USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 159
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Joseph Hortton.
Ilezekiah Lane.
Andrew Merritt.
Robart Bloomer. Joseph Kniffin.
Benoney Merritt.
Joseph Purdy.
Benjamin Brown.
Jonathan Haight.
Thomas Brown.
Joseph Purdy.
Hachliah Brown.
Jonathan Ilaight.
Timothy Knap.
Joseph Purdy.
Jonathan Browne.
Nathan Lane.
Thail [ Israel ] Knitlin.
John Haight.
Danjell Purdy.
Samnel Hait.
Joseph Merritt.
John Turner.
Thomas Robeson.
John Turner iun.
Michel Barsit [ Michael Basset ]. David llorton.
David Horton junr
Roberd Travis.
Samuell Horton.
John Garison.
Samuell Horton jun"
Jonathan Lane.
John Travis.
Caleb Hyatt.
Benjamin Knap.
Caleb Hyatt jnur
Solomon Lane.
Nathan llyatt.
John Hyatt.
Moses Knap.
Jonathan Linch.
Daniell Knap.
Roberd Travis.
George Lane sent
Daniel Lane.
George Lane."
Robart Bloomer jr.
The application was refused, but the trustees of Yale College became interested in the project and suggested that an effort be made to obtain assistance from the General Assembly of Connecticut. John Haight and Robert Bloomer were appointed by the Presbyterians of Rye to further inform the Yale trus- tees of the state of affairs. The trustees thereupon took action indorsing the appeal of Rye, which ob- tained a second and more favorable hearing at the hands of the Connecticut authorities. The Assembly adopted a resolution calling for contributions from the various congregations in the colony. The people of Connecticut, we learn, " contributed largely." On the 15th of May, 1729, a building site was secured and in course of time the proposed house of worship built, as heretofore stated.
Mr. Walton left Rye early in 1728 and was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Edmund Ward, a native of Kill- ingworth, Conn., and a graduate of Yale, who re- mained until 1729, when he removed to Guilford, Conn. A vacancy of several years succeeded Mr. Ward's departure. On the 30th of December, 1742, a council of the Eastern Consociation of Fairfield County, Conn., met at Rye and ordained the Rev. John Smith as minister of that place. Mr. Smith was a native of England, born on the 5th of May, 1702. He was a brother of the Hon. William Smith, a distin- guished lawyer in the city of New York previous to the Revolution, and afterwards chief justice of the province of Lower Canada. He came to this country when a boy, with his father, Thomas Smith, who settled in the city of New York. In his youth he formed an acquaintance, which afterwards ripened into ardent friendship, with Jonathan Edwards. The wife of Mr. Smith was a daughter of James Hooker, of Guilford, Conn., a grandson of Thomas Hooker, the famous Puritan divine. Mr. Smith labored in Rye with great energy and zeal. At first he resided
686
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
in that village, but afterwards removed to White Plains, continuing, however, to preach in Rye. In 1763 he added to his duties the charge of the Presby- terian Church of Sing Sing. Five years later he ap- plied to the Presbytery of Dutchess County for the assistance of a colleague. In October, 1769, MIr. Ichabod Lewis was ordained to serve.in this capacity as minister of White Plains and Sing Sing. It is supposed that Mr. Smith continued to preach more or less frequently at Rye until within a short time of his death, which occurred at the White Plains on the 26th of February, 1771. His remains lie in the church-yard and the inseription on his tomb desig- nates him as the " first ordained minister of the Pres. byterian persuasion in Rye and the White Plains," adding that, "worn out with various labors," he " fell asleep in Jesus." He appears, from all accounts, to have been a man of eminent piety and of a high order of intellectual ca- pacity.
In the Revolution- ary War the Pres- byterian Church
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RYE.
of Rye was destroyed by fire, as were nearly all the churches of this region. The congregation, owing to the troubles of the times, was greatly scattered. Its leading members were staneh Whigs, and were eon- sequently obliged to remove from the disputed terri- tory, of which Rye was a part, in order to escape the depredations of the British troops from New York. At the close of the Revolution the Presbyterians of Rye were found to be very few and feeble. The effort to re- suscitate the congregation was doubtless due, in great measure, to the influence of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis, of Greenwich. Since the loss of their church the remaining Presbyterians of Rye had frequented pub- Hie worship at Greenwich. The first step toward re- building the church was taken in 1792. On the 220 of November in that year Jesse Park and Phoebe, his wife, of the town of Harrison, conveyed to Joseph
Theale, Ezekiel Halsted, Jr., and John Merritt, of Rye. as trustees for the Presbyterian Society, a tract of land comprising half an aere. The church was built in the following spring. A considerable part of the money raised for this purpose had been sub- scribed by the people of Greenwich. It was dedi- cated to the worship of God, in the course of the year 1793, by the Rev. Isaac Lewis, D.D., who preached here for some months every Sunday, after service in his own church. His son, the Rev. Isaac Lewis, Jr., subsequently pastor at New Rochelle, succeeded him for a short time in this duty. But after this the con- gregation remained for a long period without a stated ministry. Occasional services were held by ministers visiting the place, and sometimes the building was oc- cupied, on special occasions, by persons of other religi- ous persuasions. For about twenty years, from 1793 to 1812, the congregation had no settled pastor. It had been incorporated on the 5th of June, 1795, under the name of "The Presbyterian Church of Rye." The trustees were Robert Merritt, Ezekiel Halsted, Jr., Nathan Brown, John Doughty, James Hunt and David Rogers.
The church, erected in 1793, was a very plain and unpretending structure. It was a frame building, much smaller than the present church, and stood partly on the same spot, but fronting somewhat nearer to the road. It had neither belfry or spire. There were two doors on the front. The interior of the building remained unfinished many years. The walls were not plastered and instead of pew- there were planks, the ends of which rested upon logs, for seats. In this condition it remained for eighteen or twenty years. In 1811 Dr. Dwight stated that there had been no Presbyterian minister at Rye within his remembrance. Soon after this the Methodists of Rye obtained possession of the church and occupied it for a period of sixteen years, from 1812 to 182>. The congregation was now greatly reduced in numbers. Owing to the death or removal from the place of some of the most prominent individuals, and the apathy of the rest, the society became in a manner extinct. This was due, however, quite as much to a change in the religious views of some of the surviving members, some of whom united with the Methodist denomination. It was by the efforts of Mr. Ebenezer Clark, a merchant of New York, who came to Rye in 1821, that the building was recovered to its original nse. Ascertaining that a congregation of his own religious faith had formerly existed here, and that the edifice now standing had been built for them, he claimed it in behalf of the Presbyterians of the place. This elaim was not admitted without some disenssion. The Methodist congregation had now worshipped here for many years. They conceived that so long a pos- session gave them a right to the property, the original title to which was perhaps by that time somewhat obscure. Mr. Clark, however, was able to show clearly that the land had been given for a Presbyte-
687
RYE.
rian Church, that a society of that denomination had been incorporated under the law of the State and that the building had been appropriated from the first to their use.
A service was held by the Presbyterian congrega- tion on the 7th of December, 1828, in the district school-house of Rye, preparatory to the resumption of publie worship in the church. The Rev. George Stebbins, of New Rochelle, preached on this occasion. Soon after the occupation of the building the Rev. Noah C. Saxton began his ministry here as "stated supply," and continued until May, 1829. Meanwhile, on the 4th of March, the formal organization of a church took place by order of the Presbytery of New York. A committee of the Presbytery, consisting of the Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D.D., and the Rev. Henry G. Ludlow, performed this duty. A church was or- ganized, with ten members, and Messrs. Ebenezer Clark and William Lester were chosen and ordained as ruling elders.
The Rev. Williams H. Whittemore was the first minister of the little congregation after the reorganiza- tion of the church. He was a graduate of Yale, and married a daughter of Ebenezer Clark. His ministry of three years at Rye, from May, 1829, to April, 1832, was very successful. In the summer of 1829 the church at Rye, now somewhat dilapidated, was thor- oughly repaired, chiefly at Mr. Clark's expense. In October of the same year the ecclesiastical relation of the church at Rye was transferred from the Pres- tery of New York to the new Presbytery of Bedford. Mr. Whittemore1 was succeeded by Rev. David Remington, who officiated from April, 1832, to the time of his death, January 24, 1834. He was a man of no ordinary power and labored with untiring zeal. Rev. Thomas Payne commenced his labors at Rye a few months after Mr. Remington's death. He re- mained until 1836, and was succeeded by Rev. John Hunter, who officiated for a few months. Until now the ministers who preached here did so in the capacity of " stated supplies," the congregation hav- ing not yet secured, or not feeling as yet able to sup- port, a settled pastor. But in October, 1836, the Rev. James R. Davenport was ordained and installed as pastor of this church by the Presbytery of Bedford. The relation, however, subsisted but a short time. In April, 1838, Mr. Davenport resigned his charge, and not long after took orders in the Protestant Epis- copal Church. His successor was the Rev. Edward D. Bryan, a graduate of Princeton College and Semi- nary, who was ordained and installed as pastor Octo- ber 9, 1838. His ministry in Rye lasted until Octo- ber 31, 1860, a period of twenty-two years.
At the commencement of this pastorate the con- gation was still a small and feeble one. The whole number of communicants was but twenty-two. With the increase of the population, however, the church
grew, and ultimately became not only self-supporting but able to take part in the promotion of religion elsewhere.
Mr. Bryan was suceceded by the present pastor, Rev. Charles W. Baird, D. D., installed May 9, 1861. The actual membership of the church is two hundred and thirty.
In 1869 the congregation bought land adjoining the church lot, with a view to the erection of a new and larger house of worship. The corner-stone of this building was laid on Tuesday, November 29, 1870, and on December 5, 1872, the completed sanc- tuary was dedicated to the worship of Almighty (od. It is built of the stone of the country-for the mass of the walls-and is relieved with Jersey and Ohio stone dressings. The style of the architecture is thirteenthi century Gothic, and the whole building, both inside
INTERIOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RYE.
and outside, has been truthfully executed. In plan, there are nave, aisles and transepts, with a tower at the west end of the south aisle. The cleve-story walls are of stone, and rest on stone columns with richly- carved capitals. The roof is open-timbered, while the ceiling of the apse is groined. The whole interior has been decorated, and the larger windows are filled with memorials in glass. The tower has on its cor- ner a turret which encases a stairway, and terminates above the tower in a stone spire. The tower itself is built in three stages, and on each of its four faces is pierced with lofty couplet windows and bold louvres ; at the top is an appropriate cornice, from which the broaches rise ; also four tabernacle windows from the cardinal faces of the spire, which is built en- tirely of stone up to the richly-gabled corona. The spire is crocketcd, with a finial supporting a ball sur- mounted by a cross. The height to the top of the spire is one hundred and fifty feet. The main door-
1 He died in Rye, July 25, 1885, in his eighty-sixth year.
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1:33
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
way is the central feature of the west end, and is massive in treatment. Its spandrils are ornamented with cirenlar panels, which are decorated with eecle- siastical emblems. The tympanum over the door is of solid stone, and is to be filled with a seulptured subject. The front window is double-bayed, with a circular window at the top. All the gables are eoped and surmounted with crosses.
Adjoining the church is the Sunday-school room, erected by the late Mr. William Mathews in memory of his infant daughter Bessie. It is upwards of fifty feet square. Over the entrance, in the tympanum of the arch, is a bas relief representing our Lord blessing little children.
The architect is Richard M. Upjohn, New York.
EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- In 1693 the General Assem- bly of New York, at the suggestion of Governor Fletcher, passed an act for settling Protestant ministers in four of the counties of the province. One of these ministers was to have the care of Rye, Mamaro- neck and Bedford. For their maintenance a certain sum was to be levied annually by a tax on the inhabit- ants. By " Protestant ministers" . the Assembly, which was, with one exception, composed of " Dissen- ters," certainly did not mean ministers of the Church of England; but Governor Fletcher, whose object was to make the Church of England the established church of the land, claimed the right not only of inducting or suspending any minister appointed under its pro- visions, but of controlling the choice of the ministers. The English clergy also claimed the same preroga- tives under an established church as in England. The people of the province were liable to be taxed for their support, even though, in great majority, of different religious persuasions. In obscure places, where it could be done without public seandal, they were put in possession of all the property which had been set apart for ecclesiastical purposes by the town. The attempt to carry out these pretensions was not always successful. But it succeeded at Rye, as it did at Jamaica, Hempstead and elsewhere. The par- sonage house and lands, by order of Governor Corn- bury, were surrendered to the newly-arrived rector. The inhabitants, who had kept them hitherto for the use of a ministry of their own choice, were dispos- sessed of this property, without form of law or shadow of right.
In obedience to the art of 1693, the people of Rye were summoned by their justice. Joseph Theall, to meet for the election of church wardens and vestry- men. This meeting took place on the 28th of February, 1694-95. John Lane and John Brondig were elected church wardens, and Jonathan llart, Joseph Horton, Joseph Purdy, Timothy Knapp, Il ichalith Browne, Thomis Merritt, Deliveranec Brown and Isane Denham, vestrymen. For nine years nothing is heard of vestry or church wardens. On the 12th of January 1702-3. Colonel Caleb Heath- cote and Justice Theall were chosen churchwardens,
and Justice Mott, Justice Purdy, Captain Horton, Deliveranee Browne, Hachaliah Brown, George Lane, Sr., Thomas Purdy, Thomas Disbrow, Isaac Denham and Samuel Lane, vestrymen. These men were probably, with searcely an exception, "Dissenters," and the vestry was rather a secular than an ecclesias- tical body. It was chosen by the freeholders at large, and its chief duty, besides providing for the minister's salary, was to look after the poor.
To Colonel Caleb Heathcote, more than to any one else, is due the credit of having founded and fostered the Church of England in this part of the country and particularly at Rye. He was a man of great influenee, which he devoted wholly to the interests of the church. At hisinstanee the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, formed in 1701, sent one of its first missionaries to officiate at Rye. In April, 1704, the Rev. Thomas Pritchard, A.M., arrived in New York, having been appointed by the Bishop of London and sent by the Gospel Propagation Society to officiate in the parish of Rye. Governor Cornbury forthwith issued his mandate for Mr. Pritchard's induetion, and in May the new minister entered upon his duties. He soon proved, however, to be an unsuitable person, and remain- ed but a few months. His successor, who may be regarded as the first rector of Rye, was the Rev. George Muirson, A.M. Mr. Muirson was a native of Scotland, and eame to this country in 1703, as a schoolmaster of the Gospel Propagation Society. While laboring in this capacity he won the esteem and affection of many persons, and was soon sent baek to England strongly recommended as a candidate for orders. He returned to New York in the summer of 1705, having received ordination from the Bishop of London, and on the 31st of July, Governor Cornbury signed the mandate for his induction as " Rector of the Parish Church of Rye, Mamerenock and Bedford."
The " Parish Church," however, was yet in the fu- ture. The people had been accustomed to worship in the "town-house" during the ministry of their former pastors, as well as when supplied by the neighboring ministers of Connecticut while without a pastor. The "meeting-house," which they had talked of building in 1697, was not yet completed, if, indeed, begun. Mr. Muir- son's first work was to gather a congregation ; for the people were all " Dissenters," "who never were in a Church of England congregation before." He soon reports a very large attendance of " constant hearers," many of whom he has been enabled to admit into the church by baptism. He prosecuted his work with great energy and zeal, and was very successful, owing to his amiable and genial manners and his popularity as a preacher. Hle soon persuaded the people to en- gage anew in the effort to buikl a house of worship. At a town-meeting held on the 26th of September, 1705, it was determined to buikl the church, Colonel Heath- cote having promised a supply of nails and hooks and
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RYE.
hinges for the doors and windows. The walls were to be of stone. Captain Horton, Justice Purdy, Isaac Denham and Samuel Lane were appointed a building committee, and it was determined that the church should be located " at the East End of the Lot which was formerly Mr. Collier's, in the street." At a sub- sequent mecting a tax was laid upon the inhabitants to raise funds for this purpose. February 18, 1706, it was agreed that "all male persous from sixteen years and upward be assessed at twelve pouud per head in all charges for the building of a church." "Liberty is given for to get stone and timber upon any particular men's land, provided you get not within a fence, for the building of a church." At a meeting held February 25, 1706, they agrecd "that the parish of Rye shall repeare the towne house fit for a minis- ter to Live in and to keep the said house in repeare for the use of the ministree." Six years after this we read that "the town hath past a voat that they will not repeare the house which Mr. Bridge now dwells in."
The church "will be finished next spring," writes Mr. Muirson, November 21, 1705, to the Society's secretary in London, "so that we shall want pulpit cloaths and furniture for ye communion table." The work, however, did not go on so fast. Iu April some preparatious had been made by carting stoue, and most of the timber had been brought. In October the stone-work was finished and the building covered. " But the winter approaching, and the people being extremely poor and having exhausted what little money they had on what is donc already, we cannot proceed any further this fall," writes Mr. Muirson, "but hope uext year to finish all, with a steeple, which when completed will make a large aud beauti- ful building." It was fifty fect long, thirty-six feet wide and twenty feet high. Many years passed, how- ever, before the church was completed. Iu 1722 the rector, Mr. Jenney, states, " The church, though built in Mr. Muirson's time, is not yet finished." It was at last completed about the year 1727. The building occupied the present site of Christ Church, in Rye. As usual then, it stood " in the street "-at the junc- tion of Grace Church Street and what is now called Rectory Street. It was known as Grace Church in 1736, and probably many years before. This, however, was not its corporate name, but one in popular use. The legal designation was "The Parish Church of Rye."
Mr. Muirson died October 12, 1708, at the age of thirty-three. He was a tireless worker, and his death was a great loss to the people of Rye. His successor was the Rev. Mr. Reynolds, who came to Rye in Oc- tober, 1709. He had officiated but a few times, how- ever, when orders came from the Society removing him from his post and forbidding him to preach. The reasons for this proceeding are not known. Mr. Rey- nolds was superseded by the Rev. Christopher Bridge, M.A., an English clergyman, who had previously been
settled in Boston as assistant minister of King's Chapel, and afterwards in Narragansett. He came to Rye in January, 1710.
The records of the vestry of this parish commence soon after the beginning of Mr. Bridge's ministry, January 9, 1710-11. It does not appear that any ac- count of the proceedings of that body had been kept until then. The number of communicants varied little from that reported by Mr. Muirson. In 1710 there werc forty-three; in 1711, forty-four, in 1712, forty-two. Mr. Bridge died at Ryc, May 22, 1719. He seems to have been successful in his ministry and the good feeling which prevailed in Mr. Muirson's time continued during his pastorate. A vacancy of three years occurred between the death of Mr. Bridge and the induction of his successor. For the first few monthis the church was supplied by clergymen from New York and other places, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Vesey ; but after this it appears to have been occupied by the Presbyterian congregation.
The Gospel Propagation Society, in 1722, appointed the Rev. Henry Barclay as their missionary at Rye. Meanwhile, however, the church wardens and vestry had called the Rev. Robert Jenney, A.M., at that time chaplain of the royal forces at New York. Mr. Jenney was inducted as Rector Juue 7, 1722. He found the congregation much weakened, and his ministry proved, on the whole, unsuccessful. The Presbyterians had gained in strength, and a lawsuit iu which he engaged, to recover the salary which had accumulated since the death of Mr. Bridge, considera- bly impaired his influence. He removed from Rye, in 1726, to Hempstead, L. I., and finally to Philadel- phia, where he became the rector of Christ Churel. His successor at Rye, Rev. James Wetmore, A.M., a native of Middletown, Conn., and formerly a Congre- gationalist minister, was called on June 7, 1726. The cougregation at Rye increased considerably under his ministry. It was during this period that the famous George Whitefield visited Rye, in 1740, at the invita- tiou of Mr. Wetmore himself, and preached in his church. Mr. Wetmore's pastorate covered a period of nearly thirty-four years. He died of small-pox in 1760, at the age of sixty-five. His activity continued to the elose, but his last years appear to have been saddened by increasing dissensions in the parish. In his will he set apart a portion of his own farm on the west side of Blind Brook for a glebe. A small plot of ground in thic glebe was set apart as a burial-place for the rectors of the parish, and Mr. Wetmore himself was the first whose remains were laid here, those of his predecessors who died at Rye having been in- terred beneath the church. The graves of several of the later rectors occupy this plot, which lies directly opposite the rear of Mr. Daniel Strang's store. A few rods south of the burying-ground, on the other side of a small knoll, there was a small house formerly, which, after the Revolution, was occupied for a while both as a parsonage-house and place of worship. The
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
vestry of Christ Church retained possession of the globe sequestered by Mr. Wetmore until 1846, when they sold it. After the fire of 1794 the vestry pur- chased the rectory grounds, now owned by Christ Church, for four hundred pounds. The grounds com- prised four acres, and in ancient times formed part of the village plot known as "The Plains."' The rectory stood, until within a few years ago, near the post road toward the northern line of the grounds. Christ Church owns also the narrow strip of land directly opposite the rectory grounds, between the post road and the brook.
The parish remained vaeant after Mr. Wetmore's death for more than two years. Rev. Ebenezer Pun- derson. of New Haven, was called, and commeneed his labors on July 1, 1762. In November of the fol- lowing year he was indueted as rector. He died within less than a year after this, September 22, 1764.
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