USA > New York > Nassau County > Hempstead > History of St. George's Church, Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y. > Part 4
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May, 1726 .- " I have baptized II persons, 2 being adults and I negro infant, and have admitted 6 to the sacrament-one of them a negro who has all along preserved his character unblemished.
Fune 27, 1728 :- " Our past winter has been very severe. Mr. Gildersleeve, our schoolmaster, says Hempstead was settled some time before they had any minister or house for Divine service. The first church was very small, much less than the small one we have now. Travelling preachers, sometimes Independents, sometimes Presbyterians (for the most part from New England), did now and then officiate, without any cov- enant with the people or settlement by law. In 1680 the town agreed to build a better house by name of a meeting house; but after it was built there arose a great controversy between the Presbyterians and In- dependents, in which the Presbyterians got the better, and one Denton was covenanted with to be their min ister ; but he soon left, as did several others that were afterwards covenanted with in the same manner, till
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Rev. 'Robert Fenney.
the arrival of Mr. Thomas from the Honorable Society. Him they inducted into the possession of the church, parsonage-house and glebe. The church is not kept in good repair, which occasions thin congregations in cold weather. There is a cloth, said to be presented by Queen Anne, which seems designed for a table in front of the desk, which we are forced to make use of when we receive the sacrament. The minister's salary is £40 from Hempstead and £20 from Oysterbay, by an agreement among them. I have in possession an old, ruinous house, much out of repair, near the church, with three acres of poor, worn-out land, the pasture of which will not support one horse. There belongs to the parsonage a farm, about five miles distant, of one hundred and seventy-two acres of upland and twenty-five of meadow. I have put a poor man upon it, but whether to any advantage to me I can't yet tell. These two have been surveyed by Mr. Samuel Clowes, of Jamaica, who underwrites his draft that the church has a title to a hundredth part of the whole township. Besides this there is, about seven miles distant, a small lot of meadow, which I did lease out but got nothing by it.
"But I am threatened with an ejectment, first, by the heirs of one Ogden, from whom the purchase was made, in what year I cannot find, for it is not in the records, and the deeds are lost, and all those con- cerned in the purchase are dead ; second, by the Pres- byterians; third, by the Quakers, who say it belongs to the town."
Concerning the source from whence were derived these 197 acres, referred to by Mr. Jenney, no certain information is preserved. We know only that in the very early records of the town, the " parsonage meadow " is often spoken of as a distinct piece of
3*
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property from "the parsonage home lot." And Henry Onderdonk, Jr., of Jamaica, has in his " Annals of Hempstead " furnished sundry transcripts from the Town Records, which afford sufficient grounds for a reasonable conclusion respecting the source of the Church's possession of this property. Under the date of March 7, 1666, is this record :
" In the 17th year of His Majesty's reign, Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith- Joseph Jennings hires the Parsonage farm, formerly so called, at £7.5 per year, to be paid in corn or cattle."
It is clear from this entry that land was devoted to the use of the minister of the town, prior to even this early date, and that it was of considerable extent to bring such a rental at that day.
December 25, 1678-there is also this reference to a " Parsonage Meadow."-" Agreed, that the one hundred acre lots shall be taken up in turn (as drawn by lot), three days being allowed each to make his choice and mark it. Mr. Seaman and Daniel Bedell are chosen to lay out, forthwith, all the common meadow in the town bounds, except the cow meadow and the Parsonage meadow, &c."-B. 255-8.
It is reasonable to conclude, that by some such 'allotment,' the land spoken of by Mr. Jenney had been set apart at an early period of the settlement of the town, towards the support of a minister.
That a considerable portion of the town was set: apart by lot from the earliest period of the town's,
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
settlement, we have this testimony in the Town Records, under the date of " February 12, 1706:"
" At the first settling of the town, it was settled upon fifty proprietors-(the names are given)-and the land was divided as follows :- home lots, &c .- and twenty-two acre lots, and 150 acres to each pro- prietor, and 50 acres to every inhabitant, as they are named in record : these we do confirm to every man that has a just right to them; also, all former grants and gifts shall stand, &c."-D. 167. Under this term, " grants and gifts " the "Parsonage Meadow," described in Mr. Jenney's letter as " a farm belonging to the parsonage, about five miles distant, of one hun- dred and seventy-two acres of upland, and twenty- five of meadow," would properly come. The records of the grants made by the proprietors and their suc- cessors are believed to have been lost; and Mr. S. Clowes, an intelligent authority, asserted, as we have seen, p. 43, that "the church was entitled to 100 parts of ye whole township ;" and there is, therefore, no way now of determining who were the grantees.
I have referred to the matter, not because it is of great importance to determine, at this day, the source from which the property was derived, but simply be- cause it is a matter to arouse our curiosity. So far as title is concerned, it is sufficient to know that the church has evidence of possession undisputed, run- ning back more than one hundred and fifty years.
It may not be amiss to add another reference to the Town Records under the date of May 30, 1705, where John Searing, Sr., Joim Carle and Thomas Gildersleeve were chosen by major vote-at a general
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town meeting-" For to repair the parsonage house and home lot, and fence the parsonage meadow, so that they may be tenantable, at the town's cost and charge, and to repair the Church, and what is needful about them all."-D. 160.
From this it will be seen-in confirmation of what has been said already-that the church was at this date, and when Mr. Thomas had been here several months, owned by the town and not by any religious body.
But to continue the extract from Mr. Jenney, which has been interrupted by this statement concerning the Parsonage South, so called :
" As to the number of inhabitants at first, I can't meet with any information, from the oldest men here being at a loss in this point. But it is certain it is much greater now, for the whole parish is settled very thick. In 1722 the governor ordered a census. The
constable gave in :
HEMPSTEAD.
OYSTERBAY.
WHITES.
475 Men,
532 Boys 325 Men,
331 Boys
472 Women,
472 Girls 325 Women, 268 Girls
NEGROES AND INDIAN SLAVES.
116 Men,
76 Boys 41 Men, 17 Boys
76 Women, 51 Girls 27 Women, 26 Girls
Total, 3,629 in my parish.
"At the first coming of Mr. Thomas, I am told, not above five or six adhered to the Church, and they brought their religion from England, where they were born. The rest were Presbyterians or Independents, and the most Quakers. Our congregation now is. very uncertain, being greater or smaller according to the weather. In summer we are generally crowded entirely, especially in the afternoon, and also in
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
winter when there is snow enough upon the ground to carry their slays (a very convenient and easy way of travelling at such seasons), but they are but rare at other times. Our church is generally full but not crowded. Most of the professed members of the church live at a distance from it; the body of the Presbyterians, at least the much greater part, live here in the town spot. The people's manner of liv- ing is scattered up and down, excepting that there are a few very small villages, as Hempstead, Jerusalem, Success, Bungy or Westbury, Oysterbay, Bethpage, Norwich and Wheatly. Those who live in the vil- lages are the poorest of the people, the more substan- tial farmers finding it for their interest to live at a distance from each other. There are but two churches in my parish, one at Hempstead and a very small one at Oysterbay, where our congregation in- creases, but is yet very small.
" The Quakers have two meeting houses, one at the Head of Cow Neck, another at Bungy ; but they meet at many places in barns or houses, according to the bigness of their congregation.
" In the town spot of Hempstead is but one Pres- byterian meeting house, the only one in the parish ; but they are so poor and few that it is with difficulty that they maintain their minister. We daily expect he will leave them.
" The religions in my parish are a very few Presby- terians in Hempstead, and rather fewer Baptists ; at Oysterbay more of the Church, more than both to- gether of the Quakers. But most of all of latitudi- narians, who run from one congregation to another and hold to that religion whose preacher pleases them best.
" Both the towns of my parish extend across the Island, sixteen miles from north to south, from east to west about twenty miles, from corner to corner near
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thirty miles. The roads are good in good weather, but yet travelling is very troublesome in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, which are both extreme. For a great part of my parish being a plain of sixteen miles long, without shade or shelter, the wind and sun have their full strength, and some- times in winter the snow is so deep as to make trav- elling impossible, and so it has been for a great part of this winter.
"There is nothing more inconstant than schools here, excepting those from the Honorable Society. The usual custom is for a set of neighbors to engage a schoolmaster for one year. 'Tis seldom they keep the same longer, and often they are without for sev- eral years. The only master that has staid long with his employers is one Thomas Keble, upon a neck of land called Musqueto Cove,* where he behaves very well and does good service. The common rule for payment for the masters is by subscription, £20 with diet, or £30 without. But Mr. Gildersleeve has five shillings per quarter for each scholar.
" The church has no donation ; the minister and schoolinaster no benefactions; the library is only that from the Venerable Society.
" The negroes are so dispersed that it is impossible for me to instruct them, and scarce any of their mas- ters or mistresses will.
" There is in the town spot Mr. [Gerardus] Clowes, who about three-quarters of a year ago began a school, and spent the Sunday evenings in catechising those negroes which would go to him during the winter ; but in summer he has no time, the evenings being short and the day taken up with the service in the church being twice performed, and then there went but a few to be instructed by him. I have one
* Now Glen Cove.
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Rev. Robert Jenney.
negro a communicant, and my own were baptized in their infancy, and they (being two) shall be carefully instructed while I have them.
" At my first coming here several of the leading men of the town pressed me earnestly to represent to the Society the necessity of a successor to Mr. Gil- dersleeve. Then Mrs. Thomas was among them, who assured me that her husband designed to do so if he had recovered. I enclose a memorial recom- mending Mr. Clowes. He thereupon has wrote me a letter, which is also enclosed. He is the son of a very active friend of the missionaries, Mr. Samuel Clowes, of Jamaica, whose services, especially to the two parishes of Jamaica and Hempstead, are upon record.
" 1729 .- I preach every Sunday morning, and catechize and read lectures on the catechism every Sunday afternoon. Every third Sunday at Oyster Bay. At both places I have an encouraging number of hearers. "
Very naturally, Mr. Jenney was not satisfied with a church building unsuitable for the proper perform- ance of the Church services,-which was used for political meetings,-' was not kept in good repair,'- and above all was the common property of the town and not of the parish. He, therefore, deter- mined to have a new edifice, if possible ; properly arranged, and which should be used exclusively as a ' house of worship,' and should be built by individual gifts and be the property of the parish. His enter- prise slowly gathered adherents, till at length, in 1733, the matter took formal and effective shape. The Churchmen here asked of the town the gift of the site of the now dilapidated church, and the request
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St. George's Church.
was, as we have seen,* readily granted at the town meeting, held April, 1734; and the work was imme- diately begun. The vestry records give an account of the several steps of the proceedings, of which the following is one item :
1734, April 2 .- " John Mott and Thomas Gilder- sleeve, by order of the town, set apart half an acre for a new church, west of the old one. The carpen- ter gave the vestry a scantling of the timber. Anthony Yelverton, the head workman on the church, had 4s. 6d. a day and found. He boarded at Richard Bedell's. His apprentices had some 4S., some 2s. per day. Joseph Hall, Sr., worked with the carpenters, at 4s. 3d. a day, and found himself. His sons, Joseph, Benjamin and John, also assisted."
The dimensions of the church were 50 feet long, 36 feet wide ; with a tower 14 feet square, and with steeple 100 feet high. The pitch of the ceiling with- in was 23 feet. It was of timber grooved, covered with cedar shingles, rounded butts. The tower faced the west, and through it was the main entrance to the church; and here was a tablet on which was lettered in gilt-" Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God."-Ecclesiastes 5 : I.
There was another entrance from the south, in the side of the church, which admitted to a short aisle crossing the main one, coming from the west. Oppo- site the south door was the pulpit, standing against the north side of the house, and underneath this was placed the reading desk and the desk of the clerk. The chancel was at the east end of the church, over which was a large
* p. 34.
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, HEMPSTEAD, L. I. BUILT, 1733. OPENED, APRIL 22, 1735, BY Gov. COSBY, TAKEN DOWN, 1821. NEW EDIFICE ERECTED, 1822.
٦
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
window. These internal arrangements were not un- common with the churches of that day. It was ordered that " half the church be seated with com- mendable pews of a convenient breadth. There were eighteen such pews. But in time, other pews took the place of open benches. The pews were let or sold for a limited period, and those who had sub- scribed to the building, were to be allowed the amounts of their subscriptions towards the purchase money of a pew. By action of the vestry, a deed was ordered to be given "the Hon. George Clark, Esq., Lieut .- Gov. of New York, for pew No. I." Mr. Clark, at that time, resided at Hyde Park, and had generously aided the church.
The site of the chancel of that church, thus built through Mr. Jenney's exertions, is indicated to us by the inscription on the grave-stone of the Rev. Thos. L. Moore, which stands by the edge of the flagging, coming from the west gate-for that inscription reads :
" On the 22d of February, 1799, (Then under the altar of the old church :) The remains of the late REV. THS. L. MOORE, were here interred."
The site of the church was of half an acre, but the town in April, 1734, " granted half an acre of the undivided lands of the town to be added to the half acre already given, for a churchyard or burying- place."
Any representation of the church built under Dr. . Jenney, was not known to be in existence until very recently a sketch of it was found, happily preserved
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St. George's Church.
in a school book belonging to Walter, one of the excellent family of Nichols. The drawing made by him, while but a lad, has rescued the picture of it from oblivion. The church having been finished, it was opened and dedicated with an imposing degree of ceremony. In defect of there being any Bishop in North America to perform the appropriate service, the offices of Gov. Crosby, the Governor of the Province, were brought into requisition, and he ap- pears to have deemed the occasion worthy of his personal presence. The incidents connected with the dedication, are thus fully described in Bradford's New York Gazette of that day :
"CONSECRATION OF ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH.
1735. " On Tuesday, April 22, His Excellency our Governor, with his lady and family, attended by his son-in-law and lady, Secretary Clarke, Chief Justice Delancey, Rev. Mr. Vesey, some of the clergy, and a great many of the principal merchants and gentlemen and ladies of the city of New York, set out for Hemp- stead, to be present at the consecration of the church lately erected there. About six miles west of Jamaica he was met by the troops of horse, who escorted him to Jamaica, where a handsome dinner was provided for all the company. In the afternoon he proceeded to Hempstead (escorted as before), where he arrived in the evening, and was entertained in a very handsome manner by the Rev. Robert Jenney, minister of that place.
"The next day, being St. George's Day, the regi- ment of militia and troop being drawn up on either side, from Mr. Jenney's house to the church, His Ex- cellency, attended by the most considerable gentle- men of the county, walked to the church, where a
E
N
1
W
2,384
5
6
Ground Plan of Old Church.
1. Communion Table.
2,3 &4. Pulpit, Reading and Clerks Desk.
5. South Door.
6. Tower & West Door.
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
very excellent sermon was preached on the occasion, before a most crowded audience, by the Rev. Mr. Jen- ney, from Psalm 84 : 1, 2 : "How amiable are thy tab- ernacles," &c.
" After divine service His Excellency reviewed the regiment of militia and troops standing under arms, and expressed a particular satisfaction on the appear- ance both of the officers and men. His Excellency was afterwards entertained in a splendid manner by Colo- nel Tredwell, commander of the regiment, and in the evening by Colonel Cornwell of Rockaway, in the same manner.
"The next day the Governor returned, and arrived in town in good health, pleased with the reception he everywhere met with from all ranks, with the extraor- dinary concourse of people from all parts on the oc- casion, and with the handsome appearance of the militia, both horse ard foot."-New York Gazette.
" A generous collection was made for the church on this occasion. The Governor gave the King's arms, painted and gilded ; Secretary Clarke, a crimson dam- ask set of furniture for the communion-table, pulpit and desk ; and John March a silver basin for baptism. The Rev. Mr. Vesey and his people had already con- tributed about £50."
The following is the Rev. Mr. Jenney's account of this event, as reported to the Venerable Society :
"Hempstead, July 30, 1735 .- My congregation had grown too big for the house I officiated in, which is also very much gone to decay, and too old and crazy to be repaired and enlarged to any tolerable purpose. So we resolved to build a new one. We now make use of it. When I first set about it I consulted Mr. Com- missary Vesey, and he proved very serviceable, by contributing largely out of his own purse, and by the interest he has, of a long standing, amongst my
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St. George's Church.
people, whom he encouraged and spurred on to the business, and by recommending the affairs to his own people, from whom I have about £50. His Excel- lency Governor Crosby and his lady (under whose influence and encouragement the church flourishes continually) have appeared for us in a public and remarkable manner, so as to influence others. They have done us the honor to name our church St. George's, and appointed St. George's day for the open- ing of it. There were present at the Divine service His Excellency and lady, with their Excellencies' son- in-law, with his lady, attended by Secretary Clarke, Chief-Justice Delancey, Rev. Commissary Vesey, some of the clergy and a large company of gentlemen and ladies from New York, and some from other parts of the Province. At the same time a collection was made after the sermon, in which the Governor and lady and the gentlemen and ladies present were re- markably generous. Mr. John March, a gentleman from Jamaica, W. I., now in this Province for the re- covery of his health, gave us a silver bason, to serve for baptism in the place of a font, which we are not provided with. His Excellency also has made us a most noble present of His Majesty's Royal charter to make us a corporation, &c. Mr. Secretary Clarke has generously remitted the fees of his office. Mr. Attorney General Bradley has given his fee and Messrs. John Chambers and Joseph Murray, counsel- lors and attorneys at law of great reputation, have prepared and engrossed the charter gratis. The chancel is railed in. Our pulpit and desk is com- pletely finished, and half the church is pewed. We design to pew the other half. The east end window only is as yet glazed, and no plastering done ; but we were in a fair way of completing the whole, when an unhappy accident put a stop for a while to our proceedings. On the 23d of June a thunder clap
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
struck our steeple and did it considerable damage, but we are now vigorously proceeding to repair it, and at present the greatest difficulty we apprehend is how to get a bell of such size as to be serviceable to so large a parish. His Excellency and all his com- pany have been pleased to approve our proceedings. They commend the workmanship and think we have done wonders, considering our circumstances and the time we have been about it."
Thus was completed the third building for the religious use of the people of Hempstead.
The first, built 1648, continued to 1673, 26 years. The second, built 1673, continued to 1733, 60 years. The third, built 1734, continued to 1821, 87 years. The fourth, built 1822, is the present one.
With the effort to build a church distinctively Epis- copal, there was an endeavor to secure a charter of incorporation, to which we have already referred. The petition having been granted, the charter was formally presented to the managers and read to them by Dr. Jenney, July 28, 1735. The following is the record :
" Att a meeting of the managers for building a church at Hempstead, the 28th of July, 1735, present :
Mr. Jenney, Rector, Thomas Williams,
Coll. Cornell, Richard Thorne, Esqs.
Benjamin Treadwell, William Cornell, S
Robert Marvin, John Serring,
Jacob Smith, Micah Smith.
" His MAJESTY'S ROYAL CHARTER for incorporat- ing the Communicants of the Church aforesaid was Read-appointing the said Mr. Jenney Rector, Col ..
5
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St. George's Church.
Cornell and Micah Smith, Church Wardens ; William Cornell, Jacob Smith, Richard Thorne, James Pine, Joseph Smith, Robert Sutton, Robert Marvin, Thomas Williams, John Serring and Benjamin Tread- well, Vestrymen."
The charter in full is given in an Appendix.
This venerable and valuable instrument is still in our possession, and in a remarkably good state of preservation, considering the hazards and exposures it has been subjected to .* It is engrossed on a sheet and a half of parchment, and has attached to it the Great Seal of the Province of New York-depicted as No 7 in Doc. His. of N. Y., Vol. 4.
Charters were granted likewise to other churches in this Province. Two of them were earlier than ours, viz., that of Trinity Church, New York, in 1697, and St. Andrew's, Staten Island, in 1713. The others were subsequent, viz., Jamaica, Flushing, and Newtown, 1761 ; St. Peter's, Westchester, 1762 ; Rye, 1764. But ours has features which are peculiar to it; and Judge Hoffman, in his work on the Ecclesi- astical Laws of the State of New York, (P. 16,) has selected it as a criterion by which to exhibit the va- riations of the other charters.
And a noteworthy fact to be mentioned is that this charter, unaltered, is the organic law of the parish to this day. While some, if not all the other charters, have been submitted to the Legislature for alterations of title, or in some other particular, ours has never been put within the power of the whims or the malice of that body. And we may well congratu-
* See Appendix C, for Copy of the Charter.
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Rev. Robert Fenney.
late ourselves on this. Judge Hoffman's judgment * is that the other parishes would have done wisely to have abided in the intrenched position their charters afforded them, and that the inconveniences they sought to have removed were less than those entailed by the interference they were thenceforth liable to from the not always friendly hands of legislators. A char- ter once submitted to a Legislature for alterations, to be enacted, is from that time its creature, and ex- posed to have changes made in it which are neither asked for nor desired. Till so submitted it cannot be altered. It is inviolable. It cannot be amended or in any way infringed upon. This most important point was settled in the well known Dartmouth Col- lege case.
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