ministers." This was said in 1722 of the people of Rye : it was doubtless equally true of the people of Bedford. (Bolton, History of the Prot. Episc. Church in. Westchester Co., p. 214.)
+ The Rev. Christopher Bridge was inducted Rector of the Parish of Rye, 17 October, 1710, and died in that office 22 May, 1719.
# History of the Prot. Episc. Church in Westchester Co., p. 22I. § " They have resolved to call one Mr. Buckingham, a Dissenting minister, and have accordingly sent to acquaint him with it."-Mr. Poyer to the G. P. Society, II Feb., 1719-20. (Id., p. 212.)
| " The want of a missionary so long at Rye has introduced a dissenter to build his nest there." Mr. Thomas to the G. P. So- ciety, 20 April, 1722. “ There is a Presbyterian preacher at Bed- ford, and there was another at Rye, when I came here." Mr. Jenney to the G. P. Society, 15 Dec., 1722. (Id., pp. 213, 222.) The Rev. Robert Jenney, Mr. Bridge's successor, came to Rye in June, 1722.
45
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
time, and by concert of action, doubtless, with the people of Rye, that the inhabitants of Bedford called to their town that eminent man whose name is intimately associated with the early history of Presbyterianism and of evangelical religion in this country, the Reverend WILLIAM TENNENT .*
It was probably under Mr. Tennent's ministry that this church came for the first time under the care of a Presbytery. A clergyman of the Irish Episcopal Church, he had removed to America less than two years before, and had joined the Synod of Philadelphia, upon giving his reasons for dissenting from the doctrines and practices of prelacy. After preaching for eighteen months in East Chester, New York, he came to Bedford. He was now forty-eight years old ; and his four sons, Gilbert, William, John, and Charles, were youths nine to seventeen years of age. Bedford has no
* Born in Ireland about 1672. Ordained deacon I July, 1704, and priest 22 Sept., 1706, by the Bishop of Down. Married in the County of Down, Ireland, 15 May, 1702, to Catharine, daughter of Rev. Gilbert Kennedy, of Ayrshire, Scotland. Arrived in Phila - delphia 6 Sept., 1718. Admitted a member of the Synod of Phil a- delphia 17 Sept., 1718. Settled in the parish of East Chester, N. Y., 22 Nov., 1718. Removed to Bedford, N. Y., 3 May, 1720. Re- moved to Neshaminy, Bucks Co., Penn., in 1726 or 1727. Continued pastor of the church in that place until 1742. Died in Neshaminy, 6 May, 1745. His widow died in Philadelphia, 7 May, 1753, aged seventy years. " His tombstone, in the graveyard of Neshaminy Church, incorrectly gives the date of his death as May 6, 1746. It should be 1745." History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, Pa., 1726-1876. By Rev. D. K. Turner. Philadelphia : 1876. Page 65.
1720 to 1727.
I720. 3 May.
46
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1720 to
I727
more interesting association than that of the pres- ence of this remarkable family within its precincts. Their home was in the northeastern part of the town, at " Cantito," the region since illustrated by the residence of the honoured John Jay. Here a farm was laid out for the new Minister, at the time of his coming, in the common lands between the Cisco and Cross rivers ; and an additional tract of twenty-three acres on the eastern side of the " former bounds " was given him five years later. We follow in imagination the father and the sons in their labours upon this rude farm, their wan- derings through the forest in pursuit of the game with which the region still abounded, and their Sabbath day's journey of five miles to the " meet- ing house " on the village green.
Mr. Tennent's stay in Bedford has been hitherto represented as very brief -- covering a few months, or at the most, a year .* But from the references to his ministry which I have discovered in the records of this town, as well as in those of the adjoining town of Stamford, + I am able to
* The General Assembly's Missionary Magazine, May, 1805 (vol. II.)-Biographical Sketches of the Founder and Principal Alumni of the Log College. Collected and edited by A. Alexander, D.D., Princeton, N. J., 1845, pp. 20, 22. - Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. III., p. 24.
+ At a Town meeting in Stamford, Conn., 25 Dec., 1722, " the request of James White of ye Long Ridg and ye rest of his neigh- bours concerning their minister's rate Desiring the Liberty of pay- ing so much money as they are obliged to pay to ye minister's rate in this town, to ye minister in Bedford " was granted " to ym and ye Inhabitants of ye Chestnut Ridg namely Dibble Conkling and
47
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
show that he continued to be the pastor of this church for more than six years - from the first of May, 1720, at least to the latter part of August, 1726.
Our information regarding the early years of Tennent's ministry in America is very scanty and unsatisfactory. The dates of his arrival in Phila- delphia, his settlement in East Chester, New York, and his removal to Bedford, are known .* It has been generally supposed that from Bedford he went in 1721 or 1722 to Bensalem, in Pennsylvania, where he continued until the year 1726. During this time, however, he was almost uniformly absent from the sessions of the Synod of Philadelphia, sometimes sending by letter reasons for his ab- sence, which were sustained. This fact would seem inexplicable, upon the hypothesis that Ten- nent was then preaching in Bensalem, within twenty miles of Philadelphia.+ It is now certain that he
Corey upon this consideration that they bring a note from under ye hand of ye Reverend Mr. Tenants, that they have paid the same to him before ye next town meeting." At a Town meeting, II Dec., 1723, the town " grants ye same liberty to ye inhabitants of ye Long Ridg and ye Chestnut Ridg of paying their ministers rate to Bedford as was granted ye last year they bringing from under Mr Tenants hand that they have paid ye sd taxes to Bedford." (Town Records of Stamford, Conn., Book No. 2, pp. 141, 142.) The same permission was given in December, 1724 and 1725.
* Memoranda in the hand-writing of Mr. Tennent, quoted by Dr. Alexander, Log College, pp. 248, 249, note.
+ "It is not probable that the History of Log College is cor- rect in stating that Mr. Tennent was in Bensalem from 1721 to 1726, for during that time a pastor of another name, a Dutch min-
1720 to I727.
48
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
remained in Bedford until the latter part of August, 1726: and it would seem probable that his removal to Neshaminy may not have occurred before the following spring or summer .*
The references to Mr. Tennent in the town records of Bedford are numerous, and their tone implies that he was held in very high considera- tion. It is evident from the action taken by the people on several occasions that they were exceed- ingly anxious to retain him as their Minister. Be- sides his salary of forty pounds, made up by volun -. tary contributions, and collected by a committee of the " society," he received repeated grants of land, amounting in all to several hundred acres. But the support was meagre, at best ; and with a
ister, had charge of the Bensalem Church, at least two or three years. At what time exactly Mr. Tennent came to Neshaminy is doubtful ; but his absence from the Synod at Philadelphia seven years out of eight, from 1719 to 1727, being present only in 1721, would indicate that he did not reside in Pennsylvania ; for from 1727 to 1741, when he left the Synod and joined the New Bruns- wick Presbytery, he was present at the meetings of Synod every year but one. He was absent in 1735. It is probable, therefore, that he did not come to Pennsylvania to reside permanently till 1726, when he came to Neshaminy."-History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, page II, note.
* That Mr. Tennent's removal from Bedford to Neshaminy may not have occurred before the spring of 1727, would appear probable, from the fact that he was still absent from the Synod of Philadelphia in September, 1726; from the allusion to his departure, in the cor- respondence of the Rev. James Wetmore, of Rye, in 1728, as of re- cent occurrence ; and from the date (1727) of the erection of the first house of worship in Neshaminy. (History of Neshaminy Church, page 13.)
I720 to I727.
49
1725. 8 November.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
large family to provide for, he found it necessary at length to depart. Perhaps the last appropria- tion of land to Mr. Tennent, in November, 1725, may have been made with the hope of altering his determination. What the result might have been, if this eminent servant of God could have remained with his attached people, and if from this centre the Gospel as preached by him and by his gifted sons could have sounded out through this region, it is in- teresting to conjecture. But the oppressive course of the colonial government, in taxing the town for the benefit of the Church of England, prevented the people from adequately supporting the minis- try of their own choice. During the latter years of Mr. Tennent's stay in Bedford, this "precinct " of the " parish of Rye " was again assessed for the salary of the Anglican missionary in that place. If they had hoped for relief from this exaction after Mr. Bridge's death, in 1719, the people were soon to be disappointed. In 1722, the Justices and Vestry were required by the new rector * to raise the money due for the past three years, and pay it over to the church wardens. Upon their refusal, Mr. Jenney procured a writ of mandamus to compel payment. The following receipt, which has been preserved by one of the old families of the
* The Rev. Robert Jenney was appointed in 1722 by the Gospel Propagation Society to be its Missionary at Rye. In 1726 he removed to Hempstead, L. I., and thence in 1742 to Philadelphia, where he was for twenty years rector of Christ Church. He died 5 Jan., 1762, aged seventy-five years.
3
50
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
town,* relates to the period of Mr. Tennent's min- istry, and testifies to one of the grievances under which the Presbyterians of Bedford suffered during the colonial times :
" Recd ye first of Aprill 1726 from Richard Holmes Constable of Bedford for 1724, Eleven pounds Sixteen shilling with his Collection for ye Ministrs Rate that year, in full of his warrant I say Red pr me. JOHN HORTON."+
As every trace of Mr. Tennent's residence in Bedford must be of interest to the members of this church, I transcribe here from the records of the town the grants of land made to him, together with the conveyances which he executed upon his departure from the place.
We whose names are under written being Inhabitants of ye Town of Bedford in Westchester County in ye province of New York & being ye propriators of old purchas and Cohomong purchas in ye Township aforesd doe give grant alienate & make over unto ye Red Mr William Tenant his heirs & assignes for ever all that fourteen acres of land in the East field on ye north side
* The family of the late John C. Holmes.
+ John Horton was one of the church-wardens of the parish church of Rye, in 1724 .-- The constables did not always perform this function of their office with a good grace. In 1730, the Justices and Vestry of Rye ordered and empowered the church-wardens " to prosecute immediately the Constables of Bedford and of the Man- nour of Scarsdale, who are behind of paying in ye parish Rate." (Records of Vestry.)
1726.
5I
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
of a way & joyning to ye land of Thomas Chambers east & north the said Mr Tennant relinquishing his right to fourteen acres of land that is to be laid out in ye first hundred acres to be laid out to him by virtue of a grant from Joseph Holmes & Jonathan Miller juner &c as witness our hands this first day of March annoqe 1721 Jonathan Miller Cornelius Seely Joshua Jones Thomas Wescot Daniel Holly Nathan Clark Hezekiah Roberts Richard Waring Zach Mills Jonathan Miller Stephen Miller Jonathan Holmes Joseph Holmes James Chambers David Holmes
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