USA > New York > Nassau County > Hempstead > History of St. George's Church, Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y. > Part 12
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Christ Church, Oyster Bay.
son of New York were selected as the architects. The corner stone was laid May 1, 1878, by the Rector, the Rev. George R. Vandewater, and the completed build- ing was consecrated on St. Barnabas' day, June II, 1879, by the Rt. Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, LL.D., the Bishop of the Diocese of Long Island.
The new church, as contrasted with the one it dis- placed, shows not only the increased strength of the parish, but also the great advancement which has recently been made in architectural taste.
List of Rectors and Ministers of Christ Church, Oyster Bay, since its Re-establishment.
Rev. Edwin Harwood, D.D., Sep. 1844 to May, 1846.
John Stearns, Jr., Aug. 1846 " July, 1849.
Edmund Richards, Dec. 1849 " Oct. 1851.
Joseph Ransom, 1851 " 1861.
Richard Graham Hutton, A.B., Oct. 1861 to. April, 1874.
Rev. Charles W. Ward, Oct. 1874 to May, 1875. James Byron Murray, D. D. 1875 " 1876.
George R. Vandewater, Oct. 1876 " Feb. 1880. William Montague Geer, March, 1880.
From this account of the history of the Church at Oyster Bay, we return to that of the ministry of the Rector of St. George's, the Rev. T. L. Moore.
The town of Hempstead was increasing rapidly in population, and its large territory offered many new points where the services of the Church were needed, and could be advantageously used. And although Mr. Moore was active and diligent, he found the work growing upon him. He did all in his power to minister the Word and Sacraments in every part of
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183
Rev. Thos. Lambert Moore.
his parish. At Success, in the north part of the parish, he held services at least one Sunday every month in the Reformed Dutch Church, which was kindly loaned to him, for the convenience of his parishioners at Manhasset and on the Necks. He also held services on week days in private houses and school houses in the south part of the parish, as at Hicks' Neck, and at Gen. Van Wyck's at Rockaway. But at the parish church alone could the services be enjoyed with all appropriate ceremonies, and this fact was appreciated by the people. At the festivals especially, and particularly at Christmas, when the dressing of the Sanctuary with evergreens was so distinctive a custom of the Episcopal Church,-and so common a matter of reproach to us then from other denominations,-the people flocked to the old church in numbers entirely beyond its capacity to ac- commodate them. They came from the most distant parts of Rockaway, from South Oyster Bay, from Foster's Meadow, and from the Necks of north Hempstead even down to Sands Point. An aged lady,* who in her youth lived at Success-Lakeville, -related to the writer her well remembered experi- ence in attending church in those days, when " Parson Moore was the minister." To traverse the fourteen miles, from Great Neck and Cow Neck, over bad roads, and when light carriages were a luxury unattainable, required a start of at least three hours before church time. The usual convey- ance was a farm wagon-without springs-prepared
* Mrs. Hannah Nostrand Cornwell.
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St. George's Church.
for Sunday use by having chairs for the elder persons and clean straw in the bottom for children. Those who could not compass even such a moderate degree of luxury, and were obliged to come on foot, were careful to reserve their shoes and stockings in their hands, until they reached the borders of the village ; when, either in the "Parsonage Brook " or Burly Pond, they removed the accumulated dust from their feet, and completed their toilet.
An interesting and memorable event during Mr. Moore's rectorship, was the first confirmation in the parish. Until this period there had been no Bishop in the country to administer the sacred rite. Pre- vious generations of Churchmen in this land had been deprived of the privilege of the sanctifying act. They had felt-as already observed, p. 120-the depri- vation to be a hardship and a wrong. And it was a wrong harder to hear because it was produced by the opposition of godless statesmen in Great Britain, to the appointments of Bishops for the Colonies. Churchmen from all parts of the land had protested and had prayed in vain to be endowed with the in- struments of Apostolic appointment, without which the Church could not preserve her existence. " The poor Church of America," was the complaint of Churchmen at the time-" is worse off than her adversaries that are round about her. She has no- body on the spot to comfort or confirm her children, -nobody to ordain such as are willing to serve."
The complaint was well founded.
" Only that communion which clave close to the Apostolic model was on all sides cramped and weak-
18.5
Rev. Thos. Lambert Moore.
ened : without the centre of visible unity-without the direction of common efforts-without the power of confirming the young, whilst it taught the young that there was a blessing in the very rite which it withheld from them,-without the power of ordina- tion, whilst it maintained that it was needful for a true succession of the priesthood,-declaring by its own teaching, its maimed and imperfect condition, and feeling it practically at every turn."*
The consciences of Churchmen, and especially the clergy, were hurt by reason of this arbitrary with- holding of privileges pertaining to the Christian birthright. " There is a dispute among our clergy," wrote one of them to the Bishop of London,+ " relat- ing to the exhortation after baptism to the godfather, to bring the child to the Bishop to be confirmed. Our adversaries object to it as a mere jest to order the godfather to bring the child to the Bishop, when there is not one within a thousand leagues of us."
The evil and wrong which was done to the Church in America by those who were in authority in Eng- land, in stubbornly disregarding her piteous entrea- ties to send her men endowed with the Apostolic order and authority, has recently been recited in a speech made before the Propagation Society at Lin- coln, England, at the Anniversary of that Society, November 7, ISSo, by the Rt. Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Long Island, of which we give an extract :
"For nearly a century and a half the Church in
* Wilberforce, Hist. Amer. Church, .p. III.
t Wilberforce, Hist. Amer, Church, p. 112.
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St. George's Church.
America was left without the Episcopate ; and when given, it was with reluctance and almost under constraint. For all that time a hearty allegiance to the Mother Church was repaid with neglect. Meanwhile, there were hundreds of parishes, but no diocese ; multitudes of the baptized, but no confirm- ation ; priests demanded on all sides to guide the infant colonial life, but no ordination save by crossing 3000 miles of ocean. Meanwhile, too, every Eng- lish speaking sect, embarrassed by no such funda- mental defects of polity and discipline, going out to the New World on fire with zeal kindled by both politi- cal and ecclesiastical differences at home, found a safe and welcome lodgment, and laid deep and wide the foundations of their power ; so that when the Ameri- can Church at last appeared in the field, with the Apostolic Equipment so long withheld, she seemed as one born out of due time," &c.
The great impediment to the growth and welfare of the Church having been removed, and Bishop Provoost having been consecrated in England, Feb. 4, 1787, Bishop of New York,-the following October, Wednesday the 3 Ist, he came to this parish, and after the Morning Service, read by the Rev. Mr. Beach, an assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York, and a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Bloomer, of Grace Church, Jamaica; he confirmed one hundred and fifty-five persons-the accumulated candidates of many years, and the largest class yet confirmed in the parish. The list of that first class has been happily preserved. It includes the names of persons from all portions of the extended parish. Among them are the familiar names of such sturdy Churchmen as Kissam, Allen, Burtis, Treadwell, Thorn, Clowes,
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Rev. Thos. Lambert Moore.
Mitchel, Hewlett, Platt, Van Nostrand, Cornell, Gilder- sleeve, Demot, Jackson, Bedel, Sands, Curtis, Car- man, Hagner, Onderdonk, Rhodes, Weeks, Petit, Durling, Pool, Titus, Baldwin, Stringham and John- son.
It may be regarded as a fulfilment of the assurance of long life as a part of the heritage of righteousness, that of those thus confirmed in 1787, there were several still living and active members of the church, more than fifty years afterwards, viz .:
George Weeks, died 1854 aged 84 years. Mrs. Jane (Stringham) Abrams, died 1864, aged 93. Miss Sarah Smith, died 1860, aged 93 years. Mrs. Abigail (Carman) Clowes, died 1855 aged 81. Benjamin Treadwell, died 1855, aged 85 years. Mrs. Mary Ann (Moore) Hewlett,
(sister of the Rector) died 1853, aged 86. Mrs. Sarah Pettit, died 1853, aged 89 years.
On the 20th of February, 1799, the useful minis- try of the Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore was closed by death, in the 41st year of his age. At his funeral the church edifice was draped in mourning. The burial service was read by the Rev. Mr. Rattoone, of Jamaica, and a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke, of St. James' Church, Newtown, and the interment was under the chancel of the church, which position is indicated by the tombstone erected over the remains, when the church was taken down, and the present site chosen for the new one.
A mural tablet was erected in 1807 in the church to his memory, which bears this inscription:
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St. George's Church.
I. H. S.
Sacred to the Memory of the REVD. THOS. LAMBT. MOORE, M. A., late Rector of this Church. Born at New York the 22nd February, 1758, Ordained Deacon by the Bishop of London, the 21st September, 1781, and Priest by the Bishop of Chester, the 24th February, 1782. Called to this Parish the 3rd March, 1785, and died the 20th February, 1799. By his engaging and persuasive manners, his Christian zeal and popular talents, he gathered and left a numerous and respectable Congregation To perpetuate his revered memory and usefulness. The Corporation of St. George's Church, have erected this stone, the tribute of their gratitude and affection.
The portrait of the Rev. Thos. L. Moore was painted while he was in England, and a copy of it, presented by his son, Thomas Daniel Moore, to St. George's Church, hangs in the robing room. The publications of Mr. Moore were :
Sermon before Convention of the Diocese of New York, Nov. 3, 1789. Sermon on Religious Divisions, 1792.
He was elected a delegate to the General Conven- tion from New York, in 1789, 1792, and 1795, and was a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of New York in 1790.
At his death he left a widow, Mrs. Judith Moore, who died October, 1834 ; a son, Thomas Daniel, who became a merchant in New York City, and died June 18, 1857 ; and three daughters, who remained unmar-
189
Rev. Thos. Lambert Moore.
ried. One of these, and the latest survivor, Elizabeth Frances, born in the Rectory, and the first child born in it, December 18, 1793, died at Hempstead, where she had resided for the previous seventeen years, February 19, 1881, aged 88 years and two months. In her infancy she was so feeble that no hope was entertained of her continuing long to live. And through all her life her attenuated frame declared the absence of ro- bust health, and yet she outlived and was longer lived than any member of her family.
Always of a buoyant spirit, in despite the lack of bodily vigor, her declining years exhibited a pleasing example of cheerful piety and placid old age. Her remains were laid beside those of her parents and sisters, in the ground which had been beneath the chancel of the old church.
Mr. Moore's ministry left a beneficent impression, which endured through the lives of his parishioners. It was cherished and extolled by the few aged sur- vivors when the writer came to the rectorship, fifty years after Mr. Moore's decease. It is not the privi- lege, nor in the power of many of Christ's ambassa- dors to write their memories so deeply in the hearts of their people.
Mr. Moore's influence is accounted for by his ex- cellent qualities as a man and pastor, and his effectiveness as a preacher. In the latter point he is said to have strongly resembled his brother, Bishop R. C. Moore, of Virginia. Like his brother, he com- bined vigor of delivery and emphasis of manner with a peculiarly suasory intonation of voice, which was at once clear, flexible and sympathetic. Like him, too,
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St. George's Church.
he had the gift of arousing and enchaining the atten- tion of those who are usually apathetic. And he had, in an unusual degree, the ability to impress his hearers with the feeling that his intense earnestness proceeded from his deep conviction of the truth and immeasurable importance of what he declared. He was permitted to see large fruits to his ministry, and accomplished what St. Peter desired : "I will en- deavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance."-2 Peter 1 : 15.
CHAPTER VI.
1799-1829.
T WO months after the death of the Rev. Thos. Lambert Moore, the Vestry of St. George's Church, at a meeting held April 8, 1799, took meas- ures to supply the vacant rectorship, and made the following record :
" It having pleased Almighty God to deprive this Church of our late dear and worthy Pastor, the Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore, who after a residence of Fourteen years in this Parish, departed this Life, on the 20th February last, sincerely lamented by his whole congregation-The Vestry unanimously agreed to, and did nominate as his successor, the Rev. Rich'd Channing Moore, of Staten Island, Brother of the de- ceased."
A call in due form having been drawn up and signed, together with a letter to the Rev. R. C. Moore, they were committed to the hands of Col. R. Thorne to deliver.
On the 14th of May it being reported to the Vestry that the Rev. Mr. Moore had by letter of the 7th inst. declined the call for the reasons therein set forth -the Vestry determined to appoint a Committee to
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St. George's Church.
confer with the Rev. Mr. Ratoone, then Rector of Jamaica and Flushing, Messrs. Thos. Clowes and John Moore were appointed the Committee.
This Committee subsequently reported that they had waited on the Rev. Mr. Ratoone, who, while ex- pressing his thanks to the Vestry for their kind inten- tions, declared that for many weighty reasons which attached him to Jamaica and Flushing, he could not accept a call from this church.
A letter having been brought to the notice of the Vestry from the Rt. Rev. Bishop White, of Pennsyl- vania, to the Rev. Mr. Waddel of New Jersey, recom- mending the Rev. Mr. Hobart in the strongest terms, both as to his professional abilities and moral character, it was unanimously resolved to call him, and Mr. John Moore was made the bearer of the call, who subse- quently reported that he had waited upon Mr. Hobart at Princeton, and Mr. H. replied in a letter to the Vestry that his immediate acceptance of the call was only prevented by a temporary engagement at New Brunswick, which would not terminate till the follow- ing May. Upon this the call was unanimously re- newed, together with the assurance that the Vestry would wait till his engagement at New Brunswick was ended, and only asking that as Mr. Hobart was not engaged at New Brunswick for the fourth Sunday of each month, he would officiate on those Sundays at Hempstead as often as circumstances would permit.
The earnest and wise desire of the Vestry to secure the Rev. John Henry Hobart for their rector, is suffi- ciently evinced by this proceeding of theirs. They had undoubtedly increasing reason, with increasing
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Rev. John Henry Hobart.
acquaintance with him, to feel assured that under his guidance and rule the parish would have every rea- sonable ground to expect to be continued in its career of advancing spiritual and temporal prosperity.
On the 17th December, 1799, a letter from the Rev. Mr. Hobart led to the following action by the Vestry.
"The Vestry being desirous of doing every thing in their power for Mr. Hobart's accommodation, and to render his situation comfortable and happy while he shall continue to be their minister, do unanimously agree and engage to comply with the following par- ticulars :
"The annual salary which in the call to Mr. Hobart was estimated at about one hundred and fifty pounds, shall be absolute and fixed, at that sum, without de- duction.
" Mr. Hobart shall be punctually and timely sup- plied with as much firewood as he shall deem necessary for the use of his family, without any expense to him.
" A good and sufficient Barn shall be erected in the course of the next Spring, in all respects suitable to the Parsonage. And the Parsonage House and Fencing shall be painted agreeably to Mr. Hobart's wishes."
The Vestry having met all the requests of the Rev. Mr. Hobart, promptly, and in an admirable spirit of generosity, all hindrances were removed. Mr. Hobart accepted the call and entered upon the Rectorship of St. George's Parish on Whitsunday, June 1, 1800.
The Rectorship had thus been vacant for a year and four months. But the Vestry had taken care that the spiritual needs of the parish should not be, meanwhile, neglected. Service was performed on
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St George's Church.
forty-one out of the sixty-eight intervening Sundays. Of these services the Rev. Mr. Hobart had charge ten times, and the Vestry thoughtfully made provis- ion to remunerate him for the expenses he incurred. The other services were performed by the following clergymen,-viz .: The Rev. Mr. Ireland, the Rector of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn ; the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke, of St. James', Newtown; Rev. Elijah D. Ratoone, of Jamaica ; Rev. Rd. Channing Moore, of Staten Island ; Rev. John Jackson Sands, of Islip ; Rev. Mr. Van Horn, of Orange County ; Dr. - afterwards Bishop - Benjamin Moore; Rev. Mr. Young, of Virginia : Rev. Dr. Beach, and Rev. Mr. Bissett, of Trinity Church, New York; Rev. Elias Cooper, of Yonkers ; Rev. Charles Seabury, of Con- necticut, and the Rev. John Urquhart, of Johnstown and Fort Hunter.
The pastoral connection between the Rev. John Henry Hobart and St. George's Parish, which had been so earnestly sought by the Vestry, and which began auspiciously, was destined to be of brief con- tinuance. The shining qualities in Mr. Hobart which were so attractive to the Vestry of St. George's, were equally well appreciated by others. In less than six months after his coming here, Mr. Hobart received a call to become an Assistant Minister in Trinity Parish, New York. The Vestry of St. George's reluctantly, but magnanimously consented to the severance of the pastoral bond.
It is unnecessary to enter into any description of the Rev. Mr. Hobart, who soon became the re- nowned Bishop of New York, and whose title to
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Rev. John Henry Hobart.
wide and permanent remembrance is not excelled by that of any of the good men who have adorned the Episcopal bench in the Church Catholic. But it is a coincidence worth noting, that the Rev. Mr. Ho- bart, who became the Rector of St. George's, Hemp- stead, was descended from the same stock with the Rev. Jeremy Hobart (or Hubbart, as it was some- times written), the Congregational or Independent minister, who had been the minister in Hempstead in I682 .* Mr. Hobart, at the time he was called from this parish to be assistant minister in Trinity Church, New York, was but in Deacon's Orders, and only twenty-five years old.+ He was not insensible to the kindly efforts which the Vestry of St. George's had made for his comfort. To Dr. John Charlton, one of the Committee of the Vestry to apprise him of his election to be an assistant minister of Trinity Church, he writes :#
" The congregation with which I am at present connected, have exerted themselves so much to render my situation comfortable and happy, that I think I cannot with delicacy and propriety leave them before the spring, unless they are willing to dispense with my services."
We have seen that St. George's Vestry magnani- mously, though reluctantly, surrendered their claim, so that he removed to New York before the close of the year 1800.
* Schroeder's Life of Hobart.
+ Berrian's His. Trinity Ch., p. 195.
# Berrian, p. 194.
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St. George's Church.
REV. SETH HART.
To supply the vacancy again occurring so soon and unexpectedly, the Vestry of St. George's ex- tended an invitation to the Rev. Seth Hart, of Wall- ingford, Connecticut, to become Rector.
Mr. Hart was recommended to the attention of the Vestry in letters from the Rev. Mr. Hull, of Connecti- cut ; Rev. Dr. Beach, of Trinity Church, New York, and especially Mr. Hart's own Diocesan, Right Rev. Bishop Jarvis. Mr. Hart was not entirely unknown to the congregation, having preached in St. George's a little time before Mr. Hobart left, "to very general acceptance."
The arrangements for Mr. Hart's support were substantially the same as those made with the Rev. Mr. Hobart, viz., £150 per annum-the use of the parsonage, with the glebe attached; the use of the Greenfield farm, and the farm near the South Bay, called " the South Parsonage," with liberty to him to take from the latter, wood for fuel and for fencing. But the Vestry did not renew the promise made to the Rev. Mr. Hobart, to supply the wood themselves. Mr. Hart must get it for himself.
These terms were accepted by Mr. Hart, he stipu- lating to divide his services on Sundays between South and North Hempstead in such a manner as might be determined on.
Mr. Hart entered into possession on Sunday, Dec. 21, 1800. The form of induction seems to have been omitted both in this instance and in the case of the Rev. Mr. Hobart ; and appears not to have been resumed till many years afterwards.
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Rev. Seth Hart.
Mr. Hart was born at Berlin, Connecticut, June 21, 1763 ;* graduated at Yale College in 1784; was or- dained Deacon, Oct. 9, 1791, by Bishop Seabury, and Priest, Oct. 14, 1792. He preached first at Waterbury, Conn., and from 1794 to 1798 was, rector of the churches at Wallingford and New Haven .. Some difficulty having arisen in the parish of New- Haven, he resigned it just previous to his call to Hempstead. Mr. Hart had the reputation of being a good classical scholar, and was an amiable man, of a cheerful and almost jovial temperament; and had attained the reputation of being a successful teacher.
1801, March 4 .- The following advertisement re- lating to his school appeared :
"The Rev. Seth Hart, Rector of St. George's Church, Hempstead, is disposed to take six or eight to board and lodge in his family and be instructed in read- ing, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar and the Latin and Greek Languages. Due attention will be paid to the morals of youth intrusted to his care. The situation is healthy, pleasant and con- venient, being 22 miles from New York, and a regu- lar stage runs every Monday and Friday and returns
. Tuesdays and Saturdays."
An aptitude for mechanical inventions allured him to give much of his time and thoughts to such matters. And in the hope of making up the deficiency in the means of his support caused by a small salary, and the increasing cost of living, he engaged in some mer- cantile occupations, which resulted unfavorably, and proved a source of pecuniary embarrassment to
9* * Sprague's Epis. Pulpit, p. 400.
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Church at Manhasset.
him. Meanwhile he carried on a classical school; en- deavored to make the land which had been made part of his income (and the larger portion of which land lay four miles away), to yield something to his sup- port; and took care for the spiritual needs of a parish extending in one direction fourteen miles and having services in two places. The Rev. Mr. Hobart esti -. mated the number of persons who were under his pas- toral care to be over 1000; and the number in Mr. Hart's day was probably no less.
Freed from anxiety about his support, provided in a generous and open-handed manner with a sufficient salary by such a large parish, Mr. Hart might have been free from temptations to spend his strength in such diverse occupations, and the parish would have profited by his undivided attention to his calling as Christ's ambassador. These truths do not appear to have duly impressed those upon whom the great re- sponsibility rested at that time.
CHURCH AT MANHASSET.
In June, 1802, the members of St. George's parish who resided in North Hempstead, notified the Rev. Mr. Hart and the Vestry of their desire to build a church in that town,* to be under the care of the Rector and Vestry of St. George's Church ; and ex- pressed their belief that the measure would result in strengthening the parish, besides affording a place of worship to be owned and controlled by the constituted. authorities of the Church, and convenient to those re- siding in that part of the parish who had found the
* Parish Records, p. 175.
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Rev. Seth Hart.
distance to the parish church an obstacle to their fre- quent attendance. They offered to relinquish all claim on any portion of the parish property, either for the building or maintaining the edifice, and asked only a share in the services of the Rector as heretofore. This proposition was the natural outcome of the services which for fifteen years had been held in the Reformed Dutch Church at Success, through the courtesy of its members. And it was an indication of progress and advancement in the feelings of Churchmen which the Vestry could not but regard with favor.
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